Heraldry in the Old Castle, Stuttgart

This entry and the next one come courtesy of the glass collection in the Württemberg State Museum located in the Old Castle (Altes Schloß), in Stuttgart, Germany. They’ve got a wonderful collection of glass, with some pieces dating back to the Roman empire. But, of course, those pieces contain no heraldry.

One of the things that I particularly enjoy looking at is the ways in which different artists will emblazon (draw) the same coat of arms. In one particularly nice example of this, in the glass collection at the Old Castle are two tall glasses displayed right next to each other, both with the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, its wings emblazoned with the coats of arms of the various states of which it consisted, but each done by a different artist.

The most noticeable difference between the two depictions is the arms of Bavaria (Bayern), which in the glass on the left are the usual lozengy (or even fusilly) bendwise, while the one on the right is strictly lozengy. There are other differences between the depictions of the various arms between the two glasses, but mostly these are in the detailing. Still, it can be both entertaining and educational to compare how different artists draw the same coat of arms. And isn’t that part of the fun of heraldry?