The Digitalisation Project Castle Huis Bergh is the intellectual property of the Stichting Musick’s Monument. Ing Hans Meijer was responsible for the technical realisation; Dr Willem Kuiper for the scholarly input. Thanks are also due to the Anjer Cultuurfonds Gelderland; the Stichting de Verenigde Stichtingen “De Armenkorf” in Terborg and “Het Gasthuis te Silvolde”; Mrs P. Tijdink-Hermsen; Mrs L.J.C. Meijer-Kroonder; and the Giese family.
Stained glass
Ecole de Chartres
Leaded glass panel with stained glass , showing one of the three kings ca. 1200.
This panel is a fragment of a larger whole. Against a blue background with above left a yellow six-pointed star, stands a right-leaning man, dressed in a white tunic with a red cloak and a yellow crown. He is holding a green box.
For the gothic medieval citizen, light, glitter and colour had an important religious significance. The glitter of precious stones, the bright colours of frescoes and the sunlight which flooded in through the stained glass cathedral windows were associated with godly light. In such light and such colours, God would even be visible, and in this way he revealed himself to mere mortals. This way of seeing was attributed to the important twelfth century thinker and holy man Abbot Suger. it was he who renovated the church of Saint-Denis in Paris, providing it with marvellous decorations. In order to justify his love for all that glitters and shines - in the rather strait-laced twelfth century, remember, this was not ’religiously correct’ — he invoked a fifth-century text by one Dionysius the Areopagite (’Denis’ in French). This early Christian philosopher developed a complex theory about the various sorts of light which shone upon the earth from a divine source of light. It later came to light (no pun intended) that Dionysius the Areopagite could not have been the author of this work; this is why we currently speak of the light theory of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. But whatever the origin of this medieval love of light, it is true to say that stained glass windows were an expression of this love. They were there to give sunlight colours, and to lend the cathedrals the allure of heavenly Jerusalem. This glass fragment was made by a glass painter from the school of Chartres, a group of artists who are seen as the most important producers of early gothic leaded glass. We see one of the three kings who came to worship the infant Jesus. He is wearing a king’s crown and is carrying a green box which contains a gift for the Messiah (gold, frankincense or myrrh).