International studio (23.1904)

The Stained Glass Windows of William Willet

glass-worker is still responsible for most of the
distorted and ugly windows that “adorn” many
churches, public buildings and private houses both
in this country and abroad.
The artist in stained glass must produce a work
that shall rival in permanence the masterpieces of
sculpture, that shall live as long as the architec-
tural creations of which they form an essential
part. Of course then, they must have all the
elements of beauty, symmetry, repose, dignity and
interest, so that they will outlive the follies of
fashion, the vagaries of changing taste and the
chances of premature decay. The artist in glass
has the opportunity of embodying his genius in a
medium that may exist for a thousand years and
never in the slightest degree lose its richness and
splendor. The ecclesiastical windows that have
been the delight and marvel of generations of
worshippers in the cathedrals of Chartres, Le Mans,
Angers, Rheims, Chalons-sur-Marne, at York,
Canterbury, Salisbury, and Lincoln will never
cease to please the artistic instinct because they are
true to the eternal laws of harmony.
The one test of satisfactory permanence in any
work of art is honesty. Is it a true and genuine
expression of a feeling ? Is the conception worked
out in all sincerity, without trickery or subterfuge ?
Then it is bound to endure. Many a mediaeval
creation seems quaint, grotesque, even childish
when judged by modern standards; but, neverthe-
less, being the outcome of a genuine primitive feel-
ing and deeply sincere, is artistic.
Artistic inspiration comes and goes in a series of
waves. A period of lofty, noble impulses, expressed
enduringly, will seem to be the culmination of
effort in a given direction, and the complacency
elicited by accomplishment and success is inevit-
ably followed by imitation, by indifference and
decadence. Indolence, or a spirit of competition
and unworthy commercialism, or some other
motive induces the attempt to obtain by trickery
the result due only to hard work.
These fluctuations are very distinctly marked
in the history of stained glass because religious
influences, always the most powerful, were brought
to bear upon it in diametrically opposite directions.
After the glories of the eighth century windows, a
few relics of which have come down to us, there
were dark days; then came another “recrudescence”
of the art of glazing when the “ King’s Glazier, ”
who had the charge of the cathedral windows, was
accorded the rank of Duke of the Realm, or later
still, when the great names of Fra Lippo, Raphel
and Michelangelo were associated with the beauti-

ful art. The Reformation brought the inevitable
decline; as has been well said, the Reformation
had no time for art and was nauseated with the
vicious uses made of it.
The Puritanic spirit seeing in the divine Founder
of the Church one who had not where to lay his
head, in whom was no comeliness, regarded all
attempts at ecclesiastical decoration, all beauty of
ritual, as derogatory to the memory of Christ.
This spirit was iconoclastic and resulted in the
deplorable destruction of so many of the triumphs
of religious art. Men forgot the story of the
alabaster box of ointment, very precious, which in
its symbolism, justifies any outlay in the beautifica-
tion of worship. Cathedral and churches where
rich and poor alike may enjoy the threefold union
of architecture, painting and music in their loveliest
manifestations and feel their souls rising aloft on
the outspread wings of devotion, embody the most
legitimate employment of all the splendid mate-
rials granted by lavish Nature for the use of man.
The reaction against the earnest but narrow spirit
of Puritanism has been slow in coming, particu-
larly in America; but now a new era has dawned
and one of its most beautiful and encouraging
indications is to be found in the almost universal
awakening of interest in the art of stained glass.
The Protestant as well as the Romanist now insists
that his house of worship shall embody the beauty
of art as well as subserve the beauty of holiness;
all recognize that the God who has made Nature
so rich in everything to please the senses, must
take pleasure in seeing his children dedicate to his
service the best efforts of their loftiest geniuses.
In our cold Northern regions where great window
spaces are imperative, and yet where the light must
be modified, the opportunity is still generously
offered to combine protection with splendor of
decoration. Indeed it would seem as if we were
on the very verge of a new Christian Art, freer and
more glorious than ever before, “radiant with the
light of the Gospel,” which shall build more beauti-
ful cathedrals than have ever been seen, shall
foster a richer and more harmonious music and
shall make use of all the plastic Arts for their
eternal glory. The signs are evident that the win-
dows of new or reconstructed church edifices are
to give the artist in stained glass a field practically
unpreempted. And it will not be only in eclesias-
tical buildings that his genius will be called forth.
The same exigencies will exist in all great public
houses and in the splendid mansions of the opulent.
The fortunate accidents, the beautiful results of
experiment in opalescent mosaics, that have

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