Editing Rose window (section)

== History ==

=== Origin ===

The origin of the rose window may be found in the [[Roman architecture|Roman]] [[Oculus (architecture)|oculus]].  These large circular openings let in both light and air, the best known being that at the top of the dome of the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]]. Geometrical patterns similar to those in rose windows occur in [[Roman mosaic]]s. 

The German art historian Otto von Simson considered that the origin of the rose window lay in a window with the [[hexafoil|six-lobed]]<!---DON'T delete the hyphen. It will change the meaning.---> rosettes and [[octagon]] which adorned the external wall of the [[Umayyad]] palace [[Khirbat al-Mafjar]] built in Jordan between 740 and 750 CE.  This theory suggests that [[crusaders]] brought the design of this attractive window to Europe, introducing it to churches. But the decorative pattern for rose and, independently, the tracery, are very present in vestiges of the [[Early Christian art and architecture|early Christian architecture]], Byzantine architecture, and especially in [[Merovingian art]], and [[Visigothic art and architecture|Visigothic architecture]] before the Muslim conquest of Spain. But half roses are also known, as with the [[Church of San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato|church of San Juan Bautista]] in Baños de Cerrato. The scarcity and the brittleness of the vestiges of this time does not make it possible to say that complete rose window in tracery did not exist in early Middle Ages.

<gallery>
File:PantheonOculus.jpg|The oculus of the [[Pantheon, Rome]]
File:0 Mosaïque de sol géometrique - Pal. Massimo - Rome.JPG|Roman mosaic. Rome
File:Cancell visigòtic de la cripta arqueològica de la presó de Sant Vicent Màrtir, València.JPG|Common [[Visigothic art|visigothic]] decoration. Archaeological crypt in [[Valencia Cathedral]], 6–7th century
File:Museo - Mezquita de Córdoba.jpg|Visigothic design of roses, preislamic, from [[Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba|basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins of Cordoba]], 6–7th century
File:Missale Gothicum - BAVat. - RegLat317 - f.169-170.jpg|[[Merovingian illumination]] in Missale Gothicum, towards 700. The two large roses are [[Hexafoil|six-lobed]] 
File:Basilica de S. Juan de Baños - Detalle de la Ventana.jpg|Visigothic window with stone tracery, of [[Church of San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato]], 7th century
</gallery>

In [[Early Christian art|Early Christian]] and [[Byzantine architecture]], there are examples of the use of circular oculi. They usually occur either around the drum of a dome, as at the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], [[Jerusalem]], or high in the end of a gable of low-pitched Classical [[pediment]] form, as at [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura]], Rome, and [[Torcello Cathedral]].<ref>Banister Fletcher, ''History of Architecture on the Comparative Method''.</ref>

<gallery>
File:Santa Maria Maggiore September 2015-1a.jpg|Oculus of [[Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore|Santa Maria Maggiore]], Rome, 5th century (decoration is later)
File:Baptistère Saint Jean - intérieur3.JPG|[[Baptistère Saint-Jean|Baptistery of St. John]] of [[Poitiers]], France, 6-7th century
File:Q17 Trieste - Basilica di Sant'Agnese 2.JPG|Oculi of [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura]]
File:Torcello Basilica di S. Maria Assunta.JPG|[[Torcello Cathedral]], Venice
File:Aquileia Basilica, esterno - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto edited.jpg|[[Aquileia]] Basilica, Italy, 11th century
</gallery>

A window of the 8th century, now in [[Venice]], and carved from a single slab, has alternating tracery-like components of two tiers of four ''lancets'' separated by three oculi. Many semicircular windows with pierced tracery exist from the 6th to the 8th century, and later in [[Greece]].<ref name="Banister Fletcher">Banister Fletcher</ref>

Small circular windows such as that at S. Agnese and Torcello as well as unglazed decorative circular recesses continued to be used in churches in Italy, gaining increasing popularity in the later [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque period]].

=== The windows of Oviedo ===
In the vicinity of [[Oviedo]] in Spain are several churches of the late 9th and early 10th century which display a remarkable array of windows containing the earliest examples of roses windows outside the [[Byzantine Empire]].  The designs closely resemble the motifs found on the Byzantine relief carvings of marble [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]], [[pulpit]]s and well heads and pierced decorations of screens and windows of [[Ravenna]] and [[Constantinople]]. The church of [[Church of San Pedro de Nora|San Pedro de Nora]] has at its apsidal end a trio of rectangular windows with pierced decoration of two overlapping circles, the upper containing a [[Greek cross]], the window being divided by the circles and the arms of the cross into numerous sections like tracery "lights".

