The Adoration of the Magi
detail from Te Deum

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales

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1927

Sumptious five-light window. Christ in Majesty flanked by angels with the heavenly city depicted above in the tracery. Below a seraph who stands over the Virgin and child, adored by the shepherds (presumably, although the animals with them are a dog and a rabbit) and the Magi. At the sides, Peter and Isaiah, opposite Moses and John.


artist: Karl Parsons

Church of All Saints, Porthcawl, Bridgend
east wall of the sanctuary (window number: I)

The lower part of the window is obscured by the reredos. The reredos was already in situ at the time of the commission, but the donor chose to commission the artist to fill the lower lights even though these were not visible in the main body of the church.

The artist has signed the window on a stone tablet held by Moses: 'Karl Parsons designed and painted these windows, helped by Leonard Potter, the Glasshouse Lettice Street Fulham in the year 1927.' Although hidden from view, along with the entire scene of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi, this is an exceptionally detailed signature for a stained glass window from any period.

The window is inspired by the Te Deum, and represents the linking of heaven and earth through the incarnation, with the New Jerusalem in the tracery lights above.


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Record added by Martin Crampin. Last updated on 22-12-2020

 

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This work is indexed under the following main subject(s):
for other works containing these subjects please click on the links.

• 'Salvator Mundi', making a blessing gesture; an orb in his hand or at his feet - DD - Christ beardless 
• adoration of the kings: the Wise Men present their gifts to the Christ-child (gold, frankincense and myrrh)  [Matthew 2:11]
• adoration of the Virgin and Christ-child by the shepherds, Joseph not present  [Luke 2:16]
• angels 
• heaven represented as a city  [Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:10-27]
• Moses (not in biblical context) 
• Seraphim 
• St John the Evangelist, apostle 
• St Peter, apostle and first bishop of Rome 
• the prophet Isaiah (not in biblical context) 

Show more subjects

• Holy Ghost represented as a dove 

Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), pp. 206-7.

John Newman, The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (London/Cardiff: 1995), p. 529.

'The Lowndes & Drury Archive' The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. xli (2017), 168.

Painton Cowen, A Guide to Stained Glass in Britain (London: Michael Joseph, 1985), p. 224.

Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 280.

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales

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