A Short History of Stained Glass.

Medieval glass at Chartres Cathedral

Have you ever walked into a space covered in multicolored light thrown by a stained glass window? If you have, you will have known the wonder and awe that large panes of stained glass can produce. However, you might have wondered to yourself that it seems wasteful and expensive to put so much multicolored glass and iron in that window. Why did they do it? Well, this should answer your question.

The art of blowing glass into shapes to make items of use has been around for thousands of years. However, someone had the idea of making stained glass windows only in the Gothic era of architecture. As cathedrals became more ornate, they began to have larger and larger windows. Since medieval glassmakers were incapable of making very large plates of glass, they used metal supports to connect together medium-sized pieces of glass. At this time, the clergy also was faced with a problem of connection to the common people. Bibles (like all books at that time) were expensive to print, and almost all commoners were illiterate. Then, several people came up with the idea to combine the scriptures with the windows: The windows could offer pictoral representations of the stories contained within the bible! Thus, glassmakers began to mix dyes into their glass and build intricate frames, and created windows that showed biblical figures, scenes, and locations. Everyone's problems were solved, and the common people could get a better grasp of what was happening in the biblical tales read aloud during mass.

Chartres-inspired 20th century glass

late 19th century glass

Continued evolutions in design over the next several hundred years such as shading different areas on the glass different colors helped produce more realistic-looking figures, while advances in dyes meant that the glass could be stained more and brighter colors. However, some artists went away from the realistic designs of the late nineteenth century to more abstract designs that now rely on symbolism and may commemorate various inventions, ideas, and historical figures. Other artists however specialize in making glass similar to the ones first put into use in the middle ages, looking at the art at such places as Chartres cathedral in France for inspiration.

All images from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license, which can be read in full here