The Gothic Cathedral 463m9

nung"; and Colombier,

p. 70. Nearly all older works, including Dehio's Untersuchungen uber

das

gleichseitige

Dreieck

Bauproportionen, are

als

now

were undertaken on the

gotxscher

basis of inexact

urements and drawings.

Thomae's

Norm

obsolete, since they

On

meas-

the other hand,

Das Proportionenziesen in Baukunst, though correct in refuting individual errors of interpretation, is marred by the author's ignorance of medieval thought. See Kletzl's review of the book in ZK, IV, 1935. As for the technical methods by which the medieval architect and even his "scientifically" untrained assistants were able to execute these mathematical proportions, see the interesting paper by FunckHellct, "L'Equerre des maitres d'oeuvrea ct der

la

criticism,

Geschichte

der gotischen

proportion" (Les Cahiers techniques de

II,

1949).

The

I'art,

author stresses the important

function of the e'querre, or square, the instrument that

indeed

figures

so conspicuously

builder's tool in nearly architects.

all

as

the

images ot medieval

Fig. 2.

Ground flans and

elevations of Gothic canopy s

Medieval drawings

THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL

16 rical progression.

Proportions thus obtained the master considers to be "ac-

cording to true measure." It

this

was not only the

33

Gothic architect or the German lodges that made

late

modular use of the square. Perhaps the most important single piece of evi-

dence regarding the principles of Gothic design

model book by

the famous

is

who was active teaches how to halve

the Picard architect, Villard de Honnecourt,

quarter of the thirteenth century.

He

too

in the

second

the square for

the purpose of determining the "true" proportions of a building, in this case the

ground plan of a

cloister.

34

This canon of proportions did not remain confined to theory. Villard de

Honnecourt Cathedral.

It

in another

drawing shows

appears likewise in a number of medieval ground plans of Gothic

steeples studied

by Maria Velte. Here not only the recesses of the

stories, but the

dimensions of every single

be

detail,

width of the walls, hang proportionately together,

as

it

Church of Our Lady

do the

sides

are determined is

composed of

facade of Noyon, he

is

tects

Of course,

In the

all

of

famed

proportions

this

facade with the earlier but generally similar

clarity

its

by the mid-thirteenth century

is

with which the geometrical principle

is

geometrical formulae were also used by pre-Gothic archi-

and by sculptors and painters as well. Here, however, they seem to have

been practical rather than

mains unconscious.

artistic devices,

See Frankl,

Die Bauhiitte des Mittehlters

pp. 105 34.

in

Deutschhnd,

3 5

.

The model book has been reproduced by Album de Villard de Honnecourt, and

Lassus,

Villard de Honnecourt.

ences are to Hahnloscr, Pis. 18, 39.

My

refer-

Velte, Die

Trianguhtur

Anwendung

review of 36.

37. ff.

und Grund- und AujrissgestalKirchen. See, however, the

this

book by

J. S.

Ackerman

in

AB,

1953. Gall,

"Uber

Licbfrauenkirche

139

as they

der Quadratur

bei der

tung der gotischrn

XXV,

ff.

Hahnloscr,

of which the observer usually re-

Nowhere do they determine the aesthetic appearance

"The Secret of the Medieval Masons" (AB, XXVII, 1945); also Colombier, p. 68. The Fialenbuchlein is published in Heide33.

loff,

series

tempted to say that the development of Gothic from

marked by the increasing 37

of a

a seq uence of four squares developed "according to true

beginning to the classical maturity reached

realized.

35

by the same formula. 36 Again, the fagade of Notre Da me of

measure." If one compares Plates 4, 5

shown,

at Trier, as Ernst Gall has recently

different

the keystone or the

squares the areas of which increase in geometrical progression.

Paris

Laon

application in the towers of

its

die

..."

Maasze der Trierer (Form und Inhalt).

Cf. Seymour, Notre

Dame

0/ Noyon, pp.

v

i

A

*

t

V*^k x m ? w

X

-•*

-

bffcv

mi -nil

W --III

II

--II

ks

c:3

1

a*—

i'*

-•I

TT)

Fig. 5.

Matthew

f

'

-

Roriczer.

sS

11

Ground plan and

elevation of a pinnacle


18

do

in the

Gothic system. 38

We

shall return to this point in the last chapter.

Why this extraordinary submission, so alien to our own notions concerning the nature of art and of the freedom of artistic creation, to the laws of geometry?

One

reason often given

is

a practical one: measuring units varied

were unknown or unusable;

place, yardsticks

this

from place to

must have recommended

a

system of proportions that could be translated by purely geometrical means

from the small-scale architectural drawing or model into the large dimensions of the actual building. This explanation

is

but partially valid, however. Stand-

ardized and generally accepted measuring units were certainly in use during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in other professions, for example, the uniform

measures and weights employed by fairs.

39

The

the tow ns represented at the great r

architect Villard de Honnecourt, moreover, on one occasion does

supply absolute measures

panying

all

text, in his

in a technical

in feet,

both

in

Roman

numerals and

in the

accom-

model book. 40 But he uses these arithmetical measures only

drawing; in

his architectural designs

he

relies exclusively

on

geometry. Furthermore, the proportion ''according to true measure," whatever the facility of

its

practical execution, occurs, as

Ueberwasser has shown,

in

Gothic paintings and engravings, where the problem of translating one dimension into another did not enter.

The Gothic considered

it,

as

artist

would have overthrown the

most modern

artists

would, a

rule

of geometry, had he

fetter. It is clear,

on the other

hand, that he did not use his geometrical canons for purely aesthetic reasons either, since

he applied them where they are invisible to the observer./Thus,

all

the ribs under the vault of Reims Cathedral circumscribe, according to Yiollet-

le-Duc, eq uilateral triangles, a fact no visitor to the church

And

is

likely to notice.

even such purely technical data as the width of a wall or buttress were

38.

Where

the geometrical grid obtrudes in

such Romanesque works,

we

experience

its

"Les geome-

effect as unpleasant. See, e.g., Hubert,

Peintures murales du Vic et

la

trique" (Cahiers archeologiques, 39.

,

tradition I,

1945), PI.

XV.

See Levasseur, Histoire du commerce de I,

la

40. Hahnloser, t. 59, pp. 159 f. The famous Carolingian monastery plan in St.-Gall rre-

While

the church

is

laid

out geometrically ad quadrat um, measurements in feet

have been entered upon the plan that

The

only

seems to me, is that the plan represents an ideal txempktm and as such follows the "perfect" proportions based on the squire. The numerical dimensions given, on

possible explanation,

it

the other hand, are to guide those translate the plan into realitv.

86.

scnts a special case.

yield entirely different proportions.

\\

And

ho wish to this reality

is entirely different from the ideal scheme. The Gothic builder would not have deviated so widely from his geometrical model. For the interpretation of the St.-Ciall plan, see Rein-

hardr.

Der

St. Galler Klosterplan,

pn. 18

rl.

GOTHIC FORM

iq

determined by the formula "according to true measure." Again, the Gothic builders

show what

F.

Bond has

called "a sneaking fondness" for the square

bay, even though the adoption of the pointed arch had rendered the square bay obsolete as a vaulting unit. 41 In short, the alternative of technical or aesthetic

does not

ment

make

sense in medieval . Fortunately, at least one literary docu-

survives that explains the use of geometry in Gothic architecture: the

minutes of the architectural conferences held during 1391 and the following years in Milan.

The

Cathedral of Milan had been begun in 1386. But after a few years

difficulties

became apparent and

was decided

it

to call in foreign advisers

and . In the discussions between them and their leagues, the minutes

of which have survived, two points stand out that are of

paramount importance for our present inquiry. figures

—

by the German

attested

architect,

Roriczer, of the fifteenth

—

not whether the cathedral

is

emphatically

is

confirmed by the Italian document of the intervening century. is

on geometric

First, the reliance

Matthew

century, and the thirteenth-century French architect, Villard

debated at Milan

from

Italian col-

The

question

to be built according to a

geometrical formula, but merely whether the figure to be used

to be the

is

square (which had already determined the ground plan) or the equilateral triangle.

The

second and even more interesting aspect of the Milan documents

that they suggest the reason for this reliance

is

on geometrical canons. The

minutes of one particularly stormy session relate an angry dispute between the

French expert, Jean Mignot, and the issue,

Mignot remarks

geometry by alleging science concludes,

is

Italians.

Overruled by them on

bitterly that his opponents

to be

one thing and

have

a technical

set aside the rules

art another. Art,

nothing without science, "ars sine scientia nihil est."

of

however, he 42

The

"a rt" and "scienc e" do not mean what they mean today. Art for Mignot and his

contemporaries

is t he

practical

know-how

gained from experienc e, science

the ability to for the reasons that determine sound architectural pro-

cedure by rational and, more precisely, geometrical means. In other words, architecture that

is

scientific

and good must invariably be based on geometry; study of the

41. Bond, Introduction, p. 321. 42. Annali, esp.

I,

68

ff.,

209

f.

The

best

much

Ackerman, "Ars

XXXI,

discussed age

is

that of

sine scientia nihil est"

1949). See also Frankl, "Secret."

(AB,


20

unless he obeys the laws of this discipline, the architect

must surely

fail.

This

argument was considered unassailable even by Mignot's opponents. They hasten to affirm that they are in complete agreement as regards this theoretical point and have nothing but contempt for an architect

the dictates of geometry. stability

And

it is

who presumes

to ignore

taken for granted by both sides that the

and beauty of an edifice are not distinct values, that they do not obey

different laws, but that,

on the contrary, both are comprehended

in the perfec-

tion of geometrical forms.

Thus, the Milan document answers our question regarding the function of

geometry

in

Gothic architecture.

I

think

it

also provides the clue to the reasons

underlying what seems an almost superstitious belief in mathematics. Jean

Mignot's juxtaposition of ars and

scientia recalls, like a faint

that occurs almost a millennium before in the

of the Christian Middle Ages. to the tradition

it

created,

To this work,

we must now

most

to the

turn.

echo, the distinction

influential aesthetic treatise

world view

it

expounds, and

2.

n the

I

first

MEASURE AND LIGHT

book of his treatiseMejnusica,

"science of good modulation."

why

explains

*

St.

music, properly understood,

is

a science.

music can be produced by instinct or practical preciated

by one who

"knows what he

just

however, creative or receptive,

August ine

defines

music

as the

Before telling us what good modulation

He

he

does not deny that

skill, just as

likes."

is,

music can be ap-

Such understanding of music,

but of a low order, according to Augustine.

is

Vulgar performers and vulgar audiences have such an understanding; even a singing bird has. In fact, there

is

little

difference between

man and

beast in

regard to this kind of musical knowledge, which Augustine contemptuously calls art.

2

The

on the other hand, which knows

true understanding of music,

the.

laws that are of its very essence, applies them in musical creation, and discovers

them

in a composition, is

what Augustine

on to expl ain the nature of

The

calls the science

science of good modulation

is

concerned with the relating of several

musical units according to a module, a measure, in such a

can be expressed in simple arithmetical ratios. cording to Augustine,

is

that of equality or

the union or consonance between the

two

—the

are the ratios 1:2, 2:3, and 3:4

octave,

fifth,

and fourth.Ît

intervals, for Augustine,

is

is

of music, and he goes

mathematical. 3

this science as

way

The most

symmetry, the

parts

is

that the relation

irable ratio

i

:

i ,

ratio, ac-

since here

most intimate. Next

in

rank

intervals of the perfect consonances,

to be noticed that the pre-eminence of these

not deri ved from their aes thetic or a coustic quali ties.

These, rather, are audible echoes of the metaphysical perfection that Pythag1. "Musica est scientia bene modulandi (PL, XXXII, 1083). 2. II, 19 (PL, XXXII, in). 1

3.

H.

On

Augustine's aesthetics, see especially

Edelstein, Die Musikanschauung Augustins

nach seiner Schrift

"De musica

U Esthetique de Saint Augustin H.

I.

Marrou,

1

'

';

K. Svoboda, and

et ses sources;

Saint Augustin et la fin de la

culture antique (with exhaustive bibliography),

esp. pp. 197

ff.


22

orean mysticism ascribes to number, especially to the four numbers of the tetractys.

Without

would return

the principate of number, as Augustine calls

to chaos.

things in measure and

Taking up

it,

first

the cosmos

the Biblical age "thou hast ordered

number and weight,"

4

t

all

he Bishop of Hip po applied

Pythag orean and Neop latonic number mysticism

of the

to the interpretation

Christian universe, thus establishing the cosmology that remained

force until

in

the triumph of Aristotelianism. Augustine shares with Plato both distrust of

the world of images and belief in the absolute validity of mathematical relationships. lates

one

These views form the

basis of Augustine's philosophy

of art. His postu-

about the function of the arts in the Christian commonwealth, and even,

may

say, their style, left their imprint

This influence i

.

The

may

on Christian

art for a

thousand years.

be formulated as follows:

principles of

Augustine established

good musical modulation and

De

in

appreciation that

its

musica are mathematical principles and therefore

On

apply, in his opinion at least, to the visual arts as they do to music.

monochord, the musical intervals are marked off by divisions on a

the

string; the

arithmetical ratios of the perfect consonances thus appear as the proportions

between different parts of

a line.

And

since Augustine deduces the musical

value of the perfect consonances from the metaphysical dignity of the ratios

on which they are based,

it

was natural

certain visual proportions derives

of the

The

first tetractys.

arts, like the place

from

for

him

to conclude that the beauty of

their being based

on the simple

among

place Augustine assigns to geometry

he assigns to music,

callecTth e "analogical" function

is

the liberal

caused by what the Middle Ages

of geome try, that

is, its

ability to lead

themind

from the world of appearances to the c ontemplation of the divine order. second book of his treatise

On

ratios

Order, Augustine describes

how

In the

reason, in her

quest for the blissful contemplation of things divine, turns to music and from

music to what 4.

lies

Wisd. of Sol.

1

1

within the range of vision: beholding earth and heaven, she :20b. It

was not

difficult

hammers beating on

a piece

of iron), the same

to find in the Biblical phrase justification and

proportion as that between the segments of the

confirmation of the Pythagorean theorv of a

monochord

symphonic universe based on numbers. Accord-

Macrobius, Commentarius ex Cicerone

ing to the ancient legend, Pythagoras had dis-

Sapionis,

covered that perfect consonances were produced

interprete

according to the proportion of weights

I,

(of

that yield those consonances. See

II,

1;

Chalcidius,

Chaladw.

XLV;

Bocthius,

10 (PL, LXIII, 11761.)'

in

somniimt

Platonis

De

Timarus musica,

:

MEASURE AND LIGHT realizes that

only beauty can ever satisfy her,

portion, and in proportion

The

2.

in

23

beauty figures,

aesthetic implications are clear. Augustine

to architecture as he

was

to

in figures pro-

number. 5

was nearly

as sensitive

m usic. They are the only arts he seems to have fully

enjoyed; and he recognized them even after his conversion, since he experienced the

same transcendental element

sisters, since

in both.

6

For him, music and architecture are

both are children of number; they have equal dignity, inasmuch as

architecture mirrors eternal harmony, as music echoes

it.

Consistent with this view, Augustine uses architecture, as he does music, to

show

that number, as apparent in the simpler proportions that are based on

the "perfect" ratios, architect, as

the source of

is

all

aesthetic perfection.

he does the musician, to prove that

the laws of numbers. "scientist" of his art,

The architect, if he is may be unaware of the

No

ing mathematical rules.

all artistic

mere

a

he uses the

practitioner rather than a

fact that

beautiful edifice

And

creation observes

he

is

instinctively apply-

conceivable, however, unless

is

these rules have been applied and unless their presence

is

apparent to the

observer.

We its

should by no means overlook the positive aspects of this aesthetics

underlying distrust and depreciation of the imitative in

art,

and indeed of

imagery, kept alive sensibility for the "nonobjective" values in

artistic

all

design

and thus constituted a powerful counterweight to the overwhelming pictorial

and illustrative concerns of medieval tinian aesthetics, further elaborated

process,

from the

limits not

first

art.

At

the

same time, however, Augus-

by Boethius, confined the

entire creative

design to the completed composition, within the rigid

only of metaphysical doctrine but of certain mathematical laws.

Feeling, aesthetic sensibility, according to Boethius, have an altogether sub-

ordinate function: they can at best arrive at a dim, confused notion of harmony,

which reason alone can

realize

and represent. In short, the

trust his intuition in the matter all;

and he

5.

6.

1263

De De f.).

is

not free to

loftiest aesthetic principle

of

not even free to choose between the mathematical formulae upon

or dine, II, 39 libero

of proportion, the

artist is

ff.

Arbitrio,

(PL, II,

XXXII, 1013 f.) (PL, XXXII,

42

Augustine's definition of

all

artistic

imagery is

as false or illusionary in Plato's sense

in Soliloquiorum, II,

Cf. Svoboda, p. 50.

18

(PL, XXXII, 893).


24

which

his proportions are to

be based, since Augustinian (and Boethian) aes-

thetics recognize only the "perfect" ratios

For medieval

3.

lies all

While disparaging imagery, while

elsewhere.

their sensuous

life,

while impoon

tions that for centuries

often realize,

of Pythagorean mysticism. 7

the greatest significance of this philosophy of beauty

art,

it

was

stripping the arts of nearly

artistic creation authoritative regula-

were more generally and more timidly observed than we

precisely this philosophy that invested Christian art with

an extraordinary dignity. True beau ty, according to Augustine,

is

a nchored in

metaphysical reality. Visible and audible harmonies are actually intimations of that ultimate

place that

harmony which

the blessed will enjoy in the world to come.

harmony and proportion came

of the Christian

West

to

assume

in the art

The

and contemplation

not altogether unlike that which the icon, the sacred

is

image, occupies in the art and thought of the Eastern Church. Here, and under the enduring inspiration of the

remained a visual one;

Greek

tradition, the ideal

of ultimate beauty

centered in the image of man. In the West, and under

it

the influence of Augustine, beauty

was conceived

in

musical , and even

And

ultimate bliss as the enjoyment of an eternal symphony.

thought to partake of the sacred reality

as the icon

is

represents, so, according to

Augus-

tinian aesthetics, the musical consonances in visual proportions created

by man

it

partake of a sacred concord that transcends them.

Hence, the contemplation of such harmonies can actually lead the soul the experience of

God; hence,

that the medieval

Church assigned

work of

this

also, the truly regal place, the lofty mission,

to the creation and

kind. Recurrent iconoclastic

enjoyment of

waves have sought

mission of medieval art without ever impairing tian iconoclast judges art

to

it.

On

artistic

to limit this

the contrary: the Chris-

from the viewpoint of ultimate theological

reality; his

attack has therefore always elicited the attempt to create a religious art in

harmony with of

this

that reality.

During the Christian Middle Ages every criticism

kind has been followed by a style of ecclesiastical art more perfectly

attuned to the religious experience of that generation. 7.

and

See Augustine,

XXXII

(PL,

De

vera

XXXIV,

Spatromische Kunstmdustrie, ch.

religione,

145 5,

ff.).

was

XXX Riegl,

the

first

to analyze Augustine's aesthetics in relation to

the art of his time.

He

historical

only and docs not explore

parallel

sees in this relationship a

either the metaphysical tinian

background of Augus-

aesthetics or the metaphysical

reasons

that for the influence of these aesthetics

upon medieval see

De

musica,

1285(7.).

art. II,

For the ages 34;

V,

1

(PL,

in

Boethius,

I. XIII.

1195,

MEASURE AND LIGHT This its

is

25

particularly true for architecture, which, in the solemn language of

forms, conveys insights that transcend the world of imagery. In order to

evoke those sentiments of reverence and awe that seemed tion of the divine presence (sentiments that are so clearly

of King

Henry

I

quoted

to

convey an intimain the

words

in the Introduction), the ecclesiastical builder

of the

conveyed

twelfth century relied increasingly on the Augustinian aesthetics of number and proportion.

The

validity of this aesthetics remained unquestioned. In the Retractions,

work

that singular

his entire literary

in

which

a

renowned author

at the

end of

his life

examines

output with an eye not only to posterity but to eternity,

Augustine himself spoke once more of the views he had expressed

Although he found much of the

thafnumber may guide the the invisible truth in

God. 8

treatise unacceptable,

intellect

in

De musica.

he reaffirmed

his belief

from the perception of created things to

/

Augustine's authority shaped the Middle Ages. The age from the " of Solomon, thou hast ordered all th ings in measure and number and

Wisdom

weight," and the interpretation he had given to observed, the

shown how

keyword of the medieval

this

its

w orld view.

as has rightly

9

impact

is

been

1

-4£~

E. R. Curtius has recently is

reflected in the

Manfred Bukofzer and others

impact upon the development of medieval music. 10

sufficiently realized that this all in

became,

world view, through number composition,

content as well as the form of medieval poetry;

have traced

it

It is

not yet

equally manifest in the visual arts, above

architecture.

In a sense, this

is

true for the

Middle Ages

in general. In the

second quarter

of the twelfth century, however, Augustine's philosophy of beauty was seized

upon by two powe rful

intellectual

moveme nts

The

in .

first

of these

centered in the group of eminent Platonists assembled at the Cathedral School

of Chartres; the second movement, antispeculative and ascetic, emanated from the great monastic houses of Citeaux and Clairvaux;

Bernard. French civilization in the twelfth century

(PL,

XXXII, 600

8.

Retractationum,

9.

European Literature and the Latin Middle

I,

1

1

ff.).

H. Krings, "Das Sein und die Ordnung" (DVLG, XVIII, 1940); also V. F. Hopper, Mediaeval Number Symbolism, Ages, pp. 501

ff.

Cf.

pp. 98 10.

personification

was

St.

almost be described as

f.

Thinking in Medieval XVII, 1942); cf. Spitzer, "Classi-

"Speculative

Music" cal

its

may

(Sp,

and Christian Ideas of World Harmony"

(Traditio, II, 1944; HI.

I

945)-

V


26 the synthesis of these

two

trends, which, though distinct, are nevertheless con-

nected by close intellectual and personal

of St. Augustine.

movements. Their influence was such porary

art.

ties,

above

all

by the common heritage

We must look more closely at the aesthetic views of the two that they could not but affect contem-

w ithout the

IndeedJ_Gothic art would not hav e come into existence

Platonic cosmology cultivated at Chartres and without the spi rituality o f

Clairvaux.

The ment.

11

Platonism of Chartres was in

The men who gathered there in

were primarily

many

respects a true Renaissance

move-

the second quarter of the twelfth century

interested in theological and cosmological questions, to be

solved by means of a synthesis of Platonic and Christian ideas. These early scholastics approached their task in a spirit of tolerance and respect for the

thought of antiquity that often reminds one of the "universal theism" of the

was

fifteenth century; yet theirs

entirely based

ment was

on one single

available,

taries)

Of

was almost

It

this treatise

but a frag-

The

lenses of an eclectic and confus ed

Platonic fragment (and the

that

Neo-

two mediocre commen-

were approached by the theologians of Chartres with nearly the same

awe and were

.

two commentaries, by Chalcidius and Macrobius,

cosm ology through the

pl atonic mysticis m.

Ti maeus

of this fragment not the Greek original but only a garbled

translation along with

vie wed Plato's

a strange Platonism indeed.

treatise, the

respect as

was

in substantial

the

Book of Genesis. Both

agreement

in

these works,

it

was

believed,

what they revealed about the creation of

the

universe, indeed, about the Creator himself. If one considers that the theology

and cosmology of Chartres resulted largely from the interpretation of two docu-

ments

as different as Plato

and the Bible, but approached with the notion that

they must not contradict each other and that the interpreter must not contradict

ii.

On

the School of Chartres, see Haureau,

Memoire sur quelques Chartres;

Clerval,

Les

chanceliers

£coles

de

de

I'ecole

Chartres

de

au

of the History of Medieval Thought and Learning, ch. 4, and "The

moyen-dge; Poole,

Illustrations

Masters of the School of Paris and Chartres in John of Salisbury's Time" (EHR, XXV, 1920); Licbeschuetz, "Kosmologische Motive in dcr Bildungswelt der Fruhscholastik" (Vortrdge der Biblwthek Warburg, 1923-24); Pare\ Brunet, and Tremblay, La Renaissance du XII' siecle. Les

holes

et

rmseignmirnt,

pp.

30

ff.;

Haskins,

"Some Twelfth Century Writers on Astronomy: the School of Chartres" (Studies m the History of Science), and The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, pp. 101 ff., 135 f; Taylor, The Mediaeval Mmd, I, ch. XII, 3; Parent, La Doctrine de

la

creation

dans

I'ecole

de Chartres;

Gilson, La Philosophic au moyen-dge, pp. 259 ff. See also the stimulating, if somewhat one-sided,

in

Heer, Aufgang F.uropas, pp. 297

ff.

MEASURE AND LIGHT either,

one can but marvel

at the

27

wonderful and daring speculative system that

resulted.

The

aspects of the theology and cosmology of Chartres that interest us

most in our present context are,

first,

the emphasis on mathematic s, particularly

geometry; and second, the aesthetic consequences of this thought/The masters of Chartres, like the Platonists and Pythagoreans of wit h mathematics

;

it

magi cal to ol that would unlock the secrets of both

.

God and worl d, The most influential

ponent of the system, Thierry of Chartres, 12 hoped to

geometry and arithmetic, the divine sought auugm

The

explain the to lu cApidin tut

equality of the

13

artist in his creation;

Three Persons

is

he went further and

results

is

between Father

master Pythagoras," identified the

God

and matter, respectively.

unity begotten by unity, as the square

is

from the multiplication of a magnitude with

concludes, It

Son

by the

represented, according to him,

recalls that Plato, "like his

thus supreme unity, and the

is

ex-

mystery mâiciy ui of the nit Trinity Aiiuiiy by uy gcuiiicuicai geometrical uciiiuusirauon. demonstration.

metaphysical principles of monad and dyad with

God

the

with the help of

find,

equilateral triangle; the square unfolds the ineffable relation

and Son. Thierry

were obsessed

ages,

all

was^considered the link_bgt ween

itself.

Rightly, Thierry

the Second Person of the Trinity therefore called the

square. 14

first

has been said that, under Thierry's influence, the School of Chartres

12.

See Haureau, Notes

manuscrits latins de

la

et extraits

de quelquts

Bibliotheque Nationale,

which Thierry

49, for the letter in

is

I,

called

rebus appareat

est, ut et artificium creatoris in et,

quod proposuimus,

W. Jansen,

rationabiliter ostendatur"

"Der Kommentardes Clarembaldus

"utpote totius Europae philosophorum praeci-

von Arras zu Boethius' De

puus"; also the dedication to Thierry of Bernard

Studien zur historischen Theologie, VIII, 1926),

De mundi

Silvestris'

universitate,

p.

5.

On

p.

Bernard's relations to the School of Chartres, see Parent, p. 16.

creatio. facit

.

.

.

Prior igitur generatio

tantummodo

tetragones,

vel

numerorum cubos, vel

quod aequalitates dimen." Even more significant sionem custodiunt. is the following age from De sex dierum circulos, vel spheras, .

.

"Adsint igitur quattuor genera rationum, quae ducunt hominem ad cognitionem

operibus:

creatoris,

musicae

et

scilicet

arithmeticae probationes et

geometricae et astronomicae quibus

instrumentis in hac theologia breviter utendum

*; cf. pp.

"Unitas ergo

125

ff.,

in

12 *

est.

semel tetrago natura prima tetrago natura est generatio

.

.

*.

.

est.

.

.

.

.

est,

Sed unitas

Sed haec

.

Filii et,

ut

verum

prima est generatio.

fateor, tetrago natura haec .

and 62

eo quod gignit, Pater

eo quod gignitur Filius

in

13. See Haureau, Notes, pp. 64 ff., in which Thierry introduces the age from Wisd. of Sol. 1 1 :20b as the primordial principle of creation: "... creatio numerorum rerum est

108 14.

Trinitate" (Breslauer

Et quoniam tetrago natura prima generatio tetragonus primus est." "Bene

Filii est et Filius

autem

tetragonus

attribuitur

Filio

quoniam

figura haec perfectior ceteris propter laterum

aequalitatem

indicatur

trianguli

lateribus

triangula

namque

quoque

et,

sicut

quaedam latera

in

habet

aequalia,

Filius essendi est aequalitas."

nunc, Jansen, p.

13 *.

Almost

omnibus

aequalitas

est, ita

Librum

identical

is

the

age by Thierry's pupil, Clarembaldus; see Jansen,

p.

62

*.

W

^ ''

\y

/

trf^SyfcJ


28

The

attempted to change theology into geometry. 15

attempt, which appears so

strange to us, conveys a glimpse of what geometry meant to the twelfth century.

More

more dubious from

daring than this theology,

orthodoxy, and more significant for the art historian Chartres and the philosophy of beauty tha t

it

the standpoint of

the cosmol ogy of

is

engendered. 16 In the Timaeus Plato

describes the division of the world soul according to the ratios of the Pythago-

rean

The

tetractys.

aesthetic, especially musical, connotations of this idea are

underscored by Chalcidius, to the ratios of musical

who points

out that the division

harmony. 17 He,

Demiurge, by so dividing the world

as well as

effected according

is

Macrobius, 18

soul, establishes a

insists that the

cosmic order based on

harmony of musical consonance.

the

was easy

It

to fuse this notion with the Augustinian idea of a universe

created "in measure and

number and weight." As

symphonic composition.

as a

a result, the creation appeared

so described in the ninth century

It is

by Johannes

Scotus Erigena, 19 and the idea was seized upon by the School of Chartres.

William of Conches, 20 the teacher of John of Salisbury, and Abelard, who (am Ende des) zwoelften Jahrhunzur Mathematik, zur Geometrie geworden." Baumgartner, "Die Philosophic des Alanus de Insulis" (BGPM, 15.

"So die

derts

1896,

ist

Theologie

112).

II,

It

interesting to note that

is

daring speculations of this kind did not arouse, at this

time at

least,

treatise,

warm

however,

* fT.), is a

16.

On

tres, see II,

255 17.

Trinitate, la

almost a copy of the to Jansen (pp.

work of Thierry.

the aesthetics of the School of Char-

de Bruyne, Etudes d'esthetiquemcdiciale,

fT.

Platonis Timaeus,

XL-XLYI,

pp. 106

see De?nusica,

(PL, LXIII, 1168).

I,

1

II,

1.

is

ff.

Bocthms,

for this notion

Commentarius,

Sec Schcdler. "Die

Macrobius und ihr Einfluss auf die Wissenschaft des chnstlichcn Mittclaltcrs" (BGPM, XI II, 19 16); and for a critical summary of the Macrobius studies of Philosophic des

Duhcm, Stahl, Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, pp. 39 fT. The Schcdler and

originates

suggests convincingly

in

the mvsticism

of the

— who likewise influenced the — "Musicen vero nosse nihil

cunctarum rerum ordinem

aliud esse, nisi

scire,

quaeque sit divina ratio sortita. Ordo enim rerum singularum in unum omnium artifice rarione collatus concentum quendam melo divino dulcissimum verissimumque conficict." Asclepius, XIII II,

Another authority 18.

170)

tribute to St. Bernard.

is

Librum hunc, which, according 26

De

1

ff.,

perfect consonances. See also the age in

Pseudo-Apuleius

Abelard and Gilbert de

Porree and paying

The

triangles

twelfth century

a fierce polemical treatise,

against

bei Plato, pp. 39

that even Plato's preference for his elementary

of Christian doctrine

incurred. Clarembaldus of Arras (d. after

wrote

Klang

musical character of Plato's cos-

beyond question. Ahlvers, Zahl und

is

the suspicions that other

rationalist interpretations

directed

essentially

mology

{Opera omnia, cd. Hildcbrand,

294)19.

De

divisione naturae,

II,

31; III,

3

and 6;

and V, 36 (PL, CXXII, 602, 630 ff., 965). On Frigena's concept of music, see Handschin,

"Die

Musikanschauung des Johan Scotus (DVLG, V, 1927). On Erigcna's

Erigena"

influence on the School of Chartres. sec Parent, p. 48.

The

once more

mima

in a

p.

symphony occurs De

magnificent age in the

dt the Platonizing

See below, 20.

idea of the cosmic

William of Auvcrgne.

125.

Sec Flatten, Die Philosophic des U'ilhelm

von Conches, pp. 126

ff.:

"Item (anima mundi)

dieitur constare ex musicis consonantiis

.

.

.

MEASURE AND LIGHT

29

seems to have studied mathematics under Thierry and whose cosmological views are those of the School of Chartres, 21 both identify the Platonic world soul with the Holy Ghost in

its

creative and ordering effect upon matter; and they

The harmony it

conceive this effect as musical consonance. out the cosmos

establishes through-

represented, however, not only as a musical composition but

is

also as an artistic one,

more

specifically, as a

work of

The

architecture.

with which the transition from the musical to the archite ctural sphere

view of the

effected will not surprise us in

of the two

sistership

is

ease

here

in Platonic

and

Augustinian thought. But for the theologians of Chartres, the notion of the

cosmos

as a

work of

significance, since they

assume

a

ornament

m aterial,

ing

as its architect has a special

twofold act of creation: the creation of chaotic

matter and the creation of cosmos signified

God

architecture and of

as well as order ,

out" it

of chaos. Since the Greek word kosmos

was

plausible to

view matter a s the build -

the creation p roper as the "adorning" of matter by the artful

imposition of an architectural order. In the Platonic cosmology, moreover, the

masters of Chartres could detect the design and method according to which the divine architect had built the universe, the cosmic temple, as Macrobius calls it.

22

In the! Timaeus the primary bodies of \

are conceived as building materials

which the world

ready to be put together by the builder's hand. This composition

of fixing the quantities

in the perfect geometrical proportions

(1:2:4:8 and 1:3:9:27)

—the same

of the world soul. According to

whose

four primary bodies, proportions,

is

this

its

dicuntur

Parent, pp. 22, 42

esse

itsel f

parts; the

II,

379

harum con-

dispositae."

Cf.

ff.).

On

V

(Opera, ed.

V.

Abelard's relation to

the School of Chartres, see Poole, Illustrations, pp. 314 f

.

Motive,"

;

by means

most perfect

and hence will not suffer dissolut ion

bond

is

simply geometrical proporti on.

which

we may

and Liebeschuetz, "Kosmologische

similar

notion,

sacramentis

CLXXVI,

ire

23.

I,

14

(p.

539).

On

the

see

Hugh of

Christianae fidei,

I,

p. 42.

For

St.-Victor, 1,

6

(PL,

169).

For the following, see Cornford, Plato's II, 59 ff. For the tradition and study

Cosmology,

of Platonic dialogues during the twelfth century, see Klibansky,

p. 115.

22. Commentarius,

twofold act of creation, see Parent, a

De

ff.

xi. Theologia Christiana,

Cousin,

effected

and architectural compositions, also acquire an explicit technical or

quia res secundum convenientias

sonantium

is

composition the world's body, consisting of the

In this view, the perfect proportions, the beauty of in musical

<^-

of squares and cubes

quantities are limited and linked in the

from any internal disharmony of

composed

proportions that also determine the composition

and concord with

in unity

to be

is

23

The Continuity of

the Platonic

Tradition during the Middle Ages, p. 27.

/%/o t

/rMa^K f


30

tectonic function: they chain and knit together the different elements of

the cosmos

Platonic age in this sense. 24 Here, then, perfect proportion

for both the beauty and the stability of the cosmic

What was They is.

does occur,

first place,

architect

bound

to affect the concept

of what an architect

rarely used during the earlier Middle Ages;

is

denotes either clerics responsible for a building

it

thought to

is

edifice.

the significance of these views for the history of architecture?

were, in the

The term

which

composed. William of Conches quite correctly interprets the

is

whether they merely commissioned perienced in architecture

—or

it

where

it

— regardless of

or were actually interested and ex-

On

simple masons.

the basis of this evidence,

Professor Pevsner concluded a few years ago that the professional architect,

(which

in the classical sense

Middle Ages.

25

is

also the

modern one), hardly

existed in the

Pevsner suggested that the revival of the term

in the

mid-

thirteenth century coincided exactly with the sociological change that trans-

formed the humble master mason into the architect of the thirteenth century, no longer considered a mere craftsman but the "scientist" or theoreticus of his

There may be

a

how wrong it would

good deal of truth

in all this.

We

shall see in

be to impute to medieval building practices our

own notions

of a highly specialized professionalism. But surely Professor Pevsner

when he

our sense

—

of Vitruvius,

"Roman

in the

Western thought

to

known and

24. Flatten, p.

mology

119.

Roman

We

after 1200.

still

find this cos-

de la rose. See Pare, Le

1

de la rose'

scholastique courtoise,

et la

(Sp,

XVII,

The Monastic Craftsman,

On

Sandys,

481

ff.;

Vitruvius

Colombier,

1942);

35.

p.

in the

Middle Ages, see

A

History of Classical Scholarship, I, Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen

Literatur des Mittelalters, III, II,

274

Mesure

Les

IV; Swartvvout,

ch.

Chantiers des cathe'drales,

26.

wrong

1

18,

550, 710

ff.;

499, 763 ff.; Mortet, "La des colonnes a la fin dc l'epoque ro-

f.,

313,

maine," "La Mesure

et

les

—where

the term

proportions des

is

defined

Quite apart from the writings

respected since Carolingian times, 26

vv. 16, 747 (pp. 197 ff.); 20, 312 (pp. 53 ff.). 25. "The Term 'Architect' in the Middle

Ages"

is

seeks to connect the changing significance of the term "architect"

with the introduction of Aristotle's Metaphysics in

art.

Chapter 4

it

was Augustine

colonnes antiques d'apres quelques compilations et

commentaircs anterieurs au XII e

siecle,"

and "Observations comparees sur la forme des colonnes a l'epoque romaine" (BEC, LVII, 1896, and LIX, p.

330; Jucttner,

1898); Haskins, Renaissance,

Em

Beitrag zur Geschichte der

Bauhutte und des Bauuesens im Mittelalter, pp. 22 ff.; Koch, Vom Nachleben des Vitruv, pp. 14

ff.;

also the recent observations of Beselec

and Roggenkamp, Die Micluuliskirche

m

//;/-

desheim, with regard to the probable use made, in the building

of

St.

Michael's, Hildcshcim, of

Vitruvius, a Carolingian manuscript of which

was owned by Swartwout,

the abbot of this great monastery.

p. 4, is certainly

wrong

in asserting

MEASURE AND LIGHT who the

31

kept alive the classical definition of the architect. His distinction between

mere

who

practitioner and the true architect

deliberately applies scientific

principles occurs in at least three different treatises,

all

studied and ired

throughout the Middle Ages. While this definition permitted the medieval application of the

term "architect" to even the mere craftsman,

only the "scientist"

who had

mastered the

liberal arts

was

it left

Boethius, moreover, had illustrated the intellectual distinction that

was bound

He had

to have

compared the

that should guide such

counted in a

its

work of

work

art

down

no wonder, therefore, that

ecclesiastics: the "science"

work of art

edge of the quadrivium that

But

artist.

the humble knowledge of the craft but the

we

which the

many

find so

craft

had to conform.

"arc hitects"

among medieval

—the — and the knowl-

of architecture was a purely theoretical one

it

required

was

for a long time and with relatively

privilege of clerics .^\ that dramatized the

(a century before Aristotle's Metaphysics could as a

it.

metaphor

This meant, of course, that what

the laws to

was the School of Chartres

it

a

to a slave, the science

devel opment of the plan in accordance with geometrical law s

few exceptions the

by

of the medieval

social status

to a ruler.

was not

theoretical science that laid It is

upon the

effect

practical execution of a

no doubt that

truly entitled to

master builder, a

theoreticus creating

an architectural science that

is

image of the architect

have done so) by depicting

without

toil

God

or effort by means of

essentially mathematical.

The

Platonists of

Chartres, moreover, also defined the laws according to which the cosmic edifice

had been composed.

Toward

the end of the twelfth century,! Alan of Lille

(Alanus ab Insulis) described the creation of the world. universalis,

diffusion.

who

the thought of Chartres

According to him,

builds the

cosmos

God

is

owes perhaps

its

To

widest influence and

the artful architect (elegans architectus)

as his regal pal ace,

composing and harmonizing the

was never taught in monastic schools. The evidence adduced by Mortet (in the papers listed) shows to what extent archi-

even becoming master of

tectural instructions, at least in the Vitruvian

built the

that Vitruvius

tradition,

were considered part of the geo-

liberal arts at the

Cathedral School of Tournai, this school

and sub-

sequently a renowned architect who, in 1108,

Church of Rolduc. See Rolland, "La

cathedrale romane de Tournai et les courants

(Revue

metrical curriculum.

architecturaux"

There are, of course, notable exceptions, such as the nobleman Ailbert, who studied the

d'histoire de fart, III,

27.

Alan, the doctor

age just quoted,

(PL,LXUl,

1

195).

beige

d'arche'ologie

et

1937)- For the Boethian see

De

musica,

II,

34

1


2

3

variety of created things by means of the "subtle chains" of musical con-

sonance. 28

The is

Gothic cathedrals were

first

most unlikely

when

rising

who

that the views of Alan,

poet as well as a thinker, did not reflect

—

were written.

these lines

they did not actually influence

if

A

aesthetic philosophy and the architectural practice of his age.

Alexander of Hales

who "measures

fame

fully deserved his dual

It

as a

— the

later thinker,

1245), actually uses the example of the coementarius,

(d.

and numbers and weighs"

in

composing

his building, to illus-

harmonious composition of everything beautifu l. 29 The architecture

trate the

of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries offers ample evidence,

we

as

shall see,

employed by Alan's divine builder were indeed

that the "musical proportions"

considered the most nearly perfect by the medieval architects also.

The

aesthetic aspects of this philosophy of proportions

from Augustine. He, De

28.

planctu

as well as his pupil, Boethius

naturae

(PL,

CCX,

453).

Mathematical notions dominate Alan's cosmology and aesthetics throughout. De Bruyne

—

were taken over

for the School of Chartres

Goliae Episcopi, p. 21. For an illustration of the

Muetherich, "Ein Illustrationszvklus

idea, see

zum

Anticlaudianus des

Alanus ab Insulis"

292) has called attention to the pre-

(MJ,

III, series 2,

The image

eminent place that Alan assigns to concordia; see also his description of arithmetic in the

curs,

(Etudes,

II,

workshop,

sculptor's

(PL,

CCX,

ator

as

Anticlaudianus,

514), and his

"Omnia

III,

4 reference to the Cre-

numero claudens sub

sub

mensura cuncta coercens," V, 5 (PL, CCX, 534). For a (De similar image, see Bernard Silvestris pondere sistens / Singula, sub

mundi

may

uniiersitate,

I,

1,

1

8

fT.

;

stabili

2,

be identical with the Bernard

n 56

around

as

78

who

ff.),

who

appears

Chancellor of the School of

cf. Poole, "Masters," and Parent, Alan and his influence, see Haureau, Memoire; Baumgartner, "Die Philosophic des Alanus de Insulis" (BGPM, II, 1896); Hui-

Chartres; p. 16.

zinga,

mit

On

"Uber

die Verkniipfung des Poetischen

dem Theologischen

bei

Alanus de Insulis"

(Mededeelingen der Kgl. Akademie van Weetenschappen,

Afdeeling

LXXIV);

Letterkunde,

Cornog, The Anticlaudian of Alain de pp. 9

ff.

On

Alan's relation to the School of 110, and

Chartres, see Parent,

p.

Lage, Alain de

poete

69, 165.

Lille,

Lille,

The image

composed according

Raynaud de

du Xlle

siecle,

pp.

of the "house of nature"'

to the consonances of music appears elsewhere. See the Metamorphosis

195

1).

also oc-

a

purely theoretical and allegorical

context, in

Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Opusculum

de

in

Dei,

aedificio

".

.

CXCIV,

(PL,

I

potentissimum

.

fabrum,

1191

ff.):

cujus

filius

Christus esse non dubitatur, qui in Evangelio

"Haec Domus tunc

appellatur";

fabri

filius

coepit aedificari, quando creavit

Deus coelum of Eve as a

et terrain." Interpreting the creation

type of the Church, Gerhoh continues: "mulier

quoniam Ecclesiam

vero,

mari sed aedificari

Domino

a

aedificatam

aedificium

cogitans,

Summa

Tract.

On

1

1

13,

audias,

intelligas."

see Manitius, III, 61 29.

non

significat,

On

mulierem Gerhoh,

ff.

uniirrsae

theologiae,

110

Quaracchi,

(ed.

Inq.

I,

I,

the authenticity of this part of the

see ibid., IV

7 ,

1

plas-

cum cam

dicitur, ut videlicet,

(pp. ccclv ff .)

.

I,

i~:).

Summa,

Robert of Mclun,

on the other hand, takes pains to point out that the creation of the world ought not to be imagined "eo modo quo lapis in fundamento

domus

iacitur," since

God

not merely uses but

creates the primordial matter.

onlv shows

was.

how

Sententie,

The

distinction

current the architectural image I,

I,

19

Martin. I.ouvain, 1947,

(Oeuvres. III, 1, p.

cd.

211).

R.

M.

Mf<-r A*~' & ******

ficc/fi/tu

—

/WA*/*

MEASURE AND LIGHT

33

and the Middle Ages in general the greatest mathematical authority

30

—

taught,

moreover, h ow to visualize the perfect consonances in geometrical . Boethius points out that the proportions of double and half, triple and third those, in other words, that yield the perfect consonances

on the monochord

are as readily perceived visually as they are acoustically, for, he continues,

echoing Plato, "the ear is

by

is

thesia only to proportions

mony"

by sounds

affected

optical impressions."

31

of

in the cube, since the

in quite the

same way

as the

eye

Boethius does not confine this doctrine of synes-

or surface; he discovers "geometrical har-

line

number of its

contains the ratios of octave,

surfaces, angles, and edges, 6:8:12,

and fourth. 32

fifth,

But the Platonists of Chartres expounded not only the aesthetic excellence

We have seen that

of these proportions but their technical importance as well.

they maintained, with the Timaeus, that the indissoluble stability of the cosmos

grounded

is

in perfect proportion.

here that the necessary impact of this cosmology upon the architecture

It is

/

and architectural procedure of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries becomes apparent. Since art

is

an image of na ture, Professor de Bruyne asks,

ideal church be constructed according to the laws

"Must not

the

of the universe?" In other

words, application of the "perfect proportions," determined by rigid geometrical

means, became a technical necessity as well as an aesthetic postulate

was

building

We

now

understand

why

30. Parent, p.

High Middle Ages defined and

the

architecture as applied geometry

33 ;

why

m, calls Boethius, with Plato,

Chartres.

Demusica,

I,

classical tradition

32 (PL, LXIII,

1

194).

The

of representing numbers by

geometrical figures was also

known

to the

Mid-

die Ages. See Macrobius, Commentarius,

and esp. Boethius, LXIII,

1

1

De

arithmetica,

II,

II,

2;

6 (PL,

2 1).

Omnes autem in hac dispositione symphonias musicas invenimus." De arithmetica, II, 49 (PL, LXIII, 1 158). For antecedents of 32. ".

this

.

.

notion,

see

Cantor,

Vorlesungen

uber

Geschichte der Mathematik, p. 154. 33.

See

Dominicus Gundissalinus, De

di-

practiced

the experts at Milan paid the

visione philosophiae

the most important source of the thought of

31.

if the

to be stable as well as beautiful.

(c.

