Stained Glass History

There is a long history when it comes to the history of stained glass. What first started out as being in the homes of the wealthy Roman homes became a trend that others would place in their homes and businesses later on.

 

 

Stained Glass’s History

 

Stained glass art appeared long before people record history. However it is believed that stained glass was used by wealthy ancient Romans to decorate their homes making windows and stained glass doors. Stained glass became being considered an art in the fourth century. Christians used it in churches to express their religion.

 

 

Alternatively there are historians who revealed that that pre-Christian civilization used painted stained glass in their rites. Even if we will never know for sure who invented the stained glass, we know that it spread at the same time as the spread of Christianity.

 

The Gothic civilization began in the 12th Century and stained glass turned out to be an indispensable element in the design of their cathedrals and churches. It all began with the building of St. Denis Cathedral (France). Stained glass was used to convey light in its believer’s minds. Regrettably, during the French Revolution, most part of St. Denis Cathedral’s antique glass was ruined. However there are a few pieces left and even a few complete glass panes.

 

Initially gothic stained glass was art was characterized by strong lines. When Renaissance began, this style changed. During the Renaissance the artist represented a lot more details and the colors they used added realism to their stained glass designs.

 

 

Windows started to be considered artworks instead of simple structural elements. Some important elements like lead lines stopped being used. The original stained glass style almost disappeared. Learn more about the history of kilns here.

 

Since most of the stained glass was used by the Catholic Church, most of it was destroyed by King Henry the Eight after his conflict with the Pope. Both stained glass windows and stained glass workshops were ruined during his reign. Still, the religious conflict was not the only reason of the stained glass decline.

 

The Baroque period that followed had a penchant for detailed fresco which only required clear glass. This is why most of the remaining windows degraded and only a few new ones were produced. In the late 1700 Gothic style came back in fashion and same did the stained glass windows.

At first, artist tried to paint directly on the glass, but eventually they began reproducing the original lead frames of the initial Gothic period. However the artist forgotten the initial techniques therefore they couldn’t perform exact reproduction of the gothic stained glass windows.

 

Nowadays, stained glass is used in many purposes but the main activity of stained glass artist is restoration of the old stained glass windows. Stained glass is also used in front doors, by both rich and poor people.

 

It became extremely popular among the Gothic churches with the churches then using a number of different pictures in the windows of the church. For a while during the reformation the churches refrained from using the stained glass but it later returned with a vengeance.

It appears that in the early days people realized that they could take metallic salts and oxides to the glass that this would then create colors that they would use to decorate the glass on widows. The gold color would create a cranberry color and the cobalt made blues and silver would make yellows and gold colors. The copper color would create a green color on the glass.

It was later discovered that the Romans would use the stained glass technique in their villas as well as in Pompeii in as early as the first century AD. Once the Christians begun building their churches they used this same technique to create massive windows that would feature a number of designs that would resemble various scenes from the bible.

 

In the year 313 AD. the history of stained glass continued and was then considered to be that of a art form. It was later discovered that the earliest piece of stained glass that could be found was that of the head of Christ that was discovered to be from the 10th century. When the growth of churches begun so did the more popular stained glass techniques grow as well. They were later tied to who was the more rapid growth of the churches and stained glass.

It was later decided that in the era of the Romans the Byzantine style was actually developed by the Arabs. The windows in this era were small and held images that were in the color of reds and blues rather than all the other colors that were later used in creating images for Churches and their windows. The images would also be surrounded by the color of white and were kept small for the purpose to allow as much natural light through the window if at all possible.

In around the year of 1100 AD a monk by the name of Theophilus would then use his methods to let other people know his techniques that were used when creating these windows and the technique was hardly ever changed.

It was then in the 13th century that the Gothic churches begun to use the stained glass on their churches that the whole stained glass had actually really begun to take off. It was the Abbot of Abbey of St. Denis by the name of Suger who was the actual first to build his church of the Gothic design with the stained glass windows that attracted everyone's attention to use the same design ideas in their churches as well.

 

Since the Gothic churches had larger windows and therefore allowed for more direct sunlight to flow through the windows the larger stained glass images were then used. It was his theory that big beautiful objects would lift men's souls closer to God and therefore his stained glass windows were big and beautiful.

In the Renaissance years, the direction was led in that of 3D perspective. It was then that actual pictures on the windows of stained glass would actually look as if the picture was coming to life. It was then that the windows would be painted in white and heavy colors would then be added and lines would then be made to the paintings to make them appear more 3 dimensional.

 

It was then that artists were hired from the wealthy to add these details to their private homes that more homes would be displayed with the stained glass visible to the public.

During the Reformation era there was widespread destruction of the stained glass windows due to the intolerance of images resembling a religious image. From the 16th century and for about 200 years after there was no tolerance for these images and stained glass became a thing of the past.

It was then in the 19th century that England started to revival with the Gothic churches and begun creating massive churches with the images in them. It was then that the Gothic churches in America made it a requirement to have these windows that America begun seeing this churches with these stained glass windows as well.

In 1879 a painter by the name of John LaFarge who was a American painter would then copyright and protect his concept of the opalescent glass however it was another painter by the name of Louis Comfort Tiffany who make it as popular as it is. He would then create a new way of creating stained glass and would incorporate it into what is now popular and known as a Tiffany lampshade.

 

These became so increasingly popular that the wealthy would have to have one in their own homes. He would go on to create wonderful masterpieces that everyone would want to have in their homes. This would stay popular well into the 20th century however because of the toxic chemicals that are used when creating the opalescent there is few artists that will use it today.

It was after World War One that individuals would become more interested in the non Gothic church windows and stained glass became even more popular and it would become even more interesting to artists after the World War Two.

 

Since this time however it has become even more popular with craft vendors from all over using stained glass to create other craft forms such as window decorations that can be hung in a number of windows and painters begun using this to create their own paintings that would be used to sell to create their own income. Now days, instead of lead came, foil is used.