The Beauty of Stained Glass

Book excerpt: Stained glass can be thought of as a decorative adjunct to architecture or as fine art productive of a wide variety of rich and deep experiences in the beholder. Although both aspects are covered in this book, it is glass as fine art that concerns the author - from the unique wondrous beauty of the windows of Europe's great cathedrals to the much later masterpieces of Tiffany, LaFarge and today's artists. Treating the subject chronologically, he explores the chronological background to each period in order to establish the motivation of the society and the intentions of the artists who caused a particular kind of stained glass to come into being. There are enquiries into the changing meaning of colour, the influence of other contemporary arts (architecture, painting, tapestry, ceramics, illuminated manuscripts), the origin of glass and the manner in which, in early times, ideas travelled from one region to another. There are also accounts of how stained glass windows are made and descriptive analyses of the beauty of individual works. Patrick Reyntiens considers late developments in the 20th century. Among these is the rise of the studio panel of stained glass or glass emancipated from the constraints of modern architecture, of which he himself is a practitioner.