QUARRY WINDOWS.
The very simplest form of window glazing, the easiest and the thriftiest
thing for the cutter to do, and the most straightforward for the
glazier, is to frame together parallel-sided pieces of glass in the form
of a lead lattice.
Quarries, as all such little square or rhomboid shaped panes of glass
came to be called, were used from the first. Ordinarily they were set on
end, so as to form diamonds; which as time went on, were generally not
rectangular, but long in proportion to their breadth.
For the most part they were painted with patterns traced in brown; and,
on the discovery of silver stain, they were in parts tinted yellow. From
the fourteenth century onwards, quarry lights, framed in borders, and
enlivened with colour, form a very important variety of grisaille.
Many a grisaille pattern was not far removed from quarry glazing, as may
be seen opposite. It was natural that, for clerestory and triforium
windows in particular, the glazier should do all he could to simplify
his work. Clerestory windows are placed too high to be fairly seen in a
narrow church, and triforium lights are often half shut off from view by
projecting shafts of open arcading in front of them. It is only when, by
rare chance, they happen to front you squarely at the end of an aisle or
transept, that they are properly seen. There is no occasion, therefore,
to indulge in subtleties of design; the one thing needful is that the
effect of the windows as a whole, should be pleasant, since all study of
detail is out of the question, except from the triforium galleries
opposite, or by the aid of a field-glass; and light arrangements of
grisaille and colour are in most cases all that is wanted. The colour
may be more or less, according as it is desired to exclude light or to
admit it; but some very simple, unpretending, and perhaps even rude
treatment, is indicated by the conditions of the case, which to
contradict, is wasteful and unworkmanlike. The effect, for example, of
the band of figures across the grisaille in the triforium of the
transepts at Evreux is admirable; but the way in which seven saints out
of the eight are cut vertically in two by the pillars of the
architectural screen in front of them, is nothing less than
exasperating. These figures tell only as the patches of colour; and that
could so easily have been obtained by much simpler means. In such a
position, quarries may well take the place, not only of figures, but of
more interesting grisaille; and, even though they be not painted at all
(as is again the case at Evreux), but merely broken by occasional
sun-discs in white and stain crossing them, and framed in a simple block
border of white and colour, the effect may be entirely adequate. It is
not meant to deny that figures in rich colour embedded in carefully
designed grisaille are more attractive; but, for its purpose, quarry
work, with borders and bosses of colour, is in the majority of such
cases, enough.
[Illustration: 189. LINCOLN.]
[Illustration: 190. EVREUX.]
Figures or figure subjects in formal bands across tall quarry lights are
always effective; so are figures planted more casually upon the
quarries--kneeling donors, flying angels, or whatever they may be. So
again, are figure panels alternating with bosses of ornament; but, if
the window occupy a position where the figures can be appreciated, a
surrounding of quarries seems hardly of interest enough, and if not, the
figures seem rather thrown away. One is tempted to make exception in
favour of figures in grisaille, which, if very delicately painted (as
for example at S. Martin-cum-Gregory, York), show to advantage on a
quarry ground, which has the modesty not to compete with them in
interest. The quarries keep their place perfectly as a background; and
the slight painting upon them is just enough to give the glass quality,
and to indicate that, however subordinate, it is yet part of the
picture.
A quarry window, no less than any other, wants a border, if only to
prevent the strongly marked straight lines of lead from appearing to run
into the stonework. A simple line of colour with another of white next
the mullions is enough for that. Even this is occasionally omitted, more
especially in tracery lights, but in that case the glass seems to lack
finish. The most satisfactory border to quarry lights into which
otherwise no colour is introduced, is a broadish border of white,
painted with pattern and in part stained. A coloured border seems to
imply other colour breaking the field of quarries. By itself it is too
much or not enough. Its proportion is a thing to be determined in each
case on the spot; but even in narrow lights, if they contain bosses of
colour (as do those in the transepts at Le Mans) a broad border about
one fifth the width of the window, with a broad white line next the
stone, is very effective.
