Assumption RC Church

Assumption RC Church - Table of Contents

West nave windows - Assumption RC Church
435 Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14207

The studios that produced the stained glass windows in the church, including the nave windows illustrated here, are unknown due to flooding that destroyed many church records. Henry Swiatek, Jr. opines that the nave windows are European, probably German.

All the windows are two-panel windows with rounded arches united by a semicircle. All the windows are in the pictorial Renaissance style of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. They are heavily painted in enamel on glass and are rich in color with large realistic figures heavily painted in rich and dark colors. The Renaissance style window is three-dimensional, an effect aided by the landscape in the background.

Illustrations below are of windows starting near the front of the church (altar). The theme is Biblical Scenes of Jesus, in contrast to the east nave where Saints are featured.

Illustrations below (reverse chronological order): Jesus Appears to a Saint ..... Resurrection ..... Preaching ..... Gives Peter the Keys to Heaven ..... Baptism ..... Jesus Learns Carpentry ..... Holy Family ..... Presentation of Jesus in the Temple ..... Nativity/Shepherds ..... Annunci ation

West nave

Left: West transept
The 2010-11 renovation project included gilding the capitals.

"The architectural canopies in the space above the figures are a favorite device used by the German Studios to fill large windows. This device was first introduced in the fourteenth century when German cathedrals began to soar and windows became taller and narrower." – Nola Huse Tutag, Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1987, p. 93