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The Tric-Trac Window of Le MansMeredith Parsons Lillicha

a Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13210Published online: 14 Aug 2014.

To cite this article: Meredith Parsons Lillich (1983) The Tric-Trac Window of Le Mans, The Art Bulletin, 65:1, 23-33

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Graeven, H., "Das Original der Trierischen Constantiusinschrift,"Westdeutsche Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst, XX11I, 1904,24-35.

Marrou, H.-I., Mousikos aner, Grenoble, 1938.

Meyer, W., "Zwei antike Elfenbeintafeln der k. Staats-Bibliothek inMiinchen," Abhandlungen der philosophisch-philologischen Classe derkoniglich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, xv.t. 1881, 1-84.

Pinkwart, D., Das Relief des Archelaos von Priene und die "Musen desPlTiliskos", Kallmiinz, 1965.

ProsopograplTy of the Later Roman Empire, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1971 and1980.

The Tric-Trac Window of Le Mans

Meredith Parsons Lillich

When the splendid Gothic choir of the cathedral of LeMans! was consecrated in 1254, its vast ensemble ofstained glass was not yet complete: that much is clear fromthe testimony of the vintners who, arriving too late to par­ticipate in the procession, donated a window in the upperambulatory instead.! Opinions about the extent of com­pletion range from "nearly done" to "finished 1265-75."3Though the object of one of the pioneer glass studies ofthe nineteenth century - the elephantine monographs byHucher- - the stained glass has not attracted much seriousattention recently. Opinion prevails that Le Mans has beendisastrously over-restored; that its numerous references todonations in heraldry and inscription have been largely es­tablished or else are hopelessly obscure; and that it isstylistically derivative (of the Ste.-Chapelle, of Chartres),a maverick, or mediocre.

In truth, the Huguenots did not wreak much havoc inthe upper reaches of the choir, presumably not gaining en­try to the upper catwalks there.> some of the donors haveremained ambiguously or even erroneously identified."and the stylistic derivations from other monuments proveto be so creative and so lively as to belie the term. Le Mansis an ensemble in need of reassessment.

I My research on le Mans was funded by a National Endowment for theHumanities fellowship (1976). This study is part of a project funded byan American Council of learned Societies fellowship (1980-81).

'G. Busson and A. Ledru, Actus Pontificum Cenomannis in UrbeDegentium, le Mans, 1902, 491: "Addere libet de c1ausoriis et cultoribusvinearum, qui videntes cereos aliorum, ad quorum exemplum nichilfecerant, inter se mutuo loquentes aiebant: Alii fecerunt momentaneumluminare; faciamus vitreas, que iIluminent ecclesiam in futurum.Fecerunt autem formam integram quinque vitreas continentem, in quibusipsi per officia depinguntur."

J Andre Mussat, Le style gotlTique de I'ouest de la France (Xl/e-Xllle

Volbach. W.F., 1976, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spatantike und des [ndienMillelalters (Romisch-Gerrnanisches Zentralmuseum zu Mainz,Kataloge vor- und frulTgeschichtliclTer AltertUmer, vn), 3rd ed., Mainz.

__, 1952-53, "Friihmittelalterliche Elfenbeinarbeiten aus Gallien,"Festschriit des Romisch-GermanisclTen Zentralmuseum zu Mainz, 3vols., Mainz, I, 44-53.

Wegner, M., Die MusensarkoplTage (Die antiken SarkoplTagreliefs, v.s).Berlin, 1966.

Among the bays considered as mavericks, mediocre,and obscure is the so-called "tric-trac window" of thesouth choir clerestory (Figs. 1, 2). Its images are bizarreand seemingly pointless: a row of carbon-copy bishopsaints; the tric-trac players, a peculiar and insistent motifby their central placement, repetition, and large scale (Fig.5); a total of four kneeling women (donors?), separatedand isolated by the width of the bay and by their diversecostumes (Figs. 3, 4); not to forget the seemingly idea-lessfiller of repeated vacant canopies below (Fig. 7), as well asthe seemingly meaningless amalgam of tired images(saints, agnus dei) in the traceries above (Fig. 6). As itturns out, the imagery is neither mediocre nor pointless. Itis the most eloquent personal rebus yet identified, as far asI know, from the High Gothic era. Its very intricacyshould alert us to the need to reexamine very carefullymodern assessments of medieval programs similarly con­sidered obscure, mindlessly composed, and thus"mediocre."

Baron de Guilhermy described the tric-trac window inthe nineteenth century much as it appears today."

Premier rang [i.e., lower row of figures], une dame

siecles), Paris, 1963, 129; Grodecki, 61; Catherine Brisac, "Les vitraux duchoeur." in Andre Mussat, La cathedrale du Mans, Paris, 1981, 119-25.

• Eugene Hucher. Calques des vitraux de Ia cathedrale du Mans, leMans, 1855-1862, 2 vols., 85cm; idem, 1865, 62cm.

s A. ledru, ed., Plaintes et doleances du chapitre du Mans apres Ie pillagede la cathedrale par les huguenots en 1562 (Archives historiques duMaine, 111). le Mans, 1903,247.

• See M. Lillich, "The Consecration of 1254: Heraldry and History in theWindows of le Mans Cathedral," Traditio, XXXV11l, 1982.

7 Paris, Bibl. nat., n. acq. fro 6103, fol. 94r.

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24 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1983 VOLUME LXV NUMBER I

donatrice, agenouillee, coifee d'un voile et d'une toque,vetue d'une jupe partie d'azur au lion d'or et de gueulesa six [ecus] d'or, trois, deux et un: deux ecussonsreproduisant chacun separement une des deux partiesdu meme blason [Fig. 3]; quatre groupes de deux per­sonnages qui jouent alternativement avec tables et autric-trac [Fig. 5]; groupe de femmes agenoux, dont lapremiere, coifee d'un voile et d'une toque, vetue d'unerobe verte et d'un manteau rouge, tenant un vitrail entreles mains [Fig. 4].

Several authors specify the group of women to the right asthree (actually three faces but only two bodies can beseen).8 The upper row of figures in the six-lancet windowcontains six frontal standing bishop saints, painted fromthree cartoons; as one of the cartoons is very much taller,two of the bishops (those to the far left and right) aretherefore giants. In the traceries above are censing angels,a pair of saints (priest and deacon), and the agnus dei disc(Fig. 6). Hucher and Crodeckls report an inscription aswell: IOHES (Johannes). Modern tradition at Le Mans ex­plains the four male couples playing tric-trac and checkersas donors who paid for the vast bay with their gamblinggains.

The HeraldryGuilhermy's blazons of the lady's two coats of arms (herown and her husband's) are generally accurate but notsufficiently precise. The tric-trac window is, after all, avast clerestory in the Le Mans choir, thirty-four meters to

, See, for example, the guidebook by A. Marquet, La cathedrale du Mans,Le Mans, n.d .. 36; the tric-trac window is XII.

9 Hucher (as in n. 4, 1865). unpaginated, "Clerestory, douzierne grandefenetre": Crodecki, 93. Hucher omits the priest and deacon saints, whichmay be of modern installation.