1

same

140-50), in which every

"secundum geometriam practicans. Ipse enim per semetipsum format lineas, superficies, quadraturas, rotunditates et cetera in corpore materiae, que subiecta est arti suae" (BGPM, 1906, IV, 102 ff.). That Gundissalinus is merely describing common practice is obvious on every page of Villard de Honnecourt's model book. For the definition of artist or

craftsman

is

defined as

architecture as applied geometry, see also the

curious Consthuciones

Euclydem

(British

artis

Museum

gemetriae secundum Bibl.

Reg. 17A1),

poem in which the art as a synonym for the

a late fourteenth-century

of geometry mason's art.

is

treated

The poem

begins,

"Hie

incipiunt

V-

'


34

astonishing tribute to this discipline as had Augustine and Boethius;

evidence of Gothic architecture itself seems to indicate that

were

actually solved

all statical

by purely geometrical methods. 34 And we

6b

in

the

problems

also understand

meant

the lofty claim that the great architects of the Gothic period Plate

why

to

convey

having themselves depicted, com and measuring rod in hand, as geome-

tricians. 35

Boethius had singled out the mason's stone ax as symbolic of an art

constitutiones

and

clyde"

gemetrie

artis

describes

the

secundum

mason's

craft

Euas

derived from geometry and the most noble of all crafts. Similarly, the

British

Museum

(Add.

Cooke MS., also in the MS. 23 198), dating from

1430-40 but copying an older work. Its author a treatise ... on geometry, purporting to give a history of that science and emphasizing its application to masonry." Geometry, according to him, is the indisputable principle of all the "used

sciences.

And

since the mason's craft

is

applied

most important of the arts. Both documents have been published by Knoop, Jones, and Hamer, The Two Earliest Masonic MSS. See also Ghyka, he Nombre cfor, II, 65; Harvey, The Gothic World, pp. 28, 37, 47. Hugh Libergier, on his tomb in Reims geometry,

it is

also the

Late Gothic Computation of Rib-Vault Thrusts" [GBA, XXVI, 1945]), represents medieval practice. Advanced Gothic may have invited rule-of-thumb calculations of this type. 35. See the remarks of Ueberwasser, Von

Maasz und Macht der alten Kunst. Notes 2 7 and 33, above, show to what extent even the social position of the master was determined by the dignity that the Platonic world view ascribed to geometry. It is quite true that the Middle Ages themselves drew a sharp distinction between the simple practice and the speculative knowledge of geometry. See Mortet, "Note historique sur l'emploi de procedes materiels et

d'instruments

dans

usites

geometrie

la

pratique du moyen-age" (Congres International de Philosophie, 2nd session, Geneva, 1904, pp. ff.). Every mason was in a sense a practi-

Cathedral, appears in an architectural frame

925

composed of a rectangle "according to true measure" and an equilateral triangle. He is

tioner of this discipline; the architect, however,

represented, moreover, with the tools of the

that the geometrical

geometrician (see below,

p. 225, n.

102). His

proportion com seems to be based on the

golden

section.

Colombier's denial that the

proportion com existed prior to the Renaissance (pp. 66

f.)

is

unfounded.

The

proportion

com was already known to the Romans. See the instrument, from Pompeii, in the Museo Nazionale at Naples, reproduced by Moessel, Vom Geheimnis der Form und der Urform des Seins, p. 374. Libergier's com is clearly quite different from that represented on one of the stalls of St. Peter's at Poitiers (Colombier,

had to master

it

'scientifically."

It is

significant

knowledge exhibited, and even the problems posed, by Yillard de Honnecourt are no different from what a scholar like Adelard of Bath has to say tion of the different arts,

in his characteriza-

De eodem

dizerso

et

(BGPM,

IV, 1906, pp. 23 ff.). That knowledge, however, and the metaphysical framework from

which

it

was

inseparable, could be acquired in

cathedral and monastic schools on! v. Pevsner, p.

558,

SS,

Hugh

quotes

CLXXVI,

of

St.-Victor

760) and Otto of Freising

XX, 396

ff.)

(PL,

(MGH

as witnesses to the fact that the

twelfth centurv excluded the craftsman, even the architect, "ab honestioribus et libcnoribus

34. It

is

significant that

problems did

arise, as

where arithmetical

they did during the build-

ing of Milan Cathedral, a professional mathein. See Frankl, "The Masons" (AB, XXVII,

studiis," and considered his profession as

"plebei et ignobilium

filii"

only.

fit

for

Can we

at-

tribute general sociological significance to these

have earlier

(n. 27) cited the ex-

matician had to be called

statements 1

Secret of the Medieval

nobleman who. carlv in the twelfth century, became an architect, having previously

1945), and the illuminating appendix to this by Panofskv. It is difficult to say whether

article

or not the

method used

for

computing rib-vault

by a Spanish sixteenth-centurv archiRodrigo Gil de Hontanon (sec Kubler, "A

ample of

1

a

studied the quadrivium.

was precisely

his

It is

knowledge

raised the architect,

thrusts

that

tect,

above the simple artisans

quite likely that

it

oi the liberal arts

even socially, high who worked under

MEASURE AND LIGHT that can only create a "confused" shape,

35

whereas he chose precisely the com36

to represent an art that truly "comprehends the whole."

com that

the

God

who composed

ture as the Creator

laws. 37

It is

it

was with litera-

the universe according to geometrical

only by observing these same laws that architecture became a

science in Augustine's sense. architect felt that he

We

And

himself came to be repr esented in Gothic art and

was

do not grasp

And

geometry the medieval

in submitting to

imitating the

work of his

this all-important

divine master.

connection by calling the cathedral

an image or a symbol of the cosmos; the term "symbol" has become too vapid today. Designed in an attempt to reproduce the structure of the universe, not

modern age

unlike the great scientific experiments of the ca thedral

in this respect£the

perhaps best understood as a "model" of the medieval universe.

is

That may give us

a better idea of the speculative significance of these great

edifices, a significance that transcends their

beauty and practical purpose

as a

place of public worship.

Above

The

all,

however, the cathedral was the intimation of ineffable

medieval cosmos was theologically transparent.

him.

It is as scientists, not as practitioners, of geometry that the great Gothic architects had themselves depicted, and we recall with what insistence the masters at Milan referred to geometry as a science. Rziha's thesis (Studien

known

to

me

The is

Creation appeared as

the famous miniature in the

No. 15, in Vienna (Cod. 2554, The codex was executed for Thibault V,

Bible moralisee, fol. 1).

Count of Champagne (1237-70), or wife,

Isabella,

38) that the signs of

Beschreibendes

Verzeichnis

Handschriften

in Osterreich,

p.

figures see#ns entirely convincing to

me. The

also

Rushforth,

p.

more succinctly

the abiding principle of his pro-

Proverbs

fession. Finally,

it

a theologian

may

be worth noting that

it is

of the School of Charrres, William

of Conches, who, already

in the

twelfth century,

150.

[circle]

8:27:

der

VIII,

illuminierten 14.

7, p.

Christian

See

Imagery,

probably inspired by

"When

he

prepared

the

was there: when he set a com upon the face of the depth." It is sigthat the age does not seem to have

heavens,

nificant

Medieval

The image was

medieval architect could not have expressed

for his

daughter of Louis IX. See

a

the master masons are derived from geometrical

uber Steinmetz-Zeichen,

truth.

I

iconography of the

defines architecture along with medicine (which

found a reflection

was taught

creation until the thirteenth century. Attention

at

Chartres and which he himself

had studied there) as an "honest" profession, least

"his

quorum

Holmberg, Das Moralium Dogma

des

at

may

also be called to the representation (after

See

Ezekiel 40:3) of Christ as an architect, re-

Guillaume

building Jerusalem after the Captivity, in the

conveniunt."

ordini

de Conches, p. 48.

relief

Demusica V, 1 (PL, LXIII, 1287). For the meaning of "aciculus" as the stonemason's

facade

36.

tool,

see

Thesaurus

linguae

Cange, Glossarium mediae

et

latinae

and

Du

infimae latinitatis;

The

earliest

painted

under the statue of Ezekiel on the west of Amiens

Description p.

60;

abregee

representation

Cathedral. de

la

Durand,

See

cathedrale

d'

Amiens,

Lefrancois-Pillion, Maitres d'oeuvre

tailleurs

de pierre des cathedrales, p.

159;

et

and

"Prophets of the West Facade of the Cathedral of Amiens" (GBA, Katzenellenbogen,

Editio nova, s.v. "asciculus." 37.

in the

series 6,

XL,

1952).

Plate 6a


36 the

first

of God's self-revelations, the Incarnation of the

Word

as the second. 38

Between these two theophanies medieval man perceived innumerable mystical

who

correspondences, and only he

understood these correspondences under-

stood the ultimate meaning and structure of the cosmos. Accordingly, the

musical harmony that the Platonists of Chartres discovered in the universe was primarily not a physical but a metaphysical principle, maintaining the order of

nature but far

more

clearly present in the

world

come. For Adam's

to

earth had obscured the theological order of the cosmos,

what still

Augustinian

in

the "unison" with

is

manifest in the harmony of the heavenly spheres.

"Duo enim

38.

simulacra

proposita

erant

order, however,

Hence

is

the medieval

Celle to refer not only to the chevet of his

homini, in quibus invisibilia videre potuisset:

church as caput, but to the nave as

unum

(PL, CCII, 610). In Vitruvius, moreover, the

unum

Simulacrum naturae erat species hujus mundi. Simulacrum autem gratiae erat humanitas Verbi. Per simulacra igitur naturae, creator tantum signaturae et

gratiae.

.

.

.

nificabatur, in simulacris vero gratie praesens

Deus

ostendebatur.

theologiae Plate 7

origin and end in

its

God. That

on

fall

.

.

.

Haec

mundi ab

hujus

est

ilia,

distantia

quae divina

nominatur theologia. Impossibile enim est per visibilia demonstrari."

visibilia, nisi

of

Commentaria

St. -Victor,

caelestem,

Hugh

I,

(PL,

1

in

CLXXV,

in-

Hugh

hierarchiam

926). Elsewhere

develops this idea further by dwelling on

the parallelism between the

works of creation

and redemption. See De sacramentis Christianae fidei,

I,

28

1,

(PL,

CLXXVI,

204).

This

him the idea of center of the universe:

parallelism in turn suggests to

man

as a microcosm, a "Necesse autem fuit ut visibilium conditio

ordinaretur, quatenus

homo

ita

in eis foris

agno-

sceret quale esset invisibile

bonum, quod

intus

quaerere deberet, hoc

ut sub se videret,

quid

supra

scalicae,

idea

CLXXVI,

Eruditionis

Dida-

venter

medieval builder found the notion that the temple, in

its

proportions, ought to follow the

human body (III, 1): "echumani corporis partionibus respondet," writes Durandus of Mende (Raproportions of the

clesiae

tionale

forma

Div. Offic,

I,

14),

century sco di

and

in

the fifteenth

Giorgio rendered

notion explicit by inscribing the

human

this

figure

into the ground plan of a church. See Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of

Humanism,

p.

1

3

.

The

idea that the church can

be at once the image of Christ and heaven appears Clavis

But already

paradoxical to us.

we

Melitonis

the

find

in

correlation

the

of

Temple, Christ, and heaven

(Pitra, Spicilegium

Solesmense III, 184), and the

symbol*

curs frequently in the Middle Ages.

triad re-

The sym-

is rendered possible by the parallelism between creation and redemption: between the cosmos and Christ, who is both the Word

bolism

Incarnate and the perfect

man

in

whom

the uni-

The whole

verse centers. Attention has been called to the

not be without significance for the

between thirteenth-century repremicrocosm and contemporary representations of Christ on the Cross. See Singer, "The Scientific Views and Visions of St. Hildegard" (Studies in the History and

VII (PL,

may

est,

appeteret."

se

its

81

1

f.).

symbolism of church architecture. The cathedral, as we have seen, is an image of the cosmos. But it is also an image of Christ, who had himself compared his death and resurrection to the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple. Consistent with this idea, the Middle Ages perceived in the church edifice an image of ( 'hrist crucified; see Mortct and Deschamps, Recueil, I, 59 f. It is this correspondence which 1

s

for

minology

that, for

the

anthropomorphism of terexample, prompts Peter of

similarity

sentations of the

Method of Science, I, 37 f.). The theology of measure and number and weight found in proportion the link between macrocosm and microcosm, and it was 111 virtue of its proportions that the church could be understood as an

image of Christ

as well as

of the cosmos.

/It

ou/^drd

^

cosmos

:

Ce/es^ Gtj

> Jaw&aM

MEASURE AND LIGHT

37

inclination, familiar to every reader of Dante, to connect the realm of the stars

with the celestial habitations of the blessed.

The same tendency

seemingly dual symbolism of the cathedral, which

cosmos and an image of the Celestial City

.

is

at

explains the

once a 'model" of the *

If the architect designed his sanctu-

ary according to the laws of harmonious proportion, he did not only imitate the order of the visible world, but conveyed an intimation, inasmuch as that possible to man, ofithe perfection of the world to

is

comej

This symbolic interconnection between cosmo s, Celestial City, and sanctuary

well explained in a age of Abelard, whose

is

ties

with the School of

Chartres were mentioned earlier, and whose titanic claim to encom with his reason

everything that

on earth and

is

in

heaven so deeply shocked

St.

Bernard. 39 After identifying the Platonic world soul with world harmony, he first

interprets the ancient notion of a music of the spheres as referring to the

"heavenly habitations" where angels and saints "in the ineffable sweetness of

harmonic modulation render eternal praise to God."

40

Then, however, Abe lard

transposes the musical image into an architectural one: he relates the Celestial

Jerusalem to the terrestrial on e, more specifically to the Temple built by Solo -

m on as

God's "regal palace."

No

41

medieval reader could have failed to notice

with what emphasis every Biblical description of a sacred

edifice, particularly

those of Solomon's Temple, of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and of the vision of

To

Ezekiel, dwells on the measurements of these buildings.

these measure-

ments Abelard gives a truly Platonic significance. Solomon's Temple he ,

re-

marks, was pervaded by the divine harmony as were the celes tial spheres.

What

suggested this notion to him

Temple,

as given in

(The

sonances.

39.

The

I

is

the fact that the main dimensions of the

Kings 6 yield again the proportions of the perfect con,

length, width, and height of the edifice are given as 60, 20, and

imioned

age

depicts

the

40. Abelard, Theol. Christ.,

V. Cousin,

sursum, et quae in terra deorsum,

in the Bible:

solum,

Nescio,

nescire

coelum os suum,

et

nihil,

dignatur;

scrutatur

alta

praeter

ponit

in

Dei,

re-

diensque ad nos refert verba ineffabilia, quae

non licet homini loqui et dum paratus est de omnibus rcddere rationem." Tract, de erroribus Abaelardi,

I

(PL,

CLXXXII,

1055).

I,

5

(Opera, ed.

H> 384)41. Abelard found the source of this analogy

enemv as a caricature of a microcosmic man: "Qui dum omnium quae sunt in coelo great

Paris, 1859,

"Thou

hast

commanded me

to

upon thy holy mount ... a resemblance of the holy tabernacle, which thou hast prepared from the beginning." Wisd. of

build a temple

Sol. 9:8.

See also Pitra,

III,

183: "Tabernaculi

nomine coelum designator." For Solomon's Temple as a type of the Heavenly City, see Sauer, Die Symbolik des Kirchengebdudes, p. 109.


38

30 cubits respectively; those of the cella as 20, 20, 20; those of the aula as 40,

and those of the porch as 20 and

20, 30;

Now,

the mention of the

connection

in this

is

very

42

10.)

Temple of Solomon,

the mystical image of heaven,

The Temple,

significant.

as already mentioned,

considered a prototype of the Christian sanctuary; as such,

mentioned

Solomon

medieval documents. 43

in

A

frequently

famous masonic poem even

insists that

manner "but

actually "taught" architecture in a

that used today" and that this science

It is a striking

nowned Renaissance

Temple seem

and moving testimony to

architect,

Philibert

his life his regret that

—whose

he neglected in his projects those irable proportions

Moses

for the Tabernacle, and to

So

know, Abelard

far as I

proportions of the

*

is

Temple were

Solomon

the

to

Noah

for the ark,

Temple. 45

medieval writer to suggest that the

first

made

it

The

an image of heaven.

it

age

most revealingly the influence of Platonic cosmology upon Christian

eschatolog y of the twelfth century is

for the

those of the musical consonanc es and that

this "s ymphonic" perfectio n that

City

knowledge of

—voices toward the end of

which God, "the great architect of the Universe," revealed

reflects

to have been

this conviction that a re-

Delorme

Gothic building practices, however, was profound

was

from

ideaObecause divinely inspired, proportions for the Christian sanc-

as

tuary also.

to

different

little

directly transmitted to . 44

was

In particular£The__dimensions of the Solomonic

viewed

was

is

it

.

The

of the Heavenly

Biblical description

pervaded and transfigured by the vision of an ineffable harmony.

mystical contemplation of the age, no less than

seems to be under the

spell

its

of an essentially musical experience.

trend reflected in monumental art?

The Gothic

The

philosophical speculation, Is

sanctuary, as

not the same

we

have seen,

replaces with the graphic expression of the structural system the painted representation of heaven that adorned the tion of 42.

its

On

Temple

proportions of the Solomonic

likely

models for those used by

medieval church builders, see Trezzini, Retour a

r architecture,

p.

It was pointed out earlier that the liturgy compares the Christian church to the Solomonic Temple (see above, p. 11). See

43.

also the sequence In dedicatwne ecclesiae, ascribed

Adam

of St.-Victor: "Rex Salomon

." (Analecta Hymnica. LV, p. 35); templum Walter of Chatillon's "Templum veri Salo.

.

monis dedicatur hodie Geduhtr Walters van

16.

itsclf

to

apse. In the singular perfec-

proportions, this ordered system presented an object of mystical

the

as

Romanesque

fecit

III,

184

ff.

.

.

."

Chdtillon. p.

(Strecker, 1

3);

Die

and Pitra,

Equally telling are the frequent ref-

masonic documents to the building of the Solomonic Temple (see above, n. 33). erences

in

44. The Cooke MS. as cited above, n. 33. 45. See the quotation below, p. 228, n. 108.

MEASURE AND LIGHT

39

contemplation that for the Platonists must have sured by far the beauty of those naive paintings.

Whereas

the

Romanesque

painter could but deceive the

senses with the illusion of ultimate reality, the Gothic builder applied the very

The

laws that order heaven and earth.

and symbolic aspects of

design,

its

first

G othic,

physics of "measure and nu mber and weigh t." that the Platonists

mere image of

of Chartres had

truth but insisting

in the aesthetic, technical,

intimately connected with the meta-

is

It

embody

seeks to

the vision

unfolded, no longer content with the

first

upon the

realization of

its

laws. Seen in this

light, the creation

of Gothic marks and

tian thought, the

change from the mystical to the rational approach to

the

reflects

an epoch in the history of Christruth,

dawn of Christian metaphysics.

The

musical mysticism of the Platonic tradition was, at

clusive property of Chartres.

an important part leader,

Owing

in the spirituality

contributed as

much

at the beginning

to the formation of

twelfth century as did the School of Chartres. the time, if not greater,

was

certainly far

And

more

its

cal as

was

thought in

of his contemporary,

played

direct and

St.

its

this

civilization in the

influence

neither the

is,

upon the

arts

therefore,

by many the most

enormous

of

more

political

re-

and

Bernard, nor a pen as fiercely polemi-

Abbot of Clairvaux.

that of the its

it

of this chapter,

French

palpable for us. Thierry of Chartres, though considered

nowned philosopher of Europe, wielded spiritual influence

not the ex-

of the Cistercian movement and of

Bernard of Clairvaux. As was stated

movement

this time,

of Augustine,

to the authority

It is

time to consider Bernard's

impact upon the philosophy and practice of art during the twelfth

century.

Bernard's artistic views are usually described as those of a puritan. are, in point

of

fact,

Augustinian.

No

upon Bernard's theological formation than Augustine. Bishop of Hippo

They

other author exerted a greater influence

He

considered the

the greatest theological authority after the Apostles; with

Augustine, Bernard writes at the height of his controversy with Abelard, he

wants to tine as

err, as

its

well as to know. 46

And

musical mysticism could claim Augus-

greatest spokesman. It not only permeated his cosmological and

46. Tract, de Bapt.,

II,

8

(PL,

CLXXXII,

1036); see Martin,

"La Formation theologique

deSt. Bernard" (ABSS,

I,

234

ff.).

—


40

aesthetic speculations but reached to the core of his theological experience.

Thus,

De

in his treatise

Augustine meditates on the mystery of

Trinitate,

re-

demption by which the death of Christ atoned for man's twofold death of body and, through sin, of soul.

"correspondence,"

this

As

this

Hippo ponders

the Bishop of

place,

is

"congruence,"

"consonance" of one and two, musical experience

gradually takes hold of his imagination, and suddenly

harmony

this

the proper term for Christ's

it

dawns upon him

work of reconciliation. This

that

not the

is

Augustine exclaims, to demonstrate the value of the octave that seems so

deeply implanted

in

our nature

—by whom

Him who

not by

if

created us?

that even the musically and mathematically uneducated immediately respond to

Augustine

it.

feels that the

consonance of the octave, the musical expression

of the ratio 1:2, conveys even to huma n ears the meaning of the mystery of redemption. 47

The different

wonderfully vivid age suggests an aesthetic experience radically

from our own.

It

was not

enjoyment of musical consonances

that the

subsequently led Augustine to interpret these as symbols of theological truth.

On

were

the contrary, the consonances

for

him echoes of such

enjoyment that the senses derive from musical harmony (and lent,

proportion)

human reason

its

visual equiva-

our intuitive response to the ultimate reality that

is

but to which our entire nature

and the

truth,

may

defy

mysteriously attuned.

is

This experience determines the medieval attitude toward music.

It ac-

counts for the fact that the study and cultivation of music was looked upon

with favor even, nay, especially, typical example

that of

is

most austere monastic

the

monasteries of strict ascetic observation.

Othlon of ideal,

Trinitate,

Middle Ages, see Wilmart, "La Tradition des grands ouvrages de Agostiniana,

II,

269

Augustin," Miscellanea

St. ff.;

the library at

Troves

(MS.

32) preserves the remains of the twelfthcentury catalogue of the library ot Clairvaux. It

contained, of St. Augustine's works, the hrst

part of the Retractions,

De vera

religione, etc.;

He musica, were also works by commentary bv Wil-

De

Trinitate,

there

Boethius (including the

liam of Conches), Johannes Scotus

St.

Emmeram

he had renounced

IV, 2:4 (PL, XXII, 889). the wide distribution of this work in the

47.

On

De

in

Erigena,

Hugh of St.-Victor, and "Alani Qsterciensis." The core of this library, as Dom Wilmart points

A

(1032-70). In embracing

former humanistic

his

all

out, refutes the legend of paucity of hooks in

Cistercian libraries.

moreover,

The collection

at

Clairv.mx,

was undoubtedly created by

St.

Bernard himself. "La bibliotheque de Clairvaux, telle que nous la vovons an tenne du XII1 sieclc, ne peut qu'etrc hi creation du premier abbe de Clairvaux:

programme

scion

il

a

du lui-mcmc

lequel

oru.inisee et achevee "

W

elle

llin.irt.

Bibliotheque de Clairvaux" .

.

.

de

d' Arbois

I'Auhe,

LV,

I

s'esr '

(Sociiti

VI,

fixer

pen 1.

a

le

pcu

Ancicnne

academique

iq!6).

Cf.

H.

de Jubainville, Etudes sur fHat interkur

des abbayes cisterciennes, p. 109.

MEASURE AND LIGHT

a\

But arithmetic and music retained their hold over

interests.

he uses them to convey divine secrets to

his writings

pare them for the

life in

his imagination. In

his fellow

monks, to pre-

world to come. Even t he order prevailing among t he

a

heavenly hosts, he writes, corresponds to the intervals of the perfect consonances.

Bernard's attitude toward music was quite similar.

The

musical.

Regulae de

arte

which occupy an important place

his

The Abbot of

views. 49

in the history

acknowledges, written

as the author

He was profoundly Guy of Charlieu,

musica by his pupil, the Abbot

of twelfth-century music, were,

at Bernard's request

and actually embody

Clairvaux was, as Father Luddy observes, an x\u-

gustinian even in musical matters. 50 Something of a

composer himself, he was

once invited by the abbot of another monastery to compose an of

feast

Victor. Bernard's reply

St.

music

is

What

noteworthy.

office for the

he demands of ec-

"radiate" truth; that

it

"sound" the great Christian

virtues.

Music, he thinks, should please the ear

in

order to

should,

by

somely

affect

clesiastical

is

that

it

striking a golden

mean between

Now these are hardly the views

in,

it

of a puritan. Bernard must have responded

He

is

fond of describing even

musical , as an eternal listening

bliss in

and participating

to,

the choirs of angels and saints. 52 In demanding that music be attuned to the 48. ".

alter

ut licet

.

.

ibi

pro meritis diversis

quidem sanctus ad alterum quasi sesquioc-

tavus,

tonus

est

id

integer,

alter

vero,

tamen omnes

49.

des

ausgehenden Altertums und

Mittelalters, pp. 122

SSM,

II,

150

256

ff.

sancti per claritatis concordiam,

101

ff.

moyen

56

ff.;

II,

on church music corre-

sapiant."

spond exactly with those of

verum etiam

Luddv, Life and Teaching of See also Vacandard, II, 101

rebus quibuslibet rite ordinatis

in

is

constat,

omnesque quod ordinatum conveniens profecto et congruum

efficitur:

consonantiae hujus definitio videtur

ff.);

consonantia

posse

dici

Proinde

si

efficitur;

rerum in

convenientia.

qualibet convenientia

sonantia; omnis

inviccm,

dissimilium

autem creatura,

Deo

est

ordinante convenit;

nantia ergo habetur in

con-

licet dissimilis

omni creatura."

consoDial, de

XLIII (PL, CXLVI, 117 ff.). Cf. Pietzsch, Die Musik im Erziehungs- und

tribus quaest.,

age, pp.

Cf. Vacandard, Vie de St. Bernard,

50. "Bernard's ideas

per

ff.

see also Coussemaker,

f.;

Histoire de Vharmonie au

ad alium referatur:

diapason, unum resonant, unum "Omnia enim non solum in sonis proportione numerorum relativa coaptatis, quasi

Bildungsivesen

fruhen

ut

sesquialter, id est diapente, et alius et sesquitertius, id est diatesseron

sit

the heart;

man's entire nature. 51

to musical experience with unusual sensitivity.

heavenly

move

the frivolous and the harsh, whole-

St.

Augustine."

Bernard, p. 257.

St.

where Bernard

ff.,

called a "plainchantiste distingue." 51. Ep.

CCCXCVIII

see also the Exord.

20 (PL,

CLXXXV,

1

CLXXXII, 609 Cisterc. Dist.,

V,

174).

Note such phrases

52.

(PL,

Magn.

as "in plateis super-

nae Sion melos angelicum auscultare" (PL, CLXXXIII, 1 30); "angelorum istus cho1

ris"

(ibid.,

(ibid.,

1355);

1478).

A

"martyrum

inseri choris"

similar vision occurs in a pas-

sage by Bernard's contemporary, Gottfried of


42

metaphysical and ethical experiences of Christian creative scope but confronted

challenge. lies in

The

tion

art.

closely akin.

For medieval experience musical and

That thejaws of music embody

they "e mbrace ever^ tjiin^jnd extend e xpressed during the

ont

(d.

in visible

1165):

"ipsi

proportions as

[the

souls

of the

blessed] gratias agentes voce incessabili jucunda

suae redemptionis gaudia laetissimo coelestis

harmoniae concentu

CLXXIV,

resonabunt

in

saecula"

901). Such notions became

commonplace. See the entirely musical description of heavenly bliss in Wolfram of Eschenbach's Willehalm, 53.

tive

To

a

man

composi-

artistic

cosmic principle, that

was an axiom

tojill the arts,

High Middle Ages. 53

a

frequently^

steeped, as Bernard was,

Augustinian tradition, the presence of the "perfect" ratios must have

been as evident

(PL,

its

the fact that they also provide an indispensable clue to his convictions

were

in the

he did not restrict

life,

with a magnificent and typically Augustinian

importance of Bernard's musical ideas for our present inquiry

regarding religious Plate

it

XXXI,

14

"Musica enim generaliter sumpta obiecquasi ad omnia extendit, ad deum et

the meta-

great pavement composition that once adorned the choir of St.-Remi at Reims (see Marlot, Histoire de la ville, cite et universite de

the

Reims,

542

II,

The

ff.).

possibility of yet an-

more obscure symbolic representation of music in Romanesque sculpture has recently

other,

been suggested by Schneider, El Origen musical de los animates simbolos en

ff.

And

audible consonances.

in

tura

He

antiguas.

carved

la

mitologia

believes

that

y

la escul-

animals

the

twelfth-century capitals of certain

in the

creaturas, incorporeas et corporeas, celestes et

cloisters in Catalonia represent musical notes

humanas, ad sciencias theoricas et practicas," Speculum musicae (a work of Jacobus of Liege, not Johannes de Muris), I, 1. Cf. Grossmann, Die einleitenden Kapitel des 'Speculum Musicae,' Bukofzer, "Speculative Thinking," 58. p. remarks that the age "omnia in mensura et numero et pondere disposuisti" was "significantly enough quoted over and over by musical theorists." In the anonymous Musica enchiriadis (c. 860), the author inquires into the "deeper

that,

and divine reasons underlying musical harmonies" and finds them in the eternal laws of the cosmos. See Gerbert (ed.), Scriptores eccles. de musica, I, p. 159. Boethius' division of music into musica mundana, musica humana, and musica instrumentalis

is

the basis for

all

medieval specu-

on this subject. In the first half of the twelfth century it is repeated by Adelard of lation

Bath

(RGPM, IV,

Dominicus Gundisand toward the end of the

23) and

salinus (ibid., 95 ff.),

century by John of Salisbury (sec below, 191).

It is

as an

p.

image of cosmic harmony that

when

read in the order in which they

hymn

appear on the capitals, yield the tune of a

honor of the monastery's patron

in

The

10)

cosmic music.

by

pen drawing reproduced

magnificent

here (PI.

saint.

illustrates the

medieval idea of

The

Aer

figure of

described

is

probably correctly, as "the

Baltrusaitis,

personification of the air, of the source of

harmony." "L'lrnage du monde

(GBA,

au XII e siecle"

series

all

celeste du IX

XX,

6,

1

'

1938).

However, the representation of Aer under the iconography of the microcosmos

may

find an

explanation in the following age from St.

of

Hildcgard

virtute

perat.

.

.

.

aeri, qui inter

coelum

gene rale

at

des

,

II,

.

.

vivificat,

H45). The drawing

manuscrits

Abbey Church of Cluny (most recent discussion by Meyer in AB, XXXIV, 1952), or in

des

.

Vol.

biblwtheques PI.

in

the

Reims (MS. 672). See

thicfues pit Humes de ,

Richesses

qui

of the False Decretals

music was occasionally represented in Romanesque churches, as on the famous capitals of the

Vol.

.

terram medius vidctur

et

CXCVII,

(/'/.,

Municipal Library

Les

.

esse intelligerc tacit, ipsaque

in the collection

Catalogue-

.

tcrrarum tem-

Anima, hominem quarn

assimilatur" is

creaturas

sua

Deo creatum

sed a

"Aer

Bingen:

naturali

26.

des

biblio-

XXXIX.

and

provinciates

The work was

reproduced by Didron (A A, V, 1844).

de

first

MEASURE AND LIGHT

4,

physical dignity of the ratios that he ired in musical composition he cannot

have failed to respect in well-proportioned architecture.

The

appraisal of Bernard's artistic tastes has relied far too exclusively on

the opinions he expressed in writing, especially in the Apologia ad Guillelmum, his

famous attack upon the ostentation of the Cluniac Order. In

work he makes two

specific points about art:

this

polemical

he condemns as "monstrous" the

anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery of Romanesque sculpture and detheir banishment from the cloister; and he inveighs against the "im-

mands

mense"

height, the

"immoderate"

length, the "supervacuous" width of Cluniac

churches as incompatible with the spirit of monastic humility. 54 [See Add.]

That these views became law lifetime,

is

the representational arts

—

regard

—he was

own

for Bernard's

beyond question. The iconophobic

order, at least during his

bias he expressed in regard to

of Augustine even

a consistent pupil

in this

led to the prohibition of illumination in Cistercian manuscripts and to

the exclusion of

all

imagery, with the exception of painted crucifixes, from the

churches of the order. 55 Bernard's concept of religious architecture was to have

we

far greater repercussions, as

But

we do

shall presently see.

well not to overlook two aspects of his criticism. Consistent

with the character and purpose of the Apologia, he bases

on the religious and, more

specifically, ascetic ideals

say, he explicitly its that to

make

his artistic postulates

of monasticism. That

nonmonastic sanctuaries, such

is

to

have

as cathedrals,

concessions to the sensuous imagination of the laity; that "since the

devotion of the carnal populace cannot be incited with spiritual ornaments,

necessary to employ material ones,"

i.e.,

painted or carved images. 56

On

it is

the

other hand, the sumptuousness of the Cluniac churches seems to Bernard in-

compatible not only with the ideals of monastic humility and (through the diversion of funds from charitable purposes) charity, but with the spiritual 54. XII, 28

ff.

(PL,

CLXXXII, 914

f.).

To

understand Bernard's utterances correctly, one

pp. 169

ff.

The

55.

extent to which these rules

mind the circumstances under which the Apology was composed. ers

death,

of St. Bernard had attacked the luxury of Cluny.

"St. Bernard et

This attack had been rebuked with great dignity by Peter the Venerable. It is in answer to this rebuttal that Bernard wrote, at the insistence of

Green (AB, XXX, 1933,

has to bear in

his close

friendWilliam, Abbot of St.-Thierry,

his Apology.

See Leclercq, Pierre

le

Venerable,

actually observed,

ever,

is

still

especially

after

were

Bernard's

quite another question. See Porcher,

accepts

graphie pure"

la

1

1

p. 241),

(MD), and who, how-

34 as the date of the statute,

carnalis populi devotionem quia non possunt, corporalibus excitant ornamentis." Apologia, XII (PL, CLXXXII, 56. ".

.

.

spiritualibus


44 education of the

was

cloister

monk

paradisus claustralis

67 .

Bernard envisaged

as

To him

it.

the

life

of the Cistercian

image and foretaste of paradise; he coined the term

ideally an

no coincidence

It is

that the

names of so many founda-

tions of the order refer to the realm of eternal beatitude. 58 Bernard sought to

prepare his monks, even while in this

of

truth, an ideal

life,

for the mystical perception of divine

contemplation in which the world of the senses had

spiritual

no place and where the relatively crude imagery of Cluniac painting and sculp-

seemed to be without purpose, inadequate, and indeed confusing. Cistercian

ture

art criticism and Cistercian art

Cistercian asceticism and

Quite

noteworthy

in the light

the second aspect of Bernard's criticism:

is

of

of prayer and contemplation. 59 very

it is

from revolutionary. One could easily name half a dozen twelfth-century

far

authors

What cism. It

as

must always be understood

its definitions

who

is

have similarly deprecated ostentatious building by

more, Cluny

itself

might

have subscribed to such

at this time

had coincided with a period of wealth unprecedented

Not only

To

meet

Venerable, decided upon a radically artistic

workshops seems

new

Bernard quotes Gen. 28:

17,

"How

dreadful

no other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven," which his audience knew from the dedication rite to refer to the Christian basilica. On the meaning of the term, see Gilson, La Theologie mystique de St. Bernard, pp. 108 ff. The image of the paradisus claustralis was frequently used by Bernard's followers; cf. PL, CLXXXIV, 525, 1058; is this

place! this

is

Leclercq, "Predicateurs benedictins aux et

XII 6 siecle"

58. E.g.,

Vallis

Lucis,

in the history

(RM, XXXIII,

Locus

Nova

Coeli,

1943).

Vallis

Paradisi,

Paradisus S.

Jerusalem,

Mariae, Hortus Dei, Vallis Coeli, Beatitudo,

Castrum Dei. See Laurent, "Les monasteres cisterciens" (ABSS,

I,

Noms 168

des

ff.).

59. See Dimier's important paper, "La Regie de Saint Bernard et le depouillemcnt architec-

tural des cisterciens"

this

of the

emergency, the abbot, Peter the

policy.

The

closing

to have been one of the first steps.

PL, CLXXXIII, 663. It is of particular interest that in speaking of paradisus claustralis 57.

XI e

criti-

did that wealth decline, but an acute economic crisis developed

early in the twelfth century. 61

also

60

When the Apologia was written, the great phase of Cluniac art had ed.

abbey.

St.

ecclesiastics.

(BRA).

60. See, e.g., Ailred of Rievaulx, Speculum

Charitatis, II, 25 is

quoted

also

(PL,

And

CXCV, Dimier,

in

cisterciennes ,

d'eglises

down of the

p.

25.

great

in ening

572); the age Recueil

On

de

plans

Ailred,

cf.

Powicke, "Ailred of Rievaulx and His Biographer, Walter Daniel" (BJRL, VI, 1921, pp. 331, 413 f.). For other critics of ecclesiastical building, see Mortet, "Hugue de Fouilloi, Pierre le Chantre, Alexandre Neckam et les critiques dirigees au douzieme siecle contre le luxe

one

des

constructions"

may add

the

(Melanges

names of Guigue

I,

Brmont); prior gen-

of the Carthusians (see Mortet and Deschamps, Recueil, II, 39), Abelard (ibid., p. 45), Walter of Chatillon. Sec Wilmart,

eral

Gautier de Chatillon, p.

137, also the age

(Strecker, p. 167) "plurcs rcedificant Babilonis

murum

per quos

domus domini

fit

spelunca

furum." 6i. See Duby, "Le Budget de l'abbaye de Cluny" (A, VII, 195O, and Leclercq, Pierre U

Venerable, pp. 145

ff.

MEASURE AND LIGHT upon

his

monks

customed to

more

45

austere than that which they had been ac-

lead, the abbot quite justly stressed the ascetic

of the monastic

His views,

a life far

that

life

seemed

were

if less radical,

at Clairvaux,

and

it

would be

to

demand

in basic

rash,

I

and

spiritual ideals

the sacrifice of comfort and splendor.

agreement with those of his fiery friend

think, to ascribe

them

to the latter's in-

fluence.

not surprising that the celebrated monastery should have met the

It is

economic challenge by

falling

back on

lofty spiritual tradition, or that this

its

development should have had immediate repercussions Far more remarkable

the fact that the great

is

in the artistic sphere.

Romanesque

art that

had

fountainhead in Cluny was moribund even at the time of the economic not because

it

was expensive but because

it

its

crisis,

no longer corresponded to the

taste

of the age, which, from the early twelfth century, underwent a profound change.

By

1

130 or so this trend had become crystallized. In sculpture and monu-

mental painting, in book illumination and the goldsmith's

emerged

art,

a

new

that contrasted sharply with the style of the preceding period.

style

The

wild, ecstatic restlessness of line, the exuberance of gesture and action, and

the ardent expressionism that

were the heritage of the schools of Reims and

Winchester gave way to a much calmer and firmer mode of composition. Straight lines meeting at right angles Artistic thinking

was

from one another. scenes tend to

were now preferred

in simple forms,

We encounter a new

ological Association, 3rd series,

"Die

VII, 1942). Also Fenster des

romanischen

Augsburger Domes und die Stilwende vom

zum

12.

11.

Jahrhundert" (Zeitschrift des deutschen

Vereins fur

Kunsfn-issenschaft,

sculpture, this trend finds

its

X,

parallels in

1943).

In

most authoritative

expression in Chartres West. But

contemporary

it

has close (e.g.,

the

Freudenstadt lectern) and in Italy; see Beenken,

Romamsche Skulptur

in

sense for tectonic values. Figures and

serene, quiet, monumental. 62

become

62. See the remarks of Wormald, "The Development of English Illumination in the Twelfth Century" (Journal of the British Archae-

Boeckler,

to undulating curves.

powerfully outlined and clearly set off

Deutschland, pp. 120

ff.,

and Krautheimer-Hess, "Die figurale Plastik der Ostlombardei von 1100 bis 1178" (Mar-

Plates 8, 9

burger Jahrbuch, IV, 1928). festations

On

of the new style

in

the early mani-

Lorraine, see

Laurent, "Art rhenan, art mosan et art byzantin"

VI,

(Byzantion,

193 1),

and

recently

Monuments of Romanesque Art, pp. 26 ff. Laurent qualifies his observations by stating (pp. 91 f.) "il existe a l'epoque romane un mouvement general qui pousse les artistes

Swarzenski,

:

du nord vers la simplification et les solutions plastiques du probleme de la forme. Ce mouvement est independent de Byzance." On the "formalism" of French art even during the twelfth century, see Boeckler, "Die Pariser Miniaturen-Ausstellung chronik, VIII, 1955)- [Sec

von 1954" (KunstAdd. for p. 151.]


46

The new

style

and raine,

emerged almost simultaneously

Italy. Its earliest manifestations

in

seem

and England,

in

to have occurred in Lor-

and the impression caused by Byzantine art was certainly a powerful and

important factor. But than the impression

impression cannot explain the

this

made by Japanese

Toulouse-Lautrec or Degas. In the twelfth,

it

was an inner

new

prints can explain the

any more

style

new manner of

a

late nineteenth century, as in the early

affinity that led to the

"discovery" of the model; the

particular appreciation of, and sensibility for, the qualities of that model, the ability to re-create certain aspects

of

its

original and creative act that has nothing to

When St.

Bernard wrote

twelfth century

his

were part of an

aesthetic structure,

do with copying or imitation.

indictment of Cluniac

was emerging everywhere. None of

art, its

the

new

style of the

show

creations

that

"ridiculous monstrosity," that "rich and amazing variety of forms," castigated

by the Abbot of Clairvaux.

On

the Apologia and the art of the

the

same generation;

artistic

movement

1

30's speak the aesthetic language

of one and

that Bernard's criticism lent literary to a youthful

the preceding —which Bernard seems —had become outmoded. This however, was

whose

for

to have identified with still

the contrary, one cannot help feeling that both 1

Cluny

firmly entrenched in

style

taste

style,

many

centers of religious art. Professor Boeckler has

recently observed that the taste for the "bizarre and extravagant, for exag-

gerated motion and distorted proportions," survived with particular tenacity in

, where the great monasteries continued to produce sculptures and book illuminations

whose elegant formalism

attests

a

highly sophisticated taste

rather than deep religious emotion. Such formalism obviously

The

distasteful to St. Bernard.

Liessies, with

which

his

own

favor

it

enjoyed

must have been

in a Benedictine

house like

Clairvaux maintained frequent s,

may

well

for the fierce tone of Bernard's polemics. These polemics, how ever, are but the negative and relatively unimportant aspect of the abbot's influence

upon

ecclesiastical art.

There

is

good reason

to think that the saint himself

may

not have insisted

too zealously on the observation of his prohibitions even in art works executed in his

own

cuted upon

monastery. St.

The

great Bible of Clairvaux, which

was probably exe-

Bernard's orders and certainly represents "the purest type of

Cistercian manuscript art," evades the regulations of the famous Article 82 of

MEASURE AND LIGHT the Statutes of Citeaux

heads

—

63

as if the Apologia

had never been written. This

on our guard against accepting of Bernard's views on

this

Plate 13b

fact alone should put us

polemical treatise as a complete expression

temper was

art. If his

certainly not in aesthetic matters.

him incompatible with

47

and occasionally even introduces grotesque animal

He

mind was not narrow,

fiery, his

has criticized art forms that appeared to

his spiritual vision.

But the

art

he demanded and called

into existence as responding to that vision reveals a taste of rare grandeur and an

almost

judgment

infallible

Romanesque

in

aesthetic matters.

was not always

art

speaking, as good as

own

fair, his

If Bernard's

Cistercian art was, generally

what he had condemned, and indeed often

In the calligraphy inspired

of

criticism

far superior.

by the Abbot of Clairvaux an eminent student

finds

"une surete de gout de plus en plus rare, un sens eleve de ce qui est veritable64

ment precieux."

Bernard's most remarkable and in fact epoch-making artistic

contribution, however, lies in the field of architecture.

There can be no doubt

that the

Abbot of Clairvaux took an

active part in

we do

developing the design of Cistercian architecture, although

not

know

the

exact extent of his supervision; nor can there be any doubt that the distinct style

evolved under his direction was one of the major events in the history of medi-

The

eval architecture.

churches built or commissioned by

neither "puritanical" nor humble, but on the contrary architects of his age."

65

ought to be emphasized

It

Bernard are

St.

"worthy of the greatest

at this point that

peculiarly Cistercian or Bernardian about these edifices

what

is

not their plan but

is

their style. Practically every single element of the early Cistercian church can

be found in other types of ecclestiastical architecture. Bernardian sanctuary that puts The

63.

Of

course

it

is

either the Bible or Article 82 ("Littcrae unius coloris

fiant

non

et

There is the article was not

depictae").

good reason to suppose that composed until the very end of life

and inserted

in the Institutes

death. See recently Porcher, p. tinck,

"De

librijen

en

St.

Bernard's

only after his 19,

scriptoria

and Lief-

der

of plan and construction that

apart. Details

now in Troyes (MS. 27). we do not know the exact date of Bible

West-

the spirit of the

It is

der Zisterzienser in Deutschland" (BRA).

The monk Achardus

65.

nard's

direction:

mittente

beato

coenobiorum

CLXXXV,

Bernardo

initiator

1078).

.

.

.

.

.

.

jubente et

plurimorum

extructor"

(PL,

Eydoux,

"Les

d'Himmerod et la (BM, CXI, 1953).

notion

See

Fouilles de l'abbatiale

d'un plan bernardin"

et

under Ber-

built

"Achardus

also

"Saint Bernard lui-meme [M. Aubert asks]

de

reconstruction

de son abbaye

vlaamse Cistercienser" (Mededeelingen van de

lors

Koninklijke vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschap-

1135-1145] n'acceptera-t-il pas un ensemble de vastes et beaux batiments dignes des plus grands ar-

pen,

Letteren

en

Klasse der Letteren 64. Porcher.

schone

XV),

Kunsten

van

Belgie,

pp. 7, 87.

Cf.Wenzel, "Die Glasmalerei

la

Clairvaux

[i.e.,

Clairvaux

II, built

chitectes d'alors" (AID, Preface, p. 15)?

a

Plate 12


48

were taken over from older Benedictine architecture were transformed

way

that creates a unique and unmistakable

view of Bernard's

In

ascetic ideals, the elimination of figurative sculpture

and painting from the churches of Bernardian architecture

in a

mood.

order was inevitable. Nevertheless,

his

more than "expurgated Romanesque." The

far

is

appearance of the representational arts seems to have cleared the

way

dis-

for an

unexcelled purity and perfection of construction and architectural proportion.

And

in this respect Cistercian building appears closely related to the

artistic current just

siderations.

