The exposition includes 70 best examples of painted glass of the Swiss school, which represent a variety of genres and maintenance of the Hermitage collection

Tuesday, July 6, in St. Petersburg opened exhibition "Swiss stained XVI - XVIII centuries in the Hermitage. In the exposition, detailed in the halls of the Winter Palace (169-173), includes 70 best examples of painted glass of the Swiss school, which represent a variety of genres and maintenance of the Hermitage collection.

Stained Glass - Window glass is made up of multicolored dyed pieces of glass bonded together with lead rods. From its inception, they imitated the mosaic, and in the Middle Ages became a separate kind of decorative art. In the production-based painted glass lay graphic source for producing the stained glass. Masters of the Middle Ages saw graphic designs as a technical auxiliary material. When the end of the XV century, drawing became a separate, independent field for the creative forces of the artist, as the authors of projects for painted glass started to invite well-known painters and engravers. In the XVI century, the design drawings for the stained glass windows executed such famous masters as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas van Leyden.

• Madonna and Child . 1505
  Type: Bildscheibe
  Switzerland
  Colored glass, clear glass, silver stains, overglaze paint; lead
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

The scenes of Stained Glass for the Swiss were not only the traditional gospel and biblical themes, but also different parts of life that made them a valuable historical source. Not the least role in the formation of stained XVI - XVIII centuries played Reformation: the construction of large magnificent cathedrals virtually ceased, and therefore lost the demand for large stained-glass windows. They were replaced by smaller, so-called "stained glass cabinet, which could be used for secular buildings.

The Hermitage collection includes stained glass windows of all major types of available researchers, is: illustrative stained, Bildscheibe; armorial stained glass, Wappenscheibe; figurative stained glass, Figurenscheibe; welcome stained, Willkommscheibe; wedding stained glass, Allianzwappenscheibe; stained with the standard-bearer, Bannertragerscheibe; stained to join the post, Stifterscheibe; peasant stained, Bauernscheibe; Magistrate stained glass, Amterscheibe.

Most of the collection are illustrative stained (type Bildscheibe), the main image which is created on a certain topic.

• Stained Glass William Muntprata. 1578
  Niklaus Wirth von Wil
  Type: Wappenscheibe
  Switzerland
  Colored glass, clear glass, silver stains, overglaze paint; lead
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Armorial stained (type Wappenscheibe) in the composite to form a very motley group of images. The main elements of their image - arms, which often involve a variety of shapes Supporters (saints or heraldic animals). One characteristic of Switzerland is the fact that their own coats of arms could have, except for the nobility, all of those who was in the public service. Therefore, feature stained glass of this country was the introduction of the composition of glass paintings attributes of heraldry. Widespread got painted glass with coats of arms and flags of cities and regions.

interesting group of painted glass, the central theme which repeats a canonical scene: a lady in a dress gives an armed warrior cup. This so-called welcoming stained (type Willkommscheibe).

Peasant stained (type Bauernscheibe), in which the top panel, usually depicted scenes of rural life, the evidence on the origin of the customer environment rich peasants. An interesting example of "connection" "welcome" and "peasant" is a beautiful stained glass family Widmer. The central composition is represented canonically couple: a woman gives cup warrior. It should be a rare innovation: next to the lady depicted children. The top panel shows the genre scene with plowing with oxen, on the bottom - the family escutcheon Widmer and cartouche with an explanatory caption. Silver opener on a yellow background in the field of the emblem indicates a peasant background Widmer, and the inscription says, who is depicted on donative glass: "Rudolf Widmer of Gränichen Barbara Moorer and his wife. Jacob and Barbara Widmer - his children. 1617. This stained glass refers to the typical "peasant" stained glass, very typical of the old Swiss cantons XVI - XVII centuries.

• Stained Jakob Vogel and Yossi Brendle. 1612
  Type: Bauernscheibe
  Switzerland, Zurich
  Colored glass, clear glass, silver stains, overglaze paint; lead
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Magistrates stained (type Amterscheibe) often have a round shape, although there are also rectangular specimens. In the center of the composition are placed with the arms Supporters and located on the edge of the coat of arms of cities and localities. The situation in Switzerland, part of the "Holy Roman Empire", determined heraldic emblems of subordination, depicted on stained glass, in which the imperial coat of arms and its attributes are always depicted on armorial shields of the Swiss cantons. Nowhere in Europe do not meet this principle of construction heraldic compositions.

significant part of the Swiss Stained Glass of the Hermitage collection is devoted to illustrations of biblical or New Testament stories. Songs of the painted glass does not have a definite scheme. Among them special interest "Stained Jakob Mingera. Christ and the Pope. Its composition is organized as opposed to the two paintings at the turn of the book. On the left side depicts scenes from the life of Christ, to the right - from the life of the Pope.

One of the study of the Hermitage collection of Swiss stained glass is to ascertain the history of the formation of this assembly. The first mention of the picturesque glasses found in the archival records of the Winter Palace in 1827. Basically it is the orders of Emperor Nicholas I on the movements of stained glass in the palaces or to obtain them as gifts. Swiss stained glass, once part of a collection Tatishchev, was decorated with a central box office in the Imperial Arsenal. In 1886, Czar Alexander III ordered to transfer all funds deposited with Arsenal at the Imperial Hermitage. Before the First World War the entire collection of the Hermitage's stained-glass windows of the Swiss was photographed and sent to the Historical Museum in Bern as a gift by the then director of the Imperial Hermitage DI Count Tolstoy. In 1918 and 1919 the Hermitage collection of stained glass added to the Swiss income from museums and private collections of Prince FI Paskevich, the Museum Society for the Encouragement of Arts, AK Rudanovskaya, E. Plum. And in 1930 at foreign auctions Helbinga Hugo and Theodore Fisher sold over 130 copies of the beautiful painted glass Swiss craftsmen. The largest collection of stained glass windows of the Swiss school entered the Hermitage in 1932 after the dissolution of the Museum of the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron Stieglitz (the Museum of Baron Stieglitz). It is from this museum are four signature stained-glass window of the Hermitage collection.

curator of the exhibition - EA Shlikevich, senior researcher of the Division of Western European Applied Art of the State Hermitage Museum. The exhibition researcher, illustrated catalog (State Hermitage Publishing House, 2010)

exhibition is open until September 5, 2010.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org