Gallery
- Details from the north and east windows of the Beauchamp Chapel
John Prudde (died 1460 or 1461) was the leading English glass painter of the mid 15th century. [1] He held the office of King's Glazier from 1440 until his death. He worked on a variety of high-profile projects, both public and private, but the only work of his now known to survive is in the Beauchamp Chapel of St Mary's Church, Warwick. This has been described as having "a glittering effect unmatched within the British Isles", the result of his mastery of the technically demanding art of inserting brightly-coloured "jewels" of painted glass into the middle of panes of glass.
Prudde first appears in the historical record in 1426/7; at that point he was employed at Westminster Abbey, and Westminster was to remain his home for the rest of his life. [2] In September 1440 he was named as King's Glazier, a post which gave him the use of the "glasiers logge" or "shedde" in Westminster Palace, a gown at Christmas, [3] and wages of 12 pence a day. It also raised his profile, attracting prestigious and well-paying commissions he could fulfil in a private capacity. It is known that he worked at Eton parish church, [4] Eton College, Greenwich Palace, [5] Shene Palace, and the Beauchamp Chapel at St Mary's Church, Warwick, [2] while payments to his servants by All Souls College, Oxford and Winchester College suggest that Prudde himself was involved there. [6] He died in 1460 or 1461. His widow, Elizabeth, took the veil as an Augustinian nun at Holywell Priory, Shoreditch, and in 1472 became prioress there. [2]
The windows for the Beauchamp Chapel were Prudde's best-documented and now most acclaimed work; it is also believed to have been the most expensive glazing project in 15th-century England. [7] The chapel was intended to be the mausoleum of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (1382–1439), and the Earl's executors drew up in 1447 a contract, a transcript of which still survives, defining the lines on which the glazing was to be conducted. [2] This contract makes it clear that Prudde was to work from small-scale designs provided for him, from which larger copies would need to be made before being recopied onto glass. [8] It also specified that he should use high-quality European glass, not English, and that the colours should be rich and varied rather than soft-hued, as was more normal in English painted glass of the period. [9] Prudde accordingly used "jewels" of richly coloured glass, some of which were separately leaded while others were inserted into holes which had been carefully drilled through the glass – a difficult and time-consuming operation – and then leaded in. [10] [1] He used this technique on a larger scale than can be found in any other English glass of the period, giving the Beauchamp Chapel windows, according to the art historian Richard Marks, "a glittering effect unmatched within the British Isles". It influenced much Midland painted glass of later date, where the jewelling technique became especially common. [11] One particularly notable feature of the designs is the array of angelic musicians, showing perhaps the largest and most varied collection of musical instruments on English medieval glass; [12] another is the scrolls in the north window bearing 15th-century musical notation. Prudde's glass originally filled all of the windows, but only some have survived to the present day, and of these the main lights have been moved to the east window. The tracery of the west window is filled with fragments of glass recovered from windows that were destroyed by fire in 1694. The tracery of the south window has been heavily restored, but that of the north window and all of the east window is in something very close to its original condition. [13]
No other extant windows can be attributed to Prudde with any certainty. It has been suggested that the saints under canopies in the antechapel at All Souls College, Oxford, and some fragments at Fromond's Chantry, Winchester College may be by him. [14] [15] Prudde can be connected to both of those locations by contemporary documents, [3] but in others the attribution rests purely on stylistic evidence. Richard Marks considers the heraldic glass at Ockwells Manor, near Cox Green, Berkshire, to be probably his work. [2] St Leonard's Church, Bledington, Gloucestershire has windows containing the pieced together remains of medieval painted glass, including some complete panels, which have been tentatively attributed to Prudde. [16] Nathaniel Westlake proposed that the Tree of Jesse window in St Margaret's Church, Margaretting, Essex was by Prudde, [17] but more recently it has been suggested in the Buildings of England series that it was probably the work of some local craftsman. [18] Prudde has also been named as possibly responsible for the "Royal" window in the north-west transept of Canterbury Cathedral on the basis of supposed similarities to the Beauchamp Chapel windows, though Madeline H. Caviness found this argument unconvincing. [19]
Bledington is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about four miles southeast of Stow-on-the-Wold and six miles southwest of Chipping Norton. The population of the civil parish in 2014 was estimated to be 490.
A revival of the art and craft of stained-glass window manufacture took place in early 19th-century Britain, beginning with an armorial window created by Thomas Willement in 1811–12. The revival led to stained-glass windows becoming such a common and popular form of coloured pictorial representation that many thousands of people, most of whom would never commission or purchase a painting, contributed to the commission and purchase of stained-glass windows for their parish church.
Thomas Willement was an English stained glass artist, called "the father of Victorian stained glass", active from 1811 to 1865.
St James' Church, High Melton is a parish church of the Church of England in High Melton, South Yorkshire, England.
John Thornton of Coventry was a master glazier and stained glass artist active in England during the 15th century. The output of his workshop includes some of the finest English medieval glass.
