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US_20: Heraldic Panel Heinrich Fleckenstein with Descent from the Cross
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Title

Heraldic Panel Heinrich Fleckenstein with Descent from the Cross

Type of Object
Dimensions
68.4 x 70.2 cm (26 7/8 x 27 5/8 in.)
Artist / Producer
Dating
1592
Location
Inventory Number
45.21.23
Research Project
Author and Date of Entry
Virginia C. Raguin 2024

Iconography

Description

Christ is being taken down from the cross, a scene played out against a broad landscape with mountains in the distance The scene is densely populated. In the center, a muscular young man climbs a ladder and receives the body of Christ across his shoulder. The descent is aided by a cloth sling held tightly by a man behind the cross. Another young man uses pliers to pull a large nail from Christ’s still bleeding feet. The Virgin Mary is seated on the ground to the left with St. John, beardless and with billowing blond hair, behind her. Mary Magdalene, identified by her long flowing hair, stands behind them with one of the other Three Marys who would later anoint Christ’s tomb (Mark 16). Thus, we see the projected meaning of the unguent jar that the second woman carries. To the right are the older men, as described in the Gospel of John (19:38-42). Coming first, with the unguent jar, is Joseph of Arimathea, who offered his own tomb to receive Christ’s body. Behind him is Nicodemus, a prominent member of the Jewish community who had earlier visited Christ in the secrecy of night (John 3: 1-21). The scene is evening, distinguished by the russet tone of the sky. In the distance is the city of Jerusalem. In the middle ground, two men to the left of the cross, appear in conversation, possibly a reference to the followers who would see the resurrected Christ on the Road to Emmaus. The Emperor Henry II is on the left and St. Barbara is on the right. An inscription panel supported by angels holding the instruments of the Passion culminates the arch. Below, a coat of arms sits in the center of the dedicatory inscription flanked by angels holding victory wreaths.

Iconclass Code
11G · angels
11H(HENRY) · the Holy Roman emperor Henry II of Bamberg; possible attributes: crown, lily, model of church, orb, sceptre, sword
11HH(BARBARA) · the virgin martyr Barbara; possible attributes: book, cannon(ball), crown, cross, chalice with wafer, Dioscuros (her father), peacock feather, sword, torches, mason's tools, tower
46A122(FLECKENSTEIN) · armorial bearing, heraldry (FLECKENSTEIN)
73D71 · descent from the cross: Christ is taken down from the cross, usually by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea who are standing on the ladders (both arms of Christ detached)
Iconclass Keywords
Heraldry

Arms of Fleckenstein, Heinrich: Quarterly; 1 per bend sinister in chief azur an Imperial orb or in base bendy of four vert and or; 2 gules a pair of antlers argent and thereon a lion rampant or (Unidentified); 3 and 4 replaced by stopgaps; crest: (LEFT) on a barred helm to sinister a ducal coronet and therefrom a demi-vol charged as the base arms; (RIGHT) on a barred helm to dexter a cap gules banded or; mantling dexter and sinister of the colors.

Inscription

Joseph Nimpt Jn Von Kreutz Herab/ Der Můtter […]r Schmer[.] In Gab (above the scene. Joseph takes Jesus down from the Cross; the mother is given [over] to sorrow)
Herr Heinrich Fleckenstein Ritter/ Schulttheiβ vnd Banerherr Loblich / Statt Lucern Anō 1592 (below scene. Mr. Heinrich Fleckenstein, knight, mayor and military commander of the praiseworthy city of Lucerne, in the year 1592. Bannerherr, literally Standard Bearer, can be translated as the rank of colonel).

Signature

none

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

The panel is executed primarily with the use of enamels and vitreous paints on uncolored glass with some pot metal glass in shades of purple, red, blue, and green. Flashed and abraded glass appears in deep red areas and the rose color in the tunic of the sainted Emperor Henry II. The tunic also shows the technique of backpainting to add a damascene pattern. Two shades of silver stain are used, visible in the contrast of bright and dull yellows in the halo and the hair of St. John. Sanguine appears liberally to highlight flesh areas as well as to produce the red in the coat of arms. Franz Fallenter’s love of variety in color finds its expression in the juxtaposition of the blue-green hills, mauve skies, ochre outcroppings, orange roofs, and grey and purple houses of the landscape. Executed during the second year of the campaign, the Descent from the Cross is among the earliest of the series. Figures are in vivid interaction; they lean towards and often seem engaged in conversation. The faces are round and fleshy with tiny circular chins that set off the plumpness of the cheeks, most evident in female and youthful characters, such as the angels. Hair is profuse, often curly, and for women, frequently radiating in golden streams. Drapery treatment evokes a density of fabric where folds coalesce into dense clusters. Such pulsating compositions are augmented by twisting bodies, particularly evident in the men lifting Christ’s body off of the Cross.

State of Preservations and Restorations

The panel is almost completely intact with several minor exceptions. Replacements include a triangular segment of the midsection of Christ, which contains the assistant’s left arm and the central section of the upper inscription. Several small unpainted red segments have been inserted to make up for losses in St. Henry’s robe near his sword hand. Stopgaps, presumably from another panel in the same series, appear on the border edges to the left and right of the two lower angels. Repair leads sometimes mar the legibility of the panel, as on the face of Christ.

History

Research

Heinrich Fleckenstein was Schultheiss of Lucerne and died in 1589. Living off a substantial inheritance, he was occupied with various government offices as well as financial investments and real estate. Fleckenstein exercised considerable influence as a spokesperson for Spain in Lucerne (Lischer, 2005). He may have arranged to fund the window before his death.

