Clayton and Bell - The Glass of Clayton and Bell

The Glass of Clayton and Bell

The 19th century windows of Clayton and Bell are typified by their brilliant luminosity. This is because they were quick to adopt the advice of the student of Medieval glass, Charles Winston, who propounded that “modern” commercially made coloured glass was not effective for stained glass windows, as it lacked the right refractive quality. In 1863 John Richard Clayton was among those who was experimenting with the manufacture of so-called pot metal or coloured glass produced by simple ancient manufacturing techniques which brought about great variability in the texture and colour of glass which is characteristic of ancient windows.

Clayton and Bell were familiar with both ancient windows and with the various artistic movements of their time, such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their work shows the influence, but not the dominance of either. It is, rather, an elegant synthesis of archaeologically sourced details, such as their characteristic brightly coloured canopies which are of a 14th century style, with figures who pay passing homage to the medieval in their sweeping robes of strong bright colours, a surety and refinement of the painted details and an excellence of design which never fails to integrate the structural lines of the lead into the overall picture.

Clayton and Bell were masters of story-telling. Many of their finest works are large multi-light East Windows or West Windows which depict the most dramatic moments in the Biblical narratives of the Life of Christ. Although they were capable of producing rows of dour prophets, gentle saints and mournful crucifixions, what they excelled at was scenes of Christ bursting forth from the tomb, the descent of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and the Archangel Michael calling forth the dead on the Day of Judgement. They had ways of depicting rays of light that they put into practice ten years before most of their rivals attempted such dramatic atmospheric effects in the 1870s. The thing that makes these "special effects" of Clayton and Bell the more remarkable is that they were achieved with little resource to painted glass and flashed glass and without the multi-coloured Favrile glass used by Louis Comfort Tiffany studios and the Aesthetic designers of the United States. In fact, they used little more than radiating bands of red, yellow and white glass coupled with a formalised style of cloud painting that had been used by ancient stained glass and panel painters. The effects achieved by apparently simple means are often of overwhelming impact. An renowned example that is reproduced in various books on the topic of stained glass is the Last Judgement window of St Mary’s church, Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, dating from 1860.

Clayton and Bell excelled in their use of colour. The designing of a stained glass window that “works” from a visual point of view is a more complex matter than simply drawing up a cartoon and painting the colours in. What works on paper does not necessarily work when it has the added element of light streaming through it. Some colours are notoriously difficult. Blue glass, frequently used for backgrounds, can create a halo effect that dominates the window. Red and blue together can create a jumping discordant pattern that is quite nasty to look at. Faces can bleach out completely. Green can simply turn black.

But with these potential hazards, Clayton and Bell consistently turned out windows in which the balance of colour is eminently satisfying to the eye. They had the happy knack of selecting exactly the right tonal values so that difficult colour combinations, (such as red and green laid side by side as the cloth and lining of a cloak) appear inevitable. Moreover, their colour choices are rarely timid. (A “safe” choice is to line every cloak with yellow in the form of an applied silver-stain.) Although most of the colours in their windows are primaries- basic red, yellow and blue with a mid-tone grassy green, they introduced judiciously placed tertiary colours such as russet, brownish purple and a sort of mustard colour. The mustard colour often appears in conjunction with a bright intense blue. They frequently clothed a central figure in a robe of this bright blue, in contrast to the dark blue of the background and the bright red of surrounding robes.

In common with Heaton, Butler and Bayne, Clayton and Bell often robed figures in their windows with dark-coloured cloaks that are dotted with gold stars or flowers. In general practice, a cloak was arranged in such a way that it could be cut from fairly large pieces of glass, so that the main folds fell along lead lines and the lesser folds could be applied with paint. But the characteristic "gold-star" decoration of Clayton and Bell necessitated that the entire cloak be divided into little pieces of coloured glass, with the gold stars set at the intersections. This created a network of lead which was not necessarily visually desirable. But in practice, the yellow stars catch the eye of the viewer to the extent that the lead disappears. It is another very effective technique for creating a rich and lively appearance, without resorting to heavy over-painting.

Coupled with the brilliant coloration, is an excellence in the painted details. This is particularly apparent in the features of the figures which show a mastery over the handling of a difficult medium that, in their earlier works, few of their contemporaries could equal, each fine line of paint being applied with the steadiness of hand and elegance of form of a master calligrapher.

The quality of the work when the firm was at its busiest in the 1870s became heavier, as it also did with other firms in that decade. There was a trend for a greater naturalism in the depiction of figures. This was often achieved by the application of more paint and at the expense of colour and luminosity. There was also a reliance upon German engravings such as those by the artist Martin Schongauer. Also, an increasing number of commissions came from individuals wishing to commemorate a family member in their local church rather than from architects who were themselves designers and appreciated the creative process.

In the 1880s, Clayton and Bell’s work went through something of a revival. Remarkably, many windows produced in the 1880s and 90s have the recaptured something of the freshness and brightness of the earlier works. They are in strong contrast to those of their pupils, Burlison and Grylls, who specialised in silvery backgrounds with ornate canopies under which stand solidly three-dimensional figures in vast cloaks of wine red and indigo blue.

In the 20th century, Michael Farrar-Bell continued the tradition of figurative window design, using backgrounds of transparent quarries and maintaining much the same range of coloured glass as had been perfected by Clayton in the 1860s.