An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The goal of the course is a better appreciation of the High Middle Ages, a world that is still recognizably our own.
16.2 The West Façade
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From the course by Yale University
Age of Cathedrals
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From the lesson
Our Lady of Chartres
In Module 6 we move West of Paris to the cathedral of Chartres where Gothic architecture hits its stride. We explore the history of Chartres, its unique and mysterious architectural features, and its miraculous relic—the Holy Tunic. We discuss the financing of Chartres as seen in the windows donated by merchant which depict the various urban trades alongside the sculpture of the West façade, the rose and lancet stained glass windows, and the secular Zodiac and Charlemagne windows, the latter of which is linked to important literary works of the period.
Meet the Instructors
Howard BlochSterling Professor of French
French
Let's begin our look at the outside of Chartres with
sculpture of the West Facade, or the Royal Portal.
Which dates from the mid-12th century and
was originally part of Fulbert's Cathedral which survived the fire of 1194.
The iconography of the entry ways,
represents the fundamentals of a crystalogical drama.
The right-hand lintels and tympanum,
depict the incarnation of Christ in a number of scenes.
From the left to right of the lower lintel,
we see the Annunciation in which the angel of Gabriel comes to Mary.
We see the visitation between Mary and Elizabeth, and
the nativity and enunciation to the shepherds by an angel.
The upper lentil shows the presentation of Christ in the temple.
At the top, in the tympanum, Mary and Child appear among the censuring angels.
Best we see three levels of Virgin and Child moving from earth to heaven.
As we have said, Chartres was not only a center for the study of theology,
it was a center for secular learning as well.
The seven liberal arts, a carryover from the world of late antiquity,
are emphasized in the archivolts around the tympanum along
with the signs of the Zodiac
that we have encountered in both Saint-Denis and Notre Dame in Paris.
The seven branches of secular learning are represented there,
along with the best known practitioners of the arts,
all part of the humanism,
the return to classical sources of the Age of Cathedrals.
The sequence of liberal arts, grammar, logic and rhetoric for
the language arts and arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, for
the quantitative art confirms roughly to a circle.
We see six arts and their masters in the outer archivolt.
Music and her representative on the inner archivolt on the right,
grammar teaches two boys who are very different.
One who is shown semi nude, the other in monks cowl
a contrast in moral values like the virtues and
vices and in Notre Dame, or the Wise and
Foolish Virgins in Saint-Denis and Notre Dame in Paris,
which are also depicted on the archivolt of the left portal of Chartres's North Transept.
The nude boy is also rude and pulls the hair of his classmate.
To the left of Lady Grammar, we see music, also dressed as a woman,
tapping a bell and holding on her lap a viol,
or early violin, along with an Irish harp.
Here we see the figure of astronomy looking and pointing upwards.
Some of the figures on the archivolts represent authorities of the past,
known for their pre-eminence in the 12th century.
Thus, we see possibly Priscian or Donatus.
A 1st and 4th century Grammarian respectively for grammar.
Aristotle for dialectics or logic.
The allegorical figure of Dialectics holding a basilic or
stinging serpent in one hand, and the torch of truth in the other.
Finally we see on the left the figure of Lady Rhetoric along with the figure
some have identified as Cicero, the most famous rhetorician of the classical world.
Along with these, we see Euclid for Geometry,
Prometheus for Arithmetic, Ptolemy for Astronomy.
Note the instruments of writing.
The rack of styluses is on the wall, and
the wax tablets on the laps of the writers.
Moving to the Northern Portal of the West Facade of Chartres,
we witness in the tympanum the ascension of Christ,
received by a cloud which demarcates the limit between heaven and earth.
In the upper lintel, four angles predict Christ's return to the Apostles
in the lower lintel, though there's been some suggestion lately,
that the tympanum lentils of the North Portal of the West Facade of Chartres,
depict not the ascension of Christ, but the creation of the world.
