Archaeological Journal/Volume 1/Notices of New Publications: Vitraux Peints de Saint Etienne de Bourges
Notices of New Publications.
Our wish to draw the attention of our readers to this truly magnificent work has induced us to notice it thus early. It will be completed in fifteen livraisons. The eleven already published contain fifty-two folio plates, most of which are richly coloured by the cromolithographic process.
The first plate of the series (of which we give a diagram) represents a window of Bourges cathedral, in which are the following subjects:—
2. Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh. His arms are crossed, which, according to the authors, is typical of the cross of Christ.
8. The Resurrection.
4. Elijah raising to life the son of the widow of Zarephath.
5. Jonah issuing from the fish's mouth.
6. David seated, a tree bearing a nest, and the pelican shedding its blood on its young.
7. Three lions: one is stretched out on the ground, apparently dead; a second standing by closely regards it; the third is seated at some distance.
9. Moses causing water to issue from the rock.
10. The Crucifixion.
11. The brazen serpent.
16. Christ bearing the cross.
12. The woman of Zarephath gathering wood, her child, and Elijah. The wood is in the form of a cross.
13. The sacrifice of the paschal lamb. A figure is marking the door-posts. The words "Scribe Thau" are on the glass. 14. Abraham and Isaac going to Mount Moriah. The wood borne by Isaac is in the form of a cross.
15. The sacrifice of Isaac.
17, 18, 19, represent butchers engaged in their trade. This shews that the window was given by the corporation of butchers, and is called by the authors the signature of the window.
This window is a fine specimen of the thirteenth century, and exhibits the usual characteristics of that period. The subjects are placed within medallions, and, from the large proportion they bear to the surrounding ornamental details, are the most prominent and striking objects in the design. The whole window presents to the eye one great mass of various colours, among which blue predominates, sparingly relieved with white.
The next fifteen plates represent windows in the same cathedral, resembling the last in general character, but differing from it in slight particulars of arrangement and colouring. Such windows are frequently termed by French antiquaries "mosaiques," to distinguish them from "grisailles," i.e. windows in which white glass predominates.
Plates No. 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, exhibit a series of windows, containing in each of their principal lights one large figure, drawn in a vigorous but stiff style, and standing under a low-crowned canopy, similar to those met with on the tombs and seals of the thirteenth century. The figures represented in these plates, besides the Virgin Mary and St. Stephen, are fifteen of the prophets, and the twelve Apostles, and evidently form part of the series of saints and prophets, which, according to M. Lasteyrie, (Histoire de la Peinture sur verre, p. 96.) occupy the clearstory windows of the choir of Bourges cathedral. The tracery lights of some of these windows are represented in Plate 28. The whole of these windows are richly coloured. The figures, from their great size, must have a magnificent effect, and are admirably calculated to adorn positions so distant from the eye. The original glass of the clearstory windows of Canterbury cathedral was somewhat similar in its arrangement; two figures, however, one above the other, appear to have occupied each of the lancets, of which that clearstory is composed.
Plate 19 represents figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary, each figure within the divine oval; these figures are of a very large size, and occupy a great portion of the lights in which they are placed.
Thirteen of the plates are called Planches d'étude, some of which are illustrative of the authors' views of symbolism; the subjects represented are taken partly from illuminations, but principally from glass at Bourges, Chartres, Tours, Beauvais, Mans, St. Denys, Lyons, Troyes, Strasbourg, Rheims, and Sens. Some of the plates exhibit details of the full size of the original glass; others give views of entire windows. Of these. No. 14, which represents a remarkably fine window of Strasbourg cathedral, is interesting, as exhibiting in particular the change from what we should call the Early English to the Decorated style of glass painting. This window has a marked German character, and bears a German inscription at the bottom.
One plate is termed 'Usages civiles,' and appears intended to form part of a series, which, if completed, will prove interesting and valuable from the light it will throw on the manners and costumes of the age.
In addition to the plates already enumerated are fourteen others, eight of which represent details of "mosaiques," and the remaining six of "grisailles," collected from the cathedrals of Bourges, Angers, Mans, Clermont-ferrant, Fribourg, Lyons, Soissons, Laon, Rheims, Sens, and Salivsbuiy, from St. Thomas and St. William of Strasbourg, St. Denys, Colmar, and St. Remi at Rheims.
It is almost impossible to speak too highly of the plates in this work, which are by far the most magnificent representations of painted glass which we have yet seen. If we were to make any distinction among the plates, we should say that Nos. 3 and 6 of the full-sized details are the most valuable, as best exhibiting the peculiar character of the shading used in the thirteenth century. All the plates, however, preserve to a wonderful extent the spirit of the originals, and appear to be executed with great fidelity. We could wish that in some of the plates the leading had been more distinctly marked. This point, which is very important, is frequently too much neglected in representations of painted glass. The work acquires an additional value from having specimens of glass selected from different countries.
