Art Glass within the Caritas center St. Franziskus in Mannheim
When glass passion meets therapeutically art
In collaboration with the artist Yvelle Gabriel, the Derix Art Glass Studios realized therapeutic art glass for the Caritas center St. Franziskus in Mannheim. According to the painter’s designs, 13 windows were created for the “chapel canticle of the sun” as well as other glass windows for the “room of silence and encounter” in the hospice of St. Vincent. The project, which was designed and implemented in the years 2015 and 2016, is presented to you today in detail:
Canticle of sun in glass: Sacred art glass works for the “chapel canticle of the sun”
The “chapel canticle of the sun” in the Caritas center of St. Franziskus was named after the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. For the residents and nuns of the institution the chapel is a place of rest, a retreat for silent prayer and for worships. The glass painting of the artist Yvelle Gabriel is regarded as the most important design element of the chapel – Derix Art Glass Studios realized the designs in cooperation with the glass designer himself.
The elements of the inner 8 verses of the canticle of the sun are found as expressive symbolic images in the 8 glass windows in the direction of the courtyard. The subjects sun, moon, wind, water, fire, earth, suffer and death are transformed into powerful, luminous float glass paintings in different colour layers with the carrier glass fused. Especially the fusion of the colour pigments ensures a special effect of the artistic colour accents. Though each individual window stands for itself, the flowing composition creates a clear connection and the glass front shines as a unique synthesis of art. On the altar side there are 5 additional windows, which symbolize God and his light in artistic abstractions without colours concentrating on thermal glass deformation and etching. The windows are a new reference to the first and last stanza of the canticle of the sun, symbolizing God, light, glory, honor and blessing.
“Area of Silence and Encounter”: Float glass painting creates unique colour worlds
The colour and form concept of the chapel can be found in the “Room of Silence and Encounters” in the Hospice of St. Vincent within the caritas Center. Even the windows here, which occupy an area of 7 x 2 meters, were designed by Yvelle Gabriel in collaboration with Derix Art Glass Studios, which turned them into artistic glass works.
This way of design implementations were realized into powerful, symbolic, deeply touching colour worlds with float glass painting. In the “room of roses”, an additional window with a rose relief was finally completed during Spring 2016, which creates a unique character because of the artistic combination of thermal glass deformation and float glass painting and forms the focal point of the glass windows. Particularly in the fields of glass painting, the Derix Art Glass Studios in Taunusstein have a long-standing competence: Regularly our team performs the finest glasspaintings with black glass- paint stain, enamel shades and enamel paint as well as silver yellow techniques, always in close collaboration with the artist. With his artistic work in glass design, Yvelle Gabriel focuses on therapeutic glass art for hospices or religious buildings and uses his dreamy, symbolic colour worlds as an expression of his unique art. The artist also received the M & K Award for his masterpiece “Therapeutic Glass Design” in the “Building & Furnishing” category in 2015.
For more than 150 years we have been creating “art glass” for churches, monasteries, cathedrals and clinics all over the world, in collaboration with internationally renowned and brilliant artists. Impressions of our sacred projects can be found in our references object overview.