The Angel of Help Window

Helen Angier Ames (1836-1882), the only daughter of Oliver and Sarah Lothrop Ames died suddenly on December 13, 1882. Within a few months, John LaFarge (1835-1910) was commissioned by Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893), the only brother of Helen to design a window in her memory. Earlier that year, La Farge had completed six windows for the Ames townhouse on Commonwealth Avenue at Dartmouth Street in Boston.

The Helen Ames Memorial is an evening window because it faces west and receives its best light near the end of the day. To make room for this window the window originally installed in 1875 had to be removed. This large three lancet composition, evidently designed by the architect John Ames Mitchell, depicted a trumpeting angel flanked by angels holding scrolls. Manufactured by the firm of William McPherson of Boston, it was donated to the church now on Mechanic Street and has since been removed from that location.

La Farge's design eliminated the tripartite stone mullion tracery of the original window and replaced it with a single large opening topped with a Gothic arch. In the peak of the arch, the Greek letters Alpha and Omega representing the Beginning and End of Eternity- surround the Chi-Rho monogram, signifying Christ. Beneath this monogram, adoring angels encircle an elaborately decorated casket that LaFarge copied from the sixteenth century funerary monument of Generosa Orsina in the Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. The angels in the foreground are depicted realistically, their faces based on photographs of studio models who appeared in other works by LaFarge during the 1880's. Their crisp features stand in stark contrast to chimer alike silhouettes of other angels that loom in the distant background.

This supernatural vision of mystical adoration takes place over a somber scene set in the lower half of the window. An angel identified as an allegory of Help holds a ewer as she ministers to two seated figures, allegories of Need and Sorrow. Though the visages of the three figures again are familiar as those of studio models appearing in other decorative works by La Farge, their poses derive from antique Greek funerary reliefs.

The upper and lower registers of the window are unified by a shimmering backdrop composed of a broken jewel work of thousands of carefully leaded nuggets in richly colored glass. The rich effect of this mosaic of glass jewels cost the patron dearly. The reported fee of $10,000 then paid to La Farge translates today into nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

Another description of the window writes, " Irregular nuggets, chipped, fractured, and infinitely varied in hue make up the entire background...they replicate Œsolidified air) and effect an emotional as well as a chromatic transition from the somber pathos of the lower scene to the colorful jubilation above."

A contemporary reporter wrote that the Figure of Need in the lower left of the window is "the most resplendent beggar in the history of art.."

Though La Farge received the commission sometime before the fall of 1883, the design for the window seems to date from early 1884. By March 1885, the window was being put into glass. By this time, the window was already caught up in a legal dispute between La Farge and his partners in the La Farge Decorative Art Company.

La Farge had agreed to have designs completed by a certain date. After repeated delays which angered F. L. Ames, the completion date of the window was postponed. After La Farge sent the designs out, he had them returned to his studio. His partners, lacking the designs and photographs to make the window sought to arrest La Farge for grand larceny for his concealment of the designs. Ames, frustrated threatened to withdraw the commission and have the window built in England if it could not be completed by August, 1885. Just as Ames was running out of patience, La Farge's partners changed heart and decreed that the contested drawings and photographs belonged to La Farge after all and the case was discharged July 31, 1885.

The LaFarge Decorative Art Company was dissolved in October 1885, leaving La Farge an independent agent. He retained the commission and put its manufacture in the hands of Decorative Stained Glass Company, headed by Thomas Wright and John Calvin, his glass workers since 1881.

Shortly after the glass work was begun, La Farge's good friend, Henry Adams suffered the suicide of his wife. La Farge took Adams of a trip to the South Pacific and Japan. There, La Farge completed several watercolors and the two visited with Robert Louis Stevenson. By April 1886, the window was being glazed.

Chaffin wrote that the window was completed and in place before the end of 1886. In a letter to Henry Adams, La Farge wrote:

"I am as I told you extremely fatigued. I have done the Ames window-& have suffered much from it & from all my other work which has been very heavy & I can just feel a relief...which I hope will give me relief in other ways in a short time."

In March, 1887, La Farge removed the window from its opening for "remodeling" and wrote that it would not be put back in until May or June. On August 5, 1887, La Farge reminded Adams that the "tearing down and rebuilding of the window last winter was a dreadful thing apart from the loss of money and time."

As president of the Easton Historical Society in 1981, I was privileged to invite the grandson of John La Farge, the late Henri La Farge, an art historian to come and lecture about his grandfather's windows. He arrived one August afternoon and we immediately went into the church. Henri entered, walked a few steps into the sanctuary and suddenly stopped. We both gazed at the glass in the late afternoon sun. After what seemed a prolonged silence, Henri turned to me and said, "That, Mr. Hill, is my grandfather's masterpiece."

