How France Built Her Cathedrals Part 44

[4] "Gothic architecture did not arise from a reaction against the principles of Romanesque: on the contrary, it is the natural development of those principles, the logical consequence of the germ idea of the Romanesque builders, which was to protect the naves of their churches by vaults of stone."--R. DE LASTEYRIE.

[5] Any raised balcony, or gallery, in a church is called a tribune. The term will be used here mainly for the deep gallery over side aisles. The making of tribunes was brought about by the custom, in early Christendom, of separating the ages and s.e.xes; in primitive days the kiss of peace used to be given among the congregation.

[6] Transept, or across inclosure, from _trans_, across, and _sepire_, to inclose.

[7] Guillaume Durandus, _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_, translated as _The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments_ by Neale and Webb of the Camden Society (Leeds, T. W. Green, 1843).

[8] The barrel vault (a half cylinder) was known to the Egyptians and a.s.syrians. Rome used it extensively, also the groin vault (made of two intersecting half cylinders).

[9] "There are few things more interesting, more instructive, or more beautiful in human history than the spectacle of those early cowled builders struggling against all difficulties and disadvantages, and laying the foundations of a new art which was, in the stronger hands of their lay successors, to culminate in the marvels of Chartres and Amiens."--CHARLES HERBERT MOORE, _Development and Character of Gothic Architecture_ (New York, Macmillan, 1904).

[10] Let us run briefly over the French Romanesque schools to gain an idea of the monk builder's activities.

_Normandy_ displayed a powerful regional genius, and carried through her Romanesque churches with native thoroughness. Her school was formulated early. By 1040 Jumieges abbey church was begun, and within thirty years the two abbeys of Caen were building. Norman Romanesque used the alternate system of piers, a central lantern tower, cubic capitals, and a geometric sculpture. Their architects were inclined to be overcautious; up to the advent of Gothic they often covered the middle nave with a timber roof, though they vaulted the side aisles with stone.

_Burgundy's_ Romanesque school was bolder. Groin and barrel vaultings covered side aisles and central vessel; and the transverse arches which braced the vaulting were often pointed, since it was found that such an arch exerted less side thrust. Some of Burgundy's monastic churches were as lofty and s.p.a.cious as the coming Gothic cathedrals. However, to obtain proper lighting by clearstory windows she sacrificed stability, and years later the Gothic builders had to add flying b.u.t.tresses to prevent the collapse of the Romanesque churches. In this region where Gallo-Roman art had flourished, channeled pilasters were used. As was to be expected of the province where Cluny's arts and crafts were centered, Burgundy was a leader in monumental sculpture, and such portals as Avallon, Autun, and Vezelay attest her skill.

_Auvergne_ produced a distinctive Romanesque school. Her art sprang direct from the ancient Roman traditions in the province. More cautious than her neighbor Burgundy, she soon gave up trying to light her upper nave by clearstory windows, but obtained light indirectly from side aisles and from a central tower. A precocious use of the ambulatory and of apse chapels appeared in the region. The two most striking features of her churches were the octagonal central tower set on a barlong base, and the apse whose exterior walls were decorated by the volcanic polychrome stones of the district.

_Poitou's_ Romanesque school also developed early, and it, too, sacrificed s.p.a.ciousness to solidity. The side aisles were made of almost equal height as the central vessel, and one roof covered all. The church interiors were often somber and cramped. The apse exterior was ornamented, and the boast of the region is its richly sculptured facades of which that of Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Poitiers is one of the best examples.

_Languedoc_ built Romanesque churches of the first rank, such as St.

Sernin at Toulouse, but the school had no definite uniformity. Sometimes it combined with the Romanesque of Poitou, sometimes with that of Auvergne, or of Burgundy. Because of Cluny affiliations, the Midi school was strong in sculpture--witness Beaulieu, Cahors, Moissac, and Toulouse.

_Provence_ Romanesque covered a more limited area. Usually the churches were aisleless, with a simple apse. A flat stone roof was laid directly on the barrel vaulting, which had pointed transverse ribs like those of Burgundy. Provence also used the fluted pilasters of antiquity. The many remains of Gallo-Roman sculpture in the region served as models for the notable imaged portals at St. Gilles and Arles.

