The Royal Anointing of Pepin the Short
Anna Maria Barbara Abesch (Sursee 1706-1773 Sursee)
1747
Reverse glass painting with negative effect. The paint is applied in several very thin layers.
Glass panel: H 46 cm, W 36 cm
Vitrocentre Romont, Collection R. and F. Ryser, RY 284
This reverse glass painting depicts the moment when Pepin the Younger was crowned King of the Franks by Archbishop Boniface of Mainz in 752. The ceremony is attended by other bishops, several deacons, soldiers and Pepin’s entourage. The scene takes place in an imaginary ecclesiastical space, with no exterior walls.
Pepin the Younger (714-768), also known as Pepin III, Pepin the Short or Pepin the Little, was a Frankish mayor of the palace from the Carolingian dynasty who became King of the Franks. Despite intensive research, it has not been possible to find the original that Anna Maria Barbara Abesch used as a model for this glass painting. It is very likely to be a French work that her father, Johann Peter Abesch (1666-1731), obtained in Alsace, where he is known to have travelled. The artist learned reverse glass painting in her father’s workshop and expressed herself exclusively in this art form throughout her life. Of her large oeuvre, over 150 signed and usually dated reverse glass paintings have survived. Research has attributed over 120 further works to the artist on the basis of stylistic analyses. Since there are striking differences in the quality of her work, it can be assumed that she employed assistants and, in some cases, signed their works as her own. The precise extent of this division of labour remains to be investigated.
It is certain, however, that her painting style influenced the work of contemporary and subsequent painters of reverse glass art in the region, such as Johann Crescenz Meyers (1735-1824) and Leo Leodegar Meyers (1717-1792) from Grosswangen, Cornel Suters the Elder (1733-1818) and the Younger (1757-1845) as well as Karl Josef Kopps (1741-1805) from Beromünster, and finally Franz Thaddäus Mentelers father (1712-1789) and son (1751-1794) in Zug. Anna Maria Barbara Abesch’s work also inspired women of the Lucerne patrician class to paint behind glass. Anna Maria Franziska Pfyffer von Altishofen von Sonnenberg (1688-1757) or her daughter Maria Anna Pfyffer von Altishofen (1731-?) are particularly well known. A painting by Maria Anna is also exhibited in this section.