News

 

Exhibition of German Glass: Die Staufer und Italien

 

Important examples of thirteenth-century stained glass produced during the reign of the Staufer dynasty of German kings (1138 to 1254) are on show in the Die Staufer und Italien exhibition at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim (southwest Germany) until 20 February 2011.

Dr Uwe Gast of the CVMA (Freiburg) writes:

The exhibition includes seven stained glass exhibits. They include two ornamental panels from the former Benedictine abbey at Lorsch, c.1260–5 and 1250–1300; a heraldic panel with an eagle on a red ground, normally identified as the coat of arms of the Frankfurt mayor Ludolf from Praunheim-Sachsenhausen (c.1230–5), but more likely to be the coat of arms of count Gottfried of Arnsberg in Westphalia (died 1279) [Fig. 1]; and a roundel depicting the Flight into Egypt, perhaps from the church of the Benedictine abbey Neuweiler (Alsace), c.1260–70. [Fig. 2] The latter is stylistically connected with two other panels in the exhibition from the former collegiate church of St Peter in Wimpfen, c.1270–80. One shows the crucifixion of the apostle Peter; the other, very delightful, shows Mary and the little boy Jesus (with a book and a slate in his hands), who does not want to go to school. The final item is a fragment of an ornamental border of an unknown panel.

All the glass is described in greater detail in the excellent accompanying catalogue, published as a two-volume set with the second book consisting of essays. Catalogue and Essays: Die Staufer und Italien, has around 800 pages with approx. 1,000 (mostly colour) illustrations. Until 31 March 2011 there is a special introductory price of €59.90 [D]/SFR 96.90, thereafter the cost rises to €69.90 [D]/SFR 115.00. Copies can be ordered from the exhibition website

Sixteenth-century Stained Glass Exhibition in Basel: Thurneysser Superstar Ein einzigartiger Glasmalereizyklus von 1579

 

A fascinating exhibition of stained glass windows painted in 1579 by the brilliant Zürich based artist, Christoph Murer (1558–1614), has opened at the Kunstmuseum in Basel.

The windows were made for Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596), a remarkable sixteenth-century Swiss entrepreneur who became hugely wealthy after becoming personal physician to the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin.

Thurneysser commissioned Murer to create a unique cycle of stained glass windows for his home in Basel. The cycle glorified Thurneysser’s life in a manner generally reserved for saints and princes and provoked strong criticisms in some quarters. Two windows and a fragment of a third have survived, together with three preliminary drawings. [Fig. 1]

Visitors to the exhibition may also see a special selection of designs for stained glass windows by artists like Holbein and Murer in the adjacent Department of Prints and Drawings.

The Thurneysser Superstar: Ein einzigartiger Glasmalereizyklus von 1579 exhibition will run until 13 February 2011.

The curator of the exhibition is Dr Bodo Brinkmann.

For more information see the Kunstmuseum website.

Virtues and Vices Exhibition in Philadelphia

 

Designs by some of the Netherlandish artists whose work was often copied by sixteenth-century glass painters are on show at a new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA) until 28 February 2011.

Focusing on designs made between 1550 and 1600 in Antwerp and Haarlem, Virtues and Vices: Moralising prints in the Low Countries, 1550–1600 includes seventy engravings from the Museum’s own collection and demonstrates the variety of moralising prints created by leading artists of the Low Countries during a period of significant political and religious change.

For more information see the Philadelphia Museum of Art website.

Brian Clarke Exhibition at the Vitro Musée, Romont

 

A major exhibition of the work of the English modern stained glass artist, Brian Clarke, has opened at the Vitro Musée, Romont, Switzerland. Entitled Life and Death, the exhibition will run until 3 July, 2011. It will include some of Brian Clarke’s most famous recent work.

For more information see the Vitro Musée website.

For more information about Brian Clarke see his website.

An interesting article about Brian Clarke’s life and work may be found on the Telegraph website.

Selling Exhibition of Medieval Stained Glass at Sam Fogg in London

 

Art of the Middle Ages: A Winter Exhibition has opened at Sam Fogg in London. It will run until 7 January 2011. Admission is free.

Highlights of the stained glass on show include a fifteenth-century image of St Michael, probably from Norfolk; a fifteenth-century panel showing the Martyrdom (Disembowelment by Windlass) of St Erasmus with donors, possibly from Rouen, and the upper part of a Franciscan monk, made in Cologne c.1525, once in the Collection of the Royal House of Hanover, Schloss Marienburg, Hanover.

An online PDF catalogue of the exhibition can be viewed on the Sam Fogg website, where more information, including opening times, is available.

