Cathedral of Our Lady, Amiens, Picardy, France

Cathedral of Our Lady, Amiens, Picardy, France.  West front.

Photo credit for exteriors and nave: Andrew Tallon

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Lower west front with tympani, jamb sculptures, archivolt sculptures

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Chevet (east) end of the cathedral with projecting chapels especially the Chapel of the Virgin.  Note the height of the  windows in the chapels.

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Nave looking east.  The triforium of the nave is blind, that is there are no windows.  But the same level in the choir has windows that admit much light to the building.  Most of the stained glass has been lost. 

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     So much has been written about the Cathedral of Our Lady at Amiens, Picardy, France, that there is nothing new that I can add. I will instead present a summary of what some art historians consider the finest and, during the Middle Ages, the largest Gothic church in France and Europe.

     Several churches existed on the site of the Amiens cathedral including a Romanesque church built between 1137 and 1152. It was at this cathedral that King Philip II Augustus married his second wife, Ingeborg of Sweden. This is the queen for whom the spectacular Ingeborg Psalter was commissioned that was discussed previously under the blog for the Soissons Cathedral.

     In 1206 the purported head (or more accurately the front facial bones of the skull without mandible) of John the Baptist was brought back to Amiens from the sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Wallo or Walon de Sarton, from Picardy, discovered a half-ball of transparent crystal that contained the facial section of a human skull resting on a silver plate. It was apparently one of two relics he acquired. The other was the head of Saint George. The Greek lettering around the plate said that the bones were from John the Baptist but he could not read the Greek and so went from monastery to monastery trying to get information. Walon gave the skull to the bishop at Amiens. This made the Cathedral of Our Lady a very prestigious site and soon a major pilgrimage site in France. The presence of the skull fragment brought in a substantial income to the cathedral. ( See these three books for more details: Alfred J Andrea Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade: Revised Edition (2008) Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. David M. Perry. Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. (2015) University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Charles Freeman Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe (2012) New Haven: Yale University Press.)

     Thus, when the Romanesque church was severely damaged by fire in 1218, construction on a new cathedral in the new Gothic style began in 1220. The cathedral was mostly complete in a short period of time for medieval churches, about 50 years or about 1270 though some art historians give the date of 1288. The cathedral was not built from one end to the other. The crossing transept may have been built first since it seems to be central to the building’s proportions. There does seem to have continuous building once started. The lower nave was built in the 1220s and1230s. The upper nave was built in 1240s to 1260s. The upper part of the chevet with its double ambulatory and chapels was being built in 1260s. The date for the western front is far from certain but many of its elements point to an earlier period.

     The names of three of the master who built the cathedral are known-Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont, and his son, Renaud de Cormont. Thus, most of the church was built and decorated in the High Gothic style extending into the Rayonnant style in the choir and chevet. The two towers were built later. The south tower was constructed about 1366, and the north tower about 1401. Chapels in the nave were added later. These additions resulted in changes in the walls and buttresses that makes dating construction without period documentation more difficult.

     Much has been written about the cohesiveness of the cathedral because of its short construction period and the airy heights of the nave, aisles and choir. The cathedral is 476 feet or 145 meters long (exterior length) and the nave is 48 feet or 14.6 meters wide, and the overall width is 213 feet.. The height from the floor to the apex of the vault is 139 feet or 42.3 meters. The proportionality of the building is, “The plan is rigorously controlled by a central geometric matrix in the form of a great double square located in the crossing and contiguous bay. The diagonal of the great square gives the length of the nave and the half diagonal gives the choir.” (Stephen Murray) The plan of the church’s dimensions unfold from a center point in length, width, and height. (For an interesting discussion of the problems of going backward to try to figure out the intended proportions and measurements many centuries after a building was completed and often revised or repaired or rebuilt, see: Stephen Murray. Plotting Gothic: A Paradox. Architectural Histories: The open journal of the European Architectural History Network. 20 June 2014, http://journal.eahn.org/articles/10.5334/ah.bs/)

     Volumes have also been written about the elaborate sculptural schemes of the Cathedral that have been remarkably well preserved over the 8 centuries. Since that is not the point of this blog, I will skip over this.

