The craft of making stained glass all but disappeared from the northern Netherlands in the long eighteenth century, but craft knowledge continued to circulate in texts and rare attempts at revival. This paper studies the role of artisans, natural historians and apothecaries and their use of texts in attempts to maintain and revive the knowledge of and techniques for the production of stained glass in the northern Netherlands between 1650 and 1821. I argue that their efforts contributed to the preservation of existing stained glass, and raised awareness about the cultural and historical value of stained glass and the knowledge and skills required to produce it. Although much tacit, practical knowledge was lost, basic technical knowledge circulated in a small number of texts. Combined with preserved stained glass, these texts served as the basis for reconstructive experiments that would lead to a revival of the art in the nineteenth century.
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See i.e. Jutta Schickore, The Microscope and the Eye: A History of Reflections, 1740–1870 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), Sven Dupré, “Trading Luxury Glass, Picturing Collections and Consuming Objects of Knowledge in Early Seventeenth Century Antwerp,” Intellectual History Review, 2010, 20/1:53–78.
Marco Beretta, The Alchemy of Glass: Counterfeit, Imitation, and Transmutation in Ancient Glassmaking (Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications, 2009), pp. 84, 96. Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, “Introduction,” in Glass of the Alchemists: Lead Crystal-Gold Ruby, 1650–1750 (Corning, NY: Corning Museum of glass, 2008), p. 12.
Marieke M.A. Hendriksen, “Researched and Ridiculed? Gemstones in 18th-Century Dutch Medicine, Chemistry and Pharmacy,” in Gems in Transit, edited by Michael Bycroft and Sven Dupré (forthcoming).
Also see Simon Werrett, “Green is the Colour,” Ambix. The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, 2013, 60/2:122–138.
Leandro Rodriguez Medina, “Conceptualizing Knowledge Circulation: Methods and Theories,” in The Circulation of European Knowledge: Niklas Luhmann in the Hispanic Americas (Basingstoke: Palgrave Pivot, 2014), pp. 6–28, pp. 13–16.
David N. Livingstone, “Science, Text and Space: Thoughts on the Geography of Reading,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 2005, 30:391–401, p. 391. Mária Luz López Terrada, “Flora and the Habsburgs Crown: Clusius, Spain, and American Natural History,” in Silent Messengers. The Circulation of Material Objects of Knowledge in the Early Modern Low Countries, edited by Sven Dupré and Cristoph Lüthy (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2011), pp. 43–68. Henrike Haug, “Artificial Interventions in the Natural Form of Things: Shared Metallogenetical Concepts of Goldsmiths and Alchemists,” in Laboratories of Art: Alchemy and Art Technology from Antiquity to the 18th Century, edited by Sven Dupré (Cham [u.a.]: Springer, 2014), pp. 79–104.
Andrew Spicer, “ ‘So Many Painted Jezebels’: Stained Glass Windows and the Formation of an Urban Identity in the Dutch Republic,” in Public Opinion and Changing Identities in the Early Modern Netherlands, edited by Judith Pollmann and Andrew Spicer (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 249–277, pp. 274–277.
Ibid., pp. 231–232.
Ibid., p. 39.
Pamela H. Smith and Tonny Beentjes, “Nature and Art: Making and Knowing: Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Life-Casting Techniques,” Renaissance Quarterly, 2010, 63:128–179, p. 130.
Marieke M.A. Hendriksen, “Strange Glass: Vitrium Antimonii,” The Medicine Chest, 2014: https://themedicinechest.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/strange-glass-vitrium-antimonii/ (accessed 14 September 2015). Vitrium Antimonii is the glassy phase of antimony oxide; although the substance is described as ‘glass-like’ in many sources it is something very different than silica window glass, i.e. it is very brittle and can never be clear.
Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), p. 90, pp. 142–143.
Simon Witgeest, Het Nieuw Toneel Der Konsten (Amsterdam: Jan ten Hoorn, 1679), Antonio Neri, L’arte vetraria distinta in libri sette, Ne quali si scoprono effetti maravigliosi & insegnano segreti bellissimi del vetro nel fuoco & altre cose curiose (Florence: Giunti, 1612). On books of secrets see a.o. Allison Kavey, Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550–1600 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007).
Antonio Neri and Christopher Meret, Antoni Neri Florentini, De Arte Vitraria Libri Septem, & in eosdem Christoph. Merretti Observationes & Notæ (Amsterdam: Andreas Frisius, 1668).
