St. Pantaleon examining a patient

This panel and its counterpart represent two events in the life of Saint Pantaleon (275 - c. 304 AD). Pantaleon was a doctor who practised his profession without asking for money in return. Originally from Nicomedia (today Izmit, Turkey), his cult soon spread to Europe, particularly to France.

This window shows Saint Pantaleon dressed in antique style, holding a book in his left arm as a symbol of knowledge. He is flanked on the right by a man on his knees, hands clasped, who is receiving his care; on the left is a second man on his feet, designated as of the Jewish faith by his headgear in the form of a horned cap. Imported from the Islamic world and worn in Europe as early as the 11th or 10th century, this headdress was imposed on Jewish men in 1215 to distinguish them from Christians. Here, this iconographic detail is understood above all as a typological symbol of the differences and connections between the Old and New Testaments, the Jewish and the Christian worlds, the old religion and the newly revealed religion – symbolised, by contrast, by the halo of Saint Pantaleon.

These two panels are probably linked to the former cathedral of Notre-Dame de Noyon, located in the Oise region, about 100 km north-east of Paris, which was quickly rebuilt after a fire in 1131. The former vestry of the building housed a cycle of twelve panels dating back to the 1220-1230 installation of stained glass, depicting the story of Saint Pantaleon. Nine of these windows were reassembled around 1825 in the two bays of the axis chapel, where they still stand today, while the three missing panels – two of which are now kept in the Vitromusée Romont – were replaced by modern panels.

Unfortunately, the name of the painter-glassworker or the workshop that produced these panels does not appear in the account books of the former cathedral of Notre-Dame de Noyon. They could be the work of a glass painter employed on the building site, or of an itinerant artist, active in France in the first half of the 13th century. There is in fact another stained glass window tracing the story of Saint Pantaleon in Chartres cathedral (bay 11), which has some narrative and formal affinities with the one in the old cathedral of Notre-Dame de Noyon. Dated 1220-1225, it shares the same historical, cultural and artistic period as the Noyon glass.

These stained glass windows have been documented in Switzerland since 1943: at that time, they were considered to be early 14th century works originating in Regensburg. They were sold in Zurich by the antique dealer E. Meyer. Since 2008 they have been kept in a private collection in Switzerland and since 2011 they have been on loan to the Vitrocentre Romont.