“Nevertheless,” says Champollion-Figeac, “art was declining. Christian art especially was disappearing, and had almost come to an end, when Protestantism stepped in and gave it the last blow; this is proved by the window in the cathedral church of Berne, in which the artist, Frederic
“FRANCIS I. AND ELEANOR HIS WIFE AT PRAYERS.”
PART OF A WINDOW IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GUDULE IN BRUSSELS. FROM “L’HISTOIRE DE LA PEINTURE SUR VERRE EN EUROPE.”
This magnificent window was given to the Church of St. Gudule by Francis I. and Eleanor of Spain, his wife, sister of Charles V., and widow by her first marriage of Emmanuel the Great, King of Portugal.
The donors are represented kneeling, each one protected by his or her patron saint; the king is attended by St. Francis of Assisi, who is receiving in a vision the impress of the stigmata of Jesus on the Cross; the queen is accompanied by St. Eleanor, who holds in her hand the palm of the elect. This window is from a design by Bernard van Orley.
Francis I. and Eleanor expended on the window two hundred and twenty-two crowns, or four hundred florins, an important sum in those days (1515-47).
FRANCIS I. AND ELEONORA AT THEIR DEVOTIONS.
Portion of a Stained Glass Window in the Church of St. Gudule at Brussels.