Moses - Breedon-on-the-Hill

Stained glass panel (1904) depicting Moses in the east window of the church of St Mary, Breedon-on-the-Hill Leicestershire by Baillei and co.

This is one light from the four-light East Window showing Moses receiving the Law. Moses stands centrally, haloed by radiant horns of light and holding aloft the Tablets of the Commandments, inscribed in Hebrew. He wears a mantle of gold and russet ornamented with geometric brocade. Flanking him are attendant figures, one in a priestly headdress, another shielding his eyes, while below, a kneeling woman in a deep blue robe lifts her gaze and hands in veneration. The figures are rendered with refined linear drawing and soft enamel shading typical of early-twentieth-century ecclesiastical glass.

The background shows stylised ochre mountain forms beneath a crimson sky, symbolising Mount Sinai.
At the base, the text panel “I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES” frames the scene with decorative foliate scrolls in pale green and white grisaille.

The makers Thomas Baillie & Co. of Wardour Street, London, a firm active from the 1860s to 1910s were known for their balanced composition, rich yet harmonious colour schemes, and finely modelled faces. The design reflects the late Gothic Revival and Edwardian devotional idiom: restrained architectural framing, luminous blues and ambers, and clear narrative focus. Distinctive features of soft flesh tones, elegant figure grouping, and minimal canopy work, marks the mature house style of Baillie’s later period.