An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-1
An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-2
An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-3
An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-4
An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-1An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-2An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-3An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius - image-4

Lot 1102 Nα

An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius

Auction 1117 - overview Cologne
16.11.2018, 16:30 - Selected Works of Art
Estimate: 160.000 € - 200.000 €
Result: 210.800 € (incl. premium)

An important pair of Belgian Renaissance stained glass windows with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius

Transparent glass with bubbles, painted in silver yellow, black, and enamels: Red, green, manganese, cobalt. With newer leading. H 128, W 66.5 cm, H frame 161, W 96,5 cm.
Diest, Collégiale de Saint Sulpice et Denis, 2nd quarter 16th C.

A full-length depiction of Saint Sulpice facing slightly to the right on a tiled floor beneath a Renaissance arch, holding a book and a crozier in his hands. He wears a yellow cope with pomegranate décor and green fringe, a blue chasuble and alb, and red gloves. A length of Italian silk with pomegranate motifs forms a backdrop for the figure. In the spandrels we see two medallions with facing portraits of Roman emperors inscribed "MAXENTIVS" and "AVGVSTVS”. With new leading, parts of the face, the columns, the mitre, and the crozier possibly replaced. The panes of the mitre and the face cracked.
A full-length depiction of Saint Dionysius facing slightly to the left on a tiled floor beneath a Renaissance arch, holding his severed head in both hands and resting his staff in the crook of his arm. He wears a white mitre, white dalmatic with yellow design, purple chasuble and alb, red gloves, and a green pallium. A length of Italian silk with pomegranate motifs forms a backdrop for the figure. In the spandrels we see medallions with Roman generals, one inscribed “AVGVSTVS”.
These three large rare windows represent an important example of Brabantine stained glass making in the early 16th century. All three works originate from Diest, today a small town on the trade route between Cologne and Bruges. In 1229, Heinrich I of Brabant granted the town borough rights in the Gothic collegiate church of Saint Sulpice et Denis.
When the first wave of iconoclasm broke over the town in 1580, it destroyed much of the mobile inventory of its churches, but also many stained glass windows. Gradual repair works began in around 1604, carried out by well-known glass makers. The next major change came in the 19th century, when Jean-François Pluys of Mechelen replaced the windows with new works in 1846. At this point all trace was lost of these three windows, which were dismounted and forgotten, only preserved thanks to collectors.
The two panes with Saint Sulpice and Saint Dionysius originally lit the third chapel of the north aisle alongside two smaller windows with donors located beneath the main windows. Alongside other authors, Jean Helbig and Yvette van den Bemden mention the Norbentine cleric Arnold Streyters, Abbot of Tongerlo, who was born in Diest as the primary donor of these works, alongside Jan van Esch, Prior of Tongerlo and Provost of Diest and Alaert Reyen, Dean of Diest. The three clerics were in office from around 1531 to 1541, which is today considered the most likely production period for the two large windows.

Provenance

From Saint-Sulpice-et-Saint-Denis in Diest.
In the collection of the Historisches Museum Basel until at least 1901, thereafter exchanged by the previous owner for other items.

Literature

Illus. in cat: Glasgemälde No. III, Historisches Museum Basel 1901, no. 73.
In: Helbig/van den Bemden, Les vitraux de la première moitié du XVIe siècle conservés en Belgique Brabant et Limbourg, in: Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi Belgique, Bd. III, Gent 1974, p. 185 ff.
Cf. Levy/Capronnier, Histoire de la peinture sur verre, vol. 2, Brussels 1860, p. 140.
Cf. Bonenfant, Notes pour servir à l'histoire de l'art en Brabant, Annales de la Société royale d'archéologie de Bruxelles. Mémoires rapports et documents, vol. 39, Brussels 1935, p. 132.
Cf. van der Linden, De collegiale kerk van de HH. Sulpitius en Dionysius te Diest. In 8ste Jaarboek van de Diestersche Kunstkring, 1936, p. 86.