In Comparison: The Stained Glasses of the Roasting of St. Vincent of Saragossa

In Comparison: The Stained Glass of
The Roasting of St. Vincent of Saragossa

St. Vincent of Saragossa's martyrdom is intriguing: this man was tortured, roasted with salt, and bled to death in defense of his faith. He thus became a rich inspiration for medieval monks, clergy, artists, and scholars for sermons, music, and artistic representations. This paper attempts to build on and expand from previous studies of windows with representations of St. Vincent to contribute to the study of stained glass windows of the same saint. In it, I explore and contrast the representations of the roasting of St. Vincent at two religious institutions: the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Beauvais Cathedral. Despite different compositions, the roasting of St. Vincent revealed similar yet site-specific interpretations of St. Vincent's martyrdom at these institutions, and they communicated and represented valuable messages and virtues for worshipers.

Legends that developed around St. Vincent of Saragossa, the protomartyr of Spain, often reached their narrative climax as the tormentors roasted the saint on a grill with salt spread into his wounds. The torment resulted from St. Vincent's refusal to worship pagan idols, and thus, he was tortured by the Roman governor of Spain, Dacian, at the time. [1] The saint is not immortal, and he died after great torture. Still, his body miraculously survived abandonment by the Roman soldiers through the protection of heavenly power and, finally, rest in peace by receiving a burial from a Christian community. [2] St. Vincent’s dramatical death no doubt contributed to his popularity in medieval France, but its popularity was also a result of a political need during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, where St. Vincent was presented as a uniting, Catholic Christian figure "in connection with the ruthless war between northern and southern France which prepared the unification of the French Kingdom…" [3] Thus, it is not uncommon to find depictions of St. Vincent at cathedrals and churches that obtained their glazing programs at this period. St. Vincent's life cycle can be found in several places, for instance, the Cathedral of Chartres, Beauvais, Rouen, and Angers. [4]

St. Vincent's relic was also an object of desire. In 561, Merovingian King Childebert obtained St. Vincent's tunic from the Visigoths during the siege of Saragossa in Spain, and thus, the Abbey Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was built to protect this relic. [5] The St. Vincent of Saragossa window at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where this investigation into the roasting of Saint Vincent started, was from this place. The panel depicted King Childebert and his brother Chlothar narrating the history of the tunic of St. Vincent at the Abbey. [6] Later, the same place also hosted fragments of St. Vincent's jawbone, presented to the Abbey by King Louis VIII in 1215 after the Fifth Crusade. [7]

The Abbey used to host an extensive program of panels depicting St. Vincent's life cycles, which was of great importance for the worship of St. Vincent, and the roasting of St. Vincent is one of them. [8] However, during the French Revolution, the Lady Chapel of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was demolished, and the hemicycle glazing program was salvaged and later exchanged on the art market between the hands of Alexandre Lenoir and Jean-François Roussineau. [9] The glazing program was later sold and resold to many locations, and the currently known panels are found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Wilton Parish Church. [10] The two panels that depict St. Vincent roasted alive on the rack with the supervision of Dacian can be found separately at the Walters Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. [11] Framed by geometric shapes and floral patterns in vibrant colors, above the vertical and horizontal crosshatching background are the hemi-lunette areas with the scene of the stories. Starting on the left side, Dacian is standing in deep green and pink robes on the vaulting from the architecture of the scenes below. He appears authoritative, with his right hand pointing to the feet of the saint and his left hand holding his sword upwards. Still, his expression remains unclear due to the damage the panel has received in centuries of weathering. On the right side, the saint, with a halo, is roasted naked, strapped to a fireplace with a white marble pedestal by three red iron banners. His hands are tied in front of his body, and his eyes look upon the two men stoking the fire with sticks. These two men are in yellow and green robes separately; each looks downward at St. Vincent, but their expressions are also damaged. The colors of these panels are vibrant, as the red and blue contrast with each other and glow strongly in one's eyes.

