Armorial panel thumbnail 1
Armorial panel thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 10

Armorial panel

Panel
ca. 1496 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Panel. Arms of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, 1496-1506. Grosvenor Thomas collection.
The combined arms are those of Burgundy/Hapsburg (Philip) and Aragon, Navarre, Leon and Castile after Spain was unified in 1492.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleArmorial panel
Materials and techniques
Clear, coloured and flashed glass with painted details and yellow (silver) stain.
Brief description
Clear, coloured and flashed glass with painted details and yellow (silver) stain. Depicting the arms for Philip the Fair of Burgundy and Joanna, Queen of Spain. From the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges. Made in Flanders, c.1496
Physical description
Panel. Arms of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, 1496-1506. Grosvenor Thomas collection.
The combined arms are those of Burgundy/Hapsburg (Philip) and Aragon, Navarre, Leon and Castile after Spain was unified in 1492.
Dimensions
  • Framed height: 158.1cm
  • Framed width: 49.9cm
  • Sight height: 149.9cm
  • Sight width: 41.7cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Gallery label
Stained Glass Panels from the Chapel of the Holy Blood Probably about 1496 These panels depict the armorials associated with the Dukes of Burgundy and their Hapsburg successors. Two of the armorials commemorate the marriages between Maximilian of Hapsburg and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy and also that of their son Philip the Fair and his wife Joanna, heiress to the Kingdom of Spain. Maximilian probably commissioned these windows to honour his wife's devotion to the Holy Blood and to publicise his dynastic succession to the Dukes of Burgundy. Flanders, Bruges Clear and coloured glass with painted details and silver stain; with later restorations Museum nos.C.443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448-1918 Purchased from Grosvenor Thomas from the Capt. HB Murray Bequest(2008 (TAB))
Object history
Reconstruction of the windows in the Chapel of the Holy Blood:
Were 9 windows of two lights each.
19th replacements
Window 7: Emperor Maximilian & Mary of Burgundy
Window 8: Charles the Bold and Isabel of Bourbon
Window 9: Charles V and Isabella of Portugal

From the archives of the Confraternity of the Holy Blood – payments for glazing were recorded in 1483 and in 1496.

The ancient glass disappeared during the French invasion of 1797. The glass from the Chapel was sold by the municipality of Bruges to a local man for a miniscule sum who then sold them, at great profit, to an English man in the early 19th century. Believe the glass ended up with firm of Watson & Bethell.

There are coloured drawings of the windows, pre-dispersal, in the Chapel archives. In 1845 reproductions of the panels were made from these drawings by the glass painter Pluys.

In 1913 they were owned by Grosvenor Thomas. He acquired them from Kilburn Grange which was erected after 1830.

Rackham, in a letter of 1921, says panels were previously in Kilburn Grange which had been pulled down 10 or 12 years ago [presumably meaning 1909 or 1911]. The family of Major Cecil Peters of Sunbury Manor, Sunbury in Middlesex, formerly owned Kilburn Grange.
Production
From the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Bernard Rackham, The Stained Glass in the Chapel of the Holy Blood at Bruges, Actes du XIIe Congres International d'Histoire de l'Art, Bruxelles, 20-29 Septembre, 1930, pp.424-431
  • The Grosvenor Thomas Collection of Ancient Stained Glass, catalogue, New York, 1913
  • Aymer Vallance, 'Some Flemish Painted Glass Panels', Burlington Magazine, XIX (July 1911)
  • J. Gaillard, Recherches historiques sur las chapelle du Saint-Sang a Bruges, Bruges, 1846
  • David Thomas Powell (ac.1800-c.1837), copies (12) of stained glass from the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges. Watercolours.
Collection
Accession number
C.448-1918

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Record createdAugust 4, 1998
Record URL
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