_The Franco-Picard_ school had scarcely developed when it was supplanted by the nascent Gothic art. Besides these regional schools, two unique experiments in vaulting were essayed, though neither spread far afield.

At Tournus, in the abbey church of St. Philibert was built a series of barrel vaults (carried on lintels) placed side by side transversely over the central vessel. And in Aquitaine, in the region of Perigueux and Angouleme, spreading in a line, north and south, arose a number of churches, each bay of which was covered by a cupola. Both these experiments were but partial solutions. While mediaeval archaeology was obscure, the pointed arch was looked on as the _sine qua non_ of Gothic, and it was puzzling to find it in certain Romanesque churches, like those in Burgundy and Provence. The pointed arch was in use in Persia, in the VI century, and the Arabs early brought the form to Egypt, Sicily, and Spain. From the XI century it had appeared sporadically in Christian Europe. Such arches were not the first step in a new architecture, but were used either as a decorative feature or as an expedient to lessen the side thrust of a vault. From outside of France two schools of Romanesque art, the Lombard and the Rhenish, exerted considerable influences on their neighbor, but the forces paramount in each of the local French schools were the pre-Lombardic pre-Rhenish inheritances from Rome, blended with indigenous traditions.

[11] Rome had used some brick lines under the surface of certain of her groin vaults. They performed no separate function, but were embedded in the vaults' concrete. The true Gothic vault has the ribs independent of the infilling. In their elasticity is their strength.

[12] G. T. Rivoira, _Lombardic Architecture_ (London, Heinemann, 1910).

Translated from _Le origini dell' architettura lombarda_ (Milano, 1908); Arthur Kingsley Porter, _Lombard Architecture_ (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1917), 3 vols. and Atlas; _ibid._, _The Construction of Lombard and Gothic Vaults_ (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1911).

[13] E. Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture francaise du XIe au XVIe siecle_ (Paris, 1875), 11 vols.; Anthyme Saint-Paul, _Viollet-le-Duc et son systeme archeologique_ (Tours, 1881).

The masterly technical knowledge of M. Viollet-le-Duc did much to remove the stigma of caprice and extravagance which the neo-cla.s.sic age had fixed on Gothic art. It is a pity that the pioneer who struck good blows for the rehabilitation of Gothic should have jeopardized the permanence of his work by giving free rein to his personal prejudices.

[14] E. Lefevre-Pontalis, "Le plan d'une monographie _d'eglise et le vocabulaire archeologique_," in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 1910, p. 379.

He has written on the same subject in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, vol.

70, p. 453, and 1907, vol. 71, pp. 136, 351, 535.

[15] Jules Quicherat, "La croisee d'ogives et son origine," in _Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire_ (1850), vol. 2, p. 497.

[16] Camille Enlart, _Origines francaises de l'architecture gothique en Italie_ (Paris, 1893); _ibid., Les origines de l'architecture gothique en Espagne et en Portugal_ (Paris, 1894); _ibid., Notes archeologiques sur les abbayes cisterciennes de Scandinavie_ (Paris, 1894); _ibid., Villard de Honnecourt et les Cisterciens_ (Paris, 1895); _ibid., L'art gothique et de la Renaissance en Chypre_ (Paris, Leroux, 1899), 2 vols.; emile Bertaud, _L'art dans l'Italie meridionale_ (Paris, Fontemoing, 1904).

[17] Other publications of value to the student are the _Revue de l'art chretien_, _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, _Moyen-age_, _l'Archeologie_, _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, _Revue archeologique_, and the Didron's _Annales archeologique_. There are H. Havard's _La France artistique et monumental_, Viollet-le-Duc's _Dictionnaire de l'architecture francaise_, Joanne's _Dictionnaire de la France_. The regional and local monographs will be given here with each school of Gothic and each cathedral as it is described.

[18] Andre Michel (Publiee sous la direction de), _Histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chretiens_ (Paris, A. Colin, 1906), 10 vols.

[19] emile Male, _L'art religieux du XIIIe siecle en France_ (Paris, Colin, 1908), 4to; _ibid., L'art religieux de la fin du moyen age en France_ (Paris, Colin, 1910), 4to.

