|
Although the oldest extent large-scale stained
glass windows are in the German Catheral in Augsburg, it is the Abbey
Church of St Denis, near Paris, which marked the real revolution which
was to sweep Europe in architecture and glass. From 1122 to 1151 the
Abbot Sugar served the Abbey of St Denis and the French Monarchy.
It was he who visualized a radical change in what churches should
feel like.
Up to this point the ever-growing congregations
were housed in ever larger structures built tall and wide by using
immensely thick walls to support heavy roofs. This left very little
room for windows and produced gloomy darkened "Romanesque"
cathedrals where hell,fire, and damnation were the constant subjects
of sermonizing.
Abbott Sugar
Abbey Church, St. Denis* (click to enlarge - 76k)
The Abbot Suger believed that with immense walls
of colored light his congregations could focus on the more positive
aspects of Christianity – redemption and hope. These great walls
of glass, however, still had to support large heavy roofs – the
only way to do this was to provide external support in the forms of
"flying buttresses." Hence, "Gothic" architecture
was born.
This new flowering of the arts resulted in a
remarkable alliance of architects and glass artisans which lasted
some 400 years, producing such masterpieces as Notre Dame, Chartre,
St Chapelle, Canterbury, and many others - an incredible array of
gorgeous glass works.
ALL OF THE GLASS FROM THIS PERIOD IS MONOCHROME.
This means that when glass sheets were made, only one color or shade
could be produced. Later in the period the painting of enamels on
the surface of the glass to introduce more than one color was begun,
but the essential fact remains that individual pieces of glass throughout
the immense "rose" windows are of a single hue.
|
