GLASS STAINING AND GLASS PAINTING, the art of producing pictures on glass with vitrifiable colors; but a common ex tension of the meaning is to include all the make and design of ornamental glass windows. Originally there was but one method of mak ing these, and that was to produce the pattern in outline with frames, into the grooves of which pieces of colored glass or of stained glass were fitted. In the Moslem East these frames were of plaster, or rarely of marble slabs pierced with openings. In Europe, since the 12th century, these frames have been of lead, rolled or drawn into what are called came:, that is, bars of an I section, the two grooves holding the glass firmly. Modern chemistry has so improved the art of glass stain ing that large pictures may now be produced on single sheets of glass, but nowhere have such pictures been successful in an artistic sense. In the original painted glass windows the pictures resembled tables of mosaic work, in which there was no attempt at shading or modification of the tone. What is perhaps the earliest known application of colored glass to window decora tion, in Europe, is that in the monastery of Tegernsee, in Upper Bavaria, which was secu larized in 1802, and is now a private residence. The windows of this structure, executed in the latter half of the 10th century, like all the first attempts, were only tasteful arrangements of colored glass in a translucent mosaic.
In the early part of the 13th century the mosaic patterns gave way to more elaborate de signs, not only in beautiful arabesques, but even in pictorial composition. In all these the figures were composed of pieces of colored glass combined with marvelous skill and taste. The work of shading and making so-called half-tints was not attempted; but an effect not dissimilar was got by painting in opaque pig ment upon the glass and breaking up this painted surface into patchings and spots as when an artist draws in crayon or charcoal. The finest English examples of this early mo saic work are to be found in the cathedrals of Canterbury, Salisbury and Lincoln. In the 14th century the art of shading was advanced by re moving certain portions of the colored surface. The first period of the art reached the culmi nating point in the 15th century, but with the passing of Gothic architecture, glass painting lost its artistic spirit. Subjects in which were
arranged a multitude of personages with all the elaborate artifices of pictorial composition; buildings showing complex linear perspective,• foreshortened figures; the play of light and shade — all this was attempted to be exhibited in painted windows. It soon became apparent that the true art was lost, and though windows continued to be painted, only a few artists ac quired celebrity. Perhaps the best examples of the 15th century period are the windows of the Cologne Cathedral.
About 1600, Bernhard von Linge, an artist from the Netherlands, residing in England, and who may be considered the father of the mod ern art of glass staining, established a school in London, whose influence is evident in the work of the present day. Francis Eginton (1737-1805), a native of England, accomplished much to restore the art during the 18th cen tury. Among his numerous works, all of which are remarkable for brilliancy of coloring and delicacy of execution, are The Banquet of the Queen of Sheba> (a copy from Hamilton); two (from Sir Joshua Rey nolds) ; Bearing the Cross' (from , Morales); and The Soul of a Child' (from Peters). Other famous artists of this period were Jouffrey and Baumgartner. The Renais sance in glass painting was contemporaneous with the revival of Gothic architecture in the beginning of the 19th century. Four German artists, Mohn, Scheinert, Ligm and Frank, were prominent as glass stainers during the century. In 1850, through the generous assistance of King Louis of Bavaria, a school was founded at Munich under the direction of Gartner and Hess, the latter a well-known historical painter, which obtained a world-wide celebrity. Still, however, the purists in Gothic art, and those who were most concerned in the Gothic revival would have none of this glass of the early 19th century. It was seen that the smooth and clear modern glass would never do; and rough, partly opaque, flawed and bubbled glass was prepared on purpose. This material, known as and as °cathedral') glass, and by other names, allowed of a far more decorative effect.