Introduction
There are many good reasons for the student to study the
history of stained glass; first, to truly excel, the student should be
aware of the romance of the medium. Henry Willet would talk extensively
of the "lust and the lure and the love of stained glass." While this
cliché is admittedly melodramatic, it nevertheless gives an accurate
feel for the attitude of someone who was passionate about the craft.
Second, an appreciation of the history of stained glass will foster a
dispassionate, critical approach in the student when appraising stained
glass. The student of stained glass is urged to approach the medium with
an informed, non-prejudiced understanding of the various styles to be
encountered.
Informed observation will free the student's imagination
for design, not to copy but rather to inspire. There are many excellent
resources available for the study of stained glass and the student is
urged to acquire a library of reference books that illustrate and
describe specific installations in detail. However, there is no
substitute for actually viewing stained glass in situ; that is,
in its architectural surroundings.
A comprehensive bibliography follows this chapter.
Because this volume is intended as a reference of techniques for
the stained glass artist and not as a history of the craft, this chapter
should serve only as a starting point for the student who wishes to
develop a deeper appreciation of the history of craft.
It should also be noted that there are many periods that
are imperfectly documented. For instance, 60 stained glass businesses
were listed in Philadelphia's city directories before 1900. None of
those studios exist today, and little is known about them.
The Obscure Beginnings of Stained Glass
Many histories of stained glass begin with Pliny's tale
of the accidental discovery of glass by Phoenician sailors. The legend
recounts shipwrecked sailors who set their cooking pots on blocks of
natron (soda) from their cargo then built a fire under it on the beach.
In the morning, the fire's heat had melted the sand and soda mixture.
The resultant mass had cooled and hardened into glass. Today, though, it
is thought that Pliny -- though energetic in collecting material -- was
not very scientifically reliable. It is more likely that Egyptian or
Mesopotamian potters accidentally discovered glass when firing their
vessels. The earliest known manmade glass is in the form of Egyptian
beads from between 2750 and 2625 BC. Artisans made these beads by
winding a thin string of molten glass around a removable clay core. This
glass is opaque and very precious.
Jean Lafond's gripping story tells how, in the desert
west of Palmyra in 1937, David Schlumberger, director of excavations,
showed Lafond a cache of 115 colored glass fragments that Lafond
described as "Greenish white, bluish white, moss green, two tobacco
yellows (one more gold than the other), burnt sienna, smokey, three
purples (one near wine, one more brown), a garnet of great beauty and
two violet purples. A varied thickness adds to their nuances." The
greens had been blown in a roundel which he could surmise because of the
presence of part of the outer rim. Several pieces showed a right angle
and traces of a grozer on the edge. Schlumberger explained that these
glasses had decorated claires-voies (literally "clear ways") of
stucco designed in elegant interlaced arabesques (Jean Lafond, Le
Vitrail, P.20).
In the first century AD, the Romans glazed glass into
windows. They cast glass slabs and employed blowing techniques to spin
discs and made cylinder glass. The glass was irregular and not very
transparent.
One of the oldest known examples of multiple pieces of
colored glass used in a window were unearthed at St. Paul's Monastery in
Jarrow, England, founded in 686 AD.
The oldest complete European windows found in situ
are thought to be five relatively sophisticated figures in Augsburg
Cathedral. (These five windows are no longer in their original setting.
They have recently been moved into a museum and replaced with copies.)
These five windows show fired glass painting which utilizes line and
tonal shading and they are made of bright, varied colors of glass. The
authors of Stained Glass say, "they are the work of skilled,
experienced stained glass artists. Where are the children who are father
to these men? Where are the earlier windows?" (Lawrence Lee, Seddon and
Stephens. Stained Glass. P. 67)
Authorities believe that Arabian glass windows appeared
in the second half of the thirteenth century. Lewis F. Day suggests that
Byzantine, Moorish or Arabian glass could have appeared by the tenth
century AD. Pieces of glass were either inserted into intricate pierced
marble or stone, or glazed in plaster before the plaster had set hard.
Ribs of iron were often used to strengthen the plaster.
Arabian filigree windows moved into Europe when the
Moors entered Spain. As the fashion moved farther north into areas of
more inclement weather, covering became more necessary. This covering
usually came in the form of slices of alabaster. In Europe, plates of
pierced lead replaced the plaster grillwork. The first of these had no
glass in the decorative openings, but later small pieces of glass were
attached using strings of lead.
Arabian glass windows' development was slowed because
Islam allows no subject other than geometric or vegetal ornament. Traces
of cold paint on glass have been found in the mid-east indicating that
windows probably stood up better than those windows in damper climates.
