The principles which William Morris established and followed give us an adequate criterion for the criticism of modern stained glass. It is sad to confess how little these principles have been followed in England itself. There is no longer any vital contact between the glass-painters and the significant artists of the day. And in all directions there is a relapse into a servile and lifeless imitation of mediaeval mannerisms, due to a natural disregard for those self-sacrificing ordinances which Morris observed. It seems that only the complete filling of every window in every old church will ever terminate this atrocious vandalism. There might be some satisfaction in the prospect if it were certain that that would put a stop to what is known in the trade as "period work"; but these pastiches of the art of other epochs find their way into practically every new church that is built, and the only hope of any reform would seem to lie in the final triumph of those principles for which William Morris stood. For these prin ciples are not altogether dead; they have merely migrated, and on the Continent, especially in Germany, there is a school of glass painting which is not only modern in intention, but is inspired by all that is vital and significant in modern art.
Like the stained glass of William Morris, this modern continen tal stained glass is both religious and secular. The work of Jan Thorn-Prikker and of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff has given to the symbols and images of Christianity a new intensity and realism for which there is no parallel this side of the Renaissance; and the abstract designs in which these glass-painters have experi mented seem to open up infinite possibilities for this art of pure colour and light. These artists work under the direction of Gott
fried Heinersdorff for the Berlin firm of Puhl and Wagner. In France, interesting experimental work is being done, for ex ample, by MM. Maumejean of Paris and Hendaye. Stained glass, which dominates all other arts in this matter of colour, would seem to be peculiarly fitted for those experiments in abstract design and harmony which have been distinctive of a certain phase of modern art. The difficulty in all contemporary glass painting of a non-ecclesiastical kind, is not so much to extend the possibilities of the art in the direction of design and actuality, but rather to find a function for the art itself. For that we must look, with whatever faith we can summon, to those manifesta tions of civic and commercial enterprise for which our age is dis tinguished. At Hagen, in Germany, the railway station has fine modern glass by Jan Thorn-Prikker; in Paris, the offices of a newspaper, L'Intransigeant, have windows with appropriate de signs by Henri Navarre executed in leaded glass by Gaetan Jean nin. But these are isolated instances of what seems to be the only chance of a revival of the art commensurate with its possi bilities. There is nothing impossible in such a revival; the tech nical and material resources of the art are greater than they have ever been. All that is lacking is the desire; and to foster this we cannot do better than instil a wider consciousness of the unique and unrivalled beauties of the art as it has existed in the past. (See PAINTING; GRISAILLE ; INTERIOR DECORATION ; MOSAIC; HERALDRY ; GOTHIC ART ; RENAISSANCE; GENRE; RELIGIOUS AND MEMORIAL ARCHITECTURE; GLASS.)