In another of these churches, [[San Miguel de Lillo]], is the earliest known example of an axially placed oculus with tracery. Several such windows of different sizes exist, and decoration of both Greek Cross and scalloped petal-like form occur, prefiguring both wheel and rose windows.

<gallery>
File:Lillo-1.JPG|[[San Miguel de Lillo]], [[Oviedo]], Spain. Towards 850
File:Oviedo - San Miguel de Lillo 5.jpg|San Miguel de Lillo, detail
File:OviedoSanMiguelFenster.jpg|San Miguel de Lillo, detail
File:Vano_tríforo_de_San_Pedro_de_Nora.jpg|alt=|Rear of [[Church of San Pedro de Nora|San Pedro at Nora]], showing windows with double circle and Greek cross.
</gallery>

=== Romanesque Circular windows ===
Circular windows and decorative circular recesses are a feature of many [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] churches and cathedrals, particularly in Germany and Italy where the style existed for a prolonged period, overlapping the development of Gothic in France and its arrival with French architects in England.

In Germany, [[Worms Cathedral]], has wheel windows in the pedimental ends of its nave and gables, very similar to the Early Christian [[Basilica]] of S. Agnese in Rome. The apsidal western end has a central wheel window with smaller oculi in each face. The Church of the Apostles, [[Cologne]] has an array of both ocular and lobed windows forming decorative features in the gables and beneath the [[Rhenish helm]] [[spire]]. The octagonal [[dome]] has a ring of oculi with two in each of the curved faces.<ref name="Banister Fletcher"/> 
[[File:Avila San Pedro View.jpg|thumb|upright|San Pedro, [[Ávila, Spain|Ávila]], Spain]]
In [[Třebíč]], [[Czech Republic]], is the 12th- and 13th-century Romanesque style Basilica of St Procopius with apsidal windows similar to those at Worms, but in this case the openings are filled with tracery of a Gothic form, clearly marking the transition to a new style.

In Italy, the use of circular motifs in various media was a feature of church facades, occurring on [[Early Christian art|Early Christian]], [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]], [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]], [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance]] and [[Baroque architecture|Baroque]] churches, a well-known example being those great circles in [[polychrome]] marble which complement the central circular window on [[Leon Battista Alberti|Alberti's]] Early Renaissance façade at [[Santa Maria Novella]] in [[Florence]].<ref>Joseph Rykwert, ''Leonis Baptiste Alberti, Architectural Design'', Vol 49 No 5–6, Holland St, London</ref> Oculi were also typically used in the drums supporting domes and as upper lights in octagonal baptisteries such as that at [[Cremona]].

Romanesque facades with oculi include [[San Miniato al Monte]], [[Florence]], 11th century, [[Pavia|San Michele, Pavia]], c. 1117, and [[Pistoia]] Cathedral, 1150. As the windows increased in size in the later Romanesque period, wheel windows became a standard feature of which there are fine examples at [[Verona|San Zeno Maggiore, Verona]] and [[Monza]] Cathedral.<ref name="Banister Fletcher"/>

On the Romanesque façade of [[Spoleto]] Cathedral there is a profusion of recessed and traceried oculi surrounding the central features of a rose window set within a square beneath a large mosaic of 1207.

In England there exist five Romanesque wheel windows, notably those at [[Barfreston]] and [[Castle Hedingham]] parish churches.

=== St Denis, Chartres, Mantes, Laon and Paris ===
[[File:20050921CathChartresB.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Chartres Cathedral]]]] 
[[File:060806-France-Paris-Notre Dame.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Notre Dame, Paris]]]]

The transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic was not clear cut, even at the [[Saint Denis Basilica|Abbey of St Denis]], to the north of Paris, where the [[Abbot Suger]], between 1130 and 1144, gathered the various newly emerging features of Gothic into a single building, thereby “creating” the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic style]].<ref>Nikolaus Pevsner, ''An Outline of European Architecture''</ref>

Suger's original rose window in the prototype Gothic façade of St Denis probably pre-dates many of the remaining circular windows in Romanesque buildings such as those in England, at Trebic and Spoleto and that in the façade at Speyer.

