PHOCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



PEBRUAKY 22, 1860. 



ALEXAifDEB Hastie, Esq., in tlte Chair. 

 Mr. William Gorman and Mr. James Brownlie were elected members 

 of the Society. 



Rernarlcs on Glass Painting. By Me. C. Heath Wilson. 



[This essay is necessarily abridged, to bring it within the limits allowed 

 by the Society. The essay was copiously illustrated by cartoons, by Mr. 

 Wilson's drawings, made in France and elsewhere, and by numerous 

 cromo-lithographs from important works on glass painting. Various 

 interesting specimens of ancient and modern glass painting were ex- 

 hibited and explained to the Society.] 



Glass painting is a branch of fine art, which, since its first inven- 

 tion in the Middle Ages, advanced ^)«ri ^Jrtssit with the art of 

 painting itself. Eminent artists designed for, or executed painted 

 windows ; and whilst the earliest specimens possess a double value, 

 inasmuch as they illustrate the early history and progress of paint- 

 ing during periods of which, except in illuminated MSS., but few 

 examples remain, its later works vie in excellence of composition and 

 drawing with the most remarkable productions of cotemporary art. 

 The ai't of glass painting was not in old times a mere system of servile 

 and spiritless imitation, as it now is ; on the contrary, it was practised 

 by men who were emphatically artists, — who were also proficients in 

 architectural ornament and in the practical conditions of their art, as 

 well as masters of the effects to be obtained by the most skilful employ- 

 ment of their materials. 



I propose to lay before you, as briefly as possible, some remarks on 

 the employment of painting, from an early period till it ceased to be 

 the handmaid of architecture, that I may explain the influence formerly 

 exerted by the painter over subordinate branches of art. 



Painting was formerly intimately associated with architecture, and 

 subordinated to it ; the principal works of the early masters were 

 decorative of public and private edifices, sacred and secular, thus 

 the position of the painter was in a certain sense that of a decorator, 

 but this implied no degradation ; the greatest works of human genius, 

 the nol)lost eflbrts of the arts of painting, liave been thus produced ; and 

 the following are some of the important lessons to be derived from their 

 study: — Symmetrical composition, as otherwise the prevailing idea of 

 Vol. IV.— No. 6. 2 b 



