Life of Christ. Eglise Saint-Sulpice de Fougères (detail) 1919

Ludovic Alleaume made this stained glass window, called ‘Life of Christ,’ likely in the late 19th or early 20th century. I’m looking at these doves. How do you get a sense of movement, of flight, in something that’s fixed? Alleaume isn’t trying to trick us into seeing a real bird. He seems more interested in how light refracts through the different colors and textures of the glass. It's like he’s asking, ‘How can something solid, become something else?' There's a real conversation going on here, across centuries, between artists working in different media, all trying to capture something about the human condition. Each dove is carefully outlined. What does it mean to carefully consider the boundaries, and how can this create a feeling of limitlessness?