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ST MARTIN-ES-VIGNES, TROYES.
LATE RENAISSANCE. 1623.
**Saincte Anne and Sainct Joachin for their childlessness were, according to the law,
cast out of the Temple.”
[See p. 276
NK
SSOR
Ban
CHM
Storied Windows
A Traveller’s Introduction to
the Study of Old Church Glass,
from the Twelfth Century to the
Renaissance, especially in France
‘* Storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.”
—MILTOoN, /7 Penseroso
BY
pot
A. J. bE HAVILLAND BUSHNELL
M.A, (OXON.)
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
New York
The Macmillan Company
1914
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
0
To
2. BH 3. Westlake,
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
CHAP.
Il.
Ill,
IV.
Ve
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
XI.
XII,
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX,
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY . .
MATERIALS, COLOURS, METHOD
EXPLANATION OF TERMS .
TRACERY . ‘
THE OLDEST GLASS
PERIODS AND THEIR HISTORY
EARLY GOTHIC GLASS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
MIDDLE GOTHIC GLASS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
LATE GOTHIC GLASS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY .
. RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550 . . - .
LATER RENAISSANCE GLASS . é ‘ 4 :
GLASS-HUNTING IN NORMANDY AND MAINE, BEGINNING
WITH ROUEN CATHEDRAL AND ST OUEN . ‘
ROUEN : ST MACLOU, ST VINCENT, ST PATRICE, MUSEUM
GRAND ANDELY . ‘ : 2 ‘ ’
EVREUX CATHEDRAL AND ST TAURIN
CONCHES, SEES, ALENCON
LE MANS CATHEDRAL . ; : : : ;
ST PIERRE, CHARTRES
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL .
THREE STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES CATHEDRAL
PAGE
63
71
78
84
94
101
115
119
133
Vill
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX,
XXXI,
XXXII.
XXXIII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII.
XXXIX.
CONTENTS
GLASS-HUNTING IN THE CENTRE OF WESTERN
FRANCE, BEGINNING WITH THE CHURCH OF
LA TRINITE AT VENDOME ; / : ’
CATHEDRAL OF TOURS y y ; : :
CHAMPIGNY-SUR-VEUDE . d ; : :
ANGERS CATHEDRAL AND ST SERGE . , :
POITIERS CATHEDRAL AND STE RADEGONDE. :
BOURGES CATHEDRAL AND ST BONNET ‘ :
CATHEDRAL OF MOULINS . : ; : y
GLASS-HUNTING EAST OF PARIS, BEGINNING WITH
THE CATHEDRAL OF SENS . . . .
ST JULIEN DU SAULT . . . : .
CATHEDRAL OF AUXERRE . . . . .
ST FLORENTIN AND ERVY . ° . . .
CATHEDRAL OF TROYES . ° . : .
TROYES, ST URBAIN, STE MADELEINE, ST NIZIER,
AND ST MARTIN-ES-VIGNES . j ‘ é
CATHEDRAL OF CHALONS-SUR-MARNE . ; y
CHALONS, ST ALPIN, AND NOTRE DAME; AND ORBAIS
REIMS, LAON, SOISSONS . f ‘ : :
VINCENNES, MONTMORENCY, ECOUEN . : :
MONTFORT L’AMAURY : ; ; : ‘
PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHURCH WINDOWS IN FRANCE.
BIBLIOGRAPHY . : A . : . .
INDEX . ° ' : g . . :
145
150
163
167
177
190
209
230
235
244
255
263
277
286
293
303
314
319
324
327
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
ST MARTIN-lS8-VIGNES, TROYES. LATE RENAISSANCE. 1623 Frontispiece
‘* Saincte Anne and Sainct Joachin for their childlessness were,
according to the law, cast out of the Temple.” See p. 276.
EARLY GOTHIC LANCETS SEPARATED BY WALL SPACE
EARLY GOTHIC LANCETS SEPARATED BY MULLIONS
EARLY GOTHIC LANCETS ENCLOSED BY AN ARCH
TYMPANUM PIERCED BY THE PLAIN CIRCLES OF THE EARLIEST
GEOMETRICAL TRACERY
TYMPANUM PIERCED BY A OUSPED CIRCLE LINED WITH A
TREFOIL d : ; F ; ,
TRANSITION FROM GEOMETRICAL TO FLOWING TRACERY.
POINTED TREFOILS WITH NO ENCLOSING CIRCLES
ST MARY'S, CHELTENHAM: FLOWING TRACERY IN NORTH
TRANSEPT
RIVENHALL, ESSEX: EAST WINDOW. FOUR MEDALLIONS AND
THREE PANELS, PROBABLY OF XllIra CENTURY . :
TROCADERO MUSUE, PARIS (NO. 36): CROWNED VIRGIN
FROM LA TRINITE, VENDOME. XIIrs CENTURY . ;
TROYES CATHEDRAL: THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PANEL} FEED-
ING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND . ; . ; °
MOULINS OATHEDRAL: EAST WINDOW OF LATE XVrH CEN-
TURY ; CRUCIFIXION WITH THREE ANGELS BEARING
CHALICES ;
Face p.
18
18
19
19
26
32
44
x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SAINTE MADELEINE, TROYES: ON LEFT, ST ELOI IS GIVING
ALMS; ON RIGHT, THE PEOPLE OF NOYON ASK THE
GOLDSMITH ST ELOI TO BECOME THEIR BISHOP. FINE
EARLY RENAISSANCE. 1506 . 5 : : ;
EVREUX CATHEDRAL: PEDESTAL OF CANOPY WITH KNEELING
FIGURES IN THE CHOIR. XvVru CENTURY . : 5
EVREUX CATHEDRAL: FEMALE FIGURE IN THE CHOIR :
LE MANS CATHEDRAL: XIlrs CENTURY MEDALLION AT THE
BASE OF THE WINDOW OF ST GERVAIS AND ST PROTAIS
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL: SHAPED IRON FRAME OF THE
WINDOW OF CHARLEMAGNE. XIlIItH CENTURY . :
LA TRINITE, VENDOME: FLAMBOYANT WEST FRONT . :
TOURS CATHEDRAL: BASE OF WEST WINDOW; DONORS OF
LAVAL-MONTMORENCY FAMILY WITH PATRON SAINTS,
END OF XVrH CENTURY . . . . . :
POITIERS CATHEDRAL: EAST WINDOW, OF MARVELLOUS
COLOUR. END OF XIIrs CENTURY . : : °
By permission of M. Jules Robuchon.
BOURGES CATHEDRAL: CHAPELLE DE BEAUCAIRE—SS.
GREGORY, AUGUSTINE, JEROME, AMBROSE. SECOND
HALF OF XVrH CENTURY s . . : .
BOURGES CATHEDRAL: CHAPELLE OF JACQUES C@UR—THE
ANNUNOIATION. 1450 . : . . . °
MOULINS CATHEDRAL: ENLARGED PORTRAIT OF PIERRE,
HUSBAND OF BARBE CADIER. LATE XVrH CENTURY .
MOULINS CATHEDRAL: SECOND WINDOW IN NORTH NAVE.
END OF XVrH CENTURY . . . : . .
MOULINS CATHEDRAL: WINDOW OF ST CATHERINE AND THE
DUCS DE BOURBON. LATE XVrH CENTURY, WITH ST
CATHERINE OF XVItrx IN THE CENTRE . .
MOULINS CATHEDRAL: WINDOW GIVEN BY BARBE CADIER.
LATE XVra CENTURY . . ° . . :
51
86
93
102
142
145
160
183
190
203
211
212
214
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MOULINS CATHEDRAL: ENLARGED PORTRAIT OF THE DONOR,
BARBE CADIER . . : 2 . : .
MOULINS CATHEDRAL : PORTRAIT OF AN AGED DONOR AT THE
BASE OF THE CRUSADERS’ WINDOW. XVIrH CENTURY.
The photographs of the windows at Moulins were made by B. Scharlowsky.
SENS CATHEDRAL: GOOD SAMARITAN IN NORTH AMBULA-
TORY. XllITa CENTURY
SENS CATHEDRAL: JESSE TREE IN SOUTH TRANSEPT. 1502
ERVY: TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH. 1502
TROYES CATHEDRAL: THE PRESSOIR (WINE-PRESS), BY
LINARD GONTIER. LATE RENAISSANCE. 1625 .
8ST URBAIN, TROYES: JESUS WASHING THE APOSTLES’ FEET.
XIllta CENTURY : ; . ;
ST URBAIN, TROYES: THE KISS OF JUDAS. XIIIrn CENTURY
SAINTE MADELEINE, TROYES: LIFE OF S8T LOUIS. RE-
NAISSANCE. 1517.
SAINTE MADELEINE, TROYES: CREATION WINDOW. XVItH
CENTURY 4 : } : d E : ;
REIMS CATHEDRAL: NORTH NAVE CLERESTORY ; KINGS OF
FRANCE, WITH THE ARCHBISHOPS WHO CROWNED THEM.
XIlIra CENTURY :
TROCADERO MUSEE, PARIS (NO. 1): CHURCH TRIUMPHANT,
WITH A CHALICE AND THE STANDARD OF THE CROSS,
OVER THE DROOPING SYNAGOGUE. XIITx CENTURY
MEDALLION FROM CHALONS CATHEDRAL .
MAPS SHOWING IMPORTANT CENTRES IN FRANCE CONTAINING
OLD CHURCH GLASS, AND THE CHANNEL PORTS DIEPPE,
Xl
215
260
263
267
270
271
293
303
HAVRE, CHERBOURG, AND ST MALO . . Between 62, 63
SANs)
Week Wh wee)
i Ve OTe ly
; A, Die ear
STORIED WINDOWS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Most of the books on Gothic window glass, such
as the excellent works of Winston, Westlake, and
Day, are rather voluminous, and they are written
from the standpoint of the glass artist and designer.
Consequently, from the point of view of the be-
ginner of intelligent ignorance, who wishes on enter-
ing a church or cathedral to know what to look at,
these books seem to suffer from the fact that the
authors know too much. Therefore, apparently,
there is still need of a book which will take no
knowledge for granted, and will try to start from
the position of one who, though able and willing to
learn, yet is wholly ignorant of the best way to set
about doing so. The idea of endeavouring to write
such a book was suggested to me by Mr Sears, a
glass artist of New York, whom I chanced to meet
in Chartres Cathedral. We went round together
A
2 STORIED WINDOWS
examining and remarking upon the windows, and as
we were leaving the cathedral after a very pleasant
and instructive morning’s work, he remarked: “You
look at these windows from a point of view which is
entirely different from that of the glass designer.
Why do you not write a book on the subject?” I
was encouraged to take his advice by watching the
people who came into the cathedral; for in almost
every case the look of happy anticipation gradually
faded into a blank expression of hopeless vacuity,
and it was manifest that they wished to understand
and admire the old glass, but felt that they did not
know how to begin.
And yet in these days of universal travel the
intelligent study of church window glass adds a
new pleasure to the excursions of those who travel
by motor or cycle as well as of those who go
by rail. For churches are to be found almost
everywhere; and every church affords the pleasure
of the chase to any one who makes a practice of
going inside to study the windows. Not only is
it delightful to discover a fresh store of old glass,
but it is also extremely interesting to endeavour
to assign the glass to its proper period, and to
examine whether it is in its original place, and
if so, whether all the glass is old, or how much
has been restored. Furthermore, it is a pleasant
pastime to try to understand the pictures and their
subjects, and to decide upon their artistic merit.
Even if the glass be new, the colours, the subjects
and the treatment supply much food for reflection.
INTRODUCTORY 3
And if the new windows are not good, there is a
certain satisfaction in criticising them and finding
out reasons why they are less pleasing than other
new windows. Lastly, there is gradually formed in
the memory a store of windows which can be
compared with others, and from that comparison
a standard of excellence can be deduced which
will greatly increase the power both of enjoyment
and criticism.
One caution, however, is needful at the outset.
To examine church windows with any satisfaction
it is absolutely necessary to be provided with a
good field-glass. For there are comparatively few
old windows so placed that they can be thoroughly
well seen with the naked eye. When the field-
glass is directed towards clerestory windows it is
realised at once how indispensable an adjunct it
is to the enjoyment of fine old glass. Another
very useful recommendation is to examine the glass
from the outside, for this will often determine the
question whether the glass is old or new, because
the outside of old glass is generally covered with
a whitish patina like a thin coat of dirty white-
wash, and it often has a number of little hemi-
spherical pits on the surface as if it had suffered
from smallpox. Moreover, it is wise, if possible,
to visit the same window in the forenoon, the
afternoon and the evening, because they look very
different according as the sun is or is not shining
through them.
Every window, without exception, described in
4 STORIED WINDOWS
this book has been carefully examined with a field-
glass from the inside, and, wherever possible,
from the outside also, before attempting descrip-
tion, so that not a single window has been described
at second-hand without being personally inspected,
although more than twelve hundred windows are
dealt with in the book.
CHAPTER II.
MATERIALS, COLOURS, METHOD.
Tue Gothic glazier had four materials at his dis-
posal wherewith to make his glass pictures. These
are: first, white glass so-called, yet not really white
but of a sea-green colour, because the sand which
forms the principal component of the glass always
contained iron as well as silica, and the early glass-
maker did not know how to get rid of the iron,
and he was therefore obliged to put up with the
greenish tint caused by it. As time went on the
glass-maker contrived to correct the colour of his
glass very slowly, until towards the end of the
fifteenth century, when a great change took place,
and the glass grew almost entirely white with a
faint and almost imperceptible tinge of yellow.
This change was owing to the use of manganese
which is found in a receipt for making glass in
an Italian MS. dated 1443.
The effect produced by the manganese is due
to the following causes. The iron in the sand
of which glass is made is in the form of protoxide
of iron which is termed Ferrous oxide. This con-
6 STORIED WINDOWS
tains one atom of iron to one atom of oxygen.
The binoxide of manganese contains one atom of
manganese to two atoms of oxygen. This converts
the Ferrous oxide into a Ferric oxide, which is a
sesquioxide of iron containing two atoms of iron
to three of oxygen. The extra oxygen changes
the bottle-green tint to a light straw-yellow, and
the slight excess of manganese produces a mauve
which is complementary to the straw-yellow and
results in almost pure white. Besides the greenish
tint, the early white glass contains a great many
bubbles, and there are many striations on the
surface.
The second material of the Gothic glazier is
coloured pot-metal—that is, molten glass which is
coloured throughout in the melting-pot with a
single clear transparent colour, so that if a mass
of pot-metal is broken, each of the fragments is of
exactly the same colour as the unbroken glass.
The third material is flashed ruby glass—that is,
white glass coated on one side with a thin layer
of ruby colour produced from copper. ‘This is
done because the ruby pot-metal is so dark in hue
as to be almost black, and the only way to get a
clear ruby red was to diminish the thickness of the
red pot-metal by spreading it over white glass.
The process by which this was done was first to get
a lump of white glass on the end of the blow-pipe,
and then to insert this white lump into molten
ruby pot-metal and thus to cover it over with ruby
glass. After this the whole was blown out and
then cut open and spread out in a flat sheet.
MATERIALS, COLOURS, METHOD 7
Flashed glass is also called coated glass, and in
French ‘‘ verre doublé.”
The fourth material is a dark-brown enamel
paint, so dark as to look black. This consisted
of powdered white glass, coloured with oxides of
iron or manganese, which was formed into a paste
thick enough to be used as a paint. After it
had been painted on the glass it was fired on to
the surface at such a temperature as would melt
the powdered glass back into a solid state and
incorporate it with the glass surface, thus really
producing glass upon glass.
In the fourteenth century a fifth material was
added to the resources of the Gothic glazier, which
was called silver stain. It is the only material
which has ever been discovered which can stain
the surface of glass. A solution of silver was found
to stain the surface with a yellow colour, varying
from lemon colour to deep orange, with a metallic
tinge, entirely different from the deep strong colour
of yellow pot-metal, which often has a rich tint of
greenish brown. ‘The silver stain was composed of
silver chloride (which is soluble in ammonia), mixed
with fusible glass and sometimes a little ferric
oxide. The reason why this colours the glass is
that on fusing a silver salt with glass the silver
replaces some of the alkali and calcium of the glass
producing a silver silicate, which is yellow. This
yellow stain has the property of protecting the
surface of the glass from weathering, so that a
piece of old glass may be often found much cor-
roded, while the surface of the part covered with
8 STORIED WINDOWS
silver stain is quite smooth. If the white surface
is only partially stained, then the stain can be
detected with certainty, owing to the absence of
any lead to separate the yellow colour from the
white. The early silver stain of the fourteenth
century and of the first half of the fifteenth century
has a tendency to a brassy yellow, owing to the
greenish tint in the white glass. As the glass
gradually lost this greenish tint the silver stain
became golden. In the time of the Renaissance
in the sixteenth century, when the glass is almost
entirely white with an imperceptible yellow tinge,
the silver stain assumes a lovely golden hue.
In the ‘ Archeological Journal,’ vol. xvii. p. 26,
Winston and Walford state that the first window,
reckoning from the east, in the north aisle of York
Minster affords the earliest example of the use of
yellow stain. They consider that this window was
executed in the last year of the reign of Edward I.,
2.€., in 1807.
A process which was introduced in the middle
of the fifteenth century may be regarded as having
added a sixth material for the Gothic glazier.
This is the process of abrasion by which, in the
flashed ruby glass, the layer of red began to be
partially ground off or rubbed away, so as to
expose a surface of white, thus enabling one
piece of glass to have two colours, white and red.
About the same time flashing with a layer of
blue was invented, and later on other colours
also were flashed. The result of making flashed
blue glass was that the glazier could now get
MATERIALS, COLOURS, METHOD 9
three and even four colours on one piece of
glass. The third colour could be got by staining
the exposed white surface yellow with silver stain,
and the fourth by adding silver stain to the original
blue surface, and thus producing a greenish colour.
Now that glass came to be made in large pieces,
this process of abrasion was particularly convenient
for making shields charged with different colours
on a single piece of glass. This of course can be
detected by the colours touching one another with-
out any lead to separate them.
The colours of the earlier glazier were white,
yellow pot-metal, olive green pot-metal, blue
pot-metal, both dark and light, and brownish
purple pot-metal, with a lighter tint of the
same for the flesh colour, and a beautiful emerald
green pot-metal as well as flashed ruby and
dark brown enamel paint. These colours, how-
ever, varied very much, because the early glass-
maker had little scientific control over his results.
For he did not know how to refine his ores, and
was therefore compelled to use crude ores of iron for
red and some green, copper for emerald green and
ruby, cobalt for blue, manganese for purple, and
antimony for yellow; these crude ores contain so
many impurities in such varying quantities that no
two pots of glass came out of the same furnace of
exactly the same colour. Ruby glass was formerly
supposed to contain gold; consequently at the
French Revolution it was proposed to destroy all
the ruby glass in the church windows to recover
the gold. But fortunately, as a preliminary, some
10 STORIED WINDOWS
ruby glass was analysed and found to contain copper
and iron but no gold.
The method of the early glazier was very simple,
for he used neither pencil nor paper in drawing his
design. He used first to sketch the picture with a
piece of lead on a whitewashed board, and then he
east pieces of glass suited to his design, and cut
them as well as he could into shape with a red-
hot iron,—for no diamond was ever employed by
the Gothic glazier. The pieces of glass had to be
fitted together to make up the design, like the
pieces of a Chinese puzzle. The accuracy of fitting
was secured by painfully chipping the edges with ©
a kind of iron hook, which was termed a grozing
iron. Consequently the edges, being more or less
serrated, bit into the lead, and this thick glass
became more firmly fixed than the thin glass of
the seventeenth century, the edges of which were
smoothly cut with a diamond.
Le
CHAPTER IIL.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS.
THERE are certain terms of constant occurrence
when speaking of glass, and it would help to a
clear understanding if they should be explained
beforehand. One of these is a “Quarry.” The
simplest and cheapest way of glazing a window is
to fill it with glass cut into straight-sided squares
or diamonds. ‘These are called quarries, from the
French carré, a square. The earliest plain glazed
windows had geometrical patterns in white glass
of interlacing Romanesque strap-work leaded on
both edges. A little later on quarries were
formed into patterns outlined with lead, as in the
chapels on the north side of the ambulatory of Le
Mans. But although plain glazed quarry windows
were used throughout the whole period of the
Gothic glass, yet there were few of them, because
the Gothic glazier was rarely satisfied without more
ornament.
This took the form of windows painted in
“ Grisaille”—that is, with black enamel paint on
plain white glass. In the thirteenth century the
12 STORIED WINDOWS
quarries were nearly always painted with a design,
strongly traced, and defined by black cross-hatch-
ing, which usually left a margin of clear glass next
to the lead. In Day’s ‘ Windows,’ chap. xii, on
Early Grisaille, are illustrations of thirteenth-
century grisaille. In the fourteenth century the
leaded-up pattern was simplified, the black cross-
hatching and strong tracing lines were given up,
and natural foliage was delicately painted in gris-
aille on the quarries, which were enlivened in the
centres with colour, and gradually silver stain was
employed in parts of the foliage. A great deal of
the glass in the fourteenth century was painted in
grisaille of an extremely beautiful character. The
whole light was framed with a coloured border, and
sometimes the quarries were edged with strips of
coloured glass. Specimens of fourteenth-century
grisaille are given in Day’s ‘ Windows,’ chap. xv.,
on Middle Gothic detail.
The next step was to paint figures in grisaille,
of which the earliest known instance is dated
1328. Next, a coloured figure was set on a gris-
aille quarry window; and finally, a coloured figure,
or a figure subject of two or more figures, occupied
the whole centre of the light, and an equal band of
erisaille filled the spaces above and below. The
whole was surrounded by a coloured border, which
was separated from the stone frame by a strip of
white glass. This is the usual style of the four-
teenth-century grisaille. When the triforium is
glazed the windows are generally in grisaille. In
Westlake’s ‘History of Design in Painted Glass,’
EXPLANATION OF TERMS 13
vol. i. chap. xix., are many beautiful illustrations of
grisaille, .
‘“‘Patina” is the name of the whitish coating on
the outside of ancient window glass; this patina
seems to be much the same as the white coating
on the weathered surface of old flints. The only
apparent difference is that glass being made of
sand containing a mixture of silicates is more
readily attacked by water and by atmospheric
carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid, than the pure
or nearly pure silica of flint. An unweathered
black flint consists mainly of silica in a colloidal
or glassy form; but in the zone of weathering,
which extends for an appreciable distance into the
body of the flint, there are signs of devitrification
or change from the glassy form, because the silica
in that zone has passed partially into the crystalline
form. Glass is more rapidly acted upon by weather
than the more resistant flint, and its devitrification
and corrosion by the solvent action of acid or alkali
dissolving the colloidal or amorphous silica, which is
more soluble than the crypto-crystalline silica, causes
the patina, and the action of the weather is intensi-
fied by the effect of the sand-blast, or blowing of
sand against the surface. A positive proof that the
patina is due to the weather is to be found in the
fact that the glass on the south side of a building
is always more corroded than the glass on the north
side.
This patina accounts for a puzzling phenomenon
which is observed in connection with old glass, and
which is sometimes useful in detecting new glass.
14 STORIED WINDOWS
Old glass does not cast a coloured image such as
is caused by new glass. For instance, at Ludlow,
where the old windows have been repaired here
and there with new bits of glass, there can be
seen a number of little bits of colour scattered
on the wall on which the light through the new
pieces of glass is reflected. This absence of colour
when the transmitted light is reflected from a white
surface is due to the corrosion of the weathered
surface of the old glass, by which the light as it
passes through the glass is broken up and scat-
tered, and therefore it does not cast a coloured
image, such as is produced when the light from
modern glass is reflected from a white surface.
The whitish colour of the patina is caused by the
scattering of reflected and transmitted light owing
to the number of small surfaces exposed, which also
causes the whiteness of powdered or ground glass.
The cause of the little pits in the surface of
patinated glass appears to be that after devitrifi-
cation has taken place under the action of the
weather, silica or a compound silicate crystallizes
out in the form of small spherical masses; and
when they have attained a certain size, these little
masses fall out, owing to the action of frost or sand-
blast or rain which gradually removes some of the
soluble alkaline silicates, leaving hemispherical de-
pressions or pits in the glass. Such spontaneous
crystallisation is exemplified in the “rottenness ”
of bottle-glass and the spherulites in some natural
glasses, such as obsidian or volcanic glass.
“Saddle-bars” are bars across the window to
EXPLANATION OF TERMS 15
which the lead is attached. They are usually
straight horizontal bars, but in thirteenth-century
windows they are often shaped to fit round the
-medallions and half medallions, forming a pattern
of iron in front of the window itself, as in the
window of Charlemagne in Chartres Cathedral.
A “Jesse tree” is a favourite design in the
windows throughout the whole period of Gothic
glass. It gives the genealogy of Christ from Jesse
through some of his descendants. The usual form
is that of a tree springing from the loins of a
recumbent Jesse, amid the branches of which are
seated the ancestors of our Lord, culminating in
the Virgin, above whom sits our Lord surrounded
by seven doves typifying the sevenfold gifts of
the Holy Ghost. The idea is founded on the
eleventh chapter of Isaiah and Acts xill. 22:
“There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon hin,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and
of the fear of the Lord. And in that day there
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.”
. “T have found David the son of Jesse, a man
after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Of this man’s seed hath God according to his
promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.” The
Jesse tree was made in each century from the
twelfth to the sixteenth. At Chartres is a splendid
Jesse tree of the twelfth century. In the cathedrals
16 STORIED WINDOWS
of Le Mans, Tours, Beauvais, and Troyes are Jesse
trees of the thirteenth century. In England there
is no complete Jesse tree of the twelfth or thirteenth
centuries, but there is a fragment of the twelfth
century in York Minster, and fragments exist of
the thirteenth century at Lincoln, Salisbury, and
Westwell, Kent. There is a brilliant Jesse window
of the fourteenth century at Wells in Somerset,
and others are in St Mary’s, Shrewsbury and
Ludlow in Shropshire, at Mancetter in Warwick-
shire, Selby in Yorkshire, and Dorchester Abbey in
Oxfordshire. - There are Jesse trees of the fifteenth
century at Margaretting in Essex, and Leverington,
Cambs. A magnificent Flemish Jesse tree of the
sixteenth century has been chopped into lengths
to fill the east windows of St George’s, Hanover
Square. In France four of the finest Jesse trees
of the sixteenth century are at Evreux, Sens,
Troyes, and in St Etienne, Beauvais.
In describing the position of the windows, the
words ‘‘clerestory,” “triforium,” ‘ ambulatory,”
“apse,” ‘‘apsidal chapel,” and “ Lady Chapel,” are
in frequent use.
The ‘‘clerestory” rises above the roof of the
aisle, and contains the uppermost row of windows
in the church.
The “triforium” is a gallery or passage above
the arches and below the clerestory.
The “ambulatory” of the choir is the passage
which runs round between the choir and the out-
side wall of the Cathedral.
The “apse” is the projection, usually of a semi-
EXPLANATION OF TERMS 17
circular form, at the east end of the choir; if there
are chapels in a semicircle at the back of the choir
they are termed apsidal chapels.
The ‘‘ Lady Chapel” is the chapel dedicated to
the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was generally called
Our Lady in ancient times. It is usually situated
in the centre of the extreme east end of the Cath-
edral. The word Lady is really in the possessive
case, as in Chaucer’s line, in the Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales, speaking of the Squyer: “In
hope to stonden in his Lady grace.” In France
the Lady Chapel is called the Chapelle de Notre
Dame.
18
CHAPTER IV.
TRACERY.
Tue “Tracery” at the top of the windows is often
of some assistance in determining the earliest
possible date of the window glass. So that it
may be useful to describe the development of the
tracery of different periods. In the twelfth century
the window had the round arch of Romanesque
or Norman style. In the thirteenth century the
window at first took the form of a single light
of long narrow pointed lancet shape. Next, the
wall space between two lancets was gradually
diminished till it became a mere mullion or thin
shaft of stone separating two lights of the same
window. Then an arch was employed to enclose
two or more lights. The tympanum, or blank space
of stone between the enclosing arch and the top
of the enclosed lights, was pierced with one or
more circles. Soon these circles were foiled or
cusped, 2.¢e., the inside of the circle was shaped
into a trefoil or quatrefoil.
This was the origin of Geometrical tracery, which
began about 1245 and ended about 1315. It
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TYMPANUM PIERCED BY THE PLAIN CIRCLES OF THE EARLIEST
GEOMETRICAL TRACERY.
“tH
TRACERY 19
therefore extended throughout the second half of
the thirteenth century. Geometrical tracery is
formed of bars and ribs which are all about
equidistant from each other.
At first only simple circles and other geometrical
forms were employed, but in the last quarter of
the thirteenth century long-lobed pointed trefoils
appear with no enclosing circles.
This soon led to the complete substitution of
flowing lines for geometrical forms in the tracery ;
and the Curvilinear or Flowing style began early
in the fourteenth century, and lasted about fifty
years, ending about 1360. Flowing tracery arose
from the omission of portions of the enclosing
circle, thus allowing the ribs to run into one
another, forming lines of double curvature like an
elongated S; the juxtaposition of the foliations
without enclosing circles produced curves of con-
traflexure (or twisting back) which resulted in an
ogee shape, so that the circle shape tends to dis-
appear entirely. The old church at Cheltenham
contains excellent specimens of flowing tracery.
The whole period of Geometrical and Flowing
tracery from 1245 to 1360 is generally termed
“‘ Decorated.”
This Flowing tracery with its irregular openings
began to present serious difficulty to the designer
and glazier. Consequently, after the great inter-
ruption to building caused by the Black Death in
the middle of the fourteenth century, the Perpen-
dicular style, with its vertical mullions extending
right up to the top of the window, and its hori-
20 STORIED WINDOWS
zontal transoms or stone bars going straight across
from side to side, superseded the flowing tracery.
The Perpendicular style, which lasted from 1360
till after the end of the fifteenth century, was a
purely English style. It began in Gloucester
Cathedral, because the Black Death ended first in
Gloucestershire
In France the Flowing style was farthiee de-
veloped, and at last perhaps debased, into a delicate
and intricate network of waved lines, in what is
termed the Flamboyant or flaming style, possibly
because it dazzles the eye like flickering flames, of
which the points draw together at the top. But
the Flamboyant style did not begin in France till
the middle of the fifteenth century, long after the
Perpendicular style was introduced in England.
The height of the Flamboyant tracery often exceeds
the height of the lights below it. Instances of
Flamboyant tracery can be seen in the church of
St Maclou at Rouen and in the Chapelle de
Vendéme in Chartres Cathedral, and in the church
at Alencon; the west front of La Trinité Church
at Vendéme is one of the very best specimens of
the Flamboyant style.
The classical Renaissance tracery of the sixteenth
century is marked by semicircular and elliptical
curves, and by the entire omission of the Gothic
cusping. If this cusping lingers on into Renaissance
time, it is a sure indication of the period of transi-
tion at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In using the tracery of a window as a help to
decide the period of the glass, caution is necessary
vein
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ee
I
TRANSITION FROM GEOMETRICAL TO FLOWING TRACERY. POINTED TREFOILS
WITH NO ENCLOSING CIRCLES.
ST MARY’S, CHELTENHAM.
FLOWING TRACERY IN NORTH TRANSEPT.
Lent by Mr John Sawyer.
TRACERY 21
not to be misled in cases where the glass is not in
its original place. For instance, at Canterbury the
figures have been removed from the clerestory of
the Choir and placed in the window of the south
transept, and in the west window of the Nave. In
York Minster, says Winston (‘ Hints,’ p. 10), the
tracery lights of many of the clerestory windows
of the nave are filled with early English glass of
more ancient date than any part of the present
fabric that appears above ground. Also, Mr F. M.
Drake states that in the noble east window of Exeter
Cathedral the six outer figures are of Rouen glass of
the first quarter of the fourteenth century, circa
1320; but the three central figures are subsequent
to the alteration of the window from six to nine
lights in 1389, so that these three figures with their
yellow stain and large proportion of white glass
belong to the transitional period of the end of the
fourteenth century, over sixty years later than the
style of the figures in the six outer lights. In
France there is a tendency to fill up gaps in the
Choir with glass taken from the Nave. At Evreux
in the Choir clerestory are several figures which have
been removed from the clerestory of the Nave. And
in the second chapel, on the north side of the Choir
at Evreux, there are two windows, each of which
has figures of the fourteenth century in the two outer
lights, while the two inner lights are filled up with
Renaissance pictures. The drawings of Tracery
were kindly supplied by Mr Leonard Barnard the
ecclesiastical architect.
22
CHAPTER V.
THE OLDEST GLASS.
REFERENCES have been discovered which prove that
coloured, not pictured, glass was used in church
windows as early as the fifth century. But pictured
glass has not been traced back before the tenth
century. Richer, writing about 995, says that
Adalbéron, Archbishop of Reims in 969, adorned
the Cathedral with glass representing different
historical subjects. But the earliest known official
record of church window glass is a statement in
1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, to the
effect that the Chapel of the first Benedictine
Monastery at Monte Cassimo was furnished by the
Abbot Desiderius with a whole series of twenty-
nine windows. In 1134 an edict was issued to
prohibit the Cistercians from using coloured glass
in their church windows. Practically there is no
Church window glass known to exist much earlier
than the beginning of the twelfth century, except
some figures in the clerestory at Augsburg, which
are assigned to 1000 a.D., and windows at Hildes-
heim in Hanover and Tegernsee in Bavaria which
are said to belong to the eleventh century.
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IVENHALL,
Four MEDALLIONS AND THREE PANELS, PROBABLY OF
East WINDOW.
XIItH CENTURY.
THE OLDEST GLASS 23
The earliest notice of English church window
glass with pictures is that, in 1175, Bishop Hugh
is said to have placed round the altar at Durham
several glazed windows remarkable for the beauty
of their figures. A clause in a treaty of Henry the
Second and Louis VII. (the protector of Becket),
who died in 1180, allows one of Louis’ best artists
in glass to come to England. No complete
windows of the twelfth century are known to
exist in England, although there are some frag-
ments of twelfth-century glass in York Minster,
and the medallions of St Birinus at Dorchester (Ox-
ford) are assigned to this period. At Rivenhall,
three miles from Witham in Essex, are four circular
medallions and three panels of Byzantine type,
which possibly date back to the twelfth century.
These were purchased in 1839 from the church
of Chénu in Normandy, about thirty-five miles
from Tours, by the Rev. Bradford Denne Hawkins,
Fellow of Pemb. Coll., Oxon, and curate of Riven-
hall. This glass is in the east window of the
chancel, in the same position as it occupied in the
chancel of Chénu. The centre light contains the
four medallions filling a space about 8 feet in
height and 2 feet 3 inches across. At Chénu these
were in a round-arched Romanesque window of the
end of the eleventh century. Each medallion is
encircled by a double ring of white pearls, enclosing
a plain band of ruby glass, as in the twelfth-century
windows at Angers. The interstices between the
medallions are filled with plain green pot-metal, and
at the sides are little pearled half-circles, enclosing
24 STORIED WINDOWS
a fan-shaped ornament. The figures are very
ancient, with scanty clinging drapery. The saddle-
bars are straight. The lowest medallion contains
the Annunciation; above this is the Presentation.
The third has two figures lowering the body of
Christ into the tomb. In the fourth, at the top,
the Father is seated with an angel on each side, and
there are two feet with heels uppermost apparently
of a prostrate figure. In the right-hand south light
are three square panels of which the two at the
top and bottom have all the appearance of twelfth-
century work, as they contain the somewhat larger
pieces of glass which are found in the twelfth
century, as compared with the glass of the thirteenth.
The bottom panel contains a fine Byzantine figure
in a yellow robe, with a ground of streaky ruby
round the head, which has a halo and a square-
topped head-dress ending on the sloping shoulders.
The right hand is raised in act to bless, and in the
left is a pastoral staff and a book. The top figure
is identical in all respects with the bottom one,
except that the robe is green; the hands are very
dark, but the head has been replaced by a poor face
of a Renaissance Madonna in white and yellow stain.
In the middle panel is a knight with uplifted sword,
whose figure seems to have been turned round to face
the tail of his very archaic horse ; most of the colour
is pot-metal yellow; it is said to be inscribed Robert
Le Main. In the left-hand north light is a confused
jumble of fine glass, mostly Renaissance, but at the
bottom is an apparently earlier dark-faced figure,
with a pagan’s turban of ruby and white, holding
a golden cup, suggestive of one of the Magi. In
THE OLDEST GLASS 25
the tracery is modern blue glass, with some Flemish
medallions of the sixteenth century. The bottom
of this splendid glass is much hidden by some lumps
of carved wood ornamenting the top of the reredos ;
nearly the whole of the lowest medallion is obscured
by this modern rubbish.
There is a considerable amount of undoubted
twelfth -century glass in France. The finest
windows of this date are the three Romanesque
windows at Chartres, which, with the Virgin and
Child in another window, escaped the fire of
1194. In Le Mans Cathedral are nine windows
of about half a century earlier—+.e., about 1100—
also in Romanesque frames. Other glass of the
twelfth century is to be found at Angers, Poitiers,
Venddme, Bourges, St Quentin, Chalons-sur-Marne,
St Remi at Reims, in the north transept at Dijon,
and in Paris at St Denis, and in the Musée de
Sculpture at the Trocadéro. Also at Strasburg,
in the thirteenth -century windows on the north
side of the nave there are some older figures of
Kings or Emperors, evidently saved from the old
church which was burnt. In Austria some of the
oldest glass is found in the cloisters of the Abbey
of Heiligen Kreuz about fifteen miles south-west
of Vienna,
The name ‘“‘ Romanesque,” which is used to de-
scribe the round-arched windows in which the
glass of the twelfth century is found, is applied,
like the English term ‘‘ Norman,” as a designation
of the church architecture of the tenth, eleventh,
and twelfth centuries.
In England the twelfth century, ending in 1200,
26 STORIED WINDOWS
includes the reign of William the Conqueror’s son,
Henry the First, who reigned from 1100 to 1135; of
his nephew Stephen, who died in 1154, and was
succeeded by Henry the Second, who died in 1189,
and in whose reign occurred the famous quarrel
with Archbishop Becket, who was murdered in
Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, and within three
years became St Thomas of Canterbury. Richard
the First succeeded his father, Henry the Second,
and died in 1199.
In France the kings of the twelfth century begin
with Philip the Fair, who ended his long reign in
1108. His son Louis VI. reigned till 1137, and
was succeeded by his son Louis VII., the protector
of Becket, who died in 1180. Philip Augustus
succeeded his father, Louis VII., and went with
Richard Coeur de Lion to the Crusade.
The fact that the French language possesses the
distinctive words “‘vitrail” or ‘‘ vitraux” for old
church window glass, and “ verriére” for a complete
window, while there are no such distinctive words
in English, supports the theory that most of the
oldest English glass came from France, or was
made by French artists.
This theory is corroborated by the well-known
fact that a large quantity of white and coloured
glass was imported from Rouen to Exeter in
1317 of such high quality that glass-makers even
now can recognise the Rouen glass in Exeter
Cathedral.
TROCADERO MUSEE, PARIS. (No. 36.)
CROWNED VIRGIN FROM LA TRINITE VENDOME. XIITH CENTURY.
27
CHAPTER VI.
PERIODS AND THEIR HISTORY.
Tue time during which the finest and most abundant
Gothic glass was produced lasted through three cen-
turies and a half, from 1200 to 1550, beginning with
the reign of King John and ending in the reign of
Edward the Sixth.
This time is divided into the four periods by which
Gothic glass is classified.
First Period. Early Gothic glass of the Thirteenth
century, ending in 1300.
Second Period. Middle Gothic or “Decorated”
glass of the Fourteenth century, ending in
1400.
Third Period. Late Gothic or ‘ Perpendicular”
glass of the Fifteenth century, ending in
1500.
Fourth Period. Renaissance glass, of which the
finest was made in the first half of the Six-
teenth century from 1500 to 1550.
There is an important transitional period between
the Late Gothic glass and that of the Renaissance,
28 STORIED WINDOWS
about the time of Henry the Seventh, at the end of
the fifteenth century and the beginning of the
sixteenth.
It must not be supposed that the beginning and
end of these periods of style coincide exactly with
the first and last years of each of these centuries.
But yet these dates are sufficiently accurate for con-
venient practical use, and they seem to be generally
adopted in France. Moreover, the change from one
style to another did not occur simultaneously in all
places, consequently the end of one style tends to
overlap the commencement of the next; because
some places were precocious in adopting the new
style, whereas others were behindhand in doing so.
Before discussing the glass of these different periods,
it seems advisable to attach, as far as possible, some
definite historical meaning to each of these centuries.
The Thirteenth century in England begins with
John, who died in 1216, but the century is mainly
filled with the reign of his son Henry the Third,
who died in 1272, and was succeeded by his son
Edward the First. In France the leading figure of
the thirteenth century is St Louis the Crusader, the
ninth king of that name, who came to the throne in
1226, three years after the death of his grandfather
Philip Augustus, and his reign ended in 1270. His
mother, Blanche of Castille, took a deep interest in
church glass, and gave numerous windows bordered
with the flewrs-de-lis of France and the castles of
Castille. She was the daughter of Eleanor of Eng-
land, and so was King John’s niece, of whom Shake-
speare says in “ King John,” Act IIL. :—
PERIODS AND THEIR HISTORY = 29
“That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche,
Is near to England ; look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.
If lusty love should go in search of beauty,
Where shall he find it fairer than in Blanche?
If jealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where shall he find it purer than in Blanche ?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?”
Saint Louis was succeeded by his son Philip III.,
in whose reign occurred the Sicilian Vespers. He
was followed by his son Philip IV. (1285-1314),
whose daughter Isabella married Edward the
Second, and thus gave rise to the Hundred Years’
War in the next century, when her son Edward
the Third claimed the French throne.
The Fourteenth century in England is the period
of the three Edwards, First, Second, and Third, and
of Richard the Second, who died in 1399. In this
fourteenth century notable figures are those of
Edward the Black Prince and his brother John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the protector of Wiclif,
who founded English prose by his translation of the
Bible, and the brother-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer,
the morning star of English song.
In France, in the Fourteenth century began the
Hundred Years’ War, when Philip of Valois (1328-
1350), a grandson of Philip III., disputed the Crown
of France with Edward the Third. He was beaten
at Crecy, and was succeeded by his son John the
Second, who was taken prisoner at Poitiers, and
died in 1364. He was followed by his son Charles
the Fifth, called the Wise, who in 1380 was suc-
30 STORIED WINDOWS
ceeded by his son Charles the Sixth, who died in
1422.
The devastating effect of the Hundred Years’ War,
combined with the appalling loss of life caused by
the Black Death, so crippled the resources of France
that comparatively little church glass was produced
in the fourteenth century, and therefore fourteenth-
century glass is much more rare in France than the
glass of other centuries.
The Fifteenth century in England includes the
reigns of four Henries, from Henry the Fourth to
Henry the Seventh, interrupted by the Wars of the
Roses which interposed the Yorkists Edward the
Fourth and Richard the Third between Henry
the Sixth and Henry the Seventh. The second
half of the Fifteenth century marks the end of
medizeval time and the beginning of the modern
world, owing to the invention of printing and dis-
covery of America, and the taking of Constanti-
nople by the Turks in 1453. For the fall of Con-
stantinople being contemporaneous with the in-
vention of printing caused the spread of Greek
learning over Western Europe, and led to that new
birth of literature and art which is known as the
Renaissance.
In France in the Fifteenth century, Charles the
Seventh, known as the Victorious (1422-1461),
aided by Joan of Arc, ended the Hundred Years’
War by driving the English out of France. He
was succeeded by his son Louis the Eleventh, the
crafty opponent of Charles the Bold of Burgundy,
so well portrayed by Sir Walter Scott in ‘ Quentin
PERIODS AND THEIR HISTORY 31
Durward.’ Louis the Eleventh was followed by his
son Charles the Eighth in 1483, who married the
Duchesse Anne, and thus united the Duchy of Brit-
tany to the Crown of France. Charles the Eighth
died in 1498. The widowed Duchesse Anne carried
out the singular marriage-contract by which she
agreed, if he died, to marry his successor, Louis XII.
(1498-1515), and their daughter La Reine Claude,
who gave her name to the greengage, married
Francis the First.
The Renaissance period in England is mostly filled
by the reign of Henry the Eighth, who succeeded
Henry the Seventh in 1509, and died in 1547, and
was followed by Edward the Sixth, who died in
1553.
In France the famous Renaissance kings are
Frangois Premier, who reigned from 1515 till the
year of Henry the Highth’s death in 1547, and his
son Henri Deux, the husband of Catherine de
Medici and lover of Diane de Poitiers. Henri
Deux died in 1559.
32
CHAPTER VII.
EARLY GOTHIC GLASS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
THE single lancets of the thirteenth century are
filled in five different ways: either by a figure
under a simple low-crowned canopy, or by small
medallions and panels, or by a Jesse tree; the
other two kinds of windows are those of white
glass painted with grisaille patterns in dark brown
enamel paint and generally enriched with little
pieces of colour, and the plain glazed white
windows with patterns outlined by the leads.
The clerestory is filled with huge figures under
low-topped canopies surrounded by the broad col-
oured border characteristic of Early Gothic glass.
In the lower windows the Early Gothic glazier
allowed the saddle-bars across the window to re-
strict his design, and so he naturally used small
medallions and half medallions and panels, in the
style which commenced in the twelfth century, but
continued in the thirteenth century ; although soon
after the beginning of the thirteenth century the
straight saddle-bars were generally replaced by a
network of iron shaped to enclose the medallions
TROYES CATHEDRAL.
THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PANEL. FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND.
EARLY GOTHIC—13tH CENTURY 33
and panels. The interstices between the panels
and medallions and the borders were filled up with
a pattern, which in England usually takes the form
of a floral scroll (see Day’s illustration in ‘ Windows,’
1st edition, p. 132), and in France of a geometrical
_ pattern mostly of blue and red resembling a Scotch
plaid. The difference between France and England
in this point may be noticed at Chartres, where
there are only five or six instances of the Eng-
lish floral scroll, and at Canterbury, where only
one window has the French diaper. In the
thirteenth century, each light is surrounded by a
broad coloured border, and each medallion has also
a separate border round it. If there is any canopy
in a thirteenth-century window, it is small and
insignificant.
_ The early Jesse tree in a single lancet encircled
by a broad border of deep colour is generally re-
stricted to the East or West end of the building in
the thirteenth century.
The colours employed in thirteenth-century
windows are chiefly a sapphire, which is darker
than the translucent blue of the twelfth century,
and a ruby which is very streaky, with a good
deal of yellow pot-metal, and brownish purple, and
a pale brownish pink for the faces and flesh tints.
There is also some extremely beautiful emerald
green. What white there is has a sea-green tint ;
but little white glass is employed, except to form a
pearled ring round the medallions. The preponder-
ance of colour gives the rich but confused effect of a
Cc
34 STORIED WINDOWS
fine Turkey carpet. The drawing is flat and de-
fective; the eye shows too much of the pupil, which
is not distinguished from the iris, both together
being represented by a single dot. The hands and
feet resemble wooden combs, and the knuckles are
often represented by thin lines drawn straight
across the hands and feet. The face is of an oval
shape, the eyes are large, the mouth small and well
formed, the chin round, and the parting of the
beard in the middle of the chin is well defined.
The trefoil-headed foliage is very conventional, like
the work of a youthful draughtsman. The leads so
completely govern the design that one test of an
Early Gothic window is to notice whether the de-
sign can be traced by looking at the leads from the
outside.
The splendour and intense jewel-like colour of
the scintillating glass of the thirteenth century is
mainly due to three causes. The glass was only
made in small pieces at that time, so that any large
patch of colour is made up of a number of little
pieces; and secondly, the early glass-maker had
little scientific control over the colours produced
from crude unrefined ores, and therefore these
little pieces of glass had a great variety of shades
of colour; thirdly, the surface of the old glass was
very uneven and humpy, and the same piece of
glass varied considerably in thickness from one side
to the other, so that the light came through the
coloured glass at all sorts of angles, owing to
irregular refraction, which produced much vivacity
and play of colour.
EARLY GOTHIC—13ta CENTURY 35
In England perhaps the most interesting glass of
the thirteenth century is to be found in the Becket
windows in Canterbury Cathedral. Other fine glass
of the period is to be seen in the cathedrals of York,
Lincoln, and Salisbury, and in the churches of
Westwell in Kent, Grateley Hants, West Horsley
in Surrey, Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, and
Aldermaston in Berkshire, and there are seven
medallions of thirteenth-century glass in the Jeru-
salem Chamber in the Deanery, Westminster.
In France Chartres Cathedral is a perfect treasure-
house of thirteenth-century glass. The cathedrals
of Le Mans, Bourges, Poitiers, Rouen, Chalons-sur-
Marne, Angers, Laon, Coutances, Beauvais, Reims,
Sens, Tours, Auxerre, Troyes, St Quentin, Amiens,
Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Béziers, and Notre
Dame de Semur, St Jean-aux-Bois near Compiégne,
the Abbey Church at Orbais, and the church of St
Julien du Sault, also contain splendid glass of the
thirteenth century, and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris
is filled with the glass of St Louis, and in Notre
Dame the great rose in the north transept is very
impressive. In the Victoria and Albert Museum
is some thirteenth-century glass from the Sainte
Chapelle, which is very favourably placed for con-
venient examination. Likewise in the Musée des
Antiquités at Rouen there is a thirteenth-century
window which is quite as conveniently situated for
Inspection, and there is also some thirteenth-cen-
tury glass equally well placed in the Musée de
Sculpture at the Trocadéro in Paris. In the
cathedral and church of St Cunibert at Cologne,
36 STORIED WINDOWS
and in St Elizabeth’s at Marburg, there are good
windows of the thirteenth century. Many of the
pictures in the thirteenth century can be best
understood by reading the ‘Golden Legend’ of
Jacobus de Voragine, for they are derived from
the same sources. He died in 1298. The ‘Golden
Legend’ was translated from Latin into English
and printed by Caxton, and Caxton’s translation
has been recently reprinted by William Morris at
the Kelmscott Press.
37
CHAPTER VIII.
MIDDLE GOTHIC GLASS OF THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY.
In the fourteenth century the white glass is still
sea-green, and the ruby glass is still streaky, and
the pieces of glass are still small, and the only
improvement in the technique is the invention of
silver stain, whereby the surface of the glass could
be stained yellow, of a tint of lemon deepening to
orange, which enabled one piece of glass to bear
two colours, yellow and white, without any lead
between them; yet there is a very marked change
in the character of the glass pictures of the four-
teenth century. The medallions are abandoned,
and the usual design is a single figure framed in
a canopied shrine. The fourteenth-century glazier
was animated by a desire to diminish the gloom
and darkness of the thirteenth-century churches
by letting in more light. This object was attained
by a greater employment of white glass, especially
in the form of grisaille.
In filling his window, the fourteenth-century
glazier was confronted by the difficulty of a long
38 STORIED WINDOWS
narrow space, which could not be conveniently
filled from top to bottom by a single figure, because
the height would be so enormous in proportion to
the breadth. He was further restricted by the
practice of rigidly confining the picture within the
limits of the light, and never allowing it to spread
over into the next light. One way of getting over
this difficulty was to have two or more figures in
each light, one on top of the other, and by making
the canopy large. But the favourite method of the
fourteenth century, both to let in light and to fill
the window conveniently, was to place a single
band of coloured figures horizontally across the
centre of the window, and fill the upper and lower
compartments with an equal band of grisaille. In
the fourteenth century the grisaille is particularly
beautiful, being delicately painted with the natural
foliage which is especially characteristic of the
fourteenth century. The foliage is so naturally
drawn that it is easy to distinguish the oak, ivy,
vine, maple, hawthorn, &c. The pieces of glass
tend to become rather larger than those of the
thirteenth century. The coloured border is much
narrower in the fourteenth century than it was in
the thirteenth. This narrow border runs all round
the fourteenth-century light, being separated from
the stone by a narrow strip of white glass. The
colour, though bright and strong, is not so intense
and velvety as in the glass of the thirteenth century.
One very marked characteristic of the fourteenth-
century picture is the large and often top-heavy
canopy of richly coloured pot-metal, especially yellow
MIDDLE GOTHIC—141Ta CENTURY 39
inclining to greenish saffron brown, which may be
seen, for instance, at Evreux; this canopy usually
has high-pitched, flat-faced, straight-sided gables
and flying buttresses and lofty spire and pinnacles,
and it generally ends abruptly without any pedestal.
There is a good illustration of such a canopy in
Day’s ‘ Windows,’ Ist edit., p. 155. The figures
are shorter and broader than in the preceding
century, and the flowing drapery covers a great
part of the feet. About the middle of the century
the mouth represented heretofore by a single waved
line of three curves begins to show the upper and
lower lips. Towards the close of the century
pointed shoes are worn. Besides the single figure
with a canopy, many lower windows in the four-
teenth century contain figure subjects with two or
more figures, as in the church of St Quen at
Rouen, the cathedral of Evreux and St Nazaire
at Carcassonne.
In England fourteenth-century glass is tolerably
plentiful. It is to be found in the great Hast
window of Gloucester Cathedral, which disputes
with the East window of York Minster the claim
of being the largest window in the world. The
Gloucester window is of peculiar interest, because
it was put up in memory of the battle of Crecy,
and it contains the shields of Edward the Third
and the Black Prince, and of knights connected
with Gloucestershire who fought at Crecy. But
though the window dates from little after the
middle of the fourteenth century, yet the amount
of white glass in it approaches the style of the
40 STORIED WINDOWS
following century. In Tewkesbury Abbey are
eight windows of the fourteenth century, placed
four on each side of the clerestory of the apse.
In Oxford in Merton Chapel is contained some of
the very earliest of the fourteenth-century glass in
fourteen windows of the Choir; in fact, this glass is
essentially transitional, for though it has the natural
foliage and the omission of cross-hatching which
belong to the fourteenth century, yet it is connected
with the style of the thirteenth century by the
strong tracing lines and the entire absence of yellow
stain; on the other hand, the seven windows of
Wykeham’s glass in New College Chapel date from
the end of the century; there is also some four-
teenth-century glass in the cathedral and in the
church of St Michael in Oxford. Other churches
which contain fourteenth-century glass are at
Willesborough, Selling, and Chartham in Kent,
North Luffenham in Rutland, Sheering in Essex,
Deerhurst in Gloucestershire, Beer Ferrers in Devon,
Lowick and Stanford in Northamptonshire, Wrangle
in Lincolnshire, Norbury in Derbyshire, Ludlow in
Shropshire, Dorchester and Waterperry in Oxford-
shire, Mancetter and Merivale in Warwickshire, and
at Shrewsbury in the East window of St Mary’s;
also in the cathedrals of Bristol, Exeter, Wells,
Hereford, Lincoln, and Ely, in the nave and
chapter-house of York Minster, and the churches
of St John’s, St Dennis, St Martin cum Gregory,
and All Saints, North Street, York.
In France there is fourteenth-century glass in
the cathedrals of Evreux, Sées, Beauvais, Amiens,
MIDDLE GOTHIC—14ta CENTURY 41
Mantes, Narbonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Limoges,
Dol, Coutances, and Troyes; and the earliest four-
teenth-century glass is to be found in the church of
St Urbain at Troyes, and at Tours in the windows
of St Martin in the apsidal chapel. There is also
splendid glass of this period in the church of St
Ouen at Rouen, St Pierre at Chartres, St Nazaire at
Carcassonne, and St Radegonde at Poitiers, and at
Carentan, Pont de l’Arche, and Nesle-Saint-Saire.
There is also glass of the fourteenth century in
Germany in the cathedrals of Cologne, Strasburg,
Regensburg, Augsburg, Erfurt, and Freiburg-am-
Breisgau, and the churches of Nieder-Hasslach at the
foot of the Vosges, and of St Sebald, Nuremberg ;
and in Italy, in the cathedral of St Francis at Assisi,
and at Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella at
Florence.
42
CHAPTER IX.
