The castle at Ebreichsdorf, strategically positioned south of Vienna near the Hungarian border, served as a private residence for a member of the court. These windows from the glazing of the castle chapel were made by a large workshop in the employ of the royal dukes in Vienna. Elongated figures with heads often seen in profile, heavy masses of drapery, and an unusually rich range of colors distinguish the style of this court workshop. In contrast to the glass from Saint Leonhard in the central windows of this chapel, the figures here are placed in elaborate architectural settings composed of pinnacles and towers, imaginatively combined to create fanciful structures. These backgrounds link the individual scenes in a unified composition. Represented in this window are scenes from the infancy of Christ, including the Annunciation to the Virgin, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi with the Virgin Mary robed in royal purple but resting on a straw-filled mat. The tracery light above, representing the Sun and the Moon, is also from Ebreichsdorf.
Having withstood the Mongol attacks of the thirteenth century only to be plundered by the Turks in 1683, Ebreichsdorf never returned to its medieval splendor. Except for one panel in Vienna, The Cloisters windows are all that survive of the Ebreichsdorf glass.
Artwork Details
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Title:Roundel
Date:1390
Geography:Made in Niederösterreich, Austria
Culture:Austrian
Medium:Pot-metal glass, colorless glass, and vitreous paint
Dimensions:Overall: 15 5/8 x 15 3/4 in. (39.7 x 40 cm)
Classification:Glass-Stained
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1936
Accession Number:36.39.2
From Ebreichsdorf Schlosskapelle, near Wienerneustadt, Lower Austria.; Roy Grosvenor Thomas 1886–1952, New York (sold 1936)
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Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. 95–96.
Hayward, Jane. "Stained-Glass Windows." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 30, no. 3 (December 1971-January 1972). p. 126.
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. 694.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recent Acquisitions, 1987-1988 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (1988). pp. 19–20.
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. p. 158.
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