than three-quarters of the structure. The supporting elements are
hardly more than large mullions,or vertical stone bars. The emphasis
is on the extreme slenderness of the architectural forms and on linear-
ity in general. Although the chapel required restoration in the 19th
century (after suffering damage during the French Revolution), it re-
tains most of its original 13th-century stained glass. Sainte-Chapelle’s
enormous windows filter the light and fill the interior with an un-
earthly rose-violet atmosphere. Approximately 49 feet high and 15 feet
wide, they were the largest designed up to their time.
VIRGIN OF PARISThe “court style” of Sainte-Chapelle has its
pictorial parallel in the mannered elegance of the roughly contempo-
raneous Gabriel of the Reims Annunciationgroup (FIG. 18-24,left),
but the style long outlived Saint Louis and his royal artists and archi-
tects. The best example of the court style in Late Gothic sculpture is the
early-14th-century statue nicknamed the Virgin of Paris (FIG. 18-26)
because of its location in Paris at Notre-Dame. The sculptor portrayed
Mary in an exaggerated S-curve posture typical of Late Gothic sculp-
ture. She is a worldly queen, decked out in royal garments and wearing
478 Chapter 18 GOTHIC EUROPE18-26Virgin and Child (Virgin of Paris), Notre-Dame, Paris, France,
early 14th century.
Late Gothic sculpture is elegant and mannered. Here, the solemnity of
Early and High Gothic religious figures gave way to a tender and anec-
dotal portrayal of Mary and Jesus as royal mother and son.18-27West facade of Saint-Maclou, Rouen, France, ca. 1500–1514.
Saint-Maclou is the masterpiece of Late Gothic Flamboyant architecture.
Its ornate tracery features curves and countercurves that form brittle
decorative webs masking the building’s structure.a heavy gem-encrusted crown. The Christ Child is equally richly at-
tired and is very much the infant prince in the arms of his young
mother. The tender, anecdotal characterization of mother and son rep-
resents a further humanization of the portrayal of religious figures in
Gothic sculpture. Late Gothic statuary is very different in tone from
the solemnity of most High Gothic figures, just as Late Classical Greek
statues of the Olympian gods (compare FIG. 18-26with FIG. 5-63) dif-
fer from High Classical depictions.
SAINT-MACLOU, ROUENLate French Gothic architecture
also represents a departure from the norms of High Gothic. The
change from Rayonnant architecture to the so-called Flamboyant
style (named for the flamelike appearance of its pointed bar tracery)
occurred in the 14th century. The style reached its florid maturity
nearly a century later in Normandy in the church of Saint-Maclou
(FIG. 18-27) in Rouen, its capital. The church is tiny (only about
75 feet high and 180 feet long) compared with the cathedrals of the
High Gothic age. Its facade breaks sharply from the High Gothic
style (FIGS. 18-21and 18-23) of the 13th century. The five portals
(two of them false doors) bend outward in an arc. Ornate gables
crown the doorways, pierced through and filled with wiry, “flicker-
ing” Flamboyant tracery made up of curves and countercurves that
form brittle decorative webs and mask the building’s structure. The
transparency of the pinnacles over the doorways permits visitors to
see the central rose window and the flying buttresses, even though
they are set well back from the facade. The overlapping of all fea-
tures, pierced as they are, confuses the structural lines and produces