Thomas Glazier of Oxford was a master glazier active in England during the late 14th and early 15th century; he is one of the earliest identifiable stained glass artists, and is considered a leading proponent of the International Gothic style.
Abraham van Linge and his oldest brother Bernard van Linge (1598-c.1644) were window painters from Emden, East Frisia, where their father and grandfather were glaziers. They completed the bulk of their work in England between the 1620s and the 1640s. They painted at a time when stained glass was losing popularity in favour of their method, the usage of vitreous enamels on glass as a blank canvas and then fired. Lead lining is used to hold together pieces of glass. The duration and intensity of the firing determined the final colour along with the colour and type of enamel.
Stained glass conservation refers to the protection and preservation of historic stained glass for present and future generations. It involves any and all actions devoted to the prevention, mitigation, or reversal of the processes of deterioration that affect such glassworks and subsequently inhibit individuals' ability to access and appreciate them, as part of the world's collective cultural heritage. It functions as a part of the larger practices of cultural heritage conservation (conservation-restoration) and architectural conservation.
Nathaniel Hubert John WestlakeFSA (1833–1921) was a 19th-century British artist specialising in stained glass.
Valentin Bousch was a Renaissance stained glass glazier and painter from Strasbourg, active in the Duchy of Lorraine and the Republic of Metz. A rarity among stained glass artists, Bousch is seen as one who actively sought to express new ideas in his art, often before they were widely used in the area, revising his method even from one window to the next, to create striking Renaissance effects and a personal style.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Church of England parish church in Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire. It is in the Diocese of Gloucester and the archdeaconry of Cheltenham. It is a Grade II* listed building.
The Fairford stained glass is a set of 28 pre-Reformation stained glass windows located in St Mary's Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire. The medieval stained glass panes are of national historical and architectural importance as they constitute what is "probably the most complete set of medieval stained glass in Britain" consisting of 28 windows displaying biblical scenes. They were added after the church had been rebuilt by the wealthy wool merchant John Tame (c.1430–1500). The glass was made between 1500 and 1517 under the instructions of his son, Edward Tame.
John Tame of Cirencester and of Beauchamp Court in the parish of Fairford, both in Gloucestershire, England, was a wealthy wool producer and merchant who re-built the surviving St. Mary's Church, Fairford, the former structure of which had been built by one of the Beauchamp Earls of Warwick in the 15th century. The 28 Fairford stained glass windows he installed in the church are considered amongst the finest and most complete in England. He and his son Sir Edmund Tame (d.1534) so fostered the trade transacted at Fairford, that it came to rival that of the nearby long-established town of Cirencester, which increase was remarked upon by his contemporary the antiquary John Leland (d.1552): "Fairford never flourished afore the cumming of the Tames into it".
St Mary's Church is a Church of England church in Fairford, Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its complete set of 28 medieval stained-glass windows, one of the best-preserved in England. Part of the tower dates from the early 15th century. The church was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by John Tame (c.1430–1500), a wealthy local wool merchant. It is a Grade I listed building in the Perpendicular style.
The Anglican Church of St Leonard at Bledington in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England, was built in 12th century. It is a grade I listed building.
Perpendicular Gothic architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-centred arches, straight vertical and horizontal lines in the tracery, and regular arch-topped rectangular panelling. Perpendicular was the prevailing style of Late Gothic architecture in England from the 14th century to the 17th century. Perpendicular was unique to the country: no equivalent arose in Continental Europe or elsewhere in the British Isles. Of all the Gothic architectural styles, Perpendicular was the first to experience a second wave of popularity from the 18th century on in Gothic Revival architecture.
English Gothic stained glass windows were an important feature of English Gothic architecture, which appeared between the late 12th and late 16th centuries. They evolved from narrow windows filled with a mosaic of deeply-coloured pieces of glass into gigantic windows that filled entire walls, with a full range of colours and more naturalistic figures. In later windows, the figures were often coloured with silver stain, enamel paints and flashed glass. Later windows used large areas of white glass, or grisaille, to bring more light into the interiors.
Sydney Alfred Pitcher FRPS was a photographer with a special interest in medieval ecclesiastical architecture, particularly stained glass windows. In his 1926 book on English Stained Glass, the art historian and critic, Sir Herbert Read, acknowledged that the illustration of the book would have been difficult “without the co-operation of Mr Sydney Pitcher of Gloucester” to whom “all students of stained glass and of medieval art in general, are under a great debt for the enthusiastic zeal with which he is recording the remains of church art in England”.
Galyon Hone was a glazier from Bruges who worked for Henry VIII of England at Hampton Court and in other houses making stained glass windows. His work involved replacing the heraldry and ciphers of Henry VIII's wives in windows when the king remarried.
Peter Gibson MBE, OBE was an English glazier and craftsman who was known for his work at York Minster in York, England. He was the founder of York Glaziers Trust in 1967, and was its superintendent until his retirement in 1995.