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Transforming Watercolor Sketches into Stained
Glass Windows
Irene Burgo
:
The Rev. Richard Cannuli, O.S.A 73‘ is well known to the Villanova
community as director of the Villanova University Art Gallery in Connelly
Center as well as a professor and teacher of studio art at Villanova.
He is an accomplished iconographer and watercolorist. As a plein air artist,
he likes to paint landscapes in watercolor on site. The Augustinian friar
has painted and exhibited scenes from his travels for his own pleasure
and on commission.
A fact that most individuals may not know is that Father Cannuli is also
a certified liturgical design consultant who has been designing and creating
commissioned works of art for churches for more than two decades. Regardless
of whatever media he works in, his spiritual and artistic foundations
continue to meld, infusing his work with increasing dimensions of spirituality.
The Augustinian friar acknowledges his art has gained spiritual momentum
over time. Incredibly, the scope of his work has also flourished.
As a liturgical design consultant, Father Cannuli has designed and constructed
thousands of religious vestments, furnishings and accessories for churches
worldwide. At Villanova, he has hand sewn vestments for the Augustinian
community. Most of the vestments worn by the friars for special liturgies
on campus are his creations. They have worn his vestments for numerous
occasions such as Masses for commencement and for the Law School’s
Red Mass. He also designed and created his own vestments and those worn
by the friars at the Mass for his ordination to the priesthood in 1999.
Recently, his expertise as a liturgical design consultant has expanded
the scope of his work. After seeing his icons and watercolors, several
churches, convents and monasteries in New York State, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
commissioned Father Cannuli to design stained glass windows. Creating
religious stained glass windows is a painstaking art. Transforming basic
sketches into brilliant stained glass is no small task. In an interview
for Villanova Magazine, Father Cannuli explained the processes involved
in the making of stained glass and graciously shared some of his sketches
and photos of the finished windows. The magnificence of his spiritual
endeavors speaks for itself.
His Watercolor Sketches Transformed into Stained Glass Windows
An artist needs creative vision. Creativity can be a gift, but without
practice and persistence, even the most effortless talent stagnates. The
Rev. Richard G. Cannuli, O.S.A., is a prolific artist. He has spent a
lifetime honing his art. After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree
from Villanova in 1973 and a master of arts degree from the Pratt Institute
in 1979, he continued teaching himself whatever medium interested him.
Father is a self-taught iconographer of incredible proficiency, and his
skill as liturgical design consultant, he insists, he “learned by
doing.” Father Cannuli’s archive and collection of works include
more than one thousand liturgical vestments and at least the same number
of watercolors, as well as prints. He has also worked in ceramics, acrylics
and oils.
The Augustinian friar began designing stained glass windows in 1995. Since
then his vibrant watercolors have provided a new venue for his oeuvre
as an artist. After purchasing his icons and seeing his watercolors, the
Augustinian Recollects (a branch of the Augustinian Friars) who were building
a chapel in Suffern, New York, commissioned him to design their stained
glass windows. Father Cannuli ultimately produced a series of sketches
for the Order’s St. Joseph’s Chapel Tagaste Monastery. At
the time, he had no experience designing stained glass windows. And he
emphatically adds, “I had never intended to get myself involved
in designing stained glass windows.” Now, if he’s “up
to his elbows in stained glass,” it’s by mutual choice, and
he thrives on the spiritual nature of the creativity. Since his first
commission at Suffern, he has produced about one hundred designs and consulted
on extensive projects for four churches.
Father Cannuli served as the liturgical design consultant for the Church
of St. Augustine in New City, New York. For their parish church, he designed
26 stained glass windows. A total 1,324 square feet of windows have been
installed there, a project which was completed in September 2003. (This
New York diocesan parish has no connection to the Augustinian friars.)
Father also was commissioned by the Discalsed Carmelite Nuns to consult
on the overall building and design for their Holy Name of Jesus Monastery
in Denmark, Wisconsin. For this project, he designed much more than the
windows. He mediated decisions on the Tabernacle and designed various
church furnishings for the Sanctuary, including candlesticks, designed
processional cross, presider’s and servers’ chairs, lecterns,
pews, choir stalls and more.
Site visits and meetings are part of the liturgical design consultant’s
job. He frequently visits each church or monastery to collaborate with
the decision-making committees and to oversee the various stages of work
in progress. He even helped the nuns choose the stone, brick, wall colors
and flooring materials.
At yet another site located at the St. Margaret Mary Church in Neenah,
Wisconsin, Father also designed 64 square feet of stained glass windows,
including a triptych of the Transfiguration. “In my role as liturgical
design consultant, I am the glue holding the Liturgical Arts Committees
together,” says Father Cannuli. “I’m the facilitator
between the pastor, artists, architect and the worshipping community.
I work with the parish community to assist in their understanding of the
undertaking because I have been given the opportunity to express their
spirituality through the choices they make in all of the design decisions.”
Father’s pencil and watercolor sketches are the first step in what
is a definitive group project. Most of the stained glass windows were
made by the studio of Vetrate Artistiche Toscane, in Siena, Italy. Artists
Gianni Bracciali and Massimo Bracciali, his brother, own the facility
and oversee the work. The windows themselves were painted by the artist,
Master Alberto Positino, with the exception of the “Canticle of
Creation” windows, which were painted by artist Rita Bocci. Father
enjoys a social/working relationship with these artists whom he has known
for many years. While his designs are the impetus for the projects, “The
making of stained glass windows is a step-to-step collaboration. I rely
on their advice and expertise,” says Father Cannuli, Some of the
other windows, specifically the abstract and fused windows installed at
Holy Name Monastery, Demark, Wisconsin, were made at the Oakbrook-Esser
Studios in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
One of the crowning features at Holy Name of Jesus Monastery is a 7-foot
circular stained glass window in the Nuns Choir, titled “Our Lady
of the Burning Bush.” This window consists of 49 square feet of
stained glass artwork. He also created 98 square feet of mosaic artwork
(of Christ and disciples) installed there in August of 2003. The mosaics
were made by the studio of L.A.M.A. laboratorio artigiano mosaico artistic,
Mosaici Vetrate di Zamparo Ambroglio, Montepulciano, Italy.
From what began as a single project for the Augustinian Recollects at
Suffern, N.Y., Father Cannuli has gained a stellar reputation as a designer
of exquisite stained glass windows. From some basic black and white pencil
sketches re-executed in watercolor, Father Cannuli has seen his art transformed
into larger than life-sized stained and fused glass windows and mosaics.
A myriad number of stained glass windows now bear his signature. His designs
have imparted an awesome physical beauty into their separate and very
distinct spiritual settings.
If you ask how he accomplishes his goals, Father admits the work is demanding.
He is modest and introspective about his art. The artist is able to read
and understand architectural plans and is experienced in working with
parish communities to assist in their undertakings, but he is not an interior
designer by degree. “I never formally studied interior “design,”
he says, “but since my early teens I was sketching, doing basic
carpentry and tailoring, each tutored or encouraged by my family. Gradually
these became part of my interests and occupied much of my time.”
Nevertheless, for the Augustinian, art is more than just expression. It
is a means for portraying spirituality. Whenever he creates religious
art, he grows spiritually. Where did he gain the experience and means
to design church interiors? “By doing it. By reading, looking at
what has been done in the past, and studying the church documents,”
he says. “Good design is good design. Bad design is bad. You can’t
make bad design good, no matter what you do. I think being an artist helped."
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