LATE GOTHIC GLASS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
In the fifteenth century the ruby glass ceases to be
streaky and becomes smooth and uniform; the
warm sea-green tint of the white glass gives place
to a cold bluish green, and the glass gradually
becomes more colourless. The smear shading is
replaced by stipple shading, which was produced
by covering the white glass with a complete coating
of brown enamel paint, and then tapping the surface
with a brush, leaving a granulated surface through
which pin-points of light sometimes appear; after
this, parts of the stippled paint were entirely
scraped off where shadow was not desired. The
general use of stipple shading in the fifteenth
century greatly changed the character of the glass
pictures ; for it remedied the flatness of the earlier
drawing by enabling the shadows to be considerably
deepened without loss of transparency, owing to the
little pin-points of light. Consequently, a more
pictorial effect was produced, which gradually led
to the beautiful relief of the Renaissance windows
in the century following. There is a great change
LATE GOTHIC—15ta CENTURY 438
from the richly-coloured pot-metal of the canopy of
the fourteenth century, which is superseded by an
architectural crocketed canopy of white glass with-
out any colour except the yellow of the silver stain.
This fifteenth-century canopy has no spire and is
rarely flat-fronted ; generally it projects at the top
with three fronts, of which the two at the sides are
in shadow. In the latter half of the fifteenth century
the niche is shown to be hollow, and the groining
is conspicuously displayed. The narrow coloured
border and the strip of white glass next to the stone
disappear, and are replaced by the white shafts of
the canopy, which usually terminate in a pedestal.
The great height of the canopy fills out the window,
and thus does away with the necessity for the four-
teenth-century bands of grisaille above and below
the central band of colour. The windows are often
completely filled with many figures one above the
other, as in the North transept window in the
cathedral of Le Mans described on p. 112.
The characteristic which, above all, distinguishes
the windows of the fifteenth century, especially in
England, is the very silvery tone imparted by the
extremely large proportion of white glass; for the
faces are no longer in brownish pink, but entirely
white, and the hair is often stained yellow, and
frequently the drapery is white, and the foliage,
which has lost the natural character of the four-
teenth century and becomes much more conven-
tional, is in white with yellow stalks. The numerous
flowers are well drawn, especially the lily and the
rose, which has the incurved petals characteristic
44 STORIED WINDOWS
of the fifteenth century. Though the foliage both
in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries is conven-
tional in contrast with the natural drawing of the
foliage in the fourteenth century, yet there is a
wide difference between the two, for in the
thirteenth century the conventional drawing is
like the work of a child who is trying to represent
natural forms; whereas in the fifteenth century the
conventionality is that of an artistic designer who
starts from natural forms and deliberately alters
them to conventional ornament.
The proportion of colour to white, in an English
window of the fifteenth century, is rarely more than
one-fourth, and often falls as low as one-sixth. The
colour is bright and gay but not deep. The
attitudes are natural, and the drapery falls in
broad folds, and is often decorated with jewelled
bands. The lines in the faces are few, thin, and
faint, except in the nose and mouth and the pupils
of the eye.
After 1450 there is a considerable change in the
style of the glass of the fifteenth century. In the
preceding periods the glazier was predominant, and
the draughtsman was his humble assistant ; and the
glazier thought first about his glass and his leads.
But in the latter half of the fifteenth century the
painter began to overpower the glazier, and to think
first of his picture, and afterwards to consider how
it might be glazed with as little interference from
the leads as possible, so that the leads no longer
govern the design. As a natural consequence of
this, the picture begins to extend beyond the single
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light, until gradually it comes to disregard the
mullions, and to spread over the whole window. At
the same time the glass, owing to the use of
manganese, loses the green tint and becomes almost
pure white with a faint tinge of yellow. The
pieces of glass grow larger, and the nimbus or
halo is glazed in one piece with the head. The
yellow stain on the white glass assumes a more
golden hue. The practice of abrasion enables the
two colours, ruby and white, to appear on one piece
of glass, and the invention of flashed blue makes it
possible for four colours—blue, yellow, white, and
green—to be used on the same piece of glass.
The late Gothic glass of the fifteenth century is
found in England at York, in the huge Hast window
of York Minster (the contract for glazing which was
signed in 1405), and in the windows of the choir, as
well as in the churches of All Saints, North Street,
St Michael, and St Martin le Grand; at Winchester
in the West window of the cathedral and at St
Cross; in London at St Stephen’s Chapel, West-
minster ; at St George’s, Windsor ; in the ante-chapel
of All Souls in seven windows of circa 1442, and in
four windows of the library of Trinity, Oxford; and,
above all, in Malvern Priory ; and also in the churches
of Little Malvern; of Thornhill, Elland, and Methley
in Yorkshire ; of Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire ;
of Nettlestead, Lullingstone, and West Wickham in
Kent; of Ludlow in Shropshire; of St Mary’s, Shrews-
bury ; of Martham, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalene,
and Hast Harling in Norfolk; of Combs, Long Mel-
ford, and Hessett in Suffolk; of Wells in Somerset ;
46 STORIED WINDOWS
Doddiscombsleigh, Devon; Melbury-Bubb in Dorset ;
Leverington, Cambs.; Margaretting and Thaxted in
Essex ; Newnham Paddox in Denbigh; St Mary’s,
Ross; Buckland and Cirencester in Gloucestershire ;
and Beauchamp Chapel in Warwick (see note on
the glass in Beauchamp Chapel at the end of the
chapter). In the Victoria and Albert Museum
there is a fine window from Winchester College
Chapel, of the early part of the fifteenth century,
about 1415.
In France there is fifteenth-century glass at Rouen,
in the cathedral, and in the churches of St Ouen
and St Maclou; at Caudebec down the Seine from
Rouen ; in the splendid window in the North tran-
sept of Le Mans Cathedral; in the Chapelle Vendéme
in Chartres Cathedral ; in the Lady Chapel of Evreux
Cathedral; in the cathedral at Amiens; in the
beautiful window in the chapel of Jacques Cceur
in Bourges Cathedral; in the church of St Séverin
in Paris; and at Angers, Verneuil, Quimper,
Beaumont-le-Roger, Nonancourt, Bernay, Lisieux,
Bayeux, St Lé, Coutances, Carentan, Falaise,
Aumale, Plélan, Dinan, Moulins, Riom, Clermont-
Ferrand, and Eymoutiers. In Germany at Munich
and Ulm Cathedral, and in St Lorenz at Nuremberg.
At no period is the overlapping of the old style
and the new more marked than in the transitional
period about the reign of Henry the Seventh, in the
latter part of the fifteenth century, and at the
beginning of the sixteenth, when the Late Gothic
glass ends and the style of the Renaissance begins.
At this time three distinct classes of window glass
LATE GOTHIC—15tm CENTURY 47
pictures may be observed : first, those which antici-
pate the Renaissance, like the noble windows of the
Duomo at Florence; secondly, those which are
genuinely transitional, like the eighteen windows of
1507-1513 by Arnaut de Moles.in the choir and
chapels of the cathedral of Auch forty miles west
of Toulouse, and the three lovely windows in the
east wall of Moulins Cathedral, and the windows
in the Lady Chapel of Evreux; thirdly, there are
retarded windows of Late Gothic style in the early
part of the sixteenth century, of which the most
striking example is to be found in the twenty-eight
famous windows of Fairford in Gloucestershire.
Note on THE Guass In BEaucHAMP CHAPEL,
WARWICK.
Dugdale in the ‘ Antiquities of Warwickshire,’ 1st
edition, page 355, gives the following statement of
the agreement between the executors of Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and the glazier
who was to glaze the windows of the Beauchamp
Chapel :—
“John Prudde of Westminster glasier 23 Junii
25 H.6 (ze. in 1447) covenanteth to glase all the
windows in the new Chapell of Warwick with glass
beyond the seas, and with no glasse of England ;
and that in the finest wise with the best cleanest
and strongest Glasse of beyond the sea that may
48 STORIED WINDOWS
be had in England, and of the finest colours of Blew,
Yellow, Red, Purpure, Sanguine and Violet, and of
all other colours that shall be most necessary and
best to make rich and embellish the matters Images
and stories that shall be delivered and appointed by
the said executors, by patterns in paper, afterwards
to be newly traced and pictured by another Painter
in rich colour at the charges of the said Glasier: All
which proportions the said John Prudde must make
perfectly to fine, glase, eneylin it, and finely and
strongly set it in lead and souder, as well as any
Glasse is in England; of white Glasse, green Glasse,
black Glasse, he shall put in as little as shall be
needful for the showing and setting forth of the
matters Images and storyes. And the said Glasier
shall take charge of the same Glasse wrought and to
be brought to Warwick, and set up there in the
Windows of the said chapell; the executors paying
to the said Glasier for every foot of Glasse iis. (2.e.,
two shillings), and so for the whole xci li. is. xd.”
(Ze, 0291, 1s. 10d):
The value of this money may be computed from
the price paid for an ox at that time, 18s. 4d., and a
quarter of corn, 3s. 4d.
The word “eneylin ” in the above extract is prob-
ably used in the sense of ‘‘anneal,” just as in
the Promptorium Parvulorum of 1440 the word
‘‘enelyn” means to anneal in the phrase ‘‘enelyn
metalle or the lyke.”
The date of this covenant, 1447, proves that the
glass in Beauchamp Chapel was made in the middle
LATE GOTHIC—15tx CENTURY 49
of the fifteenth century, and as flashed blue glass is
used here, it shows that the process of flashing blue
as well as ruby was discovered by this time.
Two shillings a foot sounds a low price for making
a window, but it would take a whole herd of oxen at
13s. 4d. each to pay for a large window at the rate
of one ox for every 6 feet 8 inches at 2s. a foot.
The prohibition of the use of English glass in this
covenant is one of the many proofs of a close con-
nection between old English church windows and
glaziers of beyond the seas, especially of France.
If the objection to glass of England be due to
its inferior quality, it must have greatly improved
in the next forty years, for Westlake says that in
1485 we find Dutch glass one penny a foot, Venice
glass fourpence, Normandy fivepence, and English
sixpence.
Patterns in paper appear to have been used on
this occasion for the first time, but it is not clear
whether they were full-sized drawings as large as
the window itself, such as had been made hitherto
on whitewashed boards, or merely small sketches on
paper.
50
CHAPTER X.
RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550.
THE finest period of Renaissance glass pictures is in
the time of Henry the Eighth and of Edward the
Sixth in England, and of Francois Premier and
Henri Deux in France, during the first half of the
sixteenth century. During this period the most
refined and beautiful of all glass pictures were
produced, but they were essentially pictorial in
style; in fact, the pictures are so beautiful that
they cause an almost complete forgetfulness of the
material of which they are made. Yet the Gothic
glazier, with his mosaic of gorgeously-coloured glass,
did influence and restrain the Renaissance painter,
who in his turn added beauty to the Gothic glass
pictures by the exquisite drawing of the faces, the
high relief, and the atmospheric effect.
On this point Winston, in ‘ Hints on Glass Paint-
ing, page 189, says: “ The relief is most remarkable
when the picture is represented as seen beneath
an archway. The front face of the arch forms a
mass of strong light, and is thus brought pro-
minently forward, while the inside of the archway
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See p. 272.
RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550 51
is kept in deep shadow. The group of figures
standing just within the threshold of the archway
is very prominent, owing to the vivid colouring
and strong lights and shadows. Above the archway
is a light grey blue sky on which a small distant
landscape is delicately painted. The sky by its tint
forms a background which throws forward the
darkly-shaded archway and the group, thus pro-
ducing the erates effect of atmosphere pozeile't in
glass painting.”
In the glass pictures of the Renaissance period,
the architectural crocketed canopy of the late Gothic
style becomes a frame of golden arabesques of a
remarkably beautiful hue, being generally of a clear
gold, and very rarely of the lemon colour which is
found in the silver stain in earlier time. This frame
usually has festoons across the top of the semi-
circular arch in the picture. The picture stands ©
away from the frame, and seems to be seen through
the window, instead of forming a part of the wall.
The nimbus or halo is no longer a mere disc of
colour, but is represented in perspective. Little
naked amorini, or cupids, are of common occurrence
in Renaissance glass. Enamel paint was now used
for the first time to produce colour and not merely
to stop out light. The only enamel paint used for
this purpose by the Renaissance painter, in the
earlier part of the sixteenth century, was a red
tint to colour the faces and hands and nude por-
tions of the figures.
In England very little fine Renaissance glass was
ever produced, because men’s thoughts were diverted
52 STORIED WINDOWS
by the Reformation. The finest Renaissance windows
in England are the twenty-three in King’s College
Chapel at Cambridge, which were contracted for in
1527 at the rate per foot of eighteenpence for the
glass and twopence for the lead. At Oxford, there
is Renaissance glass of 1529 in Balliol College Chapel.
Also at Basingstoke, in the Parish Church and in
the chapel of the Vyne, and St Neot in Cornwall,
and Middleton in Lancashire.
But most of the fine Renaissance glass in England
is of foreign origin. The seven eastern windows of
the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral contain
beautiful Flemish glass, brought from the ruined
abbey of Herkenrode. Winston says that these are
the most effective specimens of the art of glass”
painting and the most worthy of study, being even
finer than those in St Jacques, Liége. In St Mary’s,
Shrewsbury, there are many windows of foreign
glass collected from Flemish and German sources.
Flemish glass is also to be seen in the East window
of St George’s, Hanover Square, in the chapel of
Wadham in Oxford, and in the church of Ashtead in
Surrey, and St Michael’s, York. In the oriel window
of the hall of Trinity College in Oxford there is
Swiss glass of Renaissance style from a church at
Bale. The glass in the chapel of Gatton Hall in
Surrey is considered to be of French origin, and so
are the four lower east windows of Southwell.
But the east window at St Margaret’s, West-
minster, has the most interesting history of all.
The window is said to have been ordered in 1499
and finished at Dort in Holland in 1504, as a
RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550 53
present from Isabella the Catholic to Henry VII.
in honour of her daughter's marriage. Owing to
the death of Prince Arthur in 1502, before the
window was completed, it was not erected in the
Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, but presented
to the abbey of Waltham. At the dissolution of
this monastery, in 1540, the Abbot moved the
window to his private chapel at New Hall, in Essex.
In the next century it became the property of
General Monk, who buried the window in chests
to save it from the Puritans. Finally, in 1759,
Parliament granted £4500 for the repair of St
Margaret’s, Westminster, on the ground that it
was the parish church of the House of Commons;
out of this grant the window was bought for £420
by the churchwardens. Winston says of this win-
dow that it is impossible to refer to a better
specimen of glass painting. But Day expresses
the opinion that it has not the charm of the period
and must not be taken to represent it fairly.
Certainly the large proportion: of blue glass makes
the whole window much colder than, for instance,
the beautiful window in the south transept of
Sens Cathedral of about the same date. Since this
is the finest window in any church in London, it
merits a detailed description. In the centre is the
Crucifixion outlined against a blue sky with the
addition of three peculiar details of Renaissance
imagination; for above the penitent thief is an
angel bearing his soul to heaven, while a fiend is
carrying off the soul of the other; and the Saviour’s
blood is flowing into chalices held by three angels,
54 STORIED WINDOWS
as in Malvern Priory and in the East windows of
St Martin’s, Windermere, Haddon Hall Chapel in
Derbyshire, and Moulins Cathedral, and in Mr
Pierpont Morgan’s early Renaissance window, now
in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The central
subject is completely framed by beautiful pictures
of brilliant colour. On the left is said to be the
only known portrait of Prince Arthur (but there
is a portrait of him in Malvern Priory); above
him is “St George of Merrie England the signe
of Victoree,” and at the top is the Tudor Rose.
On the right is a figure of Katherine of Aragon,
whose head unfortunately is modern (but there is
an original portrait of her in the chapel of the
Vyne at Basingstoke); above her is her patron
Saint Katherine, and at the top is the pomegranate
of Granada. Between these portraits are two groups
of Roman soldiers with the holy women in the
centre. The pictorial framework is completed at
the top by representations of the sun and moon,
between which are six angels holding the crown of
thorns and other tokens of the Passion. Really to
appreciate this magnificent window it is needful to
examine it thoroughly with a field-glass.
In France there is abundance of lovely glass of
the first half of the sixteenth century, in St Etienne
at Beauvais, in St Vincent and St Patrice at Rouen,
in St Etienne at Elbeuf, in Ste Foy at Conches;
in St Acceul at Ecouen and St Martin at Mont-
morency, and in the chapel at Vincennes, all three
within a few miles of Paris; in St Gervais, St
Etienne du Mont, St Merri, and St Germain
RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550 55
YAuxerrois inside Paris; at Grand Andely and
Pont Audemer; in St Nizier, St Jean, and Ste
Madeleine, and the cathedral at Troyes; in the
Chapelle des Tullier and in St Bonnet at Bourges ;
in the transepts at Sens; in the chapel at Chan-
tilly; at Champigny-sur-Veude near Chinon in
Touraine; at Montfort l’Amaury, Pontoise, Andrésy,
Ferriéres (Loiret), Gannat, St Florentin, St Julien
du Sault, St Saulge, Clamecy, Ervy, Montfoy,
Chaource, Mussy-sur-Seine, Bar-sur-Seine, Rumilly
les Vaudes, Chavanges, Dosnon, Poivres, Lhuitre,
Arcis-sur-Aube, Villemoiron, Verriéres (Aube), Mon-
tier-en-Der; and in Normandy, at Gisors, Aumale,
Monville, Valmont, Fécamp, Yocht, Villequier, Cau-
debec, Pont l’Evéque, Bourgthéroulde, Pont de
Arche, Verneuil, and Nonancourt; and in the
splendid Burgundian Church of Notre Dame de
Brou outside Bourg-en-Bresse. The most important
localities are given in this list, but glass of the
sixteenth century is also to be found in many other
places. For instance, between Paris and Chantilly
there is good glass of the sixteenth century at
Mesnil-Aubry, Ezanville, Groslay, Herblay, St Fir-
min, and Damville. Again, in the neighbourhood
of Troyes, at Davrey, Pavillon, Noés, Torvilliers,
St Germain, St Leger, St Pouange, St Parres-les-
Tertres, Pont Ste Marie, Creney, Rouilly St Loup,
Rouilly Sacey, Montiéramey, Montreuil, Geraudot,
Magnant, Thieffrain, Longpré, Vendeuvre, Bran-
tigny, Montagnon, Brienne la Vieille, Brienne le
Chateau, Aulnay, Rosnay, and Valentigny; for
other places see chapter xxxix.
56 STORIED WINDOWS
For the sixteenth-century glass in Brittany see
after page 61. If it were necessary to select the
dozen finest centres of French Renaissance glass
of the sixteenth century, these would be: Rouen,
Beauvais, Conches, Grand Andely, Pont Audemer,
Champigny-sur-Veude, Vincennes, Ecouen, Mont-
morency, Troyes, Bourg-en-Bresse, and Auch.
The Flemish Renaissance glass is remarkably fine
in the cathedral at Liége and in the churches of St
Jacques and St Martin. Also in the Cathedral of
St Gudule at Brussels, in the two grand windows by
Van Orley in the transepts, and in the west window
and the clerestory of the choir, and in the four large
windows in the Chapel of the Miraculous Sacrament.
The highest perfection attained in glass pictures
can be seen in Italy, at Arezzo, in several churches
and in the Duomo, which contain the marvellous
windows of the greatest Cinque Cento artist in
glass, the famous Dominican Frére Guillaume de
Marseille, or, as the Berrichons stoutly maintain,
de Marcillat, who died in 1537. One of the windows
made in Italy by William of Marseilles, as he is
usually called by English writers, can be seen in the
Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington.
This window, the subject of which is the Adoration
of the Magi, comes from the cathedral at Cortona.
The reason why the windows of William of
Marseilles or Guillaume de Marcillat may be re-
garded from the pictorial point of view as the
finest glass pictures ever produced is that, although
they display the lively imagination, the artistic
grouping, the beautiful drawing, the brilliant and
RENAISSANCE GLASS, 1500-1550 57
harmonious colouring, the graceful detail, the lovely
effect of light and shade, the high relief, the atmos-
phere, and the perspective, which are characteristic
of the best Renaissance work, yet they do not de-
part from the true principle of the glass picture.
The artist never forgets that he is working in
glass, and therefore his pictures depend for all
their splendid colour effect, except the flesh tint,
upon pot-metal, flashed glass, and silver stain, and
so their transparency is not dimmed nor their
lasting quality impaired by the misuse of fleeting
enamel paints. Great as are the works of the
illustrious Renaissance glass painters, Jean Cousin,
Robert Pinaigrier, Engrand Le Prince, Arnaut de
Moles, Lyénin, Verrat, Macadré and Van Orley,
this consummate artist seems to overtop them all.
Beautiful pictures in Cinque Cento glass are also
to be seen at Florence in the church of Santa Maria
Novella (which also contains fourteenth-century
glass in the Strozzi chapel, and late fifteenth-century
glass in the fine Hast window); also in the Duomo
at Milan, the church of St Petronio at Bologna, and
in the west window of the Duomo at Sienna, and in
the choir of Santa Maria del Popolo at Rome.
In Germany there is magnificent glass of the
sixteenth century in the north aisle of the Dom
at Cologne and in the church of St Peter. Also
in the chapels and clerestory of Freiburg Minster,
and in St Sebald’s at Nuremburg.
In Spain there is Renaissance glass in the aisle
windows of the cathedral at Toledo and in the
cathedrals of Seville and Granada.
58
CHAPTER XI.
LATER RENAISSANCE GLASS.
In Elizabethan time, in the second half of the six-
teenth century, there was a sudden and rapid decline
in the art of making glass pictures. This was due
partly to the unfortunate discovery at this time of
soft enamel paints of many colours, and partly to
the mechanical improvements in the manufacture
of the glass, which resulted in a dull uniform
perfection. A third reason for this decadence was
the change in the ideal of the glass painter owing
to his increased skill in drawing his pictures. It
can be no matter of surprise that the ideal of the
glass painter should have ceased to be that of
making a brilliantly-coloured picture out of glass,
and that he should have earnestly desired to paint
a picture on the glass as like an oil-painting as
possible. For, in the first half of the sixteenth
century, the imagination of the glass painter must
naturally have been stimulated by the wonderful
paintings of the great company of the grandest
artists who were at work at that time. It would
not be difficult to draw out a list of at least two
hundred artists of note between 1500 and 1550, but
LATER RENAISSANCE GLASS 59
mentioning only a few of the very greatest of all,
the list would include such famous names as Titian,
Raphael, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michel-
angelo, Correggio, Holbein, and Albrecht Diirer.
The unlucky invention of soft enamel paints of
many colours in the second half of the sixteenth
century naturally tempted the glass painter to try
to realise his ideal of an oil-painting by using the
enamel paints to paint his picture on the glass.
But the results were most deplorable. For, unlike
the old hard brown enamel paint of the earlier
period, the soft enamel paints of the late Renais-
sance time became fused at a much lower tempera-
ture than the glass, and therefore they did not
become incorporated with the glass, but merely
adhered to the surface, and in summer heat and
winter cold they did not expand and contract
equally with the harder and more solid glass under-
neath : in fact, their coefficients of expansion may
differ by as much as one-sixtieth. Consequently
they were liable to crack and flake off, exposing
the white surface underneath and ruining the
picture. But a still worse result was that they
marred the beautiful transparency, which is the
essential distinction of Gothic glass, because the
glass was dimmed with opaque shadows, owing to
the enamel paint on the surface.
The improvements in the manufacture also helped
to spoil the window. The earlier Gothic glass was
chemically impure and mechanically imperfect. The
greenish - white glass was full of bubbles. The
flashed ruby glass was extremely streaky in colour.
60 STORIED WINDOWS
The coloured pot-metal was uneven in surface, and
varied greatly in the thickness of different parts
of the same piece of glass, thus causing divers
shades of colour in the thick and thin parts. The
pieces of glass were small, and each little piece of
the same colour generally differed slightly in shade
from any other piece, owing to the impurity of the
ores employed to produce the colour. All these
imperfections tended to cause great vivacity, bril-
liancy, and variety in the coloured light which came
through the glass. Whereas the later glass was
made in larger pieces. The white glass lost its
bubbles and its greenish tinge. The ruby glass
lost its streakiness. The surface became smooth
and even, and each piece of glass was of the same
thickness throughout. The colour of the pot-metal
became uniform, and so the glass had no variety,
and was faultily faultless.
Three mechanical changes in manufacture con-
tributed to the deterioration of the windows in
the seventeenth century. The lead being drawn
instead of being planed out of the solid became
thinner and more flexible, and therefore less able
to resist the force of the wind; the power of re-
sistance was further diminished when the edges of
the thin glass were cut smooth by the diamond,
and so the glass was less tightly held than the
ancient glass of more than twice the thickness with
edges serrated by the grozing iron; the thin glass
was cut into panes of equal size and leaded together
in regular squares so that the picture was no longer
assisted by the lines of the lead.
LATER RENAISSANCE GLASS 61
At first some great artists overcame the difficulty
of painting fine glass pictures in the later period.
The windows in the Groute Kirk at Gouda in
Holland, by Dirk Crabeth and his brother Walter,
are the finest specimens of late Renaissance enamel-
painted glass of Elizabethan time. The windows
of Linard Gontier, made in the early part of the
seventeenth century, some of which are in the
church of St Martin-és-Vignes at Troyes, may be
regarded as the swan-song of the fine glass of
the Renaissance; there is also good glass of the
seventeenth century in the choir clerestory of St
Eustache, Paris, and in the Lady Chapel of St
Gudule, Brussels. The finest glass of the early
part of the seventeenth century in England is
to be found in Oxford, in the nine windows of
Lincoln College Chapel of about 1630, the east
window of Wadham Chapel of 1622 by Bernard
van Linge, and the eight windows completed in
1641 by Abraham van Linge in the chapel of
University College.
After this, in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, a period set in of complete decadence of
glass pictures, when translucence was sacrificed to
painting, and the picture became more obvious than
the glass. But in the nineteenth century, greatly
owing to Winston, successful efforts have been made
to reproduce glass with the same imperfections as
the Gothic glass, and to return to the methods of
the medizval glazier.
The two maps contain most of the important centres in France
where fine old church glass can be found, and also the Channel
ports of Dieppe, Havre, Cherbourg, and St Malo.
Brittany is omitted, as containing little glass anterior to its
union with the Crown of France by the marriage of the Duchesse
Anne de Bretagne with King Charles VIII. in 1491.
At Quimper in Brittany there is fine glass of the fifteenth
century, and glass of the same period is to be found at Plélan,
Pluduno, and Dinan, and fourteenth-century glass at Dol with
one thirteenth-century window.
There is a good deal of glass of the sixteenth century in
Brittany. The most remarkable centres are Moncontour, Ker-
goat, Ploermel, Iffs, and Guérande. But genuine specimens
of sixteenth-century glass can also be found at Plélan and
Penmarch, and at the smaller places, Comfort, Cran, Edern,
Faouet, Kerfeuntun, Langonnet, Plogonnec, Pluduno, St Hervé,
and Stival.
Five glass centres in the extreme south-west of France, at
Auch, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Narbonne, and Béziers are also
omitted.
Fe a2IN PG
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GLASS CENTRES
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oSt.Denis OCh4lons-sur-Marne
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Ervyo hhaource oMussy-sur-Seine
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GLASS: (CENTRES
East of the line Amiens — Faris —Bourges.
63
CHAPTER XII.
GLASS-HUNTING IN NORMANDY AND MAINE, BEGINNING
WITH ROUEN CATHEDRAL AND ST OUEN.
THE easiest way to utilise the information derived
from the preceding chapters and to lay the founda-
tion of a satisfactory knowledge of old glass is to
begin by visiting Normandy and Maine; because
the happiest hunting- ground for Gothic Glass is
included in the triangle of which the Cathedral
towns of Rouen, Le Mans, and Chartres form the
corners. The whole of this triangle is situated in
Normandy and Maine, with the exception of Chartres
itself. Within this small compass are to be found
the very finest specimens of Gothic Glass of the
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, very
good specimens of the fifteenth century, and un-
surpassed if not unequalled French glass of the
Renaissance period of the sixteenth century. Much
of this glass can be dated with certainty, as the
names and dates of the donors are known and in
many cases are inscribed on the windows.
In Rouen the thrifty traveller will be glad to
know of the comfortable, old-fashioned, and mode-
rate Hotel de Normandie, in the Rue de Bec, where
64 STORIED WINDOWS
the comely and obliging daughters of the landlord
speak English.
At Rouen it is the wisest plan to begin with the
Cathedral, because it contains the oldest glass.
There the eye is at once attracted by the magnifi-
cent tall windows of the thirteenth century. Four
of these are conspicuous in the ambulatory at the
back of the choir. The first of these on the left
contains the story of St Julian, the patron saint of
Hospitality, whom Chaucer mentions in the descrip-
tion of the Frankeleyn in the Prologue of the
Canterbury Tales. The other three are of the kind
described as Biblia Pauperum, Bibles of the poor—
that is, windows to teach Scripture history by means
of illustration to those who could not read, or who
were too poor to buy costly manuscript books. The
first two of these three Biblia Pawperum windows
contain the story of Joseph and his brethren. The
top of the first window begins with the dream of
Joseph in Genesis xxxvii. 9, that the sun, moon, and
stars did obeisance to him. The eight medallions
below this continue the story of Joseph till the end
of the same chapter, when the Midianites sold
Joseph to Potiphar in Egypt. The last three
medallions contain the story of Potiphar’s wife
and the consequent imprisonment of Joseph, from
Genesis xxxix. 12-20. At the foot of the lowest
medallion is the signature of Clemens Vitrearius
Carnutensis—7.e., Clement the verrier or glazier of
Chartres. This is the only signature known of a
glass artist of the thirteenth century. The next
window completes the story of Joseph. To the
ROUEN CATHEDRAL 65
right of this, in the fourth of these splendid thir-
teenth-century windows is contained the Passion
of Jesus Christ. There are several other windows
of the thirteenth century in Rouen Cathedral, of
which some are incomplete, having the lower part
filled up with later glass. In the chapel next south
of the Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral,
is a thirteenth-century window, so clean and fresh-
looking that at first sight it seems almost new, but
a glance at the outside patina shows that it is
genuinely old.
In the Lady Chapel of Rouen Cathedral are four
excellent windows of the fourteenth century between
1330 and 1340, with the usual narrow coloured
border and white line next to the stone. In the
centre part of each light are fine single figures of
bishops very varied in pose with coloured canopies
filling half of the window, on ruby and sapphire
grounds. The other half of these windows is filled
with quarries divided by coloured lines occupying
one-third of the window at the base and one-sixth
at the top; the first figure on the north side, that
of Bishop Marcellus, is particularly good. Along
the north side of the aisle are fifteenth-century
figures on grisaille, with the exception of two
windows, of which the upper part is partially filled
with glass of the thirteenth century. The three east
windows in the clerestory of Rouen Cathedral con-
tain a fourteenth-century picture of the Crucifixion
with a figure of the Virgin on one side and St John
on the other; the arms of our Lord are extended
E
66 STORIED WINDOWS
into the lateral lights, which is a rare anticipation
of the style of the following century.
The western rose is an unusually fine example
of fifteenth-century work, remarkable for its gor-
geous colour, as compared with the white which
predominates in English windows of the fifteenth
century.
Beautiful and ancient and genuine as the glass
in Rouen Cathedral undoubtedly is, it does not
beautify the inside of the cathedral nearly so much
as might have been expected, because the whole is
dulled by the absence of coloured figures in the
clerestory, both sides of which are completely glazed
with grisaille or with plain quarries with coloured
centres. Another reason for the lack of impressive-
ness is that the fine glass is so scattered, and so
little of it is visible at any point, that it produces
comparatively little effect on the eye of the
beholder.
Far otherwise is the case in the church of St
Ouen at Rouen, which is perhaps the most beautiful
of all churches. St Ouen, to whom the church is
dedicated, was the chancellor of the popular and
powerful Merovingian King Dagobert. He became
Archbishop of Rouen in 640, being consecrated on
the same day as his friend St Eloi, the Bishop of
Noyon. The beauty of the church is greatly
caused by the rapidity with which it was built.
For most of it was constructed in the twenty
years between 1318 and 1339. Consequently there
is no incongruity of style or proportion. The
charming impression received at the first sight of
ROUEN: ST OUEN 67
St Ouen seems to be due to the fact that its lovely
proportions can be readily seen and appreciated,
owing to the absence of any non-structural ornament
to impede the view. Another cause which con-
tributes to produce such a pleasant effect is the
plenitude of light afforded by the triple band of
windows, which run right round the whole of the
church. For not only are the clerestory and lower
windows completely glazed with fine coloured glass
across the centre of each window and bands of grisaille
above and below, but the triforium also is entirely
glazed with grisaille, making in all two bands of colour
and five bands of grisaille, which completely encircle
the whole building.
The windows can also be readily examined from
the outside, because this noble church stands in a
delightful garden, and it has a very large open
space opposite to the west front.
The most impressive windows on first entering
the church of St Ouen are in the clerestory; they
are so high up that they can only be satisfactorily
examined through a field-glass. In the clerestory
on the north side of the nave, to the left of the
visitor who enters by the western door, are large
windows each of five lights. Five of the figures
in the central lights are inscribed Sthilla, and
two of their faces are remarkably beautiful. The
other windows have been much repaired, and
probably they also contained figures of Sibyls, so
as to complete the whole ten. In the middle
ages these Sibyls were objects of great interest.
Lactantius, who died in 325, quotes a statement
68 STORIED WINDOWS
from Varro, the Latin Antiquarian, who died B.c. 28,
that there were ten Sibyls. St Augustine, born
thirty years after the death of Lactantius, in his
‘De Civitate Dei,’ xviii. 23, quotes from the
‘Oracula Sibyllina,’ vill. 217-250, some acrostical
lines of which the initial letters form the Greek
words for “Jesus Christ son of God Saviour.”
These lines are echoed in the Latin hymn—
Dies irae, Dies illa,
Solvet saeculum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibilla.
That day of wrath, that dreadful day
‘When Heaven and Earth shall pass away,
As David and the Sibyl say.
These Oracula Sibyllina are in 4000 Greek verses,
in 14 books, variously dated from B.c. 168 to
A.D. 267. In the eighth book are predictions of the
chief events of the life of our Lord. In the windows
of the cathedral at Auch, not far from Toulouse,
are a set of Sibyls, each with a curious symbol of
her special prophecy about our Lord. The window
of the Sibyls at Ervy is described in chapter
XXX1.
The line of figures in the clerestory of St Ouen is
continued from the nave, through the north tran-
sept, into the clerestory of the choir, and carried
in an unbroken line to the south side of the nave.
But the glass in the south clerestory of the nave
dates from the fifteenth century, though the style
of the fourteenth century is preserved. The large
ROUEN: ST OUEN 69
figures in the clerestory of the choir are of strong
and beautiful colour of the fourteenth century.
They represent the personages of the Old Testament
proceeding in historical order to the east. The
series continued on the south side by Apostles, and
then Saints connected with Rouen, in windows all
of about 1340.
In the north-east window of the clerestory of the
choir is a curious transformation. The two large
figures are inscribed ffloisag and Ysaias, but
Moses and Isaiah masquerade in bright blue (for
black) Benedictine robes. The two figures must
have been destroyed, and the Benedictine Saint
Ouen (the Archbishop of Rouen, who died in 678)
and some other saint were put in more than a
hundred years later by Cardinal Estouteville in
1467.
The apsidal chapels of St Ouen contain the finest
known series of fourteenth-century figure subjects,
only perhaps rivalled by those described by Viollet-
le-Duc in the cathedral of St Nazaire at Carcassonne.
There are two or more coloured figures in each figure
subject, with the usual fourteenth-century arrange-
ment of horizontal bands of grisaille above and below
the central band of colour. The grisaille is painted
with natural foliage, and each light is encircled by a
coloured border. In some of the beautiful grisaille
windows of the apse chapels, instead of mere spots
of colour in the centres, there is the uncommon
variety of little circles, each filled with a small
head as in the Lady Chapel of St Urbain, Troyes.
In the tracery of the chapels on the south side are
PON, STORIED WINDOWS
fine heads, instead of the foliage and heraldic devices
usual in the tracery of the fourteenth century.
The windows in the Lady Chapel of St Ouen are
mostly filled with modern glass. But on the north
side is an admirable window of the fourteenth
century, the first to the left on entering the chapel.
In the first chapel north of the Lady Chapel are
very fine fourteenth-century canopies of yellow pot- —
metal on a blue background, and of white with a
ruby background. In the chapel on the east side of
the south transept are very beautiful figures and
canopies of the fourteenth century, especially of
St John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary.
In the north transept of St Ouen is a splendid
Rose window of the fourteenth century cerca 1330,
affording a perfect blaze of colour. There are
twenty-four figures squeezed in between the spokes
of the wheel. All the upper ones are self-coloured ;
four are blue, four ruby, two brownish purple, and
one golden. In the lower half the figures contain
more white than colour. In the south transept is
another splendid Rose window. The lower windows
round the aisles of the nave of St Ouen are mostly
late Gothic of the early part of the sixteenth century.
One of these is dated 1540. In the two chapels in
the east part of the south aisle are beautiful win-
dows of late fifteenth-century glass. There is a fine
window of the fifteenth century containing the life
of St Romain, the Archbishop of Rouen, who died in
639, in the chapel west of the chapel of St Peter and
St Paul, which is in the south aisle, next to the
south transept of St Ouen.
71
CHAPTER XIII.
ROUEN : ST MACLOU, ST VINCENT, ST PATRICE, MUSEE.
THE church of St Maclou in Rouen was finished in
1472, and therefore it contains glass of the end of
the fifteenth century set in Flamboyant tracery.
It is the only church in Normandy where the curfew
is still rung every night. The western Rose window
of St Maclou is an exceptionally beautiful specimen
of fifteenth-century glass. Westlake, in vol. iii. p.
118, speaks in high terms of the fifteenth-century
windows of St Maclou, declaring that they compare
favourably with those of Fairford of about the same
date. But seen in the brilliant summer sunshine,
the great white canopies and white figures, only
relieved by finely coloured backgrounds, produce
such an impression of dulness and diluted colour,
that on looking at them it seems not at all surprising
that the Renaissance artists of the early sixteenth
century should have revolted against the mon-
otonous colourlessness of the latest Gothic glass,
and should suddenly have burst out into the riot
of brilliant colour so characteristic of the Renaissance
glass pictures of the time of Frangois Premier.
72 STORIED WINDOWS
Two of the very finest instances of this Renaissance
glass are to be found in the Rouen churches of St
Vincent and St Patrice.
The church of St Vincent, with its Renaissance
choir, has the rare peculiarity of having five aisles
like Bourges Cathedral. This makes it so spacious
in proportion to its length as to give it the appear-
ance of a large hall on pillars, of which almost every
part seems visible at the same time. It is sur-
rounded by pictures so finished, dramatic, and
beautiful, that the observer is scarcely conscious
of the material of which they are made.
The church of St Vincent contains fourteen large
windows of the best Renaissance style; in several of
them there is no canopy, and the window is entirely
filled with eight equal subjects in four lights. In
the north and east there is a regular scheme of the
Genealogy, Coming, and Birth of Christ, beginning
with a Jesse window. Next to this is the history
of St John the Baptist, including the dancing of
Salome, whose figure is said to have been entirely
restored. The history of St Peter in the next
window, dated 1525, includes a distant view of the
churches of St Ouen and St Maclou; such a distant
view painted on a grey-blue sky being especially
characteristic of French Renaissance glass. Next to
the history of St Peter is the much more simple
window of the Seven Saints, including St John the
Baptist, Ste Anne, St Nicolas as a Bishop with three
children at his feet, St James and St Vincent with
three swords, in which the canopy ignores the
mullion. At the end of the north aisle is the
ROUEN: ST VINCENT 73
window of the Works of Mercy, signed E. L. P.
and I. L. P., showing that this masterpiece of
colour and drawing is by the great artist Engrand
le Prince and his son Jean. The last window on
the east side of the bay which ends the north aisle
contains the legend of St Antony of Padua, includ-
ing the miracle of the mule at Toulouse, who con-
founded the Albigenses by adoring the Host.
At the east end of St Vincent are five windows.
Of these the first two on the north side depict the
Early Life and Passion of Christ. The east window
contains the Crucifixion, and the window next to it
on the south the Resurrection. The second window
on the south contains very realistic pictures of the
Martyrdom of St Vincent. At the east end of the
south aisle is a picture of the Virgin Mary and her
traditional sisters Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome
resting on three branches of a tree, which issues
from the breast of Ste Anne, their traditional mother.
South of this is a window with the history of Ste
Anne, above which is the legend of St James of
Campostella rescuing the dutiful son and causing
the treacherous innkeeper to be hanged. Then comes
the fine allegorical window of the Chariots, so called
because it contains three triumphal chariots.
In the west wall on the northern side is a window
of the fifteenth century, much restored, representing
the Last Judgment. The first window on the north
wall on entering from the west is of the fourteenth
century, removed from the church of St André de
Ville; it includes beautiful figures of St Catherine,
Gabriel, and the Virgin. In the clerestory above
74 STORIED WINDOWS
the north transept door is a Jesse tree like the one
in St Maclou. Just above the north portal is a
window, dated 1536, with the attributes of the
Passion, including the sword of St Peter with the
ear of Malchus sticking to the blade, as in Lescuyer’s
window in Bourges Cathedral.
The church of St Patrice in Rouen contains glass
which dates from 1540 to the end of the sixteenth
century. In one respect the windows are even more
interesting than those in St Vincent, because much
greater originality is shown in the choice of subjects.
Every one of the eight windows on the north side
has a very unusual subject, except the window
which contains the Annunciation.
The first of these, beginning from the west, con-
tains the history of Job. The second depicts the
life of St Patrice. In the third is the martyrdom of
St Barbara. The fourth, of which the subject is the
Annunciation, has a splendid figure of the Angel
Gabriel with ruby wings. The fifth contains the
conversion of the Hunter Saint Eustache, who was
martyred under Hadrian in 118. The legend that
he was converted by meeting a stag with a crucifix
between his horns has been transferred to the patron
saint of hunters, Hubert, Bishop of Liege and
Apostle of the Ardennes, who died in 730. Day, in
‘Windows,’ p. 378 (1st edition), gives the following
eraphic description of this window as an instance of
the decorative and dramatic treatment of the early
sixteenth century: ‘In the centre of the window,
against a background of forest, with the distant
hunt in full ery, St Eustache stands entranced, his
ROUEN: ST PATRICE 75
richly-clad figure a focus of bright colour; facing
him in one light the legendary stag enclosing
between its antlers the vision of the crucifix,
balanced in the other by the white horse of the
convert: the note of white is repeated in the lithe
hounds running through the three lights, and with
the silvery trunks of the trees holds the composition
together.”
The next window contains a number of scenes
from the life of St Louis. One of these is also
described by Day on the same page, as follows:
“The king in a golden boat with white sails,
ermine diapered, a crown upon his head, kneels
in prayer before a little crucifix, whilst his one
companion lifts up his hands in terror: the man
is clad in green: for the rest the colour is sombre,
only the pale-blue armour of the Saint, his dark-
blue cloak, and the leaden sea around, that extends
to the very top of the picture, distant ships painted
upon it to indicate that it is water.” The inscrip-
tion explains how—
En revenant du pays de Syrie,
En mer fut tourmente de grande furie,
Mais en priant Jesu Christ il en fut délivré.
On returning from the land of Syria,
On sea was a storm of great fury,
But by praying Jesus Christ he was delivered therefrom.
East of the window of St Louis are three windows,
forming a bay at the end of the north aisle of Saint
Patrice. The first two of these are dated 1540.
They contain the story of St Fiacre, who came from
76 STORIED WINDOWS
Ireland to France, and lived near Meaux, and died
in 670. He is the patron saint, not, as might have
been expected from his name, of cabmen, but of
gardeners. The use of the word ‘“‘fiacre” as a
name of a cab simply originated from the Hotel
St Fiacre, in the rue St Martin in Paris, where
the first “fiacres” were established. The third
window on the east side of the bay has four
figures in it with a good deal of white; one of
these is the Mater Dolorosa. Next to this is a
fine window containing the Fall of Man below, and
above is the Triumph of the Cross, in which the
Cross and the Virgin are carried in a triumphal
car drawn by the Virtues Amour and Obédience.
The three east windows of St Patrice are round-
arched and enormously high, letting in a great deal
of light. They contain the closing scenes of the
Life of our Lord. In the first are the Passion,
the Kiss of Judas, the Judgment of Pilate, the
Scourging and Carrying the Cross. The east
window has the Crucifixion; and in the south-east
window are the events after the Resurrection. On
the south wall of the chapel on the left of the east
end is a window dated 1549.
In the lower half of the window of 15438, which
has the conversion of St Eustache, is a martyrdom
scene, in which the executioners are realistically
disconcerted by the heat of the flames which they
are stirrmg. Kither of these pictures would have
been enough to make a good window. The crowd-
ing of two or more elaborate pictures into one
window causes a feeling almost of satiety, when
ROUEN: ST PATRICE, MUSEE 77
looking at many Renaissance windows one after
another, affording an illustration of the line of
Hesiod in ‘ Works and Days’—
, YQ? » 7 , y s
VyTLOL ovo toaclv OOw aN€ov HELLOV TAVTOS.
“Fools, nor even wist they how much more the half is than
the whole,”
For though each window of the almost unrivalled
Renaissance glass in St Vincent and St Patrice is
a splendid and satisfying picture, yet the eye is
confused by the bewildering number of figures,
and cloyed by the amount of colour in so small
a space, and it turns with relief to the window in
the north-east corner of St Vincent, which has only
seven saints in three pictures one above the other.
In the Musée des Antiquités in Rouen are some
fine specimens of medieval glass. The first on the
right is a thirteenth-century window, with tracery
of the fourteenth century. It is placed quite low
down, so that it is easy to inspect, and in it may
be noticed the uneven surface of the thirteenth-
century glass. Opposite to it are three Renais-
sance windows, with six scenes depicting the story
of the woman who stole the Host, and gave it to
the sacrilegious Jew, and then repented and stole
it back from the Jew when he was asleep. In the
fifth window on the right, dated 1543, the abrasion
of red and blue can be clearly seen in the shield.
And likewise in the opposite window on the left,
dated 1572, the yellow stain on the abraded white
surface may be seen. There are several other in-
teresting windows in the museum, but none of these
are of earlier date than the sixteenth century.
78
CHAPTER. XPy,
GRAND ANDELY.
Tuirty miles from Rouen is Grand Andely, near
the massive ruins of the Chateau Gaillard, that
Saucy Castle built by Richard Coeur de Lion to
protect Normandy from attacks by the Seine, which
Philip Augustus took from King John, and Henri
IV. destroyed lest it should be used against him.
The church of Grand Andely is an enormous
structure, extremely well lighted by glass. The
windows are variously dated from 1540 to 1616.
The glass is all of the Renaissance style, except
the east window, which has been completely re-
stored, but dates from the first half of the four-
teenth century, and a fifteenth-century window at
the east end of the north clerestory of the nave.
The church was built between the thirteenth and
fifteenth centuries. But in the sixteenth century
the two transepts and the chapels on the south
side were added.
In the clerestory of the choir are four magnificent
windows. In the first on the south side, to the
right on entering the choir, are four figures of St
GRAND ANDELY 79
Romain, Archbishop of Rouen; Jesus Christ; St
Catherine; St Nicolas, Bishop of Myra. One of
these is a large figure of brilliant golden hue. In
the upper part are five shields with the arms of
France (azure, with golden fleurs-de-lis), Brittany,
Normandy, Rouen, and the Dauphin, recalling the
titles of the donor, Henri Deux, who, when
Dauphin, was appointed governor of Normandy
and Rouen in 1531, and became King of France
and Duke of Brittany in 1547. The other three
windows in the clerestory of the Choir contain
the twelve Apostles. Above the head of St
Matthew, in the second window on the south
side, in the green drapery, is the signature of the
artist, Romain Buron, who was a glass painter at
Gisors in the middle of the sixteenth century.
In the clerestory of the nave are six large
windows of four lights each, with brilliant colour
of the Renaissance period. Of these the finest
is dated 1560, and is of extremely powerful colour-
ing. It contains the appearance of the three angels
to Abraham, the Sacrifice of Abraham, Isaac bless-
ing Jacob, and Joseph being let down by his
brothers into the pit. These six windows rep-
resent consecutive scenes of Old Testament his-
tory, from the Creation to the time of Moses.
In the side chapels on the south of the nave of
Grand Andely are six old windows. Starting from
the west, in the first chapel on the south side are
two brilliant Renaissance windows, of four lights,
giving the history of Ste Clotilde, who married
Clovis, the first Merovingian King of the Franks
30 STORIED WINDOWS
in 493, and converted him to Christianity three
years later. Hach light has a descriptive inscrip-
tion. One picture tells how Clotilde stopped a
strike of the workmen who were building the
church, and who were grumbling for want of
wine—
Pour les ouvriers qui bastirent l’église,
Clotilde refist la marveille de Cana,
Du Seigneur Dieu grande faveur fut mise,
A leau d’Andeli le goust de vin donna.
For the workmen who built the church,
Clotilde again performed the miracle of Cana,
From the Lord God great grace was sent,
To the water of Andeli he gave the taste of wine.
In the second chapel is a window with scenes from
the life and martyrdom of St Leger, Bishop of
Autun, who crowned King Childeric II. In the
third chapel is a window of which the only old
glass is in the tracery. In the fourth chapel is
a window, dated 1540, containing very beautiful
pictures of the Annunciation and the Assumption
of the Virgin, and of the legend of the Vidame
Théophile, who sold his soul to the devil, but was
saved from bondage by the Virgin Mary. Before
the Virgin kneels Théophile, bound with a white
cord, held by a fearsome fiend entirely made of
splendid ruby glass. This strange figure is made
up of the attributes of the seven deadly sins,
having the head of a Boar, the ears of an Ass, the
breasts of a Woman, and the tail of a Wolf. The
other attributes of the Lion, the Dog, and the
Badger or Ape are not very clearly shown.
GRAND ANDELY 81
The legend of the Vidame Théophile and_ his
pact with the Evil One is a favourite subject in
medieval windows. It is represented three times
in the cathedral of Le Mans. The attributes of
the seven deadly sins are found in a MS. of the
fourteenth century, figured by Male in ‘L’Art Re-
ligieux en France au Moyen Age.’ Here the Boar
stands for Anger, the Ass for Sloth, the Wolf for
Gluttony, the Lion for Pride, the Dog for Envy,
the Goat for Lust, and the Badger for Avarice.
In the Hore of Dunois the Bastard of Orleans,
circa 1450, the Ape takes the place of the Badger.
Spenser, in the fourth canto of the first book of
the ‘Faery Queene,’ which is nearly contemporary
with the window at Grand Andely, describes
Lucifera, the Queen of Pride, being driven by six
beasts on which six deadly sins did ryde; but
Spenser attributes a Swyne to Gluttony, a Camell
to Avarice, a Wolfe to Envie, and a Lion to Wrath.
There does not seem to be any standardised figure,
as a consistent and authoritative representation of
the Devil in Medizval Art, but each artist seems
to have followed his own fancy. In Conway’s
‘Demonology,’ vol. ii. p. 295, is a demon with an
ass’s ears; and in vol. i. p. 197, and in vol. ii. pp.
257 and 419, are snouted demons. In the three
panels representing the temptation, at the base of
the famous window in Chartres Cathedral, known
as Notre Dame de la belle verriére, the fiend is
represented with somewhat similar ears and snout
to those of the fiend holding the Vidame Théophile
F
82 STORIED WINDOWS
at Grand Andely; and in the window of St Eloi, in
the chapel of St Louis at Le Mans, the bishop,
dressed as a goldsmith, is gripping the snout of
a demon with pincers.
In the last chapel on the south, next to the south
transept, is a splendid five-light window of a simple
design, which rests the eye after the complicated
mass of figures in the preceding window. It con-
tains five large single figures of St Sebastian, St
John, the Virgin Mary, St Evode the Archbishop,
who died at Grand Andely, and Mary Magdalene.
The episcopal figure closely resembles that of St
Nicolas, in the window of the Seven Saints, in
the church of St Vincent at Rouen.
Above the portal of the south transept is a
beautiful little window containing three scenes of
the Crucifixion: the Virgin, and St John, and the
Holy Women; Jesus crucified, and Mary Magdalene
at the foot of the Cross; Roman soldiers assuring
themselves that Jesus is dead.
In the chapel east of the south transept of
Grand Andely are two windows, one of which is
modern; the other is much restored but still
beautiful, with a white frame, of which the effect
is very satisfactory. In it the subjects are the
Annunciation, the Shepherds and the Magi; in
the tracery is the donor and his son, inscribed
Jehan Was, the name of Jean Basset, Vicomte de
Gisors, and Chamberlain of Francois Premier. In
the tracery of the preceding window above the
south portal are his wife and four daughters. The
three windows at the eastern end of the south
GRAND ANDELY 83
aisle are also much restored, but yet very fine.
They seem to have been moved from the place
where Westlake saw them when he described
them. These three windows contain a life of St
Peter. In the tracery of the first there is a curious
blunder. St Peter is there represented holding a
fish and a large pair of scales, because the artist
has mistaken the Greek word crarfpa in Matthew
XVii. 27, which means a piece of money, for the
Latin word of the same sound, statera, which
means a balance.
Only three windows in the chapels on the north
side contain ancient glass. In the easternmost is
a martyrdom of St Vincent, dated 1611, of which
the figures are modern, but the borders are ancient.
In the next chapel is a Crucifixion on grisaille
quarries, with a golden fleur-de-lis in each. This
is inscribed: ceste bitre a este pose le mil six ce
saize—z.e., this window was put up in 1616.
In the third chapel, adjoining the North transept
of Grand Andely, is a figure of St Christopher bear-
ing the infant Jesus. It has a remarkable border
with a black ground and the arms of the donor,
Jean Picart, councillor of Frangois Premier. Like
most Renaissance glass, the windows of Grand
Andely begin low down, and are therefore easy
to examine and appreciate.
84
CHAPTER XV.
EVREUX.
Axsovut thirty miles south of Grand Andely is Evreux,
which was seized by Philip Augustus in 1199, on the
death of Richard Coeur de Lion. Louis, the son of
Philip Augustus, married Blanche of Castille, the
daughter of King John’s sister Eleanor, who was
the wife of Alfonso VIII. of Castille. Evreux came
to Prince Louis as part of the marriage portion of
King John’s niece. Prince Louis tried to become
King of England, but when John died he was
expelled from England. He became King Louis
VIII. of France, and by his wife Blanche of Castille
he had a son, who succeeded him as Louis the Ninth,
better known as St Louis. The grandson of St
Louis became Count of Evreux, and his grandson
was Charles le Mauvais, the Count of Evreux and
King of Navarre in the time of the Black Prince.
The windows in the cathedral of Evreux are a
noble collection of the finest glass of the fourteenth
century, together with some glass of the fifteenth
century, and a few figures of the thirteenth century.
The cathedral is well lighted, because the triforium
EVREUX 85
all round the building is completely glazed with
grisaille, chiefly with heraldic decoration. The four-
teen windows of the clerestory of the nave are
mostly filled with grisaille; for many of the figures
have been removed from the nave to fill up gaps in
the clerestory of the choir. Two notable windows
remain in the clerestory of the nave, the fifth on
each side starting from the west. The fifth window
on the north side belongs to the earliest years of
the fifteenth century. It is filled with great figures
almost entirely in white, with an inscription stating
that it was given by Bishop Cantier to commemorate
his election in 1400 as Bishop of Evreux. The
window opposite to this, on the south side of the
clerestory of the nave, has a Renaissance picture
in the lower part, in which the arch of the canopy
ignores the mullion and binds the two lights to-
gether, treating them as a single space. The picture
represents King Charles the Wise kneeling before an
open book.
The clerestory of the choir contains the most
splendid and remarkable windows in the cathedral
of Evreux. The first four windows on the south
side, on entering from the west, have been made
up from the nave. The borders have been so much
disturbed that it is evident that the figures are not
in their original places. The original position of
the glass of the other ten windows does not seem to
have been much altered, although some of the lights
have been rearranged.
