Lilies (Corey Memorial Window) 1892 - 1895

Curator: Tiffany's "Lilies," or more formally the "Corey Memorial Window," created between 1892 and 1895. It's breathtaking in person, located here at the Art Institute. A symphony of light and glass. What's your initial impression? Editor: I'm immediately struck by its ethereal quality, it has that kind of hushed reverence that makes you feel as though you have entered a sacred space. A quiet beauty emanates from it. Curator: Absolutely! The lilies themselves, rendered in such delicate detail, seem to almost glow. Lilies often symbolize purity, resurrection, hope... Do you sense that iconography coming through here? Editor: Most definitely. Lilies, of course, have powerful funerary associations. They connect death, mourning, and a peaceful sense of ascension. But there's more, notice the placement. They almost rise from the depths—dark, verdant green turning towards heavenly light. A clear narrative, would you say? Curator: A dance of light and dark, perhaps? A dialogue, as well? Tiffany was a master of layering and manipulating glass to create this sense of depth, which enhances the symbolism, making it less about textbook symbolism and more about a lived emotional experience. It's the emotion, you see? It shimmers, sighs, whispers! Editor: Indeed, it’s as though you're gazing into someone's memory of beauty. And consider the medium—stained glass is designed to transform sunlight itself into the image. So death and life are present— light overcoming the void of the church interior. Do you agree, that Tiffany's clever technique enhances such symbols, here? Curator: Perfectly said! He used the medium, here glass and light, to evoke these potent images, this sacred moment, from memory. It transcends memorial into something transcendent! Editor: For me, too, the overall feeling resonates— a moment frozen in stained glass for generations to reflect and perhaps be uplifted by it. Curator: A visual hymn, perhaps, and certainly one that continues to touch the hearts of those who behold it. Editor: Precisely, a luminous reminder of fragility, faith and fleetingness. Thank you for pointing that out!