Left: Whole window, and dedication. Right: Detail of the mother, bier, and onlookers.
The Widow of Nain ("Weep Not"), in Christ Church, Streatham, S. London. Designed by Walter Crane and installed in 1891 as the first window in the north aisle. The church had pioneered the use of polychromy in the early 1840s, and had attracted a good deal of attention for that at the time. This is one of two wonderfully distinctive and expressive windows in the aisle designed by Crane, both in memory of the Reverend Woodstock Raven, the first vicar of the church, from 1841-1887.
Here, Crane depicts the miracle recorded by St Luke. It happens after Jesus has left Capernaum and entered the city of Nain: "Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." After this, Jesus is reported to have gone to the bier and raised the young man (Luke 12-15). Crane brings out the grief of the mother, bent double by grief, and the intense scrutiny of the men on the other side of the bier (perhaps those who had been carrying it). But over all is the solemn, commanding, compassionate figure of Christ.
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Photographs by John Salmon, text and formatting by Landow and Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.
Bibliography
Eberhard, Robert, Stained Glass Windows at Christ Church, Streatham, Inner London. Church Stained Glass Windows. Web. 22 August 2020.
Created 23 August 2020