Stained Glass Work Part 18

CHARTRES. (If there is still any left unrestored.) St. Pierre in the same town.

SENS.

TROYES. AUXERRE.

Of the last two I have only seen some copies. For gla.s.s by Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and Madox-Brown, consult their lives.

There are many well-known books on the subject of ancient gla.s.s, Winston, Westlake, &c., which give fuller details on this matter.

APPENDIX II

ON THE RESTORING OF ANCIENT WINDOWS

Let us realise what _is_ done.

And let us consider what _ought to be done_.

A window of ancient gla.s.s needs releading. The lead has decayed and the whole is loose and shaky. The ancient gla.s.s has worn very thin, pitted almost through like a worn-out thimble with little holes where the alkalis have worked their way out. It is as fragile and tender as an old oil-painting that needs to be taken off a rotten canvas and re-lined. If you examine a piece of old gla.s.s whose lead has had time to decay, you will find that the gla.s.s itself is often in an equally tender state. The painting would remain for years, probably for centuries yet, if untouched, just as dust, without any attachment at all, will hang on a vertical looking-gla.s.s. But if you sc.r.a.pe it, even only with the finger-nail, you will generally find that that is sufficient to bring much--perhaps most--of the painting off, while both sides of the gla.s.s are covered with a "patina" of age which is its chief glory in quality and colour, and which, or most of which, a wet handkerchief dipped in a little dust and rubbed smartly will remove.

In short, here is a work of art as beautiful and precious as a picture by t.i.tian or Holbein, and probably, as being the chief glory of some stately cathedral, still more precious, which ought only to be trusted to the gentle hands of a cultivated and scientific artist, connoisseur, and expert. The gla.s.s should all be handled as if it were old filigree silver. If the lead is so perished that it is absolutely impossible to avoid taking the gla.s.s down, it should be received on the scaffold itself, straight from its place in the stone, between packing-boards lined with sheets of wadding--"cotton-wool"--attached to the boards with size or paste, and with, of course, the "fluffy" side outwards. These boards, section by section, should be finally corded or clamped ready for travelling _before being lowered from the scaffold_; if any pieces of the gla.s.s get detached they should be carefully packed in separate boxes, each labelled with a letter corresponding to one placed on the section as packed, so that there may be no chance of their place ever being lost, and when all is done the whole window will be ready to be gently lowered, securely "packed for removal," to the pavement below.

The ideal thing now would be to hire a room and do the work on the spot; but if this is impossible on account of expense and the thing has to bear a journey, the sections, packed as above described, should be themselves packed, two or three together, as may be convenient, in an outer packing-case for travelling. It should be insured, for then a representative of the railway must attend to certify the packing, and also extra care will be taken in transit.

Arrived at the shop, the window should be laid out carefully on the bench and each bit re-leaded into its place, the very fragile pieces between two bits of thin sheet-gla.s.s.

Unless this last practice is adopted _throughout_, the ordinary process of cementing must be omitted and careful puttying subst.i.tuted for it.

While if it _is_ adopted the whole must be puttied _before_ cementing, otherwise the cement will run in between the various thicknesses of gla.s.s. It would be an expensive and tedious and rather thankless process, for the repairer's whole aim would be to hide from the spectator the fact that anything whatever had been done.

What does happen at present is this. A country clergyman, or, in the case of a cathedral, an architectural surveyor, neither of whom know by actual practice anything technically of stained-gla.s.s, hand the job over to some one representing a stained-gla.s.s establishment. This gentleman has studied stained-gla.s.s on paper, and knows as much about cutting or leading technically and by personal practice, as an architect does of masonry, or stone-carving--neither more nor less. That is to say, he has made sketch-books full of water-colour or pencil studies, and endless notes from old examples, and has never cut a bit of gla.s.s in his life, or leaded it.

Well, he a.s.sumes the responsibility, and the client reposes in the blissful confidence that all is well.

Is all well?