But

broad

mentioned. Bernard was motivated solely by religious con-

his asceticism, including its

iconophobic implications, agrees

very well with the marked preference for sober, "abstract" forms, for archi-

book illuminations of this time.

tectonic values, that appear even in the style of

Cistercian architecture as well as the style of mid-twelfth-century sculpture

and painting

may

to

some extent be understood

esque "expressionism";

were

"cubist,"

it

not that this term, inadequate like

from another period, the

as the reaction against

failed to take

all

do not yet know

builders. 66

all

call

definitions taken over

of the element of proportion that

most conspicuous aesthetic achievement of Cistercian

We

Roman-

both cultivate certain values that one might

architecture.

the geometrical canons used

Yet the use of such canons

is

is

by the Cistercian

strikingly evident in every one of their

churches. Augustine's "perfect" ratio of 1:2 generally determines the elevation. Plate

n

67

In the abbey of

Fontenay

Cistercian architecture

plan

—the octave

bays of the side

marked

66.

the

1

30-47), the best surviving example of early

himself

ratio determines the

aisles are

off vertically

On

(1

—Bernard

by

may have

been responsible for

of equal length and width, and the same dimension a stringcourse.

much-discussed question of

a

We

Ordensbaukunst der Zisterzienser im 12. Jahrin Nassauisthe Annalen, LI V,

hundert (summary

"Remarques sur dens" (BRA).

Add.)

67. Focillon,

roman

et

Art

gothique, p.

d" Occident,

le

moyen-dge,

16;. Rose, Die Friihgotik

im Orden von CttetntX, p. 34, suggests that the same proportion usuallv determines the relation of the width and height of the nave. Similarly

Hahn's dissertation, Die Kirche der ZisterzienserRhemgau und die romanische

Abtei Eberbach im

is

thus obtain a spatial "cube" in

Cistercian church plan, see recently Lambert, les plans d'eglises dits cister-

its

ground plan as well. 68 Moreover, the

195^,

p.

160), with regard to Eberbach.

[See

68. This ratio determines the relation between the length of the church m "pere and the total width of the transept, between the length and width of the transept ami between nave and side aisle. See Begule, / 'Abbayede Fontenay, and VAbbaye de Fontenay ct V architecture cisteraenne.

MEASURE AND LIGHT

49

each bay, an aesthetic impression that recalls the "geometrical harmony" of

The same

Boethius.

The

we

"cubic" tendency appears in the central nave.

austere facade, today stripped of its porch, again describes a square if

include the buttresses and the upper stringcourse.

upper and lower stringcourses

One may

ask

if

is

The

distance between the

determined "according to true measure."

medieval preference for

may

proportion

this

69

be, in part at least,

connected with the Augustinian preference for the octave and with the role of the square in the thought of nearly 70

"according to true measure"

may

all

the Christian Platonists: the proportion

be defined as the geometrical expression of

the octave ratio in not of the rectangle,

i

(relegated

2

:

by Boethius

to the

"dyadic" order of matter, a fact that induced the twelfth century to consider the symbol of sin), but of the square, the geometrical representation of

"two" the

Godhead. 71 The 69.

10.88

The

ratios

of the other perfect consonances are similarly present

including

facade,

m. wide. So

is

buttresses,

is

the nave, including the

main piers. The length of the double bays, between the pilasters that the transverse arches, is again 10.88 m.; however, the fourth bay from the entrance is about 40 cm. longer

The

than the others.

side aisles, including the

zu

messen

Pfeilerkern

muss,

von

sondern

Kampfer zu Kampfer." Medieval predilection for the proportion

70.

"according to true measure" 1

y/z)

:

was

(VI, 3) teaches

how

(the

rectangle

from Vitruvius, who

inherited

to give an atrium this

proportion; moreover, he (IX, Preface,

2 ff.)

how

walls and the piers of the nave are 5.38-5.40 m.

singles out Plato's demonstration

measured the same height to the stringcourse. In the foregoing measure-

double a square as one of those few extraor-

wide and

long, and

ments,

will be noted, the distances that yield

it

I

the squares of the ground plan are not determined bv the intervals between the centers of

The

piers or walls.

architect has instead used

of piers and of direction. This method of

either the inner or the outer face

walls as his line

out

setting

See below, St.

Martin

with

agrees

p. 2

at

1

5, n.

elsewhere.

findings

79; Forsyth,

Angers, pp. 74

ff.;

Geometrie de I'architecture, p. 63,

The Church of also Texier,

who

stresses

the importance of the "reglage des volumes

of

dinary achievements which have bettered

to

human

and therefore deserve the gratitude of man-

life

For

kind.

demonstration

his

(Meno, 82

ff.),

Plato used the same figure employed by the architects

who

taught

"how

to take the eleva-

from the ground plan" according to "true measure." The device, as we have seen, must have recommended itself by the simplicity of

tion

its

application. Nevertheless

'he extraordinary

praise that Vitruvius bestows on Plato for the

solution of that

may

simple geometrical problem

well have confirmed the Middle Ages

in

Romanesque

the conviction of the metaphysical perfection

buildings as contrasted with the dimensions of

of the rectangle "according to true measure." On the tradition of Vitruvius in medieval build-

reels exterieurs et interieurs" in

which he thinks are determined by the intervals between axes. See, however, below, pp. 208 ff., my findings regarding the Cathedral of Chartres, and Bachmann, in his review of Yelte's Die An rêndung der Quadratur und Triangulatur bei der GrundGothic

edifices,

und Aufrissgestaltung

XV,

1,

(ZK,

who seems to accept that "dass man nicht von Pfeilerkern

1952),

author's thesis

der gotischen Kirchen

ing,

"Secret," and Texier,

see also Frankl,

p. 10.

71. See de Bruyne,

Victor:".

.

.

verum omnium quia secundus

I,

quo

De

scripturis

et

CLXXV,

Hugh of in

St.-

numeris,

primus ad unitate recedit, a primo bono diviatum

significat

(PL,

and

prima est

significat principium. Binarius,

est, et

peccatum est."

15;

unitas, quia

scrtptoribus

sacris,

22). See above, n. 13.

XV

—


50 in

Fontenay: besides the 1:1 ratio of the crossing, the ratio of the

regulates the relation of the width of the crossing to

aisles. Finally, the ratio

between the

total

fifth,

total

width of nave plus side

*

much

width

of the fourth, 3:4, determines the reaisles

and the length of the tran-

sept including chapels. In no other st yle of Chris tian architecture are the tinian "perfect" ratios so

2:3,

length, including the

and also the relation between the width of the crossing and the

choir,

of nave plus side lation

its

in evidence as in the

Augus-

chu rches of the Cistercian

Order. 72

The

affinity

luminosity

between the second characteristic aspect of Gothic architecture

—and the metaphysical trend of the time

is

perhaps even more strik-

ing than in the case of proportion. In the consistent and dramatic development the Gothic builder gave to this aspect, he unquestionably paid tribute to the taste or, rather, to the aesthetic urge

\S

differ as

two main

luminosity. 73

The

this quality.

epic,

no

74

characteristics:

more frequently 75

This aesthetic preference

For similar measurements, though the

Hahn. Hahn's interest

shows

this

findings for Eberbach are of

in

view of the

fact

church to have been begun

rather than a generation later, as

monly 73.

that c.

1

145

was com-

Hugh, Enid. Didasc, VII,

habcat, rerum ipsa

colorat?"

Bruyne,

Sumina

See II,

CLXXVI,

PL,

213

ff.);

Theologian,

12:

"Quid

cum colorem in se non quodammodo illuminando

I,

and 39,

821

(cf.

.

vividly reflected

." Cf.

.

.

.

.

claritas.

Coomaraswamy, "Medieval Aesthet-

(AB, XVII, 1935). Baeumker, "Witelo" (BGP.M. Ill, 1908), pp. 464, 499 f. On the question of the

ics"

74. See 2,

of the

authorship

treatise

De

intelligentiis,

which Baeumker had originally attributed to Witelo, see him in Miscellanea sco Khrle, I. 75. Cf. Weise, Die Geistige Welt der Gotik, pp. 447

de

Thomas Aquinas, "perfectio ...

8c:

is

in glittering objects,

debita proportio sive consonantia

he

believed. [See Add.]

luce pulchrius, quae

to describe visual beauty than

of the time with their obvious delight

author reaches somewhat different conclusions, special

consonance of parts, or proportion, and

In the philosophical literature of the time, as in the courtly

attributes are used

"lucid," "luminous," "clear."

see

who

ascribe to

and precious stones are called beautiful because

stars, gold,

in the decorative arts

72.

visual beautyTlThinkers

all

Hugh of St.-Victor and Thomas Aquinasooth

widely as do

the beautiful

of

of his agelFor the twelfth and thirteenth

was the source and essence of

centuries light

477 ff. Heckscher, "Relics of Pagan Antiq-

ff.,

76. Cf.

uity in Medieval Settings" (/IFC7, p.

212.

I,

1937/38),

MEASURE AND LIGHT The development of the

shiny materials, and polished surfaces. 76

window, impelled by the astonishing

stained-glass

idea of replacing opaque walls

parent ones, reflects the same taste.

And

and thirteenth centuries luminosity

is

in the great sanctuaries

demanded and

a feature

by

trans-

of the twelfth

singled out for

by contemporaries; they note with pleasure the more lucid structure,

praise

structuram clariorem, of the

new

Cathedral of Auxerre

77

of Suger's

or, in the case

choir of St. -Denis, the substitution of a bright church for a dark one. 78 If such medieval impressions of Gothic architecture coincide with our

they originate

in,

and were experienced

as part of, a

own,

comprehensive world view

we have become strangers. The medieval experience and philosophy of beauty we have already noted it in the case of musical consonance are not to

which

—

—

exclusively or even primarily derived from sense impressions. ful that

we may

speak of medieval aesthetics,

To

autonomous philosophy of beauty.

if

we

It is

even doubt-

define aesthetics as the

the medieval thinker beauty

was not

a

value independent of others, but rather the radiance of truth, the splendor of ontological perfection, and that quality of things which reflects their origin in

God. Light and luminous

no

objects,

than musical consonance, conveyed an

less

79 insight into the perfection of the cosmos, and a divination of the Creator.

According to the Platonizing metaphysics of the Middle

Ages,

light is the

most noble of natural phenomena, the l east material, the closest approx imation p ure fo rm. For a thinker like Grosseteste, light is actually the mediator between bodiless and bodily substances, a spiritual body, an embodied spirit, as to

he

calls

in the

it.

80

Light, moreover,

is

heavenly spheres, whence

weakest

the creative principle in it

in the earthly substances.

causes

But

it is

all

things,

present even in them, for, asks St.

Bonaventure, do not metals and precious stones begin to shine Mortet and Deschamps,

77.

Recueil,

I,

101:

"ut ecclesia quo more veterum usque tunc fuerat subobscura, in lucem claresceret amplio-

rem."

The work of reconstruction was carried Hugh of Noyers (1 183-1206). "Ut ... ex tenebrosiore splendidam

out under Bishop 78.

redderent ecclesiam." Sugerii

Oeuvres completes (Lecoy de

vita,

la

in

Suger,

Marche,

ed.),

79.

ch.

1,

For the following, "L'Esthetique

de

cf. la

when we

Baeumker, "Witelo." For

classical

polish

anteced-

"Zur Geschichte der Lichtsymbolik im Altertum" (Philologus, see

ents,

XCVII,

also

Bultmann,

1948).

80. See Baur,

"Das Licht

in der

sophie des Robert Grosseteste"; Franciscan Philosophy

Naturphiloalso Sharp,

Oxford, pp. 20, 23; Muckle, "Robert Grosseteste's Use of Greek

Sources"

p: 391.

most active

organic growth here on earth, and

all

(Medievalia

de Bruyne,

III,

1945), pp. 41

lumiere,"

and

teste

f.;

in

et

Humanistica,

and Richard Fournival"

pp. 37

f.

III,

Birkenmajer, "Robert Grosse(ibid.,

V, 1948),


52

them, are not clear windowpanes manufactured from sand and ashes, struck from black coal, and

is

existence of light in them?

81

principle of order and value.

is

not

fire

not this luminous quality of things evidence of the

According to the medieval thinkers,

The

objective value of a thing

is

light is the

determined by the

And in experiencing delight at the sight of we grasp intuitively their ontological dignity within the hierarchy of beings. The reader will find in Dante's Paradiso the greatest poetical exposition of medieval light metaphysics. The poem might be described as a

degree to which

partakes of light.

it

luminous objects,

great fugue on the single theme, "la luce divina e penetrante per l'universo

secondo ch'e degno" (31:22 cording to

its

fF.),

"the divine light penetrates the universe ac-

dignity."

Such views embody a very ancient, half-mythical experience of light. Their' philosophical articulation originates with Plato. In the sixth public, the

good

essence, and then

compared

to sunlight,

bility in all visible things but generation

which

sentence

was

more than

a very different meaning.

it

the seed out of

system. Light was

now

"not only the author of

is

visi-

and nourishment and growth."

In that ag£sunlight/is perhaps no

followers gave

book of the Re-

defined as the cause of knowledge as well as of being and

is

a

metaphor; but Plato's

For t he Neoplatoni sts,

which they developed an

this brief

entire epistemological

conceived as the transcendental reality that engenders

the universe and illuminates our intellect for the perception of truth.

These

ideas

were adopted by

Christianity. St. Augustine developed the

notion that intellectual per ception results from an act of illumi nation in which the divine intellect enli ghtens the

philosophy

in

epistemology

whose

w hich is

an

human mind The .

light is the first principle

father of a Christian

of metaphysics as well

as

of

Eastern mystic, Denis the so-called Pseudo-Arcopagite, of ,

identity and strange afterlife in medieval

more

will be said later.

This thinker blends Neoplatonic philosophy with the magnificent theology of light in the

Gospel of St. John, where the divine Logos

Light that shineth lightencth every

in

man

darkness, by which that

cometh into

Arcopagite bases the edifice of

his

this

own

all

things

world.

is

conceived as the true

were made, and

Upon

this

thought. Creation

that en-

age the Pseudois

to

him an

act of

illumination, but even the created universe could not exist without light. If 81.

Bacumkcr, "YVitclo,"

pp. 40, 464, 499, Gilson,

La Fhilosophir de Saint Bonavrnturr,

pp. 263

ff.

MEASURE AND LIGHT would vanish

light ceased to shine, all being

53

From

into nothingness.

meta-

this

physical concept of light, the Pseudo-Areopagite also deduced his epistemology.

The

creation

the self-revelation of

is

God. All creatures are

their existence bear testimony to the Divine Light intellect to perceive It is a

it.

strange world view indeed that

stemmed from these

Are His

transcendental to His creation?

is

perfect to be images of Him?

God

face to face. Therefore, as well as nature are

How

is

ideas. All crethis possible

is

creatures not too im-

The Pseudo-Areopagite answered

pointing to the frailty of our intellect, which

Writ

by

82

ated things are "theophanies," manifestations of God. 83

when God

"lights" that

and thereby enable the human

this

question by

incapable of perceiving

God

Him

Holy

interposes images between

and

us.

such "screens"; they present us with images of God,

designed to be imperfect, distorted, even contradictory. This imperfection and

mutual contradiction, apparent even to our minds,

is

from a world of mere shadows and images

to ascend

Divine Light

itself.

Thus

it is,

becomes gradually manifest; vealed. But of

all

to kindle in us the desire

to the contemplation of the

paradoxically enough, by evading us that

He

created things light

is

the most direct manifestation of

Augustine had occasionally remarked that Christ

St.

God

conceals Himself before us in order to be re-

Divine Light, not figuratively, as when

we

speak of

is

God.

properly called the

Him

as the

Keystone. 84

In the thirteenth century a French theologian picks up the Augustinian dictum

and declares that among corporeal things Light.

light

most similar

is

to the Divine

85

The

experience of the world and of

cult for us to relive. 82.

The

Corpus areopagiticum

is

Migne,

Patrologiae cursus completus

Graeca,

III.

On

printed in .

.

series

.

Dionysian epistemology, see

"Le Sens du

Gilson,

God

that underlies such views

is diffi-

We are tempted to understand medieval definitions of light

rationalisme chretien"

omnia

ipsius verae lucis"

See the comment on

"Note on

De

this

(PL,

CXXII,

a Controversial

age

in Suger's

Consecratione Ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii"

XXVI,

139).

age by Panofsky,

(GBA,

(in

Etudes de philosophic medievale); "Pourquoi

6th series,

St.

Thomas

84. "Neque enim et Christus sic dicitur lux quomodo dicitur lapis; sed illud proprie, hoc utique figurate." De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 28

a critique St.

Augustin" (Archives

d'histoire doctrinale et litteraire

age,

I,

and La Philosophic au moyen-dge, pp.

1926);

80

du moyen

(PL,

ff.

83. See Dionysius' pupil

and commentator,

Erigena: "Materialia lumina, sive quae naturaliter

in

quae

caelestibus in

terris

spatiis

humano

ordinata artificio

sunt,

sive

efficiuntur,

imagines sunt intelligibilium luminum, super

85.

XXXIV, The

1944).

315)

author,

•

however, writes "agnus"

instead of "lapis"; see Baeumker, "Witelo," p.

374.

Cf.

corporalia

Bonaventure: "Lux inter omnia

maxime

ibid., p. 394.

assimilatur

luci

aeterni."


54

The

either in a pantheistic or in a purely metaphorical sense.

ceding paragraphs

may

occasionally have asked himself whether

which the Christian Platonists are referring or

cal light to

reader of the preit is

only symbolically invested with the qualities of physical

light,

we

precisely this distinction that

medieval mind. At the basis of

have to disregard

all

if

we

medieval thought

the physi-

to a transcendental light.

But

it is

seek to understand the the concept of analogy.

is

All things have been created according to the law of analog y, in virtue of which

G od,

images, vestiges, or

a thing

"resembles" God, to

they are, in various degrees, manifestations of

shadows of the Creator. The degree

which

God

is

present in

it,

determines

to

which

its

place in the hierarchy of beings. This

idea of analogy, as Gilson has stressed with reference to St. Bonaventure,

by no means

a poetical play with

symbols

mological method considered valid. 86

only

when we Hence

perceive

God

in

it,

a

medieval writer observes. 87

the connection between the "aesthetics of light" and the "meta-

opening sentence of divine splendor, in

The

o n the

his treatise

its

teenth centuries this thought things hav e in

Pseudo-Areopagite, in the solemn

Celestial

common,

it.

88

In the aesthetics of the twelfth and thir-

appropriated: light

is

fulfills

medieval experience of beauty, as

86. Gilson,

198

La Philosophie de

ff.;

cf. his

Philosophy, pp. 100

.„

_

I,

.

The

it is

The

Saint Bonaven-

,.

manct simplex, ilia

et

Erigena's

Cf.

8 9-

Baeumker, "Wicelo,"

lerarchiam

°o.

The most

non hoc tantum, sed

to

et coa-

que splendorem accipiunt." Abbot

Hilduin's translation in Thery, Etudes Diony-

1

'

ff.).

bee

Zeitschri/t

209

rT.

}J

Wolfs fur

.

.

,

Albrecht

(Hahn> cd ^ p l8

Gothic architecture

,n

j

emplc ot the Grail the description ot the A ., c v t. 1 s / ounqer I iturel von c behartenbertj ,

in

(PL,

p. 4 Hcelebrated literary testimony

he c ult of lununosity

r

L

is

,,

opened

translation

II.

'037).

benignitatem varie in providentibus procedens,

dunat

vista that light and the luminous

CXXII,

(PL, CXXII, ,29). Cf. Gilson,

.

aesthetic

the essence of the

is

siennes,

Le bens du rationalismc, p. r 12. 88. "Quia omms divinus splendor secundum

As an

its faith.

Medieval

Spirit of

super

89

all.

sunlight filtering through the transparent

f.

Expositions

87. Erigena, caelestem,

closed to us. 90

which

the essence of

This metaphysical and theological is

conceived as the form that

that longing for ultimate concord,

that reconciliation of the multiple into the one,

man

is

the simple that imparts unity to

value, light, like unison in music, thus

to medieval

Hierarchy, declares that the

emanations, always remains undivided and indeed unifies

those of His creatures that accept

ture, pp.

was

episte-

We understand a piece of wood or a stone

physics of light" of the Middle Ages.

all

on the contrary, the only

but,

yy

J}Q

ff

.

Wdf;

^

pp

criticism of the age in

deutsches

Cf. dc Bruvnc,

III,

Archttekturdarstellungen

m

Altertum,

n

1

ff.;

der

LXXIX,

Lichtcnberg,

mittelhochdeut-

MEASURE AND LIGHT walls of a Gothic cathedral

plained in of physics or an aesthetic one that

may

ligious reflections within us. (These different levels

nothing in

common

with one another.

women of the Middle

was

It

The

liturgy of the

Church

lent

phenomenon

may

or

to be ex-

not awaken re-

of experience have almost

just the opposite for the

Ages. Christian theology

Inca rnation, which in the Gospel of St. John the world.

55

for us either a physical

is

is

is

men and

ce ntered in the mystery of the

perceived as light illuminating

immediate reality to

this

image by

celebrating Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation, at the time of the winter

At some unknown

solstice.

century,

it

had become general custom to read the openi ng age from the

Gospel of St. John light

of every Mass. 91

at the close

must have conveyed

it

end of the thirteenth

date, but certainly before the

to those

who

With

its

sublime theology of

listen ed a vision

of the eucharistic

sacrament as divine light transfiguring the darkness of matter. In the physical light that illuminated the sanctuary, that mystical reality

seemed to become palpable to the senses. The distinction between physical nature and theological significance was bridged by the notion of corporeal light as an

"analogy" to the divine

for a style

much can

intellectual

Can we marvel

that this

of sacred architecture in which the meaning of

edged as magnificently as

How

light.

and

it

was

in

world view called

light

was acknowl-

Gothic?

actually be ascertained regarding the direct influence of the spiritual

movements we have studied

The

creation of Gothic architecture?

in this chapter

upon the

question can only be answered with

varying degrees of assurance: the historian must be on his guard not to mistake parallels or affinities for causes,

upon architecture Clairvaux.fFor

is

all

we know,

system of aesthetics,

and the influence of the School of Chartres

far less palpable than is that

let

of the Augustinianism of

the Platonists of Chartres never formulated a

alone a program for the arts.

We cannot even say with

certainty that the aesthetic and technological consequences of their

exerted a direct impact upon the

emerged around sthen

vol.

140.

Dichtung; Sedlmayr,

Wurzel osterr.

1

der

Instituts

XIV,

Kathedrale"

new

Yet such influence "Die dichterische {Mitteilungen

des

fur Geschichtsforschung, supp.

1939).

cosmology

architectural style, the Gothic, that is

eminently likely, even on the mere

91. Thalhofer and Eisenhofer, katholischen Liturgik,

II,

236;

also the important

remarks

sarum Solcmnia,

542

II,

ff.

in

Handbuch der

cf.

I,

376. See

Jungmann, Mis-


56

we have

of circumstantial evidence. Gothic architecture, as

basis

ceived, and

was defined

at this

famous mathematical school

We

Chartres.

know

very tim e,

—certainly

Honnecourt was

was con-

The most

—was

knowledge displayed by

that the geometrical

architect such as Villard de

West

the Christian

in

seen,

as applied ge ometry.

a

then

Gothic

substantially that of the cathedral

and monastic schools and was acquired in them. Here, however, the study of the

quadrivium was intimately connected with the metaphysical and mystical speculations of the Platonic tradition.

The

student, if he later applied his ge-

ometrical knowledge to architecture, was bound to be influenced by the recollection of the aesthetic, technical, and symbolic properties that his teachers

attributed to geometry.

Far more

distinct

and certainly far more tangible, thanks to the influence'

of St. Bernard, was the influence that Augustinian spirituality exerted upon the formation of Gothic. Even from a purely

artistic point

of view, Cistercian archi-

tecture, as the first radical and consistent application

of the general aesthetic

trend of the age to the art of building, could not

have far-reaching reper-

cussions. It

was even more important

fail

to

that St. Bernard linked aesthetic and re-

ligious experience in presenting Cistercian architecture as the

expression of the

The question. son,

is

new

The

(RIB A

"The Beginnings Norman Vaulting

of Gothic England"

in

VI, 1899; IX, 1902), pp. 267 ff. 93. See Dehio and Bezold, Kirc hliche Baukunst Journal,

des Abendlandes,

is

all

I,

519,

where the

significance

these innovations for Gothic architecture

stressed,

although

"unkiinstlerische,

Dehio emphasizes the

viclmehr

Grundstimmung" of

antikiinstlerische

the Cistercians. Similarly

the judgment of Lambert, pp. 38 f. See, however, Rose, pp. 6 ff., who considers

negative

is

beyond Bil-

sequence of

oblong bays, the buttressing arches visible above the roofs

93 the cathedral builders of the Ile-de-.

92. Bilson,

Gothic archit ecture

as the pointed arch , the

were employed by Cistercian

aisles,

Architecture:

of

first

Such important elements

identical, transverse

L

of which he was the revered exponent.

upon the

simultaneous emergence of the two, already pointed out by

revealing. 92

of the side

by

religious attitude

influence of Cistercian

only adequate

is

the introduction of Gothic into the Burgundian tradition the great achievement of Cistercian

architects before their adoption

The

picture

is

equally striking

architecture. Rose, p. 70, and Aubert, Xotre-

Dame

de Paris, pp. 57, 99, stress the early

of the buttressing arch

in

UK

Cistercian churches,

Aubert also calls attention to the use of an ambulatory without chapels in Cistercian choirs before this device is employed in Paris Cathedral.

The

buttressing arches of the choir of

Pontigny are of the same date as this part of the building, begun c. 185; sec Aubert, L'Architec1

hire cistercierme,

I,

189.

It

ought to be pointed

however, that both the pointed arch and, after the catastrophe of 2 5, the flying buttress were used in the great third church of

out,

1

1

MEASURE AND LIGHT Durham Cathedral had

England.

in

received

first

its

57 ribbed vaults before the

turn of the century. These, however, kept to the round arch.

was introduced only

we

in the ribbed vault

," observes Bony, "that the

England

11

in

28

we

shall realize that

first

pointed arch

128-33. "If

1

Cistercian mission c ame to

thejêarî

1

2

8 is

no t wit hout

signifi-

y4

cance.

Even the crocket

capital,

perhaps the most impressive example of the

subordination of ornament to function, has tecture.

invent

The

of the nave, constructed

95

It is

new

predecessors in Cistercian archi-

its

quite true that, generally speaking, St. Bernard's order did not

architectural forms but rather revived old ones; and

acteristic that the Cistercians

seem

to have been influenced

96 architecture of the Cluniac Order. But such

is

it

by the

char-

pristine

borrowed elements were adapted

to a comprehensive and unified design that produced a profound effect

upon the

cathedral builders of the Ile-de-. It

would be incorrect

architecture, even though

gance of Cluniac

art,

the

to describe the first

it is

Gothic

of Cistercian

the child of St. Bernard. In criticizing the extrava-

Abbot of Clairvaux had pointed out himself

postulates applied to monastic buildings only. their art,

as the child

which was aimed

at the edification

To

that his

the secular cathedrals and

of people living

in the

world and

had to appeal to their imagination, he made important concessions. 97

And

yet,

Bernar d's insistence thauall religious art and music be attuned to religious experience, that their onl y justification

is

their ability to guide

t

he mind to _the

perception of ultimate truth, confronted the cathedral builder with the challenge as

it

did the monastic architect.

The Abbot of

same

Clairvaux had been

scathing in his denunciation of certain types of imagery and decoration that to

him appeared incompatible with the character of the sanctuary; they disappear from the

first

Tournai or

Gothic cathedrals,

in Chartres

too. In

some

cases, as in the Cathedral

West, where they had been employed

of

in an earlier phase

of the building program, they are discontinued, perhaps under the personal Academy ExXXIX, 1954), with

Cluny. See Conant, "Medieval

development

England,

see

cavations at Cluny"

Architecture in England, pp.

416

(Sp,

bibliography of earlier reports. See also below, n. 96.

94. Bony, "French Influences on the Origin of English Architecture" (JWCI, XII, 1949). 95.

On

the importance of this capital for the

in

Bond,

Gothic

441. 96. Lambert, L'Art gothique en Espagne, pp. 39 ff., rightly stresses the influence exerted upon the earliest Cistercian plans by the archif.,

tecture of Cluny. See above, n. 93. 97. See above, n. 56.


58

influence of St. Bernard. 98

Above

all,

we

however,

find the

main aesthetic and

technical features that characterize Cistercian architecture, the unadorned perfection of

workmanship, the attention to proportion, equally present

in the

cathedrals of the Ile-de-. Cistercian and early Gothic architecture

two branches growing from

thus be described as

same

religious

same

the

soil

and realizing the

and aesthetic postulates, with the sole difference that the

designed for the devotional

life

may

first is

of the convent, the second for that of the

diocese. [See Add.]

This interpretation

is

confirmed by the fact that since the second half of

the twelfth century Cistercian and Gothic cease to be distinct stylistic branches,

The

even in .

Cistercian builders introduce Gothic in their native

Burgundy, employing the design of the cathedrals

in their

own

architecture;

abroad they become the pioneers of Gothic."

But

it is

we

only when

fix

our attention on the group of monuments with

which Gothic architecture came into existence, of those

who created

it

if

we

consider the personalities

and the historical moment in which that event took place,

we

that

we

new

style.

The

visions of Plato, Augustine, and Dionysius Areopagita had to acquire a

can grasp the actual link between the ideas

have considered and the

Metaphysical concepts do not readily spark the

peculiar relevance

artist's

beyond the realm of abstract speculation before they could

call forth artistic expression.

The

metaphysics of music acquired such

cance by being absorbed into the religious movement led by being

made

entire age.

the basis of the

And by

first

St.

a singular concatenation

these ideas.

It is

The

birth of the

to this event that

Gothic

The

11 ff.

tur

Cistercians intro-

(Heisterbach) and duce Gothic into Italy. They import noteworthy elements of Gothic architecture into England. See Gall, Niederrheinische

und

normanmschc

By

of circumstances the Dionysian

Architek-

im

political blood-

from the ed impact of

results

we must now

98. See below, ch. 5, n. 14. 99. Rose, pp.

signifi-

Bernard.

cosmological system, Platonism dazzled the

metaphysics of light in the twelfth century entered even into the stream of .

imagination.

turn.

Zeitalter der Fruhgotik, pp.

Die gotische Baukunst, francaises

de

p.

86

ff.;

Clascn,

137; Enlart, Origines

I'architecture

gothique

en

Italic;

Kroening's review of Paatz, Wesen und Werden der Trecento Architektur in Toscana

1939,

196

ff.);

(ZK

VIII,

and Bond, Gothic Architecture.

PART 2

THE BIRTH OF THE GOTHIC

SUGER OF

3-

No

misconception

has proved a greater obstacle to our understanding

of Gothic architecture than esque,

as

ST. -DENIS

its

interpretation as the "logical" sequel to

methods evolved during the preceding period. In point of tecture

is

antithesis.

Roman-

the consistent development of stylistic principles and technical

not the heir but

thej^valofRom anesq ue,

The

art (as the

first

Gothic

French

fact,

Gothic archi-

created as

emphatic

its

originated around

call it)

1

140,

the culmination of those anti-Romanesque or anti-Cluniac tendencies in art that

we

observed in the preceding chapter. At that time, however, Romanesque art

many

was

still

this

adversary that evoked, on the part of

flourishing in

was

forceful and clear as

St.

parts of Europe. It its

was perhaps

the very

power of

opponents, an artistic answer as

Bernard's polemic. This answer

is

Gothic archi-

tecture.

Great works of

art

—great works of the human mind

ways

called forth

as the

law of challenge and response. Such interaction,

of art,

is

by the

dialectical process

—are

in general

al-

of what Mr. Toynbee has defined in the creation

of a work

the answer to a source or model or influence. But historians of art and

literature are apt to overrate

and oversimplify the role of such influences and

hence to view the development of art as governed by a kind of Darwinian law, consistent, predictable,

and inevitable. This

look or misunderstand in a

A work of art

is

work of art

is,

that

of course, a sure

is

an experience that

is

acts as a catalyst.

is

compelled to convey

so, the

is,

more

by with an significant a

influence or

work of art,

the

of revolt, the destructive tendencies, even

that served as

to over-

particularly his or theirs. Such an urge might very well

Even

will be the elements

way

significant, original, authentic.

created because an individual or a group

have been provoked, and usually

work

all

a prototype.

model that

more marked

in regard to the

Conversely, transparency of influences,


62

work of art,

docility of their acceptance in a ocrity. Since understanding a

work of

expression of a singular experience,

art

are nearly always signs of medi-

means

to participate in the singular

more important

usually

it is

element of "revolt" than the reflection of influences

in

to grasp the

it.

None of

All this applies particularly to the genesis of Gothic architecture. its

constituent elements

that of

were

Romanesque

inventions.

Normandy and Burgundy,

architecture, especially

The

contributed a great deal.

Gothic

first

builders employed, co-ordinated, and transformed these elements and in so do-

was novel and anti-Romanesque

ing achieved an architectural system that

pre-

cisely because of the novelty of the spiritual message that was to be conveyed. 1

This view of the relationship between Gothic and Romanesque firmed by the geography as well as the chronology of the

Gothic

is

—more

con-

is

The

style.

first

so remarkably identified with one limited territory, the Ile-de-

exactly, the

domain of the Capetian monarchy

Focillon suggested wisely, if

Romanesque of the

as the

new

somewhat paradoxically,

Ile-de-. 2

closely linked to a political idea and

its

No

—

Henri

that the late

Gothic be defined

that

other artistic style has been more

historical realization

"We

and growth.

intend to demonstrate," observed Viollet-le-Duc a century ago, "that the

French cathedral

.

.

.

was born with the monarchical power."

More

3

recent

4

scholarship has only confirmed this thesis. Created in the very heart of Capetian

power, 5 the Gothic advanced

in the

wake of

Bony, "La Technique normande du mur (BM, XCVIII, 1939), asks whether Anglo-Norman architecture "n'aurait-elle done 1.

epais"

pour

gothique

l'art

of teleological approach seems to

Anglo-Norman

ous:

This

francais?"

me

architecture

kind

danger-

was

stylistical

Bony

is

principles

terre a poursuivi

experiences

les

germane to

itself.

surely right in stating: "seule

1'

But

Angle-

m&hodiquement, apres 1080, commences en Normandie;

seule elle a su les conduire jusqu'aux lisieres la

aborde

le

.

.

.

ramene." 2.

Focillon,

284

Occident,

le

moy en-age,

VI,

ch.

"Une

£cole

See Lefevre-Pontalis,

gieuse dans I'ancien et

e

au XII

new in

Dictionnaire

de

raisonne

du XI" au XVI*

francaise

siecle,

II,

f.

4.

the

The

On

cause .

f.

make

Ile-de-

a political one. 5.

diocese

pp. 68

siecle,

architecture

province?

.

is

:

V Architecture

reli-

de Soissons au XI*

"But

why

did the

its

first

appearance

rather

than

in

in

another

our opinion above

all

."

the geographical and political defini-

tion of the lle-de-, see

Longnon, "LIlc-

de-, son origine, ses limites, ses gouver-

neurs" (Societe de l'histoire de Paris, Memoires, I,

Art d

y

Viollet-le-Duc,

3.

I 'architecture

pensee gothique. Sous quelque angle que

probleme des origincs du gothique francais e'est done toujours vers la Normandie et l'Angleterre que Ton se trouve l'on

roman,

romane: Le Gothique."

not

imperfect Gothic, but rather the realization of

gothique, p. 140. See also Francastel,

et

L Humanisme

qu'un champ d'experiences preliminaires

ete

de

roman

consolidation and expansion.

i ts

1874), and La Formation de

pp. 36

ff.

I 'unite

francaise,

SUGEROFST.-DENIS Every

single

63

one of the grea t cathedrals rose on territory subject to the French

crown.

No

other region has done more, architecturally speaking, to prepare the

advent of the

Gothic

Mans,

—

style than

until after its

capital

Normandy. Yet Normandy

did not begin to build

conquest by Philip Augustus. Again, the Cathedral of Le

of Maine, was

style at a time

ance

—

new

when

the

built in the

first

—or rather

Romanesque

their appear-

of Le

in the Ile-de-. Structurally the great cross-ribbed vault

like that

more

of Angers Cathedral

—

is

the equal of any Gothic vault.

significant that here, as in the other churches

tion of the walls, especially in the clerestory zone,

Angevin

in the

Gothic buildings had already made

Mans

It is all

the

of this school, the organiza-

shows no trace of the Gothic

tendencies toward luminosity and the reduction of

inert surfaces. 6 After the

annexation of Maine by the French crown, however, the chapter of

Le Mans

Cathedral decided to build the Gothic choir that came to be considered perfect

of

its

kind.

Those regions of modern , on the orbit of Capetian

power

the other hand, that remained outside

retained their

Romanesque

cathedrals. But in

Provence, the appearance of Gothic sculpture (a manifestly alien element) since the last quarter of the twelfth century

was owing

to the increasingly close politi-

ca l ties between the episcopate of Provence and the French king

duction of the art of into this region

om inously

7 ;

the intro-

foreshadowed

its

con -

of the Gothic q uest in the Albigensian Crusad e. This political significance even more apparent abroad. In Apulian Lucera the cathedral ascetic

monument

to the victory

"Romanesque"

ing

different

from

its

rises, a

is

grim,

of the French Charles of Anjou over the smil-

culture of the Hohenstaufen.

original spirit, the

Even

Gothic bespeaks

in this form, so sadly

its

connection with the

French monarchy.

These impressions are confirmed elsewhere in Europe.

Nowhere

if

we

consider the development of Gothic

outside the sphere of French influences does

appear as a spontaneous development of Romanesque. Gothic into 6.

b y

the Cistercians

more than

See Bilson, "Les Voutes de la nef de la d' Angers" (CA, Angers, 19 10):

Cathedrale

"Nothing so perfect and

skillful as these vaults

had been built" elsewhere during the

first

half

w as

half a century after

its

it

imported creation;

of the century. See also the remarks of Ward, Medieval Church Vaulting, pp. 49 ff. La SaApture francaisc au 7. See Aubert, moyen-dge, p. 155.


64 it

was considered

the

new

a

"French" style

as late as the fourteenth century. 8 In

Cathed ral of Canterbury, begun

style appeared first in the

in

William of Sens. Sens had received the exiled Thomas Becket with few years before,

hospitality a

of the architect

who

may

a fact that

England 1

1

75

by

particular

well for the selection

reproduced the model of the Cathedral of Sens in

many

and

Italy,

features of the English cathedral. In England, as well as in

Gothic conflicted with powerful indigenous traditions and hence underwent transformations that changed

™~^

In short, Gothic destinies

is

the

into something entirely different.

it

s tyle

of the Ile-de-;

it is

so closely tied to the

of the Capetian monarch y and encouraged by the

extent that

we must assume

that

latter to

such an

Gothic was considered the expression of ideas

with which the crown wished to be associated. If

how

so,

did that association

come about? For an answer to

this question

we turn to the The Gothic

to the personalities of their authors.

churches,

within a limited area,

all

French monarchy, cathedral

is

all

all

in places

Gothic sanctuaries and

first

appears

three great

first in

of particular importance to the

designed, if not executed, within a decade: the

that of Sens; the first

Gothic abbey

is

first

Gothic

that of St.-Denis; the west

facades of St.-Denis and, especially, of Chartres are the

first

manifestations of

Gothic architectural sculpture. Responsible for these three buildings were the Bishops

Henry of Sens and Geoffrey of Chartres, and

the

Abbot Suger of St.-

Denis. These prelates were personal friends and shared the same convictions.

As we

inquire into the origin and meaning of Gothic architecture,

we must

try

to understand the ideas of these prelates as well as the monuments that have

kept their memories alive.

The most famous is

as fascinating

8.

of the three

today as

The Church of St.

it

was

men

Peter at Wimpfen-im-

Tal was constructed in 1259, opere francigeno, by a master who had recently returned from Paris. See Graf, Opus francigenum, p. 9; also Renan, Melanges d histoire et de voyages, p. 220, who asserts that Gothic was regarded as opus francigenum

until

. See

the

also

fourteenth

century

de Mcly, "Nos

in

vieillcs

cath^drales et leurs maitres d'oeuvre" (Revue archeologique, 5th series, XI, 1920).

is

Suger of St.-Denis. His personality

to his contemporaries.

9

His career, which led

9. See Doublet, Histoire de Vabbaye de S. Drnys en , pp. 226 ff.; Felibien, Histoire

de labbaye royale de Saint-Denys en , pp. 151 ff. Within recent years Suger's biography

has been sketched twice, both times, charac-

by Abbot Suger on

tcristically,

and

Its

Suger.

A rt

art the

historians.

See Panofsky,

Abbey Church of

St.-Denis

Treasures, Introduction; and Aubert,

SUGEROFST.-DENIS him from very humble

65

origins to the regency of , gave

him scope

for the

application of an extraordinary variety of gifts. Suger's diplomatic skills called

the

young monk

he represented

to the attention

monastery

his

of his abbot.

at the

He was

only

in his twenties

when

Council of Poitiers (1106) and subse-

quently before the pope. 10 In the years that immediately followed, Suger, as

deputy of his abbot, showed equal ability as an and ful

and courageous military leader

who

defended with success

as a resource-

his king's

and

his

monastery's possessions against some rapacious feudatories of the land. 11 Those military accomplishments brought

him again

immediate with

into

King Louis VI, who had been educated with Suger started here as a friendship

veloped into a

united the

tie that

two men

bacy of

To mind

St. -Denis.

1

king

was during one

It

122, that Suger learned of his election to the ab-

full

we must

significance of the appointment,

monastery was no ordinary Benedictine house. Even

monasticism, even

The

13

understand the

that this

had

to have ceased being his sover-

ambassador to the pope.

eign's chief political adviser as his Italy, in

What

for the rest of their lives. 12

employed Suger, who from then never seems

of these missions to

at St. -Denis.

between two youths of very different origins de-

among

have not unjustly called

it

age of

the great monasteries of , St. -Denis occupied a

power and

position of unparalleled

bear in

in the

prestige. 14

The

old historians of St.-Maur

the foremost of all French and perhaps of all European

abbeys. 15 Medieval sources abound in references to

its

pre-eminence.

They

designate St.-Denis the mother of French churches and the crown of the realm. 16

No other ecclesiastical

institution,

perhaps no institution of any kind, was more

17 St.-Denis closely identified with the Capetian monarchy.

10. Suger, Vie de 11. Suger, gestis,

Louis

rebus

XXIII (Oeuvres

184

f.);

139

ff.;

pp. 7

De

le

Gros, p. 23.

list

istrative sua

in

completes de Suger, pp. ff.; Felibien, pp.

Vie de Louis, pp. 60

Panofsky, Suger,

p. 7;

Aubert, Suger,

ff.

of Suger, toriques,

of the monastery's possessions and revenues Ayzac, Histoire de Vabbaye de St.-Denis en

<*'

,

"quern

fidelem

et

Louis

VI

familiarem

habebamus." Tardif, Monuments

No.

says in his-

391.

I,

168

w» St. D «nis,

ff.;

and Cartellieri, Abt Suger

pp. 175

ff.,

revenues, see d'Ayzac, 15.

12. Suger, Vie de Louis, p. 5.

consiliis

">

was the shrine of

forsan

"Omniumque Europae

I,

186

359

facile

ff.

On

the abbot's

ff.

totius

abbatiarum

Galliae,

princeps"

et

(GC,

VII, 332). 16.

GC, VII, 335; Doublet,

pp.

170, 284,

410.

13.

Vie de Louis, pp. 96

14.

See the imposing, though only

f.

I7 partial,

.

Luchaire, Louis Vile Gros, pp. cxlviii ff.; III, 1, pp. 20 ff.

and Lavisse, Histoire de ,

THEGOTHICCATHEDRAL

66

o/" f

the patron saint of and of the royal house and the burial place of F rench

kings since Merovingi an times

18 .

Long

the recipient of munificent donations of

the crown, the house was, as one of the "royal" abbeys, exempt from

all

feudal

and ecclesiastical domination and subject only to the king. 19 In the first half of the twelfth century, St.-Denis

became the cornerstone

of royal policy and the fountainhead of that idea of the Christian monarchy

which established Capetian ascendancy throughout ,

The

throughout Europe.

work of Suger. To

the

some

in

respects

attainment of this place and influence was principally

his

high ecclesiastical position he brought that peculiar

As an

blend of gifts which characterizes the statesman.

he had

both the knowledge of jurisprudence necessary to maintain and expand the vast possessions of his house and the sense of practical detail that prompted him to attend even to such matters as the provision of better plowshares for his tenants

and the

mat and

of a competent program of forest preservation. 20 As a diplo-

initiation

Suger had a rare sense for the possible, willingness to com-

politician,

promise, and above

VI was

Louis

never faltering preference for peaceful accommodation.

all a

a ruler

of very considerable

but

gifts;

it is

doubtful

if

have attained the stature that history has accorded him had he not had

he would at his side

a councilor always ready and often able to restrain his sovereign's rash and violent disposition, a disposition that he lived to deplore in his old age. 21

among few

the ecclesiastical statesmen of the

whom

make

religious zeal did not

Middle Ages, Suger

is

And

one of the very

insensitive to the plight of the powerless,

the humble, the vanquished, even if these had previously obstructed the course

of

government. 22

his

What

welded these

imagination. tions.

This

A

which he

vision,

achievement

political

and moral

See Doublet, pp. 168 ff., Crosby, The 0/ St. -Dm is, pp. 48 ff. Cf. also Schramm, Der Konig von Frankreich, pp. 131 ff. 18.

Doublet, pp.

This, as

we

1

68

shall see,

fT..

was

391.441

ff.,

partly the

655

ff.

work of

Suger. 20. Suger, cf.

22

De ., IV

Panofsky, Suger, ff.;

together was the

power of the

lived to see realized, stands behind the great artistic

— the Abbey Church of St.-Denis —

Abbey 19.

gifts

singularly lucid political vision unified his innumerable occupa-

p.

8;

(Oeuvrrs,

p.

160);

Aubert, Suger, pp.

and Cartellieri, Suger, pp. 71

ff.

that

is

the subject of this chap-

»i. Suger, Vie it 22.

commune of Louis

Lavb, XXXII,

123.

See his intervention on behalf of the VII,

Poitiers

he used

when, the

in

addressing

memorable words:

"Esto securus, quanto siquidem crudelitatis minus iseris, tanto regie majestatis honorem divina

XXXII,

potentia 153.

amplificavit."

Vie

de

Louis,

SUGEROFST.-DENIS ter.

But as he himself wanted

ligious ideas,

Suger's

we

monument

this

67

convey

to

have to acquaint ourselves with these ideas

life falls

and re-

his political first.

within the epoch of European history that

marked by

is

the struggle

between imperium and sacerdotium, centering mainly

investiture.

But the position of differed profoundly from that of the

German Empire. The

in the issue

of

Carolingian heritage that supplemented the modest

Capetian possessions in the Ile-de- was mainly an ecclesiastical one. 23

Along the perimeter of

Normandy,

the

frontier,

its

from Burgundy to Flanders and indeed to

kingdom was ringed by

a

number of great

"royal" sees, were subject to the French crown.

The

bishoprics that, as

rulers of six

—the arch-

bishop of Reims, the bishops of Laon, Langres, Chalons, Beauvais, and

—were dukes and counts of the realm and whose possessions, added main. all

As

in this capacity great feudal lords

together, exceeded

by

And

occupancy of the

since

swore

fealty like

ecclesiastical fiefs

was not

them greatly increased

hereditary, the king's right to nominate the bishops of his

of the royal do-

far the size

vassals of the king, the occupants of the "royal" sees

other feudatories.