In 1930 at Saint Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, the
archaeologist Cecchelli dug up three glass fragments showing Christ with
a cruciform nimbus standing between an alpha and omega painted with
grisaille. (The word grisaille applies equally to vitrifiable glass
paint, as well as a style of lightly toned window that has been painted
and stained in a decorative pattern.) It is assumed these fragments date
from approximately 540 AD, the time of the construction of the
building.
In 1878 at a dig in a cemetery abandoned about 1000 AD
at Sery les Mezieres, Aisne, France, Jules Pilloy found about 30 pieces
of glass which had suffered from an apparent fire, a lead strip with two
channels and a small slab of bone among some charred wood. The bone
(which might have been a holy relic) pre-dated Charlemagne. Edmond
Socard arranged the glass into a small, simple window. A cross patee,
from which hung an alpha and omega, were painted and fired on it. This
symbol was very popular from the sixth to ninth centuries.
Unfortunately, this treasure was destroyed in 1918 during World War I.
Fragments of a very early head of Christ were excavated
in 1932 at Lorsch Abbey in Germany. This is similar to the better known
and more complete head of Christ from the Abbey Church of Saint Peter,
Wissembourg, Alsace (c.1060). The latter has more advanced glass
painting with both trace line and wash. Because of their size and their
aspect -- that is, with the heads forward like the icon called the Panto
crater, as well as the lack of any fragments showing bodies -- Catherine
Brisac thinks these heads were displayed as icons in the middle of
windows in which they would have been the only painted elements.
Christian iconography developed from pagan illustrations
found in the catacombs. The beardless pagan god of the underworld,
Orphaeus, was transformed into a youthful Christ the Good Shepherd. From
the fourth century forward, He had a beard. The pagan phoenix and
peacock were used for resurrection symbols.
Wall paintings gave way to mosaics of ceramic tiles,
stones and glass bits. Moving from the catacombs, the earliest
Christians worshiped in their homes; then, when they became politically
secure enough, the Christians built churches. The first churches housed
the relics of saints. Architecturally, they were based on the basilica,
the Roman law court. The cruciform floor plan developed from the
Byzantine square floor plan with a dome added.
European kings and bishops sent to Jerusalem and the
east for holy relics. Their emissaries brought back small works of art
such as cloisonne , damascene and carved ivory set with jewels
and precious glass. Oriental and African craftsmen and glassmakers found
their way to Europe as early as the third century. We can no longer
agree with Hugh Arnold when he writes, "The making of stained glass
windows is one of the arts that belong wholly to the Christian Era. Its
traditions do not extend back beyond the great times of Gothic
architecture." (Hugh Arnold, Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in
England and France. p.3) We can no longer say that stained glass is
a purely Christian art form, either at its beginning or in its current
usage.
Romanesque Stained Glass
Romanesque architecture is more uniform than the stained
glass that adorns it. The walls are thick and the window openings small
with rounded tops. Because the glass was set in small openings, it had
to let in considerable light. Today Romanesque windows seem darker
because of corrosion.
Some figures in Romanesque stained glass stand or sit
staring straight ahead. Some are involved in action as witnessed by
their billowing garments. Some windows are made up of a series of events
enclosed in medallions. The earlier windows of this style are more
simple, primitive and rare. They depict well-known saints or stories
from the Bible. Reverence for the Virgin Mary is prevalent at this time
and she is often depicted as a queen. The windows use stylized vegetal
ornament and decorative beading around the scenes and figures. The
predominant colors are red and blue. This style of stained glass seems
to have developed from cloisonne enamels and miniature paintings.
Few Romanesque windows remain. Those that do remain are
frequently found as illustrations in books; thus, they often seem
familiar. Some examples of the Romanesque style are the Augsburg figures
mentioned previously, c. 1120; parts of an Ascension scene from Le Mans
Cathedral, c. 1140; the Great Crucifixion from Poitiers Cathedral, c.
1165-70; the facade windows and La Belle Verriere from Chartres
Cathedral, c. 1150; and, at the end of the era, the great figures in the
choir clerestories of Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1200.
Gothic Stained Glass
The medieval Church was the most important patron of the
arts. Having made that statement, the name of the single person who most
personifies this concept must immediately follow: Abbot Suger of Saint
Denis, the royal abbey located just outside Paris. Suger was a fellow
student and friend to King Louis VI, minister of Louis VII, and regent
during the second crusade. His writings show him to have been a shrewd
businessman, a politician with a genius for detail, and a devoted
servant to his king. Suger reformed and rebuilt the abbey and augmented
its wealth. As its treasures increased, many pilgrims told stories of it
and its influence spread. Suger was guided by a philosophy including the
mysticism of light; this philosophy compelled him to enlarge the windows
and beautify them with colored glass.
