Rose windows

Although by no means solely a phenomenon of the Gothic era, Rose windows (or Catherine Windows as they were sometimes called) were incorporated and devised on a grandiose scale in the French Gothic Cathedrals. A rose window is a large, round window that is typically on the west end of the cathedral, above the main entrance to the nave. If you look at my previous post below, in the first picture of Notre Dame, you can see the large round window above the door. These windows were massive in scale, and if you look closely at the picture, you can see the silhouettes of the people on the ground to put it into perspective. These windows could be thirty feet or more in diameter, and could be as large as the width of the nave.

The purpose of the window was, at the most base level, to let in light, particularly later in the day as the sun began to set in the west (though the transepts [arms of the cross] often had them as well). However, these windows were so much more than this.

There was a great deal of symbolism in these windows. For instance, the geometry of the entire cathedral was very precise, and often had a lot of significance and/or numerology involved in the design. The Rose windows were no exception, and the size of it was no accident. Also of no accident was the tracery inside the window. There are literally hundreds of different designs of Rose windows, but often they conveyed some sort of message.

Often, the stained glass in the window was used to depict some sort of message to the largely illiterate people who came to mass each week. Because these people were unable to read the Bible for themselves (not that they would have been able to anyway if they could read, for prior to Reformation, only clergy were allowed to read the Scripture which was written in Latin [vulgate]), biblical stories were depicted in the stained glass all around the cathedral for them to be able to 'read' the stories for themselves. The Rose windows often place Christ at the centre, with varying things happening around him. Other windows had much more mystical and/or pagan influnces in them, and may be connected through their design with the zodiac.

Unfortunately, it is too complex to get into the real details of the windows, but this website provides a pretty good and brief summary of what they were all about.

For Katherine, here is a good website that deals with the geometry of them, and even shows you how to go about laying them out.

I guess what is most fascinating about them for me is not their meaning, or their placement for bringing in light, or even their beauty. What really fascincates me is their sheer magnitude, and how they could have been constructed. Much of the tracery (the inside design) is made from stone, and the glass would have been made by hand. So, how on earth were they able to build these things, lift them into place (or carve them in place), and give them enough strength to stand the test of time (and in some cases, the test of WWII bombing raids), and not simply crumble like lacework. The stone masons of that time truly were artisans like the world has never seen since.