Saints and Holy Women

There are stained-glass windows that decorate space. And there are those that do something far more subtle: they draw the viewer into a story. This one belongs to the second category. In the chapel by the southern portal — where the light tends to be more vivid and “warmer” — Mehoffer composes a narrative of sanctity not as a statue on a pedestal, but as struggle, choice, conversion, and renewal.

The window presents four figures: St George, St Michael, and Saints Anne and Mary Magdalene. Yet in truth these are four roles that recur constantly in life: courage, justice, wisdom, and transformation. And above them all — two eagles that (and this is beautiful) “renew themselves” by gazing into the sun.

Where we are, and why this window is “composed like a score”

The altar in this chapel (east of the southern portal) is dedicated to St Anne — the mother of Mary. The windows were designed to match the rhythm of the cathedral and Mehoffer’s earlier works: the layout mirrors that of “The Apostles” and “The Martyrs.”

Here you have two tall, bipartite windows (four lancets in total), and the composition operates on three levels:

• Upper level – signs and symbols (here: the eagles and the sun).
• Middle level – the monumental figures of the saints.
• Lower level – scenes and symbols from the legends (the bases), like “footnotes” to the main narrative.

Mehoffer guides you exactly as a good story is read: first the protagonists, then their “trials,” and finally the meaning that lingers in the mind.

Middle band: four protagonists, four energies

St George – courage in practice, not in theory

The legend of St George is simple and therefore powerful: a princess is to be given to a dragon, and George places himself between her and the beast. Mehoffer does not turn this into an academic scene. In the base zone he shows a surprisingly fairy-tale-like monster: something like a great cat in armor of colored scales. This is not zoology — it is a symbol of chaos that attacks with teeth and instinct.

The dragon (or rather the “cat-dragon”) bites into the shaft of the spear, as if trying to tear it from its own wound. In the background the princess looks on in terror; her slightly parted lips suggest a scream that, in stained glass, has no sound — but it has color. The reds and oranges of this zone often function like an alarm.

This is a scene about the fact that courage is not the absence of fear. It is the act of stepping forward despite fear.

St Michael – justice and “order in heaven”

Beneath Michael, the commander of the heavenly host, the defeated Lucifer cowers, and one sees the infernal retinue (the motif of the “hellhound,” breathing fire). This is an image of pride that falls — literally and metaphorically.

Michael is not a “sweet little angel” here. He is a figure of decision: when the world grows too murky, someone must draw a boundary. In this section cooler blues and steely tones usually dominate, contrasted with gold. This is the color scheme of “heaven” — not pastel, but demanding.

St Anne – wisdom and the source

In this chapel Anne is not merely one of the figures. She is the patron of the place, so her presence acts as the calm axis of the entire narrative. She is a figure who speaks of beginnings, roots, transmission — of how great stories begin in seemingly small gestures.

In the logic of this window Anne counterbalances the scenes of combat: where George and Michael are “action,” Anne is “foundation.” The colors in her section tend to stabilize: greens and turquoises, broken with gold.

Mary Magdalene – transformation made visible

Magdalene is shown in accordance with tradition: her splendid garments speak of her secular past, while the black veil introduces a new tone — mourning for Christ and the sign of conversion. She holds before her breast a precious vessel — not a prop, but a memory of Easter morning and of the desire to anoint the body of the Lord.

It is here, in the gigapixel image, that the magic of the workshop becomes visible: one sees how the glaziers construct the shimmer of fabrics and the transparency of the veil. They do not “paint” this like oil on canvas — they build it out of the material of light: glass, lead, and delicate paint. The blacks are not ink-black; rather, they are like deep shadow with subtle breaks.

Above: two eagles and the sun — the most poetic “code” of this window

On the crowning canopies sit two eagles gazing into the sun. This motif reaches back to the late-antique Physiologus: the eagle is said to regain its youth by staring into the sun — identified with Christ.

And suddenly everything closes into a whole: below, struggle and fall; in the middle, choice and transformation; above, renewal. This window is like a ladder: from earth to light.

How to recognize Secession here (even though it is “ecclesiastical” and monumental)

What is Secession (Art Nouveau / Jugendstil)

• Plant ornament as a living organism: tendrils, leaves, and the rhythm of nature encircle the scenes and bind the whole together — one of Mehoffer’s most Secessionist “signatures.”
• Fluid, flexible line (“whiplash line”): undulating contours, soft transitions of form within ornament, decorative rhythm.
• Mosaic treatment of color: decorative zones and backgrounds are built from distinct color fields rather than naturalistic shading.
• Stylization instead of realism: the beast in George’s scene is fairy-tale-like; forms function as “signs,” not zoological illustration.
• Thinking in “applied arts”: fabrics and patterns are designed like utilitarian designs — painting + textile design + poster in one.

What is Symbolist

• The image as a multi-layered idea, not merely a scene from legend:
  George = the struggle of good and evil; Michael = cosmic order and pride;
  Magdalene = conversion; Anne = source and memory.
• The motif of eagles gazing into the sun (Physiologus): a symbol of renewal through light identified with Christ.

