The armor of light: stained glass in Western France, 1250-1325 (review)

Reviews 267 cultural influence implied by the word 'civilization' in the tide cannot be properly assessed or comprehended. The diversity of Dumbarton Oaks publications attests to the intermingling of political, economic, and social history. Coins, seals, ceramics, and jewellery, as well as literary texts, have all been published as a result of the Bliss family's benefaction. Alanna Nobbs School of History Macquarie University Lillich, Meredith P., The armor of light: stained glass in Western France, 1250-1325 (California studies in the history of art, 23), Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford, University of California Press, 1994; cloth; pp. xxix, 420; 20figures,61 colour plates, 200 b/w plates; R.R.P. US$150.00. Meredith Lillich has produced a most impressive volume which considers developments in stained glass in the years 1250 to 1325 in the region of France west of Paris, extending from Rouen in Normandy to Poitiers in Poitou, and as far west as Dol in Brittany. This study argues for important regional styles and ateliers, and downplays the concentration on Paris and the lie de France which generally characterizes any work on the Gothic style. Lillich suggests that the regional style she has identified is best called 'Gothic expressionism' because it is chiefly identifiable in its energy, gaudy use of colour, and vigorous, simplified drawing (p. 1). This style is traceable to the influence of the Mauclerc lancets at Chartres cathedral, dating from the 1230s. Chapter T w o considers Le Mans cathedral in detail, carefully disentangles the complex chronology of the building programme, and argues for the influence of Bourges in the glass produced by the Master of Bishop Geoffroy de Loudon, who occupied the see from 1234-1255. The work of the Principal Atelier is also presumed to have been 'hired from Bourges' and a wealth of stylistic detail is provided to seal the identification (p. 42). The Bourges identification is important for it postulates a regional inspiration for a regional style and demonstrates the comparatively unimportant role of Chartres, as the pinnacle of the Parisian and court style, as a model. The next major church to be analysed is the nunnery of SainteRadegonde de Poitiers which was reglazed from 1268 to 1276. Five windows of this church containing medieval glass survive despite attacks from the Gascons and the English in the fourteenth century, the Huguenots 268 Reviews in the mid-sixteenth century, and unsympathetic restoration at the turn of this century. The Master of the St Radegonde Applique, essentially a folk artist, illustrated thirteen scenes from the Life of the saint by Venantius Fortunatus in colour on a grisaille ground. The Alphonse Master composed the only other complete window, the Last Judgment rose, in vivid colours which recall the Last Judgment window at Dol. Evidence is mustered for connecting all of the six master glaziers with the regional styles of Poitiers cathedral and Angers. Chapter Five, 'Brittany: the cathedral of Dol', considers the remote north-west where the 'expressionist' style illustrates the lives of St Samson and St Catherine, among others. The Master of the Blessing Bishops' style is related to that of the Master of the Big Saints at Gassicourt, whose work was considered in Chapter Three. The styles of the Catiierine and Samson Masters employ a palette of pure primary colours and their drawing is 'ugly . . . but always full of strength', an expressionist characteristic (p. 149). The book is very technical in its analysis of the windows, but readers are rewarded for their patience. It is at abouttiiishalf-way point that the strength of Lillich's case becomes apparent, and the network of connections she is proposing begins to solidify. Chapters Six to Nine examine the catiiedral of Sees, La Trinite de Vendome, the Benedictine abbey of Evron, and Saint-Pere de Chartres. Sees, which wasterriblydamaged by the Protestants in the mid-sixteenth century, condemned as unsafe in 1740, and extensively restored in the late nineteenth century by Leprevost, has unique well-dated glass from five Masters, all of w h o m show the stylistic attachment to distortion and exaggeration which Lillich has tracked throughout western France. The discussion of Sees is the most exciting section of the book since it is...