STAINED GLASS PAINTINGS IN CHURCH ARCHITECTURE IN SELECTED CHURCHES IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Stained  glass  painting,  the  most  distinctive  accessory  in  the  interior  repertoire  of Christian ecclesiastic spaces, is the subject matter of this research in selected churches in southern Nigeria. This study attempts a recast of a continuous history of the art form. It, therefore, draws attention to the delimitation of time frames in the history of the art. Using the Nigerian genre as the cipher that undergirds the new evangelisation, the study narrates the evolution of a new sense of time in the story of the development and growth of stained glass in the constellation of Church art. The Nigerian image of the post Vatican II Church, albeit Nigerian independence era, with its peculiar Nigerian modern representation  imageries  is  the  kernel  of  this  study.  For  in  spite  of  their  peculiar imageries, they recite the same Bible and Christos story that the earlier European ones served. Utilising the adage “God lies in the Details”, the iconographical details in the new evangelisation images are employed as a distinctive typology that define their style. That exploration established the place of the visual elements in the Nigerian images, as a generator  of  data  for  art  historical  research.  The  study  presents  a  story  of  the implantation, growth and development of the art form. It, however, points to a story line using Christ as the central magnet that holds the entire Bible and Christos story together. That story-line emphasises the liturgical transmission of a new experience of time. It is a theological history in which the past, present and future make contact in the presence of the living Christ.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND ACCOUNT

Stained glass paintings, the foremost attribute of the distinctive interiors in orthodox Christian liturgical and ecclesiastical spaces, symbolize the most interpretative aspirations of the pretensions of Christian truths. This architectural accessory visualises both the historic narratives of the Faith: the life of Jesus of Nazareth and those who have sought to follow his life style. It also shows the theological truths that have been drawn from the narratives. Some of the World’s finest artists have contributed to creating this tradition in a regular glitter of painted glass. Its core images; a mother embracing a child, a man dying in agony, touch on our deepest hopes and emotional fears. The stained glass paintings and vaults with buttressed structural accompaniments are the most distinctive features of Gothic Cathedral architecture in Europe 1 (Figs. 1&2).

Colonisation by the British, subsequent incorporation of Nigeria into the British Empire and the Christian missionary adventure, opened the Nigerian environment to the appropriation of both Gothic Cathedral architecture and the stained glass painting art. The first generation church architectural design in Nigeria is patterned to a near faithful replications  of  the  great  European  Church  architecture  of  metropolitan  European orthodox faiths: the Holy Cross Cathedral, and the Christ Church Cathedral, Marina, Lagos; the St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Bonny Island, the Catholic Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha and the old St. Peter’s Church, Ake, Abeokuta, are examples.

The first series in the stained glass window picture deployed in their interior spaces of worship were faithful replications, imported from Europe. These were extensions of the series of existing prime objects. Stained glass is now an important architectural feature in modern Nigerian church interiors (Figs. 7-12). In spite of this antecedence, there is a distinct Nigerian input. The Nigerian windows recite, in spite of their peculiar imageries, the same biblical and Christos stories as the European ones. Nigerian glass of the post Vatican II Church, therefore, snuggly fits as an elongation of the earlier European series of glass in Church art. The Nigerian vignettes were coincidentally created in the years of post Vatican II to meet the liberalisms of the new evangelism. That coincided with the apogee of African independence celebrations from Imperial rule; and precisely Nigerian Independence, 1960.

This is a distinctive contribution to the development and growth of the, otherwise, European inspired art form. These inputs feature mainly in textural content in their utility of vernacular forms. Nigerian glass is distinctive in its display of locale visual metaphors, decorations and ornamentations. In spite of new technology and materials available to the artist, Nigeria style glass has been christened in this essay as the Nigerian style entrant onto the corpus of the, otherwise, European art form. For the images created by the Nigerian artists in response to the liberalisms of the new evangelisation and liturgy were a surprise that upset the entire constellation in church art.

This study, therefore, attempts a location of the stained glass painting as gadgetry in the repertoire of worship (and liturgy) of Christendom. The discourse locates the art form in the purview of liturgy. It is also a vehicle for the evangelisations of the Christian

faith.  The study looks at  benchmarks that  are important to  an understanding of the visuality of the stained glass painting phenomena, its antecedence, growth and development.  The  art   form  is  now  indispensible  in  the   liturgical  repertoire  of Christendom, both in worship and in its evangelistic engagements. The analysis of the evolution of the Christian faith and its evangelisation that co-opted the visual images is addressed via a historical discourse, but on the question of an architectural detailing the analysis  is  sketchy.  Such  a  detailing  has  already  been  achieved  by  Spiro  Kostof’simpressive  study.2   That  study  aggregates  available  information  on  the  architectural movements.

