Mastercrafts - Stained Glass

« Mastercrafts » is a television program what suggest working like a craftsman. In this episode, 3 persons learned and worked with a master glazier during 6 weeks. Monty Don, the program presenter, completes this sort of reality show with historical points and interviews. It aims at following people in this experience: we can see their progress, their feelings and their motivation… like in an actual reality show. I apologize for the packaging of those videos: in fact, this program was diffused the Saturday, 29^th September 2012 and this content isn’t available on BBC iPlayer. The program lasts one hour so I can’t transcribe it entirely: I choose to transcribe several extracts, one per video. Nevertheless, I will explain the contents of each video with more or less details.

In the first video, there is a presentation of the adventure, of the craftsman and the participants. Sophie Hussain is a talented stained glass artist: she usually worked alone but she accepts to teach the craft of stonemasonry to the apprentices. She is afraid of the short time of the experience. Valery Rose is an amateur artist and this program permits her to realize one of her dreams: learn with a craftsman of stained glass. James is a student in a architectural school and he is specialized of glass and he takes an avid interest in the light games with glass. According to him, glasses complete architectural structures. Abigail was a graphic design teacher and she wants a new professional direction.

When they arrived in the artist studio, Sophie is teaching them the basis of the craft like the cutting and presenting them her work and different tools. During this first week, students have to reproduce a simple stained glass with plain glass. The patron is composed with different sizes and cuts.

Transcription (1min36 – 3min04):

The knowledge and skills of stained glass was brought to this country by the Romans and this secret was guarded jealously for hundred years. It was disseminated across the country and that coincides with the arrival of Christianity. So from the outset, stained glass was portrayed in the great churches and cathedrals of the country.

The first golden age of stained glass started in the middle of the 12^th century and coincided with the existing Romanesque architecture lauder making way for the more elegant gothic style. This was characterized by pointed arches heavily buttress […] and the loud vast openings to be possible in the Wales that in turn allowed for huge windows. This great northern cathedral of York has more glasses in it than any other building in Britain, 128 medieval stained glass windows that’s 2 millions separate pieces of glass, every fragment of that had made […] and that was to pool Godlight on to the work shoppers inside and this light that cames through was just a glimpse of the light […] the men to the afterlife.

In the second extract, the presenter program interviews employees of a glass factory : he explains us the different process of the glassmaking from the orange pool to the glass plate. In the artist studio, apprentices reproduce the same stained glass but with colored glass: this is their first “creation”. We can see that Valery is in trouble to cutting glass without ruler. The participants are happy to use colored glass in their production because they can imagine a personal product.  They learn the lead putting in order to finish a stained glass. They are proud of their first realization. At the end of the video, the group comes to a stained glass restoration studio. They learn procedures about the conditions of conservation and restoration of ancient stained glass.

Transcription (0 – 0min45 et 10min25 – 11min32):

This factory in Redditch still makes glass using techniques developed in the 12^th century. Glass is colored or stained with minerals and this is a technique has been used since medieval times. SO you can the shift of blue glass which is colored with cobalt as is incredibly rich blue and you could see the imperfections there which give it life. Down here, we’ve got the most valuable glass of all which is pink glass. This is all about the eye and a hand which worked together with precious materials to make something everlasting beautiful.

Medieval stained glass need constant conservation and when they were made, there are thousands of master classes of stained glass, now a few dozen in the whole Britain and all of them work on the conservation and the restoration. Many cathedrals have dedicated workshops constantly maintain exquisite windows so the illuminated almost every secret building for the past thousands years. The […] is cleaning for piece ago so the very impact of the trace through the window, this is God on the head of the whole of the glorious display what strikes me as an incredible about this is the details literally what we can’t possibly see that, his top raised up high on the wall. And that devotion to detail has to be carefully preserved so just cleaning away the grime is done with minute cuss so it’s nothing in damage. And finally, the historical aspects have to be documented and the each section, hundreds of hours of work will begin.

The third video shows the searches what students have to prepare in order to create their own product. They have to think about the conception, the drawing, the realization and the lead putting. With a pattern catalogue, they choose their model according to craftsman’s piece of advice.

The craftsman organizes a tour in the town with an expert in order to inspire the students and teach them the history of stained glass: after the religious examples seen in the restoration studio, modern examples are explained. In this episode, the teacher talks about creativity and apprentices become amateur artists: they do searches in order to argue their work of art. But the craftsman imposes them to work on a panel inspired by Victorian stained glass seen in the restoration studio.  Three days later, the craftsman and the program presenter look at the apprentices’ productions and judge them: each participant listen remarks and pieces of advice in order to improve themselves. Valery is the one who failed this challenge, she doesn’t complete her work of art in the three days but the teacher helps her.

After this evaluation, students can work on their own projects but Monty Don gives them a new instruction: they have to exchange their pattern and each of them will work on the drawing of another. This action aims at strengthening ties between apprentices and working on the quality of execution.

