Page 20 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

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each one worshipping the Lamb of god, seen standing on the Book of Revelation with its seven seals.
Kempe had originally hoped to be ordained, but a severe stammer made preaching impossible; instead he turned to church decoration, and it was always a principle with him that his windows should be works of instruction as well as beauty. the poet he most admired was george Herbert, who spoke so memorably about the special power of stained glass:
A man that looks on glasse On it may stay his eye;
Or, if he pleases, through it passe And then the heaven espye.
Kempe’s window presents a vision of Heaven in which the resurrected Christ is surrounded by angels and accompanied by the sisters of his close friend Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead in a miracle prefiguring his own resurrection. At the top of the window nine angels hold scrolls bearing the Latin texts ‘Jesus Resurrectio et vita [Jesus the Resurrection and the life]’ and ‘Venite adoremus Alleluia [o come, let us adore Him. Alleluia]’. they wear the traditional vestments of servers in the sanctuary; their wings are of peacock feathers, a hallmark of Kempe designs, and they appear against a stylized pattern of scallop-shaped clouds, beneath which are glimpsed shafts of heavenly light. the angels’ wings, and the scrolls they carry, spread across the full width of each lancet, covering part of the coloured border. this is intended to create the impression that the angels are not just flying, but almost flying through the window.
the sense of motion is further emphasized by the billowing pennant held aloft by Christ. such flags usually depict a red cross upon a white background, but Kempe has chosen gold on red so that the pennant stands out against the gold and white vestments of the angels. Jesus himself stands with his right hand and his two feet clearly displaying the wounds of the nails. the wound delivered by what george Herbert called the ‘Christ side-piercing spear’ is also visible because, under his elaborate and bejewelled cloak, Christ’s shift is loosely gathered around his waist.
Creating the window itself was undertaken by craftsmen working in Kempe’s glassworks and supervised by his Master glazier, Alfred tombleson. Looking at the two kneeling angels at the bottom of the window one sees they are mirror images of each other, but the lettering of the identical texts on each scroll is markedly different; so too, the design and decoration of their vestments. Different glass painters have been at work here. Above the right-hand angel can be seen a small shield: three wheatsheaves on a red background with a golden border. these are Kempe’s own arms, only appearing in windows of special significance to him. Finally, in the corner an inscription reads:
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