Before paying our second visit here to examine the sixteenth century
windows, let us turn back to page 87 and refresh our memory by glancing
through the account of our thirteenth century trip to this city. We
shall thus be reminded of the modestly retiring beauty of its small
parks, as well as of its cathedral and two fine churches. Every style of
sixteenth century glass is to be found in Chalons, but for all that it
would hardly be selected as one of the best places in which to compare
them. The small church of St. Alpin has in its nave a series of
excellent windows of yellow stain and grey such as we noticed in St.
Pantaleon and St. Nicolas at Troyes. In those two churches the
relatively great window space exposes the weakness of this style by
demonstrating that in large interiors it makes the light glaring. By
contrast, in St. Alpin, where the nave ceiling is low and the window
apertures small, this method of glazing, by admitting a great deal of
light, produces a very happy effect. In this St. Alpin glass there are
marked traces of Italian taste, more so than in that at Troyes, though
the latter is commonly credited with being the most noticeably affected
by foreign influence. The first one on the right, showing St. Alpin
before Attila, is delightful, every advantage having been taken of the
softness of tone which is the chief merit of this particular treatment.
Some of the others are also good, but the one just mentioned is the
best. Around the choir are interesting coloured panels, but so broken up
into small scenes as to be rendered ineffective. The handsome church of
Notre Dame does not, in its windows, fulfill the promise of its
architecture. A great deal of the glass is new, and much of the old is
mutilated, but in the lower row on the left side of the nave there are
several brilliant examples of what the sixteenth century Champagne
school could accomplish in the picture window. Especially vigorous and
striking is the first on the left, showing St. James encouraging the
Spaniards to defeat the Moors. It is as good a battle picture in glass
as one will find. In the fifth on the left (a Crucifixion scene) we note
a trick often observed in this province, for the little golden stars are
separately leaded into the blue sky. Passing on to the Cathedral,
disappointment awaits us. On our former visit we found it so fruitful
and interesting in thirteenth century glass that we had a right to
expect more than is yielded by the inspection of the row of sixteenth
century windows which extend along the lower right side of the nave. The
canopies in the sixth one betray that it is fifteenth century, but all
the others are later. The first on the right is the most interesting of
this series, although it is the poorest in execution. On eleven of its
compartments are represented scenes from the Creation, Garden of Eden,
etc., wherein certain quaint conceits are noticeable. Unfortunately its
many nudes are very poorly drawn and the glass used is mediocre in
quality. We can here clearly see that, although the artist of this
period was saved a great deal of lead work by his large pieces of glass,
their use required him to select sheets of evener tone and better
quality than in the days when his pieces were much smaller.