In noticing the great west window of the Antechapel,[1] it is not my intention to enlarge on its defects. These have been pithily summed up by a distinguished artist,[2] to whom I refer the reader. I fully admit their existence, and regard this work as a great misapplication of art. Its most unfortunate effect has been to produce an unfounded prejudice against the application of art to glass painting, and occasion a revulsion of feeling among amateurs. Every one has felt the justice of Horace Walpole's sneer at the washy virtues of Sir Joshua: but, it cannot be denied, on the opposite side, that the tendency of the present age to dispense with all artistic qualities in the pursuit of windows which shall display an abundance of strong and gaudy colouring, is an error leading to still more pernicious consequences. It is true that certain writers who follow the popular delusion,[3] occasionally, and to save appearances, talk about the necessity for a display of art in painted windows, but on examining the examples they indicate as models, we perceive that a display of very low art indeed is sufficient to satisfy their demands. Leaving then these blind guides, let us recollect that though our climate and habits may forbid the employment of fresco painting to any great extent, yet that there exists in our windows as favourable a field for artistic development, though subject to different conditions, as in an equal breadth of wall. That ancient windows, except in the case of mere restorations, are worthy of being copied only so far as regards the composition and colour of their material. And that so long as we are content to see produced, year after year, windows immeasurably inferior in all respects to the works of foreign artists, works by the way far from being perfect models themselves, as for instance the window lately erected at Brussels Cathedral, by Capronnier; those at Cologne, or Munich; or the specimens
- ↑ Gutch, in a note to Wood, p. 199, states that "for this work, which was begun about the year 1777, finished cartoons were furnished by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and then were copied by Mr. Jervais." I recollect seeing Sir Joshua's original sketch some years ago at the British Institution. It was richly coloured. The subject consists of the Adoration of the Shepherds, in the lights of the upper tier; with a single figure occupying each light of the lower tier, except the centre one. which contains a group representing Charity. A little green pot-metal glass is used in this group. The rest of the painting is executed with enamel colours and stains. Some of the lower figures have a pearly effect; but they are not sufficiently separated from the ground of the window, either by colour or by shadow.
- ↑ In the Winchester Volume of the Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, "William of Wykeham," p. 50.
- ↑ See, amongst others, the "Ecclesiologist," and "Morning Chronicle," passim
