Adoration of the Magi from Seven Scenes from the Life of Christ

Date:: ca. 1390

Geography:: Made in Ebreichsdorf, Lower Austria

Culture:: Austrian

Medium:: Pot-metal and colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain

Dimensions:: 27 1/4 × 13 in. (69.2 × 33 cm)

Classification:: Glass-Stained

Credit Line:: The Cloisters Collection, 1986

Accession Number:: 1986.285.1

On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 9

This panel which is part of a larger ensemble was commissioned for the private chapel in the castle of Ebreichsdorf, south of Vienna. Originally, there were eighteen scenes, some extending across two lights of the windows. Except for one panel in Vienna, The Cloisters panels are all that survive. The royal atelier responsible for the glass was established in Vienna, where its early work can be seen in the Church of Maria am Gestade, of about 1365, and in the ducal chapel at the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, of about 1395. The elegant figures, richly damascened background, as well as the wealth of detail and the brilliant palette that enrich the settings, are all characteristic of this court workshop.

#31. Adoration of the Magi from Seven Scenes from the Life of Christ

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From the Infancy of Christ window, choir of the castle chapel (the Schlosskapelle) at Ebreichsdorf, south of Vienna.; Lolowrat-Liebsteinsky, Ebreichsdorf (1843–73) ; 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, Washington, DC (1957–1986)

"Notizen." Mittheilungen der K.K. Central-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale, n.s., 1 (1875). pp. XLII–XLIII, (as no. 31).

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Kieslinger, Franz. "Die Glasmalereien des österreichischen Herzoghofes aus dem Ende des 14 Jahrhunderts." Belvedere 1 (1922). pp. 147–55.

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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, 687.

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. c.

The 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.

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, fig. 6, pl. 7.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p. 211.

Essays
Stained Glass in Medieval Europe

Timelines
Central Europe (including Germany), 1000–1400 A.D.