Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
It is chiefly admired, and wrongly so to my mind, for the treasures of
its interior. These consist not merely in the wonderful series of
sixteenth century tapestries, of which M. Paul Lafond has published a
detailed description, but in the stained-glass windows, of which the
most celebrated represents the ass of St. Anthony of Padua kneeling
before the Holy Sacrament. The design is taken, it is said, from a
drawing of Duerer, to whom also is ascribed the original suggestion for
the window at the west end of the first aisle, of the Virgin and
Apostles. North of the choir is an interesting glass-painting of the
buildings of Rouen.
But slightly west of the northern end of the same street you will find
windows in the Church of St. Patrice which I think infinitely
preferable, of their kind, to those which are the especial pride of
St. Vincent. They are very justly placed in the first class of the
"monuments historiques" de France. As you enter the transept, turn due
south, and the first window on your right is the "Woman taken in
Adultery," which was moved here from the old church of St. Godard.
The inscription on it is "Honorable homme maitre Nicole Leroux
licentie es loix advocant et Marie Bunel sa feme ont donne ceste
vitreau moys de may lan de grace 1549 priez dieu pour eulx." In the
right hand corner you may see the good William praying with his son
behind him, and his wife in black is further off to the left with her
six daughters behind her, two of them in "cramoisy taffetas, trimmed
with northern peltry." In the Chapel of the Virgin in the north
transept, the left hand window of the three over the altar depicts the
life of St. Fiacre and St. Firmin, and was put up in 1540 in the days
when Pierre Deforestier was in office, and Francois Baudoin was
prevot. Of the three you see when looking due north, the farthest to
the right in the transept was placed there in 1583, "a l'honneur du
grand roy des roys de St. Louis roy de France;" the middle window
shows St. Eustace suffering martyrdom in the brazen bull which is
being heated red hot, while above St. Hubert meets his miraculous
stag. The farthest window to the left is dated 1538; it is the best,
and Jean Cousin has been suggested as its designer. The donor prays in
the right hand corner, and his wife with a daughter behind her is in
the left. A well-drawn figure of an angel announces his message to the
Blessed Virgin who is reading, and in the middle of the composition,
near the bottom, lies a corpse in a winding-sheet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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