Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/608

 426 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. noticed (p. 45), no mention is made of the different methods of smear, and stipple shading — a distinction of ci'itical importance. The invention of enamel colouring is likewise passed over in silence, and the change which this invention wrought in glass painting is not clearly or histori- cally traced. In dividing the history and description of the styles of ancient painted glass into centuries, instead of simply into styles, Mr. Warrington has followed the example of many other writers ; and of this we do not com- plain, although the arrangement has a tendency to complicate the subject, as it practically involves a division of it both into centuries and styles. But his detailed description of the different styles we cannot but think unsatisfactory. It consists of a mass of materials, partly original, but principally compiled from other works, and all blended together in such confusion, that, really, a clearer notion of the subject might be obtained from a perusal of an elementary Essay on Ancient Glazing, which appeared some years ago in Parker's Glossary of Architecture. It is, moreover, inaccurate as regards some features, and omits any systematic mention of others, which, though minute, are of importance in ascertaining the date or style of a glass painting ; as, for instance, the texture of the material, or mode of execution * used at ditferent periods. It is, perhaps, hardly worth while to notice the crotchet of our author, that the " tints " of the ornaments used in the borders of the 12th cen- tury windows, which were " tinted with all the remaining colours," (red and blue being appropriated to the grounds of the borders) were " kept of a pale and neutral kind, approaching to u-hite, all the ornaments of the border being thus approximated to metal by their paleness, and thus pre- serving the principles and rules of blazon with all the effect of compre- hensive colouring ;" (p. 9) or, that the medallions, which " contained the principal story and interior of the window," " were always kept small and subordinate, because they were less beautiful, that is, contributed less to the general effect, though possessing more pictorial interest than the back- grounds ;" (ib.) since a glance at the windows at Canterbury, or at the engravings in Lasteyrie's History, or in the Monographic de la Cathedral de Bourges, will sufficiently refute these notions. But when the author (p. 35) divides glass paintings of the thirteenth century into " Reticulated "" ^ The autlior seems to have been particu- that the old artists did black in with opaque larly averse to initiating his reader in the colour (enamel brown), round the edges of mysteries of the workshop, except ou one the glass, yet, owing to the very irregular occasion, where, in reference to the ancient breadth of this blacking in, which sometimes lead work, he says, " The lead used in these was entirely covered by the leaf of the lead, — times was less broad than that of the present the effect produced by their practice is very day, andseldom varied in si/e, whereas many different from the harsh uniform line of sizes are now used for the same composition ; undcviating breadth produced by a broad by which means all the various effects of modern lead. different breadths of outline arc to be obtained. ' The author states, (p. 35), that "reticu- This object was thus acconiidished by arti- lated " glass is " sometimes termed ' grisaille ficially adding to the breadth of the lead by glass.'" But this is calculated to create an blacking in, or painting an additional breadth erroneous impression, for the term " grisaille " in opaque colour on the glass itself." p. 12. is applied to any glass painting which consists We are not disposed to accept this apoloj^y of white glass painted with enamel brown, in for the modern practice of using leads broader contra-distinction to one in which coloured than the old ones. For, though it is true glass is employed, and is not confined to the