Masterpieces from Parisian churches: stained glass windows

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Among the 40,000 works conserved in the 96 places of worship it owns, the City of Paris is heir to a priceless collection of old and contemporary stained glass. The City of Paris' Conservation of Religious and Civil Works of Art (COARC) is responsible for inventorying, restoring and promoting the city's heritage. It ensures the preservation of these precious but fragile works, so closely connected with the architecture of the churches they enhance.

Although virtually all medieval stained glass windows in Paris’ churches have disappeared (those in Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle are now property of the French State), the existence of more than a hundred stained glass windows from the 16 ^th  and 17 ^th  centuries testifies to a veritable golden age of Parisian stained glass, when glass painters’ extraordinary technical proficiency was put to the service of huge, colourful compositions. This flourishing period drew to a close in the second half of the 17 ^th  century. Major campaigns were then launched with a view to letting more light into the buildings: their coloured stained-glass windows were destroyed and replaced by plain windows. Not long afterwards, the French Revolution saw numerous religious buildings destroyed, along with gradual awareness of the heritage value of the works they housed, paving the way to rediscovery of the art of painting on glass.

The 19 ^th  century witnessed a great revival of stained glass, stimulated in Paris by the restoration of the Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame and construction of new churches. Very common in Parisian sanctuaries, stained-glass windows created in the 19 ^th  century are characterised by an iconography that borrows from that of previous centuries. Last but not least, 20 ^th  century stained glass dialogues with the major trends of its time, including Art Deco and lyrical abstraction, delivering original interpretations in its own unique way.

We recommend that anyone wishing to go and see these stained glass windows onsite should bring binoculars so as to be able to appreciate their every detail.

Photography : Claire Pignol, Jean-Marc Moser, Emmanuel Michot : COARC / Direction des affaires culturelles / Ville de Paris :

Here you can admire some of the oldest stained glass windows in Paris’ churches, dating back to the 14 ^th  and 15 ^th  centuries (apart from those in the Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame, which are property of the French State). In 1856, Victor Baltard decided to move a number of old stained glass windows from Saint-Germain-des-Prés church to Saint-Séverin Church. Glass painter Prosper Lafaye was commissioned to restore them and create new additions. He designed architectural niches and remodeled the figures to some extent. Located in the first bays near the organ, they are recognisable by the large figures of saints they contain and their two lancets.

The chancel’s upper windows are also very rare, the only surviving examples in Paris of the art of Parisian stained glass between 1450 and 1475. Although the creators of early stained glass often remain anonymous, three of Saint-Séverin’s bay windows can be attributed to the Master of Coëtivy, by comparison with paintings and miniatures.

Jean Bazaine (1904-2001) designed eight stained-glass windows on the theme of the seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Marriage, Anointing of the Sick, Penance and Holy Orders. As the artist explained, his stained- glass windows have "colour correspondences" between them: the choice of dominant colours, blue and orange, is connected with the sacrament represented, as well as with the church’s orientation and the study of light inside the building. Each window features dazzling, highly sophisticated modulations that reflect a sense of the sacred ever-present in Bazaine's body of work.

In 1964, the parish priest of Saint-Séverin took the initiative of contacting Jean Bazaine, a leading figure in lyrical abstraction and asking him to create stained-glass windows to replace the chancel's lower windows dating from the 19 ^th  century. This is one of the first instances of incorporating abstract contemporary windows in a listed building, which also happens to be one of the oldest in Paris.

The Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais church has one of the largest collections of ancient stained glass windows in Paris, reflecting the evolution of this art between the 16 ^th  and 17 ^th  centuries. Its particularity is the mixing of traditional glass roofs and contemporary stained glass windows, created to replace the white glass resulting from the lightening campaigns carried out in the 18th century. During these campaigns, only the openings located in the upper part of the bays were generally preserved.

This is how this glass roof includes, in the lower part, abstract stained glass windows created in 1976 by Anne Le Chevallier, and splendid paintings on glass from the beginning of the 16 ^th  century in the upper part. They represent the lives of Saint Isabella and her brother Saint Louis. Born in 1223, Isabelle founded the monastery of the Poor Clares of Longchamp near Paris, where she died in 1270. Following her burial, represented in the first spindle, her shirt became a relic and sparked numerous posthumous miracles.

Filled with verve and fantasy, this stained-glass window is the joint work of Noël Bellemare, painter, illuminator and creator of the cartoon used as a model, and Jean Chastellain, a glass painter who headed the biggest stained- glass workshop in Paris under Francis I. In the central panel, the frieze composition takes us into the story of Solomon's judgment. King of Israel, he must decide between two women who each claim the motherhood of a newborn, following the death of another, who is lying on the ground. Solomon orders his executioner to cut the infant in two, so that he can give half to each. One of the two rushes, ready to give up the child so that it can be spared: it is through this movement of the heart that the king can recognize the child's true mother.

The unified space of the stage, cleverly structured by a Renaissance architectural decor, is very modern for the time. The liveliness of the colors, the sophistication of the costumes and the very refined postures of the characters connect this stained glass window to the Antwerp mannerism movement.

