Style Neo-Renaissance / Ref.0963

Exceptional historicist stained glass window signed Lorin and dated 1882

Framed by a geometrical frieze with blue flowers, this panel presents two figures standing before an architectural structure with a backdrop of a medieval landscape
The two characters, a man and a woman, are dressed in a free reinterpretation of Renaissance fashion clothes. What the man wears was fashionable in the days of François Ier : a white smock chemise slipped under a red pourpoint, with puffed paned sleeves that reveal the chemise, and a richly embroidered surcoat. Beneath he wears brightly coloured hosens with red ribbons. His hat resembles a large flat beret with feathers. He has a square cut beard just like the powerful men of that time: François I, Charles Quint or Henri VIII of England. The artist has given dignity to this character with his imposing stance and the official emblems he carries: in one hand, a rolled parchment, in the other, an ornate baton with fleur de lys, sign of a high function of state.
The lady is dressed in a long flowing robe. Her style is more Italian: she wears a white chemise under a red dress with different colored manchettes on her arms from which the puffed sleeves of the chemise emerge. From a golden belt around her waist falls a green purse. A necklace and a fan complete her attire and she wears a sumptuous purple hat with feathers and a brooch.
In the background, a landscape with a castle upon rocky heights stands out against a blue sky. The characters stand beneath imaginative architectural elements, in the Renaissance style: a scrolled pediment with a central lion face holding garlands in its mouth; above, two angels sit reading books under a cup of fruit. The couple stands on a base that is a trompe l’œil of an architectural decoration framed by putti holding a festoon of flowers and fruit. In the middle, a blue shield shows intertwined a U and an E ith the motto “Vite et Bien” (Fast and Good) under two triple thunderbolts.
The name of the cartoon artist is Julian. Neo-Renaissance style.

Different techniques were used for this composition: some of the glass is painted with enameled paint, with double panes enameled on both sides, which creates a sense of depth (see the man’s puffed doublet sleeves); some are enameled on one side and acid etched on the other (detail of the ladies necklace); some details around the central figures, were made using stencil techniques. This piece is representative of the high quality artists reached in that period, in their ability to render refined details, the delicacy of the skin, the texture of the clothes (notice the difference between the velvet of the lady’s dress, and the silk of the gentleman’s clothes). The extraordinary refinement of the play of light and color in this composition places this piece at the highest level of quality of its period.
This window was in a mansion in the region of Nice, called the château des Ollières.
Our research continues today, because we wish to precisely identify how this stained glass window got to the Château des Ollières. What we know is that according to the Maison Lorin archives, this piece was ordered by a senior local government official, Mr Usquin, in 1882.