Window subject treatment grew during the Gothic period,
expanding from simple figures to a complex iconography fully understood
by only a few experts today. This iconography made use of symbolism
based on bestiaries which can be called "unnatural history" and on
complicated typology (Old Testament stories that symbolize New Testament
events). Today, scholars study these windows to learn about the daily
life of the time. Guilds of workmen donated windows that included
likenesses of themselves engaged in their businesses. The appearance of
heraldry in the windows demonstrates the increasing importance of
secular families.
This time saw the formation of new religious orders that
needed new buildings. Many cathedrals and churches were built. The
relationship between Saint Denis and Chartres is well established
through a similarity of style and iconography. Stained glass historians
today re-trace the work of traveling studios. Suger wrote, "Moreover we
caused to be painted by the exquisite hands of many masters from
different regions, a splendid variety of new windows both below and
above: from that first one which begins with the Tree of Jesse in the
chevet of the church to that which is installed above the principal door
of the church's entrance." The latter was a petalled rose window, the
first of its kind. A Jesse Tree window was soon after installed in
Chartres.
As the studios traveled from job site to job site, they
took sketches and models along with their tools. The windows in Laon
Cathedral show the influence of the Ingebourg Psalter.
Le Mans Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais and some
Canterbury stained glass is stylistically similar to the Paris-Chartres
school. Although the cathedral is a contemporary of Chartres, the
windows of Bourges are more archaic. Although Chartres' stained glass
depends chiefly upon reds and blues, in Bourges, pure whites, yellows
and greens are prominent.
The Gothic style was also developing outside France. The
stained glass in the cathedral of Lausanne, Switzerland shows a marked
French influence. Stained glass craftsmen from France are known to have
worked at Canterbury in England, as did the French architect, William of
Sens. French influence can be seen in Spanish stained glass of this
time, especially in Aragon, Toledo and Castille. The windows in Leon
Cathedral are significant although greatly restored.
In Germany, the Romanesque style endured longer than in
other areas. Notable windows are in Cologne and Strasbourg Cathedrals
and the Franciscan Monastery of Konigsfelden.
The international Gothic style came late to Vienna and
Prague. The earliest remaining glass in Italy, in Assisi, is the work of
German glaziers. The oculus in the Cathedral of Siena is called the
"first modern window" because the subjects are treated as separate
scenes. The window is a circle with a metal grid structure, rather than
stone mullions, dividing it into petals. By the end of the medieval
period, (the second quarter of the fourteenth century), perspective and
volume were becoming evident. Subject was more pictorial and not
subservient to the architecture
Renaissance Stained Glass
Renaissance stained glass is very different from that of
the previous period. The themes are still principally biblical. Because
subjects in renaissance stained glass are shown dressed in period
clothing, a knowledge of the history of costume helps date windows.
Allegorical themes are even more elaborate than medieval iconography.
Figures represent abstract ideas. There are secular scenes in church
windows.
Stained glass was used in secular buildings during the
renaissance period. Historic scenes or heraldry were placed in town
halls and small panels (usually silver stain and paint on white glass)
were incorporated into clear glass windows in homes. The labors of the
seasons are a favorite theme during this period. In large church
windows, the scenes extended over the whole, ignoring the mullions.
Buildings portrayed in the windows are solid, in classical style, shown
with correct perspective. Some action takes place far back from the
picture plane with vistas in the distance. Faces have individuality and
show emotion.
The way stained glass craftsmen worked also changed.
Artists drew cartoons on paper and were able to carry those cartoons to
different clients. Sample books of patterns were also transported.
Workshops stayed in one place through several generations, often
attached to a cathedral that constituted their major employer. Finished
windows were shipped to secondary customers at a distance. Studios
joined together in corporations or guilds.
Silver stain, flashed glass (abraded rather than acid
etched,) and colored enamels were widely used. The diamond cutter was
used, making possible larger, more complicated pieces of glass. Leads
became thinner and less important to the design. In the fifteenth
century, the city of Bruges, Belgium had 80 stained glass operations.
The glass painting style of this area shows the influence of woodcuts.
Although Gothic stained glass came late to Italy, the
Renaissance style flourished early. It was championed by well-known
artists such as Filippino Lippi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Simone Martini,
Taddeo Gaddi, Pietro Perugino, Donatello, Paolo Ucello, Domenico
Ghirlandaio, Pacino di Buonaguida, Andrea da Firenze, Giotto, Giovanni
Cimabue, Cortona Arezzo and the Gesuati brothers.
