The brief was to design a traditional set of windows on the theme “The life of Christ through the eyes of His Mother”
A main focus should also be on the two portraits of Mary where a mother embraces her son at the begnning and the end of his life, the ‘Madonna and Child’ in the first lancet and the ‘Pieta’ in the last lancet, revealing the facial expressions of motherly love in both, from joy to sadness. Love, happiness and sorrow are closely linked.
Drawing ideas from the ‘Seven Sorrows of Mary’, I wanted to balance this with something of a mother and the family’s normal life, which we can all relate to. The family must have had some years of comparatively normal life, the ‘unseen years’. So I’ve tried to portray a show a broad spectrum of family life, the Joy of having a new child, hardship and dangers, some happy intimate family times and then the fateful destiny of her Son as Mary must have witnessed.
