 |
 |
|
The collection included a range of styles and types of glass. The earliest is of a type known as grisaille which includes a range of plant motifs on simple cross-hatched backgrounds (above). There are fragments from patterned pieces or quarries, there are parts of figures showing their features and clothing, there are sections of architecture and heraldic decoration. Some of these fragments can be reconstructed to show what parts of the windows looked like (right). |
One of the most charming pieces is made up of three fragments of clear glass which fitted together to show the figure of the Christ Child cradled in elegant hands, no doubt those of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The style of painting, especially the head and drapery of the Child, suggest a date in the 1320s or 1330s. This tiny glass picture might have adorned a window in the chapter house for 200 years, until the building was destroyed, after which it lay buried for the next 500 years until the careful work of archaeologists and conservators revealed once again the delicate design and brushwork of the medieval glass painter.
Find no. 3045, 1985.9,
catalogue no.268, area of glass 31cm².
For more information see The Archaeology
of York 11/3, The Window Glass of the Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham:
A York-based Study by C. Pamela Graves (2000).
 |
 |
 |
 |