History and technique of stained glass
" Stained glass is a decorative composition that draws its effect from the translucence of its support. Let's not try to be more precise. The definition would risk leaving out the oldest as well as the most recent manifestations of an Art that has not yet said its last word." (Jean Lafond, art historian, 1888-1975).
Stained glass simultaneously encompasses two aspects: on the one hand, it is a work of art that uses the glass support and its effects; on the other hand, it is a concept that sensitizes the passage of light through the glass and uses the place as a resonance box. The stained glass window is food for the soul, linked to the marvelous expressing its own poetics.
At the crossroads of arts and techniques, "stained glass is an atmosphere before it is an image." (Germain Bazin, art historian, 1901-1990)
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Glossary of stained glass
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Sacred art
The sacred arts are artistic productions or practices (such as painting, sculpture, music, poetry, dance, etc.) whose purpose is to express the sacred. The
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Glass slab
Developed in the years 1928-1930, the glass slab technique experienced a tremendous boom in the 1960s with some very large achievements. On a plan
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Frosted
Unlike traditional clear glass, frosted glass has a translucent appearance that does not block out light. This characteristic guarantees a certain discretion by preventing from seeing clearly
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Academic drawing
In French academic drawing instruction, the advanced student practices drawing by depicting a model posing nude. By metonymy, this kind of drawing is called académie. >
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Technical drawing
Technical drawing - also known as industrial drawing - is a figurative graphic language for the representation, technical communication, design and systemic analysis of mechanical, electronic or other products.
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Enamel
Enamel is a melting material, composed of different minerals (silica, feldspar, kaolin and metallic oxides), which, vitrified and more or less opaque (frit), can receive different colors and be applied
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Fusing
Fusing is a technique that has been in use for 3,500 years in the manufacture of glass objects. It is in fact the oldest of the techniques of
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Acid etching
Engraving is a process of cold glass decoration by removing material. There are several modes of engraving: direct engraving, wheel and point or
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Grisaille
Grisaille is one of the types of paint used in the manufacture of stained glass. Opaque in nature and matte in appearance, this element allows the addition of details that will stand out in transparency.
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History of art
Art history is the discipline that deals with the study of works of art in history, and the meaning they can give. It also studies the conditions of creation of artists,
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Silver yellow
This product completes the range of traditional paints (brown or black grays) but it is a cement: it allows to "tint" a glass in yellow, orange or amber because it is
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Catering
In art, restoration refers to interventions and treatments that serve to restore a given historical state and, thereby, improve the legibility and aesthetic integrity of an object or a
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Sandblasting
Engraving is a process of decorating cold glass by removing material. There are several modes of engraving: direct engraving, wheel engraving and point engraving
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Screen printing
The particularity of screen printing compared to other printing techniques is that we print through the plate on the support and not as in other techniques,
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Thermoforming
Thermoforming is a shaping process that consists of placing a piece of glass on a support (usually around its perimeter) in an initially cold furnace
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Tiffany
This name designates a technique of stained glass setting, probably invented by the great American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) who explored the whole field of glassmaking, from the art of
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Plated glass
Plated glass: blown glass whose thickness is generally clear (transparent white or slightly colored) and covered with a thin colored layer; this technique allows to obtain nuances in the intensity of reds
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Flat glass
Flat glass is a glass manufactured in sheet form. It is mainly used for the manufacture of windows and mirrors. Flat glass, together with glass
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Stained glass
Stained glass is a composition of glass pieces. These can be white or colored and can receive a decoration. The word stained glass designates a technique while
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Glassable
To transform, by firing or fusion, a substance into glass, or to give it the appearance and characteristics of glass > Link to the cnrtl website