Holy Child /
Santo Nino
Dear, DEAR Friends!
Thank you so much for coming to see the Holy Child window at The Holy Child and Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church in Daly City and for your interest in its many meanings! Father Leonard and indeed several individual members, have asked me to write down for everybody some of the thoughts that went into and some of the ideas that are expressed in their new stained glass window, and as the artist who has been working with them all, I am very grateful to be able to do this.
First of all, let me say that this is a commission in which the artist has cut and shaped, handled and foiled, soldered and polished every single piece of glass in this window, except for the pieces of chandelier crystal imbedded in the crown and collar, hem and cuffs, and the orb and scepter which were cut, shaped and polished to a very fine luster by superb artisans in Europe (more about them later). This is NOT a piece of art where one person worked up a design and then assigned the fabrication to another firm to complete. This latter approach has many followers (Marc Chagall for one!) But in our case, the individual artist has spent much more time intimately contemplating each piece of glass and its meaning and the effect it can produce both in the image of the window and in the light shining into the sanctuary of the church space itself.
In the hope of achieving a bit of clarity, I will refer to the stained glass image as the Holy Child, and to its source of inspiration, the original three dimensional Santo Nino from the Philippines, as the Santo Nino with the understanding that one commemorates the other and that they BOTH refer to Jesus of Nazareth (in His capacity as the Son of God) as a very young child.
In the beginning….
The original idea for this commission came from Father Leonard who wished to commemorate the Santo Nino in some special way in stained glass. So let us begin our artistic contemplation of these ideas with the Santo Nino himself, the one that is in this church, the one which survived the fire without any damage or even the smell of smoke….
If you allow your gaze to rest gently on him for a bit, and if you can try for just a moment to think like an artist does, he will speak to you graphically in terms of threes. That is, there is the Child himself (1), who is wearing a tunic and pants (2), and who has a cloak which embraces him (3). These are practical human necessities of living in this world, a child warmly dressed with a cloak that wraps him in powerful protection. Now look again, this time try to see him in the two dimensions of a painting. You can see his head (1), and his right hand (2) and his left (3). These are the only parts of his body that we can actually see with our eyes and which our hands can handle and they begin to organize the idea of his image in classically stable three part composition. This triangle is echoed by the shape of his cloak. Now, look at the symbols he is wearing and holding, the crown, the orb and the scepter. These in fifteenth century language tell us that this Child is the King of kings. These three symbols are what a king or an emperor would receive at his coronation. In our day they refer to the idea of Sovereignty which rests today as it did in the fifteenth century and in Jesus’ time as well, with God. There are three symbols of sovereignty, and they illustrate to us the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three in one.
The original idea for this commission came from Father Leonard who wished to commemorate the Santo Nino in some special way in stained glass. So let us begin our artistic contemplation of these ideas with the Santo Nino himself, the one that is in this church, the one which survived the fire without any damage or even the smell of smoke….
If you allow your gaze to rest gently on him for a bit, and if you can try for just a moment to think like an artist does, he will speak to you graphically in terms of threes. That is, there is the Child himself (1), who is wearing a tunic and pants (2), and who has a cloak which embraces him (3). These are practical human necessities of living in this world, a child warmly dressed with a cloak that wraps him in powerful protection. Now look again, this time try to see him in the two dimensions of a painting. You can see his head (1), and his right hand (2) and his left (3). These are the only parts of his body that we can actually see with our eyes and which our hands can handle and they begin to organize the idea of his image in classically stable three part composition. This triangle is echoed by the shape of his cloak. Now, look at the symbols he is wearing and holding, the crown, the orb and the scepter. These in fifteenth century language tell us that this Child is the King of kings. These three symbols are what a king or an emperor would receive at his coronation. In our day they refer to the idea of Sovereignty which rests today as it did in the fifteenth century and in Jesus’ time as well, with God. There are three symbols of sovereignty, and they illustrate to us the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three in one.