Flemish stained glass designs in the Renaissance are
akin to the oil paintings of the Van Eycks; that is, they often show
energetic forms and contrasting colors. A characteristic crisp fold in
garments is evident in this period. Lierre makes use of much white glass
in The Coronation of the Virgin in Saint Gommaire's Church. The drapery
used on all of the figures is white, set against colored backgrounds.
Large windows by Bernard van Orley in the Brussels
Cathedral show the Coronation of Charles V. Dirck. Wouter Crabeth did
windows in Gouda and then went to England to work. Henry VII of England
brought Dirck Vellert from Antwerp and Barnard Flower and Galyon Hone
from Holland to work on the windows in Kings College, Cambridge. The
English glaziers who had a long tradition did not welcome them, but the
Flemish had the King's patronage, so the native craftsmen could only
protest without redress. The cities of York and Norwich were very
prosperous and have many parish churches with fine traditions of
Renaissance stained glass. They were famous for their glaziers'
workshops.
Spain had no early tradition of stained glass because
Moorish occupation limited Christian church building. The Renaissance is
its golden age. Italian, Flemish and French glaziers established the
craft after the Moors left. Two brothers, Arnao de Vergara and Arnao de
Flandres who worked on the Seville Cathedral, are particularly
noteworthy.
The Low Ebb
Experts agree that stained glass reached a low ebb
sometime between the late medieval age and the nineteenth century. Why
did stained glass fall from favor? The reasons were religious, political
and aesthetic. The Church had been the principal patron of the arts. The
new Protestants were hostile to elaborate art and decoration. Even in
the Roman Catholic countries, the Counter-Reformation called for simpler
religious buildings. During the Thirty Years War, Cardinal Richelieu
ordered all castles and palaces in Lorraine razed. Their destruction saw
an end to the glass workshops that centered in the area.
By 1640 colored glass was very scarce. This necessitated
painting on white glass with enamels. The little decorative glass that
was produced was mostly small heraldic panels for city halls and private
homes. Stained glass that had been so popular just a few years before
was no longer in demand. The glass craftsmen were in great misery,
pushing their barrows from place to place in search of work.
The English Parliament ordered all images of the Virgin
Mary and the Trinity removed from churches. The Puritan principles of
the Commonwealth inspired English adherents to smash stained glass
windows with vigor. (Some fragments of early glass remain in traceries,
as they were too high to easily reach.) The cost of replacing stained
glass with clear glass finally stopped the destruction. Sometimes
shattered pieces, left behind by the vandals, were reassembled into
windows with no regard for subject. In Brittany, a congregation covered
a window with dung and mud and whitewashed over to avoid spending money
to replace it.
In England, church buildings remained churches. This was
not always the case in France, where, as a result of the French
Revolution, they were often turned to secular uses. For example,
Strasbourg Cathedral became a Temple of Reason. Some became museums, but
many became stables, arsenals or storerooms.
Several factors turned fashion toward the classic style.
Even before the French Revolution, the baroque style was associated with
vapid royalty. Ancient Rome became a symbol for a republican, rather
than a monarchical government. Europeans became excited by antiquities.
During this period, some windows were made in Oxford.
Abraham and Bernard van Linge painted in enamels. William Peckett of
York provided figures in enamels for the south transept of the York
cathedral.
Sir Joshua Reynold's design in New College, Oxford was
executed by an Irish craftsman, Thomas Jervais. The American artist,
Benjamin West, provided cartoons for Salisbury Cathedral. An anonymous
writer in The Ornamental Glass Bulletin, September 1923, praises
Francis Egington's painted glass. The clerestory windows of Saint
George's Windsor were then being reinstalled in new frames, and at that
time, Egington's fired enamel colors stood firm.
Jean-Adolph Dannecker, a gingerbread baker in
Strasbourg, wrote to the Superintendent of the King's Buildings, Charles
Nicholas Cochin in 1764, petitioning him to reestablish the stained
glass craft. Cochin replied, "In truth use is no longer made of it
because in neither apartments nor even churches do people want anything
that might diminish the light. Thus in the event of it being proved that
it (the art) had been lost and that it had been rediscovered, people
would not know what use to make of it." This is perhaps the origin of
the term "Lost Art."
The Early Beginnings of Stained Glass in America
Glass making was the first industry set up in America in
Jamestown, settled in 1607. The English were running out of wood to fuel
their furnaces. The endless forests and sand in the New World dictated
the choice. To reassure his English investors, Captain John Smith wrote
that the glass-making venture was a success, but the operation was very
short lived. Bottles and window glass were the primary glass products of
this venture.
