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Mosaic and Stained Glass Art Photographic Print 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted A pictorial or decorative composition of pieces of coloured glass of various shapes and sizes held together by strips of lead. Detail is added afterwards. Except for the wider range of colours available today, the art of stained glass-making is the same to-day as it was in the 12th century.
The origin of stained glass is obscure, but it is thought to come from the Near East and to date from no earlier than the 9th century. By the 10th century, Venice was the centre of the industry. The first record of pictorial windows is a manuscript giving an account of the various windows of Rheims Cathedral rebuilt from 969 to 988. But the history of the art is documented with existing works only from the 11th and early 12th centuries. Windows of this period were usually single and the stained-glass picture was of one monumental figure.
There are examples at Augsburg, Le Mans, Canterbury and York. Three lancet windows from the west front of Chartres belong to this period, which are characteristic of the school of glass painting encouraged by Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis. The subjects are the Tree of Jesse, the Infancy of Christ and the Passion. The wide, rich borders vary considerably in design; the armature of iron bars traverses the windows with rectangles, there are many bands of lead and the segments of glass are minute. Multiple leading and small panes increase the refraction of light and the intensity of the colours, particularly the rich blue.
By the beginning of the 13th century two or three windows were generally combined within one frame, and began to increase considerably in size. French glassmaking in the north and centre of the country was dominated by the style of . The style penetrated to England, where it is found at Canterbury and Lincoln, and other examples of it are at Bourges, Sens, Le Mans, Laon and Cologne. Red is preferred to blue as background, and decorative painting in grey monotone appears in which leafy patterns are painted in grey, black or brown on large clear areas of glass. To the latter half of the 13th century belongs the SainteChapelle, with the 15 huge stained glass windows from which it derives its chief significance.
The composition of the windows changed during the 13th century. The grid frame of verticals and horizontals in the iron armature was curved to enclose scenes and figures in circles, semicircles, lozenges and squares.
In technique, the great invention of the 14th century was silver stain, the painting of glass with an oxide or chloride of silver that turned the glass yellow when heated. Larger panes of glass were used, and in the designs the tendency towards naturalism reached its height. In the typical 14th-century composition the window is dominated by a single figure or group, set in the middle of a long lancet of grisaille and standing within a niche of bewildering architecture. Flowing curves are used for the eyes, hair and lips as for folds in the dress, which itself mirrors contemporary fashion. In the 15th century there was less insistence on naturalism. Heraldic designs developed as decoration. Various local schools of glass painting sprang up around talented artists all over Europe, each differing slightly from the others. The tendency of the stained glass workers to rival the painter increased, and persisted indefinitely throughout following periods.
In the 16th century stained glass windows were regarded as large pictures. A master of this technique was Bernard Flower, who came from the Netherlands to England to execute the windows for the King Henry VII Chapel, Westminster, as well as for windows for King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Important windows of this period are at Rouen, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Brussels, Liege, Augsburg, Strassburg, Cologne, Rome and Florence. In the 17th century a type of stained glass was produced in Switzerland to be used in almost every home. It again resembled painting and indeed often took the place of painting on the walls of houses. As it was intended to be seen at close range, the glass design became extremely fine and delicate.
The Gothic Revival in England produced imitations of medieval glass. William Morris and Burne Jones in the 19th century revolted against such imitation and tried to encourage new creative efforts in the stained glass technique. They produced windows for Christ Church, Oxford, for Salisbury Cathedral, and Birmingham Cathedral as well as stained glass pictures of romantic and literary subjects for domestic use.
The 20th century is marked by a widespread use of glass, and true stained glass window-making, as distinct from pictures painted on glass and inserted in the window opening in an attempt to imitate the canvas, has returned after a lapse of more than three centuries. The best windows now are built in the techniques of the glass-makers of Chartres. The designs are boldly decorative and largely abstract, being used for churches as well as for secular buildings, though so far in a limited way.
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