Editing Chartres Cathedral (section)

===West, or Royal Portal (12th century)===
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File:Chartres - portail royal, tympan central.jpg|Central [[tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]] of the Royal Portal. Christ seated on a throne, surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists; a winged man for St. Matthew, a lion for St. Mark; a bull for St. Luke; and an eagle for St. John.
File:Chartres Cathedral Royal Portal Statues 2 2007 08 31.jpg|Jambs of the center doorway of the Royal Portal, with statues of the men and women of the Old Testament
File:Chartres - Westportal Monatsbilder.jpg|West portal, tympanum of left door. It depicts Christ on a cloud, supported by two angels, above a row of figures representing the labours of the months and signs of the [[Zodiac]]<ref>Houvet (2019) p. 33</ref>
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One of the few parts of the cathedral to survive the 1194 fire, the ''Portail royal'' was integrated into the new cathedral. Opening on to the ''parvis'' (the large square in front of the cathedral where markets were held), the two lateral doors would have been the first entry point for most visitors to Chartres, as they remain today. The central door is only opened for the entry of processions on major festivals, of which the most important is the ''Adventus'' or installation of a new bishop.<ref>Margot Fassler, ''Adventus at Chartres: Ritual Models for Major Processions'' in ''Ceremonial Culture in Pre-Modern Europe'', ed. Nicholas Howe, University of Indiana Press, 2007</ref> The harmonious appearance of the façade results in part from the relative proportions of the central and lateral portals, whose widths are in the ratio 10:7 – one of the common medieval approximations of the [[square root of 2]].

As well as their basic functions of providing access to the interior, portals are the main locations for sculpted images on the Gothic cathedral and it is on the west façade at Chartres that this practice began to develop into a visual ''[[summa]]'' or encyclopedia of theological knowledge. Each of the three portals focuses on a different aspect of Christ's role in salvation history; his earthly incarnation on the right, his Ascension or existence before the Incarnation on the left, and his Second Coming (the Theophanic Vision) in the center.<ref name="katzenellenbogen1959"/>

Above the right portal, the lintel is carved in two registers with (lower) the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Annunciation to the Shepherds and (upper) the Presentation in the Temple. Above this the [[Tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]] shows the Virgin and Child enthroned in the ''[[Seat of Wisdom|Sedes sapientiae]]'' pose. Surrounding the tympanum, as a reminder of the glory days of the School of Chartres, the [[archivolt]]s are carved with some very distinctive personifications of the [[Liberal arts|Seven Liberal Arts]] as well as the classical authors and philosophers most closely associated with them.

The left portal is more enigmatic and art historians still argue over the correct identification. The tympanum shows Christ standing on a cloud, apparently supported by two angels. Some see this as a depiction of the Ascension of Christ (in which case the figures on the lower lintel would represent the disciples witnessing the event) while others see it as representing the ''Parousia'', or Second Coming of Christ (in which case the lintel figures could be either the prophets who foresaw that event or else the 'Men of Galilee' mentioned in Acts 1:9–11). The presence of angels in the upper lintel, descending from a cloud and apparently shouting to those below, would seem to support the latter interpretation. The archivolts contain the signs of the [[zodiac]] and the [[labours of the months]] – standard references to the cyclical nature of time which appear in many Gothic portals.

The central portal is a more conventional representation of the End of Time as described in the [[Book of Revelation]]. In the center of the tympanum is Christ within a [[mandorla]], surrounded by the four symbols of the [[four evangelists|evangelists]] (the ''[[Tetramorph]]''). The lintel shows the [[Twelve Apostles]] while the archivolts show the [[24 Elders of the Apocalypse]].

Although the upper parts of the three portals are treated separately, two sculptural elements run horizontally across the façade, uniting its different parts. Most obvious are the [[jamb statue]]s affixed to the columns flanking the doorways – tall, slender standing figures of kings and queens from whom the ''Portail royal'' derived its name. Although in the 18th and 19th century these figures were mistakenly identified as the [[Merovingian]] monarchs of France (thus attracting the opprobrium of Revolutionary iconoclasts) they almost certainly represent the kings and queens of the Old Testament – another standard iconographical feature of Gothic portals.

Less obvious than the jamb statues but far more intricately carved is the [[frieze]] that stretches all across the façade in the sculpted capitals on top of the jamb columns. Carved into these capitals is a very lengthy narrative depicting the life of the Virgin and the life and Passion of Christ.<ref>Adelheid Heimann, ''The Capital Frieze and Pilasters of the Portail royal, Chartres'' in ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtland Institutes'', Vol. 31, 1968, pp. 73–102</ref>