Frances Biggs and the Windows of Gonzaga College, Dublin

Abstract

Frances Biggs and the Windows of Gonzaga College, Dublin Declan O'Keeffe (bio) Gonzaga College SJ, named after St Aloysius Gonzaga, one of St Ignatius's initial companions, was founded in 1950 in the leafy suburb of Ranelagh, Dublin 6. For the first fifteen years it did not have a chapel, as other things took priority, and religious services took place in the concert hall, which required moving furniture in and out on every occasion. When Fr John Hughes SJ took over as rector in 1959, the first priority of his office was to provide a chapel. In May of 1962 a working committee was established and parents were persuaded to part with £100 each, spread over ten years. In the account of William Lee SJ, '[t]he quality of that cut-granite, copper-roofed building dictated to a large extent the quality of the new school Chapel. The fact that Mr Andrew Devane was architect for both buildings ensured that the standard was maintained … The sculptor Mr Michael Biggs was commissioned to do the altar, the ambo, and the tabernacle pillar … The stained glass window at the apex of the triangular building was the work of Mrs Frances Biggs.'1 It was a gift of Devane. 'It had always been the intention of the architect that all the windows of the Chapel should have stained glass', but the finances would not stretch to this at the time. The matter was revisited in 1979, and again Frances Biggs was approached. She produced a set of detailed cartoons, as the design for stained glass is known, and a price was named. It was still expensive, but the scheme had a friend in the Rector, Fr Cormac Gallagher SJ, who argued that religion wasn't just a luxury of the school but was a core value. The deal was done, and a whole new dimension was added to the Chapel. Some of the new stained glass had been inserted by the end of October 1979, and the windows were completed in the following year. Far from darkening the interior, it brightened it immeasurably and added to the sense of prayer. There are eleven main windows and eight smaller pieces without pictures, designed to admit more light on the altar. Again from Fr Lee: 'Six of them depict the days of creation and are very dramatic. Others depict the Last Supper, scenes from the Nativity story, and [End Page 325] the Resurrection. The large windows over the interior entrance are devoted to scenes from the life of St Ignatius Loyola, and the works of the Society of Jesus, especially missionary work. It was a large undertaking, and Mrs Frances Biggs has placed generations of school boys in her debt.'2 Frances Biggs: A musician in glass Frances Biggs (née Dooley) was born into a musical family and played in the RTÉ symphony orchestra for forty years. She married the sculptor Michael Biggs, who may have encouraged her artistic talent. She attended evening classes at the National College of Art (NCA) from 1955–62. In addition to stained glass she regularly painted colourful abstract compositions, usually in gouache, and in later years designed tapestries for Monaghan Cathedral.3 Frances worked independently, like Phyllis Burke and Margaret Becker. Although they had their own individual art or design studios, they couldn't afford to fire glass and frequently employed freelance glaziers on a job-byjob basis. Frances's first window was for the Catholic church at Cashel and was intended to be a joint project with her close friend Elizabeth Rivers. The sudden death of Rivers meant that she was obliged to complete the whole task herself. She then went on to produce the stained glass window at the apex of the chapel in Gonzaga College. This was an essentially abstract design. Her most successful windows (according to the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass) are the eight that she did for Terenure College, Dublin, 'depicting Carmelite saints, which use intensely coloured glass and eschew any painted detail'.4 Later in her career with the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, in 1963, she illustrated Moussorgsky's piano suite 'Pictures at an Exhibition' for RTÉ. She always drew inspiration...