Stained Glass Tours in EnglandSherrill, Charles Hitchcock
History
Stained Glass Tours in England
Sherrill, Charles Hitchcock
Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel; Glass painting and staining -- England
Through it we are able to see, standing haughtily apart from
the neighbouring buildings, the beautiful chapel of the college, one of
the few perfect buildings in existence. Goldwin Smith says, "Cambridge,
in the Chapel of King's College, has a single glory which Oxford cannot
match." It is a long, tall edifice, of the same width throughout,
lighted by high windows of even size, and ceiled by graceful groups of
fan vaultings of the most exquisite type. The only division of the
interior is that effected by a wooden screen which runs across the
middle, but, fortunately, stops before reaching a height which would
interfere with an uninterrupted view of the sweep of the fan vaultings
above. A full two-thirds of the wall-height is given over to lighting
apertures. The records show that the two contracts for glazing the
windows were dated 1527 and 1528. They require that the "wyndows be
well, suerly, workmanly, substantyally, curyously, and sufficiently
glase and sette up." It is said that Holbein drew the cartoons from
which they were made. The excellence and charm of this complete series
makes one regret that there are so few examples of their epoch in this
country; this strikes with peculiar force one coming from France, so
prodigally rich in sixteenth century windows. At King's College the
large picture treatment is seen at its best. Not only is the composition
of the groups of figures carefully studied, but so also is the adroit
opposing of one colour by another. Particularly daring is the use of
large masses of the same tint. So little was the artist willing to be
hampered in the development of his colour scheme that he even made his
foliage red when he happened to need that hue in a certain part of his
design. Although the pictures here display careful drawing and elaborate
composition, the excellence of the general result is certainly due to
the fact that the artist thought fully as much of colour values as he
did of his designs, something his contemporaries were prone to forget.
These windows come as a delightful relief to one accustomed to the
ill-considered use of Renaissance architecture that so overloads and
encumbers the sixteenth century stained glass pictures on the Continent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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