Dublin travel stained glass can be credited with reviving a medium

Harry Clarke, son of an English ecclesiastical supplier, was born in Dublin in 1889. He was educated at Belvedere College and worked in his fathers studio before attending evening classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where he was taught by A.E. Child manager of An Tr Gloine and by William Orpen. His contemporaries at the school included Sen Keating, Albert Power and Margaret Crilly whom he later married. His time at the Metropolitan School was fruitful. Scholarships enabled him to become a full time student of stained glass and to travel in 1914 to France to see the windows in the great medieval churches there.Clarke achievements in stained glass can be credited with reviving a medium which had suffered serious decline in Ireland. In 1923, Harold Jacob ordered a window, out of the usual run of domestic stained glass, depicting Keats poem The Eve of St Agnes. Clarke responded with a work of consummate skill, encompassing every technique known to the stained glass artist. Fourteen key scenes conveying the drama and magic of the story are illustrated, topped by two decorative lunettes, with a unifying frieze below showing the dramatis personae.Porphyro, forbidden to pursue the hand of Madeline by her father, creeps into the castle during the St Agnes Eve carousing and is led by Old Angela to Madelines bedchamber. Madeline, following ancient custom, has retired there fasting to dream of her future lord. Her dreams are fulfilled when Porphyro wakes her, and the two steal away into the gathering storm past fluttering tapestry and the drunken porter.Clarke cleverly disguises the leading in the architectural and decorative features around the scenes. The dazzling colour is achieved using double-layered glass, repeatedly acid-etched to produce diverse tones, with minute detail scratched into the paint layers using a needle. Thus, the window is the result of painstaking work of the utmost complexity, and an extraordinary achievement.

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