The Mentor · Stained Glass · Page 2

windows were made for the expression of personal delight, and as a contribution to the adornment of public buildings.
One of the merits most remarkable and excellent in the cathedral windows of the thirteenth century is seen in the harmony existing between them and the buildings they were made to decorate. The glass worker did not try to create an individual work complete in itself, but rather, under the direction of the master of the whole, to unite his work with that of the sculptor in the ornamentation of the monument. Not only by a well chosen and harmonious color distribution did he illuminate the interior of the church with a mysterious and splendid light giving charm to the severe grandeur of the architecture, but he, like the sculptor, aimed to present the fundamental truths of religion.
The stained-glass window picture of the thirteenth century stood in the position of instructor to the people. The window, like the cathedral

After a color sketch by Ida J. Burgess
"THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN"
In the Duomo (Cathedral), Florence, Italy.
Designed by Donatello, executed by
Francesco del Boni, 1442

it was made for, did not appeal to one class more than to another. The subject represented was understood by the intelligent and explained to the ignorant; its history and symbolism were perfectly understood and talked over among the people, as the current news of the press is discussed today.
Everything that was deemed of real importance to humanity in the thirteenth century was pictured in stone or glass. The Cathedral of Chartres (shartr) remains to this day a visible expression of the mind of the thirteenth century. The most ancient windows still existing