Slide 1
Light behind stained glass changes its appearance
Stained glass is seen through light passing into a building. Its colour changes in appearance with the illumination behind it.
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A window is also an assembled object. Separate pieces can be held by lead strips, while larger supporting elements help the panel occupy an architectural opening.
Slide 2
Lead strips both join pieces and draw dark lines
Lead strips called cames join pieces of glass into a panel. Their dark lines can organise a design as well as hold its parts together.
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Traditional cames have channels that receive the edges of neighbouring pieces. Solder joins the leadwork, and putty helps secure and weatherproof the assembled panel.
Slide 3
Fired paint supplies details within a piece of glass
An artist can paint details onto glass and fire them in place. Faces and folds need not be made entirely from separately coloured pieces.
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This creates two scales of drawing: broad divisions established by the leadwork and finer marks placed on the glass itself. Reading a window involves both systems.
Slide 4
Silver stain adds yellow or orange without a new lead boundary
Silver stain can produce yellow or orange areas when fired onto glass. Its use expanded the choices available to medieval window makers.
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It allowed a yellow detail to appear within a piece of glass without adding a new lead boundary there. A material technique could therefore change the design's line structure.
Slide 5
Glass decoration also appeared in secular interiors
Decorated glass was used in secular as well as religious buildings. Small panels and roundels could bring images into domestic interiors.
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Later enamel colours extended the palette that could be painted onto glass. The history of a window's appearance includes changes in both glassmaking and applied decoration.
Sources
- Stained glass: an introduction
Victoria and Albert Museum
- A-Z of glass
Victoria and Albert Museum