Ste Chapelle,la fabrication du vitrail in english&espanol
STAINED GLASS MAKING
THE ORIGINS
The origins of the stained glass windows are lost in the history.
The technique probably comes from the jewellery making, cloisonné and mosaics.
Coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both Egyptians and Romans excelled at the manufacture of small coloured glass objects.
In early Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries there are many remaining windows which are filled with ornate patterns of thinly-sliced alabaster set into wooden frames, giving a stained-glass like effect.
Similar effects were achieved with grater elaboration using coloured glass rather than stones by Muslim designers in Western Asia.
Stained glass, as an art form, reached its height in the Middle Ages. In the Romanesque and Early Gothic period, from about 950 CE to 1240 CE.
As Gothic Architecture developed into a more ornate form, windows grew larger, affording grater illumination to the interiors.
The elaboration of form reached its height of complexity in the Flamboyant style.
GLASS MAKING
From the 10th or 11th century, when stained glass began to flourish as an art, glass factories were set up at the edges of forests where silica, the essential product of glass manufacturing, and wood for the kilns could be easily obtained.
Before recorded history, man learned to make glass and colour it by adding metallic salts and oxides. These minerals within the glass capture specific portions from the spectrum of white light allowing the human eye to see various colours.
GOLD produces stunning cranberry
COBALT makes bleus
SILBER creates yellow and gold
COPPER makes green and red brick
CYLINDER GLASS
The coloured glass (known as pot metal) was then collected from the pot into a molten globule and blown, being continually manipulated until it formed a large cylindrical bottle shape of even diameter and wall-thickness. By using a red hot iron the cylinder was then cut open, laid flat and annealed to make it stable.
This is the type of glass most commonly used for ancient stained glass windows.
TABLE GLASS
This glass was produce by tipping the molten glass onto a metal table and sometimes rolling it. The glass thus produced was heavily textured by the reaction of the glass with the cold metal. Today this kid of glass is known as cathedral glass.
FLASHED GLASS
Red pot metal glass was often undesirably dark in colour and prohibitively expensive. The method developed to produce red glass was called flashing.
In this procedure, a semi-molten cylinder of colourless glass was dipped into a pot of red glass so that the red glass formed a thin coating. The laminated glass thus formed was cut, flattened and heat annealed.
Advantages of flashed glass:
· allows variety in the depth of red
· the red of double layered glass could be engraved or abraded to show colourless glass underneath
· in the late medieval glass this method was employed to add rich patterns to the robes of saints
CREATING STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
The whole process –from conception to the final installation- took many highly skilled craftsmen, working under the watchful eye of the master glass painter.
1- To get from the architect an accurate template of the window opening that the glass was to fit
2- To determine the subject matter of the window (narrative, figurative)
3- To prepare a small design called a VIDIUM
4- To create a full size CARTOON
5- To divide the cartoon into a patchwork as a template for each small glass piece
6- To select each piece of glass for the desired colour and cut to match a section of
the template
7- To shape the pieces of glass
To paint details of hair, hands, robe, etc. onto the inner surface of the glass in a special glass paint which contains finely ground lead or copper filings, ground glass, gum arabic and a MEDIUM such as WINE, VINEGAR or URINE
LA FABRICACION DE VIDRIERA
La vidriera existe desde la Antigüedad. Las tècnicas de fabricaciones no cambiaron mucho. Conciste en la mezcla de sabia rica de silice con carbonato de sodio o potassio hasta fusiòn. Resulta una pasta transparante. El artista la trabaja hasta darle una forma cilìndrica gracias a una varilla de hiero en la cual sofla. Cuando la pasta tiene esta forma cilìndrica, como una botella, la corta con un hiero rojo en el largo para obtener una hoja de vidrio rectangular o cuadrada.
No està bien plana, pero las irregularidades del vidrio constituye un centillo que le da su belleza.
El color se hace dirrectamente en la masa en la cual se añaden òxidos metàlicos. Los colorantes màs uzados son hiéro, cobre y manganese para los rojos, amarillos y verdes, cobalte para los azules. Se puede utilisar los esmaltes para diversificar los colores. Pone el vidrio colorado en el horno para fijar los colores (teses, sg. Tez).
El vidrio està cortado segùn un carton, es decir el mòdelo. A veces se añade una pasta negra uzada para precisar o acentuar, insistir sobrer el contorno, tambièn para modular o matizar el troso de vidrio : se llama la grìs. Tambièn se fija al horno.
Los trozos de vidrio estàn juntados gracias a varillas de plomo en las cuales estan encastrados.
Asì se resume la fabricaciòn de vidriera que encontramos en los edificios religiosos gòticos por su mayorìa.
Los vìdrios en las catedrales cuentan historias, esencialmente sobre la religiòn catòlica. La lectura se hace desde abajo hasta arriba, de derecha a izquierda. A veces, se hace verticalmente, pero siempre desde abajo, como el espìritu que sube hasta el Cielo. Las escenas representadas estàn en redondos, cuadrados, rombos, cuadrilòbulos, etc.
Ahora, dejo Sylviane interpretarles esta variedad de vidrieras que vemos aquì, en la Santa Capilla de Parìs, realisados por el taller de La Santa Capilla.