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Chartres Cathedral Windows

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 Les vitraux legendaires de Chartres: Des recits en images

This pocket sized guide (in English) to Chartres Cathedral is the best detailed guide we have come across.  It covers almost every window scene and individual statue inside and outside the cathedral, even including archivolt cycles.

The book on the left is the reference work for the stained glass of Chartres.  Photos, layout plans and descriptive narrative (in French) for all the Chartres windows worth talking about!

THE BLUE VIRGIN

The famous "Blue Virgin" window was one of the four windows rescued from the old cathedral after the disastrous fire of 1194 (the other three are in the west facade).  Here the early sun and shadows have a dramatic highlighting impact.

February man warms his feet in the Zodiac window, which shows all the signs of the zodiac and the typical activity at that time of year.  In addition to this there are two sculptured Zodiac / Labours of the Month cycles - one in the West Porch, the other in the North Porch.

THE ZODIAC WINDOW

LINK TO PHOTOS OF THE CHARTRES ZODIAC / LABOURS OF THE MONTH WINDOW

There are nearly 200 medieval stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral.  However many photos you take there are always going to be plenty of opportunities still on the table for the next visit!  In most cases the narrative windows should be read 'line by line' left to right starting at the bottom.

THE NORTH ROSE

Maximum Nikon Grunt gave us this photo of King David sitting on top of a circle of 12 Kings of Judah, assorted minor prophets and angels, all centred on their relative, the Virgin Mary and her Child.  And that's just the Rose part of the North Rose - underneath it are 5 huge lancet windows dating from 1230ish.

LINK TO MORE PHOTOS OF THE NORTH ROSE ENSEMBLE

STORY OF JOSEPH

This is the third of the four sections of the Joseph window

STORY OF SAINT THOMAS BECKET - PHOTOS OF ALL THE SCENES IN THE CHARTRES BECKET WINDOW

This is the top frame of the window, showing the murder of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canteerbury, in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170

STORY OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN

Early scenes in the story of the Good Samaritan

This window reads across from Left to Right from the bottom.  Charlemagne talks to two bishops, has a dream, meets up with Constantine, fights the Saracen round shields and regains Jerusalem, and is thanked by Constantine with gifts of relics.  Mind you, Charlemagne never actually got to Jerusalem per se but hey, it's a story window ......

STORIES OF CHARLEMAGNE

The two narrative windows telling stories of Charlemagne (above) and Saint James (below) are amongst the most beautiful in a church packed with beautiful windows.

STORIES OF SAINT JAMES

The frames above and below are at the bottom of the Saint James' window, and are messages from and about the window's donors - the furriers and drapers guild.

 Les vitraux legendaires de Chartres: Des recits en images

This pocket sized guide to Chartres Cathedral (in English) is the best detailed guide we have come across.  It details almost every window scene and individual statue inside and outside the cathedral, even including archivolt cycles.

The book on the left is the reference work for the stained glass of Chartres.  Photos, layout plans and descriptive narrative (in French) for all the Chartres windows worth talking about!

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All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission.