It is supposed that the earlier Flemish artists were the creators of grisaille painting, although that beautiful mode of pictorial illustration is first found in French books of the middle of the fourteenth century.
In the latter part of the fifteenth century, pure grisaillewas extended into camaieu; that is, the monochrome might be any other colour than grey, so long as it was used in the same manner.
Grisaille painting originated evidently from the suggestions of carved stone-work in cathedral-decoration.
Plate 14 is an example of French grisaille in its earlier stage.
Over door the Muses painted in grisaille by Sauvage.
Round the wall grisaille paintings of cupids, admirable imitations of relief, by Sauvage.
According to Viollet-le-Duc, the grisaille in this position regulates the light and so completes the effect.
Opposite Saint Peter, at Christ's right hand, is the window of Saint Simon and Saint Jude; and next is the grisaille with the arms of Castile.
The Lady Blanche's grisaille veils the rather strong blue tone nicely, and I am confident it will suit you.
Many of our churches retain grisaille windows filling either all, or only a part, of their bays.
Supersession of Other Forms of Grisailleby Regular Quarries.
Before leaving the Early Period I must touch upon another of its developments, namely, the grisaille window.
It is not, however, till the very end of the thirteenth century, and then only rarely, that coloured figures and grisaille were combined in the same light as shown in the example from Poitiers in Plate XV.
Chartres has four or five grisaille windows, of the middle of the century or a little earlier, in the apsidal chapels.
The finest grisaille windows in England or, for that matter, in the world, are the five immense lancets which fill the end of the north transept of York Minster and are known as "the Five Sisters.
As in all early fourteenth century work, the sections divided by the heavy frame-bars are taken as the units of the design, the coloured panels with their canopies each occupying two sections and the grisaille panels one each.
The same tendency that caused the artist to substitute mosaic diaper for the scroll work in the setting of his medallions in coloured windows led him in time to fill large spaces of his grisaille windows with painted "quarries.
Within the roomy interior are examples not only of thirteenth century medallion glass, but also some of the best types of English grisaille of that period.
In these lancets are found some Early English glass--broad borders of grisaille enframing the rich-toned medallions within.
These are filled with grisaille bordered in colour, while across them, about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom, is drawn a band of strongly hued canopied figures.
Occasionally grisaille will be found pleasantly combined with small coloured scenes, as at Dorchester and in Merton Chapel, Oxford, but even then it seems much like a local survival of the thirteenth century tradition.
It must be noticed, however, that these canopies, generally drawn to a small scale, do not attempt alone to fill the embrasures, and either are shown in bands across a ground of grisailleor occur alone surrounded by grisaille.
Along the lower side of the east wall of the north wing are seven narrow lancets filled with dainty grisaille quarries, bordered in faint colour and bearing a brightly toned boss.
Grisaille was plentifully used, and Salisbury was famous for it.
Below it there extends a row of five pointed lancets containing very light toned grisaillewhich almost entirely lacks the usual touches of colour.
Modern grisaille has replaced its ancient prototype, which, in accordance with the conventions, surrounded these early canopies to increase the light-admitting power of the embrasures.
Grisaille is not limited to Netherlandish illuminations.
In the more usual case of painted grisaille the lead lines still formed the groundwork of the design, though supplemented by foliated or other detail, boldly outlined in strong brown and emphasized by a background of cross-hatching.
The use of grisaille is sufficiently accounted for by considerations of economy and the desire to get light; but it was also in some sort a protest (witness the Cistercian interdict of 1134) against undue indulgence in the luxury of colour.
Now for the first time grisailleornament and coloured figurework were introduced into the same window.
It is no uncommon thing to find figures draped entirely in white with only a little colour in the background; and figurework all in grisaille upon a ground of white latticework is quite characteristic of Perpendicular glass.
The old painters felt this when they diapered their quarry-glazing and did such grisaille work as the "Five Sisters" window at York.
Four of them contain groups under canopies, with a background of grisaille and a wide border.
Owing to the lights being narrower in the fifth the border is omitted, and in the sixth the grisaille work is also omitted.
It was usual to paint the outer wings in grisaille or in low tones of colour, so that the splendour of the interior hues might burst upon the spectator as the triptych was opened.