10 My study photographs were made from outside the clerestory on theopposite side, through spaces provided by glass panels removed forrestoration.

11 In modern blazon it would be sinope; the term sinope did not come tomean "green" until the mid-14th century. See Michel Pastoureau, Les ar­moiries (Typologie des sources du moyen age occidental), Turnhout,1976, 81. n. 34. The placement of the billet cannot be blazoned ac­curately, and since it is a woman, we are no doubt dealing with a personal"badge." That vert is her color is clear, since under her heraldic surcoatshe wears a gown of the same green.

12 Ambroise Ledru. La cathedra Ie Saint-Julien du MariS, Mamers, 1900,427; idem, La cathedrale du MariS, Saint-Julien, Le Mans, 1923,72.

13 Many authors suggest the branch of Brienne in the Maine, thevicomtes of Beaumont. That is almost the only branch which these armscould not represent. since the Beaumonts altered Brienne by changing theground from billete to seme de fleurs-de-lys d'or. There is considerableevidence in rolls of arms, in seals, in stained glass, and on tombs to es­tablish that the Beaumonts never used the billets. See Eugene Hueber.Mo,wments funeraires et sigillographiques des vicomtes de Beaumorlt auMaine, Le Mans, 1882.

14 See, for example, the following tomb and arrnorials: Adhernar, No.228; Herald Navarre, Nos. 872, 903, 904 (L. Douet-d'Arcq. Armorial deFrance de la fin du quatorzieme siecle [extract from Cabinet historique]

the vault keystones, and viewable only from the floor orthe catwalk in the elevation of the inner aisle. From theroof and with modern telephoto lenses and color film, onecan do better.w The lady's own arms are: de gueules, a6ecus d'or (3,2, et 1) with the billet vertll in the upper dex­ter border as a cadence mark. Her husband's: d'azur billeted'or, au lion d'or; and he too has a cadence mark since thelion is couronne de gueules. The identification of thesearms (Fig. 3), though incorrect even in recent studies, hadbeen generally suggested in 1900 by Ledru,12who said thatthe lady was "vraisemblablement une Mathefelon mariee aun Brienne" in an unrecorded union. The arms are indeedthose commonly associated with the houses of Briennevand Mathefelon. But by the mid-thirteenth centuryBrienne had extensive branches throughout many regionsof France, not to mention outre-mer, a vast haystack inwhich to try to locate our needle. Let us start with the armsof Mathefelon (if such they be).

Six ecus were borne by the Mathefelon from the four­teenth century on,14 but in the thirteenth century thefamily used either three ecus l S with reversed tinctures» ora shield cheuronne.v The arms of the Le Mans window (degueules a6 ecus d'or) are of a related family, the Mayenne,which died out before the end of the century - andthereby hangs the tale of this stained glass.

[uhel de Mayenneis was an Angevin baron and aCrusader, active in the wars of Philippe Auguste. ThisJuhelleft abundant evidence of his arms on seals19and ona handsome enameled copper tomb (Fig. 10).20 When hedied in 1220 he left as widow a redoubtable noblewoman

Paris, 1859); Herald Berry, ca. 1450, No. 679 (A. Vallet de Viriville,Armorial de France, par Gilles Le Bouvier dit Berry, premier raid'armes de Charles Vll , Paris, 1866).

t s Seal: Douet-d' Arcq, No. 2736.

1. Armorial: Chifflet-Prinet Roll, No. 107 (Gerard Brault. EightThirteenth-Century Rolls of Arms in French and Anglo-Norman Blazorl,University Park, Pa, 1973,9-10,81).

17 Armorials: "Tournoi de Compiegne." ca. 1278, Nos. 89, 110 (Armandde Behault. "La Noblesse hennuyere au Tournoi de Cornpiegne de 1238[sic]:' Annales du cercle archeologique de Mons, XXII, 1888-89);Herald/Fitzwilliam Roll, No. 530 (James Greenstreet, "Planche's Roll ofArms:' The Genealogist, N.5., 111, 1886).

IS For two totally different genealogies of Iuhel de Mayenne, neither in­spiring confidence, see Denis. 43; and J. X. Carre de Busserolle, Archivesdes families nobles de la Touraine, de I'Arljou, du Maine et du Poitou,Tours. 1889, I, 177. Concerning the connection with Mathefelon. Angotstates inconclusively: " ... la famille de Mathefelon fut une des pluspuissantes de la feodalite angevine et mancelle. Son ecu semblable aceluide Mayenne, et ses possessions dans la baronnie de Mayenne rappellentune alliance avec la maison de Mayenne vers l'epoque oil furentinaugures les blasons." A. Angot, Armorial mOrlumerltal de la Mayenrle.Laval, 1913, 189. The old genealogy of Mayenne by Menage gives no clueof such an alliance: Gilles Menage, Histoire de Sable, Paris, 1683, 184-86.

.9 Douet-d'Arcq. Nos. 2772, 2773.

20 Gaignieres drawing: Adhemar, No. 51; Angot (as in n. 18),409. Fromthe Cistercian abbey of Fontaine-Daniel (Mayenne), which he had found­ed. Although [uhel died in 1220, the tomb clearly dates from much later.As will be seen below, the elaborate new tomb of Iuhel is part of the samefamily drama as the tric-trac window.

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of Brittany, Gervaise de Dinan,21 and three equally for­midable daughters: Isabelle, Marguerite, and Jeanne (diteGervaise).22 It is my hypothesis that these are the threewomen in the right lancet of the Le Mans stained glass(Fig. 4). But which of them is the lady in the heraldic sur­coat (Fig. 3) in the left lancet, specifically the donor of thisvast bay?

Isabelle became domina of Mayenne upon her father'sdeath in 1220, at which time she was already married toDreux de Mello. They were childless when he took thecross in 1248 and died in Egypt the following year,23 nordid she have children by her second husband, Louis deSancerre, who married her in 1251 and outlived her.Isabelle founded her undated anniversary at the cathedralof Le Mans, and died in 1256 or 1257.24 It is noteworthythat she sealed with her arms of Mayenne and not those ofher husbands: see her seal of 1248 as wife of Dreux deMello, and seal of 1251 (Fig. 8) when married to Louis deSancerre, neither of which carries her husband's arms. 2S

At Isabelle's death, since her sister Marguerite had pre­deceased her, Mayenne passed to Marguerite's eldest son,Alain. Before introducing his saga, however, a glance atMarguerite is important: second daughter of Iuhel deMayenne, married ca. 1233 to Henri d' Avaugour(dispossessed claimant to the duchy of Brittany),26motherof three sons, dead ca. 1241.27 It is noteworthy thatMarguerite too sealed with Mayenne, her father's arms­like her elder sister but with less reason, since Margueritewas never domina of Mayenne and was the wife of a con-

21 Gervaise outlasted two more husbands and died ca. 1239. Her tomband that of her second daughter, Marguerite, are in the former priorychurch St.-Magloire of Lehon (Cotes-du-Nord): Dictionnaire des eglisesde France, ed. Robert Laffont, Paris, 1968, IV, A65; Couffon, 95, n. 42.The charts of Gervaise's gifts to St.-Magloire de Lehon in 1233, when shewas widowed for the third time, are published in Abbe Fouere-Mace, Leprieure royal de Saint-Mag loire de Lehon, Rennes, 1892, 320-22 and 42(drawing of her seal); also Geslin and Barthelemy, IV, 169 (she names herthree husbands and three daughters). On Gervaise's husbands, see Fe.Augustin du Paz, Histoire genealogique de plusieurs maisons illustres deBretaglle, Paris, 1620, 26.

