Stained Glass
The term stained glass can refer both to the material of coloured glass, or the craft of working with it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term “stained glass” was applied almost exclusively to the windows contained in churches, cathedrals, chapels, and other significant buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture.
Modern usage has often expanded the term “stained glass” to include domestic leaded glass and objets d’art created from lead came and copper foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
|
Tiffany-style Stained Glass Mission Floor Lamp US$ 152.99 |
|
Tiffany-style Stained Glass Bronze Finish Table Lamp US$ 74.99 |
|
Tiffany-style Stained Glass Dragonfly Lit Pedestal US$ 157.99 A colorful stained-glass dragonfly design highlights this lit pedestal. This light features a wooden frame and base. |
|
Blue Wisteria Tiffany Style Lamp w/ Tree Trunk Base US$ 199.99 Tiffany-style Blue Wisteria Tree Trunk Lamp |
As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is also often applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln.
Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, and also, especially in the larger windows, must support its own weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the major form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as ‘illuminated wall decorations’.
The design of a window may be non-figurative or figurative; may incorporate narratives drawn from the Bible, history, or literature; may represent saints or patrons, or use symbolic motifs, in particular armorial. Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church – episodes from the life of Christ; within a parliament building – shields of the constituencies; within a college hall – figures representing the arts and sciences; or within a home – flora, fauna, or landscape.
Stained glass windows in houses were particularly popular in Victorian era and many domestic examples survive. In their simplest form they typically depict birds and flowers in small stained glass panels, often surrounded with machine-made cathedral glass, which, despite what the name suggests, is pale-coloured and textured. Some large homes have splendid examples of secular pictorial glass. Many small houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries have leadlight windows.
Town halls, schools, colleges and other public buildings often incorporate stained glass or leadlighting.
Faux stained glass in the form of stained glass film and painted glass are low cost alternatives to the real thing. It’s only when you get up close to them that you can see they are not the real thing. With backlighting they can look very effective and every bit as pleasing as the real stained glass. However they do not have the longevity of actual stained glass.
