15th Century Glass

[poliphilo]

The little church at Nettlestead has a lot of 15th century glass. I understand it remained intact until the early 18th century when there was a big wind storm and most of it blew out. It was later restored, but a little haphazardly. In spite of damage and clumsy repairs Nettlestead still has more old glass than most parish churches.

Here are images of St Stephen and St Lawrence. They're clearly developed from the same drawing or pattern book or whatever it was the glaziers used. Note the Yorkist symbols at the top- white rose and sun in splendour. These almost certainly date the work to the reign of Edward IV (i461-83)





And here's the best preserved of the bigger windows- featuring three apostles. I imagine Nettlestead once possessed the full set of twelve, but one window has gone, so now it has only nine.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

The donor portraits always fascinate me in works of religious art.

Is anything known of who they were?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The votive figures seem to be clerics, but the church's patron was the local landowner- a knight called Pympe. I don't quite see how it all adds up. Perhaps these particular windows started off somewhere else.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

That's not, of course, impossible. St Mary's Shrewsbury has amazing windows that originated in Germany and the Low Countries.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I love that stuff.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good, innit!

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Those are wonderful! I especially love the identikit saints.

We have so little medieval glass around here - just a few small fragments and the odd roundel.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Nettlestead is an anomaly. I don't know how that glass survived. Maybe the iconoclasts overlooked it. Maybe local people faced them down. Most village churches round here have no more medieval glass than your churches in Dorset.