Figure 3 : Death of St Germain , from the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des- Prés ( Winchester College , G19 )
I :
A Scene from Saint-Germaindes-Prés , Paris
( c . 1243 – 48 )
Commission . The earliest stained glass at Winchester College was not made for the school , and predates its foundation by almost 150 years . This scene was made in the mid- 1240s for the Lady Chapel of Saint- Germain-des-Prés , a Benedictine Abbey in Paris ( see fig . 2 ).
Content . This example differs from the other medieval glass at Winchester in that it is a single scene , separated from a larger narrative programme . In its original setting in the Abbey , the multiple panels together told stories from the lives of the Virgin Mary , and the saints Vincent of Saragossa ( who died c . 304 ) and Germain ( c . 496 – 576 ), and the history of their relics . Vincent was the monastery ’ s foundation saint and in 1215 , the future King Louis VIII gave part of his jawbone and his stole to the Abbey . Germain was a Bishop of Paris who , in the mid-sixth century , persuaded the Frankish King Childebert I to build a monastery for
Medieval Glass at Winchester College 3