Editing Chartres Cathedral (section)

===North transept portals (13th century)===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="250">
File:Cathedrale nd chartres nord040.jpg|Saint Anne holding the infant Virgin Mary on the trumeau of the central portal of the north transept
File:Portail de la Cathédrale de Chartres.jpg|The tympanum over the center portal of the north transept. On the lintel are the Dormition (Death) and Assumption of the Virgin. Above is the Coronation of the Virgin: Mary, in her living body, will rule the heavens alongside her Son Christ.
File:Cathedrale nd chartres nord049.jpg|New Testament figures Simeon, John the Baptist, and Saint Peter, with his keys
File:Chartres - north portal - right bay - right part.jpg|Unidentified characters from the [[Old Testament]]
</gallery>
The statuary of the north transept portals is devoted to the [[Old Testament]], and the events leading up to the birth of Christ, with particular emphasis on the [[Virgin Mary]].<ref>Houvet (2019) p. 37</ref> The glorification of Mary in the center, the incarnation of her son on the left and Old Testament prefigurations and prophecies on the right. One major exception to this scheme is the presence of large statues of St Modesta (a local martyr) and St Potentian on the north west corner of the porch, close to a small doorway where pilgrims visiting the crypt (where their relics were stored) would once have emerged.<ref name="katzenellenbogen1959"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Iconography of the various elements of the north transept portals
|-
! !! Left (east) portal !! Central portal !! Right (west) portal
|-
| '''Jamb figures:''' || [[Annunciation|Annunciation to Mary]] and the [[Visitation (Christianity)|Visitation]]|| Old Testament Patriarchs, [[John the Baptist]] and [[St Peter]] || King [[Solomon]], the [[Queen of Sheba]], various prophets
|-
| '''[[Lintel]]:''' || [[Nativity of Jesus|Nativity]] and [[Annunciation to the Shepherds]] || [[Dormition of the Theotokos|Dormition]] and [[Assumption of Mary|Assumption]] of the Virgin || [[Judgement of Solomon]]
|-
| '''[[Tympanum (architecture)|Tympanum]]:''' || [[Adoration of the Magi]] and the [[Biblical magi|Dream of the Magi]] || [[Coronation of the Virgin]] || [[Job (Biblical figure)|Job on the Dunghill]]
|-
| '''[[Archivolt]]s:''' || [[Personification]]s of the [[Seven virtues|Virtues]] and [[Vice#Roman Catholicism|Vices]] || [[Tree of Jesse]] / [[Prophet]]s || Old Testament Narratives (Esther, Judith, Samson, Gideon and Tobit)
|}

As well as the main sculptural areas around the portals themselves, the deep porches are filled with other carvings depicting a range of subjects including local saints, Old Testament narratives, naturalistic foliage, fantastical beasts, Labours of the Months and personifications of the 'active and contemplative lives' (the ''vita activa'' and ''vita contemplativa''). The personifications of the ''vita activa'' (directly overhead, just inside the inside of the left hand porch) are of particular interest for their meticulous depictions of the various stages in the preparation of [[flax]] – an important cash crop in the area during the Middle Ages.