Munich-Mayer

It is said, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Germany loved nothing more than a room glowing with painted glass. Along with his grandfather’s establishment of the Royal Bavarian Art Institute, King Ludwig II’s obsession with this style of art revived the 19th Century German stained-glass industry we know today.

Munich Mayer’s Institute of Christian Art was founded in 1847 by Joseph Gabriel Mayer. By the end of the 19th Century, Joseph’s son, Franz Borgias Mayer and son-in-law, F.X. Zettler, led the company into international status, which by 1882, the company was decreed by King Ludwig II, as the “Royal Bavarian Art Establishment.” Zettler Studios perfected the “Munich style” of windows, in which religious scenes were painted on large sheets of glass then fused onto the glass through heat in a kiln. Hence, the style Munich-Mayer pictorial/painted windows originated from Munich, Germany and was part of the Italian Renaissance movement in which religious scenes were set in a three-point perspective, as well as evoking realism and expressions in the religious figures depicted.