Glasspainting

Glass-painting is of three kinds:

(1) the mosaic, ins which pieces of differently-colored glass are so cut out and arranged as to represent figures or scenes, the pieces being joined together with lead;

(2) the enamel, in which the colors are laid on a plate of glass and then burnt in; and

(3) the mosaic-enamel, which is a union of the two others, and is by far the most effective kind of glass-painting.

The art probably had its origin in France or Germany during the tenth century. The mosaic style prevailed till the fourteenth century. Glass- painting reached its highest state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. After the rise of the Renaissance architecture in the sixteenth century, glasspainting fell into decadence. It has been quite successfully revived during the last thirty years in Germany. — Warington, History of Stained Glass (London, 1850); Wackernagel, Gelchichte der deutschen Glasmulerei (Leipzig, 1855). (G.F.C.)