Medieval stained glass has undergone dramatic scholarly re-evaluation over the past century. From a subject of largely antiquarian interest, still largely subsumed under the dismissive umbrella category of the “Decorative Arts,” it has become recognized not only as a highly significant component of medieval architecture and a major medium of medieval painting, but also as an important source of historical documentation, ranging from hagiography to exegesis to prosopography. It is indicative that among the events marking the 850th anniversary of the death of St Thomas Becket, stained glass has virtually taken centre stage. By the late 20th century, survey texts of medieval art, and even global surveys of art, were beginning to accord stained glass its rightful place as a dynamic expression of medieval culture. And more recently, historians of many kinds have been expanding their disciplinary boundaries by incorporating stained glass into their research.
It is thus timely that Brill has included a volume dedicated to medieval stained glass in their newReading Medieval Sources series, which is intended to provide “high-level, analytical surveys of different genres of medieval sources.” It is clear that the series is intended to broaden canonical consideration of medieval sources: the first volume of the series was on money and coinage, the second on seals. [1] For their third volume, on medieval stained glass, Brill adeptly chose a pair of editors who are both esteemed members of the Corpus Vitrearum, the international scholarly organization founded in 1952 by Hans Hahnloser (as the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, which has now expanded its scope to cover the premodern and modern periods), which has almost single-handedly been responsible for putting the study of stained glass on a sound scholarly footing. Indeed, almost all of the twenty-six authors who have contributed to this book are also members of various national committees of the Corpus Vitrearum.
Research on medieval stained glass has burgeoned so considerably over the past several decades that many new perspectives cannot be found in the standard literature, which is as much a problem for researchers in the field as for those wanting an introduction to the subject. Thus, the editors have conceived the book as having a double purpose: to present an up-to-date summary of recent advances for the specialist, and to introduce the medium to those desirous of learning about stained glass studies or incorporating stained glass into a different disciplinary practice. Authors were chosen to represent “a diversity of approaches to the medium” (1), but the editors freely admit that it would have been impossible to include all of the creative new directions in which stained glass studies have exploded in recent decades. In particular, the most dynamic period for the creation of stained glass extended between the 12th and 17th centuries and thus cuts across entrenched period designations. Although stained glass research has increasingly ignored the “medieval” / “early modern” divide, the editors have largely steered clear of early modern stained glass; yet, since definitions of “medieval” are remarkably fluid, there is a chapter by Timothy Husband on silver-stained roundels, an important genre of domestic stained glass, which is mostly focused on 16th-century material, and another by Hartmut Scholz which treats the design and execution of late medieval stained glass in southern Germany up to the time of Albrecht Dürer in the early 16th century. It would require another hefty volume, however, to cover the 16th and 17th centuries satisfactorily.
The essays are arranged in six sections: Visual and Documentary Testimonies, Light and the Aperture, Approaches to Glass, Types of Glass, Workshopping the Window, and Post-Medieval Reflections. These sections certainly can direct the reader’s attention to clusters of complementary essays, but it is likely that the varied interests readers will bring to the book will suggest more individualized agendas. For example, Chapter 1, Sarah Brown’s “The Medieval Glazier at Work,” is a remarkably fresh explanation of how medieval stained glass was made; Brown’s earlier works on this subject have long been influential, yet her treatment here has the advantage of much new research. As for most of the chapters, a considerable amount of her bibliography was published in the 21st century. She, of course, references the 12th-century treatise of the German monk Theophilus on stained-glass techniques, which might lead a reader to Chapter 20, in which Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz provides an up-to-date overview of the principal medieval textual sources on stained glass, certainly including Theophilus. Brown’s perspectives also make use of some very new high-tech means of analysing stained glass, a topic which is masterfully expanded in the last chapter by Isabelle Pallot-Frossard on the materiality of stained glass. Much new information has also come through archaeological excavation, which is featured, as well, in an exemplary treatment of the “Early History of Stained Glass” (i.e., before the 12th century) by Francesca Dell’Acqua, which fleshes out a topic that, until very recently, could have been encapsulated in a short paragraph.
Besides such material considerations of the medium, other chapters consider stained glass in its phenomenological aspects--its diaphanous nature (Wojciech Bałus), its architectural effects (Ellen Shortell), its social dimensions in domestic architecture (Michel Hérold). Since stained glass is far from being a homogeneous creation, other chapters focus on particular types of stained glass: Elizabeth Pastan on the distinctive aspects of rose windows; Meredith Lillich on grisaille glass (white, or clear, glass painted in decorative patterns); Timothy Husband, as has been mentioned, on silver-stained roundels (small single panes of glass painted in exquisite detail, often with highlights painted in a silver nitrate solution which, when fired in a kiln, turns to beautiful shades of yellow); and Karine Boulanger on high, clerestory windows, which usually featured large, single iconic figures, rather than smaller-scale narrative cycles, which were normally confined to the low windows of a church.
