the contributions helped rebuild the cathedral. The Latin text of the miracles from
Chartres was versified in French by Jean le Marchant (ca. 1262) as the Livre de Notre
Dame de Chartres. The Latin collections of Marian miracles associated with local shrines
and relics were combined with other generalized, less-localized miracle stories, and with
Marian prayers, chants, poems, and the like to form Mariales that were meant to be read
publicly or privately on Mary’s feast days. These Mariales were soon translated into
French, a notable example being Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles de Nostre Dame. Jean de
Garlande produced a versified collection of Marian miracles, the Stella maris, in 1248–
49, while Vincent de Beauvais included a collection of her miracles in his Speculum
historiale. In the 13th and 14th centuries, collections of Marian miracles provided a rich
source of exempla for Dominican and Franciscan preachers.
Several iconographic representations of Mary became widespread and influential
“types”: the seated Mother and Child; Mary enthroned with Christ in Heaven (the
Triumph and the Crowning of the Virgin); the standing Mother and Child; the sorrowing
Mary holding the dead body of Christ. Each reflected a doctrinal or devotional attitude.
The seated mother holding the child Jesus represented, from the 5th-6th centuries
forward, the theotokos. It is Mary’s awesome role as “birthgiver” of the incarnate deity
that dominates this mode of representation. Numerous wooden cult statues took this form
in medieval France, e.g., at Rocamadour. A striking example in monumental sculpture is
in the tympanum of the right portal of the west façade of Chartres (ca. 1145–55).
The representation of Mary enthroned with Christ in Heaven, found in monumental
sculpture of the late 12th and 13th centuries as well as in panel paintings and carved ivory
panels throughout the later Middle Ages, emphasizes not maternity but two other themes:
regal and triumphant power in a cosmic framework and the association of Mary with the
bride and Christ with the bridegroom of the Song of Songs. Although some verses from
the Song of Songs had long received a Marian interpretation and the feast of the
Assumption had readings from the Song, it was not until the 12th century that the entire
Song was given a symbolic interpretation, taking Mary as the bride, earlier interpretations
had seen either the church or the individual soul as the bride. The overriding point is
Mary’s appearance as a woman with her adult son in a position of regal power in Heaven,
an image drawing on ideas from courtly romance as well as royal ideology and shaped by
the theological concept of the “bride of Christ” in Song of Songs commentaries. Sculpted
tympani on the façades of the cathedrals of Senlis (ca. 1170) and Paris (ca. 1210–20) and
the north-transept portal of Chartres (1205–10) depict Mary in this trumphant mode and
have associated scenes from the death and resurrection-assumption of the Virgin.
The standing Mary with Jesus exemplified by the trumeau statue of the south portal of
the cathedral of Amiens (ca. 1250), the Vierge dorée, presents Mary as the loving mother
playing with her child, thus reflecting her deep human tenderness, connected in
devotional piety with her love of all humankind, as shown in the numerous collections of
Marian miracles that emphasize devotion to her as the loving mother.
A final widespread image type, the weeping Mary holding the crucified body of
Christ, reflects a new 13th-century piety focused on Christ’s suffering, Mary’s sorrow,
and the sorrowing response of the faithful; it was a piety developed especially in
Franciscan and Dominican circles. In poetry, the popular Stabat mater shows a similar
point of view, describing Mary’s sorrow as she views the Crucifixion and then the
yearning of the believer to share her sorrow.
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