The first window on the north forms an angle with
the line of the rest. It is the only one which belongs
86 STORIED WINDOWS
to the fifteenth century, while all the others are of
the fourteenth. This remarkably interesting win-
dow had no borders except the white shafts of the
canopies. It contains figures of the four Maries,
and portraits of Pope Eugene IV., King Charles the
Seventh, and Louis the Eleventh as Dauphin, and
their shields are in the tracery. This window, says
the Bishop of Evreux, commemorates four famous
events :—
(1) The end of the Papal schism under Pope
Eugene LY.
(2) The recovery of Normandy by Jeanne d’Are
and Charles the Seventh.
(3) The appointment of Louis the Dauphin as
Duke of Normandy.
(4) King René’s gift to the Bishop of Evreux of
the relics of Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome.
Next to this is a window which has in one of the
lights a figure of St Denis carrying his mitred head
in his hand, and clad in the royal azure robe with
golden fleurs-de-lis, as the patron saint of France.
This window is inscribed fMlessire Raoul de Ferrieres
chanoine De ceans Donna cette berriere—.e., Raoul
de Ferriéres, canon of this church, gave this
window.
Adjoining this is the celebrated Harcourt window,
put up, as the inscription says, by Harecourt and his
wife Blanche Auvaugour. This Harcourt, who died
in 1327, held the singular title of Grand Queux
(=Cook) of France. The date of the window is
about 1315. The portrait of Harcourt on the right
is excellent; in the centre lights are St Catherine
CATHEDRAL.
REUX
/
EV
PEDESTAL OF CANOPY WITH KNEELING FIGURES IN THE CHOIR.
XVTH CENTURY.
EVREUX 87
and the Virgin, and on the left is Blanche Auvaugour.
St Catherine has a toothed wheel and a sword. The
legend is that she was martyred on a wheel set with
razors, but when she touched the wheel it broke and
the razors flew off and cut the throats of the by-
standers as in the window in the east wall of
Moulins Cathedral, and a sword was obtained to cut
off her head. There are two pictures of St Catherine
with a wheel and sword both at Ludlow and in the
Lady Chapel of the cathedral at Oxford. The
subject is a favourite one in French windows; the
finest examples are in the nave of Angers Cathedral,
and in the east wall of Moulins Cathedral. The
legend caused the name Catherine wheel to be given
to the firework in 1760. The arrangement of the
Harcourt window has been greatly altered since
Westlake drew it in 1881.
The next window was also given by Canon de
Ferriéres, who is represented as donor kneeling and
offering a window to the Virgin. This window has
two displaced figures. The one on the left is a
Pope, and in the outer right hand light is a portrait,
removed from the nave, of Charles le Mauvais,
Count of Evreux and King of Navarre, who was
born in 1332 and died in 1387. Above his figure
is tracery with a fine foliated pattern and a beautiful
crowned head of St Catherine in the centre. The
next two windows were given by Bernard Cariti,
Bishop of Evreux from 1376 to 1383. They are
marked by his shield with ten gold bezants on a
red ground. These two windows have no border
except the white shafts of the canopies. In the first
88 STORIED WINDOWS
is an Abbot and a Saint, and in the second Bishop
Cariti and the Virgin and Child.
At the east end are three windows. That on the
north-east has the Annunciation. It is inscribed
Gauty, Abbas Beeii postea Lys Lbroicensis—z.e.,
Geoffrey, Abbot of Bec, afterwards Bishop of Evreux.
This is one of four windows given by Geoffrey Fae,
who was Bishop of Evreux from 1335 to 1340.
The east window contains the Virgin Mary, and
John the Baptist, and the donor, inscribed Frater
Johs be Prato Lpiscopus Lbroicensis—i.c., Jean de
Pré, who was Bishop of Evreux from 1829 to 1334.
The south-east window contains the Coronation of
the Virgin, who is being blessed by the crowned
Christ, inscribed Dns Gaufo Abbas, &c., with
Geoffrey Fae kneeling as donor.
The first window on the south side of the
clerestory of the choir contains a Virgin Martyr
and St Martin, inscribed Gaufo fae Abbas, &c.
The next one, also inscribed Gkaufritus, has
figures of St Maur and St Michael. The last four
windows on the south side going westward are
composite, having been much disturbed and made
up with figures from the nave. The first of these
has the Assumption in three lights, with an inscrip-
tion beginning Beni electa fea. In the fourth
light is a portrait of Jeanne de France, wife of
Charles le Mauvais, who bore a son at Evreux.
She was the sister of Charles the Wise.
The next window contains the Virgin and Child,
the Crucifixion, a Pope, and a figure of St Denis,
like the one in the window on the north side. The
—_—
EVREUX 89
arrangement of this window, like that of several
others, has been entirely altered since Westlake
described it in 1881 in his very interesting account
of the windows of Evreux in vol. iil. pp. 66-70.
The last window but one, in the south clerestory
of the choir, has four figures, including a saint with
two swords, possibly St Vincent, who has three
swords in the window of Seven Saints in St Vincent,
Rouen. The borders of this window are much cut
about. The window at the western end of the south
clerestory contains St Aquilin (Bishop of Evreux
in the seventh century), under a round-arched
canopy, a Canon kneeling under a fourteenth-
century canopy, inscribed flestre 3. de fMoling
(whose date is 1385), the Virgin and Child under
a fourteenth-century canopy, and St @aurin
(founder of the Christian Church of Evreux), in
the right-hand light, under a round-arched canopy. |
All the figures in this window have been collected
from the nave, and the two centre lights have no
border. This completes the fifteen windows of the
choir clerestory at Evreux.
In the chapels of the choir, starting from the
west on the north side, the first window contains
erisaille. Of the four lights of the second window
the two outside have fourteenth-century figures,
and in the two inside are Renaissance canopies
over a kneeling lady, and Mathieu des Essarts
with his arms (he was Bishop of Evreux, 1299-1310),
and it has a broad chevron border. In the third
window is the same border; in its outer lights are
fourteenth-century figures, including a later Madonna
90 STORIED WINDOWS
in white on a green ground; in the two inner lights
the Virgin and Child, and a fine Renaissance picture
of Bishop Peter Bridier. The picture is inscribed
L. R. (¢.e., Ludovicus Rex), being in the chapel
of St Louis. Two of the shields show flashed and
abraded blue glass. The fourth window contains
the legend of St Martin; the fifth has grisaille of
the fourteenth century.
The last chapel before the Lady Chapel contains
beautiful late fourteenth-century windows with
figure subjects including a great deal of white glass,
having grisaille above and below. In the centres
of the grisaille are circles containing angels in white
on a ground of yellow stain, with the badge of
Guillaume du Vallon, who was Bishop of Evreux
from 1389 to 1400. This chapel especially rewards
careful examination.
In the Lady Chapel of Evreux Cathedral is some
of the finest glass of the transitional period at the
end of the fifteenth century. The chapel was built
chiefly at the expense of Louis the Eleventh,
who reigned from 1461 to 1483. The “Sacre” (or
Coronation) of Louis the Eleventh by the Bishop
of Chalons is represented in the tracery of four
windows, the first two on each side on entering,
including figures of the twelve peers of France who
assisted at the ceremony.
There are nine windows in the Lady Chapel, three
on each side and three at the east end. The fact
that it owes its origin to the King of France is
shown in the tracery, for there are single flewrs-de-
lis of stone at the top of each of the three east
EVREUX of
windows, and triple fleurs-de-lis at the top of each
of the six side windows. Jleurs-de-lis in stone
tracery are rare, but they are also to be met with
in the cathedral at Bourges. All these nine
windows are very lofty, but they begin low down.
The three windows on each side contain many
figures and have no borders. The three at the east
end seem rather later, perhaps of the earliest years
of the sixteenth century.
The east window in the Lady Chapel of Evreux
Cathedral contains a beautiful Jesse tree, of which
Westlake, in his ‘History of Design in Painted
Glass,’ vol. iii. p. 110, says: ‘It is singular both
in composition and colour, and is full of artistic
innovations. The sizes of the figures in it are
varied continually, while some of them are only
demi-figures placed in flowers and foliage. The
colour also is somewhat peculiar. The robe of
Our Lady is a darkish warm blue placed upon a
background of lighter and greyer blue. The outer
dress is lined with ermine, the inner dress is of
warm ruby. Jesse has a ruby robe ground out in
parts and stained yellow; his sleeves and skirt are
purply grey; the field behind him is emerald green.
The Prophet on his left hand is draped in this same
green, with a yellow border, having coloured jewels
upon it; the lining is ruby; his head-dress is brown
purple; his under-dress dark purply grey; the scroll
over his head and the branches of the tree are white.
The little demi-figures are variously coloured ruby,
green, brown, pink, &c. One of these is a coloured
man. The Eternal Father, holding his Crucified
92 STORIED WINDOWS
Son in the top of the tracery, is dressed in grey
purple, the crown and the nimbus are yellow-
stained, and the background is of the same blue
which runs throughout the window. The figure of
Our Lord and the other portions of Our Lady’s dress
are white. In the other pieces of tracery dark ruby
seraphim are scattered upon the blue ground.”
On the south side beyond the Lady Chapel of
Evreux Cathedral is a window with ten coloured
figure panels of very small size, set in grisaille of
very early fourteenth century, encircled with a
border consisting of the arms of France and
Castille.
In the ninth chapel are nine small coloured figure
panels under canopies, on grisaille, forming a band
of colour across the lights. In the right-hand light
is Picolaus Cardinal, mostly in yellow pot-metal,
holding a yellow window in his hand as donor. He
was Nicolas Aide de Nonancourt, who became
Cardinal in 1294 and died in 1299. Westlake
draws attention to the similarity in style between
these windows and those in Merton College Chapel.
The next three chapels contain very pleasing little
subjects of the fourteenth century.
The line of chapels is continued beyond the South
transept all round the nave on both sides. Most
of these chapels contain figures of the early part of
the fourteenth century, but some are assigned to the
thirteenth. In the second chapel west of the south
transept are figures of Christ and the Virgin, and
four Apostles and Jean de Meulent, Canon of
Evreux.
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EVREUX CATHEDRAL.
FEMALE FIGURE IN THE CHOIR.
EVREUX 93
In the South transept the first window on the
east side in the lofty clerestory contains the por-
trait of Louis the Eleventh and the Vierge d’Evreux.
There are Rose windows in both transepts. The
one in the South transept is filled with sixteenth-
century glass, representing the Coronation of the
Virgin, with figures of the Apostles below. The
Rose in the North transept depicts the Last Judg-
ment, with similar figures in strong colour with
white canopies and some yellow stain.
When at Evreux the church of St Taurin should
be visited. In the choir are seven windows—four
of the fifteenth century, one of late fourteenth with
two modern windows, the second on each side.
These fifteenth-century windows have no_ borders
except the white shafts of the canopies. The win-
dow on the north, to the left on entering the choir,
contains the Assumption. The first window on the
south contains the Ascension, of glass of the extreme
end of the fourteenth century. The three eastern
windows contain the legend of St Taurin. The
design and colour of the East window is very fine.
These windows are crowded with figures. In the
South transept is a much simpler window of the
fifteenth century; in three of the five lights are
fine single figures of St Ambrose, St Gregory, and
St Augustine. In the late flamboyant tracery of
this window are plain glazed quarries. In the
church of St Taurin there is a magnificent silver-
gilt reliquary which is classed as a Monument
Historique.
94
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCHES, SEES, ALENCON.
ELEVEN miles from Evreux is Conches, where the
town and the church of Ste Foy are situated on
a hill above the railway station. The splendid
Renaissance windows of Conches rival those of St
Vincent and St Patrice at Rouen. They produce
on the beholder, as he enters the church, the im-
pression of a palace of colour. The seven windows
of the apse were designed by Aldegrever, the cele-
brated German “Little Master,’ who was born in
1502 and died in 1558. His signature is clearly
visible on the yellow edge at the foot of a robe
at the bottom of the first window to the left of
the East window. The date of 1520 has been
assigned to these windows, but it seems unlikely
that Aldegrever should have designed them at the
early age of eighteen. The seven windows of the
apse are of great double height; in each are six
subjects, one above the other; in the upper com-
partments are scenes of the Passion, in the others
the legend of Ste Foy. One of the subjects in
the East window is St George and the Dragon,
CONCHES 95
a subject also to be seen in the cathedral at
Chartres.
In the nave of Conches Church there are fourteen
genuine old windows, and one modern window con-
taining the history of Melchizedek. One window is
dated 1540, and three are dated 1552. They all
begin so low down that they are easy to examine.
The first window on the North side, starting
from the west, is filled with grisaille. The second
is a very fine window, dated 1552, containing three
large figures and two donors, with the inscription
Sancta Maria Dei Genetrix (Holy Mary, Mother
of God). In the third window is the Presentation
of Christ in the Temple. The fourth window has
three palaces, one being the Palace of Liesse
(Delight). The fifth window contains a lovely
picture of the Annunciation, dated 1552. It has
only two prominent figures, with a pot of lilies
in the centre, and the Eternal Father above. The
sixth window has a very fine Triumph of the
Virgin, with one very white figure; the subject
of this window is sometimes termed the Litany
of Our Lady. The subject of the seventh and
last window on the north wall is the Birth of
Christ.
The first window on the south next to the apse is
dated 1540. The second contains the Last Supper
and our Saviour treading the Wine-press. At the
base is a woman in a very unusual black robe
watching a corpse. The third, dated 1552, contains
the picture of the Manna, as in the window at
Montfort ’Amaury. Beyond this is the modern
96 STORIED WINDOWS
window of Melchizedek. The two windows further
west have been much restored. The subject of the
first of these is St John the Baptist. Among the
finest windows in Conches are those which contain
the Manna in a window of strong colouring, the
Treading of the Wine-press by our Saviour, the
Litany of Our Lady, and the Annunciation.
From Conches to Sées is fifty-three miles. It is
wise, if possible, to avoid sleeping at the hotel at
Sées.
In Sées Cathedral there is excellent glass of the
early part of the fourteenth century. As at St
Ouen and Evreux, the triforium all round the
church is glazed with grisaille. The nave windows
are of little interest, being mostly colourless. The
arrangement of the windows of the choir, and of
the apsidal chapels, resembles that of St Ouen, in
having a central band in each window of large
coloured figures with bands of grisaille decorated
with natural foliage above and below, enclosed within
narrow coloured borders, separated from the stone
by a thin margin of white glass, in the prevailing
style of the fourteenth century. The tracery is
full of strong deep colour, but devoid of figures,
except in the tracery of the East window.
There are nineteen windows in the clerestory
of the choir and transepts, of which ten are in
the transepts; six of these are in the clerestory
of the north transept, and four in the clerestory
of the south transept. Besides these, in the north
and south transept are great Rose windows, with
figures in the lights below. The tracery of the
SEES 97
Rose in the north transept is of a very unusual
shape, having a hexagon-shaped pattern in the
centre, with six bands projecting from it, each
containing two pictures, the whole producing the
effect of a star with rays. The windows below
the Roses are formed of five arches, each divided
into two lights, consequently the whole window con-
tains ten figures; these are on a blue background ;
the borders are red with gold castles; the canopies
have no shafts.
To judge by the outside patina, the window
under the Rose of the north transept seems to
contain very little new glass, but that of the south
transept appears to have more new glass than old.
The south transept Rose is of the ordinary wheel
pattern. Both these Roses are linked to the windows
below by tracery, so as to form one complete window
with a Rose in the tracery, like the great window
of the fifteenth century in the north transept of
the cathedral of Le Mans. In the north transept
of Sées there is a fine series of Prophets, which are
all drawn in King’s ‘Study Book of Medizeval Archi-
tecture.’
In the choir a very rich effect is produced by
the two bands of coloured tracery in the triforlum
and clerestory, and the central band of coloured
figures, connected by coloured borders with two
bands of grisaille, which have coloured bosses in
the centres; and in many cases there are strips
of red glass framing the diamond-shaped quarries,
and thus forming a brilliant lattice-work of very
G
98 STORIED WINDOWS
uncommon appearance. This is especially notice-
able in the first and second windows, both of the
triforium and clerestory on entering the choir of
Sées Cathedral.
In the chapels of the apse the figures are smaller
than those in the clerestory of the choir. Nearly
all the figures have small coloured canopies, either
without shafts, or with a shaft consisting of a thin
white line ending in a coloured foot. But in the
two apsidal chapels north of the Lady Chapel there
are two white canopies and two yellow canopies
with regular shafts. These are set on plain glazed
quarries, which are apparently the only two cases
in the cathedral of Sées of plain quarries being
used in place of grisaille. In the chapel to the
left of the Lady Chapel is a window with two
donors, each of whom is holding his window in
his hands.
In the Lady Chapel of Sées Cathedral are seven
windows, four of which are old, but the three
eastern ones are modern. The centre window is
dated 1895; it contains a recent Bishop of Sées
offering a window to Our Lady.
In the centre of the second apse chapel to the
south of the Lady Chapel of Sées Cathedral is a
modern window of fourteenth-century style, with a
remarkable anachronism. In the left-hand light is
a mounted soldier in a helmet of chain-mail of the
fourteenth century. His white lance goes right
through the mullion into the centre light to pierce
the side of the Crucified Saviour. Such extension
of the picture from one light into the next did
ALENCON 99
not begin till more than a hundred years later,
well on in the fifteenth century.
Thirteen miles from Sées is Alengon. One writer
says that the glass at Alencon excels that of
Grand Andely. Another says that the church
contains a good amount of Late Gothic glass of
the sixteenth century. In the face of these state-
ments, the traveller should be warned not to expect
too much at Alencon, or he will certainly be disap-
pointed. Most of the glass is of the late Renais-
sance period extending into the seventeenth century.
One window is dated 1624. The general impression
of the glass is poor. But there is a Jesse tree which
is described by Day in ‘ Windows,’ p. 365 (1st
edition) as follows :—
“Quite one of the most beautiful Jesse trees that
exist is in a Late Gothic window at Alengon. It
is unusual, probably unique in design. The figures
with the exception of Jesse are confined to the
upper lights and tracery, forming a double row
towards the top of the window. This leaves a
large amount of space for the tree, a fine, fat,
Gothic scroll, foliated more after the manner of
oak than acanthus leaves, all in rich greens
(yellowish, apple, emerald-like) on a greyish-blue
ground. It forms a splendid patch of cool colour,
contrasting in the most beautiful way with the
figures, draped mostly in purple, red, and yellow.
The figures issue from great flower-like features
as big as the width of the light allows, mostly
of red, or purple, or white, with a calyx in green.
The Virgin issues from a white flower suggestive of
100 STORIED WINDOWS
the lily. A characteristic feature about the Alencon
window is the absence of symmetry in its scheme.
Of the eight lights which go to make up its width
only three are devoted, below the springing of
the great arch over it, to the Jesse tree. Three
of the other lights contain a representation of the
death of the Virgin, under a separate canopy, and
in the two outermost lights are separate subjects
on a smaller scale. It is by no means unusual for a
Jesse tree window to occupy only one half or one
quarter of a large Late Gothic window.”
The faces, however, of this Jesse window at
Alengon are very indistinct, and the window itself
is so placed that it is difficult to get a clear view
of it. It is very high up on the western wall,
so that it requires a field-glass to appreciate the
details. Moreover, it is obscured by the crass
stupidity of the authorities, who have so little
respect for their famous window that they actually
allow it to be partially hidden behind some carved
wooden ornaments on the top of the organ, so that
it is impossible to see the window as a whole, and
it is necessary to dodge about, so as to get an
unimpeded sight of the different parts behind these
disgusting obstructions.
On the way from Conches to Sées it is worth
while, by diverging thirty miles from Laigle, to
visit Verneuil and Nonancourt, both of which
contain much good glass of the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries.
101
CHAPTER XVII
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS.
TuirtTy-stx miles south of Alencon is Le Mans, the
capital of the old province of Maine. The cathedral
of Le Mans was almost entirely destroyed by the
tremendous fire of 1134, which only spared the
extreme West end, out of the whole of the building
of the eleventh century.
_ The nave was promptly rebuilt and consecrated
in 1158. The present choir was commenced in
1218 to commemorate the reunion of Maine to
France by the marriage of Louis the Eighth with
Blanche of Castille, the niece of King John. The
choir was consecrated in 1254. The south transept
was built in the fourteenth century. The north
transept was built in the first half of the fifteenth
century. It was begun in 1403 and finished about
1450.
The cathedral of Le Mans is remarkable for the
number and beauty of its windows. But in the
nave most of the windows are of no interest, as they
are all modern, with the conspicuous exception of
the nine windows at the western end. Of these,
three are on the west wall and three on each of
102 STORIED WINDOWS
the north and south walls. These nine windows
contain some of the finest known specimens of the
very earliest extant glass. They are all in round-
arched windows of the Romanesque style of the
eleventh century.
The large window over the west door of the
cathedral of Le Mans contains scenes from the
life of St Julian, to whom the Cathedral is dedi-
cated. But on examination from the outside it is
obvious that the great central figure of St Julian
is quite modern, and that eleven out of the twenty-
one medallions of which the window is composed are
also new, as well as nearly the whole of the broad
border round the outside; because they lack the
film of whitish patina which coats the ancient glass.
The pictures in the west window are arranged in
alternate panels and medallions. The thick, solid
black hair, the constrained attitudes, the clinging
drapery, and the archaic Byzantine faces are very
noticeable.
On each side of this window, but at some distance
from it, are two small windows of round-arched
Romanesque shape, at the west ends of the north
and south aisles. These two windows also date
from the twelfth century. They contain the history
of St Gervais and St Protais. The northern one
has a triple border with Romanesque white strap-
work. The border of the southern window has a
modern appearance. One of these two windows is
described and illustrated by Westlake in vol. i. p. 13
of his ‘History of Design in Painted Glass.’ But
the large heads in his lowest medallion are gone.
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LE MANS CATHEDRAL.
XIItH CENTURY MEDALLION AT THE BASE OF THE WINDOW OF ST GERVAIS
AND ST PROTAIS.
The face on the left has been restored.
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 103
On the north wall at its western end are three
windows of the twelfth century. The first two of
these, starting from the west, contain scenes from
the life of St Stephen. The third is made up
of some beautiful twelfth-century medallions and
panels, with only half a border at the top. One
of the scenes in this window is the Child Jesus
in the Temple in the midst of the Doctors. At
the base of the window between two panels is a
beautiful little piece of broad Romanesque border
with foliation, and with a zigzag pattern on the
white straps.
Of the three windows at the western end of the
south wall of Le Mans Cathedral, the centre one is
the celebrated Ascension window, which is regarded
as the oldest glass in the Cathedral, and some of
the oldest in existence, dating from about 1100.
The lower half of this window is filled with oblong
panels with alternate sapphire and ruby _ back-
grounds, containing the figures of the Twelve
Apostles and the Virgin in the centre, steadfastly
gazing upwards in the direction of what must
originally have been a representation of the Ascen-
sion. Unfortunately, the upper part is not only
quite modern, but it is also entirely unsuitable.
Instead of the window being crossed by the straight
saddle-bars of the twelfth century, it contains a
medallion of our Lord which is enclosed in a circu-
lar frame of solid iron. This mass of iron entirely
prevents those below from seeing their ascending
Lord. Besides, such a frame, shaped to the medal-
lion, is more than a century later in style than the
104 STORIED WINDOWS
window of the end of the eleventh century, for
such shaping is entirely confined to the thirteenth
century. The border of the window appears to be
modern, as might be expected from the fact that
this old glass was formerly scattered about among
different windows. The scattered fragments were
only discovered and put together, about 1850, by
the glass painter Gérente. The Apostles have the
solid black hair and the stiff Byzantine faces,
figures, and attitude, with the clinging drapery
characteristic of the glass pictures of the twelfth
century. The central figure of the Virgin is ex-
tremely striking and beautiful. All the faces are
of a brownish pink tint. This window is illustrated
and described by Westlake in vol. i. pp. 6-10.
In the window next to the Ascension window on
the east is a splendid Byzantine half-length figure
of Christ, between Alpha and Omega, which looks
quite as old as the panels in the Ascension window.
Below the Christ, in the fine central medallion, are
four figures, and in the medallion below this are
two angels. The third ancient window on the
south wall is placed to the right of the Ascension
window ; this is also made up of different subjects
from ancient windows, and it has Romanesque strap-
work in the border.
The choir of the cathedral of Le Mans has the
very unusual peculiarity of having a double row
of clerestory windows above the triforium. Hach
of these rows contain thirteen windows.
The extra windows which form the lower row,
just above the triforium, all contain either three
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 105
or five lights. These windows are beautiful in
colour but rather squat in shape. With the ex-
ception of the East window, they are filled with
medallions. All the glass belongs to the latter
part of the thirteenth century. The East window
of the lower row in Le Mans Cathedral has a large
figure of the Virgin crowned, with Jesus on her
knee, in the centre light. The faces are so dark
as to be almost black, but the colours of the ruby
and sapphire and the yellow pot-metal are splendid.
Below the Virgin is the donor, in a red coat of
arms on which are two golden leopards, holding
a window. In the two side lights of the Hast
window of the lower row of clerestory windows
are figures of St Gervais and St Protais, on a
ground covered with flewrs-de-ls.
The first window of the lower row, on the north
side on entering the choir of Le Mans, has five
lights containing the lives of St Peter, St Denis,
St Julian, St Stephen, St John, St Catherine, St
Vincent, and others. At the top of the third light
is shown the donor, Guillelmus Rolandi, the Bishop
of Le Mans from 1255 to 1258. The second
window is also the gift of Guillaume Roland,
and contains episodes of the lives of St Martin,
St Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, St Martha, St Ag-
atha, St Lucy, St Agnes, and St Gervais, and
St Protais.
The third has St Julian’s story in four lights and
Jesus in the fifth.
The fourth has several legends, including that of
Théophile.
106 STORIED WINDOWS
The fifth contains the history of St Paul and the
life of the Virgin.
The sixth has the legend of St Innocent, Bishop
of Le Mans, and the martyred deacon St Gervais.
The seventh window is the central Hast window
of the lower row.
Beyond the East window, the first on the south
has the legend of St Eustache in twenty-five medal-
lions. The second on the south has the story of
the Virgin’s Burial, Assumption, and Coronation,
and the scenes after the Resurrection, and in the
third light the legend of St Calais.
The third from the east on the south side in-
cludes a life of St John the Baptist, Adam and Eve,
and the legend of St Nicolas.
The fourth has the life of St Julian, St Peter, and
St Paul, Pope Innocent IV. (who died in 1254), the
Emperor Constantine, and scenes from the life of
Jesus.
The fifth has the life of the Virgin, a Jesse tree,
the Vidame Théophile, and the Jewish child of
Bourges.
The last window next to the south transept con-
tains the praise of Mary and the legend of the
painter Théophile.
In the upper row, or clerestory proper of the
cathedral of Le Mans, six of the windows on each
side contain in each light two large figures, one
above the other, of Apostles and Bishops of Le
Mans. In the second window on the north side
on entering from the west is a donor offering a
window inscribed Johes de Freneio, z.e., Jean de
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 107
Fresnay. Above him are the Apostles St Philip
and St James, whose name is inscribed on a hori-
zoutal band.
The fourth window on the north side of the
clerestory of the choir is inscribed La Perrine &
Drapiers, being given by the Drapers’ Guild of Le
Mans. The Dean of the Drapers’ Guild, clad in a
coat partly of green, but chiefly of a fine dark
brownish purple lined with fur, holds a window in
his hand.
The fifth window was the gift of the Furriers.
The sixth window was apparently given by the
Innkeepers. :
The East window of the upper row contains
figures of Christ on the Cross, and the Virgin and
Child. The borders of the East window are broken
by eight shields, two on each side of the two lights.
All these shields have the same device, a gold band
across a red ground. This is the shield of the
donor of the window, Geoffrey de Loudun, Bishop
of Le Mans, who consecrated the reconstructed choir
in 1254. Below the Virgin is a figure of Geoffrey
de Loudun in a gold chasuble. The same donor
reappears in the second light, having exchanged
his gold chasuble for a violet one.
The first window south of the East window was
given by the Architects.
The last five windows on the south side con-
tain figures of Saints who were Bishops of Le
Mans.
The fourth from the western end is inscribed La
Dervier Lccles, It was given by the clergy.
108 STORIED WINDOWS
The third from the end was destroyed by a violent
storm in 1810, and is filled with modern glass.
The last but one was given by the Players of
draughts and backgammon.
The last on the south-west was given by the
Bakers, who are represented as engaged in baking.
In the clerestory windows on the south side of the
choir are three splendid patches of emerald green.
A special feature of Le Mans Cathedral is the
unusually large number of chapels round the am-
bulatory of the choir. There are thirteen of these
chapels, including the Lady Chapel and the sacristy.
These chapels are also extremely deep, extending
back about 23 feet, so that they almost entirely
hide their windows from the observer in the
Cathedral.
In the chapels on the north side many of the
windows are glazed with plain white quarries, in
patterns formed by the enclosing lead, but they
have coloured borders.
Many of the chapels both on the north and
south side of the ambulatory of the choir contain
grisaille windows, very varied in pattern and ex-
tremely beautiful, with the coloured borders of the
fourteenth century. In the first chapel next to
the north transept is a Rose window with six lobes,
containing glass of the thirteenth century, depicting
Jesus surrounded by six doves, with the seventh
on His knee, typifying the sevenfold gifts of the
Holy Ghost.
In the fourth chapel, dedicated to St Joseph, the
first window on the right contains a picture of St
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 109
Anne and the Virgin, of the second half of the
fifteenth century.
The glass in the Lady Chapel of Le Mans
Cathedral is as great a deception as the glass in
the west window, in respect of the amount of new
glass which it includes. For out of eleven windows
only five contain any old glass of the thirteenth
century, the rest being all modern. In the first
window, on the north side to the left on entering
the Lady Chapel, there is modern glass in the first
light, but the second light contains a fine Jesse tree
of the thirteenth century, a good deal restored. The
second window is all modern. The third window,
also restored, contains the life of the Virgin Mary.
The fourth window is all modern. The fifth win-
dow is half ancient and half modern; it contains
the earlier life of Christ.
The sixth or East window of the Lady Chapel is
all ancient, but it has been so thoroughly cleaned
as to resemble a modern window at first sight.
This is one of the Biblia Pauperum windows which
taught Scripture history when printing was un-
known and few could read. It closely resembles
the famous window, the gift of the Butchers, at
Bourges, which is described and illustrated by the
Jesuit Fathers, Martin and Cahier, in their magni-
ficent monograph on the cathedral of Bourges.
They consider that these windows record the sub-
stitution of Gentiles for Jews by the Cross, or “‘ The
Nations admitted to the New Alliance.” There
are three other ‘‘ Nouvelle Alliance” windows at
Chartres, Tours, and Sens, and one formerly existed
110 STORIED WINDOWS
among the twelve Biblia Pauperum windows at
Canterbury, of which only two now remain.
This Nouvelle Alliance window at Le Mans is
illustrated in Westlake, vol. i. p. 123, and in
Hucher’s splendid folio, ‘ Calques des Vitraux peints
de la Cathédrale du Mans.’ The central medallions
contain the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion,
and the Resurrection. The side medallions contain
Old Testament types connected with the pictures
in the central medallions. Those which especially
bear upon the New Alliance are the preference of
Joseph’s younger son Ephraim (?.e., Gentiles), to
the elder Manasseh (Genesis xlviii. 1-19), Elijah
and the Gentile woman of Zarephath (Luke iv. 27),
and Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite
woman. The Le Mans window has lost its two
lowest panels, but the two lowest panels of the
window at Bourges contain Abraham and Isaac,
implying the admission of the Gentiles by the
prophecy: “in thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed.” Other medallions contain
Moses striking the rock, the Brazen Serpent, the
Blood of the Paschal Lamb on the Lintel, Jonah
issuing from the Whale’s mouth, a Pelican and
King David, and the Lions of Judah.
All the remaining windows of the Lady Chapel
of Le Mans are modern, but the ninth contains
some fragments of glass of the thirteenth century.
In the Chapel of St Louis, next to the Lady
Chapel on the south to the right, are two windows,
half of which are filled with thirteenth-century
glass. In the window on the left is the story of
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 111
St Nicolas, including the ever popular tale of the
resuscitation of the three youths murdered by the
innkeeper, which, as Male points out, is not recorded
in the ‘Golden Legend.’ In the window on the right
is the legend of St Eloi, who in one picture is grip-
ping the snout of a discomfited green demon with
long pincers.
In the west wall of the north transept of Le
Mans Cathedral are two small windows below the
triforium, of four lights each, having the original
glass of the fifteenth century in which this transept
was built.
In the first light of the first of these two windows
is a bust of a bishop of the thirteenth century. In
the second light is a female saint in a very splendid
robe. In the third light a canon, who is praying, is
being presented as donor by St John the Baptist.
In the fourth light is a Virgin on white glass. In
the second of these two small windows is St James
in the first light, and St John in the second, but his
head has disappeared and been replaced by the head
of a Virgin. In the third light is a saint presenting
two kneeling donors. The fourth light contains St
Martha enchaining the Tarasque.
The rest of the transept windows are filled with
orisaille surrounded by coloured borders, with the
exception of the great fifteenth-century window
above the north portal of the cathedral of Le
Mans.
This magnificent window illustrates the consider-
able difference between French and English windows
of the fifteenth century. Just as in France the
112 STORIED WINDOWS
Flamboyant style of architecture did not begin so
early as the English Perpendicular style of the same
period, so the change from the style of the glass
of the fourteenth century was much more gradual
than in England. The larger amount of light and
sunshine in the French atmosphere seems to have
prevented French glaziers from employing such a
large proportion of white and so little bright colour
as is generally found in English windows of the
fifteenth century. For, although in this window
there is a great deal of white in the canopies and
faces, yet the backgrounds and drapery are almost
entirely composed of bright coloured glass, blue,
green, yellow, ruby, brownish-purple, and violet.
This window, which is one of the largest and
grandest of all fifteenth-century windows, is com-
posed of an immense Rose at the top, connected by
tracery with the double window below in such a
way that it forms one complete undivided whole,
in which the Rose is an integral part of the tracery.
In this enormous window there are one hundred
and twenty-six subjects.
The great Rose portrays the Coronation of the
Virgin, and the Last Judgment. Between the
spokes of the Rose are twenty-four elongated white
figures with little colour. Below the Rose are four
circles, each containing a pair of curiously contorted
white figures.
The two lower windows are subdivided by two
arches, in each of which are two lights, so that the
whole contains eight subdivisions in all. The
tracery at the head of each of the four arches
THE CATHEDRAL OF LE MANS 113
contains a figure. In the rectangular part of the
window are eight large white canopies; below
each canopy are three great figures, so that there
are twenty-four figures in the whole of the rect-
angular part of the window. All the faces are
white, but in many cases the hair is yellow. In
the uppermost compartments are: Abraham, Noah,
Moses, and David, with Biblical inscriptions. Next
to these are the Apostles, each carrying, in fifteenth-
century fashion, a sentence of the creed.
Below the Apostles are portraits. The first two
are Bishops, the third is St Louis with an azure
robe covered with gold fleurs-de-lis, like the robe of
St Denis at Evreux. The fourth is a Canon, the
fifth is Adam Chastelain, Bishop of Le Mans, ap-
pointed in 1398, the sixth is Cardinal Fillastre,
the seventh Louis III. of Anjou, King of Sicily
who died in 1434, or his brother King René, and
the last three are Louis IL, Duke of Anjou and
King of Sicily, and his mother Marie of Blois and
his wife Yolande of Aragon, who died in 1442,
having survived her husband for twenty-five years.
But the head of Marie of Blois, mother of Louis II.,
has been lost and replaced by a carefully exact
modern copy of the ancient glass head of his wife
Yolande of Aragon. Behind these three figures
may be noticed the damask curtain or screen em-
ployed as a background in the fifteenth century.
Though this window is a noble example of the
finest work of the fifteenth century, yet the colour,
however bright, seems rather washed-out when
H
114 STORIED WINDOWS
compared with the thirteenth-century glass in the
choir. This is partly due to the excessive amount
of white light let in by the grisaille windows of
the transept, and partly to the lack of the shadows
formerly produced by the black cross-hatching and
the strong tracing lines of the thirteenth century.
The thirteen Apostles and the ten portraits are
beautifully illustrated by Hucher. This window
dates from before 1430, consequently it contains
none of the abrasion of flashed glass to show the
white beneath, which came into use about the
middle of the fifteenth century.
When at Le Mans it is highly advisable to make
an excursion sixty miles south-west into Anjou, to
visit the cathedral of Angers, which is extra-
ordinarily rich in fine old glass of all periods, but
especially of the twelfth century.
BLS
CHAPTER XVIII.
ST PIERRE, CHARTRES.
From Le Mans to Chartres is a railway journey of
seventy-six miles. Chartres is also very accessible
from Paris; the distance being only fifty-five miles.
In the street leading south from the Cathedral
good tea can be obtained at a confectioner’s shop
kept by a chef who has been employed in
England.
At Chartres is the splendid church of St Pierre,
which would enjoy great and well-merited fame in
any other town, but the glass in the Cathedral kills
all other in its neighbourhood. Consequently to
appreciate St Pierre fairly, it is wise to see it before
visiting the Cathedral. The first impression on
entering St Pierre is of gaily coloured glass, with
just enough stone to frame it substantially. The
whole effect of the church is to produce the feeling
of a well-lighted building of bright and rich but
not deep colour.
About six years ago the dispersed fragments of
the windows were carefully collected and put into
their proper places.
116 STORIED WINDOWS
Of the windows in St Pierre, Count Ferdinand de
Lasteyrie, in his ‘ Histoire de la Peinture sur Verre,’
p- 40, says: “The glass in the choir may be
attributed to the Abbot Etienne the First, of 1172-
1193, who put in the most ancient glass that can
be seen in St Pierre to-day.” As these words
occur in the chapter on the glass of the Twelfth
century, he seems to consider that the windows
in the choir were put in before the end of the
twelfth century, and certainly some of the glass
has a very ancient appearance. The original choir
was begun about 1150. The nave was built be-
tween 1210 and 1225. About forty years later,
towards the end of the reign of St Louis, the
present choir was built in place of the original
one, and apparently the twelfth-century glass was
replaced in the new choir.
In the clerestory of the nave of St Pierre,
Chartres, are twelve large windows on each
side.
On the north side, beginning from the west, six -
of the windows contain Apostles in pairs. Of the
other six, the third and fourth contain the story
of St John the Baptist. The seventh and eighth
contain the history of St Peter. The eleventh and
twelfth contain the life of Christ from the Entry
into Jerusalem till the Last Judgment.
The twelve windows in the clerestory on the
south side of the nave contain personages of
ecclesiastical history. In the third from the west
is the legend of St Agnes, and in the fourth is the
legend of St Catherine.
ST PIERRE, CHARTRES 117
The eleventh, in the south clerestory of the nave,
contains the story of St Joachim and St Anne and
the Virgin Mary, till her marriage with Joseph,
whose rod budded, as in the window in ChAalons.
The twelfth includes the Annunciation, Visita-
tion, Birth of Christ, Adoration of the Magi,
Presentation, and death of the Virgin.
The side windows of the choir of St Pierre con-
tain forty Patriarchs, Prophets, and other personages
of the Old Testament, but only six of them have
names.
The six windows of the apse belong to the four-
teenth century, and are the most brilliant in the
church both in design and colour. Hach of them
contain four full-sized figures of Bishops and
Apostles. Above each are three quatrefoils, of
which the two lower contain scenes of martyrdom,
and the top one has an angel holding a martyr’s
crown in each hand.
Highteen of the windows of St Pierre, Chartres,
have the very unusual arrangement of bands of
_ figures, with bands of grisaille in alternate lights,
extending vertically from top to bottom of the
window. In several of these windows there is
peculiar economy of design, for there are two
figures of the thirteenth century one above the
other, with a medallion or panel between them,
both of which figures are exactly alike, but with
dresses of entirely different colours.
The enormous fourteenth-century windows in
the clerestory of the nave are very striking, and
some people would find in the light bright colour
118 STORIED WINDOWS
a refreshing contrast to the darkness of the nave
of the Cathedral.
The fourteenth-century windows in St Pierre
rival those in the clerestory of Evreux, but they
are not dated so completely by the names of the
donors.
The fourth window from the west, on the north
side of the clerestory of the nave, has a kneeling
donor with a crozier inscribed Jean ve fMantes.
This is a window of 1307, containing forty-two
figure subjects in seven rows of very strong colour.
Jean de Mantes is stated in ‘ Gallia Christiana’ to
have appealed as Abbot of St Pierre to Pope
Clement V. in 1307.
In the six apse windows of St Pierre, Chartres,
each of the lower canopies ends in a turret of
alternate ruby and sapphire, with a central window
in the turret of alternate yellow and white, with
two small figures (perhaps angels) on each side.
They all have richly coloured borders and coloured
canopies.
The triforium of the apse is also glazed. It
contains Renaissance glass of 1527 by Robert
Pinaigrier, but in a very fragmentary state.
The lower windows are modern. But in the
chapels of St Anne and St Joseph there are some
windows of the fifteenth century in a poor state.
The visitor should not fail to see the splendid
Limoges enamels by Leonard Limousin of the
twelve Apostles. They came from the Chateau
d’Anet, and were given by Henri Deux to Diane
de Poitiers.
119
CHAPTER XIX.
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL,
Tue cathedral at Chartres is the most beautiful
Cathedral in France, and contains the finest assem-
blage of thirteenth-century glass in the world.
The windows are the most impressive that can
be found in any church. On entering from the
Porte Royale at the west into the semi-darkness
of the nave, the lines of Milton in “ I] Penseroso”
are fully realised. or here, if anywhere, are
“Storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.”
_ After the great fire of 1194, which destroyed the
whole Cathedral with the exception of the west
wall, the Cathedral was entirely rebuilt in half a
century. The beauty of the structure is partly due
to the extreme rapidity with which it was rebuilt,
which resulted in great unity and simplicity of
style and homogeneity of design. But most of the
beautiful effect is due to the completeness with
which the Cathedral is filled with 50 roses and 125
tall windows of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
120 STORIED WINDOWS
containing in all 3889 figures. For the aisles and
the clerestory of the nave, and the transepts, and
the ambulatory are even more completely filled
with thirteenth-century glass than the choir, pro-
ducing a remarkable feeling of solemn and mys-
terious grandeur.
To get a clear first impression of the splendour of
Chartres Cathedral it is best to enter by the portal
of the south transept and proceed straight to the
centre and then first look west, down the double
line of aisle and clerestory windows in the nave, to
the three magnificent twelfth-century windows, with
the Rose above them, over the Porte Royale; next,
to turn north, and afterwards south, to the great
Roses of the two transepts, with the noble windows
below them; and lastly, east, to the lovely apse
clerestory of the choir, with glimpses of the tall
windows round the ambulatory.
The three West windows in Chartres Cathedral,
although they are half a century later in date than
the oldest in Le Mans, are the finest extant windows
of the twelfth century. The window to the right,
north of the central one, has a magnificent Jesse
tree, giving the genealogy of Christ, the arrange-
ment of which is well described by Day in
‘Windows,’ p. 369 (1st edition), as follows :—
“At the base is the recumbent figure of Jesse;
the straight stem of the tree, proceeding from him,
is almost entirely hidden by a string of figures, one
above the other, occupying the centre part of the
window, and represented as Kings; above them sits
the Virgin, also crowned; and in the arch of the
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 121
window sits our Lord in Majesty, surrounded by
seven doves, to signify the gifts of the Spirit.
It is not perhaps quite clear upon what those figures
sit. They hold on with both hands to branches of
highly conventional Romanesque foliage, springing
from the main stem, and occupying the space about
the figures in very ornamental fashion. A series of
half medallions on each side of this central design
contain little figures of attendant prophets, in a
sense the spiritual ancestors of the Saviour. All
this is in the deepest and richest Mosaic colour in
the beautiful bluish Jesse window, at the west end
of the cathedral at Chartres, which belongs to about
the middle of the twelfth century.” In this window
are four crowned kings of Byzantine type in the
centre, being a very arbitrary selection of the
ancestors of Christ. On each side of the window
are seven prophets. The tree of Jesse is of the
same date as the one in the Hast window of the
Abbey of St Denis, which was given by the Abbot
Suger, whose quaint little portrait, in a brown
gown, with bare feet projecting beyond the border
of the medallion, is still to be seen in the next
window to the left, north of the East window of St
Denis. Merson, in ‘ Les Vitraux,’ p. 32, points out
that these two Jesse trees are so much alike that
they appear to have been made from the same car-
toon. This economy of design is found in many
places, such as St Remi, Reims, St Urbain, Troyes,
and St Pierre, Chartres. The resemblance of these
two Jesse trees is one of the many reasons for
believing that all the twelfth-century glass in the
122 STORIED WINDOWS
west of France was made by artists of the school
of St Denis. This Jesse window is illustrated by
Westlake in vol. i. p. 20.
The great central West window of Chartres
Cathedral, which is 33 feet high, contains twenty-
seven panels between the straight saddle-bars, with
scenes from the earlier life of Christ. At the top
is the Virgin and Child. The broad border of this
window is extremely fine.
The third West window of the twelfth century, to
the south of the centre, contains scenes from the
later life of Christ, beginning with the Transfigura-
tion, and ending with the Breaking of Bread at
Emmaus. The figures in this window are of a
striking Byzantine appearance.
The Western Rose, above the three windows of
the twelfth century, contains a Doom or representa-
tion of the Last Judgment, in which Jesus is seated
in the clouds, with streams of blood flowing from
his five wounds. He is surrounded by Apostles,
Angels, and the four Beasts. The dead are issuing
from tombs on right and left. St Michael is
weighing the Souls. Some are being conducted
by angels into Abraham’s bosom; others are being
taken by fearful demons to the yawning mouth
of Hell.
The great clerestory windows run all round the
cathedral of Chartres, including the two transepts.
Of these windows there are sixty-eight in pairs,
each pair being surmounted by a rose eighteen feet
in diameter.
In the nave, starting from the west, there is a
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 123
complete double line of aisle and clerestory win-
dows, all of the thirteenth century, except the glass
in the Chapelle Vendéme.
The lower line in the walls of the aisle of eleven
windows is filled with panels and medallions of
deep intense colour, in which ruby and sapphire
predominate. Hach window is encircled by a broad
border of rich colour, and each medallion has a
border of its own. The spaces between these
borders are filled for the most part with a
monotonous geometrical plaid pattern, but five
of them have the English floral scroll-work, so
noticeable in the windows at Canterbury. In
most of these windows the iron bars, being shaped
to enclose the medallions, form a pattern of iron
all over the window, in the style peculiar to the
thirteenth century, which was probably abandoned
because the mass of iron in front of the glass tends
to make the window unduly dark.
The subjects of the six windows in the north
aisle of Chartres Cathedral are: in the first, Noah;
in the second, St Lubin, the shepherd of Poitou,
who became Bishop of Chartres; in the third, the
Hunter, Saint Eustache, in one of the most beautiful
and artistic windows in the Cathedral, described by
Westlake as ‘“‘a most perfect work of art”; it has
floral scrolls in the interstices between the medal-
lions, in the style of the windows at Canterbury
instead of the French plaid diaper of most of the
other windows in Chartres Cathedral ; in the fourth
is Joseph; in the fifth, St Nicolas; in the sixth,
La Nouvelle Alliance (like the Nouvelle Alhance
124 STORIED WINDOWS
window at Le Mans, described on p. 110), of which
six panels were destroyed in 1816.
On the south side of the aisle are four windows,
beginning, as before, from the west, with the stories
in the first of St John the Evangelist; in the
second, St Mary Magdalene; in the third, the
Good Samaritan; in the fourth, the Death, Burial,
Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin.
Next to this the line is broken by the Chapelle
Venddme, which lets in a great deal of light
through its fifteenth-century glass. This chapel
was begun in 1417 by the Count of Vendéme, Louis
de Bourbon, the ancestor of Henri Quatre; yet, in
spite of this gift of princely liberality, the Cathedral
authorities refused to break the rule even in his
case, that no interment should ever take place in
Chartres Cathedral. The window with Flamboyant
tracery contains at the base angels carrying the
shields of Bourbon-Vendédme. Above this are
several Bourbon portraits and a portrait of St
Louis. This window illustrates the gradual increas-
ing tendency of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies to let in more light by the invariable use
of straight saddle-bars and by a larger employment
of white glass. It affords a somewhat startling
contrast to the deep dark colour of the thirteenth-
century windows which surround it. Between
the Chapelle Venddme and the south transept
is a window mostly filled with white glass, only
one subject remaining complete out of the lost
medallions of the thirteenth century.
The clerestory of the nave of Chartres Cathedral,
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 125
in the usual fashion of clerestory windows in the
thirteenth century, contains huge single figures in
each lancet. In this gorgeous pageant of Patriarchs,
Prophets, Apostles, and Saints, flashing and vibrat-
ing with the sparkle of thousands of many-hued
coruscating jewels, three of the fourteen lancets on
the north side in the clerestory of the nave are
especially remarkable for their colour. In the third
window from the west is a figure of St Laurence in
an amazing yellow robe, which almost suggests the
Imperial yellow of the late Chinese Emperors. In
the tenth lancet is St George, with a wonderful
face, clad in bright polychrome raiment, suggestive
of the garb of a Highland chieftain. In a window
near St George is a figure of Abraham surrounded
by glass of a glorious clear sapphire blue.
On the south side of the clerestory of the nave,
the fifth lancet, headed Jhilippus, has a patch of
wondrous emerald green, like those in the south
clerestory of the choir of Le Mans.
In the north transept of Chartres Cathedral are
three lower windows. In the first is the story of
the Prodigal Son, with some curious variations
from the Gospel narrative. The second and third
were destroyed in 1791, at the time of the French
Revolution; only the border of the second, con-
taining twenty-one angels, is left.
In the clerestory of the north transept are
seven windows on the west side, of which the last
three are filled with grisaille of the thirteenth
century, bordered with flewrs-de-lis and castles of
Castille. Of the other four, the first contains the
126 STORIED WINDOWS
Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin;
the second, the Shepherds and the Presentation ;
the third, the Annunciation and the Visitation ;
the fourth, St Joachim and St Anne. In the six
clerestory windows on the eastern side of the north
transept are four with Apostles; the fifth has the
legend of St Eustache; and the sixth, the Annun-
ciation, the Birth of Christ, and the Adoration of
the Magi.
The great Rose of the north transept of Chartres
Cathedral is called the Rose de France, having been
given by St Louis; it has twelve medallions of the
arms of France, azure, with golden fleurs-de-lis. In
the centre is the Virgin enthroned with the infant
Jesus, surrounded by three circles of twelve medal-
lions each. The first circle has four doves, four
winged thrones, and four angels. The second has
twelve kings of Judah. The third has twelve minor
prophets. Under the Rose is a splendid window of
five great lights. In the centre is St Anne carrying
the Virgin, illustrated in Westlake, vol. i. p. 54.
The head of St Anne is two feet high. This is the
largest figure in the Cathedral, and it enables the
huge size of the other clerestory figures to be esti-
mated. Below the figure of St Anne is the
escutcheon of St Louis, with the old arms of
France, consisting of many golden fleurs-de-lis on
an azure ground. On the right are: Ist, David
and Saul; and 2nd, Melchizedek and Nebuchad-
nezzar. On the left are: 1st, Solomon and
Rehoboam; 2nd, Aaron and Pharaoh.
In the south transept of Chartres Cathedral are
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 127
two lower windows, which were destroyed in 1791.
The third window contains at the top the whole
hierarchy of angels except the thrones. In the
centre of the window is the history of St Apollin-
arius, Archbishop of Ravenna. Here the thirteenth-
century glass ends, and the base of the window
is filled with fourteenth-century white figures in
grisaille, with an inscription stating that it was
given by Wverri, chanoine de ceang (=Thierry,
Canon of this church) in 1828. This is the earliest
known instance of white figures in grisaille.
The windows in the clerestory of the south
transept of Chartres Cathedral are filled mostly
with figures of Saints. The second on the left
contains St Denis in episcopal costume, inscribed
St Dionysius, presenting the Oriflamme or banner
of the Abbey of St Denis to Henri Clément, the
Petit Maréchal, who is clad in gilt mail with a long
azure surcoat. He died in 1263. The Oriflamme is a
red banner cleft at the end of the fly into several
streamers, with a gilt lance as a staff. It was carried
by the Count of Vexin as Vidame or secular repre-
sentative of the Abbey of St Denis, until 1082, when
the county of Vexin was joined to the crown of
France, and thus the French king gained the right
to carry the Oriflamme. The picture is interesting
as giving the shape of the Oriflamme in the thir-
teenth century. An illustration of this window is
given by Westlake in vol. i. p. 57. Three of these
windows have double borders.
The great rose of the south transept has a figure
of Jesus encircled by thirty-six medallions, which
128 STORIED WINDOWS
illustrate the seventh chapter of the Revelations,
for they contain eight angels, four beasts, and four-
and-twenty elders.
In the five great lights underneath the Rose, the
central one contains Jesus carried in the arms of His
Mother. In the four side lights is the singular
spectacle of the four Evangelists carried on the
shoulders of the four Major Prophets, with their
names clearly inscribed in large letters. Under
each Prophet is the figure of a donor. The date
of this window is fixed by the portraits of the
donors, Alix de Thouars, Duchess of Brittany, and
her husband the Count of Dreux. They were
married in 1212, and she died in 1226. The arms
of Dreux-BrETAGNE are repeated in twelve quatre-
foils. In this window the eyes, being formed of little
circles of white, leaded round, give the faces the
appearance of staring out of spectacles. Westlake
describes and illustrates this window in vol. i. pp.
51-53.
The choir of Chartres Cathedral is much lighter
than the nave, owing to an incredible act of
vandalism committed in the eighteenth century.
The King’s sculptor, a man named Bridan, made
an enormous stone group of the Assumption in
1788, and persuaded the unworthy chapter of the
Cathedral to let light into his modern sculpture by
destroying one rose and seven windows of St Louis
and replacing them by white glass; which reminds
one of Bacon’s extreme self-lovers in the Essay of
Wisdom for a Man’s Self, ‘‘ who will set a house
on fire, an it were but to roast their eggs.” The
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 129
result is that on entering the choir there is a feeling
of discomfort like that of looking through a roof
with holes in it.
Another lesser act of vandalism was committed
in 1757, when the thirteenth-century borders were
removed from the first four windows on the north
side of the choir to give more light to the officiating
priests, by putting in borders of white glass. The
first of these windows has the Virgin enthroned.
In the second are two groups of peasant pilgrims
whose costumes are of great archeological interest.
The next three windows are in white glass. The
sixth and seventh contain the story of St Martin.
The next two are in white glass.
The apse of the choir of Chartres Cathedral con-
tains seven immense lancets, each forty-six feet
high. The East window contains the Annunciation,
the Visitation, and the Birth of Christ. The window
on each side of this contains a censing angel, whose
golden thurible entirely breaks through the border
in a very unusual way. Out of the six other win-
dows of the apse, four contain figures from Old
Testament history, and on the north side is one
with the history of St Peter, balanced on the south
by the history of St John the Baptist. Next to
them, in the south clerestory of the choir, the
. windows which are not white contain figures of
saints, except the last, which has the Birth of Christ
and the Flight into Hgypt.
All round the ambulatory of Chartres Cathedral
choir are windows of the thirteenth century, with
I
130 | STORIED WINDOWS
two exceptions. The first window on the north
side, starting from the west, was given by Geoffrey
Chardonnel, who died about 1210. The second
contains St Nicolas. The next four contain fine
erisaille of the thirteenth century deserving careful
examination. The next chapel (of St Julian) con-
tains St Thomas and St Julian, and a third window
in grisaille. The next chapel has five windows with
saints. Next to this chapel is the celebrated window
with the legend of Charlemagne; it is inscribed
Carolus in three places. (It is described in detail
in the chapter following.) In the next window
is St James.
Then comes the central chapel at the east end,
which is not, as usual, the chapel of Our Lady,
because the whole Cathedral is one vast Lady
Chapel, being dedicated to Notre Dame. The first
window in this chapel is in grisaille with the arms of
St Louis’ mother, Blanche of Castille. The second
has the history of St Simon and St Jude. The
third has scenes from the Life of Christ, with nine
medallions restored, which were destroyed in 1791.
