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The rood screen of the cathedral – 2/2

During the restoration of the choir & high choir between 2009 and 2011, a printed tarpaulin had been installed in front of the choir, allowing to imagine what was the former rood screen of the cathedral.
Here are all the keys to understand the history of the rood screen – with some little known pictures…

About the rood screen of the cathedral

What became of the debris of the rood screen?
At first, it is likely that the people of Chartres were able to help themselves to the rubble and thus make up for the repairs to their homes. Then the master builders, in accordance with the ancient provisions of canon law which assign to the remains of a religious building the obligation to be used in situ – in consecrated ground – used the bas-reliefs for the repairs of the pavement, face down: at the crossing of the transept, then near the side gates of the choir. A shocking solution, but one that preserves the future.
In 1836, following a fire in the attic, blocks of molten lead had fallen onto the paving and required the intervention of the masons. A lawyer from Chartres (Doublet de Boisthibaut) informed the authorities of the discovery of several sculptures.
In 1848-49, the architect Lassus undertook systematic excavations, which quickly proved to be fruitful. It soon became apparent that some fragments still had their original polychromy.
The most remarkable sculptures were presented in the crypt, then in the Saint-Piat chapel, between 1969 and 1993. Although some pieces are the property of the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre Museum or private collectors, 95% of the known elements are present in Chartres: currently invisible to the public, while waiting to be installed in the chapter house, with a presentation that will borrow from the most innovative museography in a project for the reorganization of the treasure (on the first floor of the Saint-Piat chapel, as well as of the lapidary on the first floor), rendered by the architect P. Calvel and approved by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles.

What does the inventory of the existing fragments give?
We find – in particular – two large ornate quatrefoils, one with the figures of the evangelists, the other with earthly animals, and seven large reliefs of the childhood of Christ: Annunciation, Nativity, Announcement to the shepherds, Magi and Herod, Adoration of the Magi, Awakening of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple.
Everything is there: artists who are notoriously inspired, scenes rich in symbols, pages that are among the most beautiful of the Gospel, an obvious talent in the rendering of gestures and the expression of faces, a quality of execution and a sense of detail that defies understanding, a state of conservation that has few equals – since these sculptures have obviously not suffered the effects of weather. Experts rank the reliefs among the most beautiful sculptures left to us by the Middle Ages. One remembers the great Anglo-Saxon scholars who approached them with childlike excitement and wide eyes.

What was the rood screen like?
This can be deduced both from several engravings dating from the 17th / 18th century and from ‘archaeological’ discoveries made in the 19th century.
It was a covered gallery, vaulted with ogives and resting on columns of extreme finesse.
On the choir side, there were two staircases allowing access to the platform.
On the nave side, the rood screen had the appearance of a cloister, with seven arcades – each of them composed of a double opening, a rose and surmounted by a gable.
Between the gables, at the level of the parapet, were reliefs of the infancy of Christ: that is to say that the meditation on the coming of Christ in the history of men was – really – at the center of the cathedral.

The rood screen was destroyed in 1763. In the following years, several rood screen bas-reliefs were used for repairs or for paving, with the carved side facing the ground. Some of the most important ones were used in the ambulatory, at the level of the side balustrades of the choir. This solution, as shocking as it may seem, undoubtedly has the advantage of preserving essential fragments in the cathedral. Lassus, in 1848, undertook excavations that allowed them to be identified.
Location - south ambulatory.
Location - north ambulatory. A slab of soft stone, which had replaced some of the rood screen bas-reliefs in the 19th century, was fractured. It was replaced in April 2009.
Presentation of the rood screen in the 19th century - in the Saint-Martin chapel of the crypt. The presentation is typical of the museography of the time, which favors hanging on the wall and juxtaposes the fragments until saturation. Until 1975-76, the chapel was panelled and painted - with the motif of the dove, using cartoons by Paul Durand. This chapel would later house several original statues from the royal portal.
Several bas-reliefs, considered among the most representative and elaborate of Gothic art, were molded to appear in the Museum of Comparative Sculpture, at the Palais de Chaillot.
Photography by Henri Olivier (1923) - Bibliothèque de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine.
A reconstruction of an arcade of the rood screen, with two bas-reliefs, was included in the great exhibition ‘L’Europe gothique’, organized in Paris in 1968 on the initiative of the Council of Europe.
In the 1960s, the fragments of the rood screen were added to the cathedral's treasure display in the Saint-Piat chapel. The most significant elements were selected and placed on brackets along the side walls. The treasure will close in 1995.
Postcard from the 90s/92 - Current state.
View of the chapter house, located under the Saint Piat chapel. This vaulted room, where important remains of wall paintings (14th century) can be seen, is planned to eventually house the sculpted elements from the rood screen, in a new museography that will allow the details to be admired in optimal conditions and to better visualize what the entire construction looked like.
The most famous bas-relief: the Nativity. Many critics consider it to be one of the greatest works of universal sculpture. The elegance of the draperies, the intensity of the looks, the infinite softness of the gestures, the spirituality of the skin, the scope of the message: an aesthetic and mystical power that cannot leave anyone indifferent.