Rose window

Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style that are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The name 'rose window' was not used before the 17th century and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, among other authorities, comes from the English flower name rose.Oculus – Florence CathedralWheel – Church of San Francesco at Lucera, ItalyPlate – at Działoszyce, PolandRayonnant – at the ruins of Languidou AbbeyFlamboyant – Meaux Cathedral, FranceBaroque – CataniaThe oculus of the Pantheon, RomeRoman mosaic. AthensRoman mosaic. RomeRoman mosaic. PompeiGeometrical rose in a Roman mosaic. SpainOculus of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, 5th century (decoration is later)Baptistery of St. John of Poitiers, France, 6-7th centuryOculi of Sant'Agnese fuori le muraTorcello Cathedral, VeniceAquileia Basilica, Italy, 11th centuryMerovingian decorative architectural marble reliefs, 6th century, on display in Baptistery of St. John of PoitiersMerovingian illumination in Missale Gothicum, towards 700. The two large roses are six-lobedCommon visigothic decoration. Archaeological crypt in Valencia Cathedral, 6–7th centuryVisigothic design of roses, preislamic, from basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins of Cordoba, 6–7th centuryVisigothic window with stone tracery, of Church of San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato, 7th centurySan Miguel de Lillo, Oviedo, Spain. Towards 850San Miguel de Lillo, detailSan Miguel de Lillo, detailItaly, Troia, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (1093–1125).Italy, Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (1228–1253).France, Notre-Dame de Paris (1250–1260).Italy, Monterosso al Mare, Church of St. John the Baptist (1282–1307).Italy, L'Aquila, Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio (1287).Basilica Cathedral of Lodi, ItalyFrance, Chartres Cathedral, ancient transept window under restoration.France, Sens Cathedral, transept, showing Flamboyant window incorporated into a large composition.Notre-Dame de Paris, France, north transept.France, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, the Apocalypse in Flamboyant tracery.England Lincoln Cathedral, the Bishop's Eye. Fragments of ancient glass in a Flowing Gothic window.Germany, Memorial Church (Gedaechtniskirche), Speyer.Sweden, Oscar Frediks Church.Catalonia, Spain, Santa Maria del Pi, Barcelona.Peru, the Presidential PalaceEngland, St Matthias, Richmond. architect G. Scott, glass William WailesGermany, the chancel window of Himmelfahrtskirche, Dresden.Spain, Mallorca, Palma, with a pattern which existed already in the ancient Roman and wisigothic roses.Australia, the Waratah window, St Bede's, Drummoyne, Sydney, by Alfred Handel.United States, window over the altar in Boston University's Marsh Chapel Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style that are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The name 'rose window' was not used before the 17th century and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, among other authorities, comes from the English flower name rose. The term 'wheel window' is often applied to a window divided by simple spokes radiating from a central boss or opening, while the term 'rose window' is reserved for those windows, sometimes of a highly complex design, which can be seen to bear similarity to a multi-petalled rose. Rose windows are also called Catherine windows after Saint Catherine of Alexandria who was sentenced to be executed on a spiked wheel. A circular window without tracery such as are found in many Italian churches, is referred to as an ocular window or oculus. Rose windows are particularly characteristic of Gothic architecture and may be seen in all the major Gothic Cathedrals of Northern France. Their origins are much earlier and rose windows may be seen in various forms throughout the Medieval period. Their popularity was revived, with other medieval features, during the Gothic revival of the 19th century so that they are seen in Christian churches all over the world. The origin of the rose window may be found in the Roman 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. Windows with stone tracery make their emergence in Antiquity. Geometrical patterns of roses are very developed and common in Roman mosaic. In 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. A window of the 8th century, now located 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. 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 period. The German art historian Otto von Simson considered that the origin of the rose window lay in a window with the six-lobed 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 architecture, Byzantine architecture, and especially in Merovingian art, and Visigothic architecture before the Muslim conquest of Spain. But also half roses are known, as with the 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. 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 sarcophagi, pulpits and well heads and pierced decorations of screens and windows of Ravenna and Constantinople. The church of San Pedro has a rectangular window with a 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”.