Few museums in the world have larger collections of European stained glass from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance than the Museum Schnütgen. The largest and most comprehensive collection is held by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.1 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York2 and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow3 have only roughly comparable holdings. The Museum Schnütgen’s collection of stained glass, with around 200 objects, is considerably smaller, but with its many outstanding individual works it can easily stand up to international comparison.4 From fragments barely the size of a hand to complete church windows several metres high composed of several individual panes, the museum’s collection reflects the many facets of the development of technique and artistic expression in medieval glass painting from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The medieval holdings are complemented by important Renaissance stained glass from glazed cloisters and a large group of cabinet panes from the 16th and 17th centuries. The emphasis in this part of the collection is on objects from Cologne, the Rhineland and Westphalia. The core of the collection goes back to its founder, Alexander Schnütgen (1843–1918) (fig. 1).5 Coloured stained-glass windows played a central role in the decoration of medieval churches and monasteries and, from the late 15th century, in the secular residences of wealthy citizens. They closed the increasingly large window openings of the early Gothic period and, as diaphanous walls, allowed daylight to enter the interior of the building, transforming its brightness and colour values. Its translucent nature and colour qualities made stained glass an ideal visual medium for depicting biblical stories in multi-part Fig. 1 Carl Faust (1874–1935), Portrait of Alexander Schnütgen, 1918 1 Williamson 2003. 2 Hayward 2003. 3 Marks 2012. 4 Lymant 1982. 5 Carl Faust (1874–1935), Portrait of Alexander Schnütgen, 1918; Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. M 732. Manuela Beer The Museum Schnütgen’s Collection of Stained Glass Prerequisites and Genesis of a Special Collection 23
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5NTQ=