Stained Glass Panel 1897 - 1910

Otto Heinigke made this stained glass panel at an unknown date, but you can see the process in the making of the object. I love how you can see the seams and the lead holding all the pieces together, it reveals the puzzle that the artist had to solve. Heinigke’s work makes me think about the way that light can be both structural and ephemeral. Look closely at the ram’s body and the simple almost cartoon-like way he scored the glass. This reminds me that at one point the medium would have been molten. How that heat and viscous material has been used to make something so concrete and still. Artists like Heinigke, and maybe also someone like Émile Gallé, remind us that art is always negotiating a relationship between utility and beauty.