     Once complete the Cathedral suffered its share of problems. Firstly, it was noted that the flying buttresses in the choir were placed too high to really support the stress on the walls. Cracks were appearing. Because of this a second set of buttresses were built lower down the wall of the choir. Then, in 1497, structural weaknesses was noted in the crossing piers as cracks appeared. This problem was remedied by the use of “Spanish iron” to anchor the piers at the height of the triforium. Wrought iron bar chains were installed while red hot so that they would cinch in the supporting structures as they cooled. The bar chairs are still in place and covered with centuries of corrosion. (S. Grassini, E. Angelini, M. Parvis, M. Bouchar, P. Dillman, D. Neff. An in situ corrosion study of Middle Ages wrought iron bar chains in the Amiens Cathedral. Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing (December 2013)113(4): 971-979)

    The Cathedral suffered some damage from the Huguenot iconoclasm of 1561. There was hurricane damage in 1627 and 1705. A near-by powder mill exploded in 1675 destroying much of the original stained glass. The cathedral apparently did not suffer much damage from the French Revolution, though its labyrinth built in the floor of the central crossing was destroyed. The architect and antiquarian Eugene Viollet-le- Duc worked on the restoration of the catherdral beginning in 1849. It was he who rebuilt the labyrinth and the elaborate patterning of the floor. The windows were removed before the onset of World War I and the building heavily sandbagged. Even so the cathedral was hit at least three times from bombs. The protection did save the vast numbers of sculptures, especially the elaborate west façade. The cathedral building was again heavily sandbagged in World War II, and so there was minimal damage to the walls and sculpture.

    As I already mentioned most of the period stained glass from Amiens has been lost.  The cathedral does have a Jesse Tree window but most of it was reconstructed in the 19th and 20th centuries.  After the colorful windows of Tours and Le Mans, one is struck by the blueness of the Amiens Jesse Tree window.  The Jesse Tree window was made about 1260 when the chevet at the east end of Amiens Cathedral was glazed.  There is red used as accents and in the glass around the prophets.  Still the overall impression is blue.  ( I will discuss making of glass in  the medieval period, at some point.  Because red glass tended to be so dark and opaque, it was usually flashed onto clear glass so that the red could be seen as light was transmitted through the glass.)

 The Jesse Tree window at Amiens is window #14 on the south side of the choir.  In this picture, it is window on the left.  The window is predominately blue.

Photo credits for stained glass: Painton Cowen

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The Jesse window at Amiens is a tall single lancet window but it does not reach the height of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

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There are 17 panels in the Jesse Tree window at Amiens.  Only 9 are substantially original containing 13th century glass.  Even the original panels have some old and some replacement glass as in the panel of the crowned and seated Virgin Mary.  The prophets that once flanked here are gone and replaced with some abstract flower designs in colored glass. This is shown in the two pictures below. An interesting note is that the colors that would come to be identifiable as those for the Virgin Mary, a blue cloak and red dress, are not yet standard in 13th century French stained glass windows. Today we may think of St. Mary as wearing pale blue and white but that color palette is modern.

 Red nimbed and crowned Virgin Mary seated in the blue glass mandorla with white Jesse vine with red accent.  She holds her right hand in blessing.

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The whole panel of the Virgin Mary.  The prophets that used to flank her are replaced with abstract flower like designs of colored glass.

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The next panel that is substantially original is the 6th panel below the Virgin Mary or 8th king above Jesse.  This panel has no identifying labels or symbols for the king or the prophets.

This is a generic king of Judah.  

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This generic king of Judah is crowned but not otherwise identified.  He is flanked by two unidentified prophets.

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The panel immediately below is also substantially original.  It is the 7th king below the Virgin Mary and the 7th king above Jesse.  Again this is a generic King of Judah accompanied by two prophets that are not named.

Another generic king with his right hand held up in blessing.

Most of this rich red glass was flashed, that is a thin layer of red glass was place to clear glass so the color was not too dark and could transmit light.

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The prophets on each side of the king are not identified.

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The next king down, that is the 8th king below the Virgin Mary and the 6th king above Jesse is also a generic king of Judah flanked by two prophets.  The king in this panel is very similar to the king above, wearing a red cloak and a green gown.  The kings hold his right hand up pointing to himself. The flanking prophets are not identified.

 Generic King of Judah, 8th below Virgin Mary and 6th above Jesse.  He appears to be pointing to himself.