A panel depicting the same story of St. Vincent can be found in the Saint-Vincent Chapel at the Beauvais Cathedral. On the Beauvais panel, St. Vincent is roasted without Dacian's supervision. The saint is depicted as a man with a halo and is being roasted peacefully. He looks down at the flame while his hands and legs are tied. He was roasted on a rectangular rack above the fire instead of being directly placed into a burning fire, as in the Abbey panel. More tormentors are participating in St. Vincent's torment at Beauvais. Standing in the middle of the composition, a man in green robes is "scream[ing] in delight" with his mouth wide open. [12] This man is "sprinkling salt on Vincent's lacerated and blistering body to intensify his torment," as Cothren has noted. [13] Two men on the left, one in a red and black robe and another in green, are using long, sliver spears to pierce and press down St. Vincent to ensure his whole body receives both wound and heat. On the right, two men in yellow and green robes stand behind the rosters. While the man with green robes looks downward to the face of St. Vincent and presses him with a split-end stick, a man in green, yellow, and brown clothing swings his stick to his back and is preparing a great hit on the body of St. Vincent. The scene is decorated with blue fragment backgrounds, gold, red, and blue frames, alternating motifs on two sides, and gothic architecture details on the top.

Contrasting styles are observed between the Beauvais panel and the Abbey panels. At Beauvais, the panels used a conservative, centralized composition. Its artistic style is much more intense, as the illustrated figures are richer in motion and expression. Above the tortured St. Vincent, the actions of tormentors form a violent theatrical stage set. The central character with salt, whose frontal figure was the focus of the composition and depicted with a rounded mouth and every tooth visible, was given a demonic quality and brought out the brittleness and intense pleasure that tormentors felt during the saints' torture. [14] This makes the panels appear more unholy, emphasizes St. Vincent's pain and suffering, and draws hatred to the tormentor at the scene by making their action more inhumane. In comparison, though it has complex patterns and decoration on the background, the panels from the Abbey have a relatively simple, balanced, and symmetrical composition. The illustrations are delicate, clean, calm, and straightforward. These artistic languages thus focus less on the saint's suffering and the tormentor's action, but they highlight Dacian's authority by presenting him beside the tormentors of the saint. With his sword in hand and asserting power by gesture, this scene suggests Dacian is primarily responsible for the saint's martyrdom. The tormentor's role was given much less weight than the Beauvais tormentors, as they are shown to be more obedient and calmer. Comparing both panels' illustrations of St. Vincent, they both emphasize the saint's calmness by illustrating him as a man lacking expression. The calmness of the saint might have originated from his knowledge that his faith would lead him to salvation after life. Thus, he is indifferent to his temporal earthly suffering and continues to defend his faith.

Art, especially stained glass in the Gothic period, within churches and liturgies, often aid each other in transcending the church into a vision of heavenly Jerusalem.[15] Yet modern scholars have argued that stained glass windows were hardly a "Bible for the Poor" for multiple reasons: access to the windows was limited, and sometimes the narrative appears fragmented and in strange orders, thus the congregation needs help with readings. [16] One way of helping the congregation to read the stained glass is through liturgy. The forms of liturgies, especially in the late Middle Ages, in Roman Churches are diverse, often decided by the local ecclesial authorities or dignitaries in service of their context.[17] But adequate generalization could apply, as Christian ritual centers around holy text and the Eucharist. [18] Gerald B. Guest has proposed an analogy between stained glass and liturgy, where he believes that the performative nature of stained glass and performative rituals enhanced each other with their unique qualities, and represented the holy vision of the medieval population. [19] The guest also indicated that his stained glass: Liturgy analogy has already been explored by Medieval scholars, as they found sermons can be inspired by windows and architecture, and vice versa. [20] Stained glass can be analyzed as performance from a few perspectives. One can find the narrative of the characters represented within the glass performative, as they, within the glass, reenact stories not only theatrically but also illustrate theological concepts vividly to the viewers. [21] Others can say windows perform commemoration, and liturgy can parallel the commemoration function of a glazing program. [22] As the stories are being retold, the windows also ensure the cult of saints survives and, with liturgy, help in the request of intercession. [23] Last but not least, stained glass can also serve as a bridge of connection and, with liturgy, temporally transforms the space through conversation, history, and images. [24]

Considering the history of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the glazing program of St. Vincent's life served as a commemoration and continuation of the saint’s cult. As the Abbey observes the feast day of St. Vincent of Saragossa, the panel of the roasting of St. Vincent aids in the commemoration of the Abbey’s patron saint’s passion and virtues by representing his stories in visual narratives on the festal celebrations and honors the foundation of the Abbey. [25] The scene of the roasting also served as a spiritual bridge that connected the saint's suffering with the devoted congregation and monks, taking them to a place where they could feel the suffering during liturgies. During this suffering, they are reminded of St. Vincent's expression that earthly matter is only temporary, and everlasting joy awaits in heaven. The window furthermore performs the retelling of St. Vincent's story, and as a church that hosts St. Vincent's relic, this performance ensures the monks' and congregation's literacy on St. Vincent's passion, helping with the continuation of St. Vincent's cult. As a result of the continuing cult, the window not only guaranteed the Abbey's continuous income through the pilgrim economy but also further helped the congregation and monks' request for intercession for both individuals in need and the Abbey's estate.

