Stanley Kennedy North’s Norwich glass #2

This is the second of three posts on Stanley Kennedy North’s stained glass commissioned by the Colman family of Norfolk. Here, further to the first SKN glass post, on his Wheel of Life, is another, on his Tree of Life. The third post is a heraldic panel devoted to the Colman’s.

Here’s a gallery on The Tree of Life:

And some discussion of the work…

SKN’s Tree of Life is similar style to his Wheel of Life. Perhaps less exuberant, it has one main simple, serious messages: plants are valuable in medicine. It celebrates some pioneers of such medicine (and later, more obviously technological pioneers).

The work is in store at the NNUH, and was kindly shown to me by the curator of the hospital’s arts curator, Emma Jarvis. (It was on its side, and bubble-wrapped: hence its informal appearance here.)

There are 12 panels in all: 6 are mostly text, and 6 mostly pictorial (one missing is currently, October 2014, away for restoration).

Text panels

2821 and 2827
BC: Susruta; Hammurabi; Kahun Papyrus; London Medical Papyrus

2824 and 2830
BC: Hippocrates; Aristotle; Herophilus; Aclepiades

2833
AD 1-10th Cent: Galen; Soranus; Charaka; Abul Hasan Garib; Avicenna

2838
AD 11th-15th Cent: Averroes; Trotula; Albertus Magnus; Mondino

2826 and 2835 and 2836
AD 16th-17th Cent: de la Valliere; William Harvey; Petere Chamberlen; Jules Clement

2851
AD 18th-19th Cent: William Hunter; William Smellie; [James Young] Simpson;  [Joseph] Lister.

Picture panels captions
2822: Papaver somniferum, Poppy
2825: Taraxacum officinale, Dandelion
2832: Atropa belladonna, Belladonna
2837: Gentiana Lutea; Gentian
2839: Digitalis Purpurea, Foxglove, ergot
2840: Hyosciamus niger, Henbane

end