Paris, Église Saint-Severin

Suger's vision at Saint Denis can be considered the earliest conception of a gothic sculptural program, with multiple portals working together to present a unified didactic whole. The pairing of an eschatological motif with a portal to the Virgin and one to local saints was a common trope in sermons of the time, providing multiple paths to salvation at the end of time through the Church and its great figures. We can see a similar layout later on the west façade of Amiens Cathedral, and also earlier at Chartres. Indeed, the intellectual and iconographic unity of Suger's façade would become the standard during the Gothic building boom in northern France.