This window resembles the East window in Becket’s
Crown in Canterbury Cathedral; when the medal-
lions were restored, some of the subjects were copied
from the Canterbury window. In the next two,
containing the history of St Peter and St Paul,
twenty-four medallions have been restored.
Over the door of the chapel of St Piat is his
figure on grisaille of the fourteenth century, which
is one of the earliest instances known of a figure on
grisaille. The next window has the history of
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL 131
St Melchiade and St Sylvester; it is given by the
stone workers, and it contains marvellously beautiful
sapphire blue. In the next chapel (of St Joseph)
are five windows, two of which contain figures of
St Nicolas. The first window is in grisaille, with
a fifteenth-century figure of St Nicolas restoring
three children to life, who had been cut to pieces
and hidden in the salting tub by the godless inn-
keeper. The third window also has a figure of
St Nicolas. He was Bishop of Myra in Lycia in
the fourth century, and he became the most popular
saint in the Middle Ages. He was regarded as the
protector of the weak, especially children, who have
now altered his name to Santa Claus, and eagerly
expect his gifts at Christmas-tide. It was on St
Nicolas’ day, December 6th, that the children used
to elect the boy bishop. St Nicolas was also the
patron saint of sailors, merchants, craftsmen, and
poor scholars, who were called Clerks of St Nicolas,
and it was considered meritorious to relieve their
necessities. But the poor scholars seem to have
degenerated into sturdy beggars and highway
robbers, to whom Shakespeare gives the name of
“Saint Nicholas’ clerks” in “Henry IV.,” Part I.
At Chartres St Nicolas was the patron saint of
nearly all the trade guilds. The second window in
this chapel has the history of St Remi, Archbishop
of Reims. The fourth has the story of St Margaret
and St Catherine and three donors. The fifth is the
interesting window of St Thomas of Cantorbéry
given by the Tanners (which is fully described in
the next chapter).
132 STORIED WINDOWS
Of the three windows of the next chapel (of All
Saints), the first, given by the Shoemakers, has the
history of St Martin, the next two have white glass.
There are six windows between this chapel and the
south transept; the first two are in fourteenth-
century grisaille of about 1350; on one of these is
an Annunciation. The third, of about 1220, is
remarkable for having the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, and the agricultural operations of each of
the twelve months; this window was given by the
Count of Chartres at the request of the Count of
Perche who was killed at the Battle of Lincoln in
1217. The fourth has the history of the Virgin.
The fifth is the famous window (described in the
next chapter), called Notre Dame de la belle
Verriére, z.e., Our Lady of the beautiful window.
The last window next to the south transept con-
tains the story of St Antony and of Paul the
first hermit.
In some of the windows in the ambulatory and
the choir clerestory of Chartres Cathedral there is,
especially at the edges, a good deal of reddish
purple, of the colour of a patch of heather, un-
pleasantly suggestive of modern glass. But this
seems to be due to the fact, on which Viollet-le-
Due dwells in his interesting article on “ Vitrail”
in vol. ix. of the ‘ Dictionnaire de ]’Architecture,’
that blue glass radiates a good deal of colour on to
the glass next to it, and if this happens to be red
then this heather-coloured hue is the result.
133
CHAPTER XxX.
THREE STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES CATHEDRAL.
THE three windows of Notre Dame de la belle
Verriére, St Thomas of Cantorbéry, and Charlemagne
seem to deserve examination in detail,—because of
the great interest of the unusual scenes in the two
latter, and the great fame of the first.
NOTRE DAME DE LA BELLE VERRIERE.
The window next but one to the south transept
in the ambulatory of the choir of Chartres Cathedral,
which is so well known by the name of Notre Dame
de la belle Verriére, is as beautiful as it is famous ;
in fact, it would be difficult to find any window to
rival it. The image of the Virgin in this window
was the object of great veneration in former times,
when it was customary to pray before it. Now
only a few country people do so. Viollet-le-Duc
says that the central figure of the Virgin and Child
is of the twelfth century, and that all the rest of
the window was made in the thirteenth century.
134 STORIED WINDOWS
This would imply that the central figure in the
window was saved from the fire of 1194.
The upper half of the window contains the Virgin
Mary (whose head has been restored) and the Child
Jesus surrounded by a choir of angels. The central
part of the upper half, in four of the spaces defined
by the straight saddle-bars, is occupied by a canopy
at the top, under which, below the Holy Ghost
in the form of a dove, sits a splendid Byzantine
figure of the Virgin, with a singularly old-looking
figure of Christ seated in her lap. On each side
of the canopy is a small lancet-shaped medallion
with a demi-figure of an angel. Below this in
three panels on each side of the Virgin Mother
are angels kneeling. ‘The first pair on each side
of the Virgin’s head are holding large censers, which
go across from the side panels right into the centre
panel over the Virgin’s head. The middle pair
of angels hold candlesticks, and the lower pair hold
small censers. In the three uppermost panels of
the lower half of the window are six angels, com-
pleting the encircling choir; in each side panel is a
single angel standing with a censer; in the central
panel are four standing angels, holding pillars in
their hands, which perhaps are meant for candle-
sticks. Westlake describes these as four angels
with pillars upholding the throne, but neither the
pillars nor the upholders seem large enough for this
purpose. The six middle compartments in the lower
half of the window contain an elaborate representa-
tion of the Miracle of Cana in Galilee in six scenes.
At the base, in three compartments, are scenes
3 STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES 135
of the Temptation of our Lord by Satan, who is
represented as a fiend, with ass’s ears, and a snout-
like face and cloven feet, resembling the demon in
the legend of Théophile at Grand Andely. Just
as the Virgin enthroned under a canopy connects
together the upper part of the window, so the lower
part beneath the choir of angels is united by a frame
of most unusual shape, which begins in the central
compartment below the angels, extends into the
two side panels below this, and ends in the central
compartment at the base. The whole of this
magnificent window is surrounded by a border
of beautiful design and colour. This window is
illustrated by Westlake in vol. i. p. 22.
THE STORY OF ARCHBISHOP BECKET.
The second of these storied windows, which is
that of St Thomas of Canterbury, being the fifth
window in the chapel of St Joseph in the south
ambulatory of the choir, contains events of Becket’s
real life as Archbishop of Canterbury, unlike the
Becket windows in Canterbury Cathedral, which
contain various legendary miracles wrought by
St Thomas of Canterbury after his death. It
would therefore be a help to the understanding of
the window to give a brief summary of Becket’s life
as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Becket, under the protection of Archbishop Theo-
bald, became Chancellor of Henry the Second in
1155, and seven years later he succeeded Theobald
136 STORIED WINDOWS
as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. In the fol-
lowing year Becket, as the champion of the Benefit
of Clergy which protected criminous clerks from
punishment by lay courts, quarrelled with Henry
the Second over the Constitutions of Clarendon. In
1164 Henry the Second, furious at Becket’s opposi-
tion, very meanly demanded from the Archbishop
accounts of the monies which had passed through
his hands as Chancellor, although Becket had re-
ceived a quittance in 1162. Becket, in October
1164, was sentenced to forfeit his movable goods
for refusing to acknowledge the King’s jurisdic-
tion. In November 1164, Becket, becoming alarmed
at his position, embarked at Sandwich, and went to
Soissons, where he met the French king, Louis VIL,
who took Becket under his protection, and the case
was put before Pope Alexander III. at Sens.
Becket next resided at the Cistercian Abbey at
Pontigny, till Henry the Second drove him out
from there in 1166 by threatening to expel all the
Cistercians in England. Becket then went to the
Benedictine Abbey of Sainte Colombe at Sens, which
was under the special protection of Louis VII. In
1170 Henry the Second encroached on the rights of
the Archbishop of Canterbury by ordering the Arch-
bishop of York, assisted by the Bishops of Lincoln
and Salisbury, to crown his son as his colleague.
Pope Alexander III. brought about a hollow
reconciliation in 1170, and Becket returned to
England on November 30, and excommunicated
the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury for obeying
the king’s orders. This news being carried to
3 STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES 137
Henry the Second in Normandy, produced the
outburst of rage which led to Becket’s murder in
Canterbury Cathedral, December 29th, 1170; and
Pope Alexander III. canonised him as St Thomas
of Canterbury in 1173.
Becket’s secretary, John of Salisbury, became
Bishop of Chartres in 1176, and this window was
put up within forty years of Becket’s death. Many
of the scenes in this window are identical with those
in the cathedral at Sens, where Becket lived in
exile. These are the ones numbered 4, 9, 10, 12,
19, and 20.
There are twenty-four scenes in the window of St
Thomas of Cantorbéry in the cathedral of Chartres,
starting from the base :—
1. Becket is being seized by a man with a club.
2. A group of six men, and a man with a club.
3. Becket in Archbishop’s robes, with a crozier
and a mitre, before Henry the Second
seated on a throne.
4, Becket on horseback, with Hubert behind,
before the open gate of a town.
5, 6, 7. The tanners at work, because the window
is the gift of the Guild of Tanners (47
windows in Chartres were given by trade
guilds, and most of these are in the aisles
and ambulatory).
8. Becket being consecrated as Archbishop of
Canterbury by a Bishop.
9. Becket, and Henry the Second, who is seated
and has a little demon on his shoulder.
10. Becket embarking at Sandwich for Gravelines.
138
il,
12.
13.
14,
LD
16.
ay
1G.
to:
20.
21.
22.
23.
24,
STORIED WINDOWS
Becket meeting Pope Alexander III. at Sens.
A group of men.
Becket and some men on horseback.
Becket and Louis VII., the King of France.
Becket and the King and Pope Alexander III.
Some monks and Becket sailing back to
England from Wissant.
Becket is threatened by Henry the Second.
Becket is being led by two men to Henry the
Second, who is seated.
Becket addresses a group of men.
Becket with a priest before a church.
Two Men at Arms.
Two Men at Arms.
Becket’s head is being struck with a sword by
a soldier. Edward Grim stands behind
holding a cross.
(At the top of the window). Becket is in his
tomb being censed by an angel, while the
sick on each side are praying for him to
heal them.
Westlake, vol. i. p. 108, says that from the close
resemblances of design and detail he is convinced
that the windows of Chartres and Sens were designed
and executed by the same hand as the Becket
windows in Canterbury, and that the windows or
the artists were imported into England from France.
3 STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES 139
THE STORY OF CHARLEMAGNE.
The third of these storied windows, being the
next but one to the north of the central eastern
chapel, contains scenes from the life of Charlemagne :
not, however, of the real Emperor, but of the
legendary hero of romance, whose story was so
popular in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries among the French trouvéres or romancers
in the north of France, and jongleurs or performing
minstrels,
The real Emperor Charlemagne reigned from 768
till 814. In 778 he went to Spain and took
Pampeluna, but on his return through the Pyrenees
his rear-guard was ambushed by the Basques and cut
up at Roncevaux, in the very place where the Duke
of Wellington defeated Marshal Soult in 1813.
Hinhard, who died twenty-six years after Charle-
magne, says in his ‘ Vita Karoli Magni’ that Hruod-
land, Warden of the Breton March, was killed in the
massacre at Roncevaux. This was the foundation of
many legends of astonishing inaccuracy, and perhaps
the most inaccurate of all is contained in the phrase
in Milton’s ‘ Paradise Lost,’ I., 586-87—
“When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarrabia.”
The earliest extant and most widely known collec-
tion of legends of Charlemagne and his twelve
famous Peers or Paladins was the ‘Chanson de
Roland,’ that song of Roland, the nephew of Charle-
magne, which was written about the beginning of
the eleventh century, and was sung by Taillefer at
140 STORIED WINDOWS
the battle of Hastings, according to the tradition
preserved by William of Malmesbury in the ‘Gesta
Regum,’ written about 1120; and by Wace, in the
‘Roman de Rou,’ written about 1160-74.
But the designer of this window in the cathedral
at Chartres does not appear to have derived his
story from the ‘Chanson de Roland,’ but from two
monkish chronicles, written in Latin, apparently to
authenticate certain saintly relics.
One of these is called the ‘ Historia de Vita Caroli
Magni et Rolandi,’ which was commonly known as
the Chronicle of Turpin. It professes to have been
written by Turpin, Archbishop of Reims, who was
a real contemporary of Charlemagne, and who died ~
fourteen years before him in 800. But the chronicle
of the Pseudo-Turpin, probably composed by a Monk
of Vienne, was not really written till the beginning
of the twelfth century, later than the ‘Chanson de
Roland.’ The chief aim of the Chronicle of Turpin
was to establish the genuineness of the relics of St
Jago de Campostella in Galicia, which drew so many
pilgrims even from so far off as England, for Chaucer
mentions that the Wife of Bath had been “in Galice
at Seynt Jame.”
The Chronicle of Turpin was declared to be
authentic by Pope Calixtus IJ. in 1122. This
chronicle includes the story of the three days’
fight of Roland and the giant Ferragus, who was
eighteen feet high, which is not found in the
‘Chanson de Roland,’ and, in fact, all the scenes
in this window from the seventh to the end are
derived from this chronicle.
7
3 STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES 141
The first six scenes in this window are inspired
by another monkish chronicle, written in Latin, by
a Monk who apparently belonged to the Abbey of
St Denis near Paris. This was written about 1170,
at least half a century later than the Chronicle of
Turpin, and it was called ‘A Voyage of Charle-
magne to Jerusalem,’ but it is often termed the
‘Chronique de St Denis.’
According to this chronicle Charlemagne was
entreated by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine
to reconquer the Holy Land, as he himself was not
strong enough to do so. Charlemagne assembled a
large army, and went to Constantinople, where he
was eagerly welcomed. He took Jerusalem, and
refused to receive any other reward from Constan-
tine except some Holy Relics, so Constantine gave
him the Crown of Thorns, the Holy Nails, and
a piece of the True Cross. These were atfter-
wards presented to the Abbey of St Denis near
Paris.
The Monk who wrote this Chronique de St Denis
could not foresee the curious sequel, that when St
Louis bought another set of the same relics (now in
the sacristy of Notre Dame) in the Hast, and built
the Sainte Chapelle to receive them, the Abbey of
St Denis was obliged to contest the authenticity of
these rival relics.
The window itself contains twenty-one scenes of
the legend of Charlemagne and Roland. It has a
picture at the base of a Furrier selling a robe lined
with fur, to show that the window was the gift of
the Furriers’ Guild. The first scene of the story of
142 STORIED WINDOWS
Charlemagne, starting from the foot of the window,
1s :—
1. The Emperor Constantine being warned in a
dream to summon Charlemagne to his
assistance to rescue the Holy City from
the Saracens. The word @arolus is in-
scribed in this scene close to Charle-
magne figured as a mounted knight with
shining shield by the bedside of the
Emperor. (This is described and illus-
trated in Day’s ‘ Windows,’ 1st edition,
p. 127, as “the dream of Charlemagne.”)
2. Charlemagne deliberates with two Bishops.
8. Charlemagne is received at the gates of
Constantinople.
4. Fight of Charlemagne with the Saracens.
5. The Emperor gives Charlemagne three
caskets or reliquaries. (Evidently these
are supposed to contain the Crown of
Thorns and the Holy Nails, and the
piece of the True Cross.)
6. Charlemagne offers these reliquaries to the
Abbey of St Denis at Paris (where, accord-
ing to the Chronicle of Turpin, Charlemagne
convoked an assembly, and had a vision of
St Denis shortly before his death).
7. Charlemagne deliberates with two persons
about going to Galicia to deliver the
tomb of St James at Campostella from
the hands of the Saracens.
8. Charlemagne sets out with Turpin, the Arch-
bishop of Reims.
3 STORIED WINDOWS IN CHARTRES 1438
a.
LO;
te.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
mal
St James of Campostella appears to Charle-
magne in a dream.
Charlemagne prays to God in presence of the
army.
Charlemagne pursues a Saracen king.
Charlemagne builds a church to St James of
Campostella.
Charlemagne prepares for a second fight with
the Saracens.
Charlemagne fights and overthrows the
Saracen King.
Archbishop Turpin celebrates Mass before
Charlemagne. (In the Chronicle of Turpin
this is a mass for the dead including
Roland, who were slain at Roncevaux.)
Roland slays the Syrian giant, Ferragus, in
the third day’s combat.
Charlemagne crosses the Pyrenees.
Roland cleaves the rock with his sword
Durandal, while trying to destroy it lest
it should fall into the hands of the Saracens
after his death; and he sounds the horn
Oliphant to summon his uncle Charle-
magne.
The dying Roland drinks from Thierry’s
helmet.
Thierry reports the death of Roland.
At the top of the window is the first day’s
combat of Roland with the giant Ferragus ;
on each side is an angel.
In the great folio of Lassus are illustrations of the
windows of Charlemagne and Notre Dame de la
144 STORIED WINDOWS
belle Verriére; also of the three twelfth-century
windows in the west wall, and of St Anne and the
Prodigal Son in the north transept, and of the
Virgin Mother and Prophets, with Evangelists, and
the grisaille of Tyerri in the south transept, and of
the windows of St James, St Eustache, and St
George.
To appreciate thoroughly the glass in the
cathedral of Chartres, it is necessary to visit it
at different times in the day, because the east
end and the south side look best in the morning
light, while in the evening the sun makes the
yellow pot-metal on the north side look like shining
gold.
Those who have never seen Chartres are recom-
mended to go there as soon as possible and visit
the Cathedral in the sunshine, and then they will
probably wonder that they have never been there
before.
Z
lie
VENDOME.
LA TRINITE,
FLAMBOYANT WEST FRONT.
145
CHAPTER XXI.
GLASS-HUNTING IN THE WESTERN CENTRE OF FRANCE,
BEGINNING WITH VENDOME.
SoutH of Chartres and Le Mans, in the middle of
Western France, there are most interesting and
important glass centres in Touraine, Anjou, Poitou,
and Berry, in the towns of Tours, Angers, Poitiers,
and Bourges.
One route from Paris to Tours passes through
Vendéme, a hundred and twelve miles from Paris,
where the Abbey church of La Trinité contains
some remarkable windows. The choir dates from
the thirteenth century, having been built to replace
an eleventh-century church, of which only the fine
tower remains. The nave is built in Flamboyant
style, and the west front is an excellent instance of
the finest Flamboyant Architecture.
There is ancient glass in thirty-nine windows of
this church. On the north side of the nave are
four windows, in the Flamboyant tracery of which
are many interesting little figures of the transitional
period of about 1500. Hast of these is an early
K
146 STORIED WINDOWS
Renaissance picture with the cusped canopy of the
transitional period. Close to the north transept is
a Renaissance window, much restored, of the Im-
maculate Conception, where the Virgin appears
on a ruby ground with fifteen emblems. On the
south side of the nave are six windows, in the
centre of each of which is a small Renaissance
figure.
In the north transept is a grisaille window with
a seventeenth-century panel.
Hast of the north transept is the chapel of St
Martin with three windows of late fifteenth century,
of bright colour, but a good deal restored. In each
of these three windows are large figures on pedestals
with coloured canopies. In the first is a Sainte
with a book, St Denis holding his severed head, and
a Bishop. In the centre window is St Martin be-
tween a Sainte and a female figure with a cross.
On the right is a modern Virgin and Child between
two Saints, one of whom has a chalice and the other
a crown.
In the next chapel on the north side of the
choir are three Renaissance windows, which were
greatly damaged by an explosion in 1871, but are
now restored with nearly half new glass. The
central picture represents Mary Magdalene wiping
Jesus’ feet with her golden hair, amid indignant
feasters at Simon’s house. In the window on the
right Christ is addressing a crowd, in which stands
a man with the face of Francois Premier, while
conspicuous in the middle is a woman looking like
Diane de Poitiers.
VENDOME—LA TRINITE 147
The two windows at the entrance of the Lady
Chapel have in the centre a horizontal band of
Renaissance pictures. In the one on the north are
Adam and Eve, Noah in the Ark, Abraham sacri-
ficing Isaac, Moses showing the tables of the law.
East of this is an Annunciation of early seventeenth
century, much restored, which has been introduced
from elsewhere. The east windows of the Lady
Chapel are modern. In the window on the south
side of the Lady Chapel are: Jacob’s dream ; three
Saints in a pot with fire beneath, amid malignant
executioners and spectators (dated 1549); Daniel in
the lion’s den; the Coronation of the Virgin.
South of the Lady Chapel is the chapel of All
Saints, which has in the left window three figures
on pedestals with coloured canopies, of the end of
the fifteenth century. The figure on the left is
Michael the Archangel spearing a demon; in the
middle is a Palmer; and on the right is St Christo-
pher with a stout green pole. In the central window
is a Bishop and a Saint, of early Renaissance style
with cusped canopies. Between these two figures
is the famous window of Vendédme, a splendid
twelfth-century picture of Byzantine type, by an
artist of the school of St Denis, representing the
Virgin with the Child Jesus in her lap. She wears
a blue dress, and is framed in a long, narrow,
almond-shaped Vesica, sharply pointed at top and
bottom, of brownish yellow pot-metal. This is the
earliest known instance of an aureole shaped like
a Vesica Piscis (fish’s bladder). This magnificent
picture was saved from the earlier church of the
148 STORIED WINDOWS
eleventh century. It is illustrated by Westlake
in vol. i. p. 34. In the next window are seven
Deacons with St Stephen (new head) in the
centre.
In the chapel of St Peter, which is the second
chapel on the south, in two of the windows are
three figures of late fifteenth century. On the left
is St Peter in a tiara with a key, St John with
a lamb, and St James with a sword. On the right
is a mitred St Blaise, nude and bound, with rakes
at his feet, a modern figure of the Virgin, and St
Sebastian. Between these two windows is a re-
markably vigorous Renaissance picture of Christ on
land calling Peter, Andrew, John, and James to
leave their boats and follow Him; from His mouth
issue the words, VENITE Post ME; at the base is
a band of modern flowers.
In the clerestory of the Choir of La Trinité at
Vendédme are five windows of modern grisaille,
three of which have a lovely coloured band of
ancient figures across the centre. Four out of the
five are of the beginning of the fourteenth century,
but the central east window contains a celebrated
panel of the end of the twelfth century; in the
centre of this panel is a Vesica-shaped aureole
framing the Holy Trinity of God the Father, the
Crucified Christ, and the Holy Dove; around this
are four half medallions with the winged creatures
of the four Evangelists. In the two windows on
the north side the figures at present do not form
a central band, but are at the base; but these
windows will soon be rearranged with the figures
VENDOME—LA TRINITE 149
in the centre. Above the figures on the right is
a large Renaissance picture which has no connection
with the fourteenth-century figures below it.
In the central east window of the triforium of the
Choir is a Renaissance Virgin and Child between
two figures.
The church of La Trinité is classed as a Monu-
ment Historique. Consequently the windows have
been sent to the Beaux-Arts in Paris for restoration.
It is said that some of this glass has been retained,
lost, or stolen, and not returned, just as in the case
of the centre of the window on the south side at St
Julien du Sault (p. 233). It is certainly much to be
desired that classed churches should in every case
photograph their glass before it leaves the church
for restoration, as was done at St Urbain in Troyes
with a most satisfactory result.
150
CHAPTER XXII.
TOURS CATHEDRAL.
Forty-two miles from Venddme is Tours, where
the cathedral of St Gatien contains nine medallion
windows of the thirteenth century, in the three
eastern apse chapels. In the clerestory of the choir
are fifteen windows, of which thirteen are filled
with medallions instead of the large figures usual
in clerestory glass of the thirteenth century. In
the eastern triforium of the choir are five windows
of the thirteenth century filled with large figures. —
In the transepts are roses of the fourteenth century.
On the south side of the nave is one window of the
fifteenth century. In the triforium of the nave are
three windows of the fifteenth century, and at the
west end is a rose of the sixteenth century with
a window of eight lights below. So that there are
in all thirty-six windows filled with ancient coloured
glass, besides those which contain grisaille.
In the north-east chapel are three windows of the
thirteenth century containing the finest coloured
glass in the Cathedral: they come from the ancient
Church of St Martin; their subjects are the history
TOURS CATHEDRAL 151
of St Peter, St James, and St Andrew, but the
pictures are much mixed and difficult to under-
stand.
In the central Lady Chapel, in the window to the
left, north of the centre, is the History of the Virgin
and the Child Jesus, beginning with the Annuncia-
tion and ending with the Flight into Egypt. The
pictures are clear, but much of the glass is new.
The subject of the central east window of the Lady
Chapel is La Nouvelle Alliance of the Gentiles and
the Church, like that of the windows in Le Mans,
Chartres, and Bourges (pp. 109, 123, 194). The
lower half of the window is mostly new; but in one
of the lowest compartments is a picture in ancenit
glass of Cain killing Abel. In the second central
medallion is Christ bearing His Cross, and on one
side is Jonah issuing from the whale’s mouth, and
on the other is Elisha resuscitating the child of the
Shunammite woman. In the third medallion is the
Crucifixion surrounded by pictures of the Brazen
Serpent; Moses striking the rock, David and a Peli-
can, and the Lions of the tribe of Judah. In the
fourth medallion is the Resurrection, with Roman
soldiers below and angels at the two sides. In the
uppermost medallion is Christ in glory with ador-
ing Seraphim above and on both sides, while below
are two human beings rising from their tombs.
The window to the right in the Lady Chapel has
very clear pictures of the Passion, including the
Last Supper, Christ washing the Apostles’ feet,
Christ seized in the Garden, the Scourging, Christ
before Pilate, and Christ carrying the Cross. Then
152 STORIED WINDOWS
comes the very unusual appearance of two pictures
of the Crucifixion side by side; in the first is the
Soldier piercing Jesus’ side, and in the second is —
His death. Above these, is Christ’s visit to the
Spirits in prison, His Resurrection, the Maries and
the Angel at the tomb, Jesus and Mary Magdalene,
Jesus meeting His disciples, the feast at Emmaus,
the incredulity of Thomas, and Christ meeting two
men, one in a ship.
The south-east chapel, to the right of the Lady
Chapel, known as the chapel of St Martin, contains
three brilliant transitional windows of the end of
the thirteenth century with narrow borders. In
the two lateral windows are very clear pictures,
a good deal restored, which give the legend of
St Martin with a realism which is almost comie.
In the first window on the left, in the two medal-
lions at the base St Martin divides his cloak, to the
admiration of a crowned Emperor between two
men. In the next two medallions St Martin raises
a dead man. In the fifth he is tripped on the stairs
by a demon but saved by an Angel. The figure of
St Martin in this picture much resembles the well-
known portrait of the Abbot Suger, at St Denis,
which is illustrated in Westlake, vol. i. p. 27. This
forms an additional argument in favour of the
theory that the early glass in the west of France
was all done by artists of the School of St Denis.
In the sixth medallion a Bishop administers the
Holy Communion to St Martin. In the seventh
the pagan tree is being cut down, which miracu-
lously falls away from St Martin. Next he is
TOURS CATHEDRAL 153
baptismg a man (probably the tree-cutter). He
appears before a King. He is in bed with an Angel
by his side.
The central window of St Martin’s chapel was
inserted in 1812 from the desecrated church of
St Julien. It is much restored, and contains the
legend of St Julian and St Ferréol, the first Bishop
of Besancon.
The third window of the chapel of St Martin on
the south to the right continues the legend of St
Martin. In the first medallion is the crowned
Virgin and two women by the bedside of a sick
man; in the second St Martin drives a red demon
out of a possessed man’s mouth; in the third St
Martin pulls at a man’s mouth, but a foul fiend
issues behind; in the fourth and fifth he is con-
secrated by three bishops and celebrates Mass;
in the sixth are three priests at the bedside of the
dying saint; in the seventh St Martin’s body on
a bier is being carried by two men through the
window of a tower; in the eighth his body is on
a ship going to Tours; in the ninth and tenth St
Martin’s body is borne to the tomb by a crowd of
men. The seventh and eighth medallions refer to
the legend that the men of Poitou tried to keep
the body of St Martin, who died at Candes,
but the people of Tours stole the body through
the church window and took it by river to
Tours. :
Since St Martin of Tours is the most famous
Saint of France, it is not surprising that his story
should be twice told in the choir clerestory and
154 STORIED WINDOWS
in the apsidal chapel of Tours Cathedral by the
glass-workers of the thirteenth century. But the
two windows of St Martin in the chapel are half
a century later than the window in the clerestory,
having been removed from the clerestory of the
south transept.
In the choir clerestory of Tours are fifteen
windows of the thirteenth century between 1260
and 1270. Five windows on each side have four
lights, and the five eastern windows have three
lights. 3
The first window on the north side has the
legend of St Thomas in the first two lights on the
left. In the first medallion, Gundoforus, King of
India, sends Abanes to search for an architect.
In the second and third Jesus appears to St
Thomas and presents him to Abanes. In the
fourth they embark on a golden ship. In the
seventh a lion devours a cup-bearer who had
insulted St Thomas. Im the ninth and tenth
Gundoforus gives treasure to St Thomas to build
a palace, but he builds a mansion in the skies by
distributing the treasure among the poor. In the
twelfth St Thomas is martyred with a sword.
In the second two lights are pictures of the story
of St Stephen, given by Vincent de Pirmil, Arch-
bishop of Tours from 1257 to 1270, whose arms
are on two shields at the base. In the third
medallion Stephen is ordained deacon. In the
fifth and sixth he is stoned in presence of Saul
and another man, who are guarding clothes before
the seated High Priest. In the seventh and eighth
TOURS CATHEDRAL 155
St Stephen is buried before the weeping people. In
the ninth Gamaliel appears to Lucian to reveal the
secret of St Stephen’s tomb. In the eleventh and
twelfth they exhume the body of St Stephen and
transport it to Jerusalem.
The second window on the north side of the
clerestory at Tours has the legend of St Denis in the
first two lights on the left. In the two medallions
at the top, St Denis, after being decapitated, has a
fresh head on his shoulders, while he is carrying his
severed head, under the guidance of an Angel, to
Montmartre. The other two lights contain the
legend of St Vincent, probably because this window
was also given by Vincent de Pirmil. In the four
uppermost medallions St Vincent dies; his soul is
carried upwards by angels; his body is thrown into
the sea; and when washed ashore it is protected by
a raven from a wild beast.
The third window has a larger proportion of white
glass. It contains the legend of St Nicolas in
twenty-four medallions. In the four medallions‘in
the second line from the top, on the left, St Nicolas
protects his church from being burnt by the demon’s
oil by commanding the pilgrims to throw the flask
into the sea. On the right the innkeeper murders
three young men, and St Nicolas resuscitates them
from the salting tub.
The fourth window is of great beauty and
interest. At the base are donors ploughing, for
it was given by the Ploughmen. The window
contains scenes from the book of Genesis. In the
second row at the base, starting from the left, are:
156 STORIED WINDOWS
the Creation of the Sun; Creation of Eve; God’s
warning to Adam and Eve; and the taking of the
forbidden fruit. In the third row they appear with
fig-leaves and God rebukes them ; the Angel drives
them out of Paradise; God gives them skins:
‘Adam delved and Eve span.” In the next eight
medallions is the story of Cain and Abel; and in
the four at the top are the scenes of violence which
led to the Deluge.
The fifth window on each side of the choir
clerestory contains figures instead of medallions.
On the north side is the window of the Bishops.
It contains eight Bishops of Tours, two in each of
the four lights, separated by bands of grisaille, with
grounds of alternate ruby and sapphire of fine
colour. Each light has a border of Golden Castles
on red. Six of the heads seem to have been
restored.
The sixth window is of three lights with clear
pictures which are not overcrowded. It is inscribed
on the base at the left, Jacoh Eyer. Manet, being
given by Jacques de Guérande, who was Bishop of
Nantes from 1260 to 1270. The subject is the
history of St Peter. The two lower roses contain
the Annunciation, and in the topmost rose is the
Visitation.
The seventh window contains uninteresting pic-
tures of the dull legend of St Maurice in very fine
glass.
The eighth (central East) window of the clerestory
in the choir of Tours has bright clear pictures of the
Passion. In the left-hand medallion at the base is the
TOURS CATHEDRAL 157
donor; in the other two medallions Christ is enter-
ing Jerusalem while spectators climb trees. In the
second row is a single picture of the Last Supper,
which anticipates the style of later times by ignor-
ing the mullions. In the third row are: the Kiss
of Judas; the Scourging; the carrying the Cross.
In the fourth row is a single picture of the Cruci-
fixion. In the fifth row is the entombment; the
visit to the Spirits in prison; the Spirits delivered
from the flaming mouth of the Monster. In the
sixth row is the Angel at the Tomb; the Holy
Women; Mary Magdalene and Christ. In the
roses are the glorified Christ at the top, and St
Maurice and St Gatien in the two below.
The ninth window, south of the central east, con-
tains a magnificent Jesse tree with pictures which
can be clearly seen with a field-glass. In the lowest
row are the donor and his wife, with a furrier’s shop
between them. Above this, in five central medal-
lions, are Jesse, David, Solomon, the Virgin, and
Jesus, with three doves above His head. In the
side medallions, instead of the usual Prophets, are
scenes from the New Testament. On each side of
Jesse are the Annunciation and the Visitation.
Above these on the left are the Shepherds, and
on the right is avery curious picture of Mary and
Joseph and the Swaddled Child, who is being kept
warm by the heads of an Ox and an Ass. At
Thornhill, in Yorkshire, is a Nativity of late fif-
teenth century, with the heads of an Ox and an Ass.
In the fourth row are: Herod and the Magi; the
Magi riding off. Above these are: the offerings of
ROS Oo STORIED WINDOWS
the Magi; the Presentation. In the top row are
the Massacre of the Innocents; the Flight into
Egypt. Day, in ‘Windows,’ Ist edition, p. 361,
says that it is difficult to make out these scenes
with any certainty. But they are fairly clear when
patiently examined with a field-glass.
The tenth window is inscribed Qlb. Gor. fat.,
being given by Albinus, Abbot of Cormery-en-
Touraine, who is presenting his window in the
right-hand medallion at the base. The subject
is the story of St Martin or Tours. In the first
row on the left is the young Martin; who in the
central picture divides his cloak with the beggar.
In the second row Jesus thanks the sleeping
Martin; who is baptised; and the bestial demons
flee. In the third row Martin is visited by an
Angel; he is consecrated Bishop; and attacked by
robbers. In the fourth row St Martin raises the
dead; causes the pagans’ idolatrous tree to be cut
down and fall in the opposite direction; drives
a demon out of a possessed man. In the fifth row
he celebrates Mass; he is tripped by a demon on
the stairs and saved by an Angel; he has a vision
of three Saintly Virgins. In the top row St
Martin dies; his body is taken from Candes
through a window, and transported to Tours in
a boat.
The eleventh window is the first of four lights
on the South side of the choir clerestory of Tours.
It corresponds to the window of the Bishops, and
contains the YPresbiteri Lochenses, or Priests of
Loches; in the lower medallion on the right is
TOURS CATHEDRAL 159
the town of Loches, with two royal standards of
France at the top, showing that the window is
posterior to 1259, when Henry III. ceded Touraine
to St Louis.. In the upper left-hand medallion is
the Virgin and Child. In the Rose is Christ
showing His five wounds. In this window all the
heads with one exception seem to be original.
The twelfth is a window of rich colour with the
dull legend of St Martial.
The thirteenth is a beautiful window with the
story of St James.
The fourteenth contains the history of St John
the Evangelist ; but the first five medallions at the
base and four others contain scenes of the life of
St John the Baptist.
The last window on the south side of the clere-
story contains the legend of St Eustache. In the
first two medallions at the base he is hunting a
stag; in the third and fourth he is gazing in
amazement at the head of Christ, which appears
between the horns of the stag, instead of the
crucifix which is usual in pictures of the conversion
of St Eustache—as, for instance, in the window in
St Patrice at Rouen described on p. 74.
The triforium of the choir has five windows of
three lights each at the east end, with single figures
of the thirteenth century; in the middle is the
Virgin between two Angels with six Apostles on
each side.
The western Rose is not circular, but approaches
a lozenge shape. It is glazed with a sixteenth-cen-
tury picture of the Lamb in a golden-rayed aureole,
160 STORIED WINDOWS
surrounded by adoring worshippers. In the window
below are eight saints under large canopies, of the
end of the fifteenth century, of whom the first is St
Laurence, with his grill; and the second is St Denis,
with his severed head; and the others are St John,
the Virgin, the Baptist, St Martin, St Martial, St
Nicolas. Below these are eight more lights with
very fine portraits of donors of the family of Lavat-
Montmorency, who are being introduced by their
patron saints (see illustration).
The lovely north Rose belongs to the early part
of the fourteenth century. In the centre an endless
Knot symbolises the Deity. There are three circles
of medallions in the delicate stonework filled with
Angels, Elders, Kings, Pontiffs, Patriarchs, Prophets,
Apostles, Martyrs, and Virgins. Unfortunately, it
has been found needful to support it with a tall
stone column which goes right up the centre.
Below the north rose are twelve lights filled, as
the canopies show, from five different windows.
The first two lights on right and left contain small
figures. The next four have full-sized figures of St
Louis in a blue robe, with flewrs-de-lis ; St Michael,
St Gatien, and a crowned Virgin and Child. These
are of latest fifteenth century, removed from the
nave. The next four pictures are a second Virgin
and Child; a Saint presenting to her a kneeling
Bishop; a mitred Saint presenting two kneeling
figures; and five kneeling figures; these four are
evidently from a different window, as they have
much more white, and all have the same canopy,
TOURS CATHEDRAL.
Donors OF LAVAL-MONTMORENCY FAMILY
BASE OF WEST WINDOW.
END OF XVTH CENTURY.
WITH PATRON SAINTS.
a
i Pe ttl
ey
TOURS CATHEDRAL 161
which differs from the four other pairs of canopies.
The figures all deserve careful examination. There
are eight princes and princesses of that family of
Bourson- VENDOME which gave the Chapelle
Vendédme in Chartres Cathedral.
The south Rose, like the west, is not a true
circle, but approaches the lozenge shape. It is
filled with fragments of very beautiful glass of the
fourteenth century. But, with the same stupidity
as at Alencon, it is obscured by ugly organ tops,
and a whole window behind the organ has been
blocked with stone.
The third window with tall canopies, on the
south side of the nave starting from the west,
is of the fifteenth century. In the four lights are
shields supported by two donors, man and wife ;
the two outer shields are of Clermont de Nesle,
and the two inside of Saint Julien de Tours.
In the triforium of the nave is grisaille, with
the exception of two windows on the north and
one on the south, which contain glass of late
fifteenth century.
Day, in ‘ Windows,’ Ist edition, p. 390, says:
“The clerestory of the choir at Tours is most com-
pletely furnished with rich Early Decorated Glass
of Transitional character, interesting on that
account, and at the same time most beautiful
to see.” This statement does not seem accurate of
the clerestory windows of the choir, because they
are not later than 1270. But the two windows of
St Martin in the apsidal chapel may be regarded as
L
vi
are probably a few years later than 13(
therefore they belong to the beginning ~
the very end of the thirteenth century, ai
163
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAMPIGNY-SUR-VEUDE.
On the way from Tours to Angers it is worth while
to turn aside to the great ruined castle of Chinon so
as to visit the glass at Champigny-sur-Veude, which
is nine miles from Chinon. The Sainte Chapelle
stands in a beautiful park belonging to the Chateau,
which is more modern than the Chapel because Car-
dinal de Richelieu used the stone of the old Chateau
as building materials for his Chateau at Richelieu
four miles off. The whole chapel is bright and light
and gives a most pleasing impression, because it
is completely glazed with Renaissance glass all of
one period with much white but plenty of bright
colour. A careful examination of the outside
shows that most of the glass is original, with com-
paratively little restoration except in the Hast and
North-east windows, which contain much new glass,
the Crucifixion at the East being almost entirely
modern. The perfect Renaissance building seems
to have escaped the ravages of the Revolution.
There are twelve windows, four on each side, three
at the east end, and one at the west.
164 STORIED WINDOWS
The windows are in three parts. In the tracery
are scenes of the Life of Christ; in the centre is the
life of St Louis; and at the base are portraits of
donors of great historic interest. The inscriptions
in the windows are quite clear.
In the first window on the north in the tracery
is Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane; in the
centre is the coronation of St Louis, inscribed—
“‘Coment le roi sainct Loys en laage de treize
Ans fut sacré en léglise de Reins par levesque
De Soissons, le siége archiépiscopal de Reins vacant.
Presens les Pers et Princes de France.”
“ How the king saint Louis at the age of thirteen years was
crowned in the church of Reims by the bishop of Soissons,
the archbishop’s chair at Reims being vacant, present the
Peers and Princes of France.”
At the base are portraits of Louis Cardinal de
Bourbon and of Claude Cardinal de Givri, Evesque
et Duc de Langre, Per de France Qui a donné les
vitres de cestes Chapelle—.e., “Claude, Cardinal de
Givry, Bishop and Duke of Langres, Peer of France,
who gave the windows of this chapel.”
At the base of each of the other seven windows
on the north and south sides are four beautifully
clear portraits. The second window, which is the
finest in the chapel, has the Kiss of Judas; Blanche
of Castille entrusting the education of her son St
Louis to the authorities, spiritual and temporal ;
and portraits of Suzanne de Bourbon, Charles duc
de Bourbon, Claire de Gonzague, and Gilbert de
Bourbon.
In the third window is Christ before Pilate; the
CHAMPIGNY-SUR-VEUDE 165
transfer of the Relics to the Sainte Chapelle in
Paris; portraits of Gabrielle de la Tour, Louis de
Bourbon, Marie de Berry, and Jean duc de Bourbon.
In the fourth window is the Scourging of Jesus;
St Louis receiving a whipping as discipline, eating
the remnants of the food of the poor, and washing
their feet; portraits of Anne Comtesse de Forest,
Louis de Bourbon, Isabeau de Valois, and Pierre
de Bourbon.
There are only two portraits in each of the
three windows at the east. In the north-east
window is Christ carrying the Cross; St Louis
vowing the Crusade; portraits of Louis duc de
Bourbon and Marie de Hainault. And the in-
scription @y apres est la genealogic ve la maison
de Bourbon et de fMontpensier.
In the central east window there is no scene of
the life of St Louis. In the tracery is the Creation,
in the centre the Crucifixion, at the base St Louis
and Queen Marguerite.
In the south-east window is the Resurrection ;
the embarkation at Aigues Mortes; portraits of
Robert de France, Comte de Clermont, and of
Beatrix de Bourgogne, and the inscription €y
apres est la genealogie de la maison De Dendosme
et de Laroche sur Won.
The noble dames on the north side have homely
faces very much alike. Those on the east and south
are better looking, with more distinctive character ;
but the scenes of the life of St Louis on the south
are less vivid than the others.
In the first window on the south is Jesus appear-
166 STORIED WINDOWS
ing to Mary Magdalene; the capture of Damietta ;
portraits of Jacques de Bourbon, Jeanne de Saint
Pol, Jean de Bourbon, and Catherine Comtesse de
Vendosme.
In the second window on the south is Christ at
Emmaus; the battle of Massourah: portraits of
Louis de Bourbon and his wife Jeanne de Laval,
Jean II. de Bourbon, Isabeau de Bourbon.
In the third window on the south is the Ascen-
sion; the return of St Louis from the Crusade;
portraits of Louis de Bourbon, Louise de Bourbon,
Louis de Bourbon the first Duke of Montpensier,
and his wife Jacqueline de Longwy.
In the last window on the south is the descent
of the Holy Ghost; the death of St Louis before
Tunis; portraits of Francois de Bourbon, Renée
d’Anjou, Henri de Bourbon, and Catherine, Duchesse
de Joyeuse.
At the west end is a round window with Charle-
magne between St John and St James.
167
CHAPTER XXIV.
ANGERS.
From Chinon through Port Boulet to Angers is
fifty-five miles. The cathedral of St Maurice at
Angers is a spacious cruciform basilica, with no
aisles but very large wide transepts.
Unhappily the view of the Choir is cut off by a
huge unwieldy altar, fifty-six feet high, of the
eighteenth century, which is entirely out of
harmony with a Romanesque church. It was
erected in 1757, and under the second Empire it
was proposed to remove it to the Panthéon in
Paris, but unluckily this was not done, and it still
disfioures the church and obstructs the view of the
glass. The Nave of St Maurice is an instance of
the stupid ignorance of the Philistine Chapters in
the middle of the eighteenth century, who de-
stroyed ancient glass and replaced it with white
glass to let in light, as was done with such fatal
effect at Reims and in Notre Dame. But fortu-
nately in St Maurice enough remains to give a most
satisfactory impression of old glass in every part of
the church; for there are ten windows in the nave,
168 STORIED WINDOWS
five in each transept, and sixteen in the choir which
contain ancient glass, making in all thirty-six old
windows.
The nave of Angers Cathedral is justly celebrated
for its splendid glass of the twelfth century, which
ranks with that of Chartres, Le Mans, Reims, St
Denis, Chalons, Vendéme, and Poitiers.
The first window on the north side of the nave is
mostly filled with white glass of 1745, but in this
an oblong panel is set which has a border of old
grisaille framing a picture of the Virgin and Child
of the end of the twelfth century. This picture was
removed from the choir in 1832.
The second window has a very broad border of
the twelfth century, but the rest is filled with white
glass of 1745.
The third is a glorious window of the twelfth cen-
tury containing the history of St Catherine in six
clear scenes, with a beautiful background, of the
light translucent celestial blue peculiar to the
twelfth century, and a very broad border rendered
brilliant by the amount of interlaced white.
The first medallion is inscribed Wientes gitagE
(depu reversed) =sapientes depugnat, ‘She confounds
the wise” ; in it St Catherine disputes with the doc-
tors in the presence of the Emperor Maxentius.
In the right half of the second medallion
Maxentius condemns St Catherine; in the left
half the hand of God points to St Catherine, and
fire from heaven destroys the razored wheel and
overthrows the executioners.
In the third Christ visits St Catherine in prison.
ANGERS. 169
In the fourth St Catherine is scourged by two men
in the presence of Maxentius. In the left half of
the fifth Catherine is seated with hands bound be-
fore two executioners with swords.
In the right half @aterina is beheaded. In the
sixth angels bury her body, and one holds up her
head.
The fourth window, also of the twelfth century,
contains the Death and Burial of the Virgin. In
the first medallion is her death in the presence of
the Apostles. In the second is the funeral in which
the body is carried by the Apostles, and the scene is
extended into the border by two half medallions.
The third represents :the Apostles miraculously
transported on Clouds to the dying Virgin. This
should be placed first. In the fourth (also mis-
placed) Jesus blesses His Mother’s corpse. In the
fifth is the Assumption of the Virgin between two
Apostles and two Angels: probably this is the
earliest known picture of the Assumption; it is,
however, twice represented in the thirteenth-century
windows at Chartres. Unluckily much of the picture
is hidden by an upright stanchion. In the sixth
the Crowned Virgin is enthroned beside her Son.
Hach of the medallions in these windows is bordered
by a simple band of ruby between two rows of
white pearls, like the Rivenhall medallions (p. 23).
The fifth window in the north side of the nave
(also of twelfth century) has a richly coloured
broad border with much interlaced white. It has
very brilliant pictures of the legend of St Vincent.
In the left half of the first medallion the Emperor
170 STORIED WINDOWS
Dacian has the body of St Vincent thrown into the
sea; on the right a raven protects the corpse from
wild beasts. At the base are two archers, probably
because the window was given by the archers to
their patron St Vincent. In the second medallion
Christ receives the soul of St Vincent. In the
third two angels visit St Vincent in prison. In the
fourth St Vincent is on a grill before the Emperor,
while two men stir the flames. The third and
fourth are connected by two half medallions ex-
tending into the border, in which are two men
watching the torture. In the fifth St Vincent is
bound to a frame between four executioners with
hooks which resemble scourges. In the sixth the
Emperor Wacianbs condemns St Vincent. The
medallions should be rearranged so as to give a
consecutive story. These three beautiful windows
are among the best of the twelfth century.
The last window on the north side of the nave,
next to the north transept, contains a pattern of
poor modern glass of 1833.
On the south side of the nave the seventh
window, next to the south transept, contains
modern glass, like that in the sixth window
opposite to it. The eighth window is inserted
from the Chateau du Verger in place of the twelfth-
century window which the senseless Chapter de-
stroyed in 1765. It is a Renaissance window of
the sixteenth century, but was restored in 1818.
The uppermost scene is the Crucifixion, beneath
which is a view of Rome with the dome of St
Peter’s. Below this is the Castle of St Angelo
PE EDs
ANGERS 171
with St Michael and St Gregory the Pope. At
the base are patron saints and the family of Pierre
de Rohan, the owner of the Chateau du Verger (who
is depicted as singing in the wonderful tapestry
picture in the Museum at the Evéché, which came
from the Chateau du Verger).
The ninth window has most of the twelfth-cen-
tury border, and several pictures of the twelfth
century filled up with thirteenth-century glass
from the Choir, so that, though the glass is very
beautiful, it is impossible to decipher the pictures.
The tenth window also has a twelfth-century
border, and is filled with equally beautiful glass of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; but it con-
tains such a mixture that it cannot be deciphered.
The eleventh window has a border of the twelfth
century, but the rest is filled with white glass.
The last window on the south-west of the nave
of Angers has a fine full-length Renaissance figure
in the centre of the leader of the Theban legion,
St Mavrittivs, in armour holding a lance. In the
border round the figure are several small heads.
The twelfth-century medallions of the nave are
interspaced with a conventional floral ornament
unlike the usual plaid diaper of French windows
of the thirteenth century ; and their superiority to
the pictures of the thirteenth century in clearness
of drawing and design becomes manifest when the
twelfth-century medallions of the nave are com-
pared with the thirteenth-century medallions in
the Choir. |
In the west wall of the north transept are two
172 STORIED WINDOWS
fine windows with the great canopies of the fifteenth
century. At the base of the first are St Remi and
Ste Madeleine; above them are St Christopher in
the ford, and St Hustache gazing upwards but also
standing on water, where his two children are being
carried off, one by a bear.
In the second window of the north transept are
St Gatien and St Nicolas, and above them St Sebas-
tian and St Quentin, a quaint figure in the attitude
of a clown.
On the opposite wall of the north transept are
two rather more elaborate windows with large cano-
pies of late fifteenth century. The first of these
nearest to the Rose has at the top a Crucifixion of
1499. Below this are two Renaissance pictures;
the central one is rather confused, but it has on
the right St John and a portrait of Jean Michel,
Bishop of Angers, who died in 1447 and is buried
below. In the lowest picture St Paul presents the
kneeling Bishop Jean de Resly (who died in 1499)
to the Mater Dolorosa in whose lap is the dead
Christ. At the base is a shield with the arms of
Resly. In the last of these windows in the north
transept, in the lower part are St René, Bishop of
Angers, and St Seréné in the scarlet robe of a
Cardinal; above are St flabrice in armour with a
lance, and St flabrilbs, Bishop of Angers; at the
base are two figures supporting the arms of Jean
Michel.
The north Rose has a Last Judgment of the
fifteenth century, with Christ the Judge in the
centre, and below Him three white pictures of ris-
ANGERS 173
ing dead; there is an outer circle of medallions
depicting the works of the months. This rose has
a very pleasing flower-like effect, partly owing to
the large proportion of white.
In the south transept the first window on the
east wall has a pattern of inserted glass dated
1780. The second has ten oval medallions of early
fourteenth-century glass, with a border of the same
period on each side of the window.
The great Rose of the south transept is thirty-
three feet in diameter. The glass belongs to the
fifteenth century. In the centre is the Eternal
Father in majesty. In the upper half-circle of
medallions are the signs of the Zodiac; in the
lower half are twelve Elders crowned, each holding
a bottle and a lute. In the outer circle of medal-
lions are angels. The whole rose is very bright and
harmonious in colour; between each of the spokes
is a charming conventional flower-like ornament,
except in the lowest central division where there is
a crowned Virgin.
The window to the west of the south Rose has
ten oval medallions of earliest fourteenth century,
of fine blue colour, but so mixed as to be difficult
to decipher.
The last window in the south transept of Angers
Cathedral, nearest to the nave, has a coloured pat-
tern of old glass similar to that in the window
opposite to it.
In the choir of Angers are sixteen windows, of
which fourteen contain glass of the thirteenth cen-
tury and two of the sixteenth. All the medallions
174 STORIED WINDOWS
are bordered with a band of ruby between white
pearls, but the Jesse window has vesicas of simple
white.
The first window on the north side of the choir
is remarkably beautiful, with blue predominating ;
it consists of seven medallions with the life of St
Peter.
In the first medallion is St Peter, with Nero and
Simon Magus and some demons.
In the second St Peter is thrown into prison by
Herod Agrippa.
In the third an Angel rescues St Peter from
prison.
In the fourth Jesus calls Peter.
In the fifth St Peter is before Nero.
In the sixth St Peter is crucified head down-
wards.
In the seventh is an Angel.
In the second window of the choir red predom-
inates; the second medallion from the base has
been replaced with white glass. This beautiful
window contains the legend of St Gli.
In the third window on the north, where the
apse begins, is a huge figure of St Christopher of
the sixteenth century from the Chateau du Verger.
Below this are four busts of St Peter, St Andrew,
and two other Apostles from the same place. The
fourth window contains the martyrdom of St
Laurence.
In the fifth is a fine Jesse tree of the thirteenth
century, of which the border at the sides is formed
of prophets, including Moses, Aaron, and Balaam.
ANGERS 175
The sixth and seventh windows are composed of
half medallions containing the life of St Julian,
the Bishop of Le Mans. At the base of the seventh
window is the kneeling donor, Bishop Guillaume de
Beaumont (who died in 1240), and a shield of his
arms.
The eighth and ninth windows of the choir are
in the centre of the East end. They contain the
Life of Jesus Christ, without any border. All these
eight windows of the thirteenth century are most
beautiful, although not easy to decipher.
The tenth and eleventh windows, south of the
east, contain the life of St Martin, but they have a
very new appearance, having been renewed almost
out of existence in 1857. These windows have no
border, and have probably been inserted from else-
where.
The twelfth and thirteenth likewise have no
border, and also contain the life of St Martin. In
each of these windows is one circular medallion
among diamonds and hexagons, showing that they
are each made up from more than one window.
The fourteenth is a window of the latter half of
the sixteenth century from the Chateau du Verger.
It has in the upper half a large figure of St Peter;
below this are busts of St John the Evangelist, St
James the Less, St Thomas, and St James. At the
base is a monk with a lantern and staff, and St
Mathias with a Bishop’s mitre.
The fifteenth and sixteenth windows have the
spaces between the medallions filled with floriation
instead of the monotonous plaid diaper of the rest.
176 STORIED WINDOWS
The fifteenth window contains some ancient glass
of beautiful colour, but there is also much new
glass which does not harmonise well with the old.
The subject is the story of St Thomas of Cantor-
béry. The fourth, fifth, and sixth medallions from
the base are particularly fine. In the fifth Becket
is disputing with Henry the Second. In the sixth
he lies dead.
In the sixteenth window is the life of St John
the Baptist, with much new glass in the upper half.
Like all the other thirteenth-century windows in
the choir of Angers Cathedral, it is much more diffi-
cult to decipher than the twelfth-century windows
on the north side of the nave.
All round the Cathedral are ancient tapestries.
A set of sixty-three sections with scenes from the
Revelations was given by King René; one section
when sent to the Exhibition at Ghent was insured
for £8000. In the Evéché, now turned into a
Museum, are some of the finest tapestries, and all
are stored there in the winter in a magnificent
building of the twelfth century in perfect repair.
The tapestries in the Cathedral are hung too high
to be readily examined, but those in the Hvéché
are beautifully placed where they can be thoroughly
inspected at close quarters.
In the ancient church of St Serge at Angers there
are a few small windows in the choir containing
grisaille, which is assigned to the twelfth century ;
and in the clerestory of the nave are six windows,
three on each side, filled with single figures under
tall canopies of the fifteenth century.
cin
CHAPTER XXV.
POITIERS.
