Stained Glass Work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Illustration: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Fight Between Sir Tristram and Sir Marhaus, 1862.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti produced artwork for these two stained glass window designs in 1862. They were part of a series produced by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Valentine Princep, Arthur Hughes and Rossetti under the guidance of Morris in the form of his original company of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co that had been set up in the previous year.

The commission was to provide a stained glass sequence of the popular medieval romance of Tristram and Ysoude, for Harden Grange in Yorkshire. Although the Grange no longer exists, luckily the stained glass windows are still with us and are kept at the Bradford Art Galleries and Museum. Although superficially a sequence, the individual glass pieces have much to do with each artist's interpretation and approach to the story; this also includes different levels of ability, Rossetti being classed as a professional fine artist, with William Morris very much on an amateur level.

Although Rossetti was only commissioned to complete two of the stained glass designs, compared to Burne-Jones five, these two tend to be much more dynamic and intense than Burne-Jones pieces and say much about the character of the two differing artists as well as their own unique approach to both the story and its interpretation.

Much of the early work of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co was not in fact the textile and wallpaper design work that was to so much colour our perception of the much later reincarnation of the company as Morris & Co. This early period relied fairly heavily on stained glass commissions. The competition was rigorous and ecclesiastical commissions in particular were heavily fought over. Many traditional companies with long histories in the supply of stained glass work were having to compete against a number of new and innovative companies such as Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co who were often set up with the intention of diverting some of the expanded trade in ecclesiastical interiors and accessories, towards themselves. In this respect, Morris used contemporary fine artists in order to try to gain an edge on potential rivals.

Illustration: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Sir Tristram and La Belle Ysoude, 1862.

Although not always successful ecclesiastically, Morris was adaptable enough to understand the growing market in domestic stained glass. The 1860s saw the architectural potential of the medievalist inspired Gothic Revival, which up to that point had been largely limited to the ecclesiastical; widen its horizons towards the civic and domestic market. In this respect, many public buildings and private estates started to take on the appearance of various forms of medieval inspiration. These buildings in turn, needed interior fittings and accessories. Many of the new companies such as the one Morris initially set up in 1861, soon found themselves supplying a wealth of different interior pieces in the guise of Victorian Gothic.

Stained glass, which had been classed as a needful necessity during the medieval period, was also to become the same for many a domestic home built or rebuilt during the mid-nineteenth century. No domestic home, particularly those that were built to reinforce newfound status, could be considered complete without at least some form of stained glass work. This was very often in the guise of family arms or crests, which were produced in order to copy those aristocratic and long-lived families that had maintained status for many more generations than the newly formed wealth of the nineteenth century.

Considering how mundane much of the domestic stained glass market must have been in the 1860s, it must have seemed a welcome relief to Morris and his clutch of artists, to be producing a series of work featuring such a contemporary theme as a medieval romance. It is sometimes difficult for us to realise that these Victorian medieval themes were very much part of the contemporary world. Just as our present day costume dramas do not in reality signify a true understanding of historical context, but reflect much more about aspects of our own contemporary culture through our continued reinterpretation of themes, so the same was true of the Victorian medieval romances.

Issues of selflessness, duty, fidelity, betrayal, jealousy and lust were all part of the Victorian interpretation of the medieval world and were much more powerful issues than forms of historical accuracy and truth regarding interpretation. In this respect, looking anew at the stained glass work interpretations conceived by Rossetti, although wearing a fine mist of medieval chivalry and romance, the work reflects both the individual beliefs and ideas of the artist, but also that of the culture he inhabited. The story of Tristram and Ysoude as interpreted in stained glass in 1862, is a reflection of the individual characters of six young men, but seen through the prism of the social setting as understood by those living in mid-nineteenth century Britain.

It is always important to see any creative individual within the context of their contemporary society. To interpret work purely from their creative individualism alone can never really give a full understanding of the work involved and indeed, of the creative.

