Pilgrimage to Chartres: The Visual Evidence

Pilgrimage to Chartres: The Visual Evidence

Bugslag, James

ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF LATE MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE IN NORTHERN EUROPE AND THE BRITISH ISLES, Brill (2005)

Abstract

This collection includes essays on the visual experience and material culture at medieval pilgrimage shrines of northern Europe and the British Isles, particularly the art and architecture created to intensify spiritual experience for visitors. These studies focus on regional pilgrimage centers which flourished from the 12th-16th centuries, addressing various aspects of visual imagery and architectural space which inspired devotees to value cults of enshrined saints and to venerate them in memory from afar. Subjects include pilgrim dress, jeweled and painted reliquaries, labyrinths, elaborate processions, printed texts of the saint’s life, shrines, sculpture and other architectural decoration, and pilgrim souvenirs. Profusely illustrated with 350 photographs, this work will interest scholars and students of art history, history, religious studies, and popular culture.

Eugène de Lépinois was well aware of the paucity of documentary sources for tracing the history of pilgrimage to Chartres during the late Middle Ages. Yet he, like so many others, never doubted its existence. Recent estimations have challenged his belief in the popular scope of pilgrimage to Chartres. The documentary sources that chart this phenomenon are certainly not as rich as historians might like. They have, nevertheless, been increasingly exploited in recent years.3 Yet, “the stones of Notre-Dame” remain relatively mute, and other material evidence, as well, can be marshalled towards an increased understanding of the nature and scope of pilgrimage activity at Chartres. It is the purpose of this study to begin such an undertaking.

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