A STAINED-GLASS WINDOW DEPICTING ST. CHRISTINA

The present panel of St Christina is one of a series of panels of female saints which were published by Dr. Frodl-Kraft, an 'oberstaatskonservator' at the Institut für Österreichische Kunstforschung des Bundesdenkmalamtes in Vienna (op. cit.). In her article, she attempts to reconstruct a series of stained glass windows depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin which were formerly in the Waasenkirche in Leoben, Austria but which have since been dispersed. Although it is not known who was responsible for the painting of the panels she concludes that it was a workshop in the Steiermark area, and she attempts to recreate other series of windows which she convincingly attributes to the same workshop.

The present panel comes from one of these related series. It includes other panels depicting female saints among which two are now in West Tofts Church in Norwich (illustrated ibid., pp. 60-61). As a result of the appearance of panels depicting donors of the Waasenkirche series, Frodl-Kraft dates those windows to circa 1400-1420. By extension, the present panel of St. Christina can be dated to the same period and the same highly accomplished Steiermark workshop.