File:American homes and gardens (1908) (17534968453).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar51908newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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HE masterpieces of the glass workers' craft, gorgeous of color and magnificent in tone, which glorify many a great church and cathedral, are almost always associated in the mind of the average man and woman with the buildings in which they have been seen. Ecclesiastical art, therefore, is gen- erally regarded as practically the only use to which stained glass of rich coloring may properly be put. In consequence, the availability of this medium for domes- tic use and its adaptability for household ornamentation have been too generally overlooked. Compared with colored glass the deepest and richest pig- ments on the palette of the painter are poor and ineffective. In glass alone is color at its full splendor to be found; but in the few figure windows that have been placed in homes, where the full gamut of color has been used, the result generally has been unsatisfactory. Perhaps the principal reason being that the effect, no matter what the subject may be, is apt to recall ecclesiastical work in which rich draperies and glittering accessories have become traditional; and then again in very few homes can a figure composition of rich coloring be seen from a distance sufficient to give it its proper effect. There is, however, one kind of colored window for the dwelling, in which rich tones have been most successfully used by a few artists, and which stands in a class by itself. That is the landscape window. In these windows the richest tints of our autumn woods have been given in a way to make them pictured things of beauty, and this with no hint of ecclesiasticism. They enrich and embellish the rooms in which they are placed, and, more- over, this form of composition lends itself most happily to windows of any shape; circular, square, long and narrow, or upright. Furthermore, they can be used to advantage where the outlook is disagreeable, always providing that the light is sufficiently strong to properly illuminate them. When, however, the light is not sufficient to show a heavy window of this sort, there are compositions calling only for delicate and translucent glass. Some of the most successful American landscape windows are of this description; trees white or pink with blossoms,1 or with the tender green leafage of early spring. The accidental flow of color and the blending of tones in American opalescent glass, if properly selected and judi- ciously used, can be made to suggest a wealth of landscape effects; the depth of the forest, the tenderness of distant mountains, the silveryness of streams, the greens, browns and purples of undulating hills. Frequently the skies of landscape windows are their prin- cipal feature, and the glass available for this purpose is abundant, of great variety and of wonderful beauty. These windows are susceptible of almost the diversity of nature itself. Sometimes a few slender trees with light leafage are used with the distance low and simple, the sky leaded in clear glass, so that color and pattern, together with a view of the outside world, is secured. Or again a few branches with blossoms and leaves can be thrown across the window and the rest left in clear transparent glass. Sometimes in small windows a spray of flowers is shown and the greater part of the window left uniform in color, either clear or translucent glass being used. For these win- dows many Japanese designs naturally suggest themselves as often available. Glass for domestic use offers as large a scope for the artist's fantasy and invention as ecclesiastical work. In many ways it is a more inviting field, for formulae and stereotyped forms are lacking, and the artist is freer to de- velop his conception in an original and personal way; sub- ject always to the marked limitations of the material. For in glass crude realism is impossible, and perspective, except in a modified form, is out of place. The lead line dominates and controls the pattern and design and compels attention in every part. It is the basis of the worked out conception
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Leaded Glass by Maitland Armstrong

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