The Tiffany Chapel is a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

interior designed by

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

and created by the

Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

. First installed for the

1893 World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the chapel was later moved to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, then re-acquired by Tiffany in 1916 and displayed in his own home. After the chapel was dismantled in 1949, parts were sold and the remaining portions were put on display at the

Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, a museum noted for its '' art nouveau'' collection, houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fi ...

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was f ...

in April 1999.

Description

Created in a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

- Romanesque style, the Tiffany chapel consists of complementing interior elements that include a marble and white glass

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

in front of six carved arches each supported by two double columns all on an elevated mosaic platform. A cross stands on the altar between two pairs of candles. The reredos displays a pair of peacocks - symbols of eternal life - under a crown in a Favrile glass

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

. On the left front is the ambo flanked by two candlesticks. Off to the right is the baptistry its front bordered by four columns and its back showing the large colored glass "Field of Lilies" window repeating the columnar pattern. The globe-shaped baptismal font is sitting on a hexagonal columned base in the center of the baptistry. From the ceiling of the chapel hangs an electrified ten by eight foot emerald glass chandelier in the shape of a cross. Windows in the chapel show Tiffany glasswork built on the mosaic system displaying Christian themes including ''Christ Blessing the Evangelists'' and ''The Story of the Cross''. Furnishings include wooden benches. In the museum, the chapel occupies an area.

History

In 1893 the then- chapel was installed as a

showpiece A showpiece is: * An accomplishment which is worthy of display and admiration: :* English Wikipedia's 1,000,000th qualified article, Jordanhill railway station, was called a "''showpiece'' of parallel collaboration." * An outstanding example of ...

in the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building at the 1893 Exposition. Tiffany reportedly said that "his was a chapel in which to worship art." Visited by 1.4 million people it was greatly admired, brought international attention to Tiffany, and won 54 awards. After the fair, it was disassembled and placed in storage. In 1898, Celia Whipple Wallace (1833-1916) purchased the chapel for $50,000 for it to be installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, then under construction in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. It was installed in the basement crypt with the intent to be placed in the main church. However, when Ralph Adams Cram took over as architect, the style of the cathedral was changed to "

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

" and the Tiffany chapel stayed in the basement. It was in ecclesiastical use for about twelve years (1899–1911)—the only time it served as a chapel—then abandoned when the choir above was completed, and fell into disrepair. After 1916, Tiffany reacquired it, made repairs and replacements where necessary, and installed the work in its own building on his Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall. After his death in 1933, the estate changed. The Tiffany Foundation dismantled the chapel in 1949 and sold some pieces. After a fire in 1957 that had destroyed the main building, the remnants of the chapel were in disrepair. They were headed for destruction when Jeannette G. and Hugh F. McKean came to Laurelton Hall to recover its windows and architectural elements for the Morse Museum in Winter Park. They tracked other parts of the chapel that had been sold and repurchased them, so that the elements of the chapel could be reunited. After an extensive renovation the restored Tiffany Chapel became accessible to the public in 1999. Most of the items are original including the windows, columns, arches, decorative moldings, the altar floor, as well as most furnishings. Non-original parts such as the walls, ceilings, and the floor of the nave are redesigned following descriptions of the installation at Laurelton Hall.

References

Notes

External links

Tiffany Chapel at Morse Museum
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Florida Museums in Orange County, Florida Buildings and structures in Winter Park, Florida Art Nouveau architecture in Chicago Glass works of art World's Columbian Exposition Art Nouveau church buildings in the United States World's fair architecture in Chicago World's fair architecture in the United States Tiffany Studios

Description

History

See also

References

External links