Stained glass

La Farge Stained glass; MFA # 69.1224

Description

Colored or painted Glass used for decorative patterns in windows. Stained glass windows were thought to have begun from the glass mosaics used in Roman times. Over the years the colorful patterns have developed into two forms. In one method, colored glass is cut into patterns and fastened together with Lead strips. For the second method, the glass is painted or enameled (see Flash glass).

Synonyms and Related Terms

enameled glass; mosaic windows; leaded glass; flash glass; colored glass; vitráž (Ces.); Glasmalerei (Deut.); vitral (Esp., Port.); vitraux (Esp.); vidriera de colores (Esp.); vitrail (Fr.); gebrandschilderd glas (Ned.); glassmaleri (Nor.); witra¿ (Pol.)

Resources and Citations

• McGrath, Frost, Beckett, Glass in Architecture, Architectural Press, London

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "stained glass" [Accessed May 5, 2004].

• The Dictionary of Art, Grove's Dictionaries Inc., New York, 1996 Comment: "Glass"

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_glass (Accessed Feb. 2, 2006)

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993