Artist Statement

Artist Statement: Elena Luedy

For my medieval reconstruction piece, I wanted to combine what I thought was a man’s craft with a woman’s. While this did not prove to be the complete truth, I ended up making certain stylistic choices in my reconstruction to show the imperfections of stained glass, the absence of women from history, however remaining somewhat true to the original stained glass piece. I did this by reproducing the original piece with some stitching imperfections, and by removing what would have been panes of glass in the original piece.

The medieval stained glass piece that I chose to work on is “Rondel showing the Orchards outside Damascus Devastated by Holofernes's Army, from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris”.[1] The piece in question is one of three in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, however it was originally found in the Sainte Chappelle in Paris along with a collection of other stained glass pieces. The scene depicted is from the Book of Judith, which is only included in some versions of the bible, but remains an important Old Testament biblical text nonetheless. The story of Judith is one of great heroism, as she, an average Hebrew widow leads the plan of the humiliating defeat of the Assyrians army. The rondel in question takes place at the beginning of the story, and lead to the siege of the town when many of the magistrates decide to give in to the Assyrian army. Judith is not impressed, and decides to take matters into her own hands, eventually sneaking into the tent of the Assyrian leader, Holofernes, and beheading him with his own sword. (Thanks to the grace of God)[2]. This story is a remarkable tale of what a woman accomplished, and is why I wished to maintain an element of truth to my reconstruction of the piece. I did however notice that none of the rondels in the Philadelphia Museum of Art actually depict Judith, the heroine, herself. This lead me to question what significance women played during the middle ages, especially in terms of the creation of this piece and other forms of art at the time.

            Stained glass during the 13^th century was made using an unpredictable and time consuming process. First, the glazer would sketch the picture with a piece of lead on a whitewashed board, then cast pieces of glass suited to his design and cut them into shape with a red hot iron. The pieces of glass then were made to fit together to make the design by carefully chipping edges with iron hook (known as a grozing iron). This made the glass edges serrated, which fit into the lead making it more of a firm fit than that of 17th century glass, which was cut with a diamond and thus was easier to fall out of the lead strips (called caimes). The early Gothic glazer only had four key materials for creating the stained glass look. The primary material was white glass, which was actually a sea-green shade due to the amount of the iron in it. In efforts to make the glass whiter in appearance the glazer would slowly added manganese. The second material was colored pot-metal, molten glass colored throughout the melting pot with a single transparent color. Next was a coated glass known as flashed ruby glass- white glass with copper painted on one side, made by diminishing the thickness of the red pot metal by spreading it over white glass. Lastly, the medieval glazer would use dark-brown enamel paint, created by combining powdered white glass colored with oxides of iron or manganese into a paint, which was then fired on surface to melt powdered glass into solid state. The early gothic glazer was only able to create certain colors; white, yellow, olive green, blue, brownish purple (and lighter for flesh color), emerald green, flashed ruby and dark brown. These colors had a high variance because little scientific control over results.[3]  

            The variability of these early stained glass pieces was a blessing in disguise, as the bubbles and scratches that ended up in the pieces created a mystical feel as the sun shone through them.[4] Because it was the imperfections of the glass that made the images more beautiful, I too added imperfections to my piece of art. Additionally, the thickness of the earlier glass provided a more colored light pattern to be shown in the church, often darkening the interior of the church, providing a space for solemn religious contemplation, which was aided by the stories played out in the glass, so that one could reflect on various biblical and political messages while in the church. While it is known that Louis IX commissioned the church (and thus the stained glass), little is known about the individuals that created the stained glass. Whether or not women worked on the stained glass in the Sainte Chappelle is unknown but certainly they received no credit for it if they did. This continues to beg the question, what art works are women doing in the middle ages, if any?

            My quest for women in medieval times inevitably took me to the fiber arts, specifically focusing on embroidery (which is the style my piece ended up being done in). My initial thoughts were that embroidery was done by women, as the various period piece shows illustrate women doing in the later eras. This however seems to be a major misconception, as many of the sources I read stated on the first page that this was not the case[5]. Instead, I have learned that while amateur upper class ladies would dabble in embroidery, much of the surviving fiber arts was done by professionals. These professionals often worked in teams, with men giving directions to their apprentices. These apprentices, both men and women, had to study under a tutor for nine years before they were considered qualified. This is a full five years more than the stained glass apprentices had to study, however it can be argued that the work done by embroiderers is much more meticulous, and is less up to chance than the production of stained glass. Additionally, the materials used by medieval embroiders were far more precious that those of glass makers. This is not to say, however, that the materials used by stained glass makers was easy to come by, just that on their own they were considered less valuable as embroiderers, especially for wealthier patrons, used silk and silver-gilded thread with embellishments using pearls and precious stones. While women were embroiders, one of the key roles women played in the textile industry was with the spinning of wool[6]. Through the spinning wool women contributed the greatest to the economy. Even Joan, the Countess of Flounders, was deeply involved with the wool-based economy. This is evident in her decree in the year 1224[7]. While women were not absent from history, it is clear that they were far more behind the scenes than men at the time. Because of the ‘holes’ of women in history, I wanted to portray this by leaving my work with some holes, for example I left the faces of the soldiers out so that to some extent, their identity would be left out as well.