In 1637 or 1638, Evert Duyckingh came from Borken, a
Dutch-German border town, to New Amsterdam (now New York). He was a
painter, glazier and "burner of glass". The sort of small house windows
he made can be seen in Dutch paintings: a small round, square or oval
panel set in a background of clear glass quarries. The subjects, often a
family coat of arms, were applied with enamels and silver stain. Several
examples of this type of glass are preserved at the New York Historical
Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; while they are contemporary
with Duyckingh's work, it is not certain that they are actually his
work.
In 1648, Duyckingh took on Cornelius Jansen as an
apprentice. In 1656 he requested payment for glass he put in a church, 2
1/2 beavers for each. Duyckingh also made a window for the City Hall
showing the coat of arms of New Amsterdam. He wrote complaining he had
not been paid.
Labadist missionaries arrived on a ship in 1679 on which
Evert Duyckingh Jr. was mate. Their new church window was made by Evert
Sr. and another son, Gerrit. In 1674, the Duyckingh operation passed on
to Jacob Melyer.
In 1654, Jan Smeedes set up glass works in lower
Manhattan to make roundels. Blowing spun roundels may be seen in old
prints such as those in Diderot's Encyclopedia. At first, the outer part
of the roundel was in greater demand for glazing windows. The center
with the punty mark was cheaper. Later windows of multiple "bullseyes"
glazed in quarry patterns were quite popular.
Churches in early America were simple meeting houses of
wood or brick and white woodwork. Stained glass was out of fashion or
economically impractical. Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia, when it
opened, had no glass in the windows, only shutters. Small shutters
inside the larger outside ones were used in cold weather.
In the nineteenth century, William Gibson began the
earliest known glass business in America around 1834 in New York City.
This venture did not last, but he tried again several decades later and
would promote himself as the "father of glass painting" in the United
States.
Robert Bolton, elder of one of the most interesting
families in American stained glass history, came from England when he
inherited property in Savannah, Georgia. The family moved for a time to
New York State, then returned to England where William Jay and John were
born. After a time, the family returned to New York and built a home in
Pelham. William was a talented artist and studied with Samuel F.B.
Morse. They made some small stained glass windows for their home and
followed them in 1843 with the first-known American-made figural window,
the Nativity for Christ Church at Pelham, New York. These were followed
in 1844 by the tour de force of the fenestration of Holy Trinity Church
in Brooklyn, (today Saint Ann's and Holy Trinity).
The elder Otto Heinigke wrote of them: "Let me tell you
that there is nothing being done today the world over, that can compare
with the vigor, the freedom and the fire of these remarkable windows."
Otto Weir Heinigke wrote: "I believe that group of windows to be the
finest in this country in nobility of conception as an architectural
decoration and as a comprehensive exposition of the history of God's
people from the Creation to Christ's glorification in the Apocalyptic
vision."
After this job, William Bolton returned to England and
opened a stained glass studio in Cambridge where he worked restoring the
windows of Kings College. Another window by him was recently
rediscovered at West Lynne in Norfolk, England. When he went to
Cambridge, William attended classes that were not available in America.
While a student, he married, but his wife soon fell ill and died. This
so upset him that he studied for holy orders and became an ordained
clergyman. He married a second time and had several children.
Meanwhile, his brother John continued to make stained
glass in America long enough to do windows for the Church of the Holy
Apostles in Manhattan. He, too, became a clergyman, and after one or two
other charges, went to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Chester,
Pennsylvania. While there, he made the decorative aisle windows. The
chancel window in that church is by La Farge and is a memorial to
members of the Bolton family.
Many years later, a visitor from Holy Trinity Church in
Brooklyn sought out an aged daughter of William's who was supposed to be
on her deathbed. She had never heard of her father's earlier career in
stained glass. The story so excited her she arose from her bed and
traveled from England to the United States to see the windows.
The year 19844 saw the commencement of a set of
figurative altar windows for the architect Richard Upjohn's Trinity
Episcopal Church. Upjohn contributed to the design that was probably
produced by Thomas F. Hoppin. They were fabricated by Abner Stephenson.
In the 1850s several important studios were established
that would survive and promote the industry. Henry Sharp, Henry Belcher,
Joseph and Richard Lamb of Lamb Studios and William Gibson (who had
reentered the field) founded these studios. Despite these advances, the
industry was still delicately balanced; it was growing slowly, which was
a reflection of individual dedication and struggle. The quality of
materials was limited compared to what it would be only a few decades
later; further, the window artistry was largely derivative of foreign
trends in the trade and decorative furnishings industry. By the 1870s,
the economic prospects for the industry were improving. Scotsman Daniel
Cottier and Englishman Charles Booth set up firms in New York and New
Jersey respectively to capitalize on the expanded American markets.
