stained glass projects

While the earliest examples of working with coloured glass date to the ancient Egyptian and Roman eras, early Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries began to incorporate thinly-sliced alabaster sheets set into wooden frames, giving a stained-glass like effect. The earliest citations of the use of stained glass appear in 7th-century Britian, while in the Coptic repertoire many monastic spaces in Wadi el Natrun and the Red sea contain implementations of coloured glass and gypsum window grilles dating as early as the 8th century. Coloured glass windows are unique in that they are activated by light, and respond directly to sunrise, sunset, etc. The windows can function as an additional layer of iconographic programing within an ecclesiastical space, and can work to produce a quiet, prayerful atmosphere.

The incorporation of stained glass windows into Coptic spaces of worship was reintroduced during the 1960’s, with artists like Ramses Wissa Wassef and Isaac Fanous introducing them to churches in Cairo, Alexandria, Los Angeles, London, and Montreal.

The designs are first drawn and painted in watercolours. The artist works in stained glass design (below) to be scaled and executed by stained glass artists. The cubist, geometric, and aspective qualities of Contemporary Coptic art integrate it organically into the medium of stained glass. The designs below were made for St John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church in Miami, FL.