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Whole panel with flanking prophets..

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Generic king of Judah holding a scepter.  This is the 9th king down from Virgin Mary and the 5th king above Jesse. His is pointing to himself.  He is seated and crowned.

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The panel of the generic King of Judah holding a scepter and accompanied by two prophets.

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The ninth king below Virgin Mary and the 5th king above Jesse hold a scepter but is otherwise not identified.  He is flanked by two prophets that carry banderoles but nothing is written on them to identify the prophets.

The tenth king down from St. Mary or the 4th king above Jesse is similar to the 8th king down or 6th king above Jesse.

Generic King of Judah. He is pointing to himself or holding a chain that hangs around his neck.
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The whole panel of the 10th king below Virgin Mary and the 4th king above Jesse.  The drapery work of the cloak of the right prophets suggests a recent replacement of glass.

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The third king above Jesse or the 11th king down from the Virgin Mary is holding a vielle in his lap. This is unusual since it if common to identify both Kings David and Solomon by the fact that they are holding or playing musical instruments.  But this is the same order of the windows as discussed previously for the Cathedral of Saint-Maruice in Angers.  It is not now possible to know if the order of the panels was rearranged at some point or if the iconography used to identify the Kings of Judah had not been established, except perhaps for King David with a harp or lyre.

Third king above Jesse holding a vielle in his lap.

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Vielle playing king and two prophets in the third window above Jesse or the 11th king down from Virgin Mary.

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The second king above the figure of Jesse is usually identified at King Solomon.  But in the Amiens window, King Solomon is shown as a  seated and crowned generic king holding a scepter in his left hand.  See below.

The center part of the second panel above Jesse.  This is traditionally identified as King Solomon but at Amiens, he is a red cloaked and green robed generic king with scepter similar to  the other kings in the  middle of the Jesse Tree window. (See above.)

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The whole panel of the second king above Jesse.

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In this window the reclining figure of Jesse is a modern replacement and is not included in the photographs taken by Painton Cowen and so will not be included in this blog. 

  In the panel above Jesse, King David is playing a peculiar instrument to be shown in a French Jesse Tree window.  The instrument shown is a bowed lyra that is a Byzantine instrument.  Apparently in medieval France, as well as much of northern and western Europe and Scandinavia, there were a number of stringed instruments played with a bow of varying shapes and sizes with varying numbers of strings.  Some used finger boards. Some did not.  So a stringed instrument in the lute and violin family would be a common site at a medieval court and where music was played.  Certainly crusaders could have seen such instruments, especially during the Fourth Crusade when the European troops captured and sacked Constantinople establishing the Latin Empire of Constantinople from 1204 to 1261.  Perhaps some of these exotic instruments were brought back to France, even to Picardy.  The Bishop of Soissons, Nivelon de Chérisy, returned to France in 1206 with a large collection of relics that were distributed to churches. Today, King David's instrument is  rare to see but perhaps not so to the glass makers of the Amiens stained glass windows.

 

King David playing an instrument.  A musical instrument played by King David was a reminded that to him is ascribed the composition of the Book of Psalms or 73 psalms. 

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King David playing a lyra with two flanking and unidentified prophets.

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      In summary, the Jesse Tree window  in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Amiens is a mixture of 13th century and more modern replacement glass.  It is a predominately blue window with seated forward facing kings with flanking unidentified prophets.  By the date of this window, 1260, showing King David above Jesse with a musical instrument, in this case a lyra, makes King David readily identifiable.  The same cannot be said for the king above David, usually King Solomon. The Blessed Virgin is seated and crowned.  In this window she has a hand held in blessing.  In other window already discussed she sometimes hold a prayer book and at other times a palm frond.  So the images used for the identification of Mary are still variable.  She is always seated below Jesus Christ and is not shone with an infant Jesus.

Cathedral of Saint Maurice, Angers, Maine-et-Loire (in the former province of Anjou), France

     The city of Angers used to be the capital of the province of Anjou ruled by counts.  In 1127, Count Geoffrey married the widowed daughter of Henry I of England, Matilda or Maud.  Their eldest son, Henry became Henry II of England, the first of the Plantagenet kings.   As such it was the home town of the Plantagenet family though Geoffrey was born and buried at nearby Le Mans.

