LOCATION: Milan Duomo window n. XVII

DIMENSIONS: 3 lancets window enclosed by three-foiled windows and a rose: height 1578 x 182 cms. Rect. Panels 119 x 60,5 cms (lancet a); 119x61,4 cms (lancet b); 119 x 60,2 (lancet c); three-foiled 85 x 68 cms

PROVENANCE: Milan Duomo. Original location (n.XVII wind.)

CHRONOLOGY: 1567-1569

AUTHOR(S): Pellegrino Pellegrini Tibaldi (planning); Conrad Mochis from Cologne (execution); William the Flemish (collaboration)

ASSIGNMENT: Confraternity of the Four Crowned Saints, made in the place of a previous lost XV cent. lost window dedicated already to the Crowned Saints.

SUBJECT(S): 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c,3a,3b and 3c): Convertion of Simplicio; 4a,4b,4c, 5a, 5b, 5c, 6a (three-foiled) and 7b (three-foiled): Bishop Cyril baptizes Simplicio in the prison; 7a,7b,7c,8a,8b,8c): The sculptors at work; 9a,9b,9c,10,10b,10c): the four sculptors, tied, are taken to the tribune Lampadio; 11a and 12a (three-foiled), 11c and 12c) (three-foiled): Martyrdom of the four sculptors in front of the emperor Diocleziano; 6a and 6c): Caryatids (mixtilinear panels); Rose w. (P. Bertini).

NOTE: As for the XV cent. stained-glass windows of the Milan Duomo the ufficial numeration by C.V.M.A. is kept even if, for some of them, the hagiograohic stories can start to be read from the top rather than from the bottom or viceversa. That for the different location assigned to each panel in the window.

CRITICAL NOTES:

At the window nXVII is documented the presence of a previous lost window (The four crowned saints, 1468-1470) commissioned by the homonynous confraternity. The present stained-glass w., a work by P. Tibaldi (sheets), Conrad Mochis from Cologne and William the Flemish (collaboration), certainly dating to 1568-1569 (documented payments to Giovanni de Prinis bookseller – 4may1568 and 1 June 1569 – for the paper supply necessary for the drawing of the window). Pellegrino Tibaldi is entrusted by Carlo Borromeo (Capitular Resolution 8 July 1567) as the Architect of the Fabbrica with the task of supervising the works at Duomo (Baptistry – 1567 Tabernacle – 1568 choir stalls – 1572; vestments, altar cloths and holy vessels; the floor – 1581; the façade) and of realizing the whole drawings for all the windows (Pellegrini supplied the drawings from July 1567 to dec 1574. 12 surviving sheets, today at the Ambrosiana Art Gallery, Milan: 8 concern the four crowned saints, 4 with an unknown subject for windows lost). The composition solutions used (theatrical display of the figures in the space) as well as the roman lay out of the architecture (in mannerism style) relate the window to the frescoes in "S. Giacomo Maggiore" in Bologna and to the Storie di S. Ambrogio in the upper dossals of the wooden choir, Milan Duomo, works by Pellegrini. The beautiful sheets, more striking than the glasses from a pictorial point of view, brings out the plastic strength of the bodies (Michelangelo’s influence). The grandious scheme of the composition determins the definitive decay of the traditional window in favour of the new transparent paintings (painting on glass).

CONDITIONS: in good conditions, in spite of the several inserts/replacements by the Bertinis (36% of the area) and the continuous remakings in later periods (80% of the total area). An "integrating"restoration by P. Bertini that provided for the substitution of the upper glasses at grisaille (to be collocated in the vast stained-glass w. with stories of St. Joseph, see Duomo n. 33) with the stained ones coming from the lower part of the window n. 39, a project not fulfilled. The restoration was also necessary to repair the damage due to a violent hailstorm (13 June 1874). 1968-72 Ven. Fabbrica del Duomo, Directed by Arch. E. Brivio: the dusting, the cleaning of the glasses with detergent stuff based on polyphosphates, the washing with distilled water, partial re-leading, replacement of the frames in iron with others in bronze-marina. Remaking of the protective nets with frames in bronze-marina and mesh in copper wire. No counter- stained glass window.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: see Bibl. Milano, Duomo – XVI century stained-glass windows

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS: photographic files Laura Monciardini

EDITOR: Laura Monciardini, (march 1998)