Votive image of the Miraculous Virgin of Amberg
Karl Joseph Ruff the Elder (1815 - 1896), Winklarn.
Glass painted on reverse in eglomisé technique with gold and silver leaf, opaque and transparent pigments. Signed "Ruff" on the right beside the inscription "O Maria Hilf! es ist unerhört, den Du verläßt, der Dich verehrt.". With retouches, a diagonal crack to the upper right corner. Painted softwood frame, H 43, W 35 cm.
There is evidence of reverse glass painting in Winklarn in the Upper Palatinate since the middle of the 18th century. The technique was mainly dominated by three families. The painters usually obtained their glass panes from Charlottenthal near Schönsee and created their own designs for their depictions. The motifs were either taken from everyday rural life or they painted saints from the church calendar, mainly producing devotional pictures and votive tablets.
Alongside the Rott family, the Ruff family were among the best-known reverse glass painters in Winklarn. Karl Joseph Ruff proudly signed his image of the Amberg Madonna with the professional title "gilder" and also noted the date, 25th June 1890. The reverse glass painting follows the design, but laterally reverses it.
In the Doktor-Eisenbarth- und Stadtmuseum Oberviechtal there is a very similar depiction of St. Barbara, possibly also by Ruff.
The second image online shows the design of the reverse glass painting by Ruff, dated 1890.
Provenance
Collection of Henry Neuenfeld, Munich.
Literature
Illus. in Steiner, "...denn ich verkünde Euch eine große Freude!" – Die Weihnachtsgeschichte in der Hinterglasmalerei 1550 - 1850, Mittenwald 2008, illus. 40.
Illus. in Steiner, Goldglanz und Silberpracht – Hinterglasmalerei aus vier Jahrhunderten, Berlin-Munich 2015, no. 111.
Illus. in Ehret, Stilkunde: Eglomisé, in: Weltkunst 105/2015.
See also Schuster, Auf Glas gemalt. Hinterglasmalerei aus Winklarn, Regensburg 1973, p. 41.
See also Brückner/Schneider, Hinterglasbilder. Aus den Sammlungen der Diözese Würzburg. Kirche, Kunst und Kultur in Franken, Band 1, Würzburg 1990, p. 95, cat. no. 251 f.
Exhibitions
2008 - 2009 Geigenbaumuseum Mittenwald
2015 Schaezlerpalais der Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg.
2020 - 2021 "Hinter Glas gemalt. Geheimnisse einer Technik", Museum Penzberg Sammlung Campendonk.