Images in Light and Line. The Stained Glass Designs and Prints of Dirk Vellert

This study of Dirk Jacobsz Vellert is the first extensive examination of a Netherlandish artist who specialized in the design of stained glass, a major artistic medium in the Northern Renaissance period that has been neglected by modern scholars. Vellert was responsible for monumental church windows, and he was an innovative designer of the small-scale painted glass panes that developed as a new art form to adorn wealthy homes, cloisters, hospitals and secular buildings such as town halls. Moreover, Vellert became the first artist in Antwerp to engrave and etch, producing a relatively small but accomplished oeuvre of twenty-one prints that stands out in its innovative subject matter and technique. The artist's biography is reconstructed, partly with the use of newly discovered documents. A catalogue establishes Vellert's body of works, including drawings for stained-glass windows, completed small-scale painted glass panels, prints and portions of the windows at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. This study situates stained glass of the period in a contextual framework of contemporary culture, as recent art historians have examined panel painting of this time.