Heidegger places his primary focus on the persona of the preservers and positions them in relationship to both truth and history: “[I]n the work [of art], truth is thrown towards the coming preservers, that is, toward an historical group of men.” This terminology of projection engages art with a historically implicated audience. The shoemakers and other tradespeople of Chartres may not have understood images of themselves as “truth” (although the new realism of such a depiction does avail itself to discussions of truth), but the images of saints and the divine figures of Mary and Christ which were displayed gloriously in the windows above the donor panels certainly projected truth.
It is within this intersection of truth, history, and preservers that Heidegger hints at an idea that I find gripping: that the work of art is also that of subjectivity formation. “Preserving the work means: standing within the openness of being that happens in the work.” “Openness of being” is a phrase that Heidegger uses often in conjunction with truth, and therefore associates the subject position of preservers as “standing within” the truth that happens in a work of art. I take “standing within” to be a powerful assimilation of the viewer (preserver) with the truth of a work of art – it is a stronger claim of interaction than merely “standing before” a work of art. These distinctions become important when we consider the effect of seeing stained glass window panels depicting shoemakers and tradespeople on the historical shoemakers and tradespeople of thirteenth century Chartres.