U There is a generally accurate account of [uhel de Mayenne's threedaughters in J.-B. Guyard de la Fosse, Histoire des seigneurs deMayenne, Le Mans, 1850, 46, 58. On the partition of terres between themat luhel's death, see Couffon, 91, n. 20.

D Charts of Dreux de Mello up to mid-1248 are summarized with cita­tions to their places of publication in Angot, 614-15.

24 Her obit ends in a couplet: "Hec Ysabellis victrix virtute superna/Ex­titit in bellis. cui lux prestetur eterna./Amen." See Busson and Ledru, 80and n. 2; Guyard de la Fosse (p. 58) prefers a death date of 1256. It ispossible that Isabelle had been outre-mer with her husband Dreux deMello when he died in 1249; the Breton contingent was en route home byJune, 1250. (Couffon, 96.)

25 On the 1248 seal. G. Demay, lnuentaire des sceaux de la Normandie,Paris, 1881, No. 397. On the 1251 seal. Douet-d'Arcq, No. 437. But seeher early seal of 1236 with arms of Dreux de Mello only: G. Demay,Inventaire des sceaux de I'Artois et de la Picardie, Paris, 1877, Artois, No.455.

2. Henri had been affianced at age four to the young heiress Alix; threeyears later the Breton barons replaced him with Pierre de Dreux,Mauderc, who lost no time in adding insult to injury by seizing Henri'sown fiefs. The turbulent maneuvers of Mauderc are described in Couf-

THE TRIC- TRAC WINDOW OF l£ MANS 25

tender for Brittany. Her seal of 1233,26 in fact, bears thearms of Mayenne with the inscription: SUB SCUTOPATRIS MEl EST MEUM SECRETUM (Fig. 9). Thewomenfolk of Iuhel de Mayenne seem to have retained anunusually strong sense of clan.

Her son Alain d'Avougour> inherited Mayenne uponthe death of his aunt Isabelle in 1256. Alain was unfor­tunatelya profligate: by 1258 he had begun to sell land forready cash, and in 1264 he negotiated the sale of his vastBreton property, inherited from his mother and aunt, tothe duke of Brittany, over the violent protests of all hisfamily.30 Within a year his minor son Henriot, advised byhis grandfather (Alain's father), claimed restitution fromSaint Louis in a writ describing Alain as "fatuus etdilapidator bonorum suorum."31 Henriot's sister Havoiseand her husband, Olivier de Tinteniac, also claimedagainst him.32An arbitration in the presence of Saint Louisin 1267 declared that the duke would return Henriot'slands when the latter reached his majority in five years(1272), paying him for their use in the meantime.

Though Mayenne itself was not in the parcel of landssold to the duke - which, despite the 1267 judgment, werenever returned by the duke of Brittany - one might saythat Mayenne was in jeopardy between, say, 1264 and1272 when Henriot came of age.33 As will be seen, this isthe most likely period for the donation of the tric-trac win­dow of Le Mans cathedral. But donated by whom, andwhy?

The third daughter of [uhel de Mayenne - Jeanne, dite

fon, 89f.; for the view from the other side, see Sidney Painter, TheScourge of the Clergy: Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany, Baltimore,1937, 17-28 passim and 96. Henri d' Avaugour took the cross in 1239; af­ter a long eventful life he died in 1281, a few years after he had retired tothe Franciscan monastery of Dinan which he had founded in 1241. Hecalled himself "friar" in a chart of March, 1278 (o.s.). the date is correct­ed in Geslin and Barthelemy, IV, 377-78. Couffon, 88-97, 135-37, dis­poses of the pious legend that Henri had received the Franciscan habitfrom the hands of Saint Bonaventura himself.

27 Her will is dated Saturday after Epiphany 1238 (n.s.): Geslin andBarthelemy, Ill, 88-89. Her tomb now in Lehon bears the date 1241(Couffon, 95, n, 42).

20 Douet-d'Arcq, No. 1261: she is identified as Marguerite Avaugour.On the sigillum secretum, see C. Du Cange, Glossarium Mediae et In­fimae Latinitatis, Niort, 1886, VII, 477. On women sealing with theirfathers' arms, see Herve Pinoteau, L'heraldique de Saint Louis et de sescompagnons, Paris, 1966, 8, 14.

29 On Alain, see Couffon, 97-10l.

30 The texts of the sale contracts are published by Dom HyacintheMorice, Memoires pour servir de preuues a l'histoire ecclesiastique etcivile de Bretagne, Paris, 1742, I, col. 991; also Dom Gui Lobineau,Histoire de Bretagne (1707), re-ed. Paris, 1973, I, 259; II (preuves), col.407.

31 Arthur Beugnot, Les Olim OU registres des arrets rend us par la cour duroi, Paris, 1839, I, 623-24 (1265).

32 Lobineau, I, 269.

33 Though the struggle over his inheritance in Brittany dragged on,Henner's position stabilized and in 1283 (after the death of histroublesome father) his seal showed the arms of Avaugour countersealedwith Mayennes six ecus, See: E. Laurain, Cartulaire manceau deMarmoutier, Laval. 1945, 1,311; Geslin and Barthelemy, IV, 205 (chart of1283 calling him dominus of Mavenne).

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26 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1983 VOLUME LXVNUMBER 1

GE.IWAIS

Gervaise, domina of La Chartre-sur-Loir upon her father'sdeath - had married Count Pierre de Vendome, borne sixchildren.v and been widowed when her husband died oncrusade in the spring of 1249. Jeanne then disappears fromhistory,3S her undated obit in the Le Mans cathedralnecrology stating for April 11: "Sic obiit nobilis domina

,. Anselrne. VIII. 725-26, identifies five but omits the son who is mostpertinent to this discussion (Pierre, precentor of the cathedral of LeMans). See Broussillon, 129, n. 1.

35 Her last dated chart is 1246. Anselme, VIII, 725.

30 Busson-Ledru, 82.

I Upper left, Le Mans Cathedral, tric-tracwindow, south choir clerestory (second bay fromthe right). (photo: Robert Branner)

2 Upper right, tric-trac window (drawing: RogerAdams)

3 Far left, detail of Fig. 1, Donor Jeanne (Gervaise)de Mayenne, domina of La Chartre-sur-Loir(photo: © ARCH.PHOT./SPADEM, Paris/VAGA,New York, 1982)

4 Left, detail of Fig. 1, the three daughters of [uhelde Mayenne (photo: e ARCH.PHOT./SPADEM,Paris/VAGA, New York, 1982)

Johanna de Meduana, quondam comitissa Vidocin­ensis.... "36 It seems likely, however, that she marriedagain.