Now we can look at the window!
First of all we can see that it is a circle! A circle has no beginning and no end. It is never born and never dying. A circle represents the infinite. A circle is also used to emphasize something, to concentrate the attention of the viewer upon what is being circled. This circle is also reminiscent of a magnifying glass. (Oh come! Let us magnify the Lord!) And it is also a very small echo of a Rose Window.
First of all we can see that it is a circle! A circle has no beginning and no end. It is never born and never dying. A circle represents the infinite. A circle is also used to emphasize something, to concentrate the attention of the viewer upon what is being circled. This circle is also reminiscent of a magnifying glass. (Oh come! Let us magnify the Lord!) And it is also a very small echo of a Rose Window.
It is in this last sense that our little circle is organized into three “paisley” shaped lobes of a very simple rose window, and these three lobes appear to be in constant motion! The crown, the orb and the scepter are all placed in their positions by the organizing geometry which was used to generate this three lobed “tracery”. (The word tracery is used to describe the stone work in a gothic cathedral which actually holds the stained glass in place and can be very complex in shape.) Actually, this organizing geometry did a great deal more than just place the three symbols of sovereignty. It directed me where to place the smile and the tip of his chin, how wide to make his shoulders, just exactly where to place his collar, and how to shape it, the angle of the scepter and its length, the length and width of his tunic and the size and shape of the cuff lacework, even the placement of the star of Bethlehem atop his crown! And it drew the halo all by itself! It was an amazing experience to be guided by this sacred geometry! (If you want to draw this tracery out yourself, my source for it was a little book called Sacred Geometry by a wonderful artist named Miranda Lundy. It is actually on the front cover of her book, and on pages 44 and 45 she shows you exactly how to draw it! She also tells you of how it speaks of “trinity in unity….”) So now, if we look at this window in a two dimensional way, its easy to see its three part organization.
There is another level of three part organization that this window expresses. This is in the levels of depth that are represented, that is, the third dimension. First, you have the Holy Child himself, who stands in front of everything. Second, right behind him, you have that wonderful tracery, and third, you can see his cloak peeking through from behind that. The tracery represents the structure of Church, both the building and the institution. The Holy Child is standing with us inside the Church offering us his gifts with forward reaching arms. And his cloak is outside that tracery, enfolding the Church in divine protection, as if Christ is embracing the whole church in his love and sacrifice, devoted care and clearly expressed power. Eventually in phases 2, 3, 4, and 5 of our design plan that cloak will be wrapped around the whole church building. It will extend from this circle around to the side windows in the sanctuary almost up to the altar rail. That’s the plan!
The position of the Holy Child in this location in the western wall means that even as the congregation is dismissed and begins to leave the church after the service is over, they are walking towards Jesus who gives them each one last hug before they go out into the world to share his blessings.
The position of the Holy Child in this location in the western wall means that even as the congregation is dismissed and begins to leave the church after the service is over, they are walking towards Jesus who gives them each one last hug before they go out into the world to share his blessings.
The Butterflies
The butterfly is a well known symbol of transformation. In our project here at Holy Child and Saint Martin the butterflies represent individual lives that have been transformed by Christ. If you look back at the Santo Nino, you can see a stylized butterfly embroidered on the breast of his tunic and you can also see the butterfly’s antennae used as a decorative motif on his tunic and also on his cloak. There are four butterflies in the Holy Child window, and they represent four very well known lives which had indeed been transformed by their encounter with Christ: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four. So he is that little butterfly resting on the lace of the Holy Child’s right cuff. John rested his head against Jesus’ breast during the Last Supper, so he is represented by the large butterfly directly in the middle of the Holy Child’s breast. It’s up to the viewer to decide which of the other two is Luke and which is Matthew! Please note that the butterflies appear to be dancing within the encircling arms of Christ, “the everlasting arms of Love,” …. We’ll get back to that in a moment….
