Stained glass of the middle ages in England and FranceArnold, Hugh
History
Stained glass of the middle ages in England and France
Arnold, Hugh
Art, Medieval; Glass painting and staining -- England; Glass painting and staining -- France
One or two of the clerestory windows are medallion windows, the
medallions being on a very large scale, but most of them are filled,
as I say, with single figures of saints, nearly twice life-size. So
large are they that their faces have had to be composed of several
pieces of glass. A brownish pink is used for the flesh, and the eyes
are separate pieces of white with the pupil painted in. As the flesh
colour has in many cases darkened considerably from the effects of
time and weather, the effect of the brilliant whites of the eyes is
somewhat weird and startling.
Here again there seems to be no special idea governing the order of
subjects, which were probably left to the donors, who would choose
their patron saints.
[Sidenote: The Guild windows.]
It is at Chartres that for the first time, as I believe, the donors of
the windows are made much account of in the glass. It is true that at
St. Denis there are two very tiny figures of Abbot Suger,--in one
case, prostrate, in simple monk's dress, at the feet of the Virgin in
the Annunciation, and in the other, holding up a model of the Jesse
window,--and there is a donor at Poitiers, but at Canterbury and Sens
there is nothing to show by whom the windows were given. At Chartres,
however, it is far otherwise. Partly, perhaps, because of the
emulation that had been shown in presenting windows, nearly every one
contains some record of its donor. In the case of those given by the
Guilds this takes the form of a little panel introduced into the
bottom of the window, showing members of the Guild at work--bakers,
butchers, tanners, furriers, money-changers and so on--charming and
valuable little pictures of the everyday life of the time. More noble
donors are represented by their portraits, either kneeling at the
foot of the window or, as in the clerestory of the choir, where the
rose-lights of the tracery are filled with a splendid series of
princes and nobles armed and on horseback, each recognizable by his
shield and banner.
[Sidenote: Amaury de Montfort.]
The one illustrated in Mr. Saint's sketch in Plate XII. is Amaury de
Montfort, brother of our own Simon de Montfort who led the rebellion
of the barons against Henry III., and son of that Simon de Montfort
who led the crusade against the Albigenses and was made Lord of
Languedoc for his pains. Amaury, who succeeded him in 1218, finding
himself not strong enough to hold the country, had ceded his rights
six years later to the King of France, and was made in return
Constable of France.
[Sidenote: Pierre Mauclerc.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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