The Gothic Revival in the United Kingdom
The English admiration for the medieval period is
embodied in literature such Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Goethe's
Faust, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, and as Victor
Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The wealthy built castles for themselves modeled on
those described in the Gothic novels. As early as the 1740s, Horace
Walpole collected medieval stained glass and employed one of the few
stained glass craftsmen left in England, William Price, to restore it
and install it in his fashionable Gothic mansion, Strawberry Hill. Many
windows were sent to England from the continent. A few enthusiasts kept
their interest in medieval stained glass and assiduously collected
pieces being discarded that would otherwise have been lost. Some of
these panels are in museums today, in better shape than if they had
remained in situ. In 1802, an exhibition held in London consisted
of glass that was saved from the French Revolution.
Since colored glass had gone out of fashion, little was
made and the quality was generally poor. When the British studios became
interested in restoring antique glass and providing new stained glass
for Neo-Gothic churches, there was almost no appropriate glass. The
person who is most credited with rectifying this situation was not a
stained glass man at all, but a lawyer, Charles Winston. Stained glass
was his hobby. He wrote a book containing his faithful drawings of
medieval stained glass. His book included a translation of the monk
Theophilus' description of the process of creating stained glass. In
1849, he had fragments of beautiful old glass chemically analyzed and
encouraged James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars Glassworks, to produce
excellent colored glass. William Edward Chance also began experimenting
with colored glass at that time, and in 1863, succeeded in producing an
excellent red.
Although Winston's book was about medieval stained
glass, he also appreciated the pictorial style windows such as were
being made in Germany in his own day. He was opposed in this opinion by
Pugin and his followers.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, was the architect who,
almost single-handedly, established the Gothic style as the only viable
ecclesiastical architecture. He started to build his first church in
1837. He then wrote Contrasts in which he stated that the classic
style was pagan and unsuitable for the buildings of a Christian nation.
He thought the Gothic style to be both more desirable
aesthetically and more moral. Pugin also designed stained glass windows.
Various studios fabricated his windows, most often John Hardman of
Birmingham. At the time, the revival Oxford Movement (within the Church
of England) aimed at restoring high church ideals. This was evidenced by
increased elaboration of both worship services and the church buildings
in which the liturgy was conducted. Demand for stained glass quickly
increased. The Cambridge Camden Society published a magazine, The
Ecclesiologist, which circulated Gothic architectural principles.
Well before Pugin's early death in 1852, other
architects were taking up Gothic revival styles. Stained glass again
contained flat decorative designs and lead lines that outlined and
separated colors. Important studios and craftsmen were Thomas Willement,
J.H. Miller, Betton and Evans of Shrewsbury, John Hardman, and William
Wailes.
Twenty-five English firms showed stained glass at the
great Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. It is sometimes difficult to
trace the studios that made the windows of this period. Parish records
tell the donors more readily than the makers.
Other notable studios begun in this period include
Burlington and Grylls, 1868; Clayton and Bell, 1855; Gibbs, founded
1813, stained glass production started 1848; Heaton, Butler and Bayne,
1855; Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, 1855; Shrigley and Hunt, 1875; James
Powell and Sons, makers of glass since the 17th century, began
production of stained glass 1844; Ward and Nixon, later Ward and Hughes,
1836. William Warrington started a stained glass business in 1833, but
went out of business in 1875. The others continued well into the 20th
century.
Many of these English studios still in business during
World War II lost their archives either as a result of bombing or
because they gave them up for pulp to make new paper. English magazines
record that some firms had employed over 100 men. They may have done
other decorating work in addition to stained glass. Their work is still
treasured today. Some of its characteristics are flat treatment even in
scenic windows, greenish white flesh, delicate painting, quarried
backgrounds with a decorative silver stained motif in each pane,
graceful architectural framing (canopy) or borders and liberal use of
silver stain.
A change in the philosophical climate was taking place
in England and the world. In 1854, F.D. Maurice founded the Workingmen's
College in London's East End. John Ruskin taught an evening course in
drawing and design, and encouraged others to teach there also. When he
was young, Ruskin often visited a friend, Charles Milnes Gaskell, who
lived in a medieval priory. This probably awakened his admiration for
medieval art and architecture.
Ruskin so loved the priory that he supposed the workmen
who created it had been happy. He widely promulgated Pugin's view about
the morality of Gothic style. He wrote Fors Clavigera (Fortune
the Nail Bearer), A Series of Letters to the Workmen and Laborers of
Great Britain. It was never read much by those for whom it was written,
but it influenced British socialism to a Christian rather than an
atheistic basis like Marx's.
