Tallinn Peter-Paul Catherdals stain-class windows project

Artist introduction to the stain-calss windows project.

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Project on the Designing of Windows for the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tallinn

“SAINTS”

In recent years several rearrangements have been made in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tallinn in order to add more dignity to the outside look of the church. Both the priests of the congregation and the bishop were of the opinion that stained glass windows would considerably embellish the appearance of the cathedral. I was made the proposal to design and execute windows that would depict sixteen different saints who throughout the history have in one way or another been connected to the Roman Catholic Church in Estonia.

As in 2005 I wrote and defended my Master’s Thesis at the Estonian Art Academy titled “Stories of Times or the Designing of Windows for the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tallinn”, it enabled me to give a particularly thorough approach to the task.

My Master’s Thesis consists of two parts: theoretical study and practical part. The theoretical section focuses on the analysis and explanation of the background data that were necessary for developing the design concept. For the practical part I developed eight designs of church windows and executed two original-sized windows.

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tallinn

In designing the stained glass for the church room it is important that both its artistic content and form would fit the history and interior of the building. The windows can not be treated as separate from the room and its decoration, the principle of achieving a holistic harmony should be followed in their designing. It is especially important considering the church room where people come to pray, meditate and reflect quietly. The more harmonious and inducible to focusing, the better the room is. In order to design nowadays an artistic work that would fit a historic interior, it is essential to observe how the new and the old could match and relate to each other.
 

The interior of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul completed in 1845 was modeled after Neo-Gothic principles, thus being itself a reproduction of the once existing style.

In designing the windows I faced the following questions: should the new establish itself in contradiction to the old or would it be better, from the viewpoint of harmony, to find a solution where the new would co-operate discreetly with the old. I came to the conclusion that I prefer the latter approach.   

Saints

The saints who were going to figure in the design of the church windows were selected by the Apostolic Nuncio of the Roman Catholic Church, His Excellency Peter Stephan Zurbriggen.

The selection was made according to the principle that the saint should have some connection with Estonia and/or the Roman Catholic congregation of Estonia. The following saints were chosen for the design of the church windows in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul:

St. Michael, St. Nicholas, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. George, St. Benedict, Saints Cyril and Methodius, St. Meinhard, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Bridget, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Josaphat, St. Casimir, Sister Benedicta of the Holy Cross and St. Josemaria Escriva.

St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Bridget, were founders of the religious orders and St. Josemaria Escriva of personal prelature, of which many of them with long history, are currently active in Estonia.

St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Catherine of Siena are also connected with the aforesaid religious orders. The former was the patron of the Order of Preachers and the latter belonged to the Dominican Third Order and is one of the most prominent Dominican saints.

St. Nicholas, St. George and St. Michael were our much beloved saints in the Middle Ages, just like St. Catherine of Alexandria.

St. Casimir as the patron of Lithuania and  St. Josaphat who served in Lithuania are close to the hearts of Lithuanians who figure quite numerously in the Roman Catholic Church of Tallinn.  

St. Meinhard is the saint who was most directly connected with Estonia – he was the first bishop and missionary of Livonia.

St. Benedict, St. Bridget, St. Catherine of Siena, Sister Benedicta of the Holy Cross, St. Cyril and St. Methodius are venerated as patrons in the whole of Europe.  
 

It was important to find a way of visual representation that would unite all these people who descend from different time periods. In order to understand what characterizes holiness as a phenomenon and what common aspects unite these people, I studied their biographies and the history of the veneration of saints.

It seems to me that holiness is revealed first of all in everyday choices of a person, in the way that one leads his or her life. I also wished to reflect in my work the human simplicity, modesty and clarity that accompany holiness.  

Visual depiction of saints

One of my endeavours was to bring saints as close to the church goers as possible, at the same time, in relation to the stories of saints and their persons, to bring forth that which makes their message reach beyond their times and makes them timeless.

