38 ON COLOUR. Part I. 



coloured light. They have, by way of distinction, been called 

 medallion windows: as those with figures of saints under 

 canopies have received the name of canopied windows* 



27. The medallion window belongs to that period when 

 single lights, either roundheaded or lancet shape, were used, 

 though it was also continued, particularly in France, long after 

 the mullioned window had taken the place of the single lancet. 

 Subjects selected from the Bible and Testament are repre- 

 sented in the medallions, where the figures are few, and dis- 

 tinct, as in antique compositions. The medallions themselves 

 are circular or oval, trefoils or quatrefoils, or of other shapes, 

 each containing its separate picture ; while some of larger size 

 are subdivided into two or more compartments, each having 

 its own subject; and the greatest variety of the forms and 

 arrangements of the medallions may be seen in the beautiful 

 windows of the cathedrals of Eheims, Chartres, Bourges, 

 Auxerre, and Sens, the Sainte-Chapelle, and other French 

 churches. The intermediate spaces between the medallions, 

 extending to the border of each light, are occupied by the 

 mosaic ground, consisting of one uniform pattern, on which 

 the medallions are supposed to be placed ; and at each side 

 next to the border is a section of the prevailing medallion, or 

 some other geometrical device. The ground is formed of 

 crossing lines, or an imbricated or other design, or a running 

 pattern of scroll-work or arabesque foliage. 



The pattern of crossing lines and the imbricated one being 

 both very common in architecture, on the flat surfaces of walls, 

 at this and at an earlier (Norman) period, they may have been 



* These last were also contemporary with the later medallion style ; and 

 some good specimens of canopied glass windows, with single figures, are found 

 in cathedrals of the same period, as in the apse and choir of Rheims and 

 others. (See that useful work, " Monographic de la Cathedrale de Bourges," 

 PI. xviii. xxn. xxiii. xxv.) Their effect was not then impaired by the opaque 

 shadows and the heaviness of the canopies of a subsequent age, as in La- 

 steyrie, PI. l. of 1400 a. d. and others. 