Suger's window was not distinctively Gothic in its appearance. It no longer has its original form, but a mid-19th-century drawing by the restorer [[Eugène Viollet-le-Duc|Viollet-le-Duc]] indicates that it had a very large ocular space at the centre, the glass supported by an iron hoop, and surrounded by simple semicircular [[wikt:cusped|cusped]] lobes cut out of flat stone in a technique known as "plate tracery".  The window now has Gothic tracery in it, possibly added by [[Eugène Viollet-le-Duc|Viollet-le-Duc]] who was very concerned about the lack of stability of the whole façade, and having restored the towers, was impelled to demolish the northern one when it suddenly subsided.

Along with the simple wheel windows of the late [[Norman architecture|Norman period]] in England, Germany and Italy, a large late 12th-century window still exists at [[Chartres Cathedral]]. This remarkable window combines a large roundel at the centre with the radiating spokes of a wheel window, surrounded by a ring of smaller “plate tracery” lights with scalloped borders. The window, depicting the [[Last Judgement]], contains its original scheme of glazing and retains much of the original glass of 1215, despite suffering damage during [[World War II]].<ref>Lawrence Lee, George Seddon, Francis Stephens, ''Stained Glass''</ref>

Following the west window of Chartres, more daring Gothic windows were created at the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame in [[Mantes]] and in the dynamically sculptural facade of [[Laon Cathedral]] (which also, unusually, has a rose window in its eastern end as well as in it transept ends). These windows have large lights contained in tracery of a semicircular form, like overlapping petals.
[[File:Reims Cathedral, exterior (4).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Reims Cathedral]], France]]
The window that is central to the well-known Gothic façade of [[Notre Dame, Paris]], is of more distinctly Gothic appearance, with mullions in two bands radiating from a central roundel, each terminating in pointed arches. It was this window, completed about 1255, that set the pattern for many other rose window including those of the transepts at St Denis and the gigantic and complex window in the south transept at Notre Dame.<ref>Wim Swaan</ref>

At [[Chartres Cathedral|Chartres]], the transepts roses follow the style of the original 12th-century rose, elaborating on the theme of contrasting forms. The south rose combines the wheel with circles and semicircles, while the north rose introduces square lights which, rotating around the centre, are all set at different angles, creating a [[Kaleidoscope|kaleidoscopic]] effect of  great energy.<ref>Henry Adams, ''Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres''</ref>

=== Further development ===
From the building of Chartres the dimensions of the rose window began to increase with the development of more elaborate window styles associated with [[Gothic architecture]]. By the middle of the 13th century the rose had attained the greatest possible size – the entire width of the [[nave]] or transept, as seen in the transept roses at St Denis and Paris.

In the facades of St Denis, Chartres, Mantes, Laon and Paris, the rose was put under a circular arch. The next important development in its use for the Gothic style was to put it under a pointed arch, as was done in the [[Notre-Dame de Reims]] (after 1241), in the [[transept]]s as well as in the later roses of the [[facade]]. This form probably stemmed from the now destroyed St Nicaise, also in Reims.

The rose window was often placed above a row of vertical lights as the apex of the composition, the small corner "spandrels" between the rose and lower tier being filled by smaller lights of rose form, as in the transepts of St Denis and Notre Dame.

The last step in evolution of the Gothic style was to set the rose into a tier of vertical lights, of staggered height and surmount it by a tapering pointed light so that it became the centre of a vast window composition, covering the whole end of the transepts, as in [[Rouen Cathedral|Rouen]] or [[Beauvais Cathedral|Beauvais]] Cathedrals. This sort of elaborate composition can also be seen at the east end of [[Milan Cathedral]].

Rose windows were also set into square windows, the spandrels being pierced and filled with smaller lights as at [[Notre Dame de Paris|Paris]], 1257, or unpierced with sculpture, the form more common in Italy as at [[Spoleto]] and also seen in the north transept of [[Westminster Abbey]] and at [[Strasbourg Cathedral]], (see pictured above).

