Glass gives Prints Light and Longevity

Our current practices often confront rigid professional divisions, impacting our understanding of the interdependence of visual expression and social agency. The late Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw profound changes in political systems, religious confessions, and social status. Above all, the printing press was a watershed. By the early sixteenth century, dissemination of prints had become standard. Yet we often fail to pursue the complex multimedia reception of the image and its social message. Prints were often conceived to be incorporated in other media, especially stained glass. Centuries of production in the Lowlands, southern Germany, and Switzerland, produced emblem books, illustrated Bibles (such as that of Tobias Stimmer), broadsides, single sheets, and narratives series that appeared in glazing systems. Unlike paper, glass is a durable medium, impervious to water or exposure to the sun. What was read in private entered public discourse via the window. These small works in glass became a medium of social solidarity, given as gifts from one constituency to another. They commemorated trade guilds, marriages, and government service. The artists exercised vital roles in the promulgation of changing social paradigms. The story of Esther and Suzanna, for example, had previously functioned to praise a heroic queen or warn against lust. In the Renaissance, the Suzanna and Esther narratives became examples of a well-run legal system. The stories stressed due process, verifying evidence, and public cross examination, appropriate for ubiquitous representation in sites of law courts on glass, wall, and panel.