Up: Glassmaking
Stained Glass
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In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
ST. NICHOLAS CROWNED BISHOP OF MYRA
17th-c. Flemish or northern French glass
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from France at that time to make the windows at Canterbury, under the
direction of the architect,
William of Sens.
From earliest times in Britain the abbots of the numerous monasteries
cultivated a love for beauty. The buildings they made, especially
those great churches whose picturesque ruins are scattered over the
land today, bear eloquent testimony to the purity and refinement of
taste displayed by their designers.
The Abbot of Wearmoth, Saint Benedict Biscop,
sent to France for glass painters "to make, to paint and fix the glass
in place in the windows of his Church," as early as the year A.D. 680.
The early monastery workers in glass of Glastonbury are mentioned in
records of the time as celebrated for the great beauty and fine quality
of their work.
Fourteenth-Century Glass--New Type
In the Metropolitan Museum
"ST. PETER"
Cologne, 1500. This example of
Rhinelands glass is in the style
of the Master of the House Book,
mentioned in Monograph Five
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It was soon found that the dark, rich tones of
colored glass brought over from France shut out too much light in
English churches where clouds so often obscure the sky. They began
making very large windows at the eastern end of the building. The stone
work of these soon evolved a new type of window and this speedily
produced a marked effect on the design of the glass they held. Large
figures of saints and Bible characters, such as the Prophets and
Evangelists, were placed with those of Christ and the Virgin in the
central panels, each in a niche of simulated stone work, one above the
other, the pinnacles reaching far up above the figures against blue
and red backgrounds.
As sculptors placed their figures decorating
the exterior of the cathedrals in settings
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