[Illustration: 125. PAINTED WINDOWS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. CHURCH OF ST. URBAIN AT TROYES] In the sixteenth century painted glass became to a certain extent translucent pictures, in which architectural fitness was no longer respected. Composition lost its simplicity. A subject spread from panel to panel, regardless of the intervening tracery. Nevertheless, we forget the defects of this luxuriant development, and cease to wonder at its popularity, in view of that broad and vigorous execution and beauty of colour which give it a special decorative value of its own. [Illustration: 126. PAINTED GLASS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. HEAD OF ST. PETER. CATHEDRAL OF CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE] Enamelling is so closely allied to glass-painting as to claim a word for itself. Here, again, the decorative art of the Middle Ages was characteristically displayed, and though the process is more specially applicable to the ornamentation of goldsmith's work than to the decoration of large surfaces, it is one of the most brilliant and exquisite of the auxiliary arts. [Illustration: 127. PAINTED WINDOW OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. ÉVREUX CATHEDRAL] The earliest enamels are _champlevé_ and _cloisonné_. By the _champlevé_ process a hollow, the edges of which outlined the figures or ornaments, was cut in the field or ground of metal for the reception of the fusible enamel; for _cloisonné_, _cloisons_, or slender walls of metal were fixed upon the field to separate flesh from draperies, and one tint generally from another. The background, the _cloisons_, and the flesh were gilt and burnished; details were defined by engraved lines, so that the draperies only were enamelled. [Illustration: 128. ENAMEL OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. PLAQUE COVER OF A MS. HEIGHT 4-3/4 IN., WIDTH 2-9/16 IN.] Fig. 128 reproduces an enamel of the close of the eleventh century, in which these various characteristics may be studied. The inscriptions on either side of the cross are formed by letters vertically superposed, which read downwards. From the beginning of the thirteenth century enamels were executed by the process known as _taille d'épargne_. By this method the ground was cut out, as described above, for the reception of the various ingredients which, after undergoing the process of firing, formed the enamel; the draperies, hands, and feet of the figures which were _épargnés_ (_spared_ or left) were modelled and chased in very low relief; but the central figure, such as the Christ, and the heads of the subordinate personages or attendant angels, were always in high relief, vigorously modelled, and chased. Fig. 129, a plaque forming the cover of an evangelium, is a characteristic example of this class of enamel. It dates from the early thirteenth century, and is a production of the _ateliers_ founded at Limoges by the monks of Solignac. [Illustration: 129. ENAMEL OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. PLAQUE COVER OF AN EVANGELIUM. HEIGHT 7-2/16 IN., WIDTH 6-11/16 IN.]