Architectural Sculpture at Chartres (1145-1155)

MAS	The west front of Chartres, which survived the fire of 1194, illustrates the complexity of Gothic sculptural themes. No mere decoration, it is a compendium of theology and philosophy, a program of themes no doubt directed by important clergymen. (Artists in the Middle Ages did not make autonomous decisions about the subjects to be depicted.) Each tympana is sculpted with elaborate archivolts (moldings around the arch). The jambs surrounding the doors have "column" sculptures, and even the capitals depict stories in stone.
MAS	The central typanum illustrates the Apocalypse with a central Christ surrounded by four beasts (Revelation 4-5). The twenty-four Elders and angels are in the archivolts. The tympanum to the left depicts Christ's Incarnation, the one to the right, his Ascension; thus the three tympana read together present a unified theme: Christ's entry into human history, his departure, and the end of time. This kind of unity (much more complex than suggested here) is typical of Gothic sculptural programs.
	Instead of separate historiated capitals, the artist has merged them into a continuous frieze. These depict Christ's Passion. Can you find the kiss of Judas?
center & right: MAS	Although religious subjects are primarily depicted in the architectural sculpture, secular subjects are represented as well. The cycle of the months, represented in both sculpture and manuscripts throughout the middle ages, is sculpted on the archivolts. The cycle includes both a sign of the zodiac to designate the season and a "labor," like harvesting, associated with that time. Fattening pigs was associated, for example, with October or November, since pigs were eaten traditionally for Christmas dinner. Depiction of such subjects indicates that the physical life was not unimportant.
MAS	Just as the depiction of the labors of the months indicates the importance of physical work, so too the representation of intellectual work finds a place on the archivolts of the tympana. Secular learning was viewed as important enough to frame the Biblical tympana. At the same time, placement of the seven liberal arts around the periphery of the archivolts indicates that human wisdom depends on Divine Wisdom (represented by Christ as the central figure in the tympanum) and is directed toward it. The liberal arts are personified by women and their exponents as bearded men, in most cases pagan authors. Music, for example, is personified as a woman with an instrument; Grammar, considered the foundation of the seven liberal arts, is personified as a woman with young pupils at her feet. The male figures here are Pythagoras, since music in the middle ages was thought to have a mathematical basis, and Donatus, the author of an influential book on grammar.
both MAS	Sculpted figures occur on the sides of every door at Chartres. On the west front, the elongated figures, probably representing the kings and queens of the Old Testament, scarcely have bodies beneath their robes. However, on the north transept, executed several decades later, the figures seem more naturalistic, less column-like, and less bound to the wall. Note Abraham, the second figure from the left, who turns his head (presumably toward the angel of God) aware that his sacrifice of Isaac is no longer demanded.
	Thus, the fire and reparation of the Chartres Cathedral left evidence of development from Early Gothic to High Gothic style in a single building. For more on the High Gothic style... click here to look at architectural sculpture back at the Notre Dame cathedral or click here to go to a few more Gothic church buildings, from later in the period.