Cathédrale de Chartres; Civilization, Medieval; Mont-Saint-Michel (Abbey : France)
Opposite these, in the south aisle, the series begins next the tower
with John the Evangelist, followed by Saint Mary Magdalen, given by
the Water-Carriers. The third, the Good Samaritan, given by the
Shoemakers, has a rival at Sens which critics think even better. The
fourth is the Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin. Then
comes the fifteenth-century Chapel of Vendome, to compare the early
and later glass. The sixth is, or was, devoted to the Virgin's
Miracles at Chartres; but only one complete subject remains.
These windows light the two aisles of the nave and decorate the
lower walls of the church with a mass of colour and variety of line
still practically intact in spite of much injury; but the windows of
the transepts on the same level have almost disappeared, except the
Prodigal Son and a border to what was once a Saint Lawrence, on the
north; and, on the south, part of a window to Saint Apollinaris of
Ravenna, with an interesting hierarchy of angels above:--seraphim
and cherubim with six wings, red and blue; Dominations; Powers;
Principalities; all, except Thrones.
All this seems to be simple enough, at least to the people for whom
the nave was built, and to whom the windows were meant to speak.
There is nothing esoteric here; nothing but what might have suited
the great hall of a great palace. There is no difference in taste
between the Virgin in the choir, and the Water-Carriers by the
doorway. Blanche, the young Queen, liked the same colours, legends,
and lines that her Grocers and Bakers liked. All equally loved the
Virgin. There was not even a social difference. In the choir,
Thibaut, the Count of Chartres, immediate lord of the province, let
himself be put in a dark corner next the Belle Verriere, and left
the Bakers to display their wealth in the most serious spot in the
church, the central window of the central chapel, while in the nave
and transepts all the lower windows that bear signatures were given
by trades, as though that part of the church were abandoned to the
commons. One might suppose that the feudal aristocracy would have
fortified itself in the clerestory and upper windows, but even there
the bourgeoisie invaded them, and you can see, with a glass, the
Pastrycooks and Turners looking across at the Weavers and Curriers
and Money-Changers, and the "Men of Tours." Beneath the throne of
the Mother of God, there was no distinction of gifts; and above it
the distinction favoured the commonalty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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