LDS Scripture Commentary / Photos: Chartres Cathedral
Window 008 - Vendome Chapel (15th century)
15th century flamboyant gothic.
• Lower rows: Donor (Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme) and wife on far right. Other members of royal family.
• Upper rows: Coronation of the Virgin, flanked by John the Baptist on the left, Saint John the Divine on the right.
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Window 059 - Symbolic Window, Typology of the Passion of Christ (restored, detail)
NB: Read TOP to BOTTOM, unlike most windows. Some are modern (marked *).
• Row 08: Abraham takes Isaac to Mount Moriah for sacrifice; Descent from the Cross; Abraham is stopped from sacrificing Isaac.
• Row 07: Jonah near Ninevah (*).
• Row 06: Moses shows brass serpent; Adam collects blood at the foot of the cross (*); Israelites mark their doorposts with blood of the lamb (tau).
• Row 05: The Church (the NT, new faith); Crucifixion with Longinus and Stephaton (*); Synagogue (the OT, old faith).
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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.
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Window 009 - Miracles of the Virgin
Bottom to top, left to right.
• Quatrefoil 3: Stone cutters, masons, etc. as part of cathedral building [Modern, 1926]
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Window 009 - Miracles of the Virgin (unrestored)
Bottom to top, left to right.
• Quatrefoil 4: Procession of the Sancta Camisia (relic of Chartres, the "veil of the virgin," held to have been worn during the delivery of Christ) [Modern, 1926]
• Quatrefoil 5: Mary, surrounded by angels, prophets, and two bishops of Chartres: Saint Yves (Ivo of Chartres, c. 1040-23 Dec 1115) and Saint Fulbert (c. between 952 and 970 – 10 April 1028) [Modern, 1926]
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Chartres, north side, center portal
JAMB FIGURES
Left:
• Melchizedek - wearing crown, with bread and wine (which he gave Abraham; prefigures the Eucharist). Lamb beneath.
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South side, east end.
Portals (L - R)
• Bay of the Martyrs [not shown]
• Central Bay (Christ)
• Bay of the Confessors
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Chartres, south side, center
JAMB Figures
Right side
• Paul (note the omnipresent baldness) with sword, instrument of his beheading.
• St. John (no beard, young, dressed as priest; has book in left hand and broken palm--symbol of chastity--in the right.) Stands on a man offering cup of serpents, cf miracle he performed.
• St. James the Greater (of Peter, James, and John). Has belt of shells--the "coquilles St. Jacques" [scallops] were his symbol and often worn by pilgrims.
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