Biblical figures in a three-light window of the north aisle, St John the Baptist, Cardiff. The figures here are (top row, left to right) St Paul with the instrument of his martyrdom, a sword; St James with his pilgrim staff, and St Peter; the Melchizedek, Abraham and Isaac, and Noah below them, with angels in the tracery lights above them.
The window as a whole was from Morris, Marshall Faulkner and Co., but only the top row was designed by Morris himself — perhaps also the angels at the top. In the bottom row, Melchizedek is a familiar and characteristic Burne-Jones figure, while Abraham and Noah were both designed by Ford Madox Brown. The window dates to 1869 (see "Apostles and Characters..."), around the time when the firm was also designing windows for Llandaff Cathedral, just a couple of miles or so away. There again, and indeed for other commissions, the three artists worked collaboratively to provide several figures for a particular window. Like Burne-Jones's Melchizedek, Brown's Abraham and Noah are also found elsewhere, for example at All Saints', Jesus Lane in Cambridge.
Quite different versions of nearly all these figures can be seen in St John the Baptist's reredos, with Melchizedek seated in the centre.
Links to Related Material
Photographs taken and formatted by Colin Price; text by Price and Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the 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 to the Victorian Web in a print document. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
"Apostles and Characters from the Book of Genesis." Gwydr Lliw yng Nghymru (Stained Glass in Wales). Web. 6 January 2023.
Created 2 June 2022