20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which the earlier examples gave only sparing promise. In spite 

 of the abandonment of paint and stain, the mosaic glass has been 

 given greater variety and greater depth of color than at any time 

 since the Renaissance. In its present form, the mosaic picture- 

 window is a distinctively American product. It has been evolved 

 here, and, though now somewhat copied in Europe, it is here that 

 the process has reached its greatest extension and perfection. The 

 history of its mode of becoming is both unique and interesting. 

 It is one that could not have been written much earlier to advan- 

 tage, for the material of which it is composed has only been gath- 

 ering during recent years. Were this history to be unfolded 

 logically, it would start with the first conception which shaped 

 itself in the brain of the artist, and from that intangible begin- 

 ning it would be traced through the colored sketch, the full-sized 

 cartoon, the gradual replacement of colored paper by colored 

 glass, and so on to the completed window ; but that would pre- 

 suppose too much. It would take for granted that the artist in 

 glass had only to catch his fine dreams of beauty, and that the 

 material for their expression would be found at hand ready for 

 his use. But such is very far from being the case. In this form 

 of art- work the real struggle has been to make the material adapt 

 itself to the conception it is intended to express. The struggle, 

 however, has been carried on so cleverly and so successfully that 

 the ultimate triumph is the more enjoyable for the prelude. It is 

 more consistent, therefore, to consider first the technical part in 

 the history of a picture- window, the production of that adroitly 

 wrought and daintily colored material which has made the win- 

 dow possible ; and then, having won the material, to regard its 

 subsequent disposition in producing the fine effects which make 

 it so admirable. 



To describe every variety of glass utilized in a mosaic picture- 

 window would be to describe nearly every form of glass known 

 in the flat. In such a window, be it remembered, the entire pict- 

 ure, except the exposed portions of the figure, is brought out by 

 the use of shaped fragments of colored glass ; and one can readily 

 imagine that, as all possible subjects are chosen for such repre- 

 sentation, all possible shades and combinations and effects are 

 needed in the glass employed. Draperies, vegetation, architecture, 

 sky, earth, air, and water, are all successfully depicted without 

 the use of either paint or stain. Such windows, except the flesh 

 portions, are true mosaics, and of the most brilliant kind. 



To acccomplish these wonders the glass has been made in all 

 the colors of the spectrum, and has undergone a thousand differ- 

 ent transformations. The shapes have been no less varied than 

 the colors. The so-called "jewels," or pieces of richly colored 

 glass, cut with facets after the manner of precious stones, have 



