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Meulen (Jan van der) Photographs of Chartres Cathedral
90.P.6
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Jan van der Meulen photographs of Chartres Cathedral
Creator:
Lefèvre-Pontalis, Eugène Amédée, 1862-1923
Creator:
Photographie Giraudon
Creator:
Le Secq, Henri
Creator:
Neurdein frères
Creator:
Meulen, Jan van der
Identifier/Call Number: 90.P.6
Physical Description:
36 Linear Feet
(66 boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1950-1990
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Abstract: The archive consists of photographs and slides documenting Chartres Cathedral and related buildings of the 12th and 13th centuries
taken by architect and art historian Jan van der Meulen and an assistant over the course of many campaigns, mostly between
1959 and 1983.
Language of Material:
English
.
Jan van der Meulen (1929-2011) was a medieval art historian and a leading authority on Chartres Cathedral. Born in Cape Town,
South Africa, van der Meulen initially trained as an architect before deciding to study art history, specifically architectural
history. After earning a doctorate from Marburg in 1962, van der Meulen devoted himself to research, but he soon found the
academic climate in Europe too confining and left for the United states where the interdisciplinary approach he favored found
greater acceptance. Van der Meulen taught art history at Pennsylvania State University from 1968 to 1974. He next joined
the faculty at Cleveland State University where he taught until his retirement in 1989.
The author of numerous articles and several books, including
Chartres: Biographie der Kathedrale (1984) and
Chartres, sources and literary interpretation : a critical bibliography (1989), van der Meulen devoted his career to the study of Chartres. His methodological approach to the cathedral entailed
exhaustive re-measurement and photographic documentation of the structure and its elaboration.
The key role of photography in van der Meulen's research methodology tied in directly with his background. From 1953 to 1955
van der Meulen had worked as a professional photographer for Het Lichtbeelden Instituut in Amsterdam. The Chartres Cathedral
photographic archive is the product of van der Meulen's combining of his training as an architect, an art historian, and a
photographer.
Scope and Content of Collection
The archive consists of photographs and slides documenting Chartres Cathedral and related buildings of the 12th and 13th centuries
taken by architect and art historian Jan van der Meulen and an assistant over the course of many campaigns, mostly between
1959 and 1983.
Over 21,000 black-and-white catalogue prints and their negatives recording Chartres Cathedral form the bulk of the collection.
These photographs provide systematic and detailed documentation of the architecture and sculptural decoration of the cathedral,
especially the three sculptured portals, as well as comparative photographs of motifs from other French and German churches
related to Chartres. A further 11,500 catalogue prints with negatives document rural churches in the Aisne and Oise regions,
sources for the stylistic developments seen at Chartres.
Van der Meulen recorded the stained glass windows of Chartres, as well as the architecture and sculpture. Over 2300 35 mm.
slides taken by van der Meulen document the entire clerestory and lower panels with the exception of the northern side aisle.
Each panel of the clerestory was photographed twice with a 400 mm. lens from the opposite triforium, one darker exposure to
reproduce the true color value and one additional, slightly overexposed slide to assure that all the inner details and fold-lines
would be clearly visible.
In addition to the photographs taken by van der Meulen, the collection contains supplementary research material in the form
of copy photographs. There are almost 500 nineteenth-century photographs of Chartres Cathedral (modern prints from original
glass plate negatives) taken by photographers such as Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis, Henri Le Secq, Photographie Giraudon, and Neurdein
Frères. Further copy photographs, as well as drawings and photocopies, reproduce archival materials on Chartres housed in
various repositories, including written documents, ground plans and other architectural drawings from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
Jan van der Meulen photographs of Chartres Cathedral, circa 1950-1990, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession
no. 90.P.6
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa90p6
Photographs and permission to publish must be obtained from copyright holder(s). For further information, contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Open for use by qualified researchers, with the exception of the original slides and negatives. For further information, consult
the
Guide to the Photo Archive and Database .
Acquired in 1990.
Jan van der Meulen's original organization of his photographs with groups of materials designated by Roman numerals has been
generally maintained: I (pt.1). Chartres Cathedral; I (pt.2). Churches related to Chartres Cathedral; II. Chartres Cathedral
portal details; III. Stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral; IV. Rural churches of Aisne and Oise. The copy photographs
of supplemental material follow van der Meulen's original work and retain his organization into "notebooks."
Jan Bender created the collection inventory in 2013 and Ann Harrison completed the finding aid.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Negatives (Photographs)
Church architecture -- France -- Aisne
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Church architecture -- France -- Oise
Architecture, Gothic -- France
Glass painting and staining -- France -- Chartres
Meulen, Jan van der -- Photograph collections
Cathédrale de Chartres