Art & Architecture
article | Reading time6 min
Colour and light on the first floor of the château! The windows are richly decorated with surprising details that add to the magic of the place.
The macedoine and antique panels
"Macedonian" panels are assemblages created in the 19th or early 20th century, combining fragments of old stained glass. In this particular case, the craftsman's main concern is not to restore a coherent overall image. Faces and architectural or plant motifs are placed alongside fragments of inscriptions, biblical scenes or representations of saints. Today's montage is seductive for its casual whimsy and formal richness. It is also a rare opportunity to appreciate, at close hand, the art of the master glassmakers of yesteryear.
Some of the stained-glass windows present what is known as an antique panel, a montage of old stained-glass windows forming a coherent whole that can be read iconographically.
© Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux
The roundels
The rondels that can also be admired in Castelnau are quite different: a perfectly identifiable scene decorates the centre of the bay, painted in grisaille and enhanced with a silver yellow that only takes on its final colour after firing... Rondels were used in wealthy homes from the end of the Middle Ages, and became fashionable in the 16th and 17th centuries.
© Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux
Glass roofs
The Crucifixion
The stained glass windows in the Oratory Room are major works of art, and form an integral part of the setting designed by Jean Mouliérat at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Crucifixion was painted between 1417 and 1419. Its provenance has been well known since 1962, when an article published in the Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France revealed that the long-lost Christ on the Cross from Quimper Cathedral was in fact conserved at the Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux. A pointed-arch window was opened at the beginning of the 20th century to accommodate it. Church windows and stained glass windows for civilians, which were never intended to exist side by side, have been brought together at Castelnau by the tenor's care.
© Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux
The stained glass window of the angel musicians
Two other carefully restored medieval stained glass windows face the Crucifixion.
A Concert of musical angels with multicoloured wings has been incorporated into the upper part of the bay. It is of great documentary interest, depicting ancient musical instruments such as the portable organ and the double recorder...
© Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux
The origins of musical notation
The lower glass roof provides a fine illustration of the origins of musical notation. Inscribed on a long phylactery , the first stanza of the hymn to Saint John the Baptist gives us the key to the codification used since the 11th century. The first syllable of each verse has given its name to a note:
Ut queant laxis
Resonarefibris
Miragestorum
Famulituorum
Solvepolluti
Labiireatum
Sancte Iohannes
Translation of the hymn into French: "Pour que tes serviteurs puissent chanter à pleine voix les merveilles de ta vie, efface le péché qui souille leurs lèvres, ô Saint Jean!" (So that your servants can sing the wonders of your life with a full voice, wipe away the sin that soils their lips, O Saint John!
© Pascal Lemaître - Centre des monuments nationaux
The subject file