Jeanne is by process of elimination the woman in thewindow - for she is the only woman whose arms(Mayennep" could be coupled with those of a new hus-

37 Jeanne apparently left no seal; in 1233 she used her mother-in-law's,not having one of her own (Denis, 48: Angot, 532). As Iuhel's child, shehad a right to the arms of Mayenne. And the billet vert added to the LeMans window's arms (see text at n. 11 supra) would be a logical mark ofcadency for a third daughter not in the direct line, if we had any evidenceof women's usage of such marks - which we do not.

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THE TRIC-TRAC WINDOW OF LE MANS 27

6 Detail of Fig. 1, Saints Gervais andProtais (photo: 'ARCH.PHOT./SPADEM, Paris/VAGA, New York,1982)

5, A-B Detail ofFig. 1, the gameplayers (photo: 'ARCH.PHOT./SPADEM, ParisiVAGA, NewYork,1982)

8 Seal of Isabelle de Mayenne, 1251.Arch.nat., DO 437 bis (photo:Archives nationales)

7 Detail of Fig. 1, cells (La Chartre)(photo: 'ARCH.PHOT./SPADEM, ParisiVAGA, New York, 1982)

9 Seal of Marguerite de Mayenne,1233. Arch.nat., DO 1261 bis(photo: Archives nationales)

10 Tomb of [uhel de Mayenne, drawing madefor Caignieres, MS Gough 14, fo!' 200r (photo:Bodleian Library)

band, from the vast clan of Brienne.» There was goodreason at Le Mans for the cathedral's necrology to stress

her first marriage, with Vendome. Their son Pierre - hisfather's namesake - had made a precocious ecclesiastical

"Of the many branches, Conflans is the most likely, since they regularlycadenced the Brienne arms both with gueules and with a crown for thelion. On this lead, one could suggest Eustache or Gautier de Conflans.And since the family head was hereditary marshall of Champagne - andGautier appears in a chart of Emperor Charles V - it is reasonable thatJeanne, if so married, would disappear so thoroughly from the history of

western France. (Anselme, VI, 144, 159.) At any rate, the counts palatineof Burgundy can be eliminated as possible husbands since they did notuse Brienne-Iike arms until 1279; see Paul Adam-Even and Leon[equier, "Un armorial francals du XIIIe siecle, L'Armorial Wijnbergen,"Archives heraldiques suisses, 1951-54, offprint. No. 1084.

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career and was already precentor of Le Mans when, as astudent in Bologna (before 1271), he died "in florejuven tu tis." 39

There is circumstantial evidence of a more positive sort,however. Around 1260 someone from the family ofMayenne - and Jeanne was the last direct survivor to usethe arms, dismissing her fatuus nephew Alain and hisminor Breton children - commissioned a resplendent,even extravagant, new tomb in enameled copper (Fig. 10)for the final resting place of the patriarch [uhel deMayenne (d. 1220) in the abbey of Fontaine-Daniel (St.­George-Buttavent, dept. Mayenne). The tombw was of atype peculiar to the west of France and can be dated ca.1260 from stylistic comparison with three such tombsfrom Nantes as well as the tomb of the bishop of Le Mans,Guillaume Roland (d. 1260).41 Iuhel's legacy of the terreofMayenne was at risk during the decade of legal negotia­tions over Alain's land sales, from 1258 on. Symbolic actscounted for a lot in the Middle Ages, and the commission­ing of a magnificent new tomb for a baron dead fortyyears, bedecked with the enameled heraldry of Mayenneand its many feudal connections, would seem an ap­propriate response to his house's threatened extinction byabsorption into the duchy of Brittany: a cri of "Mayennelives!" There seems little doubt that Jeanne gave thistomb, and in the early 1260's.

The 1260's is also the most likely period for Jeanne'sequally lavish commission of the vast stained-glass ensem­ble in the south clerestory of Le Mans Cathedral. It mustdate after 1250, when she was free to remarry; it is onlylikely following 1254, when the cathedral was consecratedin great haste with only a few windows in place;42 and itmost probably predates the tragedy of her son Pierre'spremature death, or at the latest the death of Jeanne her­self, which can be placed no later than 1269.43 Its commis­sion can be narrowed down further. To return for a mo­ment to the hypothesis that Jeanne commissioned [uhel'senameled tomb: it is decorated with arms of Avaugour(the family which his daughter Marguerite married intoand which by 1257 inherited Mayenne) and of Vendome(the family of his daughter Jeanne's first marriage), but it

,. Busson-Ledru. 140, lists Pierre's obit on June 21: "Sic obiit Petrus deVidocino. filius nobilis viri Petri, comitis Vidocinensis. cantorCenornanensis. qui, dum esset canonicus Carnotensis et utriusque ec­clesie Turonensis, cupiens arnore sciencie exulare. studiorum cause,Bononiam profectus, ibidem, in Flore juventutis. diem clausit extremum."See also Broussillon, 129.

.0 See n. 20 supra.

U Adhernar Nos. 265,323,446; 267.

42 Her third son, Geoffroy, who inherited his mother's own lands of LaChartre-sur-Loir and Lassay, was confirming donations made by his an­cestors in 1269 and 1272. His eldest brother, Bouchard, was dead by1271, passing Vendorne to his children; and his brother, Jean, went withSaint Louis on crusade in 1270 and was dead at least by 1283. (Anselrne.VIII, 725; Angot. 532, an account marred by several errors.)

"Neither does [uhel's tomb decoration include either of the coats ofarms of Isabelle's two husbands. She is therefore unlikely to have beenits donor; and Marguerite was deceased well before the date of the tomb

has no arms representing either of the two husbands of hisdaughter Isabelle (d. 1256/57). Isabelle is therefore un­likely to have been its donor, and Marguerite was deceasedlong before any date of the tomb that can be possible onstylistic grounds. Nor did [uhel's enameled tomb displayarms of the Brienne type. As Jeanne's gift, it wouldtherefore predate her hypothetical marriage into thatfamily, and the commission of the stained glass which in­cludes her arms of Mayenne coupled with Brienne. A ten­tative chronology may thus be set up as follows: 1256/57Isabelle dies, and her nephew Alain inherits Mayenne;1258-1264 Alain sells parcels of lands, and the tomb of[uhel is commissioned by Jeanne; 1265-69, Jeanne'sremarriage, the commission of stained glass of Le Mans,and Jeanne's death.

The window, like the patriarch's tomb, is a cribut moreprobably one of celebration: a new marriage, or perhapsher young son Pierre's brilliant rise to the precentorship inthe cathedral. The line-up of bishops in the upper row ofthe lancets supports the latter theory, since there was atradition at Le Mans of raising the precentor to thebishopric: Bishop Geoffroy de Loudun (builder of theGothic choir, d. 1255), his successor Guillaume Roland (d.1258), and the scholar-bishop Geoffroy d' Asse, elected in1270, all had served as precentors.w Indeed, the window'ssubject matter includes no hint whatever of tension or oftrauma and is, moreover, based upon a cheerful pun.

