1) This is the west front of Chartres cathedral. On the left, the northern tower, with the Romanesque base and Gothic spire; on the right, the southern tower which was built in its entirety in the twelfth century. The façade between the two towers was not completed as we see it today until after the fire of 1194.

The town of Chartres had been a center for the cult of the Virgin Mary throughout the middle ages since it possessed a statue of Mary, reportedly carved by St. Luke, as well as the "sacred Tunic," supposedly worn by the Virgin at the time of the birth of Christ. The people of Chartres believed that this sacred relic acted as their protector.

2) This is the Door of the Virgin for whom the cathedral was built. Mary sits with the baby Jesus in her lap. The lower portion of the whole doorway represents earth, and the upper portion Heaven.

3) Each of the groups of sculptures above the west doors depict Jesus; here in the center representation “He reveals Himself in his Eternal majesty” (Burckhardt).

4) We almost seem to be looking at a different cathedral when we view the north front of Chartres. A chronicler of the time, Robert de Torigny, writes that “It happened for the first time at Chartres that people with their own shoulders pulled heavy carts full of stones, wood, sand, and other things necessary for the building of the cathedral, the towers of which sprang up forthwith” (Burckhardt 60).

5) The many statues adorning the cathedral were built as columns in spiritual if not physical support of the cathedral. “That they are so tall and narrow signifies that they themselves are the ‘pillars of the Church’ to which St. Paul refers in the Scripture” (Burckhardt 65). The female figures among these Old Testament personages points to the “redemptive role of the Virgin Mary, the Protectress of the Church” (Burckhardt).

This cathedral was devoted to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin Mary, mother of God Jesus. She is the symbol of the eternal woman, the last and the greatest in a list of ancient goddesses, Isis, Demeter, and Aphrodite. One may even say that such worship goes back to Eve. Chartres was built to please this Queen Mother who loved grace, beauty, and ornaments. Henry Adams in his famous book on Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, writes that this church was built “in this singleness of thought, exactly as a little girl sets up a doll-house for her favorite blonde doll” (88). The palaces of earthly Queens were hovels comparatively. The glass, the light, the sculptures were created to please the Queen of Heaven who could grant favors to her worshippers.

“The windows claim, therefore, to be the most splendid color-decoration the world ever saw, since no other material, neither silk nor gold, and no opaque color laid on with a brush, can compare with translucent glass . . .” (124). For Adams the closest things approaching their beauty are Chinese porcelains.

The Tree of Jesse is said to be the most complete and perfect example of this greatest decorative art” (125). The emphasis on blue is the key, for “blue is light” (125).

This window represents the human genealogy of Christ in the form of a tree which springs from the loins of Jesse and grows through the royal house of David to reach its flowering in Christ, situated directly above the Virgin Mary.

Works Cited

Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. 1904. New York: Penguin, 1986.

Burckhardt, Titus. Chartres and the Birth of the Cathedral. Ipswich: Golgonooza Press, 1995.