Last night marked the opening of an exhibit at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum that showcases artifacts from Corpus Christi Catholic Church, a predominantly Polish-American church on Buffalo's East Side.
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Included in the exhibit are photographs from BRO friend Chuck LaChiusa, the man who created the "Buffalo as an Architectural Museum" website* that we refer back to again and again for building pictures and histories. In fact, here is Chuck's Corpus Christi page, with a very informative history article by Jim Napora. Karpeles? Chuck has a page for both the present and the former location. If there is a building if import in Buffalo, Chuck has it under the alphabetical listing on his home page.
Because you can't cover architecture without looking at detail, Chuck has recently gotten himself more involved with stained glass, as he did with the stained glass conference here this past summer. So LaChiusa's path has gone from furniture, to architecture, and now stained glass. See six of his stained glass photographs in the exhibit, which is free and open to the public. On display through November 29th.
*Click "request it" under "Updates" on Chuck's homepage, and he'll send you FYIs with links to everything new he posts to his site!
what is really interesting is the style of the stained glass...
and the difference between protestant and catholic with regard to stained glass and decorations...
most protestants followed the anglican and Lutheran tradition of having plain walls and clear glass windows...as a metaphor for the enlightenment, age of reason where clarity, logic, facts and reason reigned.
most catholics followed the traditions of the ancien regime where the mysteries of faith reigned. Thus with high rates of illiteracy and the reading of the bible meant for clergy, the church windows and walls were meant to tell the story of the bible and elevate their belief in the mysteries of faith.
The thing about Buffalo and its church's that is so precious and rare...it reminds us of a simpler time when one went to school, went to church, got a job, got married, had kids, retired from a simple life. It was still a tough life but there was a path...in comparison to todays world where individualism, transience and day to day instability make us wonder...what next.