The PunThis section should more accurately be entitled "ThePuns" since the window's imagery is laced with them. Iwill begin, however, with the one that is most central andthat has stumped modern observers: the four pairs of tric­trac players in the lower row of the window (Fig. 8).

The players are not pairs of lovers, as in so manyfourteenth-century ivories.s! nor are they opposed in dressor demeanor as in occasional allegories of fortuna, goodversus evil.46 Moreover, they are not playing tric-trac,since that specialized form of the medieval game of"tables" was only invented in France ca. 1500.47The fourgames in progress in the lower window area are actually

that is possible on stylistic grounds.

.. Leonce Celier, Catalogue des actes des eveques du Mans jusqu'a /a findu Xllle sii?cle, Paris, 1910, 278, 312, 332.

., Since it was acceptable to visit a lady in her chamber to play chess withher, the "value of chess to the lover was actual": Murray, 1913, 436-37.Examples: Louis Grodecki, luoires [rancais, Paris, 1947, pl. XL; OlivierBeigbeder. "Ieu des rois, roi des jeux, le jeu dechecs." Archeologia, VIII,

1906,62-63.

•• William L. Tronzo. "Moral hieroglyphs: Chess and dice at San Savinoin Piacenza." Gesta, xVI/2, 1977, 15-26; Florence McCulloch, "TheFuneral of Renart the Fox in a Walters Book of Hours," Journal of theWalters Art Gallery, XXV-XXVI, 1962-63, fig. 2 and p. 14, n. 17. For a listof games between a well-dressed man and a bald, half-nude adversary,see: Lilian M. C. Randall. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts,Berkeley, 1966, 79, figs. 103, 105. Allegories of chess in moral literatureare discussed by Murray, 1913, chap. v.

" Mentioned, for example, in Rabelais. See Murray, 1952, 119, 124.

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two cartoons each repeated in different colored glass.wand thus two separate games are shown: a game playedwith dice and tablemen on a backgammon board, one ofthe medieval" jeux de tables" ;49 and a game played on achessboard, possibly checkers (British draughts) sincechessmen cannot be seen in the image.so These games willbe discussed briefly with reference to the thirteenth cen­tury and Anglo-French usage.

The importance of games in medieval life is well es­tablished. "The favorite pastimes of the crusaders weresex, dicing, and checkers ... ," according to Urban TignorHolmes.51 The varieties of backgammon known as"tables" were introduced to France during the eleventhcentury and became enormously popular for informalgambling. Murray states: 52 "Against this popularity oftables the Church waged a long and losing war. In 1254 St.Louis IX of France not only forbade his court officials toplay tables but extended the prohibition to all his sub­jects...." The name" tables" (always plural) derives notfrom the board but from the pieces, each of which wascalled a table, and the medieval phrase luderead tabulas orjoueraux tables "is in fact as vague as our phrase to playat cards," there being no specific game with the name oftables. The forces of one player were called his familia, hishalf of the board his casa or domus.n

Thus it is reasonable to suggest that the basis of the punat Le Mans is jeux (= Iuhel), The name [uhel, a contractionof [udicael and normally spelled [uhellus or Iuellus inLatin documents, appears in a French chart of 1340 whichmentions the protagonists already introduced: 54

"Ensement, Missires Iuhes de Ma'ienne ot trois filles: des­quelles Missires Dreues de Mellot ot l'ainznee 0 toutes lesBaronnies de Maienne. Et Missires Henris Davaugor,l'autre, apres. Et Missires Pierres qui fut Conte deVendome, l'autre." The vowel sound of jeu would be iden-

" In Hucher (as in n. 4, 1865) the two cartoons are described alternatingacross the bottom row. The glass has since been arranged so that thebackgammon game is shown in the right two lancets and the chessboardgame in the left two.

•• In addition to Murray, 1952, 117f.. see idem, "The Mediaeval Gamesof Tables," Medium Aevum, x. 2, 57-69; Willard Fiske, Chess in Iceland,Florence, 1905, 157-79.

so Both the backgammon board and the chessboard have been halved, butthe artist did this no doubt for legibility at the very great distance fromthe viewer. Murray, 1913, 473, n, 52, comments upon the inexactitude ofdepictions of chessboards in medieval manuscript illuminations.

"A History of the Crusades, IV: The Art and Architecture of theCrusader States, ed. H. Hazard, Madison, Wise., 1977, 18, citing [oinville(chap. LXXVII) and William of Tyre. For illustrations of both backgam­mon and chessboards in use in illustrations of William of Tyre, see HugoBuchthal. Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ox­ford, 1957, pl. 133; [aroslav Folda, Crusader Manuscript 111umination ofSaint-Jean d'Acre, 1272-1292, Princeton, 1976, 33-34, nn.; pI. 154. TheCarmina Burana manuscript (MunichClm 4660-466a, ca. 1220-1230) il­lustrates such games on fols. 91-92: Bernhard Bischoff, ed., CarminaBlIrana, Munich and Brooklyn, 1967. Illustrations of medievalgameboards, tablemen, instruction books, and dice may be found inMetropolitan Museum of Art, The Secular Spirit, New York, 1975, 210­14. Alfonso X's elaborate instruction book of games was written in 1283:

THE TRIC- TRAC WINDOW OF lE MANS 29

tical with the initial vowel sound of [uhel, and in thenomina tive (Juhels) the final " I" has dropped outaltogether. 55

But if the pun is based upon jeux = [uhel, it is muchmore elaborate than that, as will be seen from a brief in­vestigation of the second game. Draughts or Americancheckers, invented in the twelfth century most probably inSpain or southern France, is played on the chessboard andtook its medieval name - as did tables - from the name ofthe pieces.56 A simplified, shortened derivative of chess(more suitable for light gambling), its pieces were namedafter the chess queen, since the moves derive from thequeen's oblique move in medieval chess. Since the chessqueen was originally called fers (derived from Arabic) thegame in Old French was fierges, a term in use ca. 1150­1400; but when the chess queen changed her name (toregina, domina, dame) the name of this game became jeude dames. The chess queen is regina as early as the Ein­siedeln Poem of the eleventh century; by the thirteenthcentury regina and fers are in equal but illogical use;domina, dame, etc. are common in the fourteenth centuryand thereafter. 57 Draughts first appears as "lew-de-dame"in the poem "Sir Ferumbras" (ca. 1380).58

The pun that I am getting at is ieu de dames = dames de[uhel, i.e., the three daughters in the lancet to the right ofthe "tric-trac" players, as well as Jeanne in her heraldicsurcoat to the left. But is the term jeu de dames datable asearly as the 1260's? Probably not, as a name for the gameof draughts. About the game of dames (draughts) Murrayremarks: 59 "Five mentions of draughts between 1200 and1500 do not point to any great popularity in the MiddleAges. There are many ecclesiastical ordinances and towncustomals of the period, but none mentions draughts. It isdifficult to resist the conclusion that the game cannot havebeen very widely known before 1500." It is not necessary,

Alfonso X el Sabio, Libros de Acadrex, Dados e Tablas, ed. A. Steiger,Geneva, 1941.

