Three Great Mediæval Stained-Glass Windows In York Minster, England.

The Great East Window, 

York Minster, England.

Completed in 1408.

Illustration: YORK MINSTER

The Saint William Window,

York Minster, England.

Photo Credit: © Candace A. Reilly.

Illustration: HORTULUS

The Saint Cuthbert Window,

York Minster, England.

Conservation of this wonderful 

Mediæval Stained-Glass Window commences.

Photo Credit: PA Media.

Illustration: BBC NEWS

The York Minster Web-Site can be found

HERE

Conservation work on York Minster’s Mediæval Stained-Glass Windows is being undertaken by The York Glaziers Trust, whose Web-Site can be found

HERE

The following Illustrations and Text, detailing the amount of conservation work undertaken on The Great East Window, York Minster, are from BUILDING CONSERVATION.COM

By: Andrew Arrol and Sarah Brown.

The repair of York Minster’s Great East Window was a key part of a larger programme of repair and conservation to the Minster’s East Front, which commenced in 2006. 

It was completed under the subsequent York Minster Revealed project, which received generous HLF [Editor: Heritage Lottery Fund] funding of £10 million. The cost of fabric repair (masonry and glass) amounted to approximately half of the overall £20 million project cost.

York Minster Revealed was a five year project, allowing sufficient time for the remainder of the East Front masonry to be repaired and conserved and for the Great East Window glass (and the windows of the adjoining fenestration) to be removed, conserved and then re-instated, incorporating a new protective glazing system.

Other parts of the project focussed on improving visitor facilities, creating a new below-ground exhibition space in the Undercroft, and forming a new approach piazza outside the South Side of the Minster.

The Glazing.

The Great East Window of York Minster, made between 1405 and 1408, is the largest expanse of Mediæval Stained-Glass in England and one of the most ambitious glazing projects ever undertaken.

Depicting the beginning and the end of the Christian cosmos, from the Creation in the Book of Genesis to the Apocalypse and the Second Coming of Christ, it summarises the Mediæval perception of human history, which unfolds under the feet of God the Father and the company of heaven.

While the Apocalypse had been a popular subject in illuminated manuscripts, to depict it in glass and on this scale was extremely daring. 

The Chapter of York looked outside the City for someone with design abilities and entrepreneurial skills equal to the task and in 1405 contracted with the Coventry glazier John Thornton. 

While Thornton was required to paint only some of the glass, himself, the contract stipulated that he was to ‘cartoon’ every single one of over 300 panels entirely with his own hand which, in the Middle Ages, meant marking up full-size working drawings on the whitened glazier’s table.

Panel 5b of The Great East Window, following 

incorrect restoration by Dean Milner-White, who inserted a second beast in the centre of the panel constructed from miscellaneous fragments.

The same panel, as above, following conservation in 2013: “And they adored the beast, saying: “Who is like to the beast ? And who shall be able to fight against him ?” ”

(Revelation 13: 4-6).

Upper part of the Great East Window 

with masonry complete and protective glass in place.

Illustration: BUILDING CONSERVATION.COM

The complexity of the Apocalypse subject matter, in which each scene is a unique narrative, made this a particularly challenging undertaking, and while recent research by Professor Nigel Morgan has demonstrated Thornton’s familiarity with other Apocalypse imagery, the window is characterised by the originality and freshness of Thornton’s approach to the subject.

The remainder of this in-depth report can be read at BUILDING CONSERVATION.COM