GOTHIC STAINED GLASS: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - ART - 2024

The Gothic windows were one of the main constructive-decorative elements that marked the way of thinking about church architecture during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. They were used mainly in buildings such as churches and cathedrals, during the historical period that bears the same name.

After the year 1000 AD. C., after the apocalyptic fears that accompany the entry of each millennium, Christendom decided to seek new ways to find God. The obscurantist thought that promulgated the conception of the world as a valley of tears began to give in to the anthropological need to feel closer to divinity.

Saint-Denis Cathedral offers some of the most outstanding Gothic stained glass windows. Source: pixabay.com

For this reason the Romanesque style, with its dark and closed structure, lost its validity and gave way to the openness and luminosity of the Gothic. The stained glass window appeared to let light into the building of worship and for the cathedral to truly become the house of the Lord, the place where devotees could be enlightened with its truth.

Origin

It could be said that the Gothic style began in 1140 thanks to the initiative of the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis (island of France), who promoted and conceptualized the structural reform of its abbey, the first Gothic building in Europe.

Suger, influenced by the doctrine of Saint Bernard and the thought of Dionysus Areopagite, posited that there was a connection between the physical and the divine world that man could perceive through his senses. By contemplating and feeling the light overwhelming the body, the soul is purified and can have contact with the divine transcendence.

This thought is revolutionary considering that previously the scholastic idea that incited the detachment of the flesh and the senses prevailed, since it was believed that these distracted the soul and prevented it from accessing the immaterial reality of God.

Suger's approach

Suger proposed that it was possible to access a mystical experience from a physical experience, an exaltation of the senses.

For him the truth of God could not be manifested to men in a way that was not within sight. The entire universe is intelligible and visible thanks to light; then, the purest reality that it should allow us to see is divinity.

This religious approach is called anagogic. From this perspective the soul can ascend to the immaterial, the truth and universal wisdom starting from the particularity of the material.

Suger's approach was that the physical experience caused by Gothic architecture could elevate man to a metaphysical experience thanks to the effect of light.

For this reason the stained glass window became a necessary element for the Gothic style: its translucent and luminous character was perfect to generate the aesthetic effect sought by the clergyman.

characteristics

Big size

Gothic stained glass windows have a much larger dimension than those of the Romanesque style, in which the stained glass windows were located in small openings that allowed light to enter within the compact and massive structure of the church.

This increase in the dimensions of the stained glass window was possible thanks to the discovery of new architectural structures that allowed the space to be raised and the walls open, replacing the solid wall with glass.

From the barrel vault, the ribbed vault was used and the semicircular arch was discarded for the pointed one. In addition, flying buttresses and buttresses supported the long and stylized pillars of the new cathedral.

All these elements allowed much larger openings to be generated for the large stained glass windows that replaced the stone walls.

Didactic function

One of the innovations of the Gothic stained glass window is that it adds a new function to the glass within the church. It no longer only serves to let in light and allow visibility inside the building; it also fulfills a didactic and symbolic function.

The Gothic stained glass window illustrates iconographic images that were used to instruct believers in the teachings of Christ.

The representation of biblical scenes, images of saints and symbols made previously in mural painting and sculpture, in the Gothic reaches the support of the stained glass window. This made it possible to give a greater visual appeal to the didactic elements of scholasticism.

Symbolic atmosphere

The stained glass window generates a rarefied atmosphere that has a symbolic value. It seeks to differentiate the interior space of the cathedral from the exterior space, generating the contrast between the light distorted by the color of the stained glass window and the natural light from the exterior.

This contrast between the light from the stained glass window and the natural light makes people immediately notice when entering the building that they are passing into a different world imbued with a supernatural mystique. Through the stained glass window, everyday life was transformed into a religious experience.

In addition, the stained glass windows are carefully organized to emphasize certain symbolic elements of the interior structure of the church, highlighting them with light and chromatic effects.

Examples

Saint-Denis Cathedral

On the western façade of the Saint-Denis Cathedral, located near Paris, Suger decided to change the normal windows to rose windows, perhaps inspired by the north transept of Saint Etienne de Beauvais.

Laon Cathedral

The main facade (west) of the Cathedral of Laon (based in France, in the Picardy region) has a central rose window located under a semicircular arch installed in 1160; it was one of the first of its kind.

On the eastern side of this cathedral there is another rose window that has three allegorical windows located below. The right represents the youth of Christ and the life of Mary, the central one shows the arrival in Jerusalem and the ascension of the messiah, and the left shows the death of Saint Stephen and the miraculous account of Theophilus.

Amiens cathedral

In the Cathedral of Amiens, in the Somme department (France) we find a flamboyant style rose window (late Gothic) located on top of a sculptural series known as the “gallery of the kings”.

Chartres cathedral

The Cathedral of Chartres, located in the French city of the same name, has about 170 stained glass windows. Among these stands out the Rose Window of France, famous for having the heraldic symbol of the fleur de lis. It also includes portraits of donors who supported the reconstruction of the Cathedral.

Holy Chapel of the Ile de la Cité

In its upper chapel, the Holy Chapel of the Ile de la Cité has stained glass windows more than 15 meters high. These represent the Old and New Testaments, as well as the lives of Saint John the Baptist and the Evangelist.

References

1. "Gothic architecture" (no date) in School History. Retrieved on June 25, 2019 from School History: schoolhistory.co.uk.
2. "Main Gothic stained glass windows in France" (no date) in Easy Classroom. Retrieved on June 25, 2019 from Aula Fácil: aulafacil.com.
3. Cassinelo, MJ and Medina, JM “Gothic light. Religious and architectural landscape from the time of the cathedrals ”(January-June 2013) in Hispania Sacra. Retrieved on June 25, 2019 from Hispania Sacra: hispaniasacra.revistas.csic.es.
4. Panofsky, E. "Gothic architecture and scholastic thought" (no date). Madrid: La Piqueta.
5. Spanswick, V. "Gothic architecture: an introduction" (undated) at Khan Academy. Retrieved on June 25, 2019 from Khan Academy: khanacademy.org