Note 302 — Chapter IX · The Gothic Art of Burgundy[267]

“Because the pearly white surfaces of the grisaille would make the adjacent colored surfaces appear heavy and opaque, they introduced, into these latter, limpid blues and yellows, very light reds, whites with a greenish or rosy tint. In the high windows of the cathedral of Auxerre they first tried this method, and here the grisaille is chased with a large and firm design that offsets the transparency of the colorless surfaces. Notice how the pedestal and the canopy, both very light, bind together the bands of grisaille on either side, while the latter is heavily painted with a trellis and rich ornaments. In Auxerre, the grisaille is found only in the lateral windows which are seen obliquely. The apse windows, meant to be seen, in face and from a distance, are filled with color. The lateral windows are sufficiently opaque to prevent the solar rays which pass through them from lighting the colored windows on the reverse side. At certain hours the luminous rays throw a pearly light on the colored windows, imparting to them a transparency of tone and a delicacy impossible to describe. The opalescent light from the lateral windows makes a sort of veil of extreme transparency under the lofty vaults, and is pierced by the brilliant tones of the apse windows, producing the sparkle of jewels. Solid outlines then seem to waver like objects seen through a sheet of limpid water. Distance changes values and gains a depth in which the eye loses itself. Hourly during the day these effects are modified, and always with new harmonies of which one never wearies trying to understand.”

—Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire de l’architecture, vol. 9, p. 447.