Beneath the rose are five tall pointed windows of unforgettable
splendour and extraordinary interest. King David with his harp of gold,
Solomon the monarch with the blue fleur-de-lys and Jeroboam worshipping
his calves of gold below, both stand forth from a background of purple,
prefiguring the Kingship of the Son; Aaron, the high priest, with the
rod that budded and the book of the law, wearing a curious red hat, and
beneath him Pharaoh engulfed in the Red Sea; Melchisedek, with chalice
and censer, and beneath him Nebuchadnezzar in front of the statue of
gold, silver, iron and clay, represent beforehand the Priesthood of
Christ. And all these rich Oriental figures support the enormous
brown-faced portrait of S. Anne, who sits in the central light and
carries the infant Mary.
The great white eyes of these figures seem to stare across at the rose
of the south transept opposite, which represents the fulfilment of all
that they had foreshadowed--the _Glorification of Christ_. The story is
repeated by the statuary of the south porch without. This window was
founded by Pierre Mauclerc, Count of Dreux and Duke of Bretagne, who
figures therefore with his wife and family and arms in the lower
portions of the windows below the rose.
The arms of Dreux and Bretagne also appear with fine effect in the
twelve quatrefoils of the rose, which correspond to the rectangular
panels of the windows opposite. In the centre of the rose Christ
enthroned blesses the world and holds in His left hand a large chalice.
The surrounding medallions contain eight angels censing the four beasts
and twenty-four elders before the throne, referred to in the Book of
Revelations.
As in the north transept, five large pointed windows beneath complete
the subject. The central figure is that of Christ presented to the
faithful in the Virgin’s arms, whilst on either side are the four
evangelists carried on the shoulders of the four great prophets; S.
Matthew seated on Isaiah, S. Luke on Jeremiah, S. John (beardless, as
always in mediæval portraiture, to typify his virginity) on Ezekiel, and
S. Mark on David. The strange position of these naïve evangelists is
intended to symbolise the fact that the new dispensation rests upon the
old, even as the Christian Gothic of the upper church is built upon the
Pagan Romanesque of the old basilica, the crypt beneath.
To the east, in the apse, seven great windows repeat the motive of the
Glorification of Mary, and the artists, who, throughout this Cathedral
of Notre-Dame, are never weary of portraying its patroness in every
guise and every form, at every age, and almost as of every clime,
represent her as receiving homage from the personages of the Old
Testament, and even of S. Peter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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