Friday, June 23, 2017

NLM Quiz no. 19 - How Old is This Stained Glass, and What Event Does it Show?

It has been several months since our last quiz, so as a reminder of our regular procedure: Please give your answer in the combox, along with any and all details you think pertinent to it. To keep it more interesting, please leave your answer before reading the other comments. We are always pleased to hear humorous answers as well. This photograph was taken by Fr Lawrence Lew; you can click it to see it in high resolution.

The Answer: This was obviously too easy; it is indeed St Aloysius Gonzaga receiving his First Communion from St Charles Borromeo. The window was made in the middle of the 19th century for the Lady Chapel of the cathedral of Lille, France. Stylistically, it is a very good copy of the medieval style, especially in the faces of St Aloysius’ parents. Judith Whitehouse correctly noted that the range of color is too great for medieval work, and Marko Ivančičević correctly noted that a medieval image of this would not have the tabernacle on the altar.
I must admit I thought people would be thrown off by the fact that St Charles as shown here looks much more like the Curé d’Ars than himself.
Mag. Theol., you take the prize for Best Humorous Answer for “St Karl Rahner receiving communion from St Annibale Bugnini”, but it should really be the other way around, since Bugnini was 8 years younger.

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