     The story of the building of the cathedral at Angers is one that is familiar by now.  A Romanesque cathedral was built to replace a much smaller church.  The new Romanesque church burnt to the ground in 1032.  The same bishop, Hubert de Vendome, who oversaw the consecration of the Romanesque church started the rebuilding some time after the fire.  This Romanesque church was consecrated in 1096.  The retrofitting and rebuilding of the church in the Gothic style was begun under Bishop Ulger (1123-1149) and continued under his successor Bishop Normand de Doue (1149-1153). The west front of the Cathedral retains the darker stone of the older Romanesque church at the lowest level.  The church took centuries to build and the tower and west facade were not finished until the Renaissance.

West front of the Cathedral of Saint Maurice, Angers, France.  The present cathedral was built over centuries.  The darker stone at the lowest level is from the 12th century Romanesque church.

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The lower half of the walls of the nave are retained from the Romanesque church as can be seen in the photograph below.  The walls were reinforced to accommodate the weight of the vaulting covering the nave,  The cathedral has no aisles.  So the windows that light the church are at the clerestory level.

Looking east down the nave.  The lower half of the wall was retained from the older Romanesque church and retrofitted.

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West entrance to the cathedral with large tympanum of Jesus Christ seated in majesty and the four living creatures that surround the throne of God in the Revelation of John. It was St. Jerome writing about 398 in his preface to the Commentary on Matthew when he established the symbols as we know them today: Matthew-human or angel, Mark-lion, Luke-ox, and John-eagle. This entrance was built about 1170-1180.

The remains of the Gothic porch as be seen in the stone work but it was demolished in 1807.

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     The rounded east end of the choir, the chevet, required that the old town wall be demolished to make room for the addition.  This addition was built in the period of 1225-1240 during the time Guillaume de Beaumont was bishop (1202-1240).  The windows in the chevet are doubled lancet windows with an oculus at the top.  The Cathedral of Saint Maurice had the advantage of many other cathedrals in that it was much less dependent of money from pilgrims to make additions and repairs. Boulanger is her analysis of the windows at Saint Maurice notes a unity of iconography among the windows that is not found in many other cathedrals dependent on the money from pilgrims and gifts from wealthy donors.  Donors did pay for window repairs, and this is documented by the inclusion of the arms of the donor family in the window.  David King noted in a article for Vidimus, "The St John the Baptist window in the choir, for example, given in the thirteenth century by Richard de Tosny, the cathedral treasurer, was restored in the early fourteenth century by the Chaumont family, whose arms were inserted in the border"

The east end of St. Maurice with the double windows and oculus at the top.

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Bay 103 on the north side of the choir has a Jesse Tree window on the right and the martyrdom of St. Lawrence on the left.

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     The Jesse Tree window in Bay 103 at Angers is a few years earlier that the Jesse Tree window of Saint-Chapelle in Paris. The window at the Cathedral of Saint Maurice has more in common with lower clerestory window at Cathedral of St. Julian at Le Mans or the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Auxerre, than with Sainte-Chapelle. The Jesse window is one of eleven windows in the chevet that were glazed during the period 1230-1235 that still exist.  A couple of the lost windows are known from fragments.  So the chevet retains a remarkably complete set of 13th century windows made with a  cohesive scheme, the lives of saintz and Virgin Mary.  The windows did undergo restoration at a intervals and some of the windows have been moved.  Replacements for lost windows has continued into the 20th century to repair damage done during the bombardment of World War II.  Unfortunately the Jesse Tree window at Angers needs cleaning since the detail has been lost and many of the colors have been muted by grime and perhaps glass corrosion.

The whole Jesse Tree window in Bay 103.

Photo credit for Jesse Tree windows (unless noted): Painton Cowen

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Jesus Christ seated with seven doves.  Right hand is held in blessing. In his left hand is a blue book There are two flanking unidentified prophets. 

Photo credit: Dr. Stuart Whatling

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 Crowned Virgin Mary with a scepter in her right hand.  She is flanked by two prophets and a knelling figure who is presumably the donor of the window.  The prophet on the right is wearing a blue cap. 

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Unidentified King of Judah.  He is flanked by two unidentified prophets.  Note that the head of the right prophet is a obvious later repair.

