Recent stories of note:
“A short history of stained glass”
Dan Hitchens, The Spectator
Sitting in the pews of his greatest achievement, the rebuilt Church of Saint-Denis, Abbot Suger (1081–1151) wrote the following: “I see myself dwelling in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from that inferior to that higher world.” What brought Suger to this plane beyond the slime? The new “gemlike” windows. No building had ever incorporated so much stained glass so prominently—indeed, Suger’s Saint-Denis looks to be constructed more of glass than stone, and the stained-glass program is said to have been more expensive than the stone itself. Not everyone was a fan of the abbot’s innovation, however: after Suger’s friend and rival Saint Bernard saw the church, he declared the project “no more vain than insane.” But Suger’s vanity is our blessing, because it began a revolution in glassmaking from which we still benefit today. That revolution and its afterlife are taken up in The Spectator by Dan Hitchens, who details the triumphs and controversies—and the controversies are many—in the art form’s history.
“Plans to Install Contemporary Stained-Glass Art in the Notre-Dame Cathedral Spark Outrage”
Jo Lawson-Tancred, artnet
On the topic of controversy and stained glass: President Macron recently announced a plan to replace some of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s nineteenth-century stained glass with contemporary designs. The glass in question, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1864, was partially damaged—though not beyond repair—during the 2019 fire. Macron’s plans have been met with worthy disdain. As an open letter to the president points out, Viollet-le-Duc’s architectural plan for the church was conceived as an integrated whole, and the windows were a vital part of that plan. To replace them with twenty-first century designs would be like repainting some of the figures in Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa with figures by John Currin. Many of Europe’s most important churches were constructed across centuries and thus merge varied styles, but to discard such vital elements as these windows when there’s no compelling reason to do so is borderline iconoclastic.
“Behind the New Iron Curtain”
Marzio G. Mian, Harper’s Magazine
Turning our attention from glass windows to iron curtains, we have this sober letter from Russia by Marzio G. Mian in Harper’s. During a journey up and down the Volga and into Moscow, Mian encountered hawkish museum directors, anti-war reggae musicians, Stalin-loving teenagers, the families of fallen soldiers, and Orthodox priests fond of the atomic bomb. Mian pulls back the Iron Curtain, providing a glimpse into Russia that has been nearly impossible to find since the war began. What he’s seen is puzzling and provocative. Businessmen he meets insist that Western sanctions have been like “adrenaline” to the Russian economy, and many among the youth report that the Putin’s reign is preferable to the “democracy” and “gang wars and alcohol” of the Nineties; elsewhere, he finds passionate resistance to the war effort, and everywhere else he seems to find resigned indifference. The picture Mian paints is complex and thorough. This is indispensable reading for anyone concerned with understanding the nation’s enigmatic psyche.