Traditional & Modern

Dalle-de-verre has many striking qualities. Namely, its design and pattern are impressively visible from both the interior and the exterior of the Church depending on the time of day. The visual aesthetic of dalle-de-verre aligns the technique to traditional mosaic glass by its form, mass and scale. Indeed, Historian John Gilbert Lloyd postulated that the development of dalle-de-verre could have arisen from the ancient mosaic-like window designs of the early Byzantines, who set thick coloured glass into their windows.^[i] Similarly, dalle relies upon blocks of colours to define the forms since the glass cannot be painted to add details, which means that designs in dalle must be kept bold and simplistic. The chunky mosaics and dalle-de-verre also have a spectacularly similar translucency. During the day, Our Lady’s interior is impressively illuminated by bright light. Whereas, at night-time the lighting is reversed, with the glowing glass uniquely visible from the outside, rather than the inside. Concrete creates distinctively negative areas that separate the pieces of glass, which are usually more prominent and varied in dalle-de-verre, whereas in traditional stained glass windows normally consist of a thin lead came.^[ii]

It is significant that Norris chose to use the new dalle-de-verre method over traditional stained glass as the technique created exciting opportunities in execution, and in viewing experience, enabled by the twentieth century architectural revolution and technological innovations in materials and methods, which opened up new possibilities for stained glass,^[iii] and from the beginning was linked with experimentation. The new material of concrete was cast in concrete moulds in panels, and was accompanied by the incorporation of thick sheet glass directly into the building, serving as supporting structural and architectural elements.^[iv] This is the greatest technical advantage of dalle-de-verre since it crucially enabled the integration between decoration and architecture. Dalle eliminated the stages of painting, firing, and glazing.^[v] Thus, as traditional stained-glass techniques were becoming prohibitively expensive, dalle was cheaper. Furthermore, dalle-de-verre was faster to create and the new technique offered exciting opportunities for original work more in keeping with modern building techniques.^[vi]

^[i] J Kebrle, SGAA Reference & Technical Manual: A Comprehensive Guide to Stained Glass (Lee’s Summit: The Stained-Glass Association of America, 1992), 195.

^[ii] The Association for the History of Glass Limited, “Glass News,” History of Glass November (2004) 13: para. 64, accessed Mar 3, 2020, http://www.historyofglass.org.uk/pdfs/glass_news/glassnews16.pdf.

^[iii] Xavier Barrel I Altet, and Andrés Gamboa, Stained Glass: Masterpieces of the Modern Era (Thames & Hudson, 2007), book jacket.

^[iv] Alexandra Jung, “Dalle de verre Windows of the Wirtschaftswunder period in Germany: their significance and their conservation,” (masters dissertation, University of York, 2011), 38.

^[v] Glass, “Glass News,” para. 73.

^[vi] Lillington Church, The Church of Our Lady, Lillington, Leamington Spa: A Magazine to

mark the Opening of the New Church (Leamington: Courier Press, 1963), 8.