Stained glass facts for kids

The amazing north rose window of Chartres Cathedral. It shows the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, surrounded by kings and prophets from the Bible.

Stained glass is a special type of glass that gets its color from tiny bits of metallic salts added when it's made. These colorful pieces of glass are then used to create stained glass windows. Imagine a puzzle where small, bright pieces of glass are carefully put together to form beautiful pictures or patterns. These glass pieces are held in place by thin strips of lead and supported by a strong frame.

Sometimes, artists also paint details onto the glass or use a yellow stain to make the designs even better. The term "stained glass" can also mean windows where colors are painted directly onto the glass and then heated in a kiln to make them permanent.

Stained glass is very common in Christian art, especially in churches, but it's also used for many other things. It's still popular today and is often called art glass. You might see it in fancy homes or big buildings.

How Glass Gets Its Colors

The different colors in stained glass come from adding specific metal salts:

Copper: This metal creates a deep, dark red glass.
Gold: Even a tiny amount (like 0.001%) of gold can make a beautiful ruby red glass.
Silver: Usually, silver nitrate is used to create colors ranging from red to yellow.
Cobalt: This gives glass a brilliant blue color.
Manganese dioxide: This makes glass green.
Iron(II) oxide: This creates a blue-green shade.
Chromium: This makes a dark green glass.

A modern art example by Theo van Doesburg from the De Stijl movement in the Netherlands (1917).
The Bald Eagle window at Dryden High School, USA. It's rare to see such active figures in stained glass.

