by:
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo

Publisher:
Harry N Abrams
Published:September 1, 2003
ISBN:0810946440
Format:Hardcover
Pages:288

Description: From Booklist
Immediate in its lucent, chromatic beauty, stained glass has a 1,000-year history as a public artistic medium, which Raguin, a curator and author thoroughly steeped in vitreous panes, covers in this survey. Equal to its subject, her work compels visual lingering among the hundreds of color images whose explicit meaning is described in the text. Though seemingly static in its recurring depictions of biblical imagery, stained glass, like any art form, has experienced evolutions in taste, which Raguin chronicles from its efflorescence in Gothic cathedrals to its major revivals in the nineteenth-century's romantic and, later, arts-and-crafts movements. Expensive in every era, stained glass, Raguin writes, reveals donors' beliefs about "the value of art to society." Whether inculcating religion, propagandizing the donor's status or virtues, or, in modern times, reaching for purely aesthetic effects, stained glass is revealed as surprisingly versatile despite the fact that its fabricating technique is unchanged since it was first installed at Chartres Cathedral. With its gorgeously shimmering illustrations, Raguin's presentation will enhance any art history collection. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright # American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description:
Stained glass has always been an art of inspiration and devotion, infusing space with a warm, magical glow. This book is a comprehensive and lavish review of the history, styles, designs, artists, tools, and techniques of this much-loved medium. It begins with the art's early development in ancient Egypt and Rome, then traces its evolution through the Byzantine era, the Romanesque and Gothic styles, and to its revival in the hands of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright. Stained Glass also features the innovative work of 20th-century architects and artists.

Stained glass scholar Virginia Chieffo Raguin brings years of study and research to this sweeping survey. With more than 500 color photographs featuring both classic devotional works such as Chartres, Le Mans, and the Abbey at St. Denis and modern creations by Tiffany, Marc Chagall, John La Farge, and the Bauhaus, Stained Glass is the definitive single-volume history of this majestic art.