Stained Glass: The Art of Light and Color

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The interaction of light and color evokes many moods — joyful, somber, reverent and pensive. For centuries, the art of stained glass has rendered these emotions into physical presence in churches, homes, public spaces and works of art.

“There’s something magical about glass,” said Wanda Greenwood Hollberg, owner of Greenwood Stained Glass in Urbanna. “It’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch the colors dance around a room.” Hollberg lives and works in Urbanna and has owned and operated her stained glass studio since 1979. She holds a fine arts degree, with a major in glass work, from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a member of the River to Bay Artisan Trail network.

Throughout its thousand-year history, the term “stained glass” has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include sculpture and other three-dimensional objects, exemplified by the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

To a large extent, the term “stained glass” is a misnomer, for staining is only one of several methods used to impart color to glass. One process involves the application of an enamel paint onto a plain or tinted glass surface and firing it in a kiln; another method fuses various metal oxides with glass while it is in its molten state. The resulting color, which has a jewel-like quality, depends on the metal oxide used. Iron oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, and gold produces wine red and violet glass. Much modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. Coloring glass combines a complicated layering process, Hollberg explained, as each color requires a different temperature and firing time.

Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive and render an appropriate workable design, knowledge of glass and metal work, some chemistry, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. For instance, a window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, and also, especially in larger windows, must support its own weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and have remained substantially intact since the Late Middle Ages (1250 to 1500 AD). In Western Europe, they constitute the major form of pictorial art to have survived. Depending on the location, the design of a window may be abstract or figurative; may incorporate narratives drawn from the Bible, history or literature; may represent saints, patrons or heraldry; or may depict scenes from nature.

Hollberg sketches her designs by hand, while a number of artisans today generate templates by computer. She has made a lifelong study of glass artistry and has original works and restorations all around Virginia and beyond. “With such an ancient art form and not many experts available to teach you, it takes research, patience, experimentation and much trial and error,” she said. “Mistakes can be costly. One critical error can turn a treasure into trash.”

THROUGH THE CENTURIES

Decorative colored glass is of great antiquity all over the world. Both the Egyptians and Romans excelled at the manufacture of small colored-glass objects. Phoenicia was important in glass manufacturing with its chief centers in Sidon, Tyre and Antioch. Colored glass was used in windows of Christian churches as early as the fifth century, and pictorial glass was created as early as the tenth century. In the Middle East, Syria was an important glass manufacturing center, while in Southwest Asia, the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan invented 46 recipes for producing colored glass and even instructions for cutting it into artificial gemstones. With the development of medieval architecture, stained glass assumed a unique structural and symbolic importance. As massive Romanesque walls were eliminated, the use of glass was expand ed. It was integrated into the lofty vertical elements of Gothic architecture, thus providing greater illumination. Symbolically, it was regarded as a manifestation of divine light. Magnificent in its material and spiritual richness, stained glass became one of the most beautiful forms of medieval artistic expression.

The early glaziers followed a sketched rendering for their window designs. They used a red-hot iron for cutting the colored or clear glass into the required pieces, afterward firing in the kiln those that bore painted lines and shadings. The pieces were then fitted into channeled lead strips, the leads soldered together at junction points, and the whole installed in a bracing framework of iron, called the armature. The lead strips were adjusted to the articulation of the design and formed an integral part of it. The coloring of glass was achieved in the melting pot, where the metallic oxides were fused with the glass. The metallic ores, although at first crude and limited, ultimately produced admirable color variation. The glass, available only in small pieces, gave a jewel-like quality to the colors. The pieces, by their uneven surfaces and varying thicknesses, gave the advantage of irregular and dazzling refractions of light.

Only fragments of glass remain from the eleventh century. The period of greatest achievement in the art extended from 1150 to 1250 in France and England. The windows of this period were characterized by rich, dark colors, single figures and scrollwork.

By the beginning of the thirteenth century, figures were abundantly used in scenes, being enclosed in geometrical medallions, such as circles, lozenges or quatrefoils. A window was composed of many of these medallions. Color became more vibrant, and the prevailing scheme of red, blue, green and purple, with small amounts of white, created tense and vivid harmonies. In the fourteenth century, as medieval glass-making waned, medallion compositions were replaced by a single figure framed in canopied shrines.

In the fifteenth century, glass artists achieved a silvery tone by the use of large proportions of white glass, and their figures of saints and apostles were surmounted by elaborate canopies. With improved glassmaking, many of the assets of medieval stained glass (small, jewel-like pieces of varying thicknesses) vanished. By the sixteenth century, the material was smoother and in larger pieces; toward the middle of the century, the use of enamel paints permitted the designs to be entirely painted on the glass and then fired. Also, stained glass designers emulated the purely pictorial effects of Renaissance oil painting, with complicated perspectives, large scale, and realistic detail.

STAINED GLASS IN THE MODERN WORLD

Nineteenth-century romanticism and the Gothic revival brought a fresh study of stained glass, as well as of other medieval arts. J&R Lamb Studios, established in 1857 in New York City, was the first major decorative arts studio in the United States and for many years a major producer of ecclesiastical stained glass.

The Arts and Crafts movement, led by William Morris in England, was especially productive. Morris and his craftsmen, from a studio near London, may be said to have revived the modern art of making stained glass. The Arts and Crafts movement was an effort in the decorative and fine arts communities that began in Britain and flourished in Europe and North America between about 1880 and 1920. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration.

Notable American practitioners of stained glass include John La Farge (1835-1910) and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). La Farge invented opalescent glass, a type of glass where more than one color is present, being fused during production. He received a U.S. patent in 1880. Tiffany also received several patents for variations of the same opalescent process and is believed to have invented the copper foil method as an alternative to lead and used it extensively in windows, lamps and other decorations. Favrile glass, or American glass, now often referred to as Tiffany glass, is characterized by unusual combinations of colors and special effects in transparency and opaqueness, creating exaggerated color variations and iridescence in the glass itself; it was often used for decorative objects and to highlight architectural details.

In the beginning of his career, Tiffany used cheap jelly jars and bottles because they had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. When he was unable to persuade fine glassmakers to leave in the impurities, he began making his own glass. Much of his company’s production was in making stained glass windows and lamps, but he also designed a complete range of interior decorations. At its peak, his factory employed more than 300 artisans. It is said that he ordered all his glass-coloring formulas to be destroyed upon his death.

Since the early 1970s, there has been a real renaissance in stained glass art, explained Hollberg. Though the words “stained glass” may trigger thoughts of medieval cathedral windows, today’s contemporary artists are proving that the thousand-year-old craft is anything but outdated. Throughout ancient history, stained glass art was traditionally made in flat panels, featured biblical imagery, and was used for the windows in churches, mosques, and other religious buildings. Today, modern works of glass art are not only seen in places of worship, but also in contemporary homes, commercial spaces, and art galleries. Some experts note that only about ten percent of stained glass produced today is destined for churches.

Inspired by the stained glass of the Middle Ages, many of today’s contemporary artists put a modern twist on medieval techniques. Others work to create striking three-dimensional structures that transform entire environments with sparkling, abstract beams of light and color — with new techniques, sculpture, modern interpretations of fine art paintings, abstract uses of light and color, and even creative uses of recycled materials.