Timeless faces from Chartres



Chartres cathedral in France was constructed between 1193 and 1250 and retains most of it's original architecture and details, including it's medieval stained glass windows. One of the striking features for me was the many statues carved into the decoration. These were characters from biblical tales but were also often local characters, workers and notables of the time. A lot of them look very serene!


 A stone "facebook" for the times!


They didn't forget the little people. You will see smaller characters above and around the main ones, supporting them or doing the work.


Australian Gothic revival buildings such as St Mary's cathedral in Sydney and buildings within Sydney University carried on the tradition to a lesser extent. You can often see stones that are blank pieces where faces or characters were intended to go. Going to Chartres you get to meet the ancient population as well as the new.
   

  
                 
      
   
   

Comments

  1. Unknown13 March 2011 at 09:54

    Thx for amazing images. For us newbie Interior Design & Decoration students only just scratching the surface of architectural history, but hugely interested, would it be possible for you to include the 'style' or 'period' of architecture' with further posts like these so that we can do further research. Many thanks jo

    ReplyDelete
  2. jth23 March 2011 at 09:23

    Hi Jo.

    The style is Gothic from the medieval period. Chartres is one of the most quoted examples of the style.

    Try this link (from one of other posts) for some more info.

    http://www.learn.columbia.edu/ha/html/medieval.html

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