Noyon

power.

Such composition of acter of the

monarchy. As

its

dominion could not but affect the

Pairs

of , the

six prelates just

political char-

mentioned made

up one half of a college of twelve. 24 In the assemblies of the realm the hierarchy

was prominently represented,

Reims and Sens, under whose all

crown

territories,

views often decisive.

its

The

archbishops of

ecclesiastical jurisdiction lay the greater part of

were almost invariably present

more important assemblies coincided with

at these meetings.

The

the great feasts of the liturgical

year and were customarily held in cathedral towns. In that event, not only the local bishop but his chapter

ecclesiastical estate

Such

and often

clergy would

sit

in the assembly, the

outnumbering the secular nobility. 25

ecclesiastical influence

French crown and

his

its

had important effects on relations between the

neighbors.

It

was of added

significance that the

most

powerful of the "royal" bishoprics were situated in foreign territory, French 23.

For the following, see Schwarz, "Der

Investiturstreit in Frankreich"

{Zeitschrift

fur

Kirchengeschichte, 1923); Fliche, "Y-a-t-il eu en et en Angleterre une querelle des

investitures?"

(RB,

XL VI,

1934); and

Faw-

tier,

Les Capetiens

24.

et la

, p. 71.

See de Manteyer, "L'Origine des douze

Pairs de " (Etudes 25.

Luchaire,

narchiques de tiens

la

($8j-i 180),

des

sous I,

254

ff.

.

.

.

Histoire

les

Monod.) institutions

mo-

premiers Cape-


68

enclaves that acted as spearheads of royal expansion and as thorns in the flesh

of the

As an obvious

territorial rulers.

seized the opportunity that

Cluniac reform.

It is

seemed

many of

act of self-preservation,

these

to offer itself with the Gregorian and

Duke of Burgundy and

hardly surprising to find the

the

counts of Anjou, Troyes, and Chartres siding with the popes in their attempts to free the

them was

Church from royal domination. The

spiritually ruled

by

a bishop

whom

This alignment of forces had induced Philip

ment with considerable

hostility.

But

and Chartres disregarded the king's Bernard. 26 However,

to that

its

I

move-

to regard the reform

soon became clear that

its

progress was

if the

fierce opposition

makings of a struggle with the Church, analogous

soon propelled her

climactic duel with the

Paris,

and embraced the party of

which embroiled and temporarily even England, ever

in , events

In

of every one of

During the reign of Philip's son, Louis VI, the sees of Sens,

irresistible.

St.

it

capital cities

the king of had appointed.

existed'

political course in the opposite direction.

German emperor

the papacy turned to for

protection and assistance.

Menaced by Henry V, Pope Paschal journ there. In

1

II

entered to begin a long so-

107 he had a very friendly interview with the aging Philip

I

and

Prince Louis at St.-Denis. But he had previously visited Chartres and met

who above

bishop, the great Yves, relationship

all

was responsible

for that definition

its

of the

between Church and State that spared a war of investiture. 27

Yves had occasion

to

remind the pope that more than any other Christian ruler

the French king had been loyal to the Apostolic See; that no division between

imperium and sacerdotium had ever rent asunder.

These developments occurred during he witnessed them

at close range.

him during much of

his

the formative years of Suger's

He met Paschal

French journey. Before

II

life;

personally and accompanied

this pontiff the

earned his political spurs by pleading the case of his

young monk

monastery against the

Bishop of Paris, "manly, with sound reasoning and valid canonical argument"; the

words are 26.

below,

his

own. 28

It is

See Luchaire, Louis VI,

p.

one of the few occasions on which Suger has

clxxv, and

27. Suger, Vie de Louis, IX, 24

ff.

Cf. Fliche

and Martin, Histoire de L^glise, VIII, 353. 28.

Vie de Louis, IX, 24

dominum

episcopum

multis

querimoniis

ecclcsiam

beati

Dionisii

agitantem, in conspectu domini pape virilitcr

p. 144.

ff.:

"...

Parisienscm

contra

Galonem,

stando,

aperta

satisfecimus."

ratione

For

quarrel, see Oeuvres,

the

et

canonico

background

XIV, 430

ff.

judicio

of

this

SUGEROFST. -DENIS

69

spoken with explicit praise of himself. In subsequent years, as the king's emissary to the Holy See and later as abbot of St.-Denis and

first

minister of

Louis VI, Suger had a decisive share in formulating and putting into effect the policy that determined the relations between and the Church. This policy

was the implementation of the views of Yves of Chartres,

whom

Suger

revered: a firm alliance with the pope against the emperor, and with the bishops against the predatory nobility of the kingdom; second, endorsement

by

the king

of the basic ideas on ecclesiastical reform, and recognition by the pope of the king's continued domination of the "royal" bishoprics, a domination that,

now

on,

was usually exerted by

less forceful, if

from

equally effective, means than

under Louis VI' s predecessor. 29 In the field of foreign relations, the results of this political course soon

proved momentous. In

1

1

He

vated to the papacy.

19

Guy of Bur gundy,

Archbishop of Vienne, was

took the name o f Calixtus

II.

A

ele-

son of the Count of

Burgundy, he inclined toward the reform movement that had such powerful

own

adherents in his

Paschal

II,

country. Dissatisfied with the compromising course of

when

he had,

convoked a synod of his see

Emperor Henry V. relative

A

s

archbishop, imperiously reprimanded the pope,

still

Vienne, and from there hurled anathema against

at

an uncle of Adelaide, queen of Franc e, Calixtus was a

of the French king.

It is

Suger

who

hints that these family ties

had im-

portant political consequences. 30

Of the

four popes mentioned in Suger's writings, Calixtus

he esteemed by far the most.

What drew

was complete

differed so greatly, together

interests. The]r_close acquaintance

raised to the

the

is

the one

identity of political convictions and

dev eloped into

fr iendship.

abbacy of St.-Denis while representing

That Suger was

at the

Holy See was

hardly just a coincidence, even though Louis VI, to judge from his

momentary

about the monastery's vote, seems to have had no previous knowledge of

ire it.

whom

two men, whose temperaments

31

But

If the elevation

29.

Imbart de

of

la

his sovereign all

Guy

Vie de Louis,

Tour, Les

XXVI,

benevolence upon

his return to

.

of Burgundy to the papacy was a fortunate event for

pales dans Veglise de , pp. 30.

about not having been consulted ed quickly

his dissatisfaction

enough; Suger found

Elections episco-

439

94.

On

and the events mentioned, see Fliche and Martin, pp.

ff.

Calixtus

398

ff.;

Luchaire, Louis VI, pp. cxxix


ff.


70

well as for , the appointment of Suger to the abbacy of

St. -Denis as

St.-Denis proved to be of equal advantage to the king and to the pope.

As an

intransigent champion of reform, Calixtus II almost immediately resumed the

struggle of his predecessors with the empire. His family relations, political tradition,

and above

all

upon

that he should lean

The European

the ecclesiastical policy of this

enemy of

2 3

Church (October

the

eventually induced 1 1

And

popes,

before a council assembled at Reims,

presence of the French king, he declared the emperor excommunicated

in the

an

inevitable

it

many

quickly came to a climax. Like so

crisis

Calixtus sought refuge in .

as

made

power.

Henry

he attended the

first

V

30,

1119).

32

In this firm policy,

which

to give in, Suger undoubtedly had his part. In

Ecumenical Council held

which the

in the Lateran, at

emperor's ambassadors announced Henry's conciliatory to an assembly

of more than three hundred bishops. that Suger received

on

The

unusual tokens of the pope's esteem

departure suggest that Calixtus meant to signify his

his

appreciation of French in the negotiations he had so successfully terminated. 33

But

if

Henry

V had made his peace with Rome,

regard to . In August, law,

Henry

VI had

I

he

felt

quite differently in

24, the emperor, in league with his father-in-

of England, decided to invade . His enmity against Louis

long been festering, but Suger was probably right in feeling that what

had precipitated

hostilities

had enabled Calixtus

French

1 1

soil.

34

II to

was

The menace of

seemed deadly. In

this

the open alliance of and the papacy that

excommunicate the emperor

at a council

the two-pronged attack that

emergency Louis VI hurried

convoked on

now was

to St.-Denis. In

its

afoot

ancient

sanctuary the relics of the patron saint and his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius

were solemnly exposed. Kneeling

voked the intercession of St. Denis, as "after

God,

in

prayer before them, the king

his "special patron,"

whom

in-

he designated

the singular protector of the realm," promising the saint rich

donations for his abbey in case of victory. 35 32. Suger, Vie de Louis, p. 94.

p. 61.


35.

Vie de Louis, pp. 101 ff. Cf. LuLouis VI, p. cxxxvi, and Kienast,

34. Suger,

chairc,

Deutschland und Frankreich

in

der

Kaiserzeit,

"Etquoniambeatum Dionisium specialem

patronum tecrorem

et et

singularem posr

mulrorum

Deum

relatione

rcgni proet

crebro

cognoverat experimento, ad euni fcstinans, tam

SUGER OF These prayers completed, Louis

ST. -DENIS

VI

71

rose to receive from the altar of the

Apostle of , "as from his Lord," the banner of St. Denis. 36 Actually,

this

vexillum was the standard of the Vexin, a fief of the abbey, the possession of

which made thejung the vassa l of its abbot, o r, injnedieval , the vassal of th e_abbot representing the patron sai nt.

was

the vexillum St.

Den is,

that he

to indicate that Louis

went

investment with

this occasion, the

consider ed himself the liege

man of was a

into battle in the saint's cause, and that the banner

37 latter' s protection.

token of the

On VI

After Suger had presented the vexillum to

Louis, the king, before the chapter of the monks, formally acknowledged his vassalage, adding that he

would render homage

38

Whereupon, probably

thority did not forbid

it.

Bohemond of Antioch

in

to the still

abbey

if his

of the

in front

royal au-

altar

Chartres Cathedral pleading for his Crusade

king appealed to the assembly to him in the defense of the realm.

The

sponse was extraordinary.

— —the

like

39

The

re-

Reims and Chalons, Laon and

contingents of

Soissons, fitampes and Paris, Orleans and St.-Denis,

were swelled by the

forces

of great lords whose relations with the crown had long been hostile or cool.

The dukes of Burgundy and

now

and Troyes,

Of the

events just mentioned, Suger has

quam

precibus

Aquitaine, the counts of Anjou, Chartres, Flanders,

followed the royal summons. 40

precordialiter pulsat

benefitiis

regnum defendat, personam conservet, hostibus more solito resistat, et quoniam hanc ab eo habent prerogativam ut si regnum aliud regnum Francorum invadere audeat, ipse

window

tanquam ad defendendum tur,

eo presente

fit

altari

tarn gloriose

cum

sociis suis

suo superpona-

quam

devote."

the chronicler.

He

at Chartres.

38. ".

ut

beatus et irabilis defensor

made himself

.

cum

evocatis inde

.

abbate ejusdem

monasterii Sugerio religiosis, et in pleno capi-

causam regni eorum devotioni commenmore priscorum regum auriflammam velle sumere ab altari, affirmando quod hujus bajulatio ad comitem Vulcassini de jure spectabat, et quod de eodem comitatu, nisi tulo

dans, dixit se

homagium

Suger, Vie de Louis, pp. 101 f. 36. "Rex autem vexillum ab altari suscipiens

facere tenebatur."

quod de comitatu Vilcassini quod ad ecclesiam feodatus est, spectat, votive tanquam a domino

Nationale, which very probably represents, or

suo

..."

suscipiens

pp. 101 37.

fahne"

Suger,

Vie

de

Louis,

f.

See Erdmann, "Kaiserfahne und Blut-

Akademie der Wissen-

(Preussische

schaften, Sitzungsberichte, 1932). Cf. Doublet,

pp. 230, 299

low, n. 58.

Schramm,

ff.;

The

pp. 139

and be-

ff.;

oldest existing identification

of the vexillum with the oriflamme occurs in

Gullaume

le

Breton's

(Delaborde, ed., representation

is

II,

Philippid,

XI,

32

ff.

319); the oldest pictorial

in

the

southern

transept

auctoritas regia obsisteret, ecclesie

famous MS. is

lat.

The 5949

age occurs in the

A

based upon, Suger's

of the Bibliotheque

own

carefully revised

version of his Life of Louis VI. See Vie de Louis, p. 142, and the remarks of Molinier therein, pp. xxii

Louis 39.

ff.;

VI

le

alsoWaquet's

translation,

Vie de

Gros, p. xxii.

Suger himself had witnessed the event;

see Vie de Louis, IX, 23; cf. Lepinois, Histoire

de Chartres, 40. Cf.

I,

81.

Vie de Louis,

XXVII,

143, for the revised in the

5949 A.

102

ff.

MS.

and Lat.


72

was

man of

a

memory,

his

astonished his

conspicuous literary interests and achievements. His infallible

knowledge of

classical authors,

monks no

than the modern reader. 41

energy, despite his

among

less

Horace and Lucan above

A

all,

man of indefatigable

he found the time to write a great deal. But

frail health,

the monastic authors of his century he

not compose a single theological treatise.

who

probably the only one

is

was

It

did

to historical writing, as well

as to his artistic interests, that he devoted the years of relative political retire-

ment

(1

137-44).

These

writings, above

all his life

which Suger himself was able

earn for their author, in addition to his

matic historian since antiquity.

of royal as well early age.

43

At

was compiled

VI and

of Louis

that of Louis VII, of

to complete only the first chapters, 42

The

many

other

that

titles,

of the

may

first

well

syste-

great archives of his monastery, depository

had aroused Suger's interest

as ecclesiastical state papers,

at an

the beginning of the twelfth century, a collection of chronicles at St.-Denis.

44

In view of Suger's interests

that he himself may have begun this

directed and supervised

work while

still

a

it is

continuation in subsequent years. His

its

not impossible

young monk, and

own

that he

histories,

ired, utilized, and supplemented by contemporaries as well as later torians, 45

There

f

is

seem

much

to have been designed as only part of a

good reason to believe that Suger himself planned to make

already the royal archive, the institute for the

official

his-

vaster project. his

abbey,

historiography of the

realm. In the following century, St.-Denis actually assumed this function. 46 It is in

Suger, p. 51.

sum,"

his

Suger's historical writings that what

Panofsky,

41. See

Suger,

"Quodque

p.

saepius in

13; illo

have called

I

Aubert,

Bibliotheque Mazarine,

miratus

pp. 226

biographer writes, "ita quaecumque

321

ff.

his political Cf. Doublet,

ff.

Odo

45.

II,

of Deuil dedicated to Suger

his

memoriter retinebat Gentilium vero poetarum ob tenacem memo-

history of the Second Crusade and invited the

riam oblivisci usquequaque non poterat, ut ver-

he had written that of his father. His

sus Horatianos utile aliquid continentes usque

Odo

ad vicenos, saepe etiam ad tricenos, memoriter

this

nobis recitaret." Suger, Oeuvres,

CLXXXV,

in juventute didicerat,

.

.

.

p. 381.

42. Also printed in Vie de Louis, pp. 165

ff.

See Molinier's remarks therein, pp. xxxi; and

"Cum

antiquas cartas."

aetate docibili adolescentiae

armarii

De

..

possessionum Ill

meae

revolverem

and

his

Catalogue

des

manuscrits

in

1

20

Orientnn,

(MCH

ff.;

SS,

XXVI,

and De projectione Ludovici

p. 2).

See Aubert, Suger,

46. Molinicr, Catalogue, and Sources,

positive.

edition

p.

in

PL,

60;

114; Fawtier, p.

1

1,

See also Viard's introduction

p.

1

1

de

la

3.

II,

23;

is

less

in

his

of Les Grandes Chroniques de

publiees pour la Societe de Hiistoire de ,

(Oeuvres, p. 160).

44. See Molinicr in Suger, Vie de Louis, p. xvii;

VII

"VII as

own work,

hopes, will be of assistance to Suger

undertaking

Aubert, Suger,

his Les Sources de I'historie de , p. 183.

43.

abbot to undertake the history of Louis

I,

and Curtius, "Uber die altfranzosische Epik" (Romanische Forschungen, LXII, 1950). xii ff.;

.

SUGER OF vision, the ultimate goal

of

ST.

-DENIS

his statesmanship,

73

becomes

tangible.

of St.-Denis, as for Richelieu, historiography was a part of

of its actions,

justification

clarification

VI

certain chapters of his Life of Louis

Suger's style

The

is

It is significant

that the abbot destined

to be read in choir as part of the annual

of the king's death. 47

liturgical observation

reader.

apt to obscure his achievement, at least for the

Life of Louis

VI

is

densely written;

it

abounds

accuracies; there are even obvious omissions of words.

unfinished and unpolished, parts of draft, like Richelieu's

it

constitute perhaps

recting and clarifying

in

modern

grammatical

Composed

in-

in haste,

no more than a

first

Memoires, intended for future revision. At least there

reason to believe that Suger himself went over the

every sentence.

statesmans hip:

of its principles, authoritative interpreta-

of future generations.

tion for the benefit

his

For the abbot

its

style and reinforcing the

work

is

in his last years, cor-

main argument

that inspires

48

This argument

is

clear.

Despite his stylistic shortcomings, Suger

is

a writer

with a distinct sense for the dramatic, occasionally even the melodramatic, as

when he

recounts the massacre of

La Roche Guyon. 49

bring them back to

life. It is

in this vein that

ological, the

is

a

drama played on two

human and

philosophy of history, as

was not

is

two

that

of

a spectator but an actor.

he chronicles, and

it is

this role, as

spheres.

his

He

in

ability to

which he had taken so

levels, the political

the divine, and Suger

visible the ties that connect the

has a keen eye for

he reinvokes the conflict among the

major powers of his day, which he had witnessed and decisive a part. It

He

moments; he has an equal

great personalities and great historical

is

Yet

and the the-

continually trying to render his

work

is

no theodicy, no

contemporary, Otto of Freising. Suger

himself had forged and utilized the crises

well as his

direct his narrative, and our eyes with

gifts as a historian, that irresistibly

toward the place where the

it,

and the providential intersect. This place

is

historical

St.-Denis.

Suger's Life of Louis VI represents the rule of this king as the undeviating realization of the grand political design that

47. See

amplissima p.

1

28

48.

Martene, collection

Veterum

IV, xxxvii

ff.

scriptorum Cf. Doublet,

On

and against

this

hypothesis and the arguments for

it,

see

in Suger's

Waquet's

Suger, Vie de Louis VI 49.

1

was uppermost

le

own

translation

Gros, pp. 22

Vie de Louis (Molinier, ed.),

of

ff.

XVI,

52

ff.

Unless otherwise specified, succeeding references are to the Molinier edition.


74 mind.

He

es over in silence those acts of his sovereign of which he disap-

proved and which he was unable to prevent, such

as the persecution

of the Arch-

VI

bishop of Sens and the Bishop of Paris. Instead, Suger depicts Louis

deeply pious ruler whose every

act, like

as a

an illustration of the Virgilian dictum,

"parcere subjectis et debellare superbos," was designed to protect the law-

meek and

abiding and

Suger, the

meek and

proud by

its

cused, in

1

monks"

1

just are

1,

proud and lawless. 50 For

in hand, the

supremely represented by the clergy of , the

Thus

feudal oppressors. 1

sword

to punish,

Hugh du

the terrible

Puiset stands ac-

before a great assembly of "archbishops, bishops, clerics, and

by the bishops of Sens, Chartres, and Orleans, whose

led

"more rapacious than

devastated,

a wolf."

51

Hugh

is

lands he had

condemned, and the en-

suing war, in which Suger himself takes an active part, ends with the complete defeat of the scoundrel. Again, Suger dwells broadly on the campaign that Louis

VI undertook pressor, the

ten years later to liberdte the Bishop of Clermont from his op-

Count of Auvergne.

But throughout the entire narrative the Abbey of St .-Denis remains the focus of the great panorama. Suger begins by recounting the king's early love

and devotion for

his

patron saint that continues throughout his entire

prompts him to make rich donations to the abbey. 52 Before

his

to divest himself in St. -Denis of his royal insignia in order to exchange

the habit of a

monk. 53 The biography ends with the

and

life

death he desires

them

for

king's burial in the sanctu-

ary, at the very place he had designated before his death (i 137), and which,

contrary to everyone's opinion, was almost miraculously found to be exactly large

enough to receive

These

his remains.

54

events, however, are but the

the position the abbey assumed at that

50.

Vie de Louis, XVIII, 62.

age

is

also quoted

by

St.

The

Virgilian

Bernard to indicate

framework

for the crisis of

moment. Their narration forms the most eorum

ecclesie amiciciam toto

multa liberalitatc

tempore

summe

Deum

et in fine,

CCCLVIII

seipsum et corpore et anima, ut

CLXXXII,

564).

XXVIII, 106

Vie de Louis,

52.

"Altus pucrulus, antiqua regum Karoli

Magni

et

testamentis

AT.

Louis,

aliorum exccllcntiorum, hoc ipsum impcrialibus

suetudine, apud

testificandum,

Sanctum Dyonisium

monachus

ibidem

51.

con-

tanta et

53. p.

168.

5.

Vie

On

54. p.

post

efficeretur

Sec

n. 53.

de

Louis,

XXXII,

sperans ab si

fieri

..." 124;

eis,

posset,

Vie

de

FeMibien,

the significance of this act,

Pange, Le Roi

quasi nativa dulcedine ipsis Sanctis martyribus

suisquc adhesit, usque adeo ut innatam a puero

I,

vite sue

et honorificentia continuaret,

the responsibilities of the Christian ruler. Ep.

(PL,

124 and

1

cf.

de

tres-chretien, p. 302.

Vie de Louis,

XXXIII, 127

168; Doublet, p. 1277.

ff.;

Felibien,

SUGER OF

and intense part of Suger's history.

lively

55

wanted

to be understood,

it

more apparent

to him, the estates had rallied behind their king at the

The

they never had before.

come by

fear

And

make

even greater than

if it

was such

soil.

The

had been

won

and withdrew from French

According

Assembly of St.-Denis

that the

as

emperor was over-

victory, Suger remarks, in the field

of

was

battle. 56

deeper sense Suger's presentation of the events of

in a

their signifi-

to his readers.

impression caused by that show of determination to

stand together in the defense of the realm

as great as or

75

here that he has even altered

It is

and rearranged their sequence in order to

slightly the facts

cance, as he

-DENIS

ST.

1

124 was far

from untrue. For the prestige of the French monarchy the consequences of the

Assembly of St.-Denis were considerable; they were momentous itself.

for the

abbey

In reading Suger one feels that the tortuous course of political develop-

ments suddenly reveals a clear and simple pattern, a pattern that realized Suger's

own

rallied

Church and monarchy now became inseparable

vision.

around her king

order to defend the cause of the kingdom,

in

which, in view of the person and record of

its

the cause of the Church. It characterizes the

monarchy and the Church Louis

VI

was

attacker, the emperor,

new

also

between the French

relations

that even Bernard of Clairvaux

now

addressed

67

of kings."

as "the first

allies.

The great rally took place at St.-Denis. The banne r of St.-Denis, which had marked

the king as liege

man of the Apostle of , became, from now

the official battle insigne of the royal

popular imagination the

Chanson

st andard

arm s, "St.-Denis" the

who

battle cry. In the

of the abbey mer ged withthe oriflammeof the

de Roland, the mythica l banner o f

natural that the abbot

on,

in that

Charlemagne

58 .

And

solemn hour had invested Louis

it

was only

VI with

the

vexillum should become the French prelate most intimately associated with the

crown; that he should assume dignities 55.

Compare

two

the

versions

in

Vie de

56. ".

.

.

57. Ep.

superius

CCV

Olschki, Der

Vie

fuit

de

(PL,

ideale

quam si campo XXVII, 104.

Louis,

CLXXXI,

462).

See

Mittelpunkt Frankreichs im

Mittelalter, p. 18.

58.

Schramm, p. 139; Erdmann, "KaiserAs was pointed out recently, there is

fahne."

placed him at

no direct evidence that Suger himself was responsible for the identification of the vexillum

Louis, 101, 142.

triumphassent."

that, in certain respects,

of

St.

Denis with the oriflamme. See Loomis,

"The Oriflamme of and 'Monjoie'

in the

the

Twelfth Century"

War-cry (Studies in

Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene). This momentous identification, however, became possible only in virtue of the political ideology of which Suger was the author. Cf. above, n. 37.


76

the head of the French hierarchy. In

1

147, Louis

VII embarked on the Second

Crusade. Prior to the king's departure, a Royal Assembly held

nominat ed. Suger regent of

.

£tampes

at

In announcing the result of the election,

Bernard of Clairvaux presented the abbot of St.-Denis and the Count of Nevers

Assembly with the

to the

Biblical

metaphor that Bernard himself had made

portentous in the political controversy of his age: "Behold the

two swords." 59

In point of fact, both swords, the spiritual and the temporal power, subsequently

ed into the hands of Suger. 60 During his regency the two spheres seemed to have merged.

had been without a religious capital on, St.-Denis occupied this place.

Louis

VI proceeded

to

The

until this time. 61

From

danger of war over, Suger

n 24

tells

us,

implement the vows he had made on the eve of the

threatened invasion. In a public document of vast consequence to the future of the abbey, the king recalls to St.-Denis "after the

how,

in the face

of the national

custom of our ancestors."

He

peril,

calls the

he had hastened

abbey the

of the realm ("caput regni nostri"), since providence had placed St.

Denis and

his

in the

capital

hands of

companions the protection of the French dynasty. 62 The

royal donation to the monastery that

is

then set forth

is

represented as a per-

sonal gift to the patron saint "for the salvation of our soul as for the benefit of the government and defense of the realm." the

w

It is characteristic

document does not distinguish between the

saint to

whom

made him

it is

dedicated.

As

of the time that

religious institution and the

the king's investment with the oriflamme

a vassal of the sacred protector of , so donations

monastery of St.-Denis were considered donations

made

to the

to the saint himself. Inter-

ference with such possessions were outrages against the sacred protector that

were

59.

certain to

The

Ludovici VII

CLXXXV, 60.

by

draw

.

.

.

of

his

wrath upon the offender,

Odo

of

De

Deuil,

profectionc in Orientem (PL,

later replaced

Ra'Hil of

putcd the latter's authority. 11.49

summons

It is

the abbot

the Archbishop of

who

Reims

to

the Assembly of Chartres. Suger's biographer states

accurately,

"dux novus gemino statim

accintus est gladio, altero materiali et regio,

his behalf

..."

Oeuvrrs,

394. 61. Olschki, pp. 40

1209).

The Count of Nevers was

Vermandois; but neither he nor the Archbishop of Reims, who assisted Suger, dis-

in

altero spiritual! et ecclcsiastico p.

on

just as charity

62. ".

ff.

nostram

et antecessorum suecessorumque nosrrorum protectionem in capitc regni nostri, videlicet apud sanctos martyres dignatus est collocare." Tardif, No. 39 p. :i-. pro salute anime nostre quam 63. ". .

.

.

.

et

1

pro

regni

istratione

Tardif, No. 391, p. 217.

et

,

defensionc."

SUGER OF ensured his benevolence. beliefs

were bound

64

ST.

-DENIS

77

easy to see what incalculable consequences such

It is

have for the fortunes of an institution identified, as was

to

St.-Denis, with the patron of the entire kingdom. In the present case the king's

donation was designed both to underscore the spiritual prestige of the abbey

and to supply the house with the material means required for the adequate physical expression of that position.

Upon

Suger speaks of a twofold donation. he says, Louis

VI

he had retained unjustly, since by right

made

the king had

casion that

returning from his campaign,

presented to the abbey the crown of his father, Philip

this

it

"our Lord and protector."

65

insignia did belong to St. Denis,

Suger's deviation from the chronological truth

crown

is

to St.-Denis had

He

taken place not under his abbacy but under that of his predecessor.

wished

appear as having been prompted by the political prestige that the

abbey had attained

consequence of the events of

in

sonality and his designs light

which

present four years earlier, acknowledging on that oc-

"by law and custom" the royal

characteristic. Actually, the presentation of Philip's

this act to

I,

belonged to St.-Denis. In point of fact,

1

124 with which his per-

were so intimately connected. And

We

possessed before.

divest himself of his

how

have seen

crown

true that in the

it is

of these events even that earlier act took on a significance

may

it

not have

Louis VI, before his death, wished to

His grandson, Philip Augustus,

in St.-Denis.

turned the insignia to the abbey immediately after his coronation. 66

From

re-

then

on, St.-Denis seems to have been the traditional depository of the crown. This

abbo t of the house

fact automatically assured to the

cration.

There

first insisted

is

on

some reason

to believe, as

we

a share in the royal conse-

shall see, that

Suger mentions but briefly a second royal grant that

64. Fournier,

Nouvelles

recherches

curies, chapitres et universites

65. Suger,

Molinier,

ibid.,

Tardif,

See also Felibien,

p.

royale de Saint-Denis,

156;

XXVII,

No.

379,

abbey received

in

24 was, contrary to Suger's assertion, promulgated before, not after, the projected Ger-

et

1

1

man

invasion.

66. See Recueil dcs historiens des Gaules et de la ,

ff.).

105; p.

67

observed, moreover, that the royal diploma of

" {Memoires

Vie de Louis,

his

it.

les

travaux publics par des projesseurs des Facultes Catholiques de Lille, fasc. VI, pp. 171

was Suger who

e'glise

sur

de I'ancienne

de , p. 83; Lesne, "Histoire de la propriete ecclesiastique en

it

His successors were able to exert

this privilege.

cf.

213.

Crosby, L'Abbaye

pp. 8 f. It ought to be

XII,

Schramm,

216;

p.

133;

Berger,

"Annales de St.-Denis, generalement connues sous le titre de Chronicon sancti Dionysii ad cyclos paschales"

67.

366

ff.

Schramm,

(BEC,XL, p.

133

ff.;

1879). cf.

Doublet, pp.


78 1 1

24.

The

brief sentence records a donation of very great significance. Plate 13a

68

king, he says, restored to St.-Denis the "outer indictum"

famous Lendit, Deno tes

a fair,

The

The

indictum, the

one of the most famous of m edi eval F rance, held

under the auspices of St.-Denis. Although only initiated in the mid-eleventh century,

it

was generally

believed, in the

Middle Ages,

much

to be

older. 69

According to a legend, fabricated and fostered by the abbey, the Lendit (the term indictum signified the institution of a religious in

honor of certain

feast)

had been established

of Christ's ion, which had been presented to

relics

St.-

Denis by Charles the Bald, the emperor most closely associated with the house.

(He himself had assumed

Abbot Louis, who was

the abbacy after the death of

was

also imperial chancellor.) Charles the Bald

annual feast in honor of the

relics.

Such

feasts,

attracted, usually led to the establishment

also said to have instituted the

and the crowds of pilgrims they

of annual

which coincided with

fairs,

the feast and played an extremely important part in the economic

The

time.

Lendit

good example. Established

a

is

added luster when

1053 the chasses of

in

opened and shown actually to contain the

As

when

in

1

this success

109; the king instituted an indictum in

went

Paris, its revenues

calls

it,

was

and diminishing

order when, in

68. "Indictum

..."

sanctorum

1

1

erat,

Vie de Louis,

its

24,

exterius

in

revenues.

CLV,

platca,

intcrius

True

For the Abbey of St.-Denis,

flesh,

taking

away from

this

its spiritual

the

St.-Drnis, p. 58.

105.

70.

icnne" (BEC, XCI, 1930); Lebel, Histoire istrative, ecanomique et financtere de I abbaye

Crosby, Abbey of

Doublet, pp. 2 19 ff.; F^libien, pp. 120 f.; "Essai"; cf. also Huvelin, Essai

Levillain,

historique sur

pp. 146

le

droit des marches et des foires,

ff.

71. Levillain, "Essai"; Roussel,

l'abbaye de Saint-Denis a l'epoque meroving-

ff.;

a particle of the

honor. This second Lendit,

was therefore an achievement of

reddidit

1927), and "Etudes sur

de Saint-Denis, pp. 206

its

Suger was able to persuade the king to place the outer

libcntissime

XXVII,

It

69. See Levillain, "Essai sur les origines du

Lendit" (RH,

that Louis VI, at a

established in the plain of St.-Denis,

directly to the crown.

outer Lendit could only be a thorn in the

enim

70

Paris. Placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of

between the abbey and

first

companions were

saints.

was such

Notre Dame of Paris had received

or "outer Lendit," as Suger

luster

his

with the abbey were not yet cordial, resolved on a com-

his relations

71 petitive enterprise.

Cross

1048, the feast received

of these

relics

of the

the fame of St.-Denis increased as a pilgrimage center, so did the eco-

nomic success of the Lendit. Indeed, time

in

Denis and

St.

life

diction du Lendit au la

Societe de

/'

XIV

e

"La Bene-

siecle" (Bulletin de

histoire de Paris,

XXIV,

1897).

SUGER OF Lendit, along with the territory in

the abbey, granting to this house

ST. -DENIS

which

all

was

it

79 under the jurisdiction of

held,

revenues from the

fair.

To

the monastery,

the deed opened a source of large additional revenues. But the material aspect

was not the most important one.

VI

In his document Louis entire

French realm by the

had been established. 72

It

declares that Christ has deigned to ennoble the

relics

of His ion

in

honor of which the Lendit

would have been impossible

to state

more emphati-

cally the importance of these relics and their singular relation to the

monarchy.

The

which had

implication, of course,

was

that the relic of Paris Cathedral,

rivaled the sacred treasures of St.-Denis as long as the outer Lendit rivaled the

Lendit proper, was of but secondary significance. feasts

The

by the abbey denoted not only another victory

gle for complete independence

appropriation of both

in its century-old strug-

from the bishops of Paris, but established

St.-

Denis as the religious center of the kingdom.

To

appreciate the

twelfth century

was

full significance

of

this fact

we must

the age of pilgrimages and of the Crusades.

that the

These haz-

ardous journeys to remote places satisfied the romantic sense of high adventure, the longing for the wonders of regions all

times. But for medieval

separates the

unknown,

men and women

known from

the

that possess the people

of

the ing over the threshold that

unknown, the customary from the wonderful,

meant the ing from the human to the sacred sphere|At the goal of these pious journeys, as th ey set foot on the soil hallowed

by

Christ's ion o r

entered the san ctuaries sheltering the relics of saints, cru saders and pilgrims

experienced the palpable presence of the supernatural.

For Suger's generation, pilgrimages and crusades were no longer

The Church

herself presented the Crusades as

defense of the holy places and hence even

distinct.

armed pilgrimages undertaken

in

more meritorious than ordinary

pilgrimages. 73 Conversely, the most celebrated pilgrimage center of western

Europe, Santiago de Compostela, and some of the major stations on the roads leading toward

72.

it

were, in the imagination of pilgrims, rendered venerable by

"Regnum nostrum

Indicti

die

insignis

refers to

Roland

as a saint and martyr.

Magni

Mere-

Rotholandi

sue ionis dignatus est sublimare." Tardif,

dith-Jones, Historia Karoli

No.

ou Chroniques du Psrudo-Turpin, pp. 212, 202. See also Erdmann, Die Entstehung des Kreuz-

391, p. 217.

73.

The

clerical author

of the Pseudo-Turpin

zugsgedankens, p. 306.

et

7

1


8o

the memories of the Christian warriors

who had

fought and died here

the

in

defense of their faith against the infidels. During the second half of the eleventh century, the wars against the Almoravides of Spain had engaged the flower of French chivalry. The military glory of these campaigns had received added luster from the Church, which promised heavenly rewards to the Christian fighters. 74 It

was an age whose

were

favorite saints

the Christian knight defending his

Church

knights, an age apt to look

upon

To this theme the chanson mem ory of the Spanish cam-

as a saint.

de geste gave wide popular appeal by evoking the

paign of Charlemagne as an exploit implementing the divine missio n of the

French nation

in

faith. 75

defense of the Chris tian

These

mately connected with the Compostela pilgrimage. not actually composed by the the roads to Santiago and

Carolingian legend.

now

monks of

tales

became

They were

inti-

circulated if

the great monasteries that straddled

claimed associations with the great events of the

The monks of

Lerins thus

made

St.

Honoratus, the early

Christian founder of their abbey, into a friend of Charlemagne. 76

enough that the

Roman

tombs of several

saints; legend asserted

necropolis of Aliscamp at Aries

was not

It

was hallowed by

the

and was eagerly believed that the heroes

of Roncevaux had been brought here and buried by Charlemagne. 77

And

St.-

Guilhem-le-Desert, foundation and tomb of the saintly Count William, be-

came an important sights

were sanctuaries

religious sentiments

the arteries, the spiritual life

twofold sense: they invokecjr patriotic as well as

in a

In the twelfth century the pilgrimage roads thus

main churches

in virtue

of

with the Carolingian past, and because of the economic ac-

as well. 1

23, after attending the

his pressing obligations as abbot,

74. Meredirh-Jones, pp. 124

248, 292.

ff.;

Les Legendes epiques: Recherches sur des chansons de geste;

and Holmes,

Literature, pp.

68

ff.

Bedier,

I,

376.

formation

77. Bedier,

I,

369.

History of

78. Bedier,

la

A

[But

see

Add.

Latcran Council,

he took the time to

visit

every one

for p. 90.]

For the following, see especially Bedier,

Old French

became

on these roads the centers, of the

situated

Suger was a child of his age. In

75.

Compostela. 78 All these

such fame attracted, these same places became political and eco-

nomic centers

and despite

to

of ; owing to the ancient glories they claimed

their connection tivities that

on the road

religious station

76.

10

1

ff.

I,

336

ff.,

386;

Holmes,

pp.

SUGER OF

ST.

-DENIS Italy. 79

of the famous pilgrimage centers of southern

had an equally firm hold upon heard

his imagination.

Bohemond of Tarent,

Holy

His appointment as regent made 1

147.

The

himself with the of

which he

it

failure

Sepulcher.

idea of the Crusade

The

thought never

of 1

this enterprise, 1

50, at the

which he seems

very end of

to have

his life,

Suger

Bernard prepared another crusade, on behalf of

St.

appealed to the pope and, at two great assemblies held at Laon

first

The

and Chartres, to the episcopate and chivalry of . 80

lukewarm, but Suger remained undaunted. leadership because of

supreme responsibility himself.

81

burden alone. 82

The

man of

And, the subsidies

for

own monastery was

illness to

response was

When St. Bernard declined the actual

health, Suger, then a

ill

ing refused, he decided that his financial

Suger.

left

impossible for him to accompany his king

him deeply. In

anticipated, troubled

The

He was only twenty-five when he

prince of Antioch, plead in the Cathedral of

Chartres for the defense of the

on the Crusade of

8l

seventy, assumed the

which he had hoped beenormous

to shoulder the

which he was to succumb seized him

while his thoughts and his remaining energy were centered inthis project of a

would origina te

c rusade that

at,

and return

gious heart of with Jerusalem, the navel of the

li

thus linking the re -

to, St. -Denis,

wo rld. |

This

last

design suggests the Light in which St. -Denis appeared to

His monastery had once been reformed by Cluny; M

many

shared into

ideals

the

two

its

abbot.

great houses

and ambitions. But the historical constellation led Suger

open rivalry with Cluny. Like Santiago de Compostela,

like the other

pilgrimage churches under Cluniac influence or domination, St.-Denis was to

become

a pilgri mage center

memory

mood of the

p.

where

the idea of the

Crusade intermingled with the

of Charlemagne This design was dictated not only by the religious .

time but by the singular political position of Suger's monastery.

79.

Vie de Louis,

80.

Vie de

429, Felibien, 81. Recueil

XXVI,

Louis, p.

des

IX,

paululum respirassent, convocatos super hoc

ioo. 2

1

Cf.

ff.

Oeuvres,

182.

illos

historiens,

648; Luchaire, Etudes sur

negotio

XV,

les actes

614,

523,

de Louis VII,

animans

non

fuisset concessa.

viae illorum,

Grousset, Histoire des croisades

santibus

franc de Jerusalem,

II,

et

du royaume

269.

"Et regi quidem Francorum parcendum judicans vel reversae nuper militiae, quod vix 82.

episcopos,

exhortans

praesumendam

ad

victoriae gloriam, quae potentissimis

247 f., 175 ff.; Aubert, Suger, pp. 58 ff.; Suger, Sugerii vita, III (Oeuvres, pp. 398 ff.); pp.

convenit

regni

et

Quod cum

secum regibus

frustra tertio

attemptasset, accepto gustu formidinis et igna-

aliis,

dignum nihilominus duxit, cesvorum implere."

per se laudabile

Sugerii vita, III (Oeuvres, pp. 398 83. Cf.

d'Ayzac,

St.-Denis, p. 20

f.

I,

2 f.;

ff.).

Crosby, Abbey of


82

^"

The growing ascendancy of the in the historical

Capetian dynasty took place, as

and legendary shadow of

C harlemagne. The

it

were,

idea that the rule

of the Capetians represented a true renovatio of the Carolingian era animated both Louis

VI and Louis

was Suger

himself.

At

VII. 84 The mouthpiece of this idea,

if not its originator,

the very beginning of his Life of Louis

VI he represents

the king as the legitimate heir of the great emperor. 85 In his speech before the

Assembly of were the

1 1

24, as recorded

entitled to rule

German emperor

lingian tradition. 86

by Suger, Louis VI claimed

as well as , the implication being that not

but the French king was the legitimate heir to the Caro-

Such claims were

(1

165) and to

mained without

effect.

sufficiently disturbing to be at least partly

Emperor Frederick

responsible for the decision of the

canonized

French

that the

fix his cult at

I

to

have Charlemagne

Aachen. 87 In these measures

Her memories of the

re-

Carolingian dynasty converged in

St. -Denis. It

was

certainly not without significance that Louis VI' s programmatic

speech was delivered

abbey. Here Charlemagne as well as hisfather,

in this

Pepin, had received the royal consecratiom Charles Marte l, the Bald

were buried

in St.-Denis.

P epin and ,

had enriched the sanctuary with donations that Suger pointed out to

These

three centuries later. relics

Charles

Charlemagne and other of his house

gifts included,

its visitors

or rather were said to include, the

of the Lendit. Suger took particular care to make these

relics a part

of

the Carolingian legend, and to use that legend in order to enhance the luster

of the

relics.

The means culiar enough.

>manship

Suger employed to

We must not

and, above

all,

this

end strike the modern reader

them over, since they are part of

as pe-

his states-

allow us to grascTthe political ideology of which the

church of St.-Denis was to become the monumental expressions

We

have already seen that Suger employed historiography as an instru-

ment of politics. For

this

very reason history was for him not merely, nor even

primarily, the documentation of fact, but rather the creation of political reality. 84. Olschki, pp. 18

Fawtier,

ff.;

Schramm,

Kicnast, pp. 128 85. See above, n. 52. p. 57.;

86. "Senciant

pp. 137

ff.;

ff.

contumacic sue meritum, non

que jure regio Francorum Francis sepe perdomita subjacet." Vie in nostra sed in terra sua,

de Louis,

XXVII,

87. See Becker,

102.

"DasWerden

und der Aimcrigeste"

W issenschaften, 1939, p. 52).

der Wilhelms-

(Sachsische

Philol.-hist.

Akadrmie der

KLsse,

XLIV,

1,

SUGER OF He was with the

no more inclined than flights

his

contemporaries to

of the imagination.

course to poetry and fable.

ST. -DENIS

Hence

To

83

proof interfere

let factual

Suger had re-

realize his political aims

these aims appear not only in the official

history he wrote or inspired, but in t he popular tales of the jongleurs that

were

launched by the abbey and soon became the most effective means by which the great sanctuary established itself in the public mind. "If," Joseph Bedier has written, "at the time of the First

fortune had ruined the Abbey of St. -Denis and dispersed

of our chansons de

have come into existence."

88

There can no longer be any question

of

this institution furnished the jongleurs

in

some cases

composed these themselves. 89 The jongleurs

kingdom, composed and pres erved

regarding their in

some of the

common

which St.-Denis

90

at St.-Denis

epics

monks

.

And

in turn

chronicle of the

official

the affinities between

such as to preclude any further doubt

is

source. This applies above

all

and legends

to those epics

depicted as the spiritual center of .

is

Such recourse to rendered excusable by public opinion.

that

with the material for their epics and

claimed that they had found the ir stories reco rded in the

these chronicles and

community, several

including the most celebrated of them, would never

geste,

actually

its

Crusade some mis-

purposes was,

fiction for political

if

not

justified, at least

the habits of thought and belief which, in that age, shaped

Under Louis VTs predecessor,

the centrifugal tendencies that

worked

weak

the relatively

Philip

I,

of had

in the great feudal centers

not only been reflected but powerfully reinforced by chansons de geste in which the zeal of local patriotism extolled the religious and historical glories of those

smaller capitals. 91

Under Louis VI, and

statesmanship, the

crown was

88. Bedier, IV, 122 89. Bedier,

pp.

the

IV, 122 55

ff.;

And

it is

this

to a large extent thanks to Suger's

monarchy was gradually

successful in vindicating

lords of the realm.

Becker,

power of

its

consolidated.

development which, since the time of Suger, chronica regalis" in the dedicatory epistle ad-

ff.

Olschki, pp. 52 Curtius, "Uber die ff.;

ff.;

alt-

franzosische Epik." [But see Add. for p. 90.] 90. See the reference to the noble monk of

dressed to Leoprand of Aachen by the author

of the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi, the so-called Pseudo-Turpin (Meredith-Jones, p. 87), and

the

editor's

comment,

St.-Denis in the introduction to the Enfances Guillaume, I, 3, and II, 16 (Henry, ed., pp. 3 f),

Gautier, Les Epopees francaises,

and comment on these ages

Epik."

also

the

reference

to

the

The

claim to be superior even to the greatest

in

Becker,

"sancti

p. 55;

Dionysii

pp. 52

ff.;

Curtius,

"Uber

91. Olschki, pp. 52

ff.,

260

pp. I,

ff.

Cf.

118; Olschki,

die altfranzosische

and the critique of

Olschki's thesis in Kienast, pp.

1

24

ff.


84

now

again reflected in the chanson de geste: St.-Denis

is

Carolingian , a great pilgrimage center that

is

appears as the capital of particularly close to the

heart of Charlemagne. 92

All this would be of no

more than marginal

interest in our present context

were these legends but popularizations of historical if

fact.

But for their audiences,

not their authors, no clear distinction separated fact and

Thus what

fiction.

appears to us as only the legendary image of the great abbey, or as the product

of wishful thinking on the part of

its

community, actually was designed

as an

instrument for the realization of those claims on which the ecclesiastical aspirations of the house rested.

This

particularly true for

is

two

literary

works.

The

of these

first

and

is

the

Holy Land,

Latin Descriptio of the legendary journey of Charlemagne to the

popularization, the Pelerinage de Charlemagne. Both have entirely re-

its

modeled the legend for the

sole purpose

of spreading the fame of those

relics

of the ion which St.-Denis possessed and on behalf of which the Lendit had been instituted. Charlemagne

Land and

to have brought

them

ferred

to St.-Denis.

said to

is

have recovered the

it is

to

The

Pelerinage,

merged with the great

however, asserts that Charlemagne

To

The be the

in

friend, the

geste,

Archbishop Turpin,

who had

Coulet,

sur Vancien pohne

du Voyage de Charlemagne en Orient, especially pp. 216 ff Bedier, IV, 126 ff.; Holmes, p. 78 ff.; Adler, "The Pelerinage de .

