Download PDF. Figure 1. Exterior view of Notre-Dame of Paris from the west, with the rose window of c. In investigating the window, I was struck by the assumption that the lost central medieval motif of the rose had to have been then, as it is now, the Virgin and Child see Fig. Since the cathedral is dedicated to the Virgin Mary — or Notre Dame as she is known in French — her depiction at the center of the rose window would not be unexpected.
Yet themes in the extant medieval stained-glass panels of the rose window as well as twelfth-century precedents also introduce other intriguing possibilities.
This context led me to pose the question at the heart of this contribution: what would the earliest rose window of the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris look like if the modern image of Notre Dame were not at its center?
The Parisian cathedral is generally dated c. Although the cathedral of Notre-Dame was once illuminated by approximately medieval stained-glass windows, most of these were destroyed in campaigns of modernization undertaken in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was probably completed by c.
On the interior, the rose window is usually partially concealed by the pipes of the modern organ located in front of it. Figure 2. Interior view of the western rose of Notre-Dame of Paris of c. Figure 3. View of Notre-Dame of Paris from the south, with its rose window of c. In the early Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary was treated with a certain reserve as the instrument of redemption through her son.
