The Visual Hagiography of St. Margaret of Antioch in Thirteenth-Century Stained Glass in Europe Público

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the visual hagiography of the early Christian virgin martyr St. Margaret of Antioch in thirteenth-century stained glass in Europe at the French cathedrals of Chartres and Auxerre, the French church of Saint-Julien-du-Sault, and the Church of St. Margaret at Ardagger Abbey in Austria. These monumental narratives depicting Margaret's life have not been seriously studied. Research on Margaret focuses on her textual vitae and on her role as a patroness of childbirth. In contrast, I demonstrate that conceptions of Margaret in thirteenth-century stained glass are more nuanced, tailored to each unique context through the window's location within the church's sacred topography and through its relationship with surrounding imagery and the church's liturgical rituals. Each window expresses a different version of Margaret's life through the scenes selected to depict her story and through the use of diverse narrative strategies. Furthermore, stained glass involved both the laity and clergy in its production, reflecting institutional identity and programmatic thinking, while also drawing on lay patrons. I argue that the patrons of these windows used these highly visible visual narratives to claim Margaret for their own purposes, including promoting the saint's local relics, highlighting the saint's intercessory efficacy, encouraging devotion to the saint, or conveying moral models for viewers. Chapter one examines the history of Margaret's cult and vitae. Chapter two discusses the historiography of the cult of saints and stained glass. Chapter three considers the Margaret window at Auxerre, which cleaves closely to her textual vita and emphasizes her tortures and the witnesses to her suffering. A consideration of the nearby Margaret window at Saint-Julien-du-Sault reveals the significance of multiple depictions of Margaret within close geographic proximity. Chapter four examines the window depicting Margaret at Chartres, where she appears less like a virgin martyr and more similar to the confessor saints surrounding her through an omission of her tortures. Chapter five discusses the window of Margaret at Ardagger Abbey. At Ardagger, Latin verse inscriptions surrounding each scene of Margaret's life offer commentary on and interpretations of the imagery that encouraged prolonged contemplation on the significance of Margaret's passion.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Who is St. Margaret of Antioch?. 1

The Late-Medieval Margaret, the Dragon, and Childbirth. 3

Margaret in the Thirteenth Century. 11

Chapter 1: Margaret's Vitae, Cult, and Early Pictorial Representations.17

Margaret's Textual Vitae. 17

Early Pictorial Vitae of Margaret. 27

Evidence for the Cult of Margaret. 35

Chapter 2: Historiography of the Cult of Saints and Stained Glass. 41

The Historical Preference for Texts Evidence. 43

The Expansion of Hagiographic Studies. 48

Art History and the Cult of Saints. 51

Vitreous Vitae: The Saints in Stained Glass. 55

Female Sanctity and Virgin Martyrs. 60

Chapter 3: Witnessing the Martyr: The Windows of St. Margaret of Antioch at the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne, Auxerre, and the Church of St. Peter, Saint-Julien-du-Sault. 67

Gothic Stained Glass at Auxerre Cathedral. 68

Situating the Margaret Window. 74

Narrative Strategies within the Window. 78

Margaret's Imprisonment. 80

Margaret's Witnesses. 84

Margaret's Suffering. 87

Saints, Bishops, and Laity at Auxerre Cathedral. 94

Margaret in the Milieu: Saint-Julien-du-Sault. 100

The Margaret Window in the Church of St. Peter. 101

The Martyr's Movement. 104

Chapter 4: From Suffering to Slaying: Margaret as a Confessor Saint at Chartres Cathedral. 109

Situating the Window in Space and Time. 110

Creating Meaning through Location. 116

Torture in the Window. 125

Death and Bodily Remains in the Window. 129

Preaching and Conversion. 132

Margaret, Childbirth, and the Virgin Mary. 135

Seeing the Window in a Liturgical Context. 141

Canons and Patrons. 147

Chapter 5: Image and Inscription in the Margaret Window at Ardagger Abbey. 152

The Architectural History of Ardagger Abbey. 154

The Window's Location and Composition. 158

Reading the Images. 170

Reading the Inscriptions. 175

The Function of the Margaret Window. 195

The Margaret Window in the Seventeenth Century. 200

Conclusion. 210

More Thirteenth-Century Windows. 212

Seeing Margaret in Later Centuries. 219

A Return to Margaret and the Dragon. 222

Appendix I: Ardagger Window Inscriptions. 223

Appendix II: St. Margaret or St. Agatha?. 225

Figures. 226

Bibliography. 320

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Art History
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Art History
Palavra-chave	Stained Glass France Catholic Church Female Saints Narrative Cult of Saints Christianity Virgin Martyrs Hagiography Medieval St. Margaret of Antioch Austria
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Pastan, Elizabeth, Emory University
Committee Members	Melion, Walter S, Emory University Caviness, Madeline, Tufts University McPhee, Sarah C., Emory University

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