Medieval Stained Glass - Corpus Vitrearum

The project is dedicated to researching monumental Medieval painted and stained glass in Austria and is the continuation of the previous project no. FWF P 15254-G06 and FWF P 17210-G06. It involves the documentation and art historical interpretation of a great number of largely unknown, but nonetheless significant works of art from the Middle Ages. The project is part of the international research work "Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi," in which 14 countries (12 European countries, USA and Canada) participate under the general patronage of the "Union Academique Internationale" (UAI). Its dimensions represent art historical basic-research for the scientific documentation and publication of this field of art. Created as part of the furnishing of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, over 3.500 stained glass windows dating from the 12th to the early 16th centuries have been preserved in Austria as precious remains of a monumental form of pictorial art. A wide variety of programmatic and iconographic representations reveal much about the intellectual and religious messages of the Medieval world of imagery in the context of their political and economic environment. The difficulty of accessibility and the problems of photographic documentation were and are the basic reason that to this day, stained glass is among those untapped areas of Medieval art, and is thus a desideratum of research into the Middle Ages. Furthermore, a focal point for art history is the significant relationship of colour, which stained glass refers and offers to understand pictorial art and architecture as a unity, another wide open field of investigation. Of seminal importance for the evaluation of the project is the fact that today, Medieval stained glass is an extraordinarily endangered species of art. This is due to the current high air pollution which has drastically speeded up the deterioration of the substance of Medieval stained glass, over the last 50 years; as a consequence, the works of art are rapidly being destroyed. Conservation measures could slow down but not halt the process of deterioration . The art historical documentation of the still existing treasure of Medieval stained glass is thus an urgent and important wish, which cannot and must not be postponed because of the endangered survival of the works of art themselves.

The project is dedicated to researching monumental Medieval painted and stained glass in Austria and is the continuation of the previous project no. FWF P 15254-G06 and FWF P 17210-G06. It involves the documentation and art historical interpretation of a great number of largely unknown, but nonetheless significant works of art from the Middle Ages. The project is part of the international research work "Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi," in which 14 countries (12 European countries, USA and Canada) participate under the general patronage of the "Union Academique Internationale" (UAI). Its dimensions represent art historical basic-research for the scientific documentation and publication of this field of art. Created as part of the furnishing of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, over 3.500 stained glass windows dating from the 12th to the early 16th centuries have been preserved in Austria as precious remains of a monumental form of pictorial art. A wide variety of programmatic and iconographic representations reveal much about the intellectual and religious messages of the Medieval world of imagery in the context of their political and economic environment. The difficulty of accessibility and the problems of photographic documentation were and are the basic reason that to this day, stained glass is among those untapped areas of Medieval art, and is thus a desideratum of research into the Middle Ages. Furthermore, a focal point for art history is the significant relationship of colour, which stained glass refers and offers to understand pictorial art and architecture as a unity, another wide open field of investigation. Of seminal importance for the evaluation of the project is the fact that today, Medieval stained glass is an extraordinarily endangered species of art. This is due to the current high air pollution which has drastically speeded up the deterioration of the substance of Medieval stained glass, over the last 50 years; as a consequence, the works of art are rapidly being destroyed. Conservation measures could slow down but not halt the process of deterioration . The art historical documentation of the still existing treasure of Medieval stained glass is thus an urgent and important wish, which cannot and must not be postponed because of the endangered survival of the works of art themselves.