Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France Part 8

According to Professor Lethaby[11] the original glazing of Westminster Abbey, begun in 1253, was, at least in the lower windows, of grisaille, of which some remains are in the triforium. From the fabric rolls we know the name of the master-glazier, Lawrence, presumably an Englishman, and the weekly accounts show wages paid to fourteen glaziers in all.

[Sidenote: Salisbury.]

The few remains of old gla.s.s which that eighteenth century vandal, the architect Wyatt, has left us at Salisbury include some very beautiful and interesting specimens of thirteenth century grisaille, of which the date is, according to Winston, from 1240 to 1270. In most of these the pattern when a.n.a.lysed is found to be formed of overlapping (not interlacing) geometrical forms outlined in bands of colour and filled in with white, painted with patterns of the usual conventional scroll work on a cross-hatched ground. There are besides, however, some remains of ornamental glazing of an interesting and rare kind in which there is no painting whatever, and the pattern is obtained by lead-work alone, forming diagonal white bands interlacing in various ways on a white ground, and containing here and there between them little square dies of blue. Some coloured tracings of these may be seen in South Kensington Museum.

[Sidenote: "The Five Sisters" of York.]

The finest grisaille windows in England or, for that matter, in the world, are the five immense lancets which fill the end of the north transept of York Minster and are known as "the Five Sisters." Their date is probably about 1260. The iron-work in them is straight-barred, and the ma.s.sive main bars, placed every 3 feet or so, divide the s.p.a.ce between the broad borders into a succession of squares, one above the other, each one of which is occupied by a medallion--a different shape in each light--outlined with a narrow band of colour, and having bosses of colour at the centre and between the medallions.

One hardly can trace the plan of the painted pattern on the white, which besides is much confused with centuries of breakage and repair, and one is only conscious of it as texture, which indeed is its _raison d'etre_. Five feet wide, and towering to a height of more than 50 feet, each "sister" is a s.h.i.+mmering ma.s.s of pearl and silver, delicately veined and jewelled with colour to give quality to its whiteness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXI THE NATIVITY, UPPER PART OF EAST WINDOW OF NORTH AISLE, ALL SAINTS', NORTH STREET, YORK Fourteenth Century]

[Sidenote: "Quarries."]

The same tendency that caused the artist to subst.i.tute mosaic diaper for the scroll work in the setting of his medallions in coloured windows led him in time to fill large s.p.a.ces of his grisaille windows with painted "quarries." "Quarries" (from the French _carre_) are small diamond-shaped panes, and were then the quickest and most economical way of glazing any given s.p.a.ce. Sometimes towards the end of the century the painted pattern ran over the quarries independently of them, but more often in the thirteenth century each quarry was a repet.i.tion of the next, the whole thus forming a regular diaper.

Sometimes each quarry has a thick black line painted parallel to two, or sometimes all four, of its sides at a distance of three quarters of an inch or so, leaving the s.p.a.ce between it and the lead blank while the rest of the quarry is patterned. The effect of this when glazed together is that of interlacing white bands on a ground of pattern.

Apart from economy, the princ.i.p.al motive for the use of grisaille in windows was, as I have said, the need for light. In the Cathedral of Chartres, where there is no grisaille except that in the chapels already mentioned, and where practically all the other windows are filled with richly coloured gla.s.s, it is quite difficult to read in the nave on a dull day. It is possible, therefore, that in some churches a certain number of windows may have been deliberately reserved for grisaille.

[Sidenote: Combination of grisaille and figure work.]

It is not, however, till the very end of the thirteenth century, and then only rarely, that coloured figures and grisaille were combined in the same light as shown in the example from Poitiers in Plate XV., though this is a salient feature of the style of the succeeding period. In the clerestory windows of the choir of St. Pierre at Chartres, which belong to the closing years of the century, the problem has been attacked in an interesting and unique manner, but as the gla.s.s in that church really marks the transition to the succeeding period, I shall deal with it later.

[Sidenote: Conclusion of the Early Period.]

I must now leave the Early Period. If I have devoted a larger s.p.a.ce to it than I have to give to either of those succeeding, it is because to me it is the most interesting of all. In all later work artists seem, by comparison, unsatisfied and trying, sometimes with more, sometimes with less, success, to reconcile opposing ideals in their work. Never again does one find the same perfect understanding of the limitations of the material, together with such daring and grandeur of conception, and such depth and earnestness in the ideas expressed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXII ST. JOHN, FROM EAST WINDOW OF SOUTH AISLE, ST. MARTIN'S, MICKLEGATE, YORK Fourteenth Century]

FOOTNOTE:

[11] "_Westminster Abbey and the Kings' Craftsmen._"

VIII

THE STYLE OF THE SECOND PERIOD

Although the earliest known work in the style of the Second Period may possibly date from a little before 1300, and although the transition to the succeeding style had certainly begun by 1380, yet, roughly speaking, the limits of the period are those of the fourteenth century, and it is not unusual to speak loosely of the style as the fourteenth century style in gla.s.s.

