ACTIVITY
Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos makes stained glass for architectural applications in walls, ceilings or domes as well as free-standing panels and sculptures. This involves the use of a great range of techniques and materials, including came (leaded) glass, fusing, acid-etched or sandblasted glass, or glass… painted with grisailles, enamels, silver yellows and copper reds.
They also undertake complex restoration work on historic stained glass using traditional procedures and technologies while also incorporating the latest techniques, treating the craft of stained glass as one more artistic discipline. Accordingly their creative work requires a thorough knowledge of art history as well as a proficiency in drawing and painting and in various craft processes, such as metalwork or glaziery.
As to the process of glassmaking, depending on the nature of each project, they use various materials and procedures, though their working methods generally follow the same pattern.
All of their projects follow a rigorous process starting with initial data-gathering and historical and documentary research from various angles. The next stage is to produce scale drawings to determine visual and aesthetic aspects, the distribution of thicknesses and the colour palettes.
Once a proposal has been accepted, they make charcoal cartoons on a scale of 1:1 defining the thicknesses in actual size along with the colourings and the mechanical structure. Then a cutting cartoon is made, defining just the thicknesses and the glass to be used. With this cartoon the glass is selected and the various thicknesses cut. The cut pieces are painted with grisailles, enamels and silver stains and fired in a muffle furnace if required. This process may involve as many as six different firings for each thickness.
Once the painting process is over, the panels are fitted into strips of lead came and cemented. Finally, various metal reinforcements are formed with curved calibrated rods following the design and fastened to the glass with soldered bronze brackets or other devices to enhance strength, and the whole is fitted into its final position.
TRAINING
Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos, SL is made up of a second generation of glass-stainers. Carlos Muñoz de Pablos was trained as a stained-glass painter in the workshops of the former Casa Maumejean in Madrid. After completing his studies at the Madrid School of Art he… began as a glass-stainer in a workshop which he set up in Segovia in the mid-sixties. In the late nineties, when his sons Alfonso and Pablo completed their fine-art degrees in Madrid, they founded Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos, a partnership devoted to the restoration and creation of stained glass.
TEACHING
Both Carlos Muñoz de Pablos and Alfonso and Pablo Muñoz have given classes in the MA courses on “Heritage restoration and refurbishment” held in recent years by the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid province). They have also been teachers in international cultural heritage restoration… courses at the royal site of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia province).
SELECTED WORK
Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos have worked in buildings all over Spain, including Segovia Cathedral, Ávila Cathedral, the Bank of Spain, the chapel of the Niño Jesús Hospital, or the Congress of Deputies and Senate buildings, all in Madrid, as well as at the Church of… San Pietro in Montorio (Rome). They have also worked in many churches and other buildings across various regions.
They have also fitted newly created stained glass in Colón Cathedral (Panama) and in the Church of La Merced in Panama City.
