Restoring and conserving stained-glass windows.(Design notes)(Femenella and Associates)

In the Middle Ages noblemen, church dignitaries, and craft guilds all commissioned artisans to create stained-glass windows for churches. Then for more than two hundred years this medieval art form was neglected until it was revived in England in the mid-nineteenth century by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852), whose designs included stained-glass windows for the House of Lords. By the 1870s and 1880s stained-glass windows had become almost an essential design component in American churches, academic institutions, public buildings, and many private houses. Many of these newly constructed public and private structures featured windows created by John La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, who replaced traditional flat, color-filled glass with textured opalescent glass, an innovation begun by La Farge.

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While stained-glass windows enhance a building, they can deteriorate over time because of the corrosive effects of weather and pollution. In order to restore the exquisite beauty and grace of stained-glass windows, it is necessary to hire a professional who is experienced in restoration and conservation. Arthur J. Femenella is such a professional with more than thirty-seven years of hands-on experience restoring windows by American and European stained-glass makers. While studying for a degree in physics, Femenella worked as an apprentice at the Greenland Studio in New York City. He left school and eventually became co-owner of Greenland, where he remained until he established Femenella and Associates in 1993. The firm offers a range of stained-glass window services that include consulting; bid and construction management; designing, mounting and dismounting for exhibitions; creating new windows; coordinating and presenting one to two week seminars teaching restoration techniques; and ...