Design for a Church Interior

Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company American

ca. 1892-1902

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 690

The church for which this drawing was prepared remains unidentified. Its interior is richly decorated with stained-glass windows, mosaics, an altar, and an elaborately detailed chandelier. The altar is faced with mosaic ornament centered on a cross flanked by the Alpha and Omega (symbolizing the beginning and the end, a reference to Jesus), while the apse columns are encrusted with repeating cross patterns intended for execution in iridescent Favrile glass. Three lancet windows hint at a continuous narrative scene. The pale blue vaulted ceiling, scattered with tiny gold stars, reflects the late nineteenth-century vogue for imagining church interiors as evocations of the heavens. Infrared imaging shows that the artist first plotted the architecture with drafting instruments, then added the decorative elements freehand in loose washes; the stars were built up in shimmering brass pigment.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Title: Design for a Church Interior
Artist: Louis C. Tiffany (American, New York 1848–1933 New York)
Designer: Unidentified designer
Maker: Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American, 1892–1902)
Date: ca. 1892-1902
Geography: Made in New York, United States; Country of Origin United States
Culture: American
Medium: Transparent and opaque watercolor, metallic paint, and graphite on paper
Dimensions: 22 × 29 11/16 in. (55.9 × 75.4 cm)
Credit Line: Purchase, Walter Hoving and Julia T. Weld Gifts and Dodge Fund, 1967
Object Number: 67.654.39
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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