If we stick with the ascension interpretation however,
we find it reinforced by Jacques de Voragine's account
of the ascension of Christ in the Golden Legend.
The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ was the 40th day after his resurrection.
Then this leap or
springing was great that Jesus Christ made from the earth to heaven.
Of this leap, and diverse other leaps of Jesus Christ S. Ambrose saith:
Jesus Christ came into this world to make a leap; he was with God the Father,
he came into the Virgin Mary and from the Virgin Mary into the crib or rack.
He descended into flom Jordan, he ascended upon the cross,
he descended into his tomb.
From the tomb he arose, and after he ascended up into heaven, and
sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
As to the fourth point, it is with whom he ascended.
He ascended with the great prey of men and great multitude of angels.
The ascension of Christ on the northern portal of the West Facade of Chartres,
is framed by signs of the zodiac.
Cancer, Scorpio, Leo, Sagittarius,
and the occupations of the months.
Wine making, the killing of the pig and winter feasting for the month of December.
Thus, while the archivolts surrounding the right tympanum give learning and
liberal arts their due, the left offers menial work or everyday tasks.
The Central Portal of Chartres' West Facade,
displays the Apostles on the lintel.
Joined, it's been suggested, by the Old Testament precursors, Enoch and Elijah.
The tympanum shows Christ's second coming at the end of days,
surrounded by the figures of the evangelists, the Tetramorph.
John the Eagle, Mark the Lion, Luke the Ox, Matthew the Man.
The Tetramorph, which we encountered at the center of the South Rose window
of Notre Dame in Paris, originated in the Old Testament book of the Prophet Ezekiel.
Who while in exile in Babylonia around 550, before the Christian era,
used the symbolism of Babylonian astrology, to describe his vision in which
the likeness of four living creatures came out of the midst of the fire.
Thus, as for the likeness of their faces, he writes,
they four had the face of a man and a face of a lion, on the right side,
and they four had the face of an ox on the left side.
They four also had the face of an eagle, that's Ezekiel 1:10.
Ezekiel's vision was reappropriated in the Apocalypse of Saint John.
Who alludes to Ezekiel's vision thus in Revelation 4:7.
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a cat, and
the third beast had a face of a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
The tetramorph was not only a common motif in medieval sculpture and
stained glass, but also a common feature in medieval manuscript illumination.
[MUSIC]
One of the astonishingly beautiful aspects of Chartres's west facade
are the capital friezes,
which tie the three quarters together with bands of intricate sculpture,
thus adding a historical note to the drama of the incarnation.
Here we see the sanction in second coming moving not from left to right,
but spreading from the center of the margins.
There are scenes from the early life of Christ leading to the tympanum
of the ascension.
And scenes from Christ's public activity which lead to the incarnation.
[MUSIC]
The West Facade of Charters is also known for the jam statues of the type we
have encountered at Notre Dame, and that first appeared in Saint-Denis.
It is hard to identify with precision just who is represented by each figure.
Which the art historians who have studied the question seem content to leave
simply at Old Testament prophets, priests, kings, heroes, and heroines.
Since as you may observe,
Some of the jammed figures of the royal portal are women.
It has been suggested that the sculptures may have attempted to tie the kings of
France to old testament history, as part of the rivalry between
the Plantagenet Dynasty of England and Anglo-Normandy after the Normand
conquest of England in 1066 and the Angevine Dynasty of France.
The Plantagenets saw themselves as linked to Aeneas, and
the founding of Britain by Aeneas' descendant, that is, Brutus.
This allowed the Plantaganets to trace their origins back to the Trojans,
with Britain as the new Troy.
The Angevines,
however, trace their origins all the way back to the Old Testament.
And in an age in which longevity meant legitimacy,
they held superior claims to rule.
In his coronation in 1108, Louis VI under the tutelage of Abbot Suger.
Was praised for having been strengthened by the faith of Abraham, the clemency of
Moses, the force of Joshua, the humility of David and the wisdom of Solomon.
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