The story is richly elaborated but the central image relies on Albrecht Dürer’s Small Passion of 1509–1511. The deeply moving image of Christ’s lifeless body gently descending on a sash and falling limply on the shoulders of his follower achieved immediate success among the artistic community. Around 1520–25, a Descent from the Cross replicating the image was produced in the Lowlands, probably for the Carthusian cloister at Louvain (Metropolitan Museum of Art 44.114.6; Hayward, 1985, pp. 145–47; Raguin 1998, p. 52). The printmaker Thielman Kerver of Paris replicated, in reverse, the central image in a Book of Hours of 1533 (Boston Public Library Rare Books Collection, XG.389 A.337; Raguin, 1987, p. 35, no. 4; Raguin, 1998, fig. I.15).

Given the theological density of the program at Rathausen, the two men to the left of the cross in the middle ground, may reference the disciples who encountered the resurrected Christ on the Road to Emmaus, a panel that will follow on the North Wing, in opening 58. As in all of the Rathausen panels, saints frame the sides, in male/female ordinance. On the left, Henry, the name saint of the donor Heinrich Fleckenstein is recognized by the image of Bamberg cathedral he carries (Herder Lexikon, 1968–76, 6, cols. 478–82). Fleckenstein identifies himself as a military officer. This and the absence of his wife in this panel would argue that his choice of Barbara, on the right, would refer to her position as protecting those who worked with explosives.

Fallenter’s composition for the Descent is repeated in a panel produced by Jacob Wegmann in 1621 for the cloister of the Franciscan convent of St. Ann on the Bruch, Lucerne, since 1904 in the convent’s new location on the Gerlisberg, Lucerne (Lehmann, 1942, fig. 232; Glauser, 1987). Wegmann did many of the windows for the Franciscan convent of St. Ann. His work comes almost thirty years later and clearly shows a different style of execution. The central image of the deposition is substantially the same, even down to the two angels at the top holding the pillar of the Flagellation and the ladder used to lift Christ’s body down from the cross. The lower portion and the areas at the sides reserved for the patron saints are completely different. The saints command much less space and stand over the donors’ shields. Fallenter produced another image of the Deposition in about 1600 using a less complex model. Made for the chapel of the monastery Lichenthal bei Baden-Baden, the panel simply shows the group of Holy Women conversing with St. John, and just above them, three men lowering Christ from the Cross (Lehmann, 1941, fig. 214).

Cited in:
Garland sale, 1924, no. 336, illustration showing the window in its original casement.
Hayward, 1989, p.73.
Raguin, 2024, vol. 1, pp. 24–26, 165–70, 173–75.

Dating
1592
Commissioner

Fleckenstein, Heinrich

Previous Locations
Ehem. Zisterzienserinnenkloster Rathausen, Ebikon · Convent, West Wing of Cloister: opening 52
Place of Manufacture

Provenance

Previous Owner

In 1841, Rathausen was suppressed and the windows were ordered sold. In 1853, the entire collection was purchased by James Meyer of St. Gall who split it, sending panels over time to sales in Vienna, London, Paris, and Berlin. The four at LACMA are recorded as remaining in St. Gall until 1890; they were subsequently in the collection of James A. Garland, Boston, until being sold to William Randolph Hearst at the Garland estate sale of 1924. Hearst gave them to the museum in 1943; they were accessioned in 1945.

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Garland sale (1924). Rare and Beautiful Works of Art Inherited and Collected by the Late James A. Garland [sale cat., American Art Galleries, 17-19 January], New York.

Glauser, F. (1987). Das Schwesternhaus zu St. Anna im Bruch in Luzern, 1498-1625, Lucerne.

Hayward, J. (1985). Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: New England and New York. Corpus Vitrearum Checklist I, ed. and intro. Madeline H. Caviness and Jane Hayward (Studies in the History of Art, 15), Washington DC.

Hayward, J. (1989). Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: Midwestern and Western States. Corpus Vitrearum Checklist III, ed. and intro. Madeline H. Caviness and Jane Hayward (Studies in the History of Art, 28), Washington, 1989.

Herder Lexikon (1968-76). Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, ed. Engelbert Kirschbaum, 8 vols., Rome.

Lehmann, H. (1942). Geschichte der luzerner Glasmalerei von der Anfängen bis zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts, Lucerne.

Lischer, M. (2005). Fleckenstein, Heinrich. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS). Abgerufen am 06.02.2025 von https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/014123/2005-01-20/.

Raguin, V. (1987). Northern Renaissance Stained Glass: Continuity and Transformations [exh. cat., Cantor Gallery, College of the Holy Cross], Worcester MA.

Raguin, V. (1998). Glory in Glass: Stained Glass in the United States: Origin, Variety and Preservation [exh. cat. The Gallery at the American Bible Society], New York.

Raguin, V. (2024). Stained Glass before 1700 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum, (Corpus Vitrearum United States IX). 2 vols. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.

Unpublished sources: Hearst Inventory 1943, no. 250; Hayward Report 1978; Sibyll Kummer-Rothenhäusler, notes, identifying the panels as Lucerne, Kloster Rathausen, CV USA; Jane Hayward, notes, CV USA; Rolf Hasler and Uta Bergmann, CV Switzerland, 2016-2020, consultation and research for author.

Image Information

Name of Image
USA_LosAngeles_LACMA_US_20
Credits
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA, www.lacma.org
Copyright
Public Domain

Citation suggestion

Raguin, V., C. (2024). Heraldic Panel Heinrich Fleckenstein with Descent from the Cross. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved July 1, 2025 from https://test.vitrosearch.ch/objects/2721049.

Record Information

Reference Number
US_20