Heraldic Panel Civic Council with Aesop’s Fable of the Bound Sticks and a Man’s Quarrelsome Sons

Iconography

Description

Representing members in a government association, the panel depicts the parable of the Old Man and his Sons, also called The Bundle of Sticks, traced back to Aesop’s Fables. The rectangular scene sits above a long inscription. In the center, a king on his death bed is silhouetted against deep blue curtains. His many sons crowd on either side of the bed, each holding a single or bound group of sticks. The king demonstrates that bound sticks cannot be broken, but breaking a single stick is an easy task. Thus, he instructs them on the value of solidarity, The scene is framed by the members’ heraldic shields, two shields above and below and five shields to the left and to the right.

Iconclass Code

46A122(AMMAN) · armorial bearing, heraldry (AMMAN)
46A122(BURGOWER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (BURGOWER)
46A122(GRIMM) · armorial bearing, heraldry (GRIMM)
46A122(HALLEN) · armorial bearing, heraldry (HALLEN)
46A122(HERTENSTEIN) · armorial bearing, heraldry (HERTENSTEIN)
46A122(HUBER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (HUBER)
46A122(HUTTER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (HUTTER)
46A122(MEYER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (MEYER)
46A122(SCHALCH) · armorial bearing, heraldry (SCHALCH)
46A122(SEILER) · armorial bearing, heraldry (SEILER)
46A122(SIGRIST) · armorial bearing, heraldry (SIGRIST)
85A(THE OLD MAN AND HIS SON) · fables of Aesop (THE OLD MAN AND HIS SON) : Use 85(...)
98B(SCYLURUS)68 · death of Scylurus: the Scythian king, on his deathbed, enjoins his eighty sons to break a bundle of rods (or arrows) tied together; when they can't do this, he breaks the rods one by one, thus teaching them that united they will be strong, divided weak

Iconclass Keywords

arrow · breaking · bundle · coat of arms · deathbed · eighty · father · father and son · heraldry · rod · son · strength · unity

Heraldry

All with crested helms; 1. or a lion rampant; 2. azure a fleur-de-lis or, impaled by azure a lion rampant or, 3. azure two crossed keys or, per base three hills vert with triangle argent, per chief a cross or, 4. azure a crescent and a mullet or, 5. argent a bend argent with a raven rampant sable and or thereon, 6. or impaled gules, a lure sable, 7. azure a bell inscribed with a mullet or, 8. or a lion rampant sable holding two diamonds argent, 9. azure a bend or with three spades sable thereon, 10. azure two mullets or, 11. or a crescent sable over an arrow argent, 12. azure sprays with leaves vert and blossoms argent, 13. azure a tower argent supported by three hills or, 14. gules impaled or a lure sable

Inscription

1. Tobias Hallen des Grossenrahts 16[ . . ]; 2. Hans Conrad [ . . ] Stattgerichts 1663; 3. Johannes Amman Hoffmeister 1663; 4.·Johannes Seiller 1663; 5.·Tobias Grimm 1663; 6. Johannes Schalch 1663; 7. Hans Conradt Flaach Rahts 1663; 8. Mathis Hertenstein 166 3; 9. Hans Georg Sigerist Leutenenampt 1663; 10. Heinrich Huber [ . . ]arnet 1663; 11. Alexander Hutter des Stattgerichts 1663; 12. Hans Martin Meyer; 13. Hans Ludwig Burgower Hauptman 1663; 14. Philip Schal[ . . ] Stattgerichts und [ . . ] 1663
Skiurus mit der Pfeilen bund/ Macht seinen achzig Sohnenkund/ Das einigkeit geringe sachen/ Vermehren könn und grosser machen/ Unkeinigkeit auch grosse ding/Zerstör und gar zu nichten bring/ O wohl dem lieben vatterlande/ Dass verknüpft mit treues bande !/ O wohl d[ .] wärte Eidgnossschaft/ Weil einigke[ .]t ist deine krafft/ Kinderen nam hierumb geschriben/ Von freudtlichen gemut ge[ . . ]hen/ Dem Herzen dis[ .]s hauss so mild/ Den glasgemalten wapen schildt/ Und was darzu gehoret schenken/ Zu guten wunsch und angedenken /
(Skiurus with his bound shafts/Makes it known to his eighty sons/ That unity can increase and make greater, lesser things. / Disunity [can] also destroy greater things/ and even bring them to naught./ Health to the dear fatherland,/ that makes the tie with loyalty’s bond!/ Health to the awaited fraternity [Confederation]/ because unity is your strength!/ By those children whose names are inscribed around it,/ to whom a friendly spirit has been given,/ to the heart of this house, so kind, and all that belongs to it,/ this shield of painted glass is given/ as an expression of good wishes and pleasant memories.)

