The Sculptural Programs of Chartres Cathedral: Christ, Mary, Ecclesia

ADOLF KA TZENELLENBOGEN

$1.95 N233

THE SCULPTURAL PROGRAMS OF CHARTRES CATHEDRAL

DR. ADOLF KATZENELLENBOGEN (1901-1965) was Professor of the History of Art and Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at the Johns Hopkins University. He received his Dr. jur. degree from the University of Giessen and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Hamburg. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, he belonged to the faculty of Vassar College. In 1963 he was visiting professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany. His publications include The Sculptural Programs of Chartres Cathedral; Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Mediceval An; The Central Tympanum of V ezelay; and The Sarcophagus of S. Ambrogio.

ALSO BY ADOLF KATZENELLENBOGEN IN THE NORTON LIBRARY

Adolf Katzenellenbogen

Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Mediaeval Art

THE SClJLPTURAL PROGRAMS

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Chartres Cathedral

CHRIST o MARY o ECCLESIA

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© 1959

BY THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS

First published in the Norton Library in 1964 by arrangement with the Johns Hopkins Press.

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Published simultaneously in Canada by George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto

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Introduction City of Chartres, enriched not only by numerous burghers, Likewise also enriched by its clergy so mighty, so splendid, And by its beautiful church, for none can be found in the whole world, None that would equal its structure, its size and decor in my judgment. Countless the signs and the favors of grace by which the Blessed Virgin Shows that the Mother of Christ has a special love for this one church, Granting a minor place, as it were, to all other churches, Deeming it right to be frequently called the Lady of Chartres. This is also the place where every one worships the tunic Worn on the day of the birth of the Lamb, by the Virgin as garment. He is the one who not only carried the sins of the world but Also purified the world from original sin by His pure blood. He sanctified as a very pure throne the Virgin who gladly Is being honored as Mother, while still remaining a Virgin.'

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WITH THESE VERSES Guillaume le !Jretop, historian and court poet of the early thirteenth century, praised th~ ~ios~ relation between the Virgin Mary and the cathedral dedicated to her. Various ties seemed to him proof and

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INTRODUCTION

guarantee of this relation. They might be called in part intangible, like the Virgin's predilection for the church and her acceptance of the title "Lady of Chartres," in part tangible, namely numerous miracles ascribed to her, and a visible token: the cathedral owned as its most precious relic the Virgin's tunic, according to tradition a gift of Emperor Charles the Bald. Twice the salvation of Chartres and its cathedral was ascribed to the miraculous effect of this relic, first in 911 when the Normans attacked the city, and again in 1119, while the city was in similar danger because the Count of Chartres sided with the English against King Louis VI.' The conviction that Mary, the Lady of Chartres, was intimately linked with the cathedral did not diniinish in the later middle ages. On the contrary, a statue of the Virgin and Child in the crypt of the cathedral apparently gave rise to a legend chronicled late in the fourteenth century. As early as preChristian times, so the story goes, the statue of a virgin holding a child, with the prophetic inscription, "Virgini pariturae," was worshiped by pagans in a cave at Chartres because they believed in the coming of a savior born by a virgin. 3 A local ruler had ordered that the statue be made, and he gave to the virgin and her son the city with its surrounding region. It was obviously the aim of this legend to establish the priority of the Cathedral of Chartres and of its cult of the Virgin over all other churches, by claiming a pre-Christian origin for the statue in the crypt and for the devotion it aroused. The Cathedral of Chartres strongly bound to the Virgin Mary, as Guillaume le Breton describes it, is also intimately linked to the bishop of Chartres, as a twelfth-century document defines it. The New Testament had likened Christ to the Bridegroom, the Church to His Bride. It became customary, therefore, to apply the same metaphor to a bishop and his own see. This allegorkill concept could hardly have been spun out more poeticaiiy and lovingly than in the letter written by the Chapter of Chartres to greet John of Salisbury after his election as bishop in 1176: "It has brought joy to the heavenly court, we believe, that the Church of the blessed Virgin, conceiving through the Holy Spirit, has brought forth a shepherd beloved by God and mankind. With the voice of every one acclaiming, the Church of Chartres asks, therefore, for the one she desires, and incessantly longs for the one she loves and has elected. Languishing in her desire for the bridegroom she asks: 'Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth'" (Cant. 1:2).' In this passage the Church of Chartres is identified with the cathedral, "the Church of the blessed Virgin," and is seen ideally as the loving mother and bride who, in analogy to Mary, brings forth the bishop as her child and bridegroom. Finally, the cathedral-so closely tied to the Virgin and so strongly joined to its bishop---wed its existence to the contributions of human society for whose religious needs it was to provide a magnificent place. Like other cathedrals it was built and decorated with the help of men and women of many social strata, reaching from the burghers of Chartres to members of

INTRODUCTION

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the royal house of France. Their contributions are revealed by contemporary testimonies of very different natures. On the one hand, Robert of Torigni, abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel, wrote in a glowing report of epic grandeur that in 1145 men and women, noble and common people, associated to dedicate themselves with all their physical resources and spiritual strength, in a spontaneous wave of religious enthusiasm, to the task of transporting in handdrawn carts material for the building of the towers.' The degree to which actual happenings were exalted and idealized in this report cannot be ascertained. One should also remember that stories of this kind were by no means limited to Chartres, but were linked to the building of other churches too.' There exist, on the other hand, documents about generous gifts for the cathedral. From coats of arms and donor emblems in the stained-glass windows, furthermore, we know for certain that the windows were given by kings and queens, by nobles, clerics, corporations of artisans and merchants alike. Whatever the contributions for the embellishment of the cathedral, whatever the reasons motivating the donors, these gifts express visibly the devotion enjoyed by the Lady of Chartres. Her image shines in many of its stained-glass windows. From whatever side the churchgoer enters the cathedral, whether from the west, the north, or the south, he sees the Virgin Mary carved in stone as the Mother of Christ, as the Queen enthroned with Him in heaven, as the Intercessor for mankind on the day of the Last Judgment. Represented in f