Stained glass

About this book

Stained glass is a monumental art, a corporate enterprise dependent on a patron with whom artists blend their voices. Combining the fields now labeled decorative arts, architecture, and painting, the window transforms our experience of space. Windows of colored glass were essential features of medieval and Renaissance buildings. They provided not only light to illuminate the interior but also specific and permanent imagery that proclaimed the importance of place. Commissioned by monks, nuns, bishops, and kings, as well as by merchants, prosperous farmers, and a host of anonymous patrons, these windows vividly reflect the social, religious, civic, and aesthetic values of their eras. Beautifully illustrated with reproductions from the remarkable stained glass collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum, 'Stained Glass' addresses the making of a stained glass window, its iconography and architectural context, the patrons and collectors, and the challenges of restoration and display.