Window With Coat of Arms, English c.1845

The Gothic Revival

By the late seventeenth century there was a growing movement in Europe for a more romantic vision of life. Particularly in England with its "satanic mills", people longed for exotic places far from the degradation of factory life. Emotional outpouring and fanciful daydreams became ends in themselves. Along with these new sensibilities came the desire for a type of architecture that would house the strongest imagination of the times, and it was to Gothic architecture that these visionaries would turn. Along with this renewed interest in Gothic architecture came a new appreciation of stained glass. Throughout much of the nineteenth century glass artists continued to use the technique of enamel painting on clear glass, but as Gothic architecture became more popular, glass artists began to realize the superior quality of the pot metal glass used in medieval glass. Having lost the technique of the use of the lead lines, many artists of the time floundered trying to recapture the tension and dynamism of the Gothic window. As descendants of the Renaissance style of realism, painters were unable to give up their "modern" depiction of figures, scenery, and ornamentation. While the openings for the new windows were truly Gothic, the art of the windows was a curious combination of the old and the new . Gradually the medieval technique of constructing a window out of a mosaic of small pieces of colored glass and using enamel paint only as shading for the drawing became more accepted.

Some of the finest examples of this renewed interest in the glass itself were created at the stained glass studio of William Morris at 8 Red Lion Square, Holborn. The original partners included Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and D.G Rossetti, members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Morris and the Brotherhood believed that machine production had degraded everyday life with the prodigious output of inferior goods. This led to an obsession with craftsmanship and detail which is evident in many of the windows of the time. Preeminent were the designs of Burne-Jones, whose use of lavish foliage and ethereal figures became a standard for representation during the Victorian period, as well as an influence in the development of Art Nouveau.

The Gothic Revival was a movement that enveloped many styles. While many designers labored over recreating medieval motifs most glass artists infused their work with a combination of Renaissance and contemporary ideals that produced a wholly new art form. Most importantly, the rediscovery of the power of glass during this time revived the "lost art" of stained glass and inspired glass artists to experiment with new forms of glass and design.

Lady With Fruit by William Morris, c. 1870