Armorial panel of Zug from the council chamber at Baden

Description

The panel of Zug belongs to a cycle of armorial panels conceived as a whole and presented by the ten Confederated states at the instance of Baden town council to furnish the council chamber at Baden (canton of Aargau) in 1500. All the panels have been preserved. The states commissioned Lukas Zeiner, an important stained glass artist from Zurich, to undertake the task. The Baden series of panels is an early example of the custom, widespread in Switzerland from the C15, of donating windows and coats of arms as an expression of political unity. The Zug panel is typical of the kind of glass Zeiner made, following a compositional schema which was extremely common in official C16th stained glass. Beneath a framing arch with figures in the spandrels - here wildmen - two shield bearers are standing in front of a red damask background in the attitude of Confederates confident of themselves and of victory. They flank a pyramid formed by coats of arms, the Zug coat of arms, the imperial coat of arms and above them the German crown, and carry two Zug banners, the one on the left showing St Oswald, the patron saint of Zug.