Some of the above is taken from the Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of John LaFarge published in September of 1994 by Jon Yarnell of Newport.

Our Angel of Help is Back

by Richard Hill

There was a five o'clock wedding on the sixth of October. I began the preludes at four thirty and was joined by Reverend Eric Cherry who sat in front of the organ console to my right. We were suddenly struck with explosions of dazzling golden light shooting across the nave from the newly restored Angel of Help Window.
The jeweled sarcophagus at the top was dancing as the swaying trees outside interrupted light patterns entering the transparent exterior cover. The effects were stunning. Beams of light shot at us from random spots on the window as the sun hit them. The entire ball of golden jewels appeared to be dancing. I was thoroughly distracted from my playing and as my finger muscles went on to automatic, I remarked to Eric that we had the best seats in the house.

The restored window is markedly different from before. Not only is it thoroughly clean and completely flat, but the exterior covering of transparent glass replaces the previous rather translucent piece. The earlier cover was dull and actually prohibited admittance of light after the late afternoon and by evening, the late sun illuminated just the top of the window. Even that was quite stunning. But the latest improvements have brought about electrifying results.

Last week as I practiced early one evening, the effect was so thrilling, I stopped playing and went outdoors to see if there was anyone about who I could invite in to share the wealth. No one was around and I quickly returned to my solitary LaFarge show. The window simply has to be seen to be believed and even then, it is quite unbelievable.

Begun about 1884, the stunning Angel of Help was installed in memory of Helen Angier Ames (1836-1882), the only daughter of Oliver Ames II. The commission was from her only sibling, Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893) who earlier that same year had hired LaFarge to do six windows for his townhouse that still stands at Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth Street in Boston. LaFarge completed his design for the window and turned it over to Thomas Wright for construction before leaving for his two year trip to the far east with the disconsolate Henry Adams whose wife had recently committed suicide.

The window was nearly finished when LaFarge returned to New York. An art historian wrote in 1890 "Its size twelve feet wide and seventeen feet highland complexity are almost overwhelming. Irregular nuggets, chipped, fractured and infinitely varied in hue make up the entire background replicating "solidified air" and effecting emotional and chromatic transition from the lower scene to the colorful jubilation above. The rich effect of this mosaic of glass jewels was costly. The reported fee of $10,000 then paid to LaFarge translates today into nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

The deterioration of LaFarge's windows due to their age, weight, and wide temperature changes was discovered by Sean McNally, an architectural historian who shared a twenty page history and condition of the window with the Ames Family Reunion in 1988. In the spring of 1989, the late David Ames convened a meeting of the trustees to address the problem. Charlton Ames volunteered to search out window repair firms and sources of fund raising. And Charlton also donated the initial working capital for the project. Representing the trustees, George Barrows chaired successive meetings in which alternatives were explored. Estimates were obtained from several specialists. Eventually, Robin Neely of Maine was hired as consultant.

Robin, the Maine Catholic Diocese overseer of stained glass windows, also owns and operates a studio in Maine. After exhaustive comparisons of the various proposals, Victor Rothman's company was chosen to complete the work. The Ganteaume and McMullen, Architects and Engineers firm of Boston was consulted regarding the structural strength of the walls, the frames, and the windows.

After the Wisdom window was completed, attention turned to the "Angel of Help," some 16 years older than "Wisdom,"and buckling under its weight with a dangerously undulating surface. Financial aid was sought from the Massachusetts Historical Commission and they awarded a grant which Elizabeth Ames matched in memory of her late husband, David Ames whose individual stewardship has long supported Unity Church.

Victor Rothman was chosen once more to complete the project and the window was removed in the summer of 1999. In its sixteen panels, it was crated and driven to the Rothman workshop in New York City. There, the individual pieces were meticulously cleaned and re-leading was done where needed. The window was replaced in Unity Church during one of the hottest weeks of August. The scaffolding is gone and it can be seen once more in all its splendor.

With the return of Angel of Help, we face new adventures of appreciation as we discover each day, each week, each month, and each season qualities that have been unseen since Reverend William Chaffin ministered here. And it seems quite proper that the new ministry of Eric Cherry unfolds accompanied by these dazzling color episodes that challenge us to equal their beauty with our lives. The Angel of Help reminds us that we all are called upon to be angels of help and that we richly color our lives as we answer those calls.
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Unity Church of North Easton is a member
of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the
Ballou Channing District.

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05/05/2008