Nivety miles from Angers is Poitiers. The cathe-
dral of St Peter is glazed in a very unusual way ;
the lower walls are solid, but in the upper part of
the walls is a single line of windows all round the
Cathedral. There are nineteen medallion windows,
of which sixteen are in pairs. In the nave is one
pair on each side in pointed lancets; all the rest
are in round-arched Romanesque windows. In each
transept is one pair on the west wall and a second
pair on the terminal north and south walls, with-
out any roses. In the choir there is a pair on each
side, and three windows in the east wall, which is
straight without any apse shape, as at Laon and
Moulins. Besides these medallion windows, there
are two old grisaille windows in the nave, and in
a window on the south side of the choir have been
inserted four fifteenth-century figures of St Andrew
with a cross of gold, St Antony with a crutch, St
John the Evangelist without a beard, and St John
the Baptist with a flag.
M
178 STORIED WINDOWS
From twelve of the windows the thirteenth-cen-
tury medallions at the base have been removed, and
the space has been filled with very trying white
glass, which makes the windows look as if they
had holes in them. It is much to be desired that
the Beaux-Arts should replace this terrible white
glass with some simple old coloured glass. Surely
if they cannot do anything else, they might find
some ancient white glass with plenty of greenish
tint init. In all the medallion windows at Poitiers
the story begins at the top.
The two medallion windows on the north side of
the nave contain the story of Joshua, whose antag-
onists are clad in the costume of medieval knights
with chain-mail. The first of these two windows
has scenes from Joshua, chapters x. and XI.
At the top in the centre is King Adonizedek
on the wall of Jerusalem; in the next row are
Adonizedek with a golden crown and three other
crowned Kings, with Knights charging on each
side. In the third row is a prisoner with bound
hands, a fight round Adonizedek, and a town on
fire. In a fourth row a King is hanged, and an
executioner drives a struggling man to the gibbet,
and Joshua offers sacrifice. In the fifth row Jabin,
King of Hazor, leads a host of Knights, and there
is a single combat, and Joshua addresses the people.
In the lowest row are the Gibeonites before Joshua,
and the capture of Hazor. In the eighteenth half
medallion appears the red orb of the sun and a
crescent moon, apparently referring to Joshua's
command: “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and
POITIERS CATHEDRAL 179
thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” This window
is of a fine bright colour of the beginning of the
thirteenth century resembling the colour of the
twelfth.
The second window of Joshua in the north side
of the nave at Poitiers is hard to understand; in
the lowest central medallion is the name Abraam,
and the medallion has evidently strayed from
another window, probably the window of Lot. In
the third central medallion from the top is a sceptre
tipped with fleur-de-lis.
The subject of the first window on the west wall
of the north transept is unknown. The second in
the north transept contains the legend of St Blaise,
but it is not easy to decipher. In the sixth
medallion is St Blaise tied to a frame and combed
with an iron rake by an executioner in a yellow
robe. In the end wall of the north transept are
two windows with the history of Joseph. The
first contains the story of Joseph in Hgypt; at
the top are seven sheaves bowing to the eighth,
and the sun, moon, and stars. In the second row
is Joseph’s dream; in the third row Joseph relates
his dream to his brothers and his father; in the
fourth row Jacob sends Joseph to seek his brothers ;
in the fifth row Joseph is stripped and put into the
well. In the sixth row two Midianites bargain
with one brother while the other brothers look on.
In the lowest row the Midianite pays, and Joseph
bids farewell to his brothers, and goes off with the
Midianites.
The second window in the north transept wall
180 STORIED WINDOWS
represents Joseph’s life in Egypt; at the top Joseph
is sold by merchants to Potiphar; in the next three
compartments are Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, who
complains to Potiphar, and Joseph is sent to prison.
In the next four compartments the chief butler’s
dream is told to Joseph ; the chief baker is hanged ;
and Pharaoh sees two sheaves, each of seven ears,
and seven lean kine and seven fat kine coming
from the Nile. In the next three compartments
Pharaoh consults three greybeards, and then meets
Joseph, who examines the harvest. In the next
four Joseph visits Egypt and sells corn. In the next
three Joseph’s brethren come on camels, and meet
Joseph and his wife Asenath, and then depart on
camels with presents. In the lowest compartments
Joseph receives Benjamin and two brothers, and
reveals himself, and despatches two camels with
presents to Jacob.
One of the two windows on the north side of
the choir contains the story of Lot. At the top
are three angels talking to Lot and his wife. In
the second row the Angel and Lot are attacked by
the people of Sodom on the left, and on the right
is Lot’s wife as a pillar and the fall of Sodom.
The next two are not obvious. In the fourth row
on the left Lot receives wine from his daughters,
and on the right he embraces one daughter while
the other looks on. In the two lowest medallions
Abraham receives Sarah by order of Abimelech, and
the crowned Abimelech gives a command to his
servant.
The subject of the other window on the north
POITIERS CATHEDRAL 181
side of the choir is Abraham. At the top on the
left Sarah is in bed and little Isaac is being washed ;
on the right Abraham expels Hagar and Ishmael.
In the second row on the left is Abraham with
knife and torch and Isaac on an ass; on the right
is Abraham and an Angel and Isaac ready for
sacrifice. Below this the border is cut by a great
circle divided into four quadrants. In the first
quadrant the aged Abraham in bed makes his
servant swear to find a wife for Isaac, and in the
second quadrant the servant departs on an ass;
in the third quadrant Rebekah gives water to the
servants ass, and in the fourth the servant is
outside Laban’s town. In the lowest medallion
on the left Rebekah leads the servant into her
father’s house; on the right the servant offers
presents to Laban and Bethuel at table, and
Rebekah looks on.
The three transitional windows in the straight
wall at the east of Poitiers Cathedral are of the
end of the twelfth century, and they have the
lovely blue colour which is characteristic of that
century.
The one on the north to the left of the central
East window has undergone a great deal of altera-
tion as well as repair since it was described by
Auber in 1848 as a window of St Fabien. It
contains seven medallions with half medallions on
each side. The centre medallions are bordered by
a mosaic of small pieces of coloured glass, but the
half medallions have a simple band of red between
white pearls. In the centre at the top is a fine
182 STORIED WINDOWS
picture of a Byzantine-looking Emperor Decius
with a drawn sword seated in judgment; at the ~
two sides are soldiers rushing towards him. In
the second centre a Saint with hands bound is
before the Emperor. In the third row, on the left,
is the inscription £cibs Caesar Imypera. In the
fourth and fifth centres are new medallions inscribed
Habrentibs, In the sixth medallion is the death
of a Saint. The lowest medallion is new. The
background of the medallions is blue, but the
spaces between the medallions are filled with
green enclosing small quatrefoils. This window
is said to have been given by Maurice de Blason,
who became Bishop of Poitiers in 1198. The
border is narrower than the usual border of the
twelfth century.
The great central East window of Poitiers is 26
feet high and 10 feet wide. It disputes with
Notre Dame de la belle Verriére at Chartres the
glory of being the finest window extant. The great
proportion of white seems to bring out into pro-
minence the lovely sky-blue of the ground and the
strong ruby colour in the pictures. The blue is of
an unrivalled soft tint, translucent yet with much
depth of colour like polished agate. The other
colours, besides the prevailing blue and ruby and
white, are olive green of two shades, pot-metal
yellow and a brownish purple, and a lighter shade
of manganese. Lovers of colour would give the
palm to the Poitiers window. Unfortunately the
near view of this lovely window from the nave is
obstructed by a canopy suspended too high in the
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choir. This ought to be lowered to leave the
window clear.
At the top of the window is the Ascended Lord
in a long sharply-pointed vesica like the one at
Vendéme; the ground is blue, but the inside is
edged with very bright ruby (this scene is illus-
trated in Day’s ‘ Windows,’ Ist ed., p. 37); on each
side is an angel in a very constrained attitude.
Below this are ten Apostles gazing upwards in two
panels, one on each side of the top of the cross.
The Apostles bear a remarkable resemblance to the
Apostles in the Ascension window at Le Mans. In
the centre is the Crucifixion on a flat ruby cross
with a Byzantine-looking Christ, and inscribed
above is Jeshs Nasarents. In the panel on the
left is the Virgin and the soldier with the spear.
In the right-hand panel is St John and the soldier
with the sponge on hyssop. Below this is a quatre-
foil with a square centre, and two small panels, one
on each side of the top lobe. In these two panels
and the top lobe between them is a single picture
of an Angel on the left with a small cross in his
hand pointing out the Holy Sepulchre in the centre
(under an architectural canopy from which a lamp
is suspended) to three weary Women on the right,
who have travelled, staff in hand, with spices to
embalm the body of Jesus. In the square centre
St Peter is being crucified head downwards; two
men on ladders are nailing his feet and two below
are nailing his hands. The two side lobes form one
picture. On the left, Nero crowned and inscribed
Nero imperat, with a blue demon at his ear, is
184 STORIED WINDOWS
pointing energetically to an executioner on the
right, who is whirling a sword to behead &, }Ppaulbs
who is kneeling blindfolded with hands outstretched.
In the lowest lobe kneel the founders of the Cathe-
dral, Henry II. of England and his wife Eleanor of
Aquitaine, and between them is a figure in white
with cross on breast having upraised hands. There
is a long inscription at the sides of the lowest lobe,
of which the word lag is considered to mean the
donor, Maurice de Blason, who became Bishop of
Poitiers in 1198. The broad and beautiful border
is cut at the top by the vesica-shaped aureole, and
at the bottom by the lowest lobe.
The resemblance of the Apostles to those at Le
Mans is one of the many arguments which support
the view so ably maintained by Emil Male, in vol.
ii. of ‘L’Histoire de ]’Art,’ that all the glass of the
twelfth century in the west of France is from a
common source; so that the twelfth-century
windows of Vendéme, Angers, Poitiers, Le Mans,
and Chartres, as well as the Jesse tree at York,
were all made by artists of the School of St Denis.
The same theory was enunciated long before, in
1881, by Westlake in vol. i. p. 33 of his ‘ History
of Design in Painted Glass.’
The third window on the east wall, to the right
of the central East window, is said to contain the
history of St Peter, and the word }etrfs occurs in
many places, but it does not always seem to be in
its original place. The medallions contain pictures
which are clear and vigorous but not easy to under-
stand. The colour is beautifully bright, like the
POITIERS CATHEDRAL 185
colour of the twelfth-century windows at Angers.
The central medallion contains a woman on a bed,
and it is inscribed Gahita, &. Wetrbs. The medal-
lion above this is inscribed WPablbs. Johannes.
There is a broad plaid border of alternate discs
and diamonds. Each medallion is bordered with a
green band between two lines of white pearls. The
whole ground is a lovely blue with quatrefoils but
no plaid diaper.
The first window on the south side of the choir
contains the Childhood of Jesus. At the top
Groves orders the massacre of the Innocents.
Below this are armed men seizing the Innocents.
Below this in two half pictures an angel warns
Joseph, and Mary gives to him the Child Jesus.
Below this Mary presents the Child to the High
Priest. The next medallion is confused. Below it
is Jesus with the Doctors in the Temple.
In the second window on the south side of the
choir is the Passion of Jesus Christ in very dark
pictures. At the top Jesus is seized in the Garden.
The second picture is the Entry into Jerusalem.
In the third, the priests debate in the house of
Caiaphas, who has a green demon. In the fourth,
Jesus washes the Apostles’ feet. The fifth is
confused; and in the last is the Scourging of
Jesus.
In the end wall of the south transept are a pair
of early thirteenth-century windows, of which the
lower part is obscured by the intrusive and glaringly
incongruous frame of a picture, apparently of the
seventeenth century. The Beaux-Arts would do
186 STORIED WINDOWS
well to remove this obstruction and put the picture
in some more suitable place. The first of these
two windows contains the story of Job, but the
medallions are difficult to decipher; in the tenth
medallion is inscribed Job and at the end is aj,
which are the last two letters of the word ELIpHag.
The window to the right on the end wall of the
south transept of Poitiers Cathedral contains the
story of the Prodigal Son. In the first row at
the top the Prodigal receives money from his
father, while the elder brother looks on; at each
side are asses laden with treasures. In the second
row on the left the Prodigal departs, and in the
centre he appears in scant attire before a woman ;
to the right is a confused scene of debauchery.
In the third row the Prodigal hires himself to a
man, and guards pigs, and is seated reflecting.
In the fourth row on the left is the lonely Prodigal,
but in a misplaced central scene he is with a richly-
clad harlot, and on the right he is at his father’s
door. In the fifth row the Prodigal, in a yellow
robe, is introduced to a feast where he sits with
his father and guests; on the right is a servant
carrying food. In the centre of the sixth row the
father tries to reconcile his two sons. The three
lowest medallions seem misplaced and are not easy
to understand.
In the west wall of the south transept are a pair
of windows with unknown legends.
In the south wall of the nave the first window
has a good deal of the deep sapphire blue of the
thirteenth century, which contrasts with the oppo-
Sa ete
POITIERS CATHEDRAL 187
site window on the north wall, of the very begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, in which the lighter
and more transparent blue of the twelfth century
still appears. The window contains the story of
Moses. At the top Miriam shows her leprous hand
to Moses, while Aaron gesticulates with surprise
and fear. In the second medallion God appears
to Moses. In the third is the Ark of the Covenant.
In the fourth are Moses and Caleb. In the fifth
(which ought to be placed after the sixth) are the
Israelites and the Serpents. In the sixth Moses
in distress sees the Hand of God. In the seventh
Moses orders Korah to take a censer. In the
eighth Moses separates Aaron and Korah and gives
a censer to each.
The second window contains the story of Balaam,
but the medallions are not in their proper order.
The third and the last three belong to the history
of Moses. At the top are Balak and Balaam and
the princes and a demon. In the second medallion
are Balaam and a servant before an empty throne,
with the word %alaam inscribed backwards. In
the third is Moses’ Brazen Serpent. In the fourth
(which should come first) Balaam receives the
messengers of Balak. In the next two are more
messengers. In the seventh Balaam rides on an
Ass with a Knight and two servants (inscribed
Balaam). In the eighth God places a mitre on
the head of Aaron, who holds the rod that budded.
In the ninth Moses bids farewell to Jethro. In
the tenth God commands the kneeling Moses to
take Aaron as his helper.
188 STORIED WINDOWS
The cathedral of Poitiers contains specimen stone
windows from which it is remarkably easy to trace
four stages in the development of window tracery :
first, the Romanesque round arch; secondly, the
single pointed lancet; thirdly, the simple arch
enclosing two lights, with a tympanum above
pierced with a single plain circle; and fourthly,
the arch enclosing three or more lights, with the
tympanum pierced with foiled and cusped circles
of the later geometrical style.
Poitiers abounds in Romanesque buildings.
Among these are St Hilaire with five aisles and
a raised chancel, and Notre Dame la Grande, which
is all polychrome inside; also St Porchaire and
Montierneuf. But the only church of interest to
the glass-hunter is St Radegonde, where there is
some genuine old glass of good colour belonging
to the beginning of the fourteenth century in four
windows, two on each side on entering from the
west. The first window to the left contains the
legend of St Blaise, but it is not easy to decipher.
Next to this is a brilliant Rose with the Last
Judgment. Below this was a Life of Christ, but
this has disappeared and been replaced by medal-
lions mostly of new glass. Below the rose are
the arms of Poitou, golden towers on red, and the
old arms of France, azure with flewrs-de-lis sans
nombre. Opposite to this on the south side is a
small rose with the later shield of France, with
only three fleurs-de-lis to signify the Trinity.
Beneath this rose is a jumble of bits of old glass,
below which are ancient medallions inserted in
POITIERS—ST RADEGONDE 189
staring white glass, dated 1768. The base is filled
up with four panels of ancient glass very hard to
decipher. To the right of this on the south side
is a window with vesica-shaped medallions con-
taining the legend of St Radegonde. These
medallions also are difficult to decipher.
190
CHAPTER XXVLI.
BOURGES.
Axsout ninety miles from Poitiers is Bourges,
where the cathedral of St Etienne is second only
to the cathedral of Chartres, for it contains ninety
ancient windows. Structurally it may even claim
superiority as being unencumbered by non-structural
ornament, and therefore in spite of its enormous
space it is much easier to see it as a whole. It
has no transepts ; but practically the transepts have
been extended all round the building, for it has
five aisles, and consequently there are a double
line of arches, the inner row being higher than the
outer one. Hence there are three ranges of windows
all round the Cathedral, the lowest range in the
outer aisles of the nave and in the ambulatory of
the choir, the second range in an intermediate
lower clerestory above the arches of the outer
aisles, and the third range in the upper clerestory
above the arches of the nave and choir.
In the lowest range in the choir are twenty-two
medallion windows of the thirteenth century.
In the first window on the north is the story
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CHAPELLE DE BEAUCAIRE.—SS. GREGORY, AUGUSTINE, JEROME, AMBROSE.
SECOND HALF OF XVTH CENTURY.
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of Dives and Lazarus. The base shows the Masons
at work as donors of the window. In the first
row is the rich man and his servants: the rich
man’s house being built: God telling the rich man,
“Mac Nocte Anima Tha Tolletbyr a Te” (“im
this night shall thy soul be taken from thee”).
In the second row is: the rich man’s wife: the
servant giving water to the rich man to wash:
the servant cooking. In the third row are:
servants carrying food: the rich man feasting
with his wife: the dogs licking the sores of
Lazarus at the door. In the fourth row: the
rich man dying with his wife at his bedside: the
devil’s claw seizing the soul of the dead rich man:
an Angel receiving the soul of the dying Lazarus.
In the fifth row the rich man in hell with the
devil: the rich man tormented by demons: Angels
carrying off the soul of Lazarus. In the top row
are two Angels and Abraham between them re-
ceiving the soul of Lazarus: above Abraham is
the Hand of God.
Next to this broad window is a chapel with three
narrow lancets; in the first is the legend of Ste
Marie l’Egyptienne; the lower part is modern.
In the next is the legend of St Nicolas in five
circular medallions, of which the two lowest are
modern. In the lower half of the central circle
three young men are murdered by an innkeeper,
and resuscitated from the salting-tub by St Nicolas ;
in the upper half is a despairing father and three
sleeping daughters, whose dowry St Nicolas casts
in through a window. In the circle above this,
192 STORIED WINDOWS
in the lower half, Constantine condemns two officers
on a false accusation ; in the upper half St Nicolas
appears in a dream to Constantine and to his chief
Minister just before their execution. In the lower
half of the top circle Constantine releases the.
officers with rich presents for St Nicolas. In the
uppermost half is the boy fallen out of the ship
with the golden cup in the presence of his Father
and Mother, and St Nicolas rescues the boy, and
the parents make an offering of the gold cup.
In the third window in this chapel is the story
of Mary of Bethany, who is here supposed (as in
the ‘Golden Legend’) to be identical with Mary
Magdalene. The three lowest rows are new. In
the fourth row Jesus is at the feast in Simon’s
house in the centre, and on each side is Mary
Magdalene prostrated at his feet, wiping them
with her hair on the left, and holding the alabaster
box on the right. In the next two rows are Martha
and Mary and Jesus. In the seventh row is the
illness and death of Lazarus, and a messenger
bearing the tidings to Christ. In the eighth row
is the entombment of Lazarus. In the ninth row
Christ comes to the house of mourning, and at
the top is the raising of Lazarus.
In the second large window the remains of St
Stephen are discovered by Lucian and taken to
Rome.
The third large window contains the story of
the Good Samaritan. Unlike the others, it begins
at the top, where the traveller starts from Jerusa-
lem. In the second central medallion he is attacked
BOURGES CATHEDRAL 193
by robbers, who strip him in the third and leave
him half dead in the fourth, where he is seen by
a priest and a Levite. In the lowest central medal-
lion the good Samaritan in the upper half conducts
the traveller on his own beast to an Inn in the
lower half. At the sides are half medallions with
the story of the Fall of Man. Im the first and
second are four scenes of the Creation. In the
third (left) Adam and the innocent white Hive are
in the Garden of Eden, being warned by God. In
the fourth (right) a dingy-coloured Eve is tempted
by the Serpent and rebuked by God, who gives
to Adam and Eve authority over the beasts. In
the fifth and sixth upper halves Adam and Eve
are expelled, and the Angel guards the door of
Paradise. In the lower halves of the fifth and
sixth are a horned Moses and the burning bush,
and Moses breaking the tables of the law. In
the quarter medallions the people bring jewels to
Aaron and the golden calf is set up. At the base
Jesus is scourged and crucified.
In the second chapel are three narrow lancets
with St Denis, 8.8. Peter and Paul, and St Martin.
In the fourth large window is the story of the
Prodigal Son, given by the Tanners, who are work-
ing and selling at the base. The lower large
medallion has a centre surrounded by four
quadrants. In the first quadrant at the foot the
father remonstrates with his sons; on the left the
father gives the younger son his portion; in the
centre the elder son is ploughing with two oxen;
N
194 STORIED WINDOWS
on the right the Prodigal feasts with a harlot, who
turns him out of doors when he is ruined. At the
foot of the second large medallion the Prodigal is
gambling in a tavern. On the left a rich woman
drives the begging Prodigal from the door; in the
centre the Prodigal hires himself, and on the right
he guards sheep and goats (instead of pigs); at
the top of the medallion the father welcomes the
Prodigal and the servants bring him a robe. In
the three scenes above this the fatted calf is killed,
the Prodigal feasts with his father, and the elder
son returns. At the summit the father reconciles
the two sons. In the field are eight small medallions
with crowned kings.
The fifth large window contains La Nouvelle
Alliance, the new alliance of the Gentiles with
the Church, so elaborately discussed in the stately
folio of the Jesuit Fathers Cahier and Martin. At
the base the Butchers who gave the window are
killing and selling. In the centre of the lower
great circle is Christ carrying the Cross; in the
two lower quarters is the sacrifice of Isaac, who
carries wood shaped into the form of a cross, like
the wood upon which he is bound in the half
medallion above the Crucifixion in the east window
at Canterbury. In the upper left quarter is Elijah
and the widow of Zarephath, who also carries wood
shaped into the form of a cross; on the right is the
Paschal Lamb and the blood placed on the lintel.
In a circle in the centre of the window is the
Crucifixion, between the crowned Church Trium-
phant on the left with a chalice, and the droop-
\
BOURGES CATHEDRAL 195
ing Synagogue on the right blindfolded, with
falling crown and broken sceptre. On the left of
the circle is Moses striking the rock, and on the
right is Moses holding the tables and pointing to
a square lump of yellow with dog’s head above and
tail below, which is described as the brazen Serpent ;
but it looks more like as if he were remonstrating
about the golden calf. In the centre of the upper
large circle is Christ rising from the tomb between
one Angel with a censer and another with a torch.
In the lower quarter on the left is King David and
a Pelican, and on the right are the Lions of Judah ;
in the upper left is Elisha raising the Shunammite
woman’s son, and on the right Jonah issuing from
the whale’s mouth. In the circle at the top is
Jacob with crossed hands blessing Manasseh and
Ephraim. This is inscribed with the mysterious
words Joseph SFilieo Saac, which apparently is a
mutilated inscription which once ended with the
word Isaac. Clément gives the last three letters
wrongly as acc. This Nouvelle Alliance window
should be compared with the east window of the
Lady Chapel of Le Mans, described on page 110.
The Lady Chapel has three windows of Renais-
sance glass of the end of the sixteenth century,
which is said to have come from the Sainte
Chapelle of Bourges, which was destroyed in the
eighteenth century. In the window on the left
is the Presentation of the Virgin at the top, the
adoration of the Magi in the centre, and in the
lower part are Joachim and Anne reading the
Scriptures. In the central window is the Assump-
196 STORIED WINDOWS
tion of the Virgin, with a good deal of new glass ;
below this are two old panels, and the lower half
of the window is filled with dreadful modern blue
glass, so that unfortunately the eye of the beholder
walking up the centre of the Cathedral rests on
some of the worst glass in the building. In the
right-hand window of the Lady Chapel is the
Annunciation above, and the Magi in the centre,
and the Flight into Egypt below, with lovely
heads of the Virgin and Child and Joseph. At
the bases of these windows are the tops of early
fifteenth-century canopies.
South of the Lady Chapel is the sixth large
window, containing a Last Judgment of splendid
colour; but the medallions are very dark. At the
top is the Holy Dove descending on crowned men.
In the upper half is Christ the Judge surrounded
by adoring worshippers. In the second large
quatrefoil, in the upper part is Michael weighing
souls before a demon; in the centre the good are
taken to Abraham on the left, and the wicked are
taken by demons to Hell on the right, and below
are two Angels with trumpets. In the two half
medallions at the sides are two more angels with
trumpets and the dead rising from their graves.
At the base on the left is the death of a good
man, and on the right is the evil end of a hard-
ened sinner.
The seventh large window of the Passion is the
gift of the Furriers, who sell furs in the two medal-
lions at the base. In the next two is the Entry
into Jerusalem, with Spectators in a tree and on
/
BOURGES CATHEDRAL Lo7
a tower. In the next two is the Last Supper and
Jesus washing the Apostles’ feet. In the next two
are the Kiss of Judas, and a very unusual scene of
the Crucifixion, where Jesus stands bound amid the
crowd below the Cross, to which a ladder is raised,
while two men stand on the arms of the Cross
nailing the inscription. The ninth and tenth are
reversed, and so are the eleventh and twelfth. In
the ninth is an elaborate picture of the Descent
from the Cross with two ladders. In the tenth
is the Crucifixion. In the eleventh is the Resur-
rection from a finely wrought tomb. In the twelfth
is Christ visiting the Spirits in prison. Up the
centre of the window are little medallions, and
at the sides are small half medallions.
The first chapel on the south has three windows
of St Labrentibs, with new glass at the base, and
St Stephen with two-thirds new, and St Vincent
with new glass at the base.
The eighth large window, of which the subject is
the Apocalypse, has fine archaic faces. The window
contains three groups of pictures. At the base are
pictures of preaching and baptism; in the central
lower picture is Christ between seven candles, with
a sword in His mouth, holding the book with seven
seals and a globe of seven stars. Above are the
seven winged heads of the seven churches. In
the central group is Christ in the middle, with
red flames streaming from His hands to the four-
and-twenty Elders below. Above Him are Evan-
gelists and Apostles. In the upper group in the
middle is Christ in an aureole of vesica shape
198 STORIED WINDOWS
between two Angels; below are adoring Saints,
and above on the left is the Lamb bearing a flag ;
and on the right the Mother Church holding a
crown in each hand between two of the faithful.
At the summit of this splendid window are seven
clouds and seven stars.
The ninth large window contains the legend of St
Thomas. It was given by the Masons, one of whom
is working on a stone at the base. The colour is
beautiful, and the pictures are clear, with fine faces.
The next chapel has three windows of St James
(left half entirely new), St John the Baptist, and
St John the Evangelist. In the sixteenth medal-
lion of the window of St John the Baptist is a
curious picture with Salome twice repeated, as
dancing in a red robe, and walking like a tumbler
on her hands, like the figure ascribed to David in
the medallion in the transept of Lincoln Cathedral.
The window of St John the Evangelist, given by
the Bakers, is said to be the only one which is
entirely filled with its original glass of the thir-
teenth century. But the medallions are small and
indistinct.
The tenth large window is inscribed Joseph in
many places. At the base are Coopers and Car-
penters who gave the window. ‘There are three
sroups of pictures with diamond-shaped centres.
In the lowest diamond is Joseph’s dream of the
sheaves and the stars. Above this Jacob sends
Joseph to seek his brethren. In the lower parts
of the second group Joseph is in the well, and
his brothers take his garment to Jacob (this scene
BOURGES CATHEDRAL 199
is illustrated in Westlake, i. p. 130). In the central
diamond is an apparently misplaced picture of a
review of the food resources of Hgypt. Above
this, on the left, is Joseph with Potiphar and his
wife, both crowned; on the right Joseph escapes
from Potiphar’s wife, who complains to Potiphar.
In the lower part of group at the top is Pharaoh’s
dream of the fat and lean kine, and Joseph is pre-
sented to Pharaoh. The three scenes in the diamond
and the two upper compartments concern Joseph
and his brethren, but they are dark and indistinct.
The ten broad windows in the ambulatory of
Bourges are all of splendid colour, and they rank
among the finest windows of the thirteenth cen-
tury, like the four windows in the north ambulatory
at Sens.
In the lower clerestory of the Choir, on the north
are large figures of seven Bishops of Bourges, but
only three have names; the name of the seventh
is St @rsin. At the East, much restored, are St
Laurence, the Virgin, Jesus, St Stephanus, and
south of these is an eighth bishop Guillaume, with
the Countess Matilda, of Mehun or of Nevers, below
presenting the window, inscribed {Matilvis Comtis.
In the upper clerestory of the choir are forty
windows with large figures. On the north are
twelve Minor Prophets, with their names clearly
inscribed: Abacus, Zacharias fMalachias, Sophonias
Amos Paum, fica Zonas Abdias, Aggeus Joel
@sre; next are the four Major Prophets, Daniel,
Ezechiel, Jeremias, Ysaias, followed by Moises Davit
Rex and St Johannes (the Baptist): these two are
200 STORIED WINDOWS
illustrated in Westlake, i. 63. At the east end are
Sancta fMaria (illustrated in Westlake, i. 62) and
St Stephen. On the south side are the Apostles
Petrus Paul, Andreas Johannes Ev, Jacobus Phil-
ippus Thomas, Bartholomeus Matheus Simon,
Jacobus Barnabas Thadeus, Marcus Lucas Mathias,
Cleophas Silas, and a saintly Bishop whose name
has been removed.
The two clerestories of the nave are filled with
grisaille, and many of the roses contain pictures
of David and Saul playing on musical instruments.
Round the nave are chapels in which are single
windows filled with glass which dates from the
fifteenth century onwards. These have been de-
scribed and illustrated in a magnificent folio by
the Marquis des Méloizes.
On the north side of the nave are seven chapels.
The window in the first chapel (de Montigny) is
dated 1619, and has the latest old glass in the
Cathedral. At the base are two fine portraits of
the donors, the Marshal de Montigny and _ his
wife Gabrielle de Crevant, each kneeling before a
prie-Dieu. In the centre are the twelve Apostles
round an open tomb filled with flowers (from which
the Virgin has ascended). In the tracery is the
Assumption of the Virgin. This is an excellent
specimen of early seventeenth-century work.
The second chapel (Fradet) has a window of
about 1465, with the large white canopies and
white shafts which are characteristic of the fifteenth
century. In it are figures of S&, fMlarchs, S.
fMathebs, S. Loca, S. JZohanes. In the tracery
; i)
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BOURGES CATHEDRAL 201
at the top is the Assumption of the Virgin with
kneeling Apostles. Below, on the left, are Christ
and Mary Magdalene, in the middle is the Resur-
rection, and on the right is the Crucifixion. This
is a good window of the fifteenth century, with
strong colour and fine dignified figures.
The third chapel (Beaucaire) has a window of
about the same date, with figures of St Gregory,
St Augustine, St Jerome, St Ambrose, each with
a damasked curtain as a background. In the
tracery is the second coming of Christ. This is
also a good fifteenth-century window of fine colour.
After a long space of wall comes the fourth
chapel (of Denis de Bar), with a sixteenth-century
window of 1518, overcrowded with sixteen square
Renaissance panels of the history of St Denis.
The tracery is brilliant.
The fifth chapel (de Breuil) has a_ beautiful
window of the latter half of the fifteenth century.
In it St John the Baptist presents the donor
Jean de Breuil and his brother Martin on the
left; in the centre and right are the Magi and
Joseph and Mary and the Child Jesus. In the
lowest part of the tracery on the right is the
legend of the Sower, who was sowing a field
when the Holy Family passed him in their flight
into Egypt. On the next day there was a mirac-
ulous ripe crop, so that when he was questioned
by Herod’s soldiers he said that he had seen no
one pass since he sowed the field which he was
now reaping. In the left compartment is the
murder of the Innocents.
202 STORIED WINDOWS
In the sixth chapel on the north (des Trousseau),
founded in 1413, is a window with fine canopies of
the early part of the fifteenth century over four nice ©
groups, but the leads cut some of the faces rather
badly, and the window seems somewhat faded,
perhaps owing to the large proportion of white
glass. In the right-hand light is the Virgin and
Child between St Sebastian and a saintly Bishop.
In the second light on the right St James presents
Jacques Trousseau and Philippe de la Charité, the
father and mother of the founder. In the next light
St Stephen presents Pierre Trousseau, the founder of
the chapel. On the left St Agnes presents two
brothers and one sister of the founder. In the
three-pointed trefoils of the tracery are shields
supported by Angels, and the three shields at the
top are surmounted by papal tiaras. The figures
have damasked backgrounds.
In the seventh chapel, the last before the windows:
of the thirteenth century, is one of the greatest gems
of the Cathedral and of France. The chapel was
founded by Jacques Coeur, the famous merchant of
Bourges, whose palatial house is such an ornament to
the town, and it contains the finest known window
of the fifteenth century. The date of the window
is about 1450, but in the perfection of design and
drawing it anticipates the work of the early Renais-
sance of half a century later. The style of the
picture suggests the influence of Van Eyck. The
tracery at the top forms a flewr-de-lis in stone,
with a picture of God the Father and a dove over
a beautiful jewelled crown, beneath which is the
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CHAPEL OF JACQUES CazuR.—THE ANNUNCIATION. 1450.
BOURGES CATHEDRAL 203
shield of France, upheld by a white figure. At
the top of each pair of lights is a heart (Cceur) in
stone, containing shields of the Dauphin and his
wife, supported by two figures. The four lights
contain a single picture of a chapel with seven
windows and a blue ceiling studded with fleurs-de-
lis; the golden groining is supported by two large
pierced columns at the outside and two slender
pillars inside. In this chapel are four grand figures
of lovely colour, beautifully grouped. In the two
inner lights is the Annunciation, with a splendid
Angel Gabriel in a gorgeous robe of scarlet and
gold with three saints in the edge, kneeling before
a dignified standing Virgin with a jewelled nimbus,
who holds a book. Gabriel’s face is rather feminine-
looking, and may possibly be a portrait of Jacques
Coeur, whose face in the statue in Bourges has also a
slightly feminine contour. Outside of these are St
James, finely draped, on the left, and St Catherine
on the right, leaning on a white sword with a ruby
grip and a face in the pommel, each having a
jewelled nimbus; and at the top of the light, above
St Catherine, is a remarkably fine shield with the
arms of Aubespine, who succeeded Jacques Cceur as
owner of the chapel. It is difficult, if not impos-
sible, to imagine a more thoroughly satisfactory
window, for it blends the simplicity of design of the
fifteenth century with the refined drawing and the
elaboration of minute detail of the sixteenth century.
On the south side of the nave the first chapel
from the east contains modern glass, but the glass
in the tracery is old.
204 STORIED WINDOWS
The second chapel on the south (Aligret) has a
window of about 1410 with four figures. On the
left is St Simon presenting a kneeling group of
Simon Aligret and two nephews; then St Catherine
with an unbroken wheel, and St Hilaire in Bishop’s ©
dress; on the right is St Michael with three kneel-
ing women. In the tracery is Christ, the Judge,
surrounded by angels holding instruments of the
Passion, with the Virgin and St John the Baptist
below. Underneath are many rising dead, some of
whom carry a band inscribed #Miserere nostri, “ have
mercy upon us.”
The third chapel on the south (des Tullier) has a
window of 1532 ascribed to the famous Renaissance
artist Lescuyer; it is a fine composition, but the
enamel paint has suffered greatly from time. This
window gains much as a whole when viewed from
the other side of the nave. On the left under a
splendid canopy is a charming group of the Virgin
and Child and the young John the Baptist bearing a
staff inscribed £ece Agnus Bei, “‘ Behold, the Lamb
of God.” In the second light is St Peter with keys,
presenting Pierre Tullier and Marie Bonin, the father
and mother of seven sons, all ecclesiastics, one of
whom, Pierre, was the dean of the Cathedral and
founder of the chapel. In the third light St John
the Evangelist, with a martyr’s palm and behind
him an eagle’s head, presents three sons in ecclesias-
tical dress with the inscription under the hindmost :
Pierre clleu doven De cette eglise a faict construire
cet chapelle Van fHil 0 XXXX., v.c., “ Peter elected
dean of this church caused this chapel to be built in
BOURGES CATHEDRAL 205
the year 1531.” On the right St James is present-
ing the other four sons. The window is dated 1532
in three places.
The fourth chapel on the south, founded by
Etampes, is called the Chapel of the Sacré Cceur.
The giass is mostly modern, but in the two side
lights are two angels supporting the arms of Berry,
of the fifteenth century ; this came from the Sainte
Chapelle of Bourges which was destroyed in 1757.
In the window on the left of this is a border of
the thirteenth century, and two small panels of the
twelfth century, which have been recently removed
from the crypt. In the panel on the right is the
Adoration of the Magi, and on the left is Zachariah
and the Angel.
The fifth chapel on the south (Leroy) has a
window of four lights with three Apostles in each
light. The faces and canopies are fine, but the
window is much blurred. In the tracery is the
Assumption, with adoring angels and two prophets
below.
The last chapel at the south-west of Bourges
Cathedral, founded by Pierre Copin in the sixteenth
century, is known by the curious title of the Chapelle
de la Bonne Mort. It contains a much vaunted
Renaissance window by Lescuyer, crowded with
small figures, and quite indistinct even at so short
a distance as the opposite side of the nave. In
the lower half are scenes of the martyrdom of St
Laurence, which are muddled and unsatisfactory
owing to the opacity of the enamel paint. In the
upper half are three clearer and more beautiful
206 STORIED WINDOWS
scenes of the martyrdom of St Stephen. In the
right-hand light is an inserted head of an Abbot of
the fifteenth century, with a red damasked back-
ground. At the top of the tracery is a fleur-de-lis
in stone enclosing the head of Christ on Veronica's
Kerchief, and the instruments of the Passion,
including Pilate’s ewer and basin, the lantern used
in the evening in the Garden of Gethsemane, and
Peter’s sword with Malchus’ ear sticking to it, as in
the window of 1536 in St Vincent at Rouen.
The West Rose contains a mosaic of fine glass of
late fourteenth century. Below it is a window of
six huge lights with very large fifteenth-century
figures with brilliant damasked backgrounds, much
restored. Beginning from the left the figures are
Bishop Guillaume, St James, the Angel Gabriel, the
Virgin, St Stephen, Bishop Ursin. In the erypt of
Bourges Cathedral are four windows, each containing
four figures of the fifteenth century. These came
from the old Sainte Chapelle of Bourges.
The church of St Bonnet at Bourges is a trun-
cated chancel, which is now being extended by a
large new west front. It contains five old windows,
two on the north and three on the south. The first
on the north has Jesus rising from the tomb, which
some attribute to Lescuyer. The second is a transi-
tional window of the early part of the sixteenth
century. In the upper part on the left is a saint
introducing a father and five sons; in the centre
is the Virgin and a kneeling mother and three
daughters; on the right is a Bishop and two kneel-
ing figures; below are eight half-length figures.
BOURGES—ST BONNET 207
The first window on the south is the famous window
of Lescuyer with a book inscribed Mil V quarante
quatre fait par Jehan le Cuyié. The window con-
tains the legend of St Bonnet, and has the name
Laurence Fauconnier and the date 1544, surmounted
by a diamond-shaped shield on which are two
faucons (falcons), and the initials L. F. interlaced
with a cord, like the same initials in the three
windows of the north aisle at Ecouen. This may be
the name of the donor or of the painter who
executed Lescuyer’s design. Though the pictures
are fine, the enamel paint is much worn.
In the second window on the south is the martyr-
dom of St John in boiling oil, with a very modern-
looking pair of bellows. The enamel paint in this
Renaissance window has greatly perished.
The third window on the south has a Renaissance
picture of St Denis, St John the Baptist, and another
saint, presenting three kneeling figures.
Regarded as pictures inspired by the art of
Raphael, the windows ascribed to Lescuyer may
deserve the rapturous commendation which has been
bestowed upon them; but as windows it must be
confessed that they are distinctly failures. For
instance, the window in the Chapelle des Tullier
has deteriorated so much in the enamel of the faces
that it is quite smudgy, and in a vastly inferior
state to that of the superb window of a century
earlier in the Chapelle of Jacques Coeur. However
beautiful the original picture may have been, a
worn-out window of the middle of the sixteenth
century is contemptible in comparison with the
208 STORIED WINDOWS
enduring windows of the twelfth, thirteenth, four-
teenth, and fifteenth centuries. The fading windows
of Jean Lescuyer and Linard Gontier may please the
Peintre Verrier, but the ordinary observer feels that
they are miserable productions when compared with
the Crucifixion window of Poitiers made several
centuries earlier. It is devoutly to be hoped that
the modern glass artists will take the Poitiers
window or the window of Jacques Cceur as their
model, and use no enamel paint except the old hard
black enamel of the ancient craftsmen who produced
such abiding work.
i i
.
Aaa Tee
MOULINS CATHEDRAL.
ENLARGED PORTRAIT OF PIERRE, HUSBAND OF BARBE CADIER.
209
CHAPTER XXVII.
MOULINS CATHEDRAL.
In returning from Bourges to Paris it is not much
out of the way to go round by Moulins, which is
sixty-six miles from Bourges. It is well worth
while to do so, for the late fifteenth-century windows
at Moulins are most interesting in comparison with
the windows at Bourges made earlier in the same
century; and good fifteenth-century glass is so
comparatively rare that it is always wise to seize
an opportunity of seeing it. Moulins Cathedral has
a modern nave, but the Flamboyant choir was built
towards the end of the fifteenth century, between
1474 and 1508. Consequently all the old glass is
concentrated in the choir, where there are twelve
windows or portions of windows, four on the north
side, four in the straight wall at the east end, and
four on the south side. All these date from the end
of the fifteenth century or the early part of the
sixteenth. There is one more window of Renais-
sance style in the east centre of the choir clerestory.
In the first window on the north side of the choir
coming from the west, the old glass is confined to
O
210 STORIED WINDOWS
the tracery and the pictures are rather poor. The
subject is the story of Mary Magdalene. At the
bottom on the left is Jesus discoursing to a crowd
of men and women, among whom is the golden-
haired Mary Magdalene, who is being converted by
His words. On the right is Jesus in the house of
Simon, at a hexagonal table covered with food, with
Mary Magdalene at his feet ; on each side of the table
are two persons of very bourgeois appearance, who
seem much scandalised. Higher up on the left is an
inserted figure of the risen Christ, in a red shroud
which is open in front, with the mark of the nail in
His hand ; near Him is an armed figure of a Roman
guard; on the right is Mary Magdalene baptising
a convert amid a waiting crowd. At the top is a
yellow slab, with feet at the base, which is supposed
to represent Mary Magdalene, whose golden hair
hides all but her feet; this is being lifted by four
angels over a mountain below.
The second window is of late fifteenth century
with five figures under canopies. On the left is a
female saint (with an inserted title Johannes) in-
troducing a donor’s wife and three daughters, one
of whom has a remarkable head-dress. In the
second light is a saint in a cowl (looking lke Friar
Tuck) introducing a kneeling donor and six sons.
The canopies in the two lights have no shafts, so
that the pictures seem to have been inserted from
a different window. ‘The canopies in the next three
lights have the same tops as those in the first two
lights, but have shafts entwined with an inscription.
In these three lights is the Virgin Mother on the
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END OF XVTH CENTURY.
SECOND WINDOW IN NortTH NAVE,
MOULINS CATHEDRAL Zi
left with arms crossed and long golden hair, looking
like Mary Magdalene ; in the centre is a very fine
picture of Christ crucified with His arms above His
head, wearing the crown of thorns, and having very
wooden-looking feet, against a brilliant background
of a ruby curtain damasked with angels; to the
right is a figure of St John with clasped hands ina
ruby robe against a blue damasked curtain. In the
tracery is the Last Judgment, of which the top is
missing, with the exception of two angels with
trumpets ; below these are three beautiful miniature
pictures ; in the centre is St Michael the Archangel
standing between two angels; in each of the two
circles at the sides are six Apostles, and round the
circles are four angels with the instruments of the
Passion. Below are two of the dead rising from
their tombs.
The third window on the north side of Moulins
Choir has sixteenth-century glass, in the tracery
only, consisting of scenes of the lives of St John
the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. In
the three lower scenes the Baptist is beheaded,
and his head is carried by Salome to Herod, who
is sitting full of remorse at a feast with guests.
In the upper line are four pictures; to the left is
Herod and a man and woman sitting opposite to a
crowd which includes several women in the tall
head-dresses of the end of the fifteenth century ;
in the next scene the Evangelist with a book is
teaching four Christians; in the third the Baptist
is apparently with Christ at the river Jordan, but
the scene is not very clear; above it is a border
212 STORIED WINDOWS
of red, full of faces, above which are tongues of
fire. In the scene to the right is the Evangelist
with a book and a goat, with tongues of fire
above. At the top on the left is the Evangelist
in Patmos; in the centre the Baptist stands before
a building, and above is an angel with a torch.
On the right is a figure of later style with smudged
enamel paint, apparently inserted. The fourth
window is fragmentary in the lower lights, with
the story of St Elizabeth in the tracery. In the
left light is a fine face of a Bishop. Next to this
is St John of later style with a very chubby face.
In the third light is a good portrait of a kneeling
donor. The fourth light is filled with white glass. —
In the tracery on the left is St Elizabeth humbly
seated among the poor listening to a preacher. On
the right are people praying at her tomb, on which
are two ex-voto feet and a hand. At the top
St Elizabeth, dressed as a hospital nurse, is giving
food. and money to the sick poor.
The straight east wall of Moulins choir contains
three of the best windows of the end of the
fifteenth century. The first of these on the left
is the finest and most famous of all the windows
in the Cathedral. It is of rich warm colour, with
clear fine faces showing the influence of the early
Renaissance. It is known as the window of the
Dukes of Bourbon and of St Catherine, whose
story is depicted in the tracery.
In the left light is St Anne and the infant
Virgin with a book, and kneeling before her is
Catherine d’Armagnac, wife of Jean, sixth duc de
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MOULINS CATHEDRAL 213
Bourbon. In the next light kneels Anne de France,
daughter of Louis XI., who married Pierre, eighth
duc de Bourbon, in 1474, and he kneels in front
of her, and beside them are their children. In the
centre light is a lovely Raphaelesque Renaissance
figure of St Catherine with a sword, trampling on
the crowned Emperor Maximinus, as in a window
in West Wickham, Kent. This picture is evidently
inserted, because the mullion has been removed
and two canopies have been partly cut away to
make room for it. In the light to the right of
St Catherine kneels Cardinal Charles de Bourbon,
who bears a striking resemblance to Charles X.
In the outer right-hand light kneels Jean, sixth
duc de Bourbon ; behind him stand St Charlemagne
and St John with most unsaintly faces, looking
like men-at-arms of a Free Company.
In the tracery is the legend of St Catherine.
In the lowest line of the tracery are four bands
inscribed Catherina. On the right St Catherine
tries to convert the seated Emperor Maximinus, and
on the left she disputes with orators before the
Emperor. In the upper centre St Catherine is
kneeling before a wheel, which an angel above has
shattered with a thunderstorm and the splinters
have wounded three executioners, two of whom
have most expressive faces of dismay. On the
left of this St Catherine is beheaded, and on the
right angels carry her upwards.
The second window has a_ beautifully simple
picture of the Crucifixion (illustrated p. 44); it is
a real transitional window of the end of the fifteenth
214 STORIED WINDOWS
century. The arms of Christ are lifted high above
His head, and three angels with chalices receive
the blood from His feet and side, as in the Hast
window of St Margaret’s, Westminster; the angel
on the left is holding one chalice to His side and
is lifting up another chalice towards His hand. In
the two outer lights are the Virgin and St John;
the face of the sorrowing Virgin Mother is full
of expression. In the tracery are angels with em-
blems of the Passion. In the middle of the tracery
two small compartments are filled with rising flames.
The third of these windows contains a well-
grouped picture of the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury, which may be compared with the picture in
the splendid window of half a century earlier in
the chapel of Jacques Coeur at Bourges ; the Moulins
window is not so simple in its grouping as the
Bourges window, and it shows a slight tendency
to the overcrowding which so often mars the
beauty of Renaissance windows, while the Bourges
window foreshadows the refined drawing and beauti-
ful arrangement which is the glory of Renaissance
windows. Here, as in Bourges, the scene is laid in
a chapel with seven windows; the Moulins chapel
is arched over by a canopied roof supported by one
large pillar on each side. In the centre light is the
Virgin and Child on a golden throne with a green
top, and there are five angels on each side, who
extend into the side lights. On the left is a fine
figure of St Peter with an enormous key introducing
a kneeling donor of the name of Pierre, whose face
is an excellent portrait. On the right Ste Barbe,
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ENLAR PORTRAIT OF THE Do , BARBE CADIER.
MOULINS CATHEDRAL 215
with her tower in her hand, is introducing Barbe
Cadier, the wife of Pierre ; in the tracery are angels
with musical instruments.
The three very satisfactory windows above de-
scribed repay a careful and prolonged examination,
more especially as they are low down and easy to
examine. They form a picture-gallery of very
human faces well portrayed, and in them there is a
meeting and blending of the late Gothic style with
the style of the early Renaissance, for the large sim-
plicity of the fifteenth century is enriched by the
splendid draughtsmanship and artistic composition
of the sixteenth century.
The fourth window in the east wall is fragmentary.
The left light is partially filled with a Jesse tree,
ending at the top with the Child Jesus between
JosepH and Joacuim. Many of the faces below
are very fine. In the middle of the tree is an
unusual representation of David on_ horseback.
In the tracery is the story of St Joachim and
St Anne in glass which is much restored. At the
top are two angels with music. In the upper part
on the left are Joachim and Anne giving alms to
the poor. On the right the offering of Joachim
and Anne is rejected by the High Priest because
they have no child. In the centre below is a
pathetic picture of the elderly couple embracing
at the Golden Door. On the right and left of this
are St Anne and St Joachim praying, while angels —
above them bring the answers to their prayers
inscribed on long bands.
The careful elaboration of the pictures in the
216 STORIED WINDOWS
tracery at Moulins is very remarkable. It is prob-
ably due to the fact that the windows are so low
down that the pictures in the tracery are clearly
visible.
The windows on the south wall of the choir of
Moulins Cathedral are very poor in comparison
with the three noble windows on the east wall.
The first window on the south wall is of the end
of the fifteenth century. It is dulled by an ex-
cessive amount of white. In three lights there is
a crowd of Martyrs, and the fourth light contains
a confused jumble. In the tracery are angels bearing
the Martyrs to heaven, above which are the white
souls surrounded by blue angels adoring the Eternal
Father, who is in a golden aureole encircled by red
angels. The faces though crowded are clear, and
the colour of the tracery is brilliant.
The second window on the south wall is a pale
dull window of the sixteenth century in eight com-
partments with pictures of Crusaders. At the base
of one light there is an aged donor whose face looks
very fine when seen in the evening light, but it is
very dim in the morning.
The third window on the south wall is also of the
sixteenth century ; it is much damaged by time. In
the four lights are four saints with kneeling donors.
In the tracery is the Assumption and the Annuncia-
tion, and scenes of the lives of St John the Baptist
and St John the Evangelist.
In the fourth window three-quarters of the lower
lights are filled with white glass. In the top of the
left light is a fine inserted picture of the dead Christ
MOULINS CATHEDRAL
PORTRAIT OF AN AGED DONOR AT THE BASE OF THE CRUSADERS’ WINDC
XVITH CENTURY.
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MOULINS CATHEDRAL 217
on the ground showing the spear wound in His side,
with the Virgin bending over Him, and Joseph of
_ Arimathea, and a woman behind with a box of
spices. In the right-hand light is a bust from
some other window. In the tracery is the martyr-
dom of St Barbe. At the top St Barbe is visited
by two angels while praying before an altar; below
this on the left pagans are trying to force St Barbe
to worship the idol which is on the right. Below
the tracery in the top part of the two central lights
St Barbe is tied to a pillar and scourged and
tortured. On each side of the tracery are children
playing, and there is the motto michal agere
penitendum, “to do nothing which has to be
repented of.”
The central east window of the clerestory of the
choir contains a fine Renaissance picture of the
sixteenth century, very much restored in 1842.
The subject is the Death of the Virgin in a single
well-crouped picture which fills four lights. In
the corners are the donors, Pierre de Bourbon (who
died in 1503) on one side, and Anne de France, his
wife, with their daughter Suzanne de Bourbon (who
married Charles count de Montpensier) on the
other side.
About a mile and a half from Moulins is Yzeure,
where there is an interesting Romanesque church,
but it is devoid of old glass. In the Museum at
Moulins is the famous Bible of Souvigny, an
illuminated Manuscript of the twelfth century
with 122 miniatures and initial letters, one of the
very finest known books.
218
CHAPTER XXVIIL
GLASS-HUNTING EAST OF PARIS, BEGINNING WITH
THE CATHEDRAL OF SENS.
Hast of Paris lies one other part of France quite
as remarkable for its fine old Gothic Glass as the
western triangle formed by Rouen, Le Mans, and
Chartres, and the centre of Western France. In
one respect this district is more convenient to visit
than the western triangle, because all the churches
and cathedrals are entirely open, and it is not
necessary to fee a Suisse (or Verger) to unlock the
doors leading into the choir, as is the case in the
north-west of France. This district is included in
the narrow parallelogram of which Sens, Auxerre,
Chalons-sur-Marne, and Reims form the corners. In
the centre of this region is the Cathedral town of
Troyes, where good glass abounds. It is all very
accessible from Paris, because the farthest point is
only 107 miles distant. Students of English his-
tory will find many points of interest there; and
the country is more especially permeated with
memories of Archbishop Becket, who lived in exile
at Sens and Pontigny, and went to Soissons and
SENS CATHEDRAL 219
Montmirail, and visited Troyes on several occasions.
The glass in this locality, though extremely fine,
is less completely representative in character than
the glass of Rouen, Evreux, Sées, Le Mans, and
Chartres, because there is comparatively little glass
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and
scarcely any of the twelfth century. But the
thirteenth-century glass is plentiful, and the quan-
tity of lovely sixteenth-century glass is enormous.
In Sens Cathedral, besides grisaille, there are
twenty-two fine old windows, of which ten are of
the thirteenth century and the remainder of the
sixteenth. Of the ten windows of the thirteenth
century, the four in the north ambulatory of the
choir rank among the very best windows of their
time.
The first of these, starting from the west, is the
well-known window of Becket, inscribed St Thomas
Cant at the foot of the lowest right-hand medal-
lion. It contains thirteen medallions, with a beauti-
ful border and floral scrolls between the medallions
in the style of the thirteenth-century windows at
Canterbury. The window is round-arched, and the
glass is in excellent condition, and it belongs to
the early years of the thirteenth century; some
have tried to assign it to the end of the twelfth,
but this theory is decisively negatived by the
shaped bars. The scenes represent the end of the
Archbishop’s life. In the first medallion to the
left at the foot of the window is King Louis VIL,
whose head has been restored; he is reconciling
Becket to Henry II., whose attendant Barons seem
220 STORIED WINDOWS
much disgusted. In the second medallion to the
right is Becket returning to England in a ship,
and sinister-looking armed men are awaiting him
on the shore. In the third, fourth, and fifth Becket
rides to Canterbury, and is welcomed by the clergy
and preaches to the people. In the sixth and
seventh Becket celebrates the Holy Communion.
In the eighth the knights meet Becket, and in the
ninth he is going to the Cathedral, and caresses a
child in its mother’s arms. In the tenth and
eleventh the murderers enter the Cathedral and
kill Becket, whose burial is depicted in the twelfth.
In the thirteenth Jesus Christ, in a semi-medallion
at the top of the window, is supposed to be receiv-
ing from the angels the sacrifice of Becket. This
window should be compared with the window of
the same subject at Chartres, which is described
in chapter xix.
The second window, also round-arched, contains
the legend of ¥flacivus who was converted by the
stag and then baptised with the name of Eustagius,
The window is entirely restored at the lower part,
to the extent of about two-thirds of the whole. In
the ninth medallion St Eustache is seated with his
wife and two children who have been resuscitated.
