Window w.206 forms part of the major early 13th-century glazing programme of the choir clerestory at Bourges Cathedral. Like the other apostolic lancets in this zone, it presents three full-length apostles standing beneath architectural canopies, each framed by the characteristic red–blue geometric borders of the Bourges workshop. The style, palette, and facial types align closely with the glazing campaigns dated to c.1210–1215.

James the Greater (left lancet)

James is shown standing in a frontal pose, wearing a deep green mantle over a red tunic, and holding a long sword vertically across his body. No scallop shells or pilgrim emblems appear, an important indication of early iconography before the later medieval standardisation of James as a pilgrim-saint. His identification relies on the inscription IACOBVS in the base panel.

This depiction reflects a transitional moment when apostles were still assigned generalised attributes rather than the fixed symbols of later Gothic art.

Philip (centre lancet)

Philip appears beneath a triangular canopy, robed in red and pale tones, holding a closed book with both hands. He carries no cross-staff or other emblem. The inscription S PHELIPVS confirms his identity.

Here Philip represents the early 13th-century tendency to emphasise apostolic teaching through the book alone, rather than through later specialised symbols.

Thomas (right lancet)

Thomas stands beneath a trefoil-headed niche, dressed in a long white mantle with yellow stain highlights. His right hand is raised in blessing, and his left hand holds both a book and a tall, vertical staff. The staff stands upright beside him and reflects a workshop convention of the period:

Early Gothic cycles at Bourges often equipped apostles with simple vertical mission-staves to provide compositional balance within the tall lancet format, before their iconographic attributes became standardised.
The inscription S TOMAS labels the figure. The absence of the later builder’s square reinforces a date before the broader diffusion of that attribute in mid-13th-century art.

Style and Workshop Characteristics

All three lancets exhibit features typical of the Bourges atelier c.1210–1215:

• saturated blues and reds

• strong linear contouring

• expressive facial modelling (deep-set eyes, rhythmic beardwork)

• simplified but monumental architectural framing

• the consistent red–blue geometric border used across the clerestory

Significance

Window w.206 captures a moment in which apostolic iconography was still developing. The apostles are distinguished primarily by inscriptions, posture, and simple attributes, sword, book, staff, rather than the more fixed symbolic systems that emerged later in the Gothic period.
As part of the broader clerestory cycle, the window contributes to the continuous apostolic procession that encircles the upper choir, forming one of the finest surviving ensembles of early Gothic stained glass in France.