The work is placed in the charge of the manager, and through him it filters down as part of the ordinary, natural course of events into the glazing-shop. Here this precious and fragile work of art we have described is handed over to a number of ordinary working men to treat by the ordinary methods of their trade. They know perfectly well that n.o.body above them knows as much as they, or, indeed, anything at all of their craft. Division of labour has made them "glaziers," as it has made the gentlemen above stairs, who do the cartoons or the painting, "artists." These last know nothing of glazing, why should glaziers know anything of art? It is perfectly just reasoning; they do their very best, and what they do is this. They take out the old, tender gla.s.s, with the colour hardly clinging to it, and they put it into fresh leads, and then they solder up the joints. And, by way of a triumphant wind-up to a good, solid, English, common-sense job, with no art-nonsense or fads about it, they proceed to scrub the whole on both sides with stiff gra.s.s-brushes (ordinarily sold at the oil-shops for keeping back-kitchen sinks clean), using with them a composition mainly consisting of exactly the same materials with which a housemaid polishes the fender and fire-irons. That is a plain, simple, unvarnished statement of facts. You may find it difficult of belief, but this is what actually happens. This is what you are having done everywhere, guardians of our ancient buildings. You'll soon have all your old windows "quite as good as new."

It's a merry world, isn't it?

APPENDIX III

Hints for the Curriculum of a Technical School for Stained-Gla.s.s--Examples for Painting--Examples of Drapery--Drawing from Nature--Ornamental Design.

_Examples for Painting._--I have already recommended for outline work the splendid reproductions of the Garter Plates at Windsor. It is more difficult to find equally good examples for _painting_; for if one had what one wished it would be photographed from ideal painted-gla.s.s or else from cartoons wisely prepared for gla.s.s-work. But, in the first case, if the photographs were from the best ancient gla.s.s--even supposing one could get them--they would be unsatisfactory for two reasons. First, because ancient gla.s.s, however well preserved, has lost or gained something by age which no skill can reproduce; and secondly, because however beautiful it is, all but the very latest (and therefore not the best) is immature in drawing. It is not wise to reproduce those errors. The things themselves look beautiful and sincere because the old worker drew as well as he could; but if we, to imitate them, draw less well than we can, we are imitating the _accidents_ of his production, and not the _method_ and _principle_ of it: the principle was to draw as well as he could, and we, if we wish to emulate old gla.s.s, must draw as well as _we_ can. For examples of Heads nothing can be better than photographs from Botticelli and other early Tuscan, and from the early Siennese painters. Also from Holbein, and chiefly from his drawings.

There is a flatness and firmness of treatment in all these which is eminently suited to stained-gla.s.s work. Hands also may be studied from the same sources, for though Botticelli does not always draw hands with perfect mastery, yet he very often does, and the expression of them, as of his heads, is always dignified and full of sweetness and gentleness of feeling; and as soon as we have learnt our craft so as to copy these properly, the best thing is to draw hands and heads for ourselves.

_Examples of Drapery._--To me there is no drapery so beautiful and appropriate for stained-gla.s.s work in the whole world of art, ancient or modern, as that of Burne-Jones, and especially in his studies and drawings and cartoons for gla.s.s; and if these are not accessible, at least we may pose drapery as like it as we can, and draw it ourselves and copy it. But I would, at any rate, earnestly warn the student against the "crinkly-crankly" drapery imitated from Durer and his school, which fills up the whole panel with wrinkles and "turnovers"

(the linings of a robe which give an opportunity for changing the colour), and spreads out right and left and up and down till the poor bishop himself (and in nine cases out of ten it _is_ a bishop, so that he may be mitred and crosiered and pearl-bordered) becomes a mere peg to hang vestments on, and is made short and dumpy for that end.

There is a great temptation and a great danger here. This kind of work, where every inch of s.p.a.ce is filled with ornament and glitter, and change and variety and richness, is indeed in many ways right and good for stained-gla.s.s; which is a broken-up thing; where large blank s.p.a.ces are to be avoided, and where each little bit of gla.s.s should look "cared for" and thought of, as a piece of fine jewellery is put together in its setting; and if craftsmanship were everything, much might be said for these methods. There is indeed plenty of stained-gla.s.s of the kind more beautiful as _craftsmanship_ than anything since the Middle Ages, much more beautiful and cunning in workmanship than Burne-Jones, and yet which is little else but vestments and curtains and diaper--where there is no lesson taught, no subject dwelt on, no character studied or portrayed. If we wish it to be so--if we have nothing to teach or learn, if we wish to be let alone, to be soothed and lulled by mere sacred _trappings_, by pleasant colours and fine and delicate sheen and the glitter of silk and jewels--well and good, these things will serve; but if they fail to satisfy, go to St. Philip's, Birmingham, and see the solemnities and tragedies of Life and Death and Judgment, and all this will dwindle down into the mere upholstery and millinery that it is.