52 Murray, 1952, 117-19. In the Le Mans window they are playing theWestern form using three dice, which Murray says "survived the fall ofthe Roman Empire:' rather than the Muslim type with two dice.

5J Murray (as in n. 49),57-58; idem, 1952, 117-18.

.. Gilles Menage (as in n. 18), gives this text in Livre 6, pp. 48, 176, 187.On p. 185 he discusses the source of the name [uhel in [udicael, and givesvarious Latin spellings he has found, including the Anglo-NormanGihellus in a chart of 1135. In 13th-century Breton and Angevin docu­ments, the charts that I have examined, the initial letter is no longer" G."

55 I would like to thank Professor Brian Merrillees of the University ofToronto for information on the phonological question.

,. The information in this paragraph is based on Murray, 1913,615-16,idem, 1952,72-76; Fiske (as in n. 49), 92-97.

57 Murray, 1913, 498 (Einsiedeln Poem); 423-28 (regina and fers); 427,616 (domitIa, dame).

,. Sidney J. Herrtage, ed., Sir Ferumbras (Early English Text Society, Ex­tra Series, XXXIV). London, 1903, 74, line 2225. The late 12th-centuryFrench version upon which this poem is based does not use the termdames. By the start of the 16th century in France dames was firmly es­tablished and is used by Rabelais.

59 Murray, 1952, 75-76.

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30 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1983 VOLUME LXV NUMBER 1

however, for us to conclude that the window reflects whatwould be a precociously early use of the name jeu dedames for a game of rare medieval occurrence under anyname. There is a more probable explanation, one thatemphasizes the Anglo-Norman character of a man like[uhel de Mayenne whose family had served on both sidesof the Channel.60

Although checkers was not notably common in the thir­teenth century, there was another game using thechessboard that was popular, and for the same reasonsthat the game of tables was so appealing: it was quickerthan chess, and it could involve wagering. This was the"game-position" or "chess problem,"61borrowed from theArabs and known in the West by the mid-thirteenth cen­tury as locus partitus (Lat.), jeu parti (Fr.), gui parti(Anglo-Fr.), jupertie (mid. Engl.), ieupardyes (Chaucer),the modern word jeopardy. By ca. 1260 the word had ex­panded from its literal meaning of "divided play or game,even game" to idiomatic usage, "a position in a game, un­dertaking, etc., in which the chance of winning and losinghang in the balance; ... an undecided state of affairs; un­certainty.. , ,"62 This was precisely the situation with theinheritance of Mayenne when Jeanne gave the window­jeupartie - and she could afford to pun on the state of af­fairs since, unlike her Breton grand-niece and nephew, shecould not by any chance have a personal gain or loss. Herown lands were intact and she puns on them, too, as willbe seen. But we have not finished with the puns on thechessboard, which are further enriched since the board it­self is depicted in the Le Mans window not in the normalred and white, or blue and white,63 but in most unusualcolors indeed. In heraldic blazon they would be: echiqueted'or et d'azur aune bordure de gueules. Thus, they are thearms of the Duke of Brittany64 who had just purchased[uhel's Breton lands from his foolish grandson.

Because Jeanne was of Anglo-Norman roots, the pun onthe game of ieupartie undoubtedly appealed to her for afurther reason, one I have already alluded to above - theieu de dames - and which requires further investigation.Unlike the two great medieval compilations of chessproblems of northeastern French and of Italian origin(respectively known as Bonus Socius and Civis Bononiaefrom the pseudonyms of their compilersj.v the earliestAnglo-Norman problem collections add short titles or

eo [uhel was among the Breton and border barons who aligned withPhilippe Auguste; but until Mauclerc was stripped of power by SaintLouis, the Maine and Anjou remained politically volatile.

•, Alfonso X includes 103 game problems in his manual written in 1283(Fols. 5v-64r) and states that they are popular because chess itself is longand tedious. The real reason was probably that they adapted easily tobetting: see Murray, 1913, 568-73 (Alfonso X's chess problems), 454,565 (reasons for the popularity of chess problems).

.2 Murray, 1913, 566. My argument in this paragraph is based on infor­mation in his chaps. VI and VII, dealing with the medieval chess problem.

.J Black and white were standard, but of course black is impossible in thestained-glass medium; red and white, and blue and white, are common.The illuminations of the Voeux de Paon manuscript also show black andred, black and yellow: Oxford Bodleian MS 264, fol. 128. (Murray, 1913,452-53.)

11, A-B Anglo-Norman gamebook: "Le guy de dames" andgameboard. Brit. Lib, King's MS 13, A. xviii, fo!' 161 v (by permis­sion of the British Library)

mottoes to each problem, along with a few chatty orliterary remarks. Early examples are from Dorsetshire,datable 1272/73, and reflect a lost common prototype: forexample, Brit. Lib. Cotton MS Cleopatra, B, ix: and Brit.Lib., King's MS 13, A. xviii (Fig. 11). Thus in the latter,Problem 4 is entitled "Le guy de dames"; Problem 5, "Leguy de damoyseles"; Problem 47, "Le guy de dames & dedamoyceles," the commentary referring to Tristram,Ysoude, and "Brengueyn." The verbiage of Problem 4begins: 66

•• The arms of Brittany were those of the house of Dreux cadenced with afranc-quartier of vair, since Pierre Mauclerc (father of the duke whobought [uhel's lands) was a cadet of the Dreux family and used the vairprevious to his marriage with the Breton duchess. See Painter (as in n.26). 30, n. 94. Mauclerc's arms can be seen in the Chartres south rose.The vair did not fit the pun at Le Mans since the famous Dreux..checkerboard" has indeed become a checkerboard.

.5 Bonus Socius is 13th-century in origin and probably northeasternFrench. An illustration from an early 14th-century Picard manuscript(pierpont Morgan MS 108) can be found in The Secular Spirit (as in n.51), 213. On the date and place of origin of these two compilations, seeMurray, 1913, 565 and chap. vii.

ee Brit. Lib., King's MS 13, A. xviii, fol. 67. Murray, 1913, prints extractsof many of the Anglo-Norman rhymed problems, 583-607.

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Apres les guys de chivalerDe guy de dames volie parlerE pur ceo ke ou dames est la medleLe guy de dames si est nome.

Thus the double puns on "dames de Iuhel" and on"jeopardy" arise from the same image of two players gam­ing over a chessboard.

Having unlocked these puns, it is not difficult torecognize the rest. Indeed, the window is a vast rebus onJeanne's name. The first of these references is to Mayenne(maienne, maine, maigne, magnus): great, large. OldFrench documents of the 1260's-1280's already callJeanne's nephew"saingnor de Maenne. "67 This is the termused for Charlemagne, Alexander, Constantine, and suchheroes in the romances.s- Thus is explained the greatheight of the two outermost bishops saints in the win­dow's upper row, giants a full head taller than theirfellows (Fig. 2). They are maienne.

