THE VIRGIN OF CHARTRES: RITUAL AND THE CULT OF THE VIRGIN MARY AT THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES BY ELIZABETH L. FISCHER A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Art History WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts May 2005 With many thanks to my thesis advisor, Peter Low, Professor of Art History Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... 1 List of Figures .......................................................................................................... 3 Introduction: The Virgin in Imagery and Experience at Chartres Cathedral .... 4 I. The Tree of Jesse Window and the Cathedral's Control of the Local Cult ... 11 I1. The North Portal of Chartres: The Triumph of the Virgin ............................ 34 I11. The Last Judgment: Mary's Salvation through the Cathedral .................... 74 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 100 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 108 List of Figures Figure 1. Tree of Jesse window at Chartres ............................................................... 12 Table 1. Disposition of characters in the Jesse Tree at Chartres ............................... 13 Figure 2 . Dijon MS . 129. Tree of Jesse ..................................................................... 16 Figure 3 . Dijon MS . 641. Tree of Jesse ..................................................................... 16 Figure 4 . Bible de Saint-Bertin de Saint-Omer. Tree of Jesse ................................... 18 Figure 5 . Pierpont Morgan MS . 724. Tree of Jesse ................................................... 19 Figure 6 . Tree of Jesse at Saint-Denis ....................................................................... 20 Figure 7 . King at Saint-Denis. showing restored areas ......................................... 20 Figure 8. Huntingfield Psalter. Tree of Jesse ............................................................. 25 Figure 9 . British Museum MS . Arundel 44. Tree of Jesse ........................................ 25 Figure 10. Portal of the Triumph of the Virgin ......................................................... 34 Figure 11. North Porch of Chartres ........................................................................... 36 Figure 12. Tympanum of the Triumph Portal ............................................................ 37 Figure 13. Dormition of Mary -- left half of the Triumph portal lintel ..................... 40 Figure 14. Assumption of Mary -- right half of the Triumph Portal lintel ................ 40 Figure 15. Melchizedek, Abraham and Isaac, and Moses ........................................ 41 Figure 16. Archivolts of the Triumph Portal ............................................................. 42 Figure 17. Coronation of the Virgin at Senlis ............................................................ 50 Figure 18. Coronation of the Virgin at Laon ............................................................. 51 Figure 19. Coronation of the Virgin at Amiens ......................................................... 52 Figure 20 . Angel from the tympanum ....................................................................... 56 Figure 21 . Archivolts -- Adam and Eve expelled from Eden .................................... 59 Figure 22 . Angels with objects used in processions .................................................. 67 Figure 23 . tympanum with Suffering of Job .............................................................. 69 Figure 24 . Melchizedek with chalice ......................................................................... 70 Figure 25 . St . Peter with remains of Chalice ............................................................. 70 Figure 26 . Last Judgment -- South transept center tympanum .................................. 74 Figure 27 . Detail of Last Judgment tympanum ......................................................... 77 Figure 28 . Lintel of Last Judgment tympanum ......................................................... 78 Figure 29 . Abraham holding the souls of the Saved .................................................. 79 Figure 30 . archivolts showing the Damned ............................................................... 79 Figure 3 1. Trumeau figure of the Beau Dieu ............................................................. 80 Figure 32. Jamb figures of Apostles .......................................................................... 80 Figure 33 . Socles below Beau Dieu ........................................................................... 81 Figure 34 . Last Judgment at Laon Cathedral ............................................................. 82 Figure 35 . Last Judgment at Saint-Denis ................................................................... 82 Figure 36 . Stained Glass window of the Crucuflxion at Chartres ............................. 90 Figure 37 . Count of Chartres shown leading the saved ............................................. 91 Introduction: The Virgin in Imagery and Experience at Chartres Cathedral The Cathedral of Chartres has often been loolced at as the central site of the expansive cult of the Virgin in thirteenth-century France. Chartres is considered both the model figure of a cathedral community centered on the worship of Mary and a key example for promoting the existence of a universal cult of the Virgin. Neither of these points can be considered fully accurate, despite the efforts of many distinguished scholars who have attempted to use the sculpture and glass of Chartres to support these views. Chartres was not always the central cult site it claimed to be (and which scholars since the thirteenth century have claimed for it), and it was not part of a universal effort to glorify the Virgin; rather, the cult of the Virgin occurring at Chartres was specifically promoted as the cult of the Virgin of Chartres, and the growing emphasis on Mary there in the thirteenth century were not an effort to be a part of a universal cult, but an effort to promote Chartres and the Lady of Chartres as unique within the growing Marian cult development. The imagery of Chartres has, of course, been extensively examined. Analysis has generally taken one of two routes. The first, taken brilliantly but misleadingly by such scholars as Adolf Katzenellenbogen, creates a coherent artistic program for Chartres based wholly on the evidence of stone. This approach leaves out a major portion of the decorative program at Chartres, including the extensive stained glass. The many windows play a significant role in creating the experience of the cathedral's interior, thus making any conclusions regarding the viewer's response to the cathedral necessarily incomplete. The other commonly used method of interpretation does take a holistic approach to the viewer's visual experience, but this Elizabeth L. Fischer approach all too frequently becomes a general listing of the details of the 'cathedral- as-heavenly-Jerusalem' prototype, rather than an examination of the specifics of the program at Chartres Cathedral. This prototype is not invalid, but most cathedrals can be seen in this way, so it can further our understanding of Chartres very little. Few scholars have even begun to address the specific forms of imagery at Chartres in stone and glass, interior and exterior, and those who have (i.e. Kurmann and Kurmann-Schwartz) use the diversity and range of images at Chartres to argue for a cathedral with separate programs and goals for sculpture, architecture, and stained glass. Although a cohesive program at Chartres has not been discerned, Kurmann and Kurmann-Schwartz's argument assumes a disjunctive program and looks to prove a division in the imagery based on medium.' It seems highly unlikely that a complex and wholly integrated design like that of the Royal Portal would fail to be considered in the context of the other imagery, or that two images produced at the same time and place in different media would be unrelated. Thus, while an overarching program cannot be assumed without proof, investigation of Chartres should proceed with an open mind to the possibility that the programs in the diverse artwork of Chartres bear some relationship, based on their proximity to each other and the likelihood that the planners and executors of each example would be exposed to similar sources and similar inspirations, both artistic and historic. Taken together, without the expectation of absolute unity or disjunction, images of Mary at Chartres should help trace the development of the cult at Chartres and suggest how the cult functioned both locally and in relation to the rest of France. Peter Kurmann and Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz, "Chartres Cathedral as a Work of Artistic Integration: Methodological Reflections," Artistic Integration in Gothic Buildings, eds. Virginia Chieffo Raguin, Kathryn Brush and Peter Draper (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc., 1995). The Virgin of Chartres: Introduction To address the whole significance of the all the sculpture, architecture, and stained glass at Chartres in all their levels of meaning would be a prohibitively large endeavor. Instead, I will examine a few central, largely unresolved images from around the cathedral to address