In spite of the social turmoil in Europe in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, these were remarkable times of advancement for the humanities and humanistic studies. Fundamental dominance of religion, theology and overt monasticism were the turf of social engagements. The philosophy of the leading Catholic Church cleric and dignitary, Thomas Aquinas (b. 1225), with its distinctive attempts at a synthesis of the orthodox principles  of  faith  and  popular  knowledge  was  the  overriding  wave  in  intellectual thought. Aquinas claimed that in the state of man’s earthly consciousness, it was not possible for man to intuit divine truth, and that it was necessary for ritual to be accommodated to man’s way of knowing, which is through the senses. Aquinas asserted:

It is clearly more useful that the divine mysteries be conveyed to the unlettered under the cover of certain figures: and the mysteries of faith cannot be grasped because they surpass the power of reason …. Both, therefore appropriately make use of figures: that is they represent. They are the means by which we may at least “implicitly grasp the truths of the faith.3

Medieval conceptions of a transcendental God persisted. Academia prospered: Padua, Paris, and Oxford were leading lights in the quest for knowledge and learning. Town planning, the development of urban housing and the church together adopted Gothic architecture. Modernity in Europe encrypted its cultural coherence in the icons and symbolisms of the Gothic architectural style. The stained glass painting in lancets fused in stone wall apertures should be regarded as architectural accessories, as “walls of glass”. They were adopted as breaks, in the, otherwise, cumbersome relay of blank dark walls. Dark walls were a characteristic of Gothic architectural interiors until the inclusion of apertures to carry giant “walls of glass”. They were purposely designed to usher in the flow of heavenly light.

In the same vein, Gothic church architecture implanted in Nigeria deployed the stained glass art works in the Tabernacle spaces.  Other secondary glass was prominently fitted to  interior walls. However, at the  instance of the post  Vatican II  and the re- strategisation for the new evangelisation and modernism in the universal church, the Church adopted the Nigerian style stained glass. Nigerian glass, products of indigenous workshops,  in  sync  with  the  dicta  of  the  new  evangelisation  implanted  peculiarly Nigerian imageries. These imageries were adaptations of popular motifs drawn from the cultural environment of the local Churches. The new Nigerian styles were art products of specific Nigerian workshops. These vignettes, in spite of their peculiar imageries, unique colours and  pictorial  metaphors, relayed  the  same  Bible  messages. They,  therefore, reflected the playing out of the truths of the universality of the Christian message.

This distinguished the ground breaking art works for the new evangelisation The Grillo workshop spear headed that production. It is fascinating to note the ingenuous creativity of this workshop as a relay. That was a departure point for the invigoration of the “new thinking” Vatican II Church. These creatively radical departures from   the orthodoxy of the European art form are reflected in the themes and varied imageries prominent in the distinctive glass of the newer churches. The stained glass paintings created by a consort of Omnibus Group of Artists in faraway Port Harcourt for the St. Jude’s Catholic Church, Rumuokoro (Fig. 13), leaves a wonder and a fascination never before imagined.

This study is focused on the typology and style of the painting genre deployed in the new evangelisation. The greatest influence on the formation of the images the church deployed  for  the  evangelisation mission certainly can  be  traced to  the  traditions of illustrations and paintings drawn from the earlier visuals of the catacombs. However, the Christian church stained glass paintings of the new evangelisation of the 1960s sourced her imagery from the cultural environments of the places of evangelisation in Nigeria. The new art forms were a significant break from the earlier European ones implanted in the years of the missionaries, in the 1800s. Stained glass painting in church architecture in the years after independence found immediate, invigoration and growth from Christian church patronage.

Nigerian church architectural design is patterned to a near faithful replication of the  great  church  architecture  of  metropolitan  European  orthodox  faiths.  However, specific theological propositions guide church architecture in the mother country of the Faiths in Europe. These theological propositions are also incorporated in the designs of churches in the nations of the new evangelisation. They are, however, adapted to suit the

peculiarities of each Church.  The design of Christian church’s’ give the interiors special attention. For it is in the interiors that the munificence of its architecture celebrates the essences of the Faith. Hence, the sanctified church hall with its distinctive Tabernacle space and ambulatory glass meet the specifications for the activities that celebrate the Christos story of Redemption (Figs. 1, 4, 7, 10, 46, 64, 70, 71&76).  Christians believe that the Liturgy deemed sacred and heavenly, is a recasting of   the Paschal mysteries and the sacrifice of Christ in Calvary. That event is recast every time Mass and Sunday Services are conducted.  The church building is a symbol of the ecclesia that literally means a people called out. A church assembly is thus a mystical Body with the same sacrifice offered at all altars reflecting same purpose. The church building visualises the heavenly liturgy. Hence this very assembly building must reflect the peculiarities of the Christian ethos.

