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Stained Glass Design

1864
Artist/Maker

Robert Turnill Bayne was born in Warwickshire. His career in stained glass began at the London firm of Clayton and Bell, but in 1862 he joined Clement Heaton and James Butler as a partner and their chief designer. The firm was one of the most successful and prolific stained glass manufacturers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bayne died in 1915.

Bayne’s stained glass design depicts the Parable of the Talents, described in Matthew 25: 14-30. In the parable a master leaves for a long journey and entrusts his talents, a unit of currency, to his three servants in accordance with their abilities. One servant receives five talents, the second receives two talents, and the third receives one talent. Upon their master’s return, the first and second servant have doubled the value of their talents for which they were rewarded. The third servant had merely hidden his talent and was duly punished by his master by having his talent removed from him and given to the first servant. In Bayne’s depiction of the parable, the master is seated, hand extended as he gives the talent to his first servant. In the foreground, the third servant, stripped of his talent is bowed and kneeling, in his hand a piece of draped fabric that it is presumed once contained his talent.



Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pen, ink and watercolour, heightened with gum arabic, on wove paper.
Brief description
Design for stained glass, 'The Parable of the Talents', by Robert Turnill Bayne, 1864. Designed for a window executed at St Mary's Church in Banbury, Oxfordshire, which is still in situ.
Physical description
Design for stained glass, depicting The Parable of the Talents. In the central circle, a crowned figure is seated on the left, hand extended towards a standing figure who is holding a bag in his palm. Behind, a third figure looks at the exchange, also clasping a bag. In the foreground, a fourth figure kneels, bowed, holding an open piece of white fabric. The central roundel is encircled by four interconnected circles at the capital points, with found spoundrels decorated with a foliage pattern, surrounded by three floral and geometric borders.
Dimensions
  • Height: 18.6cm
  • Width: 17.9cm
Production typeDesign
Credit line
Gift of Douglas E. Schoenherr in memory of Rachel Moss
Summary
Robert Turnill Bayne was born in Warwickshire. His career in stained glass began at the London firm of Clayton and Bell, but in 1862 he joined Clement Heaton and James Butler as a partner and their chief designer. The firm was one of the most successful and prolific stained glass manufacturers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bayne died in 1915.

Bayne’s stained glass design depicts the Parable of the Talents, described in Matthew 25: 14-30. In the parable a master leaves for a long journey and entrusts his talents, a unit of currency, to his three servants in accordance with their abilities. One servant receives five talents, the second receives two talents, and the third receives one talent. Upon their master’s return, the first and second servant have doubled the value of their talents for which they were rewarded. The third servant had merely hidden his talent and was duly punished by his master by having his talent removed from him and given to the first servant. In Bayne’s depiction of the parable, the master is seated, hand extended as he gives the talent to his first servant. In the foreground, the third servant, stripped of his talent is bowed and kneeling, in his hand a piece of draped fabric that it is presumed once contained his talent.

Collection
Accession number
E.2886-2016

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Record createdAugust 17, 2016
Record URL
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