The Cité du Vitrail, in the French city of Troyes, is dedicated to the art of stained glass. From medieval to modern times, the museum’s extraordinary history will be on glittering display during this weekend's European Heritage Days on 16 and 17 September.
The City of Stained Glass, housed in the 18th century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors since it reopened to the public in December after extensive renovations.
Its existence is testament to the public’s curiosity surrounding the art form of stained glass.
Curator and head of the museum, Anne-Claire Garbe, is keen to emphasise that although the traditionally religious craft dates back to the 4th century, it has evolved considerably to become a part of modern, secular art.
Troyes was a focal point in the world of stained glass for France and Europe thanks to its role as the capital of the former county of Champagne, Garbe told RFI. Its highly skilled artisans were commissioned by churches around the region.
Thanks to its interactive layout, visitors to the Cité du Vitrail can see close-up examples from the 12th century – such as the designs made for the Sens Cathedral circa 1500.
The displays show the lengthy process from design through to glass-making, colouring, cutting, painting and installation – an ode to the vast number of people involved in creating the finished piece.
Originally associated with churches, stained glass was used to capture light, inviting worshippers to gaze upwards to the heavens in contemplation.
Aside from the aesthetic aspect, it was one of the first examples of a comic strip – a religious story told through pictures. This gave context for much of the population who couldn’t read.
While the Gothic Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century were considered golden ages for stained glass, modernist painters and artists have since picked it up.
While the techniques have remained largely the same, the emergence of computers and industrial machines has innovated the design process, as can be seen the Millennium Stained Glass panels by Véronique Ellena for the Strasbourg cathedral in 2015.
The museum’s main gallery space is located in what used to be the room for sick patients of the hospice, established in the 12th century by Henri 1er Comte de Champagne.
Thanks to its high ceilings and generous windows, “it was the perfect choice of place to exhibit large stained-glass pieces and benefit from the natural light”, Garbe says.
Among the more traditional motifs and designs are several that one might not associate with stained glass at all.
One of them is a prototype made by the American artist Robert Morris in collaboration with Studio Duchemin in Paris.
His circular piece was designed for the windows of the Maguelone Cathedral in the south of France, built on a strip of land completely surrounded by water.
To meet the artist’s desire to recreate the effect of moving water, the glass-maker came up with a technique that warps the glass using heat, therefore leaving noticeable ripples.
Glass has fascinating properties that encourage experimentation.
Transforming, recycling materials and exploring their potential is something Paris-based artist Tal Waldman does in the fields of architecture, painting, drawing, ceramics and cloth.
She has been experimenting with glass in her work for a number of years. Some of her 3D stained-glass sculptures were on display during an exhibition at the Cité du Vitrail earlier this year.
Describing glass as a “noble and magnificent” medium, Waldman says her fascination with it goes back to her adolescence, when she visited an archaeological dig. There she discovered a fragment of a glass vial containing powder for a woman’s make-up kit.
“I was very touched, it was like receiving a message from a woman just like me but two thousand years ago,” she told RFI.
“It’s like a game, where I’m constantly weaving ideas together. That’s how I ended up working with glass and I hope to keep doing it.”
The Cité du Vitrail is participating for the first time in the European Heritage Days on 16 and 17 September 2023.
