Article on pages 4 - 7 of Dickon Independent issue 41

A Brief Note On The Patronage And Authorship Of The Magnificat Window In Great Malvern Priory by Allan Barton

This article is the copyright of Allan Barton.

The Great Priory Church of St Mary and St Michael at Great Malvern in Worcestershire has one of the most impressive displays of medieval stained glass in the country, with nineteen windows retaining some of their fifteenth or sixteenth century glazing. Among that collection one window stands out above the rest for its sheer size and originality, the great window of the north transept, the ‘Magnificat’ window.

Briefly the iconography of the window is based around the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary’s great canticle of praise from chapter one of the Gospel according to St Luke. Narrative panels of the ‘Joys of the Virgin’, i.e events in her life and that of Christ, are arranged around a massive representation of her coronation as Queen of Heaven. Above each panel is a clause from the Magnificat.

An important part of the composition of the window is a rank of donor images at its base, each kneeling in a separate light. King Henry VII, Queen Elizabeth of York, Prince Arthur, Sir Reginald Bray, Sir John Savage and Sir Thomas Lovell are each neatly labelled kneeling at faldstools. Below the kneeling donors is a bidding prayer invoking the reader to pray for the king, queen, prince and the three knights:

Orate [pro bono] statu [n]obilissim[i &] [excellentissimi] regis [Henrici septimi &] Elisabeth[e regine] ac d(omi)ni Arturis [principis filii] eoru(n)de(m) nec non [predilectissi]me [consortis s]ue [& suoru]m [trium] militu(m) [p(re)dictorum.]

The beginning of the bidding prayer ‘pray for the good estate…’ declares that the window was made during the lifetime of all parties mentioned, otherwise the text would be altered to ‘orate pro anima’, i.e. ‘pray for the soul of...’ Therefore the death of Prince Arthur on April 2nd 1502, provides a terminus post quem for the window. The fact that Arthur’s consort is mentioned (though not by name) also restricts the date of the window to after mid-November 1501, for the marriage of Arthur to Katherine of Aragon took place on the 14th of that month. Altogether this inscriptional evidence suggests that the window was installed sometime between 14th November 1501 and April 2nd 1502 - it is unusual to be so precise about the dating of medieval glass.

Who paid for the window? The inscription and disposition of the donors gives us a clue. The traditional view is that Henry VII paid for it himself. Hamand concluded that the window was the direct gift of Henry VII. 1 Paul veered in a similar direction, stating that the inscription referred to the King, Queen and Prince Arthur only. 2 However, the inclusion of the three knights in the rank of donors and in the text of the bidding prayer, suggests that this is a bit too simplistic an answer. Rushworth made a more likely suggestion. He thought that the placement of the kneeling images of the royal family in the window, and the inscription, suggested that ‘officially’ at least, the window was a royal gift. He concluded, however, that the exclusion of other members of the royal family and inclusion of the knights shows that the window was not a royal gift ‘pure and simple.’ 3 It might be that the three knights paid for the window, offering it to the priory jointly on behalf of themselves and the king as an act of loyalty to their sovereign. This is not unlikely, bearing in mind that at nearby Little Malvern, where the east window of the priory church is known to have been the sole benefaction of Bishop Alcock of Worcester, images of Edward IV, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, the two princes and four of their daughters are included at the base of the window. The image of the bishop is placed at the back of the kneeling donors in a subordinate position to his sovereign. The kneeling donors in the Magnificat window are similarly disposed.

Who made the window? Richard Marks attributes the authorship of the Magnificat window to a workshop headed by Thomas Wodshawe and Richard Twygge which was operating in the vicinity of Malvern from the 1480’s. We know the names of these two glaziers as they occur in the glazing accounts of Tattershall College in Lincolnshire in 1482, where they are being paid for making a window of the Seven Sacraments and two windows ‘de ymaginibus’ comprising a series of small figures. 4 Though not named at other locations, through stylistic comparison with surviving elements of the Seven Sacraments from Tattershall, Marks has identified other surviving glazing produced by Wodshawe and Twygge, including the east window of Little Malvern mentioned above. The surviving panels of Baptism and Confirmation from the Seven Sacraments at Tattershall are significantly similar to elements of the Magnificat window to conclude that the same workshop produced them. Many of the facial features are broadly similar, with concave noses and full mouths and a similar use of heads in profile with fine stipple shading.

There is further documentary evidence that links Richard Twygge to Malvern and suggests that by the time that the Magnificat window was produced he alone was heading the workshop. In the early sixteenth century a Richard Twygge was recorded undertaking glazing for Westminster Abbey. In 1507-8 he was paid for glazing fourteen clerestory windows, and in 1509-10 received £44 for glazing the great west window of the abbey and £3 for a further clerestory window. 5 Coincidentally in 1505-6, the year previous to Twygge’s first mention in the Westminster accounts, they include a payment to the ‘vetriar … de Malvourn’ for similar work. If all that has been said above is taken into account this must refer to Twygge.

The glazing of the Magnificat window by Richard Twygge marks the end of an era. Along with the passing of Henry VII, the last medieval king (?), went the native English glaziers craft. Only ten years after the completion of the Magnificat window, when Henry VIII began the glazing of his father’s mausoleum at Westminster, he overlooked the likes of Twygge in favour of more fashionable foreign glaziers.

References and some further reading

1 Hamand, L. A. The Ancient Windows of Great Malvern Priory Church, St Albans, 1947, p. 69
2 Paul, R. W. ‘Some Notes on the Heraldic Glass in Great Malvern Priory’, Archaeologia 57 (1901), p. 2
3 Rushworth, G. McN. Medieval Christian Imagery as illustrated by the painted windows of Great Malvern Priory, Oxford, 1936, p. 373
4 Marks, R. C. The Stained Glass of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, Tattershall (Lincs.), New York and London, 1984, p. 33
5 Ibid., p. 76

Back to contents page of magazine