The Third lasts down to the end of the fifteenth century, by which time the influence of the classic Renaissance began to be felt in glasswork, but lingers on in belated examples well into the sixteenth.
Between each of these periods there is a very short transitional period lasting hardly a decade, and occupying the closing years of each century.
It must not be thought, however, that at any time design in stained glass stood still. Its history is rather one of periodic impulses, due no doubt to the work of individual genius, followed in each case by a long and gradual decline, towards the end of which artists began to grow restless and feel about for new modes of expression, and so prepare the way for the next impulse of genius.
The First Period.
The broad characteristics then which distinguish the First Period are—
- (1) Its rich colour.
- (2) Its mosaic character.
- (3) The importance of the iron-work and its influence on the design.
- (4) The method of painting.
PLATE V
THE ENTOMBMENT,
FROM THE EAST WINDOW, CANTERBURY
Twelfth or early Thirteenth Century
Its rich colour.