Description: This stained-glass panel features a black and gold coat of arms. The central shield is adorned with curly mantling and topped by a helmet. "Elaborate baroque red and blue pillars frame the arms and support a blue arch with a red central cartouche. Above it are two scenes depicting the patriarch Jacob. On the left the sleeping Jacob has a vision of a ladder from heaven to earth with angels. On the right he sends his wives, servants, and children across the ford of a river... In the foreground, he wrestles with an angel who blesses him and gives him the name Israel." Cherubs are depicted in the bottom two corners of the pane, holding gold cups similar to the black cup on the central shield. Between the cherubs is a dedication inscription "enclosed in a gold and blue frame with scrollwork and angel heads," and the date 1595. (Naomi Meyer '27; including quotations from Dr. Virginia Raguin)
Heraldry: Kauffman, Hans Jacob: Per fess sable and or in chief two double-cups of the last and in base one double-cup of the first; crest: on a helm, facing front, a ducal coronet issuant two arms attired in the colors and holding aloft a heart crowned or; mantling of the colors.
Inscription: Zunfftmaister hans jacob kapffman / kornmaister, wegmaister, schützenmaister / er Unnd diser Zeit Verwalter über daß / sellhaus zuo S. Gallen, Anno 1.5.9.5. (Guild Master Hans Jacob Kauffman, Grain Supervisor, Road Supervisor, City Guard Supervisor/ and at this time Administrator over the warehouse of St. Gallen, the year 1595) Signature: C. S. (to the right, on the platform supporting the coat of arms)
Label Text: This is a rare example of an artist-signed stained-glass panel from the 16th century. Its maker created a lasting lineage of glass painters in Constance, a city on the border between Germany and Switzerland. The panel displays the coat of arms of Hans Jacob Kaffman, head of an association of craftsmen or merchants in the Swiss city of St. Gallen. He collected grain payments, supervised road maintenance and city defense, while also managing the city warehouse. While in other parts of Europe, a coat of arms was often associated with nobility, many citizens of Switzerland had their own coat of arms regardless of social class. Colored in black and gold, Kafmann’s heraldic shield features three double-cups (vessels composed of two similar-sized cups). Human arms holding a crowned heart rise from the helmet on top of the shield. Below, two cherubs hold double-cups similar to those of the shield. Between the cherubs is a framed inscription and the date 1595. As a reference to the donor’s name, the top of the panel includes two scenes with the Biblical patriarch Jacob. On the left, Jacob is sleeping and dreaming about a staircase to heaven (Genesis 28:10–17). God tells Jacob that his descendants would be a great nation, and that through them, all people on earth would be blessed. On the right, Jacob wrestles with an angel of God, who then blesses him and gives him the name Israel (Genesis 32:22–31).
Maria Timina, 2025
Tags: figures; text; religion; decoration and ornament; shape; symbolism; windows; nudes; narrative; columns Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2018.205 |