Owing to the lively nature of the subject of church art and its Architecture the recent book by David W. Fagerberg, The Spiritual Animal dealing with the Sacramental Nature of Art and Architecture, is invaluable reading   for the purposes of this study.4 The great  Orthodox Churches have always sought the design world. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has always sought the hand of the fine artist. In a papal encyclical Sacrosanctum Concilium church teaching in the foregoing respect was aptly corroborated in the following words:

…. Holy Mother Church has, therefore, always been the friend of fine art … and has ever sought their noble help, with the special aim that all things set apart for use in divine worship should be truly worthy, becoming and

beautiful, signs and symbols of the supernatural world.5

Church architecture, therefore, symbolises what the liturgy reflects. Architecture works in sync with the liturgy in making the rituals of the liturgy of the Eucharistic sacrifice at Church a totality. The church building remains the theatre for the rooting of the celebration of the paschal mysteries in the Christian Eucharist in the fascinating presence of the transcendental. The church celebrations bring together the intuitions of faith and the mystical redemptive power of the awesome presence. Church architecture, in the light of theology, makes visible the transcendent reality of the mystery of the reality of the divine here on earth.

Theology is further grounded in the assumptions that all creatures of God are good, a fundamental belief in the eternity bound fate of all mankind and a doctrine that emphasises that man is the incarnation of the divine. Furthermore, theology attempts to express Christian Church dogma and the centrality of Christ  in the entire Christian message. This is expressed in imageries drawn from familiar subject matter. For in every ecclesiology themes and subject matter are visualized using familiar motifs and imageries that are commonplace in every one culture. For the Divine Liturgy is a ritual that replays, on a continuous basis, the Paschal mysteries and the redemption of Calvary. Art and architecture are, therefore, perceived as aides in the perpetual renewal of the creation story and the event of Calvary. The Fathers of the Christian churches, in their search for the culturalisation of the Biblical messages, liturgy and teachings; and the celebration of the Paschal mysteries, engage the services of artists and architects.

Church commissioned stained window art is a distinct architectural input in the churches of the post Nigerian independence era. The evangelisation of the principal

orthodox Christian churches distinctively affected that modernisation in Christian art. This is  the  most  distinctive feature of the  new  evangelisation paradigm; it  asserted liberalism  even  in  the  use  of  images.  That  doctrine  permitted  the  inclusion of the indigenous iconographical imageries drawn directly from the places of the new evangelisation. The post synod document Ecclesia In Afrrica6  encrypts that dogma in detail.

In this regard, therefore, the new evangelisation paradigm of “openness” and the acceptance of the indigenous imageries drawn from the places of evangelisation reflected the following: (i) the new evangelisation affected a cultural policy that reflected acculturation, hence the Bible and the Paschal mysteries are destined to be in the litany and promotional rhetoric’s that reflect a non-western hierarchy of values. This would be experienced in deft politicisation mechanisms such as the stained glass art as its most public symbol; (ii) the icongraphical imageries were drawn from the folklore and storytelling traditions, the visual lexicon of the of the people and their art traditions. These were, thus, accepted as sources of inspiration for picture making. Nigerian glass, therefore, effected a transfiguration of commonplace imageries for the narratives of the Good News messages.

The context of the Gospel story remained the same as those of the first generation church images but the illustrative elements in their visual lexicology reflected a texturalisation of imageries drawn from cultures of the Nigerian people of each particular place of evangelisation. For example, decorations and decorative patterning elements; ornamentation distinct in their unique palette colours were adopted from the immediate

cultural environment. Colour schemes derived directly from fabric Adire eleko and other textile fabric dye colours, and textural schemes culled from the rich traditions of extant Nigerian art were also adopted. The giant lancet windows in the All Saints Anglican Church, Yaba, Lagos (Fig. 7) and the Altar lancet windows of the Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church, Lagos (Fig. 11), readily come to mind.

