Jesus in the Temple Window (15)
Otey Vincent gave this window to the Glory of God and in memory of her mother, Notie Vincent (1859-1946), and her sister, Gladys Vincent (1889-1900).
The young Jesus stands among His elders. His robe and tri-radiant halo are in shades of ecru and rose, pastel colors probably used as appropriate for His youthfulness but possibly prefiguring his later suffering. The printed pattern on His robe is a running vine motif of convoluting circles containing a seven-pointed star on top of a cusped circle with a golden ball in each cusp. Bezants edge the robe. The vine might allude to John 15:1: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." The seven-pointed star can represent the Seven Gifts of the Spirit. One must also consider an alternate reading: the figure might be a sunburst surrounded by a flames of fire, still symbolizing the Son/sun in ardor of Love.
He wears a golden cloak edged with a pattern in deeper gold of alternating circles and quatrefoils joined by crossed lines with a four-petaled stylized blossom at the crossing. He wears a red cincture.
The index and median fingers of the raised hand seem crossed. Either a nice bit of humor lurks here, or there is an awkward pose, repeated in the bottom right panel. A man behind Him holds a scroll; a basket of scrolled knowledge is at His feet.
Three men are in the left panel. The two standing and looking at Jesus are priests, for their robes are imprinted with the pomegranate pattern, a frequent emblem for Chief Priests of the Temple. The seated man gestures toward Jesus but gazes in wonderment toward the priests behind him. The seated man seems more receptive with his open scroll and his open gesture; the High Priest in gold, less so, with his closed, clutched book and his firm hold on his staff of office.
The background scene is an arcaded wall of the Temple. Each panel is surrounded by decorated Gothic arches in white and gold, with three-tiered finials rising to fleurs-de-lis. The bottom panes are similarly outlined.
Kneeling angels in white robes with golden halos and golden wings flank the outside corners of the bottom panes. The inside corners reveal oddly vacant green niches, unless green vistas of growth are intended. On the red ground of the left bottom pane St. Anne holds a book from which she teaches her child, St. Mary. In the corresponding right pane, St. Mary, dressed in white and gold as is her mother, teaches her child, Jesus, who, as a child, is inappropriately clad in scarlet -- inappropriately in red, until one realizes His eventual martyrdom implicit in his robe.
The topmost pane has three-tipped grape leaves at the four corners, punctuating a running leaf design of pale gold and pale green, interrupted at regular intervals by violet grape leaves, suggesting both the passion of Christ and His blood as Communion wine. In the center is a parchment scroll on gold rods, all is a mottled field of purple and red. These symbolically sad colors in this youthful picture are counterbalanced by the life-filled green in the distance beyond the arches of the main panels.