William Morris' philosophy was also socialistic. William
Morris and Edward Burne-Jones went to Oxford in 1853 intending to become
clergymen, but as the impetus of the Oxford Movement was then
diminishing, they took up art. Ruskin and Morris would influence arts
and crafts movements world wide
In 1857 William Morris, then a young man of 23, took
part in the painting of the Oxford Union frescoes which depict King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Characteristically, he felt
he could not portray knights in armor unless he had experienced the
feeling of wearing armor; he had a helmet and a suit of mail made to his
own design by a surprised Oxford blacksmith. To the delight of his
friends he insisted on wearing the suit to a dinner party and succeeded
in getting his head stuck in the helmet.
Morris soon realized his talent was not as a fine arts
painter. The firm of Morris, Marshall and Faulkner was founded in 1861
because Morris could not find appropriate furnishings for the new home
just built for him by Philip Webb. While the firm was a decorating
company, stained glass was prominent from the first.
Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown had some previous
experience designing for stained glass, but at first, the group knew
little about fabricating. Their first designs were produced as a joint
effort. Burne-Jones was a master of line and composition. Morris, a less
expert draughtsman, was unmatched at selecting color, so they
complemented each other's skills. The glaziers put the lead lines in the
cartoons. Ultimately, they employed over a dozen craftsmen who also did
decorating work. Their wives and sisters were pressed into helping,
especially painting tiles and executing embroidery.
In 1857, the original firm dissolved and the company was
completely under Morris' control. Burne-Jones and Webb stayed on. As
Morris' share of the actual work diminished, Burne-Jones was deluged
with work. He accomplished a number of paintings as well as his work for
the company. Evidence in their account books derived from payments made
to photographers indicates that they began to use photographic
enlargements of small sketches and repeated the same designs over and
over. Morris died in 1896 and Burne-Jones in 1898.
The company continued under John Henry Dearle, who had
worked with Burne-Jones for many years as chief designer. Morris and
Burne-Jones were so opposed to copying medieval styles that they would
not accept any commissions supplying windows for old churches. Although
most of their stained glass was done for churches, they also did secular
installations since they provided complete decorating schemes. Favorite
secular subjects were illustrations of medieval romances and ladies
personifying virtues, the seasons and the arts, especially music.
Ford Madox Brown designed a series of accurate
historical portrait figures for Peterhouse, Cambridge University. While
Brown and Morris were interested in medieval subjects, their style was
uniquely their own, noble figures in classically inspired drapery on
Morris' leafy backgrounds or energetic flatly painted illustrations
Many stained glass artists were influenced by William
Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, including Henry Holiday, at first
exclusively a designer, he set up his own studio in 1891; Charles Eamer
Kempe, who set up a studio in 1869; and Christopher W. Whall, who
founded a studio in 1897.
Scotland also occupies a conspicuous role in the Gothic
revival. Its style was different from the English. It was centered in
Glasgow, which retains a greater proportion of its nineteenth century
church and domestic glass than any other city in the British Isles. The
People's Palace, a museum, has a large, permanent collection.
Ballantine and Allen founded their firm in 1837.
Ballantine learned the trade in England. Francis Wilson Oliphant
designed for Wailes and fabricated for Pugin. He published a small
volume on stained glass in 1854, earlier than Winston's. Other studios
were William Cairney and Sons, 1828; Hugh Boyle and Company, 1850; David
Kier and Sons, 1847.
Kier was master glazier to the Glasgow Cathedral when it
ordered windows from Munich on Winston's recommendation and caused an
uproar. Kier copied the Munich style.
Daniel Cottier was born in Glasgow and apprenticed to
Kier in the 1850s. He went to London and enrolled in F.D. Maurice's
Workingmen's College where he heard lectures by Ruskin, Rossetti and
Ford Madox Brown. He returned to Scotland as a designer for Field and
Allan of Leith. He set up his own studio for decorating in 1865.
In 1867, Cottier moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow. In
1869, he moved to London to open a branch, leaving his assistant, Andrew
Wells in Scotland. Cottier's style was greatly influenced by Morris. He
founded Australian and American branches in 1873 and imported and dealt
in French and Dutch art and furniture.
J. and W. Guthrie founded a decorating studio in 1860
which grew to prominence after Wells moved to Australia for Cottier,
leaving them its work. John Guthrie moved to London to operate a branch
studio while William Guthrie stayed in Scotland. They employed C.W.
Whall in 1890 and Charles Rennie Mackintosh about 1893 to produce
decorative schemes and what are now Mackintosh's earliest identifiable
designs for stained glass.
