Hallowed hall

Forest Lawn Glendale has three religious artworks on continuous display that are especially appropriate for Easter weekend.

A stained-glass window replicating Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is revealed in a drama presentation every half-hour from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Great Mausoleum.

Up the hill, at the Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection, an oil on canvas painting of “The Crucifixion” spans 195 feet across one wall and is 45 feet tall. The painting comprises several strips that have been adhered to the wall.

Across the courtyard, inside the Forest Lawn Museum, is a display titled “Light & Passion: The Story of Easter,” featuring six stained-glass windows that depict Jesus’ last days.

“The Easter season is the time we display the Light and Passion stained-glass windows that tell the Easter story in its entirety,” said Joan Adan, museum curator. “And it’s a nice complement to the stained-glass window of ‘The Last Supper’ that is in our Great Mausoleum and ‘The Crucifixion’ painting that we have in our Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection where the Easter sunrise services in Spanish are held.”

Forest Lawn founder Hubert Eaton had heard about the painting created by Jan Styka in Poland after the country was liberated from Russia. The artist brought the painting to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904, but it was never displayed because of its size. Styka left it behind when he returned to Poland, according to Forest Lawn’s literature.

It was stored in several warehouses until Eaton and his colleagues discovered it in a warehouse at the Chicago Civic Light Opera Company in 1943, Adan said.

“That’s when Hubert Eaton brought it back to Los Angeles,” she said. “He had it displayed at the Shrine Auditorium and decided to build a hall to display it in.”

On Good Friday, in 1951, the Hall of the Crucifixion was dedicated.

The piece was restored from 2004 to 2005 by Conservart Associates Inc. in Culver City, said its vice president, Susanne Friend.

“We cleaned it and filled in the paint losses,” she said.

To have such a monumental work of art is unique because not many of these pieces exist today, Friend said.

“It’s beautifully painted,” she said. “It’s a great thing for Glendale and Los Angeles to have. The painting is of intrinsic artistic value, and it’s worth seeing on that basis alone.”

Evelyn Knight of Long Beach was visiting Forest Lawn with a seniors group from St. Mary’s Medical Center. She was impressed with the stained-glass collection in the museum, especially the one window with Jesus, Mary and his two disciples, Peter and James.

“That one is warm, human and compassionate,” Knight said, pointing to the painting. “He’s talking to his mother, and his disciples are looking on. It’s so timely and meaningful to the season. Forest Lawn is so much more than a cemetery, it’s a human place to come when you are living. A place to renew your spirit and your life.”