The monotony of any great surface of quarry work, has led to the
introduction of medallions and the like, even where it is not desired to
introduce pot-metal colour. In the window from Evreux, illustrated
opposite, the effect of the delicately painted little angel medallions,
in white on a ground of stain, is all that could be wished. Any little
surprise of that kind is always welcome; but, should it occur too
frequently, it becomes itself monotonous.
There is no end to the variety of forms in which colour may be
introduced into quarry work. It is best in the form of patches, and not
in the form of lines between the quarries as occurs occasionally, at
Poitiers, for example, at Rouen cathedral, and at Châlons (page 167).
[Illustration: 191. QUARRY WINDOW, EVREUX.]
Big rosettes, discs, wreaths, rings of colour, and the like, are more
effective than small spots. They need not be heavy, there may be any
amount of white in them. In narrow lights, they may sometimes with
advantage come in front of the border; that admits of the biggest
possible medallion, and it is best to have such features large and few.
Mean little rosettes are too suggestive of the contractor; in the church
of S. Ouen, at Rouen, one is uncomfortably reminded of him--it would be
so easy to estimate for glass of that kind at so much the foot! Heraldic
shields form often peculiarly effective colour-patches in quarry
windows, more especially because of the accidental arrangement of colour
they compel. There is a point at which symmetry of colour palls upon the
eye.
[Illustration: 192. LINCOLN.]
The even surface of quarry lights all in white and stain is broken
sometimes by an occasional band of inscription, which may either take
the line of the quarries, or cross them in the form of a label. At
Evreux some quarry lights are most pleasingly interrupted by square
patches of inscription in yellow, or, which is still more satisfactory,
in white. In the same cathedral there is a very interesting instance of
inscription, in letters some five or six inches high, leaded in blue
upon a quarry ground.
[Illustration: 193. GERMAN QUARRY BORDER.]
[Illustration: 194. EARLY ENGLISH QUARRY.]
The patterns with which quarries are painted naturally followed the
ordinary course of grisaille. In the thirteenth century the designs were
strongly outlined, and showed clear against a cross-hatched ground;
which, however, did not, as a rule, extend to the lead, but a margin of
clear glass was left next to it, in acknowledgment of the quarry shape.
The combination of quarries and strap ornament in the example at Lincoln
(page 287) is unusual, but the quarries themselves are, but for the
absence of a clear line next the leads, characteristically of the
thirteenth century. The quarry border from Nuremberg (above) is rather
later in character. In that case also, as it happens, there is no
marginal line of clear glass. The typical treatment is shown below.
Later, as in other grisaille, the cross-hatched ground was omitted; and
the foliage took, of course, more natural form. It was presently more
delicately traced (page 290), and more often than not tinted in yellow
stain. Consistently with the more natural form of leafage the design in
fourteenth century work was often one continuous growth trailing through
the window, and passing behind the marginal band of stain which now
usually emphasised the top sides of the quarries. Often a futile attempt
was made (page 286) to give the appearance of interlacing to these
bands, but that was nullified by the stronger lead lines. True,
interlacing was only possible where, as in some earlier work, the bands
were continued on all four sides of the quarry, so that the lead fell
into its place as interspace between two interlacing bands. It was
better when there was no pretence of interlacing (below). Additional
importance was sometimes given to the marginal band by tracing a pattern
upon it, or, as on page 291, painting it in brown, and then picking out
geometric tracery upon it. There came a time when marginal lines were
omitted altogether. That was the usual, though not invariable, practice
in the fifteenth century, by which time the draughtsman had apparently
learnt to husband his inventive faculty. The continuous growth of the
pattern, as well as the marginal acknowledgment of the lead lines, died
out of fashion, and quarries were mostly painted sprig fashion. The
character of these sprigs will be best judged from the specimens on page
289, some of the most interesting given in "Shaw's Book of Quarries."
