Art Collection Window Medallions
History | GuideHistory " Grammar." The figure in purple is Priscian, the celebrated grammarian of the fifth century, A.D. G. Owen Bonawit (1891-1971) was a master of secular stained glass who created the painted medallions in the windows of both the Deering Library at Northwestern University and at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale. Born in Brooklyn in 1891, Bonawit's father was an illustrator and designer in Manhattan. Bonawit apprenticed in his uncle's shop and in 1915 went into partnership with Henry Wynd Young, a traditional stained glass artist. By 1918, Bonawit had established his own firm in New York City, which produced decorative leading, stained glass, medallions, banners, mosaics, and general interior decoration. In 1941, he became a professional photographer in Arizona. Bonawit met James Gamble Rogers (1867-1947), architect of the Deering Library and many buildings at Yale, in New York. The boom in university buildings in Neo-Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles during the 1920s and 1930s produced an unprecedented market for secular stained glass. Bonawit's firm, which had 15 employees in 1930, created a staggering 3,301 stained glass decorations, including 673 painted medallions, for Yale's Sterling Memorial Library (1930-31). A total of 68 painted medallions were produced for the Deering Library (1931-32), 19 of which are in the Art Collection's Eloise W. Martin Reading Room. Four of Bonawit's 19 Art Collection window medallions – two in each alcove – are painted in color. The rest are outlined or washed in dark brown paint, which was made of ground glass and a flux. Yellow and gold colors were produced by applying silver oxide or silver chloride stain to the back of the panel in varying concentrations, and by firing the glass at different temperatures. The brown paint wash used to shade figures was modeled by "stickwork," a medieval technique in which fine highlights are made by delicate scratching to remove the wash. Each medallion was fired at a temperature sufficient to melt the glass paint and to fuse it to the glass panel, but not so high that the lines would lose their definition. The panels were sent to another glass company for fitting into the leaded casement windows. Sources for Bonawit's Deering medallions include literature, history, music, philosophy, world religion, and the history of the Midwest. Library staff helped to select subjects and sent illustrations to Bonawit for translation into the designs. Guide to the Art Collection Window MedallionsThe descriptions below, all by G. Owen Bonawit, refer to the window medallions in the Art Collection, beginning with the east medallion in the south alcove and proceeding around the room to the right. The color window medallions are numbers 2-3 (south alcove) and 17-18 (north alcove).
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| Last reviewed: August 28, 2007 |
