Stained glass
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objets d'art created from glasswork, for example in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. It may then be further decorated in various ways. The coloured glass may be crafted into a stained-glass window, in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead, called cames or calms, and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow-coloured silver stain are often used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is also applied to enamelled glass in which the colors 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, together with illuminated manuscripts, they constitute a major form of medieval visual art to have survived to the present day. 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 abstract 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 landscapes.
Glass production
During the late medieval period, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential material for glass manufacture. Silica requires a very high temperature to melt, something not all glass factories were able to achieve. Such materials as potash, soda, and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to make the glass more stable. Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper 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. Glass coloured while in the clay pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass, as opposed to flashed glass, which fuses a thin layer of coloured glass to a thicker layer of colourless glass to produce the desired color.Cylinder or mouth-blown ('muff') glass
, a glass maker will gather a glob of molten glass that was taken from the pot heating in the furnace. The 'gather' is formed to the correct shape and a bubble of air blown into it. Using metal tools, molds of wood that have been soaking in water, and gravity, the gather is manipulated to form a long, cylindrical shape. As it cools, it is reheated so that the manipulation can continue. During the process, the bottom of the cylinder is removed. Once brought to the desired size it is left to cool. One side of the cylinder is opened, and the cylinder is then put into another oven to quickly heat and flatten it, and then placed in an annealer to cool at a controlled rate, making the material more stable. "Hand-blown" or "mouth-blown" cylinder and crown glass were the types used in the traditional fabrication of stained-glass windows.Crown glass
is hand-blown glass created by blowing a bubble of air into a gather of molten glass and then spinning it, either by hand or on a table that revolves rapidly like a potter's wheel. The centrifugal force causes the molten bubble to open up and flatten. It can then be cut into small sheets. Glass formed this way can be either coloured and used for stained-glass windows, or uncoloured as seen in small paned windows in 16th- and 17th-century houses. Concentric, curving waves are characteristic of the process. The centre of each piece of glass, known as the "bull's-eye", is subject to less acceleration during spinning, so it remains thicker than the rest of the sheet. It also has the pontil mark, a distinctive lump of glass left by the "pontil" rod, which holds the glass as it is spun out. This lumpy, refractive quality means the bulls-eyes are less transparent, but they have still been used for windows, both domestic and ecclesiastical. Crown glass is still made today, but not on a large scale.Rolled glass
is produced by pouring molten glass onto a metal or graphite table and immediately rolling it into a sheet using a large metal cylinder, similar to rolling out a pie crust. The rolling can be done by hand or by machine. Glass can be "double rolled", which means it is passed through two cylinders at once to yield glass of a specified thickness. The glass is then annealed. Rolled glass was first commercially produced around the mid-1830s and is widely used today. It is often called cathedral glass, but this has nothing to do with medieval cathedrals, where the glass used was hand-blown.Flashed glass
Architectural glass must be at least of an inch thick to survive the push and pull of typical wind loads. However, in the creation of red glass, the colouring ingredients must be of a certain concentration, or the colour will not develop. This results in a colour so intense that at the thickness of inch, the red glass transmits little light and appears black. The method employed to create red stained glass is to laminate a thin layer of red glass to a thicker body of glass that is clear or lightly tinted, forming "flashed glass".A lightly coloured molten gather is dipped into a pot of molten red glass, which is then blown into a sheet of laminated glass using either the cylinder or the crown technique described above. Once this method was found for making red glass, other colours were made this way as well. A great advantage is that the double-layered glass can be engraved or abraded to reveal the clear or tinted glass below. The method allows rich detailing and patterns to be achieved without needing to add more lead-lines, giving artists greater freedom in their designs. A number of artists have embraced the possibilities flashed glass gives them. For instance, 16th-century heraldic windows relied heavily on a variety of flashed colours for their intricate crests and creatures. In the medieval period the glass was abraded; later, hydrofluoric acid was used to remove the flash in a chemical reaction, and in the 19th century sandblasting started to be used for this purpose.
Islamic civilization played a major role in inspiring the art of stained glass from the 8th century onward. Mosques, homes, and cities were transformed into beautiful spaces decorated with glass. Beauty and function were essential elements of design in Islamic civilization. Perhaps in an effort to supply thousands of mosques, but also thanks to the input provided by thriving scientific activity in fields such as optics and chemistry, Islamic glassmakers transformed what had previously been a craft into Islamic stained glass, an industry employing new technologies and a large workforce from across Islamic civilization.
Across Islamic civilization, glass vessels were mass-produced from the 8th century onwards, either by blowing liquid glass in chambers or by cutting it from crystal. Glassmakers in Syria, and to a lesser extent Egypt, inherited and improved upon this glassmaking technique, developing their own techniques for mastering the art of Islamic stained glass, its coloring, and its decoration, expanding the variety of products.
The history of stained glass in Syria dates back to ancient times, as Syria was influenced by successive civilizations, such as the Roman and Byzantine. Syrian stained glass is characterized by its intricate geometric and floral designs, reflecting the skill of Syrian artisans.
There are a number of glass factories, particularly in Germany, the United States, England, France, Poland, Russia, and Syria, which produce high-quality glass, both hand-blown and rolled. Contemporary stained glass artists have a number of resources to draw on in their work for centuries from other artists, from whom they learn, continuing the tradition in new ways. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, there were many innovations in techniques and types of glass used. Many new types of glass were developed for use in stained glass windows, notably Tiffany glass and stained glass panels.