DOI article:
Pastan, Elizabeth Carson: A window on Panofsky’s Gothic architecture and scholasticism
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59426#0082
81
se laborando” to coordinate the human labor of these tall,
multimedia structures.
MATERIALITY
Current scholarship has pursued the importance of ma-
terials, including the translucency and charisma of the
colored glass panes that fill the window and serve as a con-
duit between interior and exterior. Indeed, it is remarka-
ble how often scholars had discussed the importance of
light in abstract terms, while failing to discuss the actual
medieval stained-glass windows through which light en-
tered the building.47 This approach, sometimes known as
an iconology of materials, establishes that physical mat-
ter has a symbolic signification that enhances our under-
standing of the work of art.48
For scholars of stained glass it is a familiar mode of
thinking, attested in the well-known patristic metaphor
(often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux), that even as
light passes through a glass without breaking it, so can
we understand the miracle of the birth of Christ, where-
by Mary was penetrated by the Word of God and yet re-
mained a virgin.49 Building on such studies, Herbert Kes-
sler has argued that the transformation of the base materi-
al of sand into the translucent imagery of stained glass ef-
fects a metamorphosis that parallels Christian eschatolog-
ical thinking.50 Understanding the windows’ materiality
47 M.W. Cothren, ‘Some Personal Reflections on American Mod-
ern and Postmodern Historiographies of Gothic Stained Glass’,
in From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History,
ed. C. Hourihane, Princeton, 2012 (= The Index of Christian Art
Occasional Papers 14), pp. 255-270 at pp. 255-256.
48 See C. Walker Bynum, Christian Materiality, An Essay on Re-
ligion in Late Medieval Europe, New York, 2011, esp. pp. 15-36.
Important literature on the materiality of stained glass includes:
L. Gródecki, ‘Fonctions Spirituelles’, in M. Aubert et al., Le Vi-
trail français, Paris, 1958, pp. 39-54; J.T. Schnapp, ‘Crystalline
Bodies: Fragments of a Cultural History of Glass’, West 86th, 20,
2013, no. 2, pp. 173-194; W. Balus, A Matter of Matter: Transpar-
ent - Translucent - Diaphanum in the Medium of Stained Glass’,
in Investigations in Medieval Stained Glass: Medium, Methods, Ex-
pressions, eds. E. Carson Pastan, В. Kurmann-Schwarz, Leiden,
2019 (= Reading Medieval Sources series), pp. 109-118.
49 L. Gródecki, ‘Fonctions’, p. 40 and n. 18 (as in note 48). For the
textual development of the metaphor, which has been traced to
the church father Athanasius, see Y. Hirn, ‘La verrière symbol
de la maternité virginale’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 29, 1928,
PP- ЗЗ-39; J- Dagens, ‘La métaphore de la verrière’, Revue dAscétique
et de Mystique, 25,1949, pp. 524-532; M. Meiss, ‘Light as Form and
Symbol in Some Fifteenth-Century Paintings’, The Art Bulletin, 27,
1945, no. 3, pp. 175-181; E Dell’Acqua, ‘Between Nature and Arti-
fice: “Transparent Streams of New Liquid,”’ RES: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, 53/54,2008, pp. 93-103 at pp. 100-103.
50 H.L. Kessler, “They preach not by speaking out loud but by signi-
fying’: Vitreous Arts as Typology’, Gesta, 51,2012, no. 1, pp. 55-70 at
p. 61.
Gothic Z
Architecture and Scholasticism
An inquiry into the analogy of the arts.
philosophy, and religion in the Middle Ages.
ERWIN PANOFSKY
6. Cover of Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism
(Meridian 1971 edition).
contributes to our appreciation of why medieval builders
undertook such costly and potentially dangerous airborne
compositions as rose windows.
THE ROTA WINDOW
In closing, I turn to the terminology by which we refer to
rose windows.51 Circular windows of the 12th century and
later have three distinguishing characteristics: first, they
are large, at 4 to 13 meters in diameter; second, the trace-
ries of these windows are grooved in order to hold stained
glass;52 and finally, they appear in prominent locations on
51 Earlier studies established that circular apertures existed in struc-
tures going back to the Babylonians. See HJ. Dow, ‘The Rose-
Window’, The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 20,
1957, PP- 248-297, esp. pp. 249-253, and narrowing the timeframe
considerably, see P. Cowen, The Rose Window, pp. 41-51 (as in
note 45).
52 On window tracery and methods of fixing of glass into the win-
dow aperture, see M.H. Caviness, Stained Glass Windows, Turn-
hout, 1996, pp. 56-57; and S. Brown, ‘The Medieval Glazier at
Work’, in Investigations in Medieval Stained Glass, pp. 9-22 at
se laborando” to coordinate the human labor of these tall,
multimedia structures.
