The Art of Stained Glass essays

The Art of Stained Glass essays Many artists place the art of stained glass into the category of minor art. To some artists, the action of making stained glass is a craft, but the final product is viewed, not only as a work of art but also an expression of the artist, the subject they were presenting, and the architecture that held the stained glass. Labeling art as a craft is an insult to the artist; it is a nice way of saying the art is mediocre. The art of stained glass takes an acquired vision. The manufacturing of stained glass windows is extremely labor intensive and costly. It combines skills used in painting and architecture to create a new, eye pleasing art form. In this paper I am going to prove that stained glass is truly art by describing and comparing the works of art in the Cathedral of St. Julien du Mans with other stained glass windows. The art of stained glass came from the Norman and Early English styles. Accidental varieties of color arose from the crudeness of methods of glass manufacturing which originated the idea of applying color to glass. The Cathedral of St. Julien du Mans was built between the 11th and 13th centuries. Stained glass belonged wholly to the Christian era. During this time there were no stained glass designers. The Medieval and Byzantine attitude towards the artists was not respectable and they were often taken for granted. They belonged to an accepted order of things. Some artists were the creators the glass and some constructed the windows. To this day, great stained glass artists of the11th-15th centuries can not be named like the artists of paintings and architects. Stained glass artists had great talent, but at the time, were viewed simply as creators of windows and not as the talented artists they were. Artists simply developed and expounded a fundamentally traditional form of art. During the 11th 15th centuries there were many great aspects of stained glass that made...