On the same wall are a good triptych in grisaille by P.
Here are a series of frescoes painted in grisaille by Andrea del Sarto and his partner, Francia Bigio, representing scenes from the life of the Precursor, with allegorical figures of the Virtues.
Here is a most dainty little example of Fra Bartolommeo's work on a small scale (1161), representing the Circumcision and the Nativity, with the Annunciation in grisaille on the back.
In this lower tier there has been no attempt to introduce figures, the glazier having contented himself with surrounding his grisaille by decorated borders.
So, too, the clerestory is all grisaille except for an occasional panel in colour.
Broad coloured borders are also found around the clerestory, but there each enclosed surface of grisaille has to rely for its adornment upon five round blue bosses surcharged with golden sunbursts.
Plain grisaille was not rich enough to be used in a fine private house.
The clerestory lights of the choir are filled with attractive examples of grisaille enlivened by large geometric figures in points of red, blue, etc.
It is inevitable that this sandwiching of strips of colour between others of grisaille should reduce the value of the tints and dull their glow.
In several instances the coloured figure or panel has two borders, the one next it being of grisaille and the outside one of rich colour.
In the ambulatory chapels on the north side of the choir, there are two complete windows of this period, both of them grisaille with gay heraldic devices and coloured borders.
The proportion of glass surface to wall space is here so great that if the grisaille had not been warmed by touches of colour, there would really have been a glare, though the embrasures contain no white glass.
And indeed it is in windows into which grisaille enters that this band-wise distribution of design is most apparent, and most typical.
The Germans treated grisaille in a way very much their own.
At first the character of fourteenth century grisaille did not greatly differ from earlier work, except in the form of the painted detail.
For good thirteenth century grisaille in any considerable quantity one must go to Salisbury, where, fortunately, the aisle windows are near enough to the eye to show the very characteristic patterns of the glass.
The grisaillein the clerestory at Bourges is similar to the Salisbury work, but it is not possible to get near enough to it to make careful comparison.
The distinguishing characteristics of Decorated grisaille are fully described in the chapter dealing with it.
A grisaille window at Evreux, with practically blue tracery, has a very pleasant effect.
The grisaille at Troyes, by the way, often reminds one of that at York Minster.
A most characteristic thing in glass of this intermediate period was the way in which colour and grisaillewere associated.
The grisailleglass seen in the interior is unusual, but mediocre in the extreme.
In the choir's clearstory are the single figures and grisaille that were in vogue during the next century.
Some of the grisaille in St. Étienne came from the Jacobins.
Because the pearly white surfaces of the grisaille would make the adjacent colored surfaces appear heavy and opaque, they introduced, into these latter, limpid blues and yellows, very light reds, whites with a greenish or rosy tint.
The opaline loveliness of the choir's clearstory grisaille has drawn from M.
As there is color in them, it is inexact to call such windows grisaille, but the subdued note of grisaille glass predominates.
Foliate designs cover thegrisaille lights of the triforium.
So loath were the vitrine artists to give up an architectural design in glass that when the XV century composed scenes instead of single figures for each panel, even those small groups were set in grisaille frames.
There is much grisaille glass in St. Pierre; each window of the nave is divided perpendicularly into three panels--a colored one in the center and grisailles on either side.
In the high windows of the cathedral of Auxerre they first tried this method, and here the grisaille is chased with a large and firm design that offsets the transparency of the colorless surfaces.
In each panel was a single figure in an architectural setting of grisaille and silver-stain, which frames grew so elaborate, by the middle of the century, that perspective was represented.
Notice how the pedestal and the canopy, both very light, bind together the bands of grisaille on either side, while the latter is heavily painted with a trellis and rich ornaments.
No grisaille is more exquisitely decorated with natural foliage outlines; set in the expanses of the opal-tinted white glass are colored medallions of extreme beauty.
In Auxerre, the grisaille is found only in the lateral windows which are seen obliquely.
Unfortunately, the lower panels were wrecked in 1567, and the east window of the axis chapel was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian war; the grisaille design throughout is mastery.
No towers adorned Pontigny, and stained glass was eschewed, but the leaded design of the grisaille windows is so lovely that, as M.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "grisaille" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