Images for kids

The north rose window of the Chartres Cathedral in France, given by Blanche of Castile. It shows the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, surrounded by kings and prophets. Below is St Anne, Mary's mother, with four good leaders. The window includes the symbols of France and Castile.
An outside view of a stained glass window from the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk in Ostend, Belgium, built between 1899 and 1908.
A Renaissance roundel (a round panel) from 1510–20. It uses only black or brown paint and yellow-gold silver stain. It shows the local bishop-saint Lambrecht of Maastricht in a wide landscape.
Part of a German panel from 1444 showing the Visitation. It uses different colored glass, black paint, yellow silver stain, and green enamel. The plant patterns in the red sky were made by scratching away black paint before heating.
German glass from Nuremberg, around 1525, based on a drawing by Sebald Beham. Silver stain creates yellow and gold colors, and paint on the back of the blue sky makes the dark green of the cross.
A close-up from a 13th-century window in the Basilica of Saint-Quentin, showing how stained glass was made in the Middle Ages.
Swiss armorial glass from 1564, showing the Arms of Unterwalden. It has typical painted details, lots of silver stain, and ruby glass with a scraped white design.
A 13th-century window from Chartres, showing lots of blue glass with green and purple-brown, amber details, and red glass borders.
A 19th-century window by Lucien Begule, Lyon (1896), showing the range of colors found in both Medieval and Gothic Revival glass.
A 16th-century window by Arnold of Nijmegen, showing how painted glass and bright colors were combined in Renaissance windows.
A late 20th-century window by Ronald Whiting, Chapel Studios, at Tattershall Castle, UK, showing a range of graded colors.
A window by Tiffany, showing how multi-colored, opalized, and streaky glasses were developed and used in the late 19th century.
A window in the Art Nouveau style by Józef Mehoffer (1898-1899) at Fribourg Cathedral, showing a range of colors and contrasts.
A design (maquette) by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 19th-century English manufacturers.
The outside of a window at Sé Velha de Coimbra, Portugal, showing a modern steel frame.
The Thomas Becket window from Canterbury, showing the colored glass, lead strips, modern steel rods, and copper wire attachments.
Skilled glass cutting and leading in a 19th-century window at Meaux Cathedral, France.
A close-up from a 19th or 20th-century window in Eyneburg, Belgium, showing detailed painting of a face with many colors.
A perfume flask made of glass from 100 BC to 200 AD.
An alabaster window in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy.
Many stained glass windows at the Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque in Shiraz, Iran, with light shining through them.
Stained glass in Dowlat Abad Garden at Yazd, Iran.
This window from a mosque in Jerusalem has very detailed text.
A close-up of a 13th-century window from Chartres Cathedral.
Charlemagne from a Romanesque window in Strasbourg Cathedral.
The Crucifixion window of Poitiers Cathedral.
A Late Gothic Tree of Jesse window from Evreux Cathedral.
The South Transept windows from Chartres Cathedral.
King David from Augsburg Cathedral, early 12th century. This is one of the oldest examples still in its original place.
Crucifixion with Ss Catherine, George and Margaret, Leechkirche, Graz, Austria.
The Crucifixion and Virgin and Child in Majesty, Cologne Cathedral, (1340).
Ulm Munster, The Last Judgement by Hans Acker (1430).
The windows of the choir of Cologne Cathedral, (early 14th century).
A close-up of a Tree of Jesse from York Minster (around 1170), the oldest stained-glass window in England.
The Poor Man's Bible Window from Canterbury Cathedral.
South Transept window at Canterbury Cathedral, 13th century.
The west window of York Minster (1338–39).
The Last Judgement, St Mary's Church, Fairford, (1500–17) by Barnard Flower.
Stained-glass windows in the Toledo Cathedral (14th to 17th century).
A close-up of Apostles John and Paul, by Hardman of Birmingham, 1861–67. This is typical of Hardman's elegant figures and pure colors. St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.
One of England's largest windows, the east window of Lincoln Cathedral, by Ward and Nixon (1855). It has a formal arrangement of small story scenes in round shapes.
By William Wailes. This window has bright pastel colors, lots of creative decorations, and typical gestures for windows from this company. St Mary's, Chilham.
By Clayton and Bell. A story window with elegant shapes and colors that are both bright and subtly mixed. Peterborough Cathedral.
South aisle east window of St. Mary Redcliffe Bristol by Clayton and Bell, 1861.
A close-up of a "Tree of Jesse" window in Reims Cathedral, designed in the 13th-century style by L. Steiheil and painted by Coffetier for Viollet-le-Duc, (1861).
St Louis administering Justice by Lobin in a painterly style. (19th century) Church of St Medard, Thouars.
A brightly-colored window at Cassagnes-Bégonhès, Aveyron.
West window from Saint-Urbain, Troyes, (around 1900).
One of five windows given to Cologne Cathedral by Ludwig II.
Ghent Cathedral, Belgium.
A window in the Late Gothic style at St Maurice's Church, Olomouc, Czech Republic, early 20th century.
David's charge to Solomon shows the strong lines and use of flashed glass that Burne-Jones' designs are known for. Trinity Church, Boston, US, (1882).
God the Creator by Stanisław Wyspiański. This window has no glass painting, relying only on lead lines and clever use of color and shade. Franciscan Church, Kraków (around 1900).
A window by Alfons Mucha at Saint Vitus Cathedral Prague. It has many images put together, creating an Expressionistic effect.
Art Nouveau style by Jacques Grüber, where the glass fits perfectly with the curving architecture around it, Musée de l'École de Nancy (1904).
Many of the unique types of glass invented by Tiffany are shown in this small panel, including "fracture-streamer glass" and "drapery glass".
John La Farge, The Angel of Help, North Easton, MA. It shows tiny panes of glass next to large areas of shiny, opaque glass.
Religion Enthroned, J&R Lamb Studios, designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb, around 1900. Brooklyn Museum. It has a balanced design, a limited color palette, and lots of mottled glass.
The Holy City by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1905). This 58-panel window has bright red, orange, and yellow etched glass for the sunrise, with textured glass to create the look of moving water.
A trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye) glass from around 1884, by Eugène Stanislas Oudinot, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, for the home of Henry Gurdon Marquand, New York City.
An Expressionist window by Marc Chagall, at All Saints' Church, Tudeley, Kent, UK.
Christ of the Eucharist designed by Dom Charles Norris from Buckfast Abbey, Devon, England, made with slab glass.
One of four 64-meter (210 ft) high stained glass panels at Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, Brazil.
Sergio de Castro, a close-up of the Jonah window for the Collegiate of Romont, Switzerland.
Postmodernist symbolism, Tree of Life at Christinae church, Alingsås, Sweden.
The abstract stained glass ceiling of the Victoria Quarter, Leeds (1990) by Brian Clarke, which covers the 400-foot length of the street to form a covered walkway.
Thin slices of agate set into lead and glass, Grossmünster, Zürich, Switzerland, by Sigmar Polke (2009).
Madonna and Child by Joseph Ehrismann, late 1910s. (Église Saint-André, Meistratzheim). It combines a traditional image with an Art Nouveau style background.
A mid-20th-century window showing old and 19th-century methods used for a modern historical subject. The Florence Nightingale window at St Peters, Derby, made for the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.
A design using lead lines and minimal glass paint in the 13th-century style, combined with the texture of Cathedral glass, Ins, Switzerland.
St Michael and the Devil at the church of St Michael Paternoster Row, by English artist John Hayward. It combines traditional methods with a unique use of shard-like glass pieces.
The amazing display of medieval glass at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.
Sunlight shining through stained glass onto a colorful carpet at Nasir ol Molk Mosque.
The stained glass windows and dome next to the Torah ark of the Holocaust Memorial Synagogue, Darmstadt, designed by artist Brian Clarke.
Inside the Blue Mosque, Istanbul.
Stained glass windows in the Mosque of Srinagar, Kashmir.
St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney has a series of 19th-century windows by Hardman of Birmingham.
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia.
Coventry Cathedral England, has many windows by different designers.
Late 20th-century stained glass from Temple Ohev Sholom, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by Ascalon Studios.
West Window, Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania).
Stained glass in the crypt Mausoleum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Los Angeles).
Chapel stained glass showing the Resurrection of Jesus, All Saints Cemetery Community Mausoleum, Des Plaines, Illinois.
Stained-glass window in the Benedum mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Shabaka (stained glass) at the Palace of Shaki Khans.
A sliding pantry door with stained glass installed in a suburban home.
Stained glass in the Town Hall, Liberec, Czech Republic.
Windows of the Hungarian Room, University of Pittsburgh.
The Federal Palace, Switzerland.
An abstract design by Marcelle Ferron at a Metro station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Windows by Mordecai Ardon at the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.

Stained glass facts for kids

How Glass Gets Its Colors

Images for kids

See also