Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GLASS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

GLASS , STAINED Wailes). Better things begin with the windows at See also:

Westminster inspired by A. C. See also:Pugin, who exercised considerable See also:influence over his contemporaries. See also:John See also:Powell (Hardman & Co.) was an able artist content to walk, even after that See also:master's See also:death, reverently in his footsteps. See also:Charles Winston, whose Hints on Glass See also:Painting was the first real contribution towards the understanding of See also:Gothic glass, and who, by the aid of the Powells (of Whitefriars) succeeded in getting something very like the texture and See also:colour of old glass, was more learned in See also:ancient ways of workmanship than appreciative of the See also:art resulting from them. (He is responsible for the See also:Munich glass in See also:Glasgow See also:cathedral.) So it was that, except for here and there a window entrusted by exception to W. See also:Dyce, E. See also:Poynter, D. G. See also:Rossetti, See also:Ford Madox See also:Brown or E. Burne-See also:Jones, glass, from the beginning of its recovery, See also:fell into the hands of men with a strong See also:bias towards See also:archaeology.

The architects foremost in the Gothic revival (W. See also:

Butterfield, See also:Sir G. See also:Scott, G. E. See also:Street, &c.) were all inclined that way; and, as they had the placing of commissions for windows, they controlled the policy of glass painters. Designers were constrained to See also:work in the pedantically archaeological manner prescribed by architectural See also:fashion. Unwillingly as it may have been, they made See also:mock-See also:medieval windows, the See also:interest in which died with the popular illusion about a Gothic revival. But they knew their See also:trade; and when an artist like John See also:Clayton (master of a whole school of later glass painters) took a window in See also:hand (St See also:Augustine's, Kilburn; See also:Truro cathedral; See also:King's See also:College See also:Chapel, See also:Cambridge) the result was a work of art from which, tradework as it may in a sense be, we may gather what such men might have done had they been See also:left See also:free to follow their own See also:artistic impulse. It is necessary to refer to this because it is generally supposed that whatever is best in See also:recent glass is due to the romantic See also:movement. The charms of Burne-Jones's See also:design and of See also:William See also:Morris's colour, See also:place the windows done by them among the triumphs of See also:modern decorative art; but Morris was neither foremost in the reaction, nor quite such a master of the material he was working in as he showed himself in less exacting crafts. Other artists to be mentioned in connexion with glass design are: See also:Clement Heaton, Bayne, N. H.

J. Westlake and See also:

Henry See also:Holiday, not to speak of a younger See also:generation of able men. See also:Foreign work shows, as compared with See also:English, a less just appreciation of glass, though the foremost draughtsmen of their See also:day were enlisted for its design. In See also:Germany, King See also:Louis of See also:Bavaria employed P. von See also:Cornelius and W. von See also:Kaulbach (See also:Aix-la-Chapelle, See also:Cologne, Glasgow); in See also:France the Bourbons employed J. A. D. See also:Ingres, F. V. E. See also:Delacroix, See also:Vernet and J. H. See also:Flandrin (See also:Dreux); and the See also:execution of their designs was entrusted to the most See also:expert painters to be procured at Munich and Sevres; but all to little effect.

They either used potmetal glass of poor quality, or relied upon See also:

enamel—with the result that their colour lacks the qualities of glass. Where it is not heavy with paint it is thin and crude. In See also:Belgium happier results were obtained. In the chapel of the See also:Holy See also:Sacrament at See also:Brussels there is one window by J. B. See also:Capronnier not unworthy of the See also:fine See also:series by B. See also:van See also:Orley which it supplements. At the best, however, foreign artists failed to appreciate the quality of glass; they put better draughtsmanship into their windows than English designers of the See also:mid-Victorian era, and painted them better; but they missed the See also:glory of translucent colour. Modern facilities of manufacture make possible many things which were hitherto out of the question. Enamel See also:colours are richer; their range is extended; and it may be possible, with the improved kilns and greater chemical knowledge we possess, to make them hold permanently fast. It was years ago demonstrated at Sevres how a picture may be painted in colours upon a See also:sheet of See also:plate-glass measuring 4 ft. by 2 ft. We are now no doubt in a position to produce windows painted on much larger sheets. But the results achieved, technically wonderful as they are, hardly See also:warrant the See also:waste of See also:time and labour upon work so costly, so fragile, so lacking in the qualities of a picture on the one hand and of glass on the other.

