File:The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette (1839) (20660928601).jpg

Title: The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette
Identifier: civilengineerarc09lond (find matches)
Year: 1839 (1830s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture; Civil engineering; Science
Publisher: London : (William Laxton)
Contributing Library: Northeastern University, Snell Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Northeastern University, Snell Library

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1846. THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 133 usual, and this, with the repetition of the arms of Castile on a large scale, effectually balances the general blue tone which pervades this and the rest of the windows.
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Notwithstanding what has been said of the last window, No. 3 on this «ide is perhaps the finest of the whole ; the iron work already referred to is remarkably elegant; there are eighty compartments, the centre of every five being a very graceful compound form (fig. 14), and as they fill very nearly the whole space without interstices, the colours, of which a great proportion is very rich, are spread without any inharmonious spots. King David figures as the princpal personage in the history illustrated by this window. What little ground there is, is a mosaic, and it is remarkable that the border, which is in fleurons, is the poorest of the whole set. This window is in good preservation generally, but not altogether so perfect as the last. No. 4, the last of the series has all the appearance of having once been a brilliant window, but it is in bad condition and patched to confusion. The form of the iron work and disposition of the compartments are the same as No. 4, on the other side. There is a large building represented near the centre of the window, which judging from others of the subjects, the priests carrying the Ark for instance, may be conjectured to be Solomon's temple. The ground of this window is particularly fine, diapered circles with the fleur-de-lis in the centre, and Castile in the spaces between. It is to be feared that this description will have conveyed very little idea in the absence of illustrations, of anything beyond the quantity of matter contained in this glass, and the pains with which it has been elaborated. It may be well to add a few words on the eflfact produced. Bvery one is fami- liar with the blue tone of the early style of stained glass, arising from that colour being almost exclusively used in the back ground of the compartments. Such is the case with the glass of the Saint Chapelle, and as the harmony of the general effect is supported by the introduction of a preponderance of the same colour in the general ground works of the lights, this tone prevails very greatly through the whole surface of the glass, reds, greens, and violets, with only a small proportion of yellow, flesh colour, and other light tones, form- ing the reliefs and contrasts. The glass therefore admits but little light, and on the north side under the influence of sunshine on the opposite side, fails even in its effect of transparency, a result which must have been noticed by all who have had the opportunity of examining glass of this kind under different aspects. It appears, however, from the restoration of the Poly- chromatic decoration, of the authenticity of every part of which, I believe, no doubt can be entertained, that the architects of the Middle Ages were well aware of this inconvenience, and took very good measures to counteract it, (he (tonework of the windows being coloured of a sort of deep maroon ; and the effect of the glass set in a framework of this tone, is something very dif. ferent from its appearance between jambs and mulliona of dead white as it is most generally seen, and as it really was in this instance, when my notes were made. The confusion which results from the collocation of such an infinite number of small pieces of coloured glass as we find in the composi- tions of this style, has been sometimes considered one of its beauties, and w« hear glass commended because it looks like Turkey carpet. This is cer- tainly the case with the glass of the Sainte Chapelle. The first impression conveys nothing to the eye or the mind, but the unmeaning variety of the kaleidoscope—but let it be observed, that to produce this effect with dis- tinctness is no small triumph of the art of the collocation of colours. And here a remark may be made upon the general belief that there is some ex- traordinary quality in the colour of the ancient glass. That it is so in many cases is unquestionable, since the fact has been recognized by those who are practically acquainted with the manufacture of glass ; but there are instances, and the Sainte Chapelle is one, where much of the red glass is far from being of a good quality ; but this is by no means perceptible on a general view, and it proves that the brilliancy of the old red glass depends no less upon its collocation and the effect of judicious contrasts than upon the indi- vidual character of the colour. To return to the glass in question, if the forms are confused, the colours are not confounded; and when it is considered how easy it is by the injudicious disposition of small surfaces of transparent blue and red, to fuse them into a general effect of purple, of all results the most disagreeable and inharmonious, we must admit that their art was well understood by those who combined them, as they were combined by the glass painters of the 13th century ; and it can hardly be doubted that the result produced was that calculated upon by those artists, viz., the effect of a rich and harmonious couj) d'mil at the first view, heightened by the obscurity and mystery enveloping the details which a more deliberate survey and examina- tion brought to light. If this were really their purpose, their success is un- doubted. Whether this be the best mode of treating stained glass is another question altogether, and opinions may differ upon it. Stained glass wa« certainly very differently treated when it became combined with fine art, a quality to which the early glass can make no pretence. Perhaps the later Flemish and German glass displays the greatest perfection to which this art has been brought, exhibiting a combination of the qualities of good drawing and composition, with those conditions which are indispensable in glass painting, and separate it altogether from the art of painting on canvass. One of these conditions which was never neglected as long as glass paint- ing was understood, and which will be found invariably attended to in every successful specimen of stained glass, whether ancient or modern, is the pro- fusion of detail. The earliest and the latest glass, however differing in every other respect, possess this in common. In the glass of the 13th century this quality is produced by the minuteness of the parts. In that of the 15th when the large treatment of the subjects necessitated large masses of the same colour, it is obtained by the introduction of diapered grounds, or some- times by the minute elaboration of the draperies. It is not enough that thi» diaper work should be introduced when the eye can distinguish and appre- ciate it; in the old glass it is developed in situations, and on a scale, where it is inevitably thrown away, except in contributing to the general effect, which would as inevitably be marred by its absence. The rosace at the west-end of the Sainte Chapelle to which reference was made at the beginning of this paper, is a strong instance of the truth of these observations, so far at least as re- gards the practice of the Middle Ages. In this rosace there are eighty-one principal compartments containing a series of subjects from the Apocalypse, of which about sixty-six remain entire. The style in which this glass is executed exhibits the strongest possible contrast with that of the older series—there is very little colour of any kind—instead of strong contrasts the effect is brought out by chiaro-scuro. In which colour there is the pre- dominating tone is yellow, but there are vigorous touches of red of great value to the effect. There is of course none of the depth and richness which characterize the original windows, but there is a transparency, and a sparkle, scarcely less imposing in its effect, and when to this first impression succeeds the examination of the detail, a proficiency in drawing and composition is developed, united to a refinement and delicacy of execution which can be fully appreciated only by means of an opera glass, and which might be thought thrown away, did experience not prove the elaboration of the detail, whether in one form or another, to be the one thing needful to the full effect of stained glass. A few words may be added in conclusion, on the phlychromatic duration

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