Andy Bittner - Cathedral Docent

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a very merry Christmas. This year I am making a move into professional tour guiding and need a little help getting started. Your help is appreciated.

Help Andy Get To The Starting Line, organized by Andy Bittner At the end of June 2020, I was laid off by my former employer because of the COVID-19… Andy Bittner needs your support for Help Andy Get To The Starting Line

The cancer toll at Washington National Cathedral this year has been heartbreaking. Mary Clerkin Higgins was a great master of stained glass art and her work should persist at Washington National Cathedral for centuries to come, mostly credited to Rowan LeCompte. See the film Let There Be Light to see some of Mary's work. Rest in peace, Mary. It was a great pleasure knowing you

It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I pass on the news that Grand Master of stained glass Mary Clerkin Higgins passed away yesterday. She had been courageously battling cancer for several years and it finally got to her.

She was an amazing, fearless woman and a trail blazer in her male dominated profession. I feel privileged to have had an opportunity to spend time with her in her studio and high on the scaffolding. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family. The entire stained glass community is mourning this loss.

I am as happy as can be to announce the new Washington National Cathedral podcast series, Tower Talks. I am the first guest. I got a chance to say much of what is important to me about the cathedral and my life there. Let me know what you think. Congratulations also to Erin Murphy, who has crafted a very professional premiere episode.

The Crossing: Tower Talks Welcome to Tower Talks, a conversational podcast brought to you by Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC! We’re connecting you with the Cathedral from afar – the docents, volunteers, staff and artists who have dedicated their time and energy to m...

Who Is That? - Religious Attributes in Art #2

It was here at the cathedral that I learned the concept of religious attributes in art. Given that the real appearance of these individuals is lost to time, Christian artists built a canon of symbolic items, pretty much standardized, to tell the viewer which biblical character is being depicted.

There are lots of attributes that could indicate who this statue represents. Two are actually on the pedestal... An inverted cross and a set of keys. That said, in Christian art, the guy with a fishing net is always Saint Peter. This is Frederick Hart's Saint Peter, carved by Vincent Palumbo.

Welcome to my new series called, Who Is That? - Religious Attributes in Art.

The stories told in the Bible took place 2,000 years ago and some of the Old Testament stories long before that. Attempts to represent these stories in art didn't occur until centuries later. No one knows what those people looked like. Particularly as it relates to individuals.

It was here at the cathedral that I learned the concept of religious attributes in art. Given that the real appearance of these individuals is lost to time, Christian artists built a canon of symbolic items, pretty much standardized, to tell the viewer which biblical character is being depicted.

This picture is of Brenda Belfield's Ruth window in the St. Paul tower. In Christian art, the woman with wheat is always Ruth. This was the first attribute explained to me as such.

Aaahhh... My first name mention on Trip Advisor. I like it. Good advice.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g28970-d143751-r687825203-Washington_National_Cathedral-Washington_DC_District_of_Columbia.html

Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC private tour - Review of Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC, DC - TripAdvisor Washington National Cathedral: Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC private tour - See 2,984 traveler reviews, 2,026 candid photos, and great deals for Washington DC, DC, at TripAdvisor.

Nice update on the cathedral's earthquake repairs...

The painstaking process of repairing a damaged cathedral The Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., sustained major damage during a rare 2011 earthquake. Nearly eight years later, reconstruction is still underway at the country's second-largest church. Jeffrey Brown visited the landmark to learn more about the long and painstaking repair effor...

Cathedral stone carver Walter Arnold is always posting interesting information. This is an awesome photo of Indiana limestone being cut from the quarry.

This is an Indiana limestone quarry. They've turned a cut (sliced the stone, broken it from the wall and flipped it down). Now they are preparing to split it into smaller, more managable blocks, for transport to the sawmill for shaping.

The south transept was built during the middle 20th century. Limestone ashtrays... I have clear toddler memories of being chest high to and handrailing on these curiosities.

Ambry (or aumbry)... A cupboard or shelf (in our case, both) in the wall of a church sanctuary. Good morning.

Bell Tower Gargoyles... Update.

Washington National Cathedral's central tower includes, visually, three vertical divisions on each face. That puts three ringers chamber balconies on each side of the tower. Below each of those balconies, at both ends of a row of the cathedral's ubiquitous square flowers, are carved figures, appearing to be gargoyles. However, from the topside of the balcony, we see there is only one drain at one end of each balcony.

So, here's the math... There are 24 of these figures. Twelve of them are gargoyles (one in each bay) and twelve of them are non-draining grotesques.

Thanks to Joe Alonso for the pictures.

Some days are just mind-blowing and my big, stone friend never ceases to serve up the unexpected. The standard knowledge on the cathedral's gargoyles is that they are 113 in number and that one of them, the hippie, doesn't work. Hippies don't work. Anyway, today, Joe Alonso and the carvers realized (read: discovered) there are 12 gargoyles on the central tower that are completely forgotten and, therefore, previously unrecognized in the standard counting. They drain the balconies of the change ringer's chamber. They are of much lower relief than the other cathedral gargoyles, but they are part of the gargoyle system and each a unique figure.

I've attached two pictures looking up the south side of the tower over the Children's Chapel turret. The first is just an overview of the area, showing the absolute blizzard of carved stone around the base of the tower. The second, of course, zooms on the tower with circles around two of the twelve "new" gargoyles. The discovery was made today. There is much research to come.