[20] "Il en est parmi nous qui preferent la victoire de leur parti a la victoire de la patrie. ecrire l'histoire de France etait une facon de travailler pour un parti et de combattre un adversaire. Pour beaucoup de Francais etre patriote, c'est etre ennemi de l'ancienne France. Cette sorte de patriotisme au lieu de nous unier contre l'etranger nous pousse tout droit a la guerre civile."--FUSTEL DE COULANGES.

[21] _Congres Archeologique_, 1905, p. 39, on Bury (Oise), and p. 43, on Cambronne (Oise).

[22] Arthur Kingsley Porter, _The Construction of Lombard and Gothic Vaults_ (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1911).

[23] In each vault section of the ambulatory of St. Maclou, Pontoise, was inserted a fifth rib, which sprang from the keystone to the middle of each apse chapel's rear wall, and which consolidated both chapel and procession path. The diagonals do not curve, as do those of Morienval.

St. Maclou was entirely finished in the XII century, but it was reconstructed radically in the XV century: the present facade is 1450-70. Again in the XVI century the church was partly rebuilt, so that the double-aisled nave of to-day appears a beautiful example of Renaissance art. It was at Pontoise that St. Louis, in 1244, took the vow to go crusading. (See, Lefevre-Pontalis, _Monographie de l'eglise St. Maclou de Pontoise_.)

[24] Arthur Kingsley Porter, _Medieval Architecture_ (New York and London, 1909). In vol. 2, pp. 193-251, is a full list of monuments of the transition.

[25] _Congres Archeologique_, 1905, p. 154, on Morienval; _ibid._, 1908, vol. 2, pp. 128, 476, on Morienval, E. Lefevre-Pontalis, Brutails, and John Bilson; E. Lefevre-Pontalis, _L'architecture religieuse dans l'ancien diocese de Soissons au XIe et au XIIe siecle_ (Paris, Plon, 1894-97), 2 vols., folio. Also, his discussion on the vaults of Morienval in _Bulletin Monumental_, vol. 71, pp. 160, 335; 1908, vol.

72, p. 477; and in _Correspondance historique et archeologique_, 1897, pp. 193, 197; Anthyme Saint-Paul, "La transition," in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 1895, p. 13. Also, his studies of Morienval in _Memoires de la Soc. archeol. de Pontoise_ ..., 1894, vol. 16; _Memoires du Comite archeol. de Senlis_, 1892, vol. 7; _Correspondance historique et archeologique_, 1897, pp. 129, 161; John Bilson, on Morienval, in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1908, vol. 72, p. 498; and _Congres Archeologique_, 1905; L. Regnier, in _Memoires de la Soc. archeol. de Pontoise_ ..., 1895, p. 124.

[26] _Congres Archeologique_, 1905, "St. etienne, at Beauvais," pp. 15, 530; Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire_, vol. 3, pp. 254, 263; vol. 4, p.

289; vol. 7, p. 133; Stanislas de Saint-Germain, _Notice historique et descriptive de l'eglise St. etienne de Beauvais_; Victor Lhuillier, _St.

etienne de Beauvais_; P. C. Barraud, "Les vitraux de St. etienne de Beauvais," in _Soc. Academique d'archeologie, department de l'Oise_, vol. 2, p. 507; _Congres Archeologique_, 1905, p. 81, "St. Germer," L.

Regnier; and p. 406, "St. Germer," A. Besnard; E. Lefevre-Pontalis, "L'eglise de St. Germer," in _l'Annuaire Normand_, 1903, p. 134; and _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des chartes_, 1885 and 1889; also _Bulletin Monumental_, 1886; A. Besnard, _L'eglise de St. Germer de Fly_ (Oise), (Paris, E. Lechavalier, 1913); Paul des Forts, "Une excursion en Beauvaisis," in _Bulletin de la Societe d'emulation d'Abbeville_, 1903; Eugene Woillez, _Archeologie des monuments religieux de l'ancien Beauvoisis_.

[27] Maurice Barres, _La grande pitie des eglises de France_ (Paris, emile-Paul, freres, 1914).