The butterfly is a well known symbol of transformation. In our project here at Holy Child and Saint Martin the butterflies represent individual lives that have been transformed by Christ. If you look back at the Santo Nino, you can see a stylized butterfly embroidered on the breast of his tunic and you can also see the butterfly’s antennae used as a decorative motif on his tunic and also on his cloak. There are four butterflies in the Holy Child window, and they represent four very well known lives which had indeed been transformed by their encounter with Christ: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four. So he is that little butterfly resting on the lace of the Holy Child’s right cuff. John rested his head against Jesus’ breast during the Last Supper, so he is represented by the large butterfly directly in the middle of the Holy Child’s breast. It’s up to the viewer to decide which of the other two is Luke and which is Matthew! Please note that the butterflies appear to be dancing within the encircling arms of Christ, “the everlasting arms of Love,” …. We’ll get back to that in a moment….
Counting Crystals!
If you have the concentration, you can count the seventy seven crystals used to form the crown. I must confess it was a good deal easier for me to do this because I could place my finger on each one as I counted them while it was on my worktable. Seventy seven…. This number is a reference to Matthew 18 where Peter asks Jesus how many times he has to forgive that idiot over there for sinning against him. “Seven times?” Jesus reply was: “Seventy TIMES seven” Jesus’ message was quite clear even to Peter: You NEVER stop forgiving… So I hope the viewers will forgive me for using the more poetic sounding seventy seven instead of the four hundred and ninety that the math actually works out to be…
If you have the concentration, you can count the seventy seven crystals used to form the crown. I must confess it was a good deal easier for me to do this because I could place my finger on each one as I counted them while it was on my worktable. Seventy seven…. This number is a reference to Matthew 18 where Peter asks Jesus how many times he has to forgive that idiot over there for sinning against him. “Seven times?” Jesus reply was: “Seventy TIMES seven” Jesus’ message was quite clear even to Peter: You NEVER stop forgiving… So I hope the viewers will forgive me for using the more poetic sounding seventy seven instead of the four hundred and ninety that the math actually works out to be…
There are seven stylized candle flame shaped crystals in the Holy Child’s collar. This is a reference to the seven lamps in Revelation 4 “which are the seven Spirits of God.”
The larger crystals in the hem of the Holy Child’s tunic represent the seven days of creation. There should be seven crystals there, but one is covered by one of the butterflies. The third day! This is a quiet reference to the transformation that occurred “on the third day” when the risen Christ reappeared to his disciples.
Counting the crystals in the sleeves is a bit easier than the crown. There are thirteen crystals in the sleeve below the orb, the Holy Child’s left hand sleeve. This refers to Jesus and the twelve disciples. The other sleeve, the Holy Child’s right hand sleeve, the one near the scepter, has twelve crystals. This is Jesus and his eleven disciples. The one great event which Jesus began with twelve disciples and ended with only eleven was the Last Supper. This great transforming event is celebrated every Sunday (at least!) as Holy Communion. Now it is easy to understand why those butterflies are dancing between the arms of Christ! They are celebrating!
The Bishop’s Miter
If you look at the crown and orb that the Santo Nino is holding, you will see a cross on each of them. In the fifteenth century ALL crowns and orbs were topped with crosses. This was to indicate that the secular authority was Christian, that each Sovereign was crowned by the Church and derived his or her power from this fact.
If you look at the Holy Child in the window, you will see a beautiful French crystal atop the orb in his left hand that is shaped like a bishop’s miter. You will also find this same shape in the largest crystal in the crown, and finally the largest piece of crystal in the entire window is, again, that same shape at the top of the scepter. This turns the scepter from a weapon of secular authority into a bishop’s crook. The bishop is the shepherd of this flock. This is an Episcopal church! It celebrates an unbroken succession of bishops going back to the Holy Child Himself. The Anglican Communion represents the one universal apostolic church.
