Object: Circumcision of Isaac

Title:

Circumcision of Isaac

Object name(s):

Panel

Brief description:

In the foreground are the rabbi, Abraham and Sarah (the partents of Isaac) and their entourage gathered around the altar. isaac is held by Abraham over a dish and the rabbi begins to perform the ceremony of circumcision, a knife in his right hand. In the back right of the panel is a small scene of God appearing to Abraham.

Collection:

Victoria and Albert Museum

Associated concept:

Stained Glass

Content - event name:

Circumcision of Isaac

Content - other type:

Old Testament

Content - other type:

Biblia Pauperum

Content - person:

Abraham

Content - person:

Isaac

Credit line:

Given by E.E. Cook Esquire.

Current reproduction location:

https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC8917/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg

Location type:

Thumbnail

Dimension:

Height

Dimension measured part:

sight

Dimension measurement unit:

cm

Dimension value:

64.5

Dimension:

Width

Dimension measured part:

sight

Dimension measurement unit:

cm

Dimension value:

66.5

Material:

glass

Object history note:

Object History Note Believed to be from the second window in the cloisters at Mariawald. Isaac was the second son of Abraham. Abraham was married to Sarah who was barren. Abraham took Sarah’s servant, Hagar, as his mistress and she gave birth to their son Ishmael. About 7 years later God told Abraham that Sarah was with child. Sarah gave birth to Isaac. God had ordered Joshua to reintroduce the Jewish practice of circumcision as a covenant between God and the Israeli people who were returning from exile in Egypt. In scenes of Abraham and the circumcision of his son, if the son is an infant then it shows the circumcision of Isaac. If it shows a young boy of about 8 years old, then it is the circumcision of Ishmael. Practitioners of the Islamic faith claim descent from Abraham and his son Ishmael by Hagar.

Object history note:

Mariawald was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1480. The Cistercians were a monastic order established in 1098 in Burgundy at Citeaux. The founder of the Cistercians had broken away from the Benedictines which had been the first monastic order to be established in Europe, in the 6th century. During the Revolutionary struggles in France and the subsequent religious upheavals under Napolean, many monastic institutions on the continent were 'secularised' and their buildings destroyed. The abbey of Mariawald was closed down in 1802 but fortunately its buildings, including the cloisters, remain intact. However, the stained glass windows had been removed and it is believed that they were purchased by John Christopher Hampp of Norwich. Hampp sold the Mariawald panels to various churches and to private collectors. Many of these were purchased by the collector, Lord Brownlow who had them installed in his new chapel at Ashridge Park in Hertfordshire between 1811 and 1831. In 1928 the contents of Ashridge Park were sold at auction and a private collector purchased the stained glass and gave it to the Victoria & Albert Museum. This panel is one of many in the V&A that comes from the cloisters at Mariawald. These panels come from ten windows on the west and north sides of the cloister, plus one from the north end of the eastern part. The glazing of these cloisters began about 1510 and seem to have been completed in the 1530s. As the cloisters were never dismantled we can reconstruct how the panels were placed in the architectural structure. The window openings in the cloisters were each composed of two openings ('lights'). Each light was composed of three large panels, plus one small tracery panel. So there would have been eight panels to each window. From the surviving stained glass panels we can determine the theme of the cloister glazing. Each window had two panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament and two panels with scenes from the New Testament. Above the biblical story panels, were two smaller prophet (or 'messenger') panels. These contained half-images of Old Testament prophets holding scrolls with text relating to biblical passages connected with the scenes below. At the base of each window were donor and patron saint panels. These donors were the ones who contributed to the financing of the cloister glazing. This type of narrative arrangement is known as 'typological'. Each Old Testament story was a 'type' or a prefigurement of a New Testament story ('antitype'). For example, the Old Testament story of the 'Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham' was a prefigurement of the New Testament 'Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross'. The typological arrangement was popular in the Middle Ages. The stories were reproduced in manuscripts and in engravings from woodcuts and collectively were known as 'Biblia Pauperum' ('Bibles of the Poor'). At the end of the 15th century the Biblia Pauperum were printed in book form and sold in their thousands. These books were used as design sources for artworks including stained glass panels.

Object name:

Panel

Object number:

C.297-1928

Object production date:

ca.1525-30

Date - association:

made

Date - earliest / single:

1520-01-01

Date - latest:

1530-12-31

Object production note:

By the Master of Saint Severin, Cologne.

Object production place:

Lower Rhine (Germany)

Place association:

made

Physical description:

In the foreground are the rabbi, Abraham and Sarah (the partents of Isaac) and their entourage gathered around the altar. isaac is held by Abraham over a dish and the rabbi begins to perform the ceremony of circumcision, a knife in his right hand. In the back right of the panel is a small scene of God appearing to Abraham.

