Stained glass window, King from the Tree of Jesse

Information sur l’artiste
Saint-Denis Basilica, Île-de-France

Date de l’œuvre libre
1145
Vitrail Roi de l’Arbre de Jessé, Basilique de Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, Vers 1145
Île-de-France,
Vitrail : Roi de l'arbre de Jessé, vers 1145.
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Alain Basset
Contenu

This panel, which joined the museum in 1884, purportedly comes from the stained-glass window depicting the Tree of Jesse in the Saint-Denis Basilica. Removed in 1799, it has been displayed in Paris, in the 14th century gallery of Alexandre Renoir's “Museum of French Monuments”. The stained-glass window was initially composed of the prostrate figure of Jesse, three ancestors, the Virgin, and the Saviour. After the museum was closed in 1818, the panels were not reinstalled in the ambulatory windows of the Saint-Denis Basilica until 1830-1835.

 

The panel exhibited in Lyon, probably transferred to the museum at the beginning of the 19th century, was absent from the collection in the Museum of French Monuments. Coming from the art market, it has been heavily restored. The head and the crown of the king are new and the clothing has been largely reworked on, apart from a few segments of the right shoulder and the brooch at the centre. The restoration work remains faithful to the original drapery style. The way the branches are drawn, the style of the leaves, and the ornamental form of the stalks are also consistent with the style of the Family Tree of Jesse at Saint-Denis. A small proportion of the sections are in older, thick glass, but the majority is made of thin modern panels.

Artwork label
Description de l’œuvre

Circa 1145
Stained glass and lead
H.74.7; L. 84.5; D. 3 cm
Inv. D 268