Notre Dame, Chartres 1839

Thomas Shotter Boys captured Notre Dame de Chartres with watercolor around the mid-19th century. The entrance is adorned with rows of sculptures of figures, a common motif during the Gothic period meant to bring the sacred stories and figures to life. These sculptures of standing figures are reminiscent of the classical contrapposto stance, echoing a revival of classical forms, but here these figures are given a new spiritual purpose. The figures stand together, a collective of saints and biblical figures, echoing similar gatherings in Byzantine mosaics. The Gothic arch itself, a symbol of aspiration towards the divine, finds its echoes in the pointed arches of Persian architecture, showing how human yearning for the heavens manifests across cultures. Such forms speak to our collective, subconscious longing for transcendence, constantly reinvented and renewed.