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From: Edward Dehors <edehors@twcny.rr.com>
List Editor: Betty MacDowell <macdowe3@MSU.EDU>
Editor's Subject: Marc Chagall in Glass
Author's Subject: Marc Chagall in Glass
Date Written: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:26:31 -0500
Date Posted: Sat, 20 Nov 2009 09:56:05 -0500

Bravo Roy;

Stained glass designing has a few 'starter rules' that are alien to a
canvas painter. The design must first be laid-out to exact scale and
the FIRST thing to go into that open space is the T-bars and the
saddle bars - now everything is drawn AROUND these obstacles. The
T-bars separate the 'design' into a max of 9 sq. ft. per leaded glass
panel and the saddle bars provide the lateral support from the wind.
This is the STARTING POINT which we all have to live by in our trade
when designing a new window, as our 'art' must also conform to
structural 'norms' laid out about 1,000 years ago and canvas has no
'limits'.

As to the Marc Chagall windows I've only seen the ones in Pocantico
Hills, NY. The church charges 5.00 to go in and see these windows,
which I personally found about 4.50 TOO MUCH. The windows were
interesting in a unique way, but it was obvious that a learned
designer put in the 'structural needs' during the cartoon stage;
which obviously was long before Mr. Chagall was given a palette of
Reusche's Best Black and a few tracers. The photos I saw showed Mr.
Chagall painting the wax-up sections on plate glass easels, but no
photos of him in the cartoon stage. Can anyone answer a simple
question ? Could Mr. Chagall have painted just ONE real face instead
of the scribble he passed-off as faces on these windows ??

Also; the most interesting factor of these windows is the Bronze
'rod-type-fasteners' used to hold the exterior coverings over these
windows. They were mounted into the stone and held the protective
exterior plate glass 'AWAY' from the stone ALLOWING AIR TO CIRCULATE
around the window. Does anyone know where this hardware was purchased
???

Ed Dehors
Historical Restorations Foundation
HistoricalRestorations.org
HistoricalRestorations.com

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