Stained glass: the Gothic Revival and beyond

At the beginning of the 19th century, stained glass was effectively a dead art, having fallen out of fashion over two centuries before. But its fortunes were soon to change. Many Victorian designers were uneasy with the ‘vulgar effects’ of mass production, and began to look backwards into history for different ways of doing things. Medieval stained glass was a good fit for this nostalgic project. Its methods were relearned and championed by the Gothic Revivalists (admirers of medieval Gothic architecture) and others, including leading Arts and Crafts designer William Morris. In the 20th century this new take on tradition developed into more abstract work that was far more obviously modern – and a lot less like the windows that had first inspired the Victorians.

In Victorian England, society was dominated by industrialisation. The country underwent two seismic changes during this period: the rapid replacement of craft manufacture with mass production, and the depopulation of the countryside, as people flocked to the cities to take up work in the new factories. Many reformers, writers, artists and designers began to publicly question the impact of this form of ‘progress’, and to search for alternatives. This interest in developing a different kind of social and aesthetic template had its roots in the 18th century. In that period, new styles of writing and architecture had begun to focus on the idealisation of nature and an interest in returning to the simpler and more ‘honest’ values of the past.

One of these new styles became known as Gothic Revival. Applied mainly in the fields of architecture, interior design and painting, it was largely based on forms and patterns used in the late medieval period (about 1250 – 1500). Artists combined the serious study of historical examples with a more fanciful vision of medieval chivalry and romance. One of the core expressions of Gothic Revival was a widespread interest in the religious art of the medieval church, including stained glass, which had fallen out of favour centuries before. The effects of the Reformation (the 16th-century reform of the Roman Catholic church which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches) had gradually steered the arts away from a focus on religious subjects. Over time decorated windows had become increasingly secular (non-religious) and, as a result of technical developments, more like ‘paintings on glass’ than traditional lead-sectioned stained glass.

The popularity of Gothic Revival in the 19th century led to the building of a huge number of new churches, most filled with large and colourful ‘story-telling’ windows. Artists and scientists worked together to revive the techniques of medieval glass production and decoration, including the manufacture of pot-metal glass. Pot-metal glass, with colour running right through it, is achieved by mixing metal oxides into molten glass in a pot, and hadn’t been used much since the late 16th century. It took many attempts for Victorian glass technicians to understand its properties and recreate it, but once pot-metal was finally put into production in the early 19th century, its rich colours meant it was used widely by artists working in the Gothic Revival style.

Thomas Willement, active in the first half of the 19th century, was one of the first artists to embrace the new developments in the design and production of stained glass. As Artist in Stained Glass to Queen Victoria, Willement made armorial (heraldic) glass for St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and pioneered a return to the true principles of medieval craftsmanship. Informed by his early training as a glazier and plumber (a job that relied on a person’s skills in working with lead), he used pot-metal to introduce colour into his work and lead to emphasise the main outlines of the design, and to join the pieces of glass together.

Whereas in the 18th century, a common technique had been to paint on to clear glass with enamel paints, designers such as Willemont and others instigated a move away from this method. Through studying surviving medieval windows, they came to appreciate the simple beauty of traditional stained-glass composition and the way it builds up like a mosaic. One of the leading Gothic Revival glass designers, active from the mid-19th century onwards, was Nathaniel Westlake. His famous piece designed specifically for an exhibition of stained glass held at the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) in 1864, The Vision of Beatrice, offered an influential blend of traditional method with a modern, noticeably more fluid composition. A designer for, and then partner at the glass firm Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, he created many stained glass schemes for churches, as well as a celebrated set of windows for Mary Datchelor Girls’ School in Camberwell, south London (1896).

‘New glass’ and the Arts and Crafts movement

The cultural promotion of medieval stained glass in Victorian high society no doubt had a huge influence on the work of the celebrated designer William Morris. A man who began his career looking for more ‘honest’ forms of art, Morris was drawn to the intense colours and bold composition of historical church windows. In 1861, he established the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. – as well as supplying windows as part of interior schemes for a number of England’s new ecclesiastical buildings, the firm also took private commissions for decorated windows, and was instrumental in the reintroduction of stained glass into domestic design.

Rather than designing for stained glass himself, Morris turned to the talents of his friends who were painters (all of whom were either members of or influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood): Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Philip Webb and Edward Burne-Jones. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’s first domestic glass commission was for a series of windows for Harden Hall in Bingley, West Yorkshire. Designed by Rossetti in around 1862, these windows tell the story of St George and the Dragon, and were soon followed by others that built into an extensive repertoire of designs. Morris brought to this enterprise a detailed understanding of process, and vigilance against pastiche. Other Arts and Crafts glass artists, such as Selwyn Image and Carl Almquist, shared Morris’ dislike of referencing medieval windows in an overly literal way, and rejected the ‘heavy approach’ of the more traditional Gothic Revivalists.

