The intrinsic connection between the fortunes of
stained glass and those of the Church were yet again
emphasised by the medium’s rebirth in the early 19th
century. The Catholic revival was accompanied by a
rekindled interest in the medieval church, in Gothic
architecture and, inevitably, in stained glass. New
churches were commissioned, old ones restored, and
the daylight within them became colourful once again.
The pictorial content of church windows became
more varied under the influences of Romanticism,
and the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as the
reinterpretation of medieval tradition and the Gothic
revival. Simultaneously, stained glass began to find its
way into secular buildings as the wealthy individuals
and families of the day built substantial and opulent
homes, and as the increasingly flourishing cities built
ornate civic buildings. The object of veneration moved
from God to Mammon but the architectural effect
of filtering daylight continued to add fascinating,
changing colour to interiors.
By the late 19th century, coloured glass had even
entered less flamboyant domestic architecture.
Architects including Charles Rennie Mackintosh
introduced modestly sized stained glass leadlight
elements into comparatively modest dwellings, using
abstract designs or imagery often inspired by nature.
In the 20th century, technical innovation in glass
manufacture and construction techniques allowed new
and diverse movements in architecture to change our
ideas of what windows could be. While larger panes
of glass helped the modernists create their innovative,
light-filled and airy structures, and developments
such as double-glazing and special coatings helped to
create more efficient buildings, other developments
influenced artists and designers to use different ways
of colouring daylight.
Coloured glass, of course, has not gone away. From
Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp in
France to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in the UK,
with its extraordinary glass by John Piper and Patrick
Reyntiens, 20th-century religious buildings certainly
continue the tradition of stained glass, although often
in purely geometrical patterns and abstract designs,
very much created with the colour they impart to the
space in mind, as much as their appearance as backlit
images. The figurative stained glass window lives on, ▼
Left: stained glass window at Le Corbusier’s chapel of Notre Dame du
Haut in Ronchamp, France, 1954. Overleaf: the Chihuly Bridge of Glass
in Tacoma, Washington, is a 150m-long pedestrian overpass designed
by Arthur Andersson in collaboration with glass artist Dale Chihuly. Its
ceiling, the Seaform Pavilion, comprises 2364 glass objects
