Glass painting technique

Waterperry, Oxfordshire - Margaret FitzEllis and daughter.

Waterperry is on the eastern border of Oxfordshire, where it adjoins Buckinghamshire. The beautiful church has a lot of interest in it, some good monuments and a lot of medieval stained glass. Among the glass is the exquisite panel of a kneeling donor Margaret FitzEllis and her daughter, it dates from c. 1470. The detail in this image is sublime. Margaret wears a type of fashionable headdress called a 'butterfly' headdress. This sort of headress enclosed the sides of the head with fabric or buckrum and was overlaid with a veil of fine linen gauze. Notice that to give an effect of the gauze veil laying over the buckram the glazier has painted part of the decoration of the buckram on the inner and part on the outer surface of the glass. You will also see that the front of the headdress has a black band decorated with delicate foliage, to achieve the decoration the glazier has moved a fine point through a matt black wash. It's worth zooming into the photo on Flickr to get a closer look at this.

Oh and Mr FitzEllis does get a look in to. The donor image of Robert FitzEllis is in the next light: