About the Artwork
The extraordinary quality of the painting and the remarkable state of preservation make this, and four other panels from the series in the museum's collection, major documents of stained glass of the period. The panel is an accomplished blend of German and Netherlandish stylistic tendencies that could have been created in Cologne or perhaps by continental artists working in England in the early sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century this panel was at Stoke Poges, a sixteenth-century manor house in Buckinghamshire, England. Wenceslas, duke of Bohemia, is shown here with a beggar at his feet, evoking his good works. A dukedom in the tenth century, Bohemia later became a kingdom, making Wenceslas the famous “Good King” of the Christmas carol.
Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia
between 1510 to 1525
(Artist) English (Artist) German
Pot metal, white glass, vitreous paint, silver stain
74 x 23 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches (188.0 x 59.7 x 7 cm)
Stained Glass
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
Gift of K. T. Keller
58.111
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
Stoke Poges Manor, Buckinghamshire 1799, Saint Giles Church, Stoke Poges
Col. Shaw, Stoke Poges Manor
1929, sold to (Sotheby & Co., London)
(Lionel Harris, Spanish Art Gallery, London)
1929 (French & Co., NY, New York)
William Randolph Hearst, New York
1943, His sale, (Gimbel Brothers, New York, New York, USA) The Hearst Foundation
1958-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Lipscomb, George, THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF BUCKINGHAM, IV, London, 1847.
ART OBJECTS AND FURNISHINGS FROM THE WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST COLLECTION: CATALOGUE RAISONNE COMPRISING ILLUSTRATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS TOGETHER WITH COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF BOOKS, AUTOGRAPHS AND MANUSCRIPTS, AND COMPLETE INDEX, New York: Publishers Printing Co, 1941.
Detroit Institute of Arts, HANDBOOK, 1971, p 123.
Caviness, Madeline H., ed., MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STAINED GLASS FROM NEW ENGLAND COLLECTIONS, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, April 25- June 10, 1978, p 79.
STAINED GLASS BEFORE 1700 IN AMERICAN COLLECTIONS: MID-WESTERN AND WESTERN STATES (CORPUS VITREARUM CHECKLIST III), Studies in the History of Art, vol 28, Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1989, p 161, (ill C), p 162 (with bibliography).
V. C. Raguin, NORTHERN RENAISSANCE STAINED GLASS, CONTINUITY AND TRANSFORMATIONS, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Worcester, MA, Feb 2-March 8, 1987, exh cat, p 70.
V. C. Raguin, "Three German Saints and a Taste for German Expressionism: Valentiner at the Detroit Institute of Arts," Gesta 37, no. 2 (1998), p. 244
V. C. Raguin and Helen J. Zakin, CORPUS VITREARUM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PART VII: STAINED GLASS BEFORE 1700 IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE MIDWEST STATES, vol I, London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2001, pp 201-205, 208, for further bibliography p 205
Drake, Maurice and Wilfred. Saints and Their Emblems. London, 1916, p. 135 (ill.).
You, Yao-Fen. “New Observations Concerning the Stoke Poges Windows.” Revista de História da Arte 3 (2015), pp. 153–164.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
possibly German; possibly English, Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia, between 1510 to 1525, Pot metal, white glass, vitreous paint, silver stain. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of K. T. Keller, 58.111.
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