The Deluge

Valentin Bousch

1531 · Glass, painted and stained · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Together with Moses Presenting the Tablets of Law (also in the Museum's collection) and five other windows, this window decorated the choir of the Benedictine priory church of Saint-Firmin in Flavigny-sur-Moselle, Lorraine. It was commissioned by the prior, Wary de Lucy, from Valentin Bousch, one of the most significant master glaziers in northeastern France during the Northern Renaissance. Bousch rejected traditional compartmentalization and instead treated each composition like an enormous painted or carved retable with a trompe l'oeil architectural frame. Brilliant hues of colored glass are combined with painted areas of grisaille and silver stain on clear glass, all cut with daring virtuosity.

Artist

Valentin Bousch

Date

1531

Medium

Glass, painted and stained

Culture

French, Lorraine, Metz

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917