92 STAINED GLASS AND GLASS USED FOR DECORATION. 



chiefly to be found on the Continent. — viz.. at Brussels, Liege, &c. The 

 examples oi' the perpendicular being at Cologne, Winchester, York, and 

 at St. Margaret's, Westminster. 



In the early English, such as the north transept of Lincoln Cathedral, 

 the figures are less grotesque than in most other examples of that date 

 The figures were generally placed in medallions, canopies having not 

 then been introduced. The next period, the decorative, is marked by 

 an extensive use of canopies ; the drapery was more flowing and grace- 

 ful, especially in the coloured mosaic and grisaille borders. About this 

 period the yellow stain was introduced, which pleasing colour softened 

 the white used in the earlier styles, and had a good effect when stained 

 in portions, the cased red or blue being taken out to receive the yellow. 

 The third, or perpendicular style, is marked by its being more soft and 

 silvery, and also more delicate and refined than the preceding, having 

 no rounded or projecting cornices. The cinque-cento style is of Italian 

 origin, and more picturesque, being evidently influenced by the progres- 

 sion of oil painting. All these styles obeyed the spirit of their times, 

 glass-painting agreeing with the state of the arts of each period, and in 

 harmony with the architecture and the taste of its various epochs. 



The principal difference between ancient and modern glass windows 

 arises from the latter being brighter and of a higher key than the 

 ancient, while it has less tone and richness, which, like the paintings of 

 Titian and the old masters, may be viewed for any length of time with- 

 out fatigue to the eye. Continental glass being thinner and of a higher 

 key than the English, a fictitious surface and tone is obtained by enamel 

 painting, which takes off the lurid glare, but deadens and too much 

 lowers the tone ; this ineffective imitation is easily detected. Modern 

 windows of inferior materials, being charged with bright colour at a 

 higher key, transmit too readily through the glass bright rays of different 

 colours antagonistic to each other, which fatigue the eye and form an 

 unpleasant contrast to ancient glass, or to that which has been recently 

 made on the same principle, and which for want of a better term we 

 shall call antique. 



Although homogeneous flint glass is so essential for chandeliers and 

 household use, and especially for optical purposes, the reverse is required 

 for coloured window glass, technically called pot metal, to imitate that 

 of the thirteenth century. Every colour of the spectrum, viz., violet, 

 indigo blue, green, yellow, and red, are produced in glass by the use of 

 the oxides of the following metals — viz., gold, silver, chromium, tin, cop- 

 per, iron, manganese, cobalt, antimony, nickel, and uranium ; carbon 

 also produces yellow for pictorial purposes. Window glass, although 

 almost indestructible by time, whether coloured or of a greenish white, 

 when long exposed to the action of the atmosphere, is liable to partial 

 surface decomposition, and if not too much decomposed, prevents advan- 

 tageously the too free passage of the rays of light through it : old glass 

 thus affected softens and blends the pictorial effect, and the colours 



