Seven scenes from the private chapel of the Ebreichsdorf castle are installed in the Gothic Chapel at The Cloisters. Representing episodes from the life of Christ—the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism, Agony in the Garden, Trial before Pilate, and Harrowing of Hell—they constitute almost all of the surviving stained glass program. The scenes are organized into vertical groups of four rectangular panels, arranged two over two; the lower panels in each group are narrative, while the upper panels represent architectural canopies. Most of the narrative panels contain a single scene, as is the case with the Annunciation, which was originally paired with a Visitation (now in Vienna). Others, however, combine to form a unified episode, such as the Adoration of the Magi.
The glazing program of the chapel has been attributed to a "ducal workshop" favored by the local nobility and best known for its use of rich colors, fanciful architectural forms, and elegant figural styles. In the Baptism panel, the figures of Christ, John the Baptist, and the dove, representing the Holy Spirit, are positioned to create an upward thrust that lends movement and drama to the overall effect.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Baptism of Christ
Date:ca. 1390
Geography:Made in Lower Austria
Culture:Austrian
Medium:Pot-metal and colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain
Dimensions:27 15/16 x 12 1/4 in. (71 x 31.1 cm)
Classification:Glass-Stained
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1986
Accession Number:1986.285.4
From the Public Life of Christ window, choir of the castle chapel (the Schlosskapelle) at Ebreichsdorf, south of Vienna.; Lolowrat-Liebsteinsky, Ebreichsdorf (1983-73) ; Count Joseph Arco-Zinneberg, Ebreichsdorf (1873-1922) ; [ Duveen Brothers, London, Paris and New York] ; Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice, New York (1923-1957) ; Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC (1957-1986)
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Lind, Karl. "Übersicht der noch in Kirchen Niederösterreichs erhaltenen Glasmalereien." Berichte und Mittheilungen des Alterthums-Vereines zu Wien 27 (1891). p. 110, fig. 1.
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Wentzel, Hans. Meisterwerke der Glasmalerei. Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1954. p. 60.
Frodl-Kraft, Eva. "Glasgemälde." In Die Gotik in Niederösterreich: Kunst und Kultur eines Landes im Spätmittelalter. Krems: Verlag der Osterreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1959. (unpaginated).
Frodl-Kraft, Eva. Die mittelalterlichen Glasgemälde in Wien. Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Österreich, Vol. 1. Graz, Vienna, and Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1962. p. 129.
Frodl-Kraft, Eva. Die mittelalterlichen Glasgemälde in Niederösterreich: Volume 1, Albrechtsberg bis Klosterneuburg. Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Österreich, Vol. 2. Graz, Vienna, and Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1972. pp. 225–28, fig. 681–83, 690.
Smithsonian Institution. "New Methods Used to Study Old Glass." Smithsonian Institution Research Reports 4 (Spring 1973). p. 4.
Caviness, Madeline H., ed. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern Seaboard States (Corpus Vitrearum Checklist II). Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 23. Washington, D.C.: National Art Gallery, 1987. pp. 36–38, fig. h.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "One Hundred Seventeenth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1986, through June 30, 1987." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 117 (1987). p. 35.
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Frodl-Kraft, Eva. "The Stained Glass from Ebreichsdorf and the Austrian 'Ducal Workshop'." In The Cloisters: Studies in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary, edited by Elizabeth C. Parker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. pp. 384–407, pl. 7.
Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 187, pp. 158–60.
Carboni, Stefano, and Timothy B. Husband. "Ars Vitraria: Glass in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Medieval Art and the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 59, no. 1 (Summer 2001). pp. 37–38.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 54, pp. 90, 196.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 92–93.
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