The creativity of the students will be judged by a new jury: in fact, the director of the Harris Academy in Peckham launches a competition between apprentices to concept and realize stained glasses for the building. The theme is the ethnic diversity of the Academy. The last video recounts the competition and the results.

Transcription (2min35 – 4min22):

Guide: These golden ribbons represent the 5 sacred brothers really who offered themselves in death but they actually lived and they all the ones who are crucial founders really hopeful of […].  

Craftsman: You look at the orange which totally […], moves with the beautifully fluids and you see it meeting over each other if you look at the blue which is quite, safe and it’s behind. The blue and the orange […] individual shapes on their own and each square and the shape which is outside of the main context also just as important as the design itself

Guide: Whenever you’re designing glass, you have to remember the usually special of public building, the people who view it in static

Off: and no way exemplify the sense that people in constant motion: more than a million train station.

Guide: In the center, that’s the new scutum of Oxbridge and then the 2 supporting barrows are Middlesex and on the other side is Buckinghamshire. It’s saying something very positive to the people who live here so that’s coming back from work to their town and that is greeting them. It says at home, we state us so it’s similar in tradition to the Tudor era they were hots of arm which were in the grand houses to show that you’re absolutely marvelous. So this is a public work which is saying the same thing.

The Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi

     In order to study contemporary stained glasses and artists, we need to know the History of this art since its creation. An international foundation exists to establish extensive knowledge about stained glass in the western countries. We call this world initiative the “Corpus Vitrearum International”: international research on stained glass.

The destruction of religious sites during the Second World War was the origin of this enterprise: in fact, the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi was founded in 1949 by Hans R. Hahnloser. This is a systematic working on medieval stained glass: photographic documentation is combined in order to constitute a tool for research. It is the first initiative about the inventory and study of this art at a world level. Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, the USA, the Netherlands and Switzerland are members: this project exceeds European borders.

     

        This foundation is controlled by the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) and the Union Académique Internationale (UAI). Each member country selects a National Committee and defines its own terms of reference. The National Committees are responsible for choosing authors, for the organization and scholarly supervision of research and for their own finances. They are responsible for the scholarly content and the publication of individual volumes.

Those guidelines explain differences between publications of France and Belgium for example. In France, volumes are dedicated to the history of a building like the cathedral of Chartres and its stained glass program but in Belgium, volumes are dedicated to a complete inventory and study about the stained glass of a land like the Wallonia, for example. In this case, each church or building is described and studied but integrated in global geographical history.

LECOCQ Isabelle, Les vitraux de la seconde moitié du XVIe et de 
la première moitié du XVIIe siècles conservés en Belgique, Provinces
 du Brabant Wallon, du Hainaut, de Liège et de Namur, Louvain, 2011,
 Corpus Vitrearum Belgique VI.

PASTAN Elizabeth, Les vitraux du chœur de la cathédrale de Troyes, XIIIe siècle, Paris, 2006, Corpus Vitrearum France II.

  In the website available in Franch, English and Deutsch, we can see a short introduction of this project and its history since 1949, year of the foundation. In this text, researchers, founders and collaborators are presented in an historical context. Guidelines and organization of the association are explained just as the aims of the foundation. We can find all of publications of all member countries and so the state of search about stained glass in the different land.

The Cathedral "Notre Dame de la Treille" in Lille

During a few months in 2009 and 2010, I was a member of in an association called “Association des Guides de la Treille” which emphasizes the architecture and the sacred art, modern or contemporary, of the cathedral. My mission was to guide tourists and inquiring minds: I explained the history of the construction, the signification of the stained glass windows in different chapels and the signification of contemporary liturgical furniture.

This church was built in part in the 19^th century but the west wall was constructed in the 1900’s and 2000’s. Actually, the cultural patronage and the crowdfunding permitted this later construction. The materials of this facade are the marble and the concrete. 

 

 The marble wall receives the stained glass window of Ladislas Kijno. The rose window illustrates the Passion and the Resurrection. Christ's face, at the bottom in the tomb, is the starting point of the fruits ripening which symbolizes the Resurrection. The dove, a figure of the Holy Spirit, is surrounded by the Trinity and looks a multicolored scene. The scene presents the Jessé tree and the alliance between God and men. The wine and the bread which symbolize the Eucharist are at the top of the composition. Like any work of art, some readings are possible depending on anyone’s sensibility.

  

 

The art of stained glass window making is difficult and subtle because this is the light variation which emphasize this color or other depending on hour, day or season. At noon, for example, a circle of colored light moves toward the choir. This stained glass window is completed by the marble wall which plays with the light too.

 

The liturgical furniture and the Way of the Cross are added at the same time. In spite of liturgical requirements, artists give us their vision of religious subjects.

Recently, the west wall was the support of a manifestation with Lille Fantastic. The mapping takes place again during the centenary of the diocese.