Sacred art is a timeless visual reminder to worshippers of the revelation of God’s presence. The three houses of worship featured here do not consider themselves simply museums or repositories of artifacts, but thriving members of their communities, where the act of worship within is enhanced and glorified by custom sanctified imagery.
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Mitteldorfer window at Beth Ahbah (Photo by Maggie Pope)
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Louis Comfort Tiffany's signature on the Mitteldorfer window (Photo by Maggie Pope)
Congregation Beth Ahabah
A handful of houses of worship in Richmond feature authentic stained-glass windows made by the Louis Comfort Tiffany studios, but Congregation Beth Ahabah, at 1111 W. Franklin St., has one created in honor of one of the synagogue’s founding families and made by Tiffany himself.
Between 1904 and 1948, 29 stained glass windows were commissioned by members of Beth Ahabah for the east and west walls of the sanctuary. Each window was commissioned separately with different sponsors and artists, resulting in boldly eclectic styles and subject matter.
The Tiffany, known as the Mitteldorfer window, depicts Mount Sinai at the moment the Ten Commandments were given to Moses. It was commissioned in 1923 by Fannie Mitteldorfer Schwab in memory of her parents, Ellis and Babette Mitteldorfer. Ellis was the son of Moses Mitteldorfer, one of the first presidents of Beth Ahabah. The original cost of the window was $2,000.
Tiffany windows are almost impossible to imitate because they were constructed of many layers of thin, different-colored glass layered one on top of the other. In 1964, during a renovation by George L. Payne Inc., this window was found to be sagging under its own weight, and some of the glass layers had to be peeled away to stabilize it. The results actually allowed more light through, without diminishing its intensity.
Tiffany’s signature can be seen in the window’s lower right-hand corner. You may catch a glimpse on March 31, when the synagogue holds a musical Shabbat service, featuring cantorial soloist Sarah Beck-Berman.
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A mural of the Twelve Apostles and the Sacred Heart of Jesus in St. Benedict Catholic Church, designed and painted by Frank Abetz (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Mural of the Twelve Apostles (Photo by Jay Paul)
St. Benedict Catholic Church
The most striking feature of St. Benedict, at 300 N. Sheppard St., is the large mural on the sanctuary’s rear wall over the altar, created by Pittsburgh artist and sculptor Frank Aretz. The mural forms a triangle with the Twelve Apostles as the base and the sacred heart of Jesus at the top.
In 1932 Aretz — a German immigrant considered by his contemporaries a “modern-day Cellini” — came to Richmond to design and paint the sacred heart, with representations of Joseph and Mary just below. Five church fathers stand below them: St. Augustine of Hippo, Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Jerome and St. Ambrose. This mural was restored in 2005.
Aretz returned to St. Benedict in 1957 at age 80 to create the soapstone bas-reliefs of the Twelve Apostles flanking each side of the high altar. Judas is the only apostle depicted without a halo.
The icons on both sides of the pulpit depict the Trinity and the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and were created in 2003 by Mother Eliseea Papacioc, Abbess of the St. Apostles Peter and Paul Monastery in Cârţişoara, Romania.
St. Benedict will be celebrating the 88th anniversary of the parish building the weekend of Aug. 26 and 27. The public is invited.
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St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Photo by Maggie Pope)
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"Moses Leads the Israelites out of Egypt" by Henry Holiday (Photo by Maggie Pope)
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Photo by Maggie Pope
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Similar to Beth Ahabah, stained glass is the dominant feature of the interior of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 815 E. Grace St., with works by Tiffany Studios designer Frederick Wilson and Henry Holiday, among others. Holiday was a lesser-known, but similarly brilliant, English pre-Raphaelite landscape painter, sculptor and stained-glass artist.
In 1890, the church commissioned both Holiday and Tiffany Studios to create custom windows. In 1892, Holiday delivered his windows, “Moses Leads the Israelites out of Egypt” and “Moses Shown the Promised Land,” both brilliant portrayals of two remarkable events in religious life completed in his new "pot-metal glass" style.
In 1898, Wilson delivered his window, “Paul Before Herod Agrippa.” The glass in it is considered “opalescent,” a Tiffany trademark of milky glass with mixed streaking colors.
Each Wednesday at 6 p.m., the church holds Center in the Atrium, a service of experiential prayer and mediation using art and poetry as a focus tool. On March 25 at 7 p.m., the church hosts the Richmond Three Choirs Festival, featuring 100 voices combined from St. James’s, St. Stephen’s and St. Paul’s Episcopal churches performing German composer Josef Rheinberger’s “Stabat Mater.”
