The historic Normandy city of Bayeux it is known for its famous Bayeux Tapestry and is probably the number one destination for visitors. The 224-foot-long embroidery on linen fabric depicts the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. No one knows for sure who created the Bayeux Tapestry. Most historians believe that Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and William the Conqueror’s half-brother, commissioned the embroidery to decorate the nave of the new cathedral of Notre-Dame of Bayeux, consecrated on 14 July 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, and his wife Matilda. It took only 50 years to build the large church that held the Bayeux Tapestry for centuries. All that survives from the construction of this period is the crypt, the towers at the western end and the first level of the nave.
It is this Cathedral that brings me here today. In the early morning light this Norman, Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral turns golden. But something else catches my eyes and holds it, I turn my head to see if I am catching whole different light. I must investigate.
The Cathedral’s ornately carved façade as well as its original towers will make you stop to admire. But, when you walk into five doors of the west façade, which makes the grand impression as intended. Inside you will be flooded with colors from the stain glass windows, decoratively carved stones and ornately carved wooden pews but above all you will see what could be thought of as gemstones.
Though the church has gone through reconstructive works during the centuries, a new work conceived in 2013 at the request of regional cultural affairs in Normandy as part repairing the large bays of the two transept arms, which was weakened by a storm in 1760. This undertaking is now the subject of a contemporary creation of stained-glass windows, the 8 bay windows were entrusted to the artist Véronique Joumard. In 2022 the world was invited to be dazzled by the mixed beauty of contemporary and medieval shining both inside and outside.
The colors for each of the windows were chosen by the orientation, east for morning light and west for the setting sun. There are prisms, actually faceted crystals made of dichroic glass in the shape of triangles or trapezoids, each corresponding to the shape of the window tracery. Depending on the angle of view and the exterior light, this type of glass can reflect a transmitted light into different colors inside as well as outside the cathedral. By using lead tracing, the crystal prisms were set in hand-blown antique glass. Each was installed at the crossing of two implied lines, one vertical and one horizontal, but situated at different places in each bay window.
Dichroic glass is a type of manufactured glass designed to change colors under different lighting conditions and viewing angles. Dichroic glass is made by fusing a glass surface with different metals (aluminum, chrome, magnesium, silicon, titanium, or zirconium), which creates varieties of reflective colors, depending on the angle of view. The word dichroic comes from two Greek roots: “di” meaning two and “chroma” meaning colors. The name refers to the way in which the glass can shift colors, displaying multiple hues depending on your angle of viewing and ambient lighting conditions.
Dichroic glass as we know it today came directly from research conducted by NASA. The solution was called chameleon glass, and it was intended to protect astronauts from the negative effects and harsh glare of unfiltered sunlight. Used in dichroic filters, this coated glass also acted as a shield against cosmic radiation and withstand high temperatures for satellites. The first was an aerospace engineer who worked for a NASA contractor throughout the 1960s. By 1971, he left that industry to pursue artistic endeavors. A pioneer in the creative applications of dichroic glass, he created everything from stained-glass windows to mobiles.
Each piece of dichroic glass was assembled and reinforced at Vitrail France glassworks in the Loire Valley. The antique glass panes in which the crystal prisms were set were hand-blown at the Saint-Just glassworks. Each plate was made to visibly reveal its hand-manufacture, which contrasts with the industrially made crystal prisms. Passed on from generation to generation for over 190 years, Saint-Just's glass-making expertise and know-how is unrivaled in France.
Imagine a material able to bring the past back to life, inspire artists, offer a new vision for design and contemporary architecture. Must say this comes together brilliantly in a truly renewed historic expanse.
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