Speaker: Mary B. Shepard, PhD

Filtering sunlight into prisms of color, stained-glass windows have captured the imagination since their inception in the later Middle Ages. Abbot Suger, whose 12th-century church at Saint-Denis was one of the first to house a full-scale installation of stained-glass windows, recalled that the effect caused him to “see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven.” In her talk, Mary Shepard will introduce the aesthetic and spiritual philosophies guiding the creation of medieval stained glass, the critical role it plays in Gothic architecture, and how it was made—well before the advent of the diamond glasscutter. She’ll also discuss the remarkable survival of the medieval rose windows following the 2019 fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, including the methods being used in their conservation and reinstallation.

Mary B. Shepard is Professor Emerita at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and is the author of numerous publications on medieval art and medieval stained glass. Shepard currently serves as the Vice-President and President-Elect of the American Committee of the Corpus Vitrearum, the international organization dedicated to the study and documentation of stained-glass windows created before 1700. She is a former President of the International Center of Medieval Art and head of Education at The Cloisters–the branch museum of The Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Her research interests include French and English medieval stained glass as well as the history of collecting medieval art and its display. Recent publications and lectures focus on the remarkable stained-glass windows of the parish church of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, York—the last program of stained glass created in York before Henry VIII broke with Rome. A Wisconsin native, Shepard received her A. B. with honors from Grinnell College, her M. A. in medieval art history from the University of Virginia, and her Ph.D. in the history of medieval art and architecture from Columbia University in New York City.

Northwest Neighbors Village is a local non-profit dedicated to building a supportive community where older adults are valued and age with dignity. We are delighted to offer these programs for free to our neighbors, and keep you engaged and learning. To learn more about us or to support our efforts to enable older adults to thrive in Northwest, DC, please visit our homepage.