It’s been called “a living art” in one of my old editions of the Britannica.
William S. Ellis in the December 1993 issue of National Geographic wrote: “Of all the glass arts, none is more enduring than stained glass, incorporating the glorious union of sunlight and colours. Abbot Sugar, who in the 12th century rebuilt the basilica of St. Denis outside Paris, was among the first to recognize the ability of glass to brighten the mood and perception, to allow us to move outside our physical world, ‘urging us onward from the material to the immaterial.’”
Whenever I visit a church for the first time, I’m immediately attracted to the light that streams through the stained glass windows high above the pews. William Ellis described the process in this National Geographic article that was condensed for the January 1995 issue of the Reader’s Digest magazine. He says that the actual process really hasn’t changed throughout the centuries. “Different metallic oxides are added to the basic mixture to provide colour. Yellow can be created by adding silver; an exquisite gold-pink glass contains real gold. Pieces of the coloured glass are cut to fit a pattern–say, a depiction of a saint for a church window–and then joined with the use of lead cames, or rods, soldered together. The process demands not only the vision of art but also craftsmanship.”
In this very old encyclopedia, it says: “As early as the 13th century a yellow stain was sometimes added to the glass by burning into it a silver salt which was painted on. In the 16th century a method of applying colored enamels to plain glass was introduced, producing sometimes pleasing effects but never rivaling the results of the regular method.
“The dominant color is always a primary–red, blue, or yellow. In early glass it is a rich red or blue, and the windows are quite dark. In later glass it is yellow, which admits more light and is more appropriate for modern churches, where a greater use is made of books.” In very early churches, the stained glass was an instructional tool, a way to teach the congregation about the Scriptures.
“The pattern may be purely geometrical, but usually there are figures of people. In windows near the eye level the figures may be small and arranged in separate scenes–’medallions.’ When looked at in order they tell a story … Such windows may have large figures instead of medallions. Windows high from the floor always have large figures, if any.
“To make a window the designer makes full-sized drawings, showing each piece of glass and its color … He then cuts pieces of glass to fit the drawing, paints each piece which requires paint, ‘fires’ these in a kiln which turns the paint to an enamel, leads the pieces together, and secures the whole fabric in the opening.
“Well-done stained glass is a great art, and gives a church a feeling of majestic grandeur and mystery.”
A friend of mine once made me a stained glass image of a parrot. I have always had a fondness for the creature that inhabits the rain-forests of Brazil. You can take courses that allow you to create your own stained glass.
William S. Ellis was reminded “…of a colleague who once wrote of Chartres Cathedral and its magnificent windows, referring to the medieval French church as ‘a vast prayer in glass.’” Ellis remembered the stained glass in a church in the Tidewater area of Virginia where he grew up. He called it “opalescent blue.” He writes: “In the church of my childhood, there is nothing to compare with that, but I think that this stained glass before me now is, at the least, a moment of grace.”
You can bring a little stained glass into your home. Sun-catchers hung in windows can produce some of the same effect.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said: “People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed if there is a light within.”
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Don Jackson
