SPLENDOR IN THE GLASS CEMETERY IS TROVE OF ART TREASURES.Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer I shall try to build at Forest Lawn Forest Lawn is the name of a number of different places:
n. pl. stat·u·ar·ies 1. Statues considered as a group. 2. The art of making statues. 3. A sculptor. adj. Of, relating to, or suitable for a statue. , cheerful flowers, noble memorial architecture with interiors full of light and color, and redolent red·o·lent adj. 1. Having or emitting fragrance; aromatic. 2. Suggestive; reminiscent: a campaign redolent of machine politics. of the world's best history and romances. - Forest Lawn founder Hubert Eaton GLENDALE - More than a million people a year stroll past the picturesque fountains, statues, murals and buildings at Forest Lawn-Glendale, easily forgetting that they're visiting a cemetery. But the aspect that gets the most response - and respect in art circles - is the Glendale cemetery's vast collection of stained-glass windows that spans eight centuries, from the Middle Ages to present day. ``There is no collection comparable at all in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, ,'' and few in the nation, said Madeline Caviness, professor of art history at Tufts University Tufts University, main campus at Medford, Mass.; coeducational; chartered 1852 by Universalists as a college for men. It became a university in 1955. Jackson College, formerly a coordinate undergraduate college for women, merged with the College of Liberal Arts in , who cataloged a portion of Forest Lawn's collection in the 1980s. Comprising about 500 pieces, Forest Lawn's Glendale collection includes work by such notable artists as Albrecht Durer, a German Renaissance The German Renaissance, which originated with the Italian Renaissance in Italy, started spreading among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries. This was a result of German artists who had traveled to Italy to learn more and become inspired by the Renaissance movement. painter and engraver, and Charles Connick and Nicolai D'Ascenzo, America's 20th-century stained-glass masters. The windows feature intricate floral patterns, biblical moments, scenes from well-loved poems and historical figures, among other subjects - all rendered in breathtaking, vivid colors "Vivid Colors" is the second single of Japanese band L'Arc-en-Ciel. Track listing
Chart (1995) Peak position Time in chart . ``These were like picture books before people could read,'' said Margaret Burton, Forest Lawn's museum director, who is in the process of creating a complete catalog of stained glass windows Stained Glass Windows was an early broadcast television program, broadcast on early Sunday evenings on the ABC network. The program was a religious broadcast, hosted by the Reverend Everett Parker. The program ran from September 26, 1948 until October 16, 1949. at all five Forest Lawn locations. The combined tally, she estimates, stands at about 1,000. ``Each one is photographed, researched and authenticated,'' said Burton, who plans to computerize com·put·er·ize tr.v. com·put·er·ized, com·put·er·iz·ing, com·put·er·iz·es 1. To furnish with a computer or computer system. 2. To enter, process, or store (information) in a computer or system of computers. the catalog and make it more accessible to the general public in the future. The windows in Glendale are on display at the cemetery's hilltop museum, and they are installed in the churches, mausoleums and other buildings throughout the sprawling grounds of the oldest of Forest Lawn's five cemeteries. Much of the collection is open to the public to see for free year-round. ``Dr. Eaton (the founder of Forest Lawn) had a vision in mind of Forest Lawn being a place of beauty - a place where people can reflect and mellow out,'' said Fergus Foley, who works full time maintaining Forest Lawn's windows. ``Looking at stained-glass windows can do that. It can calm you or excite you.'' The Last Supper Last Supper, in the New Testament, meal taken by Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the passion. Jesus broke bread and passed a cup of wine among the disciples, identifying himself with the bread and the wine and linking the meal to his impending death on the window, a re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, is one that often inspires much excitement from visitors. The size of a movie screen, it spans 30 feet across a wall inside the Great Mausoleum mausoleum (môsəlē`əm), a sepulchral structure or tomb, especially one of some size and architectural pretension, so called from the sepulcher of that name at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, erected (c.352 B.C. - an awe-inspiring edifice of marble floors and lofty Gothic arches dubbed once by Time magazine as ``the New World Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, originally the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery (closed in 1539) in London. One of England's most important Gothic structures, it is also a national shrine. The first church on the site is believed to date from early in the 7th cent. .'' The immense work - in brilliant blue, gold and red - is magnificently presented alongside replicas of some of Michelangelo's greatest statues, such as ``La Pieta'' and ``Day and Night.'' Commissioned by the cemetery in the 1920s, the piece was the result of six years of work by Rosa Caselli Moretti of Italy, whose family created many of the stained-glass windows that grace Europe's cathedrals. The creation of the window is accompanied by a story of mythical proportions. Moretti reportedly nearly gave up on the work after the part of the window featuring Judas, who betrayed Jesus, broke five times while it was being crafted. Also displayed inside the mausoleum is Connick's ``Memory Window,'' considered by the artist himself to be his crowning achievement. At the center of the ornate window is a family portrait featuring a mother with a baby on her lap and two children at her side. Swirling around the portrait are flowers, bluebirds and flowing water, butterflies and other images that symbolize the joys of childhood. Each floor of the mausoleum, called a terrace, is illuminated by stained- glass windows, with a rainbow of colors reflecting through corridors and ceilings. Lovely light cascading through the windows easily makes visitors oblivious to the fact that they are being surrounded by niches and crypts. The star of Forest Lawn's collection - the Durer windows, which feature in part the martyrdom of St. Lawrence - can be found in the hilltop cemetery museum. ``This piece at Forest Lawn is one of the greater Durer works and one of the greatest German Renaissance stained-glass windows in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. ,'' said art scholar Barbara Butts. Forest Lawn acquired the Durer windows, as well as many other medieval and Renaissance pieces, from the estate of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. The bulk of its collection, however, came about because it steadily commissioned works over the years as new buildings were erected. Burton, who has developed a treasure trove TREASURE TROVE. Found treasure. 2. This name is given to such money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion, which having been hidden or concealed in the earth or other private place, so long that its owner is unknown, has been discovered by accident. of information about Forest Lawn's collection over the past two decades, hopes soon to offer tours of the windows in the mausoleum. ``It's not just for the deceased,'' she said. ``It's also a place for the living.'' HOW TO VISIT Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, 1712 S. Glendale Ave., is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) Stained-glass artist Fergus Foley, above, examines a stained-glass window that he restored at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale. At right, visitors are silhouetted against another masterpiece made of colored glass. John McCoy/Staff Photographer Box: HOW TO VISIT (see text) |
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