The same technique from medieval times explained in the manual Diversis Artibus (? 1110-40) by Theophilus is used.

This manual describes the process of making stained glass (cutting a pattern, painting and subsequent baking in an oven).

Stained glass windows from the Middle Ages are mostly church windows "Church (building)").

White or colorless glass is the mixture of silica, potash and lime. The oxides of various metals are what give it the different colors when dissolved:

cadmium sulfide creates yellow, cobalt creates blue, pink with gold...[1] In ancient times, stone blocks that were cut were used to make glass objects, but then they discovered that hot glass was easier to manipulate.

With heat

It involves the glass reaching its melting point (chemical reaction) by heating it to high temperatures to mold it.[2]​

If we want colored glass we will add sulfides, oxides and selenite. Finally, it will be slowly cooled.[3]​.

It is a well-known fusion technique that consists of once the glass is fused, blowing through a tube forming bubbles to give it shape, and a steel or bronze mold can also be used (non-industrial technique).

It is a difficult technique that requires experience and imagination on the part of the artist in question (steps to follow, avoiding sudden changes in temperature...).[4]​.

Fusing") is the creation of a piece by joining two or more glasses by applying heat (we superimpose colored glass on a base glass).

Depending on the fusion temperature of the glass, we speak of Tack Fusing") (730°-760°) or Full Fusing") (790°-835°).

The difference is that the Tack preserves the different layers of glass and the Full creates a single piece.

It is the most used technique and the one with the greatest simplicity. Its advantage is that it offers the possibility of creating a wide range of products depending on the creativity and originality of the artist.[5]​.

It is a technique that consists of once the glass is melted, pouring it into a mold to give it the shape we want. It comes from Egyptian culture, making it one of the oldest techniques. It is widely used in glass sculpture due to its advantages such as creating quite thick sculptures, allowing you to create well-finished pieces, combining with blown glass, adding colored glass and metals... Hot Casting means hot molding.

Thermal treatment consisting of heating the glass until it reaches almost the melting point and then cooling it quickly.

Its resistance is increased so that we can engrave our designs on it.[2]​.

cold

The engraving technique consists of creating shapes and drawings on the surface of glass. It allows very complex designs despite being simple to apply, in addition to allowing many color tones.[6]​.

It involves submerging the glass in a mixture of water, hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid in equal parts. We eliminate the top layer of the glass, turning it matte.

We need gloves, masks and protective glasses to avoid inhaling gases. Acid is highly corrosive and toxic, making it dangerous to handle.

It requires the observance of a series of rules, such as adding it at the end of everything.

Sand is applied under pressure to the glass to polish it and make it matte.

We can thus decorate it to our liking.

Normally the process is automated with a sandblaster, but manual manipulation is always more authentic.[7]​.

Direct etching is a complicated technique of creating drawings on glass with a steel pencil and diamond dust.[8]​.

Currently there are countless products suitable for painting glass on the market. Enamels and grisaille are the best-known materials in this field. Enamels are oxides and minerals formed by frits, which in turn are diverse depending on several factors: temperature or melting point, type of kiln, way of cooling them at the exit of the kiln, raw materials used.[9]​ The firing temperature of the enamel can be modified depending on the type of glass. In stained glass, the layers of enamel applied must be thick and large.[10] Grisaille is considered a mixed technique in painting because it is the combination of a lean with another fat. It consists of applying two or more shades of a color (generally gray) in order to nuance the work without overdoing it. The name derives from the use of a gray scale, but it may be another color. Its function is to represent volume and depth through chiaroscuro (light - shadow).[11]​ In short, we outline the contours and shade the nuances (to take into account the change in color of the glass when subjecting it to the grisaille firing temperature). It is advisable to see results in samples before applying it definitively.

[12]​.

Contenido

El universo del vitral es, como hemos visto, infinito, estando supeditado al correcto uso de las múltiples técnicas y materiales al alcance del artista. Así por ejemplo un vitral incoloro tendrá luz propia en la posición adecuada para él dentro del contexto de la obra.

Stained glass with copper ribbon / Tiffany technique

Starting from a previous design, we join different types of crystals using lead, copper and tin (tiffany), creating an original composition. The market provides us with an infinite number of colors and textures of glass to choose from.[13]​ The creator of this technique was Louis Comfort Tiffany, who revolutionized the art of glass.

