Aabby Barofka, PhD Candidate, University of York
This year marked the 32nd Colloquium of the International Corpus Vitrearum, hosted in Kraków, Poland between 6 and 9 July. Within this hub of Polish stained glass, the venue for the delivery of conference papers, posters, and convivial exchanges during lunch/coffee breaks was the city’s Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout the conference’s presentations and Q&As, translation was provided by a small team of interpreters for English, French, and German-speaking participants. The importance of this translation service for the event’s success cannot be overstated, as it enabled international audiences and presenters to come together and share research findings and questions on the subjects at hand.
With 28 presentations, a poster session, three site visits, and an exhibition opening, every moment of the conference programme was packed with engaging topics, discussions, and activities. That said, regular coffee and lunch breaks were provided. These were not only excellently catered but also gave attendees and participants time to digest the subjects broached in each session and to discuss them with their peers and colleagues outside of the more formal setting of the lecture hall.
In the lead-up to the 75th anniversary of the Corpus Vitrearum’s founding, this year’s conference, appropriately, reflected on the organisation’s history (and its current state). This formed the basis for the overarching theme of this year’s Colloquium, ‘Research on stained glass: History and Methods’. The lectures were so numerous that it is impossible to include them all within this brief overview, so the conference will instead be considered thematically, focusing on a small sample of examples. Approaches to the theme differed each day, and in some cases, section by section. Presentations delivered on the first day largely reflected upon individuals and groups whose research and documentation predated the creation of the Corpus. These included Michel Hérold’s presentation on Jean Lafond, Elena Kosina’s pre-history of the German Corpus, and Karine Boulanger’s exploration of the work of Louis Grodecki. The final section of day one shifted away from considering the organisation’s predecessors, instead exploring the international trajectory of research encompassed by the Corpus Vitrearum from its beginnings to the present day.
Tuesday’s presentations broadly looked at historical research approaches and methods employed by Corpus researchers. From this second day, presentations came together to stress the importance in current scholarship of taking a research approach that goes outside of the box, be it in an interdisciplinary methodological approach that provides perspective of the intentions of historical narrative schemes, as championed by Lisa Reilly, the diversification of critical analysis to integrate the study of stained glass into broader art historical discussions by Günther Buchinger, or context sensitive consideration of areas of research that have traditionally received less attention, as advocated by Lydia Fisher.
Another highlight offered on Tuesday was the tour of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi (Fig. 1) and the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków’s city centre (Fig. 2). These trips were a highlight of the week because they offered conference attendees the opportunity to view some of the most brilliant examples of glass that Poland has to offer, particularly by casting a spotlight on the striking stained glass designed by Stanislaw Wyspiański (1869-1907) in both churches. Viewing the work of Wyspiański, who in 1887 had attended the university that hosted the conference, provided a deeper appreciation not only of Polish stained glass but also of the broader art movement to which he belonged.
Wednesday offered more opportunities to see Polish stained glass in person, with a day of excursions in the historic region of Upper Silesia. In Katowice, some of the characteristically geometric stained glass designed by Jan Piasecki (1930) was visited, in the headquarters of the Polish Steelworks Syndicate Building. Within this united scheme of windows, Poland’s metalworking history shaped the glass’s aesthetic qualities, whilst celebrating the steel industry that drove the city’s growth (Fig. 3). Comparatively, in Katowice’s Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, we were treated to a variety of stained-glass styles, including the more organic shapes of the 1939 virtues-and-vices windows designed by Adam Bunsch (Fig. 4). Once back in Kraków, attendees were invited to the opening of the exhibition ‘Rejected/Forgotten: The Krakow Cathedral Stained-Glass windows in the Period of Historicism’ in the city’s Archdiocesan Museum, curated by Dr Tomasz Szybisty and Dr Joanna Utzig. This temporary exhibition brought recognition to the overlooked stained glass created for Kraków Cathedral by Fritz Geiges of Freiburg in Breisgau. Made in the years 1901-2, the glass was never installed due to political controversy over German glass being brought to Poland (Fig. 5). As Brigette Kurmann Schwarz had reminded us in her colloquium paper, the mounting of a special exhibition is part of the long history of the international colloquia.
As Thursday was the final day of the Colloquium, it was appropriate that themes explored by presenters in the final sessions ended the week by directing our eyes to the future of the Copus Vitrearum. This can be seen in relation to data sharing and the development of provenance research within the framework of the Swiss Vitrosearch, as explored in Sarah Keller and Karin von Wartburg’s presentation. A new chapter in the history of the Corpus Vitrearum was heralded by the presentations on Latin American stained glass, as given by Andrea Araos (Chile) and María del Pilar Leñero Llaca (Mexico). The news that the Chilean and Republic of Ireland’s applications for associate status have been successful was warmly welcomed by all attendees. Thus, the Colloquium ended on a note of excitement for the research to come and the new relationships to be fostered.
To end on a personal note, the opportunity to contextualise my own work, which currently considers the stained glass activities of the Dean of York, Eric Milner-White (1941-63), through many of the papers that explored the international approaches taken by his contemporaries, was both fascinating and of great value. Additionally, as this was my first Colloquium, I was delighted to introduce myself to my international peers, many of whom generously offered support and encouragement. Many thanks to the British Committee for my scholarship nomination and to the International Board of the Corpus Vitrearum for supporting my attendance. I join all delegates in thanking our hosts, the Polish National Committee led by its president Professor Wojciech Balus.