Along with mural painting, stained glass is one of the most significant forms of monumental painting. Closely integrated with architectural forms, it has played a central role in both sacred and secular buildings since the Middle Ages. Thanks to the large spaces that windows usually occupy, especially in church interiors, stained glass has often been used not only to depict individual images or scenes but also to present viewers with entire iconographic cycles (the lives of saints, theological beliefs, historical images, etc.), which adorned the window spaces like giant billboards. In this way, stained glass has always served almost all social groups (the imperial family, the church, nobles and citizens) as an attractive instrument for conveying religious, socially relevant or state-representative visual messages.

Since 1 June 2022, stained glass research in Austria has been conducted at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) as part of the long-term project Corpus Vitrearum, based at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies (IHB). This initiative forms part of the international research network Corpus Vitrearum, which aims to document historic stained glass from the Middle Ages to the present day according to shared, rigorous standards. The network currently has fifteen active member countries worldwide, including Austria, one of the founding members in 1952. Corpus Vitrearum is overseen by the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) and has been under the patronage of the Union Académique Internationale (UAI) since 1956.

At the ÖAW, the project Corpus Vitrearum focuses on stained glass holdings in Austria from the medieval period to modern times. This includes both in-situ works in Austria and displaced objects (those relocated to international collections or those originally created by Austrian stained glass workshops for clients across Europe and beyond). 

In the case of research into 19 th- and 20th-century stained glass, the focus is currently on the holdings of the Tyrolean Stained Glass Institute in Innsbruck.  These include, in particular, stained glass windows exported from Innsbruck to the United States in the late 19 th- and early 20 th-centuries, as well as the windows of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Linz (Upper Austria), which have been undergoing phased conservation since 2021 as part of a ten-year restoration campaign. Additional major case studies include the stained glass at Franzensburg Castle in Laxenburg and the parish church in Vienna-Breitensee. While the stained glass windows of Franzensburg Castle, commissioned by the Austrian imperial family, mark the so-called rebirth of monumental stained glass art in Austria at the beginning of the 19th century, those stained glass windows of Vienna-Breitensee are important works of Austrian historicism dedicated to the theme of Pietas Austriaca.

Methodologically, the project addresses a wide spectrum of historical and art historical questions, such as building history, patronage, historical context, authorship, stylistic analysis, dating and iconography. Findings related to conservation, materiality and artistic techniques – supported by archival research and detailed visual analysis – also provide valuable contributions to the fields of restoration and heritage preservation in Austria. The project thus plays a vital role in safeguarding the country’s cultural heritage.

To disseminate its findings, the Corpus Vitrearum network publishes research through a variety of channels. Sites and objects from the medieval and early modern periods examined according to the international guidelines of Corpus Vitrearum are published in the book series Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) and Corpus Vitrearum Modern Era, helping to complete the Austrian segment of this global initiative. In 2024, the sixth Austrian CVMA volume – focusing on medieval stained glass in Styria (Volume VI, 1 and Volume VI, 2) – was published.