Jeanne in her own right was domina of La Chartre-sur­Loir, and another group of puns concern this title. Chartre(Lat. career) is the word used in chartreuse, charterhouse,and refers to the individual hermitages or cells; it is alsothe word for priscn.s" In the window, the cells (Fig. 7) aredepicted across the bottom of the lancets, a succession oftwelve vaulted, empty units which have never beforeelicited the briefest comment in publication. They are lachartre.

There was, in addition, a type of gaming dice referred toin the fabliaux by the name of dez de Chartrests - a sec­ondary pun on the dice in use by the players of tables(Fig. 5).

The final references to Jeanne's name in the windowconcern her Christian name, and more directly. The up­permost trefoil at the top of the window, in the mid­nineteenth century, still contained parts of an inscriptionread by Hucher"! as: I 0 H E S r (see Fig. 2). The agnus deiwhich Hucher also saw in the left ecoinfon of the tracery(Fig. 2) still exists, and provides the explanation, areference to Jeanne's name-saint John the Baptist. Thoughname-saints are not expected until the fourteenth cen­tury,72 I have discovered several in western France, thispresent example being the earliest. The proof at Le Mans isin the clerestory window directly opposite on the north,

• 7 Broussillon, Nos. 546. 805.

ee Tobler-Lommatzsch Alijranzosisches Worterbuch, v , 790, "maigne.maine adj."; La Currie de Sainte-Palaye, VII, 227, "maine."

ec Tobler-Lommatzsch, 11, col. 291; La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, Ill, 406.On the etymology of the name of the terre and village of La Chartre, seeDenis,17.

70 LaCurrie de Sainte-Palaye, Ill, 407.

71 Hucher; see n. 9 supra.

7l See my article "The Choir Clerestory Windows of La Trinite atVendome- Dating and Patronage," Journal of the Society of Architec­tural Historians, October, 1975, 246.

7l The cartoon is reversed from one in the traceries of clerestoriesabutting the crossing, depicting Saints Pavace and Thuribe, companionsof Saint Julien (patron of the cathedral).

THE TRIC· TRAC WINDOW OF LE MANS 31

given by IOHES DE FRENEIO (Johannes de Fresneio,Jean de Fresnay). The agnus dei disc occurs in the tracerythere too.

And finally there are the pair of deacon and priestsaints,73 not mentioned by Hucher, and heavily restored(Fig. 6). If they originate in these traceries, they no doubtrepresent Saints Gervais and Protais, shown thus (ton­sured, one as a deacon, holding a book) in the Le Mans ax­ial bay, upper ambulatory. They refer to Jeanne's alias (nodoubt her baptized name): Gervaise.

In summary: The tric-trac window of Le Mans wasdonated by Jeanne de Mayenne, domina of La Chartre­sur-Loir, most probably between 1265 and 1269. It is evenpossible that Saint Louis' judgment in 1267 - though itdid not specifically involve Mayenne - prompted hercommission of the stained glass. Its heraldry includes arare example of a woman's cadence or "badge," aboutwhich we know almost nothing; its identifications includethe precocious use of name-saints; its game puns informus about the popularity of tables and of chess problems(jeupartiez) in mid-thirteenth-century France, before thegreat compilations of Alfonso el Sabio and the BonusSocius had yet appeared; and we are allowed a privilegedglimpse of noble concerns, mores, and wit in the borderlands of Saint Louis' kingdom.

Le Mans and BourgesThe rebus in this window is so complex that it almoststands alone in high Gothic usage. To what can this typeof punning be related? In the fourteenth century, I knowof two such name puns, in manuscripts. One is theFranco-Flemish Hours of Marguerite de Beaujeu, dated af­ter 1318 (Pierpont Morgan MS 754), where the marginaliainclude a vast array of board games, dice games, jongleurs,players of musical instruments, and so on. 74 The other isthe Luttrell Psalter of ca. 1340 (Brit. Mus. Add. 42130),75where the many sports, musicians, and games in themarginalia may pun on Latin (ludes). I would suggestfurther than the common scene of a couple playing chesson fourteenth-century ivories may not only depict courtlylife but pun on "ieu, jeu d'amors," "jeu [rancoie" - in theRomances long established as meaning coitus. 76 The suc­cession of scenes on the coffret of Saint Ursula, Cologne;"seems to make this reference to lovemaking clear.

74 See Les Heures de Marguerite de Beaujeu, ed. T. Belin, Paris, 1925.(The Pierpont Morgan manuscript is the second half; the first half[British Library Add. 36684] does not contain game puns.) See the lists inRandall under these headings for folio references.

75 See Eric George Millar, intro., The Luttrell Psalter, London, 1932, in­dex (pp. 59-61) for many entries for games, dances, backgammon,musical instruments, wrestling, performing animals, etc.

7. Tobler-Lommatzsch, IV, cols. 1669-70.

71 Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du moyen age, Fribourg, 1978, Cat.Nos. 239, 240. p. 209. Such sexual puns are much older in literature, forexample Guillaume IX de Poitiers' poem "Ben vuelh que sapchon Iipluzor." which ends in a coitus described in terms of a dice board game.(Alfred [eanroy, ed.. Les Chansons de Guillaume IX, duc d'Aquitaine(1071-1127) [1913] Paris, 1967). I would like to thank Vivian Mann forinformation about this poem.

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32 THE ART BUllETIN MARCH 1983 VOLUME LXV NUMBER 1

But the game-puns of the Le Mans window also can berelated to earlier examples in the same medium of stainedglass - at both Chartres and Bourges - and suggest thatwe have been blind to many of the references in cathedralglazing. 78 At Chartres the game image is found in thesouth choir clerestory, Delaporte Bay lOS, with the in­scription'? VITREA: COLINI: D / ECAMA REGIS, andif it is a pun, it remains obscure to me. No pun is possibleon "game of kings" since chess was not so called until thefifteenth century.w If Colin was indeed a subaltern of theking, as Delaporte suggests, perhaps his boring joballowed him the opportunity to become adept at chess.

The Bourges image (Fig. 12) is, on the contrary, clearly arebus of some sort, though I cannot claim to have solved iteither. It occurs as the lower signature of the window ofSaint Ursin (first bishop saint of Bourges) in the upperambulatory. What gives it away as a cryptogram is thepresence of a cock to the right. Connected to it, possibly, isthe window of the most recent bishop saint of Bourges,

7> I specify cathedral glazing because it is my impression that monasticprograms did not allow for such secular punning. being generally muchmore tightly knit and theologically rich. See my paper "Monastic StainedGlass: Patronage and Style." Monasticism and the Arts. Syracuse.forthcoming.

N Yves Delaporte. Les vitraux de la cathedrale de Chartres. Chartres.1920. text vol. pp. 444-46; Ill. pl. ccxm.

