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Forthcoming Stained Glass Events in York

Storytelling in Court and Cloister

Fig. 1. Conference poster

A one-day conference organized by the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, and hosted by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the King’s Manor, University of York, on 2 November 2013. Speakers include Anthony Bale (Birkbeck), Ross Balzaretti (Nottingham), Bronach Kane (Cardiff), Henrietta Leyser (Oxford), Christopher Norton (York), Tom Pickles (Chester), David Rundle (Essex), and Elisabeth van Houts (Cambridge). [Fig. 1]

This interdisciplinary conference will explore ways in which medieval people used stories to make sense of their world, and to reimagine or shape it. The conference will draw on this rich field, to think about storytelling within and beyond the page, by exploring the act of telling stories in a social context. The framework of the conference will be the medieval court (legal and political) and the religious cloister. Topics will include storytelling as an active process, in text, image or speech; the ways in which circumstances or an awareness of audience compel a story and shape its narrative; the construction of narrative when arguing a case or asserting a new order; narratology and storytelling in the middle ages; the relationships between narrative and ‘fact’, as one may construct or deconstruct the other; and the self-consciousness of story and its forms as a tool to engage and to convince, challenge or play.

The programme begins at 10.15 in the Huntingdon Room, King’s Manor, York, and ends with a drinks reception at 5.30pm.

Registration: £30 (full), £20 (students/unwaged). There is a £10 reduction for members of the society (SSMLL). To register, email cms-office@york.ac.uk.

Developments in Stained Glass Conservation: the Last Fifty Years

The Stained Glass Research School, in association with the MA in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management, welcomes Dr Isabelle Pallot-Frossard, as she presents this Autumn Masterclass Lecture. Dr Pallot-Frossard is Director of the Laboratoire de recherche des monuments historiques, Paris, and President of the International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass (Corpus Vitrearum-ICOMOS).

The lecture will be on Thursday 14 November 2013, at 5.15pm in room K/133, the King’s Manor. To book a place, please email brittanyscowcroft@york.ac.uk.

Nineteenth-Century Stained Glass Studies: New Directions in Scholarship

Four scholars involved in the study of nineteenth-century stained glass, art and culture, two of them recent doctoral candidates, will offer a personal perspective on their own research and new directions in scholarship in this field. The four are Dr Neil Moat (PhD, Newcastle); Dr Jasmine Allen (PhD, York); Dr Wojciech Balus of the Corpus Vitrearum, Poland (Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Cracow); and Prof. Liz Prettejohn (University of York). These stimulating presentations will act as a catalyst for wider discussion, and the event will be particularly illuminating for young scholars embarking on research in this area.

The event will take place on Saturday 30 November 2013, 9am – 5pm, at the Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building, Heslington Campus, York. To book a place, please email brittanyscowcroft@york.ac.uk.

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Forthcoming Lectures at the Stained Glass Museum, Ely

Fig. 2. Detail from a panel from Gresford (Wales)

Tuesday 22 October: Martin Crampin (University of Wales), ‘Ancient & Modern: Stained Glass from Welsh Churches’ [Fig. 2]
St Peter’s Church, Broad Street, Ely, CB7 4AH
7pm for 7.30pm start

Tuesday 29 October: Marie Stumpf (Senior Conservator, Glasgow Museums), ‘Research and Conservation of stained glass at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow’
St Peter’s Church, Broad Street, Ely, CB7 4AH
7pm for 7.30pm start

Tuesday 29 October 11am – 3pm: ‘Light Lines: The Big Draw’. Join the campaign for drawing and celebrate the power of drawing by creating a giant collaborative artwork. All ages welcome. Suggested donation £1. The Stained Glass Museum, The South Triforium, Ely Cathedral, Ely, CB7 4DL

Friday 8 November: Kate Baden-Fuller (Glass Artist and author of Contemporary Stained Glass), ‘Contemporary Stained Glass – a selection from across the world’
St Peter’s Church, Broad Street, Ely, CB7 4AH
7pm for 7.30pm start

Tickets for individual events are £7.50, or £6.50 for friends. They are available on line, or in person at The Stained Glass Museum, The South Triforium, Ely Cathedral, Ely, Cambs, CB7 4DL. Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Stained Glass Museum’. Please send your email address or enclose an SAE for confirmation. For more information, telephone 01353 660347, or email friends@stainedglassmuseum.com.

For more information on all these events, visit www.stainedglassmuseum.com.

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Boppard Abroad

Fig. 3. Detail of a scene from a Boppard panel

Marie Stumpf, Senior Conservator at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow has recently completed a tour of places holding Boppard glass. She has visited the Detroit Museum of Art, Ochre Court and Seaview Terrace in Newport (Rhode Island), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Schnuetgen Museum in Cologne. These places all have panels from Boppard that come from the same windows as the ones at the Burrell.

