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Newsletter 9 - April-May
Published 2 months ago • 6 min read
NewsLETTER 9
April-May 2026
Dear supporter of Ars Lucis,
What’s in this newsletter? Exciting discoveries in Antwerp, Munich and Montreal. New projects and activities for Ars Lucis. The long-awaited launch of our digital database. And new blood in our Board of Directors. In short, we have plenty of news to share with you!
Meanwhile, requests for consultation and advice continue to come in, and we are doing our best to serve everyone as effectively as possible. When a question requires a bit too much work, we do ask you to become a Friend of Ars Lucis 😉
Thank you very much for your continued interest and support!
Warm regards,
Joost and Liesbeth
News about Ars Lucis
We are delighted to announce that Rémi Wildschut has joined our Board of Directors. Rémi is an entrepreneur with a background in financial management and structuring growing organisations. With his business insights, which he combines with a passion for heritage and craftsmanship, we are convinced that he will make a valuable contribution to the further development of Ars Lucis. A warm welcome, Rémi!
Ars Lucis will map the stained-glass heritage in Schoten and develop a heritage route around it. Schoten is home to some unexpected gems that we want to string together in a walking or cycling tour. The municipality of Schoten has awarded us a project grant for this purpose.
Design for the stained glass window in the van de Horst chapel.
The GLASS-CARE project was recently given the green light to start on 1 January 2027, within the Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks programme. The project’s full name is Green Light for Advanced Solutions in Stained Glass Conservation and Application of Research and Education. It is coordinated by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Prof. Dr. Wendy Meulebroeck) and brings together 18 European universities, research institutes, conservation workshops, museums, and industrial partners, including Ars Lucis. Together, they conduct research into, among other things, the weathering of glass and glass paints caused by environmental pollution and climate change.
The decision has been made: for its digital inventory, Ars Lucis is partnering with meemoo, the Flemish institute for the archive. Meemoo manages the website erfgoeddatabank.be, where numerous Flemish museums, church councils, and other heritage organisations make their collections digitally accessible. Ars Lucis fits in perfectly here, although our collection will not be available online immediately. However, this digital registration does help to better map our collection internally and make it easier to query.
New activities
04/06/2026: Talk Gaasbeek
Castles and their stained-glass windows, what a romantic theme! Curious to hear what Joost and Liesbeth have to say about this? Then come and listen to their talk on June 4 at Gaasbeek Castle. Together, we will traverse time and space in search of the stained-glass windows of Burgundian dukes and 19th-century castle owners. And, of course, you will also learn a few things about the history of stained-glass art.
On June 11, Joost will give a talk on stained-glass art in the Low Countries for the Marnixring Roeselare-Tielt.
09/07/2026: Lecture Corpus Vitrearum
On July 9, Joost changes tack, as he will give a lecture on the study of stained-glass roundels (and how they were long overshadowed by the monumental stained-glass window). He will do this in Krakow, at the international colloquium of the Corpus Vitrearum.
The full schedule of our activities is available on our website.
Past activities
At the end of March, we held our very first Friends activity at the Ursuline Institute in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver. For many, it was their first encounter with this fantastic place. But naturally, we did not follow a standard tour and were also given a glimpse behind the scenes of this living heritage site. This beautiful afternoon was rounded off in style with a particularly delicious afternoon tea. You can find a more detailed report of this activity here.
Would you like to join us next time and enjoy other benefits as well? You can become a Friend starting from €70. You can find all information about our membership here.
Acquisitions
The Caen Collection has been enriched with the following items:
Glass
Three decorative stained-glass windows with floral motifs
First half of the 20th century. Gift from the Van Lantschoot family, Brasschaat.
Etched glass panel with a view of Bruges
Signed Théophile Coucke and dated 1889.
Portrait of a Xaverian Brother
20th century, originating from a window of a building inhabited by the Xaverians in Bruges. Gift from Mr. and Mrs. Vanderyse, Bruges.
