Stained glass and gothic architecture (South rose window)

• The Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris is a landmark in the history of architecture
• Names for Gothic style

  • Opus francigenum (“French work”)
  • Opus modernum (“modern work”)
• Artistic developments paralleled political ones

  Princes and kings were aided by technological advances, including cannon and iron crossbow design, and were able to conquer increasingly large territories administered by vassals, who in turn collected taxes to support armies and navies
• The word “Gothic” was developed by Giorgio Vasari in his 1550 Introduction to the Three Arts of Design
• Advantage of Gothic architecture

  Pointed arches channel the weight of soaring vaults more directly downward compared to semicircular arches, requiring less buttressing to hold them in place
• Stained glass windows were an integral part of Gothic architecture
• Gothic architecture

  One of the towering achievements in the history of world architecture, unique product of an era of peace, widespread economic prosperity, deep spirituality, and extraordinary technological innovation
• Manufacture of stained-glass window

  Molten mixture of silica, potash, and lime plus metal oxides for color, shaping the glass, cutting windowpanes, flashing for more colors, painting details in enamel, fusing enamel, leading the fragments of glass, reinforcing the completed window with a web of iron
• Theophilus Presbyter’s twelfth-century handbook De diversis artibus described in great detail the technique for making stained glass
• Gothic cathedrals were viewed as stone and glass images of heaven: the very Cities of God
• Gothic style was prevalent in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages (from the late twelfth to the sixteenth century)
• Difference between Gothic and Romanesque architecture

  Gothic architects developed pointed arches in their vault designs, diverging from the Roman-style curved arch used in Romanesque architecture
• Advantage of Gothic architecture

  Pointed arches visually guide the eye upward, making the vaults appear taller and creating the illusion of soaring ceilings stretching up to heaven
• The flying buttress was an engineering solution that made possible the mature High Gothic style
• Gothic style developed in the region around Paris called the Île-de-France
• The manufacture of a stained-glass window was costly and labor-intensive, requiring significant expertise and a hierarchical division of labor
• No other period produced windows of such radiant color and luminous beauty as Gothic architecture
• The Christian church first exploited the symbolic significance of stained glass
• Stained glass was both a refined art form and a religious phenomenon


  Twelfth century in Europe
• Colored light produced by stained glass

  • Meant to convey and heighten a sense of the divine pouring in from above
• Hugh of Saint-Victor: 'Prioritized the mystical qualities of stained-glass windows, comparing them to the Holy Scriptures and stating that they enlighten those inside by letting the splendor of the True Light pass into the church'
• Stained glass


  • Changes with the weather, season, and time of day
  • When shot through with a strong ray of light, colors float off the top of the panel
  • Multicolored refracted light playing off surfaces and spaces transforms Gothic buildings, infusing them with the otherworldly aura of the divine
• Stained glass


  • Brilliant properties create a divine experience for churchgoers
  • Provides a platform for Christian imagery
• Lux nova

  Latin for "new light," used to describe the heavenly aura of celestial radiance born from the colored light
• William Durandus, bishop of Mende: 'Declared that glass windows in a church are Holy Scriptures, expelling harmful things and transmitting the light of the True Sun, God, into the hearts of the faithful'
• St. Bernard of Clairvaux: 'Highlighted the miraculous splendor of the sun passing through transparent glass, comparing it to the unsullied virginity of the Virgin Mary penetrated by the Holy Spirit'
• The church at Chartres in northern France acquired the veil believed to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ

  876
• The Chartres Cathedral we see today was constructed in seventy years, providing a unique snapshot into the styles and iconographic programs of the first High Gothic building
• The stained glass windows consist of 172 bays illustrating biblical scenes, the lives of the saints, and scenes from the life of trade guilds of the period
• Churchgoers in the Gothic period were mostly illiterate but could understand the rich symbolism depicted in the windows, offering them hope and purpose beyond their daily struggles
• Blue glass dominates the rose window in the north transept, telling darker stories of the Old Testament, while red dominates the rose window in the south transept, representing stories from the New Testament
• The rose window symbolically represents the coming together of many parts to make a balanced whole, evoking perfection and eternity
• The cathedral contains the world’s largest surviving collection of medieval stained glass, with more than 180 thirteenth-century windows covering nearly twenty-eight thousand square feet
• When a fire destroyed the church in 1194, officials interpreted the holy relic’s survival as a sign that Mary wanted a new church
• At Chartres, glaziers carefully planned entire iconographic programs for stained glass cycles relating stories from the Old and New Testaments
• In the Gothic period, the mystical jewel-toned light pouring through the windows encouraged meditation and prayer
• Rose windows are decorated circular windows favored by architects during the High Gothic period
• The theme of the south rose window at Chartres is the Glorification of Christ, with Christ seated at the center, surrounded by angels and the twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse
• Monumental rose window at Chartres

  • Transforms daylight into illumination
  • Embodies poetic and symbolic values prized by Abbot Suger
  • Ethereal light dissolves the physical solidity of the church, blurring the distinction between the temporal/earthly realm and the eternal/divine
  • Miraculous lux nova shapes the intensely mystical experience central to Gothic religiosity
• South rose window at Chartres

  • Below the circular window are five lancet windows with New Testament figures sitting on the shoulders of Old Testament figures
  • Central lancet shows Mary holding the Christ Child
  • Other lancets show Old Testament figures: Jeremiah carrying Luke, Isaiah carrying Matthew, Ezekiel carrying John, and Daniel carrying Mark
  • Lowest register of lancet windows have panels with portraits of the donors, the Dreux Bretagne family, specifically Count Pierre Mauclerc and his wife Alix de Bretagne
  • Representation of the blue and yellow checked arms of Dreux and Brittany in the central bottom panel and quatrefoil panels in the outer ring
  • Donors exerted great influence on the content and appearance of the window in the Gothic age