Armorial panel of Johann Konrad von Roggenbach

Description

The armorial panel, a signed work by the Constance glass painter Wolfgang Spengler dated 1660, has been broken several times and is crisscrossed by repairs in lead. It commemorates Johann Konrad von Roggenbach, Prince Bishop of Basle (1656-93). Roggenbach was very active politically and in the Counter Reformation, and his tenure of office meant for his bishopric a period of peace and reconstruction after the devastation caused by the Thirty Years' War. Besides founding several monasteries in Pruntrut where he had his official residence, in 1681 Roggenbach consecrated the new cathedral church of the diocese, financed by himself, in Arlesheim; the cathedral chapter had returned there from exile in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1678. The Madonna as the patron saint of Basle appears above the armorial cartouche decorated with an infula, a sword and a bishop's staff. The founder of Basle Munster, Emperor Henry II, and St Pantalus, a legendary bishop and patron saint of the bishopric of Basle, stand on either side of the escutcheon.