The impetus in ‘new glass’ created by the Arts and Crafts movement continued on into the 20th century. Christopher Whall was an influential figure at the end of the Victorian period. He was one of the first designers to make use of the new ‘slab’ glass – a material designed to emulate the luminosity and the irregular thickness and colouring of early medieval glass, invented by architect E.S. Prior in 1889. Whall was also the first teacher of stained glass at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. Whall’s daughter, Veronica, also became a glass designer and, in 1922, a co-director of Whall & Whall, a firm that went on to produce work for ecclesiastical buildings including the cathedrals of Carlisle and Leicester.

Other important names in the early 20th century include Mabel Esplin and Harry Clarke. Esplin, an active member of the Women’s Suffrage movement, is mainly remembered for her largest commission: a series of windows for All Saint’s Cathedral in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in 1912. Clarke was Ireland’s most celebrated stained glass artist, with a signature style based on subtly elongated figures that nodded towards Impressionism.

After the Second World War, the gradual acceleration away from realism put a significant distance between new designers and the work of their Arts and Crafts predecessors. Striking examples of this newly abstract mid-century aesthetic are offered by the work of designer John Piper and his ‘creative translator’, glass-maker Patrick Reyntiens. Together Piper and Reyntiens revolutionised architectural glass in Britain, opening up new possibilities for the artists who followed. Their projects include windows for the Baptistry at Coventry Cathedral (1961) and Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral (1965 – 67).

Stained Glass Windows: Medieval Art Form and Religious Meditation

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• M.A., Anthropology, University of Iowa
• B.Ed., Illinois State University

Stained glass is transparent colored glass formed into decorative mosaics and set into windows, primarily in churches. During the art form’s heyday, between the 12th and 17th centuries CE, stained glass depicted religious tales from the Judeo-Christian Bible or secular stories, such as Chaucer’s Canterbury tales. Some of them also featured geometric patterns in bands or abstract images often based on nature.

Making Medieval stained glass windows for Gothic architecture was dangerous work performed by guild craftsmen who combined alchemy, nano-science, and theology. One purpose of stained glass is to serve as a source of meditation, drawing the viewer into a contemplative state.

Key Takeaways: Stained Glass

• Stained glass windows combine different colors of glass in a panel to make an image.
• The earliest examples of stained glass were done for the early Christian church in the 2nd–3rd centuries CE, although none of those survived.
• The art was inspired by Roman mosaics and illuminated manuscripts.
• The heyday of Medieval religious stained glass took place between the 12th and 17th centuries.
• Abbot Suger, who lived in the 12th century and reveled in blue colors representing the «divine gloom,» is considered the father of stained glass windows.

Definition of Stained Glass

Stained glass is made of silica sand (silicon dioxide) that is super-heated until it is molten. Colors are added to the molten glass by tiny (nano-sized) amounts of minerals—gold, copper, and silver were among the earliest coloring additives for stained glass windows. Later methods involved painting enamel (glass-based paint) onto sheets of glass and then firing the painted glass in a kiln.

Stained glass windows are a deliberately dynamic art. Set into panels on exterior walls, the different colors of glass react to the sun by glowing brightly. Then, colored light spills out from the frames and onto the floor and other interior objects in shimmering, dappled pools that shift with the sun. Those characteristics attracted the artists of the Medieval period.

History of Stained Glass Windows

Glass-making was invented in Egypt about 3000 BCE—basically, glass is super-heated sand. Interest in making glass in different colors dates to about the same period. Blue in particular was a prized color in Bronze Age Mediterranean trade in ingot glass.

Putting shaped panes of differently colored glass into a framed window was first used in early Christian churches during the second or third century CE—no examples exist but there are mentions in historical documents. The art may well have been an outgrowth of Roman mosaics, designed floors in elite Roman houses that were made up of squares pieces of rock of different colors. Glass fragments were used to make wall mosaics, such as the famous mosaic at Pompeii of Alexander the Great, which was made primarily of glass fragments. There are early Christian mosaics dated to the 4th century BCE in several places throughout the Mediterranean region.

By the 7th century, stained glass was used in churches throughout Europe. Stained glass also owes a great deal to the rich tradition of illuminated manuscripts, handmade books of Christian scripture or practices, made in Western Europe between about 500–1600 CE, and often decorated in richly colored inks and gold leaf. Some of the 13th century stained glass works were copies of illuminated fables.

How to Make Stained Glass

The process of making glass is described in a few existing 12th-century texts, and modern scholars and restorers have been using those methods to replicate the process since the early 19th century.

To make a stained glass window, the artist makes a full-sized sketch or «cartoon» of the image. The glass is prepared by combining sand and potash and firing it at temperatures between 2,500–3,000°F. While still molten, the artist adds a small amount of one or more metallic oxides. Glass is naturally green, and to get clear glass, you need an additive. Some of the main mixtures were:

• Clear: manganese
• Green or blue-green: copper
• Deep blue: cobalt
• Wine-red or violet: gold
• Pale yellow to deep orange or gold: silver nitrate (called silver stain)
• Grassy green: combination of cobalt and silver stain

The stained glass is then poured into flat sheets and allowed to cool. Once cooled, the artisan lays the pieces onto the cartoon and cracks the glass in rough approximations of the shape using a hot iron. The rough edges are refined (called «grozing») by using an iron tool to chip away the excess glass until the precise shape for the composition is produced.