What is “Neo-Gothic” (but this is a frame, not the style)

• Verticalism and zonal division: top–middle–bottom, adaptation to pointed arches, canopies, the arrangement of figures within lancets.
• This is primarily an architectural adaptation to the cathedral window, not an imitation of medieval aesthetics.

8 frames that best demonstrate Secession (Art Nouveau / Jugendstil)

1) Lower right, outer lancet: vase with roses

• What to enlarge: roses, leaves, stems, and the lead contour.
• Why Secession: almost an “Art Nouveau poster” in glass — rhythm of petals, stylization, decoration over botany.
• Colors that “play”: pink/red, green, gold, contour.

2) Band of names: “S. GEORGES / S. MICHEL / S. ANNE / MADELEINE”

• What to enlarge: lettering and the surrounding ornament (gold-green tendrils).
• Why Secession: typography integrated as an image element, not a caption.
• Colors: gold, green, blue background.

3) Upper ornamental bands above the names: tendrils, leaves, “whiplash line”

• What to enlarge: the gold-green interlacing lines above each inscription.
• Why Secession: classic “whiplash line” — elastic, undulating, vegetation as rhythmic structure.
• Colors: green, turquoise, gold.

4) St Anne’s robe (middle-right lancet): textile ornament (fleur-de-lis)

• What to enlarge: not only the face, but the fabric pattern and the way the glass is cut.
• Why Secession: “applied arts” aesthetics — the garment treated as a design project rather than a realistic fold.
• Colors: navy, white, gold accents.

5) Mary Magdalene (right lancet): veil transparency + fabric sheen

• What to enlarge: the edge of the veil against the face and shoulders, and the marbling/shimmer of the cloth.
• Why Secession: love of “materiality” — the veil shown as an optical phenomenon, not a line.
• Colors: black/deep shadow, violets, muted greens.

6) Lower scene with St George (left base): the cat-dragon in “scaled armor”

• What to enlarge: scales along the beast’s back and the teeth biting into the spear shaft.
• Why Secession: fairy-tale stylization and decorative rhythm of scales — Secessionist fantasy of form.
• Colors: turquoises, yellows, reds, blacks.

7) Lower scene with St Michael (second lancet): dynamic diagonal composition (sword / fall of Lucifer)

• What to enlarge: Michael’s wings, fragments of armor, and the “fall” zone beneath him.
• Why Secession: drama built through line (diagonals), not realism; lead contour as expressive drawing.
• Colors: red, gold, blue, contour.

8) The crowns themselves (tops of both windows): tracery + birds/eagles + “sun”

• What to enlarge: the birds perched on the canopies and the luminous motifs behind them.
• Why Secession (and Symbolism): sign-like, rhythmic form; meaning (eagles gazing at the sun = renewal) as a poetic coda.
• Colors: blues, gold, white.

What gigapixel photography reveals — things invisible from the floor

Close-ups make it possible to see why this work is “brilliantly made,” not merely “pretty”:

1. The scales of the dragon’s armor — the rhythm of glass pieces that simulate living skin.
2. The expression on the princess’s face — fine lines of paint and the tension of the lips.
3. Lucifer beneath Michael — subtle contrasts in the shadows and reds of the infernal zone.
4. Mary Magdalene’s veil — transparency constructed from light (one of the most difficult effects in stained glass).
5. Lead as drawing — where the contour carries emotion, and where it merely “binds” the structure.

How to look (a simple plan for the viewer)

1. Begin with the central figures: George → Michael → Anne → Magdalene. Note the differences in energy and gesture.
2. Descend to the bases: cat-dragon, Lucifer, symbols. These are the “legend scenes” that explain the protagonists.
3. Only then look upward: the eagles and the sun. This is the punchline of the entire narrative.

Monographs (core literature)

• Tadeusz Adamowicz, Witraże fryburskie Józefa Mehoffera: monografia zespołu, Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1982.
  The most comprehensive classic study in Polish: iconography, the genesis of the program, analysis of style and context (from the perspective of Polish art history).
• Hortensia von Roda, Die Glasmalereien von Józef Mehoffer in der Kathedrale St. Nikolaus in Freiburg i. Üe., Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte (GSK), 1995 (series Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte der Schweiz, no. 7; ISBN 3-7165-0969-8).
  A “window-by-window” monograph: documentation, attributions, description of the program and workshop practice; a foundation for research on the Swiss/German side.
• Gérard Bourgarel / Grzegorz Tomczak / Augustin Pasquier (eds./collab.), Józef Mehoffer: de Cracovie à Fribourg, ce flamboyant art nouveau polonais, Fribourg: Pro Fribourg 106/107, 1995 (collective volume; approx. 120 pp.).
  The key Francophone volume: local reception, Fribourg contexts, workshop-related issues (including Kirch & Fleckner), and interpretative essays.
• Tadeusz Stryjeński, Vitraux de Joseph Mehoffer à la Cathédrale de Fribourg, Kraków, 1929.
  An early historical account (valuable as a document of its period and of contemporary critical circulation).
• Hortensia von Roda, Les vitraux de Jozef von Mehoffer, Fribourg: Pro Fribourg (no. 67), 1985.
  An early synthetic publication (preceding the “full” monograph of 1995).