In the tenth he gains a victory. In the eleventh
and twelfth he refuses the command of the Emperor
Hadrian to return thanks to an idol; and in the
thirteenth, at the top, is the martyrdom of St
Eustache with his wife and children in a brazen
ball enveloped by flames.
The third is the excellent window of the Prodigal
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CATHEDRAL.
AMBULATORY. XIIITH CENTURY.
SENS CATHEDRAL 221
Son, one of the best Biblia Pauperum windows.
The pictures are simple and clear and not over-
crowded with small figures. The window consists
of twelve medallions, six on each side. In the first
two the younger son receives his share, much to
the disgust of his elder brother. In the third he
is in a far country wasting his goods with six
courtesans. In the next two he is in a state of
misery. In the sixth he repents, but is held en-
chained by three demons. In the next three he
returns, and is welcomed, robed, and feasted by
his father. In the last three the elder son ex-
hibits his discontent at his father’s treatment of
the returned prodigal. The window of the Prodigal
Son at Bourges (p. 193) should be compared with
this, but the subject is not treated entirely in the
same way.
The fourth of these splendid windows in the
north ambulatory of the choir of Sens contains three
diamond-shaped medallions down the centre with
the story of the Good Samaritan. At the top is
the city of Jerusalem whence the traveller started.
In the uppermost diamond the man is being as-
saulted and robbed by the thieves, and round it
are four medallions with the story of Adam and
Five. In the second diamond is the wounded man
seated and the priest and the Levite, and round
it another set of four medallions contain in the
first Joseph, seated next to Pharaoh, giving corn
to his brothers; in the other three Moses is repre-
sented with the Brazen Serpent, and as breaking
the Tables of the Law, and at the Burning Bush.
222 STORIED WINDOWS
In the lowest diamond is the Good Samaritan and
the innkeeper, and round it four medallions con-
taiming pictures of Christ before Pilate, the Scourg-
ing, the Crucifixion, and the Holy Women at the
tomb of the risen Saviour. Compare the window
of the Good Samaritan at Bourges, described on
p. 192:
The eastern chapel of Sens Cathedral is dedi-
cated to St Savinien ; for the Lady Chapel is placed
to the east of the south transept. The three east
windows are of two lancets each, surmounted by a
quatrefoil, in the centre of which there is a medallion.
The north window on the left contains the history
of St Paul, and that on the south seems to contain
the story of St Peter. The central East window
of this chapel has some scenes of martyrdom, but
the lower half is hidden by a piece of barbarous
stone drapery, looking like a dirty tumbled cloth,
and making a hideous eyesore, which forms the
central point in sight of any one entering at the
west door and walking up the Cathedral. All these
three windows have been much restored, and the
glass looks very new, although it was originally of
the thirteenth century.
At the east end of the choir clerestory are three
windows of the late thirteenth century. The first
to the left on the north side contains the life of
the Virgin, from the Annunciation to the Flight
into Egypt, and in the trefoil above is the Triumph
of the Virgin. The window to the right on the
south side contains the history of St Stephen, the
patron of the Cathedral. In the central East win-
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SENS CATHEDRAL 223
dow of the choir clerestory is the Passion of Jesus
Christ. These three windows have an unusual
amount of white glass, and are very clean and
clear, looking a good deal restored. They are not
at all impressive, being some of the dullest windows
of the late thirteenth century. But the feebleness
of these windows is more than compensated by the
splendour of the noble windows of the sixteenth
century in the transepts.
The south transept of Sens Cathedral is com-
pletely glazed with two immense windows on each
side and an enormous south Rose with a fine
window below it. These windows were made in the
year 1502, when the south transept was completed.
They were done by four artists of Troyes, named
Lyénin, Macadré, Verrat, and Godon, the same
artists who made some of the windows in the nave
of the cathedral of Troyes. The first to the left
on entering the transept contains a Jesse tree;
but among the Kings who represent ancestors of
Christ are placed two Sibyls, and a quadruped
which is supposed to represent Balaam’s Ass. In
designing this Jesse tree the artist seems to have
had the idea of filling the tree with prophets in-
stead of the usual ancestors of Christ. The tree
has a remarkable red. ground, and at each side are
four very clear pictures of Gideon’s fleece and the
Burning Bush and two prophets on one side, and
Abraham and Melchizedek and two more prophets
on the other side. |
To the right of this window is another very tall
four-light window having at the base four donors
224 STORIED WINDOWS
being presented by Saints, the third of whom is
Sainte Colombe in royal crown and ermine mantle,
with her hand on the sword with which she was
martyred ; above which are brilliant and satisfying
pictures of the story of St Nicolas, beginning
with the new-born child astonishing his nurses by
standing up in his bath; then he endows three
young daughters of a despairing father; he is
chosen as Bishop of Myra; he is consecrated; he
saves a sinking ship; he rescues three young men
from execution; he is on his death-bed, and angels
are carrying his soul to heaven. This may be com-
pared with the window of St Nicolas at St Florentin,
which contains all these scenes except the last one.
The south rose has vivid pictures of the Last
Judgment; connected with it by the tracery is a
window of gorgeous colour with ten pictures of
the story of St Stephen. In the first three St
Stephen is elected as Deacon and ordained and
preaches to the angry Jews; in the next three he
is accused, condemned, and: led to execution; in
the seventh he is stoned to death by the furious
Jews; in the eighth Saul sits by a basket of stones
with the clothes of the men on his knees; in the
ninth animals try to devour the dead body, but
it is protected by birds, while two angels carry St
Stephen’s soul to heaven; the last scene represents
the burial of St Stephen. On the right side of the
south transept are two great windows, each contain-
ing eight pictures of brilliant colour, beautifully
framed in white with yellow stain. In the first
of these, at the top, Gamaliel, with three vases of
Aa
SENS CATHEDRAL 225
gold and one of silver, with red, white, and yellow
flowers, is looking at the sleeping Lucian; and the
word Lucian is inscribed in the two upper pictures
on the left hand. In the next three pictures the
body of St Stephen is discovered. In the next two
the Senator Alexander is buried beside St Stephen,
and in the last two the Senator’s wife is allowed
by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to remove her hus-
band’s body on a chariot; but she takes by mistake
the body of St Stephen. The next window con-
tinues the legend of St Stephen’s body; in the first
picture the sailors of the ship with the real body
of St Stephen, being assailed by demons, invoke
St Stephen, and in the second Eudoxia, possessed
of a demon, prays that St Stephen’s body may be
transferred to Rome. In the third the body of
St Stephen cannot be taken into the church of St
Peter for the horses stand still, and Eudoxia de-
clares that it must be taken to St Laurent, where
in the fourth medallion the Pope receives Eudoxia
and the workmen prepare the tomb. In the fifth
are trembling bishops and priests addressing the
Pope. In the sixth Eudoxia is delivered from the
demon. In the seventh a mother makes her sick
child touch the tomb. In the last, one who is
possessed by a demon is cured before the multitude.
It is difficult to imagine any transept more splen-
didly glazed than the south transept of the cathedral
of Sens.
The north transept was finished in 1504, and
the windows are the work of native artists of Sens.
P
226 STORIED WINDOWS
The north Rose is much lighter in colour than the
south Rose, and the window below is not so tall,
and there is more white and less brilliant colour
in it than in the south transept window; but
whereas only the centre of the south Rose contains
pictures, the whole of the north Rose is filled with
the celestial choir round Christ in the centre, on
each side of whom is St Peter and St Paul. In
the window below, Gabriel at the top shows Para-
dise and the limbo of the just Israelites to Daniel.
In the second light Gabriel announces to Zachariah
the birth of John the Baptist. In the third is a
beautiful Annunciation, strangely utilised for Gabriel
to present Gabriel Gouffier, the donor, to the Virgin.
In the fourth Gabriel tells Daniel of the coming of
the Christian law, by showing him a rather spiteful
picture of the triumph of Christianity, represented
by an exulting figure crowned and holding a
standard and a chalice, and the humiliation of the
Synagogue, represented by a figure with downcast
eyes, whose crown is fallen and standard broken,
like the figures in the little window at Orbais
l’Abbaye. In the fifth Michael the Archangel is
spearing a reversed man, whose crown has fallen
from his head, apparently a persecuting Emperor.
This may be regarded as a real Nowvelle Alliance
window.
The first window to the left on entering the
north transept of Sens Cathedral contains eight
large and imposing figures of St Savinien, St
Potentien, St Stephen, and St Laurence above;
and below, in splendid robes, in the centre lights,
SENS CATHEDRAL 227
Sainte Colombe and Sainte Béate, who were mar-
tyred at Sens, and in the outer lights Sainte Paule
and Mary Magdalene grown old and shrunken.
Facing this window on the right is a window con-
taining sixteen archbishops, each framed in a broad
handsome white border.
The two inner windows are Biblia Pauperum,
each containing sixteen pictures. On the left is
the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, continued
on the right by the story of Jacob, beginning with
the vision of Angels and ending with the story
of Joseph. The Abraham window on the left is
rather confused in colour and composition, but
splendid when examined with a field-glass. The
Jacob and Joseph window on the right is much
cleaner and brighter, with very distinct pictures.
Though the windows of the north transept of Sens
are very fine, yet they do not produce the same
deep impression as those of the south transept,
showing that the artists of Troyes, who were em-
ployed to make the glass in the south transept,
were superior to the native Sens artists, who did
the work of the windows in the north transept.
In the chapel to the left of the eastern chapel is
a window with a Crucifixion, dated 1748, which
affords a good instance of the misuse of enamel
paint in the eighteenth century.
In the choir clerestory are twelve magnificent
grisaille windows, six on each side, surmounted by
trefoils with a circular medallion in the centre.
There are also two windows by Jean Cousin on
the south side of Sens Cathedral, which exhibit
228 STORIED WINDOWS
the strength and weakness of the art of glass
painting which was developed as the sixteenth
century advanced. As pictures these are the
work of a great artist, but as windows they show
the beginning of the decadence. One of these in
the chapel to the right of the eastern chapel on
the south side is a much vaunted window of the
Tiburtine Sibyl by Jean Cousin; the colouring is
pleasing and the drawing is vigorous, but with the
exception of the Sibyl herself the figures seem
rather coarse. |
The other window of Jean Cousin is the first
on the south side of the nave on entering from
the west. It contains the story of Eutropius,
and it is dated 1530, so that it is some of his
earliest work, before he was thirty years of age.
It contains a fine series of pictures, but it is a dull
window when compared with the brilliant windows
in the transepts of about thirty years earlier. It
illustrates the difference between the beautifully
translucent glass of the early Renaissance and the
dull opaque, misty surface which soon became so
marked a characteristic of the glass of Elizabethan
time. The difference becomes especially manifest
when both are examined with a field-glass.
The window has four lights with eight pictures
surmounted by three roses with a quatrefoil. The
date is on the throne of the upper picture on the
left, where Eutropius is sent by his father the King
of Persia to visit Herod. In the second picture
EKutropius is riding away, and several people seem
sorry to see him go. In the third he sees Jesus
SENS CATHEDRAL 229
feeding the five thousand with loaves and fishes.
In the fourth he is converted and blessed by Christ.
In the fifth he is at Saintes as the evangelist of
Gaul baptising the Princess Eustelle. In the sixth
he is consecrated as Bishop by the Pope and a
Cardinal. In the seventh he is preaching to a
congregation in the country. In the eighth is his
martyrdom by stones and staves, while near him
is the Bishop, who is to be his successor, presenting
to him the plan of a church.
Sens is especially interesting to English people,
because Archbishop Becket lived for two years, from
1164-1166, at the Benedictine Monastery of Sainte
Colombe-lez-Sens, outside the town of Sens. In the
cathedral of Sens are preserved the robes of Arch-
bishop Becket, who must have had a very large
frame to fill them. There is a copy of these in
Canterbury Cathedral. This cathedral was built
by William of Sens, who afterwards introduced the
French Gothic style of architecture into England
by building the choir of Canterbury Cathedral.
230
CHAPTER XXIX.
ST JULIEN DU SAULT.
FourTEEN miles from Sens on the way to Auxerre
is St Julien du Sault, which well repays a visit.
Good food is supplied at the old-fashioned Hotel
des Bons Enfans, kept by a landlord who has been a
chef at London hotels. L’Abbé Pierre, the courteous
and learned Doyen (or Dean) of the church, is much
interested in his windows and very kind in giving
information about them. In the church are ten
beautiful windows of the thirteenth century, and
four of the sixteenth, all in the ambulatory of the
Choir.
The first window of the thirteenth century on the
north has very fine medallions, with the history of
Scta. filargarita whose name is inscribed in many
places.
The second, going eastward, contains a Life of the
Virgin in excellent state. It has a border of golden
jleurs-de-lis on a blue ground, having been given by
St Louis when the church was built.
In the third is a life of St John the Baptist.
Between the medallions is a blue diaper filled with
ST JULIEN DU SAULT 231
golden flewrs-de-lis. The two centre medallions
of diamond shape are filled with new glass.
The fourth is a fine window inscribed &, Johes . ef.
The twenty-eight medallions are restored but in good
condition. The subject is the life of St John the
Evangelist.
The fifth, which lies to the left of the Hast window,
has a border of flewrs-de-lis and gold castles. On
the left is the martyrdom of St Blaise. On the
right are St Peter and St Paul. This window is
much restored with glaring colour, especially an
ugly magenta red. The central Hast window con-
tains scenes of the Passion. ‘There is new glass in
the two middle medallions on the left and in the
second from the top on the right. The inscription
states that these windows of XIIIth and XVIth
were restored from 1881 to 1887. The amount of
restoration can be readily detected by the absence
of patina on the outside surface of the new
glass.
The seventh window, to the right of the Hast
window on the south side, is much restored; the
subject is the legend of St Nicolas in twenty-nine
panels inscribed St Picholaus.
The eighth window has the legend of the steward
Theophilus who sold his soul to the Evil One and
was rescued by the Blessed Virgin. The twenty-
eight medallions are very fine and almost untouched.
The window swarms with demons, of which there
are at least sixteen. The name @heophilus is in-
scribed in seven places.
The ninth, perhaps the finest of all, is almost un-
232 STORIED WINDOWS
touched. The twenty-eight panels contain the Life
of Christ.
The last of these thirteenth-century windows is
nearly all restored. It contains the Death and
Coronation of the Virgin. The border is of flewrs-
de-lis on blue.
Of the four sixteenth-century windows at St
Julien de Sault, the first on the north has ten
pictures of the legend of St Julian the soldier of
Diocletian. In the third picture on the left is the
town of Vienne. The picture with Julian’s arrest is
inscribed quiete in me satis bixi— Be at rest about
me, I have lived enough.” On the right is St
JULIAN. On the left is the tomb of St Ferréol,
with the head of the child Julian in the centre
of the saint’s body. In the top on the right is a
man holding a plan of the church. This window
is in excellent condition, but it is overcrowded with
figures and dimmed by a quantity of pinkish enamel
smudged on to the white glass. The tracery above
the window of St Julian contains thirteenth-century
glass round a sixteenth-century medallion of St
Julian riding with a hawk. The thirteenth-century
medallion on the right has a man with a severed
head, inscribed St Paulus, East of this window
is a very pretty little window remarkable for the
splendid costumes of the sixteenth century. It con-
tains the story of St Geneviéve as a quick-tempered
child attending on her blind mother, and then
saving Paris from Attila, the King of the Huns,
called the ‘“‘Scourge of God.”
On the south side is a sixteenth-century window
ST JULIEN DU SAULT 233
of which the centre is now filled with white glass.
But it is remembered that the window was complete
thirty years ago; the centre has now been lost or
stolen, probably when the window was sent to be
restored. The upper part contains four scenes of
the martyrdom of 8.8. Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, and
Agatha. At the bottom is Sr Fracre, who holds a
spade as the patron of gardeners, and a female saint
whose name is difficult to decipher.
The fourth and last of these sixteenth-century
windows is extremely beautiful and interesting.
There are six scenes in the upper part. The
three uppermost are the Descent from the Cross,
the Burial of Christ, and His Resurrection. The
three scenes in the centre of the window represent
the martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul and the
dream of St Charlemagne, who has dismounted and
is spearing a wild boar. The three beautiful scenes
at the bottom have evidently been removed from
some other window and introduced here, as they
have not the border of the upper part of the
window. ‘They look like late work of the fifteenth
century. They represent the Invention of the Cross
by Queen Helena who is attended by four richly-
attired ladies, each carrying an instrument of the
Crucifixion, the Crown of Thorns, the Hammer, the
Lance and Sponge, and the Pincers. The Cross is
borne by an old woman. Above is the shield of
France with three fleurs-de-ls in gold on an
azure ground, showing that the window was given
by a king, like the window at Grand Andely. On
each side of the shield is an angel with a band
inscribed in Gothic letters surgite mo +t
judicium, 2.¢., “arise ye dead for judgmen
the centre of the tracery is Jesus as Judge
of the Scourging, and on the uate an angel hid
Cross and three nails. ea -
ine
CHAPTER XXX.
AUXERRE.
AUXERRE is twenty miles distant from St Julien
du Sault. The cathedral of Auxerre ranks with
the cathedrals of Chartres, Le Mans, Bourges,
Angers, Troyes, and Reims as one of the greatest
shrines of Gothic Glass. It contains thirty-seven
windows of the first half of the thirteenth century
from 1220 to 1234, when the choir was completed ;
these windows are not quite completely filled with
ancient glass, the deficiency being made up with
white glass. The medallions are a good deal mixed,
and the lower half of each of the twelve windows
in the choir clerestory was damaged by the Hugue-
nots in 1567, and has been restored with modern
glass. Twenty-two of these thirteenth-century
windows are in the ambulatory and Lady Chapel.
There are twelve at the sides of the choir clere-
story, and three at the east end of it.
The East window of the Lady Chapel was de-
stroyed by a shell in the Franco-Prussian war,
and replaced by new glass forty years ago. With
the exception of this window, the magnificent glass
236 STORIED WINDOWS
in the ambulatory seems almost entirely old, with
very little restoration. It is much to be regretted
that, as at Canterbury and Bourges, the eye of one
looking towards the Hast end should rest on new
glass; it would be much better if one of the
ambulatory windows could take the place of the
new window in the Lady Chapel of Auxerre.
The first two windows on the north side of the
ambulatory are fragmentary, with mixed medallions.
The third has a complete history of David. The
fourth has a legend of St Mammés of the time of
Aurelian, beginning at the bottom with his birth
and education, and ending at the top with his
martyrdom. The fifth has thirteen medallions of
the Creation, beginning at the top with the sun,
moon, and stars, then angels: the Holy Dove over
the waters: birds and fishes: animals: Adam:
Eve: Adam naming the animals: God forbids
Adam and Eve to eat the fruit: Adam and Eve
and the serpent: Adam and Eve hide from God:
Eve holds Cain and Abel, while Adam tills the
soil. The three lowest medallions are from other
windows.
The sixth window contains the story of Noah
in the six lowest medallions, with that of Abraham
and Lot in the ten upper ones.
The seventh window contains the story of
Joseph. The three lowest medallions begin on
the left, but the next three read from right to
left, and so they alternate throughout the window,
in the style called boustrophedon, 2.e., like the
turnings of a ploughing ox.
AUXERRE CATHEDRAL 237
The eighth window is also arranged in boustro-
phedon style. The subject is the legend of Sainte
Marguerite, like that of the window at St Julien
du Sault.
The ninth window is complete but somewhat
obscure; it contains the legend of St Andrew,
with two medallions of St Paul at the bottom.
The tenth window of the choir ambulatory of
Auxerre has the story of Samson in the fifteen
upper medallions, with nine mixed medallions at
the bottom.
The eleventh window has the legend of St
Laurence, with six mixed medallions at the
base.
In the Lady Chapel at the Hast are seven
windows. The first has beautiful grisaille of
the thirteenth century with Sta. fMlaria and the
donor ®envricug Preshiter in the centre.
The second has lovely grisaille of the thirteenth
century.
The third window, to the left of the Hast
window, has a tree of Jesse of which only seven
panels contain old glass. The Hast window is all
modern. To the right of this on the south is a
restored window of which the subject is the legend
of Theophile, but four of the lowest pictures are
modern.
The sixth window of the Lady Chapel of
Auxerre contains grisaille of the thirteenth century.
The seventh has grisaille of the same date, with
a fine figure of St Stephanus. Viollet-le-Duc
describes the grisaille in the four side windows
238 STORIED WINDOWS
of the Lady Chapel as a masterpiece of com-
position.
The first window south of the Lady Chapel has
the legend of St Eustache in the upper part.
Below are mixed medallions of Old Testament
history.
The second on the south is an obscure window
of St Nicolas of beautiful colour. The lower part
is filled with white glass.
The third on the south is an equally obscure
window of splendid colour with the story of the
Prodigal Son.
The fourth on the south was removed by Bishop
Amyot in 1585 to give light to the high altar.
It is filled with white glass on which Amyot has
placed a crucifix with his patron, St James.
In the fifth on the south is the story of St
James in the sixteen upper medallions; in the
nine lower ones are mixed scenes, all of fine
colour.
In the sixth window on the south side of the
ambulatory of the cathedral of Auxerre is the
legend of St Nicolas in fifteen panels, with nine
below, mostly of St Eloi. The colour of this
window is very striking in the morning light, and
the pictures are very clear.
The bottom part of the last four windows is
filled with white glass.
In the seventh window on the south is the
legend of St Marie l’Egyptienne in ten upper
medallions,
The eighth on the south is a mixed window of
AUXERRE CATHEDRAL 239
fine colour; the upper thirteen medallions have
the story of St {Magvaliene.
The ninth window contains mixed medallions.
The tenth is an obscure window of good colour,
with the legend of St Waterina.
In the choir clerestory each pair of lancets has
a rose above. These windows were given by
Henri de Villeneuve, who was Bishop of Auxerre
from 1220 to 1234. In each lancet is a great
single figure, with vertical grisaille on each side,
except in the two first on each side on entering.
The first of these on the north has Jesus between
the Virgin and St John, with two angels carrying
the sun and moon, with the Holy Spirit at the
top. Below is the sacrifice of Abraham. The one
facing this on the south has no grisaille, but the
figures are in a large oval medallion with much
fine blue. The faces of these figures are very
archaic; and the colour, though soft, is rather dull,
unless the sun shines through. The lower part
of nearly every lancet in the choir clerestory of
Auxerre Cathedral contains mostly new glass,
owing to Huguenot destruction in 1567. The
tenth figure on the north has a fine original head
of Moses with golden horns. The _ twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth figures of Daniel, St
Germain, and St Stephen are fine and mostly
original. In the rose above these two are eight
persons representing the Vices, and eight repre-
senting Virtues. The two central Hast windows
and the two next to them on the south have
much glaring new glass but fine old heads. All
240 STORIED WINDOWS
the grisaille is very beautiful. The central East
rose of the choir clerestory, next to the Vices
and Virtues, contains the Lamb and the animals of
the four Evangelists. South of this on the right
is a rose with eight personages representing the
Liberal Arts.
In the south transept the first window on the
east side is of splendid colour and well restored.
It has figures of St John the Baptist and St
John the Evangelist, with fine canopies of the
early fourteenth century. Next to this is a
charming fourteenth-century window with the
Annunciation.
The beautiful golden rose of the south transept
of Auxerre Cathedral is dated 1550. It contains
the Eternal Father surrounded by the Heavenly
Powers. Below the south Rose is a fine golden
window, with eight pictures of the history of
Moses, which has been beautifully restored. The
arms are those of the donor, the younger Frangois
de Dinteville.
The western Rose was given about 1550 by the
younger Frangois de Dinteville, who was Bishop
of Auxerre from 1530 to 1552. He succeeded the
elder Francois de Dinteville, the Bishop of Aux-
erre from 1513 to 1530, whose portrait is in the
window east of the north door at Montmorency.
The colour of the western Rose is very bright. In
the centre is God the Father surrounded by ten
red Seraphim with golden fires. Outside of these
are twenty Angels playing instruments of music,
and round them are twenty Apostles and Angels
AUXERRE CATHEDRAL 241
alternately. Above the rose is the Holy Trinity
with a cross with four fleurs-de-lis at each end.
The great window below the rose was given in 1573
by eight canons, whose patrons, 8.8. James, Chris-
topher, Charlemagne, Sebastian, Nicolas, Claude,
Eugéne, and one unknown, are represented in the
eight lights.
In the north transept to the left on entering is a
Jesse tree of the sixteenth century, incomplete but
with large handsome figures. In the great north
Rose is represented the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin, who is in the centre surrounded
by her emblems. Above is the Holy Trinity.
Beneath the rose is a splendid window of the
sixteenth century in great need of restoration.
It contains ten scenes of the history of Joseph.
The picture of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is fine
but rather too realistic. On the right side of
the north transept is a dull window of St John
the Baptist of 1570. The other window is
modern.
In the nave of the clerestory of the cathedral
of Auxerre, the first window on the north begin-
ning from the west is a transitional window of
the beginning of the sixteenth century with
cusped arch. It contains four large figures of
saints of rather dull colour. The second has a
Bishop and St Louis, of the sixteenth century.
The third has St Stephen and another Saint, and
the Virgin crowned, and the Holy Trinity, with
four fine canopies of the fifteenth century.
Q
242 STORIED WINDOWS
The fourth is a fifteenth-century window with
St Paul.
The fifth has four figures in a bad state.
On the south side of the nave beginning from the
south transept, the first is a beautiful window of
the fifteenth century, with St Charlemagne holding
a sword and an orb, St Catherine, St Louis holding
a sceptre, and St James.
The second is a fifteenth-century window with
St Peter holding the key.
The third has four female figures with canopies
surmounted by oriflammes, each charged with a
golden horse-shoe.
The fourth is the famous allegorical window
of the Vessel of God assailed by a crowd of
demons; St Stephen with a stone on his brow
stands on the poop, and several persons are
trying to climb on board with a ladder, and
others are running away. This is a_ beautiful
window of the sixteenth century.
In the fifth window on the south side the
Virgin Mary intercedes with her crucified Son.
In three fine roses above is the heavenly concert.
All this window is of the sixteenth century. In
the chapel of the south aisle of the nave next
to the organ are four fine canopies apparently
of late fourteenth century.
The whole cathedral of Auxerre is beautifully
light, and the view is not interrupted by non-
structural ornament. The lovely Lady Chapel
is supported by pillars so astonishingly light and
slender that they look as if they must give way,
AUXERRE CATHEDRAL 243
yet it has stood for seven centuries, for it was
built in 1215. The marvellous south portal with
its superb sculptures dates from the beginning of
the fourteenth century.
Eighty miles from Auxerre is Nevers, where
the traveller is within easy reach of Moulins or
Bourges.
244
CHAPTER XXXI.
ST FLORENTIN AND ERVY.
St FLoRENTIN is twelve miles from Auxerre on the
way to Troyes, and it is distant about six miles from
Pontigny. The interesting Renaissance church con-
tains twenty-three fine windows of early sixteenth
century, of which twelve are in the east end and in
the ambulatory and the rest high up in the clerestory
of the choir. Most of the windows contain instru-
ments of the guilds who gave them, and donors
with their children and patron saints. They are
all of strong colour and in good condition, for
Napoleon III. had them restored in 1863. The
ambulatory windows are so low down that they
can easily be examined and appreciated.
The first window beyond the transept on the
north side of the ambulatory of the choir contains
the legend of St Julian, who was told by a stag that
he would kill his father and mother, which he un-
consciously did, and expiated his deed as a ferryman.
The window is dated 1532.
The next window, dated 1529, contains ten
scenes from the Apocalypse, with God at the top
in a Pope’s tiara. This is very fine in conception
ST FLORENTIN 245
and colour. Beginning from the top the scenes are
taken from the Book of Revelations, chap. 1., x., xi,
Beni, VALLE WATS XVEL We We
The third, dated 1529, has the life of St John the
Baptist. It is very clear and finely drawn. The
six scenes begin with the appearance of the angel
to Zachariah and end with the baptism of Jesus
Christ. .
The fourth, at the end of the north aisle, contains
the death of St John the Baptist in six scenes. In
the tracery is a butcher's knife and hatchet, showing
that the Guild of Butchers gave this window, which
is dated 1529.
The fifth window is the first of the five windows
of the apse. It is dated 1528. It contains thirteen
very clear pictures of the legend of St Nicolas, each
illustrated by an explanatory quatrain. The legend
of St Nicolas is so often found in French windows
that it is worth while to transcribe these verses,
which give the legend as it stood in the sixteenth
century. With these may be compared the scenes
in the window of St Nicolas, in the south transept
of Sens, the last of which is not included in this
window at St Florentin, which has, however, the
additional incidents narrated in the 6th, 7th, 10th,
11th, 12th, and 13th stanzas.
1. Birth of St Nicolas, who stood upright in his
bath.
Saint Nicolas, a sa naissance,
Au bassin se leva tout droit,
Montrant Dieu que puissance
Au temps futur, il obtiendroit.
246 STORIED WINDOWS
2. St Nicolas gives money to a sick man of noble
birth for his three daughters.
Trois filles avait un gentilhomme ;
Mais malade estait faible et las;
D’argent lui donna grosse somme,
Le glorieux saint Nicolas.
3. The father troubles St Nicolas with thanks.
Le pére, 4 deux genoux, remercie
St Nicolas de son auméne
Lequel, bien mazrri, le prie
De n’en parler 4 personne.
4, St Nicolas at Myra is found praying in the
church.
A Myre, cité trés exquise,
Aprés diverses élections
De prélats, il fut, en V’église,
Trouvé en dévote oraison.
5. He is consecrated Bishop of Myra.
Puis, sacré fust, en union,
Evesque, en grosse révérence ;
Out Dieu servit, sans fiction,
En faisant fruit de pénitence.
6. He overthrows an idolatrous tree of Diana.
Le bon et gracieux pasteur,
Amateur de la foy chrestienne,
Fit couper l’arbre de hauteur,
Ou était adorée Diane.
7. He procures corn from shipmen of Alexandria
to relieve his fellow-citizens, without their cargo
growing less.
Saint Nicolas, par bon moyen,
Des blés de ceux d’Alexandrie.
En substanta ses concitoyens,
Sans leur mesure étre amoindrie.
ST FLORENTIN 247
8. St Nicolas saves the lives of three noblemen
who were going to be unjustly beheaded.
Trois gentilshommes, injustement
Estoient préts a décapiter
Quand saint Nicolas hardiment
Vint au bourreau l’espée dter.
9. St Nicolas saves sailors from shipwreck.
Mariniers, en une galée (z.e., galley)
Périssoient par force d’orage ;
Par saint Nicolas est allée
Au port sans avoir dommage.
10. The Devil, disguised as a Nun, gives false oil
to the pilgrims to burn the Saint’s church.
Le diable, par un faux stile,
En forme de nonnain se fit,
Donna a pélerins fausse huile
Pour briler l’église du saint.
11. A Christian gets money unfairly from a Jew,
and hides it with perjury in a stick.
Ung chrestien d’un Juif emporta
Argent pris cavilleusement;
Dedans un baston le bouta,
Soy parjurant en serment:
12. God causes the Christian to lose the money
in the stick, and he is killed by a cart.
S’en retournant a sa maison,
Dieu, qui voit tout, lui fit perdre
Largent qu il avait en baston.
Lui occis par une charrette.
248 STORIED WINDOWS
13. The Miracle of the child with a golden cup,
who was drowned, and resuscitated by St Nicolas.
En mer, se noya ung enfant
Tenant une coupe dorée
Par saint Nicolas triomphant
Lui fut la vie restaurée.
In the lowest panels are the donor with his son
and grandson, and his wife with three daughters
and six granddaughters.
The window of the apse to the left of the Hast
window, dated 1527, contains the legend of St
Florentin, the converted pagan martyred by King
Crocus, who became blind and was converted, in
fifteen pictures with illustrative quatrains, and
donors below. In the closing scenes two countesses
visit the chateau of St Florentin, and bring the
saint’s skull and bone: a dead child is revived by
these relics: the church of St Florentin is dedi-
cated by the Archbishop of Sens. In the tracery
is St Florentin as an armed horseman, with his
companions St Aphrodite to the left and St Hilaire
on the right. The East window contains the legend
of St Martin of Tours with illustrative verses, dated
1528. In the twelve pictures, he is born, educated,
becomes a soldier, gives half of his cloak to a poor
man at the gate of Amiens: Jesus appears wearing
the half cloak: Martin is baptised by St Hilaire:
a demon appears to him: he converts one of three
brigands: he is consecrated Archbishop of Tours:
he builds the Monastery of Moustier: he is expelled
from Milan by Arians; he miraculously clears the
land of Vipers. At the summit of the tracery is
ST FLORENTIN 249
the death of St Martin. In three of the pictures
are three donors being presented by St Louis,
St Francis, and St Hilaire. Below this window
is some wonderful Renaissance sculpture in _ bas-
relief of the Resurrection and Passion, dated 1548,
which is classed as a Monument Historique like the
Prieta opposite to it of the fifteenth century.
The window to the right, south of the Hast win-
dow, is dated 1525. It contains seventeen very
remarkable pictures of the Creation, resembling the
well-known Creation window in Sainte Madeleine
at Troyes, and greatly excelling the Creation win-
dow at Chalons. The scenes in this window com-
mence at the top on the left. In the first three are
the Creator, in a Pope’s golden tiara, looking at
Chaos: the Creator and the light: the Creator and
the Sun, Moon, and Stars. The next three below
these represent the separation of Harth and Water:
the creation of trees: and of animals. The next
three are the creation of Adam: and of Eve: and
God forbids them to eat the fruit. In the next
three, the serpent tempts Eve: God rebukes Adam
and Eve: the Angel drives them from Paradise (this
scene is not in the window at Ste Madeleine in
Troyes). In the last four scenes Adam builds a
shelter: Abel’s sacrifice is accepted: Cain kills
Abel: Cain and his descendants become wanderers.
Below is the donor with three sons, and his wife
with three daughters. This is a very clear window
of fine colour. It is interesting to compare the
French Creation windows with those in Malvern
Priory and St Neot, Cornwall.
250 STORIED WINDOWS
Next to the Creation window is a window con-
taining a picture of the Immaculate Conception,
with much bright red and gold, dated 1525. The
Virgin is surrounded by emblems, with quotations
from the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and Ezekiel.
This symbolical representation of the Immaculate
Conception, with fifteen emblems, is not found
before the end of the fifteenth century. The same
subject is depicted in a window in St Alpin’s
Church at Chalons. The window with a Jesse tree
at the end of the south aisle is mostly hidden.
Next to this on the south side is a window, dated
1524, containing the Nativity, the Assumption of
the Virgin, and the Adoration of the Magi.
West of this on the south side is a modern
window, and beyond this is a fine window in
grisaille and yellow, with nine pictures in three
rows, of which the subjects are: the marriage of
the Virgin and Joseph: the Annunciation: the
Visitation: the Nativity: Joseph’s dream: the
Flight into Egypt: Jesus at Nazareth: Jesus
amid the Doctors: the death of Joseph.
In the choir clerestory of St Florentin are eleven
splendid windows of the sixteenth century. The
first on the north side, entering from the west,
is dated 1575, and contains the Last Supper.
The second, of 1550, has the kiss of Judas, and
Peter striking Malchus.
The third, of 1548, contains the Scourging and
the Crown of Thorns.
In the fourth is Christ leaving the Preetorium ;
Ecce Homo.
ST FLORENTIN 251
The fifth represents the carrying of the Cross.
The East window has a beautiful picture of the
Crucifixion, with the arms of Gui de Laval, who
married Claude de Foix and thus became Seigneur
of St Florentin.
On the south side of the clerestory are five win-
dows with the Burial: the Resurrection: Christ
appearing to the Apostles, and the incredulity of
St Thomas: the Ascension, and the Descent of the
Holy Ghost: and St Peter and Ananias.
In the north transept are two seventeenth-century
windows in grisaille with yellow stain, dated 1683
and 1684, They are much smudged with enamel
paint. In the north aisle the first window is dated
1619. It contains a few fine heads, but it is much
worn, showing how the windows of the seventeenth
century are liable to perish.
The church of St Florentin is noted for one of
the few stone screens at the entrance of the choir,
which have escaped destruction in France. The
two most celebrated screens of this kind are in
Ste Madeleine, Troyes, and at Albi, forty-five miles
north-east of Toulouse. Others are found in Notre
Dame de l’Epine, near Chalons, and in Notre Dame
de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse, also in St Etienne
du Mont at Paris, and at Arques, near Dieppe.
The French name for this Rood-screen is Jubé,
because, from the Rood-loft or gallery on top, the
deacon, before the Gospel was read, used to chant
the words, ‘‘ Jube Domine dicere.”
252 STORIED WINDOWS
ERVY.
From St Florentin to Troyes is thirty-five miles.
On the way lies Ervy, which is a small town pic-
turesquely situated on a hill above the railway.
In the church there are twelve windows; eight
of these are in a poor state, but the other four are
very original and remarkable windows of the early
part of the sixteenth century. They are of bright
colour, and are well worth visiting between two
trains. Three of these are in the south aisle. The
third window from the west is dated 1515. It is
the famous window of the Sibyls, of which there
are twelve instead of the usual ten. In it are
twelve scenes of the life of Christ, each with the
Sibyl who prophesied the event, with her name
inscribed. At the foot is the Annunciation, prophe-
sied by the Hetepontina Sibyl, and Christ in the
Manger (Samia). Above this the Virgin is tram-
pling on a demon (PrErsica) between the new-born
Child (Cumana) and the Child suckling (CYEMERIA).
Next is the Flight into Egypt (Europa), and Christ
the Light of the World (Lista). In the centre of
the light is the Virgin and Child in a splendid
golden aureole, with Isaiah and a Sibyl. To the
right is the Crown of Thorns (DretpxHia). Above
this is the Scourging (AcRiIppA), and Jesus blind-
folded and buffeted (ErirHEere); and lastly, the
Crucifixion (TrBpuRTINE), and the Resurrection
(FrickA, «.e., Phrygia). In the tracery is the
Last Judgment with the first three lines of Dies
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ERVY.
TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH. 1502.
ERVY 253
Ire, but no Hell. At the foot on right and left
are two large panels of donors. These graphic and
well-coloured pictures are pleasantly drawn.
In the beautiful window east of the window of
the Sibyls, dated 1515, are twelve very vivid
pictures of the martyrdom of St Christine of
Bolsena (the ancient Vulsinii) in Tuscany, with
an inscription under each panel. In the first
Christine steals an idol; she is brought before
her pagan father Urban, an officer of Diocletian ;
she is beaten by his orders. In the fourth picture
Christine is imprisoned with snakes, but delivered
by Jesus Christ. In the next four scenes Christine
is tied to a pillar and scourged, and her feet are
cut: she is tied to a razored wheel, and made to
drink boiling oil by a man inspired by a red demon:
she is sent back to prison: she is thrown with a
stone into the Lake of Bolsena. In the last four
panels Christ baptises Christine with the water of
the Volsinian mere: she meets her father and a
huge purple demon: she is placed in a heated
chaldron, and her scalp is pulled off, and brain
torn out with pincers; but in the following panel
she appears in a sort of round oven filled with
roses. The scenes are continued in the tracery
till, at the summit of all, her soul is received
by God.
Next to this, on the south wall of the aisle of the
church at Ervy, is the celebrated window, dated
1502, of five lights, of which three in the centre
contain the six Triumphs of Petrarch in two rows.
In the lower row are Love, Chastity, and Death;
254 STORIED WINDOWS
and above these are Renown, Eternity, and Time.
Eternity occupies the central panel with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob (‘‘not the dead, but the living”),
and the idea is continued in the tracery by the
Trinity of God, the Lamb, and the Dove, with
the Virgin and St John the Baptist, and St John
the Evangelist, having a purified human soul
crowned between them,—altogether a very remark-
able series of pictures of vivid imagination. At the
foot is a brilliant picture of the Virgin and Child
between two donors. In the outer left light is a
grisaille picture of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.
On the north side of the choir is a large Renais-
sance window of about 1570. The centre of this
exhibits the Fall of Man and his Redemption in a
way which is unusual if not unique. Christ is
represented as Crucified on the Tree of Knowledge,
at the top of which are green leaves and apples;
on one side is Eve holding a Janus-like head with a
face of Death at the back and a live face in front.
Facing her is Adam on the other side of the
tree. Below are donors, and at the base is a
very curious Bacchanalian bas-relief in grisaille.
In the left light is Job, and in the right-hand
light is Tobias. Above these are two large
circles with donors’ arms, supported by two griffins
and two geese.
In the choir clerestory is a poor grisaille window,
dated 1588. Fortunately the church of Ervy has
been scheduled as a Monument Historique, so that
these interesting windows are in the charge of the
Beaux-Arts, and are certain to be kept in good repair.
CHAPTER XXXII.
TROYES CATHEDRAL.
TROYES is a paradise of the glass-hunter; no other
town in England or France, except York and
Rouen, can vie with it in respect of the number of
.its churches and the amount and variety of the old
glass concentrated in them. For the quantity of
fine windows, both genuine and ancient, at Troyes
is so great as to be almost bewildering; so that
it seems difficult to decide where to begin. It
seems natural to start with the cathedral of St
Peter and St Paul, though it is hard to pass
St Urbain on the way to the Cathedral without
stopping to examine it.
The choir of Troyes Cathedral was built in the
early part of the thirteenth century, more than two
hundred years before the nave, which was not built
till the latter half of the fifteenth century. The
glass shows the same difference in date, for the
eastern glass all belongs to the thirteenth century
or the beginning of the fourteenth, while the glass
in the clerestory of the nave is all of about the
date of 1500. ‘This clerestory glass in the nave is
of the same splendid colouring as the glass in the
256 STORIED WINDOWS
south transept at Sens, being done by the same
artists about the same time. The Cathedral seems
to the visitor to be full to overflowing with rich
colour, because the triforium is as completely filled
with coloured glass pictures as the rest of the
building, though the glass in the triforium of the
Choir is all modern with the exception of a very
few figures. |
The magnificent clerestory of the Choir contains
eight noble windows of the thirteenth century, four
on each side, and five of the beginning of the four-
teenth century at the east end. The four large
windows on the north side are of three lights each,
surmounted by three roses, each containing a large
circular medallion. The lights are narrowed by the
border which encircles three figures (or pairs of
figures) in each light, one above the other, separated
by half medallions containing floral scrolls. The
first to the north on entering the choir contains
the history of St Helena, with Adam and Eve at
the top. It has an unusual amount of white in the
border and in three of the figures; one figure has a
brilliant yellow robe.
The second window, containing the legend of St
Savinien, has several figures partially dressed in
white.
The third window contains gorgeous single
figures, including Henry I., Emperor of Con-
stantinople, Pope Innocent III., Bishop Hervée
(who built the choir), Pierre de Corbeil, Archbishop
of Sens, and King Philip Augustus; three of these
figures are robed in yellow.
CATHEDRAL OF TROYES 257
The fourth, with the legend of St Nicolas, con-
tains much fine blue. Each of these four windows
has a different border.
The five windows at the east end are of two
lights each, broader than the others, with one rose
with a circular medallion.
The first window at the east end of the choir
clerestory of Troyes Cathedral has six large oval
medallions with blue borders, with figure subjects
of the Nativity, the Magi, and the Massacre of the
Innocents.
The second is a bright window with six oblong
panels of very clear figure subjects of the Death and
Assumption of the Virgin.
The East window is brilliant, but apparently
much restored; the subjects in it are the Passion
and the Crucifixion.
The first window south of this contains the story
of St John the Evangelist ; it is a fine window with
large figures and a good deal of white, making a
good pair with the corresponding window to the
north of the East window.
The second to the south of the Hast window has
the story of St Peter and St Paul in six oval medal-
lions, with much blue in the border; also making a
good pair with the window opposite.
Next to this, on the south, is the first of the four
on the right side of the choir clerestory. This has
three large single figures of Martyrs in each of the
four lights.
The second on the south side has the story of the
R
258 STORIED WINDOWS
Wise and Foolish Virgins, with a wonderful purple
demon at the foot of one light. Two of the robes
are white and two are yellow, and there is much
white in the borders. The third contains the trans-
lation of Relics from Constantinople. The broad
borders are blue, and the figures are very dark.
The fourth is a bright window with several white
robes ; it seems to have been given by Blanche of
Castille, the mother of St Louis, for it has a border
of golden flewrs-de-lis and castles on a blue ground.
In the middle of the left light is a huge fiend. The
subjects are the legend of Théophile very graphic-
ally depicted, and Adam and Eve before the Tree
of Knowledge. The whole effect of the thirteen
windows of the choir clerestory of Troyes Cathedral
is very bright and clear, but they are much lighter
than the clerestory windows of Chartres. The choir
looks like a pavilion all of glass, with only sufficient
stone to hold it together and frame the glass.
There are fifteen windows with thirteenth-cen-
tury glass in the ambulatory of Troyes Cathedral,
all restored. Of these, seven are in the north side
of the ambulatory, five in the Lady Chapel, and
three in the first chapel on the south. The
amount of new glass makes these of less interest
than most windows of the thirteenth century.
Besides these, there is in the first chapel of the
north ambulatory the only round-arched window
in the Cathedral, as this is the part built first in
1220. This window contains a fine broad border,
nearly as wide as the centre, which is filled with
white glass. The first coloured window in the
CATHEDRAL OF TROYES 259
north ambulatory contains a remarkably beautiful
Byzantine-looking Jesse tree, which has been well
restored; the figure of David in this window is
illustrated in Westlake, i. p. 79. There are also
very fine windows in grisaille of the thirteenth
century in the ambulatory.
The clerestory of the nave has five large windows
on each side of six lights, filled with splendid glass
of the beginning of the sixteenth century (1498-
1501) of most brilliant colour. Of those to the
north on the left side, the first from the west has
the story of the true Cross, by Verrat. In the
triforium are Haman, Mordecai, and Esther, and
the carrying of the Cross.
The second has the legend of St Sebastian, by
Lyénin, which is continued in the triforium.
The third contains the story of Job. This fine
window deserves special examination. The same
subject is found in St Patrice, Rouen. In the
triforium are the Nativity and the Magi.
The fourth has the history of Tobias, which is
continued in the triforium.
The fifth has the history of St Peter. In the
triforium are St Antony, St Louis, St Gond, and
St Catherine.
Of the five windows on the south side of the nave
clerestory of Troyes Cathedral, the first has the
story of Daniel, which is continued in the triforium.
The second has the story of Joseph, which is
continued in the triforium.
The third contains the Prodigal Son. In the tri-
forium are the Annunciation and the three Maries.
260 STORIED WINDOWS
The fourth has a Jesse tree, by Lyénin, and the
donor and his family at the base. This window is
strangely assigned by Merson to the beginning of
the fourteenth century. In the triforium are
Isaiah, Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, St Guillaume,
and St John the Baptist as patron of the donor.
Day gives illustrations of the Prodigal Son in
‘Windows,’ Ist edition, p. 194, and of Tobit, p.
196, and of the Jesse tree, p. 366.
The fifth, by Verrat and Godon, contains St John
the Baptist as patron saint of two donors, and St
Stephen, St Helena, St Matthias, St James, St
Loup, St Savinien, the Virgin, St Peter, St Paul,
and St Nizier. This window is wrongly attributed
by Merson, ‘ Les Vitraux,’ p. 126, to the fourteenth
century ; but in Troyes the beautiful Jesse tree is
said to be by Lyénin in 1499, and the twelve saints
by Verrat and Godon in 1498. Day, p. 366, also
regards this Jesse tree as of the later date. In the
triforium is the Crucifixion.
The beautiful Western Rose of 1546 contains God
the Father in the centre surrounded by Angels,
Patriarchs, Apostles, and Martyrs; much of the
colour is of a fine golden hue.
In the north aisle of the nave of Troyes
Cathedral are three coloured windows, beginning
in the third chapel from the west. Of these the
first contains Apostles, but most of the glass is new.
The second is the famous window by Linard Gontier
known as the Pressoir, 2.e., the wine-press; it is
dated 1625 in two places. It represents our Saviour
being crushed in a wine-press, and His blood flow-
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TROYES CATHEDRAL.
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CATHEDRAL OF TROYES 261
ing into achalice. The figure of the Saviour is in
light reddish-brown enamel paint; from His breast
springs a vine in whose branches are seated twelve
beautiful demi-figures of Apostles. At the base are
two fine portraits of donors, a Canon on the left
with St John the Baptist, and a Knight of Malta
at the right with St Francis of Assisi, The back-
ground is white, which suggests the thought that
the picture would have stood out still better from
a ground of light blue or some other colour. The
inscription Torcular calrabi solugs is taken from
Isaiah lxiii. 3, “I have trodden the wine - press
alone,” a most inapposite quotation, for our Saviour
is distinctly not ‘‘ treading” the wine-press in which
He is being crushed.
The third window in the north aisle has six
pictures in three lights under canopies of a dis-
agreeable orange-yellow colour. This window is
assigned to the fourteenth century, but it seems
almost entirely restored.
The first window from the west in the south aisle
contains the Virgin amid a choir of Angels, and
above is God the Father and a choir of Angels.
In this window may be noticed a remarkable feat
of the glazier. The golden stars have been leaded
into holes cut out of the blue glass without break-
ing it, a very difficult operation to do before the
diamond was used. The French term this repiqué
en chef-d’cuvre, or “ transplanted as a masterpiece ”;
because any apprentice who could do this was
accepted as a master craftsman. Opposite to this
in the clerestory is a window by Verrat, in which
262 STORIED WINDOWS
not one of the holes has been successfully made
without breaking the glass, as the lead shows. In
the church of St Nizier are more than a hundred
instances of successful repiquage en chef-d'euvre.
In the Musée de Sculpture in the Trocadéro in Paris
there are specimens in Nos. 100 and 101 from Autun.
The second window has only coloured tracery.
The third is a window of the fourteenth century.
In it are eight saints with orange-yellow canopies.
The elaborate tracery is full of colour. ;
The fourth is a similar window of the fourteenth
century, restored ; it contains the story of StJ oachim.
and St Anne with brilliant coloured tracery.
The fifth, also of the fourteenth century, contains —
St James, St Peter, and St John the Evangelist with
fine coloured tracery.
The rose of the north transept of Troyes
Cathedral is mostly white. On the west side of
the transept is a window with St Catherine. On
the east wall of the north transept are two
sixteenth-century windows with large figures of
Apostles, Prophets, and Saints. The inner one has
golden Renaissance frames.
In the south transept the first window on the
right contains four large figures of Saints Peter,
Claude, Paul, and John, and two donors. The
second window, dated 1534, has St Ambrose, St
Jerome, St Gregory, and Hennequin, Bishop of
Troyes.
On the west wall of the south transept are two
windows with St John the Evangelist and St Michael.
The south rose contains terribly new glass.
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Jesus WASHING THE APOSTLES’ FEET. XIIITH CENTURY.
263
CHAPTER XXXII.
ST URBAIN, TROYES.
THE church of St Urbain is the most beautiful small
Gothic church that ever was built. Like the great
buildings of Chartres and St Ouen at Rouen, and
the lovely Gothic choir of Auxerre Cathedral, it
owes a great deal of its beauty to the extremely
short time occupied in building it. It was com-
menced in 1262, and the choir was finished in
1266; the building was interrupted after this, and
the upper part of the nave was left unfinished, till in
recent times it was completed owing to the untiring
exertions and well-directed zeal of 1 Abbé O. F. Jossier,
the genial and accomplished Curé of the church, whose
excellent and fully illustrated monograph on the
windows of his beloved church contains full infor-
mation on all points connected with them.
Pope Urbain IV., one of the few French popes,
was the son of a shoemaker at Troyes, and when
he became Pope in 1261 he sent a sum equivalent
to about £150,000 to build a church of Saint Urbain
where his father’s house stood in his native town.
Being on very friendly terms with St Louis, he had
264 STORIED WINDOWS
the good fortune to secure the services of the whole
body of craftsmen who had just finished building
the Sainte Chapelle for St Louis in Paris, which
enabled the work begun in 1262 to be pushed on
very rapidly. On his death in 1264 his nephew,
Cardinal Ancher, also from Troyes, continued the
work till 1266, when it was interfered with by a
neighbouring nunnery, which caused the work to.
be entirely stopped when Cardinal Ancher died in
1286, never to be renewed till 1876. Since that
time about £50,000 has been spent in completing
the building. There must be few churches of so
small a size which have cost £200,000 to build.
But the money has been well spent in producing
such a unique gem of Gothic architecture. Though
the size of the church is quite moderate, yet it
seems spacious inside, because it is not blocked up
anywhere by non-structural ornament, and so its
beautiful proportions can be seen at the first glance,
the more readily as it is extremely well lighted.
Almost all the old glass is in the choir and apse
chapels; for the nave has been completely glazed
since the restoration, which began in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century. Most of the
modern windows are by the eminent French artist
Edouard Didron, who died in 1902, leaving six
windows of the nave to be done by his successor
J. B. Anglade.
The most striking glass in St Urbain is the great
series of Patriarchs and Prophets which stand, one
in each light, all round the clerestory of the choir,
with the exception of a modern Crucifixion in the
TROYES: ST URBAIN 265
Hast window. All these fine figures with archaic
faces are of the transitional period of the end of
the thirteenth century and the beginning of the
fourteenth. ach figure is surmounted by a small
architectural structure which exhibits the com-
mencement of the strongly coloured architectural
canopy, which is characteristic of the fourteenth
- century.
The first window on each side is of four lights
surmounted by two trefoils and a quatrefoil enclos-
ing a medallion; the medallion of the one on the
north contains St Margaret and the dragon-fiend,
and in the medallion opposite to this on the south
is St Andrew martyred on his cross. The other
seven windows are of three lights with three quatre-
foils each enclosing a central medallion. The lower
half of each of these windows is filled with grisaille
of the end of the thirteenth century, and round
each light runs a narrow coloured border. The five
windows of the apse have particularly fine borders
with the arms of Champagne and Navarre, and of
France and the Chapter of St Urbain. The arms
of France, as they were blazoned in the thirteenth
century, were d'azur semé de fleurs-de-lys d’or sans
nombre, 1.¢e., “azure sown with countless golden
fleurs-de-lis” ; these were altered in 1376 to three
fleurs-de-lis, in honour of the Holy Trinity, by
Charles V. The later shield of France after this
alteration can be seen in the window given by
Henri Deux at Grand Andely.
The first window on the north side of the apse
clerestory of St Urbain with the Prophets Amos,
266 STORIED WINDOWS
Aggeus, Jonas, and @see, and the second with
Ayam, Sam (Shem), and Wsaie merit careful ex-
amination to appreciate the masterly design of
the attitudes and drapery. The third window
in the clerestory on the north side contains a
very impressive Zakarias and a Weniamin wearing
gauntlets and looking like a woman (illustrated in
the article on Stained Glass in the ‘ Encyclopedia
Britannica’), and a second Qmog, In the fourth
clerestory window fIgel and Nov are original, but
Abraham is in modern glass.
In the central East window of the choir clerestory
of St Urbain, the Christ is modern and the Virgin
is mostly restored, but St John is almost all orig-
inal. The first window to the right of the Hast
window on the south side of the apse clerestory has
Zeby on the left, and in the centre a despondent-
looking unhaloed figure of @ham, 2.e., Ham, the
wicked son of Noah, a surprising apparition among
the holy Prophets and Patriarchs. The figure is
in deep purple with a dark yellow bonnet on a
blue ground. Day illustrates this in ‘ Windows,’
Ist ed., p. 156. The figure of Samuel to the right
of Cham has a grand yellow cloak. The second
clerestory window on the south has another Jgnas,
and fflicheas and Sophonias. The third to the
south has Johannes (the Baptist), Pieremiag and
abacuc. The fourth and last contains Peliseus,
Losey, Abdias, and Wubam (Reuben). In some of
these windows is displayed an economy of design
similar to that in St Pierre, Chartres, and St Remi,
Reims; for the figure of the first Amos reappears
ST URBAIN, TROYES.
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TROYES: ST URBAIN 267
as Shem, and the figures of the first Jonas and of
Adam and Levi are all from the same cartoon.
M. Jossier gives a most careful description of each
figure with precise details as to the exact parts
which have been restored.
