ARTS & CRAFTSARCHITECTURAL

DESIGN(STAINED GLASS)C.1100- PRESENT

Hope Helmer

Art Appreciation 1301

INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS

Frank LLoyd Wright Louis Tiffany Ludwig Schaffrath Johannes Schreitter Ed Carpenter Brian Clarke Dale Chihuly

HISTORY: EARLY GLASS Stained Glass began as an Christian art form. It’s not possible to pin down the origins of

stained glass art. Early glass artists had been inspired by the

developments of the goldsmith, the cloisonné enameller, and the tradition of tile mosaics

While there are records of colored glass being used by St. Gregory in St. Martin of Tours in the sixth century the evidence of stained glass windows is very scarce.

The spread of Christianity throughout Europe, however, would make stained glass the prominent art form of the new millennium.

EARLY GLASS

Saint Cecelia

GOTHIC ERA Innovations in architecture came to be known

as Gothic. Gothic Architecture made it possible for a large

portion of the wall space of the cathedral to be filled with glass.

St. Denis was consecrated June 11, 1144,and served as a standard for new designs in stained glass that would eventually replace those of the smaller Romanesque windows.

The windows of St. Denis were mostly destroyed during the French Revolution

The fragments and entire windows, however can be found throughout Europe in churches and private collections.

GOTHIC ERA The explosion of Gothic architecture

soon after St. Denis would serve as the foundation of the art of stained glass.

Gothic architecture was a experiment that lead Europe out of the middle ages and allowed medieval glaziers to produce visions of paradise with their glass.

Northern Europe inevitably became the backdrop for the development of large walls of glass in cathedrals.

GOTHIC ERA

Baptism of Christ, Wimpfenim Tal , 1270

THE RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION During the first three decades of the fifteenth

century, as the Middle Ages began to wane, the high Gothic style of stained glass continued to grow

By the mid 1400's, however, the new realism in painting by people like Jan Van Eyck, and eventually the great Renaissance painters, led to a decline of traditional stained glass.

Painters now became glass designers, and their attempts to portray minute details did not translate into the Gothic style with its bold lead lines and strong figures.

Glaziers began to imitate fresco and easel painting, which gradually began to obscure the beautiful translucency of the glass, the reason of Gothic windows.

THE RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION The development of linear perspective is evident

in the use of architectural settings with receding columns and decorative detail.

Secular scenes became more prominent, and with a disdain for the Gothic cathedral architecture

Lead lines that interfered with the natural designs of the painter were eliminated, until windows became paintings on glass.

Advances in enamel paints made bright and colorful scenes possible, but the power of the glass itself was lost. Because of the unaesthetic appeal of too much paint on glass, painters turned their eyes elsewhere, the quality of glass painting declined, and stained glass basically became a lost art.

THE RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION

OPALESCENT GLASS, TIFFANY AND LA FARGE

Opalescent glass reflects as well as refracts light. The milky and swirling mixture of colors in opalescent glass was a perfect compliment to the marble and stone interiors of most neo-classical structures.

While opalescent windows let in less light than traditional windows, electricity provided the key for lighting the dark neoclassical interiors filled with finely carved statuary and elaborate fixtures.

The opalescent glass designers relied heavily on statuary forms with figures standing in niches or surrounded by columns.

OPALESCENT GLASS John La Farge was the first designer to

incorporate opalescent glass into a window and received a patent for his new product on February 24, 1880.

Red and White Peonies by John LaFarge, c. 1885 

GOTHIC REVIVAL With a renewed interest in Gothic

architecture came a new appreciation of stained glass.

the art of the windows was a curious combination of the old and the new.

the medieval technique of constructing a window out of a mosaic of small pieces of colored glass and using enamel paint only as shading for the drawing became more accepted

GOTHIC REVIVAL The Gothic Revival was a movement

that enveloped many styles. While many designers labored over recreating medieval motifs most glass artists infused their work with a combination of Renaissance and contemporary ideals that produced a wholly new art form.

Most importantly, the rediscovery of the power of glass during this time revived the "lost art" of stained glass and inspired glass artists to experiment with new forms of glass and design.

GOTHIC REVIVAL

Lady With Fruit by William Morris, c. 1870

Window With Coat of Arms, English c.1845 

CONTEMPORARY Stained glass of the twentieth century is

best characterized by a lack of any distinctive style

Many artists simply copied the windows and styles that had already existed, but by mid-century bold innovations were carried out by famous artists whose themes were often secular in nature.

Matisse, Braque, Leger and others broke the traditional figurative mold of earlier times with their abstract and semi-abstract designs, works that would become art in their own right.

CONTEMPORARY The small stained glass studios of today,

often dependent upon restoration commissions for survival, continue to experiment with new techniques and designs.

Similar in scope to the Romantic Movement of the nineteenth century, a longing for transcendence from an impersonal, mechanical world has begun to take place in modern society.

With a desire to travel beyond the average-everydayness of contemporary life, stained glass will again provide both the saint and sinner with a vision and a refuge.

CONTEMPORARY

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Prairie circle

LOUIS TIFFANY Autumn Landscape, 1923–24

Magnolias and Irises, ca. 1908

LUDWIG SCHAFFRATH

Labyrinth - 1994

Public Swimming Pool,1973

JOHANNES SCHREITER

Church, Langen,W. Germany, 1985 Visionsfenster Prof. Dr.

1997

ED CARPENTER

Golden Springs,2004

BRIAN CLARKESpindles,2007

DALE CHIHULY

Baskets

Persians

WORKS CITED http://www.chihuly.com/ http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/

Tiffany/index.html Moor, Andrew. Architectural Glass. 1st.

1. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1989. Print.

http://riceflan.home.mindspring.com/The_History_of_Stained_Gla.html