New

in

;

Light on Saint-Denis"

XXII, 1947); Cooper

(ed.),

Le Pelerinage

de Charlemagne; and Rauschen (ed.), Descriptio qualiter Karolus

Constantinopoli.

Descriptio

"The

it.

93

purports to

fictitious,

been a

monk and

Many

faithful

treasurer of St.-

details

of the origin of

Philology, VIII, 1955).

ff.

Etudes

francais

(Sp,

depicted in the

is

of Charlemagne and Roland, composed by the emperor's

92. Olschki, pp. 41

Charlemagne

vivid colors to this

Holy Land

though fully as

Denis before being raised to the see of Reims. 94

93. See

more

which the crusaders of 1096 had encountered

second work, no chanson de

life

lend

national saga of the recent past: in the Descriptio

the emperor's journey appears as a crusade; the

very condition

Holy

Aachen. From there Charles the Bald trans-

them

himself presented the relics to the monastery. tale

relics in the

Magnus, clavum

et

coronam a

For an interesting comparison of

and Pelerinage, see

now Walpole,

Pelerinage of Charlemagne"

(Romance

94. See Mercdirh-Joncs, texts of the

who

publishes the

Codex Calixtinus of

the cathedral

archives of Santiago de Compostela as well as the

MS. Nouv. Fonds

Latin

13774 of the

Bibliotheque Nationale; Whitehall, Liber Sancti Jacobi Codex Calixtinus:

I,

301

contains the

ff.,

Pseudo-Turpin (see, however, Meredith-Jones's review of this edition. Sp, XXXII. 1948); and

Smyser,

The

Pseudo-Turpin,

Edited

from

MS.

17656.

Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Latin,

SUGER OF this strange

work

are obscure and

ST.

may

-DENIS

85

remain so forever.

It

was composed

in

the mid-twelfth century; and in reviving the memories of the Spanish "crusade"

work

of Charlemagne, the Pseudo-Turpin, as the

most strikingly

Chapter

in

from the "crusade" to assembly

in

30.

96

Here we

Upon

St. -Denis.

is

commonly

are told that

appears

Charlemagne returned he convoked a great

his arrival there

order to proclaim the singular privileges he had decided to accord

the abbey. All of

is

Her

to belong to St. Denis.

kings and bishops are to

Without

be subject to the abbot as the saint's representative.

may be consecrated. of . What renders the

neither king nor bishops is

called, certainly

Abbey of St. -Denis. 95 This

lends powerful to the claims of the

to be primate

consent

his

In short, the abbot of St. -Denis

more

story

significant

is

that in

an earlier chapter an identical imperial proclamation in favor of Santiago de

Compostela

is

recorded. 97

flecting historical reality

And

in this case the story

inasmuch

as the

his metropolitan dignity to Calixtus

comes

fairly close to re-

who owed

Archbishop of Compostela,

II,

had, early in the twelfth century,

actually asserted primatial claims over the Spanish Church. 98

That the Pseudo-Turpin was considered an authentic certain. In

Geoffrey, prior of

11 80,

historian in his

own

time, sent a

St. -Pierre

copy of

work

this

work

historical

is

of the Vigeois, and a noted to the religious of St.-

Martial at Limoges. At this time the book was already famous. Geoffrey 95. Bedier,

III,

91

f.,

and,

following him,

Whitehill in his introduction to his edition of the

Codex

Calixtinus, III, pp. xxvii

tain the thesis that the

ff.,

main-

work was composed

as

propaganda on behalf of Compostela and the

had as

Recent appraisals, however,

stress

criticism (in

see Schramm, p. 142; Curtius' "Uber die altfranzosische Epik")

in

St. -Denis,

and which had of the Car-

appropriation

the

movement

olingian legend. In this

the Pseudoa leading

part." 96. Meredith-Jones,

216

pp.

and

ff.,

editor's remarks, p. 348. Whitehill,

I,

97. Ch. 19 (Meredith-Jones, p. 168;

increasingly the relation of the Pseudo-Turpin to St.-Denis:

object

Turpin may or may not have taken

other great sanctuaries on the pilgrimage roads to Santiago.

center

its its

hill, I,

98.

the

338

ff.

White-

325).

Toward

the end of the Pseudo-Turpin,

of Haemel, "Uberlieferung und Bedeutung des

the emperor's soul

Liber S. Jacobi und des Pseudo-Turpin" (Bay-

cession of St. James (Meredith-Jones, ch. 32,

Akademie

Phil-

p.

Walpole, "Philip Mouskes and the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle"

p.

erische hist.

Klasse,

1950,

der p.

Wissenschaften, 2);

(University of California Publications in

Modern

229; Whitehill,

saved through the inter-

is

341

I,

As Gaston

94).

point out

(cf.

Smyser,

of King Dagobert by

where Powicke urges the exploration "of a fundamental problem the relation of PseudoTurpin to the whole historical movement which

to St.

—

Smyser, ch. 35,

was the

first

episode

p. 47), the

to is

strikingly similar to a legend relating the rescue

XXVI, 1947); also Powicke's review of Smyser's edition (Sp, XIII, 1938, p. 365), Philology,

ff.;

Paris

panions.

I

wonder

James

as

if

St.

Denis and

Pseudo-Turpin

"headless"

s

his

com-

reference

("capite carens;

sine capite") does not reflect the

"Dionysian"

origin of the legend. St. Denis, rather than St.

James,

is

the headless martyr par excellence.


86

declares that he has had these "illustrious victories of the invincible Charles

and the battles of the great Count Roland possible care,

all

the

more

in

Spain" transcribed with the greatest

so as heretofore these events had been

known only

through the tales of the jongleurs. In a few places, where the text had become illegible,

certain

mend

the prior had ventured to

the gaps

by

But so

slight additions.

he of Turpin's authorship that he worries about the possible irrever-

is

ence of such emendation and concludes by invoking the intercession of the archbishop,

The

who

now

is

in heaven, before the divine

Judge."

Pseudo-Turpin as well as the Descriptio qualiter Karolus were taken

The two

even more seriously in St.-Denis.

ages summarized above were

eventually inserted in the French edition of the Chronicles of St.-Denis, proof that the great

monastery considered both works media through which

communicate

to the

tian

."

10 °

minds of a new and multiplying

Nor

it

"could

of a Chris-

Before the end of the century a false decretal,

this all.

is

elite its vision

purportedly by Charlemagne, set forth item by item the extraordinary privileges that the emperor, according to the Pseudo-Turpin, had granted St.-Denis,

including the primatial dignity of

Indeed, if the

immensely

two

stories

to the prestige

relics particularly

its

abbot. 101

were assumed

were bound

to be true, they

to

add

of the abbey. Both exalt St.-Denis as the shrine of

revered by Charlemagne himself: the chapter in the Pseudo-

Turpin centers around the

of the Apostle of and

relics

his

companions,

the Descriptio around the relics of the ion. Skillfully interweaving the motifs

of Crusade, pilgrimage, and Carolingian myth, the two legends, moreover, depict St.-Denis not only as a great religious center like Santiago but also as the capital

of the realm: from here the emperor departs for the Holy Land, and here

he returns from Jerusalem as well as from 99. See Gautier,

HLF, XIV,

337

I,

101

f.

On

Geoffrey, see

ioo.Walpole, "Philip Mousk£s," Viard (ed.), Grandcs Chroniques, III,

ship

the

p.

387. See

III,

4

ff.;

ff.; V, 7, pp. 288 ff. On the relationbetween the Grandes Chroniques and

160

Chroniques

see Viard's

de

Saint-Denis,

Introduction,

I,

their

xii f.

source,

Walpole's

paper presents impressive evidence for the as-

sumption

that

the

Pseudo-Turpin,

while

re-

written and possibly composed in St.-Denis,

and certainly used

the political ideology formulated by Suger, was

even

ff.

as

propaganda on behalf of

Spanish "crusade."

his

that time not considered sufficiently

at

by the highly edu-

reliable history to be read

cated

clergy;

was therefore excluded,

and

along with the Journey, from the

official

Latin

history of the realm compiled in the monastery,

See below,

p. 88.

101. Printed in

MGH

Dipl. Karol.,

I,

286

See Buchner, "Das gcfalschtc Karlsund seine Entstehprivilcg fur St. Denis ung" (Historisches Jahrbuch, XL1I, 1922), and (428

ff.)-

.

Schramm,

pp. 142

ff.

.

.

1

SUGER OF

ST.

-DENIS

87

But for the French reader of the twelfth century these stories revived not only the great past of the abbey; the events recorded dovetailed so curiously

with certain occurrences that readers themselves had witnessed that been

it

may have With

not to see the present in the transfiguring light of the past.

difficult

the events of

which began and ended Frenchmen. Suger, responsible for the

ment with the

by

124, St .-Denis had,

1

the king's

The campaign

national sanctuary of .

in St.-Denis,

own

ceremony

in the

departure for the Crusade of

in the

eyes of

in

Louis VI's invest-

that preceded Louis VII's

147. In his history Suger claims that the

1

was not only ignominiously routed but

the

and very probably was

abbey that climaxed

same ceremony

become

German emperor,

was something of a crusade

at least, presented it in this light

saint's standard, the

declaration,

against the

that he soon afterward

emperor

succumbed

mysteriously, stricken by the wrath of the patrons of whose repose he

had sacrilegiously disturbed. 102 Suger's

was such

that

it

may well

own

position, moreover, since

legend raised on behalf of the abbot of St.-Denis.

VI, as to the the

crown

saint's liege

He

had presented to Louis

by

right to St.-Denis seems to imply the claim

of St.-Denis also be charged with the primate's function

royal consecration.

And

24

man, the vexillum of St.-Denis. Suger's insistence that

insignia "belonged"

that the abbot

11

have inspired the primatial claims that the Carolingian

during the years of his regency, Suger was in

at the fact, if

not in name, primate of .

What politically

rendered the of these Carolingian "histories" so effective

was

the medieval inability to distinguish past and present,

more

exactly, the tendency to see in the historical past the justification for the political present. Suger himself, as

we

have seen, sought to make

his

contemporaries

understand the design of his government as a renewal of the Carolingian age.

The

popular epic shows

how

successful he

was or how well he understood

his

time: Professor Olschki has pointed out that the figure of the abbot of St.-Denis, as

it

appears in the chansons de

geste, is

not at

all

that of a prelate

who was

a

contemporary of Charlemagne, but rather that of Suger himself, the great

102.

Vie de Louis,

XXVII,

105. "Imperator

neminem nobilem

aut ignobilem, regni aut ec-

ergo theutonicus, eo vilescens facto et de die in

clesie turbatorem, cujus causa aut controversia

diem declinans, infra anni circulum extremum agens diem, antiquorum verificavit sententiam,

santorum corpora subleventur, anni fore superstitem, sed ita vel intra deperire."


88

of

ecclesiastical statesman

might even have seen

Was

whom

in the

every jongleur had heard and

Suger responsible for historical and poetical forgeries, the purpose of

which was certainly

makes

until after his death,

that the Descriptio did

is

are too close to Suger's

We cannot

certain.

own

The

we know

of

On

his

the

St. -Denis is at least possible;

content and implications of both works

views to permit us to assume that he was ignorant

explain the poetic license with which they deal with his-

torical truth for political purposes unless

reality for medieval

transformed.

and what

false decre-

deliberate falsification, in our sense, very unlikely.

other hand, that the Pseudo-Turpin originated at

ing; in the light

The

to further the political aims of his abbey?

was not composed

tal, at least,

personality

of them.

whom many

presence of the king. 103

man was

of ideas and

It is this

reporter and a great

we

bear

not the palpable beliefs

but

its

that

what constituted

transcendental mean-

every phenomenon appeared romantically

quixotic outlook that

artist.

mind

in

fact,

made Suger

at

once an unreliable

Such general considerations, however, are no ade-

quate answer to the vexing question posed in the preceding paragraph. Professor

Walpole has suggested, with arguments whoever had general

that cannot be easily dismissed, that

responsibility for the prodigious historical and "epical"

carried on in St. -Denis during the second quarter of the twelfth

activities

century was aware of the borderline that separates historical fact from pious legend.

That person

in authority,

of course, can only have been Suger.

the Pseudo-Turpin as well as the Descriptio and St.-Denis,

by

far the likeliest

tion and even the

And

there

—directly or indirectly—with

as well as the Descriptio

historical

103. Olschki, pp. 53

As

age center, sec Olschki, pp. 66

to be based.

regards the

in-

ft.;

and for

re-

the French epic, of the abbey's

aspirations to

assume

have seen, for the impetus given

no reason

why we

to

should not credit

the startling omission of the Pseudo-Turpin

creasing importance of St.-Denis as a pilgrim-

in

is

in the collection

work was ff.

we

from the history of the realm, even though both legends

had originally been included

flections,

He knew

within the orbit of

person to have been responsible for the distribu-

less responsible, as

historiography at St.-Denis.

which the

at least

commission of these masterpieces of ecclesiastical propaganda.

But Suger was no

him

is,

a role in the coronation

104

of documentary "sources" on

Suger himself,

ceremonial, pp. 60 104. Sec above, BUT deux

1874).

as

we

have seen,

f.

Q.

chroniques

"Memoirc (BEC XXX\

100; also Lair latincs"

,

SUGER OF has occasionally slanted, in his in order to

to see

work

it

—

own

ST.

is

it

and as he wanted

of events

his readers

political legend to enter his historical

he abstains, as Mrs. Loomis has pointed out, 105

significant that

from the momentous

89

historical writings, the narrative

emphasize their meaning as he saw

with him. But he has not allowed

it

-DENIS

of the vexillum

identification

Dionysii with the ori-

S.

flamme, even though his of Louis VI's investment with the banner of St.-Denis

was such

Does not the

that

it

invited the subsequent identification.

ability to distinguish

between

legend, yet skillfully to use both as the

factual history

demands and

and patriotic

limitations of a given

audience might require, recall a similar distinction in quite another sphere? Bernard, as

we

have seen, banished

all

as unbefitting the spiritual elevation

of

imagery from the his

He

monks.

cloisters

of

his

St.

order

himself, however, con-

ceded that the use of such imagery might be permissible and even necessary to arouse the religious fervor of a more "carnal" similarly

employed legend

in

laity.

Suger,

it

would seem, quite

order to imprint upon the minds of the laity the

cause to which he devoted his ecclesiastical career; but he excluded that same

legend from the historical works that he wrote or commissioned for the benefit

of the educated clergy. Legend and historiography, however, had the same purpose; both unfold the same ideology before us;

it is

only the means that

differ.

When we political slant

consider together both Suger' s writings with their peculiar

and the Carolingian legends mentioned,

"grand design" for St.-Denis as well

as for .

literary activities that the great artistic project to

And

we

it is

which we

grasp the abbot's in the light

shall turn

of these

now must

be understood. Suger undertook the rebuilding of his church in order to imple-

ment

his

posed

master plan in the sphere of

itself

His vision

upon the architectural project; he conceived

expression of that vision.

was

politics.

Not only

as a shrine but as a

it

as a statesman as

work of art

to eclipse the great pilgrimage centers of western Europe;

comparison, as

The new

we

church

shall see,

is

in a

with Constantinople and

in a sense

the sanctuary

it

was

to bear

with Jerusalem.

very real sense part of the "myth" of St.-Denis.

architecture and the pictorial rhetoric of its sculpture and stained-glass are addressed to the

same audience

im-

the monumental

Its

windows

that Suger sought to reach as an author or

105. See above, p. 75, n. 58.


90

through the historical and epical works he commissioned is

most

significant that

the sanctuary

among

two invoked

the celebrated

in his

monastery.

It

windows with which he adorned

his cherished ideas

of crusade and pilgrimage.

One

represented the First Crusade, the other the journey of Charlemagne. 106 This

legend thus received Suger's

official sanction: visitors to

the great church

were

not permitted to question the Carolingian origin of the cult of relics that called

them 1

to St. -Denis

06.

The windows

on the

ings of de Montfaucon, Les

monarchic francaisc, 25, 50-54.

The

I,

feast

of the Lendit.

are preserved in the

Monumens

277, 384

ff.,

and

inspiration of these

drawde

la

Pis. 24,

windows

by Suger has recently been maintained, con-

[See

vincingly

Glass

(JWCI,

I

Add.] think,

Atelier

by Grodecki,

of the

1947, X, 92).

"A

Thirteenth

Stained

Century"

That the window

is

based on the Pilgrimage of Charlemagne was pointed out by Bedier, IV, 172.

4-

Suger

THE NEW CHURCH

seems to have conceived

immediately after the events of

1

his plan to rebuild the 1

church of

his

abbey

These events had bestowed upon

24.

his

house an ecclesiastical position and religious significance that the old sanctuary

was inadequate

The

either to serve or to express.

one of the compelling reasons for of pilgrims eager to behold the

abbot himself mentions, as

his undertaking, the ever-increasing

relics

of the ion, crowds that the Carolingian

church could no longer accommodate. 1

The

royal edict of

124 in favor of the

1

Lendit was indeed bound to foster such growing veneration of the since that great festival

of the abbey,

was by

the

numbers

same proclamation put under the

relics;

and

jurisdiction

also yielded to the latter the additional revenues required for

it

an architectural project of extraordinary splendor. Suger records that he set aside 200 livres annually

—something

the rebuilding of the choir and crypt.

like

$64,000

Of this

in

modern currency

—

sum, only one fourth was raised

from ordinary revenues of the house: they were collected from one of possessions in Beauce that Suger's istration had put back on

remaining

1

for

50 livres were to be contributed by pilgrims;

it is

its feet.

its

The

characteristic that

Suger, calculating his budget, could safely expect the receipt of 100 livres during the feast of the Lendit alone and the rest

was likewise accompanied by

on the

feast

of the patron

saint,

which

2 a fair.

For the west facade and narthex, Suger raised the required funds

manner

that, in its

him: on

March

15,

mixture of the shrewd and the humane, 1

125, Suger freed the inhabitants of the

from the burdensome obligations of mortmain.

1.

Suger,

De

Dionysii,

II,

sua gestis,

XV,

consecratione

216; 186.

De

ecclesiae

sancti

rebus in istratione

He

is

in a

characteristic of

town of St.-Denis

received from them in turn

De consecr., IV, 226. For the means used compute medieval figures into modern monetary values, see below, ch. 6, n. 43. i.

to


92

200 livres for the "renovation and decoration of the entrance," that facade of the abbey. 3

echo

—was

designed to as a precedent?

it

is,

the west

curious to note that the measure found a legendary

It is

—both

in the Pseudo-Turpin

and

the false decretal of Charlemagne. Both documents assert that the emperor

prescribed a general levy for the rebuilding of St.-Denis, in return for which contributors

who were

The

unfree were to be enfranchised.

still

all

patron saint

himself was said to have appeared to Charles in a dream,« promising that he

would intercede

for

all

benefactors.

When

was made

this revelation

story continues, everyone paid willingly and thus acquired the

offrankus

term providing an etymological explanation of the name of the

S. Dionysii, a

kingdom. 4

public, the

title

We do not know whether the legend was circulated in Suger's time

for fund-raising purposes. But the idea that contributions to the saint's sanctuary

were

gifts to

him personally, which he would reward by

who

donor, was certainly utilized by Suger,

believed in

special favors to the as

it

much

stantial gifts specifically for the rebuilding

Thus, only half a year begun raising the funds for

was

actually begun.

Around

1

1

of

1

1

Suger had

24,

Yet years were to elapse before the work

30 he seems to have spent a good deal of money

on repairs of the old nave, an expense rendered superfluous by decision to rebuild the church entirely. 1

sub-

of St.-Denis.

after the royal proclamation

his project.

as did his

many

contemporaries. Besides the sums mentioned, the abbot received

137, the choir not until 1140.

How

5

The west

are

we

facade

his eventual

was not begun

until

to for this astonishing

delay?

Suger was certainly preoccupied with other responsibilities.

St.

Clairvaux had long and ionately demanded that Suger reform

community. 6 Although Bernard's criticism was aimed 3.

The

charter

is

printed in Oeuvres completes

For a different interpretation of the age, see Crosby, L'Abbaye de Suger, pp. 319

ff.

4.

Meredith-Jones, Historia Karoli Magni ou

Chroniques

des Gaules et de la ,

pp. 219, 339; cf. above, pp. 85

"Das .

.

.

gcfalschte

et

Pseudo-Turpin,

de

f.;

Karlsprivilcg

also Buchncr, fur

St.

Denis

und seine Entstehung" (Historisches Jahr1922), and Schramm, Der Konig

buck, XLII,

von Frankreich,

p.

143,

who

points out that St.

Louis implemented the legend by offering, as a

his

monastic

Suger personally,

at

"serf of St. Denis," the "census capitis proprii" upon the saint's altar. Cf. Recueil des historiens

roy ale de Saint-Denis, p. 32.

Rotholandi

Bernard of

191). See de Satnt-

6.

Ep.

Denys en , pp. 158 St.

76.

Histoire de I'abbaye

Suger,

Felibicn,

XX.

De ., XXIV, 186. LXXVIII (PL, XLXXXII,

5.

Bernard,

I,

178

ff.;

royale

Vacandard,

ff.;

Auberr. Suger,

\'ic

p.

de 17.

Mabillon suggests, and nearly

.ill

historians

have accepted

St.

Bernard's

his

thesis,

description of an abbot

equos

et

co amplius,

that

whom in

he saw "sexaginta

suo ducerc comitatu"

it

s

THE NEW CHURCH sheds light on the general situation: as

we

crown and the reform party had long been

93

have seen, relations between the

The

cool.

royal abbey, a monastic

and was

institution that also served as the king's residence

with the

rilled

embody

turmoil and bustle of a ministry of state, seemed indeed to

the very

abuses that the reform strove to abolish. Suger did not allow his sympathy for this

of

He was

party to interfere with his political designs.

in Italy

when he was

on

a diplomatic mission

elected abbot and, with seeming disregard for the state

abbey, spent another six months of the following year (1123) in that

his

country. 7 Yet he and St. Bernard were working from opposite sides toward the

same

goal: as the latter insisted

on the

ethical obligations

Suger forged the alliance between Church and

demonstrated St.-Denis.

1

Council of Reims and again, in

at the

Only then

tery. Its reform,

Crown

of the Christian

that 1

1

was

ruler,

so impressively

24, at the

Assembly of

did the abbot of St.-Denis turn his attention to his monas-

which he effected with wisdom and moderation,

8 127, the enthusiastic applause of St. Bernard.

We

ideas of religious art did not remain without influence

elicited, in

shall see that the latter's

upon the design of Suger'

church.

Yet for the time being Suger was unable to carry out During the next decade, from k ing's presence, can hardly have

his

11 27 to

37

1 1

we

,

find

his artistic plans.

him continually

most eminent and most intimate councilor.

left

A ffairs

Suger much time or leisure for other projects.

deat h of Louis VI, in

1 1

37,

Suger 's position changed somewhat.

necessary to assume that with the ascent of Louis VII the abbot grace. 9

He

immense

the

fell

into dis-

prestige ever been seriously impaired and had he not enjoyed the

usually the occasion for changing the guards.

le

With

seems un-

could not have been appointed regent of in 1147 had his

complete confidence of the young ruler. But the advent of a

Louis VI,

It

in the

of state

his

And

new monarch

is

Suger had been so close to

ascendancy throughout the kingdom so overwhelming, that Louis

Jeune was bound to desire a group of advisers that would grant more scope

refers to Suger. Apologia ad Guillelmum, XI,

27 (PL, 7.

913). Suger, Vie de Louis le Gros (Molinier, ed.),

XXVI, 8.

CLXXXII,

100.

Cf. above, n. 6; also Felibien, p. 158.

architectural

from

taculo." 9.

That

plans

may

possibly be inferred

his brief reference to the

De

consecr.,

Aubert, Suger,

"disastrous

Suger considered the reform of his monastery

marks

a spiritual prerequisite to the execution of his

Louis VI

in

"pacato habi-

214.

p. 96,

disgrace."

Waquet's le

I,

actually speaks of a

See the judicious

edition of Suger's

Gros, p. ix.

re-

Vie de

THEGOTHICCATHEDRAL

94

own

to his

However

political initiative than the aging prelate

that

may

be, changing

was

likely to surrender.

and personal circumstances

political

at last

provided Suger with the leisure and perhaps the incentive to undertake several long-meditated projects designed to cast into an enduring and impressive mold the great political vision that had inspired every major action of his career.

Suger's historical writings were

So were

all

composed within the years

his artistic projects, or at least that part

after 1137. 10

of them which he lived to see

completed.

Perhaps the most important reason for the delay that intervened between the planning and the execution of the church was that as a builder Suger had to

from scratch.

start

When

he conceived the great project he had at his disposal

neither the materials nor the craftsmen; he could count neither on the artistic tradition nor

on the technical

skills that the building

would

require.

We have

seen that Suger started out by merely patching up the most dilapidated parts of the old building. Later he considered importing classical columns from like those he

had ired

in the Baths

Rome,

of Diocletian, "through the Mediter-

ranean, thence through the English Sea and the tortuous windings of the River

" Such wasteful

Seine."

projects, such piecemeal planning, such preoccupations

with complicated means of importing architectural parts that were not available or could not be produced at

new church

did not spring

home

full

—

indicates clearly that the idea of the

all this

grown from Suger's mind.

On

the contrary, the

design took shape but gradually and was constantly challenged by the nature

and limitations of the

skills

and resources available. Suger mentions the fortu-

nate discovery of a quarry near Pontoise "yielding very strong stone such as in quality and quantity had never been found in these regions."

had to

new

set out in search

of timber of

12

And

sufficient strength for the tie

structure, his carpenters as well as forest

wardens having

found in the entire region. 13 Again, the craftsmen and

size could not be

artists,

masons, sculptors, goldsmiths, stained-glass painters, had

10.

The

Life of Louis

xiii,

140 and

1

149; cf.

le

after

Gros,

works (excepting were written between Waquct, p. xi, and Panofsky,

123); Suger's other

the testament of 11 37) 1

VI was written

38 (cf. Molinier, ed., Vie de Louis

pp.

his

insisted that logs

of such

1 1

he himself

beams of

all

Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of and Its Art Treasures, pp. 144 f. 11. 12. 1

3.

De De De

consecr., II, 219. consecr., II, 219.

consecr., Ill, 22

1

f.

to

be

St. -Denis

THE NEW CHURCH called in

from abroad.

14

As Suger

recalls his

95

endeavors in

this direction,

it is

apparent that he could not always be sure that he would succeed. In retrospect,

not possess, at task

seems to us almost providential that the Ile-de- did

it

moment, an

this

would have been much

ventional. But here, as in

by

entirely eclipsed

its

architectural school of

easier, his

all

its

own.

If

it

had, his

accomplishments perhaps more con-

cultural respects, the Ile-de-

had been

Normandy, where

the Bene-

neighbors, Burgundy and

mag-

dictine Order, under the patronage of the secular power, had developed nificent systems of architecture.

situation of

troubled political

first

order.

Within

this

domain could

vacuum, Suger planned

church, which not only became the archetype of French

his

cathedrals, but

weak and

the

that, in the generation before Suger, the royal

not boast a single building of the

and executed

It reflects

whose

style

—the Gothic—appears

to us as the

embodiment of

medieval civilization.

Perhaps

it

was

this

very dearth of immediately available models that gave

a freer rein to Suger's imagination.

He

had

set his sights high indeed.

of the two ideal prototypes that were before

mated within the Hagia Sophia

Romanesque

traditions of

his

architecture.

The

second the Solom onic

at Constantinople, the

Neither

mental eye could be approxifirst

of these was

Temp le. That

he

should have sought to emulate the great Byzantine church, or what he had heard

of its splendors,

is

not surprising.

The

goals of the crusaders,

destined to see himself, possessed his imagination travelers returning

from Jerusalem for

their descriptions.

His

own

was

it

himself seen. Suger was relieved

this

to be a

when

did not compare unfavorably with

Aside from

the more.

their impressions

He would

ask

and eagerly listened to

church was to bear comparison with even the

greatest of pilgrimage centers;

tion: the

all

which he was not

compensation for what he had not

polite pilgrims told

him

that his

abbey

Hagia Sophia. 15

church, Suger its to only one other source of inspira-

Solomonic Temple. Although he does not dare to measure

his

own

achievement against that of Solomon, he knows that both sanctuaries were built

with the same purpose

himself, since the 14.

De

Temple

consecr., II, 218.

in

mind, and that both have the same author

built

by Solomon under divine guidance 15.

De

.,

XXXIII, 199;

cf.

is

—God

also the

XXV,

187.


96 model

for the sanctuary. 16

We have seen in

consider Solomon's

Temple

a kind

how cosmo-

the preceding chapter

prompted many a medieval builder

logical as well as mystical speculations

of ideal prototype for

his

to

own work. 17

But Suger had not seen either of these two lofty "models." Whether or not he had a clear notion of their design, the down-to-earth problems of con-

were not answered by any

struction

two

available description of the

buildings.

For the solution of these problems he had to rely on the knowledge available his time, and, as

we

shall see,

it

was

this

knowledge

in

that cast Suger's aesthetic

vision into a definite form.

The is:

we

question that presents itself and that

ought to answer

to what extent was Suger himself responsible for

architect?

Was

he the

We can hardly assume that a man in Suger's position could have had

either the time or the technical artistic as

at this point

St. -Denis?

knowledge to carry out

on the other hand, of several medieval

prelates

from the

a building that,

well as the constructive viewpoint, marked a revolution.

We

—the bishops Benno of Osna—who were renowned

bruck and Otto of Bamberg, to mention but two of the term.

tects in the strict sense

And

know,

archi-

knowledge of technical matters

the

exhibited in Suger's writings, the responsibilities and initiative he assumed, are

remarkable enough.

He

thinks about

cures the required timber, and he

is

means of transportation, he himself pro-

completely familiar with the functions and 18

technical properties of the cross-ribbed vault

of

his time. All

this certainly sures

commissions a building assumes in our

by

— the great architectural novelty

far the role that the

own

time,

who

tions regarding design and execution to the architect.

and even much tectural

later,

he

who commissioned

knowledge and nearly always more

man who merely

usually leaves

But

in the

ques-

all

Middle Ages,

the building had often

more

ideas to contribute than his

archi-

modern

counterpart. Hence, his responsibilities overlapped with those of the architect

and contractor. 19

16.

De

17.

"Conferebam de minimis ad maxima, non

consecr., II, 218.

plus Salomonianas opes templo

quam

huic opcri sufficere posse,

idem ejusdem

nisi

nostras

opcris auctor ministratoribus copiose praararet.

Idcntitas auctoris ct opcris

facit

operands."

18.

De

De

consecr.,

consecr., II,

:

sufficientiam 18.

V, 230; see Panofsky's com-

ment, Abbot Saver, pp. 224 Conant's cautious remarks

Panofskv 19.

On

(Sp.

fF.;

in

however, note his

review

•>{

XXVIII,

105J, p. 604). the entire question, see now the ob-

servations of Aubert, Suger, pp. 128, 133; also

Sal/nun, Building

Colombier, 58

ff.

Les

in

Englmd,

Chantiers

des

ft.,

and

cathedrales,

pp.

pp.

1

THE NEW CHURCH

97

a great mistake to impute to Suger's age the notions and

would be

It

practices of contemporary professionalism.

niques and building materials have

Within recent decades new

demanded

edge of the architect, have transformed the

a great deal

of

scientific

tech-

knowl-

something of an engineer,

latter into

and have made us view the problems of architecture primarily as problems of engineering.

To

view

correct this one-sided

of great architects were not professionals tect

is

what

M. du

technically possible, the execution of

And

this

knowledge, especially

which has developed very slowly, sumes.

.

.

a recent student

Colombier, "that a number

what one expects of the

.

archi-

not the ability to execute a building himself but rather the knowledge of

is

others.

worth quoting

it is

of the subject: "Experience shows," writes

The opposite view

assumed

much

is

which may then be delegated

simpler than the nonspecialist as-

has prevailed in our age, especially since the engineer

his role in building enterprises in

order to apply

those of iron and ferro-concrete construction.

.

.

.

new

How

techniques like

In other words, the Middle Ages, which talked so built

much about

the place of scientific knowledge.

Coulton and

20

the science

with practically no theoretical science

rather, mathematical or even metaphysical speculation, as

We

was the

different

situation during an age that proceeded in purely empirical fashion."

of architecture, actually

to

matter of stone construction,

in the

we

at all.

Or

have seen, took

have, therefore, no reason, Professor

his school notwithstanding, to mistrust

medieval witnesses

identify the ecclestiastic "patron" as the architect of a building.

The

who

medieval

bishop or abbot could rely on his mason to take care of the practical problems of

were not of a

the task; the ideas he himself provided aesthetic and symbolic kind.

there tion

was no room

seem

technical but rather of an

Thus, between the patron and

for an architect in the

to re-emerge only with the

modern

sense.

his chief

mason

This vocation and posi-

Gothic cathedral and the structural prob-

lems these great edifices posed.

The

general building practices just described explain Suger's share in the

design and construction of St. -Denis, but they also the

more

astonishing.

The

terizes medieval building

make

this share

appear

all

crude empiricism mitigated by fantasy that charac-

was rendered

attitude. Innovations are rare indeed. 20.

possible

by an extremely conservative

Important buildings would be imitated

Colombier, pp. 58

ff.


98

innumerable times (hence the significance of regional "schools" in the history

of Romanesque architecture) and patrons often sent their masons to distant places in order to study sanctuaries of selves.

By

21

method ancient

this

in the case

manesque," the great as St.-Denis

The

of Suger's St.-Denis.

over religious architecture, with

them-

to build copies

architectural traditions and experiences

new problems of construction

long preserved and

wise

which they wished

its

avoided.

was

It

were

quite other-

controversy initiated by

Bernard

St.

implied criticism of the traditional "Ro-

interest that the reconstruction of a church as important

was bound

to arouse, especially the particular bent of Suger's

own

mind, impelled him to reject the architectural forms of the past and to strike out in entirely

new

directions. In order to

of the responsibility himself.

knowledge

able to

he had to assume a large share

do so because he possessed the

to have existed at St.-Denis in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries, 22 probably were to him what the contractor

modern

But Suger

architect.

The

employed, perhaps lay brothers of his monastery, like

known

those artists that are

so,

enthusiasm of at least an amateur architect.

as well as the

assistant or assistants he

He was

do

fails

any of them.

to mention

He

is

to the

himself was the

"leader" of the great enterprise, as he declares in one of the dedicatory inscriptions. 23

The

ideas that guided him, the

realization, appear

The

when we look

for their

construction of Suger's St.-Denis progressed in three campaigns.

began with the west end of the church. The

by Abbot Fulrad

King Dagobert identical

means he employed

at the edifice itself.

in I),

775 (though Suger thought possessed

with the sepulcher

two

built or

apses,

He

Carolingian sanctuary, terminated it

dated back to the times of

the small western apse

completed by Charlemagne for

(perhaps

his father,

Pepin the Short) being flanked by two towers and one or two narrow ages leading into the church. 24 All these constructions had See the examples enumerated by Colombier, pp. 60 f.; also Krautheimcr, "Introduc2

1 .

tion

an Iconography of Medieval Archi-

to

See d'Ayzac, Histoire de Vabbaye de

Denis en ,

Anfdnge p. 289;

des

II,

211

ff.,

monumentalen

and Colombicr,

dilapidated and

24. See Crosby, "Excavations in the Abbey Church of St.-Denis, 1948" (American Phil-

osophical Society, Proceedings, XCI1I,

tecture" (JWCI, 1942). 22.

become

do.

520 Stiles

ff.;

im

St.-

Voege, Die Mittelalter,

1949).

and The Abbey of St.-Denis, pp. 93, 118 150 ff.; Panofsky, Abbot Suger, pp. 156 208

ff.;

Aubert, Suger,

p.

133.

The

ff., ff.,

exact dis-

position of this western part of the Carolingian

p. 39.

"Qui Suggcrus eram, me duce dum ficret." De ., XX, 190. Crosby, Abbaye, p. 34, defines Suger's responsibility much as 23.

I

church remains uncertain. See Crosby, p. 15.

A bbaye,

THENEWCHURCH were now torn down. erected

25

In their place and a

a facade flanked

first

this

and comprising three

aisles

Both

these.

stories

99 farther to the west, Suger

by two towers and provided with three

ample enough to allow clergy and of the abbey. Behind

little

laity to circulate freely

on the great

facade Suger built a narthex consisting of

on the ground

portals

festivals

two bays

and three large chapels above

level

vaults. 26

were covered with cross-ribbed

Plates 14, i 9

Plate /j

Between these

western additions and the Carolingian nave a considerable interval remained.

Suger therefore lengthened the old nave by about 40 per cent. 27 Under the arcades of this addition he placed those columns which he had thought of im-

Rome

porting from

before the quarry at Pontoise had so unexpectedly yielded

him

the material that enabled

mentioned so

work on

inspiration, interrupted in order to

T his

of

1

new columns made. The 140,

when

constructions

Suger, as if under a sudden

the upper parts of the

two towers of the facade

to the cho ir. 28

structur e, of far greater artistic significance and originality than the

was

this part

his

in

embark on the second campaign devoted

western part, 29 tecture. It

to have

were completed

far

one of the epoch-making build ings

is

in

history of archi-

t he

certainly the first Gothic edifice completed. Fortunately,

enough

of Suger's church remains intact even today to enable us to assess

achievement.

Above

the ancient crypt,

which was enlarged and

its

vaults

heightened so as to serve as for the floor of the upper structure, was erected the choir that

amb ulato ry,

filled its

author with enthusiasm and pride. /A double

from which there radiated nine chapels, surrounded the

This description, the customary one, the outer ambulatory and

them well as

it

as a unit

its

is

choir.

not sufficiently precise. In point of fact,

crown of chapels merge. Suger himself describes

— "circuitus oratoriorum."

30

The outer ambulatory expands,

were, beyond the walls normally separating the chapels from one another.

25. Suger, 26.

De

Pending

consecr., I, 217.

"Fouilles executees

de Saint-Denis"

Gothic

recemment dans

(BM, CV,

Architecture

Result of the

St.

—New

Crosby,

basilique

la

1947);

Problems

also Anfray,

normande. Son influence dans pp. 48

f.

"Early as

a

le

la

".

28.

tionem

.

.

turriumque

in superiori

St.-Denis,

p.

parte

differendo .

fig.

92;

54.

1

.

."

De

prosecu-

consecr.,

IV,

224. 29. Crosby, "Early Gothic," and Bony, "French Influences on the Origin of English

series,

Architecture" (JWCI, XII, 1949), believe that

U Architecture

nord de

Abbey of

Panofsky, Abbot Suger,

Abbey

Denis Excavations" (JSAH,

VII, 1948); "New Excavations in the Church of Saint Denis" (GBA, 6th

XXII, 1944). Cf.

Crosby,

27.

his final publication, see

,

the choir

is

actually the

work of

master. 30.

De

consecr.,

IV, 225.

a different

Plate 16


100

What

remains of these

enough

for the altar that

no more than shallow segmental

is

was placed

the flowing current of the ambulatory.

were pierced by two

windows

tall

I

Fig. 4.

sions of

Abbey Church of

mere frames. And owing

shells, just large

each one; the rest has been merged into

in

The

spherical outer walls of each chapel

that reduced the wall surface to the dimen-

I

I

I

St -Denis.

I

I

I

I

Ground plan of

sanctuary

to the shallowness of the chapels, the light

thus itted floods into the ambulatory. In the words of Suger's description, " the entire sanctuary is thus pervade d by_ a at once ecstatic and accurate,

wonderful and continuous

light entering

through the most sacred windows"

31

—Suger's celebrated stained-glass windows with which the history of Gothic <»

glass

may

be said to begin. Although the upper part of Suger's choir no longer

exists

—

had to be torn down, and was replaced,

reuil's

it

masterpiece

—we

in 1231,

know, again from Suger's

by Peter of Monr-

description, that

covered by a cross-ribbed vault, as were the ambulatories and chapels. j I.

".

.

oratoriorum

.

illo

urbano

ct approbate) in circuiru

incremento,

simarum vitrearum

quo

tota

luce mirabili

ct

sacratis-

continua

interiorem teret."

Df

perlustrante consecr.,

it

pulchritudinem

IV, 215.

was

In this cni-

THE NEW CHURCH entire eastern part

IOI

of the building, the round arch, which

facade, has been replaced

Suger completed the choir service of an architect of genius

in three

become

The

was completed, above

of its execution, suggest that Suger by realizing every

one of

his wishes. In

There remained, between nave.

It

was

by Suger in his

of the choir,

the masterful

at his side a

man

way

capable of

the eastern and western ends of the church, the

of the basilica which, according to a legend firmly believed

himself, had been hallowed

why

time had

in favor

all

the

abruptness with

144 the choir was consecrated.

1

by the miraculous consecration

own person had bestowed upon its

reason

we

this part

this

Had

years and three months. 33

available to him?

which the work on the facade was momentarily abandoned the swiftness with which the latter

dominates the west

still

arch. 32

by the pointed

Suger had

at first

walls.

34

that Christ

This belief was undoubtedly the

As

not envisaged the reconstruction of the nave.

have seen, he wasted considerable expense not only on necessary structural

repairs but

on adorning the nave with murals that no longer corresponded with

the taste for "transparent walls."

new

He

the old part of the church in such a coincide. 35

had even taken great trouble to align

"by the application of geometrical and arithmetical

additions,

way

Yet the two aesthetic values

work of art

that their dimensions

that Suger placed above

—luminosity and concordance of

darkness and heavy forms appear obsolete, as the choir

had been completed.

It

demolish the ancient structure after

For the reconstruction of the choir, see

32.

Crosby, Abbey of St.-Denis, figs. 86, 87; and Panofsky, Abbot Suger, p. 221. Cf., however, Crosb)

,

Abbaye,

p. 46,

where the view

is

main-

parts

In point of fact,

See Panofsky, Abbot Suger,

De

talibus

operosa

protexerit, in

tribus

took Suger three years and

Abbot Suger, et

ricis

p.

IV,

Arithmeticis

ology, III, 1950).

that "instrumentis"

tot

arcum

et

columnarum

s'upplementum iserit." 190.

Suger

De

.,

XXVIII,

mentions three years and three

months because of the

trinitarian

symbolism.

2

Cf.

Instrumentis'

Panofsky,

"Geomet(Arche-

For the interesting suggestion

musica,

V,

225.

222, and Forsyth,

opus, et in inioriore cripta et in superiore vol-

tarum sublimitate,

Aubert,

n. 127.

consecr.,

annis et tribus mensibus totum illud magnificum

distinctione variatum, etiam operturae integrum

166;

p.

Suger, p. 144.

See below,

in

it

last

eleven months to complete the choir entirely.

35.

manus

its

resolve to

he embarked on the third and

34.

certum est etiam argumentum, quod

made Suger

this

the assumption of a gallerv.

divina

others in a

all

— made the old nave with

tained that the s are too frail to allow

"Quod quidem gloriosum opus quantum

would exactly

obsoleteness unbearable as soon

its

seems that alii

his

rules," with

may,

as

in

Boethius,

De

(PL, LXIII, 1288), have to be

translated as "rule" rather than "instrument," see

Beseler

and

Roggenkamp, Die Michael-

iskirche in Hildesheim.

Thierry of Chartres also

uses the term in this sense. See above, ch. n. 13.

2,


IG2

campaign almost

at once.

Work

on the transept, the new nave, and once again

the towers of the facade certainly

was

progress in

in

mind on the proposed Crusade

that Suger, with his

1

149.

36

that he

But whether

was

it

was

to direct, did

not wish to commit his funds to the extent required by the architectural enterprise or that the other project

but slowly and haltingly. In

The

now

absorbed

fact, little

nave progressed

his attention, the

had been accomplished when Suger died.

south wall was not even begun until more than a decade after his death. It is

possible, however, to say something about

have looked

like.

37

It

was

what Suger's nave was

the builder's predilection for homogeneity, the whole edifice

The

appear as a unit.

on

side aisles were,

of the choir.

The

was planned

elevations of choir, transept, and nave were, in

be identical.

bility, to

to

to be as luminous as the choir; and in accordance with

The

all

to

proba-

was nonprojecting, and two

transept, moreover,

either side of the nave, to continue the double ambulatory

s of the nave arcade were cylindrical and as slim in

proportion to the intervals between them as were those in the sanctuary proper.

Crosby considers

The

aisles.

it

was

man y

essential aspects of

and Senli s and, above

we

drals

all,

in

Notre

galleries

above the side

to have reigned throughout.

Suger's design, though never completed,

adapted i n

were

unlikely, therefore, that there

cross-ribbed vault

its

was impressive enough

to be

disposition in the cat hed rals of No_y on

Dame

of Paris In these early Gothic cathe.

can grasp at least a shadow of the masterpiece that served as their

model.

The

singularity of the artistic achievement

is

the principal reason for the

place that Suger's St. -Denis occupies in the history of art. But reason. In the case of this artistic

intellectual experience

the artist's mind.

in

What

can,

I

De

.,

who

not the only

shown how

how and

in

the

what

impinged upon the creative process within is

the fact that

we

had most influence upon Suger's thought, and

the abbot found the source for his XXVIII, XXIX,

it is

think, for once be

renders this interpretation possible

for certain the author

whose work 36.

it

design was inspired by a definite metaphysical system,

manner an

know

monument,

191. See

Crosby, Abbaye, pp. 48 f. 37. Aubert, Suger. Cf. Crosby, "Excavations, 1948" and "New Excavations," p. 119; Briere and Vitry, L'Abbaye de St.-Denis; and

own

philosophy of

art.

Aubert, "Lc Portail du croisillon sod de l'egliae abbatiale de Saint-Denis" (Revue arcMobgique, 6th series,

1948).

XXIX

[Melanges Charles Picard],

THE NEW CHURCH The Abbey of St.-Denis, to the fact that

it

will be recalled,

IO3

owed

its

ecclesiastical positio n

preserved the relics of the saint and martyr who, in the third

it

was hence revered

century, h ad converted to Christianity and

identical with an Eastern theologian

of the early Christi an era and,

who was one of the

in fact,

second Denis, the Pseudo-Areopagite,

are already familiar: his

main source of the medieval metaphysics of

know

With

work

Chapter

light discussed in

2

is

.

this

the

We

next to nothing about his identity. Almost certainly he was a Syrian of

38 the late fifth century.

his

to be

great mystical writers

of the Christian tradition.

we

as the

was held

pat ron of the royal house and of the realm. But this St. Denis

Oddly enough,

at least to

our minds, he combined with

profound mystical insight an irrepressible tendency to mystify

work he dropped

In his

allusions

his readers.

and hints that readers understood to indicate

he had witnessed the eclipse of the sun that accompanied Christ's death, had

been present

and

at the

dormition of the Virgin, had

who

of the Apostles, was a distinguished Athenian

To

believed."

dence, and

it

known

St.

John the Evangelist,

he was none other than that Denis who, according to the Acts

that, in short,

"clave unto

[St.

Paul], and

every one of these spurious claims the Middle Ages gave crehardly possible not to suspect that the author deliberately

is

created a confusion that, long after his death,

sequences indeed.

The Dionysian

was

momentous con-

to have

writings were soon considered to date from

Apostolic times; they were studied with the respect reserved for the most venerable and authoritative expositions of Christian doctrine; indeed, one degree only seemed to separate them from the inspired Biblical writings themselves.

