Church of the Ascension, Troy, now Mt. Ida Preservation Hall: A discussion of the windows

Some comparisons of the Ascension windows with other sites, such as the Lamb windows at First Presbyterian Church in Albany, and

Maitland Armstrong Windows in the Gould Chapel, Roxbury

Notes and photos by Ned Pratt

• I’ve not yet reached any final conclusions on the Ascension Windows. The Day Brant and I got in, back in 2008, the realtor, Gary, was late, not getting there until after 5 PM, and it was getting dark and raining, so many of the pictures aren’t as good as I had hoped; most came out fairly well, however, as you can see. Just as we were leaving the sun came out, and I got a few more, but some, such as the Christ being baptised, with his feet in the water, are just OK.

• The thoughts on the designer of the opalescent windows might include Tiffany, Lamb, or Maitland Armstrong; at the monment, I am leaning fairly strongly toward the Lamb Studios of New York [then] and New Jersey [today.]

• Here, then, are some of my notes and comments, plus quite a few examples for you, especially of Maitland Armstrong Windows.

• -Ned

Ascension has two basic window types-First there are some early windows, probably contemporary with the building of the church. [ca. 1856?] These include the window over the altar, the quatrefoil windows up high in the transepts, which have a circular painting in the middle, and the Rose window in the west end.Second , a set of windows in the nave and the lower windows in the transepts. These were done around the 1900-1910 period, and are of the Tiffany style, that is using many of the techniques Tiffany used, such as plating- multiple layers of glass; many different types of glass; using lead lines as a part of the composition, using glass for most of the composition, only painting the hands, feet, and faces, etc.

Below are two examples of the older glass; in both, the figures are completely painted onto the glass..

Here are some of the early 20th century windows at Ascension, Troy.

Note the drapery and the halo’s. There is no use of drapery glass, which I would expect to see if they were by the Tiffany Company. The draperies are plated, and often you can see lead lines in the second layer, placed so as to suggest draperies. This is a technique used by the Lamb in windows at First Presbyterian church in Albany and at St. John’s in Troy.

Maitland Armstrong also has a distinctive way of doing draperies, one which uses lead lines in a pattern I think of as very linear or graphic.

Here’s an angel from a Lamb window at First Pres. I think I see some similarities in the draperies, but the

angel’s wings, while similar, are a bit different.

Ascension-here’s one of the angels; again, note the halo and the drapery.

Drapery and Halo’s, at St. John’s, Troy, and at Ascension.

Here, on the left, is a Lamb Angel at St. John’s, Troy- perhaps my favorite Lamb window- when he is good, he can be excellent; next, an angel at Ascension; next Jesus from Ascension, and then a detail of Jesus’ Drapery. To me, these examples suggest that the Ascension windows were done by the Lamb company.

Lamb windows?

The Gould Chapel in Roxbury, NY; windows by Tiffany and Armstrong. Those shown here are all by Armstrong, and Helen Armstrong is the designer and painter of the faces. Note the Halo’s [space helmets?] and the drapery.

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There are two large Armstrong windows in the transepts; above, an angel choir above the Choir seating. Below a Christ with little Children, above the Sunday School area, and two details of the Christ figure.

More Halo’s- Ascension on top left; Maitland Armstrong on rightBoth are of Jesus; Left is Ascension, right is the Gould Chapel in Roxbury, NY. Below left is St. Paul preaching at Athens, an Armstrong at Oakwood.

Tiffany doesn’t use Halo’s all that much. Below at left is a Halo on a Christ with little children at St. John’s, Troy. Next, a halo on St. Paul in St. Paul’s, Troy, East Window. And, at right, a halo in St. Paul’s Pilgrim window.

Here’s a window at Ascension, on the left, of John the Baptist and Christ; next to it is the same scene, which I find quite similar , a Lamb window formerly at St. Paul’s in Albany; I photographed some of these Lamb windows in 2002, but didn’t do a close up of this window. Those windows were sold to a church in Texas. These pictures are from a CD the purchaser gave to the church. [In the original, St. John is on the left- I reversed it here.]

Here’s another Baptism, this one from St. Peter’s Catholic Church on 5th Street in Troy; I don’t know who made them; in the actual window, St. John is again on the left, but I flipped them for this comparison. There are a couple more versions, at least, around town- Holzer painted a mural of this scene at both St. Paul’s and St. John’s.

So here, from the left, Ascension, Troy; St. Paul’s Albany; and St. Peter’s, Troy.

Plating, front and backTiffany almost always puts a translucent white circle behind the head/halo of figures; Lamb does not. I had remembered Armstrong doing this like Tiffany, but in the only examples I can find in my slides, he does not; On the left below is an example from Ascension, and on the right is an example from Oakwood Cemetery.

Here’s an angel in the south transept at Ascension, inside and out –I flipped the outside view

In this example fro Oakwood, of St. Paul preaching at Athens, there doesn’t seem to be any plating behind the head, though there is a clear piece of plexiglass on the outside, which causes the poor detail in the photo.