Overview

A significant art form from the Norman empire, throughout both France and Norman-controlled England, was that of stained glass. At Le Mans, Saint-Denis, and Chartres Cathedrals in France, as well as Canterbury Cathedral in England, a number of panels of the 12th century have survived. Most of the magnificent stained glass of France, however, including the famous windows of Chartres, date from the 13th century, as far fewer large windows remain intact from the 12th century. 

Glass craftsmen were slower than architects to change their style, and much Norman stained glass from at least the first part of the 13th century can be considered as essentially Romanesque. Especially fine are large figures from around the year 1200 from Strasbourg Cathedral and Saint Kunibert's Church in Cologne, both in France. Glass was both expensive and fairly flexible (in that it could be added to or re-arranged) and seems to have been often re-used when churches were rebuilt in the Gothic style.

Famous Examples

Chartres Cathedral 

Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, is a medieval Catholic cathedral of the Latin Church located in Chartres, France. The current cathedral was mostly constructed between 1194 and 1250. The cathedral is in an exceptional state of preservation, and the majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Chartres Cathedral is the extent to which architectural structure has been adapted to meet the needs of stained glass. The use of a three-part elevation with external buttressing allowed for far larger windows than earlier designs, particularly at the clerestory level. Most cathedrals of the period had a mixture of windows containing plain or grisaille glass and windows containing dense stained glass panels, with the result that the brightness of the former tended to diminish the impact and legibility of the latter. At Chartres, nearly all of the 176 windows were filled with equally dense stained glass, creating a relatively dark but richly colored interior in which the light filtering through the myriad narrative and symbolic windows was the main source of illumination.

The majority of the windows now visible at Chartres were made and installed between 1205 and 1240; however, four lancets preserve panels of Romanesque glass from the 12th century which survived the fire of 1195. Perhaps the most famous 12th-century window at Chartres is the so-called Notre-Dame de la Belle-Verrière, found in the first bay of the choir after the south transept. This window is actually a composite; the upper part, showing the Virgin and child surrounded by adoring angels, dates from around 1180 and was probably positioned at the center of the apse in the earlier building. The Virgin is depicted wearing a blue robe and sitting in a frontal pose on a throne, with the Christ Child seated on her lap, raising his hand in blessing. This composition, known as the Sedes sapientia ('Throne of Wisdom'), is based on the famous cult figure kept in the crypt. The lower part of the window, showing scenes from the Infancy of Christ, dates from the main glazing campaign around 1225.

Notre-Dame de la Belle-Verrière, Chartres Cathedral, France (c.1180 and 1225) 

Notre-Dame de la Belle-Verrière is perhaps the most famous window in Chartres, depicting the Virgin Mary as the throne of wisdom.

Each bay of the aisles and the choir ambulatory contains one large lancet window, most of them roughly 8.1 meters high by 2.2 meters wide. The subjects depicted in these windows, made between 1205 and 1235, include stories from the Old and New Testament and the Lives of the Saints, as well as typological cycles and symbolic images such as the signs of the zodiac and labors of the months. Most windows are made up of around 25–30 individual panels showing distinct episodes within the narrative; only Notre-Dame de la Belle-Verrière includes a larger image made up of multiple panels.

Because of their greater distance from the viewer, the windows in the clerestory generally adopt simpler, bolder designs. Most feature the standing figure of a saint or Apostle in the upper two-thirds, often with one or two simplified narrative scenes in the lower part. Whereas the lower windows in the nave arcades and the ambulatory consist of one simple lancet per bay, the clerestory windows are each made up of a pair of lancets with a plate-traceried rose window above. The nave and transept clerestory windows mainly depict saints and Old Testament prophets. Those in the choir depict the kings of France and Castille and members of the local nobility in the straight bays, while the windows in the apse hemicycle show those Old Testament prophets who foresaw the virgin birth, flanking scenes of the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity in the axial window. The also cathedral has three large rose windows: the western rose, the north transept rose, and the south transept rose.

South transept rose window, c.1221-30

The Cathedral at Chartres contains there rose windows from the 13th century, including this south transept rose window.

Le Mans Cathedral

Le Mans Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral situated in Le Mans, France. Its construction dated from the 6th through the 14th century, and though the cathedral itself features many French Gothic elements, it is notable for its rich collection of Romanesque stained glass.

The nave at Le Mans retains around 20 stained glass windows from Bishop Guillaume's mid-12th century rebuilding, though all but one have been moved from their original locations. All were very extensively restored in the 19th century. The great western window, depicting scenes from the Life of St Julian of Le Mans, dates from around 1155. The Ascension window, toward the western end of the south aisle of the nave, has been dated to 1120, making it one of the oldest extant stained glass windows in France.

Unlike the earlier Romanesque windows, the 13th-century glazing program in the upper parts of the choir is largely intact. It presents a diverse range of scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the Lives of Saints, and various miracles of the Virgin. These windows are notable for their variety of artistic styles and their lack of coherent program (there is no obvious pattern in the distribution of subjects, and some episodes, such as the story of Theophilus or the 'miracle of the Jewish boy of Bourges', are repeated in different windows). The windows in the radiating chapels have fared less well over time, and most of the surviving panels have been reassembled out of context in the axial chapel.

Le Mans Cathedral

View of the north elevation of the choir from the south aisle, showing the triforium and clerestory windows.

Other Notable Examples

The Basilica of Saint Denis (also known as Basilique Saint-Denis) is a large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The basilica retains stained glass of many periods, most notably from the Romanesque era. 

At Canterbury Cathedral in England, Norman stained glass images include a figure of Adam digging and another of his son Seth from a series of Ancestors of Christ. Adam represents a highly naturalistic and lively portrayal, while in the figure of Seth, the robes have been used to great decorative effect, similar to the best stone carving of the period.

​The Crucifixion of Poitiers is a stained glass image dating from the 12th century in a Roman Catholic cathedral in Poitiers, France. It is a remarkable composition which rises through three stages: the lowest stage contains a quatrefoil depicting the Martyrdom of St. Peter; the largest central stage is dominated by the crucifixion of St. Peter; and the upper stage shows the Ascension of Christ in a mandorla. The figure of the crucified Christ already shows hints of the Gothic curve.