Design drawings for stained glass pictures are called cartoons. These small-format graphic works are a Swiss and Southern German peculiarity that culminated in the 16th and 17th centuries when donating a family crest or a stained-glass window was highly fashionable.

The Prints and Drawings collections of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, ETH Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, and of the Swiss National Museum possess important historical holdings of such cartoons, or preparatory drawings. Over 60 of them were analysed in a joint research project. The findings were published in a report that also served as the catalogue for an exhibition in Zurich's Zentralbibliothek (18.3.–2.7.2022). All major artists of their day are represented with outstanding examples of their work. Allegories, Bible stories, genre scenes, representative cantonal arms or family crests are among the preferred subjects and offer varied insights into life in those times.

Link to the catalogue

Project participants

• Dr Jochen Hesse, head of Prints and Photographs, Zentralbibliothek Zürich
• Dr Mylène Ruoss, curator, Swiss National Museum
• Dr Jonas Beyer, curator, Kunsthaus Zürich
• Dr Susanne Pollack, curator of Prints and Photographs Collection at ETH Zürich