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Starting with the mid-18th century, art flourished in the
upper region of Bavaria. Besides woodcarving and wallpainting,
verre églomisé painting started developing
in the regions of Murnau and Oberammergau to become a craft
intensively cultivated through centuries.
Verre églomisé painting is a special technique,
its peculiarity being based on a particular sequence of
paint application. As the picture is actually looked at
from behind, so to speak, the paint has to be applied in
the opposite sequence which requires a great deal of imagination,
especially when the pictures are multicoloured.
The development of this craft in the area became possible
thanks to a long-standing glassworks in Grafenaschau in
the "Murnauer Moos" area, supplying the painters
with the necessary raw material. The rest was done by the
distributors who, having been set up for the delivery of
wood-carvings, enabled verre églomisé painting
to become a lucrative trade.
Some of the religious paintings, often called the "Ammergauer
Taferl", were done in a "production line"
at times, i.e. each craftsman only performed his own specific
part of the work process.
In spite of this, however, the craftsmen also produced
some highly artistic verre églomisé paintings,
some of which can be found in the Oberammergau Museum of
Local History, among them an illustration of the Bavarian
royal family and a variety of allegoric images.
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