In the century its glasses did not have to be colored and it was the precursor to the use of copper tape "joining the glass pieces with tin solder"). In this way the size of the piece did not matter and more perfect stained glass windows were achieved.[12] Another advantage is the considerable reduction in the weight of the stained glass window, in addition to a minimal structure for its construction.

Stained glass windows with textured industrial glass

Used by Modernisme and Art Deco artists, achieving sober stained glass windows with many textures.

Stained glass windows with antique glass

They follow the elaboration guidelines of the artisanal process, and therefore the result is broader in terms of textures or colors.

Stained glass windows with cement

It began at the beginning of the century, its main characteristic being the use of cement instead of lead. The glass sheets called dallas are made with iron molds with the cast glass technique.

Stained glass with silicone

Same process in the making of stained glass, but the plate is made of glass to replace lead and cement. The great advantage it offers is the better handling of large stained glass windows.

Stained glass windows drawn with lead lines

The hardness of this material allows you to avoid having to reinforce the stained glass.[14]​.

Romanesque stained glass

The art of stained glass developed in the churches of the Ile-de-France already during the Romanesque: in the Gothic choir of the cathedral of Le Mans with its stained glass windows of the century containing representations of arts and crafts, and the Romanesque stained glass window of the Ascension of the century (the oldest in Europe in a religious building), in the cathedrals of Sens or St. Peter in Poitiers, with its stained glass window of the Crucifixion and in the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris with its stained glass windows of the childhood of Jesus, the Jesse tree, etc., are the most outstanding examples of this art during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. These stained glass windows have a warm and bright range, their compositions follow the laws of surface lace in series of equivalent geometric motifs such as: medallions, lobes "Lobe (architecture)"), etc. University of Pittsburgh (in the United States).

Gothic stained glass

Stained glass windows, due to the place they occupy in churches and cathedrals, will be, in 19th century France, the true Gothic Painting. Stained glass there replaced mural painting that had been widely developed during the Romanesque period but remained a complementary art in the Gothic period. The art of stained glass becomes the hegemonic art of color and drawing, it takes on the symbolic-teaching functions of mural painting with its complete iconographic programs that brought together most of the European workshops and artistic centers, mainly in France, in the drawing of the cartoons, which is the previous step for the creation of a stained glass window.

The Gothic cathedral evokes the image of the celestial Jerusalem and constitutes the collective work of the inhabitants (bourgeois) of the cities of the Late Middle Ages. Each new generation of masons and craftsmen, taking over from the previous generation, will advance the construction of the chancel "Channel (architecture)") or the side chapels and transept "Cross (architecture)"). Each new church or cathedral will make its naves "Nave (architecture)") taller than the previous ones, progressively eliminating the factory wall or load-bearing wall and replacing it with what has been called the "translucent wall", that is, by the large windows with colored stained glass that provide the interior of the churches and cathedrals with a warm, colored and unreal atmosphere where the faithful can feel safe under the protection of the Church while contemplating the "light of essence." divine." This is how Abbot Suger expressed himself, who was the one who promoted the construction of the stained glass windows in the choir of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, in the middle of the century.

The art of stained glass dominates over the other painting techniques on which it imposes its laws: the composition framed in medallions, niches or other compartments, the bright and saturated colors, the delimited and precise shapes, etc.; They are aesthetic guidelines that we also find in the illustrations of books and miniatures widely spread throughout Europe. This predominance of stained glass has its exception in Italy, where the muralist tradition had not been interrupted since ancient times, or in other places such as Catalonia that showed Italian influences since the Romanesque period.

Its themes are taken from the Old and New Testament, the stories of the Virgin Mary and the saints as well as representations of union activities or scenes of daily life, which progressively also rise to the top of the stained glass windows of the cathedrals.

As the style advanced, the technique was modified with a new color range based on colorless or gray backgrounds, broken tones and more humanized themes. The invention of the color silver yellow will lead the art of stained glass, during the 19th century, to a golden preciousness and a lightness that constitutes its culmination.

