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The evening's talk was a very entertaining review of Stained glass use in Britain during the last 1200 years by David Clarke.
Starting with the information that all such glass is and was made by the simple technique of creating coloured base glass and then painting detail on to this and refiring to create an almost permanent image he the went on to describe, with illustrations, the progress of the art from the earliest known example from the 8th Century Jarrow monastery to modern times.
We heard of the "Poor Man's Bible", how mediæval artists created windows depicting stories from the Bible which could be understood by the illiterate people of the times. Many of these have survived despite the vandalism of the Reformation, civil war and other wars. Not all windows were religious either in content or in location; some were in the houses of merchants and public buildings and some were of knights or noblemen.
Oxford has many examples of fine windows from many periods although many are not easily viewed these days. Oxford also had a stained glass manufacturer who produced windows for buildings in the city and elsewhere. Thomas Glazier'ss windows can be found both in New College and Winchester.
There was a decline in production during the 16th and early 17th Centuries but it was resumed in the late 1600's. There was a slight change in technique in that rectangular panes were used rather than the shaped pieces of previous periods. In the 19th Century the Oxford Movement generated more interest in the art and many artists, including William morris, produced detail in similar style to the Middle Ages'.
The Twentieth Century had early and late production because the very little happened between the wars. Coventry Cathedral saw a very radical break with tradition and now much of the new work is going into public and corporate buildings.
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