. A stained glass tour in Italy. of its profitable monopoly theseitinerant workmen were prohibited from settingup glass furnaces in any other city. The moreone reads the history of Venice and learns suchdetails as these, the easier is it to understand thecommercial importance which its merchants ac-quired. So far from fearing monopcdies, everynerve was then being strained to build them upand hold them fast. We may. as well promptly admit that there isbut little stained glass now to be seen in , there remains none of importance exceptwhat was once the splendid window at the Churcho
. A stained glass tour in Italy. of its profitable monopoly theseitinerant workmen were prohibited from settingup glass furnaces in any other city. The moreone reads the history of Venice and learns suchdetails as these, the easier is it to understand thecommercial importance which its merchants ac-quired. So far from fearing monopcdies, everynerve was then being strained to build them upand hold them fast. We may. as well promptly admit that there isbut little stained glass now to be seen in , there remains none of importance exceptwhat was once the splendid window at the Churchof SS. Giovanni e Paolo, which unfortunately wasallowed to fall into bad condition. It consists ofone large subject spread across four lights, atreatment unusual in Italy. It is interesting toobserve the manner in which the artist worked uphis blues, passing from pale tints in the water toa deeper tone in the sky, and deeper yet in thehills. The drawing of the subject is more un-restrained than one would expect from its date, 154. MOSAICS IN TORCELLO CATHEDRAL This typical early mosaic shows clearly that stained glass in its early stages foundwell-equipped designers among the mosaic makers,_ who transferred to windows theByzantine outlines already so familiar In their mosaics. Venice which is 1473. By way of eking out this onewindow we would recommend a visit to Torcello,an island in the lagoon. Its cathedral containssome early embrasures filled with slabs of trans-lucent alabaster. No one realizes more than thewriter how difficult it is when one has reachedVenice and surrendered to its charm, to leave iteven for so short a trip as that to the neighbouringislands of Torcello and Murano. It should beattempted, however, for, although they are not somagnificent as their sumptuous sister, they havethe merit of preserving their ancient appearancealmost intact. The archives in many Italianchurches tell of agents being sent to fetch Muranoglass for their glaziers. Several early referen
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectglasspaintingandstai
