A PAIR OF VERRE EGLOMISE PANELS DEPICTING SCIPIO'S DREAM AND THE CROWNING OF THORNS

This is a rare early pair of reverse glass paintings. Although one of the panels is Historical and the other is Biblical, the matching size of both panels and stylistic similarities point to one workshop. Possibly they were part of a larger group originally.
These paintings were created in three steps, first the glass was applied with a layer of black paint, Schwarzlot, the design would be scratched into this layer with a needle or a feather tip. In the second stage the polychrome colours were applied. The final stage involved the application of transparent colour varnishes which would then be covered with silver or gold foil giving the typically metalic sparkle of the present pair. The resulting picture is very dark with highly contrasting lighter areas, the sparkling eglomise areas would be further picked out by the play of light.