Quarry patterns do not, of course, occur in that profuse variety; it is
seldom that more than two patterns are found in a single window, often
there is only one. The range of design in quarries of this kind is
limited only by the invention of the artist. It includes both floral and
conventional ornament, animal and grotesque figures, emblems and
heraldic badges, cyphers, monograms, mottoes, and so on. There is scope
not only for meaning in design, but for the artist's humour; but, when
all is said, the Late Gothic pattern windows, now given over entirely to
quarry work, are of no great account as concerns their detail. The later
quarry patterns are often pretty enough, sometimes amusing, but they go
for very little in the decoration of a church. Plentiful as quarry work
is everywhere, and characteristic as it is of Perpendicular glass, there
is not much that shows an attempt to do anything serious with the quarry
window. All that was done was to paint more or less delicate and dainty
patterns upon the little lozenge panes. However, they were traced with a
light hand and a sure one, and with a kind of spontaneity which gives
them really what artistic charm they have.
[Illustration: 195. QUARRY PATTERNS (SHAW).]
[Illustration: 196. 14TH CENTURY QUARRY.]
[Illustration: 197. 14TH CENTURY QUARRIES.]
The occasional endeavours to get stronger and bolder effects in quarry
work were not very successful. At Evreux and at Rouen there are some
late quarries painted more after the fashion of bold mosaic diaper; but
the effect, though satisfactory enough, is not such as to convince one
that that is the better way.
[Illustration: 198. 14TH CENTURY QUARRY.]
To heraldry, and especially to shields of arms surrounded by mantling
(page 293), quarries form an excellent background, but only in the event
of there being enough of them left free to show that it is a quarry
window upon which the heraldry is imposed, or rather into which it is
inlaid. Odds and ends of quarries want to be accounted for, as forming
the continuation of the glass above and below. In the case of a window
not a quarry window, it is a mistake to break up the background, as was
sometimes done, into quarries, or rather into fragments of quarries. The
object of the square or diamond shape is to break up a plain surface. If
the ground is naturally broken up by figures, foliage, mantling, or what
not, why introduce further quarry lines? They are not in themselves
interesting. Their great value is in that they give scale to a window;
but that is only on condition that they are seen in their entirety.
[Illustration: 199. ROUND GLASS, ROUNDELS, OR BULL'S-EYES.]
[Illustration: 200. HERALDIC GLASS.]
In Germany the place of quarries was supplied by roundels (page 292)
unpainted. What applies to quarries applies in many respects to them;
and they have a brilliancy which flat glass has not. They were
usually enclosed in painted borders of white and stain, and have a very
delicate and pearly effect; but where (as at S. Peter's, at Cologne)
they occur in great quantity as compared with coloured subjects, these
appear to be floating rather uncomfortably in their midst. The Italians,
who also used roundels in place of quarries, often let colour into the
interstices between them, and also little painted squares or pateræ of
white and stain. In the sham windows decorating the Sistine Chapel at
Rome, separating Botticelli's series of Popes, the pointed spaces
between the rounds are coloured diagonally in successive rows of red,
yellow, and green; but the result is most pleasing where, as at Verona
and elsewhere, the little triangular spaces are neither of one tint nor
yet symmetrically arranged, but distributed in a quasi-accidental and
unexpected way. Sometimes it was the little pateræ that was in colour
and the rest white. In any case, the effect is refined, as it is at
Arezzo also, where the monotony of roundels, in sundry clerestory
windows, is broken by figure medallions and other features in white and
colour. The adaptation of roundels to the circular shape is shown in the
portion of a round window from Santa Maria Novella. What more remains to
be said about roundels and quarry windows is reserved for the chapter on
"Domestic Glass."
[Illustration: 201. QUARRY FROM CHETWODE CHURCH.]
[Illustration: 202. WINDOW IN THE CERTOSA IN VAL D'EMA, FLORENCE.]