The Rose of the Apocalypse

Sainte-Chapelle de paris, détail des fuseaux centrauxde la rose occidentale

True masterpiece of the art of the stained glass of the end of the Middle Ages...

A masterpiece under the microscope

When you turn towards the West in the upper chapel, you are immediately seized by the rose of the Apocalypse.

Its 9 meters width catches you in a bundle of stone in the shape of "flames", particularly complex, characteristic of the flamboyant gothic of the ^15th century.

The current rose is dedicated to the Apocalypse, it was rebuilt under the reign of Charles VIII around 1485, it is moreover the crowned "K" of Karolus (Charles) that one sees in one of the medallions of the bottom on the left, it replaces the primitive rose of the XIIIth whose theme was already the same. The builders of the 15th century decided to make it a work in the flamboyant style, contemporary with their time.

You notice that the dominant colors have changed. It is no longer blue and red that are dominant as in the windows that surround you but yellow and green. The systematic use of silver yellow since the ^fourteenth century, metal oxide that can color the glass, revolutionizes the art of stained glass.

Sainte-Chapelle de Paris rose occidentale
Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux

This rose is exceptionally well preserved, among the 87 panels that constitute it only 9 were restored in the ^nineteenth century.

Placed on the western facade, as is often the case in churches, the rose is the last part of the building to let the light penetrate the interior of the upper chapel.

The rose of the Apocalypse bears witness, especially for Christians, to the glorious return of Christ and the advent of his kingdom: the Heavenly Jerusalem.

In this profusion of symbols that constitutes the Apocalypse, one can distinguish in the oculus, the eye of the rose, the enthroned Christ whose mouth is pierced by a sword. At his feet, the prophet St. John to whom Christ reveals "what is the divine meaning of his time and how the people of God will soon be delivered.

At the bottom of the oculus you can distinguish two of the four terrible horsemen of the Apocalypse, on the left, a white horseman (death) emerges from a dragon's mouth and on the right a horseman carrying scales (famine).