The interest of the period lies perhaps rather in its tendencies and development than in its actual achievements, which by general consent are inferior not only to those of the First, but to those of the Third, Period. It is a period of transition and uncertainty, of the loss of old ideals when men "follow wandering fires."

[Sidenote: Weakening of the religious motive.]

Most of all does one notice the change of mental att.i.tude. The fierce missionary zeal for the Faith, the mystic symbolism, has gone. The wonderful two hundred years which produced St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Louis and the Crusades, and which saw most of the great cathedrals built are over, and a reaction sets in. Never again do we find a whole people, from princes to ploughmen, neglecting their personal affairs and combining to build and decorate worthily a glorious house of G.o.d. Churchmen are growing comfortable and apathetic, if not corrupt, and laymen are either uninterested in religion or critical. Towards the end of the century this feeling gives rise to Wyclif's movement and we get _Piers Plowman_, with its fierce denunciation of the means by which money was obtained for windows and of "lordings" who "writen in windowes of their well deedes."

With the religious motive thus weakened the artist seems to have interested himself chiefly in the technical side of his art,--he may even have talked of "Art for Art's sake,"--and the usual result follows. The lack of the underlying and unifying motive produces a want of proportion in the parts. The canopies become much more important than the figures under them; narrative subjects become much more rare, and when they occur have none of the dramatic intensity of those of the past age. Instead we have an endless series of single figures of saints, without character and each in exactly the same affected att.i.tude, like an elongated letter S. In search of inspiration the artist turns to the study of nature and the literal reproduction of plant forms in ornament. In the figures too, although the att.i.tudes are conventional the drawing of drapery is less so, and towards the end of the period the artist is tentatively feeling his way towards modelling.

[Sidenote: Progress in technique.]

One thing indeed we find during this time, which is within the power of every artist in times of artistic dearth, namely, a steady grappling with practical problems offered by the changed conditions, whereby the way was cleared for the new life that came into the art in the succeeding age. For instance, by showing how coloured figure work could be combined with grisaille in the same window they solved the problem of lighting; by the invention of the silver stain they made it possible to make white gla.s.s more interesting and to blend it better with colour; while in drawing they made steady progress towards a style more in keeping with the standards of the time.

[Sidenote: Characteristics.]

The outward and visible characteristics of this period as compared with the preceding one are as follows:--

(1) The simplification of the iron-work.

(2) The invention and use of silver stain.

(3) The combination of figure work and grisaille.

(4) The extraordinary development of the canopy.

(5) The style of drawing the figure.

(6) The use of natural plant forms in ornament.

(7) The quality of the gla.s.s, and the colours used.

(8) The use of painted diaper patterns on the coloured backgrounds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXIII ST. BARNABAS, FROM CLERESTORY OF NAVE OF ST. PIERRE, CHARTRES Early Fourteenth Century]

[Sidenote: Tracery]

[Sidenote: The iron-work.]

(1) _The Simplification of the Iron-Work._--The windows of the twelfth century had been huge single lights, but the thirteenth century had seen the gradual evolution of tracery, beginning with the grouping of lancets in pairs under a rose light above. Gradually each lancet was again subdivided into a pair of lights and a rose, the spandrils were pierced, till, at the close of the century, the glazier had to design his window to fit a row of narrow lancets divided by slender mullions, which above branched into an elaborate ma.s.s of tracery containing a mult.i.tude of roses, quatrefoils, trefoils and little openings of all shapes and sizes. With this division of the window into comparatively narrow lights the need for the elaborate iron lattice of the preceding age disappeared, its work being now largely taken up by the stone-work. Instead of lights from six to nine feet wide the glazier had now to deal with lights three and a half feet wide at most, and often much narrower, and in consequence all that was necessary was a series of horizontal bars connecting the mullions, which themselves take the place of the upright bars of former days. In windows of this time, then, and later, ma.s.sive rebated bars are fixed horizontally in the stone-work at intervals of between three and four feet, and these with the mullions really form the framework into the square openings of which the panels of the glazing were inserted separately. Between, and parallel with, these ma.s.sive bars, three or four light "saddle-bars" are fixed on the inside of the gla.s.s, which keep the panel in its place, the gla.s.s being attached to them by means of strips of lead (called bands) soldered to the lead-work of the glazing and twisted round the bar. In order to distinguish between the ma.s.sive rebated bars which hold the top and bottom of each panel and these light bars between, I shall speak of the former as "frame-bars,"

the latter by the name they still hold, of "saddle-bars."

The only change from this arrangement which has been made in modern times (except for the use of copper wire instead of lead for the "bands") is the omission of the stout frame-bar, the whole of the weight of the window being now borne by its edges and the saddle-bars.

