The stained windows

Saint-Etienne owns one of the most comprehensive sets of stained glasses in Paris. It covers the period from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the first quarter of the seventeenth century, after which the art of stained glass falls into a long period of obscurity until the twentieth century. Is is worth noticing that almost all windows are in their original location. At each period, the best craftsmen played a part in them.

Windows in the ambulatory

Created at the same moment when this part of the building was erected, the windows in the ambulatory give evidence of a willingness to ornate the church immediately. Notice the window of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

The gallery known as “charnel cloister”

(the charnel in question is a former cemetery)

The stained windows of this gallery were designed at the beginning of the seventeenth century ; half of the initial 24 still remain. These are painting on glass with enamels fired in the oven, unlike all other windows of the church, in which glass has been molten with coloured pigments in it.

They share a common theme : the Eucharist, or real presence of resuscitated Christ in the consecrated bread, and its fore figures in the Old Testament. Among them, the “Mystical Wine-press” enacts Christ’s words during the Last Supper, which the Catholic liturgy repeats during every office, when he passed the cup of wine saying “this is my blood”.

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