Architectural Glass Design

Architectural Glass Design

A History

Where? Where do you think you could find stained

glass?

In groups of 2/3 take 5 minutes to write a list of places you could have seen stained and architectural glass design.

Where it all started…. Ancient Egypt• Artisans in Egypt used heat to transform SAND, SEAWEED, BRUSHWOOD AND LIME into glass.

• In ancient Egypt, Glass was used to make a variety of objects, ranging from drinking cups to perfume containers.

• Around 1500BC they managed to create perfume bottles, tableware and the first window panes

• Glass wasn’t important practically but it gave you status

• Egyptians also used coloured glass in jewellery. It was used to replace precious gems. Although the Egyptians had access to gemstones, they preferred the colours they could create in glass. Fr nearly each gemstone, there was a glass formulation used to mimic it.

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Fish Shaped Glass Vessel used for Oils or Make-up1390-1336 BC

Ancient Egyptian glass jar

All medieval glass was made by members of a craft guild. This was because stained glass construction requires great artistic skill to first create the design and then to engineer and assemble it.

Almost all medieval glass was ecclesiastical ( for churches and cathedrals) The purpose of Stained glass in churches was mainly to allow people who could

not read the opportunity to see the stories from the bible visually.

Medieval Glass

Chartres Cathedral, France

Our Lady of the Beautiful Window (12th Century)

Canterbury Cathedral, England

Adam Delving (c. 1176)

York Minster, England

West Window (1338)

Medieval glass is often intensely coloured, especially with reds and blues.

Medieval Glass

During the Reformation in the 16th Century (where many people changed their religion and moved away from Catholicism towards Protestantism) many of these medieval stained glass designs were purposely destroyed and replaced with plain glass. This is why very few can be found today undamaged.

Stained Glass Revival -19th Century In the 19th Century there was a revival in the use

and manufacture of Stained Glass. Many new buildings including churches were

constructed in the Gothic Revival style during this time.

Gothic Revival architecture was all about creating buildings in the style of old medieval churches and cathedrals.

These new 19th Century buildings required Stained Glass designs just like the old Medieval buildings so this increased the interest and popularity of this art form.

Glasgow University (1870)This building was designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott and is an example of the type of Gothic Revival building which would have needed new stained glass designs created for it.

A typical Gothic arched window

Stained Glass in Bute Hall, Glasgow University (1870’s)

These designs are in memory of old professors and

Dean’s of the University.

The revival of Stained Glass was helped along by the Industrial Revolution. Factories capable of producing Stained Glass using new techniques on a larger scale much more quickly pushed forward the manufacture of Stained Glass in Britain.

Within fifty years of the start of commercial manufacture in the 1830s British stained glass grew into an enormous and specialised industry with many companies in existence.

Stained Glass Revival -19th Century

A19th Century Glass Factory

The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in Britain and flourished in the 19th Century between 1880 and 1910.

The central figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement was William Morris (1834–1896).

They were influenced by the Gothic Revival and were interested in all things medieval.

They went against the Industrial Revolution as didn’t like things which were made on a large scale by machines in factories and preferred simplicity, good craftsmanship, and good design.

While the original intent was to provide handmade goods to the common man, the cost of paying craftsmen an honest wage resulted in higher prices than the common man could afford. This limited the movement to the upper class.

The Arts & Crafts MovementWilliam Morris

Print

Crucifixion Stained Glass designed by

Edward Burne-Jones

William Morris (1834 – 1896)The Arts & Crafts Movement

David's Charge to Solomon (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-

Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston

Morris was the single most influential designer of the 19th Century. He had an extraordinary talent as a pattern designer.

Morris set out to revive the traditions of craftsmanship which, in his mind, had been lost during the Industrial Revolution.

He went on to found the company Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.

His company created hand made carvings, stained glass, metal-work, paper-hangings, chintzes (printed fabrics), and carpets.

The decoration of churches formed the most important part of their business and was well known for its Stained Glass designs.

The company still exists todayhttp://www.william-morris.co.uk/index.aspx

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau was an international

movement and style of art, architecture and applied art - especially the decorative arts.

