DOI Artikel:
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo: Old imagery for a new century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0025
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SUMMARY
Virginia Raguin
OLD IMAGERY FOR A NEW CENTURY
Keywords: stained glass, 19th century, eclectic revival,
Christian religion, replicas
Nineteenth-century glass painters admired medieval art
for its decorative brilliance, but for the image itself, the
art of Europe from the fifteenth through seventeenth cen-
turies provided the most appropriate themes and figural
models. Their reliance on art of these eras reflected the
bias already effective in their patrons. The foundation
of the great nineteenth-century public collections was
the art of the Renaissance from the Lowlands, Germany,
and Italy. Nineteenth-century artists inspired by the Re-
naissance and Baroque, such as Ernst Deger, Anton Die-
trich, Gustave Doré, Heinrich Hofmann, William Hol-
man Hunt, and Bernard Plockhorst could also become
universally recognized across denominations and media.
Their rendering of the themes of the Boy Jesus in the Tem-
ple, Flight into Egypt, or Christ Knocking at the Door be-
come standard ‘icons’ of Christian instruction. To under-
stand the climate in nineteenth-century concerning art,
religion, and replication for the public, we must remem-
ber that our public institutions of art were populated with
copies in painting, print and plaster cast. Museums have
changed, but in many ways the churches built by the pa-
trons of this era remain time capsules preserving the ide-
as concerning art, public service, and morality. An inven-
tory of such works in glass includes virtually every stu-
dio, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, J and R Lamb, and
Charles J. Connick, and the lesser known such as the R.T
Giles and Co. of Minneapolis or the Ford Brothers Glass
Company, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago. The con-
flux of patron, artist, and shared views of past models op-
erated even for the most prestigious commissions such as
the complex opalescent creations of John La Farge in the
late nineteenth century.
SUMMARY
Virginia Raguin
OLD IMAGERY FOR A NEW CENTURY
Keywords: stained glass, 19th century, eclectic revival,
Christian religion, replicas
Nineteenth-century glass painters admired medieval art
for its decorative brilliance, but for the image itself, the
art of Europe from the fifteenth through seventeenth cen-
turies provided the most appropriate themes and figural
models. Their reliance on art of these eras reflected the
bias already effective in their patrons. The foundation
of the great nineteenth-century public collections was
the art of the Renaissance from the Lowlands, Germany,
and Italy. Nineteenth-century artists inspired by the Re-
naissance and Baroque, such as Ernst Deger, Anton Die-
trich, Gustave Doré, Heinrich Hofmann, William Hol-
man Hunt, and Bernard Plockhorst could also become
universally recognized across denominations and media.
Their rendering of the themes of the Boy Jesus in the Tem-
ple, Flight into Egypt, or Christ Knocking at the Door be-
come standard ‘icons’ of Christian instruction. To under-
stand the climate in nineteenth-century concerning art,
religion, and replication for the public, we must remem-
ber that our public institutions of art were populated with
copies in painting, print and plaster cast. Museums have
changed, but in many ways the churches built by the pa-
trons of this era remain time capsules preserving the ide-
as concerning art, public service, and morality. An inven-
tory of such works in glass includes virtually every stu-
dio, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, J and R Lamb, and
Charles J. Connick, and the lesser known such as the R.T
Giles and Co. of Minneapolis or the Ford Brothers Glass
Company, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago. The con-
flux of patron, artist, and shared views of past models op-
erated even for the most prestigious commissions such as
the complex opalescent creations of John La Farge in the
late nineteenth century.