Rose Windows

A rose window is a circular Stained Glass Window , with Mullion s and Traceries generally radiating from the centre. In Church es and Cathedral s its use sometimes alludes to the Virgin Mary , who is called the Mystical Rose.

Its origin is to be found in the Roman Oculus . The very first example of an axially placed oculus with tracery seems to be at San Miguel de Lillo, not far from Oviedo in Spain, which dates to the 9th century. While it is commonly believed that during the Romanesque Period , the oculus became the rose window, in fact there are no Romanesque oculi that have many of the defining characteristics of the Gothic rose window, and the very first complete example was constructed for the Gothic west façade of St Denis, near Paris. This window dated to the renovations of Abbot Suger in the 1130s, and was destroyed sometime in the 18th century. From about the middle of the Twelfth Century its dimensions began to increase with the development of more elaborate window styles associted with Gothic Architecture . By the middle of the Thirteenth Century it had attained the greatest possible size -- the entire width of the Nave , as seen in the transept roses at St Denis.

north transept]]
The earliest important examples in buildings of the Gothic style are the west rose of the Cathedral of Mantes (c. 1200 ), the west rose of Notre Dame De Paris (c. 1220 ), and those of Laon and Chartres . In all these cases, the rose was put under a circular arch. The next important step in its use for the Gothic style was to put it under a pointed arch, as was done in the Notre-Dame De Reims ( 1230 ), in the Transept s as well as in the later roses of the Facade . This form probably stemmed from the now destroyed St Nicaise, also in Reims. Thereupon the rose was inscribed in square, with pierced Spandril s as in the transepts of Notre Dame De Paris (1257). The last step in evolution of the gothic style was to place the Rose in the tier of lower windows, in which case it became the centre of a vast window composition, covering the whole end of the transepts, as in Rouen or Beauvais Cathedrals. Besides their use in Gothic cathedrals, rose windows have also been used in Romanesque Basilicas , contributing to their later Romanesque-Gothic styles; as at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St Procopius' Basilica in Trebíc in the Czech Republic, and at Spoleto and Monza in Italy.

In England , the use of the rose window was usually confined to the transepts (''illustration, right''), although roses of great span were constructed in Byland Abbey and in the east front of ''Old'' St. Paul's Cathedral in London . In Germany , a fine example is in the facade of the Cathedral of Strassburg . In Italy , it was particularly used by the Lombard Architect s, as in San Zeno in Verona , and in the Cathedral of Modena , and in the Tuscan Gothic churches like the Cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto . An outstanding example of the Rose window is the thirteen spoked centrepiece of the Minor Basilica in Larino, Molise (1312).

In 1954 , the French artist Henri Matisse created the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Memorial Rose Window on the east wall of the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, New York .

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SEE ALSO

Mandala

Kaleidoscope

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Rose Windows