Further reading links:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Pre-Raphaelite Painters)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Demon and the Damozel: Dynamics of Desire in the Works of Christina Rossetti & Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Tate British Artists: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Game That Must Be Lost
Collected Writings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti And the Late Victorian Sonnet Sequence: Sexuality, Belief And the Self (Nineteenth Century Series)
The Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Modes of Self-Expression
The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 9: The Last Decade, 1873-1882: Kelmscott to Birchington IV. 1880-1882
The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Formative Years, 1835-1862: Charlotte Street to Cheyne Walk. II. 1855-1862 (Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
The Pre-Raphaelites: From Rossetti to Ruskin (Penguin Classics)
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Art of Century)
Pre-Raphaelites in Love
Art of the Pre-Raphaelites
The Pre-Raphaelites
Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Drawings and Paintings from the Tate Collection
The New Painting of the 1860s: Between the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetic Movement (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle (A Phoenix Book)
Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists

English Tile Pavement from 1340

Illustration: Tile pavement from Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, c1340

Decorative tiled floors have been popular for thousands of years and can be found in most regions irrespective of cultural or religious affiliation. The example shown in this article comes from the church of the market town of Higham Ferrers in the county of Northamptonshire, in the middle of England. It was laid in about 1340, although the church is much older and originally dates from 1220. This particular floor would have been laid when the church was being extended during the early fourteenth century.

The pattern is remarkably contemporary in feel and composition, although geometrically abstract pattern work is as ancient as the human species itself. It has and is still used in a staggering variety of disciplines, particularly within many of the textile crafts. Geometrically inspired pattern work was used extensively in the medieval period and therefore it would not be surprising if the example shown here was not also, in some form or another, used for either inspiration or part of the vocabulary of medieval pattern work.

While there have always been differences, sometimes exclusively so, between religious and domestic pattern work, there has also been energised and beneficial crossovers between the two systems. They have never been consistently mutually exclusive, nor should they be. This is true of the wealth of pattern work that was produced in the two big religious cultures that largely helped to form contemporary Europe, North Africa and Western Asia, namely Christianity and Islam.

Although pattern work was not as strong a component of Christianity as it was of Islam, this did not change the fact that it was used regularly across a number of church, abbey and cathedral interiors. While much of the abstract pattern work in Christianity can be traced back to usage in Imperial Rome, Byzantium and Islam were also strong contenders as was the work of many of the tribes that came to settle in Europe. Most of these were eventually to become the foundation stones that formed the nation states of contemporary Europe.

The illustration above, although a copy of the pattern work found on the floor of the church at Higham Ferrers, does not necessarily closely follow either the colour or present state of the floor. This is a Victorian illustration and as always with many Victorian interpretations of ancient and medieval pattern work, it was given to readers, as it would have appeared when newly formed. The nineteenth century saw a prodigious amount of analysis and record making of all available remaining examples from previous eras, whether that be through architecture, or the crafts that often supplied that discipline. In Britain in particular there was a passion for recording its medieval past.

The passion was perhaps initially guided by political events in Europe, rather than the subject matter itself. Because of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic wars, the British found themselves cut off from European exploration through their Grand Tours. Therefore, during the early nineteenth century mini tours of Britain became popular. Whereas a European Grand Tour would have specifically taken in much of the classical heritage of Europe, the mini tours of Britain took on a different outlook. Classical remains from Imperial Rome have always been thin on the ground in Britain, but medieval remains have always been extensive and covered all of the main cultural eras of the medieval period.

Although there are other factors that go to make up the British early nineteenth century interest in the medieval that was to eventually form the Gothic Revival of the 1830s onwards, denial of the classically motivated Grand Tour was a significant aspect. It could be seen that in some ways at least, the turmoil in Europe helped the British to rediscover and reconnect with their own medieval heritage, rather than that borrowed from Imperial Rome.

Further reading links:
English Medieval Tiles (British Museum Paperbacks)
Old English Tile Designs for Artists and Craftspeople (Dover Pictorial Archives)
English Tilers (Medieval Craftsmen)
Decorated Medieval Floor Tiles of Somerset
Medieval Floor Tiles Of Northern England: Pattern And Purpose: Production Between The 13th And 16th Centuries
Medieval Tile Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Illustrations of medieval romance on tiles from Chertsey abbey
Irish Medieval Tiles (Royal Irish Academy Monographs in Archaeology,)
Medieval Tiles of Wales: Census of Medieval Tiles in Britain
Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 AD
Medieval Decorated Tiles in Dorset
Early Christian and Byzantine Art: Textiles, Metalwork, Frescoes, Manuscripts, Jewellery, Steatites, Stone Sculptures, Tiles, Pottery, Bronzes, Amulets, Coins and other items 4th to the 14th Centuries
Welsh Mediaeval Paving Tiles
Medieval Tiles (Shire Library)
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture)
English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products
English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork 
The People of the Parish: Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese (The Middle Ages Series)
When Towns had Walls: Life in a Medieval English Town
A History of Everyday Life in Medieval Scotland (A History of Everyday Life in Scotland)

Monograms of A W N Pugin

Illustration: A W N Pugin. Four Monograms of the Holy Cross, 1844.