It is to be hoped that our own artists will derive a useful hint from this publication. A single work, which should attempt to illustrate the whole of the glass contained in this country, would necessarily be imperfect, and, at the same time, too expensive to be within the reach of persons of moderate fortune. But detached publications, representing with care the whole of the glass in any one building, would, we are convinced, be valuable additions to our archæological works, and do much towards propagating a correct taste in glass painting. At the present time, when public attention is so strongly directed towards subjects of this nature, an undertaking, such as we have mentioned, would, if properly executed, hardly fail to meet with deserved success.
We have not met with any thing in the letter-press of this work which throws light on the history and antiquities of glass painting. The subject which occupies by far the largest portion of it, is Christian symbolism; and this is so evidently the favourite topic of the authors, that we were by no means surprised to meet with the avowal (page 175, note), that "these their first researches into the cathedral of Bourges are, in truth, only an introduction to the study of figured symbolism during the middle ages, in its relation with written symbolism."
The symbolism discoverable in the windows is very elaborately treated, and leads to the discussion of more subjects than can be noticed in a brief review. Many of the topics, moreover, are, from their theological cast, little calculated for this journal. All that we can attempt is, to state concisely the general view of symbolism entertained by the authors, and to notice in particular a few symbols, a knowledge of which may be of practical use in rendering more intelligible some of the productions of medieval art.
According to their view, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were ages of grandeur, of earnestness, and of faith; the people, though illiterate, were not ignorant; and religious art, addressing itself rather to their well-instructed understandings, than to their senses, endeavoured to express something beyond mere historical events or sensible objects.
Painted windows were constructed conformably to this principle, and, except in some particular instances in which the subjects represented are in themselves sufficiently expressive, or do not admit of any ulterior meaning, every window is intended to convey to the spectator's mind some one abstract idea, some sentiment, or point of doctrine. The particular subjects which compose the work, when taken in connection with each other, express something beyond their individual, literal, or symbolical import.
Thus our authors designate the window before described, "the window of the New Covenant," the combination of subjects being such as to bring to mind the call of the Gentiles. Another window, in which is depicted, in a series of medallions, the parable of the Prodigal Son, is considered by them to be a symbolical representation of the admission of the Gentiles into the number of the children of God, and the abrogation of the Sabbath by the consummation of the law of Moses.
Subsequently to the thirteenth century, the kind of symbolism which has been mentioned fell into disuse, and artists were contented with bringing into juxtaposition events, of which one was the type, and the other the antitype, or which were parallel to each other. This latter method of treating Scripture is apparent in the ecclesiastical writers as well as in the artists of the fifteenth century. It was not altogether unknown in the thirteenth century.
The interpretation put by the authors on the windows described in this work, is of course mere conjecture; it is nothing more than their manner of reading a language, which, however it might formerly have existed, has long been a dead one; but they abound in authorities which justify the symbolical meaning they attach to individual subjects. Indeed they more than once insist on the principle that in endeavouring to discover the secret meaning of a work of art, the enquirer is not at liberty to indulge his own imagination, but must submit to be guided by the authority of contemporary or earlier writers. He must interpret figured monuments through the medium of written authorities. The profusion of quotations which are employed for the purpose just mentioned, are also brought forward with a view of shewing the prevalence of the figurative mode of biblical interpretation in the ages in question, and the consequent tone of thinking which was likely to be imparted to artists, and to the people at large.
We have already specified the subjects represented in the "window of the New Covenant." To do justice to our authors we ought to follow them through their commentary on this window, which occupies above one hundred pages; but this is impossible; we can merely state that in every one of the subjects represented (excepting of course the "signature," and Nos. 1 and 3), they find a type of the call of the Gentiles, or some special allusion to it.
We shall now, as we proposed, mention a few of the numerous symbols commented upon in the course of the work, premising however, that our notices of them are in general very much abridged.
In No. 13. of the diagram the words "Scribe thau" are found. The letter Thau, or T, particularly in some ancient alphabets, resembles a cross, and is here directed to be inscribed because it has been supposed that the mark placed by the Israelites on their door-posts was a cross. The words are taken from Ezekiel (ch. ix. ver. 3, 4), the Thau or mark there ordered to be placed on the foreheads of the righteous having been in the middle ages universally considered to be a T.
In Nos. 12. and 13. the wood, as has been noticed, is in the form of a cross. Death having been brought into the world by means of wood (the tree of knowledge), and the human race having been saved by means of wood (the cross), wood as a symbol attracts great attention in ecclesiastical writers, and in the mention of it in the Old Testament a symbol of the cross is generally detected.
