Thomas Jervais and the East Window of Agher Parish Church, County Meath, Ireland

摘要

The East Window of Agher Parish Church, County Meath in the Republic of Ireland contains a rare survival of a stained glass window by Dublin born artist Thomas Jervais. The window depicting St Paul preaching to the Athenians (after Raphael) was made in 1770 for the Wellesley family home at Dangan Castle, Summerhill, however it was relocated into the nearby church at Agher following a fire, which led to the abandonment of the house in 1809. Jervais was to relocate to London later in 1770, where he spent the rest of his life and gained celebrity for his association with Sir Joshua Reynolds, for whom he painted the West Window of New College Chapel, Oxford in 1778. Jervais was also to be commissioned as glass painter to King George III in 1780, undertaking the painting of the East Window of St George's Chapel, Windsor (now destroyed). Conservation of the East Window of Agher by the York Glaziers Trust in 2016 has revealed fascinating new insights into the early work of this artist. Jervais' approach to glass painting at this stage appears to be experimental and perhaps self taught. Fired paint is complemented by cold paint, multiple layers of glass are used to enhance and intensify tone and colour and evidence has been found for highly unusual applications of silver stain. Jervais appears to have had only a limited range of glasses and materials at his disposal in the making of the window. The glass is predominantly clear, extremely thin and with numerous problematic contortions in its shape, which necessitated a great deal of creativity in its assembly. This paper will highlight the conservation challenges and the technical fabrication of this remarkable window. It will further describe the context of the work of this little known and under-appreciated artist from a chapter of the art history of Ireland that has been to a large degree unwritten and over-shadowed by interest in the Irish artists of the Arts and Crafts movement.