Section D and Section G Before and After
Section G
Pictured left is Reverend Arthur Mitchell to which the St. Paul Preaching at Athens window is dedicated. It is believed that Rev. Mitchell is the inspiration for St. Paul’s face.
St. Paul’s face was too far damaged to be cleaned and re-painted. An artist has been hired to paint a new head for St. Paul.
Faces before and after cleaning.
This is an exterior shot of one of the faces in the window. The first photo shows the dirty clear backplate of the face once it is out of the leading. The second photo shows the amount dirt that has complied behind the clear face back plate and the last photo shows the clear face backplate totally cleaned.
This shot will give you an idea of just how many plate layers are in this window. These are just some of the layers in place. Achieving the right amount of layers for an artisan to make it what it looks like to a human eye. How? And what makes it even more complicated, all of the pieces in one layer are not all identical shapes. Some of them extend to other neighboring pieces, and some are smaller than the overall shape of the set! This is by far the most complicated window we have ever encountered ~Venturella Studio
Outlined in magenta are on the left hand side are Greek letters that spell Unknown God. The letters have been in-painted. In addition to the letters after cleaning in the second magenta outline are a couple walking to the alter of the Unknown God. The couple was so dirty that no one knew they existed.
Section D
Finished Sections
Jim Murphy re-leads Section D
In this section, the sky does not match the original nor does the highlighted piece that says, "this should match original." The highlighted piece has an interesting back story. It was painted black at some point. Tiffany windows typically have several layers of glass and the piece that would have been the layer behind the black piece is missing. It was never replaced and with the black paint, no one recognized that the back plate was gone. Venturella Studio believes that these repairs were done when the window was moved from First Presbyterian to Second and installed in 1927. To correct these issues, Venturella Studio has found similar pieces to the original Tiffany glass at Kokomo Opalescent Glass. Original Tiffany glass has been out of production for almost 100 years so it is not easy to find exact replacement glass. This happened in the restoration of the Peace Window and is not a rare occurrence in older windows.
Photo showing the Venturella Studio replacement from Kokomo Glass and the original Tiffany.
Jim Murphy getting Section D ready for re-leading.
Glass Above Athens Cleaning.
Tom Venturella and Jim Murphy take apart the glass above the Athens skyline in the stained glass window St. Paul Preaching at Athens. We see that most of the leads holding the glass will be replaced. The glass that is broken has not been trimmed or smoothed down by a grozing iron. The glass if broken from wear and age will have a clean edge to reglue back together making it appear as there never was anything broken. The dirt collects between the glass panels and you see how clean it becomes. Venturella Studios uses a gentle cleaner stronger than windex that does not scratch or harm the glass.
This amber colored piece is a backplate to the steps. Here is was removed. This shows the dirt before cleaning.
Each “section” of the window is taken out of the crate, photographed, and visually inspected before being taken apart piece by piece. At the same time a rubbing of the section is done, much like when as a child you might have gone to the cemetery and used a black crayon to rub a gravestone. This step will be taken for each of the 22 sections of the window.
This panel is in such fragile condition Venturella Studio was unable to put it in the easel for transmitted light photos. They will use the in-situ shots for transmitted light.
The amber backplate piece is in place cleaned and over the steps.
Removal
John Clark removing part of the window.
Tom Venturella and Jim Murphy were back at Second Presbyterian Church in late March disassembling another of the church's monumental Tiffany windows to commence a full restoration. It seems like only yesterday that Friends embarked on the restoration of the Peace Window, the completion of which represented the largest preservation project by Friends since being founded in 2006. During the restoration of The Peace Window, many cast a nervous eye at the St Paul Window, after Peace the window in the most fragile condition. And Friends worried that with so many priceless Tiffany windows in desperate need of restoration, we might not be able to raise enough funds to save them all in time. It was Richard Driehaus who stepped in and kicked off the St. Paul Window fundraising when, during a celebration to mark the completion of the restoration of The Peace Window, he publicly announced his intention to fund a major portion of the project. s. The project was further assisted when a second large gift was received in memory of Mae B. and James D. Hinchliff. Additional donations totaling $142,000 completed the fundraising. In all, generous gifts from 96 donors helped ensure the full funding of the project within just three years of the completion of The Peace Window restoration.
Of course, a project like this involves more than just the restoration of the window itself, additional work will include removal of the window and transportation to NYC, insurance, the temporary window infill, repair of the exterior masonry and brick arch, restoration of the plaster and repainting, reconstruction of the structural steel support frame and installation of protective Houdini glazing at the exterior of the window, amongst other things.
Jim Murphy removing the bottom of St. Paul Preaching at Athens
During the window removal, Tom and Jim made several interesting observations about the St. Paul window.The support frame installed at Second Presbyterian Church is not original. The team discovered evidence that the window as originally installed at First Presbyterian had individual panels stacked one on top of the other and tied together with tie wires. While horizontal saddle bars spanned from jamb to jamb to provided additional support, the lower panels bore much of the weight of the panels above. When the window was installed at Second Presbyterian in 1927, a T bar frame was added to help hold the weight of each panel. A Tiffany frame responds to the scene depicted; structural members are bent to conform to the glass so as not to interrupt the image. The T bar frame at Second Presbyterian is a gridiron with bars cutting across the window, particularly noticeable where one crosses the neck of St Paul. The new structural frame will use bent bars to no longer disrupt the scene. The placement of bars will attempt to replicate the location of original saddle bars, to the extent possible, by investigating for signs of tie wires on the caming which indicate the locations of the original saddle bars.
Within the St. Paul window itself, there is evidence of some glass replacement. The most surprising replacement may be the face of St Paul itself. Other possible replacement glass occurs by Athena’s shield and in a portion of the sky.
We are excited about new discoveries that will be made during the meticulous analysis and restoration of the St Paul window. During the Peace Window restoration, it was quite a thrill to uncover a long-lost Tiffany signature, buried behind the plaster sill. The salvaged piece of mud wasp nest extracted from that window is still in the Friends’ archive. In addition to Tom and Jim from Venturella Studio, the project benefits from the expertise of staff from Wiss, Janey, Elstner, Inc; Bulley Andrews Masonry Restoration, LLC; Kelly Plastering; and John Clark of Wardell Art Glass.