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Unindentified King of Judah holding a scepter in the left hand, flanked with two prophets.  Note that the prophet on the right is wearing a pointed Jew's cap in green.

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King playing a vielle on his left shoulder.  He is flanked by two prophets. Note that the prophet on the king's right is the same design as the prophet on king's right immediately above.

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 First King of Judah above King David.  In the usual iconography, this is King Solomon. The king is holding a scepter in his right hand.  He is flanked by a prophet on his left hand that is wearing a pointed green Jew's cap, as is the prophet to Virgin Mary's left.

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King David playing a celtic style harp. The prophet on the right is the same as the prophet above on the right of Virgin Mary.  He is wearing a blue cap.  The prophet on the left is wearing a pointed Jew's cap in red.

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Reposing Jesse as seen through a protective grille.  There is a large white trunk arising from the body of Jesse.  He is flanked by two prophets that appear to be much later replacements.

Photo credit: Dr. Stuart Whatling

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   Hopefully the reader has noticed the standardization of the colors for the background on the Jesse Tree windows.  It is either red or blue or a mixture with red or blue glass within the mandorlas that surround the figures and blue or red outside the mandorlas.

      There is the beginning of a standardized iconography that allows the identification of at least two of the kings that come after Jesse, namely Kings David and Solomon.  King David is playing a harp, a symbols associated with the David as the composer of the Psalms.  Also there are frequent references to harps or lyres in the story of David including his playing the harp for King Saul (1 Samuel 16.23) and  the frequent references to music made to honor God including harps (and lyres). 

     It is curious then that the king above David, Solomon, is only holding a scepter and not playing an instrument as is the third king above Jesse. Solomon is associated with the composition of the Song of Solomon or Song of Songs.  The stained glass windows of Saint Maurice suffered through periods of neglect followed by restoration and repair, and again long centuries of neglect or destruction as a result of iconoclasm or war.  It is possible to speculate that during one of these restorations the panel of Solomon and a generic king of Judah with scepter were reversed.  This argument is not sustained because the same pattern of king with scepter for King Solomon and generic king playing an instrument appears in another stained glass window from the same period.  The very large Jesse Tree window at the Cathedral of Our Lady at Amiens, Picardy, France, was made about 1260, with restoration in the 19th and 20th centuries.  In this window, King David is playing the bowed lyra, a Byzantine instrument.  The king above him and therefore Solomon is a sceptered king and the third generic king is playing a vielle in his lap.  So perhaps the iconography of Solomon also playing a instrument was not yet firm.

     Another curious feature of the Jesse Tree window at Angers is the kneeling donor dressed in purple petitioning the Blessed Virgin Mary. This seems to be the first Jesse Tree window that has survived in which the donor is shown beseeching the Virgin Mary. This portrayal of Mary as the Mediatrix between humans and Jesus was being developed as part of the cult of Mary.  A Jesse Tree window at the  choir of Cathedral of Saint Julien in Le Mans also has a kneeling donor.  This kneeling donor is placed in the choir Jesse window next to the reclining Jesse in the Le Mans cathedral.  Thus it seems as though the donor's petition isaddressed to all the figures above, not just the Virgin Mary.

    This Jesse Tree window has two blue capped prophets and three prophets wearing the pilleus cornutus,or Jew's hat ordered at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.  Similarly hatted prophets are found in the Jesse Tree window of the relatively near Cathedral of Saint Julian at LeMans.

References:

Karine Boulanger, Les Vitraux de la cathédrale d’Angers,((2010) Paris, Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS), coll. « Corpus Vitrearum-France », vol. III,

David King. Angers Cathedral Vidimus Vol. 48. February 2011.  < http://vidimus.org/issues/issue-48/feature>

Angers, Cathédrale Saint-Maurice.  Mapping Gothic Europe <http://mappinggothic.org/building/1212>

Monuments historique: Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel <http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/merimee_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=PA00108866>

Cathedrale de Saint-Julien, Le Mans, Pays de la Loire region, (Maine) France

   

Gothic east end of Cathedral of St. Julian, Le Mans, Pay de la Loire (Maine), France.  The long axial chapel is the Chapel of the Virgin.

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The nave of the Cathedral of St. Julian is Romanesque with its rounded arches and thick pillars.  The size of the east end is not immediately obvious since the ambulatories and chapels are not visible from the central Romanesque nave.

