Virgo ex machina.: The stained-glass panel of the Confrerie Notre-Dame-du-Jardin at Rouen Cathedral by Engrand Le Prince

The recent acquisition by the Musee National de la Renaissance of a stained-glass panel depicting the Trinity is a major event: the work belonged to the personal collection of one of the founders of the present-day historical study of stained glass, Jean Lafond, who himself attributed the piece to that most appealing of Renaissance stained-glass artists, Engrand Le Prince. These panels are some of the rare known elements of a sumptuous stained-glass window which was installed in 1528 in the south arm of the Rouen cathedral transept and later removed in 1867 for the sake of maintaining stylistic unity. Their reappearance offers the opportunity to retrace the history of the window with the help of the abundant documentary sources relating to it. Research has revealed, in particular, the astonishing dispute between the cathedral chapter and the members of the Confrerie Notre-Dame-du-Jardin over the replacement of their chapel's wax theatre by a fine piece of stained-glass. The canons' wishes prevailed and they obtained the removal of liturgical practices deemed unseemly at a time when reforming ideas were gaining ground. The commission was given to the Beauvais workshop: confirmation of its previous success in having produced, only a few years previously (1523-1526), three of the finest stained-glass windows for the Eglise Saint-Vincent in Rouen.