The Crucifixion
detail from Scenes from the Life of Christ
Photo © Martin Crampin
Three-light window. The central light depicts Christ crucified between the two thieves with a landscape below, and a lower panel contains the arrest of Christ surrounded by soldiers with spears and lanterns, while Peter strikes Malchus with his sword. The Crucifixion is flanked by Christ before his judges and meeting Veronica while carrying the cross to Golgotha. The Magi are shown with the Virgin and Child in the lower left, and the return from Egypt is shown in the lower right. In the upper cinquefoil Charles V is depicted with Pope Adrian VI, together with further groups of courtiers and ladies. Angels are shown above and the twelve apostles around the edges. There is also a small scene depicting the Trinity at the apex of the central light.
Church of St Gwenllwyfo, Dulas, Anglesey
east wall of the chancel (window number: I)
Much of the glass in the tracery lights is thought to have come from the memorial chapel of Pope Adrian VI at the Pope's College, Leuven (Louvain), probably commissioned by Charles V, and could date to about 1524 (Adrian VI died in September 1523). Both Adrian and Charles are depicted together. These remains were attributed to Peter van den Houte by Hilary Wayment.
The Return from Egypt and Christ with Veronica were probably originally part of the typological sequence in the Great Cloister of the Charterhouse, Leuven, and in these cases their Old Testament types both survive, both at the Cleveland Museum of Art. These panels are Jacob Returning to Canaan (antitype, Return from Egypt) and Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (antitype, Veronica).
Other panels may be of a similar date, but the use of coloured enamels in the depiction of the arrest of Christ suggests a date for this scene in the late sixteenth century, or more probably the early seventeenth century.
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- adoration of the kings: the Wise Men present their gifts to the Christ-child (gold, frankincense and myrrh) [Matthew 2:11]
- Christ before the Sanhedrin with Caiaphas as high priest, and possibly Annas - trial of Christ [Matthew 26:57-66; Mark 14:53-64; Luke 22:54; Luke 22:66-71]
- Christ meets Veronica, who has a cloth to wipe Christ's face - carrying of the cross
- Peter draws his sword and cuts off Malchus' ear [Matthew 26:51-54; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:49-50; John 18:10-11]
- the arrest of Christ - Garden of Gethsemane [Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:3-12]
- the Holy Family (and sometimes others) returning to Israel [Matthew 2:21]
- the three crosses with the crucified, without bystanders [Matthew 27:45-58; Mark 15:33-45; Luke 23:44-52; John 19:25-38]
- (the skull or skeleton of) Adam at the foot of the cross of Christ - the crucifixion of Christ
- angels
- ass, donkey
- city-view in general, landscape with city or town
- God the Father as bearded old man, usually with crown or tiara or sceptre and/or globe
- Holy Trinity in which one, two or all figures are represented in human shape
- horn, trumpet, cornet, trombone, tuba
- Madonna: Mary sitting or enthroned, the Christ-child in her lap
- sun and moon in the sky at either side of the cross of Christ [Luke 23:44-45]
- the twelve apostles (as a group), usually with books or scrolls (not in biblical context)
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Further reading
Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), pp. 3, 56-9.
Richard Haslam, Julian Orbach and Adam Voelcker, The Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 123.
J. O. Hughes, A Short Guide to the Early 16th Century Glass of Llanwenllwyfo Church Isle of Anglesey (1995), pp. 5-8.
Hilary Wayment, 'The Master of the Mass of Saint Gregory Roundel' Oud Holland, vol. 112, no. 2/3 (1989), 89-91.
J. O. Hughes, Catherine Hughes and Avril Lloyd, Trysorau Cudd: Gwydr Lliw yn Santes Gwenllwyfo, Dulas, Môn/Hidden Gems: Stained Glass at the Church of St Gwenllwyfo, Anglesey (Aberystwyth: Sulien, 2016), pp. 16, 20, 22, 25, 28-41.
Hilary Wayment, 'Adrian and Peter Vandenhoute, Glaziers and Tapestry Designers' Oud Holland, vol. 112, no. 2/3 (1998), 82-3.
Virginia Chieffo Raguin, Helen Jackson Zakin and Elizabeth Carson Pastan, Stained Glass Before 1700 in the Collections of the Midwest States (London: Harvey Miller, 2001), vol. II, pp. 157-63.
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