Uncle John's Band: Medieval Art and Stained Glass

The SocialGalactic art posts include stained glass - modern and medieval - and medieval art in other materials. Some of these come out of Band posts, but all of them add variety. This collection starts with the medieval art - painting, sculpture, metalwork, architecture. There's no structure to it other than interesting things from a time before modern convergence and inversion. The arts of West posts have shown that distant roots of globalism infected the Middle Ages too - the world is fallen after all. But the art was motivated by the faith and beauty that shines though them. They make a nice counterpart to the more modern pieces.

Frederick Wilson for Tiffany Studios, Angel of the Resurrection, 1903-1904

Stained glass is a very old art and bridges the medieval and modern. There's a selection of both here - brilliant pieces that the show their strengths. Medieval glass gives us amazing combinations of carved stone tracery and brilliant colors. The modern glass has less spectacular settings but uses new techniques to create stunning visual effects. Our good fortune? To not have to choose.

Medieval

This is a broad category with even less overall direction than the paintings. The paintings are an attempt to see if we can uptake enough information to see the patterns of an alternative to Art! A real history that could be a legacy for our posterity as it is for us. This is an eclectic group - things we come across writing posts, skimming databases and catalogs, and other activities that we think worth sharing. Seven centuries and many media. This is our Western heritage too, and the way logos and techne flow seamlessly together into beauty is an example for the ages.

The Alton Towers Triptych was made in Germany around 1150 of gilded copper, champlevé enamel (enamel inlay in metal), and quartzite.

It shows theological links between Old and New Testament scenes on the wings and center panel.

German Triptych w. the Coronation of the Virgin, 1325–50

Ivory carving was common since antiquity, but Gothic artists brought new grace and elegance.

The beauty was to represent the infinitely greater beauty of holiness.

East end of Gloucester Cathedral with its Perpendicular Gothic lierne vaulted ceiling and Great East Window, built from the 1330s-1350s.

At 72’ x 40’, the window area is bigger than a singles tennis court (78’ x 27’).

Here's another view that shows the vaults better.

Limbourg brothers, The Temptation of Jesus, from the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, between 1411 and 1416

International Gothic manuscript illumination with a message about taking tickets. The colors are unusually superb.

It’s a gem.

Gloucester Cathedral cloister vaults, 1351-1377

Just taking advantage of social isolation to write a post on Gothic art.

The fan vaults in the Gloucester Cathedral cloister date from between 1351 and 1377. They didn’t even have toilet paper.

Lindisfarne Gospels, Incipit to Matthew, 715

Great Insular (early Irish) manuscript. An incipit elaborates the first few words to start a book.

Insular art combined Celtic and Germanic influence into incredible patterns.

Master of the Rebel Angels, The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1340s, Louvre Museum

[note - commenting on a discussion on the shape of the Earth] Couldn’t care less personally, but for what it’s worth, the medievals agreed. Here’s a painting from the 1340s.

Royal Abbey of St. Denis, 13th century choir

The genius of medieval builders was ribbed vaulting - webs of arches balanced by exterior flying buttresses.

Directing the roof load onto slender columns freed the rest of the surface for stained glass.

The rose window in the transept is a marvel. Rose windows usually are, but this is outstanding.

The Stavelot Triptych, around 1156

This was a reliquary for True Cross relics. It’s a masterpiece of the metalwork and enamel of the Meuse River valley.

Close-up of the inlay...

Carved head post from the Oseberg Ship Burial of circa 820

Viking Art

Several of these were found - the purpose is unclear. Probably ritual or religious.

You can see the interlaced forms & biting stylized heads of their Animal Style art.

Limbourg Brothers, September, from the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, 1412-16

Calendar page from the French King’s brother’s Book of Hours (prayer book). The illuminations were in tempera paint & ink.

The castle was based on a real one

Stained glass

Stained glass has been one of the real pleasures of posting pictures. Light has always been a symbol of God because it is the most immaterial of visible things. And stained glass lets you paint with it. Medieval glass took advantage of Gothic vaulting to fill whole walls with radiant images. God's light shining through holy scenes and filling the interior with a jewel-like glow was the closest they could come to heaven on earth. Modern glass combined old techniques of cutting and painting with new ones developed by John LaFarge and Louis Comfort Tiffany like opalescent and favrille glass. These textures and opaque colors let the artists paint with the glass itself in a way their ancestors couldn't.

See for yourself.

Sainte-Chapelle, 1238-48, Paris

Louis IX’s spectacular Gothic reliquary is one of the world’s great spaces. The glass walls make it seem like you are inside a jewel, and the light changes with times of day.

North transept rose window, Reims Cathedral, 1231-1241 with 17th century restorations.

Gothic window tells stories from Genesis around a central image of God the Father. The glass was set in a stone frame.

Here's a detail of the north rose at Reims showing the story of Adam and Eve and angels in the outer rings.

Pieces were soldered together with lead and details were painted on.

And one more. The north rose at Reims in context. It’s on the back of the north transept above the organ.

Tree of Jesse window from late 1200s Germany.

This popular theme showed Jesus’ maternal ancestry, coming from Jesse & connecting Old & New Testaments.

This one includes scenes from the life of Jesus.

Here are King David and the Last Supper, with Old Testament prophets who foretold the coming of Jesus.

The Tree of Jesse was a forerunner of the modern family tree.

The top scenes are creative. The cross in the Crucifixion is an extension of the tree, while Jesus ascends with his feet still showing

The great west window from York Minster Cathedral was made between 1338-39.

The elaborate bar tracery includes a heart shape, which is why the window’s called the Heart of Yorkshire.

Anyone like stained glass?

Reims Cathedral is unusual for a rose window over the central portal. The window was destroyed in World War I & replaced in 1936.

Successfully. The workshop was faithful to the original & didn’t “update”.

The Great East window at Lincoln Cathedral

Sunday stained glass was reglazed in 1855. The frame is 13th century Decorated Style Gothic.

The light is supposed to draw your thoughts to heavenly glory.

South transept rose window at Reims is from 1937

A replacement for original destroyed in WWI. The b.s. that the arts of the past are beyond us is annoying. It’s incentive.

Regain control of culture & the art will follow.

One more for context.

These big rose windows take up the wall.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Creation, 1922

Sunset paintings are beautiful, now try it in glass.

The way Tiffany “paints” with the patterns & textures of his opalescent & favrile glasses made him the master.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Flight of Souls, 1900

Stained glass for Sunday.

Tiffany’s technique of combining different types of glass gives us a vision that connects the beauty of nature & the promise of salvation.

Tiffany Studios, Rainbow Window, 1910

Tiffany’s brilliance at “painting” with textured and opalescent colored glass always amazes.

And a reminder that the rainbow is God’s promise or the aftermath of a storm.

Tiffany, Sunrise in the Forest at Springtime & Autumn Sunset, 1905

Tiffany’s mastery of color & texture is on full display in these seasonal landscapes.

The opacity is even consistent with the times of day.

Frederick Wilson for Tiffany Studios, Angel of the Resurrection, 1903-1904

John La Farge, The Transfiguration, 1886-90

La Farge pioneered a technique called opalescent glass (with Charles Tiffany) that reflects and refracts.

The clear/opaque contrast gives a streaky milky effect.

Tiffany Studios, Autumn Landscape, 1923–24

Paint has always been used on stained glass, but Louis Comfort Tiffany invented new techniques for color & texture.

No paint on this one - just favrile glass. During the era of Modern Art…

Favrile glass embeds the textured color in the glass. Tiffany also rolled melted glass to create texture and combined panels for opacity.

This is high-level technique. It’s worth a close-up.