On view
Martyrdom of Saint George,
13th century and ca. 1918–22
Purchased by the Museum as an intact medieval stained-glass window from Chartres Cathedral, this object was later discovered to be a composite of twentieth-century glass, repurposed older glass, and altered or repainted older glass. Several pieces of Saint George’s head and torso do come from a window in the choir of Chartres Cathedral that was removed in the eighteenth century to allow more light into the church. Its glass was salvaged to repair other windows; these pieces were moved to one of the Cathedral’s side chapels, replacing a window that had been destroyed in the French Revolution.
During World War I, all of the Cathedral’s stained glass was removed for safekeeping. After the war, the chapel received a new window. Some pieces of Saint George remain in a transept window at Chartres; the rest were assembled, perhaps by an art dealer, into the Princeton medallion.
More About This Object
Information
13th century and ca. 1918–22
Europe, France, Eure-et-Loir, Chartres
Chartres Cathedral choir clerestory;
removed 1773 or 1788 and stored (?) [1];
in 1816, used to repair Vendôme chapel window at Chartres that was partially destroyed during the French Revolution [2];
stored in Chartres Cathedral crypt during World War I (1914-1918) [3];
removed from Vendôme Chapel window c. 1918-1924.
Collection of Raoul Heilbronner (d.1941) [4].
Sold Hôtel Drouot, June 23, 1922, lot 33 [5];
purchased by E. Ruegg, Lausanne, Switzerland [6];
purchased 1923 by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. (1868-1953), Director (1922-1946) of Princeton University Museum of Historic Art (now Princeton University Art Museum) [7];
transferred 1923 to Princeton University Museum of Historic Art [8].
Notes:
[1] Likely stored in cathedral storage rooms: Yves Delaporte, Les Vitraux de la Cathedrale de Chartres I: Texte (Chartres: Houvet, 1926), 68-69; Elizabeth Carson Pastan and Mary B. Shepard, "The Torture of Saint George Medallion from Chartres Cathedral in Princeton," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56, no. 1/2 (1997): 15.
[2] Upper left quadrant of medallion seen and described by historian and archaeologist Baron Ferdinand de Guilhermy in 1858: "1ème baie: Débris confus de vitraux du XIIIe siècle.... Fragment, d'un personnage, probablement un martyr, nimbé, nud, attaché à une roue," Baron Ferdinand de Guilhermy, "Description des localités de la France," Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS Nouv. acq. fr. 6098, vol. V, f. 212v.; Claudine Lautier, Recensement des vitraux anciens de la France, 2: Les vitraux du centre et des pays de la Loire (Paris, 1981), 2, 33, Bay 40.
[3] Delaporte, Les Vitraux de la Cathédrale de Chartres, I: Texte, 112-116.
[4] Raoul Heilbronner was a dealer specializing in Gothic and Renaissance antiques. He was active in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
[5] At the beginning of World War I, France named Heilbronner, a German citizen, an enemy alien. The French government confiscated his collection and sold most of it in a series of auctions as reparations for war damages, according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. This window was sold in the seventh sale.; "Grand Vitrail peint en couleurs, représentant un saint supplicié. Il est attaché à une roue et martyrisé par deux personnages." Hôtel Drouot, Sequestre Raoul Heilbronner: Catalogue des Objets d'art et de Curiosité Principalement des XVIe et XVIIIe siècles: Collections de M. Raoul Heilbronner, sale catalogue (Paris, 22 -23 June 1922), p. 8, lot 33.
[6] Ruegg wrongly stated that the window came from the collection of Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. See February 7, 1928 letter from E. Ruegg to Frank Jewett Mathew, Jr. in the curatorial file; also see Pastan and Shepard, "The Torture of Saint George Medallion from Chartres Cathedral in Princeton," 17-18.
[7] Mather purchased the window September 21, 1923 with the intention of consigning it to the Museum and charging it to the Trumbull-Prime fund. See September 21, 1923 letter from Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. to Allan Marquand in the PUAM curatorial file; see also letter from E. Ruegg to Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., 7 February 1928.
[8] September 21, 1923 letter from Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. to Allan Marquand in the PUAM curatorial file.
- Paul Frankl, "Four Pieces of Stained Glass," Record of The Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 3, no. 1, (Spring, 1944)., p. 11
- "[Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. 1868-1953: In memoriam]", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 13, no. 1 (1954): p. 2-19., p. 7 (illus.)
-
Henry Graham, "A Reappraisal of the Princeton Window from Chartres," Record of The Art Museum, Princeton University 21, no. 2 (1962): 30–45.
, p. 32 (illus.); p. 33 (illus.); p. 35 (illus.); p. 40 (illus.) -
"Loans extended by the Art Museum", Record of The Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1, (1970).
, p. 28-29 (illus.) - Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 57 (illus.)
- Barbara T. Ross, "The Mather years 1922-1946," in "An art museum for Princeton: the early years", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2 (1996): p. 53–76., p. 66, fig. 20
- Elizabeth Carson Pastan and Mary B. Shepard, "The Torture of Saint George Medallion from Chartres Cathedral in Princeton," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56, no. 1/2 (1997): 10–32., pp. 10–13, figs. 1–6; p. 18, fig. 10; p. 19, fig. 11; p. 24, fig. 18