"Among

ecclesiastical writers,"

translation of the Areopagite to

"Dionysius

38. See

is

believed to hold the

first

Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchIV, 282 ff.; Bollandus (ed.),

lichen Literatur,

Acta sanctorum, Oct. IV, 696

ff.;

alsode Gandil-

in his edition of Oeuvres du Pseudo-Denys, pp. 7 ff. On the legend and cult of St. Denis in , see also Crosby, Abbey of St.-Denis, pp. 24 ff. The lac's

Introduction

completes

recent attempt to identify the Pseudo-Areopagite with

Ammonios Sakkas

vincing. See Elorduy,

Pseudo-Areopagita?"

appears uncon-

"cEs Ammonio Sakkas (Estudios

wrote John Sarracenus

Odo, Suger's successor

el

eclesidsticos ,

in dedicating his

as abbot

rank after the Apostles."

of St.-Denis, 39

XVIII, 1944). 39.

"Inter scriptores ecclesiasticos

primum

locum post apostolicos Areopagita Dionysius sicut tempore ita etiam theologiae sapientie doctrina

Quippe

et

toribus uberius edoctus.

"Die

possidere

auctoritate

qui ab eisdem apostolis .

.

."

creditur.

eorumque audiSee Grabmann,

Ubersetzungen der Schriften des Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita" mittelalterlichen

(Mittelalterliches Geistesleben,

I,

459).

Plate 17


104

One

error led to another. If the great Syrian had been guiltv of the

first

mistaken identification, he was altogether innocent of the second. About the middle of the eighth century, Pope Paul sent the Greek manuscript of the Corpus areopagiticum to Pepin the Short. 40 believed the author of this

work

Less than a century later

this

possible that the pontiff himself

It is

to be identical with the Apostle of .

had become the accepted belief

Emperor Louis the Pious charged Hilduin, abbot of St.-Deni s,

in

.

to collect

all

available material concerning "our special protector" that he might be able to find in the

Greek

historians and elsewhere. 41 Hilduin responded with enthusi-

asm. /He produced a biography in which the disciple of St. Paul, the Apostle of , and the author of the Corpus areopagiticum were shown to be one and the

same person

.^J

The Dionysian attention.

They

writings hardly required such false credentials to

command

consummate synthesis of Neoplatonic and Christian

represent a

mysticism, propounded with the eloquence of ecstatic vision. Yet, however great the iration Plato the philosopher enjoyed during the Middle

whatever the debt even Christian theology theologians have never approached his

same

fate

work

saints

w as

impinged even upon the course of

impinged no

less

upon the

at a

time

A

scholasticism.

when

life

of

The

ideas.

the country

demanded

However

that

a

ana

may

1951).

PL,

CVI,

1326.

Cf.

Thery,

who was

at

be, the veneration

"La Legende parisienne Denys l'Areopagite" (AnaUcta BolUmdi-

LXIX,

4.1.

veneration

tribute paid to the sup-

was experiencing

patron

40. See Loenertz, ilc St.

The

the

is

understandable

first

flower

generation enamored of philosophical speculation but

firmly rooted in faith great thinker.

ascendancy

so powerful a factor

politics.

posed philosophical achievements of the Apostle of

enough

his

this country.

In the twelfth century, the veneration of saints in public life that it

The

his alleged disciple-

presumed identity with the Apostle of assured

his

him, Christian

a certain hesitation.

to into medieval thought unscrutinized.

over the entire intellectual culture of

of

owe

actually

might have befallen the Pseudo-Areopagite. But

ship of St. Paul enabled his

And

may

work without

Ages and

Etudes

Dumysietmes,

once

a

still

great saint and a

of Denis the Saint had r

1, 15.

On the source of this lej

see the important paper b) 4--

'

CVI,

13

'•

/

'...

'

>

•

:

(JPL,

THE NEW CHURCH incalculable influence

IO5

on the development of French thought during the twelfth

and thirteenth centuries.

A

translation of the Dionysian writings had already been made, with

indifferent success, under the supervision and direction

A

Hilduin. 43

generation later,

man, Johannes Scotus Erigena,

was

translation. Erigena

He

a

Emperor Charles

who was

man of genius,

upon the

system of his own.

It

basis

biographer,

his

undertake a

living at his court, to

new

perhaps the greatest mind of his age.

accomplished not only the translation but added

tually developed,

of

the Bald persuaded an Irish-

a

commentary and even-

of the Pseudo-Areopagite, a metaphysical

was mainly due

to Erigena, and as seen through his eyes,

44 that the subsequent renaissance of Dionysian thought occurred.

As

the fortunes of the Capetian

theology

in

"analogy"

Upon

.

— both,

It

as

monarchy

became the source of

we

have seen, of such consequence for the history of

the basis of that work,

Hugh of St.-Victor, of the abbey founded

by King Louis VI of , 45 developed the Augustine. In

137

1

flourished, so did Dionysian

the metaphysics of light and of

Hugh

first

art.

in Paris

philosophy of beauty since

dedicated his commentary on the

Celestial

the most famous of the Dionysian writings, to Louis VII.

The

46

Hierarchy,

idea of the

French monarchy gradually became inseparable from the vision expounded the Corpus areopagiticum. French thought

Greek philosophy x\ thens to

that St.

Pahs Along with .

was looked upon

43. According to

Thery,

I,

and military valor,

134, the transla-

work of Greeks working

the

is

c.

835 at

this "treasure

bv

utique

45.

p.

works

are in PL,

CXXII;

cf.

Victor are

on behalf of St.Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, Nos.

roval in

charters

fide et militiae

signum regis Franciae, quod depictum est, in una parte sui mirabiliter deformatus." William of Nangis, liliatum

46. PL, CLXXV, 923 fF. On the aesthetics of the School of St.-Victor, see especially de

Bruyne, Etudes d 'esthetique medieiale.

enim

tarn

salutaris,

XX,

320. See the miniature representing St.

Denis's journev from Athens to Paris in the

of the saint

160, 363, 534-35, 541, 561. 591.

sapientiae

cum

de regno Franciae tolleretur, maneret

Gesta Sancti Ludovici, in Recueil des historiens,

125.

The

47. "Si

that the

trini floris folio

II.

44. Erigena's

below,

of wisdom"

wonder

sequendo Dionvsium Areopagitam Parisius ad titulo,

translation of Dionvsius has been published

No

partes Gallicanas devenerat,

St.-Denis under Hilduin's direction. Hilduin's

Therv,

in

of

Denis was supposed to have transplanted from faith

appea red as one of the three glories of Frenc h culture. 47

tion

as a renaissance

II.

1098);

cf.

(Bibl.

Nat.

Delisle,

MS.

"Notice sur un

De

Thomas of

scripturae (shortly after 1300)

Graecia

livre

a

execute en

quod

de

life

nouv. acq.

1250 dans I'abbaye de Saint-Denis" (BEC, XXXVIII, 1877). See also peintures

pretiosissimus thesaurus

olim

fr.

Ireland,

tribus sensibus sacrae :

"Le Bienheureux


106

narrowly escaped a

irrepressible Abelard

when,

itself

as a

monk

at St. -Denis,

treason against the

trial for

crown

he dared to suggest that the Apostle of

was not the same person as the Areopagite. 48 It is

curious to reflect that without that dual falsification of identity the

might have taken

entire history of ideas

a different course; that perhaps

even

French culture during the twelfth century might not have acquired that sublime spiritual flavor

which prompted John of Salisbury

country of his time.

lized

And

49

it is

to call the

most

who

forged credentials of an anonymous Syrian writer

lived six

hundred years

Gothic architecture might not have come into existence. 50 Yet

earlier,

we

very likely the case. As

have seen, the prestige

abbey had acquired depended upon the renown of merely been

this

is

thanks to Suger, his

that,

its title saint.

worker, or one of those warrior

a miracle

civi-

even more curious to think that without the

Had

St.

Denis

saints after the heart

of

the age, his deeds could have been retold at St.-Denis in one of the conventional

The

paintings or sculptures.

him

self styled

his

patron of , however, though the king him-

"duke" and "lord," carried battle, 51

expected his protection in

gian and visionary. If in his sanctuary art spiritual contribution,

The

Denis?

luminosity

is

what Suger attempted

between Dionysian

tal "illustration"

...

vint

a

.

mentaire de celeste'

J.

a l'instar

sur

et the'ologiques,

49. "Francia,

sima nationum."

la

p.

ff.;

in

the

I,

75),

omnium Quoted

can say with

ff.;

that

also Friend, "Carolingian Art

Abbey of St.-Denis" (Art

who remarks

Studies, i9*3»

that "rhe art of Capctian

rests solidly on the achievements of the

des sciences

great period of the abbey of the Patron Saint of

XII, 94.

mitissima et civilisin

we

'Hierarchie

XI, 1922).

HLF,

Suger, pp. 18

un com-

Heer,

Aufgang

358.

For the influence of Dionysian thought on Suger's aesthetic views, see Panofsky, Abbot 50.

metaphysics and Gothic

Gothic the only possible monumen-

d'Athenes.

"Existe-t-il

Sarrazin

48. Felibien, pp. 147

Europas,

light

trace the influence of Dionysian thought in

du Pseudo-Denvsr" (Revue

philosophtques

Still less is

Paris pour faire de cette

mere des etudes Quoted by Thery,

ville la .

to do.

of that metaphysics. This much, however,

some assurance: we can

."

as a great theolo-

tribute to this great

evident. But such analogy does not yet reveal the creative process

leading from the one to the other.

Denys

pay

to

the link between that vision and the design of St.-

is

close analogy

is

was

could do so only by conveying something of the

it

Areopagitical vision. This

But what precisely

banner as his liege man, and

his

was thought of primarily

,

reputed

the

Hierarchy."

I

f.

author of the Celestial

Friend,

the School of St.-Denis"

"Two (S/>, I,

Manuscripts of 19:6).

Crosby, Abbey of St. Denis, p. 50, and Loomis, "The ion Lance Relic and the War Cry Monjoie in the Chanson de Roland" 51. See

(Romanic Review; 1950, XLI, 241

fT.).

THE NEW CHURCH particular transformation of sistants created a

new

IO7

Romanesque models by which Suger and

his as-

style.

In developing the design of St.-Denis, Suger took up formal themes that

He

occurred in the architectural masterpieces of the preceding epoch. studied, as

we would

Normandy well. tion

expect, the art of Normandy and Burgundy. Suger

Berneval, one of the possessions of his house, in the istra-

of which he had distinguished himself while

situated in

Norman

The duchy was

territory. 52

cultured provinces of Europe. In

of early scholasticism

Norman and

had

knew

—Yves

its

young, was actually

still

at that

monastic schools

time among the most

many of

of Chartres among them

—had

the luminaries

been educated.

xA.nglo-Norman ecclesiastical architecture combined a singular

grandeur of design with a structural perfection that anticipated the elements of

Gothic construction. This

few years before Suger

had been entirely covered It is,

of

is

strikingly true for the cross-ribbed vault.

work on

started

St.-Denis, the Cathedral of

architecture to his

since 1106 had governed

him

own

There may have been

design.

was nearly always

The

Normandy

as

on English

much

as that

55

own

owned

was

title

from

., XXIII, 184

f.

"The Beginnings of Gothic Norman Vaulting in England"

(RIB A Journal, VI, 1899; IX, 1902), and "Les Voutes d'ogives de Morienval" (BM, LXXII, 1908); Bony, "Gloucester et l'origine des

(BM, XCVII, Durham Cathedral.

voutes d'hemicycle gothique" 1938); 54.

had at one

Cook, Portrait of Vie de Louis (Molinier, ed.), especially

XV,

45

his

biographer of

mind of Suger

two powers 57

—

ff.

D'Ayzac, I, 359 ff.; Doublet, Histoire de Vabbaye de S. Denys en , pp. 237, 411. 55.

56. Sugerii

vita

(Oeuvres,

Panofsky, Abbot Suger,

p.

384);

cf.

p. 4.

"Between the French and the English, Abbot of St.-Denis appears to have taken

57.

the

I

peace between

in the

actually a link between the

See Bilson,

Architecture:

itself

of Louis VI, Suger was able to establish that

the statesman, if his abbey

De

inclinations disposed

large revenues and es-

vinculum pads, bond of peace. 56 If this aim was uppermost

53.

who

Having gained the friendship and confidence of Henry

them which brought Suger the well-deserved

52. Suger,

Beauclerc,

I

Although the king's

between the two powers. The French Vexin

soil.

a political

inimical to , Suger speaks of him with unfailing

position of St.-Denis as well as Suger's

to mediate

Henry

as well as England.

time been annexed by Henry, and the monastery tates

Durham

in this fashion. 63

reason as well. Suger had been a particular irer of

respect. 54

a

therefore, perfectly natural that the abbot should have adapted aspects

Norman

policy

Only

the attitude of a neutral power, on friendly

with both, saddened to see them in con-

.


108

Henry

Plantagenet was to visit St.-Denis on several occasions for political

II

as well as religious purposes

role of reconciliation.

At

58

— the new church became

the consecration

ceremony

a

monument

to this

for the choir Suger assigned

of Canterbury and Rouen the places of honor immediately

to the archbishops

Reims and ahead of the

after the archbishop of

sixteen French archbishops

and bishops present. 59

To

the visitors from

Normandy and

have appeared like one of the great twin towers, as well

Norman

doubt

one element

as the

in inspiration.

in the style

England, St.-Denis must at

Norman

As we

it

great abbey at Caen,

Etienne the facade

is

we

is

are struck

Norman

its

without

more than

with the "Chan-

one of Suger's windows shows close

facade of St.-Denis with a possible

sight

has recently been pointed out,

with a celebrated work of English book illumination. 60 Yet Plate 18

it

first

facade with

shall see in the next chapter,

and motifs of its sculpture connects

think, that at least

I

The west

arrangement of narthex and tribune,

nel style" of the mid-twelfth century; and plausibly,

abbeys.

if

affinities

we compare

the

model, William the Conqueror's

by the differences between them.

merely the base for the towers.

It

In St.-

appears sober and

subdued; the windows hardly interrupt the vertical rhythm of the buttresses, Plate 19

which

anticipates that of the towers. In St.-Denis,

no longer dominate the facade.

on the other hand, the towers

It is significant that as

soon as the great square

of the facade up to the crenelations was finished, Suger interrupted work on the

upper part of the towers to begin on the choir; he never lived to see both towers

What

completed.

concerned Suger was the facade as the entrance to

his sanc-

tuary, entrance in the physical but also in the symbolic sense. St.-Denis

flict

and always ready to reconcile them."

Luchairc, in Lavisse, Histoire de , pp. 6 ff. It is not without interest in this connection that at St.-Denis ages from the history of the dukes of Normandy by William of Jumicgcs were incorporated, between 135 and 150, in 1

1

of sources that eventuallv became part of the official and authoritative history of

a compilation

the

French

See Walpole, "Philip Pscudo-Turpin Chronicle"

realm.

Mouskes and

the

(University of California Publications in Philology, 58.

XXVI,

Modern

194-).

See Halphen, "Fes Fntrcvues del Rois

Louis VII

et

Henri II"

(Melanges d'histoire

offerts a

is

the

Ch. Bemont)

De

consecr., VI, 136 ff. For the Norman derivation of the architecture of St. -Denis, see Antray, pp. : ; ff.j

59.

60.

1

of the sculpture, see below, ch. 5. Mrs. Loomis. " The Ontlamme of and the War-cry 'Monjoic' in the Twelfth Century" (Studies in Art and Literature for Belle for possible sources

da Costa Greene), suggests that Suger's crusade

window may be influenced by the battle scene 30-50 the Book of St. Edmund, written c. at Bury St. Edmunds (Morgan Library MS. in

736).

1

1

Fig. j. Cologne. Reconstruction of

first is,

church where the facade

in the

drals

own

words of the

were

to take

testimony,

ical" in the

If we

up

it is

is

inspired

north gate

designed to evoke the idea that the sanctuary

liturgy, the gate

thereafter.

Roman

Here

by the

of heaven.

It is

the motif that the cathe-

in St. -Denis, as

we know from

idea that Christian art

Suger's

must be "anagog-

Dionysian sense, a gateway leading the mind on to ineffable truths.

compare St.-Denis with St.-Etienne

at

Caen, the extent to which the

symbolic purpose has effected the transformation of the model

is

strikingly


110 Fig. 5

The French

apparent.

of a

Roman

facade

city gate. 61 It

is

is

ornate also than the towers above

window over

one might almost say the adaptation

a gate,

more ornate by it.

far than the facade at

Suger was the

the main entrance; but above

their rich sculptured ornamentation that

first to

Caen, more

introduce a rose

the three great portals with

all it is

dominate everything else and express

the symbolic theme. 62

Of this Plate

20a

in

composition only the central tympanum remains sufficiently intact

some conclusions regarding composition and

to allow

our present context only inasmuch as

a portal of heaven.

may

sculpture

of St.-Denis

But

it is

it

worth mentioning

be Burgundian

—

that,

A

We can discuss

theme of the facade

while one source of

knew

a country that Suger

characteristically novel.

is

style.

elucidates the

well

— the

it

as

this

style

comparison will show what

is

peculiar to this style.

Only Plate

20b

the

a

few years

tympanum of the

work, probably

earlier than Suger's

in the early

1

1

30's,

great Cluniac abbey of Beaulieu (Correze) in the Langue-

doc had been completed.

The

and that

not escaped the attention of scholars. 63 In both works

in St.-Denis has

the scene represented in the center,

is

iconographic similarity between this composition

the Last Judgment. Christ appears as the Divine Judge

surrounded by Apostles and angels, while the dead

make

tombs. Such close iconographic correspondences

ment in the

all

the

more conspicuous. There

tympanum of

is

By

seem

to be

awe and

crowded

fear,

into a

contrast, the composition at St.-Denis

appears serene and calm. Christ's figure seated in front of

is

from their

angels, the smaller figures of people rising from

their graves, are in wild agitation.

Beaulieu; he

turmoil, a turmoil of

Beaulieu. Innumerable figures

narrow space; the Apostles and

rise

the difference of treat-

it,

not separated from the Cross, as

is

his erect

in

body, his outstretched arms,

resuming, without unnatural stiffness, the simple axiality of the Cross that be-

comes the ordering pattern of the

entire composition.

The

angels with the

instruments of the ion are arranged symmetrically on either side of Christ's head.

61.

The

emphasis with which they display the instruments

Bandmann,

Mittelalterliche Architektur als

BeJeutungstrager, p.

Die Entstehung, 62.

On

p.

158. See also Sedlmayer,

233.

these sculptures and

them, see below,

p. 149.

ed for

63. See the comparison of the

Male, L'Art pp.

what remains of

is

176

ff.;

religteux

du XII'

and Focillon,

romans, pp. 268

ff.

two works

siecle

L'Art

in

en .

des sculpteurs

THE NEW CHURCH by the clarity

were the

fact that these

and simplification

relics

III

of the Lendit.

64

But the trend toward

noticeable throughout. Instead of the confusion that

is

reigns at Beaulieu, six Apostles have been placed on either side of Christ, the line

of their heads rigidly parallel to the horizontals of Christ's arms. Moreover,

the artist has relegated the squirming figures of the dead emerging

tombs to a different place:

this

scene

now

from

their

appears below the feet of Christ and

the Disciples. Confined to a separate zone, the small figures arising from their

One might

graves no longer intrude upon the calm of the celestial vision. that Christ appears all the

more majestic by not mingling with

crowd

the

say

as

he

does at Beaulieu.

Was

there ever a relief below the resurrection scene with such monstrous

Languedoc tympanum?

figures as appear in the tain, since this part

of Suger's portal

It is

no longer

is

renders such a representation unlikely, however, interpretation of the general

ordination of the

human

theme

at St.-Denis.

impossible to say for cer-

in its original state.

What

the style as well as the

is

The

style, austere in its sub-

figure to architectural order,

is

the

first

monumental

manifestation in sculpture of the art nouveau emerging in the 1130's. This

and the religious message of which

style,

antithesis of Cluniac design, of

were, to

St.

it

is

the mouthpiece, are the very

which the monsters

that

Bernard, the most offensive embodiment.

appear

still

Some

in

Beaulieu

grotesques appear,

along with other survivals of Romanesque ornamentation, in several capitals

of the facade and narthex; but the fact that the abbot of Clairvaux had singled out the representation of monsters for special criticism makes their employ-

ment his

in the lintel

appear unlikely. 65 Suger's church,

reform of the monastery, undertaken

fact

may

of

and inclinations, there 64.

Two

have

been

—according

the fourth

to

ff.;

.

and Crosby, Abbaye,

with the Three Nails.

It is

what may

Guilhermy,

historiques et descriptives sur

Bernard. This

men

suggest that

two

abbots, their responsibilities

no doubt regarding the sincere iration of the two

is

angels the Cross, a third

Crown of Thorns, and

St.

reflect Bernard's ideas.

Different as were the personalities of the

63

will be recalled, postdates

and the increasingly cordial relations between the two

the art of St.-Denis

the

it

at the insistence

p.

.

.

37

Notes

St.-Denis,

—

a

I,

cushion

of interest to note

that a nail also figured in

trie

abbot of St.-Denis (Doublet,

coat of arms of the p.

409), doubtless

an allusion to the relic of the Lendit. 65.

On Romanesque

grotesques represented

Crosby, Abbaye, pp. 38,47. The lintel seems to have been framed by a vegetative ornament. See Guilhermy, I, 61. in St.-Denis, see


112

men

and the

for each other

warm

friendship that connected

them

in their later

years. St. Bernard, so impatient of worldly prelates, notes with iration in

Pope Eugenius

a letter to

how

III

Suger, even in the midst of the most trying

secular preoccupations, never neglects his spiritual duties but succeeds in rec-

onciling at the St.

them with worldly matters. 66 The temper of

end of Suger's

Bernard

his reply,

when he

life

requests,

their friendship appears

Bernard addresses Suger as visit

his "dearest

I

him, he requests the dying man's blessing. 67

may

this influence

by the

believe,

late

have extended to the sphere of art was

first

Arthur Kingsley Porter. 68 Porter thought that Suger

sentative of the French domain, and indeed even contemporaries

the

certain.

is

suggested,

deliberately set out to create "an art which should be national," that

felt that

life." In

and most intimate friend";

Bernard's influence upon Suger in matters of politics and ethics

That

from

his sickbed, a last visit

order to be able "to more confidently out of this

in

and unable to

from

new church was

built as

repre-

is,

seem

to have

an architectural example for the entire

realm. 69 In doing so, Suger, according to Porter, realized that Cluniac art "was

already discredited," and he "could not have failed to be influenced by the [Cistercian] current running so strongly in his time." Porter concluded that

"the element of Cistercian austerity" looms powerfully in the first

Gothic In

—

new

style

— the

that Suger created.

view of what was

eminently likely.

It is all

said earlier in the present study, this thesis appears

the

more noteworthy

in that

Porter proposed

it,

al-

though he was at the same time convinced of the profound personal and ideological differences fact,

there are

more

between Suger and the "art-hating" Bernard. In point of points of affinity even in their artistic views than

is

gen-

erally itted. Bernard probably

would have conceded

pilgrimage center like

had to make the same concessions to the

St. -Denis

that the art

of a great

70 sensuous experience of a lay public that he himself itted for the cathedrals.

66. Ep.

CCCIX,

Suger,

Oeuvres,

p.

419;

Felibicn, p. 161. 67. Suger's letter in Oeuvres, p. nard'fl reply

470

iii

Ep.

CCLXIV

(PL,

282; Bcr-

CLXXXII,

f.).

68.

Romanesque Sculptures 0/ the Pilgrimage f. [But see Add. for p. 58.]

Reads, pp. 222

69. "Innov.it

templum

inventum pater

ut sit in

a

fundamine

exemplum Dionysii mono-

mentum,"

we

Oeuvres,

4:;.

p.

read

in

a

eulogy

to

Suger.

70. This is also suggested b) Fclibien, p. 175. See in this connection the valuable observations of Petit on the aesthetic views ot the Premon-

stratensians,

"l.c

Puritanismc

Prcnionrres" (BRA).

The

des

premiers

author remarks that

while the canons of Premontre* took their rule

from Citeaux, they were

priests

and clerics

THE NEW CHURCH And

as such a pilgrimage center St.-Denis

'3

we

was, as

have seen, meant to

rival

the great Cluniac sanctuaries on the roads to Compostela; that their art should

be eclipsed by the style of his church was surely Suger's ambition. At

time

this

Bernard was as close to the French throne, and almost as identified with , as

was Suger

himself. Obviously the art of St.-Denis had to be attuned to the

religious experience of which

had to be

it

St.

Bernard was the

compatible with the

at least

spokesman, and

irresistible

latter' s aesthetic

views. Moreover,

Bernard's insistence that religious art be itted only inasmuch as to guide the beholder to the transcendental source of

we

foundly to Suger, with whose Neoplatonic views on art

come

acquainted. His west facade,

welded, as

is

make

it

it

was

able

beauty appealed pro-

all

shall presently be-

where the Cluniac composition of Beaulieu

new

were, into an entirely

design,

is

a

monumental attempt

to

that ultimate purpose of his art apparent to every observer.

The very motif of the porta

suggested the idea.

caeli

understood as a threshold leading from the that lies

beyond

It is

it.

this idea.

rather than monks, and their concept of povertv, therefore, did not exclude the cult of beauty.

The

thesis of an artistic St.

antagonism between

Bernard has again been proposed

recently by Grodecki, "Suger et l'architecture

monastique" (BRA). The author bases his argument mainly on analysis of the eight beautiful grisaille

The

facade

was

to be

world to the eternity

remarkable to what extent the iconographic program

of the sculpture underscores

Suger and

life in this

windows adorned with

griffins in

In the corners of the Last

Judgment

ornamental motif, a grotesque? Dante introduced the griffin as an awesome allegory of Christ, and it is generally thought that the poet borrowed the image from Isidore of Seville, where the Saviour is likened to the lion "pro regno et fortitudine" and to the eagle "propter

quod post resurrectionem ... ad astra (Etymologiae, VII, 2). Elsewhere

remeavit"

the ambulatory of Suger's choir, and concludes:

Isidore describes the griffin as part lion and part

"Their ideas differed to such an extent that it does not appear exaggerated to see in the abbey built by Suger a sort of reaction, of opposition,

eagle (Etymologiae, XII, 2).

hope to have shown views offered no ground

to Cistercian austerity." that Bernard's artistic

for such opposition.

I

He

never demanded that

other religious communities should consider as

binding aesthetic postulates that he had formulated in response to the ascetic ideals

of

own

in the

order.

And what

he had written

his

heated polemical stvle of the Apologia has been

taken far more literally by modern scholars than by Bernard's

own

contemporaries.

As

to

Suger's grisaille windows, are they not just as likely a concession to Cistercian art rather than a "reaction" to

it?

Is

the griffin really a purely

I

see no reason

why

Suger, like Dante, should not have borrowed

from the Spanish encyclopedist both the de(Suger's

scription

griffins

look

exactly

those in Latin twelfth-century bestiaries trating the descriptive age

like illus-

from Isidore)

and the allegorical interpretation of the griffin. But, assuming even that the griffins are taken

merelv

as

tesques, as

remnants of "Romanesque" groI have pointed out above (p. 47),

such "monstrosities" occur even in the great Bible that was executed for St. Bernard. Finally, all

we know

about Suger makes a delib-

erate antagonism to St. Bernard extremely unlikely, especially at a

had become close

time

when

the

two men

allies in political as

ecclesiastical matters.

well as


114

two small female

there are

figures.

They

are, as

it

were, the leaders of the wise

and foolish virgins, respectively, represented on the door jambs immediately below. at the

To

the left of Christ, the foolish virgin, her lamp reversed, has arrived

door to paradise to

find

it

locked (Matt. 25:10). Kneeling in a posture of

imprecation and despair, she grasps the door ring, vainly praying that the door

be opened.

On

the other side, on Christ's right, the leader of the wise virgins

appears in a crenelated edifice

—obviously the

Celestial City, into

made an

already been itted. Here again Suger has

which she has

was

invention that

to be

of great consequence for the iconography and symbolism of Gothic cathedral

The

sculpture.

Wise and

Parable of the

in the sculpture

Foolish Virgins had already appeared

of Poitou, but on the archivolts rather than along the jambs

of the church portal. Suger inserted the figures of the virgins portal and connected the theme, as

He

tympanum. the

Gate

we

The symbol of the door

—

have seen, with the Last Judgment

itself the

shadowy image of an ultimate

makes

it

in the

very plain that

this is the

entire facade. 71

theme of the

recurs on yet another level.

mystical image of heaven

must leave behind the experience of his the

frame of his

thus blended the eschatological parable into the symbolism of

to Eternity that constitutes the grandiose

sanctuary

in the

The

visitor to Suger's

—was reminded by him

reality in

whatever

his senses beheld.

only interpretation in which

meaning. In two inscriptions placed above the door

that he

must perceive

senses, or rather that he

—one on

Suger

any

his art has

the lintel, im-

mediately under the Last Judgment, where Suger had himself represented

—

the feet of the Divine Judge

and the intercession of

St.

motif of the "threshold"

is

he expressed the hope that through God's

Denis he might be received

was onished not

to stop at the iration

sumptuousness of the work, but to

mind so

"How?"

that is

it

explained by

the theme, see

let its

might ascend "to the true

71. See Guilhcrmy,

I,

64.

the history of

Parabel von den

Here

itself.

of the preciosity and

light to

which Christ

mind

ten Jungfraucn

zu

the door."

asserts

that

only

virgins are represented at St. -Denis.

Amiens, Sens, Auxerre, and Chalonssur-Marne. Bchling, "Die klugen und torich-

Sugeri; /Inter oves proprias fac

72.

"Suscipe

haberi."

De

vota

.,

with

Magdeburg" (ZK, VIII,

erroneously

1954),

is

rises to the truth

klugen und torichten Jungfrauen, especially pp. 36 ff*. The example of St.-Denis was followed in Paris,

in

the

luminous brightness illuminate the

the golden door: the dull

On

Lehmann, Die

But the

impressed upon us with even greater insistence

the inscription that Suger placed on the gilded bronze door visitor

72

in paradise.

at

mercy

tui,

XXVII,

judex

189.

me

eight

districrc.

clementer

THE NEW CHURCH

II5

the help of material things. In beholding this light the intellect

from

its

submersion

The

words make

last

it

meaning but was

also to

did not only have

world to the vision of God. Suger has

the "anagogical" purpose of art

The

this initiation into the

tion

of those

old.

And

who

(its

tried to define as clearly as possible

(its ability

to raise the

mind

to the perception

idea, happy, naive, ingenious, of choosing the portal for

meaning of his

art

was

typical of Suger.

The inner disposi-

entered his church was to change as they crossed the thresh-

of his sanctuary and for the manner

The

usual eschatological

partaking of a mystical prototype) and

same time Suger wished

at the

its

convey the illumination of the mind that es from

the "analogical" nature of beauty

of ultimate truth).

resurrected

clear that the representation of the resurrection of

tympanum above

the dead in the

this

in matter.

is

73

in

to prepare their

which

it

was

minds for the design

to be understood.

Norman and Burgundian

simultaneous presence of

influences

is

equally apparent in Suger's choir. St.-Martin-des-Champs in near-by Paris, in its

time one of the most powerful houses of the Order of Cluny, has a disposi-

tion,

not unlike St.-Denis, of five radiating chapels around a double ambulatory.

The

church, which has not unjustly been called the "final expression of the

Cluniac Romanesque," appears to be somewhat earlier than Suger's choir and

may

74 thus have influenced the latter. Yet the relationship between the

73.

"Portarum quisquis honorem,

Aurum

attollere

operis

mirare

laborem.

Nobile claret opus, sed opus quod nobile Clarificet

mentes ut eant per lumina vera.

Quale

intus in his determinat aurea

sit

porta.

hebes ad verum per materialia

surgit,

Et demersa prius hac visa luce resurgit."

De For comment on Abbot Suger, pp.

.,

ff.,

164

ff\;

Erigena's

and "Note on

St.-Martin

cally

Ecclesiae

XXVI,

Sancti

Dionyaii

1944).

attention only to the metaphysics of light. shall

show

As

—

of

St.- Victor.

Suger

Erigena the distinction be-

in

1

1

30-1 142 and stresses

its

Denis; Gall, Die Gotische Baukunst

Panofsky has rightly stressed Erigena's influence on Suger, but paid series,

— Hugh

influence

likewise considers St.-Martin earlier than St.-

reich

Controversial age in Suger's

secratione

pupil

tween a proper (anagogical) and an improper enjoyment of a work of art. See De divisione naturae IV, 6 (PL, CXXII, 828). 74. Evans, The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny, pp. 14, 74, 116, dates

De Con(GBA, 6th

a

shall see, is in-

upon St.-Denis; Bony, "French Influences,"

189.

age, see Panofsky,

this

18

XXVII,

we

is

the

debted not only to Erigena, but even more so to Suger's great friend and contemporary and could also find

claret

Mens

mysticism, as

two

And

tions impressed Suger with equal force. latter's light

sumptus,

nee

quaeris

I

presently, Erigena's musical specula-

11

und Deutschland,

pp. 52

f.,

in

Frank-

dates the edifice

50-1 160, but stresses the coarse and techniinadequate

execution.

Several

scholars

have noted the presence of Cluniac or Burgundian elements

V Art

in

gothique en

"Early Gothic."

Suger's choir. See Lambert,

Espagne,

p.

36;

Crosby,

n6


Fig. 6. Church of St.-Marthi-des-Champs.

like that

between

ing of the Figs. 4,

6

Romanesque juts forth

a first,

same theme.

awkward

The

sanctuary

sketch and a consummate, definitive render-

In St.-Martin there

architecture.

Ground plan of

still

axial chapel,

and forms an almost independent

the main roof line. If one compares the

prevails the additive principle of

much

larger than the other four,

unit, its

two ground

roof set plans,

much lower

one

is

than

struck by the

THE NEW CHURCH "untidiness" of the older work, with

I I

7

irregular bays, and the narrow, un-

its

even, and tortuous course of the outer ambulatory (if this term

is

applicable

at all).

The

builder of this choir

confront the pioneer;

it is

ribbed vault, as if unable to

few years

later at

was obviously plagued by

make up

his

most, the master of

perfection in his vaults.

the difficulties that

characteristic that he uses both the groined and the

The

mind which system

St. -Denis

is

preferable.

A

achieved an almost flawless

technical shortcomings of the system of St.-

Martin have important aesthetic consequences. Although the individual chapels receive as

much

relatively dark.

light as

The

plans. In St. -Denis

choir; the light

Owing

choir.

do those of St. -Denis, the ambulatory and choir remain

reason

all

is

apparent

s

lie

once again,

if,

we

look at the ground

on axes radiating from the center of the

from the chapel windows thus penetrates unobstructed into the

to the irregularity with

which the s are placed

in St.-

Martin, they interfere with the flow of the light no matter where one stands.

There

is

yet another reason for the relative darkness of this church:

are large in proportion to the intervals between them.

its

The columns

s

in Suger's

ambulatory, on the other hand, are extraordinarily slim and graceful. They, as well as the outer walls of the chapel, realize for the

first

time the principle of

reduced surface and bulk for the benefit of luminosity that

is

the great ac-

complishment of the Gothic.

The

exact appearance of Suger's choir

Crosby's excavations lished

—have

—the complete

unknown, even though Professor of which have not yet been pub-

Whether

shed light on important essentials.

existed above the ambulatory ports. 75 Suger's

the chevet,

is

results

own

is

description

was covered with

or not a gallery

uncertain in view of the slimness of the sup-

makes

it

plain that the entire choir, including

a cross-ribbed vault.

portance not only structurally but artistically.

76

This

fact

is

of great im-

We have seen that the Norman

builders had already used cross-ribbed vaults over large bays. Since these vaults

gathered the main thrusts along the ridges of the groins and ed them by the ribs, the

webs or

vault compartments between these could be

lighter in the twofold sense

heighten the clerestory 75. See above, n. 32.

of the word.

More

precisely,

windows considerably. By 76.

De

it

was

made much possible to

the use of the pointed arch,

consecr.,

V, 227

ff.

I

I


8

introduced apparently from Burgundy, 77 and by "pinching back" the vaults at

"plowshare" vaults could be

their springing,

area

still

built that enlarged the translucent

further. 78

It is all

the

more remarkable

that the

Norman

builders hardly availed them-

selves of the advantages that these devices offered for the creation of Gothic

luminosity. Clerestory

windows remained

small, and the light

obstructed by ageways running inside of the application of the pointed arch earlier than St. -Denis.

And

is

it is

window

resorted to relatively

Norman

in the

was

area.

late,

still

The

further

consistent

only a few years

apse that the "Gothic oppor-

tunity" appears to have been overlooked most strikingly. Such great

Norman

—Lessay, the Trinite

—reveal

apses as are

still

existent

a taste for light that

at

Caen, Cerisy-la-Foret

must have delighted Suger. 79 The treatment of the

however, would have offended well as for homogeneity

among

all

vault,

complete transparency as

his predilection for

These

parts of the edifice.

large

Norman

apses are vaulted not by a groined or ribbed vault but by a cul-de-four or half

dome. As

a result, the upper part of the apse remains dark and also, since

lacks a clerestory,

its

elevation differs from that of the rest of the choir.

adopting the ribbed vault for the chevet of his choir, Suger created clerestory that

same zone of "continuous

chapels, he had also achieved to his

The Norman

builders had well

Now

this failure

—of

their

point

by

own

on

immense

known

s without making use of them,

light" which,

this

it

satisfaction in the ambulatory.

would seem, on

their part to take advantage

technical invention was, to

The

in the

by the disposition of his

type of apse vaulting with multiple 80 a large scale.

— from

some extent

the shortcomings of available building materials.

executed in rubble.

it

By

Norman

a

Gothic view-

at least,

imposed

vaults are usually

superb geological resources of the lle-de- made

possible construction of vaults in ashlar or dressed stone, thereby reducing the

weight and thickness of the vault by more than one

77.

Bony, "French Influences." Bond, An Introduction

78. See

Church Architecture, 79.

Bilson,

I,

295

im

English

"Voutes d'ogives de Morienval"; und normannische Archif.

Bony, "La Technique normande du (BM, XCVIII, 1939), and

epais"

Kathedralc,

p.

Such technical ad-

Anfray,

197;

tecture I,

24;

roman

religieuse en

gothtque, p.

1

lr

moyen-dge,

56.

81. See Bond, Introduction, pp. 318

Niederrheinische

Gall,

a I'epoque gothtque.

Focillon, Art d'Occidcnt, et

330;

p.

136; I.astevric, L'Archi-

Gotische Baukunst, p.

AT.

Zeitaltcr der Fruhgotik, pp. 32

80. Cf.

mur

81

"Gloucester"; Sedlmayr. Die Entstehung der to

Gall, Niederrheinische tektur

half.

und normannische

flf.;

Gall,

Architektur,

—

THE NEW CHURCH

I

19

vantages, however, do not explain the style. Gothic structural devices were not

ends but means judiciously and ingeniously employed for the attainment of an artistic goal that existed in the

mind of the

first

Gothic builders.

who had

Suger was undoubtedly assisted by a builder of genius

command of the

effortless

But

great structural inventions of

in St .-Denis all these devices

—

were

all

Norman

of a sudden, as

an almost

architecture.

far as

we know

for the realization of a single and powerful aesthetic vision.

employed

was

not doubt that this vision

Suger's, that he stood as the spiritus rector behind

and that the vision

his builder,

We can-

the cause behind the transformation of Norman

is

into Gothic.

was

Suger, one might almost say,

new abbey

the door of his

luminous and to

infatuated with light.

The

inscription

on

called attention to the suring beauty of the

theological significance. Inside the sanctuary, this ex-

its

perience was reinforced by his magnificent liturgical vessels and furniture, resplendent with gold and precious stones, 82 but above the choir

itself.

Again, Suger used an inscription to

all

by the architecture of

call attention to

the signifi-

cance of his creation. Anticipating the completion of the nave in the same

"Once

translucent style that he had given to the choir, he says: part

is

ed to the part in front, the [whole] church shines with

[the nave] brightened.

bright.

The

And

last

bright

sentence

is

For bright

is

that

which

the noble edifice that

is

is

the

its

new

rear

middle part

brightly coupled with the

pervaded by the

new

light."

83

ambivalent, inasmuch as lux nova also refers to Christ and

is

thus to the symbolic or "anagogical" significance of the physical light.

Suger's inscription

is

interesting for three reasons:

clusion that the elevation of the nave that of the choir; in Suger's

mind,

it

all

p. 56; Lefevre-Pontalis,

shows

to

pp. 68

ff.

;

other aspects of his achievement; and

U Architecture religieuse et

it

also

eclipsed,

makes

clear

Aula micat medio clarificata suo. enim claris quod clare con-

Choisy, Histoire de V architecture,

copulatur,

Et quod perfundit lux nova, claret

82. See

De

XXXI

.,

sky, Abbot Suger, pp. 168

ff.;

ff.,

193

ff.;

opus

Panof-

quod constat auctum tempore nostro ..."

Nobile,

Aubert, Suger, pp.

ff.

83.

permits the con-

Claret

au XII'

p. 259.

144

it

to be similar to, or even identical with,

what extent the luminosity of his church

dans Yancien diocese de Soissons au XI' siecle ,

was

"Pars

nova

posterior

anteriori,

dum

jungitur

De

.,

XXVIII,

190; cf. Panofsky's

ment, Abbot Suger, pp. 152

ff.

sub

com-


120

that this mystical and aesthetic appreciation of light originated in Suger's studies

of the Corpus areopagiticum.

To

what extent

design of Suger's church

we know

that survive

window

glass

work

this theological is

best

actually influenced the architectural

shown by

in general attests to the

his

profound impression they made upon con-

windows "most

temporaries. Suger himself has called these 84

they itted "miraculous." their

meaning by accompanying

He

windows. From the fragments

impact upon the art of the stained-

their beauty; their

sacred," the light

determined their subjects and interpreted

inscriptions. 85

Most of these

subjects are taken

from the Old Testament; two represent allegories that occur Revelation and in the Epistles of

St. Paul, respectively.

Book of

in the

Every one of these

images suggests the theology and exegesis of the Dionysian tradition.

God

has

revealed himself, directly in the Incarnation, obscurely in nature and the meta-

phors of the Bible.

We must seek to grasp Him in and through these;

we must

perceive the divine light that illuminates them.

Suger was not the

comparable

illustration

made masterful use of archy (1137).

86

The

first to realize

of

this

that the stained-glass

metaphor

commentary on the

in his

treatise, significantly

One of

work of

Suger's friend. stained-glass

most renowned theologians of

the

The

an

is

in-

had

Hier-

Celestial

addressed to the king, contains a

magnificent theology of beauty based on the .

window

Hugh of St.-Victor

"anagogical" theology.

this

the supposed Apostle of his age,

Hugh was

also

aesthetic views of the latter and his novel idea of using the

window

as a visual

"demonstration" of Dionysian theology are

very likely inspired by the canon of St.-Victor. 87 But the idea of such direct CLXXVII,

84. See above, n. 31. 85. Suger

.,

XXXIV,

studies of the

Glass

records

205

the f.

inscriptions

De

See the important recent

windows by Grodecki, "A Stained

Atelier

of the

Thirteenth

(JWC1, X, 1947), and "Suger et monastique"; also "Fragments provenant de

in

St. -Denis"

Century"

l'architecture

(BM, CX,

de

vitraux

vinorum

902

Durandus,

f.);

Rationale

di-

Venice, 1594, I, 1, 24, p. 4. 87. In commenting on the Dionysian age officiorum,

"F.tenim ncque possibile est aliter nobis luccrc

divinum radium,

animum

Hugh

v.incure s.icrorum vel

nisi

circumvclarum

anagogice

remarks:

"Sacra

vclamina,

.

.

."

quibus

in

sunt mysticae in

1952), and

nobis

of the Exposition Vitraux de , pp. 38 ff. Also Panofsky, Abbot Suger, pp. 195 f. It ought to be

sacro

ad declarationem. Quibus videlicet velaminibus

pointed out that only six of Suger's ambulatory

ipse

windows were

Anagoge

his Introduction to the Catalogue

grisailles

historiated, the others being the

mentioned above.

86. Sec following note; also Sermones (PL,

radius

divinus

eloquio

adducunt formas radius

mentis,

sive

et

divinus

enim,

lucct,

descriptiones,

quae

similitudines

mibilei

invisibilium

anagogice circumvelatur.

sicut

clev.uio

dictum voeatur

est,

in

ascensto

contempla-

tioncm supernorum. Anagogice igitur circum-

:

THE NEW CHURCH translation of a mystical

the representation of

of

tion

image into the language of art

t\\e

porta

he put

shown

best

is

What

is

another transla-

the exposition of Dionysian theology

These translucent

singularly impressive.

is

revealing the ineffable. others,

windows

with sacred symbols, are to him like

it,

characteristic of Suger;

is

on the facade of St.-Denis

caeli

this kind, but in Suger's

by means of art as

121

s, "vested,"

once shrouding and

veils at

they meant to him, what they were to

mean

to

of the scene of Moses appearing

in Suger's selection

veiled before the Israelites. St. Paul had used the image to elucidate the distinc-

between the "veiled" truth of the Old Testament and the "unveiled"

tion

truth of the

New. 88

In Suger's interpretation

epitomized his very world view,

it

to which, in the footsteps of the Pseudo-Areopagite, the entire

velatur, quia ad hoc velatur ut amplius clarescat;

hope,

ob hoc tegitur ut magis appareat. Ejus igirur obumbratio nostri est illuminatio; et ejus

as

circumvelatio, nostri elevatio.

Quemodum

oculi

solem nube tectum libere con-

spiciunt, qui

coruscum ejus lumen intueri non et divinum radium lippientibus

infirmi

possunt:

sic

mentis oculis lucere impossibilc etate

est, nisi vari-

sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum

et

praeparatum providentia paterna connaturaliter et

proprie

Expositio

secundum

quae

iis,

hierarchumi

in

CLXXV, 946)

.

suae obvoluta nisi

caelestem,

sunt."

(PL,

II

lumen

ad

tenebri

non

exire

veritatis

caecus manu-

et quasi

dirigatur,

ignorantiae

ductione utens, quo non videt, incedat. Ipse

autem manuductiones

mens ad

et

directiones,

quibus

invisibilia

tendens utitur, a visibilibus

signis, et

demonstrationibus secundum

sumuntur visibilia

formatis.

.

.

.

Est

tamen

aliqua

similitudo visibilis pulchritudinis ad invisibilem

pulchritudinem, secundum aemulationem, invisibilis

artifex

ad

utramque

quam

constituit,

in

use great plainness of speech:

Moses, which put

a vail

And

which

minds were blinded for :

the same vail untaken old

testament;

is

abolished: But their

until this

away

which

vail

in the

read, the vail

is

upon

reading of the

done away

in

when Moses

is

is

Christ. But even unto this dav,

dav remaineth

their heart.

[The frequent

medieval references to the "blindness" of the

—

Jews and the iconography of the blindfolded svnacogue are based on this age; see St.

—

PL,

CLXXXII,

Ginllaume d'Auvergne,

when

it

shall turn to the

Now

p.

Valois,

570;

also

131.]

Nevertheless

Lord, the vail

shall

.

The

the

.

inference, obviously,

must remain veiled beings, and those

in the

is

not that

"Moses human

presence of

who would presume

to un-

cover him would commit an offense." For the dullness of the senses of those not yet

luminated by grace;

.

spiritualis lucis

imaginem esse materialia,

corporalia lumina." Ibid., pp. 948

.