Christmas Offers on CVMA Publications!

In conjunction with the Oxford University Press and the British Academy we are offering Vidimus readers exclusive recession-busting discounts on recently published CVMA volumes!

They include Penny Hebgin-Barnes’ recently published The Medieval Stained Glass of Cheshire, and its companion volume on The Medieval Stained Glass of Lancashire; David Kings’ exemplary, The Medieval Stained Glass of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich; Tim Ayers’ majestic two-volume study of The Medieval Stained Glass of Wells Cathedral; Thomas French’s pioneering The Great East Window of York Minster, and Kerry Ayre’s invaluable Medieval English Figurative Roundels.

These exclusive online offers expire on 31 December 2010.

For more details of these unmissable opportunities, see the Oxford University Press website.

Name that Roundel!

 

This month’s puzzle comes from the parish church of St Giles at Risby in Suffolk, Sv, 1b.

Measuring 20cm x 19cm and executed in brown-black paint only, it dates from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century and shows a semi-naked young man sitting up from a bier while a bearded figure raises his right hand over him. To the left of the scene a man holds a plank of wood. Other figures in the painting include a woman with her hands clasped in prayer.

What subject does the scene show?

Roundels and other single panels of this period typically depict a range of subjects, including stories from the Old and New Testaments, the Lives of saints, and tales from ancient history and classical literature, such as Homer’s Odyssey. Moral themes can also appear.

The solution can be found at the foot of this month’s Books section.

Diary

Exhibitions

Current

Until 2 January 2011: The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy; forty sculptures from the tomb of John the Fearless (1371–1419), the second duke of Burgundy on loan from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. For exhibition details see the excellent exhibition website.

Until 2 January 2011: Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes and Peasants at The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. This is an exhibition of vessel glass. For more information see the Corning Museum website.

Until 7 January 2011: Art of the Middle Ages: A Winter Exhibition, at Sam Fogg , 15D Clifford Street, London, W1S 4JZ.

Until 10 January 2011: France 1500: Entre Moyen Age et Renaissance, at the Grand Palais in Paris. For more information see the Grand Palais website.

Until 10 January 2011: D’or et de Feu: (Out of Gold and Fire, Art in Slovakia at the end of the Middle Ages), at the Musée National du Moyen Age (Cluny Museum), Paris. The exhibition features panel paintings, sculptures and manuscripts from medieval Slovakia. For more information, see the Musée National du Moyen Age website.

Until 17 January 2011: Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Until 17 January 2011: Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

Until 22 January 2011: Renaissance Art and the Devotional Imagination; Meditations on the Life of Christ, at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York. The exhibition consists of panel paintings, and manuscript illumination made throughout Europe between 1250 and 1550. Exhibits include the sixteenth-century Flemish altarpiece known as the Stein Quadriptych displaying sixty-four scenes from the life of Christ by the illuminator Simon Bening. For more information see the Museum of Biblical Art website.

Until 6 February 2011: Illuminated Manuscripts from Belgium and the Netherlands, Getty Museum of Art . The exhibition is accompanied by a new book by Thomas Kren, Illuminated Manuscripts of Belgium and the Netherlands in the J. Paul Getty Museum, which may be purchased online .

Until 6 February 2011: Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500, Getty Museum of Art.

Until 13 February 2011: Thurneysser Superstar: Ein einzigartiger Glasmalereizyklus von 1579, at the Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.

Until 20 February 2011: Die Staufer und Italien, at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, Germany.

Until 27 February 2011: The Glory of the Painted Page, medieval manuscript illuminations from the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA.

Until 28 February 2011: Virtues and Vices: moralizing prints in the Low Countries, 1550–1600, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.

Until February 2011: Four Ancestors of Christ (First part of a rolling exhibition); Canterbury Cathedral.

Until 17 March 2011: Clayton & Bell, Leading Stained Glass Designers and their Work at Harrow School; Old Speech Room Gallery, Harrow School, London.

Until 3 July 2011: Brian Clarke, Life and Death, at the Vitro Musée, Romont, Switzerland.

Until 2013: Vitraux de la Renaissance à Chartres at the Centre International du Vitrail, Chartres. For more details see the Centre International du Vitrail website.

Forthcoming

From 13 Feb – 5 August 2011: Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

From 16 February – May 2011 : Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance, National Gallery, London. Curated by Maryan Ainsworth; with catalogue. Previously at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see above).

From 27 February – 30 May 2011: Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France, The Art Institute of Chicago. Previously France 1500: Entre Moyen Age et Renaissance in Paris.

From 23 June 2011 – 10 September 2011: Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe, at the British Museum, London.