In 1763, the Gothic choir screen or jubé of the Cathedral of Chartres was demolished during a period of liturgical change. During demolition, narrative scenes from the Nativity of Christ were fragmented with some figures being decapitated and all buried as rubble inside of the cathedral. In 1837 and 1848, many large fragments were discovered during excavations inside the cathedral. These fragments have recently undergone conservation under the direction of the Irène Jourd’heuil of the DRAC Centre-Val de Loire. In October 2023, they were reinstalled in the Saint Piat chapel at Chartres where they are now on public view. Other fragments reside in the United States: one in a private collection and others in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Bowdoin College in Maine, and the Nasher Museum at Duke University in North Carolina. This presentation will recount the history of the jubé of Chartres and its rediscovery. Focus will be placed on the fragments dispersed in the United States and the potential of digital modeling to allow these dispersed fragments to be virtually reconstructed and experienced in context with the larger fragments of the jubé.
Jennifer M. Feltman
Associate Professor, Medieval Art and Architecture, University of Albama
Jennifer M. Feltman is associate professor of Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on French Gothic architecture and sculpture. She publishes widely on Gothic architecture and sculpture. Her books include the volume of essays, The North Transept of Reims Cathedral: Design, Construction, and Visual Programs (Routledge, 2016), The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture (Routledge, 2019), co-edited with Sarah Thompson, and Moral Theology and the Cathedral: Sculptural Programs of the Last Judgment in France, c.1200-1240, which is forthcoming from Brepols. Most recently, she has been a member of the Chantier scientifique de Notre-Dame, Groupe Décor, a team of scientists and historians authorized by the French Ministry of Culture to study the cathedral during restoration. As principle investigator, she leads the collective research project “Notre-Dame in Color.” This project documents, analyzes, and virtually recreates the vibrantly painted sculptures of the Gothic Cathedral of Paris. This work is supported by the Albertine Foundation – Transatlantic Research Partnership, a program of the French Embassy in the United States, a 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant, and the University of Alabama Collaborative Arts Initiative.