.

id est

age in Exodus 34:33-35. Suger (De . XXXIV, 205) obviously leans on St. Paul (II

Cor. 3:12-18),

who

interprets the

Moses

we

epi-

have such

il-

and the "denuding" of

from being an offense, signifies that Old Testament has been replaced by the revelation of the New, a substitution that replaces the law (lex) by "freedom" (libertas). According to this exegesis, the Biblical image epitomizes the metaphvsics and epistemology of illumination. [See Moses,

far

the "veiled" truth of the

ff.

88. Panofsky, Abbot Suger, p. 198, seems to have misunderstood Suger's exegesis of the

sode as follows: "Seeing; then that

Paul, as for Suger, the veil of

St.

Moses denotes

Et similiter immaterialis luculentiae, hoc est

speculamina

be

Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glorv of the Lord, are changed into ." the same image taken away.

quaedam diversorum proportionum unam imaginem effingunt.

qua quasi

not

over his face, that

the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that

Bernard,

See also the following ages

"Mens etenim hominis potest,

nos

we

cosmos appeared

Add.]


122 like a veil illuminated

of his century.

by the divine

The image he had

obvious, so irresistible, that

mind.

We

it

Such

light.

found for

a

world view was peculiarly that

in the stained-glass

it

was bound

to impress itself

window was

so

upon everyone's

cannot be surprised that the image was powerful enough to induce

Suger to transform the entire sanctuary into a transparent cosmos.

Here again

there should be no misunderstanding. Suger did not invent the

On

window.

stained-glass

peculiarly French in that

art never flourished to the

medium

the contrary, he used an artistic

had long been practiced

it

same extent;

in

was

that

. 89 In England this

in fact, as late as the fifteenth

century

greased linen or paper was occasionally used there in lieu of glazed windows,

even in churches. 90

Would

the development of

Norman

architecture have taken

a different course had the glass painter's art been developed there as

?

And what would

Suger have done had

his

The "Dionysian"

land? Such questions are, of course, idle.

it

abbey been situated

was in

in

Eng-

renaissance

is

as

characteristically French as are the calcareous deposits of the Ile-de- and

the art and use of the stained-glass

window

in the twelfth century. All these ele-

ments were needed for the creation of Gothic, and only style have

come

into existence. In the use he

Suger did no more and no that

was known

Suger was the

windows, and

to

all.

first to

stained-glass

this

window

than to give compelling significance to an image

less

That

made of the

could

in

is

precisely

what every great

artist

or poet does.

conceive the architectural system as but a frame for his

to conceive his

windows not

as wall openings but as translucent

surfaces to be adorned with sacred paintings. This dual "invention" distin-

guished Suger's style from Romanesque and


The "Dionysian"

is

indeed the basic novelty of

source of this artistic revolution can no

longer be in doubt. [See Add.] Fortunately, the proof for this statement does not rest on circumstantial

evidence alone, but on Suger's

own

explicit testimony.

We

arc already ac-

quainted with some of his inscriptions. Their purpose was probably twofold. 89.

Theophilus Presbyter,

diversarum artium, 9

ff.;

Theobald,

I,

cd.,

in

Praefatio p.

io),

his (Ilg,

Schrdula ed.,

pp.

obviously con-

[W'cstfalische

Studim

fenestrarum pretiose varietatc

peinture sur verre."

(The Schrdula century;

cf.

is

a

work of the

tenth or eleventh

Degcring, "Theophilus Presbitcr"

Bonner,

Alois

.

apportion en proprc

Francis."

.

.

pp.

ft.];

siders the art peculiarly French: "quicquid in diligit

.

and MJ, 1952.) See also Hubert. L' Art un art qui pre-roman, p. 127: "II est

250

a

90. Salzman, pp. 173

la

f.

.

.

Gaule: celui de

la

THE NEW CHURCH Suger

may

I23

have wished, as has been suggested, to avoid possible misunder-

standings on the part of St. Bernard and his followers. Bernard had generally

disparaged religious art by pointing to

distracting effect

its

upon the beholder.

Suger provided visitors to his abbey with a singular kind of guide that told them exactly

which

how it

to look at his art in order to derive

had been created.

from

it

that spiritual benefit for

Bernard, to be sure, had censured even the

St.

pleasure that might be derived from contemplation of luminous objects. 91 But as a child

of

his

age and of he was himself deeply sensitive to the ex-

perience of light. In one of his most moving ages he describes the mystical

union of the soul with light

God

vision: illumination

considered

light, as

of the

"immersion

as the

and luminous eternity."

And

air

by

in the infinite

sunlight.

well as harmony, a

92

Thus

medium

it

by Suger. But

Bernard's asceticism

harmony had

in

would seem

They

in his

art,

his art against

mind. Eternal light and

their inspired witness in the Pseudo-Areopagite.

sought to convey by means of his

that Bernard

are quite similarly

emphasizing them, a "defense" of

was hardly uppermost

this

capable of conveying something

of the nature of transcendental reality to the senses. singled out

ocean of eternal

he can think of but one image to convey

His vision Suger

seeking to elucidate by words what the

language of form might be unable to reveal.

Not only

inscriptions

interpreted his church and

were its

to fulfill that purpose.

half of his of his istration as abbot

A

Suger has described and

two separate

art treasures in

is

treatises.

Nearly one

devoted to that subject. 93

second and earlier work, the Booklet on the Consecration of the Church of Stare intimately related.

The

relevant chapters in the Report on the istration, which describe the

com-

Denis, deals entirely with

pleted

monument and

the rudiments of

it.

The two works

contain the inscriptions already mentioned, also expound

what we may

call the

Sugerian aesthetics of light.

The

Booklet

on the Consecration, on the other hand, recalls the actual building of the church

and stresses the aesthetic value of harmony. This work, however, hardly deals with the concrete, professional aspects of the undertaking; and for the technical 91. Apologia ad Guillelmum, XII,

28

(PL,

CLXXXII,

95); see Heckscher, "Relics of Pagan Antiquity in Medieval Settings" (JWCI, IT

CLXXXII,

connection that Rose, Die Fruhgotik im

Orden

von

Entstehung,

Citeaux, p.

408,

p.

137,

stress

and

Sedlmayr,

the luminosity of

Cistercian church interiors.

1937/38). 92. Liber

this

de

991).

diligendo It is

Deo,

X,

28

(PL,

not without interest

in

93.

"The

The

following

is

based on

my

Birth of the Gothic" (Measure,

I,

paper,

1950).


124

accomplishment Suger has no structural problems

For him,

interest.

as for his contemporaries,

were disheartening obstacles or occasions

interventions from above. Their practical solution

for miraculous

was not yet an object of ad-

miration as in the Renaissance and perhaps even in the thirteenth century. Instead,

Suger represents the building of his abbey, from the germinal idea to the

completed structure, as a

At

of architecture. Building

However, Suger's

one.

treatise.

spiritual process.

kind of report appears disappointing to the historian

first sight this

not, after

is

an esoteric affair but a very concrete

all,

intention clearly

Whatever he wrote was

was not

that of writing an edifying

directly related to the

main purpose of

his

career. If in the midst of pressing responsibilities he took the time to write at such length

on the building of

which concerned him most understand his

The

—

this

his

church

—or

must be of

at least

on that aspect of

concern to us

real

who

it

try to

art.

Booklet begins as follows:

"The irable power of one unique and

supreme reason equalizes by proper composition the disparity between things

human and

divine; and

what seems mutually

and contrariety of nature

is

to conflict

by

inferiority

of origin

coned by the single, delightful concordance of

one superior, well-tempered harmony."

What

the author seeks to unfold before us

ated and maintained

Suger's language tonists

is

is

a vision

emphatically musical. Like his contemporaries, the Pla-

of the School of Chartres, he conceives the universe as a symphonic

composition. In fact, Alan of Lille, in a age that to use almost the edifice

of the cosmos, cre-

by the One who transcends and reconciles the many.

same

I

have quoted

in describing the divine architect

earlier,

who

94

was

builds the

of the world according to the laws of musical consonance. Suger. how-

ever, understands this vision as the mystical prototype of the sanctuary he

is

about to erect:

Those who seek if their

to be glorified

by

a participation in rhis

supreme and eternal reason,

as

penetrating mind were seated in a kind of judgment seat, strive continuously to

aeeord the similar with the dissimilar and to render justice between conflicting things.

With they

the aid of charirv they

may

draw from

withstand internal

strife

the source of eternal reason the

means by which

and inner sedition: preferring the spiritual to the

corporeal and the eternal to the perishable.

They

set aside the vexations

94. See above, p. 31.

and grievous

THE NEW CHURCH

125

anxieties caused

by

their oppression

and focusing the undivided vision of their minds upon the hope of

sensuality and the exterior senses; emancipating themselves

eternal reward, they seek jealously only that

which

is

They

enduring.

from

forget carnal

desires rapt in the iration of other sights; and they rejoice to be united one day,

through the merit of a glorious consciousness, to supreme reason and everlasting

At

first

glance, the relation of the

main theme

to Suger's

is

two quoted ages

the appearance of a discernible theme." discernible to his contemporaries. It

we

lator

look into the

work of the

96

The

one another and

to

room with magnificent sound before

Suger's theme, however,

becomes equally

theologian on

whom and

Irish Platonist dwells repeatedly

was

entirely

soon

intelligible to us as

Suger relied

and interpreter of the Corpus areopagiticum, that

Erigena. 97

95

quite obscure. Professor Panofsky thinks that they

constitute but "an organ prelude filling the

as

bliss.

as the trans-

Johannes Scotus

is,

at length

on the law of

harmonic proportion, by which, he says, the contrariety and dissonance among the different parts of the universe are reconciled. This musical law

Erigena, as for Augustine and Plato, the source of 95. ates

De

consecr., I, 213.

My

translation devi-

here somewhat from Panofsky's Abbot

96.

Abbot Suger,

p. 26.

97. In fact, Suger's musical aesthetics

most certainly

age of Erigena: opposita

universitatis

"Nam

quae

sibimet

siderantur,

ipsius

in

al-

partibus

videntur

contraria et a se invicem dissona, eralissima

is

a reminiscence of the following

dum

in

atque gen-

harmonia conconsonaque sunt."

universitatis

convenientia

De divisione naturae, I, 72 (PL, CXXII, 517). Note also the following ages: "Omnibus namque recte philosophantibus perspicue patet, ex uno genere multas formas nasci; ex monade multos numeros; ex puncto multas lineas

beauty.

merorum

is

enim

Sicut

nu-

propor-

proportionalitatis:

collatio,

for

here that the

proportions;

concordia,

vero

It is

conveniunt.

possit,

nificari

tionum

Suger, p. 83.

all

sic

ordinum naturalium distributio, participationis nomen, distributionum vero copulatio, amoris generalis accepit, qui omnia inefFabili quadem

unum colligit." Ill, 6 (cc. 630 f.). "Proinde pulchritudo totius universitatis con-

amicitia in

ditae, similium et dissimilium, mirabili

harmonia constituta formis,

variisque

quadam

est ex diversis generibus

quoque

differentibus

sub-

stantiarum et accidentium ordinibus, in unitatem ineffabilem compacta. Ut enim organicum melos ex diversis vocum qualitatibus

quandam

dum

et quantitatibus conficitur,

viritim sepa-

.

ratimque sentiuntur, longe a se discrepantibus

Numeri ex monade procedentes diversarum

intentionis et remissionis proportionibus segre-

proportionum causae sunt; proportiones vero

gatae,

proportionalitatum, proportionalitates harmoni-

secundum certas rationabilesque

arum."

II,

31

(c.

proporrionibus

602). "Et

numerorum

.

quemodum

.

in

proportionalitates

proportionum similes rationes, eodem modo in naturalium ordinationum parsunt,

hoc

est,

ticipationibus

mirabilcs

atque

ineffabiles

dum

vero

invicem

sibi

regulas per singulos tropos, naturalem

dulcedinem reddentibus:

musicae

quamdam

ita universitatis

con-

cordia, ex diversis naturae unius subdivisioni-

bus a se invicem, dissonantibus,

dum

singulariter inspiciuntur,

juxta

conditoris

harmonias constituit creatrix omnium sapicntia,

voluntatem coadunata est."

unam quandam concordiam, seu amicitiam, seu pacem, seu amorem, seu quocumque modo rerum omnium adunatio sig-

Cf. also

quibus omnia in

coaptantur

artis

V,

12

(cc.

883

source of this idea, see III, 10; cf.

Ill,

f.).

De

Thery, Etudes,

uniformem

6 (cc. 637

f.).

For the Dionysian divinis nominibus,

II,

207.


126

supreme

will of the Creator

is

revealed. 98 In placing this thought at the head of

on the building and consecration of

his treatise

Suger wished to

his church,

underscore the anagogical significance of the architectural harmony of the sanctuary, as he stressed elsewhere the anagogical significance of its luminosity.

not as a restatement of the musical aesthetics of the Platonic tradition that

It is

the opening age

context in which

it

is

significant. Its interest lies in the fact that,

occurs,

we

owing

to the

can actually grasp the connection between that

aesthetics and the architectural design of a great medieval builder, the author

of the

Gothic sanctuary. For Suger,

first

harmony and was

vision of cosmic

The

design reflected the

in short, this

so to be understood.

validity of this interpretation

is

confirmed by

a

document

that repre-

between the Corpus areopagiticum and Suger's work.

sents something like a link

This document, the Mystagogia by Maximus the Confessor siderable interest to the art historian in that

it

is

the

662),

(d.

known

first

of con-

is

treatise to

contain a specific application of Dionysian mysticism to the interpretation of the church edifice. According to all

an image of God,

who

Maximus,

through His

the Christian sanctuary

power

infinite

first

is

creates everything,

of

em-

bracing and chaining together the physical and intelligible realms; and by the

power of His reason God

single

what

most

is

concord edifice

reflected in the created universe,

is

is

cons and brings into one

diversified and mutually conflicting. Since the

Maximus

explicit reference that, if

my

principle of

continues, the church

image of the cosmos. This opening age of the Mystagogia

also an

strikingly similar to that of Suger's treatise.

is

harmony even

same

It

contains, moreover, the

of the vision of cosmic harmony to the Christian

interpretation

is

valid, is implied in the first sentences

basilica

of Suger's

Booklet. 98. "Aliud

est

enim considerare singulas aliud totum. Hinc confi-

partes,

universitatis

quod in parte contrarium esse putatur, toto non solum non contrarium, verum etiam

citur, ut, in

pulchritudinis

augmentum

repcritus."

V,

954).

De

divi-

sibique oppositis copulari, musicis rationibus

onitus,

in

quibus conspicor,

nil aliud

animo

placerc pulchritudincm crhccrc, nisi divcrsarum

vocum

rationabilia

intcrvalla,

invicem collata musici

quae inter se

modulaminis

efficiunt

similium et dissimilium, contrariorum et op-

quiddam d.mir intclligi, et solo mentis eontuitu vix compreharhensibilc quod non soni diversi

positorum." V, 36 (c. 982). The musical expcrience behind this aesthetics is obvious:

monicam sonorum

naturae,

sione

pulchritudo

".

.

.

35

efficitur,

(c.

nisi

"Nulla enim ex compaginatione

libcro mentis eontuitu clarc pcrspiccrem

universae

naturae

adunationem

ex

diversis

dulecdinem.

Ubi

mirabile

.

p. 28.

.

.

efficiunt suavitatcm, sed proportiones .

.

."

V, 36

(cc.

965

(.).

See above,

THE NEW CHURCH Suger

is

almost certain to have

known

127

the Mystagogia.

The Confessor was

the greatest exponent of Dionysian theology; a treatise of his had been trans-

by Erigena. Excerpts and

lated

summary of

a

the Mystagogia, moreover, had

been translated into Latin and sent to Charles the Bald by Anastasius the Librarian, an eminent scholar as well as an influential dignitary of the see of

Rome.

In his dedicatory epistle Anastasius had called the emperor's special

attention to the fact that

Maximus,

dependence upon Dionysius, you."

Of the Anastasian

text,

two

even today. But the Mystagogia

and as

had himself stressed

in his preface,

"whom you

love [Anastasius adds] and

his close

who

loves

copies, of the ninth or tenth century, survive

may

have existed, both

in the original

Greek

another translation, at St.-Denis, which, during the twelfth century,

in yet

Leopold Delisle has shown, was one of the most important Western centers

of Hellenic studies.

The

To what

probability of Suger's acquaintance with

Maximus

is

of great

of grasping invisible reality behind the world of visual phenomena. Suger

in

and

tion,

interest.

he called "symbolic contemplation" Maximus assigned the function

He preceded

choosing the church edifice as the noblest subject for such contempla-

may

thus have encouraged the abbot of St.-Denis to envisage and

actually to design his basilica as a paradigm of the "anagogical" world view.

Suger

who

may

even have found the symbolism of door and threshold

in

away of all

signifying the ing

day of judgment, into the kingdom of Christ."

let:

the great enterprise that

Suger wished to express yet another thought

tion, a state

can become a model for the artist only if it has

and become the ordering principle of to

convey

all its

this

The Mystagogia

is

in

beginning of his Book-

The mystical vision of harmony

PG, XCI;

see

first

On

taken possession of his soul

faculties

thought

also the opinion of the Benedictine scholar,

99.

at the

about to be undertaken requires an inner disposi-

of grace, on the part of the builder.

That Suger wished

as

earthly things and the entry of the elect, upon

the

is

Maximus, Church

interpreted the closing of the church doors in the rite of his

—

and aspirations.

a typically medieval

Dom Jean Leclercq, who

one

—

is

has trans-

the Hellenic studies at St.-Denis during the

693. For the trans-

twelfth century, see Delisle, "Traductions de

lation

by Anastasius, see Petrides, "Traites Maxime et de Saint Germain" (Revue de I' Orient chretien, X, 1905).

textes grecs faites par des religieux de Saint-

liturgiques de Saint

Denis

especially cc. 664

ff.,

688

f.,

au

XII e

1900, p. 725).

siecle"

(Journal

des

Savants,


128

De

lated Suger's

consecratione into French. 100

With

reference to the introductory

age, Leclercq in his Preface points to the synthesis of the lives of contemplation and action in the ascetic ideal of his (and Suger's) order.

monastic

life is

may

ideal

The monk's

sanctification.

daily

work

goal of

of

in the service

this

be described as "edification." Ascetic writers like to dwell on the

ancient image of the soul as a temple, and to describe the

work of sanctification

of building. Recalling the ancient architectural overtones of the

as an act

word

The

"edification," Leclercq suggests that the Benedictine concept of labor as a

may

process of edification

find its perfect realization in sacred architecture,

designed and constructed as an image of the Celestial City, and thus requiring the vision of divine glory for

Hence

struction.

grace,

its

design but physical labor for

its

material con-

the church cannot be completed without the assistance of

which illuminates the

powers. Suger experienced

builder's intellect as well as his moral and artistic

supernatural assistance even in the purely

this

technical phases of his undertaking.

To of

a large extent all this

from and

art as resulting

the spiritual

power

is

that enables

to this view, there are

typically medieval.

him

to partake of absolute reality.

two modes of aesthetic

of the contemplator of the

The Middle Ages

artist's

insight: that

who

merely the image has but

sees

of that reality. For the religious

of the

work. The insight of the

since only he beholds both the reality and the image of

contemplator

thought

reflecting the subjective perfection of the artist and

artist

the sole concern and justification of his

a

it

According

artist

and that is

pure

that he creates.

The

dim and

artist alone

indirect impression

or poet this creates a peculiar problem:

work

are to mirror ultimate reality But .

for this very reason he cannot leave the onlooker alone with his

work

but will

seek to reveal to him the state of soul, the act of divine illumination, that en-

enabled the artist or poet to create his significance than the St.

work

Augustine had been the

beauty of ceeded."

100.

a

new church

The

first

to the

work and

Comment jut aedijicanda

(/'/.,

dam*

is

of so much greater

to direct the eyes of the faithful

— can

sen de con-

CI. XXXIV,

507):

ever be.

from the

"beauty of the inner man trom which

construct Saint-Denis, p. 20. interior!

that

image of that illumination

invocations with which so

See also Tractates de scientia

—mere

visible

it

had pro-

many medieval poems open

or close

"studcamus ergo tcmplum Deo aedihearc nobis

." .

.

in

THE NEW CHURCH

I29

have the similar purpose of directing the reader's attention to the divine as-

composing

sistance that the author experienced in

main concern

Divine Comedy

in the

not the unfolding of a tremendous

is

eschatological panorama, but rather the of his

which we are

to relive as

we

Something very similar

What

Denis.

he describes

seems to indicate, the

by which

it is

in order to

final

who

those

is less,

as the title

We are to relive this process step by step

work whose

To Suger,

true significance

is

revealed in

as to his master, St. Augustine, this

the physical labor as

it is

the gradual "edification" of

take part in the building, the illumination of their souls by the

vision of the divine

The

on the Consecration

dedication of the completed edifice than the process

brought to completion.

much

gradual illumination,

true for Suger's of the building of St.-

in the treatise

understand the finished

not so

is

own

read his poem. is

the liturgical act of consecration.

process

work. 101 And Dante's

his

harmony

that

is

then reflected in the material

medieval reader could not have misunderstood

this

work of art.

meaning.

What

Suger seeks to point out about the mental and moral disposition of those build the sanctuary that

were

most of Suger's readers;

familiar to

who

but a paraphrase of certain ages from St. Augustine

is

their subject being precisely the

dedication of the church, these ages form part of the canonical office for the ceremony. St. Augustine describes here the basilica as an image of heaven

and goes on to relate the manual labor of its construction to the spiritual process of edification. 102 For Augustine, as for Suger, the two are inseparable. 101.

For the aesthetic views summarized

perficiatur in corporibus vestris." See also the

The Augustinian (PL, XXXVIII,

following, likewise inserted in the Office of the

above, see de Bruyne,

age

1475

f.)

is :

spicere,

in

III,

Sermo

1

15.

337

"Neque enim occupata est fides inquam pulchra sint membra hujus

Dav of Dedication, and referring to "Jerusalem quae aedificatur ut civitas [Ps. 22 13]. Si autem fundamentum nostrum in caelo est, ad caelum 1

habitations; sed de quanta interioris hominis

aedificemur.

pulchritudine procedant haec opera dilectionis."

structuram,

For the invocations

in

significance,

the

see

medieval poetry and their

important

paper

by

"The Origins of the Medieval Humility Formula" (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, LXIX, 1954). 102. See Sermones, CCLII (PL, XXXVIII,

Schwietering,

hujus basilicae;

fiat in

mentibus; et quod hie perfectum cernimus

quia corpora aedificaverunt,

summo

positum est." Augustine adds: "Et

dam

in

habet aedificii corporalis, ideo aedificatur

basilica

in lapidibus et lignis, hoc, aedificante gratia Dei,

istam

surrexisse

quia aedificium spirituale similitudinem quan-

corporaliter videmus in parietibus, spiritaliter

ff.)

amplam

spiritaliter

in

ut

171

et,

aedificaverunt

videtis

imo posuerunt. Quia vero aedificamur, fundamentum nostrum

fundamentum

and CCLVI (PL, XXXVIII, 1190), where Augustine remarks "quodhic factum 1

Corpora

quam

civitas."

XXXVII, "sed

Enarrat.

1620

ff.).

super

with the Celestial City,

ista

Sermones,

Jerusalem umbra est

CCCLXII

(PL,

Psalmos

The comparison of

(PL,

ibid.,

illius."

XXXIX,

the

1620:

See also

161 5).

—


I30

The

and mystical significance that the abbot of St.-Denis thus

spiritual

ascribes to building Booklet. In

made even more

is

V he recalls

Chapter

of the great King,"

he

as

calls

explicit in subsequent chapters

it,

whether

Spirit

build in a material

way."

the architectural imagery to his building.

"whether

103

The

more

His

is

a

own

all his

building

all the

God through

and aptly

we

this quotation,

to the Ephesians (2:19

mere metaphor

ff".);

—

whom

the

Holy

strive to

and only

but whereas

for St. Paul, Suger directly relates

additions to the Biblical text

spiritual or material"

the attention of

loftily

words of

italicized

from Paul's Epistle

these, are taken

it

"whom

taught to be builded together for an habitation of

ourselves in a spiritual way, the

by

in

groiveth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In

spiritual or material

also are

his

evoke the image of Christ the

in that

Cornerstone "which s one wall to the other;

ye

of

the completion of the Gothic choir, "the City

—so adroitly inserted

—the

little

phrase

that they have escaped

editors except Panofsky, 104 impart to the act of building

an almost sacred significance; we, that

all

is,

who

have had any part

in this

great work, shall be builded together for an habitation of God in the measure in

which

we

strive to

Suger's exegesis

of

St.

make His

those

who

build for

Him

"How

will

with so much piety, joy, and devotion?

toward which

will build them, as living stones, into his spiritual edifice

those direct themselves

by

material temple worthy of Him. Again, however,

sanctioned by an almost identical thought expressed in one

Augustine's early sermons for the dedication of a church:

God reward

He

is

who are informed by

faith, solidified

by hope, and united

charity."

With

the

same theme the

treatise

is

brought to an end. In the two

chapters Suger describes the consecration of the choir.

of voices chanting the liturgy sounded

melody."

105

image of the

And

De

consecr.,

final

symphony

"an angelic rather than a human

of angels as the Areopagite had described

the eucharistic sacrifice

V, 227

f.

Cf.

Augustine,

Sermo 337 (PL, XXXVIII, 1476): "Retribuet ergo Dominus fidelibus suis tarn pie, tarn hilariter,

the

the visible hierarchy of prelates in attendance seemed like the

celestial hierarchy

The enactment of 103.

like

To Suger

tarn devote ista operantibus, ut eos

quoque ipsos fabricae constructione componat, quo currunt lapides vivi, fide formati, spe

is

solidati, charitate

The same

compacti."

alluded to in the metrical Life of St.

Bishop of Lincoln, vv. 946 ff. 104. Abbot Suger, pp. 223 105.

it.

described, in conclusion, as "the

De

consecr.,

f.

VII, 238.

idea

is

Hugh,

THE NEW CHURCH

I

human with

ing together of the material with the immaterial, the

by which God

The

discord

among

and

in those

thus be

conflicting things and infuses in those

concord the desire to establish of the church

the divine, 106

into the celestial one."

may

I

summed up

opens with the intellectual vision of divine harmony that recon-

as follows. It ciles the

kingdom

transfers the present

content of Suger's Booklet on the Consecration

3

it

moral order.

also within the

who

The

construction

the subsequent realization of that vision both in the

is

who

have undertaken

a desire "to be glorified

The work of "edification"

Reason."

tion in the Eternal

from

it

behold that

work of art

by

participa-

consummated

is

in the

consecration of the completed sanctuary, the rite that enacts the sacrament of

union between

God

and

man

to

which the church

itself is dedicated.

Suger's aesthetics, or rather his theology of beauty,

ence

is

terialibus ad immaterialia"

—

nor even as writer

Hugh of

clues to the

is

lies

beyond

— "de ma-

his contemporaries.

equal to the best

107

among

St.-Victor's magnificent exposition of

whom he considered

more than

which

Suger shares with

own writings

Dionysian theology, Suger's thought of the mystic

reveals that

it

all this

as theologian

them. Compared with, say,

not meant to be

main sources,

their

the Pseudo-x\reopagite, his feeling that sense experi-

all,

meaningful only inasmuch as

His work neither

main aspects

in all its

His Platonizing tendencies and

that of the twelfth century.

Augustine and, above

is

are at best sketchy annotations to the

patron saint. But then, they were

his

work

in

which he had actually under-

taken to paraphrase, and indeed to render palpable, the vision of Dionysius Areopagita. This paraphrase, the most magnificent illustration ever bestowed

upon

system of thought,

a

It is this

is

the architecture of St.-Denis.

reference to existing

works of

106. "Materialia immaterialibus, corporalia spiritualibus,

humana

divinis uniformiter con-

copulas,

sacramentaliter

reformas

puriores

principium;

et

dictionibus

his

visibilibus

ad

suum

hujusmodi bene-

invisibiliter

restauras,

etiam praesentem in regnum coeleste mirabiliter transformas, ut,

cum

tradideris

regnum Deo

et

nos et angelicam creaturam, coelum et terram, unam rempublicam potenter et miseri-

Patri,

corditer efficias; qui vivis

et

regnas

Deus per

omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen." De VII, 238. 107.

logus:

consecr.,

Otto of Freising, Chronica, IV, Pro-

"Nullum iam

esse sapientem puto, qui

Dei

art that renders the fragments facta

non

considerat,

considerata

of

non

stupeat ac per visibilia ad invisibilia non mitta-

tur"

(MGH SS,

19 12, p. 180). See Hofmeister,

"Otto von Freising als Geschichtsphilosoph und Kirchenpolitiker" (Leipziger Studien aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte, VI, 2, 1900, p. 34), who suggests that Otto too may have received this notion from Hugh's commentary. Hofmeister also recalls the frequent occurrence of the notion in the sacramentology of the Latin

Fathers,

Augustine and Gregory. See, e.g., XXXVII, 1413): "per quod

Augustine (PL,

sacramentum ad invisibilem gratiam ." regnumque coelorum duceret visibile

.

.


I32

Sugerian aesthetics more vivid and probably more important to our understanding of art and artistic experience in the Middle Ages than any other literary

work of

time.

its

As

a sort of guide, at least for the clerical visitors to his

—not — seeks

sanctuary, Suger's Booklet Santiago de Compostela

unlike the contemporary Pilgrim's Guide

How

kindle devotion to the titular saint.

successful are Suger's writings in their

attempt to link aesthetic and religious experience?

To

put

more simply,

it

How much sense does the text make in the presence of the work of art? really describe

To

what

is

to

to explain the treasures of St.-Denis in order to

Does

it

to be seen?

a considerable extent, yes. In the Booklet on the Consecration

the

it is

musical theme that imparts unity to the entire argument. At the beginning of

God

the treatise, the ultimate peace in

cosmic symphony. At the end,

which the same idea St.

Ambrose and

tion

is

a

is

realized. It

in the eleventh

is

is

the

it is

divined through the experience of a

symphony of

the liturgical chant in

a sublime and ancient thought, voiced

century by Fulbert of Chartres, that

symphonic praise of the Creator,

in

which the roaring waves of the

ocean and the twitter of birds with the voices of angels and the

hymnody of the Church. 108 According

to Suger, this cosmic

only the universe with the liturgy; the design of

As we have

equivalent of this music. architecture and music Pilgrim's Guide

to

his

was more obvious

to medieval

The

man

than

which devotes an

geometrical and arithmetical rules," the old one probably aimed at the

348), a

cated

Ambrose,

work

III,

Philomela

same 5

(PL,

(PL,

CXLI,

that recently has again been vindi-

Fulbert

for

Hexaemeron,

Fulbert,

178).

of Chartres:

see

"Philomela praevia temporis amorem"

Raby,

new

World Harmony" 424

.

the floods clap their hands:

let

the hills be joy-

together"). Cf. also Ps. 148, Isaiah 55:12,

Daniel 3:5, and Rev. 5:13. For the classical

"by means of

of

a

and

cosmic symphony, sec Christian

(Traditio,

Ideas

of

1944,

pp.

IX, 2: "latitudine, longitudine et

alti-

II,

ff.).

tudine

I,

"Classical

Spitzer,

4 38). Biblical sources of this idea are Ps. 93:3 ("The floods have their voice") and 98:8 ("Lit lifted up langes Jos. de Ghellivck,

.

that pre-

parts of his church with the

tradition of the idea

109.

ful

harmony

110 His desire to achieve aesthetic effect.

(Ate-

.

The

109 the well-proportioned dimensions of width, length, and height.

among

XIV,

to us.

it is

entire chapter to

care that Suger, according to the Booklet, took to equalize,

108.

the visual

is

the affinity between

2,

the "measure" of the church, similarly calls attention to the vails

liturgical

music cons not

sanctuary

seen in Chapter

Santiago de Compostela,

by

crea-

all

congruenti."

\\ 'hitehill,

Liber

Sancti

Viellitrd, Codex Calixtmus, pp. 377 f Le Guide du pelenn de Saint- [deques de C.ompo-

Jacobi

stelle,

.

p.

90.

110. See above, n. 35.

;

—

THE NEW CHURCH concord and homogeneity among in the

The

work, and

we

all

I33

parts of the church

have seen to what extent

is

mentioned repeatedly

actually determined

it

design.

its

"continued light" created by the merging of ambulatory and chapels, the

"tub-shaped" ground plan with

its

nonprotruding transept, and the similar,

not identical, elevations of choir and nave

—

if

these attest a taste for unity as

all

novel as was the craving for luminous transparency. Suger's contemporaries

may

well have recognized in

it

the realization of that celestial

harmony which

he had invoked in his treatise. In his writings, then, Suger appears, and wished to be understood, as an

who

architect

built theology.

after the church

But

had been completed.

edification of visitors or pilgrims.

much

this

confession as

it is

thought had not occurred to him only

Nor

The

did he state

it

merely for the pious

Booklet on the Consecration

is

that he describes. It was, moreover, not only Suger's fancy that the

which

he had really invented,

in a sense

As we have

thought.

models

in the

actually as

didactic exposition; Suger had experienced the vision

owed

its

seen, the transformation of

new

style,

inspiration to Dionysian

Norman and Burgundian

design of St.-Denis can really be explained as the artistic realiza-

tion of ideas actually taken over

from the Pseudo-Areopagite. Thus, by record-

ing the building of his church, Suger has, as

it

were, rendered transparent the

creative process that translated the theology of light and music into the Gothic style.

hardly necessary to insist on the importance of this insight with which

It is

Suger has provided us for our entire understanding of medieval art and sage.

When we inquire into we

thought, guishes

it

the relationship

between medieval

art

its

mes-

and medieval

usually overlook that basic aspect of the thought which distin-

radically

from our own. That aspect

is

what we may perhaps

call the

archetypal orientation of medieval thinking. Ideas, and ideas alone, were real.

Facts and things were real only insofar as they partook of the reality of ideas. 111

This means that

we must not

—

as

with our modern mentality

we are apt to do

look upon medieval interpretations of the world as gratuitous allegories embellishing "real" facts or events.

in. Adler, "The

New

Quite the contrary, such interpretations were

Pelerinage de Charlemagne

Light on Saint-Denis"

XXII, 1947), offers some valuable remarks on this orientation of medieval thought, even though in

(Sp,

his particular interpretation

in all parts convincing. Spirit of

does not seem

tome

See also Gilson, The

Medieval Philosophy, pp. 84

f.,

Philosophic de Saint Bonaventure, pp. 196

and La ff.


134

to establish the sense in

which

a fact or event

was

"real." Thus, if a medieval

writer describes the cathedral as an "image" of the Celestial City, the art

The

historian has every reason to take such a statement seriously.

Suger related the

at the

beginning of his treatise, his comparison of his church with

Temple of Solomon, of his mere

are never

choir with the

allegories, but,

Heavenly City of the divine King,

on the contrary,

had sought to approximate.

as builder,

vision that

How

recall the

archetype that Suger,

literal this relation

between image

and archetype was occasionally understood appears from Suger's of the

ceremony

foundation

for

his

new

"Lapides preciosi omnes muri tui" Celestial City

While chanting

church.

—which, of course,

the

liturgical

refers to the walls of the

—some persons actually deposited gems and precious stones 112

foundation walls.

Even

a correspondence that at

first

in the

sight appears to be

purely allegorical, as that between Suger's church and the Ecclesia as the com-

munion of

saints,

does not seem to have remained without effect upon the

design of St.-Denis. latory and choir

The

may

selection of twelve ing

columns each for ambu-

well have been prompted by the Biblical metaphor, men-

tioned by Suger himself, of "building spiritually

.

.

upon the foundation of

.

Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the keystone that s one wall to 113

the other."

The Gothic

ribbed vault, with

movements of s and converging

its

ribs continuing the surging

prominent keystone, made Suger's

in a

Has not

use of the Biblical image a description of his church.

had some influence upon the design of the cross-ribbed vault? absolutely indispensable structurally. in

The

that

image even

The

ribs are not

aesthetic prominence they receive

Gothic architecture, and even more the consistent correlation of

ribs

and

ing shafts, correspond to the taste for unity and unification. 114 But this taste found its theological justification, as

it

Such influence of theological notions upon

De

consecr.,

113. Ibid., 1

first

Milan

[f.

in 1

1

not a "Gothic" invention (the

existence

is

that of S.

25]), only the

Ambrogio,

Gothic conceived the

baldachin as the aesthetically and structurally decisive

is

well docu-

the cloister of the famous abbey of Centula

f.

consistent co-ordination of vault ribs and

responds

ecclesiastical builders

metaphor.

115. In Carolingian times, St. Angilbcrt had

IV, 226.

V, 227

Though

14.

in the Biblical

literary sources. 115 It certainly finds expression in the actual repre-

mented by 112.

were,

principle

of

its

architecture.

Sedlmayr, Die Entstehung, pp. 208

ff.

See

constructed on igitur

que

a triangular

ground plan: "Quia

omnis plebs fidclium sanctissimam

insarabilem

Trinitatem

firmitcrquc credere debet."

champs,

may

Rrcuril,

well

I,

284.

confiteri

.

at.

.

Mortet and Des-

Number symbolism

have influenced the design of the

cloister of the Cathedral

of Vaison-la-Romaine

THE NEW CHURCH

I

sentation of Christ to be found in the keystone of

own

Suger's

was he

— and

in

But he did perceive what

dormant in

vaults. 116

testimony enables us to answer the question, In what sense

what sense was he not

—the father of Gothic architecture? new

Certainly he did not "invent" the forms of the ideas.

many Gothic

3 5

in the architecture

we may

style as illustrations of his

symbolic possibilities lying

call the

of Burgundy and above

all

Normandy. And

it

was

accordance with that singular insight that he set out to transform these

Romanesque models so the twin-tower facade

as to render

them vehicles of his theological experience:

became the porta

caeli

crenelations of Suger's facade recall a

—

hardly a coincidence that the

it is

Roman

city gate;

the design of his

sanctuary and ambulatory was certainly inspired by the Dionysian metaphysics

of

light;

and

it is

not even impossible that the co-ordination of vault ribs and

ing shafts, the emphasis given to these architectural

Gothic system,

may owe

in the

something to the architectural symbolism of the

Testament, which impressed Suger

as

much

as

it

had

words, the technical achievements that distinguish the

New

St.

Augustine. In other

first

Gothic from Roman-

esque seem to have obeyed rather than preceded Suger's symbolic demands

upon architecture, and ecclesiastical building

it

for the transformation of

new

success of the

was

his overriding desire to align the

system of an

with a transcendental vision that ultimately ed

Romanesque

style in

into Gothic.

was owing

to

The

its

instant and irresistible

power

as a

symbol. In a

language too lucid and too moving to be misunderstood, Suger's Gothic evoked an ideological message that was of ionate concern to every educated

Frenchman. (second half of the twelfth century), as the in-

anthropomorphic symbolism of the medieval

scription on the wall of the northern side aisle

church

Rambaud, "Le Quatrain mystique de Vaison-la-Romaine" (BM, CIX, 1951).

terminology that names the different parts of

And

human body

suggests. See

as

regards

the

fascinating

allegorical

the

— so

edifice

well attested

after

the

— belongs

by

the architectural

different

of the

parts

the enigmatic represen-

description of St. Michel at Cuxa, which the

tation that once adorned the vault of the

monk

jube of

Garsia, around 1040, sent to

Bishop Oliva,

its

builder,

Mainz Cathedral:

a

famous

nude man, resem-

the builder's mind. See

bling medieval representations of the microcosmos, whose outstretched limbs, attached to the diagonal vault ribs, held the symbols of the

Petrus de Marca, Marca Hispanica sive Limes

cardinal virtues. For a possible interpretation

it

seems probable that he did not

invent his interpretations but described

had actually been

in

what

App. 222, cc. 1072 ff. See, e.g., Seymour, Notre Dame of

Hispanicus, 116.

Noyon

in the

mann,

p. 74. In

Cf. Band-

Mainzer

general context of the

Schrohe).

Twelfth Century, the

more

of the figure, see Schmitt, "Zur Deutung der am ehemaligen Westlettner des

Gewolbefigur

fig. 6.

Doms"

(Festschrift

fur

Heinrich

.


I36

Only now

we know

that

to resemble can

we

the archetype that Suger's church

political vision. St.-Denis

was

to be the capital of the realm, the place

were

different and antagonistic factions within

where they would

was designed

also see the relation of this great project to the abbot's

rally

around the patron saint and the king

new

Suger used the consecration of the

where the

to be reconciled and

they had

as

in

1

1

24.

church, twenty years later, for a most

impressive demonstration of this destination of his abbey.

was customary

It

to use religious feasts, such as the consecration of an im-

portant sanctuary, as the occasion for the convocation of a royal assembly. 117

Such an assembly was held

in

connection with the consecration of Suger's

church. After long and painful negotiations, the most redoubtable of the king's

enemies, Thibault the Great of Chartres-Champagne, had finally declared his willingness to

make

The

peace.

were

chief mediators

Bernard,

St.

who

had

long defended the count as a champion of the reform, and Suger, to whose

church Thibault had generously contributed. 118 reconciliation,

which occurred

in

144,

1

was

It is

probable that the

final

actually effected at the time of the

consecration of the abbey. St. Bernard wrote to Suger's close friend, Bishop Jocelin of Soissons, requesting the bishop's assistance in bringing about peace

between the two princes. In closing he expressed the hope of seeing Jocelin

The

consecration of Suger's

this festival

began, the date having

"during the feast of the Lendit at St.-Denis."

church took place only three days before

119

been fixed after prior consultation with the king request.

120

The two

or, rather,

at the latter's

events could not but reflect upon one another, and the un-

precedented gathering of dignitaries for the consecration

may

be at least partly

ed for by the political assembly that also called for their presence at St.-Denis.

117. Luchaire, Histoire des institutions archiques de I,

254

fF.

la

sous

les

mon-

premiers Cape'tiens,

See the royal charter of

1

144 granting

Jocelin,

who may have been

his teacher,

Suger

dedicated his Life of lôuis VI. The bishop is known to have attended the consecration of

further donations to the abbey and confirming

St.-Denis.

Suger's of the assembly: Felibicn,

120. "Rcgiae majesratis sercnissimi regis Francorum Ludovici placido favore (desiderabat enim sanctos Martyres suos protectores

cvi;

p.

Tardif, Monuments historiques, No. 496,

p. 255.

118. Ep.

CCXXII

(PL,

CLXXXII,

Recueil des historiens, XIII, 273, 331, 421;

387);

XV,

Recueil

des

historiens,

XV,

232.

day

588. See also Aubert, Suger, p. 97.

no.

ardentissime

593.

To

vidcre)

.

in

.

."

De

consecr.,

VI,

Lendit began on the second WednesJune; the consecration of the abbey took

The

place on June

n,

1144.

THE NEW CHURCH In the

Middle Ages the dedication of

a

I

on the dignitaries present. 121 The dedi-

siderable political importance, depending

cation of St.-Denis took place in the presence of Louis

Queen Mother, and of

Eleanor of Aquitaine, of the

kingdom. 122

The

VII and

his consort,

the great nobility of the

nineteen prelates consecrating the altars of the

included five archbishops and, with one exception, 123

all

new

such a

homage

way as

to

to the king

make

it

homage paid

to St.

St.

silver chasse

St.

all his

of

"were

to the altar. "All the ceremonies," writes Panofsky,

Denis, were to

was to

ceremony

Denis, from the hands of the archbishops of Reims and

calculated to stress the prerogatives of the patron saints

view of

of

Denis the occasion for a similar

of . 124 Louis VII himself received the

"our special patron," Sens and carried

the

sanctuary

ecclesiastical peers

the realm. Suger had taken extraordinary care to arrange this solemn in

37

church could be an act of con-

other saints, however worthy, as the king of

all

subjects,

who, from the point of

however great."

125

The ceremony was

not only

designed to stress the special bond between the sovereign and the patron saint of ; the procession of the

Suger significantly

which the "most Christian king,"

relics, in

as

him, 126 outranked even the ecclesiastical dignitaries,

calls

evoked before the abbot's eyes a supernatural spectacle. At the legendary consecration of the original J urch of St.-Denis, Christ himself, in pontifical robes,

was

said to

have led the

tion of the sanctuary.

127

celestial hierarchy

Suger likens

assembly of prelates and nobles

this

in the

of angels and saints to the dedica-

wonderful procession to the splendid

ceremony

that he took to be the second

consecration of St.-Denis.

Such a comparison

"Etude sur

121. See Crozet, tions pontificales"

122. 123.

(BM, CIV,

(cf.

124.

De

125.

Abbot Suger,

126.

De

celebrated

consecr.,

consecr., title

les

consecra-

temporarily susc.

mann,

VII, 235.

When

did the

Abbot Hilduin of

basilique

de

165

Consecration Saint-Denis"

Following Levillain,

believes that the legend

was

circu-

purpose of attracting crowds to

for

the

real importance.

p. 230.

14).

"La

typically

feast

commemorating the

sion for a fair, which, however, never attained

VII, 236.

127. See Doublet pp.

St.-Denis

1935).

it is

dedication. This feast, too, provided the occa-

531).

St.-Denis, in addressing Louis the Pious, speaks of the "christianissimus animus vester" (PL,

CVI,

VI,

series,

lated for the

GC, IX,

originate?

3rd

Liebmann

1946).

De consecr., VI, 232 f. The Bishop of Laon,

pended since 1142

typical of twelfth-century and

is

ff.;

C.

J.

legendaire

(Le

Lieb-

de

la

Moyen Age,

reconstructing

Suger himself

his

church he

insists that in left

untouched

those parts that Christ had touched with his

own

hands.

De

.,

XXIX,

191,

and De

IV, 225. See also Crosby, Abbey of St.-Denis, pp. 43 fT., 197; and Dom Leclercq, "La Consecration legendaire de la basilique de consecr.

Saint-Denis

et

(RM, XXXIII,

la

question des

1943).

indulgences"


I38

The

Dionysian.

king was, indeed, a likeness of Christ.

The

transformed him sacramcntally into a Christus Domini, that

coronation rite

is,

not only into a

person of episcopal rank, but into an image of Christ himself. 128

new government was

Professor Kantorowicz writes, "the

By

this rite,

linked with the

divine government and with that of Christ, the true governor of the world; and the images of King and Christ [were] brought together as nearly as possible."

129

Such dramatic representations of the meaning of the monarchy were not con-

On

fined to the king's coronation.

king's

day of exaltation was made

Lord"

in

order to

make

the great religious feasts of the year, "the to coincide with the

"terrestrial kingship all the

the background of the kingship of Christ."

13 °

.

.

.

exaltation of the

more transparent

against

In Capetian as elsewhere,

made

the occasion for the king's festive corona-

tion; and, as the political assemblies

of the realm were likewise held on these

such religious feasts often were

the interweaving of the

feasts,

two spheres was underscored by

liturgical

pageants that stressed the sacerdotal dignity of kingship.

What appears

no more than festive pageantry was,

to us as

an act of sacramental as well as constitutional significance.

It

in point

of fact,

was precisely

his

anointment as Christus Domini that raised the king above even the most powerful is

dukes. 131 In the political controversies of the early twelfth century this fact

adduced again and again. 132 Suger understood the

full

significance of these ideas. In his Life of Louis

VI

he puts into the mouths of French bishops requesting the king's protection the 128. See Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges, pp.

