The Old Cowboy and Photography: May 2013

It's time now to go inside Chartres Cathedral. A few facts first: The Cathedral is 430 feet long, and 105 feet wide. The nave is 54 feet wide-the widest in France. The nave ceiling height is 121 feet. It is built in three stories: the bottom is the arcade, the middle is the triforium, and the top the clerestory. Below is a photo showing this, from Wikimedia commons.The triforium is the smallest of the three; the addition of the clerestory adds light and beauty to the cathedral as well as creating a need for flying buttresses. Chartres is the first of the great churches to do the three stories.

Below is a floor plan of Chartes, from Wikimedia Commons. I have added the text to the plan.There is a single aisle on each side of the nave and a double ambulatory aisle around the choir and apse.

The aisle and ambulatory allow for someone to enter the church while the main church is being used and go unobtrusively to a chapel off the apse and worship without disturbing the main body.

Above is a labyrinth from the early 1200s. It occupies about the west 1/3 of the nave. The photo is taken looking east towards the apse. The chairs are removed on Fridays to allow people to see and walk the labyrinth. It is one of the few medieval labyrinths left, and supposedly the only in France. There is only one correct path, and it is over 900 feet long. In medieval times monks would walk along the path as if they were walking the path to God, contemplating as they went. There are some modern people who walk it; whether or not they have the same reason to do so I do not know. In medieval times there were no pews or chairs; one stood throughout the service as a mark of respect for God and Christ.

The two photos above are of the nave, taken at the crossing looking west. Napoleon is reported to have said that no man could stand in the nave of Chartres Cathedral and deny there is a God. He probably tried. I found the experience almost overwhelming.

Above is the west rose window and the three lancet windows. The stained glass in the rose window is from about 1215; the lancet windows were put in about 1140 and survived the great fire of 1194. The rose window portrays the last judgment with Christ in the center. The three 12 century lancets are show closeup below. The one on the left depicts the Passion, the center the infancy of Christ and the one on the right the tree of Jesse.

Above is a photo of the choir and apse from the crossing. The young man on the lower right gives
some perspective. There is a baroque altar piece visible, which apparently is quite common in these medieval churches. Below are the clerestory windows at the east end of the apse.

This lancet window is the only other window to survive the fire of 1194. It is the Blue Virgin or Belle Vemere found on the south side just to the choir side of the crossing. This window is actually a composite. The upper half depicting Christ on the Virgin's lap dates from 1180. The bottom part dates from about 1225 and shows scenes from Christ's infancy.

Above is the south rose window with its accompanying five lancet windows. This rose is dedicated to Christ who is shown in the center with his hand raised in benediction. These windows were made between 1225 and 1230. A closeup of the five lancet windows is shown below. The center lancet shows Mary carrying the infant Christ. The other four show the four Evangelists standing on four old testament prophets. Left to right--Luke on Jeremiah, Matthew on Isaiah, Mary and Christ, John on Ezekiel and Mark on Daniel.

Above is the end of the south aisle and the beginning of the ambulatory. Notice the striking difference in color. There is a big cleaning going on now; the lighter area has been cleaned. It is anticipated that the whole church will be cleaned by sometime in 2014.

This is the south ambulatory. I think you can see a little bit of one of the apsoidal chapels.

The photo above shows more of a south ambulatory side chapel.

The photo above is taken from the south ambulatory. The rood or choir screen is the massive dark structure on the lower left-center. It was begun in the early 1500s but not finished until the 18th century. You can also see the beautiful vaulting and some of the apse.

The photo above is in the south ambulatory with the rood screen on the left. As you can tell, this area has been cleaned. Below is a photo looking from the south ambulatory to the crossing and beyond to the west end. You can see where the cleaning stops.

Chartres has the greatest medieval stained glass in the world. It depends on who's counting, but there are about 172 stained glass windows in Chartres, 152 of which date from the 12th or 13th century. And you see them in situ, where they were made to be seen.

The blue in the Chartres stained glass is magnificent, and has come to be known as "Chartres Blue." Many people believe that the process by which they made the blue was lost. We know that the blue is primarily due to cobalt, but we don't really know the process to duplicate the 13th century manufacture. What "recipes" exist are difficult for 21st century men to interpret and follow. Whether it was lost or not is really moot: for whatever reason little if any stained glass of Chartres Blue color was made after the 13th century. Another interesting tidbit : The stained glass at Chartres is about an inch thick.

Through all the wars since the 13th century Chartres has suffered very little damage. At the start of WWII, in 1939 all the stained glass was removed and stored somewhere in the French countryside. During the war, after D-Day at Normandy the Americans were driving towards Paris. The brass got the idea that the Germans were using the cathedral as an observation post and therefore it should be bombed. An American colonel, Col Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr. challenged the order. He took one man and went behind the German lines and proved that the Germans were not using the Cathedral. The order to bomb it was rescinded. On August 14, 1944 at Leves, near Chartres, Col. Griffith was killed.

