Window 2 – Angel of the Resurrection

Angel of the Resurrection

Subject:          Angel of the Resurrection   

Inscription:    “Whosoever Liveth and Believeth In Me, Shall Never Die”

Dedication:     In memory of Alexander Keene Phillips, 1805-1892 and Annie Douglas Phillips, 1835-1913

Given by children of Alexander Keene Phillips in memory of parents. Window was dedicated July 6, 1914

Maker/Date:  Tiffany Studios, New York, 1914

Description – The inscription is from John 11:26. Jesus is speaking with Martha in Bethany, consoling her and is trying to connect the resurrection with the present. 

Background – Alexander K. Phillips became the first president of the National Bank of Fredericksburg in 1865  and had been previously involved in many businesses, including grain and mercantile.  He owned the Commission House in Fredericksburg which was built for him in 1875 and still stands.

Techniques – The angel announced Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels.  In this window, the angel is sitting in field of snow white lilies, clad in robes of pink. The windows show Tiffany’s work in drapery glass for the angel’s robes that are close to fabric folds. Tiffany’s use of glass plays well with the sun which strikes the window in the morning hours. It accentuates the paint and enamel to the face and hands.  The yellow-streaked, sun-dappled clouds are a dawn-sky, a common metaphor for rebirth


window2-doveholyspirit

Upper

Subject:          Dove/Holy Spirit

Inscription:    “Daily Increase In Them Thy Manifold Gifts of Grace”

Maker/Date:  Charles Hogeman, 1908

Description  – The inscription from the 1789 Prayer Book and more specifically the “Order of Confirmation”

“ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate

these thy servants by Water and the Holy Ghost, and

hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins; Strengthen them,

we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost, the Comforter; and

daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace; the spirit of

wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly

strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them,

O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear, now and for ever. Amen.”

The Dove is the Christian symbol of the Holy Ghost from the words of John the Baptist in John 1:32- “And John bare witnessing, and said, I saw the Spirit coming down a from heaven like a dove and resting on him.” In this sense it appears in representations of the Annunciation, Baptism of Christ and Paul. A dove issuing from a nun’s mouth symbolizes her soul rising to heaven.  The dove of Noah’s Ark became the symbol of good tidings and peace. From Rome doves represent love and constancy