Description
The Infancy of Christ Window
Delaporte no. 2, Deremble-Manhes no. 50
The Infancy of Christ was particularly important to Chartres cathedral because its most precious relic was the Shift of the Virgin, a cloth supposedly worn by the Virgin at the Nativity, donated to the cathedral by Charles the Bald (ruled 844-877).
At Chartres, the Infancy of Christ is also found on the west façade south tympanum, on the west façade frieze (c. 1145), on the tympanum of the right portal on the north façade (c. 1205), and the Life of the Virgin window c. 1220 (Delaporte no. 16, Deremble-Manhes no. 28b). Other Infancy of Christ scenes are in the clerestory.
Location: This is the central window of the three lancets in the west façade. The other two windows show the Jesse Tree to the north and the Passion of Christ to the south. They belong to the first glass campaign, c. 1145 and survived the fire of 1194.
Size: 11 by 3.8 meters
Armature: 9 registers each containing three panels. Alternation of a round panel between two square panels and a square panel between two round ones.
Note the figures of winged animals in the border. Some of them are actual (a lion, a bird, etc), others are fantastical.
Restored in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, in 1894-1902. Cleaned in 1975 by P. Gaudin.
Subject
Cathédrale de Chartres--Pictorial works.;Church decoration and ornament--France--Chartres--Pictorial works.;Church architecture--France--Chartres--Pictorial works.;Christian art and symbolism--France--Chartres--Medieval, 500-1500--Pictorial works.
