HERALDIC MOTIFS IN FAMILY STAINED GLASSES OF THE 16TH CENTURY OF THE VON DIESBACH FAMILY

This article deals with the problem of research and attribution of heraldic stained-glass windows of the Swiss Union in the 16th century, when the art of stained glass was in its heyday. By this time, the formation of a new social class, the burghers, was being completed, whose wealthy families, thanks to the special historical conditions for the development of the Old Confederation, were able to have their own family coat of arms. In order to demonstrate their social status and services to society, coats of arms were placed in stained-glass windows, which were donated to churches. The purpose of the article: using the example of the heraldic stained-glass windows of the von Diesbach family, preserved in the church of the city of Worb, canton of Bern, is to show how the established rules of heraldry were transformed in the heraldic stained-glass windows of the Swiss Union. The study relies on sources in the form of surviving armorials, as well as official documents of the time, which depict the coat of arms of the von Diesbach family, which made it possible to conduct a comparative analysis of coats of arms in manuscripts and stained-glass windows. In the process of research, a technical and technological method was used to identify the possibilities of including heraldic symbols in stained glass compositions. As a result of the analysis of the heraldic stained-glass windows of the von Diesbach family in the church of the city of Worb, canton of Bern, it was concluded that they are a vivid example of the use of stable heraldic symbols, however, in the stained-glass windows of the Old Confederation (Swiss Union). the rules of heraldry were not applied too rigidly and consistently, they were interpreted in stained-glass windows taking into account the social structure of society, the location of stained-glass windows in architecture, as well as the technological possibilities of stained-glass art.