In fact, these Nigerian windows constitute an elongation of the extended series in the  further development and growth of the,  otherwise, European series. These were imported to Nigerian shores at the behest of the European Christian interventions in colonial Nigeria. The Nigerian ‘new’ stained window church architectural gadgetry was local  workshop  produced  by  college  educated  master  artists  like  Yusuf  Cameron Adebayo Grillo. The engagements of Grillo and other stained glass makers were further boosted by the availability and ready deployment of new materials such as Plexiglas. Private patronage from clerics and even private business men also added a boost to the trade. These new technological materials have fused variety and uniqueness of effects, distinctive from the traditional stained glass substrate glass, in the interior of newer churches that have deployed stained windows crafted in them.

In southern Nigeria, the stained glass theme in the Christian church presents to the keen observer a visual history of the Bible and the doctrines of the faith. That also presents a history of the growth and development of the extended series of this European art form. It also proclaims the progressive acceptance of a uniquely Nigerian typology in the styles of the art form itself. For the purposes of the ongoing discourse, it is exquisite to draw examples from the churches of Nigeria’s erstwhile capital Lagos Island and Mainland extensions. From here the lineal story of the spread of the stained glass window

accessory can conveniently  spread across the rest of the southern dioceses, and beyond to the rest of the ecclesiastical provinces of the churches in Nigeria.

The survey further moves onto the mainland with a look at the ‘new’ churches of the orthodox faiths built post Nigeria’s independence 1960 and post Vatican II 1962: Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church and the Anglican All Saints Church, both churches are in Yaba. One other Church, further away in crowded Craig Street, the Ss Peter & Paul Catholic Church, Shomolu, was also included. Beyond Lagos Island and the Mainland, the tradition and practice of stained glass art continues with much vigor in the churches of the provincial dioceses of the orthodox faiths. The Saint Jude’s Church and the Church of the Nativity, both in Ijebu-Ode, in the Ijebu diocese, are examples. The same traditions and practices have been spread to the other dioceses of the Christian evangelisation missions.  The tradition has also spread to the south-east provinces of the predominantly Roman Catholic Onitsha and Warri arch-dioceses of the Niger Delta. From the principal Christian missionary entre-ports, Abeokuta and Warri, the tradition and practice of the deployment of the stained glass window did spread across the rest of southern Nigeria.

Many recent Nigerian church designs have departed from the predominant European Basilica prototype. A variation of the circular and longitudinal church hall multipurpose prototype is now becoming increasingly fashionable. The Catholic African Synod 1994 has added another to the typology. This new architectural idiom incorporates the concept of the church as a family with the emphasis on the conceptual living space. That  emphasis  literally draws attention to  the centre. The Nigerian Catholic church theologian, Patrick C. Chibuko, described the new expressive architectural dynamic (Fig.

4) as “each member sees every other person as close as possible, almost eye-ball to eye- ball”.7

Church architectural styles, therefore, are not mere building types in the scientific sense  of architecture as  both  living  space  and  shelter.  Church architecture,  instead, emphasises the implementation of church design idioms that underpin the typical conceptual African homestead. Such designs also draw attention to the symbolic conceptual centre in African architecture. In all, church architecture in Nigeria, irrespective  of  chosen  design  typology,  puts  emphasis  on  the  church  edifice  as  a facilitator for the active participation of the congregation in worship and the emphasis on private devotion and prayer. These varied architectural styles have also affected the location of the stained glass windows.

The underpinning emphasis of the historical collectivism of the Christos story as the Bible narratives demonstrate was plied through the stained glass art practice. The church thus recognised in all artistic expression a manifestation of transcendental values. The artistic oeuvre, therefore, should be valued in its ability to take on the idea of the all embracing redemptive Christos story and reveal it to others. It is a metaphysical faith in arts’ capacity to make church liturgy, doctrine and practices international and local. The church in the new evangelisation identified the vernacular airs of any one sojourn nation as part of a global historical collective. Hence, she assigned this notion of the nation and its vernacular airs as ready scaffolding upon which to foist its Christos messages for the purpose of the evangelisation of the faith.

