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ROSE WINDOW
Stained Glass Window
La Seu cathedral of Palma, Majorca
13th century
Painting with Light
To many, just the view of the Cathedral of Palma in Mahorca, which over looks the Bay of Palma, is breathtaking and beautiful. But once inside the Gothic masterpiece ones eyes will be on the largest stained glass rose window in all of Europe. Light pours in through the rose window, one of the world's largest, 12m across and studded with 1,236 pieces of stained glass.1 In the morning hours the sun is shining through the window producing a colorful scenery painted with light.
Stained Glass is the only art form that relies entirely on natural daylight for its effect rather than reflected light. The artist must control a powerful energy witch will be transmitted through his medium of expression. He has to paint with light itself.2 Stained glass posses a range of brightness values far exceeding that possible in any opaque form of painting.3
When a window is fixed in its permanent frame in a building, it becomes subjected to radical alterations of intensity from influences outside the artist control. The color of the glass, when the window is installed, may be bleached and the effectiveness of its paint work diminished by strong sunlight. Sometimes the sun may shine only on part of the windows surface with disruptive consequences. The light may advance some colors and make others recede. It may cause two juxtaposed colors to combine in an unintentional hue.4
Serious disruption may occur, too, from trees or buildings in the area, causing the window to be lighter or darker in certain areas. Weather is also another factor. Blue skies or dark clouds may alter the whole color scheme of a window. These factors and disruptions occur in all stained glass windows, some more than others do. The colors of stained glass windows change continually according to the variations of transmitted light. In the example of the fourteenth century west window of Altenberg Church in German, the top image is illuminated by direct sunlight. And the bottom image shows how the glass deepens in tone when the sun is behind a cloud.5
Though stained glass is a is essentially a two dimensional art form, an art of the picture plane, we always see through it to a greater or lesser degree even when we think that we are simply looking at it. We see not merely the light that comes through it but light modulating elements as well. Often the effect of a stained glass window is so much a product of what is in our line of vision beyond the glass that if we shift our position a mere foot this way or that the whole effect of the window will be different.6
In all stained glass, along with the Rose window from the Cathedral of Palma, light is an important factor in order to see the piece in all of its true beauty. Many factors are considered when designing, making and installing a window, but most important being that the artist considers that he is painting with light.
NOTES
1. balearnet.com, paragraph 4.
2. Lee, Seddon and Stephens 1976, p.18.
3. Sowers 1965, p. 28.
4. Lee, Seddon and Stephens 1976, p.18.
5. Ibid.
6. Siwers 1965, p.11.
Stained Glass Window
La Seu cathedral of Palma, Majorca
13th century
Painting with Light
To many, just the view of the Cathedral of Palma in Mahorca, which over looks the Bay of Palma, is breathtaking and beautiful. But once inside the Gothic masterpiece ones eyes will be on the largest stained glass rose window in all of Europe. Light pours in through the rose window, one of the world's largest, 12m across and studded with 1,236 pieces of stained glass.1 In the morning hours the sun is shining through the window producing a colorful scenery painted with light.
Stained Glass is the only art form that relies entirely on natural daylight for its effect rather than reflected light. The artist must control a powerful energy witch will be transmitted through his medium of expression. He has to paint with light itself.2 Stained glass posses a range of brightness values far exceeding that possible in any opaque form of painting.3
When a window is fixed in its permanent frame in a building, it becomes subjected to radical alterations of intensity from influences outside the artist control. The color of the glass, when the window is installed, may be bleached and the effectiveness of its paint work diminished by strong sunlight. Sometimes the sun may shine only on part of the windows surface with disruptive consequences. The light may advance some colors and make others recede. It may cause two juxtaposed colors to combine in an unintentional hue.4
Serious disruption may occur, too, from trees or buildings in the area, causing the window to be lighter or darker in certain areas. Weather is also another factor. Blue skies or dark clouds may alter the whole color scheme of a window. These factors and disruptions occur in all stained glass windows, some more than others do. The colors of stained glass windows change continually according to the variations of transmitted light. In the example of the fourteenth century west window of Altenberg Church in German, the top image is illuminated by direct sunlight. And the bottom image shows how the glass deepens in tone when the sun is behind a cloud.5
Though stained glass is a is essentially a two dimensional art form, an art of the picture plane, we always see through it to a greater or lesser degree even when we think that we are simply looking at it. We see not merely the light that comes through it but light modulating elements as well. Often the effect of a stained glass window is so much a product of what is in our line of vision beyond the glass that if we shift our position a mere foot this way or that the whole effect of the window will be different.6
In all stained glass, along with the Rose window from the Cathedral of Palma, light is an important factor in order to see the piece in all of its true beauty. Many factors are considered when designing, making and installing a window, but most important being that the artist considers that he is painting with light.
NOTES
1. balearnet.com, paragraph 4.
2. Lee, Seddon and Stephens 1976, p.18.
3. Sowers 1965, p. 28.
4. Lee, Seddon and Stephens 1976, p.18.
5. Ibid.
6. Siwers 1965, p.11.