An Artist in Glass: Frances Biggs,
a pamphlet by John Keating
(gratis at Terenure College Chapel)
Recently a funeral Mass took us to the chapel of Terenure College. The last time I was in the college was to attend a book launch of a history of the college itself by Prof. Fergus D’Arcy; that very crowded event was held in the school hall; this time we were in the chapel, which is open for Mass on Sundays to local people. It was something of a surprise.
The church itself is painted a simple off-white all over, but this paleness is relieved by a series of eight stained glass windows, six relating to the Carmelite tradition, that were part of the original conception of the building back in 1961. These were the work of an artist unfamiliar to me, Frances Biggs (who died in 2006). For those interested in the modern Irish tradition of stained glass they are well worth a visit. The visitor is provided with a gratis pamphlet on the windows by John Keating, illustrated in colour.
I was surprised to learn that she was also the artist who created the windows for the chapel in Gonzaga College, which was erected in the 1970s, after I had left the school. Alas on more recent visits I had not taken them in.
St Joseph
In Terenure College chapel the first window dedicated to St Joseph “the just man” in the Biblical sense, who protected the infant Jesus and gave the growing boy a trade. St Joseph was selected in 1680 to be the principal protector of the Carmelites, and is the saint to whom Terenure College is dedicated.
There then follows in the series windows to St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, St Thérèse of Lisieux, St Titus Brandsma, St Albert of Jerusalem, the bishop of Bobbio, with its distinctive Irish connection, the Virgin Mary herself, who has a special place in the thinking of the Carmelites, and finally, Elijah the prophet of Mount Carmel, who was fed by the raven and drank from the water of the Brook Kerith.
She visualised the sounds she played in terms of colour. This is technically known as chromesthesia”
As devotional aids the windows are both attractive and moving. But who was their creator? Frances Biggs was not only an artist in glass. For some forty years played as violinist in the Radio Éireann orchestra. The ideals of music were very influential on her artistic creations, as in her mind (as in the mind of some other gifted people) colour and music were linked. She was a synesthetic artist: she visualised the sounds she played in terms of colour. This is technically known as chromesthesia. A critic noted that originally Francis Biggs “began to paint pictures whose colour composition reflected the tinctures whose colour composition she imagined in her head.” The windows are therefore not strictly representational, but abstract creations that recreate the response of her imagination to the subject.
Frances Biggs was married to the leading stone sculptor Michael Biggs (1928–1993); they often worked together, and he created the stone works and wooden furnishings for the Terenure Chapel.
There have been several long articles on her work in the journal of Jesuit Studies, and elsewhere, but no critic has as yet attempted a full-scale exploration of her life and career. There is an opening here for some energetic graduates.
Services in College Chapel: Sunday Mass, 9:30am – 11.00am; Weekdays: 9:30am, Monday – Saturday, including Bank Holidays; Holy Days of Obligation: 9:30am and as announced. The College grounds are not otherwise open to the public, and visitors are reminded to respect the essential privacy of the educational establishment.
