All Saints I

An enormous angel blows a yellow trumpet above everyone else in this glass picture. The Lenbachhaus traces him to the illustrations in old German books, a source Kandinsky mixed here with Bavarian votive painting and memories of Russian folk art. Below him the saints crowd together with no regard for scale or space. A woman saint holds a burning candle. A large couple in an embrace may be Boris and Gleb, the two princely martyrs of the Russian Church, or Cosmas and Damian, the doctor saints honoured in Bavaria, and the museum leaves both readings open. The picture is divided into light and dark. On the left a city like the Kremlin glows on its hill under a red sun, and on the right are night, a dark moon and the Crucifixion. Among all this Kandinsky set small signs of rescue, a dove above Noah's ark, a butterfly and a phoenix.