The jamb, tympanum and trumeau sculpture of the west portals of Chartres Cathedral have been admired by centuries of visitors to France for their grandeur and beauty. However, the origins and dates of the statuary figures have remained obscure. After carefully and extensively considering the forms of facial treatment and drapery exhibited, Stoddard aruges that the early Gothic sculptors of the Paris-Chartres region had moved on from work on such major Romanesque churches in Burgundy as Vezelay and Autun. The author concludes that the sculpture of Chartres was the work of a handful of masters and their assistants - each artist convincingly identified if not named. This volume also includes the text and plates of Stoddard's famous earlier study, "The West Portals of Saint Denis and Chartres".