The walls opened up and light poured in...
c. 1200–1400 C.E.
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De Natura Avium; De Pastoribus et Ovibus; Bestiarium; Mirabilia Mundi; Philosophia Mundi; On the Soul
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This lavishly illuminated book enshrines an earlier understanding of the natural world.
Dedication Page (colophon), with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France, Saint Louis Bible (Moralized Bible or Bible moralisée)
This visually dazzling manuscript helped lift King Louis IX to sainthood. A dedication page shows the book’s illuminator at work.
Ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances
For their medieval viewers, ivory composite caskets could function as visual surveys of the genre of love.
Amiens Cathedral
Above the entrance to Amiens, animated figures and flowing drapery attest to the increasing naturalism of Gothic sculpture in the 13th century.
Mysticism and queer readings of Christ’s Side Wound in the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg
Images of the side wound and the mystical tradition from which they emerge have provided fertile material for scholars engaged in “queering” the Middle Ages.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris
The fire that engulfed the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was a terrible tragedy—though not an unusual one.
Humanizing Mary: the Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux
Mary’s swaying hip, elongated neck, and tender touch of the Christ Child all imbue this golden sculpture with grace. A pomegranate signals death.
Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
Glass fills a staggering three quarters of this chapel’s walls. The entire building serves as a reliquary for the crown of thorns.
Reims Cathedral
Weightless walls of glass and lifelike sculpture—in its freedom and invention, the great cathedral at Reims typifies High Gothic style.
Bible moralisée (moralized bibles)
A luxury reserved for royals, moralized bibles paired image and text. Their commentary compared 13th-century bad guys to biblical villains.
Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres
Chartres boasts a multicolored ceiling and famous blue stained glass. The west front survived a fire, as did the miraculous tunic of the Virgin.
Birth of the Gothic: Abbot Suger and the ambulatory at St. Denis
Evoking the heavenly through shimmering, colored light.
