In England there is not to be found the same awakening and change in art
at the opening of the sixteenth century which is encountered in France,
and is known to us as the Renaissance. This revival of art reached the
English at second hand, having been transmitted to them through the
French. The soldiers of Louis XII. and Francis I., who fought in Italy
at the close of the fifteenth century, could not help but see and feel
the new movement in matters artistic then bursting into bloom, and they
carried home with them not only memories of what they had seen, but also
many fine examples in their spoils of war. The tales and trophies of
these soldiers proved a great force in starting the French Renaissance.
One of its first fruits was the change from the then flamboyant Gothic
to the classical style in architecture. In glass it was first evidenced
by substituting canopies of classic form for the Gothic ones which had
been so much in vogue. The pictures they enclosed were gradually widened
until it soon became necessary to discard altogether the canopy frame,
which, on the passing of the narrow Gothic embrasures, was seen to have
outlived its usefulness. While this awakening in art ultimately reached
England, it came slowly and never gained the influence it attained in
France. The English ear and eye were not surprised and delighted as were
the French by the return of soldiery laden with artistic spoils and
enthusiastic over the new beauties which they had seen in Italy. Art in
England developed quietly, steadily, as was but natural, lacking, as it
did, this sudden impetus from the outside. There is another, and for us,
a far more regrettable difference between those two countries during the
sixteenth century, in that very little good glass was then made in
England, while France was constantly adding to her wealth of windows
during all of this, her great period of artistic revival. Just as the
golden age of glass seemed to die in France at the end of the sixteenth
century, so, in England, it perished at the end of the fifteenth, a
whole century earlier. There are, however, some fine examples of the
sixteenth century in England even though much of it (as at Lichfield)
will prove to have come from abroad. What we shall find at Cambridge is
delightful, in fact so fine is it that one must deeply regret that there
are so few towns on the roster of this epoch. A modest amount of glass
was made in England during the seventeenth century (as, for example,
the work of the Crabeth Brothers and Von Linge in certain Oxford
colleges), but as this is only fairly good and was, moreover, made by
foreigners, we will not take our pilgrim to see it because its lesser
interest might detract from his delightful memories of the glorious
Decorated and Perpendicular windows. In English sixteenth century glass
it is not easy to trace the transition from the Perpendicular canopies
to the large brilliant pictures, which can be so readily studied in
France. The English glazier would almost seem to have realised abruptly
the beauty of the large picture windows, and to have transferred his
allegiance suddenly to this new method. Delightful examples are to be
seen at Shrewsbury, but most satisfying of all is the very complete
series around the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, that gem of
English architecture. Lichfield must also be visited to view its Flemish
windows about the Lady chapel, and St. Margaret's Church (close to
Westminster Abbey) for its east window of the same provenance.
Concerning English glass of this period it may be said that it possesses
all the rich colour treatment of its French contemporaries, and,
moreover, that it has the added advantage of a more careful use of the
leads in providing outlines for the designs. Almost insignificant as are
these sixteenth century remains when compared with the innumerable ones
across the Channel, their great beauty goes far towards compensating us
for their lack of numbers.