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| The stained glass gallery represented a respect for tradition and continuity with the past, combined with a celebration of manufacturing improvements made possible by industrialization. One official pamphlet explained the differences as such: "The great difference between the painted glass of the present day and that produced four hundred years ago, appears to be that the former requires a close inspection before its real beauties are ascertained, every part taken singly being beautiful in itself, but the effect of the whole not being such as this examination would lead you to anticipate; while the latter, notwithstanding its great imperfections and quaintness of design, invariable succeeds in expressing the action and the sentiment of the subject it represents." (Gibbs-Smith, 77.) |