Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church

City: Detroit

Window Shape: 5 (gothic arched, 2 vertical sections)

Subject/Title of Window: Christ's Charge to Peter

Brief Description of Subject: This is the sixth of 10 aisle windows depicting scenes in the life of Christ. With the exception of this window, they are arranged in chronological order starting on the Epistle side.
 
The canopy features a five pointed star on a cross. The five pointed star is the "Star of Bethlehem." The five points symbolize the five wounds of Christ.
 
This window's scene is based on a design by High Renaissance artist Raphael. In 1515 he was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design 10 tapestries to be hung on the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel. For the tapestry used here, Raphael chose to illustrate Christ's appointment of Peter as the first Pope using Matthew 16:18 -19 and John 21:15 - 17. His design features Peter kneeling, and the rest of the Apostles standing behind him, watching and listening to Christ's words to Peter. Christ is looking at Peter and points his left hand at the keys that Peter is holding and proclaims "I tell you Peter, and on this rock I will build my church ... I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Christ points his right hand to a flock of sheep and tells Peter "feed my sheep ... take care of my lambs."
 
Raphael's design is too wide for this two lancet window necessitating the cropping out of six of the Apostles.
 
The painting, glue tempera on paper mounted on canvas, dates to the 17th century. It is a painting of Raphael's cartoon for this tapestry. Both the cartoon and painting reside at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 
 
In the predella was inscribed the name of the donor, however it is longer visible. In a photo taken years ago, the left pane had "Bractwo Sw. Wojciecha" --- St. Adalbert's [Fraternal Aid] Society.
 
The stained glass windows in the Church were restored in 2002.

Inscriptions: Bractwo Sw. Wojciecha


Height: 12'

Width: 4' 6"

Type of Glass and Technique: Opalescent Glass

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.

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