In See also:

America, John la Farge, finding See also:European material not See also:French treatment of glass in the 16th See also:century is not entirely due to a preference on the one See also:part for colour and on the other for See also:light and shade, but is partly owing to the circumstance that, whilst in France design remained in the hands of craftsmen, whose trade was glass painting, in the See also:Netherlands it was entrusted by the See also:emperor to his See also:court painter, who concerned himself as little as possible with a technique of which he knew nothing. If in France we come also upon the names of well-known artists, they seem, like See also:Jean See also:Cousin, to have been closely connected with glass painting: they designed so like glass painters that they might have begun their artistic career in the workshop. The attribution of fine windows to famous artists should not be too readily accepted; for, though it is a foible of modern times to See also:father whatever is noteworthy upon some See also:great name, the masterpieces of medieval art are due to unknown craftsmen. In See also:Italy, where glass painting was not much practised, and it seems to have been the See also:custom either to import glass painters as they were wanted or to get work done abroad, it may well be that designs were supplied by artists more or less distinguished. See also:Ghiberti and See also:Donatello may have had a hand in the cartoons for the windows of the Duomo at See also:Florence; but it is not to any sculptor that we can give the entire See also:credit of design so absolutely in the spirit of colour decoration. The employment of artists not connected with glass design would go far to explain the great difference of See also:Italian glass from that of other countries. The 14th-century work at See also:Assisi is more correctly described as " Trecento than as Gothic, and the " Quattrocento " windows at Florence are as different as could be from Perpendicular work. One compares them instinctively with Italian paintings, not with glass elsewhere. And so with the 15th-century Italian glass. The superb 16th-century windows of William of See also:Marseilles at See also:Arezzo, in which painting is carried to the furthest point possible See also:short of sacrificing the pure quality of glass, are more according to contemporary French technique. Both French and Italian influence may be traced in See also:Spanish glass (See also:Avila, See also:Barcelona, See also:Burgos, See also:Granada, See also:Leon, See also:Seville, See also:Toledo). Some of it is said to have been executed in France.

If so it must have been done to Spanish See also:

order. The coarse effectiveness of the design, the strength of the colour, the See also:general robustness of the art, are characteristically Spanish; and nowhere this See also:side of the See also:Pyrenees do we find detail on a See also:scale so enormous. We have passed by, in following the progressive course of craftsmanship, some forms of design, See also:peculiar to no one See also:period but very characteristic of glass. The " See also:quarry window," barely referred to, its See also:diamond-shaped or oblong panes painted, richly bordered, relieved by bosses of coloured See also:ornament often heraldic, is of See also:constant occurrence. Entire windows, too, were from first to last given up to See also:heraldry. The " See also:Jesse window " occurs in every See also:style. According to the fashion of the time the " See also:Stem of Jesse " burst out into conventional foliage, See also:vine branches or arbitrary scrollwork. It appealed to the designer by the See also:scope it gave for freedom of design. He found vent, again, for fantastic See also:imagination in the See also:representation of the "Last See also:Judgment," to which the See also:west window was commonly devoted. And there are other schemes in which he delighted; but this is not the place to dwell upon them. The glass of the 17th century does not See also:count for much. Some of the best in See also:England is the work of the Dutch van Linge See also:family (Wadham and Balliol Colleges, See also:Oxford).

What glass painting came to in the 18th century is nowhere better to be seen than in the great west window of the ante-chapel at New College, Oxford. That is all Sir See also:

Joshua See also:Reynolds and the best See also:china painter of his day could do between them. The very. See also:idea of employing a china painter shows how entirely the art of the glass painter-had died out. It re-awoke in England with the Gothic revival of the 16th century; and the Gothic revival determined the direction modern glass should take. See also:Early Victorian doings are interesting only as marking the steps of recovery (cf. the work of T.Willement in the See also:choir of the See also:Temple See also:church; of See also:Ward and See also:Nixon, lately removed from the See also:south See also:transept of Westminster See also:Abbey; of dense enough, produced potmetal more heavily charged with colour. This was wilfully streaked, mottled and quasi-accidentally varied; some of it was opalescent; much of it was more like See also:agate or See also:onyx than jewels. Other forms of See also:American enterprise were : the making of into flakes; the ruckling it; the shaping it in a molten See also:state, or the pulling it out of shape. It takes an artist of some reserve to make judicious use of glass like this. La Farge and L. C. See also:Tiffany have turned it to beautiful See also:account; but even they have put it to purposes more pictorial than it can properly fulfil. The design it calls for is a severely abstract See also:form of ornament verging upon restrained from self-expression.

Moreover, the recognition of the artistic position of craftsmen in general makes it possible for a See also:

man to devote himself to glass without sinking to the See also:rank of a mechanic; and artists begin to realize the scope glass offers glass in lumps, to be chipped them. What they lack as yet is experience in their See also:craft, and Examples of Important See also:Historical Stained Glass. There are remains of the earliest known glass: in France—at Le Mans, See also:Chartres, Chalons-sur-See also:Marne, See also:Angers and See also:Poitiers cathedrals, the abbey church of St See also:Denis and at St Remi, See also:Reims: in England—at See also:York See also:minster (fragments): in Germany—at See also:Augsburg and See also:Strassburg cathedrals: in See also:Austria—in the cloisters of Heiligen Kreuz. The following is a classified See also:list of some of the most characteristic and important windows, omitting for the most part isolated examples, and giving by preference the names of churches where there is a See also:fair amount of glass remaining; the See also:country in which at each period the art throve best is put first.

End of Article: GLASS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GLASITES, or SANDEMANIANS 		[next]
GLASS (O.E. glees, cf. Ger. Glas, perhaps derived f...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries