Heraldic Panel Hans Scherer with the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Iconography

Description

The panel is divided into four narrative scenes in two registers by red columns with yellow capitals and blue bases. In the center a cartouche cites the Gospel: Luke 15. Descriptive text panels are above each scene. At the top, on the left, the prodigal son takes leave of his father and on the right, he squanders his inheritance on prostitutes. Below on the left, he tends swine. The lost panel on the right would have shown the prodigal’s return to his father who welcomes him with joy. Below the scenes, in the center of the dedication panel, an olive wreath encloses a coat of arms held by an angel.

Iconclass Code

46A122(SHERER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (SHERER)
73C86 · parables and proverbial sayings of Christ ~ human and divine love
73C864 · the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)
73C8643 · the prodigal son in the midst of prostitutes feasting and dissipating his patrimony, usually in a brothel or inn

Iconclass Keywords

brothel · coat of arms · divine · father · father and son · feast · heraldry · inheritance · inn · Love · Luke 15 · prodigal son · son · squandering · whore

Heraldry

Arms of Scherer: Azure a folding knife proper above a triple mount vert in chief two stars of six points or.

Inscription

[ . . . ]richer[ . . . ] ein son/ [ . . . ] sein Erbg[ . . . ] Zücht/ [d]ar von. Orginal: Ein alter richer hett ein son / Der gärt sein erbgutt zücht darvon (upper left. An old rich man has a son, his inheritance given (to) him, he goes away.)
Zu böβer gselschafft er sich gab/ hülfend im seins gälts bald/ ab. Original: Zu bößer gselschafft er sich gab / Die hulfend im seins gälts bald ab (upper right. He got himself in bad company. They help him to get rid of his money.)
Des kam er in ein hertte bůβ/ Den schweinen er balt hütten/ muβ. Original: Des kam er in ein hertte bu(o)ß / Den schweinen er balt hütten mu(o)ß (lower left. Thus he came into hard penance. Soon he has to herd the swine.)
Demnach er wider heimwärtz k[a]m / Mit gnad der Vatter in aufn[ . ]m. Original: Demnach er wider heimwärtz kam / Mit gnad der vatter in aufnam (lower right. Afterwards he was homewards bound. And full of mercy his father took him back.)
LVCE/ AM:15 CAP (in center. Luke Chapter 15)
Hans Sc[ . . . ]/ Furt Zu[ . . . ]/ Her[ . . . ] continued on lower right: 1628 H[ . ] (lower left)
Original inscription read from a photograph in the Hearst Archive: Hans Sc – hërer Zum / Furth im – Jar Des / Herrn – 1628. Hans Scherer from Furth, in the year of Our Lord, 1628

Signature

HI
HI (on folding knife in shield)

Technique / State

State of Conservation and Restorations

There are three small stopgaps; to the far left and in the center of the upper inscription, and the head of the prodigal leaving his father in the segment below. There are cracks as well as mending leads; the last panel showing the prodigal’s return has been lost, as is the upper part of the lower inscription on the right. A considerable loss of surface paint diminishes the legibility of the image.

Technique

Pot metal glass is restricted to the red, green and blue segments of the columns. The majority of the image is uncolored glass treated with purple, green, pink and blue enamel and silver stain. Vitreous paint is used throughout, predominantly as a wash. The color system is lively, juxtaposing contrasting colors, all of high-intensity: a bright medium blue, a bright yellow, intense red, and medium green. The color balance is further enhanced by the use of unpainted segments of uncolored glass, for example in the background of the shield, the inscription panel, and the backgrounds of the landscape scenes.

History

Research

Hans Jegli, the beginning of whose signature can be seen next to the date in the panel, was an important stained glass maker from Winterthur (Boesch, 1955, pp. 30, 47, 50; Schneider, 1970, pp. 291–92, 394, 487, nos. 513 and 514, figs. 513 and 514). The Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum possesses a drawing signed by Jegli, dated 1608, with a different version of a four-part design on the theme of the Prodigal Son. Jegli’s design, however, appears in a panel dated 1606, two years earlier (Divinity School, Harvard University, exhibited in the Rabinowitz Reading Room). The Harvard panel can be attributed stylistic to the workshop of Joseph Murer. It thus seems likely that Jegli copied the Murer precedent for his 1608 drawing. A print source has not been identified. The Los Angeles compositions for the three episodes of Leaving Home, Feasting with Prostitutes, and Feeding Pigs, are different; the fourth, Returning Home, is missing.

A panel produced for Hans Kaspar Huber and Hans Jakob Keller, dating to about 1610–1620, ascribed to Jegli, shows many stylistic similarities to the Los Angeles work (Museum Murten, no. 7015; Bergmann, 2014, pp. 797–98, no. 283; FR_283). In both panels, the architectural framework employs thin red columns topped by gold capitals. Although the lower inscription and shields in the Huber and Keller panel are replaced, they are presumably based on earlier models and show the same surrounding wreath connected by gold fasteners at the top and the bottom. The bright and contrasting color system, as described above, is identical. As an artist of the early seventeenth century, Jegli worked with the three-dimensionality and landscape subject matter popular with his audience. The figures are animated and engaged in easily-read encounters. A viewer can relate to the gesture of the father reaching out to the mounted Prodigal to clasp his hand one last time or the sense of conviviality in the scene of the Prodigal with a woman surrounded by musicians seated under a heavily-laden grape arbor.

Cited in:
LACMA Quarterly, 1945, pp. 5–10.
Normile, 1946, pp. 43–44.
Hayward, 1989, pp. 78–79.
Raguin, 2024, vol 1, pp. 42, 235–37.

Less

Dating

1628

Original Donor

Scherer, Hans

Previous Location

unknown

Place of Manufacture

Winterthur · Bezirk Winterthur · Canton of Zurich · Switzerland

Previous Owner

The panel was owned by Joseph Brummer, New York, until its acquisition by William Randolph Hearst at an unknown date. Hearst donated the panel to the museum in 1943; it was accessioned in 1945.

Inventory Number

45.21.36

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Bergmann, U. (2014). Die Freiburger Glasmalerei des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, Le vitrail fribourgeois du XVI2 au XVIII2 siècle (Corpus Vitrearum Reihe Neuzeit, vol. 6), 2 vols., Bern.

Hayward, J. (1989). Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: Midwestern and Western States. Corpus Vitrearum Checklist III, ed. and intro. Madeline H. Caviness and Jane Hayward (Studies in the History of Art, 28), Washington, 1989.

LACMA Quarterly 1945: "The William Randolph Hearst Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Stained and Painted Glass," Quarterly of the Los Angeles County Museum, vol… More

Image Information

Name of Image

USA_LosAngeles_LACMA_US_11

Credits

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA, www.lacma.org
Link to the original photo

Public Domain

Inventory

Reference Number

US_11

Author and Date of Entry

Virginia C. Raguin 2024

Image Ordered

Contact Details