Poitiers Cathedral Stained Glass - Bay 113a Key (Fragments from Exodus)

This window is in a particularly bad state - as with its neighbour I suspect that this window is a bit of a mongrel, made up of panels from more than one window, probably during the late 16th century restoration. There are only a couple of scenes here that can be identified with any confidence and all that can be said about its original apperance and reading sequence is that it was probably nothing like this! The implication of panels 07 and 08 (and possibly 13/14) is that there would have been a series of panels showing the plagues that Moses and Aaron brought down upon Egypt by God's command, coupled with scenes of Pharaoh's magicians being unable to counter them - thereby showing the superiority of the one god of the Israelites over the many gods of the Egyptians.

In contrast to bay 112a (The Parable of Dives and Lazarus), where the vertical glazing bars that slice through the centre of each medallion seem to have been added retrospectively, these panels appear to have been designed from the start with these vertical bars in mind and they have a far less disruptive effect on the images.


Bay 113a - Fragments from Exodus
(All images © Dr Stuart Whatling)
Index to the panels: 01-06 - Modern panels by F. Chigot (Not Photographed) 07 - The first plague; Aaron turns the Nile's waters to blood 08 - Pharaoh's magicians trying to counter the first plague 09 - A group of men complaining to Moses? 10 - Moses asking Pharaoh to let his people go 11 - Unidentified fragmentary scene (group of men) 12 - Unidentified fragmentary scene (mismatched halves?) 13 - Moses calls down the plague of lice upon Egypt? 14 - Pharaoh's magicians trying to deal with the lice problem? 15-16 - Unidentified scene (Moses and an Angel?)
Overview:
This window is in a particularly bad state - as with its neighbour I suspect that this window is a bit of a mongrel, made up of panels from more than one window, probably during the late 16th century restoration. There are only a couple of scenes here that can be identified with any confidence and all that can be said about its original apperance and reading sequence is that it was probably nothing like this! The implication of panels 07 and 08 (and possibly 13/14) is that there would have been a series of panels showing the plagues that Moses and Aaron brought down upon Egypt by God's command, coupled with scenes of Pharaoh's magicians being unable to counter them - thereby showing the superiority of the one god of the Israelites over the many gods of the Egyptians. In contrast to bay 112a (The Parable of Dives and Lazarus), where the vertical glazing bars that slice through the centre of each medallion seem to have been added retrospectively, these panels appear to have been designed from the start with these vertical bars in mind and they have a far less disruptive effect on the images.