Stained Glass

Introduction

The term stained glass can refer to the material of coloured glass or the craft of working with it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term "stained glass" has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, cathedrals, chapels, and other significant buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. This paper answers the question of, "What factors led to the rise and decline in stained glass art popularity?" It explains the ways in which the factors that lead up to the rise in popularity for stained glass art are surprisingly also those which caused stained glass popularity to decline. These factors are proven to be aesthetics, education, architecture, religion, social class, and politics. (Theophilus, 13-15)

Analysis

From the 10th or 11th century, when stained glass began to flourish as an art, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential product of glass manufacture. Glass was usually coloured by adding metallic oxides to the glass while in a molten state in a clay pot over a furnace. Glass coloured in this way was known as pot metal. Copper oxides were added to produce green, cobalt for blue, and gold was added to produce red glass. Much modern red glass is produced using ingredients less expensive than gold and giving a brighter red of a more vermilion shade. As Raguin, a curator and art historian at the College of the Holy Cross said, stained glass is an "architectural art." (Theophilus, 13-15)

Perhaps more than any other type of visual art, a history of stained glass art can be clearly and succinctly described through the variations in the forms of architecture. Stained glass came into popularity in Europe during the time of Romanesque architecture -a setting for stained glass, which was far from ideal. As mentioned earlier, this type of architecture, which preceded the Gothic forms, included thick walls and small window openings with rounded tops. Therefore, because nature of small windows is to let in a diminutive amount of light, there had to be as little obstruction of this light source as possible. This did not conveniently allow for deep colours in the stained glass, such as the predominately used red and blue colours. (Elizabeth, 01-07)

The answer to this predicament came with the arrival of Gothic architecture, which was set apart from other types of classical architecture with its distinct feature of pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and soaring walls. As mentioned earlier, the Romanesque architecture prior to this was comprised of thick walls encompassing relatively small windows that did not allow for much use of stained glass. Suger, the abbot of Saint-Denis Basilica and a founder of Gothic architecture, was key to setting things aright. (Elizabeth, 01-07)

He was the first to alter the former small-windowed version of architecture by breaking down the walls of the side chapels to allow more light into church. Although he considered himself to be only improving ...