MATERIALITY
Current scholarship has pursued the importance of ma-
terials, including the translucency and charisma of the
colored glass panes that fill the window and serve as a con-
duit between interior and exterior. Indeed, it is remarka-
ble how often scholars had discussed the importance of
light in abstract terms, while failing to discuss the actual
medieval stained-glass windows through which light en-
tered the building.47 This approach, sometimes known as
an iconology of materials, establishes that physical mat-
ter has a symbolic signification that enhances our under-
standing of the work of art.48
For scholars of stained glass it is a familiar mode of
thinking, attested in the well-known patristic metaphor
(often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux), that even as
light passes through a glass without breaking it, so can
we understand the miracle of the birth of Christ, where-
by Mary was penetrated by the Word of God and yet re-
mained a virgin.49 Building on such studies, Herbert Kes-
sler has argued that the transformation of the base materi-
al of sand into the translucent imagery of stained glass ef-
fects a metamorphosis that parallels Christian eschatolog-
ical thinking.50 Understanding the windows’ materiality
47 M.W. Cothren, ‘Some Personal Reflections on American Mod-
ern and Postmodern Historiographies of Gothic Stained Glass’,
in From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History,
ed. C. Hourihane, Princeton, 2012 (= The Index of Christian Art
Occasional Papers 14), pp. 255-270 at pp. 255-256.
48 See C. Walker Bynum, Christian Materiality, An Essay on Re-
ligion in Late Medieval Europe, New York, 2011, esp. pp. 15-36.
Important literature on the materiality of stained glass includes:
L. Gródecki, ‘Fonctions Spirituelles’, in M. Aubert et al., Le Vi-
trail français, Paris, 1958, pp. 39-54; J.T. Schnapp, ‘Crystalline
Bodies: Fragments of a Cultural History of Glass’, West 86th, 20,
2013, no. 2, pp. 173-194; W. Balus, A Matter of Matter: Transpar-
ent - Translucent - Diaphanum in the Medium of Stained Glass’,
in Investigations in Medieval Stained Glass: Medium, Methods, Ex-
pressions, eds. E. Carson Pastan, В. Kurmann-Schwarz, Leiden,
2019 (= Reading Medieval Sources series), pp. 109-118.
49 L. Gródecki, ‘Fonctions’, p. 40 and n. 18 (as in note 48). For the
textual development of the metaphor, which has been traced to
the church father Athanasius, see Y. Hirn, ‘La verrière symbol
de la maternité virginale’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 29, 1928,
PP- ЗЗ-39; J- Dagens, ‘La métaphore de la verrière’, Revue dAscétique
et de Mystique, 25,1949, pp. 524-532; M. Meiss, ‘Light as Form and
Symbol in Some Fifteenth-Century Paintings’, The Art Bulletin, 27,
1945, no. 3, pp. 175-181; E Dell’Acqua, ‘Between Nature and Arti-
fice: “Transparent Streams of New Liquid,”’ RES: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, 53/54,2008, pp. 93-103 at pp. 100-103.
50 H.L. Kessler, “They preach not by speaking out loud but by signi-
fying’: Vitreous Arts as Typology’, Gesta, 51,2012, no. 1, pp. 55-70 at
p. 61.
Gothic Z
Architecture and Scholasticism
An inquiry into the analogy of the arts.
philosophy, and religion in the Middle Ages.
ERWIN PANOFSKY
6. Cover of Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism
(Meridian 1971 edition).
contributes to our appreciation of why medieval builders
undertook such costly and potentially dangerous airborne
compositions as rose windows.
THE ROTA WINDOW
In closing, I turn to the terminology by which we refer to
rose windows.51 Circular windows of the 12th century and
later have three distinguishing characteristics: first, they
are large, at 4 to 13 meters in diameter; second, the trace-
ries of these windows are grooved in order to hold stained
glass;52 and finally, they appear in prominent locations on
51 Earlier studies established that circular apertures existed in struc-
tures going back to the Babylonians. See HJ. Dow, ‘The Rose-
Window’, The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 20,
1957, PP- 248-297, esp. pp. 249-253, and narrowing the timeframe
considerably, see P. Cowen, The Rose Window, pp. 41-51 (as in
note 45).
52 On window tracery and methods of fixing of glass into the win-
dow aperture, see M.H. Caviness, Stained Glass Windows, Turn-
hout, 1996, pp. 56-57; and S. Brown, ‘The Medieval Glazier at
Work’, in Investigations in Medieval Stained Glass, pp. 9-22 at