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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Andrew's Church

Studio Name: Loire (Gabriel) Studios

City: Rochester

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Date of Window: 1969

Subject/Title of Window: The Story of Salvation, Part 9-The Golden Calf

Brief Description of Subject: This is the ninth of a series of 10 windows located along the sides of the nave. According to the Church "The theme of the faceted art glass at St. Andrew is the Story of Salvation." This is done through the story of the exodus of God's chosen people from Egypt. Each window, in somewhat chronological order, depicts God's hand in freeing his chosen people from enslavement by the Pharaoh, making a covenant with them, and leading them on a path to the land of milk and honey. This parallels Christ dying to free us from the sin of Adam, making a new covenant, and with his resurrection, a promise of heaven. In addition to the story of this exodus, there are symbols that appear to be unrelated to this narrative. There is also numerology --- each of the 10 windows is made with four panels, totaling 40 panels. 10 is the number of the Commandments and 40 is the number used throughout the Bible to symbolize new creation.
 
The artist's watercolor for each of these windows names the key objects depicted and will be listed with translations from French. For this window:
 
9 eme --- 9th Commandment
Tunique Blanche --- White tunic
Le veau d'or (statue) --- The Golden Calf (statue)
Les Tentes des Juifs --- The tents of the Jews
Les Sacrifices --- The sacrifices
 
Found in Exodus 32, the story of the Golden Calf is not one of salvation. Moses had spent a long time up on Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments, and the Israelites thought something might have happened to him. Aaron the High Priest, told them to make a golden calf, and they sacrificed burnt offerings to this false god. For this transgression, God will kill many of them and of those that remained, only their descendants would enter the land of milk and honey.
 
The left panel pictures the golden calf statue atop an altar, the middle panels, the tents of the Israelites as well as a white tunic, the right panel,  sacrifices to the golden calf.
 
The white tunic is a symbol for Aaron as High Priest. God prescribed the clothes that must be worn by the priestly class. The white tunic was the undergarment. Before it could be worn, it had to be consecrated by the blood of a male lamb --- Exodus 29:21 "... you shall take ... the blood ... sprinkle it upon Aaron and his garments, and upon his son's garments with him, and he and his garments shall be holy, and his son's with them."(RSVCE). A white tunic, called an "alb" is still used by priests as their undergarment vestment. Although no longer required, before putting on the alb, he would recite this prayer based on Apocalypse 7:14, "Make me white, O Lord, and cleanse my heart; that being made white in the Blood of the Lamb I may deserve an eternal reward." A white tunic is also worn by those being baptized.

Condition of Window: Good

Height: 4'

Width: 15'

Type of Glass and Technique: Slab or Faceted Glass (Dalle de Verre)

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All images in the Index are either born-digital photographs of windows or buildings or are scans of slides, prints, or other published sources. These images have been provided by volunteers and the quality of the material varies widely.

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