According to Dr Johnson, a monogram is 'a character compounded of several letters.' Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, in his 1844 publication Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume, Compiled from Ancient Authorities and Examples, gave an exhaustive analysis of the place that monograms held in the history of the Christian religion. Although to him the spiritual and symbolic significance and resonance of the monogram was of overriding importance, it is perhaps the decorative aspects of Pugin's examples that are more significant to us today.

The name Pugin is usually associated with ecclesiastical architecture and to some extent domestic, but much less so with that of decoration and pattern. This is clearly unfortunate to those interested in his decorative work as it is nearly always placed in an obviously subservient position to that of his architectural career. Pugin was a natural decorative artist with a sophisticated and intrinsic knowledge of colour, pattern and dimension. He produced a number of highly original decorative samples, often in the guise of vestments, for use within church services, many of which were never used by the Catholic Church, which was not in the business of changing ecclesiastical costumes and other decorative fundamentals to suit the needs of an enthusiastic English convert.

Illustration: A W N Pugin. Eight Monograms of Our Blessed Lady's Name, 1844.

However, Pugin produced decorative work in a number of interior disciplines including printed and woven, embroidery, stained glass and wallpaper. These examples, many of which were produced before the nineteenth century had reached its halfway stage, were very different from much of the interior accessory work produced in England, and indeed that of the more obvious trendsetter, France. Pugin's work shows a confidence and assurance that was often missing from English decorative work, much of which was derivative and subservient to work produced in Europe.

The four examples of monogram work that he produced for his 1844 publication, shows his commitment to his Christian belief, but also that of his creative commitment to the decorative arts. In some ways, the work has close connotations to much of his singular and obviously Puginesque style, particularly that found in his wallpaper design work. Borders are richly outlined in gold, with much of the colour fields being made up of equally bold and definite colour ranges. There is little subtlety or hesitancy, which perhaps might have been expected within the English decorative arts. That Pugin's decorative work paid little attention to any form of English reticence concerning colour and statement, perhaps says more about his confidence and assurity of direction than it does about his place in the history of the English decorative arts.

Illustration: A W N Pugin. Monogram of Our Blessed Lady's Name, 1844.

An interesting detail concerning these four examples of Pugin's decorative style, is the fact that much of the decorative detail takes on a surface pattern quality, with motifs produced giving an obviously stencilled appearance. This form of flat design was often put forward by Pugin as the only true example that should be shown towards surface pattern work. This in turn ties him very closely to the mid-nineteenth century Design Reform movement headed largely by the influential and focused civil servant Henry Cole. Cole often emphasised the two-dimensional quality of Pugin's pattern work in his instrumental mouthpiece the Journal of Design and Manufactures, which although only published for four years, produced an impact and impetus for the Design Reform movement.

Although Pugin was not necessarily a committed member of Cole's group, he was, near the end of his life, taking a much more active and central role in government policy towards both education and the manufacturing industry. Cole, although not entirely uncritical of what he sometimes saw as Pugin's manic elements, was also aware of his depth of knowledge concerning the decorative arts and his focused acknowledgement of the failures of and lack of direction of British manufacturing. In this respect, Cole brought Pugin into a much closer relationship with government policy making. It can only be surmised that if Pugin had lived a full life rather than dying at the ridiculously early age of forty in 1852, his influence, with the help of Cole, would have been much greater and perhaps more centrally focused, than was the case after his death.

Illustration: A W N Pugin. Monogram of the Holy Name, 1844.

Further reading links:
God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain
Pugin's Gothic Ornament: The Classic Sourcebook of Decorative Motifs with 100 Plates (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Pugin: A Gothic Passion
A. W. N. Pugin: Master of Gothic Revival
Pugin's Floral Ornament CD-ROM and Book (Dover Full-Color Electronic Design)
Pugin's Ecclesiastical Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives)
The Collected Letters of A. W. N. Pugin: Volume 4: 1849-1850
The Collected Letters of A. W. N. Pugin: Volume 3: 1846-1848 (C Clpug T Collected Letters of)
Nineteenth-Century Design: From Pugin to Mackintosh
True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture
Contrasts: Or, a Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries and Similar Buildings of the Present Day Shewing the Present ... of Taste Accompanied by Appropriate Text.
George Myers: Pugin's Builder
Augustus Welby Pugin, Designer of the British Houses of Parliament: The Victorian Quest for a Liturgical Architecture
The Stained Glass of A.W.N. Pugin
A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts; Their Antiquity, Use, and Symbolic Signification
Augustus Pugin Versus Decimus Burton: A Victorian Architectural Duel