The Vision of Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque - Pontlevoy France
Submitted by walwynThis richly coloured two-light window shows Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque kneeling before the vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The composition belongs to the devotional revival of the later nineteenth century, when subjects drawn from recent French spirituality, especially the cult of the Sacred Heart, became central to parish decoration.
In the right light, Christ appears within clouds, revealing his radiant heart surrounded by thorns, a symbol of divine compassion. Marguerite-Marie, a seventeenth-century Visitandine nun of Paray-le-Monial, kneels in adoration at left within a convent interior. The legend below reads « Voici ce cœur qui a tant aimé les hommes » (“Behold this Heart which has so loved men”), the phrase spoken in her vision of 1675.
The lower panels, framed in vivid geometric borders, depict the Eucharist (left) and the Crucifixion (right), visualising the theological foundations of the devotion. Their slightly differing style and handling suggest they may have been supplied from stock cartoons or a collaborating workshop within the Tours glassmaking circle, but the ensemble is unified by Fournier’s brilliant palette and firm linear drawing.
The decorative canopy work above, with its stylised foliage and jewelled ornament, typifies Fournier’s output in the 1870s—combining Gothic Revival motifs with the precision of industrial enamel techniques perfected in Tours. The window is signed and dated “Fournier, Tours, 1879”, placing it within the prolific later phase of the Fournier studio, whose work appears throughout the Loir-et-Cher and Indre-et-Loire regions.

