ETERNAL GLASS
Stained glass is a weird media for pictorial art. It is the non-reversible combination of the unlimited endurance of glass with fused-on coloring compounds, making it the oldest branch of Art that needs shine-through light.
Stained glass does not require maintenance nor restoration for as long as it is properly handled and displayed. Glass objects from Mesopotamia, Egyptian, and other early Civilizations still look exactly as they did when they were crafted thousands of years ago. Paintings, on the other hand, inevitable require cleaning, touch up and/or restoration work (about every 150 to 200 years). Even though the restoration of paintings is nowadays performed with all that science can provide to minimize damage to any part of the original, it is unavoidable to have some loss from the original.
Not so with stained glass. It preserves its color, luster and integrity without maintenance for the glass itself. But...
Gravity is the inescapable factor that effects stained glass through time. The lead-strips (known as came) will stretch under the static load of the window’s own weight. Large windows, like in churches, when showing heavy sagging by gravity, need to be taken out and re-leaded. As mentioned, the glass itself is ageless and when re-worked the window is as good as OLD.
Katrain will continue to preserve its brightness, uniqueness and beauty for many centuries to come.
The glass vase below looks pretty new but is only 3500 years old!
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