Members of the Norfolk Churches Trust were treated to an illuminating evening on Friday night (20th February) when our speaker Mr Peter Cormack gave a most interesting, illustrated talk A Second Golden Age: British Stained Glass from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement, the second of our Winter Lecture Series.
Complementing last month’s William Morris, ‘Kelmscott Manor and the Idea of the Beautiful House, Peter demonstrated the influence of William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Philip Webb and Christopher Whall, (who later became a teacher to the next generation) in the design and manufacture of stained-glass windows from the second half of the 19th century. These men were part of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a group who valued traditional craftmanship and design and the value of handmade objects over the mass production of the decorative arts that had been the result of the Industrial Revolution. This also included the production of the glass itself. The stained glass window process became an art rather than just a trade.
The Arts and Crafts movement was not exclusive to men, giving women such as Mary Lowndes opportunities to work with stained glass. One of her windows, like many from this period can be found within a Norfolk church, so why not take a closer look at the windows the next time you visit a church.
Our thanks to Peter for providing this insight in this period of stained-glass design and to Patrick Lines and Han Yang Yap for opening up their home and being our hosts for the evening.
