HAA 0050

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Units 50-51

MEDIA USED IN MEDIEVAL PAINTING and TWO-DIMENSIONAL MEDIA:

Stained Glass

Aritsts and Patrons

The glazier Gerlachus signs his window of the Life of Moses
Münster (Westfalia), Landesmuseum

 
 
Making Stained Glass 

Click here for Medieval Description of Stained Glass Techniques

Glass-blowers at work, shown in a
Bohemian manuscript c. 1400 

Glass table 
c. 1300, Gerona Museum
Detail of glass table and 
 14th-century glass made on it 
c. 1300, Gerona Museum

A glass panel at Sens Cathedral showing the Return of the Prodigal Son and its medieval leads, preserved at the Dépôt des monuments historiques, Champs-sur-Marne

Examples of Armatures

 
 
Cleaning Glass 
Panels of the Zodiac Widnow at Chartres
Before and after Cleaning

 
Stained Glass in Situ

Abbey of Saint-Denis, France 

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Sainte-Chapelle, Paris 

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STAINED GLASS EXAMPLES- Saint-Denis near Paris, France 

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Jesse Tree
Moses Window
Anagogical Window

 
Riom: Sainte-Chapelle of Jean, Duc du Berry

 
 
England: York Minster

Definitions

Glass:  Usually referred to as "stained glass", though the term in most cases is a misnomer.  Colored glass is made in one of two ways:  either the metallic oxides are added to molten glass, in which case the glass is colored all through  (known as "pot metal"), or thin layers of glass are fused onto plain glass  (known as "flashed" glass).  From the thirteenth century, "grisaille" glass is common; this has enamel drawing, often used with silver stain, which is made by painting on a silver preparation and heating it.  Silver stain forms a bright yellow.  Glass is most common in northern Europe from the late twelfth century on, but there are a few examples preserved from earlier periods.

Bibliography
Corpus vitrearum medii aevi

Caviness, Madeline Harrison, with the assistance of Evelyn Ruth Staudinger.   Stained glass before 1540 : an annotated bibliography, Boston, Mass. : G.K. Hall, c1983. Frick Fine Arts Library (Restricted Access) Call Number: Z5956.G5 C38 1983 (FA)

Grodecki, Louis and Catherine Brisac.  Gothic Stained Glass:  1200-1300 [ = Le vitrail gothique au XIIIe siècle].  Ithaca, 1985.

Rollet, Jean.  Les Maîtres de la lumière, Paris: Bordas, 1980.

Marks, Richard.  Stained Glass in England during the Middle Ages, London : Routledge, 1993.

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