(bell ringing)
Man: The intent of the Gothic church
was to create heaven on earth.
It was a way that medieval religious ideas
were fused with classical ideas,
what we call neoplatonism
that allowed the church to function
as a set of symbols.
Girl: Light was understood as being
the least material of God's earthly creations
of the things we encounter.
We think about the moment of creation,
it's the separation of light from darkness,
"And there was light."
It's this originary moment.
It's the thing that is the least material,
the most transcendent.
We talk about the metaphor of divine light,
of the light of God.
This is a very pervasive metaphor
throughout the middle ages.
Man: It is weightless, it can be beautiful.
It is a perfect metaphor that can begin to allow one
to conceptualize what the heavenly realm must be like.
Girl: So it really becomes a priority
for the Gothic architects to allow as much light
into the church as possible.
One of the ways that that becomes possible
is through the use of the flying buttress
where in the Romanesque church a window was a hole,
a space surrounded by wall.
What we get in the Gothic church
is the supporting structure pulled out of the church
through the flying buttress
which holds up edifice
but allows for complete opening up
or nearly complete opening up of the walls.
Man: One of the real problems was
that while one could bring down the enormous
weight of the stone vaults
down on huge piers on the inside of the church.
These piers would have to be so thik
they would actually become a wall.
Girl: That's what we see in the Romanesque church.
Man: That's right.
Of course, the walls themselves were supporting
and so they couldn't be opened up.
The windows were very, very small
and the emphasis was certainly not on those windows.
Those churches tended to be quite dark.
There was another problem which is the weight
doesn't just bare straight down,
it wants to move outward.
A fine buttress actually allowed for that splaying weight
to be brought outward and then down.
Girl: What happens is the heavy ceiling, the groin vaults
exerts a thrust not only down but also out.
Man: That's exactly right.
Girl: And so the flying buttress
takes that lateral outward thrust
and moves it out of the church
and allows for the opening up of the wall space
in between the buttresses.
Man: If you look at the history of the flying buttress,
they tend to be fairly substantial early on
and they thin as the engineering is perfected
because the flying buttress itself which is thin,
[reeving] that exist outside
can actually block the sunlight
against the stained glass windows.
The idea was to thin those as much as possible.
All of these is in order to be able to open up
those great stone walls and allow the light to pour in.
Girl: All according to mathematical proportions,
we know that the architect at Chartres used a golden section.
He's thinking clearly not just about individual numbers
but about the harmony between the parts
and this harmony again is a reflection of the
harmony of the cosmos as created by God.
Man: This is an ancient idea.
You can go back to Pythagoras and ultimately
this would be seen as neoplatonic.
So harmony and ratio and perfect proportion
was a way of coming into contact
with the ideal perfection of the heavenly realm
of God's will.
Chartres is based as so many Christian churches are
on a basically plan that ancient Roman public building
but Christian churches tended to make them into cruciform,
into the shape of a cross by adding a transept
that literally intersects the nave
and Chartres is no exception.
Girl: The Romanesque church that Chartres
was based on however didn't have a transept
and the transept was added
when it was rebuilt after the fire
precisely to allow for greater crowds of people
coming to visit the church
specifically to see the Virgin's tunic.
Man: The pilgrim who'd come in
and walk around the outside isles
go all the way around the back of the choir
and come out the front
without ever having to cross in front of the altar.
Girl: Or to enter-exit, what the transept did
was provide an extra entrance
for visitors to the church.
I'm looking now across the transept through to the isles
and what I see is the large rose windows
of the north transept, the lancets below.
But my eye moves around to that stained glass
in a clear straight,
this felling of surrounded by colored light.
Man: You had mentioned that there are the 5 lancets
in that large rows in the north transept.
That wasn't enough, that window also has 4 descending
lancet windows that fit in to those negative spaces.
Every inch that can be opened up is opened up.
The north rose windows related to that sculptural
program outside.
In the center of the rose is the Virgin Mary
with her child.
She's surrounded by 4 doves.
Just above her 4 thrones and 4 angels.
Outside of that, in the diamond shapes
are the kings of Judea
who were believed to have been her ancestors
and beyond that, 12 minor prophets.
Girl: The idea is that from the very beginning
this was God's plan for mankind
to save mankind through the prophets
and the ancestors of Mary and Christ
from the very beginning of creation.
The church is still a vehicle for education.
Man: Let's walk under the rose window,
go outside at the north end of the transept.
We're looking at the north transept at Chartres
and it protrudes pretty substantially
from the church.
Girl: It's a deep porch or entrance way into the church
and you can imagine people gathering here.
Man: It's big enough that it almost seems
like it could be a church itself.
The outward most of the archivolts
is linked directly to the archivolt
that's just inside that.
They show hand and hand God as creator
and then that which he creates.
Girl: God speaking the word
and the bird becoming material.
Man: At the lower left side, God gesticulating
and then just inside that, the waters and the earth
and they're separate.
The first page of Genesis enacted.
Girl: And then God creates Adam and Eve
looking a little bit more thoughtful
as he creates Adam and Eve.
Maybe even a little worried I think.
Man: I think that's right.
This entire portal is devoted to the time before Christ.
Girl: That's right.
With a focus especially on Mary
who see being crowned in heaven by Christ
in the tympanum.
Man: If you start down at the [trumo],
that is the column that separates the two doors,
you actually see her mother
and Mary in her arms as a child.
Just above that, we've jumped to the end of her life,
the dormition and then the ascension of Mary
into heaven and then she is being welcomed
and blessed in heaven by her Son Christ.
Girl: Right. On the jambs,
we see figures who look really different
than the figures on the jambs on the west facade,
is very much later there's our post-fire
and these look much more typically Gothic.
There's a sense now of drapery
that begins to have some volume to it.
Bodies that aren't quite as elongated more
in proportion.
Most importantly figures who seem to begin to relate
to one another emotionally,
as though there's a story happening here.
They're not just transcending reality.
They seem to be a little bit in reality.
Man: Enacting compared to these totally
transcendent figures in the west work.
These are now 13th century figures
as supposed to 12th century figures.
Girl: Right. So we have in order from left to right,
Melchizedek, Abraham.
Man: With Abraham you can see the diminutive Isaac
just in front of him.
Girl: And Abraham perhaps looking up to the angel
who's going to stop him from ...
Man: from slaying his son.
Girl: Right.
We move on to Moses, Samuel, David.
Man: Then on the right side.
Girl: Isiah, Jeremiah, Simeon and John the Baptist
and then St. Peter who can see holding keys to the kingdom.
Man: [Unintelligible] prophets
and according to the Catholic tradition
foretold the coming of Christ.
Girl: Right.
Ending here with St. Peter who is the founder, the rock.
I'm looking up now at their faces
and they're so much more individualized
than the faces that we saw on the west portal.
So much more emotional,
and I'm looking especially at John the Baptist
who almost seems to plead with us as he looks down at us.
(bell ringing)