Contemporary stained glass

Currently, the creation of "false stained glass" has been implemented, which consists of the creation of figures like stained glass, where the glass is painted by artisans using special paints for the glass, leaving behind the use of lead cane.

In the century, modern art represented by Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Henri Matisse, Jean Bazaine"), Sergio de Castro "Sergio de Castro (Argentine artist)") and other great painters, will once again design cardboard to make stained glass windows, which will continue to have their place in the History of Painting.

In Spain we find a great variety of stained glass windows of Modern Art: we have an example of the Casa Masó, in Gerona, where the architect Rafael Masó introduced these stained glass windows to create a feeling of luminosity throughout the house that, at the same time, made it larger.

Ancient technique to make stained glass drawings

From the cardboard drawn by the artistic workshops, a large number of pieces of glass are made that are tinted in their own mass and highlighted with strokes of grisaille to be finally joined with strips of lead that delimit the figures and isolate the different colors, maintaining their value. The glass mass full of bubbles and impurities acts on the light, breaking it into a thousand flashes of color. The technique itself, so as not to dilute the figures with the irradiation of the windows, imposes a full composition in a space without depth, and a precise drawing with a certain richness of color.

To give color to the glass, the following are used:

Stained glass was already used in Romanesque temples, but it reached its peak in Gothic architecture and became more widespread in the 19th century. In this century, as in the previous one, they present the form of a mosaic in the background, with several compartments or medallions of figures in series from top to bottom, each one representing some religious, historical or symbolic matter, but without each fragment of glass having more than one color (except for the gray or blackish enamel that is added to trace some profiles and contours of figures). In the 19th century, these compartments became larger, as did the figures, which were placed isolated within their ogive and under a canopy and they tended to imitate life a little better, adding the chiaroscuro of gray enamel and sometimes the yellow color using silver yellow. In the century and beginning of the 19th century, the images are even larger and are as if enclosed in Gothic temples, bristling with turrets, and in addition to the gray and yellow colors, added by the enameling of the glass, the red color is sometimes introduced, also by the same procedure and double glasses are used (one colorless and the other colored) to modify the color of the respective fragment.

In the 19th century, one-piece stained glass windows were made with colorless glass, painting them with gray enamel (grisaille) and in the middle of the same century, the way of enamelling any piece of glass in different colors was invented, which resulted in having stained glass windows as if they were canvases or painting boards, thus saving many lead accessories to assemble the pieces. This type of stained glass, much less transparent and brilliant than those of the previous period, already belongs to the Renaissance style and is distinguished, in addition to what has been said, by the ease and freedom with which the figures appear detached from temples and combined with heraldic shields, etc.

As the century entered, the beautiful stained glass windows that preceded it were replaced by geometric mosaics of stained glass, thus disappearing the true art that shone so brightly in the Middle Ages.

The stained glass windows date back to the 17th century and are extremely rare. In it, the works of the previous ones are imitated with varied tastes, from the Romanesque of the 16th century to the Renaissance of the 16th century.

In Spain, the following stand out for their antiquity and merit:

The stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral are considered the best in the world, followed by those in Paris, Strasbourg, Cologne (North Rhine-Westphalia), etc. of the century.

The same technique from medieval times explained in the manual Diversis Artibus (? 1110-40) by Theophilus is used.

This manual describes the process of making stained glass (cutting a pattern, painting and subsequent baking in an oven).

Stained glass windows from the Middle Ages are mostly church windows "Church (building)").

White or colorless glass is the mixture of silica, potash and lime. The oxides of various metals are what give it the different colors when dissolved:

cadmium sulfide creates yellow, cobalt creates blue, pink with gold...[1] In ancient times, stone blocks that were cut were used to make glass objects, but then they discovered that hot glass was easier to manipulate.

With heat

It involves the glass reaching its melting point (chemical reaction) by heating it to high temperatures to mold it.[2]​

If we want colored glass we will add sulfides, oxides and selenite. Finally, it will be slowly cooled.[3]​.

It is a well-known fusion technique that consists of once the glass is fused, blowing through a tube forming bubbles to give it shape, and a steel or bronze mold can also be used (non-industrial technique).

It is a difficult technique that requires experience and imagination on the part of the artist in question (steps to follow, avoiding sudden changes in temperature...).[4]​.

