Stained glass is not a Gothic invention !
By convention, the age of the Romanesque architecture and art is often described as having spanned the years 1000–1200. It makes it easy to memorize, but of course it is only “mostly right”, with lots of exceptions, as is the case every time one tries to set cutoff years to mark the transition between one historic period and the next.
Even if I limit myself to France (therefore ignoring all that happened previously in northern Italy), the “Comasque” architects and masons from the Lake Como region had crossed the Alps well before Year 1000, building churches such as the Saint Martin Basilica in Aime, on the French slopes of the mountain chain, or even a ways further West such as the Gellone Abbey near the French Pyrénées, which the same builders from Italy probably reached by boat on the coattails of merchants. Likewise, large regions such as most of southern France, continued to build churches in the Romanesque style way past Year 1200, even though Gothic architecture had begun to appear and blossom in Normandy or the area around Paris.
If that two-century time bracket is substantially inaccurate to frame the Age of the Romanesque, what other assumptions may be wrong about it and the Age of the Gothic, respectively?
First, there is the fact that the so-called “broken” or “pointy” arch, and the combination of several of those to create an intersecting pattern known as “rib vaulting”, were invented during the Gothic Age. Nothing could be more wrong, as I hope to be able to demonstrate one day —I haven’t yet been to the proper place to document the very first use of such arches, well before 1100, i.e., smack in the middle of the Romanesque period.
Then, there is stained glass, that marvelous art and technique which, combined with the pointy arch and the use of flying buttresses, allowed Gothic churches to let all that light flow in... That was a Gothic invention as well, wasn’t it? Well, no it wasn’t. And while I’m at it, if you think only Gothic builders knew how to let all that light flow in, just take a peek at the Romanesque basilica of Vézelay (built 1120–40)...
To go back to stained glass, it was indeed a Romanesque invention, or rather, it is during the Romanesque Age that the technique of coloring glass panes was refined: according to the writings of a Benedictine monk named Theophilus (in his Schedula diversarum artium), that technique was perfected around 1100, and the oldest stained glass windows, assembling such colored panes with rods of lead, still visible today, date back to that period and can be seen in the Augsburg Cathedral in Germany. Some even mention much older windows dating back from the end of the Carolingian period, during the 900s, in Magdeburg and Lorsch, also in Germany.
I may one day be able to go visit those places and bring back photographs, but today, I would like to take you to the city of Bourges, right in the middle of France. Its cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was built across the late Romanesque and early Gothic periods, from the late 1100s through the late 1200s. Its oldest parts, especially the apse, feature large windows with gorgeous late 1100s–early 1200s stained glass, probably made in the workshops of Chartres.
The cathedral is on the Via Lemovicensis Path to Compostela, and therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Stained glass windows are intricate works, like jigsaw puzzles made up of many small pieces assembled together. I encourage to zoom into the photos to better appreciate the details.
This window tells the story of Saint Stephen, patron saint of the cathedral. Here and there, small captions can sometimes be found. Since the vast majority of people couldn’t read, they were only there to tell the clerics what it was they were looking at, so they could, in turn, explain it to the unlearned faithful.
Stained glass is not a Gothic invention !
By convention, the age of the Romanesque architecture and art is often described as having spanned the years 1000–1200. It makes it easy to memorize, but of course it is only “mostly right”, with lots of exceptions, as is the case every time one tries to set cutoff years to mark the transition between one historic period and the next.
Even if I limit myself to France (therefore ignoring all that happened previously in northern Italy), the “Comasque” architects and masons from the Lake Como region had crossed the Alps well before Year 1000, building churches such as the Saint Martin Basilica in Aime, on the French slopes of the mountain chain, or even a ways further West such as the Gellone Abbey near the French Pyrénées, which the same builders from Italy probably reached by boat on the coattails of merchants. Likewise, large regions such as most of southern France, continued to build churches in the Romanesque style way past Year 1200, even though Gothic architecture had begun to appear and blossom in Normandy or the area around Paris.
If that two-century time bracket is substantially inaccurate to frame the Age of the Romanesque, what other assumptions may be wrong about it and the Age of the Gothic, respectively?
First, there is the fact that the so-called “broken” or “pointy” arch, and the combination of several of those to create an intersecting pattern known as “rib vaulting”, were invented during the Gothic Age. Nothing could be more wrong, as I hope to be able to demonstrate one day —I haven’t yet been to the proper place to document the very first use of such arches, well before 1100, i.e., smack in the middle of the Romanesque period.
Then, there is stained glass, that marvelous art and technique which, combined with the pointy arch and the use of flying buttresses, allowed Gothic churches to let all that light flow in... That was a Gothic invention as well, wasn’t it? Well, no it wasn’t. And while I’m at it, if you think only Gothic builders knew how to let all that light flow in, just take a peek at the Romanesque basilica of Vézelay (built 1120–40)...
To go back to stained glass, it was indeed a Romanesque invention, or rather, it is during the Romanesque Age that the technique of coloring glass panes was refined: according to the writings of a Benedictine monk named Theophilus (in his Schedula diversarum artium), that technique was perfected around 1100, and the oldest stained glass windows, assembling such colored panes with rods of lead, still visible today, date back to that period and can be seen in the Augsburg Cathedral in Germany. Some even mention much older windows dating back from the end of the Carolingian period, during the 900s, in Magdeburg and Lorsch, also in Germany.
I may one day be able to go visit those places and bring back photographs, but today, I would like to take you to the city of Bourges, right in the middle of France. Its cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was built across the late Romanesque and early Gothic periods, from the late 1100s through the late 1200s. Its oldest parts, especially the apse, feature large windows with gorgeous late 1100s–early 1200s stained glass, probably made in the workshops of Chartres.
The cathedral is on the Via Lemovicensis Path to Compostela, and therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Stained glass windows are intricate works, like jigsaw puzzles made up of many small pieces assembled together. I encourage to zoom into the photos to better appreciate the details.
This window tells the story of Saint Stephen, patron saint of the cathedral. Here and there, small captions can sometimes be found. Since the vast majority of people couldn’t read, they were only there to tell the clerics what it was they were looking at, so they could, in turn, explain it to the unlearned faithful.