The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles XBeale, Sophia
History
The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X
Beale, Sophia
Church buildings -- France -- Paris; Paris (France) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
But it is the glass of S. Étienne which is perhaps its chief glory.
Although a great deal has been destroyed and patched up, much remains
which is quite worthy of study, being, as it is, in the best style of
the 16th and 17th centuries, and the work of Jean Cousin, Claude
Henriet, d'Enguerrand Leprince, Pinaigrier, Michu, François Périez,
Nicolas Desengives, Nicolas Lavasseur, and Jean Mounier. But, unhappily,
mendings and patchings have quite destroyed our power of discovering to
which artist the different windows are due. In the _charnier_ there is a
very curious composition, illustrating the allegory of the wine-press;
our Lord lies upon the press in the presence of the Father and the Holy
Spirit, bathed in a sea of blood, which flows from His side, His hands,
and His feet. Underneath, the blood pours down through an opening into a
large cask. Prelates and kings[64] carry to a cellar those barrels which
have been filled with the Sacred Blood by the Doctors of the Church;
while, from under a rich Classic portico, we see the faithful flocking
to confess their sins, and to receive the Holy Eucharist. In the
distance, the Patriarchs are digging the ground and pruning the vines,
while the Apostles gather in the vintage. S. Peter throws the grapes
into a vat, and a chariot drawn by the Ox, the Lion, and the Eagle of
the Apocalypse, and guided by the Angel of S. Matthew, carries the
Divine vintage to the four quarters of the earth. Such is the allegory
of the wine-press, the _Pressoir mystique_, the outcome of the verse of
Isaiah: "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there
was none with me"; but, unfortunately for the correctness of the
illustration, there is, in this window, a large concourse of people,
great and small in worldly means and wisdom. The window is attributed to
the Pinaigriers. Robert Pinaigrier had painted the subject for the
church of S. Hilaire, at Chartres in 1530; and about a century later
Nicolas Pinaigrier reproduced his father's design, with some
modifications, at S. Étienne.
The emblem of the Precious Blood was adopted by many confraternities of
wine merchants, which led Levieil to think that this window was given to
the church by Jean le Juge, a very rich wine merchant. Sauval speaks of
this subject being represented at S. Sauveur, at S. Jacques de la
Boucherie, at the hospital of S. Gervais, and in the sacristy of the
Célestins; and l'abbé Lebeuf notes a window in S. André des Arcs,
representing Christ crushed like the grapes in a wine-press. The
cathedral of Troyes and the church of S. Foy at Conches still possess
windows of the same character.
* * * * *
The following verses describe this subject in quaint old French:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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