Works of Art in the Lobby

In 1883, John La Farge was commissioned by prominent members of the Brown, Ives, and Goddard families of Lonsdale, Rhode Island to manufacture three windows as a gift to the newly rebuilt Christ Church. La Farge was paid $3,000 for the three windows: a Venetian Banker, Christian Knight, and Madonna and Child. The three medieval figures are standing within a fictive architectural niche adorned with La Farge’s use of opalescent glass, giving the effect of an Old Master’s painting. The Venetian Banker portrays an older bearded man dressed in a deep red robe, analyzing the scroll before him. The Christian Knight portrays a young man wearing greaves and a breastplate, turned at a three-quarters profile at the viewer. Madonna and Child conveys a loving portrait of a young woman sitting with a child gazing fondly at his mother. All three windows have jeweled crosses featured on the lower center of the windows as well as jeweled Chi Rho symbols beneath.