A book on the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle of Vincennes

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The Corpus vitrearum, a colossal and indispensable publishing undertaking arising from the research structure of the same name, aims to catalogue and study all stained glass windows created before the French Revolution. It has recently been enriched by a volume devoted to those of the Sainte-Chapelle of Vincennes, following the restoration carried out by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux in 2016–2017, which made it possible to analyse these works with great precision.

Despite the very strong apparent coherence of this ensemble, it is as much a creation of the nineteenth century as of the sixteenth. The many transformations it has undergone since its inception account for this.
The construction of the Sainte-Chapelle, which began in 1376, was not completed until more than a century and a half later. The stained glass windows were installed from 1551 onwards, occupying the choir and the two bays to the right and left. It is possible that other narrative windows were installed in the nave, but no trace of them survives.

1. Sainte-Chapelle of Vincennes
Photo: Didier Rykner

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By the end of the eighteenth century, before the Revolution, the stained glass windows were already in poor condition. They were saved thanks to the interest taken in them by Alexandre Lenoir, who believed they were by Jean Cousin, regarded as the “founder of the French school of painting”. They were removed in order to be exhibited in the Musée des Monuments français. It was only at the beginning of the Restoration that the chapel, which had been converted into an arsenal, was returned to worship, and that the decision was taken to reinstall the stained glass. These, however, incomplete and in poor condition, underwent a first restoration, completed in 1822 with their reinstallation, in an order that did not correspond to the original one. Depicting scenes from the Apocalypse, the coherence of the…