c. 1470

Kneeling Knight in Prayer

Artist/maker unknown

The sitter, a nobleman identified by the heraldic arms on the shield at his side, was a member of the Schenken von Limpurg family of Swabia, in southern Germany. He is clad in a typical late Gothic German armor, whose characteristic features include a breastplate built with a piece for the chest and another for the abdomen; narrow one-piece tassets (thigh defenses) suspended from the steel skirt; and poleyns (knee defenses) incorporating elongated plates extending down the shin section of the greaves (lower leg defenses). The gorget (neck defense) formed of multiple lames is a relatively unusual feature, recorded on funeral effigies of German knights in the 1470s and thereafter.

This stained glass panel is presumably the remnant of a larger ensemble for a window in a church or chapel patronized by a branch of the Schenken von Limpurg family.