Armorial panel of Basle with the Virgin

Description

Early Renaissance glass painting in Basle received powerful and lasting inspiration from Hans Holbein the Younger, who settled in the city in 1519: his drawings for glass panels were used as cartoons and frequently copied by Basle artists in the C16. The armorial panel of Basle with the haloed Madonna is redolent of the influence of Holbein in composition, draughtsmanship and colouring. Many motifs such as the powerfully articulated baluster columns, the arch of foliage springing from them, the putti romping amidst flowers and leaves and the escutcheon of Basle in the form of a shield are paralleled in the prints and drawings produced by Holbein at the same period. The self absorbed Queen of Heaven with her divine son, an extremely tender and lovely figure, is similar to the Brunswick Madonna of 1520. The glass, which is believed to come from a country church in the canton of Berne, came into the hands of the Basle Kunstverein from a private collection; in 1882 they made it available to the Museum for display, and in 1930 presented it to the Museum.