Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

IV.—Winchester College Stained Glass

1971; Society of Antiquaries of London; Volume: 103; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0261340900013874

2051-3186

John H. Harvey, Dennis G. King,

Scottish History and National Identity

The original buildings of Winchester College were erected between 1387 and 1394, and among the most important of their fittings was the stained glass of the chapel windows. The general scheme of glazing must have been decided when the college was first designed, and the close iconographical relationship between the Winchester glass and that made for New College, Oxford, carries back the date of the design in outline to about 1380. At Oxford the chapel stood to the west of the hall, with a stone reredos covering the whole of the eastern wall, and a great west window; at Winchester this arrangement was reversed, the blank wall was at the west, while the great window of the chapel was placed in its eastern wall. Both windows consist of seven lights divided into two ranges by a horizontal transom; but the arrangements of mullions and tracery differ. In both cases the main subject of the glazing was a Tree of Jesse: the symbolic Vine springing from Jesse's loins and bearing in its branches a selection, more or less arbitrary, from the Kings of David's Line flanked by Prophets. The chief glass-painter responsible for the production of the glazing at both colleges was Thomas of Oxford, the head of one of the outstanding firms of glaziers working in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. Master Thomas was already in high standing by 1386 and died about 1427. It is not certain that he was the designer of the glass, and it is evident from the portions of the original glass still extant that he employed a number of painters. This is confirmed by documentary references to his assistants, and for the production of such a large amount of fully painted glass a big firm must be assumed, rather than the small shop of an artist mainly concerned with design.