The Cathedral’s fourteenth century glass, while not presenting the splendid ensemble that one sees at St. Ouen, is nevertheless not only instructive in its variety, but is also so placed as to exhibit itself to the greatest advantage. It is to be found in the Lady Chapel, the choir clerestory, the north transept, and the north nave aisle. The two large windows on each side of the Lady Chapel are so wide as to permit of four lancets in each. The treatment is the same throughout: a broad coloured border encloses a grisaille field, across the middle third of which is a coloured figure under a canopy, which of course has not yet acquired a pedestal. Evidence of careful attention to detail is seen in the borders, which are not only very elaborate, but are also enlivened in one case by a number of little green birds, in another by brown squirrels, and in a third by white angels playing musical instruments. This feature is but rarely met. The modern glass in the three easterly windows is rendered harmless by the height of the altar rising in front of them. Broad coloured borders are also found around the clerestory, but there each enclosed surface of grisaille has to rely for its adornment upon five round blue bosses surcharged with golden sunbursts. The three easternmost panels, however, bear large coloured figures, the central one being Christ on the Cross. The rose in the north transept is of the wheel type, and is too pale, because of the excessive use of colourless glass, especially in the radiating arms. At the end of each arm and also at other points are introduced medallions of mosaic pattern. The light is admitted in accordance with the conventions, but the contrast is too great between the plain and the mosaic panes. This same contrast is even more unpleasant in the chapel just at the junction of this transept and the choir ambulatory where a few mosaic medallions are frankly placed on a light field, without even the plausible excuse therefor which is afforded in the rose above by certain round apertures especially suited for medallions. The artist is evidently still groping for a satisfactory adjustment of his design and colour to the demand for light. This period is also exemplified, although in a different way, in the second, fifth, sixth and eighth windows in the north nave aisle. There, across the lower part of the light quarries in each of the four lancets, is placed a coloured figure behind whom hangs a curtain of contrasting colour, but entirely lacking canopy framing; each lancet is surrounded by a gay border. This treatment is not so pleasing as that just observed in the Lady Chapel, for the nave figures lack the finished appearance there lent by the canopy framing. The small curtain is better than no background at all, but we are still evidently in transition.
Of the fifteenth century glass in the cathedral, but little can be said; that in the south transept rose is good, while the chapel leading from that transept to the choir ambulatory contains two lofty-pinnacled canopy windows that would be excellent if they were not marred by their upper panes being filled in with disjointed fragments of thirteenth century medallions.
At St. Maclou (see page [251]) ten out of the twelve windows in the semi-circle of four chapels at the east end of the choir contain a softly lovely set of fifteenth century canopies whose lofty and intricate pinnacles are delicately outlined against backgrounds of lilac, blue, green, etc., always in the lighter shades. The lower parts of these windows have not fared so well as the upper portions, but they have not been damaged enough to detract from the general effect. So light are most of the tones used, that one fears the ensemble will appear too pale when viewed from the proper distance; but such is not the case, thanks to the admirable harmony between the soft colours and the dainty canopies.
An occasional fifteenth century panel is to be met with elsewhere in Rouen (i.e., the westernmost in the north wall at St. Vincent), but they are neither sufficiently numerous nor noteworthy to be cited here. We shall carry away as our chief souvenirs of this preliminary visit to Rouen, memories of the complete glazing of St. Ouen, the varied exhibition of contemporary transitional types found at the Cathedral, and St. Maclou’s delicately tinted half-circle of eastern chapels.
BOURGES
When we visited the Cathedral of Bourges to inspect the glass of the thirteenth century (see page [42]) we referred to that of the fifteenth which fills the windows of the nave chapels. It is to inspect these that we now make our second visit. It is very usual for chapels to radiate from around the choir of a church, but rarer to find them introduced into the side walls of the nave after the completion of the edifice. Perhaps it would not prove so eminently satisfactory at Bourges if it were not for the fact that the cathedral lacks transepts; but whatever the reason, the result in this instance is admirable. The window apertures of these nave chapels indicate that they were constructed at a later period than the rest of the cathedral, for instead of the single broad windows which we find elsewhere about the interior, the lighting of each chapel is effected by a group of lancets bound together to form one very wide window space, the lancets being separated only by narrow stone mullions. To this architectural indication of date is added that of the glass, which is among the best that is known of the fifteenth century canopy type. The glazing of these chapels varies greatly in excellence, but is always good. In almost every case the windows consist of four lancets. We note here the custom of placing upon the window a small kneeling figure of the donor, and from contemporary paintings we are able to affirm that the glass artist made these portraits as perfect as his skill permitted. In the chapel given by Pierre Trousseau not only do we find the donor but also his sister and his two brothers. This tendency to introduce various members of the family increased steadily in vogue, so much so that in the sixteenth century we shall often find two or three generations kneeling in a row in the lower panels. In the first two chapels on the left the personages hold in their hands long winding scrolls on which there is writing. This form of decoration was also much elaborated in the next century, and very successfully, too. But the greatest of all fifteenth century chapels is the most easterly one on the north, just at the point where the choir chapels succeed to those of the nave. It was given by Jacques Cœur, the merchant prince of Bourges, who became treasurer of France under Charles VII. It is as beautiful in detail and ensemble as a canopy window has ever been made. The mullions separating its four lancets are not allowed to interfere with the one great subject that extends over them all. Across the top of this picture is carried the most elaborate Gothic dome ever attempted in glass painting. The ceiling beneath it is blue sprinkled with golden stars, and the groining of the arches which support it is golden also. The robes of the figures, beautiful in combination of colour, are elaborated to the last degree of decorative detail. Notice along the edge of the kneeling saint’s robe a row of simulated embroidery panels gay with colour and gold. It is clear that Jacques Cœur employed upon this window the best glass artist to be found, just as he must have engaged the most skillful architects and builders for his palace, to the glories of which we alluded in our thirteenth century pilgrimage. This window and that dwelling stamp him as one of the most intelligently appreciative patrons of the arts which his time produced.
The fact that the cathedral is built upon the edge of the old Roman walls makes possible a well-lighted crypt instead of the gloomy cavern generally found beneath the choirs of most cathedrals. In the embrasures at the eastern end of this lower church or crypt have been placed a set of fifteenth century windows taken from the old Ste. Chapelle of Bourges, each consisting of four canopies. Under the two central ones of each stand the coloured figures in the usual way, but under the two outer canopies the figures are partly concealed behind simulated architectural columns. This unique arrangement serves to render the glass architecture all the more convincing. It would have been well if other towns had followed the example set by Bourges in thus preserving in some store-house like a cathedral the glass of other edifices which had to be destroyed.
If we travel by automobile from Bourges to Clermont-Ferrand, we will probably elect to pass through Nevers and Moulins. We have already advised the railway traveller not to alight at Moulins and he will probably not do so at Nevers. About the latter we will say but a word. Although the cathedral has a special interest in that it is one of the two churches in France having an apse at its western as well as its eastern end (the other is at Besançon), it need not detain him, because it has no old glass. If he decides to stop to look at the cathedral, he should not fail to see the old palace of the Dukes of Bourbon, with the story of Lohengrin carved by Jean Goujon on the outside of its graceful spiral staircase.