Western Europe, Northern France in particular, that sculptural narrative reached great heights in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, decorating, in particular, the great West Fronts of the cathedrals, the style spreading from there to other countries of Europe. In England, figurative architectural decoration most frequently was located in vast screens of niches across the West Front. Unfortunately, like the frescoes and windows, they were decimated in the Reformation. Stained glass Stained glass windows are created by cutting pieces of coloured glass to match a drawn template and setting them into place in a mesh of lead cames and supporting the whole with rigid metal bars. Details such as facial features can be painted on the surface of the glass, and stains of bright yellow applied to enliven white areas. The effect is to add an appearance of brilliance and richness to a church interior, while the media lends itself to narratives. If the lead is properly maintained, stained glass is extremely durable and many windows have been in place for centuries. In Italy, during the Byzantine period, windows were often filled with thin slices of alabaster, which although not figurative, gave a brightly patterned effect when sunlight was transmitted through them. There is a rare example of alabaster being used for a figurative subject in the Dove of the Holy Spirit, in the chancel of St Peter's in Rome. The earliest known figurative stained glass panel is a small head of Christ (with many fragments missing) found in a ditch near the royal abbey of Lorsch-an-der-Bergstrasse and thought to date from the 9th century. Although a few panels dating from the 10th and 11th centuries exist in museums, the earliest known that are in situ are four panels of King David and three prophets at Augsburg Cathedral in Germany dating from about 1100. Stained Glass windows were a major art form in the cathedrals and churches of France, Spain, England and Germany. Although not as numerous, there are also some fine windows in Italy, notably the rose window by Duccio in Siena Cathedral and those at the base of the dome in Florence Cathedral, which were designed by the most famous Florentine artists of the early 15th century including Donatello, Paolo Uccello and Lorenzo Ghiberti. With the Gothic Revival of the 19th century, stained glass returned as a major Christian art form in churches across the world. Panel painting Panel