SARUM U3A FEBRUARY 2013

Christopher Rogers’ talk entitled “Flights of Angels, Stained glass of the 19th Century” was so informative and humourous. He opened the world of medieval stained glass to show us the inspiration for the sumptuous glass of William Morris, Burne Jones, Philip Webb, and Maddox Brown, the Pre-Raphaelites. We saw some of the earliest stained glass from St Paul’s, Jarrow, and learned that metal oxides were added to molten glass to achieve subtle colours. The 11th Century glass of the St Nicholas window at York showed how small pieces of stained glass were held together with malleable lead strips which became part of the overall design. The colours of Chartres were acquired by painting-in enamels on blue and white glass before a second firing. Nearer to home medieval glass at Salisbury and Merton College were used to explain how the grey sculpture-like patterns of grisaille glass were obtained by painting silver oxide onto white glass.

The flowering of 19th Century stained glass, we learned, owed much to the work of Augustus Pugin and the Oxford Movement. Pugin and John Hardman dissected pieces of medieval glass in attempts at recreation of the colours, and medieval designs were copied. The imagination of the Pre-Raphaelites brought an intensity of colour, a balance and flow in design, humour, and attention to detail; witness the windows at Marlborough College, Selsey, and Middleton Cheney. A U3A visit to these three sites would be very popular after such a fascinating talk!