Baby Jesus having a quick dip

South Ormsby, Lincolnshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.

I can't resist posting a photo of this glorious little panel of Netherlandish stained glass from South Ormsby in Lincolnshire. This tiny panel dates from the last quarter of the fifteenth century and it portrays the Nativity set in a contemporary domestic setting of the period. Our Lady is sat up in a four poster bed in a very up-market room. The room is so up-market that the floor is tiled and the windows glazed, you can even see the glazing bars. To the left of the panel a midwife gives Our Lord, who is a jolly little chap, a bath in a bason which is placed before the fire. Notice the lovely little details such as the pot hanging from a great hook over the fire and the bellows hanging in the inglenook. I could have done with the latter this evening myself as our fire did not want to light!



For those who want to know more the glass is in panel 1b of sIII in Ormsby and more details cam be gleaned from:
P. Hebgin-Barnes, The Medieval Stained Glass of the County of Lincolnshire (Oxford, 1996), pp. 259-261.