The relic associated with Chartres is a piece of cloth that is thought to be the tunic that Mary wore when she gave birth to Christ. The Cathedral has had it in their possession since about 900; it was given to them by Charles the Bald. When the 1194 fire hit, two priests grabbed the tunic and went down into the crypt or treasury. When people were poking around in the rubble two or three days later, they found the priests and the tunic all safe and intact. The Blue Virgin window was also intact. This was clearly a miracle, so they rushed into the building of the new church, dedicated to Mary--Notre Dame de Chartres. Incidentally, in recent years the tunic has been tested and found to be from the first century, as is the weave.

A word on the photos. The day I was at Chartres it was cloudy with off and on light rain. I used a Sony a900, full frame DSLR. I took a tripod but had trouble with it trying to go vertical inside the cathedral. Operator error, I'm sure. Because of the sensor in that camera I was able to shoot some photos hand held at high ISO 2500-3200, which turned out okay. At least I was able to turn a disaster into acceptable.

I have wanted to visit Chartres for more years than I care to remember. I was not disappointed in any way. The last photo I will share with you is the north rose window, probably the one most "oohed and ahhed" over. This window was donated about 1235 by Blanch of Castile, grand daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was queen of France by marriage and ruled France twice as Regent. The rose is dedicated to the Virgin. In the center Mary is holding the child Jesus. There are also the Fleur de Lis of France and the red and gold castles representing Castile. The Center lancet shows Mary's mother, St. Anne, holding Mary as an infant. The other four lancets show Old Testament figures triumphing over enemies. Enjoy!

By the way, if you're looking for a good read, try Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, by Amy ruth Kelly It's all about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Chartres Cathedral, or, as it is known in French Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, is located in Chartres, France about an hour's train ride southwest of Paris. This cathedral is considered by many art and architecture critics and historians to be the finest example of high medieval architecture in all of France if not all of Europe.

The first church at this site was built in about 836 and was destroyed by invading Danes in 858. Another church was built on this site which was destroyed by fire in 962. Again it was rebuilt only to be ravaged by fire in 1020. Bishop Fulbert then ordered an entirely new building to be built in 1028. This church survived until 1194 when it too was burned and badly damaged. The west facade including the lancet windows survived and was incorporated into another church built at this site. The nave and choir(apse) were entirely new. This church was dedicated in 1260 by the Pope and is basically what stands today.

The day we visited was unfortunately cloudy with on and off light rain. Below is a photo of the Cathedral taken from one or two blocks away.

Below is a photo of the west facade. The south tower was completed in 1160 and is 349 feet tall. The north tower is 377 feet high and is capped by a spire added in the early 16th century to an already existing old tower. The three lancet windows(including the stained glass) below the rose date from about 1150; the glass in the rose from the early 1200's.

The photo above is the west facade a little closer. These doors became known as the Royal Portal; the King would enter the middle door.

The west doors. Note the size of the woman versus the size of the portal. Below is a closer view of the center tympanum. The theme of the west is Christ. The center tympanum shows Christ at the end of time; the right shows the Virgin and Child and the left the Ascension of Christ. All of the sculpture on the portal date from about 1140-1150. Below is a closer view of the central tympanum.

The sculpture above is on the southwest corner of the church. It is a figure holding a sundial.

Below is the south porch. The church is laid out as a Latin cross. The doors here lead into the south arm of the cross. The rose and lancet windows are from about 1230. The depth of this and the north porch is much greater than the west portal; apparently this was to allow for more sculpture.

Above is sculpture from the top of the porch. Below is the central door and tympanum. The theme of the south portal is from the time of Christ's death until the Second coming.

Above is a photo of some of the side sculpture of the south portal. All of this sculpture dates from the first half of the 13th century.

Above are flying buttresses from the south side of the church. Note the sculpture in the niches.

The cathedral sits on a hill and below the church to the east is this garden maze. It is in the Bishop's garden but is not medieval in origin. It dates from the 18th or 19th century.

The photos above and below are of the east end of the church; inside is the apse. There are small apsoidal chapels around the apse reached via the ambulatory. Here you see then from the outside. This sort of structure with the flying buttresses, dome over the apse and chapels is called the chevet. The tall structure on the right in the photo below is the Chapel of St. Piat, added in 1323. It is accessed via a staircase off the ambulatory.

Above is the north portal with the great north rose window and lancet windows. The theme of the north portal is the Old Testament and its relationship to the Virgin Mary and Christ. The central portal tympanum shows the coronation of Mary, shown below. The second photo below shows some of the side sculptures of Old Testament prophets.