Page 21 - Gothic

In northern Europe, stained glass was an import-

ant and prestigious form of painting until the

15th century, when it became supplanted by pan-
el painting. Gothic architecture greatly increased

the amount of glass in large buildings, partly

to allow for wide expanses of glass, as in rose

windows. In the early part of the period mainly
black paint and clear or brightly coloured glass

was used, but in the early 14th century
the use of compounds of silver, painted

on glass which was then fired, allowed a

number of variations of colour, centred

on yellows, to be used with clear glass in
a single piece. By the end of the period

designs increasingly used large pieces of

glass which were painted, with yellows as
the dominant colours, and relatively few

smaller pieces of glass in other colours.