Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Connecting the Present with the Past | Page 14

T
Bigelow
Chapel’s
Great
Rose
Window
An E a rl y
Sc o t t ish
M as t e rw ork
Res t o red
By Meg L. Winslow
Curator of Historical Collections
12
he recent restoration of the Great Rose Window
has stabilized and restored an important work of
Scottish-made stained glass. The window is among
some of the oldest works of stained glass in our country and
serves, once again, as an integral part of the Chapel’s design.
One hundred seventy-three years ago, Jacob Bigelow
commissioned the Great Rose Window for the south wall of
the chapel he designed for Mount Auburn. In 1843, as part of
a program of Cemetery improvements, embellishments, and
enlargement, the board voted to erect a chapel described by
Mount Auburn President Joseph Story as a “very desirable
object…built in a chaste style and taste and of the most
durable materials,” that would allow for “great addition and
enlargement at a future period.” The following year, Bigelow
submitted a sketch, proposing a romantic interpretation
of the Gothic style that suited the Cemetery’s picturesque
landscape. The design incorporated large colored and leaded
glass windows on the north and south walls of his eponymous
chapel.
At the time, only a handful of glassmakers in the United
States were capable of doing stained-glass work, and they
lacked the capacity for a project of this scale. Great Britain, by
contrast, was the place for stained glass. According to British
author and professor Jim Cheshire, the aesthetics of the
Gothic Revival, in conjunction with institutional support from
the Church of England, led to a remarkable proliferation of
stained glass in the United Kingdom. “The scale of Victorian
stained-glass industry,” writes Cheshire, “was unprecedented
and has not been equaled since.”
To secure windows for his new chapel, therefore, Bigelow
turned to Britain. He sought the advice of interior designer
David Ramsay Hay, who designed Holyrood House for Queen
Victoria. Hay recommended the Edinburgh firm of Ballantine
and Allan, noting that “their work in brilliancy and harmony
of color equals the best specimens of the antique and far
exceeds them in symmetrical proportion.” The firm had
recently received a prestigious commission from the Royal
Commission of Fine Arts to create windows for the new
House of Lords in London.
Bigelow sent lithographic outlines of the windows to
Ballantine and Allan, who immediately replied that they
were “anxious to extend their reputation further and were
exceedingly delighted to send a specimen of our ART to your
interesting country.” Two magnificent windows by Ballantine
and Allan were completed the following year and installed
in the chapel at Mount Auburn. These large windows would
be the firm’s third known commission and their first in the
United States.
The Great Rose Window is 12 feet in diameter, ornamental
in style, and reminiscent of thirteenth-century prototypes.
The overall design is based on medieval rose forms, which