With more than 12,000 objects, the Hentrich Glass Museum, the glass collection of the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, documents the history of glass art from antiquity to the present day almost in its entirety. Thanks to the comprehensive overview of some key areas and above all thanks to the many outstanding works, the glass museum is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world.

Some of the museum’s more outstanding exhibits are Lobmeyr’s Titurel Goblet and the grail bowl from the Parcival series. Both were designed by Viennese poet and historian Richard von Kralik, who used them as a visual teaser for his 1907 treatise The Legend of the Grail. Here, the devil is in the details: Lucifer is depicted on the plate as an ancient king, a point knocked out of his crown by the Archangel Gabriel. According to legend, this point was used to forge the Holy Grail, which Jesus had with him at the Last Supper and when he died on the cross, and which finally found its way to Britain. The cup depicts King Titurel summoning the Knights of the Grail as we know them from the medieval legends of Arthur.

Fotocredits: ©Anne Orthen, ©Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast