Rose Windows

by Painton Cowen

Focuses on the symbolic import of the rose windows and the Gothic cathedrals housing them, discussing their role as monuments of faith created in a time of plague and famine

Genres: Architecture, Art, Nonfiction, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Sula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Due to its necessary reliance on photographs this has unsurprisingly dated, and the quality of the photographs leaves a lot to be desired, although most are at least in colour. I'm sure at the time it was special! On the whole the text was a bit hippie for me, with sentences such as '...the windows posses the power to bring about a change in thinking, to break down the habitual patterns that govern everyday consciousness. They can open the mind to a new reality, and this is often accompanied by a profound inner peace and reconciliation with oneself'. I did like the short section about the production of glass though, and learning about the technique of flashing: building up thin layers of glass for colour, often used for colours that would be too dark at a normal thickness.