Stained Glass

Colored glass used for making decorative windows and other objects through which light passes, created since early Christian times. It was not an important art until about the 12th century.

Fragments of stained glass have been recovered from excavations of early Byzantine churches and the two Northumbrian Middle Saxon monastaries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. The first complete surviving stained glass windows date to the 12th century, when Abbot Suger, in his design of St Denis Priory, made a statement fundamental to Gothic architecture: that the light of God should flow into his house through large glass-filled windows. From this time onwards centres of glass production flourished in Europe, in towns like Chartres, Bourges, Paris, Canterbury, York and Lincoln. The basic elements of a stained glass window are pieces of glass fused with colour individually set into lead frames, which are then combined into a design held together by solid lead bars or armatures. The production technique was improved with time, although this was at the expense of aesthetic quality. Early Gothic windows have a rich, carpet-like mosaic quality, enhanced by strong colouring, particularly reds and blues, and a descriptive, narrative quality engendered by the many small circular medallions illustrating bible stories in the main windows. The more open, larger windows of later gothic buildings encouraged a fashion for full length canopied saints surrounded by prominent borders and heraldic motifs. This was combined with a new desire for brighter and lighter windows affected by natural backgrounds, and the invention of silver grisaille and pale yellow glass (popular for hair) in the 14th century. By the Renaissance period stained glass was treated much like a painter’s canvas, as a medium for full-scale graphic art depicting scenes and events.