Fusing") is the creation of a piece by joining two or more glasses by applying heat (we superimpose colored glass on a base glass).

Depending on the fusion temperature of the glass, we speak of Tack Fusing") (730°-760°) or Full Fusing") (790°-835°).

The difference is that the Tack preserves the different layers of glass and the Full creates a single piece.

It is the most used technique and the one with the greatest simplicity. Its advantage is that it offers the possibility of creating a wide range of products depending on the creativity and originality of the artist.[5]​.

It is a technique that consists of once the glass is melted, pouring it into a mold to give it the shape we want. It comes from Egyptian culture, making it one of the oldest techniques. It is widely used in glass sculpture due to its advantages such as creating quite thick sculptures, allowing you to create well-finished pieces, combining with blown glass, adding colored glass and metals... Hot Casting means hot molding.

Thermal treatment consisting of heating the glass until it reaches almost the melting point and then cooling it quickly.

Its resistance is increased so that we can engrave our designs on it.[2]​.

cold

The engraving technique consists of creating shapes and drawings on the surface of glass. It allows very complex designs despite being simple to apply, in addition to allowing many color tones.[6]​.

It involves submerging the glass in a mixture of water, hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid in equal parts. We eliminate the top layer of the glass, turning it matte.

We need gloves, masks and protective glasses to avoid inhaling gases. Acid is highly corrosive and toxic, making it dangerous to handle.

It requires the observance of a series of rules, such as adding it at the end of everything.

Sand is applied under pressure to the glass to polish it and make it matte.

We can thus decorate it to our liking.

Normally the process is automated with a sandblaster, but manual manipulation is always more authentic.[7]​.

Direct etching is a complicated technique of creating drawings on glass with a steel pencil and diamond dust.[8]​.

Currently there are countless products suitable for painting glass on the market. Enamels and grisaille are the best-known materials in this field. Enamels are oxides and minerals formed by frits, which in turn are diverse depending on several factors: temperature or melting point, type of kiln, way of cooling them at the exit of the kiln, raw materials used.[9]​ The firing temperature of the enamel can be modified depending on the type of glass. In stained glass, the layers of enamel applied must be thick and large.[10] Grisaille is considered a mixed technique in painting because it is the combination of a lean with another fat. It consists of applying two or more shades of a color (generally gray) in order to nuance the work without overdoing it. The name derives from the use of a gray scale, but it may be another color. Its function is to represent volume and depth through chiaroscuro (light - shadow).[11]​ In short, we outline the contours and shade the nuances (to take into account the change in color of the glass when subjecting it to the grisaille firing temperature). It is advisable to see results in samples before applying it definitively.

[12]​.

Contenido

El universo del vitral es, como hemos visto, infinito, estando supeditado al correcto uso de las múltiples técnicas y materiales al alcance del artista. Así por ejemplo un vitral incoloro tendrá luz propia en la posición adecuada para él dentro del contexto de la obra.

Stained glass with copper ribbon / Tiffany technique

Starting from a previous design, we join different types of crystals using lead, copper and tin (tiffany), creating an original composition. The market provides us with an infinite number of colors and textures of glass to choose from.[13]​ The creator of this technique was Louis Comfort Tiffany, who revolutionized the art of glass.

In the century its glasses did not have to be colored and it was the precursor to the use of copper tape "joining the glass pieces with tin solder"). In this way the size of the piece did not matter and more perfect stained glass windows were achieved.[12] Another advantage is the considerable reduction in the weight of the stained glass window, in addition to a minimal structure for its construction.

Stained glass windows with textured industrial glass

Used by Modernisme and Art Deco artists, achieving sober stained glass windows with many textures.

Stained glass windows with antique glass

They follow the elaboration guidelines of the artisanal process, and therefore the result is broader in terms of textures or colors.

Stained glass windows with cement

It began at the beginning of the century, its main characteristic being the use of cement instead of lead. The glass sheets called dallas are made with iron molds with the cast glass technique.

Stained glass with silicone

Same process in the making of stained glass, but the plate is made of glass to replace lead and cement. The great advantage it offers is the better handling of large stained glass windows.

Stained glass windows drawn with lead lines

The hardness of this material allows you to avoid having to reinforce the stained glass.[14]​.

