A Joyful Easter (RT 02) Card

Spread the Good News that it's "The Day of Resurrection" to family and friends with this handsome card simulating stained glass in rich aqua blues, bright reds, golden yellows, and bronze. Done in the Liberty Style, the British version of Art Nouveau, a large central cross containing text forms the focal point. Two small panels depicting stylised Easter lilies fill the spaces between the cross’s transverse beam and the top part of the upright. Two long rectangular panels flank the lower part with figured scenes representing Jesus appearing in the Upper Room on Easter evening on the left and the astounded Apostles on the right. The text reproduces the lyrics of an English hymn with words by St. John of Damascus (c. 675/676-749) and translated by J(ohn) M(ason) Neale (1818-1866), a prolific writer of books and articles on liturgy and church history as well as a translator of Greek and Latin hymns into English. Neale's translation of St. John's lyrics was set to music (the tune 'Lancashire') by Henry Thomas Smart (1813-1879), a lawyer turned composer and church organist. + Inside: Details of the two lateral panels with figures arranged side by side. + Image Credit (RT 02): Antique images from an embossed postcard in chromolithography entitled A Joyful Easter, Easter Hymns Series, No. 714, originally published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, London, England, and printed in Saxony, Germany, 1912, from the designer’s private collection.