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analysis
of a stained glass story window |
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francenew : la
belle époque
on first arriving in France - driving Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution the 6th
bridge at Rouen: Pont Gustave Flaubert, the French umbrella & Aurillac the forest
as seen by francois mauriac, and today the Citroën 2CV: Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution mardi gras! carnival in Basque country what a hair cut! m & french pop/rock country life in France: the poultry fair the greatest show on Earth - the Tour de France short biography of Pierre (Peter) Abelard
Cathedrals 3: Poitiers, neglected masterpiece
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photography and stained glassAs mentioned elsewhere, much of the historic buildings of Rouen were severely damaged or destroyed during the Second World War. the metcalf collection Shortly before World War Two, Gertrude and Robert Metcalf were photographing stained glass windows, continuing right up to the beginning of the war. Colour films and techniques were less developed at that time and their film has deteriorated badly. The Metcalfs’ work has ended up in an archive at Princeton University and is now available online. The web site is very badly organised and requires special in-site searching. While those scanning in the film tried to clean up the images a bit, it is obvious that they did not know what they were doing. On the left, you can see a typical example taken straight from the archive page [Slide Metcalf Number R503F32], and below you can see what we have managed to do with this scan at abelard.org, with about twenty minutes work. Yes, this really is developed directly from the scan on the left. |
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changes in glass - restorationAs discussed in Cathedrals introduction: reading stained glass, the effect of glass changes by time of day and season. The presentation of the Julian the Hospitaller window above gives a good idea of the way these old windows look before any modern restoration, in fairly average light conditions of the subdued light of a cathedral where much is glazed with twelfth or thirteenth century glass. A major part of what gives life to stained glass is ‘imperfections’ in the glass itself. The best modern stained glass manufacturers and artists realise this. They do not drive out all the bubbles and surface imperfections. The artists, in fact, deliberately chip parts of inch-thick glass with a steel hammer to add to the livening effects of light dispersion. Over the centuries, the early glass has gathered pitting and a oxidised white layer on the external surface, in addition to the inconsistencies in the handmade, artisanal glass of the early centuries. A great deal of poor quality glass and poor restoration work has been done by people who did not understand these things, and tried to ‘improve’ on the originals by using consistent, even glass (often referred disparagingly in the trade as ‘cathedral glass’). While modern restoration is steadily improving, some of the effects of restoration have much brightened the old windows. Of course, replaced glass will no longer have the oxidised white layer and, consequently, some increase of brightness will bring the windows back closer to their original state. the saint julian window in its modern stateTo the left is a photograph of the modern restoration of the same story window. I have not seen this window recently (I am planning to send one of our roving yaks to do some research at the cathedral), from the photograph, as you can see, it is much brighter than the enhanced version derived from the Metcalf archive. At the top of this page, you will see a numbered template of the (mostly) square panels in the Julian window. Notice that the window is built up in squares, as with most lancet windows. A great number of geometric patterns may be found in these windows, developed across several squares by the arrangement of the leading and glass. In the case of this window, each nine panel section can be seen to be divided into quadrifoils, the panels of nine being linked together by half-circles and circles. The whole design is surrounded by a decorative frame. Under the numbered template above, there are five close-ups of some of these square panels.
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