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 LaFARGE SIDE CHAPEL WINDOWS
Trinity Episcopal Church

389 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY

Trinity Episcopal Church - Official Home Page   (Online Jan. 2021)

Designer:

John LaFarge

The Lord is My Shepherd installed:

1890

The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes installed:

1890? after the 1889 Exposition Universale in Paris (see below)

Style:

Opalescent

2009 Photos




The Lord is My Shepherd      ...   The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes

The Lord is My Shepherd


The Lord is My Shepherd, in the same chapel as The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes, is LaFarge's portrayal of the 23rd Psalm. The Lord with a shepherd's staff leads a woman "beside the still waters."

The family of Sarah Mercer Hazard commissioned the window in 1890. Sarah Mercer Hazard was the daughter of Dr. Archibald Mercer of New London, Connecticut, and the Hazard Family was a patron of LaFarge for a number of years. Sarah Hazard was active in the Episcopal Church in Buffalo.

The window was restored in 1975 in memory of Elbridge Gerry Spaulding.

Five details below:


The Lord is My Shepherd detail #1



The Lord is My Shepherd detail #2



The Lord is My Shepherd detail #3



The Lord is My Shepherd detail #4



The Lord is My Shepherd detail #5




The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes


The church is well known for its incredible collection of stained glass windows by John LaFarge, Louis Comfort Tiffany and others. Of particular note are the five windows of the apse by LaFarge and his window titled The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes, the topic of which is drawn from Revelations 7.

Commissioned by Charlotte Sherman Watson (who lived across the street from Trinity in the commodious Second Empire house  that is today the Buffalo Club) in memory of her mother and aunt. LaFarge required that Watson allow him to exhibit the window, before sending it to Buffalo, at the 1889 Exposition Universale in Paris, where, he hoped, it would establish his international reputation as a modern master of glass. Greatly impressed by the beauty and originality of the work, the French government awarded LaFarge the Legion of Honor, the highest honor bestowed upon a foreigner, and asked to purchase it.  This award established LaFarge's reputation.

(Charlotte Sherman Watson also commissioned another LaFarge window, Noli Me Tangere, that is found in the apse of the church.)

The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes
is also known as Angel Sealing the Servants of God. This is LaFarge's most spectacular Trinity Church window. It depicts an angel, carrying the seal of God, who places it upon the forehead of one of the faithful while two more figures ascend into heaven.

This particular window consists of hundreds of pieces of glass in the robes and wings of the figures.

Six details below:


The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #1



The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #2



The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #3



The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #4



The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #5



The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes detail #6    ...    John LaFarge





Special thanks to Trinity Episcopal Church Rector The Rev. R. Cameron Miller and Development Director Coleen Fahey for their cooperation and assistance

Photos and their arrangement © 2009 Chuck LaChiusa
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