Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 4. (Székelyudvarhely, 2004)
Mester Éva: A Kárpát-medence üvegfesztészete. II. Az üvegfestmények és díszműüvegezések jellemző károsodásai
Éva MESTER Glass painting in the Carpathian Basin II Characteristic deteriorations of glass paintings and glass fittings Architectural glass has changed countless times during the more than one thousand years that have passed since the production of the first colourless glass pane. The actual social demands, the economic possibilities and the geographical setting led to the birth of coloured glass windows, which functioned as organic parts of buildings. The gothic the flourishing period of glass painting served as an example to the use of materials and the applied technique in the age of historicism. The wars that devastated Europe demolished not only the churches, the palaces and the notable buildings of the Romanesque, the Gothic and the Renaissance periods that were significant on a European level as well. They also destroyed the glass paintings and the coloured glass windows of which we know from literary sources and archaeological finds. 1850-1930 was the period of the renaissance, the flourishing of glass painting in the Carpathian Basin. The preserved rich and varied material was the product of a number of glass painter workshops. Beside the individual features, they show interaction with each other and the European workshops. The character and degree of deteriorations depend on the applied raw materials (glass pane, paints, lead rails, etc.) and the technology of production. The drastic changes of the environmental factors, air pollution and the change of the climate, wilful injuries and treasure hunters, repeatedly missed conservation and preservation, interventions carried out with inappropriate care and knowledge, the modified function of the buildings etc. all are interlinked and together they can cause irreversible damages. The diverse deteriorations of the glass windows created in the last one and a half centuries set new tasks to restorers. New methods and new agents must be used for the sake of a successful conservation, restoration and reconstruction, the effectiveness of which can be increased by international co-operation. Owing to the different materials, the applied technologies and other circumstances the restoration of these windows is drastically different from that of medieval glass windows. The general protection of the coloured glass panes of the turn of the century goes back to only 15 years in the international practice as well. More and more specialists are aware that a similar protection must be secured to the glass windows of this period as to the medieval glass paintings. Eva Mester Glass designer MA Engineer of historic monuments 94
