LDS Scripture Commentary / Photos: Chartres Cathedral
Chartres, north side, center portal
INNER ARCH
• Eighth archivolt: Creation and Fall [bottom to top]
(2) Creation of day and night. Left figure likely not divine since no nimbus, but instead is the author of Genesis;
(3) Creation of firmament
(4) Creation of plants
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, south side, right--"Bay of the Confessors"
TYMPANUM and LINTEL
Christ (note the cruciform nimbus behind his head) flanked by two angels (one missing)
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, north side, right portal. These are OT types or prefigurements of Christ.
TYMPANUM
• Job, scrapes self with potshard on dunghill while the satan torments him, three friends and wife. God watches from above.
LINTEL
Solomon judges the two women and the baby; servant draws sword to slay child on the far left. Those on the right are admiring Jews (who ought, one suspects, to be admiring the wisdom of Christ whose wisdom and judgment Solomon prefigures.)
JAMB Figures
Left:
• Balaam on his ass;
• Queen of Sheba on Ethiopian slave;
• Solomon.
Right:
• Jesus ben Sirach, standing on the temple whose reconstruction was wrongly attributed to him;
• Judith, standing on dog as symbol of fidelity;
• Joseph who was sold into Egypt, standing on Potipher's wife to whom the devil whispers.
INNER ARCH
• First archivolt: twelve angels bearing sun, moon, and stars.
• Second archivolt: lives of Sampson on the left, Gideon on the right
• Third archivolt: lives of Esther and Judith (prefiguring Mary) on left and right respectively
• Fourth archivolt: Tobias, son of Tobit, who restored vision to his father as Christ would to Israel.
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, north side, right portal, archivolt
OUTER ARCH
• First archivolt: June mower goes to fields with scythe and whetstone, July taking flax to be steeped in water
• Second archivolt: Gemini, Cancer
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, south side, right--"Bay of the Confessors"
TYMPANUM and LINTEL [detail]
Right side:
• St. Nicholas money down into the home of a poor family whose father is too ill to provide proper dowries for his three daughters. They had been destined to prostitution.
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, north side, right portal. These are OT types or prefigurements of Christ.
JAMB Figures
Left:
• Solomon, base detail ?Unknown-GLS
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, south side, right
JAMB Figures L - R
Left side
• 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.
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, North side, right portal
INNER ARCH
• Fourth archivolt: Tobias, son of Tobit, who restored vision to his father as Christ would to Israel [right half]
† Tobias meets Raguel, Sarah's father;
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
Chartres, North side, right portal
INNER ARCH
• Third archivolt: life of Esther
Left:
† Ahasuerus king of Persia;
† Ahasuerus weds Esther;
Album: Chartres-Cathedral
Categories: Chartres-Cathedral
Tags:
