Panel

Object Type
In the first half of the 19th century there was a move away from the pictorial glass-painting which predominated in Britain during the18th. Medieval principles of window-making were revived, joining pieces of coloured glass with leads in mosaic form. This taste for old stained glass became increasingly fashionable, and vast quantities were imported from the Continent. This panel is one of several made in the Gothic style to supplement a series of over 120 panels of 16th-century German glass, installed by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgwater (1756-1829), in his chapel at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, between 1811 and 31.

People
Ashridge was designed and built in the period 1808-1814 by James Wyatt (1746-1813), an architect famous for his neo-Gothic country houses. It has been suggested that this panel was made by Joseph Hale Miller (1777-1842), one of four artists pioneering medieval stained glass making in England at this time. Miller was responsible for restoring the historic glass in Ashridge chapel, and though his own work resorts largely to 18th-century techniques, it does emulate the Gothic style.

Materials & Making
Despite the maker's attempt to produce windows that are medieval in appearance, this panel is typical of the early 19th century. A large proportion of the panel is clear glass, over-painted in brown and coloured enamels. But some of the coloured areas, such as the prophet's green robe, are made from true stained glass (or 'pot-metal'), and the blue and red sections are 'flashed' (clear glass which has been coated with a different-coloured layer). The shape of the panel indicates that it was made to fill the tracery in the uppermost section of a window.