The roasting panel at Beauvais Cathedral performed a similar role. As the Cathedral performed liturgies celebrating the life and death of St. Vincent, windows depicting St. Vincent's martyrdom perform the function of commemoration, as well as reminding people that earthly pain is temporary and endurance and faithfulness will lead a person to eternal life in heaven through St. Vincent's expression during the torments. The same windows can also connect the congregation to the location of St. Vincent's relics, the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, through conversation, prayer, and context within the chapel and the greater cathedral space. Yet, the glazing program is unique in the way that it featured its clerical donor, Raoul de Senlis.[26] Kneeling under the scene of the saint's martyrdom, Raoul de Senlis was depicted as a priest with a red, gold, and green vestment. He looks upward to heaven and opens the windows with his hands. Raoul de Senlis was originally depicted praying toward the altar, but due to a misinterpretation of the program by nineteenth and twentieth-century restorers, he is now positioned kneeling with his back to it. [27] As Raoul de Senlis offers the window of the roasting of St. Vincent to his heavenly father, an active request of intercession is being made, and the viewer is visually and spiritually connected to the divine through the upward action of prayer by Raoul de Senlis. The same action also signified the popularity of St. Vincent within this era, as panels of his martyrdom are worthy of glazes from God.

Despite different visual expressions, the panels that depict the roasting of St. Vincent of Saragosa from the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Beauvais Cathedral will perform a similar but also site-specific function within their original space with liturgy. These panels use dramatically different artistic language, narrate and preserve the saint’s life, commemorate his martyrdom, and inspire worshipers through Christian virtues and images of suffering. The panels aid with the request of intercession and connect the worshiper to locations of importance to the cult of St. Vincent according to their story. St. Vincent’s story peeks into the longevity of the Christian narrative; similar stories and messages are conveyed regardless of forms of representation, ensuring a continuous Christian culture across centuries of time.

Footnotes
[1] Michael Watt Cothren, "The Third Campaign: Post-Collapse Repair and Refurbishment in Chapels during the 1920s," in Picturing the Celestial City: the Medieval Stained Glass of Beauvais Cathedral (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006), 131.
[2] Philippe Verdier, "The Window of Saint Vincent from the Refectory of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés," The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 25/26 (1962/1963): 45, JSTOR.
[3] Verdier, "The Window," 85.
[4] Cothren, "The Third," 132.
[5] Mary B. Shepard, "The Relics Window of St. Vincent of Saragossa at Saint-Germain Des Prés," Gesta 37, no. 2 (1998): 258, https://doi.org/10.2307/767268.
[6] Shepard, 259.
[7] Verdier, "The Window," 85.
[8] Shepard, "The Relics," 258.
[9] Shepard, 258.
[10] Shepard, 258.
[11] Verdier, "The Window," 45.
[12] Cothren, "The Third," 133.
[13] Cothren, 132.
[14] Cothren, 133, 135.
[15] Gerald B. Guest, "Stained Glass and Liturgy: The Uses and Limits of an Analogy," Journal of Glass Studies 56 (2014): 279, JSTOR.
[16] Madeline Harrison Caviness and B. S. Levy, "Biblical Stories in Windows: Were They Bible for the Poor?," in Paintings on Glass : Studies in Romanesque and Gothic Monumental Art, by Madeline Harrison Caviness (Aldershot, Great Britain: Variorum, 1997), 109, 122, 124, 126.
[17] Craig M. Wright, "The Shape of the Liturgy in the Late Middle Ages," in Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500-1550, 2008 ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 98.
[18] William Diebold, "Art in the Service of the Word," in Word and Image: The Art of the Early Middle Ages, 600-1050 (Boulder: Routledge, 2018), 47, 48.
[19] Guest, "Stained Glass," 271, 272.
[20] Guest, 272.
[21] Guest, 276.
[22] Guest, 274, 275.
[23] Guest, 276, 278.
[24] Guest, 278.
[25] Shepard, "The Relics," 262.
[26] Cothren, "The Third," 126.
[27] Cothren, "The Third," 127.

Bibliography

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