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Who’d have expected that the world’s best collection of stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) would be within an hour of Disney World? Aside from gorgeous glass, the Morse Museum has the remarkable chapel that Tiffany designed for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and partial reconstructions of several of the rooms of Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s home on Long Island. There’s also a very good collection of decorative arts ca. 1850-1920, which includes Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau.

I first visited the Morse in March 2020. My blogpost from that visit shows many of the Morse’s artworks and offers more information about the founders. This post and next week’s include some recent acquisitions and a few works that I missed the first time. The Morse Museum usually offers information in booklets in each gallery rather than on labels by the artwork … Great if you don’t want to be distracted from the art, not so good if you’re writing a blog post after leaving the museum. I know nothing about a few of these objects except that they’re stunning!

Stained-glass windows

A wee bit of context: in the Middle Ages, those giant stained-glass cathedral windows were created with pieces of glass in flat colors. The artists painted the details painted on them, as this one from Chartres (13th c.).

One of the features that makes Tiffany the top in his field and unique is the way he manipulates glass to achieve a wide variety of colors and textures, usually without adding painted details. In this window, you can “see” the frame of the window every time one of the the semi-transparent leaves hangs in front of it. The effect is achieved by layering glass.

Here the semi-transparency is even more noticeable: you can see the woman’s body through the fabric of her dress. (Details in second photograph.) The faces and other anatomical details are painted on, but the plants and water around her are all different types of glass. Look at the glow where the water from the basin flows into the pool!

In this window, you can see Tiffany’s use of different types and textures of glass, for example on the hanging lamp and the columns. The whole scene is much more vivid in glass than on paper.

Lamps

Some of the lamps on display at the Morse are by Tiffany & Co.; others are less expensive brands made for a lower-end market. Nearly all of them are amazingly beautiful.

On this visit, I was lucky enough to chat with a docent who was very well-informed about these lamps. For example: the demand for lamps with colored shades was so great that less expensive means were devised to make them. The one below has colors painted on the inside of the glass shade … but when the shade was washed, the colors tended to wash off. (You get what you pay for!) So while we have many examples of this type of base, said the docent, we have few of this type of shade.

Also: you can date the lamps by where on the base the wire emerges. Early electrical wiring was run along the ceiling to keep it from getting wet when floors were mopped. (The electrical wires were originally wrapped in silk, which doesn’t conduct electricity … unless it gets wet.) Because the wiring was above, the wires of early lamps emerged from the top of the lamp’s base. When safe means were devised for the wiring and outlets nearer to ground level, the lamp’s wires began to come out the side or bottom of the base.

The figures on the lamp above are reminiscent of Loie Fuller, an American actress and dancer. The Morse has a lamp with a figure on the base (below) that shows Fuller in her typical swirling draperies. See more photos of this lamp in my earlier post on the Morse, and of Fuller herself here.

I knew Fuller was a famous dancer. The docent told me she was also an innovator in stage effects. She wore a belt with batteries and lights, and had technicians in the wings and beneath a glass section of the stage floor casting lights on her voluminous costume as she danced. That must have been an early and stunning use of electricity in the theater. To manage her voluminous silk drapery, she designed wands that extended with a push of her fingers. That’s the ancestor of the mechanism in today’s pop-up umbrellas.

The docent also told me that in the early 20th century, it was considered dangerous to look directly at a lightbulb. This pendant would have been hung at the lower edge of a stained-glass lamp so that women or children wouldn’t be damaged by sight of the bulbs!

Vases

Next week: another installment on the Morse, focusing mostly on paintings.

More

• The Morse is in charming, elegant Winter Park, which also offers upscale shopping, restaurants, and a scenic boat tour of three of the areas lovely lakes. Our meal at Tabla was delicious.
• For more on museums on this website, see the Museums and the Five Favorites links, and my article on enjoying art with kids.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here.