Of this type a thirteenth-century quatrefoil
(four-leaf), from the top of some abbey church window, showing the
Virgin enthroned surrounded by angels, is a very interesting example.
This bit of ancient glass, saved from the wreckage perhaps of a convent
converted to secular use, has found a resting place in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City, where it is suspended in an upper section
of a window without, however, the surround frame of a Gothic window so
necessary to glass of this type. It is credited to French workmanship,
but there is certainly quite as much Byzantine influence apparent in
the painting of the glass as there is of French. The Byzantine school of
art undoubtedly trained the hand of the workman. The color of the glass,
deep, strong but subdued, is quite like that of the Italian medallion
windows of the same period, or the French, or the English. Two roundels
(Metropolitan Museum) of miniature painting, said to have been made by
the "Master of the House Book" (1480-90) from drawings now in Leipzig,
are evidently from a castle, wherein the amusements of the household
are pictured as taking place on the jousting field.
Two more roundels in the style of the "Master
of the House Book," showing St. Peter and the Entry into Jerusalem
(Cologne, 1500), are also in the Metropolitan Museum. The roundel,
having a surrounding band of inscription and set in circles of plain
glass, is thought to be from a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, "The
Descent from the Cross," and is of the early sixteenth century.
Belonging to the fifteenth century, the two
panels representing the "Entombment" and the "Nativity with the Virgin
and St. Joseph in Adoration of the Infant Christ," are now placed in a
window at the Metropolitan Museum, where they may be seen to excellent
advantage.
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Although considerably restored they present
excellent examples of religious feeling as pictured in early times.
The large share occupied by heraldry as a
decorative accessory from the last quarter of the fifteenth century
onwards, and the survival of the art of glass painting itself in
unbroken tradition down to the year 1700, is to be remarked in the
glass of the Rhinelands. Nothing could exceed the aesthetic grace
and daintiness combined with decorative fitness of some of the
specimens at Berlin, especially of certain products of the Cologne
school.
"Some of the most interesting glass of the
Middle Gothic period is to be found in Germany," we are informed by
the author of "Windows." "The Germans excelled especially in foliage
design, which they treated in a manner of their own. The glass at
Regensburg is an exceedingly good instance of this treatment; but
instances of it are to be found also in the Museum at Munich, very
conveniently placed for the purposes of study. The windows at
Freiburg in the Black Forest should also be seen. But some of the
very richest figure work of the period is to be found in the choir
windows of St. Sebald's Church, at Nuremberg. Except for the
simplicity of their lines, these are not striking in design; but
the color is perhaps deeper than in the very richest of thirteenth-century
glass. The first impression of it is that the composition is
entirely devoid of white glass; but there proves to be a very small
amount of honey-tinted material which goes nearest to that description.
As the light fades towards evening these windows become dull and
heavy; but on a bright day the intensity of their richness is
unsurpassed. They have a quality which one associates rather with
velvet than with glass."
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LL the Rhine provinces have, since the
Gothic age (A.D. 1150-1500), developed the art of stained glass pretty
much in the same fashion as practised in other countries in Europe;
the first period under the monastic influence was similar in all respects
to the early work preserved in Italy, France and England.