237. Fairford.
With the progress of the century stronger stipple shading was used; more roundness and greater depth of shadow was thus achieved, at proportionate cost of silvery whiteness and brilliancy in the glass.
The characteristic of the later technique was that it depended less upon mosaic, and more upon paint.
Leads were not used unless they were constructionally unavoidable; and it was sought to avoid them. The nimbus, for example, was glazed in one piece with the head ([page 189]), stained perhaps, or with a pattern in stain upon it, to distinguish it from the face; or it showed white against the yellow hair.
From the lead lines alone of an Early window, and of many a Decorated one, you could read the design quite plainly. The later the period the less that is so. By the end of the fifteenth century the lead lines convey very often little or no idea of the picture, which they hold together but no longer outline. Canopies, for example, are sometimes leaded in square quarries, without regard to the drawing, except where that must be ([page 342]).
A pretty sure sign of period is afforded by the way the leads give, or do not give, the design. Exceptions are mentioned on [page 73]. Where leads seem to occur more or less as it happens, as though they might have been an after-thought, that is most positive proof of Late work.
Sixteenth Century.
Renaissance glass does not, like Gothic, divide itself into periods. It was at its best when it was still in touch with mediæval tradition.