Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

Click any image to enlarge.

MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John's Episcopal Church

City: Detroit

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window: Tympanum window

Brief Description of Subject: This non figural window is the tympanum over the main doorway. The bilateral symmetry of the window is evident in the outdoor view.

In the upper part, the most prominent feature is a large circular section. At its core is an eye enclosed in a triangle --- the "Eye of Providence." This is enclosed in a six pointed star --- the Creator's Star (in Genesis, the Creation took six days). This star radiates outwards to 12 small circles --- the twelve Apostles.

In addition to 6 and 12, other numbers that are used here:
3 --- triune nature of God (triangles)
4 --- the Evangelists (Squares and 4 pointed stars)
5 --- wounds of Christ ( five lights form the bottom row)
8 --- regeneration, from the Epistle of Barnabas --- the Resurrection "ushered in the eighth day (of creation), the beginning of a new world (hope for eternal life)."
(seen in the first, third and fifth of the five windows that form the bottom row).

Condition of Window: good

Height: ~7.2'

Width: 9"

The MSGC is a constantly evolving database. Not all the data that has been collected by volunteers has been sorted and entered. Not every building has been completely documented.

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.

If you have any questions, additions or corrections, or think you can provide better images and are willing to share them, please contact donald20@msu.edu