Bay 13 - Key | |||||
The Good Samaritan Window | |||||
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Index to panels: | |||
Note - the following captions are given in narrative sequence, first the parable, then the typological scenes (see notes below on narrative structure). 22) The
traveller leaves Jerusalem 20) God
creates night and day 8) Moses
seeing the burning bush 2) Flagellation
of Christ | |||||
Overview: | |||||
The Good Samaritan window at Bourges is one of a small group of late 12th - early 13th century windows (examples survive at Sens, Chartres and Rouen) which use the parable as the central framework for a complex exegetical programme. | |||||
Narrative structure : | |||||
The flow of narrative in this window is particularly complex but in general follows the unusual top-bottom reading. As is most often the case, the bottom panel (1) is occupied by a signature/donor image - this time a pair of weavers operating a horizontal loom. The parable itself is told in the five central roundels; 22 - 17 - 12 - 7 - 4. The archetype scenes are arranged around this central core in 12 quarter-circles and two semicircles, however their sequence is unconventional - essentially boustrophedonic but with a couple of unexpected twists. This, more than most, is an example where prior knowledge of the stories is essential to a correct reading of the narrative, let alone its complex exegesis. [more to follow] | |||||
Other details: | |||||
Grodecki Bay #: 11 | |||||
Margin figures in bottom corners - ape-men riding ostriches:
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