The Ascended Christ Window (4)
This window was given to the Glory of God and in memory of Dr. James C. Camak (1822-1893), "a devoted member and for many years Senior Warden of Emmanuel Church. En'td life eternal Aug. 13th 1893, in the full assurance of & faith in the blessed hope of a joyful resurrection. Right blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Dr. Camak was one of the builders of the church at the corner of Clayton and Lumpkin streets. He served as Secretary of the Vestry in the 1850s and as a surgeon in the Confederate Army of Virginia for two years.
The ascended Christ, with stigmata, is centered in the left panel. He wears a tan robe with a plain gold and white striped border. The halo is tri-radiant pink on a white ground, edged in bezants. The figured print of His robe is brown fleur-de-lis with gold decoration. The pink of suffering is appropriate; the brown of spiritual death is not. Except for these tans, the colors in this window are consistent with Christian iconography. The artist's use of tans is no more than an intended off-white with realistic shadings. Christ's mantel (himation) is the traditional red, lined in green and edged with gold.
The field of both panels is a deep red with a repeated figure in black; stylized roses in circles meeting in vertical and horizontal rows, the triangular space between these rows being filled with black Greek foliate crosses. In the left panel the field is divided from the blue sky by a golden band with a frieze of circles and stylized roses.
In the right panel an angel stands ready to crown Christ the King. His robe is the same color as Christ's. His cloak of the same color is figured with a pattern which begins in the center with a golden circle; drawn in brown are three equidistant three-leafed clovers alternating with three sunbursts. The three-leaf clover is, of course, a symbol of the Trinity and is said to have been St. Patrick's method of teaching the mystery of the Trinity to the Irish. The cloak is lined with pink, with a border of repeated quatrefoils. The upper case is edged in three-tipped leaves. His red wings denote that this angel is a seraph, the highest of the nine ranks of angels (as posited by pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite, one of the standard sources for such lore). The color represents the seraphim's fiery ardor of constant, animated adoration of God. Thus, the serenely solemn, contemplative facial expression is appropriate and not otherwise quite so accountable.
The top of golden crown held by the seraph is decorated with a tall front center of a leaf of five fronds, each three-tipped, flanked by fleurs-de-lis on a scalloped top. The bottom is bossed in pearls, symbols of salvation, of great price, worth more than all the treasures of the earth (suggested by Matt. 13:45-46).
The designs of the bottom panels match: Gothic arches in white and gold form a tomb-like vault in which is centered a rose of Sharon, as Christ, with small fleurs-de-lis to each side, all on a red field. A banner reading, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 11:26) and "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness (II Tim. 4:8)" adorns the panels.
The small top pane contains a golden crown filled with umbellate green palm leaves of victory. These are the palms of martyrdom transformed at the resurrection. The panels are topped with more white Gothic arches decorated with golden pendants and finial in fleur-de-lis patterns. All panels are bordered by large Easter lilies with alternating red and green glass, a design possibly suggested by the much older window in the North Aisle, "Suffer the Little Children." The peaks of the panels and the points of the small pane end in blue diamond-shaped areas, each containing a green foliate cross. Near the feet of Christ are passion flowers and deep red grapes, echoing the blood red of the communion wine. At the feet of the seraph are Easter lilies tinted the pink of the suffering of the preceding Good Friday.