No. 10. is the Crucifixion. The figures on the right and left of the cross represent respectively the Church and the Synagogue, or the old and the new law. These figures are of frequent recurrence, though with occasional variations. The Church is veiled and crowned, and bears a sceptre. In the window at Bourges, she has a cup to receive the blood which flows from our Saviour's side; sometimes she holds the chalice of the altar surmounted by the host; in the right hand she generally has a long pastoral staff. In a window at Chartres, her cross bears a veil (velum, sudarium, orarium, pallium) suspended from the upper part of the shaft. At Chartres too, instead of a cup, the left hand holds a church, or model of a church, a type often used by other artists; sometimes the figure is placed in a shrine, in the form of a church. The Synagogue is almost always represented with bandaged eyes, and a drooping head, from which a crown is falling. Commonly she has no cloak. Frequently she has a banner, the shaft of which is broken in two or three places; the banner is almost always pointed, sometimes it has two points, here it has three. The tablet inscribed on the windows at Bourges with the word Synagoga, which she bears in one hand, is the text of the Divine law, which in her blindness she suffers to fall. The figures of the Church and Synagogue are the only allegorical ones which occur in the present composition, but they are not surrounded by a polygonal nimbus, the usual mark of an allegorical personage, perhaps, because in the thirteenth century they were looked upon rather as real (though immaterial) beings than as mere personifications, (p. 43.) The cup in which the Church is receiving the Saviour's blood, shews that the Church is in possession of the true Sacrifice. This becomes more apparent when the Synagogue is accompanied by a sheep, goat, or ram, indicating that the figurative victims have given place to the real One.
The bandage on the eyes of the Synagogue is a Biblical type. Moses covered his face when he came from the Divine Presence. In Suger's glass at St. Denis, Christ, from the cross, raises the bandage from the eyes of the old law.
The Virgin and St. John, who are often found at the side of the cross, are to be looked upon not as mere historical personages, but as representatives of the Church and Synagogue.
There is much symbolism in the vine. The Fathers all compare the blood of Christ to the juice of the grape, and the Passion to the wine-press. The origin of the idea is in Isaiah. The blood of the grape is spoken of in many places in Scripture. Christ compares Himself to a Vine. The bunch of grapes carried by the two spies was universally looked upon in the middle ages as a symbol of Christ crucified. St. Austin admits it in the fourth century; after him Evagrius sees in the two bearers the Jew and the Christian. The one who goes first never sees the mysterious bunch of grapes, the other has it always before him. This idea has subsequently been much enlarged upon. Hence the old artists transformed the cross sometimes into a vine[1], sometimes into a wine-press. Hence too the bunch of grapes which is sometimes placed in the hand of the Virgin, and the idea found in several windows of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of angels holding cups under the wounds of the crucifix. The Virgin also has been compared to the promised land, from which the bunch of grapes was brought.
In No. 7. lions are introduced. The Lion of Judah is the symbol of the triumph of Christ, and of the Divine Power; in ecclesiastical writers, however, it is frequently taken with reference to the Resurrection. It is on account of its being symbolical of the Resurrection, that the lion is assigned to St. Mark as an emblem, St. Mark being called the historian of the Resurrection. This title he has probably obtained from his gospel being used on Easter-day. The reason why the lion is taken as a symbol of the Resurrection, is to be found in the fabulous history of the animal; according to which the whelp is born dead, and only receives life at the expiration of three days on being breathed on by its father.
In Nos. 9. and 10. of the diagram, Moses is represented with horns, but it seems that this type was not adopted by the majority of artists in the thirteenth century. The idea of the horns appears to have originated in the word cornuta, applied in the Vulgate (Exod. xxxiv. 29—35.) to Moses' face, or in some earlier tradition, which caused St. Jerome to adopt that word. The authors do not know a single Byzantine work representing Moses, in which the horns occur.
In a window at Lyons (Planches d' étude. No. 8.) the chaladrius or charadrius occurs. The word is there written gladrius or glabrius. The chaladrius, in fabulous natural history, is a bird perfectly white, which, by looking on a sick person, takes away his diseases. It is a symbol of our Saviour.
The unicorn is a symbol of the Incarnation. The description of the animal, together with the well-known method of taking it, is given from a French Bestiary. According to this, it is a beautiful and not large beast, with the body of a horse, the feet of an elephant, the head of a stag, a loud and clear voice, and a tail curled like a pig's; in the middle of the forehead is a straight sharp horn, four feet in length. It can only be taken by means of a virgin beautifully arrayed. She is placed near the haunts of the animal, which, on perceiving her, runs towards her, kneels down, and laying his head on her lap, falls asleep and is taken. In the Bestiary of Philippe de Thaun, the unicorn is described as having merely the body of a goat. The application of the fable to the Incarnation may there be found. In the present work it is given in the following lines from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Royale.
