Ch. 10 - The Court of the Queen of Heaven - Page 2

beggar-
woman can still pass a summer's day here, and never once be
mortified by ignorance of things that every dealer in bric-a-brac is
supposed to know.

Yet the artists seem to have begun even here with some idea of
sequence, for the first window in the north aisle, next the new
tower, tells the story of Noah; but the next plunges into the local
history of Chartres, and is devoted to Saint Lubin, a bishop of this
diocese who died in or about the year 556, and was, for some reason,
selected by the Wine-Merchants to represent them, as their
interesting medallions show. Then follow three amusing subjects,
charmingly treated: Saint Eustace, whose story has been told; Joseph
and his brethren; and Saint Nicholas, the most popular saint of the
thirteenth century, both in the Greek and in the Roman Churches. The
sixth and last window on the north aisle of the nave is the New
Alliance.

Opposite these, in the south aisle, the series begins next the tower
with John the Evangelist, followed by Saint Mary Magdalen, given by
the Water-Carriers. The third, the Good Samaritan, given by the
Shoemakers, has a rival at Sens which critics think even better. The
fourth is the Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin. Then
comes the fifteenth-century Chapel of Vendome, to compare the early
and later glass. The sixth is, or was, devoted to the Virgin's
Miracles at Chartres; but only one complete subject remains.

These windows light the two aisles of the nave and decorate the
lower walls of the church with a mass of colour and variety of line
still practically intact in spite of much injury; but the windows of
the transepts on the same level have almost disappeared, except the
Prodigal Son and a border to what was once a Saint Lawrence, on the
north; and, on the south, part of a window to Saint Apollinaris of
Ravenna, with an interesting hierarchy of angels above:--seraphim
and cherubim with six wings, red and blue; Dominations; Powers;
Principalities; all, except Thrones.

All this seems to be simple enough, at least to the people for whom
the nave was built, and to whom the windows were meant to speak.
There is nothing esoteric here; nothing but what might have suited
the great hall of a great palace. There is no difference in taste
between the Virgin in the choir, and the Water-Carriers by the
doorway. Blanche, the young Queen, liked the same colours, legends,
and lines that her Grocers and Bakers liked. All equally loved the
Virgin. There was not even a social difference. In the choir,
Thibaut, the Count of Chartres, immediate lord of the province, let
himself be put in a dark corner next the Belle Verriere, and left
the Bakers to display their wealth in the most serious spot in the