Rose window
Most commonly, and especially in Gothic architecture, a rose window is a circular stained glass window, with mullions and traceries that generally radiate from the centre. In churches and cathedrals its use sometimes alludes to the Virgin Mary, who is called the Mystical Rose; and occasionally to elaborate forms based on the rose. However, it is worth noting that the term rose window is not used before the 17th century, and in all likelihood stems from the Old French word roue, meaning wheel. Therefore specific connections between the Virgin or the flowering plants and the rose window are generally unlikely before the Mediaeval period.
Its origin is partially to be found in the Roman oculus. The very first example of an axially placed oculus with tracery seems to be at San Miguel de Lillo, not far from Oviedo in Spain, which dates to the 9th century. While it is commonly believed that during the Romanesque period the oculus became the rose window through elaboration, in fact Romanesque oculi do not demonstrate sufficient ‘transitional’ characteristics to the Gothic rose window, to detract from the conclusion that a considerable innovation was made when the very first complete example of a Gothic rose window appeared on the west façade of St Denis, near Paris. This window is dated to the renovations of Abbot Suger in the 1130s, and was destroyed sometime in the 18th century. Another credible explanation of the development of the rose window was developed by the German art historian Otto von Simson, who considered the origin to lie in the six lobed rosettes and octagon window which adorned the external wall of the Umayyad palace Khirbat al-Mafjar built in Jordan between 740 and 750 CE. The theory relates that crusaders noticed this attractive window and brought the design to Europe, introducing it into churches.
From about the middle of the twelfth century the dimensions of the rose window began to increase with the development of more elaborate window styles associted with Gothic architecture. By the middle of the thirteenth century it had attained the greatest possible size — the entire width of the nave, as seen in the transept roses at St Denis.
The earliest important examples in buildings of the Gothic style are the west rose of the Cathedral of Mantes (c. 1200), the west rose of Notre Dame de Paris (c. 1220), and those of Laon and Chartres. In all these cases, the rose was put under a circular arch. The next important step in its use for the Gothic style was to put it under a pointed arch, as was done in the Notre-Dame de Reims (1230), in the transepts as well as in the later roses of the facade. This form probably stemmed from the now destroyed St Nicaise, also in Reims. Thereupon the rose was inscribed in a square, with pierced spandrils as in the transepts of Notre Dame de Paris (1257). The last step in evolution of the gothic style was to place the rose in the tier of lower windows, in which case it became the centre of a vast window composition, covering the whole end of the transepts, as in Rouen or Beauvais Cathedrals.
Besides their use in Gothic cathedrals (and nineteenth and twentieth century churches and chapels designed in the Gothic Revival style) rose windows have also been used in Romanesque basilicas, contributing to their later Romanesque-Gothic styles: as at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St Procopius’ Basilica in Trebíc in the Czech Republic, and at Spoleto and Monza in Italy. Their design in these building types sometimes differs from the familiar textbook examples found in Gothic cathedrals. The term, ‘rose window’, has also been applied to Baroque versions of occuli that lack either tracery or stained glass, as at the Rose Window of San Jose Mission, San Antonio, Texas which was founded by the Franciscan Fathers and dates from 1718-31.
In England, the use of the rose window was commonly confined to the transepts (illustration, right), although roses of great span were constructed in the west front of Byland Abbey and in the east front of Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and they have been used in this way too for local churches and chapels. In Germany, a fine example is in the facade of the Cathedral of Strassburg. In Italy, it was particularly used by the Lombard architects, as in San Zeno in Verona, and in the Cathedral of Modena, and in the Tuscan Gothic churches like the Cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto. An outstanding example of the Rose window is the thirteen spoked centrepiece of the Minor Basilica in Larino, Molise (1312).
In 1954, the French artist Henri Matisse created the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Memorial Rose Window on the east wall of the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, New York.
Rose windows based on the five or ten parts of the flowers and fruit of the rose family include the Washington National Cathedral whose west rose is based on a ten petal rose. Other ten part rose windows include Christ Church (’the little gem of moorland churches’) at Appleton-le-Moors in Yorkshire, England, designed in French Gothic Revival style in the 1860s by the noted architect J.L.Pearson; the Mediaeval Beverley Minster in the English county of Yorkshire (whose regional symbol is the white rose); the nondenominational Abney Park Chapel in London designed in 1838-40 by William Hosking FSA; Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; Holy Trinity Church, Barnes, London; and St Procopius’ Basilica in Trebíc.
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