THE LIVING ART OF STAINED GLASS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN UKRAINE
A team of archaeologists unearthed what was left of stained glass windows at a thirteenth century church near the ancient town of Halych. The church had been erected under Prince Danylo of Halych, at Kholm (currently Chelmno in Poland), then center of what was known as Kholm Rus'.

In the seventeenth century stained glass shops, hutas, spread in the province of Chernihiv, numbering over one hundred. Here sheet glass was made using soda, chalk, and sand, ingredients known to every high school student.

THE LIVING ART
"Stained glass is a very changeable art. One sees a window like that differently, at different times, in different moods, due to the colors and shades. One should perceive it not as so many small panels of painted or dyed glass, but as part of the interior, part of the surrounding architecture. I made a discovery myself when I realized that half of the interior microclimate is created by stained glass. Another thing is that it depends on the artist to make it a work of art or just a functional component."

Henri de Moran, a noted French art historian, considers that prior to the Reformation the worst enemies of stained glass were people who constantly forgot that the excellent paintings on glass were lessons meant for them, as every scene thus portrayed was easily understandable, often accompanied by captions. Also, stained glass windows were made to gladden the eye with whimsical light patterns produced by a multitude of small colorful panels.

In 1071, a significant innovation was made in the stained glass technique at the Monastery of Monte Casino, which has reached our day. Wood frameworks mounting color glass panels were replaced by lead armatures allowing a greater variety of contours and sizes.

A German monk named Teofilo, author of the Treatise on Different Crafts, described stained glass made of two units of red beech ash and one unit of well washed sand. In the twelfth century masters started to us fern ash. At that time the palette used consisted of blue, red, green, purple, and yellow.

CHARMING SIMPLICITY BORN OF BACK-BREAKING WORK
Vitaly Vasylevsky learned the basics of stained glass at the Kharkiv Art-and-Craft Institute. His teacher, Oleksandr Pronin, now ranks among Ukraine's leading masters in the field.

"He was an adventurous instructor. He would allow us anything we could think of, because he wanted every student to show all that was in him, however fantastic, even if such ideas might seem lunatic," recalls Vitaly. "In one of my term works I used the voluminous composition technique originating in Bohemia. It's a color relief made of countless miniature glass panels. It was crazy, and the whole class had to take part in the project. Everybody called me names, it was back-breaking work, but the result was tremendous, more than I could've dreamed of."

As for the classical technique, it looks quite simple. Shapes are cut according to a pattern drawn on a sheet of tracing paper. Then the glass panels are put together on the assembly table and bound by lead H-shaped strips, soldered, and tin-plated.

A CENTURY-LATE RENAISSANCE
The period of rebirth of classical Renaissance caught up with the Soviet empire in the middle of this century, first in the form of isolated works, then spreading practically over the whole Soviet Union in the 1960s-1970s. The trail was blazed by Lithuania where one of the best schools of stained glass was established quickly. Stained glass styles also progressed from the traditional flat-lead soldered to a high relief using plate glass mounted in cast concrete frames. And the principal material was now special stained glass made in the Baltic states, Lviv, and Kyiv, so that no supply problems were encountered, ever. Later, glass-manufacturing techniques were diversified, using frosting treatment, hydrofluoric acid, the only one capable of "eating" glass (although the very procedure is extremely hazardous to man), and sand blowing which can admirably enrich the artistic composition. And glazier's diamond was now used for cutting, instead of iron tools heated to incandescence.

HAND-CRAFTED MEANS ARTISTIC
"Stained glass has always been an inalienable component of architecture, so to a great extent success here depends on the architect-artist tandem, on how well they can put their heads together," Vitaliy says with conviction. "For example, we cooperate with architect Dmytro Fisenko, he is known far beyond this oblast and a very good friend of mine."

Among his customers are astronauts, foreign businessmen, and very rich residents of Kyiv and Moscow (their names are not disclosed for quite understandable reasons).

Copying has become very fashionable in our period of mass culture. In the West, one can buy exact replicas of anything, all it takes is to find the thing in a catalogue. In the arts, original works have always been valued most highly.

Vitaliy works in what is best described as medieval conditions, using tools that have changed little since then, and his every creation is original.

FROM OMNIVOROUSNESS TO SAKURA TWIG
After being omnivorous (trying every style, subject, and technique) in the 1980s, Vasylevsky has swung from the rigid dictates of the material used, avant-garde labyrinths, Slavic interwoven ornamentation, arriving at Oriental themes with their principle of maximum expressiveness by minimum means (e.g., Japanese prints where a complete composition is achieved by means of spots and lines).

"Eventually, you gain experience and skill, along with the understanding that the principle 'from the general to the particular' must be reversed, which is the cornerstone of Japanese engraving with its exceptionally solid and laconic portrayals," concludes the artist.

Photos:
Stained glass artist Vitaly Vasylevsky.
The Church has long esteemed stained glass.
Residential stained glass by Vitaly Vasylevsky