In January 2008 we visited the church of Sant Genís de Torroella de Montgrí (Fig.1) at the request of Mn. Barcons, he and the parish council were concerned about the state of conservation of the stained glass windows.
The strong tramuntana storms of that winter had caused some parts of the glass to detach, some panels in several windows of the church had bent.
We found a complete set, probably executed in a short period of time and projected from the beginning as a group, which is not very common. Neither was it that it maintained the extreme simplicity of not containing any original element, nor religious symbolism, not even in the small lobed panels of the tracery.
The stained glass windows from the nave present few characteristics that would make them attributable to a workshop or even to an era, and the simplest thing would have been to despise them for the fact that they are so poor.
During the restoration work on three of the stained glass windows, it was possible to confirm the suspicions of the age of the stained glass windows based on the study of the materials used. The stained glass windows on the upper level are a complete set of stained glass windows from the 18th century. This is a period of decadence in this art, which began during the 16th century and lasted until the middle of the 19th century, of which we know few practical cases and this makes them rare and very interesting.
Description.
The stained glass windows are a set of 14 stained glass windows, each one divided by a mullion and with a small lobed soffit in the tracery. Of these, 13 stained glass windows are from the late 18th century and depict geometric patterns. The stained glass windows of the church are symmetrically distributed so that the pattern is repeated on both sides of the nave (Fig.2).
In the central window, the only modern one on this level, there is a stained glass window where in one of the lancets is drawn the Immaculate Conception and in another Pius X. This was a stained glass window donated by Bishop Cartañà, which is why the episcopal coat of arms appears in one of the lower parts. It was built in 1951 according to drawings by the city artist Joan Fuster when he was rector Mn. Josep Garrido. This rector installed the current protective glazing and removed the wall that protected the stained glass windows for many years.
On the western façade, above the choir, there is a large circular window with a geometric background with palms and a sword. These are the only figurative elements found (Fig.3,4). The color range of all antique stained glass windows is very similar.
In the lower levels of the central nave there are small openings with some painted stained glass windows of the twentieth century. Prior to the civil war these windows had been covered by the altarpieces of the chapels. Above the entrance gate on a level in between there is a window with two lancets where we find a modern glass made with silicon printed glass.
Brief historical data of the parish.
The parish church of Sant Genís is one of the most emblematic Gothic buildings in Baix Empordà due to its large dimensions and peculiar construction characteristics. The beginning of the construction of the temple dates back to the beginning of the 14th century. The construction progressed with many obstacles, due to successive misfortunes of the city and the nave was not completed until the end of the seventeenth century. It is not until the 18th century that the church receives the definitive push, it is surprising the amount of reforms that are made, in 1730 the deep chapel is reformed, in 1739 the chapel of Sant Francesc is reformed to turn it into a vestibule of the baroque chapels, the new sanctuary and the southern door are built (1735-1739) and the two towers are finished (1672-1808). We have not been able to find any specific reference to the stained glass windows in the existing bibliography, only that the current chancel of the church was built in 1609. Part of the documentation of the parish archives was dispersed during the civil war and only a few books are preserved in the archives of Gerona. In spite of this, from the typology of the glass and the study of the materials we can conclude that the stained glass windows were made during this last period of great construction activity.
Description of the materials of the stained glass windows of the parish.
We worked on the N.II and S.II stained glass windows (Fig. 5) during 2008 and on the NVII stained glass window during 2014. From the very beginning, we were struck by the unusual cut of the pieces and other characteristics typical of a period when craftsmanship was not very well mastered. The partitions did not seem to be made with the criterion of maximum resistance, but in some cases the pieces seemed to follow a drawing without having assessed the adequacy of the cuts to their function. Some of the patterns traced by the stained glass windows appear in the few manuals that were written during the period, which we will discuss later. The fittings are very thin plates with old, coarsely machined threads and nuts (fig.6). The lead used is of very thin paret extruded in low wheels, widely used in the 18th century ( fig.7). During the restoration work in the workshop we found that in general the execution of some details of the stained glass windows were typical of old stained glass, for example: the glasses were cut with diamond and the execution of the cuts was not always careful. Sometimes we found traces of glass on the edge of the cut that had not been removed. The lines in the geometric leadwork did not match and pieces that should be aligned were not aligned. Tin soldering on lead intersections is done with little skill and some panels are only soldered on one side. Tin is an expensive element and sometimes, in order to economize, leaded panels were soldered on one side only. The reinforcing rods that attach the panels to the frame are arranged in an unusual way with a radially arranged, forged and riveted framework.