[28] Anthyme Saint-Paul, "Poissy et Morienval," in _Memoires de la Societe archeol. de Pontoise et du Vexin_, 1894, vol. 16; E.

Lefevre-Pontalis, _L'Architecture religieuse dans l'ancien diocese de Soissons au XIe et au XIIe siecle_ (Paris, Plon, 1894), 2 vols., folio; F. de Verneilh, _Le premier des monuments gothic_ (Paris, 1864).

[29] Some nave XVI-century lines are under the window of St. Louis'

chapel:

"Saint Louis fut un enfant de Poissy, Et baptise en la presente eglise; Les fonts en sont gardes encore ici, Et honores comme relique exquise."

[30] "King John," Act II.

[31] Vitry et Briere, _L'eglise abbatiale de St. Denis et ses tombeaux_ (Paris, Longuet, 1908); _ibid., Doc.u.ments de sculpture francaise_ (Paris, 1913); Anthyme Saint-Paul. "Suger. L'eglise de St. Denis, et St.

Bernard," _Memoire lu a la_ Sorbonne, insere au _Bulletin archeologique_, et tire a part, 1890; F. de Verneilh, _Le premier des monuments gothiques_ (Paris, 1864); Abbe Crosnier, "Vitrail de l'abbaye de St. Denis explique," in _Revue archeologique_, 1847, vol. 7, p. 377; Felicie d'Ayzac, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint Denis-en-France_ (Paris, 1861), 2 vols.; Ferdinand de Lasteyrie, _Histoire de la peinture sur verre_ (Paris, Didot, 1852), 2 vols.; Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, Macmillan, 1914); emile Male, _L'art religieux de la fin du moyen age en France_ (Paris, A. Colin, 1910); _ibid._, "La part de Suger dans la creation de l'iconographie," in _Revue de l'art ancien et moderne_, 1914; L. Levillain, "L'eglise carolingienne de St. Denis," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1907, vol. 71, p. 211; L. Levillain et L. Maitre, "Crypt de St. Denis," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1903, p. 136; Suger, _OEuvres completes_, ed. Lecoy de la Marche (Paris, Renouard, 1867); _Histoire litteraire de la France_. (Begun by the XVII-century Benedictines and continued by the Inst.i.tute of France.) Vol. 12, p. 361, on Suger, published in 1764.

[32] Marius Sepet, _Le Drapeau de la France_.

[33] Henri Stein, _Les architectes des cathedrales gothiques_ (Paris, H.

Laurens, 1908); ibid., "Pierre de Montereau," in _Memoires de la Societe des antiquaires de France_, 1900, vol. 61.

[34] A. de Montaiglon, "La famille des Juste en France," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1876, vol. 42, pp. 76, 768. Details of the tombs of St.

Denis are to be found in Pal.u.s.tre, _La Renaissance en France_ (1888); Gonse, _La Sculpture francaise depuis le XIVe siecle_ (1895); Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpture francaise_ (1901); and in writings by A.

Saint-Paul and Louis Courajod.

[35] R. de Lasteyrie, "La deviation de l'axe des eglises est-elle symbolique?" in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1905, vol. 69, p. 422, also published separately; A. Saint-Paul, "Les irregularites de plan des eglises," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, vol. 70, p. 129; John Bilson, "Deviation of Axis in Medieval Churches," in _Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tute of British Architects_, December 25, 1905; W. H. Goodyear, "Architectural Refinements in French Cathedrals," in _Architectural Record_, vols. 16, 17, 1904-05, and _Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tute of British Architects_, 3d series, 1907, vol. 15, p. 17.

[36] During three days in August, 1793, and again in October of the same year, the tombs at St. Denis were violated. Robespierre stood long studying the chivalrous head of Henry IV, then plucked some hairs from the king's white beard and put them in his portfolio; Henry IV had abjured Calvinism in this very church of St. Denis in 1593. The corpse of Louis XIV presented an air of serene majesty. When the coffin of Louis XV was opened the air was infected insupportably. On that same day in October, 1793, Marie Antoinette mounted the scaffold. Her remains and those of Louis XVI are to-day laid in the inner core of St. Denis'

crypt.