Virgin in an aureole, with St. John the Baptist and St. Margaret Freiburg im Breisgau, workshop of Hans Gitschmann, called von Ropstein, after a design by the workshop of Hans Baldung, called Grien, 1528 Stained glass 146 x 53 cm (St. John), 147 x 52.5 cm (Virgin), 147 x 53 cm (St. Margaret) Transferred from the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), Cologne, in 1930–1932 Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. M 595 a-c 16 These stained-glass paintings once formed part of a larger cycle of windows in the Carthusian monastery at Freiburg. On the pedestal below the central image of the Virgin in an aureole are the names of the donors – the scholar and doctor Johannes Widmann and his wife Margret Spilmenin – and the date 1528. Above them are their corresponding coats of arms. The couple are shown kneeling at the feet of their patron saints on the framing panes. John the Baptist is shown wearing a garment made of hair and with the Lamb of God. St. Margaret can be recognised by the processional cross and the defeated dragon at her feet. The second female figure on the right pane, kneeling behind the benefactress, is thought to be Widmann’s second wife, Helene Hirt. This could mean that the window was a memorial donation for Margret Spilmenin, the deceased first wife of Johannes Widmann. The different textures of the garments are masterfully rendered in their interior drawing, from the lambskin of John the Baptist to the sumptuous robes of Mary, St. Margaret and the benefactors. Flesh tones and hair are also clearly differentiated, such as the coarser, brownish flesh tone of John the Baptist compared to the lighter, finer tone of the female figures. The figures are set against blue and red damask backgrounds and, as was typical of the period, are framed by magnificent Renaissance architecture with round and pointed arches and lavish garlands of foliage known as festoons. The colouring of the architecture in grisaille with silver stain is typical of stained glass of the period. The panes are based on a design from the workshop of the eminent contemporary painter Hans Baldung Grien, who worked on the Upper Rhine. Grien’s close collaboration with the Ropstein workshop in Freiburg and the clear stylistic similarities have led to the attribution of the stained glass to this glass painting workshop. Cat. Cologne 1897, 7–8, figs. 9–11. – Schmitz 1913, vol. 1, 120–121. – Schnitzler 1968, 97, no. 167. – Lymant 1982, 213–221, nos. 137–139. – Legner 1991, 298, figs. 213–214. – Täube 1998, 66–68, no. 23. –Becksmann 2010, vol. 2, 590–593. – Woelk/Beer 2018, nos. 245, 368–369 (Iris Metje). Carola Hagnau 80
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