"Spring," by Daniel Cottier

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Spring

52 5/8 × 30 in. (133.7 × 76.2 cm)

Daniel Cottier & Company

c.1873-85

Leaded and stained glass

Metropolitan Museum, Accession no. 2007.43

New York

Gift of Estate of Virginia Guard Brooks and the Guard family, 2007

Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which reserves all rights.

Alice Frelinghuysen writes that, like Morris's, Cottier's windows represented a distinct "departure from the domination of the Gothic revival." That is to say, he replaced "rigid figural compositions ... with large, clearly articulated subjects, usually female, wearing loose Hellenistic gowns" (178). [Commentary continues below.]

Text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Frelinghyusen also notes the change in the quarries which provide the background to these figures: "borders of diamond-shaped glass, often filled with stenciled Gothic devices such as quatrefoils, fleurs-de-lis, or ivy leaves, are supplanted by rectangular or square shapes pale yellow in color and patterned in new motifs of delicate, conventionalized leaves and flowers that include the sunflower or the lily" (178).

All this is beautifully illustrated in this representation of the season, showing Spring as a young woman in the very bloom of youth, holding close a lamb which is looking up at her. A broad-brimmed flower-trimmed hat hangs negligently on her arm, with a red ribbon drawing attention to it. Her loose, deep green wrap swirls around her in the breeze, and more flowers bloom on her dress, at her feet, and around her. She is all about the future — all about new life.

Bibliography

Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "A New Renaissance: Stained Glass in the Aesthetic Period." In In Pursuit of Beauty. By Doreen Bolger Burke et al. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. Internet Archive, from the amrricana collection. 177-97. Web. 1 December 2016.

Created 1 December 2016