Romanesque stained glass

The art of stained glass developed in the churches of the Ile-de-France already during the Romanesque: in the Gothic choir of the cathedral of Le Mans with its stained glass windows of the century containing representations of arts and crafts, and the Romanesque stained glass window of the Ascension of the century (the oldest in Europe in a religious building), in the cathedrals of Sens or St. Peter in Poitiers, with its stained glass window of the Crucifixion and in the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris with its stained glass windows of the childhood of Jesus, the Jesse tree, etc., are the most outstanding examples of this art during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. These stained glass windows have a warm and bright range, their compositions follow the laws of surface lace in series of equivalent geometric motifs such as: medallions, lobes "Lobe (architecture)"), etc. University of Pittsburgh (in the United States).

Gothic stained glass

Stained glass windows, due to the place they occupy in churches and cathedrals, will be, in 19th century France, the true Gothic Painting. Stained glass there replaced mural painting that had been widely developed during the Romanesque period but remained a complementary art in the Gothic period. The art of stained glass becomes the hegemonic art of color and drawing, it takes on the symbolic-teaching functions of mural painting with its complete iconographic programs that brought together most of the European workshops and artistic centers, mainly in France, in the drawing of the cartoons, which is the previous step for the creation of a stained glass window.

The Gothic cathedral evokes the image of the celestial Jerusalem and constitutes the collective work of the inhabitants (bourgeois) of the cities of the Late Middle Ages. Each new generation of masons and craftsmen, taking over from the previous generation, will advance the construction of the chancel "Channel (architecture)") or the side chapels and transept "Cross (architecture)"). Each new church or cathedral will make its naves "Nave (architecture)") taller than the previous ones, progressively eliminating the factory wall or load-bearing wall and replacing it with what has been called the "translucent wall", that is, by the large windows with colored stained glass that provide the interior of the churches and cathedrals with a warm, colored and unreal atmosphere where the faithful can feel safe under the protection of the Church while contemplating the "light of essence." divine." This is how Abbot Suger expressed himself, who was the one who promoted the construction of the stained glass windows in the choir of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, in the middle of the century.

The art of stained glass dominates over the other painting techniques on which it imposes its laws: the composition framed in medallions, niches or other compartments, the bright and saturated colors, the delimited and precise shapes, etc.; They are aesthetic guidelines that we also find in the illustrations of books and miniatures widely spread throughout Europe. This predominance of stained glass has its exception in Italy, where the muralist tradition had not been interrupted since ancient times, or in other places such as Catalonia that showed Italian influences since the Romanesque period.

Its themes are taken from the Old and New Testament, the stories of the Virgin Mary and the saints as well as representations of union activities or scenes of daily life, which progressively also rise to the top of the stained glass windows of the cathedrals.

As the style advanced, the technique was modified with a new color range based on colorless or gray backgrounds, broken tones and more humanized themes. The invention of the color silver yellow will lead the art of stained glass, during the 19th century, to a golden preciousness and a lightness that constitutes its culmination.

Contemporary stained glass

Currently, the creation of "false stained glass" has been implemented, which consists of the creation of figures like stained glass, where the glass is painted by artisans using special paints for the glass, leaving behind the use of lead cane.

In the century, modern art represented by Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Henri Matisse, Jean Bazaine"), Sergio de Castro "Sergio de Castro (Argentine artist)") and other great painters, will once again design cardboard to make stained glass windows, which will continue to have their place in the History of Painting.

In Spain we find a great variety of stained glass windows of Modern Art: we have an example of the Casa Masó, in Gerona, where the architect Rafael Masó introduced these stained glass windows to create a feeling of luminosity throughout the house that, at the same time, made it larger.

Ancient technique to make stained glass drawings

From the cardboard drawn by the artistic workshops, a large number of pieces of glass are made that are tinted in their own mass and highlighted with strokes of grisaille to be finally joined with strips of lead that delimit the figures and isolate the different colors, maintaining their value. The glass mass full of bubbles and impurities acts on the light, breaking it into a thousand flashes of color. The technique itself, so as not to dilute the figures with the irradiation of the windows, imposes a full composition in a space without depth, and a precise drawing with a certain richness of color.

To give color to the glass, the following are used: