The Last Supper
A retrospective: the “Last Supper” window.
To: The Redemptorist Church congregation, church staff, students and visitors to the cafeteria. The following pages are made available to help provide an unformed perspective of how the work of art you are viewing came into existence. This is not intended to be a manual by any means. The purpose is to just briefly demonstrate, through some text and mostly pictures, some of the ways that a piece like this is first formulated, then planned, built, and finally installed into the current destination. We hope that through a better understanding the viewer can better appreciate the process that was involved and hopefully increase their enjoyment because of it. Thank you for the time and interest in learning more about this work.
Our purpose is to briefly describe how the new stained glass window of the “Last Supper” in the cafeteria came to exist. The complexity and diversity of doing this kind of combined art can only be touched upon here; but this letter will at least give you some idea as to how this kind of project has to blend several elements and talents to accomplish the final and successful result. Matthew Connolly of MDC Architecture Inc. first approached me with doing window for the cafeteria at Redemptorist Church, 3333 Broadway, K.C., Mo . There were different types of glass work considered for the location and safety concerns and expenses involved. I suggested the conventional approach with a painted mural. I then received a sketch with Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” as the theme.
My challenge was to come up with a way to incorporate hand- blown rondels within the work. So we devised an elaborate wood framing system to accentuate the rondels , and reduce the area that was to be painted by Bryan W. Lewis. We had to bring in the whole project under a restricted budget, of course. You can see that we retained the mural approach and still were able to accommodate the rondels as a framing element. The rondels were important to Father Shea because of the rondels he had admired at Jasper’s Restaurant here in town. Rondels are made as a round plate-like hand blown piece of glass and we decided to square them so as to fit better into the framing system that we had devised for the project. The other concern was that the piece had to curve to fit the curvature of the wall that it was to be housed in.
It was a lot of work by Bryan W. Lewis to design the mural part of the piece. My challenge was to balance the other elements into a cohesive presentation. Elmer Rump was invaluable in helping to come up with a great approach using some warm oak wood framing. There would have to be five panels that would connect and conform to the curve of the wall that it was to be placed in.
Here is a picture of Bryan W. Lewis going over the outstanding depiction of Jesus he painted. He really gave a sustained effort that produced a memorable version of the famous “Last Supper” based on the Da Vinci’s master piece. At this time Dierk Van Kepple’s rondels where being hand blown to match the ones Father Shea saw at Jasper’s Restaurant.
Here is Mr. Dierk Van Keppel with one of his outstanding pieces. He crafted 38 unique rondels with dramatic patterns of color to make this an outstanding, one-of-a kind work of art. Great Job Dierk!
Mr. Elmer Rump is a master carpenter, was building the five oak frames that were custom built as segmented units yet strong enough to house all of the various glass pieces and look like a solid piece when completed.
Mr. Elmer Rump passed away in 2009 and is greatly missed.
Here is Elmer during our fitting of the cut-to-square rondels and enjoying the project’s progress. There were hundreds of individual elements of wood, glass, and painted panels that had to be fitted and arranged for the ideal aesthetic effect.
To the left is the center panel beginning to be completed and ready to be assembled with the other panels at the final location.
Here I am in mid-work on assembling the panels. After pulling the various artists together and designing the whole of the piece. I coordinated the whole process including my own work in cutting out the stained glass and assembling the panels and assisting in the installation of the various components into the frames and assisting in the final installation at the location. It was a very satisfying process with lots of complexity to negotiate. Here are a few of the processes I was doing to make the mural come together.
The pieces are cut, painted and assembled with lead channeling surrounding the pieces of glass. At the intersections, a soldered joint connects the lead strips. Then both sides need to be soldered and cemented, and given a final clean- up. All of these pieces must conform to the underlying cartoon so that the final piece fits the opening. We really do not have the space or the time to go into all the processes to make a stained glass panel. Our hope here is that some of the complexity is, in some small part, conveyed none the less.
Each panel after assembling has to be “cemented” to make the panel rigid and weather proof. You’ll notice that both the lead and solder are the color of a new nickel. So the next step is to make all of the leading and solder become more like the color of lead in a pencil instead.
This is accomplished by a series of brushings with various kinds of brushes and a lot of elbow grease. You’ll notice that the lead channel is darker now. That is better because it does not detract from the art and colors in the glass pieces themselves. It is the art within the glass that’s the real show here.
So the day of installation finally comes and here is Elmer assembling his handiwork. Both Bryan and myself where there to lend the needed assistance. It was a team effort all the way until the end.
Elmer and I are putting together the frames and securing them to the outside wall. It is a delicate process to make sure all the pieces line up and follow the curvature of the wall as well.
Bryan is making sure we don’t drop the panels he spent so much time and effort designing and painting. He is assisting Elmer in securing the wooden stops that hold the stained glass sections in place.
Here are the two workmen from Gate City Glass Co. putting the final touches to the project by installing plate glass to the kitchen side of the window to protect the panels from the moisture that the steam table beneath it generates.
Here is a pleased Father Shea with the final fruition of our efforts. So, on behalf of my fellow team members. Thank you Father Shea! A big thank you also to Matthew Connolly for having the faith and confidence in us as well.
We hope this work of art will be enjoyed for many generations to come.
Best regards,
David McArthur
A Special thanks to:
Bryan W. Lewis thestainedglassartist.com Painter of glass.
Dierk Van Keppel vankeppelartglass.com Hot Glass Artist
Elmer Rump Master Carpenter
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