A city in the city
When you are caught in the crowd, there is usually no place for a rest. When I was in France, I used to go sometimes to have a sit in a cathedral. Paris, Chartres, Reims, those are the names of few of them. A church usually belongs to a community while the doors of a cathedral stay open. People can come and visit some famous peace of the art whatever the religion of the people is. A Jew, a Buddhist, an Hindouist, a Muslim can enter a cathedral, have a sit and pray. The cathedrals were probably the first public museums of the humanity in Europe. They are a museum to Christianity, designed to teach, to educate and to bring the people to higher spirituality.
My favorite cathedral is Chartres because its architecture is a mirror to the society during the first millennium of Christianity. But this is also more than that. Chartres is a cathedral devoted to the tolerance, the education and the spiritual evolution inside of Christianity. Here is a video with some pictures that I will comment.
About the music : The music comes from this video. I shall have choosen some organ, but it was too "official". I prefered the music played by someone who actually known the music, but who was learning to play the instrument. I wanted to show that nothing is never finished, and that religion, like the music, needs much practice, involvement and the willing of learning. The background music is like the church, it makes the music beautiful.
There are three doors (facades) to enter the cathedral. The cathedral is on the higher place of the city. The entries are on the North, the West and the South. The rising sun comes from the East and lighten the cathedral. If you stay all day inside until the sun decrease, you will see the light through the stained glass of the Jesse tree.
People who are not any priest or any high ranked notorious person, enter the cathedral from the West doors. They have to walk through the heritage given to the Church with references to the Tetramorph and the Jesse Tree.
Once inside the cathedral, under the South tower, the entrance of the crypt goes to the river that settles the foundation of the church. This is the ancient times while the North tower shows the modern times.
The woman carrying the bucket is the reference to the antic heritage, carved in the style that defines the Roman and the Greek arts. She is one of the pilars of the church.
Jesus, inside the Madorla with the Tetramorph representation is surrounded by kings, prophets and notorious figures. We find the Tetramorph in the Greek and the Egyptian mythology.
On the South door, Jesus is showing the Bible. He is the authority of the Christian laws.
On the South door, the priests are shown as wealthy people. They have a short beard, they wear gloves, their dresses are embroidered.
They show also that they have manners and that they are enough educated to talk to the wealthiest people in the city. They are a counter-power and an authority that rules accordingly to the Christian laws.
On the exact opposite of the cathedral, the priests are designed with skinny faces, the eyes showing enlightment and the faces turned to the sky. They are practicing their faith differently, but both doors from North to South are both the practices of the Christian religion.
The comparison of the faces from the North door to a Woodstock girl shows how marginal the priests may appear to the rich and wealthy people. The South door shows that even enlighten, the priests remains "sane" to the ordinary wealthy people.
In the middle of the central North door, Mary is looking down the priests entering the cathedral. They enter the cathedral to perform a duty, and the different faces might remind them the real purpose of their duty.
Above Mary is a representation of her death, reunited with Jesus. Jesus stands in the South door, the public facade. Mary stands in the North door, the priests facade.
Beside one of the three North doors, is Mary, giving the Bible to the church, among the many prophets.
The full North facade of the cathedral.
The full South facade of the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral, on the stained glasses are the names of the many kings who gave an heritage to the church. The name of Farao brings many interest to understand the architecture of the church. When entering the cathedral from the North, the priests have to walk under the representation of the kings.
Inside the cathedral is drawn the labyrinth that represents the pilgrimage to the Holly City of God. The pilgrimage is made of prayers, meditation and walk. This is a dynamic movement that represents the many aspects of one's life, like each door of the cathedral are a representation of the many stages of the society.
This picture is the exact opposite to what the labyrinth shall be. The labyrinth is not a place to sit. The labyrinth is a place of motion, to move and experience the faith in the move. Anyway, the move only enlighten the moment to sit. Meditation is a process at first.
The priest and the king have an aureole while the queen is standing next to the left side of the king. This is a representation of the authority of the church empowering the kings, and crowning them. Above them, are the Liberal Arts, the power that enlighten the kings and the kingdom.
The priest and the woman are on the same level. Above the priest is an angel. Above the woman is the nun.
On the North facade, inside the pillars, are hidden the evils that may take the priests away from their vocation, those who may hear and talk, those who may spy and ruin the church.
The Liberal Arts were represented by Donat, Ciceron, Aristote, Boece, Euclide, Pythagore and Ptolemee. They are the pillars of the School of Chartres.
In the center of the Liberal Arts, is Mary.
Inside the cathedral the bishop reads the Bible to the people.
The sculptures are a representation of the Bible with many allegoric figures.
The women have a key role in the spread of the Bible.
Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, but in Chartres, this is the church who baptized Jesus.
The cathedral of Chartres is an allegory of the New Jerusalem where the people from different social conditions can gather. The Cathedral is like the City of God by Augustine of Hippo, a city inside the city.
