Chartres, pt. 3
My little camera, as great as it is, doesn't handle low light levels very well at all, and most of the resulting photos are on the blurry to very blurry spectrum. There are great photos of the stained glass in Chartres out there, so if you're particularly interested a little bit of searching should turn up some good stuff for you.
So.
Chartres, pt. 1
Chartres, pt. 2
So, onward into part three!
The West rose window, with three lancet windows below. The awesome thing about Chartres (well, ok - one of the many awesome things) is that it's one of the rare cathedrals with most of its original stained glass in place, which is great because the windows are iconographically programed to key in with the sculpture below. So this window, facing the western setting sun, is naturally a depiction of the Last Judgement, which corresponds to the central tympanum of the west porch with Christ in glory surrounded by the four symbols of the Evangelist. There's also a tidy end-of-day end-of-the-world thing working there. The North rose window contains Old Testament figures, again replicated on the sculpture on the North porch, and the South rose window and the lancets below it (which alas were blocked off to me because of the scaffolding) are particularly cool with their depiction of the Evangelists literally carried on the shoulders of the four major OT prophets. As in, in one window, St. Luke is piggyback on top of Jeremiah like they're about to engage in a wicked game of chicken with St. John, who is being hoisted up by Ezekiel. This is possibly the coolest theological metaphor-made-visible I've ever seen.
As I walked in, I was gratified to see very few people flitting around, but the reason became apparent pretty quickly. Scaffolding filled most of the south side, especially behind the altar inside the choir screen. The workmen were pretty noisy, and occasionally a great bang or whump would occur and you'd see a little puff of dust kick up. I sat for a while in front of one of the small side altars (I always light candles and sit and pray/meditate/think thinky thoughts when I visit) and it was hard to obtain a peaceful state of mind. So I gave up pretty quickly.
The stone choir screen was built in 1514, and is very Renaissancy. It's a pretty massive deal, intricately carved with both figures and low reliefs that are more decorative.
Nothing unusual here, but I enjoy these little grotesqueries, so I took a few photos of them.
Views of the sculpted groups of figures at the top of the screen.
The most famous stained glass window in the cathedral is likely the Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere, otherwise known as the Blue Virgin.
These panels are from the mid 1100s, and show Mary crowned, enthroned, and holding Jesus on her knee. The theme is frequently called the "majesty of the Madonna" and is picked up enthusiastically by Gothic Italian panel painters, who painted in "cloths of honor" behind the Virgin to set off her figure, just like the red color behind her in this stained glass sets off the paleness of her face and the blue of her robes.
One of the very few non-blurry photos I was able to get of stained glass!
A sense of the colors of the windows.
A very pretty, but later-in-date window showing the Annunciation.
So after I was done, and thoroughly drunk on art, I went around the corner to a bistro, and had lunch and wrote everything down in my travel journal.
So.
Chartres, pt. 1
Chartres, pt. 2
So, onward into part three!
The West rose window, with three lancet windows below. The awesome thing about Chartres (well, ok - one of the many awesome things) is that it's one of the rare cathedrals with most of its original stained glass in place, which is great because the windows are iconographically programed to key in with the sculpture below. So this window, facing the western setting sun, is naturally a depiction of the Last Judgement, which corresponds to the central tympanum of the west porch with Christ in glory surrounded by the four symbols of the Evangelist. There's also a tidy end-of-day end-of-the-world thing working there. The North rose window contains Old Testament figures, again replicated on the sculpture on the North porch, and the South rose window and the lancets below it (which alas were blocked off to me because of the scaffolding) are particularly cool with their depiction of the Evangelists literally carried on the shoulders of the four major OT prophets. As in, in one window, St. Luke is piggyback on top of Jeremiah like they're about to engage in a wicked game of chicken with St. John, who is being hoisted up by Ezekiel. This is possibly the coolest theological metaphor-made-visible I've ever seen.
As I walked in, I was gratified to see very few people flitting around, but the reason became apparent pretty quickly. Scaffolding filled most of the south side, especially behind the altar inside the choir screen. The workmen were pretty noisy, and occasionally a great bang or whump would occur and you'd see a little puff of dust kick up. I sat for a while in front of one of the small side altars (I always light candles and sit and pray/meditate/think thinky thoughts when I visit) and it was hard to obtain a peaceful state of mind. So I gave up pretty quickly.
The stone choir screen was built in 1514, and is very Renaissancy. It's a pretty massive deal, intricately carved with both figures and low reliefs that are more decorative.
Nothing unusual here, but I enjoy these little grotesqueries, so I took a few photos of them.
Views of the sculpted groups of figures at the top of the screen.
The most famous stained glass window in the cathedral is likely the Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere, otherwise known as the Blue Virgin.
These panels are from the mid 1100s, and show Mary crowned, enthroned, and holding Jesus on her knee. The theme is frequently called the "majesty of the Madonna" and is picked up enthusiastically by Gothic Italian panel painters, who painted in "cloths of honor" behind the Virgin to set off her figure, just like the red color behind her in this stained glass sets off the paleness of her face and the blue of her robes.
One of the very few non-blurry photos I was able to get of stained glass!
A sense of the colors of the windows.
A very pretty, but later-in-date window showing the Annunciation.
So after I was done, and thoroughly drunk on art, I went around the corner to a bistro, and had lunch and wrote everything down in my travel journal.