he had, and they ate and drank and were refreshed. Then he set them on
their right road, and they departed--but without the cow.
Or take, as another example, the third window of the north aisle where
the lesson of the life of another saint, not local, is taught in another
series of medallions, because S. Eustace was the patron saint of the
founder. In the bottom panel, Placidius, a centurion of the guard in
Trajan’s day, appears hunting a stag. A miracle is wrought which brings
about the conversion of the Pagan hunter. For a cross of light shines
between the horns of the fugitive. Overwhelmed by the sight of this
prodigy, Placidius dismounts from his horse, kneels down and is
baptized. The change wrought within is described in the upper panels.
Great calamities befall him; his wife is taken from him; his children
are devoured by wild beasts. But Eustace, filled with a perfect trust in
God, bears all with Christian resignation. He retires to a distant land,
and there his virtue waxes daily until at last he is deemed worthy to
suffer martyrdom for his faith. Together with his wife he is roasted
alive in the belly of a brazen bull.
Thus in all simplicity the glaziers paint the legends which the people
have learned. They tell the story of a man’s life from his birth, and do
not even hesitate to represent his faults, because these windows were
intended to serve as an illustrated catechism for the poor and ignorant,
and the saintliness that has no touches of things human proves for
ordinary people discouraging. In the lower panels of the windows,
therefore, the early years of the saints are shown so that we may be
comforted and inspired by the knowledge that they too shared in the
weaknesses and the miseries of our nature. And above, when they have
risen superior to their trials, we see them in a halo of sanctity,
performing miracles by their faith. Frail man has shaken off this vile
earth and goes on from strength to strength, according to the simple
expression of a chronicler, until he arrives in the house of the Eternal
Father, whose glorious person dominates the whole window. As in the case
of the sculptured porches so here, when we study and admire the
conception and execution of these storied windows, the question arises,
Who was it who arranged, who was it who coloured this glorious glass?
And again the answer must be that we know not. The artists of the
twelfth century have not been careful in this matter: the object of
their fecund imagination and their exquisite workmanship has been this
only--the majestic expression of the burning faith within them.
One name only, that of Clement, the Chartrain glazier (_Clemens,
vitrearius Carnotensis_), found on a window in the Cathedral of Rouen,
has come down to us. And Clement, it is supposed, designed the window
which recounts the legend of S. Martin. That name alone survives out of
all the artists whose work has for over seven hundred years been the
admiration of all Europe!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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