NewsLETTER 6

October-November 2025

Dear supporter of Ars Lucis,

We are halfway through our first year of operation and can look back on considerable progress. Not only have many Friends joined us, but we also see a steady increase in interesting contacts and requests for advice. Furthermore, the collection continues to grow, which only increases the significance of our association for all stained-glass enthusiasts, glaziers, conservators-restorers, and researchers.

If you are a new reader of our newsletter, we recommend that you take a look at our website. Be sure to check out our activities page. There, you can see which events we participate in or organize ourselves. You will also find a calendar of interesting conferences, lectures, exhibitions, etc., related to glass. If you have any suggestions to add to this calendar, please feel free to contact Liesbeth.

You can still become a Friend by transferring €70 (€120 for a duo) to our account number BE65 3630 8293 0996, including your name, email address, and membership type. More information about membership can be found here.

We thank you in advance for your support.

Joost en Liesbeth

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News about Ars Lucis

You already know that our website exists in Dutch, French and English. But perhaps you didn't know that our newsletters are also distributed in these three languages. What's more, you can contribute to them: if you have any important glass news, we can include it in our communication. Simply email your news to Liesbeth.

Fundraising is high on our agenda. In the spring of 2026, we are planning a campaign to consolidate the appointment of our first staff member and, if possible, recruit a second. We are also looking for sponsors for the annual subscription to our digital data system, as well as for the development of our courses and workshops. If you would like to respond to this call, please register your name to participate in the fundraising event.

In October, Joost gave a lecture at the ICON – Stained Glass Group conference. The theme was 'Removed – Remodelled – Relocated. The movement of stained glass from its original setting to places new.' Given the closure, demolition, repurposing, etc. of numerous churches, the lectures were particularly relevant and inspiring. Joost returned very enthusiastic and wrote a short report, which you can find here.

In our registration activities we recently recorded our 448th item.

Acquisitions

The Caen Collection has been enriched with the following items:

Glass

Tracery panel with a grotesque angel 16th century, France

Three panes with the representation of the occupation and name of the depicted clients early 18th century, Duchy of Westphalia

Library

• S. ANTHONIOZ (ed.): Post Tenebras Lux, La collection de vitraux du Musée Ariana, exhibition catalogue, Genève, 2025. In addition to the larger panels, special attention is also paid to the numerous fragments of stained glass in the collection.
• Le Grand Théâtre sacré du duché de Brabant, The Hague, 1734. Second French 4-part edition largely based on C. Van Gestel's “Historia sacra et profana archiepiscopatus Mechliniense” from 1725. The book series is richly illustrated with numerous stained-glass windows, among other monuments.
• J. VANDEN VONDEL (DE DENE) - GERARDS: Vorstelijcke warande der dieren, Amsterdam, c. 1730. Our collection has three 17^th-century panes with representations based on prints/emblems in this book.
• J. CRAB, P.-V. MAES & L. VAN BUYTEN: Kunstambachten, Stedelijk Museum “Van der Kelen-Mertens” Leuven, Inventaris, Afdeling B: Kunstambachten Deel II, Leuven, 1967. The first chapter (p. 3-94) covers the entire inventory at that time of “Glass Painting”.

Archivalia

Private donation of a collection of documents about the stained-glass artist Marie-Thérèse Veranneman (Poperinge, 1900 – Saint-Gilles, 1982) Among other windows, she created stained glass for the Basilica of Koekelberg (Brussels).

Do you have stained glass windows, books, documentation or other material that you would like to offer to Ars Lucis? Please feel free to contact us.

External news

The latest issue of the Revue belge d’Archéologie et Histoire de l’Art features the article “Een nieuw licht op de gebrandschilderde glas-in-loodramen van de Sint-Basiliuskerk in Brugge (1483-1544)”. In it, Dra. Julia van Leeuwen discusses the realisation of the original Burgundian-Habsburg stained-glass windows from the Chapel of the Holy Blood.

