Designed by Albrecht Dürer (Nuremberg, 1471 - 1528, Nuremberg)
The Self-Mortification of Saint Benedict, about 1496
White glass with silver stain, vitreous paint, and back-painting , 22.5 x 16.3 cm (8 7/8 x 6 7/16 in.)
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Stained glass rectangular, vertical panel depicting the story of the self-mortification of Saint Benedict. Most of the glass is varying shades of gray with a few bright yellow areas. The lower right corner of the panel depicts a woman sitting near a small pond. She is wearing a long dress with a yellow belt and a veil that covers her hair. A piece of the glass next to her dress is missing and five large cracks extend out across the panel. In the lower left panel there is a yellow arch that contains a blond angel wearing robes holding a shield with two crossed prongs on it. Above the angel there is the nude form of St. Benedict in a thorn bush. He has blond hair and a gold halo above his head. He is laying on his stomach with his legs extending back towards a river. He is resting on his elbows, his hands clasped in prayer. Many of the plants surrounding him are a bright yellow color. Above St. Benedict there is a castle sitting on a hill with a bright yellow gate and a yellow tree situated next to it. The upper right corner of the panel depicts a mountain and another yellow tree. The river flows down from the mountain. A black crow is in the upper right corner of the panel, flying down towards St. Benedict.
Spanish Chapel
Commentary
This window depicts an episode from the life of Saint Benedict (ca. 480–547). Satan, in the form of black birds, flutters around the saint. The young saint overcame his sexual desires (represented by the woman seen at the right) by throwing himself into a thorn bush. Albrecht Dürer shows Benedict lying in a thicket, deep in prayer.
In 1496, Dürer made drawings for twelve stained glass panels narrating the life of Saint Benedict. Appropriately, they were made for the Benedictine abbey of Saint Aegidius in Nuremberg. Each design prominently displays the arms of the families who paid for the panels, which were probably made to celebrate a marriage. In the Gardner Museum’s stained glass panel, the arms are those of the Waldstromer family.
Dürer was widely celebrated for his prints and paintings, but he also designed other objects, including sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. His brilliance as a graphic artist shows itself in the stained glass produced from his patterns. Strong and expressive figures are set into a lively landscape of variously shaped trees and rocky forms. Dürer produced clear drawings, created with parallel or crossed lines, for the inspection of patrons, and for glass painters to trace and copy onto glass. The drawing for this stained glass panel is in Darmstadt.
This stained glass panel, along with six windows from Milan Cathedral, was among the very first art objects acquired by Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Source: Alan Chong, "The Self-Mortification of Saint Benedict," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 133.
In 1496, Dürer made drawings for twelve stained glass panels narrating the life of Saint Benedict. Appropriately, they were made for the Benedictine abbey of Saint Aegidius in Nuremberg. Each design prominently displays the arms of the families who paid for the panels, which were probably made to celebrate a marriage. In the Gardner Museum’s stained glass panel, the arms are those of the Waldstromer family.
Dürer was widely celebrated for his prints and paintings, but he also designed other objects, including sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. His brilliance as a graphic artist shows itself in the stained glass produced from his patterns. Strong and expressive figures are set into a lively landscape of variously shaped trees and rocky forms. Dürer produced clear drawings, created with parallel or crossed lines, for the inspection of patrons, and for glass painters to trace and copy onto glass. The drawing for this stained glass panel is in Darmstadt.
This stained glass panel, along with six windows from Milan Cathedral, was among the very first art objects acquired by Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Source: Alan Chong, "The Self-Mortification of Saint Benedict," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 133.