Below the five eastern windows are five more,
separated only by their own tracery from those
above; a most unusual arrangement, for they do
not form a triforium. This lower range is entirely
filled with beautiful glass of late thirteenth cen-
tury, with the exception of the medallion of the
Resurrection in the fourth window, which is in
modern glass by Didron. In each window there
are three medallions of the Life of Christ, begin-
ning in the first window on the north with three
most beautiful medallions, first of Jesus in the
Temple (illustrated by Viollet-le-Duc in ‘ Diction-
naire d’Architecture, vol. ix. p. 432); second, Jesus
entering Jerusalem; and third, Jesus washing St
Peter’s feet. In this third medallion is Judas with
a halo weighing a purse in his left hand and feel-
ing money in his right. The cross usual in Christ's
halo is blue in the first medallion and white in the
other two. Viollet-le-Duc, p. 431, says of these
three medallions: “They are executed with rare
perfection. They are miniatures in glass.” The
second lower window contains the Kiss of Judas:
Christ before Pilate (whose staff is artlessly tipped
with a fleur-de-lis, like the Cross above the western
rose at Auxerre): and the carrying of the Cross.
The third lower window at the east end of the
choir of St Urbain contains the Scourging, the
268 STORIED WINDOWS
Crucifixion (where the head and body are by
Didron), and the Descent from the Cross (where
the heads of Christ, St John, and Nicodemus are
by Didron).
The fourth has the Resurrection; Christ appear-
ing to Mary Magdalene (not holding the usual
spade, but a Cross); and Mary Magdalene in the
house of Simon the Pharisee wiping our Saviour’s
feet with her hair. The grisaille of this window
is admirable, but most of the grisaille in St Urbain
deserves special attention.
The fifth and last of the lower windows has
Christ visiting the Spirits in Prison: Christ ap-
pearing to the Apostles after the Resurrection:
and the Ascension, where only the feet of the
ascended Lord are visible, as in the Renaissance
window in the clerestory on the south side of the
nave of St Etienne-du-Mont, near the Panthéon
in Paris.
In the Lady Chapel of St Urbain are four win-
dows containing the closing scenes of the Blessed
Virgin’s life, in modern glass, by Didron. In the
third and fourth of these windows there are a
number of circles in the quatrefoils containing
little heads beautifully drawn of monks, emperors,
peasants, women, children, and animals. More
than half of these 106 heads are of the thirteenth
century. Forty-two are illustrated in M. Jossier’s
monograph.
The other chapel at the east end of St Urbain is
called the Chapelle de Saint Joseph; it contains
four windows, each with two medallions, making
a
TROYES: ST URBAIN 269
eight in all, three of which are of genuine thir-
teenth-century glass, and the other five are by
Didron. In the first window the medallion of the
Annunciation is entirely composed of the original
glass; in the second window is the original
medallion of the Visitation; and in the fourth
window the medallion of the Massacre of the
Innocents is ancient.
The third window is now filled with Didron’s
glass, but the two finest medallions belonging to
it were photographed in 1876, when the glass was
sent away for restoration; after the glass came
back, it was discovered by comparing the photo-
graphs that these two medallions had been stolen.
But the indefatigable Curé, M. Jossier, sent photo-
graphs of the missing medallions all over France,
and luckily discovered them in the possession of
a private collector, and it is believed that the
present owner has the generous intention of re-
storing them to the church.
In the north transept the right-hand window on
the east side contains grisaille of the thirteenth
century. The two north windows have ancient
thirteenth-century glass in the tracery, where there
are three medallions of St Martin of Tours, and
three of the martyrdom of St Stephen. The west
window on the left of the north transept has in
one light Christ on the Cross, of fine work of the
sixteenth century; the other lights contain glass
by Didron. The two small windows over the north
door contain old glass.
In the south transept the window on the east
270 STORIED WINDOWS
side also contains grisaille of the thirteenth cen-
tury; and the two small windows over the south
door likewise contain old glass. In the tracery of
the large left-hand window in the south wall of the
transept are three medallions of the thirteenth
century. In the right-hand one is St Eloi as a
goldsmith pointing red-hot pincers at a demon who
has the face of a young woman. The left-hand
medallion has St Germain (head restored) blessing
Sainte Geneviéve and her parents. In the upper
medallion Sainte Geneviéve as a shepherdess with
sheep is imploring Attila, the King of the Huns, to
spare the city of Paris, as in the sixteenth-century
window at St Julien du Sault.
At the west end of the nave aisles are two
windows, at the top of each of which is beautiful
glass of the end of the fifteenth century.
On the wall of the north aisle of the nave the
second window from the west has fine golden-
coloured stain at the top, and figures of the early
sixteenth century.
SAINTE MADELEINE AT TROYES.
Some of the finest glass of the sixteenth century
is to be found in the church of Sainte Madeleine, in
- five windows at the east end. There are also two
beautiful windows of the latter half of the fifteenth
century. The church is also famous for its wonderful
Jubé or Rood-sereen of lace-like stonework, which
rivals the one in the cathedral at Albi. The first
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CREATION WINDOW.
MADELEINE,
TROYES.
XVITH CENTURY.
TROYES: SAINTE MADELEINE 271
window is at the east end of the north aisle; it is
a window of 1517, representing the history of St
Louis. At the bottom are the donor and his wife,
the coronation of St Louis, and the ending of the
regency of his mother, Blanche of Castille. In the
next three pictures above are the submission of the
Count of Champagne, the marriage of St Louis, St
Louis receiving the Crown of Thorns. The third set
contains St Louis punishing miscreants: his Morti-
fication : his reception of the poor at his table. In
the fourth set St Louis washes the feet of the poor:
he visits the plague-stricken: he is present at the
Council of Lyons. In the tracery are St Yves: St
Louis ransoming prisoners: burying the plague-
stricken: and founding the Quinze-Vingts.
The window to the left of the Hast window
contains the celebrated pictures of the Creation,
much resembling the window at St Florentin; but
this one begins from the lowest left-hand corner,
with the Creator in a Papal tiara creating light
out of chaos in the first four panels. The next
four above these have the creation of animals:
birds: Adam: Eve. The third four have the birth
of Cain and Abel: the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel:
the death of Abel: the Deluge. In the four upper-
most are Abraham and Melchizedek : the sacrifice of
Isaac: Joseph bound: the Brazen Serpent. Above
these in the arches of each light are the Annunci-
ation: Visitation: Manger: and Magi. But there
is no picture of the Expulsion from Paradise, like
the one in the window at St Florentin. |
The central Hast window of 1506 contains the
272 STORIED WINDOWS
history of St Eloi, the patron of goldsmiths, evid-
ently given by the Guild of Goldsmiths, whose arms
are at the foot. Next to these arms, in the lowest
pictures, are the prediction of St Eloi’s birth: his
birth: he is a goldsmith’s apprentice. In the next
four are St Eloi reading the Bible in his workshop:
his apprentice setting a ring: St Eloi is relieving
poor travellers: the people of Noyon are offering to
St Eloi the cross and mitre (illustrated p. 51). In
the third set St Eloi and St Ouen are being con-
secrated as Bishops in the cathedral of Rouen: St
Eloi is preaching: St Eloi is on his deathbed: the
Duchesse de Thérouanne is watching a bright cross,
2.¢., the soul of the Saint going up to Heaven. In
the fourth set St Eloi lies on his tomb in priestly
robes: the poor and sick are at his tomb: the
plague-stricken Duc de Thérouanne is praying at
the tomb: the Duchesse is thanking the Saint for
her husband’s recovery from the plague.
To the right of the East window in the church
of Sainte Madeleine at Troyes is a fine Jesse tree.
At the east end of the south aisle is a beauti-
ful fifteenth-century window of about 1470. The
subject is the Passion. Next to this, on the
south, is another fine window of the fifteenth
century, of about the same date or a little later,
containing the story of Mary Magdalene.
The next window contains the Triumph of the
Cross, of the sixteenth century. Beyond this is
a window containing some fragments of old glass.
These windows are very brilliant in colour and
clear in execution, and their restoration has been
TROYES: ST NIZIER 273
well done. They are so low down that it is easy
to appreciate the pictures, while the magnificent
colouring speaks for itself. They are among the
most satisfactory of all Renaissance windows.
The East window of the choir clerestory has a
Crucifixion in grisaille of 1532, with a light blue
ground above, in which are white angels with
ruby wings and a red demon with bat’s wings.
On the south side of the clerestory next to the
East window are two windows of fine strong
colour. One of these, of 1580, represents Hcce
Homo. The other, also of the sixteenth century,
contains the Magi.
SAINT NIZIER AT TROYES.
The church of St Nizier was entirely rebuilt in
1528. It contains numerous windows of the six-
teenth century, and the East window is of the
beginning of the seventeenth century. The whole
east end produces a pleasant impression of bright
and strongly coloured pictures.
In the choir clerestory are five good windows.
The first on the north contains the Ages of Man.
The second has Jesus in His Mother’s lap, Sainte
Barbe and the Passion. The brilliantly coloured
East window of 1613 contains the Apostles and the
Virgin receiving the Holy Ghost. The first on the
south has St Nizier: the Annunciation: and the
death of the Virgin. The second on the south
s
274 STORIED WINDOWS
has the Descent from the Cross: the Resurrection :
Christ appearing to His Mother and to Mary
Magdalene.
In the ambulatory chapels are six windows of
bright colour. In the first chapel on the north
are two windows in a very imperfect state. In
the second chapel is a Jesse tree and a window
with Cardinal Bonaventure, which were smashed
by an anarchist in 1901.
In the central Eastern chapel are three windows
with the legend of Sainte Syre: the Crucifixion :
the legend of Saint Gilles.
In the chapel south of this are two windows with
St Sebastian and the legend of the Cross.
In the south transept of St Nizier is a magnifi-
cent window of about 1550, containing five splendid
figures of Religion trampling down five beasts and
birds representing Heresy. In the tracery is the
Holy Trinity.
The East window of the south transept contains
St John the Baptist.
In the chapel next to the south transept wall is
the legend of Théophile.
Above the south door is a grisaille of 1539 of St
Joachim and St Anne.
In the north transept the west window contains
the life of the Virgin, and the east window has the
story of St Nicolas.
In the nave clerestory the first window on the
north has the Virgin and Saints. The second
represents the Apocalypse. The third has the
Seven Sacraments in grisaille of 1570. On the
|
TROYES: ST MARTIN-ES-VIGNES 275
south side is a vigorous Last Judgment of 1560,
and a Crucifixion and the four Maries.
ST MARTIN-ES-VIGNES AT TROYES.
The church of St Martin-és-Vignes was built in
1590, and it is celebrated for its beautiful windows,
some of which are by Linard Gontier, one of the last
artists of Renaissance glass, who made admirable
glass pictures even in the early part of the seven-
teenth century. The pictures are so fine and clear
that they tell their own tale; therefore it is only
necessary to draw attention to a few of the most
remarkable.
In the first chapel on the north side of the nave
is a fine window with St Claude, Ste Anne, the
Assumption, and St John the Baptist, by Linard
Gontier, the son.
Next to this is the taking of Jerusalem by Titus,
of 1618.
In the north transept on the west is Sainte
Gudule, of 1602, and on the east is the fine Trans-
figuration by Gontier.
In the north ambulatory of the cote is a fine
window of the life of St Jule.
In the south transept is a splendid window of the
Apocalypse, of 1611.
The first window on the north side of the choir to
the left has a life of St Peter by Gontier. Next to
this is a life of St John the Baptist by the same
artist.
276 STORIED WINDOWS
The finest window of all contains the story of Ste
Anne, in the chapel of Sainte Anne on the south
side of the choir (see Frontispiece). It is dated
1623 at the foot of the stairs. The colour is so
rich as to recall the windows of a hundred years
earlier. It has been attributed to Linard Gontier,
but this is disputed; at any rate it is the work of
some really great artist and colourist. The colour
certainly seems finer than most of Gontier’s work.
Four of the windows in St Martin-és-Vignes are
illustrated, pp. 81, 231, 234, 400 of Day’s ‘ Windows,’
1st edition.
In several other churches of Troyes, such as St
Jean, St Nicolas, St Pantaléon, there is also some
interesting glass. The best is in St Jean, the church
where Henry V. of England in 1420 married Charles
VI.’s daughter Katherine, who subsequently married
Owen Tudor, and thus became the grandmother of
Henry VII. Here the second and third windows in
the south aisle contain a very fine life of St John the
Baptist, of 1536 (which, however, resembles a picture
in reddish sepia rather than a window), and a cele-
brated Judgment of Solomon, which may be com-
pared with Robert Pinaigrier’s excellent window of
1531 in St Gervais, Paris. The fine window by
Gontier at the centre of the east end beyond the
choir, containing in the upper part a Last Supper
of about 1630, is said to have been often restored,
which shows how dangerous it is to trust too much
to enamel paints in making a window.
ee
277
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE CATHEDRAL OF CHALONS-SUR-MARNE.
Firty-NINE miles from Troyes is Chalons-sur-Marne,
where there is the fine cathedral of St Etienne and
two interesting churches of St Alpin and Notre Dame.
Chalons Cathedral formerly held some beautiful
glass of the twelfth century, but this is now in the
Musée de Sculpture at the Trocadéro in Paris, wait-
ing, it is said, to be returned to the Cathedral when
a window can be prepared to receive it. The only
glass of the twelfth century remaining in the
Cathedral is to be found in the trifortum on the
north side of the nave near the north transept.
This glass consists of some large fragments of
broad Romanesque borders, which belonged to the
old church which was consecrated in 1147.
In the clerestory of the apse at the east end of the
choir are three bright and lovely windows of silver
and sapphire of the thirteenth century, but the
yellow in them is ofa light greenish hue like the
colour of an unripe lemon. In the tracery of the
East window of the choir is Christ the Judge, from
whose hands blood is gushing into a chalice; behind
278 STORIED WINDOWS
Him are the Cross and nails, the lance, and the
sponge; on each side is an angel with a trumpet,
and below these are the dead rising in their shrouds ;
the one on the left is coloured, the other three are
ghastly white. In the right-hand light of the
window is Christ enthroned; below this in the
centre of the light is the Crucifixion where the
Christ is all in purple; He has His usual crossed
halo. On each side are the Sun and Moon, and by
His feet stand the Virgin, and St John with the
customary bare feet of an Apostle. The border of
this is narrowed to widen the panel. In the lowest
part of the light is the Virgin and Child with rather
an old face. In the left light are the three patron
saints of Chalons—St Stephen, St Memmius, the
first Bishop of Chalons, and St Alpin who saved
the city from Attila, King of the Huns, whose
victorious career across Hurope was checked by the
decisive battle which was fought about ten miles
from Chalons, a.p. 451.
In the tracery of the window north of this to the
left are the glorified Virgin and the Adoration of
the Magi. In the right-hand light is St Paul with
St Glattus below him, and one of the four Major
Prophets at the foot. In the left light is St
Johannes, Eb., and St Bonatianus, and a Prophet
whose head seems new.
The window to the right on the south side of the
apse clerestory of Chdlons Cathedral has in the
tracery the King and Queen imploring St Memmius
to save their son, who is hawking, from being
drowned. The Bishop is in white and somewhat
CHALONS-SUR-MARNE CATHEDRAL 279
resembles a corpse. Below this in the right-hand
light is St Peter (head restored), with St Womiti-
aug in an architectural frame below, and a Prophet
in a similar frame at the base. In the left light is
St Andrew (head restored), and below him a Bishop,
St Leudomirus, and beneath him a Prophet. The
six borders of these windows are all different and
exceptionally beautiful.
The first window in the north aisle of the nave,
starting from the west, contains thirteenth-century
glass, but the glass of the tracery and of the upper
band of women in itis modern. The centre light
has a border of fleurs-de-lis, and the outer lights
have a border of castles. This window was given
by the Guild of Furriers; at the base in one panel
the furriers are at work; in the second panel two
rich tradesmen are represented bargaining with a
furrier; and in the fourth panel the Dean of the
Guild is presenting the window to the crowned
Virgin and the Holy Child; in the third panel
is a Crucifixion. The fact that the window is a
gift of the furriers shows that the presence of
fleurs-de-lis or of castles in the border does not
invariably imply that the window was given by
Blanche of Castille, or her son Saint Louis.
In the second window in the north aisle of the
nave the four lowest compartments on the left
contain thirteenth-century glass, and some of the
srisaille at the top is of the fourteenth century.
All the seven other north aisle windows contain
new glass.
In the south aisle of the nave is a remarkable
280 STORIED WINDOWS
series of nine windows of strong colour. The first
from the west is the Creation window, said to be of
1507, which is the worst of the old windows in the
cathedral of Chaélons, being very inferior to the
Creation windows at St Florentin and Sainte Made-
leine at Troyes. It begins at the top with the
Creation of animals and fishes by a white-bearded
Creator with a nimbus or halo. The last scene is
the murder of Abel. The figures are stiff and the
faces are ugly, and Adam and Eve are obtrusively
ashamed of their undraped state; the colour is
heavy, and there is a great deal more enamel paint
than might be expected in 1507. The date reads:
le xv du mois d’ Apvril mil v cens et s, and since the
last word is unfinished, the date of 1507 may be
incorrectly assigned to the window; perhaps the
“s” may be the first letter of soixante or sixty,
making the date 1560. All the scenes have ex-
planatory Latin inscriptions. At the foot are two
donors with their patron saints, MicHarL and
Jacopus. There is a similar creation window in
fine fifteenth-century glass in the church of
Mareuil-le-Port.
The second window from the west in the south
aisle, dated l’an cing cent et neuf, 2.e., 1509, con-
tains beautiful and vivid pictures of fine colour
of the life of the Virgin, with very clear inscrip-
tions in French. The nave is so well lighted that
these pictures can be easily appreciated. In the
tracery is God the Father crowning the Virgin in
the presence of Christ and the Holy Ghost. The
pictures in the four lights begin with the offering
CHALONS-SUR-MARNE CATHEDRAL 281
of Ste Anne and St Joachim being rejected by the
priests for their childlessness (this scene is in two
lights, and the top of it ignores the mullion) ; they
embrace at the door, ‘‘ cy EST LEUR RENCONTRE A LA
PORTE DOREE,” 7.¢., here is their meeting at the
golden door; the Virgin Mary is born; in this
scene there is a curious anticipation of the future
in a medallion attached to the bed upon which
Ste Anne lies, in which there is a picture of the
crowned Virgin with the Child Jesus. The next
stage of the window has a fine picture in two lights
of the presentation of the Virgin as a child with
a halo; near the temple stairs is one of the mer-
chants who bought and sold in the Temple: he has
doves in a cage; there is a similar merchant in the
story of the Virgin in St Alpin at Chalons, but the
idea of introducing a merchant into a presentation
scene seems to be peculiar to Chalons. The other
two scenes in this stage are the marriage of the
Virgin and Joseph (who bears the legendary rod
that budded) and the Annunciation. The three
uppermost scenes are, the Nativity, the Presenta-
tion of Christ, and the death of the Virgin, ‘‘ com-
MANT LES APOSTRES SONT PRESANS AU SAINCT TRESPAS
DE LA VIERGE ”—1.e., how the Apostles were present
at the holy death of the Virgin. This scene is in
two lights. This magnificent window is dated 1509
above the scene of the presentation of the Virgin.
The third window in the south aisle of Chalons
Cathedral contains thirteen scenes of the Passion,
beginning with Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and
ending with the Crucifixion in the tracery. These
282 STORIED WINDOWS
scenes have a remarkable framework of interlacing
branches. In this window of the sixteenth century
there is much restoration, and the Christ is far from
being beautiful. In the scene representing the
Last Supper the unhaloed Judas has a purse in his
hand, as he has in the medallion of Christ washing
Peter’s feet in the lower window of the choir of
St Urbain at Troyes. Between the two quatrefoils
of the tracery is a little picture of Judas hanging
from a tree.
Half of the fourth window has a Transfiguration
of late sixteenth century with much enamel paint
and dull colour, the other half of it with the
Resurrection is modern.
The fifth window has Flemish-looking faces and
rather sombre colour. It has the cusped arch of
the period of transition from Gothic to Renaissance
at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The
subject is the life of St Stephen in six scenes.
In this window the three double panels with their
architectural framework entirely ignore the mullions.
The sixth window contains very fine glass of the
fifteenth century, with much more colour than is
usual in English windows of the same period. The
large canopies have no pillars. The ruby colour is
remarkably fine. The ground of the outer lights is
full of fleurs-de-lis. The window has been altered
and part displaced, for the upper part belongs to
the end of the fifteenth century and is in its
original place. The figures in it, beginning from
the left, are Ste Catherine, the Virgin and Child, St
Michael and a donor, and Ste Barbe. The glass in
the tracery is modern. The lower half belongs to
.
}
CHALONS-SUR-MARNE CATHEDRAL 283
the beginning of the fifteenth century, having been
removed from the opposite window on the north
side; the figures in it are St Vincent, St James
presenting a donor to the Virgin and Child, and St
Stephen. The feet in the lower row rest upon
pedestals, but the pedestals of the upper row were
removed to make room when the lower figures were
inserted. This very beautiful window deserves to
be carefully examined.
The seventh window, of the sixteenth century,
contains nine scenes of the early life of Jesus, with
very clear inscriptions. The three scenes at the
base are modern.
The eighth window is entirely modern.
The ninth, next to the south transept, is a very
remarkable window of the earliest part of the
fourteenth century. It is one of the most interest-
ing windows in the cathedral of Chalons, being such
a splendid specimen of early fourteenth-century
work; but unfortunately the light is somewhat
blocked by a mass of wood near the window. It
looks as if it had been filled from a clerestory
window of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth
century. In the tracery is Christ surrounded by
angels; below this in the topmost scene is John bap-
tising Jesus, and St Peter, St Paul, St Andrew, and
St James, whose figure closely resembles that of
Sanctus Jacotugs in the fourth light from the
left in the trifortum below the rose of the north
transept; this suggests the probability that the
pictures in this window and in the north rose and
triforium, both belonging to the early part of the
fourteenth century, are by the same hand. In the
284 STORIED WINDOWS
second row are the other eight Apostles. Below
these eight Apostles were eight Prophets. These
were removed from the bottom of the window by
some vandals to make room for a new sacristy, and
it is said that two of the Prophets thus removed
were placed in the west wall of the north transept.
In the north transept is a splendid rose of early
fourteenth-century work containing the Triumph of
Jesus Christ, who is in the centre with the four
creatures of Revelations iv. 7, representing the four
Evangelists, the Lion of St Mark, the Calf of St
Luke, the Eagle of St John, and the Angel with “a
face as of a Man” of St Matthew. Round this
inner circle are scenes of the Birth and Childhood
of Jesus. These are encircled by an unusual and
charming frame of brightly coloured vine branches.
Below the rose in one light on each side are two
large figures of brilliant colour; the one on the
right is the Church of Christ crowned and holding
a processional cross. On the left is the Jewish
Synagogue, drooping and blindfolded, with fallen
crown and broken standard as at Sens and Orbais.
Between the lights containing these two figures are
five quatrefoils with two Prophets in the outside
ones and three Angels in the centre ones. In the
triforium below are the twelve Apostles, much re-
stored. The lower windows are new, with the
exception of the tracery, which was saved from
the fire of 1668.
On the left of the north transept is some beautiful
grisaille of the latter part of the thirteenth century,
with two fine figures of the same date, of St Stephen
A i Me ele
CHALONS-SUR-MARNE CATHEDRAL 285
and Wetrus de Wang, the Bishop of Chalons, who
died in 1261. These figures look as if they had
once been in a clerestory. To the left of this on
the west wall of the north transept is a window in
the left light of which are two Prophets, with a
donor below presenting a window to the Virgin.
These two Prophets are said to have been removed
from the bottom of the early fourteenth-century
window on the south side of the aisle next to the
south transept. The pattern at the top of these
does not seem to fit on to the pattern of the south
aisle window; but possibly this may have been
interpolated when the window was so barbarously
mutilated to make room for the sacristy. The right-
hand light is all modern, but it cleverly imitates the
style of the thirteenth century.
In the south transept is a window of three lights,
of the fourteenth century, filled with flewrs-de-ls
on a blue ground, with grisaille in the tracery.
Day in ‘ Windows,’ Ist ed., p. 167, gives an illustra-
tion of this.
The nave triforium of Chaélons Cathedral is glazed
with grisaille. In the north clerestory of the nave
is a fine picture of a Bishop presenting a window to
St Stephen.
In the south clerestory of the nave, the second
window from the transept contains Paganus
Gapellan, i.e, Pagan the Chaplain presenting a
window to St Stephen, on a fine blue ground. The
orisaille at Chalons is very beautiful, especially in
the clerestory of the choir. See Day’s ‘ Windows,’
Ist ed., pp. 25, 144, 167, 335.
286
CHAPTER XXXV.
CHALONS, ST ALPIN, NOTRE DAME; AND ORBAIS.
Tue church of St Alpin at Chalons contains several
very interesting windows of the Renaissance period.
On the north side is a small window apparently
original and unrestored. It contains the Virgin
holding the dead Christ in a very archaic picture,
perhaps of the end of the fifteenth century.
The next window is modern, and the third is
mixed, with different scenes. The fourth, which is
next to the east window on the north side, contains
very beautiful pictures of SMangvalaine’s life. In
the top on the left she is boutez, 2.e., “expelled”
from Jerusalem, in a beautiful golden vessel. On
the right she comes to Marseilles and preaches to
the Duke and his wife. In the middle on the left
the Duke goes to Jerusalem and his wife dies
ensaincte, v.e., “with child”; on the right Mary
Magdalene in a splendid golden ship returns to
Jerusalem and finds the wife and child on a rock,
and the Duke prays her to revive them. At the
foot on the left Mary Magdalene baptises the Duke
and his wife who has come to life again. On the
CHALONS-SUR-MARNE: ST ALPIN 287
right Mary Magdalene is being conducted a an
angel into the desert.
The double window at the east contains six fine
panels of the Sacrament, mixed up with six others.
Of the six pictures in the left half of the window,
the one at the top on the left is the Manna, and the
one on the right is the Last Supper; in the middle
on the left is the Holy Communion being celebrated
in a Flamboyant church ; in the middle on the right
is the Procession of the Féte Dieu in the streets
round the church of St Alpin. In the two lowest
panels of the left half is the Nativity and St John
the Baptist presenting donors. In the right half of
the window, at the top is the sacrilege of the Jewish
curiosity dealer of 1290 who lived in the rue des
Billettes. The Jew’s shop is vividly depicted and
full of bric-a-brac, and the woman is carrying away
the clothes given her by the Jew in exchange for
the Host, as in the window in Rouen Museum.
Side by side with this is the Pure Sacrifice with
the anti-Protestant inscription: corps pur Serap
et no pas faict = “the body pure, true, and not
feigned”; in this picture there is also an anti-
Protestant representation of a soul freed from
Purgatory. In the middle a crowd of nineteen
people is being presented to the Virgin; at the
foot St Paul presents donors. The glass in the
tracery of the Hast window is modern.
The double window to the right south of the
East window contains in the left half, dated 1522,
the carrying of the Cross: the Crucifixion: the
Descent from the Cross. The right-hand half,
288 STORIED WINDOWS
dated 1521, contains the Nativity: Burial: Resur-
rection: Trinity: Christ coming as Judge. This
window is of fine warm colour. The next window
on the south to the right of this has in the left half
beautiful clear pictures of the Immaculate Con-
ception: the birth of the Virgin in a bright ruby
bed: the presentation of the Virgin in the Temple,
in which picture is included the Jewish money-
changer like the one in the Cathedral: and a very
beautiful Annunciation. In the right half of the
window is the marriage of Mary and Joseph, in
which is the unusual and rather startling addition
of deux prétendants évincés, 1.e., two disappointed
suitors; and the Visitation and St Stephen, St
Charlemagne, and St Alpin. This window is dated
1521. With regard to these disappointed suitors,
in the legend of St Joseph in the Proto-Gospel of
St James of the third century, it is said that the
Virgin Mary’s eligible nearest relatives were as-
sembled that a husband might be chosen for her.
The candidates deposited rods of the almond-tree
in the temple overnight, and in the morning the
withered branch of Joseph was found green and in
blossom, like Aaron’s rod that budded, and therefore
the others were rejected and Joseph was chosen.
In the window of the life of the Virgin, dated 1509,
in the south aisle of Chalons Cathedral, Joseph
bears the legendary rod that budded, as in the
window of St Pierre, Chartres (see p. 117). The
next two windows are modern.
In the south transept and south aisle of the nave
of St Alpin, Chalons, are six grisaille pictured
oo il tiara li tte ne oe in et le
CHALONS, ST ALPIN, NOTRE DAME 289
windows in Italian style. The first of these’ in
the south transept contains the miracle of Cana,
the feeding of five thousand, and the EKucharist.
This window, dated 1536, contains very fine pic-
tures suggestive of the art of Florence or Rome.
The next is a very beautiful window with the
Baptist preaching : and being brought before Herod,
who wears the turban of a pagan. In the tracery
are scenes of the life of St John the Baptist.
The third has a poor picture of the Resurrection.
The fourth is modern except in the tracery.
The fifth, dated 1539, has a vigorous picture of
the Tiburtine Sibyl.
The sixth, dated 1532, represents St Alpin before
Attila.
Over the West door is a Renaissance Crucifixion
of bright colour, on a blue ground filled with fleurs-
de-las.
The fine windows at the east end of St Alpin are
darkened by outside buildings in a way most dis-
creditable to the town of Chalons.
NOTRE DAME, CHALONS-SUR-MARNE.
The church of Notre Dame at Chalons has finely
coloured windows of the sixteenth century in the
aisles of the nave.
The first on the north, dated 1525, has a very
spirited picture of the Battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa, where Alfonso IX. of Castille defeated the
T
290 STORIED WINDOWS
Moors in 1212 with the miraculous aid of Saint
Jago de Campostella.
The second, dated 1526, contains the death of Ste
Anne, and the Death, Assumption, and coffin of the
Virgin.
The third has the history of Ste Anne and the
Virgin.
The fourth seems mostly restored, if not all
modern.
The ‘fifth, dated 1526, contains the Crucifixion.
Opposite to this on the south side of the nave aisle
is a window of 1537 containing the Kiss of Joachim
and Anne: the Immaculate Conception: the birth
of the Virgin: and the presentation of the Virgin in
the Temple: and the Annunciation. The three last
pictures are not easy to understand, and have prob-
ably been inserted from elsewhere.
ORBAIS L’ABBAYE.
In going from Chalons to Reims it is possible
to visit Orbais ’Abbaye by a roundabout journey
to Mézy and Condé-en-Brie, whence the visitor is
conveyed by omnibus a distance of eight miles to
Orbais. There is not much glass at Orbais, but
the unequalled quality makes up for the quantity.
The East window of the Lady Chapel is small
and low down, but it contains lovely glass of much
finer drawing than the usual style of the thirteenth
century. It has three large panels of an unusual
cruciform shape, which extend to the edges of the
window and entirely interrupt the border. In the
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ORBAIS LABBAYE 291
top cruciform panel are men wtih grapes at the
summit, and a horned {flanges at the side with a
tablet inscribed Aquila farang pullos=“the Hagle
calling to its young.” In the round medallion in
the centre of this cruciform panel is a most grace-
ful picture of three Daughters of Jerusalem, in-
scribed Boles cor meu(n) Filie Lerusalem=“ I grieve
in my heart, ye daughters of Jerusalem.” The line
of their figures and drapery is exquisite.
In the central cruciform panel is the Crucifixion
with two Cherubs at the top, Abraham on the left,
and a Man blessing two Children on the right, and
the Virgin and St John at the foot.
The third and lowest cruciform panel is filled
with new glass.
In the south transept is a very small window of
the thirteenth century with the Crucifixion, having
on the right the Church Triumphant with Cross
and Chalice, and on the left the drooping Syna-
gogue with broken banner. Next to this is a
small window with fine grisaille, but the pattern
is broken by two much more modern shields.
In the choir clerestory at Orbais are four figures
in two lancets of the thirteenth century, all in the
act of blessing. Above, in the left lancet, is Jesus
with a most impressive face, and below is the Virgin
and Child, with a more elaborate canopy than is
usual in the thirteenth century, like the canopy
over the Virgin in the window of Notre Dame de
la belle Verriére at Chartres. In the right lancet
is an Apostle and a Bishop. The rose above has
a medallion in the centre.
292 STORIED WINDOWS
Next to this on the south is a window with two
strips of fine border, and a good head with a crozier
of the thirteenth century, and in other windows
there are fragments of splendid colour.
In the sides of the choir clerestory are some plain
glazed windows with patterns formed by the lead.
The grisaille at Orbais is remarkably beautiful
and varied. It has about eighteen different pat-
terns. Only one bay of the great nave remains,
as the rest was pulled down about a hundred years
ago to save the expense of keeping such an unneces-
sarily large church in repair. In the clerestory of
this bay is a fine grisaille window of two lancets
with a rose.
Orbais l’Abbaye is easy of access for the motorist
or cyclist, and it is situated in a beautiful country
with fine views. It certainly should be visited if
possible, as it supplies a standard of the very high-
est artistic merit reached in the thirteenth century
by the glass artist. —
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REIMS CATHEDRAL.
Nortu NAvE CLERESTORY. KINGS OF FRANCE, WITH THE ARCHBISHOPS
WHO CROWNED THEM. XIIITH CENTURY.
293
CHAPTER XXXVI.
REIMS, LAON, SOISSONS.
THE famous cathedral of Notre Dame at Reims con-
tains a most solemn and impressive series of large
figures of the thirteenth century, all round the clere-
story of the nave and choir, in twenty-four pairs of
lancets with a rose above each pair. Their dim re-
ligious light is unfortunately accentuated by the
white light of the windows of the nave aisles and
most of the ambulatory; so that to see these win-
dows satisfactorily it is necessary to choose a time
when the sun is shining through the glass. The
fioures in the nave clerestory represent thirty-six
Kings of France, with the thirty-six Archbishops who
crowned them. Their names are a matter of con-
jecture for lack of inscriptions. But the sixth on
the south side is inscribed Karolus, and the figure
is supposed to be that of Charlemagne. ‘The series
is rather monotonous, as they are all seated to show |
that they are dead. Some of the backgrounds, which
are composed entirely of sapphire or ruby glass, are
very beautiful.
On each side of the choir clerestory are three
pairs of lancets, with a double row of Episcopal
294 STORIED WINDOWS
figures; in the East window is Anricus, 2.e., Henri
de Braine, who was Archbishop of Reims from
1227-1246, which serves to date the glass. By
his side is a model of his cathedral, which is sur-
mounted by an angel, above him is a picture of the
Crucifixion, and above his cathedral is the Virgin
and Child. With him are the dependent bishops of
Soissons, Beauvais, Noyon, Tournay, Laon, Amiens,
Senlis, Terrouanne, each with his cathedral at his
side, but no attempt is made to make these cathe-
drals resemble the real ones. Some of these are in-
scribed €rrlia, 2.e., Ecclesia (église) and yg for
Hpiscopus= Bishop, with the Latin name of the see,
as Catalabnensis=Chalons, Shessionensis =Soissons.
In the upper row the Bishops have no cathedrals.
The first window on each side on entering the choir
has a figure between vertical bands of grisaille, as
at St Pierre in Chartres.
In the Lady Chapel is a Jesse tree and a history
of the Virgin, both much restored, especially in the
blue ground. It is unfortunate that, as at Canter-
bury, Bourges, and Auxerre, the eye of the beholder
looking eastward up the centre of the building
should be obliged to rest on rather staring modern
glass at the east end.
The western wall is full of colour, but much of
the glass is new, because the enormous rose was
injured by a great hailstorm in 1886. Below the
rose is a triforium filled with nine pictures of ex-
treme brightness, representing the coronation of
Clovis, the converted King. He is in the centre
with large flewrs-de-lis on blue. On his right is
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REIMS CATHEDRAL 295
St Remi, and on his left is the Bishop of Soissons ;
next to these are Ste Clotilde, the wife of Clovis,
who converted him, and his sister Albofrede. Out-
side of these are a Bishop and a King on each side.
Much of this glass was replaced in the sixteenth
century, and on the sleeve of the outside figure
on the left is the date 1550. This triforium under
the western rose contains the most brilliant body
of colour in the cathedral of Reims.
The rose of the north transept is perhaps the
finest piece of thirteenth-century glass-work in the
Cathedral. It is like a huge jewel suspended in
the air, and sparkling with silver and ruby and
sapphire. In the centre is the Creator encircled
by the sun, moon and stars, and angels. Round
this are twenty-four subjects from the creation of
Adam to Cain and Abel, and a number of animals,
with a martyrdom of St Stephen of the fifteenth
century. This rose is most impressively beautiful
and almost unique. The rose of the south transept
contains sixteenth-century glass, with a very un-
usual broad band of white between the coloured
centre and the outer border.
The whole impression produced by the glass in
the cathedral of Reims is somewhat disappoint-
ing and unsatisfactory. For the great quantity of
undoubtedly old and genuine glass in the forty-
eight lancets, with their double row of magnificent
figures, and in the twenty-four roses, which to-
gether fill the whole of the clerestory, as well as in
the windows of the western wall, the transepts, and
the Lady Chapel, does not arouse the admiration
296 STORIED WINDOWS
of the observer as much as might have been an-
ticipated.
On comparing the thirteenth-century glass in the
nave of the two cathedrals of Reims and Chartres,
the reason for this becomes manifest. For in the
nave at Chartres all the glass is illumined by the
light which comes through the coloured windows,
with the slight exception of the light admitted
through the Chapelle Vendédme. But in Reims,
owing to the owlish stupidity of the ecclesiastical
authorities, all the thirteenth-century medallions
in the lower windows of the aisles and ambulatory
were destroyed and replaced by white glass in the
middle of the eighteenth century. Consequently
the clerestory of Reims is illumined by the inside
light from below, which comes in through the lower
windows. This seems to turn the windows inside
out, and it gives an ugly prominence to the leads.
If the lower windows were filled with the original
thirteenth-century glass, then all the light would
come from outside through the deep-coloured glass
itself, and Reims would rival Chartres. As it is,
the lofty clerestory windows, when the sun is not
directly shining through them, produce an effect
on the eye more like that of dark hanging curtains
than of gleaming windows. The same barbarous
destruction of thirteenth-century medallions was
perpetrated in the church of St Remi about the
same time.
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REIMS, ST REMI 297
ST REMI, REIMS.
The choir of St Remi was pulled down and
rebuilt by Pierre de Celles, the. Archbishop of
Reims, in 1162. Consequently a few of the oldest
windows date from the second half of the twelfth
century, but nearly all the glass belongs to the
thirteenth century.
In the lofty clerestory are thirty-three splendid
lancets, each containiug two figures, one above the
other. In the centre of the upper row is the
Virgin, and on each side of her are twelve Apostles
and four Evangelists, and beyond are sixteen Pro-
phets. In the lower row, the figures are Archbishops
of Reims, ending at the south-west with Samson,
who died in 1161. The figures are all seated and
very stiff. The backgrounds are composed of a
recular mosaic of small pieces of blue glass. The
shadows are formed by thick parallel lines, as if
made with one of the combs of St Blaise. The
colours of the drapery are mostly brown and green.
In the designs there is the same economy which
is found at St Pierre, Chartres, and St Urbain,
Troyes; for the same figure does duty several
times under different names. For instance, St John
looking to the right becomes St Barnabas looking
to the left in the adjoining window. These windows
are much lighter than those in the Cathedral clere-
story, and they form a fine gallery very high up.
They all have broad borders.
Below the triforium is another row of still more
ancient windows with very broad borders and large
298 STORIED WINDOWS
figures. The East window of this lower range con-
tains an extremely fine Crucifixion of Byzantine
style of the twelfth century, where the Hand of
God points to our Saviour’s Head, and His Feet are
supported by a slab beneath which is a chalice, and
below the arms of the Cross stand the Virgin and
St John, out of whose halos issue flowers ; this scene
entirely interrupts the border. The two windows
to the left of this and the first on the right also con-
tain glass which is assigned to the twelfth century.
In the clerestory of the nave are small round-
arched Romanesque windows containing ancient
single figures framed in grisaille.
In the north transept is a rose, the subject of
which is the baptism of Clovis, but it was greatly
damaged by fire towards the end of the eighteenth
century, and now most of it has been restored with
plain coloured glass.
In the south transept there is no rose, but above
the door is fan-shaped tracery containing brilliant
glass of the late fifteenth century. Above this is
a fine Flamboyant window, the upper half of which
is also filled with beautiful glass of the end of the
fifteenth century. The lower part contains new
glass which casts coloured images on the floor when
the morning sun shines through.
In the treasury are twenty-eight fine Limoges
enamel pictures of 1663 composed by Laudin.
Both in the Cathedral and St Remi there are many
pieces of splendid tapestry, and the coronation
plate in the treasury of the Cathedral is of ex-
ceptional interest.
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LAON CATHEDRAL ~ 299
LAON CATHEDRAL.
In returning from Reims to Paris it is well to
go round by Laon and Soissons. In the cathedral
of Notre Dame at Laon there are only the north
rose with pictures of the Sciences, and three other
windows of the thirteenth century with an enormous
rose above them, but the latter form a most satisfy-
ing picture of thirteenth-century colour. They are
all in the east wall, which is perfectly straight
without any apse shape, because the twelfth-century
chevet, or apse with apsidal chapels, was destroyed
in the thirteenth century when the Cathedral was
lengthened towards the east.
The East window consists of medallions with
broad borders of lovely ruby and sapphire; the
subjects are the later Life of Christ, beginning at
the base with His Entry into Jerusalem and ending
with His Ascension.
The window on the right, south of the Hast
window, begins with the Annunciation and includes
the early Life of Christ.
The north window on the left contains the legend
of Théophile and scenes of martyrdom.
Above these three windows is a large and splendid
rose of the thirteenth century of magnificent colour,
which, owing to its size, is perhaps even finer than
the beautiful north rose of Reims Cathedral. In
the centre of the rose is the Virgin and Child
between St John the Baptist and Isaiah, sur-
rounded by a circle of half medallions containing
the twelve Apostles. Round these are twelve
300 STORIED WINDOWS
Prophets in circular medallions. In the outer-
most circle are the four-and-twenty Elders of the
Revelations.
Thirty miles north-west of Laon is St Quentin,
which should, if possible, be visited to see the
church with the beautiful glass of the twelfth and
thirteenth century in the fourteen lancets and seven
roses of the choir, and the four lancets of the Lady
Chapel, two of which, one on each side of the modern
Jesse tree by Didron, contain the oldest glass in the
church. This church, like Canterbury Cathedral, has
four transepts, a peculiarity which in France is only
found here and in Cluny Souvigny and St Benoit-
sur-Loire. In the two more eastern transepts there
is also fine later glass. In the northern one are four
fifteenth-century windows, and in the southern one
are the two celebrated Renaissance windows, each
thirty feet high, of the Martyrdom of Ste Barbe
and Ste Catherine, dated 1533 and 1541, designed
by Mathias Bléville of St Quentin.
The opportunity should be taken of seeing the
seventy-eight marvellous pastels in the Museum,
including the magnificent portrait of Jean Jacques
Rousseau, all of which are by the famous native
artist Maurice Quentin De La Tour, who was
Painter to the King Louis XV.
SOISSONS CATHEDRAL.
In the cathedral of Notre Dame at Soissons the
three east windows of the Lady Chapel are of fine
SOISSONS CATHEDRAL 301
thirteenth-century glass on a blue ground. These
were given by Blanche of Castille about 1225 after
her son St Louis visited Soissons. In the field of
the East and south-east windows are her castles
and flewrs-de-lis.
The East window contains scenes apparently of
the life of St Louis. The right-hand window on
the south contains scenes of the story of Moses.
But the medallions in these windows seem mixed
and not all of the same subject.
In the east clerestory of the choir are five hand-
some windows containing a considerable amount of
fragments of glass of the thirteenth century, which
came from St Ived at Braisne, a church of the
twelfth century, eleven miles from Soissons.
The first on the north has ancient figures of
the four Evangelists surrounded by small circular
medallions.
The second on the north has four large medallions
which break the border. In the lowest is Hell; —
above this is St Michael weighing the Souls; in
the third is the Crucified Christ in his Father's
lap; and the fourth at the top contains the Glori-
fication of Christ.
The central Hast window of the choir clerestory
of Soissons Cathedral contains a Jesse tree with
several fine old figures but no Jesse at the foot.
The window to the right south of this has scenes
from the life of Adam and Eve. The second
window on the south seems to contain the Life,
Death, and Assumption of the Virgin. —
These windows are beautiful and interesting from
302 STORIED WINDOWS
their largeness of conception and richness of colour, 7
though much of the glass is modern. ‘
In the north transept is a rose filled with final "
ancient glass of the end of the thirteenth century a
or beginning of the fourteenth.
In the cathedral of Soissons the south transept
has the very unusual shape of a complete apse with — q
an ambulatory. In the lower part of it are round-
arched Romanesque window-frames of the eleventh —
century. a
There is also a fine picture by Rubens of the ~
Adoration of the Shepherds, and a piece of Gobelins _
tapestry depicting St Gervais and St Protais, the —
gift of Millet, who was Bishop of Soissons from —
1443 to 1502.
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TROCADERO MUSEE, PARIS. (No. 1.)
CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, WITH A CHALICE AND THE STANDARD OF THE CROSS
OVER THE DROOPING SYNAGOGUE.
XIItH CENTURY MEDALLION FROM CHALONS CATHEDRAL.
Compare pp. 195, 226, 284.
303
CHAPTER XXXVII.
VINCENNES, MONTMORENCY, ECOUEN.
In passing through Paris, the traveller, after seeing
the thirteenth-century glass of the Sainte Chapelle,
and visiting the Musée de Sculpture at the
Trocadéro, to see the beautiful old glass of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries from Chalons,
Vendédme, Bourges, Gercy, Notre Dame, Poitiers,
St Julien du Sault, and Toul, should go outside
Paris to visit the lovely and interesting glass of
the Renaissance at Vincennes, Montmorency, and
Ecouen.
The chapel inside the Chateau of Vincennes was
begun in 1378 on the model of the Sainte Chapelle,
but it was not completed till the reign of Henri
Deux, who was present at its consecration in 1552.
It contains seven windows, designed by the great
artist Jean Cousin, and paid for by Henri Deux, so
that these beautiful windows belong to the middle
of the sixteenth century. Two of these windows |
face each other in the nave, and the other five are
in the apse.
_ The window on the north side of the nave has
304 STORIED WINDOWS
been restored by Oudinot. The old inscription
states that it represents the opening of the
cingquieme sceau, or “fifth seal” of the Apocalypse,
mentioned in the ninth verse of the sixth chapter
of the Revelations: “And when he had opened
the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls
of them that were slain for the word of God.”
Among the righteous souls Jean Cousin did not
hesitate to portray Diane de Poitiers, to please
Henri Deux.
The second window on the north, in the apse,
has been very little restored if at all. In each of
the two lights are two pictures, one above the other,
with very clear inscriptions, and Henri Deux and
Ste Catherine are at the base. The subjects of all
the five windows of the apse are taken from the
Apocalypse. At the foot of the second window
are two angels holding the shield of France. At
the base of the third window is King Frangois
Premier in the costume of a knight of the order
of St Michel. The base of the fourth is like that
of the second. At the base of the fifth window
is the Virgin and St Francis of Assisi.
The window on the south side in the nave has
a scene from Revelations xiv. 14-20, where: “the
sickle was cast upon the earth, and the earth was
reaped, and the vintage of the earth was gathered
and cast into the wine-press of the wrath of God.”
The very legible inscriptions add interest to all
these windows, and the beautiful drawing makes
them look like a set of fine pictures which might
have been painted on canvas.
sa ee
MONTMORENCY 305
MONTMORENCY.
The town of Montmorency is about ten miles
from Paris, starting from the Gare du Nord.
The Seigneurs of Montmorency, belonging to
one of the greatest families in France, began to
be illustrious in the time of Mathieu I., who
married as his first wife Aline, the natural daughter
of Henry I. of England; and secondly, Adelaide de
Savoie, the widow of Louis VI. Mathieu I. was
Connétable of France when he died in 1160.
Mathieu II., at the battle of Bouvines in 1214,
took twelve Imperial banners and gained for the
Montmorenci the right to bear 16 alérions, or little
heraldic eagles without beak or claws, in their arms,
instead of the original four.
Guillaume de Montmorenci was Seigneur from
1477 to 1531. It was he who built the present
church of St Martin. He was the only Mont-
morenci who did not wear a beard, following the
fashion of Louis XII.
In the church are fourteen windows of the six-
teenth century, of the greatest interest, both from
their artistic merit and also as a pictured page
of the history of France. They are full of fine
colour and well-drawn portraits, but they produce
the effect rather of a picture-gallery than of
church windows.
Over the north door is the Vitrail des Alérions,
a.€., “window of the EKaglets,” so called because
the tracery is filled with azure alérions on a gold
U
306 STORIED WINDOWS
eround. Half of this beautiful window has been
entirely renewed. It contains the figures of Mary
Magdalene and Mary Salome. The other half
with Mary Cleophas and Martha, with the Tarasque
or monster of Tarascon, has all its original glass
except the head of Martha. Day illustrates this
in ‘ Windows,’ Ist ed., p. 213.
The next window east of the north door contains
St Francis of Assisi, St Christopher, St Stephen,
and the elder Francois de Dinteville, Bishop of
Auxerre, who died in 1530. Westlake considers
this an almost perfect specimen of the art of the
period.
The third is the famous window signed E.L.P.,
v.e., Engrand le Prince, the celebrated artist of
Beauvais, who placed the portraits of Frangois
Premier and Henri Deux among the ancestors of
Christ in the Jesse tree at Beauvais, where he is
buried. The donor is Charles de Villiers de l’Isle
Adam, Count Bishop of Beauvais, cousin of the
Grand Connétable. He was ambassador of Francois
Premier to Charles V., whose tutor Pope Adrien
VI. is here portrayed in full armour as Saint
Adrien. In the centre is the Virgin and Child.
The other figure is St Charlemagne, whose head
has been restored with the features of Charles V.
This is a brilliant and vigorous sketch of splendid
colouring, but it is intended to be viewed from a
distance.
The donors of the fourth window are Guy de
Laval and his wife Anne de Montmorenci. On
the left is Sainte Anne, and below are the Virgin
|
)
|
MONTMORENCY i eOr
and Anne de Montmorenci. In the centre is St
Jerome and Guy de Laval; on the right is the
Crucifixion and a lovely figure of Ste Madeleine.
This is one of the finest of all the windows. The
families of Laval and Montmorenci were connected
of old; for the third wife of Mathieu II. was Emma,
heiress of Laval, and their younger son Guy founded
the line of Laval-Montmorenci; his ultimate heiress
Anne married Jean de Montfort, and their son was
created Count de Laval by Charles VII. at his
Coronation in 1429, a title held by his heirs male
till 1547. Charlotte de Laval married Admiral de
Coligny, son of Louise de Montmorenci.
In the fifth window are Sainte Barbe (head re-
stored) with her tower, and Jean de Montmorenci,
the eldest son of Guillaume. He wears a beauti-
fully executed Collar of St Michel; in this window
there are azure alérions on a gold ground.
In the first apse window on the left are Saint
Guillaume (of Orange), St Michael, St Peter, St
Paul, St Benedict, St Jerome, and the builder of
the church Guillaume de Montmorenci with his five
sons, Anne the Grand Connétable, Philip Bishop
of Limoges, Jean, Francois, and a Bastard. The
masterly portrait of Guillaume de Montmorenci is
illustrated by Day in ‘ Windows,’ Ist edition, p.
66, as a specimen of the technique of the Harly
Renaissance glass painter.
In the central East window, at the bottom are
Joseph and Mary, in the middle are St Martin and
St Blaise the patron of wool-carders, looking like
St Sebastian, but he is being martyred with huge
308 STORIED WINDOWS
iron combs like hay-rakes. At the top is St Denis
carrying his severed head, and St Vincent with two
chained prisoners.
In the south apse window, at the bottom are
Anne Pot, wife of Guillaume, and her three
daughters, Louise, wife of Maréchal Gaspard de
Coligny, Anne, wife of Guy de Laval, and Marie,
Abbesse de Maubuisson, with Ste Anne and Ste
Catherine. In the middle is Ste Madeleine with
an onyx box of perfume, and Ste Martha; at the
top are Ste Barbe and Ste Geneviéve.
The next window on the south contains a picture
of remarkable perfection of detail, of Francois de
Montmorenci third son of Guillaume, at the feet
of the Blessed Francoise d’Amboise Duchesse de
Bretagne, and the Descent from the Cross and
the crowned Virgin.
Of the tenth window the left panel is modern.
In the centre is Maréchal Gaspard de Coligny, father
of Admiral de Coligny and Cardinal Chatillon, and
a modern St Michael; to the right is Louise de
Montmorenci (head restored) and St Louis.
The eleventh window is called the Vitrail des
Bonnivet. It contains St Guillaume, St Adrien,
St Benedict, and Guillaume Gouffier, who married
Philippe de Montmorenci the sister of Guillaume,
and his six sons, including Adrien Cardinal de
Boisy. This window has been much restored.
Gouffier was Seigneur de Bonnivet, and was killed
at the battle of Pavia in 1525.
The twelfth and last window of the earlier date
is restored. It contains St Odon and a picture
MONTMORENCY, ECOUEN 309
of the Baptism of Christ, and the donor Odet de
Coligny, who became Cardinal Chatillon in 1535.
After the murder of his brother Admiral de Coligny
at the massacre of St Bartholomew, Cardinal
Chatillon took refuge in England, and he is
buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
West of these are two windows facing each
other in the nave, of Anne de Montmorenci the
Grand Connétable, and his wife Madeleine de
Savoie. They are thirty years later than the
others of 1523-1533 and decidedly inferior, ex-
hibiting the decadence of translucent decoration
caused by the excessive use of coloured enamel
in Elizabethan time. The one of these two
windows which is on the north side west of the
north door contains Ste Anne and the Virgin, and
St John the Baptist, and St John the Evan-
gelist, and Anne de Montmorenci the Grand
Connétable, who was killed at the age of seventy-
four when fighting against the Huguenots at the
Battle of St Denis in 1567. With him are his
five sons: Francois the Maréchal, Henri the
Connétable, Charles the Admiral, Gabriel who was
killed at the battle of Dreux, and Guillaume the
Colonel-General of Light Cavalry.
On the south facing this is the window with
Ste Madeleine and Ste Catherine and Madeleine
de Savoie and her seven daughters: Hleonore Vi-
comtesse de Turenne, Anne, Jeanne Duchesse
de Thouars, Catherine Duchesse de Ventadour;
and in the other light, Louise, Madeleine, and
Marie, who married Henri de Foix.
310 STORIED WINDOWS
ECOUEN.
Ecouen is eleven miles from Paris on the line
to Beauvais, starting from the Gare du Nord.
Like Montmorency, it belonged to the Grand
Connétable. It contains nine windows of the
sixteenth century, of which seven are of 1544-
1545, and the other two of 1587.
The first window on the north, second from
the east end of the aisle, dated 1544, contains
St Louis and a Canon as donor. In the middle
is the Death of the Virgin, who is supported by
St John and watched by six Apostles; above is
the Assumption. This might be described as an
Italian picture rather than a window. It is signed
L. F., like the two windows following. These
initials are identified with the initials of Laurence
Fauconnier in the window of 1544 in St Bonnet at
Bourges, made by Jean Lescuyer. But it is un-
certain whether Laurence Fauconnier was the
donor or designer or painter who executed the
design of this window at Ecouen, and the ques-
tion is further complicated by the feminine ap-
pearance of the name Laurence.
East of this window is a fine clear set of
pictures of the Annunciation above, and beneath
it the Visitation, where Mary with two attend-
ants visits Elizabeth with two attendants and
Zachariah in a beautiful landscape.
In the window at the end of the north aisle is
the Birth of Christ, with Joseph and a group of
EKCOUEN 311
shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi, evi-
dently an imitation of Raphael.
