Quasimodo (note 1) rose & spider

[Terrance]

 In the thirteenth century, “the superiority of woman was not a fancy,
but a fact,”[29] and Adams presents and aesthetic in terms of sex.  



 “The Virgin of Chartres was the greatest of all Queens, but also the
most womanly of women.”[25]  She “was absolute; she could be stern; she
was not above being angry; but she still was a woman, who loved grace,
beauty, ornament – her toilette, robes, jewels . . . she was the 
greatest artist, as she was the greatest philosopher and musician and
theologist.. . .”[26]  It was for the pleasure of this Queen that the
resources of generations were devoted.  Adams studies the various
aspects of the architecture of Chartres within this background.  The
rose windows, the unusual arrangement of the apses, the legendary
windows are minutely discussed from this point of reference – that they
were planned and executed to please the personal tastes of the Queen of
Heaven.  Men knew her tastes, and responded to them.
     
    Why did the Virgin seem more real and immediate to the people who
built Chartres than did the members of the Trinity? It was because
thirteenth century man felt that the Virgin was one of them, that she
shared their joys and sorrows, accepted their human
weaknesses, and forgave their sins because she understood human
frailty.  She was their
best hope for eternal salvation.  Adams’ recounting of the Miracles of
the Virgin illustrates this point.  The Virgin is forever stepping
between man and God, protecting the former from the wrath of the
latter.  “The Virgin embarrassed the Trinity; and perhaps this is the
reason why men loved and adored her with a passion such as no other
deity has ever inspired . . . Mary concentrated in herself the whole
rebellion of man against fate; the whole protest against divine
law.”[27]  Nor did Mary reserve her favor for only the select of
society.  So often did she show compassion for the outcasts and the
sinners that the self-righteous frequently had cause to complain.  Thus,
the Miracles point to the source of  Mary’s power.  “She cared not a
straw for conventional morality, and she had no notion of letting her
friends be punished, to the tenth or any other generation, for the sins
of their  ancestors and the peccadilloes of Eve.”[28]
     
   

http://www.wetzoollamb.net/jfpp/joan/essays/adams.html