November 5, 2011 – January 15, 2012
This exhibition featured seven iridescent stained glass windows, each representing a spectacular and unique angel. The windows, created by Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1902 for a Swedenborgian church in Cincinnati, Ohio, were displaced when the church was torn down in 1964 for highway construction. The rare windows were rediscovered almost 40 years later. The windows portray the angels of the early Christian churches of Asia Minor (in present-day Turkey) to whom letters are addressed in the Book of Revelation. Each full-length angel holds the gift that God promises if the churches reform their ways. The Swedenborgian faith is a Christian tradition, based on the writings of 18th century scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. A central theme of the denomination teaches that the purpose of human life is to prepare to live as angels in heaven. It also holds that angels are present and contribute to daily life on Earth, and “inwardly, a person is in company with angels, though unaware.”