If you look at the crown and orb that the Santo Nino is holding, you will see a cross on each of them. In the fifteenth century ALL crowns and orbs were topped with crosses. This was to indicate that the secular authority was Christian, that each Sovereign was crowned by the Church and derived his or her power from this fact.
If you look at the Holy Child in the window, you will see a beautiful French crystal atop the orb in his left hand that is shaped like a bishop’s miter. You will also find this same shape in the largest crystal in the crown, and finally the largest piece of crystal in the entire window is, again, that same shape at the top of the scepter. This turns the scepter from a weapon of secular authority into a bishop’s crook. The bishop is the shepherd of this flock. This is an Episcopal church! It celebrates an unbroken succession of bishops going back to the Holy Child Himself. The Anglican Communion represents the one universal apostolic church.
A Slight Breeze
If you were to go outside and stand directly under this window looking west you would see the Pacific Ocean to your right. Now look again at the Santo Nino inside near the altar. Notice how perfectly symmetrical is the arrangement of his hair! But if you turn around and face the Holy Child window, you will notice that his hair is not symmetrical. Indeed there is a slight ocean breeze messing it up a bit! In fact that breeze has blown a lock or two onto his left shoulder and has tangled a little bit of it in his collar ruff! I dare you to show me a three year old toddler anywhere whose mother has combed his hair perfectly and who in two minutes outside in the fresh air has NOT messed up his hair (or any other part of his attire!) This little detail has (as you might have guessed) three meanings…. First, it is meant to remind us that Jesus was indeed a child who lived our life in this world and got his hair messed up on more than one occasion. Second, that lock of hair entangled in the ruff is a direct reference to the lives of individual members of this congregation in Daly City who are actually experiencing the miraculous influence of the divine in their daily (no pun intended) lives here in California more than two thousand years later. And thirdly, (and probably most importantly) it is a reminder that even the thought of Christ is a breath of fresh air to each of us when we face our daily struggles.
If you were to go outside and stand directly under this window looking west you would see the Pacific Ocean to your right. Now look again at the Santo Nino inside near the altar. Notice how perfectly symmetrical is the arrangement of his hair! But if you turn around and face the Holy Child window, you will notice that his hair is not symmetrical. Indeed there is a slight ocean breeze messing it up a bit! In fact that breeze has blown a lock or two onto his left shoulder and has tangled a little bit of it in his collar ruff! I dare you to show me a three year old toddler anywhere whose mother has combed his hair perfectly and who in two minutes outside in the fresh air has NOT messed up his hair (or any other part of his attire!) This little detail has (as you might have guessed) three meanings…. First, it is meant to remind us that Jesus was indeed a child who lived our life in this world and got his hair messed up on more than one occasion. Second, that lock of hair entangled in the ruff is a direct reference to the lives of individual members of this congregation in Daly City who are actually experiencing the miraculous influence of the divine in their daily (no pun intended) lives here in California more than two thousand years later. And thirdly, (and probably most importantly) it is a reminder that even the thought of Christ is a breath of fresh air to each of us when we face our daily struggles.
About the materials
The crystals used in this window are the finest hand cut and polished twenty four percent lead crystal that Europeans are willing to export to the United States. The large pieces (the ones described earlier as being in the shape of a bishop’s miter) and about half of the crystals in the sleeves are Baccarat crystal. They came from a $30,000 custom chandelier which was dropped (Yes! It was DROPPED.) I rescued several pieces that were on their way to the land fill almost ten years ago and saved them for some very special future use. The remaining crystals, in the crown and collar and hem and sleeves and scepter, are Austrian crystal from another insanely expensive crystal fixture that I was able to purchase when a store was closing and liquidating both its inventory AND its fixtures. I saved those crystals too, for some as yet unknown special purpose. When Father Leonard approached me about the Santo Nino, it all became clear! All of these crystals, because they were made for chandeliers have little holes drilled in them. The holes are still there but very difficult to see because the Holy Child is so high up. When the sunlight is able to strike the crystals directly they will send out beautiful rainbows all over the sanctuary! We must try to get our clergy to celebrate a few evensong services so that we will be in the church at the time the light from setting sun strikes those crystals.
