Stained Glass

Towards the last quarter of the 13th century, a greyer mood seems to have descended on our glass-painters. It may be that they were required to give more light in the churches, or that the supply of ruby glass, always somewhat precarious, gave out. Whatever the reason, there developed in the latter part of the 13th and early 14th centuries the technique generally known as grisaille painting. It implies the use of large areas of clear quarries painted in black or brown enamel with simple and unobtrusive patterns of foliage. Grisaille work at this period is of two kinds: it may consist of geometrical patterns of quarries, often outlined in coloured bands, on which are painted designs of foliage, often in imitation of a trellised plant, or it may be used in combination with subject medallions. The best instance of this latter method is perhaps seen in the windows of the Chapter House at York, which, though now much decayed and obscured, are supreme ex amples of grisaille work.

These characteristics of 13th century stained glass are gen eral wherever the main stream of Gothic art (q.v.) flowed. Distinctions of nationality need not, and indeed cannot, be made. In point of time the medallion windows at Canterbury perhaps come first ; then, closest in time and style, come the similar windows at Sens ; Chartres comes next and is very impressive in its quantity and scale ; at Bourges and Rouen there is glass very similar to that of Chartres ; the glass at Lincoln and Beverley in England must be placed somewhere before the middle of the century. But back again in France we find a more distinctive school developing in Paris during the second half of the century, in connection with the building of the Sainte Chapelle and the extension of Notre Dame. The distinguishing feature of this latter style was the general use of a background of trellis work in blue and red glass, which, in the mass, has a rather un pleasant purple effect. This style scarcely penetrated to England, though an example may be seen in the east window of the south transept of Christ Church, Oxford.

Fourteenth Century.

Midway in the 14th century comes the Black Death, and this catastrophe marks the end of the pure Gothic tradition, in this as in all other arts. Its most marked effect was perhaps reflected in the break-up of the inter-community of Christian art. No doubt other forces, economic or political, were operative too; but the disorganization caused by the Black Death among artists and craftsmen all over Europe resulted in the formation of more limited and more local schools. On ward from 135o the styles of England, France, Austria and Ger many diverge more and more from each other. And within all these countries the local differentiations between various centres are often very marked. The disorganization not only affected tra ditions, but even more so technique. It seems that the ability to manufacture some of the brilliantly coloured kinds of glass was lost at this time, never fully to be recovered until the 19th century. There was also a Cistercian ban on pictorial windows,

which no doubt had some influence in this direction, during the 14th century. But the glass-painters were not slow to react to the new situation; the invention of yellow stain early in the century had provided them with one new resource; and the growing taste for line design, as witnessed in the grisaille glass already men tioned, led to the full exploitation of clear white glass. When once the use of white glass had been forced on the glass-painters, its aesthetic value was appreciated. It may be also that the re sultant effect on the lighting of the churches was appreciated, and that the glass-painters began consciously to aim at a clearer effect. Architectural developments kept pace with, and even aided, this changing colour-scale. The windows grew higher and wider, the tracery more intricate, demanding of the glass-painter an effect that was not too heavy for the expanse to be filled, or too clumsy for its delicacy.

Further developments were due not so much to economic factors as to a change in spirit. The i4th century saw the full emergence of that movement towards humanism which had found its protagonist early in the 13th century in St. Francis of Assisi. The tendency towards naturalism which we have already seen creeping into the decorative motives of stained glass was a far wider phenomenon, and involved all art and literature. The new spirit of Franciscan naturalism only manifested itself in plastic art by slow degrees, but it culminated in the Renaissance. It involved a transformation of Christian iconography, and the glass-painter, along with other artists, now deserted the fixed types of early Gothic art for the living types before him. Sub-, jects are now given a contemporary setting; for his figures, his costumes and his architecture the painter looked around him and found models before his eyes. A playful freedom of line grad ually developed ; as the brush-stroke grew lighter, it grew easier. The features are rendered with more grace and verve; there is almost an excess of curve and curl in eyes and lips and locks. An individualization of the features begins to creep in; we begin to feel the presence of real people, friends and contemporaries of the glass-painter, no longer abstracted, no longer idealized. The folds of the garments lose their angular restlessness and sweep and sway in graceful curves. We get, too, the entry of fashion. The garments in the 12th and 13th centuries are formal and of classical derivation, except in so far as they are ecclesiastical or military. They continue to be somewhat non-committal during the first half of the 14th century, but with the growth of naturalistic treatment and the revival of figure-subjects we get the unmis takable evidences of contemporary fashions. The representation of costume then becomes a matter of course, and is of great assistance in the precise dating of stained glass.