Library
J. LAFOND: Pratique de la peinture sur verre à l’usage des curieux suivi d’un essai historique sur le jaune d’argent et une note sur les plus anciens verres gravés, Rouen, 1943. In addition to this book, four extensive articles on stained-glass windows in French churches by Jean Lafond were added to this purchase.
W. GIEGERICH, W. TRIER: Glass Machines Construction and Operation of Machines for the Forming of Hot Glass, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1969.
G. FRERE, C. THOMAS & I. VERHOEVEN (ed.): De Cristalleries du Val Saint-Lambert. Het boek over het tweehonderjarig bestaan, 2026.
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
During his research into Art Nouveau stained-glass windows, Thomas Vandormael came across a beautiful window at the Moderne Pinakothek (Munich). It is exhibited there as originating from “an unknown Brussels workshop”. However, he quickly made the connection with the corresponding drawing in our collection. This comes directly from the archives of the De Contini workshop, which was indeed based in Brussels...
With thanks to Drs. Thomas Vandormael and Dr. Annelies Thoelen!
In Antwerp, during archaeological excavations in the courtyard of the DIVA Museum (now Leonie Glassplein), several fragments of stained glass were discovered. These are grisaille paintings with hatching and floral motifs, similar to those found at the Ten Duinen Abbey (Koksijde) and Het Pand (Ghent). They also correspond to these two other sites in terms of dating, as they are presumably from the 13th-14th centuries.
A small but lovely exhibition about Val Saint-Lambert is running at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi until September 27. Fans of their vases from the Interwar period will find plenty to enjoy. But there is also something for devotees of architectural glass: a glass roof tile and various glass building blocks.
A 17th-century stained-glass window from Lier was (re)discovered in the depot of the Musée des Métiers d'Art du Québec (Montreal). It depicts Saint Victor of Marseille and belongs to another stained-glass window from the same collection, which portrays Saint Elizabeth. Both stained-glass windows originally came from Saint Margaret’s Church in Lier. This beguinage church dates from the 1660s and was glazed from 1667 onwards. However, the original stained-glass windows were removed over time and became dispersed. Thus, apart from the panels in Montreal, there is also a window in London (Victoria & Albert Museum) depicting the saints Clare of Assisi and Susanna of Rome. A new online article extensively examines the origins and wanderings of all these panels.
We use our own system to catalogue our glass collection. However, this bears a strong resemblance to the method described by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE). So, anyone who has yet to start registering flat glass in their collections should certainly take a look at the RCE Knowledge Base.
Do you have news that might interest our readers? Please contact Liesbeth.
Featured piece
Windmill
17th century, Low Countries
Energy and the looming shortage thereof continue to dominate the news. The call for sustainable energy sources is growing louder. Inspired by this, we were reminded of this small stained-glass pane depicting a windmill.
Labour ennobles
No, this pane is not an advertisement for wind energy. It was painted in the 17th century to illustrate a moralizing saying:
“De wint moet waeÿen / sou de meulen draeÿen / het willich werck moet gaen / of de werelt sou vergaen”. (The wind must blow / so the mill turns / the willing work must proceed / or the world would perish)
The meaning is clear: For the mill to work, the wind must blow; work must be done, otherwise chaos reigns. In short: Work pays off – Labour ennobles!
Such folk-style panes with – often humorous – inscriptions were particularly popular in the Low Countries at the time. They adorned the windows of houses, inns and shops, among other places.
Witty and serious inscriptions
It is not uncommon for the texts and images to be taken from books. This is also the case with this small windowpane. But what makes it even more fun is that we actually have a book containing a remarkably similar verse.
The book is titled ‘Koddige en ernstige opschriften, op luyffens, wagen, glazen, uithangborden en andere taferelen’ (Witty and serious inscriptions on windows, carts, glass, signboards and other scenes) by Hieronymus Sweerts (Amsterdam 1629-1696). In this work, the poet and bookseller collected numerous inscriptions that once appeared on windowpanes. In our copy, published in Amsterdam in 1718-1719, it reads: “De wind moet waayen, De Moolen moet draeyen, De dobber moet staan, Of de werelt zou vergaan.” (The wind must blow, The mill must turn, The floater must stand, Or the world would perish)
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