Fragments of Light

Monthly Archives: January 2016

The Soul of Things, Part 3

Peace, Marc Chagall, stained glass,1964.
Peace, Marc Chagall, stained glass, 1964.

Stained glass has to be serious and passionate. It has to live through the perception of light … For me a stained-glass window is a transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world.
― Marc Chagall


Chagall’s free standing stained glass window, Peace, was produced as a memorial to the United Nations secretary general, Dag Hammarskjold, (1905–61), and stands in the lobby of the United Nations headquarters in New York.The memorial, which is 15 feet wide and 12 feet high, features angels in flight, a mother and child, a central tree of paradise, imagery from Isaiah 9:1-7, as well as imagery evoking Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which was a favorite of Mr. Hammarskjold’s.

 

 

This large free-standing composition in stained glass is a memorial to Dag Hammarskjˆld, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the fifteen others who lost their lives in a plane crash in Ndola, Africa while on a peace mission. It is a gift from United Nations staff members and Marc Chagall, the French artist who executed the work. A detail of the stained glass composition. 1/Aug/1985. UN Photo/Lois Conner. www.unmultimedia.org/photo/

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