Stained Glass Window Designs

Use of stained glass by mankind started as early as the first century. In those times it was mainly used for churches, cathedrals, castles and palaces. Stained glass was a symbol of royalty in ancient times. To be accurate, stained glass window hanging was first used in the Romanesque architecture. In this period, windows were first treated with slab glazing and were installed with a unique blowing technique. The Romans are also said to be the pioneers of the translucent cylindrical glass.

In the Gothic period also, stained glasses were first used in the religious buildings only. As religious places were highly visited, stained glasses easily came into notice of the people and made them curious about this beautiful art form. Initially the religious stained glass windows were small in size thus, providing ample amount of light along with the beauty. Hence, the churches of the medieval period are rightly said to be the patrons of the stained glass windows. So, we can safely say that the window treatments are being used since Gothic period. In this era the conventional designs were converted to more complex iconography.

In this period new religious orders were formed which required new religious buildings, resulting in new designs of religious stained glass windows. The Gothic artwork traveled from France to almost whole of the world, adding and combining the religious stained glass with artistic flavor of that particular region. The Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles stayed in Germany for far more time than in any other region. Many experts agree that the stained glass windows reached to a point of downfall sometime during the medieval age and the nineteenth century. At the time of Thirty Years War, Cardinal Richelieu ordered to demolish all the churches and religious buildings from the Lorraine region and hence, destroying the stained glass windows along with the buildings. during the year 1640, there was a scarcity of stained glass windows.