_Drawing from Nature._--There is a side of drawing practice almost wholly neglected in schools, which consists, not in training the eye and hand to correctly measure and outline s.p.a.ces and forms, but in training the finger-ends with an H.B. pencil point at the end of them to ill.u.s.trate texture and minute detail. It is necessary to look at things in a large way, but it is equally necessary to look at them in a small way; to be able to count the ribs on a blade of gra.s.s or a tiny c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l, and to give them in pencil, each with its own light and shade. I find the whole key to this teaching to lie in one golden rule--_not to frighten or daunt the student with big tasks at first_. A single grain of wheat, not a whole ear of corn; some tiny seed, tiny sh.e.l.l; but whatever _is_ chosen, to be pursued with a needle-pointed pencil to the very verge of lens-work. I must yet again quote Ruskin.

"You have noticed," he says,[9] "that all great sculptors, and most of the great painters of Florence, began by being goldsmiths. Why do you think the goldsmith's apprenticeship is so fruitful? Primarily, because it forces the boy to do small work and mind what he is about. Do you suppose Michael Angelo learned his business by dashing or hitting at it?"

_Ornamental Design._--It is impossible here to enter into a description of any system of teaching ornament. At p. 294 I have given just as much as two pages can give of the seed from which such a thing may spring.

In some of the collotypes from the finished gla.s.s the patterns on quarry or robe which spring from this seed may be traced--very imperfectly, but as well as the scale and the difficulties of photography and the absence of colour will allow.

What I find best, in commencing with any student, is to start four practices together, and keep them going together step by step, side by side, through the course, one evening for each, or some like division.

_Technical Work._--Cutting, glazing, &c.

_Painting Work._--By graduated examples, from simple outline up to a head of Botticelli.

_Ornament_, as described; and

_Drawing from Nature_, in the spirit and methods we have spoken of.

Moulding the whole into a system of composition and execution, tempered and governed as it goes along by judiciously chosen reading and reference to examples, ancient or modern.

[9] "Ariadne Florentina," p. 108.

NOTES ON THE COLLOTYPE PLATES

It is obvious that stained-gla.s.s cannot be adequately shown in book-ill.u.s.tration.

For instance, we cannot have either the scale of it or the colour--two rather vital exceptions. These collotypes are, therefore, put forth as mere diagrams for the use of students, to call their attention to certain definite points and questions of treatment, and no more pretending than if they were black-board drawings to give adequate pictures of what gla.s.s can be or should be.

This is one reason, too, for the omission of all attempt to reproduce ancient gla.s.s. It was felt that it should not be subjected to the indignity of such very imperfect representation, and especially as so many much larger books on the subject exist, where at least the _scale_ is not so ill-treated.

But, besides, if one once began ill.u.s.trating old gla.s.s, one would immediately seem to be setting standards for present-day guidance, and this could only be done (_if done_) with many annotations and exceptions and with a much larger range of examples than is possible here.

The following ill.u.s.trations, therefore, show the attempts of a group of workers who have endeavoured to carry into practice the principles set forth in this book. It has not been found possible in all cases to get photographs from the actual gla.s.s--always a very difficult thing to do.

The ill.u.s.trations can be seen much better by the aid of a moderately strong reading-lens.

PLATE I.--_Part of East Window, St. Anselm's, Woodridings, Pinner, by Louis Davis._ The design, cartoons, and cut-line made, all the gla.s.s chosen and painted, and the leading superintended by the artist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I.--Part of Window. St. Anselm's, Woodridings, Pinner.]

PLATE II.--_Another portion of the same window, by the same. Scenes from the Life of St. Anselm._ Executed under the same conditions as the above. The freehand drawing and the varying thickness of the leads in the quarry work should be noted.