Not only is this arrangement less sound in construction but it is also far less decorative. The thick bars at intervals with thin bars between punctuate the length of the tall windows pleasantly, and are made use of in the design, which in this way is still based on the iron-work. In a recent disastrous "restoration" that was made of one of the windows in the nave of York, the gla.s.s was refixed with saddle-bars all of equal size and the thick frames omitted, and it is wonderful how the eye misses them.

This arrangement was, of course, only used in windows above a certain size, in quite small lights the saddle-bars alone being considered sufficient. It was not, I think, an uncommon arrangement for the uppermost bar at all events--that at the springing of the arch--to pa.s.s continuously through all the mullions and bind them together.

[Sidenote: Silver stain.]

(2) _The Invention of Silver Stain._--In the early years of the fourteenth century an important addition was made to the technical resources of the gla.s.s painter by the discovery that if white gla.s.s is painted with a preparation of silver--oxide or chloride may be used, or even silver in its metallic form, though that is less convenient--and then subjected to the heat of the kiln, the parts so painted will be found to be stained yellow, pale or dark according to the amount of silver used and according also to the composition of the gla.s.s. This is a process quite different from enamelling. It is a true _stain_, actually penetrating the gla.s.s to a slight degree and quite indelible except by the peris.h.i.+ng of the gla.s.s itself. The oxide or chloride of silver is only mixed with other substances, such as yellow lake, for convenience of application.

[Sidenote: Its first appearance.]

Precisely when and where the invention was made and first used we have no means of knowing. We may dismiss the story of the glazier from whose coat a silver b.u.t.ton dropped on to the gla.s.s he was putting into the kiln, partly because the artist of whom the story is told, one James of Ulm, who worked in Italy and was beatified after his death, was not born till more than a hundred years later. It appears in York Minster, used very sparingly and tentatively, soon after 1300. I am not sure that there are any examples in France that can be dated quite so early, but it was certainly used there by 1310. Its first use was limited to such matters as differentiating the hair, or gold crowns, of figures from their faces, but the nave windows of York Minster show a progressive increase in its use. Yellow pot-metal is there still used for the larger pieces of yellow in the canopy, but an examination of the details in Plates XVII., XVIII. will show that stain is used in places to gild the crockets of the white pinnacles, the beak and claws of the white eagle in the border of XVII.c, and the flowers in the lower part of the border in XVII.a. The pieces that are yellow all over may, I think, be a.s.sumed to be pot-metal. It is not, however, till one gets well on in the century, to 1330 or 1340, that one finds such a free use of the stain in the grisaille as that in the windows at St. Ouen at Rouen, of which the detail is given in Plates XXVI.-x.x.x.

[Sidenote: Combination of figures and grisaille.]

(3) _The Combination of Figures and Grisaille._--This is one of the most noticeable developments of the period. As I have said, it is occasionally attempted in the preceding style towards the close of the period, but in the fourteenth century it is the rule. Small windows are sometimes still filled entirely with colour, but nearly every window of any size, especially in the early part of the century, contains a large proportion of grisaille. In the nave of the Church of St. Pierre at Chartres (Plate XXIII.) the same principle is followed as in the earlier work in the choir, namely, the arranging of the figure-work and grisaille so as to form vertical stripes of alternate white and colour. This plan, however, was not persisted in. The numerous vertical lines formed by the mullions in the newer style of architecture required horizontal lines to balance them, and accordingly we find the usual method in fourteenth century windows is for the coloured ma.s.ses to be ranged in horizontal bands running right across the window through all the lights. Plate XXV. from St. Ouen at Rouen shows a very typical window of the period. Sometimes there was, as here, one row of coloured panels, sometimes two or more as in the nave of York Minster. It will be noticed that in order to blend the white and colour satisfactorily the designer includes a good deal of white among the colour and a good deal of colour among the white. This latter is no longer dispersed through the white in coloured threads, half suspected, but is collected into bosses and borders where its effect is strong enough to support the princ.i.p.al ma.s.ses. In fact the key-note of the design--namely, the strong contrast of light and dark in flat ma.s.ses, necessitated by the combination of colour and grisaille--is repeated everywhere in detail throughout the window of which the parts are thus brought into harmony with the whole.

[Sidenote: The borders.]

This same idea leads to a complete change in the character of the borders. The running scroll work of the preceding age would no longer be appropriate; the vertical lines need breaking rather than emphasizing, and the design of the border usually takes the form of alternate blocks of colour and white or yellow. Plate XXVIII. shows some typical borders from Rouen, borders typical of English as well as French work. It will be noticed that the coloured pieces are usually left blank while the white and yellow are decorated with patterns or foliage blocked out with solid black. The ornament of the tracery lights, which by the way are usually kept pretty full of colour, is designed on the same principle. It consists, in fact, of borders tightly curled up with, sometimes, in the larger lights, a figure or a small coloured medallion in the centre containing a head.