In the first window on the north side of the
apse, at the base is the Grand Connétable, Anne
de Montmorenci, kneeling before St Charlemagne,
and his five sons with St Stephen; in the middle
is the Scourging of Christ, in the style of Sebastian
del Piombo. At the top is Christ being mocked
by the soldiers.
Of the central East window only the upper
half remains with the appearance of Christ to His
Mother after the Resurrection. The lower half
was removed in the eighteenth century when the
high altar was erected, and the glass was placed
in the chapel on the north. It contains the
winged Mother and Child with the Moon under her
feet (Rev. xii. 1 and 14), and Anne and Joachim,
and below them Accius and Acceolus, the martyrs
of Amiens, because the church of Ecouen is dedi-
cated to St Acceul.
The apse window south of the Hast window
has at the base Madeleine of Savoy and five of her
daughters with Ste Madeleine and Martha; in the
middle is Mary Magdalene and the gardener, and
at the top is Christ carrying His Cross and meet-
ing His Mother and three Maries and St John: this
is dated 1545.
The next window on the south contains Odet
Cardinal de Chatillon, between Christ and St Paul,
dated 1587 in the right-hand light, but 1545 in
the left-hand light; evidently the window was
damaged by the Huguenots and restored in 1587.
312 STORIED WINDOWS
In the middle are three pictures of the Good
Shepherd, and at the top is the Fall of Man.
The eighth and ninth windows are of the de-
cadent period, forty years later, of 1587, but they
both contain inserted panels of 1545.
In the eighth window is Henri de Montmorenci,
second son of the Grand Connétable, ‘‘ Roi de
Languedoc” and determined opponent of Catherine
de Medici and the Guises, who was made Conné-
table by Henri Quatre, and a Descent from the
Cross, with a fine panel inserted on the right of
a Canon and a King, perhaps from the Hast
window; the upper half of this window is in
white glass like the following one.
The ninth window contains Antoinette de la
Marck and her two daughters: she was grand-
daughter of Diane de Poitiers and wife of Henri
de Montmorenci. On the right is an inserted
panel, dated 1546. In these windows may be
noticed the letters A. M., the monogram of Anne
de Montmorenci, and the Greek word AIIAANO®,
“unswervingly,” the motto adopted by Guillaume
de Montmorenci to signify his undeviating loyalty,
sometimes written Aplanos in modern letters.
The visitor to Ecouen usually goes to see also
the fine Chateau built by Anne de Montmorenci
the Grand Connétable. In the Salle des Gardes
he placed forty-four glass pictures of a non-
religious character with descriptive verses under
each picture: one of them is illustrated by Day in
‘ Windows,’ Ist ed., p. 218. They contain the story
of Cupid and Psyche as told by Apuleius in the
ECOUEN, CHANTILLY 313
well-known episode in the Metamorphoses (com-
monly called the G'olden Ass). They are beauti-
fully painted in Raphaelesque style, in camaieu,
that is, in iron-red grisaille with no colour but
yellow stain, like the pictures on the south side
of the nave of St Alpin at Chalons-sur- Marne.
But they are no longer at the Chateau of Hcouen.
The Salle des Gardes has long been destroyed, and
in 1806 Napoleon gave the Chateau to be used for
the education of the daughters of the members of
the Legion of Honour, for which purpose it is still
employed.
The forty-four windows, which Anne de Mont-
morenci had made for his Salle des Gardes in 1544,
after passing through various hands, were bought in
1817 by the Prince de Condé, who was the inheritor
in the female line of the last of the Montmorenci,
being descended from Charlotte Marguerite de
Montmorenci, the fair daughter of Henri the
Connétable and mother of the Grand Condé.
He placed the windows in the beautifully situated
eighteenth-century Chateau d’Enghien, at Chantilly,
twenty-five miles from Paris. They are now to be
seen in the chapel of the Chateau, where every one
may visit the wonderful collection of works of art
bequeathed in 1897 to the Institut de France by
Louis Philippe’s famous son the Duc d’Aumale.
314
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
MONTFORT L’ AMAURY.
ANOTHER short and pleasant excursion for the
glass-hunter, who is staying in Paris, is to go
out about twenty-nine miles along the line which
leads to Dreux and Granville, and thus visit the
church of Montfort ’ Amaury, whence Simon de
Montfort derived his name, and where the ruined
tenth-century castle of the Montforts may still
be seen.
The church is not large—in fact, it is a chapelle
rather than a church, for it has neither aisles nor
transepts, but it is full of bright cheerful colour.
There are in it thirty-two windows, all belonging
to the sixteenth century, but many of them were
made in the last quarter of the century when the
decadence had begun. This makes the church of
Montfort Amaury particularly interesting to the
student of the development of style in church
windows of the Renaissance period of the sixteenth
century. All the glass is in an excellent state of
preservation, but the style of many of the windows is
markedly inferior to that of some others, and it is
MONTFORT L’AMAURY 315
this inferiority which is so instructive. For the
best windows are of about 1544, while the inferior
ones date from 1572 onwards; and so it is pos-
sible by comparing, for instance, the sixth coloured
window on the north side, dated 1544, which
contains a picture of Christ leaving the Preetorium,
with the two windows with the Litanies of the
Virgin and the story of Lazarus on the south
nearest to the west, dated 1574 and 1578, to see
clearly the gradual deterioration which set in
during the latter half of the sixteenth century in
Elizabethan time when the soft enamel paints
began to be freely used.
On the north side of the nave there are nine
windows with old glass, mostly of the first half
of the sixteenth century. One of these contains
the story of Joseph depicted in Italian style.
Another, the fifth from the west, is a strong and
simple window inscribed Hic cst filius Meus
Dilectus, “this is my beloved Son.” The sixth is
dated 1544: in the three lights is a brilliant
picture of Christ leaving the Pretorium, some-
times entitled “Ecce Homo”: below are two fine
portraits of donors: in the tracery Christ is pray-
ing in the Garden of Gethsemane, and three
Apostles are sleeping. This is a really good
Renaissance window, the best in the church, but
it displays some of that fatal tendency to over-
crowding which makes so many of the Renaissance
pictures seem trivial and misplaced in a church
window when compared with the simpler pictures
of the preceding centuries.
316 STORIED WINDOWS
The seventh is a fine window of about 1544, of
which the subject is the imprisonment of St Peter;
the upper part of the three lights is filled with
architectural details, and below the central picture
are figures of donors in the outer lights and a
shield in the middle.
The eighth is the last window of three lights
on the north side; in it is the Crucifixion: one
of the thieves, who is tied without any nails, is
on the back of his cross with his arms appearing
over the top.
The ninth window is the first with only two
lights; these contain a lively picture in the upper
part of God addressing Saul of Tarsus, who is
lying on the ground with his fallen horse. Below
is a picture of the decapitation of St Paul.
In the curve of the apse at the east are ten
windows of two. lights each. In the first is the
Death of the Virgin with two donors, of whom
the one on the right is inscribed @labne, The
second has a very striking picture of the descent
of golden tongues of fire from the Holy Ghost
upon the disciples at Pentecost, and at the top
is a representation of the Holy Trinity. In the
fifth is the Manna coming down from Heaven in
a shower of white, and at the top is a picture of
Moses striking the rock. In the sixth window of
the apse is depicted the Sacrifice of Isaac. The
seventh window is filled with modern glass. In
the eighth are two large figures of St Louis and
St Charlemagne. In the ninth is an unusual re-
presentation of the Descent from the Cross, for
MONTFORT LAMAURY 317
besides the figure of Jesus lying below, there is
His Cross standing empty between the two thieves,
who are still hanging on their crosses. In the
tenth window, the last of two lights, a bat-like
devil is being pushed over a precipice.
On the south side of the nave of Montfort
YAmaury are eight windows, in each of which are
three lights. At the base of the first of these
windows is a fine family of donors: in the centre
Christ is rising from the tomb, having a large
golden halo of an unusual star shape: in the
tracery is a picture of the Ascension. In the
second window (of 1543) are four scenes of the
infancy of Jesus, and in the upper part of the left
heht is the Annunciation, and in the corresponding
position in the right light is the angel appearing to
the shepherds and saying Gloria in exselsis (sic)
Deo. In the tracery is God receiving the ascended
Virgin, who is crowned, and beneath her are
adoring worshippers. The subjects of two other
windows are the life of the Virgin of the date
of 1573, and the story of St Yves (of 1583) in
eleven pictures, with the donor Anne de Bretagne
in the right-hand corner at the base. The fifth
window on the south is dated 1572; it is a good
specimen of the style of the later Renaissance period.
The sixth window of about the same date contains
the story of Ste Anne and St Joachim.
The seventh is dated 1574; in the centre light
is the Virgin and Child surrounded by white bands
on which sentences from the Litanies are inscribed.
In the two side lights are scenes from the infancy
318 STORIED WINDOWS
of Christ. In the tracery is God the Father with Nt
two angels below. .
The eighth is the last window on the south
side of the nave nearest to the west. It is
dated 1578. It is a poor window of which the
subject is the story of Lazarus. There are also
six windows containing old glass in the clerestory
of the choir. |
In several of the windows at Montfort Amaury
the portraits of the donors are extremely fine, and
they deserve more attentive examination than the
pictures, because the artist has taken most pains
with the faces of his patrons and their families, as
is often the case after the middle of the fifteenth
century and especially in the sixteenth.
319
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF WINDOWS IN FRANCE.
Ir is difficult.as a general rule to find photographs
of windows in any country town in France,
although good local photographs are published
in Troyes by L. Brunon, 10 rue Thiers, and in
Reims by Rothier, 32 rue St Maurice, and at
Moulins by B. Scharlowsky, 7 rue Régemortes.
In Paris, however, photographs of numerous
windows in different parts of France are published
officially for the Beaux-Arts by the photographic
establishment of Neurdein Fréres, 52 Avenue de
Breteuil, near Sévres station. The firm only
keep negatives and are unable to show any copies.
But copies of all their photographs are to be
seen at the library of the Trocadéro, and any
visitor can make his own selection and take
down the number attached to each photograph.
Neurdein Fréres are prepared to print off and
supply any photograph of which the catalogue
number is sent to them, at prices varying ac-
cording to size, but rarely exceeding 1 france 75
centimes.
The Catalogue of the photographs contains
320 STORIED WINDOWS
many other things as well as windows, and
therefore it is rather troublesome to consult; to
remedy this, a list is appended of all the photo-
graphs of windows with the catalogue numbers,
arranged alphabetically according to departments.
This list will be of additional use in revealing to
the traveller the existence of many churches which
contain old windows, which otherwise might be
unknown to him.
Aisne. . La Ferté-Milon : Notre Dame. 6350
pig : : i, Saint Pierre. 9067
Barats ; : ss Saint Nicolas. 12,821-12,827
Hautes Alpes . Embrun - 1090
Aube . . Aulnay . 8622-8625
os . Auxon . 8629-8632
+ . Auzon . 8633
> . Bar-sur-Seine . 9725-9728, 9789-9796
a . Berulles - 9798-9801
ts . Brantigny . 8662, 8663
. Brienne-la-Vieille
. Brienne-le-Chateau
. 8668, 8669
. 8383, 8384, 8670-2, 8456,
8457
Rs . Chaource . 8677-9, 9802-5, 8459, 9732,
9733
‘5 . Chappes . 9577-9580
Be . Chassericourt . 8530, 8681
3 . Chaudrey . 9806
a . Chavanges . . 8392
is . Chessy . 8683, 8684
sy . Courtaoult . . 8688
oy . Creney . 8694-8696
he . Davrey . 8463, 8464
43 . Dienville . 8697-8699
sy . Dosmon . 9809
a . Ervy . 8470-2, 8706-8711
a . Geraudot . 8712-8714
3 . Granville . 9812-9814
s . Herbisse . 9816-9820
4, . Juvanze . 8718
iy . Laines-aux-Bois . . 8720
FRENCH WINDOW PHOTOGRAPHS 321
Aube.
. Lhuitre : F . 9824-9827
. Longpré : . 8729-8732
. Magnant . : . 8744-8746
. Maiziéres . : . 8479-8481, 8735-8737
. Mesnil-la-Comtesse . 9828, 9829
. Montangon . : . 8749-8751
. Montfey . : . 8754-8757, 8948
. Montiéramey . . 8758, 8759
. Montreuil . i . 8762, 8763
. Mussy . ; j . 9834
. Noes . ‘ 4 . 8486, 8767-8771
. Nogent-sur- Aube . 9836-9838
Pavillon, \ 2 s . 8774
. Pont-Sainte-Marie . 8778-8783, 12,026
. Pouan : ? . 9843-9845
. Praslin : ; . 9850, 9851
. Précy-Saint-Martin . 8488, 8489
. Racines. ‘ . 8788
. Bas-Rieey . : . 9750, 9856-9858
. Ricey-Haute-Rive . 9862
. Rosnay : : . 6849-6852, 8792-3, 8490-1
. Rouilly-Sacey . . 8794, 8795
. Rouilly-Saint-Loup . 8797, 8798
. Rumilly-les-Vaudes . 9759, 9866-9868
. Saint-André. . 8805
. Saint-Germain . . 8825, 8826
. Saint-Léger-les-Troyes 8829-8835
. Saint Parre-les-Tertres 8836-8839
. Saint Parre-les-Vaudes 9870-9872
. Saint Pouange . . 8848, 8849
. Thieffrain . . 8863
So To ats 3 : . 8864, 8865
. Torvilliers . : . 8866-8870
. Troyes: La Madeleine. 9760-9763, 9606-9608
We St Martin-és-Vignes. 9578-9891
Gs St Nicolas . 8508, 9770, 9610-9613
3 St Nizier . 12,074-12,081
. Unienville . " . 8927
. Valentigny . , . 8928
. Vaucogne . : - 9898-9900
. Vaudes : A . 9892-9897
. Vendeuvre . i . 8930
. Verriéres . ; . 8440, 8939, 8940
Calvados
”
Cher .
Céte d@Or .
Eure .
Indre-et-Loire
Loire.
79), 2 :
Loir-et-Cher
Maine et Loire .
”
?
”
Manche
Marne
” ?
Morbihan
Niévre
Nord
Oise
Orne
”
. Saint Firmin
. Alengon
. Argentan: St Gehnain,
STORIED WINDOWS
. Villeret . 8944
. Villevoque . . 8945
. Villiers-Herbisse . 9780, 9781
. Villy-le-Maréchal . 9905, 9906
. Lisieux : St Jacques . 11,025
. Moutier-Hubert . . 13,1138
. Vierzon . 8349
. Dijon . . 9061-9063
. Grand Andely . 10,492-10,499
. Bernay: Notre Dame dela Couture. 10,424-10,430
. Bourg-Achard
. 10,434-10,437
. Broglie . 6128
. Evreux : Parhoteal . 9065, 9066
; i St Taurin . 8551
. Fontaine-la-Soret . 11,024
. Gisors . . 10,459-10,462
. Louviers . 10,465-10,468, 12,928
. Pont-Audemer : St Germain. 10,732
: a St Ouen. 9158-9171
. Pont-de-’ Arche . . 10,473
. Quillebeuf . . 10,474
. Serquigny . . 10,739-10,741
. Tilliéres . 8609
. Vaudreuil . 10,756
. Verneuil . 10,367, 10,378, 10,482-5,
10,765-70
. Champigny-sur-Veude 5723-54, 5757-5762
. Ambierle . : . 5977-5991
. Saint-André aAuckon 11,047-11,050
. Cour-sur-Loire . 6258-6261, 9053
Angers: St Serge . 11,385-11,390
. Brissac : . L212
. Ponts-de-Cé . 12,128-12,132
. Saumur: Notre ene de N antilly. 12,286
. Saint-L6: Notre Dame. 9233, 9234
. Chalons: Cathedral . 9003-9012
: a Notre Dame 5763, 5932-42
. Guern . ; . 5969
. Saint Saulge . 2992-2995, 12,749-12,788
. Sorle-le-ChAteau . . 10,535
. 9216-9224, 9314
. 12,609-19, 12,753-7
4027
S St Martin . 197
FRENCH
Pas de Calais .
”
Puy de Dome .
oP)
”
Sadne-et-Loire .
Sarthe
Seine
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Oise .
Seine Inférieure
3)
Somme
9
Vienne
” : :
Haute-Vienne.
Vosges
Yonne
WINDOW PHOTOGRAPHS 323
La Couture . : . 13,017-13,021
. Locon . 4 : . 13,042-13,046
Chateau de la Barge: renee) 9022
. Riom . 3 . 6829-6834
. Vic-le-Comte ; . 7296
Autun. : ‘ . 9831-5855, 8949-8958
. LeMans . 4 . 9323-9347
. Puteaux : ; . 5855-5859
Moret . : s . 7245
Andrésy . d . 10,963-10,968
. Limours.. : . 5860-5863
. Montmorency . . 5379-5455
. Pontoise . ; . 6798, 6799
A Brie) ed) hie) O85 8410956
. Varennes . : . 5602-5610
Saint-Saens. ‘ . 9992-9994
. Villequier . 3 . 3337
. Roye . 4 ‘ . 2368-2370
. Tilloloy . : . 11,835
. Poitiers: Cathedral . 6745-6792
a St Radegonde. 12,911-6, 12,918-20
Solignac . : . 5611-5613
. Saint-Dié . . . 12,883-12,888
Seal i id Sigh. OMA! Om el ONes
324 STORIED WINDOWS
Day, Lewis F. .
”
Drake, M. ;
Grinling, C. H.
Lasteyrie, Comte de.
”
Magne, L.
Male, E.
Merson, O.
Morris, W.
Nelson, P. :
Sherrill, C. H. .
Viollet-le-Duc .
Westlake, N. H. J. .
Whall, C. W. .
Winston, Charles
Angers by
”
Auxerre .
Bourges .
”
”
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
. Stained Glass, 1903
. Windows, 1897. (8rd edition, 1909)
. History of English Stained Glass, 1912
. Ancient Stained Glass in Oxford: in No.
XXIX. of Proceedings of Oxford Historical
Society, 1883
Histoire de la peinture sur verre, 2 vols., 1852
. Cluvres des peintres verriers Frangais, 2 vols.,
1885
. Vitraux de Montmorency et d’Ecouen, 1888
. L’Art Religieux du xiiie siécle en France, 1898
. Les Vitraux, 1894
. Caxton’s Golden Legend, 3 vols., 1892
. Ancient Painted Glass in England, 1913
. Stained Glass Tours in France, 1908
. Vitrail: in vol. ix. of Dictionnaire d’Architec-
ture, 1868
History of Design in Painted Glass, 4 vols.,
1881-1894, (This comprehensive cosmopolitan
work ts the best book in English on old church
glass)
. Stained Glass Work, 1905
. Hints on Glass Painting, 2 vols., 1867
MONOGRAPHS.
. De Farcy, 3 vols. and album. Windows in
vol. i., 1910
. Denais, 1899
. Bonneau, 1885
. Martin et Cahier, 2 folio vols., 1841-1844
. Clément et Guitard, 1900
. Marquis des Méloizes (on later windows), folio,
1898
d
|
’
2
4
BIBLIOGRAPHY: MONOGRAPHS 325
Cambridge,
Chapel
Canterbury .
Chélons, Cathedral
» St Alpin
Chartres .
Evreux
9
Exeter
Fairford .
Laon b
Le Mans .
” :
Les Andelys
Ludlow .
Moulins .
Poitiers .
Reims
St Florentin
Sens . A
Shrewsbury, St
Mary’s
Tours :
Troyes . :
Troyes, St Urbain .
. Browne, 1847
York Minster .
King’s
. James, 1899
. ‘Notes on the Painted Glass,’ 1897
. Lucot, 1907
. Hurault, in ‘ Art Sacré,’ 1906
. Lassus, folio of illustrations, 1856, described by
Clerval (Guide) Durand, 1881
. Fossey, 1898
. Lebeurier, 1868
. Drake, 1909
. Joyce, 1870
. De Florival
. Hucher, folio, 1865
. Ledru (Guide), 1895
. Porée (Guide), 1893
. Weyman, 1905
. De Segange, 1876
. Auber, in ‘Mémoires de la Société des Anti-
quaires de l’Ouest, 1848
. Tarbé
A : ‘ . Tourneur, 1857
Rouen, St Vincent .
. Hermelin (Guide)
. Brullée, 1861
Renaud, 1885
. Lloyd, 1900
. Marchand and Bourassé, folio, 1849
. Morel-Payen (Guide), 1910
Jossier, 1912
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INDEX.
The ordinal numbers indicate the century in which the glass was made.
Aaron, 126, 174, 187, 193
Abbey of St Denis, 12th, 25, 121,
14]
Abraham, 79, 122, 125, 181, 191,
196, 227, 236
Abrasion of flashed glass, 8, 77
Ages of Man, 273
Albigenses, 73
Aldegrever’s windows at Conches,
94
Aldermaston, Berks., 13th, 35
Alengon, 16th, 17th, 99, 322
Alérions at Montmorency, 305
Alexander III., Pope, 136
All Saints’, North Street, York,
14th, 15th, 40, 45
All Souls’, Oxford, 15th, 45
Allegorical windows, 73, 76, 95,
239, 242, 254, 257, 260, 274
Ambulatory, 16
Amiens, 13th, 14th, 40, 46
Amorini in Renaissance glass, 51
Amyot, Bishop, 238
Andrésy, 16th, 55
Angers, 12th to 16th, 167, 322
Annunciation, 74, 80, 95, 203, 240,
269, 273, 288, 299, 310, 317
Antimony yellow, 9
Anricus, 294
Apocalypse, 197,244,274, 275, 304
Apse, 16
Apsidal Chapel, 17
Arcis-sur-Aube, 16th, 55
Arezzo, 16th, 56
Arms of France, 79, 126, 188, 233,
265
Ascension Window, Le Mans, 103
Ashtead, Surrey, 16th, 52
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lanecs., 15th,
45
Assisi, St Francis, 14th, 41
Assumption, 80, 88, 106, 124, 126,
169, 200, 257, 289
Atmospheric effect, 50
Attila, 232, 270, 278, 289
Attributes of Seven Deadly Sins, 80
Auch, early 16th, 47, 68
Augsburg, earliest glass, 14th, 22,
41
Aulnay, near Troyes, 16th, 55, 320
Aumale, 15th, 16th, 46, 55
Auxerre, 13th to 16th, 235
Bacon’s Essay, 128
Bakers’ Guild, 108, 198
Balaam, 174, 186, 223
Bale window, Trinity, Oxford, 52
Balliol Chapel, 16th, 52
Bands of Grisaille in 14th, 38, 67,
69, 96
Barbe Cadier, 215
Bar-sur-Seine, 16th, 55, 320
Basingstoke, 16th, 52
Basset, Jean, donor, 82
Battle of Las Navas, 289
Bayeux, 15th, 46
328
Beauchamp Chapel,
15th, 46, 47
Beaumont-le-Roger, 15th, 46
Beauvais Cathedral, 13th, 14th,
35, 40
Beauvais St Etienne, 16th, 11, 16,54
Becket windows, 35
Chartres, 137
Sens, 219
Tours, 176
Beer Ferrers, Devon, 14th, 40
Bernay, 15th, 46, 322
Béziers, 13th, 35
Biblia Pauperum windows, 64,
109, 227
Black Death, 19
Black Prince, 29, 39, 84
Blanche of Castille, 28, 84, 101,
164, 271, 300
Blason, Maurice de, 184
Bologna, St Petronio, 16th, 57
Bordeaux, 14th, 41
Bourbon portraits—
Champigny-sur-Veude, 164
Chartres, 124
Moulins, 213, 217
Tours, 161
Bourges, 12th to 17th, 190
Bourgthéroulde, 16th, 55
Brantigny, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Bridan, sculptor, 128
Bridier, Bishop, 90
Brienne la Vieille, near Troyes,
16th, 55
Brienne le Chateau, near Troyes,
16th, 55, 320
Bristol, 14th, 40
Brittany, glass in, 62
Brou, Notre Dame de, at Bourg,
16th, 55
Brussels, 16th, 17th, 56, 61
Buckland, Gloucester, 15th, 46
Burning Bush, 193, 221, 223
Buron, Romain, glass artist, 79
Butchers’ Guild, 194, 245
Warwick,
Cain and Abel, 151, 156, 249, 271,
280, 295
Calixtus II., Pope, 140
Cana, Miracle of, 80, 134, 288
Canopy of 13th, 14th, 15th cen-
tury, 32, 38, 43
STORIED WINDOWS
Canterbury, 13th, 21, 35, 130, 194,
220, 229, 294, 300
Cantier, Bishop, 85
Carcassonne, 14th, 41, 69
Carentan, 14th, 15th, 41, 46
Cariti, Bishop, 87
Carolus, 142
Catherine de Medici, 31, 312
Catherine wheel, 87
Caudebec, 15th, 16th, 46, 55
Chalices at Crucifixion, 53, 214 i
Chalons Cathedral, 12th to 16th,
277, 322 |
Chalons, Notre Dame, 16th,289, 322
», St Alpin, 16th, 286 |
Champigny-sur-Veude, 16th, 163, j
322
Chanson de Roland, 139 1
Chantilly, 16th, 54 |
Chaource, near Troyes, 16th, 55,
320
Chapelle de
Bourges, 202
Chapelle Vendéme at Chartres, 124
Chardonnel, donor, 130
Chariots, 73
Charlemagne, 139, 166 (see St)
Charles le Mauvais, 84, 87
Charles the Victorious, 30, 307
Charles the Wise, 30, 85
Chartham, Kent, 14th, 40
Chartres Cathedral, 12th to 15th,
119
Chartres, St Pierre, 12th, 13th,
14th, 115
Chastelain, Bishop, 113
Chatillon, Cardinal, 308
Chaucer, 17, 64, 140
Chavanges, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Cheltenham, St Mary’s, 19
Cinque Cento glass, 56
Cirencester, 15th, 46
Cistercian Edict of 1134, 22
Clamecy, 16th, 55
Clemens Vitrearius, 64
Clerestory, 16
Clermont-Ferrand, 13th, 15th, 35,
46
Clovis, 79, 294, 298
Cobalt blue, 9
Ceeur, Jacques, 202
Coligny, Admiral de, 307, 308
Jacques Cceur at
INDEX
Cologne Dom, 13th, 14th, 16th,
35, 41, 57
Cologne, St Cunibert, 13th, 35
Colours, 9
Combs, Suffolk, 15th, 45
Conches, 16th, 94
Constantine, 106, 141, 192
Constantinople, 30, 149, 258
Copper in ruby glass, 9
Cortona, 56
Cousin, glass artist, 227, 303
Coutances, 13th, 14th, 15th, 35,
41, 46
Crabeth, glass artists, 60
Creation windows—
Auxerre, 236
Bourges, 193
Chalons, 280
Champigny-sur-Veude, 165
St Florentin, 249
Tours, 156
Troyes, Ste Madeleine, 271
Crecy, 29, 39
Creney, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Crossed halo of Christ, 267, 278
Crucifixion, unusual pictures of —
Bourges, 197
Ervy, 254
Moulins, 214
Poitiers, 183
Reims, 297
Rouen, 65
Tours, 152
Westminster, 53
Cusping, 18, 20, 146, 147, 286
Dagobert, King, 66
Damville, 16th, 55
Daniel, 128, 147, 199, 226, 239,
259
Daughters of Jerusalem at Orbais,
290
David, 113, 151, 157, 199, 200,
215, 236
Davrey, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Day, Lewis F., ‘ Windows,’ 12, 53,
74, 99, 120, 161, 169, 276, 285,
307
Death of the Blessed Virgin, 169,
217, 232, 257, 273, 281, 310, 316
Decadence of glass, 61, 251, 309,
315
329
De La Tour, pastel painter, 300
Deerhurst, Glos., 14th, 40
Demonology, Conway’s, 81
Descent from the Cross, 197, 233,
268, 274, 287, 308, 316
Descent of the Holy Ghost, 166,
251, 316
Devitrification, 13
Diane de Poitiers, 31, 118, 146,
304, 312
Didron, glass artist, 264
Dijon, north transept, 12th, 25, 322
Dinan, 15th, 46
Dinteville, de, Bishops, 240, 306
Dives and Lazarus, 191
Doddiscombsleigh, Devon, 15th, 46
Dol, 14th, 41
Dorchester, Oxford, 12th, 14th,
23, 40
Dosnon, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Double borders, 127
Doves typifying gifts of the Spirit,
-15, 108, 121
Drake, F. M., 21
Drapers’ Guild, 107
Duchesse Anne, 31, 62
Dugdale’s Warwickshire, 47
Dunois, Hore, 81
Duomo of Milan, 16th, 57
Durandal, Sword of Roland, 143
Durham, glass of, 1175, 23
Karly Gothic, 31
Kast Harling, Norfolk, 15th, 45
Kece Homo, 250, 273, 315
Keonomy of design—
Chartres Cathedral, 121
pe St Pierre, 117
Reims, St Remi, 297
Troyes, St Urbain, 266
Kecouen, 16th, 309
Elbeuf, 16th, 54
Hiland, Yorks., 15th, 45
Ely, 14th, 40
Emerald Green, 9, 108, 125
Emmaus, 122, 152, 166
Enamel, 7
Enamel paints, soft, 59, 227, 251
Engrand le Prince, glass artist,
73, 306
Entry into Jerusalem, 116, 157,
196, 267, 281
330 STORIED
Erfurt, 14th, 41
Ervy, 16th, 252, 320
Kssarts, des, Bishop, 89
Estouteville, Cardinal, 69
Eugene IV., Pope, 86
Eutropius, 228
Evangelists, 128, 200, 297
Evreux, 13th to 16th, 84
Exeter, 14th, 21, 40
Eymoutiers, 15th, 46
Ezanville, 16th, 55
Fae, Bishop, 88
Fairford, 16th, 47
Falaise, 15th, 46
Fauconnier, glass artist (?) 207, 310
Fécamp, 16th, 55
Feeding of the five thousand, 229,
288
Ferriéres, de, Canon, 86
Ferriéres (Loiret), 16th, 55
Festoons, Renaissance, 51
Fiacre, 76
Fifteenth century, 30
Fifteenth-century canopy, 43
Fifteenth-century windows, 42,
71, 111, 200, 209, 282
Fillastre, Cardinal, 113
Five aisles, 72, 118
Flamboyant Style, 20, 71, 124, 145,
209, 298
Flashed blue glass, 8, 49
Flashed ruby glass, 6
Flemish glass, 52, 56
Fleurs-de-lis, 28, 231, 279, 285,
289, 294
Fleurs-de-lis in arms of France
(see Arms of France)
Fleurs-de-lis in stone, 91, 202, 206
Fleurs-de-lis tips, 179, 241, 267
Flight into Egypt, 129, 151, 158,
196, 222, 250, 252
Floral scroll, 33, 123, 219
Florence, Duomo, late 15th, 47
Flowing tracery, 19
Foreign windows in England, 52
Fourteenth century, 29
Fourteenth-century canopy, 38
Fourteenth-century windows, 37,
65, 69, 84, 96, 117, 188, 262, 265
Four transepts, 300
Francois Premier, 31, 146, 304
WINDOWS
Freiburg-am-Breisgau, 14th, 16th,
41, 57
Freneio, donor, 106
Furriers’ Guild, 107, 141, 196, 279
Gabriel, 73, 74, 203, 206, 226
Galicia, 140
Gannat, 16th, 55
Gatton Hall, Surrey, 16th, 52
Geometrical diaper, 33, 123
Geometrical tracery, 18
Geraudot, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Gérente, glass artist, 104
Gideon’s fleece, 223
Gisors, 16th, 55, 322
Glass from France, 26
Glasse of England, 47
Glass-hunting, 63
Gloucester, 14th, 20, 39
‘Golden Legend,’ 36, 111, 192
Goldsmiths’ Guild, 272
Gontier, glass artist, 60, 260, 275
Good Samaritan, 124, 192, 221
Good Shepherd, 311
Gothic cusping (see Cusping)
Gouda, 17th, 60
Granada, 16th, 57
Grand Andely, 16th, 78, 322
Grateley, Hants., 13th, 35, 238
Grisaille, 11, 38
Auxerre, 237, 239
Chalons, 285, 286
Chartres Cathedral, 125, 127
: a St Pierre, 117
Le Mans, 108
Orbais l’Abbaye, 292
Rouen, St Ouen, 67
Sées, 96, 97
Sens, 227
Troyes, Cathedral, 259
» St Urbain, 268
Groslay, 16th, 55
Grozing iron, 10
Guérande, 16th, 62
Guérande, Jacques de, 156
Guilds, 131, 136
Guillaume de Marseille, or Mar-
cillat, glass artist, 56
Haddon Hall Chapel, Derbyshire,
54
Hans, de, Bishop, 285
INDEX
Harcourt window, 14th, 86
Heads in tracery of 14th, 70
Heiligen Kreuz, 12th, 25
Henri Deux, 31, 79, 118, 303, 304,
306
Henri Quatre, 78, 312
Henry the Second, 23, 26, 136,
184, 219
Henry the Third, 28, 159
Henry the Fifth, 276
Henry the Seventh, 28, 30, 53
Henry the Highth, 31, 50
Herblay, 16th, 55
Hereford, 14th, 40
Herkenrode glass in Lichfield, 52
Hesiod, 77
Hessett, Suffolk, 15th, 45
Hildesheim, 11th, 22
Hore of Dunois, 81
Hotel at Sées, to be avoided, 96
Hotel de Normandie, Rouen, 63
Hucher, Monograph of Le Mans,
110, 114
Humpy surface of glass, 34, 77
Hundred Years’ War, 29
Iffs, 16th, 62
Immaculate conception, 146, 241,
250, 287, 290
Innocents, 158, 185, 201, 257, 269
Invention of Cross, 233
Isaiah, 128, 198, 252, 260, 266,
299
Isabella the Catholic, 53
Jerusalem, 141, 178, 192, 221, 275
Jerusalem Chamber, 13th, 35
Jesse tree, 15
Jesse trees—
Alengon, 99
Angers, 174
Beauvais Cathedral, 16
5 St Etienne, 16
Chartres, 120
Evreux, 91
Le Mans, 109
Sens, 223
Soissons, 301
Tours, 157
Troyes Cathedral, 258, 259
», Ste Madeleine, 272
», st Nizier, 274
3301
Joan of Arc, 30, 86
Job, 74, 186, 254, 259
John, King, 28, 78
John of Gaunt, 29
John of Salisbury, 137
Jonah, 110, 151, 266
Joseph, 64, 179, 198, 227, 236,
241, 259, 315
Joseph, Saint, rod that budded,
117, 281, 288
Joshua, 178
Jossier, O. F. Curé de St Urbain,
263, 267, 269
Jubé, stone, 251, 270
Judas, 76, 157, 164, 197, 267, 282
Judgment of Solomon, 276
Katherine of Aragon, 54
King’s College Chapel, 16th, 52
King’s ‘Study Book,’ 97
Landscape in Renaissance glass,
72, 310
Laon, 13th, 298
Lasteyrie, Count Ferdinand de,
116
Last Judgment, 73, 122, 172, 188,
196, 224, 275, 277
Last Supper, 95, 151, 157, 197,
250, 276, 282, 287
Late Gothic, 42
Later Renaissance glass, 58, 200,
275
Lattice-work in glass at Sées, 97
Laval-Montmorenci, 160, 251, 307
Lazarus, raising of, 192, 318
Le Mans, 12th, 13th, 15th, 101, 323
Lescuyer, glass artist, 204, 205,
207
Leverington, Cambs., 15th, 16, 46
Lhuitre, near Troyes, 16th, 55, 321
Liberal Arts, 240
Lichfield, 16th, 52
Liége Cathedral, 16th, 56
>, St Jacques, 16th, 56
» St Martin, 16th, 56
Limoges, 14th, 41
Limoges enamels, 118, 298
Lincoln, 13th, 14th, 35, 40
Lisieux, 15th, 46
Loches, Priests of, 158
Long Melford, Suffolk, 15th, 45
332
Longpré, near Troyes, 16th, 55,
321
Lot, 180, 236
Loudun, Bishop, 107
Louis VII., 23, 26, 136
a9 Wiig Ge
», LX. (see Saint Louis)
», AI., 30, 86, 90, 93
Lowick, Northants, 14th, 40
Ludlow, Salop, 14th, 15th, 14, 16,
40, 45
Lullingstone, Kent, 15th, 45
Lyénin, glass artist, 223, 259
Lyon, 13th, 35
Magi, 82, 117, 126, 157, 195, 196,
201, 205, 250, 257, 259, 271, 278
Magnant, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Malchus’ ear, 74, 206, 259
Male, Emil, 81, 111, 184
Malvern, 15th, 45, 249
Mancetter, Warwickshire,
16, 40
Manganese, 5
Manna, 95, 286, 316
Mantes, 14th, 41
Mantes, Jean de, 118
Marburg, 13th, 36
Marcellus, Bishop, 65
Margaretting, Essex, 15th, 16, 46
Maries, 73, 86, 152, 259, 275, 306,
311
Marriage of the Virgin Mary, 117,
250, 281, 288
Marseilles, William of, 56
Martham, Norfolk, 15th, 45
Martin and Cahier, Monograph of
Bourges, 109, 194
Masons’ Guild, 191, 198
Matilda, Countess, 199
Melbury-Bubb, Dorset, 15th, 46
Melchizedek, 126, 223, 271
Méloizes, Marquis des, 200
Merchant in the Temple, 281, 288
Merivale, Warwickshire, 14th, 40
Merson, ‘ Les Vitraux,’ 121, 260
Merton College Chapel, early 14th,
40
Mesnil-Aubry, 16th, 55
Methley, Yorks., 15th, 45
Method, 10
Meulent, Jean de, Canon, 92
14th,
STORIED WINDOWS
Michael weighing souls, 122, 196,
301
Middle Gothic glass, 27
Middleton, Lancs., 16th, 52
Milan, Duomo, 16th, 57
Milton, 119, 139
Miracle of Cana (see Cana)
Moles, Arnaut de, glass artist, 47
Molins, R. de, Canon, 89
Moncontour, 16th, 62
Montagnon, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Monte Cassimo, glass of, 1066, 22
Montfort PAmaury, 16th, 314
Montfoy, near Troyes, 16th, 55,
321
Montiéramey, near Troyes, 16th,
55
Montier-en-Der, near Troyes, 16th,
55
Montmorency, 16th, 305, 323
Montreuil, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Monville, 16th, 55
Moses, 113, 147, 174, 186, 193,
195, 198, 221, 239, 240, 290,
300
Moulins, 15th, 16th, 209
Munich, 15th, 46
Musée at Paris, in the Trocadéro,
25, 35, 262, 277, 303
Musée at Rouen, 35, 77
Museum, Victoria and Albert, 35,
46, 54, 56
Mussy-sur-Seine, near Troyes,
16th, 55
Narbonne, 14th, 41
Natural foliage in 14th, 38
Nesle-Saint-Saire, 14th, 41
Nettlestead, Kent, 15th, 45
New College Chapel, late 14th, 40
Newnham Paddox, Denbigh, 15th,
46
Nicolaus, Cardinal de Nonancourt,
92
Nieder-Hasslach, 14th, 41
Nimbus in one piece with the head,
45
Nimbus in perspective, 51
Noah, 113, 123, 147, 236, 266
Noés, near Troyes, 16th, 55, 321
Nonancourt, 15th, 16th, 46, 100
Norbury, Derbyshire, 14th, 40
INDEX
Norman architecture, 25
North Luffenham, Rutland, 14th,
40
Notre Dame de la belle Verriére,
133
‘Nouvelle Alliance’ windows—
Bourges, 194
Chartres, 123
Le Mans, 109
Orbais l Abbaye, 291
Sens, 226
Tours, 151
Nuremberg, St Lorenz, 15th, 46
3 St Sebald’s, 14th,
16th, 41, 57
Oracula Sibyllina, 68
Orbais Abbaye, 13th, 290
Oriflamme, 127, 142
Ox and Ass, heads of, 157
Oxford, All Souls, 15th, 45
», Balliol, 16th, 52
», Cathedral, 14th, 40
», Lincoln, 17th, 60
», Merton, early 14th, 40
>» New, late 14th, 40
», St Michael’s, early 14th, 40
» Trinity, 15th, 16th, 45, 52
», University College, 17th,
61
» Wadham, 16th, 17th, 52,
60
Palace of Liesse, 95
Paper patterns, 49
Paris environs—
Chantilly (25 miles), 16th, 313
Ecouen, 16th, 309
Montfort PAmaury (29 miles),
16th, 314
Montmorency, 16th, 305
St Denis, 12th, 25
Vincennes, 16th, 303
Paris, Musée de Sculpture, Troca-
déro, 12th to 16th (see
Musée)
», Notre Dame, Rose of N.
Transept, 13th, 35
>, st Etienne du Mont (near
Panthéon), 16th, 54, 268
», St Eustache (near the
Halles), 17th, 61
333
Paris, St Germain |’ Auxerrois (near
Louvre), 16th, 54
», St Gervais (behind Hotel de
Ville), 16th, 54, 276
>», St Merri (near Tour St
Jacques), 16th, 54
», St Séverin (near Boulevard
St Michel), 15th, 46
», NSainteChapelle,13th; (Rose,
15th), 35
Patina, 13, 102, 231
Pavillon, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Pearled ring round 13th medal-
lions, 33
Pelican, 110, 151, 195
Perpendicular, English, 20
Peter with scales, 83
Philip Augustus, 26, 78, 84, 256
Philip of Valois, 29
Pinaigrier, glass artist, 118, 276
Pirmil, Vincent de, 154
Plélan, 15th, 46, 62
Ploermel, 16th, 62
Pointed shoes in 14th, 69
Poitiers Cathedral, 12th, 13th,
177, 323
Poitiers St Radegonde, 14th, 188
Poivres, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Pont Audemer, 16th, 55, 322
Pont de l Arche, 14th, 16th, 41, 55
Pont ’Evéque, 16th, 55
Pontigny, 136, 218, 244
Pontoise, 16th, 55
Pope Adrien VI., 306
», Alexander III., 136
» Calixtus II., 140
3; Clement V., 118
», Hugene IV., 86
», Innocent IV., 106
» Urbain IV., 263
Pot-metal, 6
Pré, Jean de, Bishop, 88
Presentation of the Virgin Mary,
195, 281, 288, 290
Price of glass, 48, 49, 52
Prodigal Son, 125, 186, 193, 221,
238, 259
Prophets, 97, 128, 174, 199, 266,
284, 297
Quarry, 11
‘Quentin Durward,’ 30
334
Quimper, 15th, 46, 62
Radiation of blue, 132
Raphael, 206, 310
Reflected colour
glass, 14, 298
Regensburg, 14th, 41
Reims Cathedral, 13th, 293
», St Remi, 12th, 13th, 296
Reine Claude, 31
Relief, 50
Religion trampling on heresy, 274
Renaissance, 30, 31
Renaissance glass, 50
René, King, 86, 113, 176
Repiquage en chef-d’ceuvre, 262
Richard Cceur de Lion, 26, 78
Richelieu, 163
Riom, 15th, 46, 323
Rivenhall, Essex, 12th, 23
Rolandi, Bishop, 105
Romanesque windows, 25
Rose de France at Chartres, 126
Rose connected by tracery, 97, 112
Rosnay, near Troyes, 16th, 55, 321
Ross, St Mary’s, 15th, 46
Rouen Cathedral, 13th, 14th, 64
>> st Maclou, 15th, 71
» St Ouen, 14th, 15th, 66
3» St Patrice, 16th, 74
3» St Vincent, 16th, 72
>» Musée, 77
Rouilly Sacey, near Troyes, 16th,
55
from modern
Rouilly St Loup, near Troyes,
16th, 55
Ruby glass, 6, 9
Rumilly les Vaudes, near Troyes,
16th, 55, 321
Saddle-bars, 14
Saints—
Agatha, 105, 233
Agnes, 105, 116, 202, 233
Ambrose, 93, 201, 262
Andrew, 148, 151, 174, 177, 237,
265, 283
Anne, 73, 109, 117, 126, 212,
215, 262, 276, 281
Antony, 73, 132, 177, 259
Apollinarius, 127
Augustine, 68, 93, 201
STORIED WINDOWS
Saints—
Barbe, 74, 215, 217, 273, 283,
300, 308
Blaise, 148, 179, 188, 231, 307
Catherine, 54, 87, 168, 203, 213,
239, 300
Cecilia, 233
Charlemagne, 142, 213, 233, 241,
242, 288
Christine of Bolsena, 253
Christopher, 83, 147, 172, 174,
241, 306
Claude, 241, 262, 275
Clotilde, 79, 295
Colombe, 224, 226
Denis, 86, 127, 155, 184, 201, 308
Elizabeth, 212
Eloi, 111, 174, 238, 270, 272
Eustache, 74, 123, 159, 172, 220,
238
Ferréol, 153, 232
Fiacre, 75, 233
Francis, 260, 304, 306
Gatien, 157, 160, 172
Geneviéve, 232, 270, 308
George, 54, 94, 125
Germain, 239, 270
Gervais, 102, 105, 106
Gregory, 93, 171, 201, 262
Helena, 233, 256, 260
Hilaire, 204, 248
James, 148, 151, 159, 166, 175,
198, 203, 238, 241
James of Campostella, 73, 140,
143, 289
Jerome, 201, 262, 307
John the Baptist, 72, 116, 129,
176, 177, 198, 204, 211, 230,
240, 245, 275
John the Evangelist, 124, 148,
159, 177, 198, 204, 211, 231,
240, 257, 262
Julian, 64, 102, 1380, 1538, 175,
232, 244
Laurence, 125, 160, 174, 205,
226, 237
Louis, 28, 75, 160, 164, 241, 242,
249, 259, 263, 271, 300, 308,
310
Lucy, 105, 233
Margaret, 131, 230, 237, 265
Martha, 105, 111, 308
INDEX 335
Saints—
Martial, 159, 160
Martin, 132, 152, 153, 158, 160,
175, 184, 248, 269
Mary Magdalene, 146, 192, 210,
227, 239, 268, 272, 286, 307
Mathias, 175, 200, 260
Maurice, 156, 157, 171, 172
Memmius, 278
Michael, 88, 99, 147, 160, 171,
204, 211, 226, 262
Nicolas, 131, 155, 191, 224, 231,
238, 245, 256, 274
Ouen, 66, 272
Patrice, 74
Paul, 106, 130, 172, 184, 193,
222, 231-3, 257
Peter, 72, 116, 129, 148, 156,
174, 183, 214, 231, 233, 275
Quentin, 172
Romain, 70, 79
Sebastian, 82, 148, 172, 202,
241, 259, 274
Stephen, 103, 192, 197, 205,
222, 294, 269
Thomas, 152, 154, 175, 198
Thomas of Cantorbéry, 135, 176,
219
Vincent, 73, 155, 169, 197, 307
St (Churches)—
Acceul, Ecouen, 16th, 311
Alpin, Chalons, 16th, 286
Bonnet, Bourges, 16th, 206
Cross, Winchester, 15th, 45
Cunibert, Cologne, 13th, 35
Denis, near Paris, 12th, 25
Dennis, York, 14th, 40
Elizabeth, Marburg, 13th, 36
Etienne, Beauvais, 16th, 11, 16,
54
Etienne du Mont, Paris, 16th,
54, 268
Eustache, Paris, 17th, 61
Francis, Assisi, 14th, 41
George’s, Hanover Square, 16th,
16, 52
George’s, Windsor, 15th, 45
Germain 1’Auxerrois, Paris,
16th, 54
Gervais, Paris, 16th, 54, 276
Gudule, Brussels, 16th, 17th,
56, 61
St (Churches)—
Jacques, Liége, 16th, 56
Jean, Troyes, 16th, 276
John’s, York, 14th, 40
Lorenz, Nuremberg, 15th, 46
Maclou, Rouen, 15th, 71
Margaret's, Westminster, 16th,
52
Madeleine, Troyes, 16th, 270
Martin’s, Liége, 16th, 56
Martin cum Gregory, York,
14th, 40
Martin-és-Vignes, Troyes, 17th,
275
Martin’s, Windermere, 15th, 46,
54
Martin’s le Grand, York, 15th,
45
Mary’s, Cheltenham (Flowing
Tracery), 19
Mary’s, Ross, 15th, 46
Mary’s, Shrewsbury, 14th, 15th,
16th, 40, 45, 52
Merri, Paris, 16th, 54
Michael’s, York, 15th, 45
Nazaire, Carcassonne, 14th, 41,
69
Nizier, Troyes, 16th, 273
Quen, Rouen, 14th, 15th, 66
Patrice, Rouen, 16th, 74
Peter’s, Cologne, 16th, 57
Petronio, Bologna, 16th, 57
Pierre, Chartres, 12th, 13th,
14th, 115
Radegonde, Poitiers, 14th, 188
Remi, Reims, 12th, 13th, 296
Sebald’s, Nuremberg, 14th, 16th,
41, 57
Serge, Angers, 12th, 15th, 176
Séverin, Paris, 15th, 46
Stephen’s, Westminster, 15th, 45
Taurin, Evreux, 15th, 93
Urbain, Troyes, 13th to 16th, 263
Vincent, Rouen, 16th, 72
St (Places)—
Firmin, near Chantilly, 16th, 55
Florentin, 16th, 17th, 244
Germain, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Jago de Campostella, 140, 142
Jean-aux-Bois, near Compiégne,
13th, 35
Julien du Sault, 13th, 16th, 230
336
St (Places)—
Leger, near Troyes, 16th, 55,
321
Lé, 15th, 46
Neot, Cornwall, 16th, 52, 249
Parres-les-Tertres, near Troyes,
16th, 55, 321
Pouanges, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Quentin, 12th, 13th, 16th, 25,
35, 299
Saulge, 16th, 15, 322
Saint Nicholas’ Clerks, 131
Sainte Chapelle, 13th, 35, 49, 165,
264
Salisbury, 13th, 35
Salome, 72, 198, 211
Samson, 237
Santa Claus, 131
Santa Croce, Florence, 14th, 41
Santa Maria Novella, 14th, 15th,
16th, 41, 57
Sées, 14th, 96
School of St Denis, 122, 147, 152,
184
Seated Dead, 293
Selling, Kent, 14th, 40
Semur, 13th, 35
Sens, 13th, 16th, 218, 323
Seven Deadly Sins, 80
Seven Saints, 72
Seville, 16th, 57
Shakespeare, 28, 131
Shaped bars of 13th, 32, 123, 219
Sheering, Essex, 14th, 40
Shepherds, 82, 126, 157, 310, 317
Shrewsbury, St Mary’s, 14th, 15th,
16th, 16, 40, 45, 52
Sibyls, 67, 223, 252
Sienna, Duomo, 16th, 57
Silver stain, 7
Snouted fiend, 81
Soissons, 13th, 300
Solomon, 126, 157
Southwell, 16th, 52
Sower, 201
Spenser, 81
Spirits in Prison, 152,
268
Spontaneous crystallisation, 14
Stanford, Northants, 14th, 40
Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire,
13th, 35
157, 197,
STORIED WINDOWS
Stipple shading, 42
Strasburg, 12th, 14th, 25, 41
Streaky ruby glass, 33
Suger, Abbot of St Denis, 121,
152
Synagogue, 195, 226, 284, 291
Tanners’ Guild, 137, 193
Tapestry, 176, 298, 302
Tegernsee, 11th, 22
Tewkesbury, 14th, 40
Thaxted, Essex, 15th, 46
Théophile, 80, 105, 106, 231, 237,
258, 274
Thieffrain, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Thirteenth century, 28
Thirteenth-century glass, 32
Thornhill, Yorks., 15th, 45, 157
Tiburtine Sibyl, 228, 252, 289
Tobias, 254, 259
Toledo, 16th, 57
Torvilliers, near Troyes, 16th, 55,
321
Toulouse, 14th, 41, 73
Tours, 13th, 14th, 16th, 150
Tracery, 18, 188
Transfiguration, 122, 275, 282
Transitional windows—
Auch, early 16th, 47
Auxerre, early 16th, 241
Chalons, early 14th and 16th,
282, 283
Evreux, early 14th and early
16th, 90, 92
Fairford, 16th, latest Gothic,
47
Florence, late 15th, 47
Merton, early 14th, 40
Moulins, late 15th, 214
New College, late 14th, 40
Poitiers, late 12th, 181
Tours, early 14th, 152
Troyes Cathedral, late 15th,
259
Troyes, St Urbain, early 14th,
265
Vendéme, early 16th, 147
Treading of wine-press, 95
Tree of Knowledge, 254, 258
Trefoil, 18, 202
Triforium, 16
Trinity, Holy, 148, 241, 254, 274
INDEX
Trinity Library and Hall, Oxford,
15th, 16th, 45, 52
Triumph of the Cross, 76, 272
Triumph of the Virgin, 95, 222
Triumphs of Petrarch, 253
Trocadéro Musée in Paris (see
Musée)
Troyes Cathedral, 13th to17th, 255
>» St Jean, 16th, 276
», Ste Madeleine, 15th, 16th,
270, 321
» Martin - és - Vignes,
275, 321
» St Nizier, 16th, 273, 321
St Urbain, 13th to 16th, 263
Turban of Pagan, 24, 289
Turpin, 140
Twelfth century, 25
Twelfth-century glass, 23
Twelfth-century windows—
Angers, 168
Bourges, 205
Chalons, 277
Chartres, 120, 133
Dijon, 25
Le Mans, 102
Poitiers, 181
Reims, St Remi, 297
> Rivenhall, Essex, 23
St Denis, 25
St Quentin, 25
Trocadéro, Paris, 277, 303
Vendéme, 147, 148
Tyerri, 127
Tympanum, 18
17th,
Ulm, 15th, 46
Urbain IV., Pope, 263
Valentigny, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Vallon, du, Bishop, 90
Valmont, 16th, 55
Van Linge, glass artist, 60
Van Orley, glass artist, 56
Vendeuvre, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Vendéme, 12th, 15th, 16th, 145
Vendome, Chapelle, at Chartres,
124
Verneuil, 15th, 16th, 46, 55, 100,
322
Veronica, 206
337
Verrat, glass artist, 223, 259
Verriére, 26
Verriéres (Aube), 16th, 55
Vertical bands of grisaille, 117,
239, 294
Vesica, 147, 183, 189, 197
Vessel of God assailed by demons,
225, 242
Victoria and Albert Museum (see
Museum)
Villemoiron, near Troyes, 16th, 55
Villeneuve, de, Bishop, 239
Villequier, 16th, 55
Vincennes, 16th, 303
Viollet-le-Duc, 69, 132, 133, 237,
267
Virtues and Vices, 239
Visitation, 126, 129, 157, 250, 269,
310
Vitrail, 26
Wadham, 16th, 17th, 52, 61
Waltham Abbey, 53
Waterperry, Oxfordshire, 14th, 40
Weathered surface, 13
Wells, Somerset, 14th, 15th, 16,
40, 45
West Horsley, Surrey, 13th, 35
West Wickham, Kent, 15th, 45
Westlake, N. H. J., 89, 91, 92,
102, 128, 138, 184, 306
Westminster, Jerusalem Chamber,
13th, 35
A St Margaret’s, 16th,
52
Kt St Stephen’s Chapel,
15th, 45
Westwell, Kent, 13th, 16, 35
White faces, 43
White figures, 71, 85
White glass, 5
Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalene,
Norfolk, 15th, 45
Willesborough, Kent, 14th, 40
William of Marseilles, glass artist,
56
William of Sens, architect, 229
Winchester, 15th, 45
Windsor, St George’s, 15th, 45
Wine-press, 95, 260
Winston, Charles, 50, 52, 53, 61
338 STORIED WINDOWS
Wise and foolish virgins, 257 York Minster, 12th to 15th, 23,
Works of mercy, 73 35, 40, 45, 184
Works of the months, 132, 173 3, St Dennis, 14th, 40
Wrangle, Lincoln, 14th, 40 5, St John’s, 14th, 40
Wykeham’s glass, 40 », St Martin cum Gregory,
14th, 40
Yellow pot-metal, 7 », St Martin’s le Grand, 15th,
Yellow stain, earliest, 8 45
Yocht, 16th, 55 ;, St Michael’s, 15th, 45
York, All Saints, North St., 14th,
15th, 40, 45 Zodiac, signs of, 132, 173
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
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