Next, the edges of each of the panes are covered with «cames,» strips of lead with an H-shaped cross-section; and the cames are soldered together into a panel. Once the panel is complete, the artist inserts putty between the glass and cames to aid in waterproofing. The process can take from a few weeks to many months, depending on the complexity.

Gothic Window Shapes

The most common window shapes in Gothic architecture are tall, spear-shaped «lancet» windows and circular «rose» windows. Rose or wheel windows are created in a circular pattern with panels that radiate outwards. The largest rose window is at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a massive panel measuring 43 ft in diameter with 84 glass panes that radiate outward from a central medallion.

Medieval Cathedrals

The heyday of stained glass occurred in the European Middle Ages, when guilds of craftsmen produced stained glass windows for churches, monasteries, and elite households. The blossoming of the art in medieval churches is attributed to the efforts of Abbot Suger (ca. 1081–1151), a French abbot at Saint-Denis, now best known as the place where French kings were buried.

About 1137, Abbot Suger began to rebuild the church at Saint-Denis–it had been first built in the 8th century and was sorely in need of reconstruction. His earliest panel was a large wheel or rose window, made in 1137, in the choir (eastern part of the church where the singers stand, sometimes called the chancel). The St. Denis glass is remarkable for its use of blue, a deep sapphire that was paid for by a generous donor. Five windows dated to the 12th century remain, although most of the glass has been replaced.

The diaphanous sapphire blue of Abbot Suger was used in various elements of the scenes, but most significantly, it was used in backgrounds. Prior to the abbot’s innovation, backgrounds were clear, white, or a rainbow of colors. Art historian Meredith Lillich comments that for Medieval clergy, blue was next to black in the color palette, and deep blue contrasts God the «father of lights» as super-light with the rest of us in «divine gloom,» eternal darkness and eternal ignorance.

Medieval Meaning

Gothic cathedrals were transformed into a vision of heaven, a place of retreat from the noise of the city. The portrayed images were mostly of certain New Testament parables, especially the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, and of events in the life of Moses or Jesus. One common theme was the «Jesse Tree,» a genealogical form that connected Jesus as descended from the Old Testament King David.

Abbot Suger began to incorporate stained glass windows because he thought they created a «heavenly light» representing the presence of God. The attraction to the lightness in a church called for taller ceilings and larger windows: it has been argued that architects attempting to put larger windows into cathedral walls in part invented the flying buttress for that purpose. Certainly moving heavy architectural support to the exterior of the buildings opened up cathedral walls to larger window space.

Cistercian Stained Glass (Grisailles)

In the 12th century, the same stained glass images made by the same workers could be found in churches, as well as monastic and secular buildings. By the 13th century, however, the most luxurious were restricted to cathedrals.

The divide between monasteries and cathedrals was primarily of topics and style of stained glass, and that arose because of a theological dispute. Bernard of Clairvaux (known as St. Bernard, ca. 1090–1153) was a French abbot who founded the Cistercian order, a monastic offshoot of the Benedictines that was particularly critical of luxurious representations of holy images in monasteries. (Bernard is also known as the supporter of the Knights Templar, the fighting force of the Crusades.)

In his 1125 «Apologia ad Guillelmum Sancti Theoderici Abbatem» (Apology to William of St. Thierry), Bernard attacked artistic luxury, saying that what may be «excusable» in a cathedral is not appropriate to a monastery, whether cloister or church. He probably wasn’t referring particularly to stained glass: the art form didn’t become popular until after 1137. Nonetheless, the Cistercians believed that using color in images of religious figures was heretical—and Cistercian stained glass was always clear or gray («grisaille»). Cistercian windows are complex and interesting even without the color.

Gothic Revival and Beyond

The heyday of the medieval period stained glass ended about 1600, and after that it became a minor decorative or pictorial accent in architecture, with some exceptions. Beginning in the early 19th century, the Gothic Revival brought old stained glass to the attention of private collectors and museums, who sought restorers. Many small parish churches obtained medieval glasses—for example, between 1804–1811, the cathedral of Lichfield, England, obtained a vast collection of early 16th century panels from the Cistercian convent of Herkenrode.

In 1839, the Passion window of the church of St. Germain l’Auxerrois in Paris was created, a meticulously researched and executed modern window incorporating medieval style. Other artists followed, developing what they considered a rebirth of a cherished art form, and sometimes incorporating fragments of old windows as part of the principle of harmony practiced by Gothic revivalists.

Through the latter part of the 19th century, artists continued to follow a penchant for earlier medieval styles and subjects. With the art deco movement at the turn of the 20th century, artists such as Jacques Grüber were unleashed, creating masterpieces of secular glasses, a practice that still continues today.