The Last Supper
Open for Viewing from 9:00am – 4:30pm
The Last Supper is a brilliant stained glass re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting and is located in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn – Glendale. Our founder, Dr. Hubert Eaton was traveling through Italy in June of 1924, when he conceived the idea to re-create Leonardo’s masterpiece in stained glass. He had seen the badly damaged original and was concerned that it was going to be lost forever. Dr. Eaton had also visited the lovely Cathedral of St. Francis in Assisi with its amazing stained glass. There he heard about a talented woman, Rosa Moretti, who came from a family with a long history of creating stained glass. Dr. Eaton met with Ms. Moretti and offered her the commission, which she accepted.
The work of art took nearly seven years to complete, three years longer than Leonardo’s original. Moretti carefully brushed the glass with a variety of paints that had to be carefully mixed with powders. She then repeatedly fired the pieces in a kiln to fuse the paint to the glass. This process can lead to a lot of shattered glass, and several of the figures had to be remade more than once. In particular, the figure of Judas broke five times before Moretti finished the project. The skill to create such a large piece is not simply artistic. To design a piece 30 feet long and 15 feet high that can hold up its own weight requires great engineering skill as well.
To fully appreciate the grandeur of this brilliant stained glass re-creation, see it in person at the Great Mausoleum.
The Poet’s Windows
Open for Viewing from 9:00am – 4:30pm
In this lovely corridor, located on Dahlia Terrace inside the Great Mausoleum in Glendale, each window above the sarcophagi was crafted by Western Decorative Glass in Oakland and installed in 1926. The corridor features the following windows: Good Children Street, The Brook, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, The Village Blacksmith, Sweet and Low, Love’s Old Sweet Song, Children’s Hour, Home Sweet Home, Golden Legend, Barefoot Boy, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Old Sweetheart of Mine, and I Remember, I Remember.