Part 22 (1/2)

Medallions are framed by lines of colour and beaded bands of white, but they do not, as a rule, separate themselves very markedly from their ornamental surroundings. The effect is one rather indeterminate glory of intense colour.

Except in quite the earliest medallion windows, the strong iron bars supporting the gla.s.s are, as a rule, bent (above), to follow the outline of the medallions. That was done in no other period.

2. _Rose Windows_ occur mainly in French churches. They are a variation upon the medallion window. A great Rose window (Chartres, Bourges, etc.) may be regarded as a series of radiating medallion lights, with subjects relatively fewer in number, and a greater proportion of pattern work.

Occasionally they consist of pattern work altogether. Smaller Roses (the only form of tracery met with in quite Early work) contain very often a central circular medallion subject, the cusps or foils round it being occupied with ornament, all in rich colour, even though the lights below it be in grisaille.

3. _Figure and Canopy Windows_ (page 40) are more proper to the clerestory and triforium of a church, but they are not entirely confined to a far-off position.

With regard to them it should be mentioned that figures under canopies, sitting, or more often standing--one above the other in long, narrow lights--occur throughout the Gothic periods, and even in Renaissance gla.s.s. The characteristic thing about the Early ones is the stiffness and comparative grotesqueness of the figures and the modesty of the canopy. This last is of small dimensions. It may be merely a trefoiled arch (page 40). Usually it is more architectural (page 46), gabled, with a little roofing, and perhaps a small tower or two rising above, not beautiful. It is in fairly strong colours. It is so little conspicuous that it is not at first sight always distinguishable from the background to the figure. Occasionally the figure has no canopy at all. The saint stands front face, straight up in his niche, in a constrained and cramped position, occupying its full width, which is obviously insufficient. His feet rest in an impossible manner upon a label bearing his name; or, if that be inscribed upon a label in his hand, or on the background behind him, then he stands upon a little mound of green to represent the earth (page 40).

Figure and canopy alike are archaic in design, and rudely drawn. It is seldom that a figure subject on a smaller scale is introduced below the standing figure, as was frequently the case in later work. Groups of figures are characteristically confined to medallion windows.

_The Border_ is a feature in Early gla.s.s. It is broad. In medallion windows it measures sometimes as much as one-fourth the width of the light. It takes up, that is to say, perhaps half the area of the window.

It consists of foliated ornament similar in character to that between the medallions. Very broad borders occasionally include smaller figure medallions. In figure and canopy windows the borders are less, and simpler. Sometimes they consist merely of broad bands of colour interrupted by rosettes of other colours. Circ.u.mstances of proportion, and so on, influence the width of the border; but a broad border is characteristic of the Early period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 218. LE MANS.]

In Rose windows the border is of less account, and is confined, as a rule, to the outer ring of lights, or, it may be, to their outer edge.

_Detail._--Ornamental detail is severely conventional. In very Early work (page 327) it has rather the character of Romanesque ornament, with straplike stalks interlacing, often enriched by a beaded, zig-zag, or other pattern, which may be either painted upon it or picked out of solid brown.

Early in the thirteenth century foliage a.s.sumes the simpler Gothic form, with cinquefoiled, or more often trefoiled, leaf.a.ge (as here shown).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 219. CHARTRES.]

When it begins to be more naturalistic it is a sign of transition to the Decorated period. In Germany something of Romanesque flavour lingered far into the thirteenth century (page 330). There is properly no Early Gothic period there. Heraldry is modestly introduced into Early gla.s.s.

The Donor is occasionally represented on quite a small scale in the lower part of a window, his offering in his hand; or he is content to be represented by a small s.h.i.+eld of arms.

_Colour._--The gla.s.s in Early windows is uneven in substance, and, consequently, in colour. This is very plainly seen in the ”white” gla.s.s, which shades off, according to its thickness, from greenish or yellowish-white to bottle colour. The colour lies also sometimes in streaks of lighter and darker. This is especially so in red gla.s.s. The shades of colour most usually employed for backgrounds are blue and ruby. White occurs, but only occasionally.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 220. AUXERRE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 221. PATCHWORK OF GRISAILLE, SALISBURY.]

The Early palette consists of:--

White, greenish, and rather clouded; red, rubylike, often streaky; blue, deep sapphire to palest grey-blue, oftenest deep; turquoise-blue, of quite different quality, inclining to green; yellow, fairly strong, but never hot; green, pure and emerald-like, or deep and even low in tone, but only occasionally inclining to olive; purple-brown, reddish or brownish, not violet; flesh tint, actually lighter and more pinkish shades of this same purple-brown. In very early work the flesh is inclined to be browner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 222. S. KUNIBERT, COLOGNE.]

It must be remembered that, though the palette of the first glaziers was restricted, the proceeding of the gla.s.s-makers was so little scientific that they had no very great control over their manufacture. No two pots of gla.s.s, therefore, came out alike. Hence a great variety of shades of gla.s.s, though produced from a few simple recipes. They might by accident produce, once in a way, almost any colour. A pot of ruby sometimes turned out greenish-black. Still, the colours above mentioned predominate in Early work, and are clearly those aimed at.

_Workmans.h.i.+p._--The glazing of an Early window is strictly a mosaic of small pieces of gla.s.s. Each separate colour in it is represented by a separate piece of gla.s.s, or several pieces.

The great white eyes, for example, of big clerestory figures are separate pieces of white gla.s.s, rimmed with lead, and held in place by connecting strips of lead, which give them often very much the appearance of spectacles (page 40). In work on a sufficiently large scale the hair of the head and beard are also glazed in white, or perhaps in some dark colour, distinct from the brownish-pink flesh tint peculiar to the period (same page). No large pieces of gla.s.s occur.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 223. S. KUNIBERT, COLOGNE.]

Upon examination the window proves to be netted over with lines of lead jointing, much of which is lost in the outlines of the design.