The crystals used in this window are the finest hand cut and polished twenty four percent lead crystal that Europeans are willing to export to the United States. The large pieces (the ones described earlier as being in the shape of a bishop’s miter) and about half of the crystals in the sleeves are Baccarat crystal. They came from a $30,000 custom chandelier which was dropped (Yes! It was DROPPED.) I rescued several pieces that were on their way to the land fill almost ten years ago and saved them for some very special future use. The remaining crystals, in the crown and collar and hem and sleeves and scepter, are Austrian crystal from another insanely expensive crystal fixture that I was able to purchase when a store was closing and liquidating both its inventory AND its fixtures. I saved those crystals too, for some as yet unknown special purpose. When Father Leonard approached me about the Santo Nino, it all became clear! All of these crystals, because they were made for chandeliers have little holes drilled in them. The holes are still there but very difficult to see because the Holy Child is so high up. When the sunlight is able to strike the crystals directly they will send out beautiful rainbows all over the sanctuary! We must try to get our clergy to celebrate a few evensong services so that we will be in the church at the time the light from setting sun strikes those crystals.
The face and hands are made from a mouth blown German glass that is “flashed.” This means that there are two layers of glass fused together during the mouth blowing phase of its manufacture. (Yes a very strong human with powerful lungs actually blew this glass into a large bubble, cut a line along one side and then opened the glass gently onto a surface so that it lay flat.) In this case, one layer is white glass and the other is a flesh colored transparent layer. In order to show the lips and fingernails, a second layer of this same flashed glass was fused onto the inside surface. This involved a considerable amount of risk! The company that made this glass is out of business, and you can’t get any more of it. In order to put the lips onto the surface without using lead lines the pieces were cut and shaped and then placed in a kiln and heated up to a temperature hot enough to melt them together and then SLOWLY cooled down. Fusing flashed glass is a risky adventure because it doesn’t always work, and there wasn’t much left over for a second or third try. I ended up doing three or four test runs before risking the actual face glass I had already cut.
The ruff, the cuffs and the hem… If you look at the Santo Nino you can see that a considerable amount of effort went into the application of gold colored gimp to his cuffs and collar. Gold colored…. This is very hard to accomplish in stained glass because gold is not in the least bit transparent, and the colors that sort of look like gold to the intellect, that is amber and various yellows and funny oranges, do not make the eye see gold when light is shining through them. Instead I used glass that had been made WITH gold. Yes that’s right... The orange and the pink glass that intertwine in the collar and are the infinity symbols in the cuffs were manufactured using gold to create the color. When I purchased this glass gold was selling somewhere between 200 and 300 dollars an ounce.. (and this glass was insanely expensive way back then!) This was another instance of acquiring the glass and then waiting for a long time for the right project come along.
The sky that you can see inside our circle was also made with glass using gold in the melt to create the color. This glass is mouth blown and, in this case the glass is transparent. Right next to it you can compare this to the glass that was used to make the halo. It is an amber glass that is machine made, and they work quite well together. Eventually the entire sky in our western window will depict a sunset, and this light salmon pink and the adjacent amber are the light pouring forth from the sky closest to the setting sun. Christ is, of course, usually associated with the rising sun in the east… but the halo here and its blending with the gold based glass used for the sky inspired me to think of the entire sky as Jesus’ halo and the glorious sunset as a prefiguring of His Glory that occurs every evening of our lives. (Let’s face it, there are a million more sunsets than there are rainbows!)