The glass is manxon glass, almost without irregularities and very smooth. We found many restorations and repairs, including some panels completely replaced recently. Fortunately all the stained glass windows are protected externally by an old but still effective glazing, built by a 1.5 mm thick glass installed in a wooden frame. All stained glass windows are at a point in their conservation cycle when some action is required to clean them, consolidate them and even some more intensive actions.
One of the characteristics of the stained glass windows that made us doubt their origin was the presence of a white glass engraved in some parts. This is also a point that has been little studied. Hydrofluoric acid was discovered by the Swedish chemist Scheele in the second half of the 18th century. This is currently the main product for engraving glass, the presence of this glass may indicate that the windows are more recent, some researchers have found older engraved glass that were made from other materials until the glass could be engraved with aqua regia depending on the composition of these.
The stained glass windows of the eighteenth century in Catalonia.
The stained glass in the period between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth century goes through a period of decadence especially hard in contrast to the splendor of the Gothic stained glass and the strength with which this art is recovered in the late nineteenth century. Baroque stained glass does not play the role that medieval stained glass plays so well. It is not the perfect enclosure for the large windows that modifies the interior light of the temple. During the Baroque period most churches used clear stained glass windows with simple geometric patterns to make the altarpieces and paintings visible. Some art historians believe that the new technical possibilities of stained glass, especially the painting of glass with fired enamels led it to be practically a substitute for painting on canvas and that this fact made the traditional use of glass and lead was gradually lost. In Catalonia, wars and invasions of part of the territory were constant. It is not a phenomenon that happens with such crudeness in other countries, where despite the influence of the reform and changes in taste, glass continued to find its uses.
In Catalonia we have few examples of this period, all of them characterized by little or no figuration and very few painted elements, the best known in religious buildings are the stained glass windows of the abadesses of Santa Maria de Pedralbes, the stained glass windows of Santa Maria del Mar and those of the church of Pi in Barcelona. All of them the work of the two great glassmakers of that time; Saladrigues and Ravella. The former are little studied and were active at least between 1679 and 1785. It is known that they worked in the cathedrals of Barcelona and Gerona. The Ravella nisaga has recently been the subject of interesting studies. It is known that they collaborated with Hipòlit Campmajor and it seems that their business life continued under other names and lasted until the beginning of the 19th century.
The Ravella workshop consisted of two generations Josep Ravella y Ordoñes (1727-1806?), and the brothers Josep Francisco Ravella i Durán (1754-1789?) and Ramón Josep Ravella y Durán (1757-?). They worked in Santa María de Cervera, Santa María del Mar, Santa María de Pedralbes[1] and Santa María del Pi.
It is important to clarify that many of these works do not strictly correspond to orders to build new stained glass windows, but are contracts to redo small damaged windows and rebuild them.
The manuals that have been written in Spain about stained glass, in Catalonia we have no record of any, show the precariousness of this art during this time. For example: in the manual of the Extremadura Monastery of Guadalupe, dated 1647 “Brebe tratado de traçar las bedrieras y de que suerte se corta el vidrio” does not describe how to paint the glass, only how to dismantle the old stained glass and how to reuse the materials. It is by no means a manual for an artist but rather for a manual worker. In the 1718 treatise written by the painter Francisco Sánchez Martínez[2] and kept in the Cathedral of Toledo, a brief description of how to produce enamels and paints and how to apply them is described. In Segovia is preserved a manual of 1680 written by the painter Francisco Herranz, author of some stained glass windows of the cathedral, written with the aim that knowledge of this art was not lost. The most complete treatise is that of the Parisian Pierre le Vieil[3] of 1774, which partly includes the contents of previous documents and where the materials and methods are described in detail. This treatise shows drawings of exact patterns to some stained glass windows of Sant Genís (Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, Fig. 10). The plates and descriptions of the tools and materials are very similar to the plates that will be published almost simultaneously in Diderot and Dalambert’s encyclopedia.
The study of this period presents two great difficulties; the preserved works are very few and do not present clear stylistic differential traces, some stained glass of the twentieth century also adopt the same patterns by economy so that without the support of documentation it is difficult or impossible to attribute to one or another workshop the authorship of a work and broadly inscribe it to a period.
We have evidence of other works from the bishopric of Gerona that could be attributable to this period, for example a stained glass window from a private chapel that is currently in a private collection. It presents many similarities with the description of the materials we have made and even the plate glass is diamond engraved. One of the stained glass windows of the southwest facade of the Basilica of Sant Feliu in Girona has a partition and a color palette similar to some of the stained glass windows of Torroella.
It is probably because of their small number and discreet appearance that the stained glass windows of this period have so often been despised and even destroyed. It is time to defend them as a testimony of a time and a rare and unique period of this art.
We would like to thank Mr. Barcons and Sr. Riera’s help in writing this article. To Messrs. Batallé and Aleman and their work in the restoration of the stained glass windows.
