Full Description
The cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Beauvais, France, is most famous as a failure--its choir vaults came crashing down in 1284--and only secondarily for its soaring beauty. This lavishly illustrated and elegantly written book represents the first serious look at the stunning collection of Gothic stained glass windows that has always dominated the experience of those who enter Beauvais Cathedral. Chapter by chapter, Michael Cothren traces the glazing through four successive campaigns that bridged the century between the 1240s and the 1340s. The reader is transported back in history, gaining fascinating insight into what the glazing of Beauvais actually would have looked like as well as what it would have communicated to those who frequented the cathedral. Contrary to the widespread assumption that these windows are heavily restored, Cothren shows that they are in fact surprisingly well preserved, especially in light of the cathedral's infamous history of architectural disaster.More importantly, Cothren goes far to dismantle a long-held misconception about medieval painted windows, and indeed monumental medieval pictorial art in general: the notion that it was conceived and produced as a substitute text for ignorant, illiterate folks, providing for them a "Bible of the Poor." Indeed, Cothren shows us that stained glass windows, rich with shaded meanings, functioned more like sermon than scripture. As an ensemble, they created a radiant interpretive backdrop that explicated and situated the performance of the Mass in this giant liturgical theater.
Contents
Preface xi Introduction 1 CHAPTER IVirgin Chapel during the 1240s 5 CHAPTER II: The Second Campaign The Original Glazing of the Upper Choir, ca. 1255-1265 101 CHAPTER III: The Third Campaign Post-Collapse Repair and Refurbishment in Chapels during the 1290s 125 CHAPTER IV: The Fourth Campaign Restorers and Creators, Working Upstairs and Down in the 1340s 151 CONCLUSION 193 APPENDIX A: Transformation and Restoration of the Medieval Glazing: A Brief History 201 APPENDIX B: Stained Glass from the Saint-John Chapel, Now in the Musee de Picardie, Amiens 207 APPENDIX C: The Houses of Roche Guyon and the Chatelains of Beauvais in the Fourteenth Century 213 NOTES 215 BIBLIOGRAPHY 255 index 267 PHOTOGRAPH AND ILLUSTRATION credits 277
