9

Waiting for Paradise

The tall windows shed light on the sculptures of the prudent virgins. They prepared with lamp oil for the time they spent waiting for Christ. Their fatuous sisters hat to bear the darkness.
The rise of light is perfectly staged in the Cathedral of St Mary. Above it curves an entire heavenly meadow. The Gothic ribbed vault is a heavenly garden, the paradise. The star-shaped cap stones sparkle and the central circular oculus, embedded into a blue cloud, opened towards heaven. Sculptures of Christ or of Mary were pulled up though this hole in the centre of the vault – a liturgically staged ascension.