The Monogrammist JDB, east window (1638), Peterhouse Chapel, Cambridge.

Photo: Peter Hildebrand by permission of the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse

The Monogrammist JDB, detail of east window (1638), Peterhouse Chapel, Cambridge.

Photo: Peter Hildebrand by permission of the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse

Peterhouse Chapel, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Address

Peterhouse Chapel, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RD

Recommended by

Jasmine Allen (10)

Highlight

East window

Artist, maker and date

Signed by ‘the Monogrammist JDB’ and installed in 1638

Reason for highlighting

Between the Reformation and the English civil war there was a brief revival in decorated windows with much enamel paint and in a more pictorial style. This dramatic window, from which the colours sing out, is a fine example of the period. Its design is based in part on Rubens’ 1620 painting, Le Coup de Lance.

The window has previously been attributed to Abraham van Linge, but recent research has identified at the mark of JDB, whose own identity is the subject of ongoing research.

The subject of the east window and its commissioning, iconography, and history during the Civil War is the subject of a book to be published in the near future by Dr John Adamson.

Other comments

Also of special interest are the 8 windows of 1853 in the north and south walls by the Royal Painted Glass Manufactory at Munich under Max Ainmiller. They are arranged in typological themes from the Old and New Testaments. All resemble oil paintings and are in a style that would be swept away by the resurgence of more traditional windows, using small pieces of coloured and painted glass, held together by lead work that was integral to the overall design. However, Munich glass remains influential up to the present day through the firm of Franz Mayer.

An example of traditionally leaded glass can be seen in the work by Ford Madox Brown, 1870-71, in a bay window of the College Hall.