Saint Similien, Bishop of Nantes

Former TitleWindow Representing a Bishop

CultureFrench

Date15th century

MediumStained and painted glass

DimensionsOverall: 78 1/8 × 19 1/2 inches (198.44 × 49.53 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number44-49/1

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionAlmost life-sized bishop wearing mitre and cope decorated with cabochons. He holds Bishop's cross and stands in a Gothic arch. Inscription at bottom.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

The standing male figure in this stained-glass window is identified by the inscription below as Saint Similien, Bishop of Nantes. This window most likely came from Nantes in northwestern France, which was a place of considerable influence in the Middle Ages as the capital of the large and powerful Duchy of Brittany. There still exists today the Church of Saint-Similien in Nantes. The saint wears a mitre, which is a liturgical headdress, and a cope, which is an ecclesiastical vestment; both are worn by bishops on formal occasions or in processions. He holds a crozier, which is a staff carried by bishops as a symbol of pastoral office.

Provenance

With Parish Watson and Co., New York, on joint account with French and Company, New York, stock no. 24372, March 19, 1918-April 14, 1926 [1];

Purchased from Parish Watson and Co. and French and Company by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), New York and San Simeon, CA, April 14, 1926-July 28, 1944 [2];

Purchased from Hearst by Brummer Gallery, New York, stock no. N6087, July 28, 1944-December 1, 1944 [3];

Purchased from Brummer, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1944.

NOTES:

[1] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Photo Archive, Stained Glass Catalogued and Mounted, 76.P.34, box 9.

[2] William Randolph Hearst Archive, Long Island University Post (S/B lot 303, art. 2, Album 101, p. 39).

[3] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Glass, stained glass, and crystal, Object inventory card number N6087.

Published References

Art Objects & Furnishing from the William Randolph Heart Collection (New York: Hammer Galleries, 1941), 148 (repro.).

Madeline Harrison Caviness. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections : Corpus Vitrearum Checklist III. (Washington, D.C.: Hanover [N.H.]: National Gallery of Art; Distributed by the University Press of New England, 1985), 198 (repro.).

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