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Stained-Glass Panel with a Coat of Arms and a Female Supporter, 1500–1505
Workshop of Lukas Zeiner (Swiss, ca. 1450–before 1519)
Swiss (Zurich)
Pot-metal and colorless glass, silver stain, and vitreous paint; 15 x 22 in. (38 x 55.9 cm)
Purchase, Bequest of Jane Hayward, by exchange, 2000 (2000.135)

Description

This panel, bearing the arms of Kaspar von Hohenlandenberg, was produced in the Zurich workshop of Zeiner, Switzerland's foremost glass painter at the end of the Middle Ages. The heraldic shield is supported by a woman in luxurious garb. Over her left shoulder is the insignia of a chivalric order known as the Fish and Falcon Society, the primary function of which was to organize tournaments for sport and entertainment. The panel was originally incorporated into the glazings of the assembly hall of a chapter of the society and was not intended for a domestic context, despite the intimacy of its imagery. The perky dog and the pink, or carnation, lying under the chair are symbols of faithfulness, while the red shoe that prominently emerges from under the woman's richly worked hem suggests sexuality and fecundity, thus promising the continuation of a distinguished family line.

Two very similarly composed panels from the same workshop, one dated 1501 and emblazoned with the coat of arms of Martin von Randegg, who was married to Barbara von Landenberg, are in the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zurich.

(Entry by Timothy B. Husband)

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