Interesting Stained Glass

Steve K

I wish 20th century French artist Marc Chagall would have been my roommate.  Then when looking at some stained glass in 13th century Reims Cathedral, I could tell the group, "Like it?  My roommate did it."  

(Really.  See attached)

SileneUK

Steve K said:

I wish 20th century French artist Marc Chagall would have been my roommate.  Then when looking at some stained glass in 13th century Reims Cathedral, I could tell the group, "Like it?  My roommate did it."  

(Really.  See attached)

You might find this interesting, Steve    Silene

Cantebury Cathedral glass analysed with a portable xray device reveals glass is much older!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57768815

Also, all that lovely blue glass in medieval Europe was likely scavenged from Roman glass which was mined in Serbia if I remember the other news story on this.  The Baths at Caracalla had masses of cobalt glass and it was all stripped away for the cathedrals.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-oldest-medieval-paintings-canterbury-b1890569.html

Steve K

SileneUK said:

You might find this interesting, Steve    Silene

Yes, thanks, interesting stuff.  I'm watching a 24 lecture series "Cathedral" from The Great Courses, about halfway through and still in France, but England is coming up.  I don't recall the professor mentioning the Roman glass, he seems to imply the glass was all made custom for each cathedral.  He is especially impressed by Chartres, which I recall has by far the most original stained glass, 12th/13th century.  Many of the other churches have replaced a lot of originals for various reasons like war.   Hence Marc Chagall's 20th century glass at Reims.

SileneUK

Yes, the glass was created into windows, but the source was Roman which had been mined in Serbia. Recyclling. This is new science that the portable windowlyser is helping to demonstrate.  Your course might have been designed before the findings from the tests were published.

 Silene

https://www.fr24news.com/a/2021/07/britains-oldest-stained-glass-windows-hidden-in-plain-sight-for-900-years.html

Tests on other ecclesiastical stained glass windows in England and France suggest that parts of the Canterbury figures were made of remelted ancient Roman glass, made about 1,000 years earlier.

The newly identified Norman late stained glass window is made up of pieces of glass in six different colors: red, pink, purple, yellow, green and blue.

Tests reveal that the blue pigment is cobalt – a mineral for which, in the 12th century, no natural source was known to European glassmakers. In place. they (or their suppliers) almost certainly got their cobalt by recycling thousands of blue / cobalt glass cubes used in Roman wall mosaics, often located in Italy. It is estimated, for example, that medieval rescuers removed up to 40 tons of mosaic cubes from the walls of one of the largest public buildings in ancient Rome – the Baths of Caracalla.

Steve K

OK, I see these are recent articles, my lecture series is some years back.  Fascinating stuff.  

Steve K

The National Cathedral in Washington DC has a moon rock in the middle of a space themed stained glass window.  Also a Darth Vader gargoyle.