Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/78

 58 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, plied, he is not satisfied until he makes the article supplying it ornamental. The ancient authors, who have written on the subject, record the fact, that color was mixed with glass to imitate gems. Glass beads, and other ornaments, numerous specimens of which have been found adorning the bodies of Egyptiau Mum- mies, have been exhumed, and found perfect, after a lapse of at least 3,500 years. But it was not till after the commencement of the Christian era, that it appears to have been used in windows in its colored state. Leo the III. is said to have adorned the win- dows of the Lateran with colored glass. After the making of the colored panes of glass, it naturally followed that the artists of that day would combine them in various ways to produce variety of form and design; at first, with the simple colors red or ruby, blue or azure, yellow or golden, which are the three primitives, each beautiful in itself, and the three, in combination, producing all other colors. And here, to digress a little, there is something wonderful in the analogy of the number three: Father, Son and Spirit ; Sun, Moon and Stars ; Faith, Hope and Charity ; Earth, Air and Water ; and the three colors, Red, Blue and Yellow, from which all other colors are produced, for white is the absence of color, from its entire reflection of all three primitives, as black is the shadow or combination, from its complete ab- sorption, of the three. The mixture red and blue producing purple, and violet ; the red and yellow, orange and scarlet ; the blue and yellow, green ; and so on, ad infinitum, until you have all the colors of nature in all their various hues. The most ancient windows were very simple-, being, in fact, pieces of colored glass joined together with leaden bands, making a sort of mosaic pattern, which in proper combination produces a very brilliant effect, but, from its intensity, is too overpowering, when the sun shines upon it, to be looked at for anj- length of time with pleasure, as it dazzles and confuses the eye. This undoubtedly led to the combination of the plain colors with enamel, which is put on the surface of the other glass and fused into it, and, by softening the brilliancy, produces an effect on which the eye can rest longer and with more pleasure. Having at- tained this, we gradually get to the ad- mixture of color with enamel ; and so produce pictures of the most beautiful kind. This idea was said to have been first suggested by a French painter at Rome, but the first specimens of the combined art are said to have been exe- cuted by Alfred Durer, an architect, an engraver, and a painter of the first celebrity, whose works stand to this day, giving proof of their enduring qualities and beauty. The writer had the pleasure of examining some of his finest work, in some of the windows of the grand Cathedral at Cologne, which, for beauty of design, boldness of outline, and harmony of color, are not excelled by any in Europe, ancient or modern ; indeed the modern windows in the same Cathedral, by the best masters of Munich, look tame and flat beside them. This is not prejudice, for it was not till some time after I had been admiring them, that I discovered who the artist was that made them. Here let me say, that the art of glass- painting takes rank among the very highest. It is one which the masters of the olden time did not disdain to follow. That it is more difficult than high art upon canvas, or any of the usual mate- rials, none acquainted with the process will deny, for when the colors are applied, the chemical judgment and practice of the artist must be great, to enable him to know what will be the result of his labors, when put through the furnace ; as, until they are fused, the colors are not produced, and a shade too heavy may destroy the beauty and harmony of the whole design. And now, the question arises, Can the