Many stained glass windows feature figurative work.
Stained glass appeared in windows in churches and cathedrals in many major European cities as early as 1200 A.D. The United States was not known for stained glass windows until Louis Comfort Tiffany began creating new techniques for deep rich-colored glass, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of Tiffany's stained glass windows can still be seen around New York City.
Landscape Windows
Landscape windows are made mostly for homes and industry. These windows often exhibit secular motifs such as nature and woodland themes, and have the same effect as landscape paintings. Bringing nature into the home lets in light and beauty while blocking out the unpleasant views of city life.
One well-known example of a landscape stained glass window is Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Autumn Landscape, according to Picturing America. This window was originally created for Loren Delbert Towle, a real estate magnate, for his Boston mansion; it now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In the construction of this window, Tiffany used all the glass techniques that he had invented, including mottled glass, confetti glass, marbleized glass, rippled glass and a layering method called plating. The mood of the window changes as the natural light's intensity changes throughout the day and throughout the year.
Figurative Windows
Figurative windows show people, usually saints or other religious personages and icons. Traditionally, faces, hands and feet were painted on the surface of the glass; these windows may appear to fade over time, as the paint flakes off. During the 1960s and 1970s, the modern artist Marc Chagall revolutionized the art of stained glass with impressionist displays of color, design and form in his religious figurative work.
Floral Windows
Floral stained glass windows have intricate depictions of flowers, such as irises and roses. Tiffany perfected the process of using copper foil to simulate the natural lines of foliage and flowers. Today, floral windows are popular in memorials.
Ornamental Windows
Ornamental windows are the smaller stained glass windows used to decorate sanctuaries and other small rooms in churches, homes and offices. The Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in East Aurora, New York, has two small Tiffany ornamental windows near the entrance of its sanctuary. The first window features a font (symbolizing baptism) with the words "Faith" and "Sacrifice," while the second has a torch and wreath and the phrases "Peace and Life" and "Victory over Death."
Many ornamental windows throughout the centuries have been mosaics, composed of small fragments of colored glass arranged in interesting patterns and designs.
Medieval Windows
Many religious stained glass windows constructed in medieval times were called rose windows, not because they resembled the flower but because of their shape and a reference to Christ.
The rose window, a round French Gothic window built into the west facade of many 12th-century churches and cathedrals, began as a Roman "oculus," a small round opening in a Roman wall. This window grew until by the end of the 12th century, it often covered one entire wall of a nave. According to a monk named Theophilus Presbyter, who wrote a book in the 12th century about creating stained glass, much Gothic rose window stained glass, especially shades of purple, blue and green, was made from colored glass mosaics and vessels taken from ancient "pagan" buildings and melted down into sheets of glass.
