Panel thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
British Galleries, Room 58b

Panel

1460-1480 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
During the 15th century there was considerable growth in church building. Windows were made much larger than before with increasingly refined tracery (the delicate interlaced stonework that divided the window into smaller areas in which stained glass could be inset). This development not only brought glass painters more business but also allowed them greater freedom in their compositions. Figure subjects such as this were ideally shaped to fill the pointed arches of the topmost lights in a window.

Subjects Depicted
This panel depicts a feathered angel playing a lute - a motif thought to be derived from medieval mystery plays. These vernacular dramas, which enacted biblical tales such as the Creation and the story of Adam and Eve, were performed all over Europe in the Middle Ages. In England, guilds of performers toured the countryside with their 'pageant wagons', the actors playing angels wearing 'pyjama suits' covered with feathers.

Makers
This panel is attributed to the Norwich School, one of the three major glass-painting centres in England that developed a distinctive style in the period. Stained glass was produced here from at least the 13th century. It was in the 15th century that business really took off, however, with many commissions financed by merchants made rich by the wool trade. Norwich glass was inventive, well drawn and vigorous in style. Its painters developed several motifs that were used with such regularity as to almost constitute trademarks. The most recognisable of these, featured here, is the pattern used to symbolise the grain and knotting of wood which resembles ears of barley.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Coloured, flashed and clear glass, painted with yellow stain and brown enamel
Brief description
Clear and coloured glass with painted decoration in brown/black pigment and silver (yellow) stain, depicting an angel playing a lute and with bells hanging from his belt, England (norwich school), ca. 1460-80
Physical description
Panel, with a trefoil top, from a tracery light set in a clear modern panel. A crowned lute-playing angel, with a belt of bills, and feathered legs, painted in black and yellow stain, on a ruby ground spangled with 3 stars.
Dimensions
  • Height: 57.1cm
  • Width: 23cm
Dimensions checked: Measured; 10/08/2000 by KB dimensions of new frame provided by Drew Anderson August 2001
Gallery label
British Galleries: These fragments of stained glass were once part of a great window from a church in East Anglia. Stained glass painted in similar style, and dated between 1445 and 1480, is found in churches in and near Norwich. Medieval mystery plays refer to the feathered suits of angels seen in these fragments.(27/03/2003)
Object history
English Probably made in Norfolk
Subjects depicted
Summary
Object Type
During the 15th century there was considerable growth in church building. Windows were made much larger than before with increasingly refined tracery (the delicate interlaced stonework that divided the window into smaller areas in which stained glass could be inset). This development not only brought glass painters more business but also allowed them greater freedom in their compositions. Figure subjects such as this were ideally shaped to fill the pointed arches of the topmost lights in a window.

Subjects Depicted
This panel depicts a feathered angel playing a lute - a motif thought to be derived from medieval mystery plays. These vernacular dramas, which enacted biblical tales such as the Creation and the story of Adam and Eve, were performed all over Europe in the Middle Ages. In England, guilds of performers toured the countryside with their 'pageant wagons', the actors playing angels wearing 'pyjama suits' covered with feathers.

Makers
This panel is attributed to the Norwich School, one of the three major glass-painting centres in England that developed a distinctive style in the period. Stained glass was produced here from at least the 13th century. It was in the 15th century that business really took off, however, with many commissions financed by merchants made rich by the wool trade. Norwich glass was inventive, well drawn and vigorous in style. Its painters developed several motifs that were used with such regularity as to almost constitute trademarks. The most recognisable of these, featured here, is the pattern used to symbolise the grain and knotting of wood which resembles ears of barley.
Bibliographic references
  • Williamson, Paul. Medieval and Renaissance Stained Glass in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2003. ISBN 1851774041
  • Glass, or Glass-making as a creative art through the ages, Leeds : Temple Newsam House, 1961 187
Collection
Accession number
C.340-1937

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Record createdMay 11, 1998
Record URL
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