Left: Left-hand panel. Right: Whole window. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

West Window: Christ in Majesty, below the tower in William Butterfield's St Mary Magdalene, Enfield, one of the original stained-glass windows designed by Butterfield, and installed in about 1883. In the tracery are the representations of the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) and the four gospel-writers, and the main panels illustrate the verses in Revelation in which St John has his famous vision of Christ in all his glory in heaven.

St John sees that "a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.... And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders.... And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal...." (4, 2 onwards). Around him, some elders are here seen taking off their crowns, and nearly half of the crowns are already floating in that glassy sea, exactly as St John says.

The whole is in Butterfield's own mosaic-like style, with small pieces of glass in vivid colours, neat, meticulous, glowing. The text beneath reads, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come."

Photographs by John Salmon, and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.

Sources

Eberhard, Robert. "Stained Glass Windows at St Mary Magdalene." Church Stained Glass Windows. Web. 7 July 2015.

"The Nave Stained-Glass." St Mary Magdalene. Web. 7 July 2015.


Created 8 July 2015