STAINED GLASS WINDOWS OF ST. ANTONIO - CHIAVARI
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS OF ST. ANTONIO - CHIAVARI
The work executed for the church of S. Antonio in Chiavari in the years 1069-1970 is particularly important because it encapsulates the entire evolution in the study of stained glass windows that led Father Costantino to abandon references to works that led back to the experiences of other contemporary artists.
In this intervention, Father Constantine uses a very personal language that will accompany him throughout his journey with particular and original characters, giving the works themselves an imprint that will make the author unmistakably identifiable.
Initially, the stained glass windows of the transept were executed. In them, he introduced a theme that he resolved with simple symbols. As a Franciscan, he found it stimulating to bring St Francis' Canticle of Creatures to life by representing the sun, moon, stars and other elements of nature in fields of transparent glass.
In the high stained glass windows of the church, which, from the nave, run through the transepts and describe a complete ring throughout the church hall, Father Constantine allowed himself to be led by pure creativity. He designed stained glass windows with great compositional freedom, completely new in invention, inspired by forms born of the joy of the spirit, in a kind of prefiguration of a new world. New realities, stimulating for our knowledge, are drawn from the noblest and highest aspirations of the human soul.
They are the bearers of an unfathomable mystery, full of movements, accents, elaborations, visions that make one perceive the depth of things, non-descriptive of themselves, because they are charged with an inner force that to every heart they always propose new fascination and new enchantment in contemplation.
This is what even a musical and poetic message conveys to our heart when it reaches lyricism.
FATHER COSTANTINO
AND SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Father Constantine embodied the spirit of St Francis in his existence, showing that he possessed a perception of beauty, essentiality and of creation oriented towards universal harmony.
That is why he used simple, poor materials that so effectively express transcendence, becoming universal signs.
FATHER COSTANTINO
AND SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Father Constantine embodied the spirit of St Francis in his existence, showing that he possessed a perception of beauty, essentiality and of creation oriented towards universal harmony.
That is why he used simple, poor materials that so effectively express transcendence, becoming universal signs.
