The Essence of Stained Glass

Stained Glass: The origin of the discovery of glass is unknown. Many writers have tried to suggest there was a single discovery which then propagated as word spread. Since independent technologies of diverse nations was sufficient to allow for the making of glass, it is likely that it was discovered many times in many places. One reference is to shipwrecked Phoenician sailors building fires beneath cooking pots on sandy beaches and finding hardened glass beneath the pots the next morning. More likely the first formal discovery came from Egyptian potters while firing their vessels. The earliest manmade glass appeared about 2700 B.C. in the form of beads. Egyptian artisans made them by winding molten glass around a clay core. Stained glass was found in the remains at Pompeii in the villas of wealthy Romans in the first century A.D. By then the craft was well developed. 15hqqr.

Glass making was the first New World industry, established in Jamestown after it was settled in 1607. About 1637 a Dutchman came to New Amsterdam, now New York, and made small house windows using enamels and stains. The colored stained glass, known today as cathedral stained glass was originally a clear glass on which a stain was applied. Later the glass had coloring made from metals and minerals, applied while still molten. From the 1400's to the 1700's, the construction of monumental European cathedrals was dominated by medieval stained glass designs. Outside the church, the use of stained glass was rare. The result was that stained glass had primarily spiritual associations. One looked beyond the images, brilliantly lit by the daylight behind. They were used as other-worldly environments, essentially heavenly pictures. But while paintings of the time depicted the torments of an underworld, stained glass represented a rewarding life beyond. Halfway between both worlds was glass painting a craft that has infinite possibilities.

Glass is a mysterious substance, having the qualities of gas, liquid, and solid. A super-cooled liquid, it has a parallel with diamonds, in that the diamond is a compressed common element, carbon, while glass is a transformation of the common silica found in quartz and sand. Out of the common then came a precious beauty. The addition of metals to glass, causes it to capture brilliant colors of the spectrum. Gold will produce red, cobalt generates blue, silver creates golden yellows, and copper generates greens. The stunning colors set in lead frames produced spiritual images which could then be experienced as underscored images. The churches became places of wonder, enhanced by the reality of the stained glass within monumental large dimensions.

It was when death occurred and the funeral ensued that the images were the most profound. Where the mood was solemn, the colors represented hope, salvation, and a continuance of life. In the midst of funerary images, they reassured the loved ones that the deceased was neither lost forever, nor in a land of stress. The stained glass was felt more strongly than all the spoken words of encouragement. In reality, everything was all right for the recently departed and for those who would one day depart in turn.

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