Si ceste merveillose beste
Qui une corne a en la teste
Senefie nostre seignor
Ihesucrist, notre Sauveor.
C'est l'unicorne espiritel
Qui en la vierge prist ostel,
Qui est tant de grant dignité,
En ceste prist humunité
Par quoi au munde s' aparut.
Towards the sixteenth century, the Incarnation is found represented under the allegory of a chase. The animal is pursued by two couple of hounds, followed by an angel sounding a horn, and throws itself into the bosom of the virgin, who is waiting for it. The two couple of dogs are Mercy and Truth, Justice and Peace, (Psalm lxxxiv. 11.) The huntsman is the archangel charged with the Annunciation.
In the Pelican (No. 6. of the diagram) the authors do not see the commonly received emblem of the Eucharist, or the body and blood of Christ, with which we are fed; but the restoration of the human race to life by means of Christ's blood. This interpretation they justify by the position which the emblem holds in the present window, and in some others, by the early fables respecting the bird, which represent it as restoring its young to life by the blood which it causes to flow from its breast: and by several passages in ecclesiastical writers. They have met with no author anterior to the fifteenth century who speaks of the blood being given as nourishment.
The tree bearing a nest in this medallion appears to be an allusion to the text in Job, which, according to the Vulgate, is, "I will die in my nest, and spread myself as a palm tree."
The dragon's or whale's throat, by which, in the middle ages, the mouth of hell is represented, is "an extension of the symbolism of the Leviathan." From want of space the authors abstain from doing more than giving this hint, and referring to various writers who treat of the allegory. For the benefit of those who will be satisfied with a brief and ready explanation of the form adopted, they quote a passage from the Bestiary of Philippe de Thaun. (Edited by Mr. Wright, London, 1841, p. 108.)
E ceo dit escripture, cetus ad tel nature,
Que quand il volt manger, cumence a balier:
Et el baliement de sa buche odur rent
Tant suef e tant bon que li petit peissun
Ki l'odur amerunt en sa buche enterunt,
Lores les ocirat, issi les transgluterat.
E l'diable ensement strangluerat la gent
E ceo dit Bestiaire un livre de grammaire.
An illumination accompanying the verses is mentioned, which has these words. "Cetus hie pingitur . . . et quomodo pisces entrant in os ejus . . . . Cetus diabolum significat . . . et pisces animas."
Besides the window of "the new covenant" there are described those representing the History of St. Thomas (Plate 2), the last Judgment (Plate 3 and 19, the latter Plate is not yet published), the Prodigal Son (Plate 4), the Passion of Christ (Plate 5), the Good Samaritan (Plate 6), and the Apocalypse, or reign of Christ through the Church (Plate 7). Our limits prevent us from doing more than merely enumerating these Plates. We have also abstained from making any remarks on the costumes, and on the colours and artistical treatment of the windows, as the authors have reserved these subjects to be treated of in a subsequent part of the work.
We ought not to omit noticing that in the commentary on the window containing the History of St. Thomas, occasion is taken to give an analysis of part of "Les Catholiques Œuvres et Actes des Apôtres," a mystery, or miracle play, represented at Bourges in 1536. It contains 66,000 lines, and occupied between thirty and forty days in the representation. But we are under the necessity of omitting all particular mention of this curious production, as well as of many other subjects, the consciousness of having already too greatly exceeded our limits obliging us to rest satisfied with a very imperfect notice of a work which, from the care and labour that have been bestowed upon it, might well deserve to be treated of more at length.
⁂ Since the above was written we have been informed that fourteen livraisons are now published: but we have not had an opportunity of seeing any more than those we have already noticed. We have also learned that Messrs. Cahier and Martin are not priests of the cathedral of Bourges, as we had been led to suppose, but are Jesuits resident at Paris: and that the descriptions of the windows, &c., were written by le Père Cahier, and the drawings made by le Père Martin.
- ↑ In a window of Lullingstone church, Kent, Christ is represented nailed to a vine in the form of a Y, rising from the middle of a square cistern, from one side of which water appears to flow. People of all ranks are approaching the cistern, and some are filling vessels from it. A monk is digging a channel to let the water flow freely through the land. One of the figures appears to call attention to the proceeding of the monk, and another is bending over the channel in order to fill a vessel from it. Above the vine is the text, (John vii. 37,) "If ani man thirst come to me and drinck." The date of this glass is about 1520.