Reproduction number:

2009CC8917

Reproduction number:

2006AF4095

Reproduction number:

2017KA8410

Responsible department/section:

CER

Technique:

painting

Technique:

silver staining

Technique:

Clear and coloured glass with painted details and yellow (silver)

Text:

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O113331/

Text reason:

Collections online record

Text:

This panel is one of many in the V&A that comes from the cloisters at Mariawald. These panels come from ten windows on the west and north sides of the cloister, plus one from the north end of the eastern part. The glazing of these cloisters began about 1510 and seem to have been completed in the 1530s. Mariawald was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1480. The Cistercians were a monastic order established in 1098 in Burgundy at Citeaux. The founder of the Cistercians had broken away from the Benedictines which had been the first monastic order to be established in Europe, in the 6th century. During the Revolutionary struggles in France and the subsequent religious upheavals under Napoleon, many monastic institutions on the continent were 'secularised' and their buildings destroyed. The abbey of Mariawald was closed down in 1802 but fortunately its buildings, including the cloisters, remain largely intact. However, the stained glass windows had been removed and it is believed that they were purchased by John Christopher Hampp of Norwich. Hampp sold the Mariawald panels to various churches and to private collectors. Many of these were purchased by the collector, Lord Brownlow who had them installed in his new chapel at Ashridge Park in Hertfordshire between 1811 and 1831. In 1928 the contents of Ashridge Park were sold at auction and a private collector purchased the stained glass and gave it to the Victoria & Albert Museum. W are able to reconstruct how the panels were placed in the cloister windows. Each window was composed of two openings ('lights'). Each light was composed of three large panels, plus one small tracery panel. So there would have been eight panels to each window. From the surviving stained glass panels we can determine the theme of the cloister glazing. Each window had two panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament and two panels with scenes from the New Testament. Above the biblical story panels, were two smaller prophet (or 'messenger') panels. These contained half-images of Old Testament prophets holding scrolls with text relating to biblical passages connected with the scenes below. At the base of each window were donor and patron saint panels. These donors were the ones who contributed to the financing of the cloister glazing. This type of narrative arrangement is known as 'typological'. Each Old Testament story was a 'type' or a prefigurement of a New Testament story ('antitype'). The prophets on each window would hold text from the Bible relating to the Old and New Testament stories. For example, this panel shows the Old Testament story of 'The Circumcision of Isaac'. Isaac was the son of the patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah.. This is seen as a prefigurement of the panel which appeared below in the window, that of the New Testament story of 'The Circumcision of Jesus Christ'. The typological arrangement was popular in the Middle Ages. The stories were reproduced in manuscripts and in engravings from woodcuts and collectively became known as 'Biblia Pauperum' ('Bibles of the Poor'). At the end of the 15th century the Biblia Pauperum were printed in book form and sold in their thousands. These books were used as design sources for artworks including stained glass panels.

Text reason:

Summary description

User's reference:

Reference:

Jakob Polius, 'Analecta sive collectanea antiquitatem', Duren, Stadtarchiv, A30, Hs. 2

User's reference:

Reference:

James Wyatt, Description of the Stained Glass Panels at Ashridge Chapel, privately printed, 1906

User's reference:

Reference:

MR James, Notes of Glass in Ashridge Chapel, Grantham, 1906

User's reference:

Reference:

Hermann Schmitz, Die Glasgemalde des Koniglichen Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin, Berlin, 1913

User's reference:

Reference:

Bernard Rackham, 'The Ashridge stained glass', Old Furniture, vol.5 (1928), pp.33-7

User's reference:

Reference:

C.Goerke, Das Zisterzienserkloster Mariawald, Mariawald bei Heimbach, 1932

User's reference:

Reference:

Paul Clemen, Die Kunstdenkmaler der Rheinprovinz, Kreis Schleiden, XI, 2, Dusseldorf, 1932

User's reference:

Reference:

E. Wackenroder, Die Kunstdenkmaker des Kreoses Schleiden, Dusseldorf, 1932

User's reference:

Reference:

Bernard Rackham, 'The Mariawald-Ashridge Glass', Burlington Magazine, Nov. 1944, pp.266-273

User's reference:

Reference:

Bernard Rackham, 'The Mariawald-Ashridge Glass II', Burlington Magazine, April 1945, pp.90-94

User's reference:

Reference:

Bernard Rackham, 'The Ashridge Stained Glass', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, vol.X (1945-7), pp.1-22

User's reference:

Reference:

Wilhelm Neuss, ed., Die Glasmalereien aus dem Steinfelder Kruezgang, Moenchengladbach, 1955

User's reference:

Reference:

J. Kurthen, 'Die alten Kunstfenster'', in Mariawald: Geschichte eines Klosters, Heimback/Eifel, 1962, pp.244-64

User's reference:

Reference:

M. Conrad, 'Zur Geschichte der alten Glasgemalde aus dem Kreuzgang von Kloster Mariawald', Heimatkalendar des Landkreises Schleiden, 1969, pp.95-102

User's reference:

Reference:

William Cole, 'A Hitherto Unrecorded Panel of Stained Glass from the Abbey of Mariawald', Journal of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, XVII (1981-2). pp.21-4

User's reference:

Reference:

Avril Henry, ed., Biblia Pauperum, Scolar Press, 1987

User's reference:

Reference:

Brigitte Wolff-Wintrich, 'Kolner Glasmaleriel sammlungen des 19. Jahrhunderts', in Lust und Verlust Kolner Sammler zwischen Trikolore und Preussenadler, exhibition catalogue (Kunsthalle Koln), Koln, 1995, pp.341-54

User's reference:

Reference:

H.Zakin, 'Mariawald: Cistercian Narrative', in Stained Glass as Monumental Painting, XIXth International Colloquium, CVMA, Krakow, 1998, Cracow, 2000, pp.273-80

User's reference:

Reference:

Raguin and Zakin, Stained Glass before 1700, part 2, pp.127-9, 170-6

Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/7d37e53f-0c5c-32fc-9168-8007f9b697ad

Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC

Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/7d37e53f-0c5c-32fc-9168-8007f9b697ad, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC

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