St Peter’s East Window, SCEGGS Great Hall, Darlinghurst, Sydney

St Peter’s East Window, SCEGGS Great Hall, Darlinghurst, Sydney

Canopy, Christ, Christianity, Darlinghurst, Empire, Ferguson & Urie, geometric patterning, Great Hall, medallion, medieval design, New South Wales, NSW, quarries, SGEGGS, school, school buildings, St Peter’s Church, Stained glass, Sydney, Sydney Girls Grammar School, window

An image of the East Window in the Great Hall at Sydney Girls Grammar School (SGEGGS) in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The window was originally installed in St Peter’s church in 1867, but the church has since been incorporated into the School Hall. It is the only known Ferguson & Urie window in Sydney. Depictions of Christ and the disciples in lozenge and mandorla medallions stand out amidst a richly patterned geometrical background. This window employs several medieval design and glazing techniques, notably: 12th century lancets, the use of ‘diapered’ background quarries, extensive geometric patterning, and painted figures restricted to ‘mandorla’ and lozenge-shaped medallions. Note the comparatively larger, central figure of Christ standing under the imitation c. 14th century canopy. While not limited to a medieval primary colour scheme, the overall feeling and tone of this window is decidedly one of an adventurous medievalism. Such a window transmits the essence of the gospel message in visual narrative form, to the effect that the contents of each medallion can quite easily be ‘read’ by onlookers. The twin themes of Empire and Christianity merge seamlessly within the context of the window’s Neo-Gothic medievalism.

Brown, Ray

6 May 2011

© Ray Brown

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