Windows that shine a light on the soul
This depiction of Jesus Christ likely was made for a church, but its now part of the Vankirk family room.
A hand-carved interpretation of Leonardo DaVinci’s famous mural, “The Last Supper,” was made by Randy Vankirk’s grandfather, the late Vince Majer.
This depiction of Jesus Christ likely was made for a church, but its now part of the Vankirk family room.
Randy Vankirk poses for a picture with his daugther, Savannah, and wife, Julie.
More than likely, a stained-glass window depicting a triumphant Jesus Christ was made for a house of worship that no longer stands.
But the window, which portrays the risen Christ with nail marks on his feet and one hand holding a small cross, has now found a home in a family home as an expression of devotion.
Randy Vankirk searched for more than 10 years for just the right example of Christian stained-glass art that would, with proper illumination, be the focal point of his family room, but it’s not his family’s only piece that reflects a spiritual subject.
A companion in craftsmanship that is also extremely meaningful to him is a wood carving that pays tribute to Leonardo DaVinci’s famous mural in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, painted in the 1490s.
The Last Supper, according to biblical accounts, took place in Jerusalem on Thursday of what is now called Holy Week. The meal that lives on in Christian Holy Communion was a farewell gathering of Jesus and his 12 disciples, including Judas Iscariot, the turncoat who was about to betray him for 30 pieces of silver. This infamous act led to the arrest of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and his crucifixion on Good Friday on Golgotha, the place of the skull.
Vankirk’s late grandfather, Vince Majer, was the man behind the Last Supper plaque, and the grandson has fond memories as a college student working with the wood with him in the 1980s. After several years, appropriately, at Eighty Four Lumber, Vankirk went to work in 2002 for Washington County, becoming director of purchasing in 2010.
“The memories hold a special place in my heart,” Vankirk said. “The mold was made at an older church that my grandfather worked on. He made the mold and we cut and stained the wood and hand-painted it together. He made several others and donated them to area churches for use as fundraisers.
“Both of these pieces remind me of Easter, ‘Resurrection Sunday,’ which is perhaps my favorite holiday, a day of great celebration and its significance gives me great hope!” he enthused back in early February, not long after people in Wuhan, China, went into lockdown due to the novel coronavirus.
Vankirk happened upon the 34-by-29-inch stained-glass window at Architectural Emporium, 207 Adams Ave., Canonsburg.
“There are more church windows out there than people who want church windows,” said owner Jeff Venturella in a phone conversation from his warehouse. “We do sell some religious windows in our Canonsburg store,” which has links to the Cool Salvage website.
“Usually, stained glass shining a light on spiritual themes is more of a decorative accent rather than a key central feature in a home,” he explained.
Stained glass made for massive sanctuaries has a similarly grandiose scale, so size can be intimidating.
“Over the years we’ve hand some nice statuary that went into private residences as opposed to a church,” said his wife, Lorraine Venturella, “mostly people who were building big houses who were maybe putting in a chapel or a reflection room.”
Angels have wide appeal, but as to ecclesiastical statuary, “Big is not necessarily better,” Venturella said of the resale market. There is, however, some interest in “something that has kind of a Gothic look to it” to be used in a dining room as a server or to draw attention to a kitchen island or countertop.
“Decorating trends have changed a little,” Jeff Venturella said, with the emphasis on the very simple and plain, more of an absence of decoration except for one striking piece.
The Venturellas also have a small collection of church pews, which can be used in a home chapel or in an entrance way.
“Some like these as religious items,” the husband said. “Others just want a bench.”
While Jeff Venturella described Tiffany as “the ultimate” in stained glass, close to it in collectibility are windows made by the Rudy Brothers of Pittsburgh.
Venturella learned of a congregation in Lancaster County that formed in the early 1900s, then built a new sanctuary in the 1940s. Stored upright for decades in a furnace room in the second building were Rudy Brothers windows.
“They were unframed, very heavy lead and glass – triple-layered glass, which was unusual. We have two of those in our store, and they’re nice to have, close to museum-quality glass for people who appreciate it. One is an angel.”
Of spiritual-themed stained glass, “Maybe it will all come back again,” Lorraine Venturella said.
Vankirk called the window he installed in his family room “a work in progress. I still need to trim it out, but I am looking for older wood, perhaps from an old home that will add to the character of the window itself.”