As Michael Cothren writes in Picturing the Celestial City, the stained glass of Beauvais Cathedral, unlike its architecture, has been dismissed as fragmentary and second rate, and consequently neglected. His book corrects these misconceptions through an exemplary and careful study of what he calls the four campaigns of glass painting during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and early fifteenth centuries. But his book goes far beyond its purported subject of bringing into prominence a previously undervalued treasure by meticulously examining the glazing program from many different points of view. As such, it is a model of methodology and suggests that a comprehensive, specific, and detailed treatment of one monument can be adapted not only to other glazing studies but to other projects in diverse media.

Cothren's work might be viewed as historically eclectic, drawing as it does on both traditional as well as more recent approaches to art historical issues. Describing the medieval glazing of Beauvais as a “bricolage,” or collage, he thereby signals its sporadic evolution over a period of about two centuries. Cothren leads the reader through this intricate narrative in a detective-like manner. The wealth of information—visual, archival, historical, cultural, and iconographical—is presented in such a way that the reader is encouraged to participate as the mystery of the creation of this “celestial city” is unraveled. For each glazing campaign, which corresponds to a chapter of the book, Cothren establishes first the historical setting and the material condition and then the subject and style, and then finally explains how these components work in the larger context. As he raises many of the vexing issues involved in the glazing itself, Cothren poses these issues as questions and then offers diverse but plausible answers for each of the possible solutions that he carefully considers. The author's recognition of the value of diverse approaches in all of these areas is one of the many intriguing aspects of his examination of the Beauvais glazing project.

To take one instance of Cothren's eclectic approach, we might consider some issues involved in the glazing of the Virgin Chapel. As he examines the design problems presented by the Jesse Tree lancet, he uncovers for the reader, step by step, the process followed by the Gothic glaziers in finding appropriate solutions. How were they to treat the compartments enclosing the prophets on the upper levels of the window given the fact that it gradually narrows near the top? According to Cothren, the visual evidence indicates that these artisans elected to choose, as design principles, regularity, repetition, and pattern over variety and individualization.

In his efforts to plumb significance and meaning in the glazing program, the author often challenges traditional assumptions and interpretations. For example, regarding the presence of artisans and merchants in the Infancy Cycle lancet, he raises questions of whether their appearance is due to local circumstance, as Jane Williams claims for a similar case at Chartres Cathedral, or to some other reason for which textual evidence is now lacking. A lengthy examination of the Crucifixion, which is situated in the Rose Window of the Virgin Chapel, affords him the opportunity to demonstrate how the visual and the iconographic elements of all three parts of the central window come together to produce the overriding message the Church intended to inculcate in its members, that of Christian salvation through Christ's sacrifice. The architecture and the stained glass directly above and on axis with the high altar (Crucifixion, Jesse Tree, Infancy Cycle) provide the fixed backdrop against which, at each Mass, the Eucharist is celebrated as a living performance. In this connection, Cothren also notes that the ritual of the Elevation of the Host, begun in the twelfth century, became especially important during the first half of the thirteenth as the sign of the doctrine of transubstantiation. For the worshipers witnessing the transformation of the wafer into the body of Christ, the ritual was itself proof that the miracle had occurred.

Cothren's agility in choosing the appropriate means with which to tease out a possible solution to a given problem allows him to embrace the multifaceted approach crucial to an understanding of the monument as a whole. His visual observations of the figural as well as physiognomic style in each window, carried out on a microanalytic level, elicit questions and suggestions that lead to the most complete investigation of the glazing program of Beauvais up to the present time. For example, minute descriptions of facial features, hair, and drapery in the St. Vincent Chapel bring out distinct differences that must be due to the participation of more than one workshop. This conclusion in turn opens the possibility of the existence of a regional style visible in manuscripts of the thirteenth century in northern France, such as the Psalter of Yolande de Soissons (1280s, Amiens). Cothren's fine distinctions convey the complexity of the Beauvais undertaking and thus contribute to our understanding and appreciation of its importance. By reading Cothren's amazing tale one can begin to grasp the richness of the glass that transformed the structure into a “celestial city.” The quality of the illustrations, both color and black and white, add much to support his outstanding text, although a visit to Beauvais is indispensable for experiencing the splendor of the stained glass within its proper context.