Signature

none

Technique / State

State of Conservation and Restorations

The lower left segment of the central scene is a replacement, evident by the different technique seen on the verso side. Mending leads appear throughout the panel.

Technique

The panel is composed of pot metal glass; white glass with vitreous paint, silver stain and blue, green, and purple enamel. Pot metal glass is the material of the tan columns and the green frame surrounding the central scene. Red pot metal glass appears in the shields of segments 2 and 12 and flashed and abraded red in segment 1. Backpainting appears in segments 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 12 and well as the central scene.

History

Research

The specific Civic Council commissioning the panel has not yet been unidentified. The central scene derives from one of Aesop’s fables, reputedly set in Greece during the sixth century BCE. The Old Man and his Sons, also called The Bundle of Sticks (Perry Index, no. 53), was retold in Roman times, with the identification of the man as Scilurus, a king of Scythia in the second-century BCE. The later text was associated with the Roman historian Plutarch, early second century CE. “Scilurus, who left eighty sons surviving him, when he was at the point of death handed a bundle of javelins to each son in turn and bade him break it… More

The parable was popular in Swiss stained glass of the Renaissance. In the Princeton panel the fable advocates unity in the ruling council of the city. The story of the dying man is placed in the center and surrounded by the arms of the council members. The man is shown as a king, but the bundle is of sticks, not javelins. Earlier, Tobias Stimmer had executed a powerful design focusing on the father’s deathbed (Geelhaar, 1984, pp. 416–18, no. 259, fig. 267). A panel, dated 1607, by Werner Kübler the Younger of Schaffhausen shows a similar arrangement of the parable in its central scene (Hasler, 2010, p. 251, no. 61). The inscription above the narrative image explains that the story of the brothers teaches that with unity, there is strength. In the Toggenburg area, Hans Jegli created a panel, dated 1624, on the theme for the couple Hans Bösch and Sara Scherer (Boesch, 1935, p. 50, no. 124, fig. 14).

The moral of strength in unity was also seen appropriate for family as well as civic accord, as evidenced in a panel depicting two brothers, Heraldic Panel with the Arms of the Brothers Caspar and Hans Loser (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 45.21.50, US_29). Dated to 1647, the panel is attributed to Abraham Wirth, Lichtensteig, Switzerland, and presents a vivid image of Skiurus’ sons breaking the sticks while they are separate but unable to break them when they are bound together.

Rolf Hasler has ascribed the panel to the Schaffhausen glasspainter Hans Heinrich Ammann (Hasler, 2010, pp. 70–72, nos. 83, 113, 114). Hasler illustrates the Princeton panel noting that by 1660 Ammann was well established in Schaffhausen as a Master Glasspainter. A panel ascribed to Ammann shows members of the City Court of 1692 surrounding a scene of the story of Zaleucus the Greek lawgiver who permitted himself to be blinded in one eye in order to apply a similar punishment for his son (Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Mus. Inv. 16400; Hasler, 2010, pp. 276–77, no. 83). See a similar panel attributed to Amman showing the scene of the prophet Daniel before King Nebuchadnezzar surrounded by twenty-six coats of arms of the Schaffhausen City Court of 1675 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. no. 3006-1857).

Cited in:
Raguin, & Morgan, 1987, p. 86.
Raguin, 1998, pp. 57–58, 63–65, fig. VII.4.
Hasler, 2010, p. 71, fig. 41.

Less

Dating

1663

Original Donor

Civic Council, unidentified

Previous Location

unknown

Place of Manufacture

Schaffhausen · Bezirk Schaffhausen · Canton of Schaffhausen · Switzerland

Previous Owner

Stanley Mortimer, Princeton class of 1919

Inventory Number

y1961-52

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Boesch, P. (1935). Die Toggenburger Scheiben, 75. Neujahrsblatt, Historischer Verein des Kanton St. Gallen, St. Gallen.

Geelhaar, C. ed (1984). Spätrenaissance am Oberrhein:., Tobias Stimmer, 1539-1584: Spätrenaissance am Oberrhein [exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel] Basel.

Hasler, R. (2010). Die Schaffhauser Glasmalerei des 16. bis 18 Jahrhunderts, Corpus Vitrearum Reihe Neuzeit, vol. 5, Bern.

Plutarch (1961). Moralia, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. III Sayings of Kings and Commanders, Loeb Classics, Harvard University Press… More

Image Information

Name of Image

USA_Princeton_PrincetonUniversityArtMuseum_US_48

Credits

Michel M. Raguin, with the permission of the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton NJ, USA (artmuseum.princeton.edu)
Link to the original photo

Public Domain

Inventory

Reference Number

US_48

Author and Date of Entry

Virginia C. Raguin 2024

Image Ordered

Contact Details