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
When the Perpendicular architect arrived upon the scene, he found the
canopy window already well developed. The shape of the embrasures which
he provided were peculiarly suited to this agreeable method of glazing.
The straight upward sweep of his mullions made easy an effective
adjustment of the narrow canopy-framed niches, and left the artist
little to do but elaborate the more modest sentry-box of the Decorated
period. This he did in a very artistic and pleasing manner. The signs of
development are easily distinguishable, and chief among them are the
elaboration of the architectural detail of the canopy (by increasing the
number of pinnacles and drawing them in relief instead of flat), and
the completing of the frame effect by adding elaborate pedestals below
the feet of the figures. We must remember that the earlier glazier
either placed nothing below the enframed figure or else, in a few
instances, heraldic shields (as at Tewkesbury). In many instances the
earlier solitary figures within the canopies now give way to groups,
although not so frequently as in France. The glazier did well to abstain
from this change as much as possible, for although it is logical to find
a saint within a shrine, nothing could be more absurd than to install
therein a rural scene or a small battle picture. The Perpendicular
architect, unlike his Decorated predecessor, was not content to leave
the tracery lights differentiated from the rest of the window below.
Instead, he tied the upper and lower lights together by carrying his
mullions straight up through them all, and thus deprived the tracery
ones of the independence as well as the decorative success they formerly
enjoyed. In a few instances (as at Great Malvern), the glazier
accentuates the stiff regularity of these upper lights by filling each
with a canopy-enclosed figure. Lest the upright parallel lines of the
mullions lend too monotonous an appearance, care was generally taken to
make two of them (usually thicker than the others) swerve outward when
nearing the top of the embrasure, one to the right and the other to the
left. These two thicker mullions served the further artistic purpose of
breaking the line of tall lights into groups of two or three each. This
can be observed in the illustration.
The chief features of this school are as follows:
(_a_) Increasingly lighter and softer tones;
(_b_) Stiff parallel lines of upright mullions;
(_c_) Tracery lights lose their independence;
(_d_) Greatly elaborated canopies;
(_e_) Stipple shading, replacing the earlier smear shading.
It can be said with no fear of contradiction that we have now arrived at
the finest period of English glazing.
PERPENDICULAR TOUR
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