Fixed Under Glass Rural Scene From Alsace 18th Century

Glass painting is a unique technique because the work is done on the back of the glass. While on a canvas, the composition is sketched in broad strokes and then the flat areas of color are executed to gradually finish with the details, in reverse glass painting, the opposite is done. Unlike the normal technique, which is to execute the details (the nose, the eyes, the flowers) before the background (the face, the landscape), the viewer must look at the finished work on the unpainted side of the glass plate. The glass painter begins with the subtleties of the work and ends with the backgrounds. Thus, down to the smallest detail, the painter must imagine from the start the final version of the image to be created, knowing full well that he will also have to deal with a "mirror effect" when executing the image since what is painted upside down on the right is found right side up on the left. Glass painting has been known in the West since antiquity; examples have been found in the Assyrian and Phoenician civilizations. Described as "learned art", it was during the Renaissance that this art form reached its peak in that the compositions became very elaborate, the colors harmonious, the virtuosity of the technique dizzying. It is a regional, folk art, seductive by its popular charm and the liveliness of its colors, and which was established in Alsace in the second half of the 18th century. (extracts from the magazine Proantic). Rural and bucolic landscape that could be Alsatian where tiny characters occupy the spaces... they wander, walk, work or eat. This object comes from a pretty little castle... it is in perfect condition.