The Stained-Glass Blues

After yesterday’s mishap on the metro, Glenda was somewhat reluctant to take another train ride, much less an hour-long trek down to Chartres Cathedral. It was important for me to go. I remember an old Encyclopedia Brittanica educational film in fourth grade about the Chartres Cathedral. Since then I have read many times about the unusual blue color of the stained glass windows. With the help of a very friendly ticket agent at the Montparnasse Train Station, and an unbelievably helpful docent named Annie at the cathedral, we enjoyed an incredibly enriching visit to Our Lady of Chartres.

Annie pointed out many special characteristics of this church. For example, she said the in the 700’s a previous Romanesque church was on this site. It burned and another replaced it. When that later church burned sometime around the year 1194, it was replaced by a larger Romanesque church. She pointed out something I had failed to notice when entering the church. Right by the front doors the arches are not pointed, they are round—Romanesque. This is the oldest part of the church. She also showed us Window #10. The Virgin holding the Christ child on her lap is wearing a cloak made of lovely sky-blue. Right. Carolina blue. Every other patch of blue in stained glass is darker blue. Annie explained that this image of the Virgin and child was found intact in the rubble of the fire that had destroyed the old Romanesque church. Some say it was a miracle that it was not broken. Whether or not it was miraculous, designers of the new Gothic church decided to use it in the new Gothic church they were about to build. They mounted it in a panel of Window #10 and noticed that this color blue was lighter and purer than any blue glass they could find in the twelfth century, and again, some thought it miraculous. Whatever the cause, that light sky blue stained glass became known as Chartres blue, and so it is known today. Modern chemistry has revealed that most of the darker blue glass found in stained glass windows is caused by manganese heated when the sand forming the glass melts. The lighter blue is caused by melting cobalt in the sand. By the time of the twelfth century cobalt was no longer available to the builders here. This window clearly shows the difference. We bid adieu to Annie, went for a delicious goat cheese galette at a nearby crêperie, and finished with dessert at a patisserie. Then we returned to the cathedral to say good by to all the saints and took the train back to Paris.Read more