GALLERY

INTRODUCTION

Chronologically, this is the second introduction! It is now 2022. It is now six years since I gave my public lecture on ‘Cathedrals and Symmetry’ as part of the 10th International Symmetry Congress Festival held in Adelaide, South Australia. This sparked in me a special interest in rose windows. Since then I have visited many more of the world’s cathedrals. This has given me the idea of preparing a photographic gallery of rose windows – something, to my knowledge, which has not been attempted before.

Of course it is impossible to include every rose window, so here there will only be a selection of cathedral rose windows.

Our rose windows are all round, but there are various classifications of rose windows. Our gallery will include ‘rose windows’ of the following types.

• The ‘genuine’ rose window, where the window has circular symmetry and its structure resembles a rose.

• The wheel window, where the window has circular symmetry and its structure has spokes emanating from the centre.

• The oculus, where the window is round, but there is no masonry supporting structure within the disk.

Sometimes the classification may become blurred!

There are also a number of cathedrals in which a small rose forms part of a larger window. Some of these are really lovely, but I have decided to exclude most of these to keep the overall size of this project in check. My unsatisfactory solution to this problem is to include the roses which especially appeal to me! Another experience is to see a large rose window near the apex of an outside gable, only to find it is out of sight from the interior – giving light above the ceiling.

Rose windows are not always easy to photograph, and a few of those shown here are not ‘top class’. If anyone has a better photo, I am happy to include it here – with acknowledgment, of course.

 

Paul Scott    08 / 2022