abbey church of Saint-Ouen (1318–39) in Rouen is among the most arresting programs of
the period. Its historiated panels, framed by elaborate arcades and backed by damascene
grounds, are elegantly delineated with mannered line and light, vibrant colors. The
bordering grisaille panels are composed of clear, white glass enlivened with botanically
accurate plant renderings, including periwinkle, strawberry, columbine, and buttercup.
The technical mastery of glass painters in the subsequent century, as well as the pervasive
influence of Netherlandish painters like Jan van Eyck, is evident in the Annunciation
window (1448–50) presented by Jacques Cœur to Bourges cathedral.
Our knowledge of medieval French stained glass relies on only a tiny fraction of the
number of windows actually produced. Victims to changes in taste as well as iconoclasm
and political revolt, stained-glass windows were destroyed in vast quantities during the
18th century and in the aftermath of the Revolution. Modern warfare reduced their
number even more. Today, pollution continues to threaten these irreplaceable monuments
of French patrimony.
M.B.Shepard
[See also: ANGERS; BOURGES; BRAINE; CHARTRES; CISTERCIAN ART AND
ARCHITECTURE; GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; GOTHIC ART; LAON; MANTES;
ORBAIS; PARIS; REIMS; RIOM; ROUEN; SAINT-DENIS; SUGER;
TOURS/TOURAINE; TROYES; VAN EYCK, JAN]
Brisac, Catherine. A Thousand Years of Stained Glass, trans. Geoffrey Culverwell. Garden City:
Doubleday, 1986.
Brown, Sarah. Stained Glass: An Illustrated History. London: Studio Éditions, 1992.
——, and David O’Connor. Glass-Painters. London: British Museum, 1991.
Caviness, Madeline H. “Biblical Stories in Windows: Were They Bibles for the Poor?” In The
Bible in the Middle Ages, ed. Bernard S.Levy. Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts
and Studies, 1992, pp. 103–47.
——. Sumptuous Arts at the Royal Abbeys in Reims and Braine. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1990.
——, with Evelyn Ruth Staudinger. Stained Glass Before 1540: An Annotated Bibliography.
Boston: Hall, 1983.
Cothren, Michael. “Suger’s Stained Glass Masters and Their Workshop at Saint-Denis.” In Paris:
Center of Artistic En-lightenment. Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University,
Vol. 4(1988), pp. 46–75.
Grodecki, Louis. Le vitrail roman. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1977.
——, and Catherine Brisac. Gothic Stained Glass, 1200–1300, trans. Barbara Drake Boehm.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.
Kemp, Wolfgang. Sermo Corporeus: Die Erzählung der mittelalterlichen Glasfenster. Munich:
Schirmer/Mosel, 1987.
Lautier, Claudine. “Les peintres-verriers des bas-côtés de la nef de Chartres au début du XIIIe
siècle.” Bulletin monumental 148(1990):7–45.
Lillich, Meredith Parsons. “Gothic Glaziers: Monks, Jews, Taxpayers, Bretons, Women.” Journal
of Glass Studies 27(1985): 72–92.
.“Monastic Stained Glass: Patronage and Style.” In Monasticism and the Arts, ed. Timothy
G.Verdon. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1984, pp. 207–54.
——. Rainbow Like an Emerald: Stained Glass in Lorraine in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth
Centuries. University Park: University of Maryland Press, 1991.
——. The Armor of Light: Stained Glass in Western France 1250–1325. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993.
Panofsky, Erwin, ed. and trans. Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St. Denis and Its Art
Treasures. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
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