It was a major site of pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. This website provides access to a comprehensive collection of images and detailed descriptions of Chartres Cathedral. The images depict the stained glass windows, floor plans, and sculptural details of the monument. For a more structured exploration of the monument, including interactive diagrams of windows, floor plans, and sculptural details, please see the related: Chartres Cathedral on MEDART Website.
Alison Stones, Ph. Permission is granted for educational use only, provided the appropriate copyright is acknowledged on every image used see the copyright link on every image. Any other use of these images without the express written consent of the copyright holder is prohibited.
In June , a fire destroyed the wooden framework and the roof lead. The framework was replaced by an iron frame and covered in copper, which quickly obtained its verdigris colouring of today. Since , a restoration campaign has been rediscovering the interior decoration as it was conceived in the 13th century. Built in a surprisingly short time, Chartres cathedral is the work of a horde of anonymous builders, masons, stone cutters, carpenters and sculptors.
History of Chartres cathedral. The time of the first cathedrals Evangelised early, while Gaul was still Roman, the city of Chartres had a bishopric by the 4th century. The Romanesque cathedral On September 7, , a fire destroyed the cathedral. From the 18 th to the 19 th centuries The jube the screen between the choir and the nave was demolished in the 18 th century and shortly afterwards the choir was completely redecorated. Restoration work.
The outstanding stained-glass ensemble, monumental statuary of the 12th and 13th centuries and the painted decorations miraculously preserved from the ravages of humankind and time, make Chartres one of the most admirable and the best-preserved examples of Gothic art.
A little later, the nave and the choir, reconstructed as of , effected for the first time an architectural formula which would be widely employed throughout the 13th century. The monumental sculptures of Chartres Cathedral are valued both for their abundance and for their quality: the large ensembles, reliefs and statues, of the Royal Portail at the entrance to the nave, the six portals and two porches dating from at the north and south entrances to the transept, offer a complete panorama of Gothic sculpture from the moment when it broke from Romanesque traditions to attain the subtle balance of idealism and realism that characterises its apogee.
In this cathedral, seat of a renowned school, technical and artistic mastery were at the service of a highly developed iconographic science. Finally, Chartres Cathedral has almost totally conserved its homogeneous decor of stained-glass windows executed between approximately and Criterion i : Built fairly rapidly and in nearly one stride, Chartres Cathedral, owing to the unity of its architecture and stained-glass, sculptured and painted decoration, constitutes the complete and perfected expression of one of the most characteristic aspects of medieval art.
Criterion ii : Chartres Cathedral has exercised considerable influence on the development of Gothic art in France and beyond. The architects of the Cathedrals of Reims, Amiens and Beauvais have only enriched the fundamental design of Chartres, that was imitated in Cologne in Germany, Westminister in England and Leon in Spain.
In the domain of stained glass, the influence of the Chartres workshop ranged widely from Bourges, Sens, Le Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Rouen, Canterbury, through spreading or diffusion of works.
Criterion iv : Chartres Cathedral is both a symbol and a basic building type. It is the most elucidating example one could choose to define the cultural, social and aesthetic reality of the Gothic cathedral. Chartres Cathedral was considered as a model from the time of its construction, due to the novelty and perfection of the technical and aesthetic parts that were adopted.
All the elements that made it an architectural reference, in particular its nave and choir, remain intact. The scuptured decor portals and rood screen elements offer a complete panorama of the Gothic style.
The cathedral has also preserved outstanding stained glass from the middle of the 12th century as well as almost the totality of its homogeneous decor of stained glass that comprises the greatest ensemble of stained glass from the first half of the 13th century. Finally, the interior restorations have revealed the painted decor of the 13th century, constituting an almost entirely preserved false-stone work.
The popularity of the Virgin Mary was huge back then, and Chartres, a small town of 10, with an extremely prized relic, found itself in the big time as a major stop on the pilgrim circuit. Then, in , a fire destroyed the old church. The treasured veil was feared lost. But lo and behold, several days later, townspeople found the veil miraculously unharmed. Church officials and the townsfolk interpreted this as a sign that Mary wanted a new church.
The people of Chartres worked like mad to erect this grand cathedral, gift-bearing pilgrims came as never before, and the church we see today was completed in 70 years. That's astonishing, considering that other Gothic cathedrals such as Paris' Notre-Dame took centuries to build.
This remarkably speedy effort resulted in a much-appreciated unity of architecture, statuary, and stained glass — preserving a relative snapshot of the time.
A fragment of Mary's venerated veil is still on display in the cathedral, kept in a gold frame — away from light and behind bulletproof glass. But today the cathedral is most famous for its stained glass and statues.
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