12, A-B BourgesCathedral, clerestorywindows withstanding bishop saints,female donor,gameboard rebus (afterClement and Guitard)

Guillaume (d. 1209), over the "signature image" of akneeling noblewoman offering a window beneath. Her in­scription says MATILDIS COMTIS, and she is usuallyidentified as the Countess of Nevers (d. 1257), niece ofSaint Cuillaume.u

The Bourges windows are interesting here - even iftheir rebus guards its secret - since on the basis of thiscomparison it can be hypothesized that they are the sourceof the program in the vast Le Mans window of over ageneration later - and, by extension, of the great sequenceof standing bishops filling the clerestories of the entiresouth flank of the Le Mans choir (Fig. 1). The frontalbishop saints, the board game, the kneeling countessholding her window - all are repeated at Le Mans.Bourges thus joins the monuments whose forms are said tobe absorbed into the eclectic world of the Le Mans glass:the Ste.-Chapelle of Paris, which has been suggested as themodel for most of the medallions in the upper ambulatoryof Le Mans;82 and the late style durci of Chartres, which

'0 Murray. 1913.400. n. 21.

" S. Clement and A. Guitard, Vitraux de Bourges: Vitraux du Xllle sieclede la cathedrale de Bourges, Bourges, 1900. 81. n. 1, repeats this iden­tification from Cahier-Martin and offers another: Mahaud de Mehun,wife of Robert de Courtenay.

., Crodecki, 81-82. 87.

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has been suggested as the source for the axial window ofthe Le Mans upper ambulatory as well as a trio of unusualwindows in the Le Mans clerestory. 53

The origins of Le Mans are complex and difficult to fac­tor, however, because style and form do not derive fromthe same model. In the case of the medallion windows ofthe Le Mans upper ambulatory, there is too much greenand their medallion shapes are too abrupt and angular tobe considered really Parisian; Crodeckiw and others haveemphasized that the suggested relationship to Paris cannotbe direct. Similarly, the trio of Le Mans clerestories in thestyle durci, which Grodecki has related to the Master ofSt. Cheron at Chartres, is noteworthy for an unusual colorharmony that is not at all Chartrain: strongly blue, withalmost no red at all, the deep tonality enlivened with areasof white and yellow. 85 Color, facture, decorativevocabulary, and format are almost never parallel in­fluences in the Le Mans ensemble. Moreover these"foreign" influences at Le Mans are not strictly contem­porary, since the program was begun well before mid­century and was still in progress near 1270. What does theaddition of Bourges into this complicated equation revealabout the glazing of Le Mans?

It seems obvious that the various Le Mans artists werenot trained in Paris, or at Chartres Cathedral - rather,they had been sent there, as it were, to take notes. In thecase of the" tric-trac" window, this type of relationshipwith Bourges is most convincing. The "foreign" in­fluences at Le Mans thus do not reflect much about theregional artists and their formation in the shop but theyreflect a great deal about a certain kind of provincialpatronage.

Thus while at Chartres the Le Mans artists studied notonly the north rose lancets (borrowed in the Le Mans axialbay, upper ambulatory) and the south rose lancets(borrowed with more verve in the pig-a-back figure in theclerestory north of axial), they also saw the impressivestone jamb statues of the Chartres transept porches withtheir distinctive attributes and their remarkable socles. Forthese too find echoes in several north clerestories at LeMans. Artists sent to Bourges found decorative formulae:Grodecki has pointed out the mosaic filler in the tracery

oJ Bays 200, 201 right lancet, and 211: Grodecki, 93; idem "Lesproblemes de l'origine de la peinture gothique et Ie 'maitre de saintCheron' de la cathedrale de Chartres," Revue de I'art, Nos. 40-41, 1978,o l , The style dllrci is dated by Grodecki 1230-1250 and thus theseclerestories would have been in place before the Le Mans consecration of1254. I would agree, based on their stylistic relationship to the Saint-Petechoir and their strong blue coloration. See n. 85 injra.

" Grodecki, 87: " ... mais il ne saurait etre question de voir au Mans lestravaux des verriers qui ont peint les verrieres parisiennes.... "

THE TRIC-TRAC WINDOW OF LE MANS 33

lights; 56 and one could add the latticework grounds behindsome of the monumental saints (Fig. 12). Bourgesprovided the venerable model for the archaic sequence ofbishops and deacons stretched along the south clerestoriesof Le Mans'" - as well as the germ of the idea for theenigmatic young men depicted in the row directly beneath,playing at their eternal games of "tric-trac."

Syracuse UniversitySyracuse, NY 13210

Bibliography

Adhemar. Jean, "Les tombeaux de la collection Caignieres," Gazette desbeaux-arts, 6th ser., LXXXIV, July-September, 1974,5-192.

Angot. Alphonse, Ge.H?alogies feodales mayellllaises du Xle au Xlllesiecle, Laval. 1942.

Anselme, Pere, Histoire gellealogique et chrollologique de fa maisOIlroyale de Frallce, Paris, 1726-1733.

Broussillon, Bertrand de, Cartulaire de l'ev2che du Mans (936-1790)(Archives historiques du Maine, I), Le Mans, 1900.

Busson, G., and A. Ledru, Necrologe-Obituaire de la cathedrale du Mans(Archives historiques du Maine, VII), Le Mans, 1906.

Couffon, Rene, "Quelques notes sur les seigneurs d'Avaugour." Societed'emlllatioll des Ctnes-du-Nord, Bulletill et memoires, LXV, 1933,81-141.

Denis, Abbe L.-J., Histoire de la ville et du chateau de la Chartre-sur-le­Loir, La Chartre-sur-le-Loir. 1965.

Douet-dArcq, L., Collection de sceaux, Paris, 1863.

Geslin de Bourgogne, J. and A. de Barthelemy, Anciens ev2ches deBretaglle, histoire et monuments, Paris, 1864.

Grodecki, Louis, "Les vitraux de la cathedrale du Mans," Congresarcheologiqlle, CXIX, 1961,59-99.

Hucher. Eugene, Vitraux peints de fa cathedrale de MailS, Paris, 1865.

La Curne de Sainte-Palaye. Dictionllaire historique de I'ancien fangage[rancois, Paris, 1880.

Murray, Harold J.R., The History of Chess, Oxford, 1913.

__, A History of Board-Games Other than Chess, Oxford, 1952.

Tobler-Lommatzsch Altfranzosisches Worterbuch, Wiesbaden, 1963.

esNot from Chartres cathedral. that is. These are the "blue bays" of LeMans, which repeat the tonality of the oldest glass at Sr-Pere de Chartres(now reused in the straight choir in vertical band windows). Lillich, TheStained Glass of Saint-Pere de Chartres, Middletown, Conn., 1978, 31,col. pis. II and Ill.

ee Grodecki, 89.

"The third bay (see Fig. 1 where it is somewhat lighter), destroyed instorms in the early 19th century, also contained frontal bishops, one ofwhich has been at least partially preserved among debris now in a northchapel. This is the panel mentioned by Grodecki, 81.

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