Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/691

Rh GLASS P.~I.'TI.'G.] In the next great age of art, that which commences with the triumphs of the genius of Giotto, glass painting evi- dently shared in the general progress. No windows remain which are associated with his name as designer, but in Santa Croce at Florence, by the will of Count Alberto di Lapo, dated the 9th of July 1348, money was provided for adorn- ing the apse of the church with frescos and painted windows to be completed in three years. The frescoswere painted by Angelo di Taddeo Gaddi, and it seems reason- able to suppose that he designed two of the three windows,—— that in the centre being of later date. The following extract from the archives of the cathedral of Florence shows that Angelo Gaddi designed for glass-painters: “A window in Santa Ileparata”—the ancient name of the cathedral—— “over the door towards the street of the Cassettai is com- missioned of Antonio of Pisa, master glass—painter, and the design is by Angelo Gaddi.” The windows illustrate the system of ranging single figures under canopies over each other. The colouring is harsh ; there is too great a preval- ence of dark green; and the general design of ornament is meagre and confused. This is increased by the capricious changes of the colours of the canopies, which are 11ot white, these being rare in Italian glass painting. Thus in one of the windows the first two canopies are respectively red and green, which colours are counterchanged in those immedi- ately over; the next two in ascent are green and yellow, the next pair brown and yellow, the ﬁfth order shows both yellow. Thus that variety of colour prevalent in the back- grounds of Italian 13th century work is found in the canopies of windows of the next century, a custom limited to glass painting, and not found as a rule either in mural or other pictures. There are in Santa Croce several win- dows of the 1 4th century, but they are generally inferior to those of the same period extant in St Francis of Assisi, where there are important examples of rare beauty of design and workmanship, more harmoniously coloured than those at Florence, and suggesting that the Umbri-an excels the Florentine school of glass painting. Throughout the whole of the painted windows existing in Florence, of the fully developed style of the 14th century, and for a considerable portion of the 15th, the inﬂuence of the architectural design of Giotto and Orcagna is very per- ceptible. The graceful twisted shafts common to the works of both architects, the richly adorned niches and gablets, the dome-like covering of the famous baldacchino in the church of Or San Michele, the work of Orcagna, are features which are imitated in various ways by Italian glass-painters. The colour is especiallynoteworthy ; the canopy, somewhat squat in form, is adorned in every part with rich and diversified colours evidently imitative of the varied marbles and the inﬁnity of marble inlay and mosaics, characteristic of so much of the medizeval architecture of Italy; whilst in northern countries the canopies in windows, with their beautiful details of form showing such rich fancy and such graceful lines, are chieﬂy white, not that they are altogether colourless, for it is of the perfection of medizeval architec- ture to associate colour with form. That which in Italy was done by the help of rich stores of marbles of many hues, was effected in the north, where these were not avail- able, by means of polychromatic painting, which was imi- tated in window design by the gl-.1ss—painters. Thus the canopies in Itali-an windows differ as much from those pre- campanile of Giotto differs from the spires raised by the genius of northern architecture. In the history of painted glass in Italy during the 15th century, the windows of the cathedral of Florence, dating from 1390 to 1503, occupy an important position, not only GLASS (369 exccutel by artists of the highest reputation. The cathe- dral was founded on the 8th of September 1298, the architect being Arnolfo di Cambio di Colle di Valdelsa. In 1334 Maestro Giotto was architect, and commenced the famous belfry. In 1364 the church was vaulted over at its eastern end, and in 1420 Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, who built the clerestory of the nave with its round windows and Itenaissance cornice, were appointed joint architects. Painted glass was introduced into the windows thirty-six years before the completion of the cupola, and thirty before that of the clerestory. These dates are an interesting testimony to the importance attached at the time to painted windows as portions of the design of so great a church. They were erected in the aisles, before the nave was ﬁnished, by Don Lionardo di Simone, monk of Vallombrosa, and Niccolo di Pietro della Magna, so early as 1390, and when the nave was roofed over by its architects, Fra Bernardino di Stefano executed the two first windows of the clerestory from designs by Lorenzo Ghiberti.‘ Ghiberti is also alleged to have de- signed many of the painted windows at the east end of the church; but those now existing, judging by the design and colour, as well as by the technical execution, cannot be his, for they are manifestly of earlier (late, whilst the authorship of some of them is recorded in the archives without reference to Ghiberti. One only, on the north side of the apse and in the lower row, suggests the design of this great artist, the suggestion being strengthened by the fact that the diapered ornament on the ruby dress of the figure is made by the wheel, which brings this window within the 15th century, whilst the diapers in the other figures of the same series are executed in an older style. It has bee11 stated that Ghiberti advised the muni- cipality of Florence to invite a celebrated glass-painter of Liibeck, Francesco di Domenico Lievi da Gambassi, by letters, the second being dated October 15, 1436, to settle in Florence with special privileges; he came, and it is assumed that he painted Ghiberti’s designs for glass, but of this there seems to be no satisfactory evidence. We ﬁnd that in 1434, before his arrival, Maestro Domenico di Pisa painted the east window of the drum, representing the coronation of the Virgin, which was designed by Donatello in competition with Ghiberti, and preferred. As it was on the 12th of January 1434 that Brunelleschi completed the dome, evidently no time was lost in com- mencing the painted windows. Bernardo di Francesco del Boni is recorded in the archives as having executed in 1442 the following windows in the drum, called in Italian 1 This circumstance has led to the erroneous statement, repeated to the present time in every guide-book and by every writer on the cathedral, and to the still prevalent belief, that the three windows in the facade of the church were designed by Ghiberti, who has himself recorded :— “ I designed for the front of Santa Maria del Fiore, for the central round window of the facade, the Assumption of our Lady, and I designed those on each side.” The windows which Ghiberti really designed were the great circle of the facade, a noble work still in its place, and the two of the clerestory on each side of it, long since removed and lost. That they were painted by Fra Bcrnardino di Stefano in 1423 is thus shown in the archives of the cathedral—“ F ra Bernardino di Stefano, of the order of the Preachers of Santa Maria 1'ovclla, is to execute two round windows in the nave of Sa Maria del F iore, one to the right and the other to the left,—that to the right representing Joachim driven from the Temple, that to the left the Death of the I Virgin Mary, and the designs are by Lorenzo di Bartoluccio (Ghi- valent at the same period in the rest of Europe as the, by reason of their interest as connected with that cele- | brated church, but also because they were designed and I front of the cathedral," which record settles the question. l):l'tl).” It is thus evidcnt that the windows of the clerestory of the nave were to be painted with the life of the Virgin Mary, of which these two were the first and last of the stries, whilst the Assumption of the Virgin appropriately occupied the centre. Those in the clere- story having disappeared, it has invariably been supposed that the two remaining at the ends of the aisles are those described by Ghiberti, although they differ in subject and entirely in style from his work. They are in fact thus mentioned in the archives :—“ In 1414 Nicole di Pietro della Magna painted the two windows on each side of the