The recourse to the vernacular airs of the locales of the nations under evangelisation is evident in the idea that the Nigerian artists who created the Nigerian style stained glass genre emphasised a full resort to their indigenous nationalistic ethos. The new art was directed at the following specific functions: General Religious, Political, Aesthetics, Emotional, and Educational purposes.   Masters of the local workshops, for example, the Lagos Grillo workshop, in their search for significant pliable forms and shapes from indigenous cultures re-contextualised and reconfigured the bulk of their borrowings. They,  in  fact,  faithfully transfigured common place  imageries  like  “the drummer” and even the implantation of Nigerian theatre props in the culturalisation of the Bible messages.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

No serious work has been carried out on the stained glass painting art form in Nigeria. The little work on the subject so far generally concentrate on commentaries, without venting the critical attention it deserves as a feat of artifacts. Without doubt, Nigeria can be considered a rich territory for stained glass culture, but history has been taken for granted and put aside. Consequently, not much attention has been given to this by scholars. It is, therefore, necessary, in this study, to focus on stained glass paintings with specific reference to selected Churches to make people recognise the importance of the Nigerian vernacular forms to the development of modern Nigerian church stained glass art and the contemporary art of modern Nigeria.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study is being carried out to satisfy the following objectives:

To  establish, through a  photographic documentation, the  existing common styles  of stained glass paintings and their typologies in selected Orthodox churches in southern Nigeria.

To categorise the existing styles and their typologies.

To undertake a visual survey of the development and growth of ideas in the practice of stained glass art, so as to aid a study of the development of the contemporary visual representation.

To cite the Nigerian studio’s employment of vernacular forms as “revivalist aesthetics” drawn from Nigerian culture, as a specific regime for the identification and reflection in the production of an intellectual culture in contemporary situations; in fact, art’s place at the articulation of ways of making and engaging subjectivity.

To cite the artistic trappings in the Nigerian elongation of the stained glass art as a leit

motif of the texturisation in the history of the genre itself.

To initiate the groundings for the simulation of discourse of Stained Glass in Church

Architecture as a distinct subject worthy of study.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This work is limited to the stained glass paintings in specific selected churches in southern Nigeria. The  study is divided into  two  segments. These represent the  first

generation Christian churches that were built in Nigeria before independence in 1960 while the second ambient of the survey takes on stained windows in the churches built after independence.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research is important in some ways. For example, it will be  a pointer to the considerable  resources  that  indigenous  architecture  holds.  It  would  constitute  the historical expression upon which to fasten modern architectural programmes and the exegesis of the present. This study will bring attention to the actuality of a progression in the history of the stained glass painting art form. It will also open researchers to further studies on the subject.

PROCEDURE

This research relied on a historical research method. Both primary and secondary sources of data collection have been relied upon. The primary sources include interviews with artists, art historians, art administrators, curators, clerics and university teachers.

To obtain information from primary sources, the use of digital sound recorder, in addition to  pen and  paper were  relied  on  to  record correctly oral discussions with individual interviewees. Also patrons of stained glass artists were interviewed in order to verify information given by artists as correct. High resolution pictures of the artists’ works were taken with the aid of a digital camera. Other primary sources were: drawings, private documents like photographs, diaries and letters. Some archival materials were

also a useful part of primary information. Secondary sources include published materials in exhibition catalogues, journals, unpublished theses and dissertations, magazines and newspaper publications found in libraries and private collections.

LIMITATIONS

Some problems were encountered in the course of the research. For example, some church keepers did not allow some photographs to be taken. In fact, in one church a keeper refused to attend to me until approval was given by his Deacon. The dearth of pertinent literature on Nigerian stained glass window created a problem while many journal websites would not open to non-subscribers. Oral interviews with priests and church wardens of the first generation of missionary sojourn, that would have provided information on the stained glass art genre was impossible. For most of these men were already deceased. However, one retiring priest, the Venerable Hope Allison of the St. Stephens’  Anglican  Church,  Bonny Island,  provided  valuable  information.  Principal artists engaged in the stained glass practice were not available for interview. There was also the problem of funds. Besides, the weather conditions in Lagos and Port Harcourt, during the rainy seasons made movement very difficult. Fixing appointments with the two living stained glass artists, Yusuf Grillo and David H. Dale was also very difficult.

ORGANISATION

This research has been organised into nine chapters. Chapter one contains the background study and research methodology. Chapter two is the Literature Review. The Growth and Development of Stained glass Painting in Nigeria is discussed in Chapter

three  while  chapter  four  focuses  on  a  discussion  of  the  Stained  Glass  Artists’ Biographies. Materials and formalistic characteristics of the stained glass are discussed in Chapter five. Chapter six looked at the Stained glass and Functionalism. Chapter seven looked at Materials and the Formalistic characteristics of the stained glass genre, while Chapter eight explored the Iconographical Elements in Nigerian Stained Glass Paintings and Chapter nine concluded the study.

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