LDS Scripture Commentary / Photos: Chartres Cathedral
†North side, lancets, left to right: True versus false sovereigns (restored)
• Window 145C - North side, far left lancet: Melchizedek standing over Nebuchadnezzar (true king over the false Babylonian pretender to world-lordship, worshipping idol of his dream).
• Window 145B - North side, near left lancet: King David standing over King Saul (the chosen king over the apostate king rejected by God, who dies via suicide in despair).
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Window 005 - Mary Magdalen (restored, detail)
• Panels 1,2,3: Water-bearers, the donors of the window
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South porth, right portal--"Bay of the Confessors"
Figures L - R
Left side
• St Laumer, monk of Perche [added at porch construction]
• St. Silvester (pope dress)
• St. Ambrose (bishop of Milan), converted St. Augustine and is the first person of whom we have record reading silently to himself, rather than aloud.
• St. Nicholas (bishop of Myra, from when Santa Claus).
Right side
• St. Gregory (pope dress)
• St. Jerome (translated Bible into Latin, the "Vulgate"). Beneath him is a woman with bandaged eyes (the 'blind' synagogue replaced by the Church)
• St. Martin (bishop of Tours). Two dogs lick his bishop's staff, since he reportedly prevented them from eating a hare by miraculous means. Martin gets further attention in the tympanum above the door.
• St. Avitus, abbot of Micy [added at porch construction].
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† Window 145 - North rose: Rose of France glorifying the Virgin (restored, detail)
Virgin in center with Infant Jesus. Surrounded by four doves, four angels, and four Thrones. These are followed by twelve kings of Judah, Mary's ancestors. The outer ring contains twelve minor prophets.
The window was donated while Queen Blanche was regent of France (circa 1230). The arms of France alternating with Castile are seen below the rose itself. The entire ensemble is a none-too-subtle bit of royal propaganda, with Mary (the Queen of Heaven) at the center of it all. Note too that the figures below the rose in the lancets contrast a legitimate righteous sovereign with corrupt, foolish, or fallen ones. Blanche seems to have wanted no doubt about how she ought to be considered.
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Window 062 - Saint Eustace (restored, detail)
Bottom to top, left to right:
†Central Diamond 1: Placidas hunts a stag.
• Row 1: Part of the hunt.
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Chartres, west side, left door
† First - INNER (left around to right)
• Capricorn, January with two faces.
† OUTER (left around to right)
• Libra, October with pruning fruit trees?
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Window 014 - Temptation of Christ, Marriage at Cana, Blue Virgin (detail, unrestored)
• Upper half: Mary with the Infant Christ. The three panels containing Mary and Christ, along with the three lancet windows beneath the western rose, are the sole remaining example of the glass from the cathedral largely destroyed in the fire of 1194, dating to approximately AD 1180. The face of Mary is modern; note how she is shaped almost throne-like as Christ sits enthroned upon her. Often called "Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière" (Our Lady of the Beautiful Stained Glass Window). The framing panels and remainder of the window are from the current cathedral--circa 1215 - 1220.
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Chartres west side, central portal, right hand side (L - R)
• Unknown prophet
• King David
• Queen of Sheba
• Solomon
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Chartres, North side, right portal
INNER ARCH
• Second archivolt: lives of Gideon on the right
† Dragon;
† Gideon visited by angel while he winnows corn;
Third archivolt: life of Judith (prefiguring Mary)
† Head of Holofernes
† Judith speaks with King Ozias, rebukes him for surrendering the town;
• Fourth archivolt: Tobias, son of Tobit, who restored vision to his father as Christ would to Israel (continued from left half of arch).
† Tobias returns and cures his father's blindness;
† Crowned head.
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