Pauline Adamek
Most have heard of Forest Lawn Memorial Park — a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California — but it’s not widely known that The Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn-Glendale, and its Museum (founded in 1957), is not only open to the public with no entrance fee, but contains a large number of astoundingly impressive art treasures. A visit to Forest Lawn-Glendale’s Great Mausoleum and Museum introduces you to a substantial selection of reproductions of famous Renaissance works of art, including several full-scale reproductions of some of Michelangelo’s most renowned marble sculptures, such as Moses, La Pieta and Madonna of Bruges.
In fact, this cemetery is the only place in the world containing a complete collection of replica Michelangelo sculptures, which were each made from castings taken from the originals and using marble from the very same quarries in Carrara, Italy as used by Michelangelo. The originals are scattered over several Italian cities.
Right now at Forest Lawn-Glendale’s Great Mausoleum, visitors can experience the reintroduction of the exquisitely beautiful master stained glass work The Last Supper Window. Visitors can see the jewel-like, one-of-a-kind stained-glass version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper masterpiece as created by master craftswoman Rosa Caselli Moretti. It has been restored for presentation in this revitalized museum experience inside The Great Mausoleum.
In celebration of the reintroduction of The Last Supper Window, Forest Lawn-Glendale will also allow public access for the first time in over 40 years to The Poet’s Windows, a spectacular display of 12 intricate stained- glass windows that present imagery inspired by some of the world’s most renowned poetry, including: G. Clifton Bingham’s Love’s Old Sweet Song; Eugene Field’s Good-Children Street and Wynken, Blynken, and Nod; Thomas Hood’s I Remember, I Remember; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Village Blacksmith, Children’s Hour and The Golden Legend; John Howard Payne’s Home Sweet Home; James Whitcomb Riley’s An Old Sweetheart of Mine; Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Brook and Sweet and Low; John Greenleaf Whittier’s Barefoot Boy; and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.
Public tours led by art educators from Art Muse Los Angeles can be arranged. [Please go to their website for more information.]
Sunday is the last day, for now, that Art Muse will be conducting free tours — 10 a.m.–12 p.m. No RSVP necessary — but dates will be added for the summer. Of course, the public can participate in self-guided tours any day The Great Mausoleum is open, see dates and times below.
Housed under the Gothic Arches of Forest Lawn–Glendale’s Great Mausoleum, The Last Supper Window is the centerpiece of the Memorial Court of Honor and one of the Park’s most celebrated and moving works of art in the permanent collection.
Forest Lawn Memorial Parks are home to more than 1,000 works of stained glass, making up one of the largest and finest collections of the art form in the western United States.
Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic artwork The Last Supper (1495-1498) — one of the most famous paintings in the world — helped usher in the High Renaissance. Measuring nearly 30 feet wide and 15 feet high, the painting depicts the moment after Jesus reveals that one of his disciples will betray him.
The Forest Lawn-Glendale’s Great Mausoleum and Museum is also presenting a series of exciting public programs and events.
Upcoming events include:
The Last Supper
Standard Hours:
Tuesday – Sunday (closed Mondays)
9:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Free
The Last Supper is the centerpiece of the Memorial Court of Honor, the only place in the world where Michelangelo’s greatest statuary works can be seen together in one location.
Hall of The Crucifixion-Resurrection
Standard Hours:
Tuesday – Sunday (closed Mondays)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM;
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Free
Light & Hope: The Forest Lawn Christmas Windows
Standard Hours:
Tuesday – Sunday (closed Mondays)
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Free
Light and Hope features five beautiful backlit stained glass windows about the story of the Birth and early Childhood of Jesus. The windows in the exhibit are Betrothal of Mary and Joseph, followed by the Visitation between Mary and Elizabeth, No Room in the Inn, the Shepherds in the Stable, and the Flight into Egypt, which completed the Birth of Christ. The two windows, which round out the childhood of Jesus, are Jesus as a young boy in the temple at age 12 and a domestic scene in Joseph’s carpenter’s shop.
The windows in this exhibit were created by the Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, Germany and date back to 1903. After their creation, the windows were transported to New York where they were once a part of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Buffalo, New York. Forest Lawn later purchased the windows. Some of the collection is now part of the stunning buildings in Forest Lawn, but these have been kept in storage. We bring these windows out each Christmas since they are a beautiful depiction of the story of Jesus’ early life.
These windows are just part of the stunning examples of more than 1,000 stained glass windows in the Forest Lawn Collection – a collection that the Smithsonian Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum have called “one of the finest and most important collections in North America.” The Forest Lawn collection of stained glass is remarkable and is like none other in the world.
Forest Lawn-Glendale Great Mausoleum and Museum
Forest Lawn Glendale
1712 S Glendale Ave,
Glendale, CA 91205
More information can be found here.
Obtain more information on upcoming events here.
Fun fact!
The Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale is the final resting place for renowned author Louis L’Amour.
Terry Morgan
