Description:
ID))): This stained glass roundel pane features a coat of arms with a heraldic shield at the bottom. The shield is quartered horizontally: the top and bottom sections are red, the middle section is black, and the remaining sections are white with a chevron pattern. The mantling of the shield features voluminous red and off-white leaves and a red headpiece at the top center of the shield. Above the crown is what seems like a female figure with long curly blond hair facing left and wearing a red dress that spills into the leaves. Surrounding the roundel is a white circle band outlined with an inscription that reads: "HAN* VONN SELBITZ ZC ANNO DOMINI 1572." Outside of the circle border is an octagonal frame. Inside the octagon are a variety of yellow floral motifs on a white background. The glass pane is framed by a black-leaded grid that divides the frame into eight sections. (Skyla Monroe '27)
Inscription: Han[s] Vonn Selbitz ZC Anno Domini 1572 (Hans Von Selbitz ZC, the year of Our Lord, 1572)
Heraldry: Von Selbitz: Gules on a fess argent a bar sable; crest: a demi-woman proper couped and erased attired gules; mantling gules and argent.
Label Text:
The heraldic shield is surrounded by elaborate leaf ornaments and topped by a blond female half-figure dressed in red. The inscription around the composition refers to Hans von Selbitz. He may potentially be identified with his namesake from the memoirs of the German mercenary knight and poet Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562). According to von Berlichingen, he and von Selbitz sometimes fought alongside each other. The former was missing a hand and wore an iron prosthesis, and the latter was missing a leg. Nevertheless, both had a reputation of fearsome mercenaries capable of raiding and plundering large merchant trains, burning castles, and waging wars on entire cities. Berlichingen’s life is commemorated in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama of the same name, where he is depicted as an adventurous German folk hero.
Maria Timina, 2025
Tags:
decoration and ornament; shape; symbolism; symmetry; leaves; women; figures; text; geometry Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2018.229 |