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The Gothic east end of the Cathedral is an elaborate chevet with double ambulatories and 13 projecting chapels.  Note that there are upper and lower clerestory windows.  

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Looking into the axial chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  Jesse Tree, window # 9, is on the left. It is one of two Jesse Tree windows at the Cathedral of Le Mans.

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     The city of Le Mans was a Roman city, Civitas Cenomanorum.  It became Christian in the 4th century, and Julien was the first bishop of Le Mans.  An 11th century Romanesque church had been built on the site.  

      It was in this Romanesque cathedral that Geoffrey V (Plantagenet), Count of Anjou married Matilda, the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England in 1128. She was 11 years Geoffrey's senior and already the widow of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor.  Though she was claimant to the throne of England after the death of her father Henry I (and youngest son of William the Conqueror), her cousin Stephen of Blois became king of England.  She invaded and a protracted civil war called The Anarchy ensued from 1139 until 1148, when she withdrew to Normandy. The eldest son of Matilda or Maud and Geoffrey, Henry, was baptized at the Le Mans cathedral in 1133.  He became King Henry II of England in 1154.  After Geoffrey of Anjou died in 1151, he was buried at the Cathedral of St. Julian.

     The cathedral at Le Mans was damaged by fires in 1134 and 1137.  The repairs were completed about 1158.  But as the 13th century began, the Cathedral seemed to be too small and too dark.  A new bishop was consecrated in 1216, Maurice.  So in 1217, permission was sought from King Philip II Augustus to demolish part of the city wall of Le Mans so the the east end of the Cathedral could be much enlarged during the bishopic of Maurice.  Work on the chevet began in 1217 and continued to 1254 when the relics of St. Julian were transferred and the new choir dedicated by Bishop of Le Mans, Geoffroy de Loudon, on April 24, 1254. The Gothic rebuilt choir was expanded outward with a double ambulatory. Then 13 projecting chapels were built on the east end of the cathedral.  The height of the choir was extended upward as well requiring new bifurcated flying buttresses. The floor plan of the cathedral looks on paper rather like a lollipop with the large rounded east half of the church attached to a narrow nave stick.   

        The axial chapel is the longest and is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The chapel is usually called the Chapel of the Virgin, but if the church were English, it would be called the Lady's Chapel.  In this chapel is the older of the two Jesse Tree windows, window #9. Made about 1235, this window has been severely damaged by corrosion.  Even with the limitations imposed by the damaged glass, the design and execution of the Jesse window is more sophisticated than the second Jesse Tree window, #110.

Window # 9 on the north wall of the Chapel of the Virgin.
Photo credits for window # 9: Painton Cowen

<http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/LeMans/images/w9-whole-110165.jpg>

Derail of the top of Window #9.  Jesus Christ is seated with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a book.  There are seven doves above his head. On either side are two figures with scrolls.  There is 19th century restoration.

<http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/LeMans/images/w9-top-110168.JPG>

Detail of the the Virgin Mary.  She is holding on to the white Jesse Tree vine and holding a palm branch in her left.  She is accompanied by Isaias or Isaiah with obvious restoration.

<http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/LeMans/images/w9-mid-110167.JPG>

Detail of sleeping Jesse. At the bottom are the opening words of Isaiah 11.1 in Latin: egredietur virga de radice Iesse et (See the first blog on Radice Jesse.)

<http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/LeMans/images/w9-bot-110166.JPG>

     The Jesse figure is asleep in an elegant golden bed. Jesse is wearing a red Jewish cap. This may be the first Jesse Tree window that has the figure of Jesse spread into two sections of the panel. On the left is a kneeling figure who is probably the donor since there is no nimbus nor miter to indicate a saint or archbishop.

     The second Jesse Tree window in the Le Mans cathedral is found on the south side of the choir in the lower clerestory windows that have five lancet panels in each window. The Jesse Tree is the center panel of window #110. The panel has the basic five figures of the stacked pattern of Jesse Tree, from the top-Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, King Solomon, King David and Jesse.

Picture of the full five panels of clerestory window #110.  The Jesse Tree is the center panel

Photo credits for window# 110: Stuart Whatling

 Jesus Christ seated with seven blue and white doves.  On either side of him are two angels swinging thuribles very vigorously. (At that height there should be some charcoal or incense falling out.)  This may be the first window where Christ is accompanied by censing  angels.

