Stained-glass Window Depicting The Crucifixion, Circa 1500

Stained-glass medallion depicting the Crucifixion

Circa 1500 (late 15th – early 16th century)

Grisaille and silver yellow on white glass.

This stained-glass panel depicts the Crucifixion of Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, according to an iconography that was widely used in the late Middle Ages.

At the center of the composition, Christ is depicted dead on the cross, his head tilted toward his right shoulder. Above his head is the titulus bearing the inscription INRI. His halo and perizonium are highlighted in silver yellow.

On the left, the Virgin is depicted in a posture of deep sorrow, her hands clasped in prayer. Her downcast face expresses a restraint characteristic of late medieval spirituality.

On the right, Saint John, young and beardless, gazes at Christ while placing a hand on his chest in a gesture of grief. His flowing cloak is enlivened by delicate highlights of silver-yellow.

The landscape is rendered with great simplicity: a few clumps of vegetation and a faint horizon line suffice to set the scene. All attention is focused on the figures, whose elegant silhouettes and flowing drapery still reflect the language of the Late Gothic style.

The execution relies on a particularly fine grisaille drawing, enriched with silver-yellow, used for the halos, the edges of the garments, the foliage, and certain elements of the cross. The deliberately limited color palette highlights the quality of the line work and the modeling achieved through nuanced washes.

The scene is set within a circular medallion, now mounted in a modern diamond-patterned grid with a red border, likely intended for its display or preservation.

Given the quality of the drawing, the balance of the composition, and the mastery of the grisaille technique, this work is characteristic of the glass workshops active around 1500, a period when small panels for private devotion experienced significant growth in the former Low Countries, the Upper Rhine, Switzerland, and eastern France.