=== Regional examples ===
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====Australia====
A number of Australia's cathedrals have Gothic Revival rose windows including three by [[William Wardell]] at [[St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney]] and another at [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne]] which form the upper part of a very large seven-light window in the west end.

====Ecuador====
Two examples of rose windows are found in the [[Basílica del Voto Nacional|National Basilica]], built in 1893 and in the Santa Teresa Church, built in 1934. The [[New Cathedral of Cuenca|cathedral]] in [[Cuenca, Ecuador|Cuenca]], in the southern Andes, has a notable rose window.
[[File:Lancing College Chapel - Rose Window (geograph 4464068).jpg|thumb|The rose window of [[Lancing College Chapel|Lancing College chapel]]]]

====England====
In England, the use of the rose window was commonly confined to the transepts although roses of great span were constructed in the west front of [[Byland Abbey]] and in the east front of [[Old St. Paul's Cathedral]] in London.

The cathedrals of [[York Minster|York]], [[Lincoln Cathedral|Lincoln]], [[Canterbury Cathedral|Canterbury]], [[Durham Cathedral|Durham]] and [[Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford|Oxford]] feature medieval rose windows.

Medieval [[Beverley Minster]] has an example of an Early Gothic wheel window with ten spokes, each light terminating in a cusped trefoils and surrounded by decorative plate tracery.

Later windows are to be seen at the nondenominational [[Abney Park Chapel]] in London designed in 1838–40 by [[William Hosking]] FSA; Holy Trinity Church, [[Barnes, London|Barnes]], London; St Nicholas, [[Richmond, London|Richmond]]; and [[St Albans Cathedral]] by [[George Gilbert Scott]].

At Christ Church [[Appleton-le-Moors]], Yorkshire, the 19th-century architect [[John Loughborough Pearson|J.L.Pearson]] appears to have taken as his inspiration the regional floral symbol of the [[House of York|white rose]]. This unusual plate-tracery window dating from the 1860s has been designed with five double sections like the two-part petals of a simple rose.

The largest rose window in England is believed to be that installed in the [[Lancing College Chapel|chapel of Lancing College]] in 1978, with a diameter of 32 feet.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}

====France====
France has a great number of medieval rose windows, many containing ancient glass. In northern France, a rose window is usually the central feature of the facade. The transept facades commonly contain rose windows as well. Examples can be seen at [[Notre Dame, Paris]] (see left), the [[Basilica of Saint Denis]] (see left), [[Chartres Cathedral]] (see above), [[Reims Cathedral]], [[Amiens Cathedral]] and [[Strasbourg Cathedral]] (see introductory pictures.)

====Italy====

In Italy, the rose window was particularly used by the [[Lombardy|Lombard]] [[architect]]s, as in [[Basilica of San Zeno, Verona|San Zeno]] in [[Verona]], and in the Cathedral of [[Modena]], and in the [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] Gothic churches like the Cathedrals of [[Siena]] and [[Orvieto]].
An outstanding example of a rose window is the thirteen-spoked centrepiece of the [[Minor Basilica]] in [[Larino]], Molise (1312). Others are the [[Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi|Basilica of St Francis of Assisi]] and [[Santa Maria di Collemaggio]] (1289) in [[L'Aquila]].

====United States====
First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Texas, houses one of the largest rose windows at {{convert|26+1/2|ft}} in diameter.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Media|first=Sarah Self-Walbrick A.-J.|title=Lubbock church's design inspired by Notre Dame|url=https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20190416/lubbock-churchs-design-inspired-by-notre-dame|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Lubbock Avalanche-Journal|language=en}}</ref>
A Baroque [[Oculus (architecture)|oculus]] without tracery or stained glass can be seen at [[San Miguel de Aguayo, Texas|San Jose Mission]] in [[San Antonio]], Texas, which was founded by the Franciscan Fathers and dates from 1718 to 1731.

The largest rose window in the United States is ''The Great Rose Window'' above the main doors of the [[Cathedral of St. John the Divine]] in New York City. It is designed in the [[Gothic Revival]] style and made from more than 10,000 pieces of [[stained glass]].

[[Washington National Cathedral]] has three large rose windows which represent the Creation, Last Judgement, and Glory of God.

In 1954, the French artist [[Henri Matisse]] created the [[Abby Aldrich Rockefeller]] Memorial Rose Window on the east wall of the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, [[New York (state)|New York]].
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