The splendour of France’s medieval and Renaissance stained glass represented one of the highest achievements of Christian art, a perfect union of architecture, theology, and craft. Yet this centuries-old tradition was almost extinguished by the political and spiritual upheavals of the Revolution. What had once embodied the harmony of faith and monarchy was recast as a symbol of the ancien régime; thousands of windows were broken, removed, or dispersed, and the art of the glassmaker all but vanished.

For nearly half a century, the cathedrals of France stood as silent shells of stone and lightless openings, until the 19th century witnessed a conscious act of cultural resurrection. Scholars, architects, and artists, animated by Romantic idealism and Gothic archaeology, sought not only to restore the fabric of the churches but to reclaim the language of light itself. From this rediscovery arose a new tradition, one that would reimagine stained glass for a modern age while preserving the spiritual continuity of the medieval craft.