<http://www.medievalart.org.uk/LeMans/110_pages/jpeg_800/Le_Mans_Bay_110_Panel_C5.jpg>

     The next panel down is Virgin Mary crowned and carrying a palm branch in his left hand.  At some point in time when I write about the representation of St. Mary, I will comment more on her iconography.  Sometimes she hold a prayer book, at other times a palm branch, sometimes a lily and sometimes a scepter in her role as Queen of heaven.  Meredith Lillich in her book, Armor of Light, comments that presenting St. Mary holding a palm occurs several times among the stained glass windows at Le Mans Cathedral.  The source for this is a legend recounted by Gregory of Tours in De Gloris Martyrum about the death of Virgin Mary.  The palm is given to her by the angel announcing her death.  Mary subsequently passes the palm to John. Lillich noted that in western art, Mary is sometimes shown with a palm at her Assumption, though sometimes it is a scepter.  In the Le Mans Jesse window in the nave, St. Mary is holding to the white Jesse Tree vine with her right hand.  She is accompanied by an unidentified saint with a green nimbus and an Old Testament prophet with the green pointed hat. Note that the cartoon for the figures of the prophet (pointed hat) and saint (nimbus) are reversed and reused alternately with the second king (King Solomon), the first king (King David), and yet again with Jesse.  The reuse of the cartoons undoubtedly reduced the cost of making the window.

     A pointed hat or Jewish cap, pilleus cornutus, was used in the Middle Ages to identify Jews. It was not required until 1215. The Fourth Council of the Lateran was convoked by Pope Innocent III in 1213 and convened in Rome in 1215. Among the canons passed was Canon 68 that decreed "that such persons [Jews and Saracens] of either sex, in every Christian province and at all times, are to be distinguished in public from other people by the character of their dress..." ( Fourth Lateran Council (1215) <https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/LATERAN4.HTM#67). In stained glass windows the Jewish cap is often made with yellow glass to make it easier to identify. An example is the figure on the right in the first king above Jesse panel.

 Detail of the panel with crowned Virgin Mary  

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     The two kings below St. Mary both hold scepters in the left hand and grasp the white Jesse Tree vine with the right. Nothing distinguishes the two kings from each other. Only tradition names the first king above Jesse as David and the second king as Solomon. The side figures hold banderoles but nothing is written on them to identify the figures.

Detail of second generic king of Judah above Jesse, usually King Solomon.  He holds a scepter as does King David.

<http://www.medievalart.org.uk/LeMans/110_pages/jpeg_800/Le_Mans_Bay_110_Panel_C3.jpg>

Detail of first king above Jesse, usually King David, though here the figure is a generic king.  King holds a scepter.  Note the the halo and hat are both yellow in this panel.

<http://www.medievalart.org.uk/LeMans/110_pages/jpeg_800/Le_Mans_Bay_110_Panel_C2.jpg>

   Jesse is asleep in bed with the white Jesse tree coming from his body. This Jesse Tree window is usually dated later, about 1250 or so, than the window in the Chapel of the Virgin. This window with its repeated figures and primary color palette is simpler and much less elegant that window #9. The only new element the window adds to the iconography of the Jesse Tree window are the two angels with thuribles.  

     This Jesse Tree window uses much more red glass than the previous Jesse Tree windows discussed. There is plenty of blue in the mandorlas and in the fabric.  The background color though is red and now blue.  On the south side of the choir, the person viewing the window will notice the brighter red given the presence of more sunlight.  I am sure though that the impression of whether this is a red window or a blue window will depend on the angle of the sun by season as well as the time of day.

Detail of Jesse asleep

http://www.medievalart.org.uk/LeMans/110_pages/jpeg_800/Le_Mans_Bay_110_Panel_C1.jpg

     In the floor plan of the chevet at the bottom the page, the sites of the two 13th century Jesse Tree windows are marked with purple lines. Window # 9 is located on the north wall of the axial chapel and window #110 is among the lower clerestory windows on the south side of the choir.

References

Meredith P. Lillich. The Armor of Light: Stained Glass in Western France, 1250-1325.(1994). Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press.

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