Patrick Wallis, “Consumption, Retailing and Medicine in Early Modern London,” The Economic History Review, 2008, 61:26–53, p. 36. Paula de Vos, “Apothecaries, Artists, and Artisans: Early Industrial Material Culture in the Biological Old Regime,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2015, 45:277–336.
Ibid., p. 180.
Ibid., p. 186.
Ibid., p. 293.
Rina Knoeff, Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738): Calvinist Chemist and Physician (Amsterdam: Edita, 2002), p. 18.
Florent le Comte, Cabinet des singularitez d’ architecture, peinture, sculpture et graveurs (Paris: Nic. Le Clerc, 1699), was translated a.o. as Historische und Technologische Nachricht von der Kunst auf Glas zu Malen / Aus Herrn Florent Le Comte Cabinet des Singularitez d’ Architecture (Berlin: 1763).
David C. Preyer, The Art of the Netherland Galleries (Boston: L.C. Page, 1908), p. 158. Many Dutch visual artists in the eighteenth century worked in a variety of disciplines and mediums. For example, Leendert Overbeek (1752–1815), of whom the Rijksmuseum has two reverse glass painted landscapes in its collection, was not only a reverse glass painter, but also had a shop in brightly coloured ribbons, painted interior and stage decorations, and made verres eglomises, book illustrations and etches.
Lissa Roberts, “P.J. Kasteleyn and the ‘Oeconomics’ of Dutch Chemistry,” Ambix. The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, 2006, 53:255–272, p. 255.
Sylvie Neven, “Transmission of Alchemical and Artistic Knowledge in German Mediaeval and Premodern Recipe Books,” in Laboratories of Art (cit. note 12), pp. 23–52.
Ype Staak died in 1808, Tjalling Gonggrijp in 1823. Although it is theoretically possible that they did produce stained glass after 1794, there are no records of this, nor do any windows remain from this period.
Simon Werrett, “Recycling in Early Modern Science,” The British Journal for the History of Science, 2013, 46/4:627–646, p. 630, 640.
Ibid., p. 249, 277.
Carine Hoogveld, “De Ontwikkeling van de Glasschilderkunst in de Negentiende Eeuw,” in Glas in Lood in Nederland, 1817–1968, edited by Carine Hoogveld and Ellinoor Bergvelt (’s-Gravenhage: SDU Uitgeverij, 1989), pp. 14–53, p. 24.
W.H. Warnsinck, “Iets, betrekkelijk de door Peter Francis Peters, te Nijmegen, wedergevondene kunst van glasschildren,” in Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen, edited by G.S. Leeneman van der Kroe and J.W. IJntema (Amsterdam: 1827), pp. 732–735.
Carine Hoogveld, “Verantwoording,” in Glas in Lood in Nederland, 1817–1968, edited by Carine Hoogveld and Ellinoor Bergvelt (’s-Gravenhage: SDU Uitgeverij, 1989), pp. 9–13. A similar revival was seen in the surrounding countries. See i.e. “Stained and Painted Glass 1770–1870,” Victoria and Albert Museum, http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/stained-and-painted-glass-1770-1870/ (accessed 14 September 2015), Jim Chesire, “Stained Glass,” Victorian Review, 2008, 34/1:71–75.
Roberts, “P.J. Kasteleyn” (cit. note 50); Lissa Roberts, “Practicing Oeconomy during the Second Half of the Long Eighteenth Century: An Introduction,” History and Technology. An International Journal, 2014, 30:133–148.
Auke van der Woud, De Bataafse Hut (Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Contact, 1998).
Lissa Roberts, “Introduction,” in Centres and Cycles of Accumulation in and around the Netherlands during the Early Modern Period, edited by Lissa Roberts (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2011), p. 5.
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The craft of making stained glass all but disappeared from the northern Netherlands in the long eighteenth century, but craft knowledge continued to circulate in texts and rare attempts at revival. This paper studies the role of artisans, natural historians and apothecaries and their use of texts in attempts to maintain and revive the knowledge of and techniques for the production of stained glass in the northern Netherlands between 1650 and 1821. I argue that their efforts contributed to the preservation of existing stained glass, and raised awareness about the cultural and historical value of stained glass and the knowledge and skills required to produce it. Although much tacit, practical knowledge was lost, basic technical knowledge circulated in a small number of texts. Combined with preserved stained glass, these texts served as the basis for reconstructive experiments that would lead to a revival of the art in the nineteenth century.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 410 | 78 | 2 |
Full Text Views | 240 | 9 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 71 | 13 | 0 |