Pair of Stained Glass Panels with Male and Female Donor (c. 1480): Art, History and Details

Pair of Stained Glass Panels with Male and Female Donor (c. 1480) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The origin of these stained glass panels is unknown. They depict a male and female donor, presumably husband and wife, who gaze upon a now-lost central panel. The object of their devotions was likely a crucified Christ or a standing figure of the Virgin Mary. The man, dressed in armor, and the woman, wearing a bejeweled and richly embroidered gown, are accompanied by their not yet identified coats-of-arms. They are undoubtedly members of an aristocratic elite who commissioned these windows, perhaps for a family chapel.

Object facts

• Title: Pair of Stained Glass Panels with Male and Female Donor
• Date: c. 1480
• Culture: France
• Type: Glass
• Technique: pot metal, white glass with silver stain
• Dimensions: Overall: 156 x 43.5 x 1.5 cm (61 7/16 x 17 1/8 x 9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1919.1

A detail from the museum

The brilliant colors of this stained glass panel were produced by adding different materials to molten glass, creating a reaction that resulted in specific colors while the metal supports for the individual pieces of glass are made from pot metal, an alloy, or mixture, of copper and iron.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 2 (1919): 37-38.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.