This tall, richly coloured lancet shows St Bartholomew (Bartholomaeus) standing full-length against a patterned ground of alternating red and blue lozenges. The apostle is identified by the inscription S·BARTHOLOMEVS along the base panel.

Bartholomew holds a large flaying knife, his consistent medieval attribute recalling his martyrdom by flaying. His robes display the characteristic Bourges glazing vocabulary of the early 13th century: saturated ruby and sapphire tones enhanced by thick black calligraphic line work. The facial type, with elongated nose, heavy brows and sharply modelled beard, is typical of the atelier responsible for the choir clerestory cycle.

Iconographic Notes

• The knife is his stable attribute across French Gothic cycles (Chartres, Tours, Le Mans).

• Bartholomew’s stance echoes that used for other apostles in the Bourges clerestory: static, frontal, hieratic, emphasising apostolic authority rather than narrative context.

Context

Window 208 forms part of the extensive apostolic series ringing the choir clerestory (c.1210–20), produced shortly after the completion of the reconstructed Gothic choir. The lancets may represent liturgical or dedicatory groupings rather than strict scriptural sequencing.