The orb, the scepter, the eyes, the butterflies, all these were made using a glass called dichroic glass. This glass will change its color depending on where the viewer is standing! The Holy Child’s eyes are deep blue when you see them from the altar and from the sanctuary, but when you are in the narthex looking upward at them they become purple. And when you are very close and looking up they become yellow. The orb and scepter follow the same pattern except they are cyan and magenta before they become yellow. The butterflies’ wings retain their green cast but it darkens towards blue as the angle of view get sharper. When the light inside the church is brighter than it is outside, this glass will present a mirrored surface.
Copper Foil
If you look in the sanctuary, you can see a number of stained glass panels that have been assembled in the traditional way using lead “came” and a glazier’s “cement.” This is not the way the Holy Child window was assembled. This window was put together using a method called copper foil. This method was developed by Louis Tiffany to assemble his lampshades, and it has a number of advantages over the old traditional method. (It has its drawbacks too.) The first and primary advantage is the freedom it allows the artist to design his project using as many tiny pieces of glass as he wants, and as many large pieces as he desires. The pieces can be highly complex in their shape and can nestle close to each other much more gracefully than they could if a piece of lead has to intrude between them. And he can include non-flat shapes and non standard thicknesses as well. It is this method that allows the inclusion of those large pieces of chandelier crystal, for example. A lead window could not hold them securely in place with any sense of grace. And the infinity symbols in the Holy Child’s cuff could not be used at all. They would break at the first contact with even a tiny piece of lead came. Using copper foil, however, makes these parts of the window some of its strongest!
A copper foil window is assembled in this way:
After each piece of glass is cut, shaped, and fitted, it has its edges covered with a strip of copper foil which is available in tape form. The copper foil is wider than the glass is thick so the extra foil is then folded down against the front and back of the glass and smoothed down so that its mastic is secure against the surface. Then, when all the glass is covered, the copper foil is soldered together to form one continuous network of metal that is molded against the glass and is quite strong! The solder is then given a patina (I love the coppery colored patina for my projects) and then it is cleaned up and put in its frame.
The Holy Child window is very large for a single panel even for copper foil, especially for one with this much detail work, so it has thicker strips of copper imbedded in strategic lines of solder to help reinforce it. This window will never receive the direct pressure of the wind because there is double paned glass on the outside of it to protect it from the elements...
If you look in the sanctuary, you can see a number of stained glass panels that have been assembled in the traditional way using lead “came” and a glazier’s “cement.” This is not the way the Holy Child window was assembled. This window was put together using a method called copper foil. This method was developed by Louis Tiffany to assemble his lampshades, and it has a number of advantages over the old traditional method. (It has its drawbacks too.) The first and primary advantage is the freedom it allows the artist to design his project using as many tiny pieces of glass as he wants, and as many large pieces as he desires. The pieces can be highly complex in their shape and can nestle close to each other much more gracefully than they could if a piece of lead has to intrude between them. And he can include non-flat shapes and non standard thicknesses as well. It is this method that allows the inclusion of those large pieces of chandelier crystal, for example. A lead window could not hold them securely in place with any sense of grace. And the infinity symbols in the Holy Child’s cuff could not be used at all. They would break at the first contact with even a tiny piece of lead came. Using copper foil, however, makes these parts of the window some of its strongest!
A copper foil window is assembled in this way:
After each piece of glass is cut, shaped, and fitted, it has its edges covered with a strip of copper foil which is available in tape form. The copper foil is wider than the glass is thick so the extra foil is then folded down against the front and back of the glass and smoothed down so that its mastic is secure against the surface. Then, when all the glass is covered, the copper foil is soldered together to form one continuous network of metal that is molded against the glass and is quite strong! The solder is then given a patina (I love the coppery colored patina for my projects) and then it is cleaned up and put in its frame.
The Holy Child window is very large for a single panel even for copper foil, especially for one with this much detail work, so it has thicker strips of copper imbedded in strategic lines of solder to help reinforce it. This window will never receive the direct pressure of the wind because there is double paned glass on the outside of it to protect it from the elements...