Marie focused on the Tree of Jesse and Ten Commandments windows, with the aim of exploring in detail the similarities and differences between the windows in the Burrell Collection and those in the other locations. See Vidimus 68 for a feature on the Ten Commandments Window, and follow Marie’s journey at the Boppard Conservation Project Blog.

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Microbial Attack

Fig. 4. Glass with a Wetterstein crust on the external face, Science in the Service of Restoration

The subject of microbial attack on stained glass is attracting increasing interest. With the financial support of English Heritage and Canterbury Cathedral Studios, the British CVMA has been able to add a new translation to the Conservation pages of its website. The text is a chapter from Restaurierung und Konservierung historischer Glasmalereien (‘Restoration and Conservation of Historical Stained Glass’) published in 2000 in Mainz, entitled ‘Science in the Service of Restoration’. It investigates microbial action on historical and model glasses, and also focuses on monuments in Soest and Goslar.

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Report on 'Recent Advances in Glass, Stained Glass and Ceramics Conservation 2013'

ICOM-CC Glass and Ceramics Working Group Interim Meeting and Forum of the International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass (Corpus-Vitrearum-ICOMOS)

Fig. 5. Delegates enjoying lunch in Schermerhorn, De Grote Kerk. © Nick Teed

For four days in October, the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam hosted the first joint working-group and scientific forum of two international conservation organisations that have much in common, and indeed a great deal to gain from sharing experiences with treatments, materials and new (and historic) scientific research. Over 200 delegates attended and enjoyed twenty-nine presentations and around twenty posters over the four day programme.

The conference was a celebration of current collaborative endeavours in the field; between scientists and conservators, professionals and students, Universities and private conservation practices, and many other combinations! The presentations were arranged into six sessions; cracks and fissures, bonding and filling, protection and installation, creation and degradation, degradation and treatment, and examination and analysis. The breadth of content enabled the engagement of a wide variety of participants and ensured a lively and productive discussion about the successes and limitations of recent approaches. There were many opportunities to reconnect with contemporaries working across the world on diverse and exciting projects. The atmosphere was relaxed and warm, and it was a great pleasure to meet with conservation professionals from all fields and stages of the career, and discuss the challenges faced in our work today.

Highlights included visits to the Rijksmuseum and the neighbouring conservation studios at the Ateliergebouw, and an excursion at the end of the week to see three churches in the region with exceptional glass of the seventeenth century.
Elizabeth Hippisley-Cox, York Glaziers Trust

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Illuminating York Minster

York Minster will form one of the focal points in York’s forthcoming ‘Illuminating York’ festival, which runs from 30 October to 2 November. At York Minster, urban artists Black Rose have been brought in to create new street artworks on light-boxes and huge canvases to bring contemporary paintings into the minster.

Fig. 6. Last year’s Illuminating York Minster © Elizabeth Dent

York Minster’s events manager, Stephanie O’Gorman, said: ‘We often think of the artworks in York Minster – from the stained glass to the statues – as being very traditionally styled, but at the time they were created, these works of art were cutting edge, using the latest techniques and innovation to design these stunning pieces.’ In this way, the modern light installations complement the original stained glass throughout the minster.

‘York Minster Nights’ will feature a spiral of lights in the chapter house, where visitors can light a candle of remembrance for a lost loved one. The minster has also cleared its nave of chairs and will be lit with subtle lighting, echoing how worshippers would have experienced services in medieval York. York Minster Nights runs from 6pm on October 30 and 31 and 7pm on November1 and 2. Admission is £5 for adults and £2.50 for children. Tickets are available on line from the minster, or by calling 01904 557208.

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Art Under Attack Exhibition

Smashed stained glass from Rievaulx Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral is featured in a new exhibition at Tate Britain, which opened at the beginning of this month. The exhibition, entitled ‘Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm’, explores religious iconoclasm and is a reminder of what was lost in the 150 years after the Reformation. The damaged works are accompanied by vivid accounts of the destructive actions of Puritan iconoclasts.

Two panels from Canterbury Cathedral included in the exhibition, The Presentation in the Temple and Christ Leading the Gentiles from Pagan Gods, show evidence of precise attack. These panels are from the medieval typological series from the cathedral and are displayed alongside diagrams illustrating how the damaged versions appeared before restoration, acting as comparative tools to witness how specific the vandalism was. The glass works were specifically removed from the windows of Canterbury Cathedral for this exhibition.

More information on the Canterbury panels can be seen on the Tate blog.

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Reminder about The Stained Glass Museum Geoffrey Clarke Appeal

As mentioned in Vidimus 71, The Stained Glass Museum, Ely is raising money to purchase four panels by Geoffrey Clarke.  They are two thirds of the way to reaching their goal, and there is still time to donate!  Please consider making a donation to help the museum reach its goal.

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We urge readers to get in touch with any news items, events, stories or notables they’d like to see featured in Vidimus.  Please send items to news@vidimus.org.