International studio (59.1916)

The Blashfield VTindoews

sight, “It’s like LaFarge!” Yes, and no. The
massing of the many-coloured flowers, which
glisten in the sunlight like jewels; a foreground
into which you could walk, and the sense of far-
reaching space back of the figures; the noteworthy
blue of the draperies; and that most important
thing in a window, the leading, every line of which
has a meaning—these details are like LaFarge.
This is not to be wondered at, for the windows
were built by Miss Grace Barnes, who was asso-
ciated with Mr. LaFarge for several years. The
flowers are carried out by his method; she learned
from him how leadlines can be utilized for form,
and to suggest the body underneath the drapery.
Look at Mary’s elbow, at the slightly bent knee
of the angel and see what part the leading plays.
The marvelous blues are composed, in part, of
rare old glass which was in the LaFarge shop.
But the design is Mr. Blashfield’s own, and in
no way suggests any other artist. It is full of
dignity, it is never overcrowded. There is no
vague reaching out for the right line, no experi-
menting with the law of vacant and filled spaces,
the balancing of elaborated and simple masses.
A great artist, Mr. Blashfield sees and feels with
simplicity and dignity, and this comes out in his
work, whether it be mural painting, mosaic or
glass.
Perhaps the fact that the windows are twenty-
seven feet high, and distant some forty feet from
the spectators, is one reason for the simple de-
sign, for it must carry well. Mr. Blashfield says
that he studied a long time, the main lines once
determined, to leave out details, trying always to
keep it more and more unencumbered, never to
make it more elaborate.
Both windows meet the definition of a truly
decorative arrangement, that it shall decorously
fill and fit a certain circumscribing architectural
form. The size and curve of the available space,
the unusually wide mullion in the centre, gave an
interesting problem.
Mr. and Mrs. Blashfield, in their “Italian
Cities,” wrote a sentence on Raphael applying
equally well to these designs: ‘ ‘Through the art of
composition the painter takes his spectator di-
rectly by the hand, and by the ordering of the
lines he leads him, as he wishes, from point to
point, an itinerary involuntary to the spectator,
but therefore all the more delightful.”
Such a delightful itinerary these windows afford.
Over every foot of the glowing glass the eyes wan-
LX

der with pleasure. There is, in each one, a resting
place, where by concentration the artist focuses
the attention upon the most important point. In
each one, the lines carry over the mullion to the
angel; even the bent head of the Virgin does not
destroy the unity of the composition, for the two
figures are skilfully joined by the line of light-
coloured glass.
The predominating colours are red and blue,
the noblest of the primaries, the colours one re-
members best in European cathedrals—Chartres,
for example. The tradition of blue for Mary and
red for the angel Mr. Blashfield has observed;
the third colour in the mediaeval symbolism, gold,
he has added, to make a deeply chorded harmony.
The colours of the window are built over into
the border; the blue is its background, the yellow
of the angel’s wings is generously used, the red
sparingly. Green, orange and violet are also re-
peated here. The use of the border is unusual;
Miss Barnes says it is, so far as she could learn,
the first bordered window to be built in this coun-
try. Nothing is more decorative than a formal
pattern, and this border, whose motif Mr. Blash-
field rearranged from a black-and-white design in
a marble tomb in a Venetian church, gives the
finishing touch to the whole composition.
A word must be added in recognition of the
skill of the builder. The careful selecting of many
pieces of glass; the countless trials of this piece
or that, to get the desired effect; the using of a
smooth, a folded, or a crinkled piece; the single
or double or triple plating—for in some portions
the glass is four layers deep—-the successful re-
sults of all this, and much of the beauty of the
windows, are due to Miss Barnes, to whom the
spectators, with Air. Blashfield, give the highest
praise.
^lARNEGIE INSTITUTE exhibition
The Director of the Department of Fine
Arts, Carnegie Institute, announces that the
French Retrospective Collection from the Lux-
embourg, the Italian group, and the German
paintings, numbering 272 works, which were in-
cluded in the Founder’s Day Exhibition will
continue on view until further notice. The
seventy-four paintings selected from the Museum
of the Luxembourg, as representative of the his-
tory of French art since 1870, forms the most im-
portant group included in the exhibition.