particularly on feast days. Excessive crowding on holy days was one reason
for his determination to enlarge the narthex.
We now look at Chartres Cathedral (c. 1134–1194), as seen across the
rooftops of the city. About 100 miles southwest of Paris, Chartres is the
¿ rst masterpiece in the full Gothic style. This is due in part to disaster—
the destruction of the recently rebuilt cathedral in 1194. The archbishop
of Chartres, a friend of Abbot Suger, had undertaken a rebuilding in the
spirit of St. Denis around 1145, but
everything except the west façade and
its sculpture was destroyed by ¿ re.
Rebuilding began immediately and
was ¿ nished by 1220, a remarkably
short time in this era.
Viewing the Chartres nave, we see a
taller, narrower nave arcade, a much
reduced gallery level with a triple
arcade (triforium), and the clerestory
with still more glass. This nave has
superior unity. Photos cannot do justice to the quality of light in the church.
Unlike other great cathedrals, Chartres retains nearly all of its original 13th-
century stained glass, and the effect is a magical display of colored light. The
famous window Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere (Our Lady of the Beautiful
Wall of Glass) in the ambulatory near the south transept shows this effect.
Note the blues, grays, and reds of the Madonna and Christ Child. Henry
Adams wrote in his book Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, “a strange, almost
uncanny feeling seems to haunt this window. ... The effect of the whole ...
is deep and sad.”
Next, we will consider the west façade of Chartres. The lower part of this
façade survived the ¿ re of 1194, and its two towers, begun before 1145,
were completed at different dates and in different styles. Chartres’ earliest
sculpture decorates the portals of the west façade. An example of this
sculpture is the doorjamb ¿ gures from the central door (c. 1150). The jamb
statues of all three west doors represent biblical prophets, kings, and queens
and emphasize the harmony of secular and sacred rule by suggesting that the
Curvilinear forms, S-shaped
or À ame-shaped, entered
the decorative repertory of
architecture, both sacred
and secular. From the À ame
shape, the word À amboyant
was derived.