Choir wall of Chartres Cathedral
The choir wall of Chartres Cathedral is a piece of stone architecture and sculpture in Chartres Cathedral, over 6 metres tall and around 100 metres long. It was commissioned right at the start of the 16th century by Jehan de Beauce to keep the laity out of the liturgical choir.
It marked a transition between Gothic art and the French Renaissance in what became known as the Louis XII style. Since 1862 the whole wall and each of its constituent parts have been listed as monuments historiques.
Levels
It is divided into four horizontal levels - base, clerestory, niches and pinnacles.Base
The lowest level consists of varied architectural decoration in Louis XII style, though the stylobates below classical-style medallions and the pointed squares draw on the Louis XI style.Clerestory
Since six bas-reliefs by Charles-Antoine Bridan were placed inside the choir at the end of the 18th century, this level has been obscured by plaster. The upper part made up of niches and pinnacles is still wholly in the Flamboyant Gothic style, but the level uses the very un-medieval features of arabesque pilasters instead of ogives.Niches
This consists of forty sculpted groups on the lives of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Each group is numbered 1 to 40 below the niches. Some of the groups have a plaque mentioning the sculptor or a caption in Gothic script identifying the scene.The forty groups are grouped into fifteen sections. The eight sections around the choir proper include a total of 29 scenes, including the double scene in the twelfth section - each section usually has four scenes, except the third section with the astronomical clock. The apse has eleven scenes - six of its sections consist of two scenes each, whilst scene 21 in the ninth section is a double-scene. No scenes appear on the 'axial' or 'roundabout' section.