Between 1612 and 1622, twenty-four stained- glass windows were installed at eye-level in the Galerie des Charniers in Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church, half of which remain today. The gallery enables visitors to take a close-up look at the old stained glass windows, which are remarkable for the profusion and refinement of their details. Their technique, painted enamel, allows for great subtlety in the shades of colour employed. Subjects, often complex, were chosen against the backdrop of the Catholic fight against the Protestant Reformation.

This stained-glass window shows Christ steering the Vessel of the Church through the storm of the world, a symbol of the New Testament, with Noah's Ark, an Old Testament episode, in the upper lunette.

This stained-glass window, exhibited in the former baptismal font chapel, was created around 1875 by Henri Carot, an artist who contributed actively to the revival of arts of the past. He was involved in the restoration of numerous old stained-glass windows, including those in the Sainte-Chapelle and Château de Vincennes, while also drawing inspiration from contemporary works by artists such as Henri Lerolle, Albert Besnard and Maurice Denis.

In this brightly coloured panel, the glass painter has returned to the traditional disposition of the Annunciation theme, as codified by artists in the 15 ^th  and 16 ^th  centuries. Under the dove of the Holy Spirit, Gabriel and Mary are depicted in an architectural space surrounded by an elegant decorative border. Mary bows respectfully to the angel who greets her, his posture expressing the words reported by the evangelist Luke: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

This large stained-glass window is the Saint-Louis Chapel’s masterpiece. The foreground depicts the education of young Louis, who became king in 1226 at the age of twelve. His instruction is provided by a Franciscan and a Dominican, recognizable by their habits, brown sackcloth for the former, black and white for the latter. They represent the mendicant orders whose ideals of devotion, self-denial and education Louis IX shared. The scene takes place under the watchful eye of Blanche of Castile, who held the regency until her son came of age.

In the upper part, three angels are bringing the young sovereign the insignia of royalty: crown, sceptre and sword. This composition is typical of the style favoured by Charles Champigneulle, creator of civil and religious stained glass alike.

The Glass painter Émile Hirsch was one of the main architects of the stained-glass revival in Paris in the 19 ^th  century. In 1883, the parish of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule commissioned him to create a large zenithal window to brighten up the chapel of the Virgin, which was deemed to be too dark. He created this huge circular bay window on the theme of the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the centre are the initials "Sancta Maria", surrounded by eclectic decorations consisting of glass panels adorned with stars, flowers and arabesques. The window testifies to his sense of composition as well as to his extraordinary technical knowhow: Hirsch selected different types of glass according to their transparency and translucency, so as to achieve the desired vibrations of light and colour. The window’s restoration in 2019 has returned it to its full glory.

The church is unique both for its construction process, the first example of reinforced cement blocks prefabricated and then assembled, but also for its decor, both exterior and interior. The stained glass windows of the church are the work of Henri-Marcel Magne (1877-1944) and Jacques Gruber (1870-1936). They perfectly illustrate the concerns of the interwar period. The first, a painter by trade (he created the paintings of the church choir), is the author of the drawings then provided in the form of large cardboard boxes to a glass painter who shapes the stained glass window for him. The second, a founding member of the Nancy school, is the master glassmaker par excellence of Art Nouveau.

Both were able to magnify this building: in the nave, each bay receives a glass roof which matches the architecture and modernizes the motif of the rose window. Magne chose to favor warm colors to warm up the cement walls and introduce maximum light. In 1924, Jacques Gruber wrote “it took the war, “the great pity of the churches of France” for us to dare to make contemporary religious stained glass.” At the door of the presbytery, he adapts his style and creates a resolutely modern work in which paint is replaced by lead, which serves as his brush. Jacques Gruber claims authorship of this “complete leadwork”, just as for his technique of “worked plane mosaic stained glass”, the colored glass superimposed and thus creating a relief effect catching the light differently.

Symbol of the renewal experienced by the sacred arts during the Inter-War period, the stained glass windows of the Saint-Pierre de Chaillot church form an ensemble of great homogeneity, whose brightly colored panels are deployed in all parts of the building. the church. Made between 1932 and 1938 in the Parisian workshops of the factory, placed since 1921 under the direction of Charles Mauméjean (1888-1957), their geometric and predominantly non-figurative style illustrates the rallying of the Franco-Spanish firm to the most modern of the 20 ^th  century.

In the choir, the four lancets, six meters high, stand out for the richness of their colors. Devoid, like the other windows, of any anthropomorphic representation, these are made up of nine medallions with a design inspired by the cloisonné glasswork of the High Middle Ages. From bottom to top, these present, alternating with abstract motifs, the symbols of the four evangelists: the lion of Saint Mark, the ox of Saint Luke, the angel of Saint Matthew and the eagle of Saint John.

CONTINUE THE DISCOVERY OF MASTERPIECES:

 Masterpieces from Parisian churches : sculptures 

 Masterpieces from Parisian churches: the paintings 

 Masterpieces: statues in public spaces