It seemed essential for me to depict the saints in such a way that the design would speak about their closeness and quiet discreet presence, reminding us that they are just at a distance of a prayer from us. I wished that the figures of saints on church windows could form like a protective belt around the living and that was one of the reasons why I designed the figures relatively small and placed them at the lower part of the windows.

Naturally they are heading towards the choir for the simple fact that there is the altar and the tabernacle, there is Christ.

The figures of saints are accompanied by their attributes and visual allusions to their stories. Throughout the history attributes have above all been used for facilitating the recognition of the figures of saints. I also use them on the one hand in order to follow the tradition and on the other hand because they remind us again that holiness proceeds from specific deeds and choices of a person, from particular events of his or her life.  

Light

In Christianity light has been treated as divine substance. “Saints are creatures of light”, said Andrè Vauchez. Light can make things visible as well as it can dazzle.

In northern countries a window is first of all a source of light, especially during the twilight in winter. It is hard to imagine a situation where the interior should be protected against too dazzling sunlight. This aspect seems to be the decisive factor in the developing of our historic stained glass that is poor in colours, since clear glass allows best the light to penetrate into the room. Therefore I considered it better to refrain from covering the whole window surface with colourful leaded stained glass “picture shield”.

Glass can absorb light very differently, depending on its technical treatment and definitely on the intensity of light. For that reason I wished to find such a solution for the window design which on the one hand would make a maximum use of different light conditions and at the same time would correspond to the concept of window design as well as possible.  

Choice of technique

In the choice of technique it became a decisive issue for me how to implement our scanty light conditions of a northern country as effectively as possible.

In order to solve the task, I developed a new technique: press-relief technique. The advantage of this technique is that in twilight an image on glass does not dim as it does in colourful stained glass but enables for the little amount of light to bring out the image in its own way. Therefore, as light changes, an image of saint on the glass changes respectively.

For clear glass I have used the slumped surface of hand-blown glass cylinders, on which I have then created a relief image by fusing. I chose the rather complicated way for the reason that in blown glass the lines and threads as traces of blowing are always slightly visible, just like in historic window glass. And such kind of glass with blowing traces in it seems to me more “alive” than a manufactured sheet of glass.

I find that this kind of technological solution expresses best the concept of my work.

By using the pâte de verre technique I have made the small colourful portraits accompanying the figures of saints, which were affixed to the glass sheets during the fusing process. These small portraits remain visible also when it is dark outside, acting thus like small reminders of the constant presence of the saints.  

Description of window design

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul has four big lancet windows at the southern side and five similar windows at the northern side. The upper part of the windows is covered by wooden tracery in the Neo-Gothic style. The rest of the window surface is divided into small panes by crossbars.

The windows at the southern side of the church open on the inner courtyard of the former dominican monastery and the sun reaches to illuminate them fully. The windows at the northern side of the church open on the narrow passage between the northern wall of the church and the houses across. Therefore light reaches there in small amounts, regardless the time of the year, in this case we can mostly speak of reflective light.  

Considering the aforesaid, my design for the windows would be the following.

7 or in some case 8 fused sheets of glass are placed into each window, the measurements of which correspond to the existing window panes. On two clear panes of each window of these sheets of glass saints are depicted in press-relief technique, accompanied by small colourful portraits of the saints. On the remaining colourful sheets of glass, details from the stories of the saints or their attributes are depicted (see designs and photos).

According to the initial plan all the sheets of glass are put in separate wooden frames that are attached to crossbars. In this way it is easy to remove them if there is the need, for example for window washing.

By now my window design has also been approved by the board of the congregation of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul and therefore I would be glad to start with the execution of  the project.  

Informative booklet

As a good supplement to the window design the church could in the future also have an informative booklet introducing the saints depicted on the windows. The booklet could include a short biography of each saint as well as my own explanation and reasons as to the chosen details and attributes. I would put together the booklet when the windows are ready since I could include also photos of the sheets of glass there.

Kai Kiudsoo-Värv

Homepage: www.kaikiudsoovarv.eu

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