Who invented Stained glass is not clear but it has been known since ancient times in Byzantium, Rome, Ravenna and Gaul. From Roman times, there are mosaics of colored glass (“Millefiori”) adorning the walls and floors of the thermal baths, thus allowing the light to be dimmed.
The first human-made glasses appeared in 5000-3000 BC. and are from Mesopotamia, Syria or Egypt. They are opaque, green or blue in color. It was not until 1500 BC. to see the appearance of translucent glasses, probably from the art of ceramics, concomitantly with the development of ovens that allow cooking at higher temperatures.
Multicolored glasses developed from the 6th century BC. in the eastern Mediterranean, followed by the appearance of transparent glass in the 4th century BC. by adding manganese dioxide which purifies the glass by eliminating the oxides which previously colored it.
The technique of blown glass is attributed to the Phoenicians or the Babylonians who invented Stained glass in the 1st century BC., Thanks to the invention of the blowing cane. It will allow the manufacture of glass objects more easily, more quickly, and at lower cost. This discovery will favor the birth of a glass industry, in particular the manufacture of containers as well as the appearance of the first glazing of houses or public buildings.
Blown flat glass appeared from the 5th century. Two techniques born jointly will be used throughout the Middle Ages for the realization of stained glass windows:
- crown blowing: produced in western France and England until the 19th century;
- sleeve blowing: produced in eastern France and Central Europe, used until the beginning of the 20th century, and still used in the artisanal manufacture of stained glass.
In the 1st century BC, the appearance of blown glass will democratize the use of glass objects. Sheet glass was obtained by pouring molten glass on a smooth surface. The first windows in colored painted glass appear on the windows of the villas of the wealthy Romans, as evidenced by fragments found in Pompeii.
In the first Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries, there are many openings obscured by patterns in very fine alabaster sheets set in wooden frames giving a primitive stained glass effect.
From the 6th century (medieval period), Italy, influenced by Rome who invented Stained glass , acquired stained glass embedded in wooden frames, sometimes in metal frames or set in plaster or stucco. Western European churches massively adopted this new fashion in the 7th century. From the tenth century, this technique will gradually be replaced by leaded stained glass in the West, more flexible and more malleable, and which better resists the humidity of the climate.
These stained-glass windows then only use gray, brown and black as colors, so they remain dark and are used to emphasize shadows or draw the drapery of characters.
Most have not withstood the deterioration of time, and only fragments remain in the Saint-Bénigne cathedral in Dijon, the Beauvais cathedral, the Carolingian church of Lorch or on the Séry-Lès shrine- Mézières (department of Aisne).
From the 11th to the 12th century, the Romanesque style used the semi-circular arch, allowing only limited openings, favoring the play of contrast between light and shade. It is mainly characterized by small stained glass windows in an assembly of square or circular medallions, bordered with rich plant motifs. The hearth of the medieval leaded stained glass is then in France, in particular in the Saint-Denis basilica, in Auxerre or in Reims.
The oldest intact painted figures are the five prophets from the stained glass window of Augsburg, dated from the end of the 11th century. The faces, even frozen and formalized, demonstrate a very controlled drawing and the functional use of glass confirms that its creators were very used to this support.
Gothic architecture appeared in Île-de-France and Haute Picardie in the 12th century and spread throughout France and Europe until the 15th century.
The broken arch and the crossed ribs to balance the forces on the piles; the walls no longer have to bear the weight of the structure. The openings then become larger and larger, improving the lighting of the interiors. The light then becomes sufficiently abundant for painters to play with color through numerous stained glass windows; these are becoming more and more daring creations.
The circular shape, or rosette, developed in France, evolves from the openings in the stone walls until the realization of immense rosettes, like that of the western pediment of the cathedral of Chartres, famous for its “Chartres blue” and its 13th century stained glass windows.
The time of the cathedrals sees the explosion of this art in France: witness our Notre-Dame de Paris, Bourges, Amiens, Reims, Rouen, or Le Mans. The Germanic regions (Strasbourg, Ausbourg, Cologne, etc …) know this same craze.
The palette of the painter-glassmaker, consisting essentially of blue and red, was enriched in the 13th century with emerald green, carmine red and vermilion red, mauve, then in the 14th century, silver yellow which made it possible to enhance colors and tint stained glass.
Considered as pictorial supports for religious instruction, the stained glass windows which mainly represent biblical scenes, the life of the Saints or sometimes daily life in the Middle Ages, were unfortunately often impossible for the faithful to interpret, the windows being too high for be readable and the scenes too small.
Beyond the iconographic representation, it was also for the exploitation of all the symbolism of light that we used stained glass during the Middle Ages. In the 15th-16th century (Renaissance period), stained glass became a work for civil, rather than religious, purposes. The represented scenes become more and more realistic, the faces more and more expressive, the forms more and more precise. Colors play with light, thanks to a perfect technique.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, classical architecture favored gray or white canopies, the symbolic iconography of the Middle Ages was no longer understood, and many colored stained glass windows were destroyed. It was at the end of the 19th century, with the ‘art nouveau’ movement, that stained glass became a living art again.
It developed in the 20th century, with the appearance of new techniques: stained glass in glass slabs, stained glass with free glass, Tiffany stained glass.
Who invented Stained glass