The Four Evangelists’ windows by Morris & Co in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge
Mark Charter
Introduction
Morris & Co made a series of windows for the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge
between and .
Among them were four windows in the south transept, each showing one of the four Evangelists.
The four Evangelist windows were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, except for the predellas of
the St Luke and St Mark windows, which were designed by
Ford Madox Brown.1,2
The designs for the Evangelists themselves were subsequently re-used in many other places,
including the east window of St Andrew, Stratton, in north Cornwall,
while the designs for the Sibyls were re-used much less.
Each window shows an Evangelist with his symbol above his shoulders. He holds a pen and book,
a reference to his gospel. On either side of the Evangelist is a Sibyl, and at the bottom there
are three predellas. The twelve Sibyls were the seers of classical antiquity who were alleged to
have foretold the coming of Christ, and were thus adopted by the Church as pagan equivalents of
the Old Testament prophets.
The twelve predellas show scenes from the life of Jesus. The scenes, viewed clockwise
round the transept starting from the northeast, fall into chronological order: Matthew (Nativity),
Luke (events leading up to the Crucifixion), Mark (events following the Resurrection) and John
(events following the Ascension). Many of the inscriptions below
the predellas are taken from St Augustine’s
De civitate Dei Book 18 Chapter 23,
and are translations into Latin of Sibylline prophecies that were originally in Greek.
The predellas, designed by Ford Madox Brown,2
depict scenes following the Resurrection. Christ’s five wounds
(four stigmata on His hands and feet
from the nails and the wound in His side from the lance) are visible in each scene.
The predellas depict scenes in Heaven following the Ascension.
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to the Dean and Domestic Bursar of Jesus College, Cambridge, for permission to photograph the windows.
References
P Gardner-Smith, Chanticleer
ⅭⅩⅩⅩⅧ Michaelmas , pp 14–16.
Sewter AC, The stained glass of William Morris and his circle, Volume Ⅱ, p 43–44. New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and London, UK, Yale University Press, .