On 22 October, the Walloon sculptor and glass artist Jean-Marie Geron (born 1937) passed away. Throughout his life, he was committed to contemporary glass art, as an artist, teacher and author. In 1983, he obtained his doctoral degree at the Sorbonne with a dissertation on contemporary stained glass. This later formed the basis of his publication with Albert Moxhet: Le Vitrail Contemporain. ‘Comme Un Chant De Lumiere’ from 2001. Jean-Marie Geron organised numerous meetings, invariably bringing together glaziers and glass art enthusiasts from Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders. He thus contributed greatly to the appreciation of our field in the whole of Belgium.

Thanks to the persistent search of an inquisitive resident of Lint, it came to light that a stained-glass window by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, which was thought to be lost, is located in the Church of Our Lady of the Nativity in Lint. It was removed from St. Lawrence's Church in Antwerp in 1932 when the church was demolished. The research started after glazier Patrick De Jager, during the restoration work in Lint, remarked that the window was definitely by Capronnier. In the meantime this information has been added to the Inventory of Immovable Heritage.

The exhibition "Light as Heritage: Stained Glass in Flanders after 1945" opens on January 12th in the corridors of KADOC in Leuven. Curated by Zsuzsanna Böröcz, the exhibition will run until March 29, 2026. The overarching theme is post-war stained glass window production, focusing on glass artists such as Ivo Bakelants, Michiel Leenknegt, Michel Martens, Maurits Nevens and Bert Vonk.

More info

Featured piece

Heraldry and stained-glass windows in the 17th century

Because the Caen Collection encompasses much more than glass, this time we delve into the archival material, specifically the epitaph drawings.

An epitaph is primarily an inscription on a tomb. However, since the content always presents the deceased in a favourable light, the term is also used for any eulogy on a hard material, such as wooden panels, murals or stained-glass windows. The two epitaph drawings we are highlighting here are both related to stained-glass windows and their noble donors. At a certain point, the nobility wanted an overview of their representations in religious buildings. This information was recorded in documents and epitaph books with annotated images and drawings. Especially during the Reformation, the nobility had to consider the possible destruction of their heritage...

A family from the Waasland The first archival document is a parchment from 1670. In addition to five funerary monuments, it shows three lost stained-glass windows from the Church of Our Lady in Waasmunster. The emphasis here is on the colour depiction of the coats of arms of the Van Steelant family and their relatives. Two windows also show the donors with their families or patron saints, and we also see indications of the iconographic representations in the stained-glass windows.

De Vaddere: true or not? The second document relates to stained-glass windows and funerary monuments belonging to the De Vaddere family. The stained-glass windows mentioned are linked to the following locations, among others:

The building of the Friars of Our Lady in Brussels; the church of the Augustinian Fathers in Leuven; the chapel of Saint Didacius of the Friars Minor of Boetendaal near Brussels; the Dominican church in Brussels and the building called ‘De Gulden Draeck’ in Leuven. The document was commissioned by Adrianus de Vaddere (1659-1711), prior of Park Abbey in Heverlee, and his brother Petrus. At least, that is what the certificate claims. It was signed by Pierre-Albert de Launay (1611-1694), which raises suspicion, for this De Launay was not an undisputed figure. From 1639 onwards, he held the office of herald of arms of Brabant, but just a few years later, he was accused of fraud. His entire subsequent career consisted of a series of forged documents and genealogies, for which he was convicted in 1674.

This certificate from De Vaddere, however, dates from 1693, thus long after his trial, after which he made sure he wouldn't be discredited again. Moreover, there is a second certificate, signed by the Brussels notary Petrus Ulens, Joannes de Genesse, treasurer from Grimbergen, and by Guillaume a Kempis, organist at the collegiate church of Saint Gudula. But it would certainly be wonderful if this information could be confirmed by other sources.

Learn more about Ars Lucis? Visit our website