Narrative windows are approached from a number of perspectives, since their content is so detailed and so varied. Ashley Laverock explores hagiographic cycles, Madeline Caviness interactions between stained glass and liturgy, Herbert Kessler the exegetical dimensions of the medium. Alyce Jordan outlines forms of narrativity, which must be considered as interconnected with, yet independent from, textual narratives. Besides the content of narrative windows, Anne Harris also considers their reception, and Christine Hediger elaborates on an aspect of patronage--the commissioning of stained glass windows--which has been receiving increased recent attention, namely female patronage. From the selective nature of the latter, it should be obvious that not every aspect of the medium of stained glass is represented in this collection, but all the essays are copiously footnoted, not only substantiating their scholarship but directing readers to further studies they may wish to pursue.
The social and artistic conditions in which stained glass was made are approached in various ways. David King has plumbed the local archives of the English city of Norwich in order to reconstruct the social conditions in which several generations of late medieval glass painters of that thriving centre of stained glass production lived and worked. Others, such as Hartmut Scholz, for the important city of Nuremberg in Germany, and Nancy Thompson for central Italy, chart the often complex relations between patrons, designers, and artists. As these studies indicate, there was much regional diversity in the stained glass produced in Europe during the Middle Ages. That diversity is explored in several essays, such as Anne Granboulan’s study of Romanesque stained glass in the Plantagenet domains.
Cities, such as Nuremberg and Norwich, which became major centres of stained glass production, could also exercise a predominant stylistic influence, a topic which is sensitively developed by Françoise Gatouillat who, working across media, brilliantly charts the predominance of 14th-century Paris--where virtually no stained glass survives from that period--in the reflection of Paris style mostly in the stained glass of Rouen and Evreux; she also highlights a different aspect of patronage, showing how proximity of donors to the French royal court could inflect the style of stained glass. Style analysis has undergone much recent revision, yet it still forms a valuable tool for the stained glass researcher, since so much of what survives is “anonymous”; signed works from the Middle Ages are rare in the medium of stained glass. Michael Cothren provides a pertinent case study of style analysis in relation to what survives in Beauvais Cathedral. Much scholarship on stained glass is site-based, simply because of the vagaries of survival, and this collection includes several others. Claudine Lautier looks at several related aspects of the importantly surviving stained glass in Chartres Cathedral, providing us with the mature results of long study of this vast wealth of stained glass, masterfully outlining the workshop practices by which the low windows were created. And as mentioned, Karine Boulanger deals with an aspect of the surviving stained glass in Bourges Cathedral.
It is a great advantage to be able to study stained glass in its originary context, since it can then be considered in relation to a wide variety of other medieval sources: church records, altarpieces and other church furnishings, liturgical and hagiographical texts, charters, chronicles, etc. But that is no longer possible for a considerable amount of surviving medieval stained glass. Before the revival of interest in stained glass during the 19th century, the medium suffered a degrading period of neglect and lack of interest during the 18th century, creating conditions which favoured massive dislocations of medieval stained glass and the emergence of an increasingly lively market in stained glass. Thus, a great deal of medieval stained glass now survives in museums and private collections, which multiplies the difficulties of research considerably. This is acknowledged in various essays, such as that of Anne Granboulan, which considers the stained glass in the Angevin church of St Martin at Chenu, no longer in situ but since the 19th century occupying a window in the Church of St Mary and All Saints at Rivenhall, in England. The stained glass from the Premonstratensian abbey of Arnstein, discussed by Herbert Kessler, is now in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum in Münster, and other surviving stained glass discussed by contributors, including almost all the domestic stained glass, is now in museums. The study of displaced material has become ubiquitous in stained glass studies, and recently, more attention is being paid to the collecting of stained glass, a research direction reflected here in two contributions by Uwe Gast, for early German collections, and Mary Shepard, who mentions early collectors in England, France, and the United States.
Altogether, this is a rich cornucopia of studies. If there is a predominance of studies on French medieval stained glass, that is because France contains most of the surviving material. It must be said, however, that practical considerations have not allowed for every region of Europe to be given its due. While representative contributions deal with England, Germany, the Low Countries and Italy, space did not permit any coverage of Switzerland, Austria and eastern Europe generally, or the Iberian Peninsula. What is included, however, is all of a high calibre, and spans a wide diversity of subjects, approaches and methodologies. The 193 illustrations are mostly in colour, and are supplemented by a considerable number of very useful references to on-line image databases. There is an introduction by the editors which orients the reader both to the book and to stained glass studies more generally, and a general index is provided. This book thus offers a great deal and caters to many different interests. It serves both the scholar and the student, with clear, authoritative contributions, each with an up-to-date bibliography, that will interest a wide variety of readers, including not just art historians but anyone interested in the Middle Ages, or in medievalism. It can certainly be read through cover to cover, but the contributions are independent from one another, facilitating a wide variety of selective reading strategies. This is a very useful book, and it is thus to be regretted that its price will probably limit its purchase largely to institutional libraries.
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Notes:
1. Rory Naismith, Money and Coinage in the Middle Ages, Reading Medieval Sources, 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2018); Laura Whatley, A Companion to Seals in the Middle Ages, Reading Medieval Sources, 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2019).