The name 'Art Nouveau' is French for 'new art'.

Art Nouveau was characterized by organic forms, dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines and curves which took its inspiration from nature.

Art Nouveau's fifteen-year peak (1890 – 1905) was most strongly felt throughout Europe - from Glasgow to Moscow and Barcelona - but its influence was global.

Gaudi’s Casa Battlo in Barcelona (1904 – 1906)

Poster of Joan of Arc, by Alphonse

Mucha, (1909)

Peacock lamp, Tiffany Studios, (1900–1910)

Art Nouveau

A number of artists and designers can be classed as working in the Art Nouveau style and these include:- Gustav Klimt Charles Rennie Mackintosh Alphonse Mucha Antoni Gaudí Louis Comfort Tiffany

Each of these artists and designers interpreted Art Nouveau in their own individual way.

Art Nouveau was in many ways a response to the Industrial Revolution. Some artists welcomed technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of new materials such as cast iron. Others hated the shoddiness of mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed to elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of craftsmanship and design to everyday objects.

Tiffany was an American artist and designer best known for his Stained Glass designs.

He was inspired to work with Stained Glass after seeing examples of Roman glass in a London Museum. He felt that he could improve on the quality of contemporary Stained Glass designs of his time.

He created the Tiffany Glass Company in 1885 which became known as the Tiffany Studios in 1902.

Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewellery, enamels and metalwork.

Tiffany experimented with Stained Glass and is know for creating the type of glass that he named “Favrile” in 1878.

Tiffany, along with John La Farge who invented opalescent glass, made great steps forward in Stained Glass manufacture and design.

Art NouveauLouis Comfort Tiffany (1848 – 1933)

The Holy City (1905) Tiffany

Studios

Wisteria lamp, Tiffany Studios, (1900–1910)

Art NouveauCharles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

Mackintosh was an architect who designed schools, offices, churches, tearooms and homes.

He was also an interior designer and decorator, an exhibition designer, a designer of furniture, metalwork, textiles and stained glass and, in his latter years, a watercolourist.

One of his most famous buildings is the Glasgow School of Art. He not only designed the exterior but interiors of this buildings too which included Stained Glass windows and panels.

Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow, Stained glass panel (1903 -04)

Queens Cross Church withWest Window (1898)

East Doors with Glass Design, Glasgow School of Art (1887 – 88)

This stained glass is more abstractand organic in design than religiousalthough it is situated in a church.

Queens Cross Church, Glasgow (1898)

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) Frank Lloyd Wright is probably one of the worlds best known

architects. He was considered the most influential architect of his time and

designed about 1,000 structures, some 400 of which were built. Lloyd Wright subscribed to the ethos of Arts & Crafts but is

seen as the founder of modern architecture in America His influences include the balanced harmonious composition of

Japanese architecture and interiors. He took inspiration from the Japanese grid and used restrained, geometric shapes in the structure and decoration of his buildings to recreate this harmony

Although mainly known as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright was also active in many related areas such as furniture design, graphics arts, and stained glass.

He designed well over 4,000 leaded glass windows and doors for over 150 of his buildings.

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Beyond Art Nouveau

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) The major differences in Wright's glass design

when compared to what came before is that the designs heavily depend on the zinc-or copper-plated came configuration (everyone else used lead) and they often feature geometric abstractions of natural elements such as plants. He used transparent solid-coloured, iridescent and clear glass, and sometimes sandwiched gold leaf between two thin pieces of clear glass.

Oak Park Home Studio Skylight (1898)

Heath House – Window (1904)

Hollyhock HouseLos Angeles (1921)

Lake Geneva InnChicago (1911-1912)

Beyond Art Nouveau

Meyer May House (1908-1909)

20th Century Due to changing styles and the end of the

Gothic Revival period many of the 19th Stained Glass companies went out of business.

However another revival of Stained Glass design in the UK design came about due to the Second World War.

Many Stained Glass designs were destroyed during German bombing runs across Britain and once the war had ended many of these were restored.

A bombed chapel in London, 1941

Coventry Cathedral lays in ruins, 1940