This four-light window depicts the Four Great Fathers of the Western Church—St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great—framed beneath an elaborate Gothic canopy. In the tracery lights above unfolds a Last Judgement scene, in which Christ appears in glory surrounded by angels and the resurrected dead, reinforcing the doctrinal authority of the Fathers through the lens of divine revelation.

The four saints are shown as doctors and bishops of the Church, richly robed and bearing their respective attributes:

• St Ambrose, in episcopal vestments, holding a crozier and book;

• St Jerome, in cardinal’s red, presenting a scroll or text of Scripture;

• St Augustine, vested as bishop, with a flaming heart symbolising divine wisdom;

• Pope Gregory the Great, wearing the papal tiara and accompanied by the dove of the Holy Spirit at his ear.

Their placement beneath the Last Judgement underscores the continuity between human theology and divine truth — the Fathers as interpreters of revelation and guarantors of orthodoxy.

Style and Iconography

The figures are monumental yet gracefully proportioned, framed by tall Flamboyant Gothic canopies with crocketed pinnacles and ornate tabernacle work. The painterly modelling of the faces and hands reveals the same technical finesse seen in the Marian cycle (Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi), suggesting production by the same atelier around 1467.

The brilliant reds, blues, and greens of the vestments are enhanced with delicate silver stain, and the architectural canopy retains traces of gilding. The tracery composition—dense with angels, trumpets, and the mandorla of Christ—forms a celestial counterpart to the earthly wisdom of the seated Fathers below.

Context and Attribution

This window belongs to the same mid-15th-century glazing campaign that included the Marian and Donor cycles of the south ambulatory. The repetition of formal canopies, the use of intense colour harmonies, and the meticulous calligraphic line work all point to the Bourges Cathedral workshop, most likely under Jean Lécuyer or André Robin.

Its theological programme complements the Marian scenes opposite: where those windows celebrate divine grace and intercession, this one asserts doctrinal authority and the intellectual foundation of the faith. Together, they create a unified vision of Revelation, Doctrine, and Redemption appropriate to the cathedral’s role as an episcopal and intellectual centre of 15th-century France.

Condition

The figures remain substantially original, with limited 19th-century re-leading and selective restoration of canopy details. The glass retains its rich colour intensity, and the silver stain continues to display exceptional brilliance in transmitted light.