Beautiful, colorful, and unique. Those are some words that may come to your mind when you see stained glass. This unique style is often used in churches. Stained glass windows are transparent mosaic patterns composed of panels of colored and dyed glass. Stained Glass was first founded in the 3rd millennium B.C. in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Stained Glass has many different types of styles. Some are: Early European, Romanesque, Gothic, Late Gothic and Renaissance, 19th Century, and Contemporary.
Timeline of Stained Glass:
3rd Millennium B.C.- Egypt & Mesopotamia
                            - first stained glass was created
11th Century- Early European Stained glass is made firm European pictorial glass.
12th Century- The Romanesque period, many churches are built which means more stained glass.
                       - The center for stained glass became the Ile de France region near Paris.
13th Century- The colors used in stained glass are blue, red, yellow, and green.  The secondary colors used were Violet, brown, and white with a green or blue tint. Pinkish shades were used for the skin color.
                - Gothic Stained Glass
                - With the flying buttress, walls were stronger to allow heavier glass.
                - Windows tell the story of the Bible and the life of Christ, legends and stories of saints, coats of arms, zodiac signs, labors of the months, the last Judgment, and prophets and evangelists.
                - Chartes which is the interior of which is a color changing window with the light shining against 176 windows that gives a glitter tint.
Late 13th century- Stained Glass becomes more popular and cathedrals such as Bourges, Auxerre, Sens, Soissons, Laon, Troyes, Reims, and Notre Dame de Paris feature stained glass windows.
                       - color varies now purples, dark green, and yellow are added.
                       - Grisaille windows are popular. Grisaille windows are panes of white glass outlined with black. Favored much by the Cistercian churches, but also featured in some cathedrals. These windows emit more light into the churches. Some churches that have these windows are in at the York Minister, Lincoln, Salisbury cathedrals located in England.
14th century-  A new color is added (silver) made by combining chemicals and heating them at a low temperature. The new color is used for crown moldings to add touches of gold on the outlines of the glass.
                       - Tones were added such as tawny brown and olive green.
                       - More white glass was used
                        - Windows began to tell dramatized stories
This continued on into the 15th century
                         - Realistic detail was added into the pictures
                         - Heraldry was one of the popular things to paint on stained glass.
16th- 18th century-  Stained Glass wasn't as big art form due to reformation
                                     - Different colors could be used on one sheet of glass
                    - Smaller panels of  different colors could be used which created the beauty.
                    - In the 16th century frescoes and oil paintings ruled out medieval art.
                     - England alone continued  the tradition of glazing
                     - English and French try to rediscover new techniques of making stained glass.
19th century- William Morris re-founded stained glass
                         - Romantic style was characterized by swirling and lines
                         - In United States, Louis Tiffany created a new style of stained glass and was contempt until the 1960's when it became very expensive.
20th century- New inventions on stained glass were founded.
                         - Artists such as Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall design art for stained glass.
                       - Religious stained glass and contemporary stained glass are mainly featured.

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN STAINED GLASS WINDOW: Do you like our background? Well you can make your own just like we did. Follow the instructions below and your stained glass will look marvelous.
                                            MATERIALS NEEDED
                                                                     -scissors
                                                                      -file folder
                                                                      -black marker
                                                                      - colored tissue paper
                                                                       -ruler
                                                  INSTRUCTIONS
   1. With a ruler and a pencil draw in the shapes listed below:
-Two triangles - one must be a right triangle .
-three different quadrilaterals. ex: square, trapezoid, rectangle, etc.....
-Three polygons that are not quadrilaterals.
-One pair of similar figures
-Reflection of one of the figures listed above.
-Rotation of one of the figures above.
-Complete it with geometric shapes as needed.
2. Around each shape there must be an equal border that is to be colored in black. Try 1/2 an inch or 1 inch border.
3. Cut out traced shapes and tape or glue tissue paper inside the file folder.
4. Tape the file folder shut and enjoy. On a sunny day, put it up to the window and see the beauty of a stained glass window.
This beautiful stained glass background was done by Kersten.

                                                  QUESTIONS
1. What tools do you think artists use to create stained glass windows?

2. Why do you think there are so many types of stained glass?

3. In the 3rd millennium B.C., do you think the stained glass the Egyptians and Mesopotamian made looked the same as the ones we see in the different centuries and today?
 

We would like to thank Encarta Deluxe 99' for giving us very useful information.