Church Window

This rare Dutch painted glass window was originally one of a series of seventeen windows in the church at Hoogwoud in Holland. It was acquired along with ten others by Dennis Nathan’s grandmother in 1897 who was travelling through Holland at the time the windows were being removed. The design is highly attractive, comprising of a central helmet and cuirass with a rampant bird above, which may represent an eagle or perhaps a phoenix, rising from the ashes, a popular symbol representing renewal. Below that, a grotesque dolphin supports a shield with the tree of life in the centre. A great baroque festoon of leafy scrolls surround these two central symbols, and in the upper three panels angels cavort and gambol, while two more trumpet-playing angels sit either side of the inscription, itself framed in a cartouche. References to Catholic symbolism had been banned in Protestant Holland after the Reformation. In response, this kind of imagery became very popular instead of traditional religious iconography.

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