The Glasgow School of Art became an important factor in
the cultural life of the city. When Fra Newberry became its director in
1885, he introduced decorative arts to supplement the conventional easel
painting. Mackintosh attended the school from 1885. He was influenced by
the Pre-Raphaelites and the Japanese, but is not thought to have been
very dependent on any outside influences.
George Walton got the first commission for Miss
Cranston's Tea Rooms, which he designed with Mackintosh. James Herbert
MacNair and Mackintosh married the two MacDonald sisters, also artists.
Mackintosh was an architect, but made himself responsible for the
decoration of his buildings. His windows were in abstract patterns. His
designs were published, and influenced the Vienna Secession school of
art nouveau.
Charles E. Stewart, son of a stained glass craftsman,
invented a "cameo process." Instead of glass painting, heads and hands
were cut and etched. In 1903 this was supplanted by the invention of
acid etching, developed from the chemical isolation of fluoride in 1886.
An Irish stained glass craftsman, Michael O'Connor won a
gold medal in the Exhibition International in Kensington, London, 1862.
He was a heraldic painter from Dublin who moved to London in 1823 to
study with Willement. He returned to set up his own studio in Dublin and
moved in 1842 to Bristol, then in 1845, to London. Near the end of the
nineteenth century, Edward Martyn ordered a stained glass window from
Christopher Whall for his family's church at Ardrahan, Ireland.
Martyn, who had founded the Palestrina Choir and the
Abbey Theatre of Dublin, was interested in starting an Irish school of
stained glass. He wrote, "If we are determined to have bad work, it is
better to have it bad Irish than foreign." He arranged for three windows
in the new Cathedral of Loughrea to be executed by Whall in Ireland
using Irish craftsmen. Whall was not able to stay continuously
supervising the work in Ireland, so in 1901, he sent his chief assistant
A.E.Child and two glaziers.
Child and Sarah Purser, a portrait painter who had
become interested in the project, then set up a stained glass department
in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. The students helped in the
execution of the Loughrea windows. In 1903, Sarah Purser and Edward
Martyn organized An Tur Gloine (The Tower of Glass), a cooperative
workshop for stained glass, mosaics and other related crafts. Purser ran
the business until her death at the age of 94 in 1943, at which time,
Catherine O'Brien took over the ownership.
Harry Clarke was the only Irish stained glass artist of
the time not associated with An Tur Gloine. When Clarke was young, Irish
stained glass was poor and usually ordered from pattern books. When A.E.
Child began to teach at the Metropolitan School of Art, Clarke became
one of his students at night while working by day in his father's
decorating business. He won a traveling scholarship and visited French
cathedrals. A series of windows depicting Irish saints for Cork
University's Honan Hostel Chapel established his reputation. He is also
well known for his book illustrations. At his father's death, he and his
brother continued the business. Clarke's designs are mystical,
otherworldly and opulently detailed. There is nothing else like them.
Considering that Clarke died of tuberculosis at the age of 42, he
accomplished a large body of work, mostly based on themes from Irish
literature.
The Gothic Revival in France, Germany and Italy
The art of stained glass died out more completely in
France and Germany than in England. It was first revived in France in
1800 at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Sevres under a Mr. Dihl, who
came from England. Guillaume Brice researched early methods. The
chemist, Alexandre Brogniart, director of manufacture at Sevres,
conducted much research to discover medieval techniques. He wrote in
1802, "the art of painting on glass is not lost: we have all the means
to exercise it." Nevertheless, it took him 20 years after that to find
the formulas. (Catherine Brisac, A Thousand Years of Stained Glass,
p. 145)
From 1828 to 1854 Brogniart, with the patronage of King
Louis Philippe, produced windows for the royal chapel at Dreux. They are
painted with enamels on sheets of glass so large that firing them must
certainly have been difficult. Artists Ingres and Delacroix, supplied
the designs for the figures, and the surroundings were by
Viollet-le-Duc.
A giant in the French Neo-Gothic movement is the
architect and artist, Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Viollet-le-Duc
worked all his life to restore historic buildings such as the Chateau de
Pierrefonds, the walled city of Carcassonne, and the Cathedral of Notre
Dame in Paris. He was interested in all periods, but the medieval was
scorned at the time, and he felt he had to save it. He thought of it as
the French national style. Though his restoration methods are considered
inapporpriate today, had he not acted many treasures would have been
lost.
Unlike other architects of his day, Viollet-le-Duc had
practical skills as well as theoretical knowledge. He wrote the immense
Dictionnaire Raisonne de l'Architecture Francais which
contains a section about medieval stained glass.
In spite of the interest of the king, the methods used
at Dreux did not survive the increasing knowledge of medieval
techniques; that is, glass |