Abbot Suger commissioned the early Gothic stained-glass program at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis from 1122 until 1151, rebuilt parts of the abbey church and promoted an architecture in which light played a central symbolic role. The rebuilt choir was consecrated in 1144, and its windows helped establish features later associated with Gothic architecture.
Suger described the church’s precious materials and radiant light as aids to spiritual contemplation. The windows included biblical narratives and symbolic imagery, and their colors helped distinguish the new design from the heavier, darker Romanesque buildings that preceded it.
Saint-Denis is also famous as the burial place of French kings and queens. Not every surviving pane belongs to Suger’s original campaign, because the church has undergone restoration, alteration, and replacement over many centuries.