In the 12th century, when Abbot Suger of Saint Denis decided to rebuild his Romanesque church near Paris, he wrote the new Gothic architectural vocabulary and incorporated one of the visual revelations of medieval art: stained glass windows.Upon seeing the diffused, ethereal light dancing through the bits of colored glass, he remarked that this heavenly light was "lux nova," or new light. How stunning for contemporary clergy and laity to see entire walls of masonry replaced with webs of glass!
Recently, Damien Hirst, one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) whose work has elicited deserved controversy, began experimenting with this Gothic medium, this lux nova. Rather than employing lead and glass, Hirst has incorporated the fodder of natural history museums and science centers. He has dazzled us with a kaleidoscope of butterfly wings:
Images borrowed from OtherCriteria.
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