Shattered beauty

click photo to enlarge

Medieval stained glass is quite commonly found in English churches. However, it is often miscellaneous, jumbled fragments, complete sections of larger works, or reconstructions. The latter, often by Victorian restorers, usually have many pieces of the older glass missing and sometimes incorporate new glass in the form of decorative frames. Complete windows can be found, undamaged, just as they were conceived centuries ago, and a few complete church schemes have survived. However, the mutilation of the fabric of our churches that the Reformation set in train mean that very often we have to envisage the beauty that was by mental extrapolation from the little that now remains.

The following passage from Article 28 of the 1547 Injunctions of Edward VI makes it very clear that the destruction of stained glass was authorised to be prosecuted with severe vigour:
"Also, that they shall take away, utterly extinct and destroy all shrines, coverings of shrines, all tables, candlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition; so that there remain no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere within their churches or houses. And they shall exhort all their parishioners to do the like within their several houses." With this kind of official consent stone, wood and metal sculpture was vandalised or melted down, wall paintings were covered over with limewash and stained glass was smashed, some to be replaced with clear glass, but many destroyed windows were left empty. The danger with the latter course was that the weather would enter the building causing damaging and dangerous decay to the building's fabric, and so a further decree of 1559 ordered the repairing of such windows. Many church priests and congregations hid their stained glass, others collected and saved the shattered remnants, but elsewhere it was left broken on the ground and in time covered in earth. Interestingly we can see windows today that have been replaced or reconstructed from all of these circumstances.

Today's photograph (another from the vaults - see yesterday), is a re-assembly of fragments that can be seen in the church of St Agnes at Cawston in Norfolk. It looks like the beautiful work of the Norwich school of glass making that, along with York, flourished in the 1400s. The small photograph gives the context for the main image and shows how the restorers tried to make something of the figures and decorative fragments, musician angels, biblical figures and architectural canopies, all that remained after the iconoclasts had put down their hammers.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Main Photo
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 200mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Morris & Co

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I spend my life ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich."
William Morris (1834-1896), English designer, artist, writer and socialist

If you fancy a bit of linen featuring an original William Morris print, or perhaps a rug or wallpaper with his distinctive patterns and colours, say, "Chrysanthemum Minor" or "The Strawberry Thief", Liberty's of London will be delighted to sell it to you. So too will a number of up-market stores throughout Britain, because Morris' designs are still sought after by the discerning (and well-heeled). Should you doubt that the copies you have purchased are faithfully modelled on the originals you can pop into the Victoria & Albert Museum and view examples from the time of first manufacture, or look at The Green Dining Room (1866-68) that he fitted out for the museum. As the quote at the head of this piece suggests, Morris regretted that the art he created could only be afforded by people of means. His designs that are sold today continue to be expensive unless you buy the coasters, mugs, bookmarks and the like, that have appropriated his patterns and displayed them in ways that he never intended.

However, if you don't live in London, there is a way to see some of Morris & Co.'s work without it costing the earth - visit a church. From 1861 Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co (called Morris & Co from 1875) designed stained glass for houses and churches right through until their demise in the 1930s. The quality of the firm's output in this field declined after the founder's death, and was at its peak when Edward Burne-Jones worked for the company. Though not the biggest supplier of coloured glass to churches Morris' firm was undoubtedly the best, and examples are not difficult to come by. I have posted one of my favourite pieces from Brampton in Cumbria previously, and today's example is also to be found that county, this time in the church of St Paul, Irton. It depicts St Agnes (with the lamb) and St Catherine of Alexandria. The figures are beautifully drawn by Burne Jones, unmistakably his work in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and, whilst not as delicately coloured as some of his windows, nonetheless they are a pleasure to look at and an example that surpasses most of the stained glass of that period.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 43mm (86mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.5
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On