36th CIHA Congress
The materiality of stained glass and the art of glass
Wojciech Bałus (Jagiellonian University, – Kraków)
Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz (Université de Zurich)
Francine Giese, Sophie Wolf (Vitrocentre Romont)
Corresponding author(s)
[email protected] (Wojciech Bałus)
[email protected] (Francine Giese)
Topic in english
Glass is an exceptionally diverse material that has been highly valued ever since its discovery by human beings in the 4th millennium BC. In art, the malleable and translucent material has found many forms of expression in all epochs and cultures: from the earliest jewellery glass beads to the monumental stained glass windows of the Middle Ages and the glass sculptures of contemporary artists. Despite its wide and continuous use in art, the artistic and cultural- historical significance of glass has long been underestimated and even been neglected by researchers in art history.
This section is therefore dedicated to two topics:
On the one hand, we will examine the role of the material in constituting a work of art and upon the perception of glass art, in particular stained glass. This artistic genre is considered as a special branch of monumental painting that is closely linked to architecture. This connection has an effect on the perception of its materiality, which gains force through the contrast between the transparency/diaphaneity of the glass and the opacity of the architectural structure.
On the other hand, we will take a closer look at the composition, the properties and the diverse uses of glass in art and discuss the increasing importance of material characterization for art historical research, the strength of which lies in its transdisciplinary approach and multidirectional nature.
Lyon (France), 23–28 June 2024