41, 54, 194

ff.;

reich, pp. 23 ff.,

in the

Schramm, Der Kbnig von Frank50

ff.;

Middle Ages, pp.

Kern, Kingship and Laiv 51 f.; de Pange, Le Roi

(Revue la monarchic franquc" du Moyen Age Latin, II, 1946). Numerous majeste dans

anecdotes show

how

dignity of the king

literally

the Christlike

was often understood.

See,

"The Norman Anonymous of

a.d."

enactment of the Last Supper by Philip Augustus and twelve knights before

(Harvard

195

the battle of Bouvines (de Pange, p. 369), or

tres-chretien,

especially

Theological

93

pp.

Williams,

ff.;

11 00 XVIII,

Studies,

1,

76 ff., 131 ff., 157 ff., 187 ff.); Kantorowicz, "Deus per naturam, Deus per gratiam" (Harvard Theological Review, XLV, 1952). pp.

.29. Laudes

Acclamations

Regiae.

and

A

Study

Medieval

in

Liturgical

Ruler

Worship,

the gentle rebuke Lanfranc had to ister

notes,

see

works quoted also

Lemosse,

who, upon beholding the splendor 1, exclaimed, "Ecce Dcum

of King William

vidco -" Williams, 1

3:.

See above

Pall

in

ff.

the pre-

"La

lese-

,6

'-

the polemical writings of

Norman Anonymous

(tentatively

identi-

bv Williams with William Bona Anima, • c \ u u „i„:~ his claim who bases uRouen), Archbishop of n that the Christian regnum is superior to the sacerdotium precisely on the king's anointment fied

.

130. Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae, It* 02 pp. v 6 • 131. Besides the

the

to a cleric

the

p. 81.

ceding

e.g.,

.

1

as Christus domini.

THE NEW CHURCH conviction that the king "bears in his person the living image cf

Suger discovered the vision that lent colorful reality to

this idea in the

I

39

God."

133

Dionysian

writings.

The Pseudo-Areopagite

explicitly paralleled the "celestial hierarchy" of

God on

angels with the "ecclesiastical hierarchy" that governs the City of

of Suger, the ecclesiastical and

earth. In Capetian , in the cal hierarchies

were not

episcopal rank. 134 In his

Louis VII himself on occasion emphasized his

distinct.

commentary on the

Celestial

Hugh of

Hierarchy,

Victor describes the "human hierarchy" by which "society, in course,"

its

St.-

temporal

governed as an image of the angelic hierarchy so that from the

is

of

visible order

wonder

politi-

men

the invisible order of angels

may

be learned. 135

It is

who was

that early in the thirteenth century another prelate,

no

adviser

William of Auvergne, Bishop

to his king and a student of the Areopagite,

of Paris, gave a description of the State of Angels that

is

every detail pat-

in

terned upon the composition of the royal court and the different functions of its

dignitaries. 136

and

justification

We learn from such writings to what an extent even the theory of royal government

in

Capetian was inspired by the

alleged writings imputed to the patron saint.

The

consecration ceremony of St. -Denis was conceived by Suger as the

enactment of

liturgical

royal ideology. In the of

this

it

that he gives in

the Booklet, he stresses time and again the analogies between the rite and the

The two

celestial liturgy. 137

hemicycles of bishops, nine surrounding the Arch-

bishop of Reims in the choir, and nine officiating in the crypt, were undoubtedly

meant

to represent the nine tiers

133. ".

portat

.

.

Dei,

cujus

imaginem,

rex

of angels as described

vivificandum

ad

vicarius

ejus

.

.

."

Vie de Louis, XVIII, 62.

Staats-

und zur

Geschichtslehre zusammengetragen

zu den Ehren Gustav Schmollers, pp. 56 ff.); Berges, Die Fiirstenspiegel des hohen und spaten Mittelalters, pp.

134. Luchaire, Etudes sur VII, No. „.

.

.

1

les

actes

de Louis

age 19; see the discussion of this r &

,

by Dionysius but more

lly

"Ut

Commentaria

in

dispositione

visibili

innotescat

invisibilis

CLXXV

ex

dlspositio

hominum,

angelorum''

Hierarchiam caelestem

II

(PL,

Maximus °f

987

ff.).

by

the different estates of

common

human

society

participation in

on "symbol" of the

tne liturgy of the Church, and the emphasis

946).

136. Deuniverso, II,

all

specifically

the Confessor. See the latter's idea

being united in their

the

II,

32, 79.

See De consecr., VI, 234; VII, 236, 238. , rT a not Suger appears to be influenced Here again c 37.

in Bloch, p. 191

35.

in the Celestial Hierarchy.

2

(Opera, Orleans, 1674,

Cf. Valois, im; also Vallentin,

"Der Engelstaat" (Grundrisse und

Bausteine zur

liturgical

symphony

in

chant

as

which the

a

elect

angels in the eternal praise of cc.

665

f.,

696).

God

with the (PG, XIC,


I40

And

the king, as the center of the procession, represented Christ in the midst

of the heavenly hosts. Suger's choir

The

was

It is

likely that the very disposition of nine chapels around

by Dionysius.

inspired

consecration of the church

was but

the

might say, to the glory of both. Suger certainly had tion of his church in

mind when he designed

onysian vision of heaven. style,

not only because

his

ceremony

first liturgical

which the monarchical and the theological spheres were

to converge

in

—one

this politico-religious func-

sanctuary as a typos of the Di-

We cannot by this political significance of the new builder himself did not

its

want

it

to be overlooked but

because that significance s for the eventual adoption of Suger's design

of the French monarchy.

for the ecclesiastical architecture

Booklet on the Consecration alence, a ''shuttling

becomes aware of

a curious

The

reader of the

and bewildering ambiv-

back and forth" between the moral and aesthetic spheres

and between moral and aesthetic values. Cosmic harmony inspires the beholder with the desire to establish a similar harmony within himself, and in turn leads to the building

scribed as a "spiritual building" that cons citizens

this desire

of the sanctuary. This great undertaking all

who

take a part in

with the saints and of the household of God."

St. -Denis

is

de-

as "fellow

it

had been

raise,'

enemy, Thibault of

from contributions not only of the king but also of

his

Champagne. The consecration

imposed upon the entire

rite,

the solemn order

it

assembly of dignitaries, ecclesiastical and secular, the harmony into which the liturgical chant

blended their voices, was, for Suger, not merely an image of the

celestial order but a

promise of its realization on earth.

with a fervent prayer that God,

who

transformest the present [state]

into the

Thou powerfully and

mercifully

make

He concluded

the treatise

"invisibly restorest and miraculously

Heavenly Kingdom

.

.

.

mayest

us and the nature of the angels, heaven

and earth, into one republic."

The

political

once a mystic and

overtones of such language are not chosen accidentally. At a realist,

ceremony of its dedication, would actually contribute

Suger hoped that the building of his church and the in

both of which the entire kingdom had taken part,

to the consolidation of under the crown.

Suger should have expected such an effect

may

appear incredible to us.

the aesthetic and moral spheres no longer intersect;

we

That

For us

cannot imagine that a

great sanctuary might exert an influence affecting the order of the

common-

THE NEW CHURCH weal. But

was

it

141

quite otherwise in the twelfth century,

celestial hierarchy presented

laid

down

Even

to St.

modeled

whose

the design to

Thomas Aquinas

Louis IX, at once king and

what

picture

was committed.

And

of the universe. 138

the astonishing figure of

shows how seriously

saint,

its

that

demand was

taken.

design, attest the public

significance of architecture and aesthetic experience generally even

It is

have

appeared necessary that royal government be

Suger's St.-Denis, the moral values he attributed to

its artistic

I

not just an idealization of government, but

realization the Christian ruler

it

after the divine rule

to

The Dionysian

called the archetypal orientation of medieval thought.

of the

owing

more than

achievement.

beyond the purely

this significance,

artistic

achievement, that ac-

counts for the extraordinary impression caused by Suger's church. Contemporaries felt immediately that

it

was designed

as an architectural prototype, 139

and seem to have understood likewise that correspondence between the style and decoration of the sanctuary and Dionysian theology which the builder had intended. Precisely because

it

evoked the mystical archetype of the

political

order of the French monarchy, the style of St.-Denis was adopted for

idea of kingship. It

is

all

the

became the monumental expression of the Capetian

cathedrals of and

not surprising, therefore, that in the cathedrals of

and Chartres, of Reims and Amiens, the royal theme, evoked not only

Pr.ris

in the

Galleries of Kings but also in the selection of certain Biblical scenes and figures, is

completely merged into the Christological one. 14C

Summa

138.

De

Theologiae, la Ilae 93, a3; cf.

regimine principum, 1

39.

See above,

140. See

"L'Histoire de

p.

1

1

2, n.

la

a

la

study,

cathedrale de

Reims" (RH, XXII, 1916). In Chartres, the name Portail royal can be traced back as far as the

part of the thirteenth century.

first

Houvet, Cathedrale de Chartres, p. 2, n.

1

;

the

Cf.

Portail occidental,

Sablon, Histoire de Vaugusteet venerable

Eglise de Chartres, p. 30,

name from

who seems

to

the

as

another Solomon,

the statues of "kings."

was among

his

According to Williams, p. 104, a age in one of the tractates of the Anonymous of Rouen that emphasizes how Solomon built and dedicated the House of God loftiest

may

obligations.

refer to

William the Conqueror's patronIt would have been

age of St. Stephen at Caen. similarly

fitting

to

commemorate

the

royal

deduce

benefactors of the churches of the French do-

may

main under the image of Solomon. On this theme in French early Gothic sculpture, see Chastel, "La Rencontre de Salomon et de la Reine de Saba dans l'iconographie medievale"

It

be asked whether the predilection noticeable in

monumental sculpture of the Ile-de-, group of Solomon and the Queen of

for the

was conceived

the building of Christian temples

69.

important

Brehier's

Sheba, does not originate in the royal ideology. If the king

I, 2.

(GBA,

6th series,

XXXV,

1949). [See Add.]

SENS

f.

Ihe

Cathedral of Sens

AND CHARTRES WEST

is

the

first

Gothic cathedral.

Its

Henry

(d.

date Suger's St.-Denis. Begun under Archbishop

plan 1

Boar, the foundations seem to have been laid shortly after Plate 21

142), 1

even ante-

surnamed the

130. Cross-ribbed

vaults and that logical integration of the entire tectonic system

of Gothic were provided for even in the original plan: 1

may

in the

which

is

typical

nave the bases of

the shafts ing the diagonal ribs are placed obliquely, proof that the shafts

were designed over,

for that purpose

shows the

from the beginning. 2 The system of Sens, more-

clear distinction

between the tectonic "skeleton,"

responds, and the wall segments between them

reduced to a

minimum

—that we have come

—the

latter, as

mere

in the

Normandy. But

arrangement of the shaft bases under the diagonal

ribs goes

None of the

the earliest

known examples of

cant detail

is

its

appearance

the oblique

beyond the known

surviving examples of Norman architecture

employ diagonally placed responds consistently

decade before

"fillings,"

bundle of s or

the sexpartite vault, are probably imports from

in that region.

and

to identify as Gothic. Single ele-

ments, such as the articulation of individual shafts

models

ribs

this

system;

in fact,

feature anywhere occur no more than a

in Sens.

of great importance.

in the entire

It

3

Aesthetically this seemingly insignifi-

induces the eye, as Professor Sedlmayr

has pointed out, to see the entire edifice, vaults and s, as a unit: the ribs "Sugcr adopta hardiment le style nouveau la construction du choeur de l'abbayc de Saint-Denis (1140-1144). Mats, avant lui, 1.

pour

l'architcctc qui, des le

de Sens,

rimmense

edifice

avait

d'une

resolu venire

12. Gall.

Die Cotische Raukunst

the church

c.

1

p.

in

Frankreich

182. dates the beginning of

140.

2.

See Gall, Die Gotischt Raukumt.

la

3.

Cf. Sedlmayr, Die F.ntstrhung der Kathed-

de couvrir

ralr,

1130 environ, avait trace

plan et apparcille les premieres assises de

cathedr.ik-

p.

und Deurschhnd,

sur

croisee

d'ogives." Chartraire, Ia Cathedrale de Sens,

pp. 108

Geschichte

(MKW,

tf".,

IV, 191

1).

35.

"Neue Beitrage zur " 'Werden der Gotik'

and Gall,

rom

PI.

SENS AND CHARTRES WEST

143

springing from the diagonal responds can be understood as rising directly from 4 the floor level.

Another important feature of Sens Cathedral a genuine rib vault,

St.-Denis,

it is

verge in a

common

Norman abbey of

its

Only

keystone. 5

a

is

the vault of its apse.

webs ed by

distinct

few years

earlier, the

As

in

ribs that con-

master of the great

St.-Georges-de-Boscherville had sought to overcome the

discrepancy between the rib vault covering nave and forechoir and the half

dome over

the chevet

by placing

"false ribs" under the half

dome. 6

We cannot

say for certain whether the far more satisfactory "Gothic" solution was achieved earlier in Sens or St.-Denis.

much

later than that

The

choir of Sens

was probably completed

of St.-Denis, but the original design

may

predate that of

Suger. In other respects, however, Sens Cathedral

is

much more

conservative.

Luminosity was evidently not a primary consideration. If one compares Sens and St.-Denis

in this respect,

Suger's aspirations. later,

when

The

one

realizes all the

clerestory

at

clearly the singularity of

Sens were small.

One

century

the general craving for light also prompted the enlargement of the

windows of Notre Dame of Paris, Sens.

windows

more

The windows of the

it

was decided

cathedral

measure required the rather

to undertake the

were heightened despite the

same

step in

fact that this

of changing the curvature of the

difficult task

vaults. 7

Not

the least important aspect of the Cathedral of Sens with regard to the

future development of Gothic architecture the quadripartite plan adopted part of the twelfth century

—

by

all

is its

tripartite elevation. Instead

a gallery

and triforium placed between the nave

—the architect of Sens constructed merely

arcades and clerestory

forium," that

The 4.

is,

openings onto the

tripartite elevation

loft

5.

Sedlmayr, Die Entstehung,

p. 209.

Strange-

Sedlmayr does not mention Sens. Van der Meer, Keerpunt der MiddeleeuCf.

Sedlmayr, Die Entstehung,

p.

197;

Anfray, Ârchitecture normande. Son influence le nord de , p. 80; and Michon (CA, Rouen, 1926, p. 531). See above, p. 118. For dans

aisles,

Normandy

a "false tri-

not a ageway.

but from Burgundy

an evaluation of the functional and aesthetic aspects

of the

Niederrheinische

im

iven, p. 85. 6.

over the side

he borrowed not from

ly enough,

of

the French cathedrals during the second

cul-de-four

nerve,

Zeitalter der Fruhgotik, pp. 30 7.

The windows

around 1230, those See

Chartraire,

Baukunst, p. 176.

see

Gall,

und norm'innische Architektur

p.

in the choir

in the

44;

ff.

were enlarged

nave around 13 10 Die Gotische

Gall,


144 (Autun, Langres).

8

Its aesthetic

consequences are twofold:

it

greatly reduced

between the openings of the arcades and windows and thus

the zone that

lies

enhanced

further the importance of the s at the expense of the walls

still

between them. Secondly, the proportions of the edifice.

—

in St.

It

—

Bernard's sense

Burgundian

in the

more

tripartite elevation

obviously reduces

also

makes

its

harmony of proportions

possible a

specific sense

had a profound effect on the height; but this "moderation" that

is

of Cistercian architecture: the ground

plan of Sens being designed ad quadratum, the square bays of the nave are twice as

wide

of the side

as those

aisles;

same proportion

sible to give the

owing

to the tripartite elevation,

is

The

subdivided,

of the arcade imposts, into two equal parts: the octave ratio of

at the level

permeates the entire

'.i

i

edifice.

can hardly doubt that this pointedly unostentatious cathedral, the

austerity of its forms softened print

was pos-

to the relative heights of nave and aisles.

elevation of the nave to the springing of the vaults, moreover,

We

it

of the

views of

artistic

by the harmony of its proportions, bears Bernard.

St.

The

the im-

builder of the cathedral, Arch-

bishop Henry, was perhaps the most forceful exponent,

among

the prelates of

the French domain, of the Bernardian ideas of reform. After his early worldly

conduct had elicited Bernard's criticism, he submitted, clesiastical

as well as his suffragan, the Bishop

and,

it

in

1126, to the ec-

and ascetic ideas of the abbot of Clairvaux to such an extent that he,

of Paris, momentarily incurred the wrath

would seem, even the persecution of Louis VI, which even Suger was un-

able to prevent. 9 It

is

characteristic that in this

the general chapter of the Cistercians, which

emergency Henry appealed

was

Citeaux, requesting the intervention of the order, since, as he put brotherly affection connected

it

The

it,

of

ties

with the king as well as with himself. Ever

since his conversion, the archbishop could count friend and ally.

to

just then being held at

on Bernard of Clairvaux

as his

abbot appealed directly to Louis VI, and, rebuked by the

king, he had recourse to

Rome.

In his letter to

Pope Honorius,

in

which he

as-

sociated the signatures of the abbots of Citeaux and Pontigny with his own,

Bernard

calls the

bishops,

whom

he compares to the Innocents of Bethlehem since they are "re-

born" to a new 8.

Van

king another Herod bent on destroying the recently reformed

der Meer,

life. p.

10

83

9.

On

Henry's

life,

see

GC, XII,

44.

10.

PL,

CLXXXII,

157.

SENS AND CHARTRES WEST There can be no doubt about the

Toward

the end of his career

character brought

him

(1

1

I45

sincerity of Bernard's esteem for

Henry.

37) the archbishop's inflexible and tempestuous

into serious difficulties with his hierarchy and eventually

with the pope. Even in the angry reproach that Bernard addressed to Henry on

who

one senses real concern for a friend

that occasion,

furnishes his enemies

with weapons of attack that leave his ers helpless to defend him. 11

We learn more about the relation between the two men from the treatise On

the

Conduct and

soon after the

composed by Bernard

Office of a Bishop,

Iatter's

"conversion," which

is

Henry's request,

at

mentioned with high praise

in the

preamble. In the treatise Bernard outlines what he considers the exemplary conduct of a bishop, surely with an eye on the special character and obligations of the Archbishop of Sens. 12

Among

the points that Bernard specifically ens upon the prelate

moderation in building. 13

One

reminded of

is

is

fact in looking at Sens

this

Cathedral. Begun but a few years after Henry's "conversion" and the completion of the treatise, the sanctuary

of the reform party.

lates

possibility

met

—

14

It is

in

1

140,

newly completed choir of the

in the

to reflect the architectural postu-

a tempting thought

synod which,

that the

was bound

—though no more than

Henry convoked

cathedral. 15

at

The synod

Sens

a bare

may

have

resulted in the

complete defeat of Abelard and the greatest theological triumph of Bernard of Clairvaux.

On

that occasion Bernard

may

have seen

Gothic cathedral completed that bore witness, to the astonishing

in the

at least part

of the

very language of its

first

style,

ascendancy over the entire hierarchy of achieved by

the abbot of Clairvaux in that hour.

That the 11.

first

CLXXXII,

PL,

Gothic cathedral should have been 3

14

f.

After

Henry's

death Bernard refers to him as "benedictus" (ibid., c.

12.

(PL,

in

mentioned on 13. .

.

.

14.

11 26.

cc.

810

Henry's "conversion"

Sens

Rolland,

may

is

"Honoriricabitis

not be the only example of

influence

"II

est

upon cathedral

building.

"Chronologie de la Cathedrale de Tournai" (Revue beige d'archeologie et d'histoire

sig-

11

40:

impossible de ne pas rapprocher de

l'opposition de Saint Bernard a toute decoration luxuriante,

transept."

f.

PL, CLXXXII, 812: non amplis aedificiis."

Bernard's

was

the visit Bernard paid to that city in

522).

De mori bus et officio Episcoporum tractatus CLXXXII, 809 ff.). The treatise was

composed

built at Sens

de fart, IV, 1934), has sought to connect the style of the transept of Tournai Cathedral with

la

On

simplicite

that visit and

ornamentale its

du

ecclesiastical

background and consequences, see Canivez, "Les Voyages et les fondations monastiques de St. Bernard en Belgique" (ABSS, I, 29 ff.). 15. Chartraire, "Le sejour de St. Bernard a Sens" (ABSS,

II),

denies the possibility that

met in the cathedral, which was not completed until 163.

the council could have

1


I46 nificant,

The

and undoubtedly

was important

it

ship "of

all

of the new

for the fortunes

see of Sens had not been able to maintain

Gaul and ," but within the French domain proper

beyond question the

first.

16

At

style.

lofty claims to the primate-

its

who

the insistence of Louis VI,

was

it

considered

in-

it

sufferable that the foremost archdiocese of his realm should be subject to the

"foreign" metropolitan of Lyons, Pope Calixtus ing of this

tie.

The

17

was

It

a fact

had consented to the sever-

among

province of Sens included

of Paris and Chartres.

II

suffragans the bishops

its

of great consequence that the Archbishop of

won

Sens, along with the bishops of Paris and Chartres, should have been to Bernard's idea of ecclesiastical reform.

The Gothic

style of

over

Henry's ca-

thedral pays tribute not only to the spirituality of Clairvaux, however; the

monarchy

itself, as

we

have seen, had submitted to that

tecture of Sens Cathedral office

spirituality.

The

archi-

symbol of the concept of the "conduct and

like a

is

of a bishop," which became exemplary for the French episcopate during

the greatest phase of Capetian rule.

The

third

member of the

was one of x\rch-

triumvirate of Gothic builders

bishop Henry's suffragans, the Bishop of Chartres. Geoffrey of Leves, scion

of an ancient and powerful house of the Beauce, that

seem

to

encom the important movements of his generation. 18

once the friend of Henry of Sens, St.

one of those rare personalities

is

whom

He was

at

he actually converted to the ideas of

Bernard, and of Suger of St.-Denis. Even more intimate, however, were his

relations with the abbot

separable. 19

of Clairvaux; to contemporaries the two seemed

At Geoffrey's

request Bernard

came

to Chartres in

1

in-

146 in order to

preach the Crusade; on that occasion the great Cistercian moved the chivalry

of the region so deeply that they implored him, ship in the

Holy War.

20

in vain, to

assume the leader-

Bernard mentions the Bishop of Chartres,

casionally accompanied on his missions, with iration in his

Geoffrey was above 16.

GC, XII,

17.

See

XIII,

Fhche and Martin,

historxens,

he oc-

writings. 21

else a statesman; for fifteen years papal legate,

all

1.

Recuetl des

whom

own

XV,

c

339

Histoire de VEglise, VIII,

83

History

f.;

p

.

,

3 ,,

among

ff".;

of

and

Poole,

Illustrations

of the

Thought and Learning, ^ thc blsllop thc most rcspcctcd

Medieval

who ca

l|

s

the pre laces of Gaul."

40 2. 18.

On

pontificate.

Geoffrey, Chartres', p.

see

Fisquet,

88; Clerval, Les Icoles

de Chartres au moyen-dge,

pp.

153

9.

Fisquct

o. °'

,,...,. Lepinoi ,nois Htst0,re Le

La ff.;

HLF,

2

P

he

.

21. Clerval, pp. 153

„.

.

de ChjrtreS

'

ff.

>

h

" ff

'

SENS AND CHARTRES WEST was present mate

no

at

than ten councils.

less

was probably

circle, it

rapprochement between Louis portant consequences.

At his

the

own

22

And,

member of the king's intiwho was responsible for the

as a

he, next to Suger,

VI and

St.

Bernard that was to have such im-

23

same time, however, the bishop was

right,

47

1

a distinguished theologian in

with a profound and extremely broad interest

in the intellectual

currents of his age. Geoffrey found friendship and respect for St. Bernard not

incompatible with his iration for the genius of Abelard. 24 His chief claim to

immortality rests, perhaps, on the fact that

owing

splendid period in

its

history, the period

and richest in outstanding scholars."

was under

it

25

"most

productions

fertile in literary

Geoffrey appointed the three great

chancellors of the Cathedral School, Bernard, Gilbert, and Thierry. 26 In

when John of

1

1

37,

Salisbury journeyed to Chartres, the faculty included Thierry, l'fiveque. 27

William of Conches, and Richard

more than

and

his episcopate

of Chartres ed through the most

to his initiative that the School

a partial picture

But even these names give no

of the number of eminent theologians associated

with the School of Chartres during Geoffrey's episcopate.

Its

teachers and stu-

dents exerted, during the twelfth century, an influence that extended from

England to Sicily and possibly to the 22. ".

.

legatione

.

per annos circiter

apostolice

sedis

XVcim

.

.

.

sancte et religiose

functus, multa in ipsa legatione a scismaticorum

quos

infestatione

pericula

revocavit

sinum matris ecclesie us, symoniace pestis

ad

manus a munere, tempore ecclesie Dei, tarn in sacerdotii dignitate quam in honore regni, ." The age, from Geoffrey's columna necrologue, is in CC, III, 28; cf. I, 18. Cf. Merlet, Dignitaires de Tiglise Notre-Dame de egregius extirpator, excutiens

Moslem world

Without the

as well.

William of St.-Thierry addressed both and to

St.

Abelard

as a heretic. Cf. Clerval,

"The Masters of

him

and Poole, and

of Paris

School

the

Chartres in John of Salisbury's

XXV,

to

Bernard his scathing accusation of

Time" (EHR,

1920).

florens et flrma suo

.

.

2 5-

26.

VI

Louis

refers to

him

as "fidelis noster"

and "amicus noster karissimus" (CC, 143).

On

Thibault's

Geoffrey's appointment, too

much of

initial

whom

I,

135,

opposition

to

he considered

a "royalist," see Lepinois,

I,

87.

Clerval

believes

that

One

catches

a

le

r

glimpse or Geoffrey

s

personal relations with Thierry in the famous

episode at the Council of Soissons, as reported

by no

less

a

witness than Abelard, Historia

calamitatum mearum,

X

(Cousin, ed.,

I,

22).

Clerval remarks that Geoffrey secured splendid

Geoffrey was actually Abelard's student. Geoffrey defended Abelard at the Council of Soissons (1121) and seems to have dropped him only in 1131, when 24.

plus belle epoque des

la

P lus riche en ecolatres fameux, pendant XII e siecle." Clerval, pp. 153 ff.

Chartres, p. 233.

23.

"Assurement

ecoles de Chartres, la plus feconde en ecrits, la

material

positions

for

his

chancellors.

Thierry was made Archdeacon of Dreux. See Clerval,

pp.

208

ff.;

Merlet,

104. 27. See below, p. 190.

Dignitaires,

p.

—


I48

encouragement and protection of cosmological system outlined It

Plate

2$

was under Geoffrey

in

St.

Bernard's enlightened friend, the daring

Chapter

that the

2

could not have been developed.

west facade of Chartres Cathedral, even

in

its

present composite shape the most beautiful of all medieval facades, was built.

Its

completion, along with the construction of the two great flanking towers,

kindled in the entire population an enthusiasm unheard of until that time. 28

was developed

entire facade

from the

isolated

rest

of the

in successive steps. edifice,

was begun

The

northern tower,

after a fire in

1

1

The still

34 that had

caused considerable damage to the Romanesque cathedral of Bishop Fulbert. Plate 27

The

magnificent Royal Portal, along with the southern tower, was started

somewhat

later.

Around 1145 work was

possible that the

in progress

program of sculptures of the

on both towers.

Portail royal

It is

was developed

gradually rather than at one stroke. 29

These

labors

show

the importance of religious art at this time; they sug-

gest a surprising concern with problems of design and composition over and

above

practical considerations.

all

The

were un-

architectural parts mentioned

necessary from a practical point of view. Their function was primarily sym-

of considerable interest that very large resources and a singular ac-

bolic. It is

cumulation of artistic talent were employed

on an architectural undertaking of

The west

—and by

a friend

of St. Bernard's

this kind.

facade of Chartres has for Gothic sculpture the same significance

that the Cathedral of Sens and the choir of St. -Denis have for ture. It

is,

Gothic architec-

moreover, closely related to the west facade of St. -Denis.

of Chartres was a close friend of Suger and a frequent visitor to 28.

See the famous by Robert of

Torrigni

MGH SS,

in

VI, 496.

sives

XII

de

la

siecles"

(SAELM,

Chartres, 1900); Aubert, la

occidental

facade

Chartres"

(BM, C,

au

francaise

XIII,

"Le de

pp.

Pontalis' theory, according to

portals east

were

but

sembled

Portail

Royal

176

1955).

The chroWest re-

mains unsettled. Besides the works just listed. see also Voege, Die Anfange des monumentalen

im

Mittehlter, pp.

(with splendid

Stilrs

analyses, even though the author's chronological

La

Sculpture

conclusions were erroneous); Giesau, "Stand

ff.

Lefevre-

der

which the

figure

originally erected farther to the

at their present location, has

become

untenable in the light of the excavations conhis report

May,

nology of the sculptures of Chartres

et

subsequently taken apart and reas-

ducted by Fels. See

Suger

de

Cathedrale

la

1941), and

moyen-dge,

CA,

1904;

Bishop

an der Fassade der Kathedr?Ie von Chartres" (Kunstchronik, VIII,

"Les Facades succesCathedrale de Chartres au XI e et au

29. Lefevre-Pontalis,

The

St. -Denis.

"Die Grabung

Forschung

Mittelaltcrs" alters.

iiber

(Beitrage

135

das

ff.

Figurcnportal

Vortrage der Ersten Deutsche?!

storiker-Tagung auf Schloss Briihl), dard.

The

West

Chartres, pp. 14

ff.

des

zur Kunst des Mittel-

Portals

of Saint

Kimsthi-

and StodDenis

and

.


I49

mentions a mass that Geoffrey celebrated in the hardly completed choir, and 30 also his presence at the final consecration.

two facades

reflect the personal relations

affinities in their

convictions and tastes.

The

between the two prelates and basic

The

to

Plates 24, ip

St.-Denis facade precedes that of

Chartres and may, in some respects, even have served as

seem

between the

stylistic affinities

model. Craftsmen

its

have been exchanged between the two workshops. But details regarding

the relationship between the facades have so far defied satisfactory clarification.

Since the jamb figures of Suger's portal are not mentioned in his description of it,

they

may

not have been executed until after the abbot's death in

event, they

might be

Portal at Chartres.

after the St.-Denis statues,

published by Montfaucon (the statues were destroyed in 177

now

heads,

in

American museums,

more

suggest a

that

may

West,

primitive style than that of Chartres

W.

S.

In that

on the other hand, 1), as

well as three

at least

The same

of inferior quality

is

more than

impression

is

group of small heads,

a

Louvre, that seem to have belonged to the statues

in the

31 1

Stoddard's recent analysis of ornamental details of both

facades. Definitely archaic and

now

5

be assigned to these jamb statues,

32 that of the figures attributed to the master sculptor.

confirmed by

1

corresponding statues from the Royal

later than the

The drawings

1

in the

tympanum

and archivolts of St.-Denis.

The comparison of the two Chartres.

It is

here that the

seems to come

all

facades underscores the singular achievement of

new

style,

of a sudden into

its

under the guidance of a great sculptor,

own, realizing the aesthetic vision of the

Gothic with definitive clarity and grandeur.

first

No

other

work of medieval

sculpture produced an equal impression upon contemporaries; even today

can trace

its

of .

influence far

And no

other

beyond the boundaries of the French domain or even

work

similarly outdistances

West

models. Inasmuch as the statuary of Chartres 30.

Oeuvres completes de Suger, pp. 230, 23

31.

monarchic francaise, Cf. Aubert, "Tetes des statues-colonnes

portail

occidental de Saint-Denis"

CIV, 1945); p. 141. p.

38,

its is

Sculpture, pp.

Crosby, L'Abbaye

182

ff.;

(BM,

and Suger,

royale de Saint-Denis,

maintains that the statues were com-

pleted before Suger's death and hence before

those of Chartres. This thesis seems the

convincing to me.

more

possible prototypes or

essentially a part of the

Montfaucon,

32.

3,.

235.

du

we

mental

Sculptures

Les I,

Monumens

16, 17, 18;

Ross,

from St.-Denis"

de

la

"Monu(Journal

of the Walters Art Gallery, III, 1940); Crosby, Problems "Early Gothic Architecture

—New

as

a

Result of the

St.

Denis Excavations"

(JSAH, VII, 1948) (on the recently discovered which he rightly dates earlier than

relief,

Chartres); an illuminating comparison of the styles

of the two facades

is in

Voege,

p.

223.

Plate

28


150

architecture and dramatically underscores the stylistic impulse that produced the

first

Gothic

art, a

word must be

said about its significance as well as

its

pos-

sible sources.

According

one

to

thesis that has gained

the statue colonne

was

human

occasionally attached to the

figure

is

actually inspired

wide acceptance among

scholars,

by Cistercian book illumination, where initial I in a

manner

a

that suggests

indeed the association of column and statue in the cathedral sculpture of the Ile-de-. 33 Burgundian influences upon this sculpture are likely since, in

ornamental detail

correspondences have been found

at least, several

of both regions. 34 But to derive the

me

seems to

what matters

"how":

in a

work of art human

to attach the

to co-ordinate the

the other

is

two

quite a different matter, and this for

two

in

initials

reasons. For one thing,

not the iconographic "what" but the stylistic

is

figure to a column, painted or carved,

such a

works

in

from the Cistercian

statue colonne

way

that the

something quite different. Even

if

rhythm of the one

is

one thing;

also permeates

we disregard the difference of size

and medium that separates the statues of St.-Denis and Chartres from the Cistercian miniatures, the latter

entirely short in the co-ordination of statue

fall

and stem. Second, even the motif as such luminations (even though curs,

not confined to the Burgundian

possibly appear here for the

from the middle of the twelfth century onward,

produced Plate 22a

may

it

is

in regions as

in

(or frame)

de Citeaux d'apres

Bibliotheque

Giesau;

was

—

de

Dijon;

siecle

manuscrits de

a' la

following

him,

dissertation,

Les

and,

Goldscheider's

hazardous

ff.

48.

It

ought to be

pointed out, however, that other ornamental

have

striking

parallels

in

northern

French and English book illumination. Ornament, moreover,

following note.) easily

diffused

seems to

and imitated that

it

is

(See is

so

often

orbit

attempt

to

the

statue

determination

of

"four-leaf-clover pattern" as occurring both in

Chartres

adosse's,

details

oc-

origins and sources. Stoddard singles out the

dard, pp. 49

p.

it

monumental integration of figure and

Monial.

See Stoddard,

it

—produced within the Norman

Origines du portail a statues colonnes; and Stod-

34.

other. In particular,

achieved that invites comparison with the

first

les

style"

that a truly

La Miniature du Xlfr

33. Oursel,

FAbbaye

, on the

works of the "Channel

on either side of the Channel initial

time);

number of manuscripts

in a

widely apart as northern and England, on the one

hand, and Alsace or southwest

have been

first

il-

and

The

occurs

in

medium of medieval to antiquity.

On

Burgundian Parav-lehowever, the hemxeydes

the

in

motif,

nearly art

every

phase

and

and can be traced back

the style and possible dcriva-

tion of the St.-Denis and Chartres statues, see

Male,

Notre-Dame de

Aubert, Sculpture,

Chartres,

p. 186.

p.

30,

and

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Caen.

Nave {1064

1120)

Abbey of Note

St.-Etienne, Caen. Choir (c. 1200)

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SENS AND CHART RES WEST Zb

colonne.

Such possible

view of the remarkable evidence for

which

especially that of Suger, to

Norman

sources of the

have pointed

I

in the

should not be forgotten, however, that the

It

5«

with the North deserve our attention

ties

all

first

the

more

Gothic

in

art,

preceding chapter.

affinities

between the

Gothic sculpture and contemporary book illumination are perhaps owing

first

less to

an influence of the one upon the other than to a general stylistic trend that under-

And

both.

lies

those affinities do not really explain what

about the statues of St.-Denis and, even more describe

it

only as the idea of an icon

in stone.

so,

The

is

so novel and striking

of Chartres West:

we

closest formal parallel

Plate

22b

Plate

23

can

of this

extraordinary idea occurs, characteristically enough, in the truly statuesque

of saints

figures

the

in certain

mosaics of Norman

two lower zones of the

those of the

Chapel

example, the images

Examples

from

the

on the faces of the

saints

French

northern

group, so impressively represented at the recent

of

exhibit

illuminated

manuscripts

the

at

As

to the second

Guta-Sintram

Bibliotheque Nationale (see the catalogue Les

gustinian

thann

include

Amand

the

St.

Augustine from

St.-

MS. 80), opening page; and the Life of St. Amand, from the same abbey (Valenciennes MS. 501), fol. 59, r. and v. As regards English illumination, see Boase, (Valenciennes

English Art 1100-1216,

p.

("column statues" Bodleian MS., Auct. E 76b

243 and Pis. 29 and in

initials

infra

I

and

1,

Bodleian

3rd

VII,

1942).

group of manuscripts men-

in

(dated

monastery

1

at

1

Codex

from the AuMarbach-Schwarzen54)

Alsace (Strasbourg, Grand-Seminaire,

MS.

78), also the superb evangelistary (now Laon MS. 550), not necessarily of Alsatian

origin,

though

century

at the

beginning of the thirteenth

in the possession

of the same monastery

(see the Bibliotheque Nationale catalogue just

mentioned,

p.

95); here (fol. 19) a veritable been placed against the initial

statue colonne has

in

the

"L'flvangeliaire de MarbachI. See Walter, Schwarzenthann de la fin du XII e siecle" (AHA, IX, 1930), and "Les Miniatures du Codex Marbach-Schwarzenthann Guta-Sintram de

Wormald, "The Develop-

series,

of the nave 150 and are

1

the

ment of English Illumination in the Twelfth Century" (Journal of the British Archaeological Association,

pillars

in

Puiset Bible, respectively). Cf. also the im-

portant paper by

in all

after

tioned, see the large miniatures of the

Manuscrits a peintures en du Vlfc au Xlle siecle),

above

the northern transept wall of the Palatine

same sanctuary. 36 These works were created shortly

in the

35.

Greek Fathers on

Palermo and eight other

at

Sicily, for

side walls of the presbytery of Cefalu, and

In

the

MS.

just mentioned there also occurs example of the motif of the human

(AHA, IV, 1925). See also the initial 422 v) in the Great Bible at ClermontFerrand (MS. 7), a work that is closely related (1154)" (fol.

Cathedral really points to the influence of St.-

"Channel style." For an antecedent, see James in the initial I in the famous Bible of Stavelot, a.d. 1097 (Brit. Mus. Add. 28107, fol. 197 v), reproduced in Swarzenski, Monuments of Romanesque Art, fig. 414. 36. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily,

Denis. For a fine example of the same motif in

pp. 14

fF.,

"The

contribution

a striking

figure climbing in vines that

we

find in

both

West (Boase, PI. 29). The motif is so frequent in English art that I am not sure whether its occurrence at Lincoln St.-Denis and Chartres

northern

French illumination,

see

the

Con-

to the

the figure of St.

46

ff.;

cordance of the Gospels from Anchin (Douai

formation of the

MS.

itself in the great

42),

fol.

101. [See Add.]

7A and B, 23B, 33, 34. of Byzantine art to the

Pis.

new style which manifests west portals of St.-Denis and


I52

thus exactly contemporary with the

Given the

most mature sculptures of Chartres West. 87

close political and cultural ties that just then existed between

Capetian and

Norman

Sicily, a

common

source of inspiration for both

mosaics and sculptures appears entirely plausible. 38 Byzantine influence

windows above

present in the three great

the Royal Portal.

is

noticeable

It is

even in the illuminated manuscripts from Citeaux. 39 There can be no doubt .

that the spell

Bernard

Such

which the

art

of the Greek Church exerted upon the age of

also reflected in the first

is

Gothic

stylistic considerations apart,

we may

ask

if

anything tangible can be

ascertained regarding the relationship between the art of Chartres intellectual

merely

and spiritual currents of the time that

a coincidence that a

the very

moment when both

work of such

St.

art.

we

West

and the

have discussed.

singular importance

Is it

was executed

at

the influence of St. Bernard and the prestige of the

Cathedral School of Chartres stood at their zenith? Bishop Geoffrey was intimately connected with both movements;

it is

views should not be reflected

—and,

memorable easier to

—

in the great

artistic enterprise for

unlikely that their aesthetic

even to contemporaries,

which he was responsible. But

assume the existence of such influences than

it is

much

of what

to say specifically

nature these were.

A

relatively easy approach

is

the iconographic one.

Thus

the northern

tower, which was begun ten years before the remainder of the facade and apparently without any thought of a comprehensive program

Chartres" Koehler,

has

already

"Byzantine

been

Art

suggested

and

by

West"

the

We

should (Dumbarton Oaks Papers, I, 1941). not exclude the possibility of yet another Byzantine source for the composition of Chartres

West: mid-Byzantine ivories of the so-called Romanos group, like the famous Harbaville rriptveh (Louvre), show a similar co-ordination of the enthroned figure of Christ with groups of saints standing motionless on either side of his throne below. Byzantine ivories had long been treasured in the West. ties

And

the close political

with Byzantium that prevailed

at the be-

ginning of the twelfth century render than likely that the

first

Gothic

it

artists

more were

acquainted with ivories of the type mentioned.

37.

On

Demus,

the

pp.

dates

375

ff.,

donors were two

(its

of these

404

ff.;

mosaics,

also

see

Kitzinger,

"The Mosaics of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo" (AB, XXXI, 1949). 38. Kitzinger stresses the relations between and Sicily and shows the presence of "French" elements in the iconography of the Palatine Chapel. Such influence by no means excludes the possibility of

.1

srvlistic

impact

by means of model books, may have exerted upon French art. Such that the Sicilian mosaics,

influence

Demus, 39.

is

well attested elsewhere. See, e.g.,

pp. 443

The

ff.

best

example

the

is

the

commentary on Dijon Library (MS. 129).

kodegetria in Jerome's

beautiful Isaiah in

SENS AND CHARTRES WEST dignitaries of the chapter),

40

still

were condemned by

capitals that

1

53

has

some of those "monstrous" mythological

St.

Bernard. In the southern tower, however,

the capitals are reduced to austerely stylized vegetative forms that correspond

of the reform. 41

to the postulates

over,

much

is

farther

that of St.-Denis.

The

composition of the three portals, more-

removed from Cluniac

And

influences or models than

the benign Saviour in the central

from the awesome judge of Romanesque sculpture, tion

of

is

tympanum,

like a

monumental

of the "amor vincit timorem" that epitomizes the new, more

St.

is

even

so different illustra-

lyrical piety

Bernard.

The

right-hand portal of the Chartres facade reflects, in

its

iconography,

the ideas of the School of Chartres. In the tympanum there appears the Mother

of

God

enthroned, surrounded, in the archivolts, by the personifications of the

liberal arts,

which are accompanied by the great

these disciplines; the rendering of this theme

appearance at

ture. Its

this portal has

fact that the cultivation

of the

first in

monumental

Mary

42

The

felicitous

as the Seat

thought of co-ordinating

of the quadrivium, was

may

ctrtes liberates

its

chief

theme with the

as being

program

its

is

title

figure of liberal

on the Incarnation, Alan of Lille

confounded by

well have stood before the Chartres portal.

theme to which

this

of Wisdom bespeaks the ultimate goal and purpose of

studies at the Cathedral School. In a sequence

depicts the

sculp-

been very plausibly connected with the

liberal arts, especially

the particular concern of the School of Chartres and at that time to fame.

of each of

classical masters

the

is

dedicated, and

this

mystery. 43

The

it

Incarnation

was here

school acknowledged that act of faith in which

As

its

is

a student he

the general

that the celebrated

knowledge and wisdom

originated and ended.

But has the Christian Platonism of Chartres also exerted an influence upon the style, the formal design, of the west facade?

There

can, of course, be

no

question of ascribing to the abstract thought of theologians or philosophers the 40. Gaurerius, (d. after

11 32),

Blois

after

(d.

archdeacon of Chartres and Ansgerius, archdeacon of

11 39).

Merlet and Clerval, XI*

Steele,

pp.

86

f.;

GC,

Un

III,

124,

131; cf.

Manuscrit chartrain du

Merlet, Dignitaires, pp.

128, 178. 41. Aubert,

reproductions

42. See Male,

and

V Art

pp. 104

43.

"Le

Portail

Royal," and the

in

Lassus,

Monographic de

la

Cathedrale de Chartres.

517

ff.

De

ff.).

Notre-Dame de Chartres, p. 24, du XHe Steele en ,

religieux

Incarnatione [See

Add.]

Christi

(PL,

CCX,

Plate

29


154

achievement of a very great

artist.

On

the other hand, chapter as well as bishop

normally would assume an important role cathedral art.

And we

in the

planning and supervision of

are apt to underestimate the extent to

which the

and wishes of his ecclesiastical patrons guided the work of the medieval It is

ideas artist.

precisely the singularity and novelty of the style achieved at Chartres

West

that leads

one to ask

if this style

was not created

in

response to the

wishes and ideas expressed by the cathedral chapter.

The

striking and unique aspect of this style

architecture and sculpture.

The human

figure

tern of columns and archivolts; perhaps

come

pattern has

it

is

the complete integration of

seems to merge into the rigid pat-

is

more adequate

to say that this

And

to life in the serene and noble order of the statues.

the

concordance of architecture and sculpture renders apparent the geometrical element that

is

at the root

of the entire composition. As was remarked

earlier,

geometrical formulae have also been employed in Romanesque sculpture, but as technical devices that aided the artist and in the completed

largely unnoticed. as

it

The master of Chartres

work remain

renders his composition transparent,

were, in order to reveal the geometrical principle as the law that has

guided his artistic inspiration.

This

is

no mere impression. Whoever designed the facade was a master of

empirical geometry.

Around

1

1

50, Chartres, in light

of the speculations of

its

Cathedral School, would seem to have been the likeliest place where such

knowledge could have been gained,

As Plate

26

as well as applied to architecture.

regards the west facade, the total width of the three portals

by the two flanking towers, but an upper frame

prescribed, or at least limited, for the composition

is

provided by the horizontal stringcourse.

ing rectangle in which the portals are inscribed to true measure," since

its

was

is

sides are related as are the sides

The

The

result-

proportioned "according

of two squares

whose

areas have the ratio of

vail in

each of the three portals and their tympana; but of even greater interest

is

1

:

2.

square and the equilateral triangle pre-

the use of the "golden section." This proportion

—one

of the "two true

treasures" and the "precious jewel of geometry," as Kepler called

44. In his

My sterium cosmographicum

(1596),

quotcd by Ghyka, Le Nombre J'or, I, 50. On the harmonical equivalents of the golden sec-

tion,

see Fischer, Ztttfj

tionrn, pp. 72

f.

it

44

—occurs

Yortr'dge iiber Propor-


1

55

both in the most accomplished statues in the jambs and in the groups of the artes

and their corresponding philosophers in the archivolts of the Incarnation

portal. Moessel's

so obvious

—

it

measurements are so exact and the use of the golden section

divides the

jamb

figures at the bent elbow, the

horizontal division of the figures

—

that

most notable

no doubt appears possible

in this in-

stance.

The section

knew

School of Chartres 45

from Euclid;

the mathematical importance of the golden

Thierry possessed the Elements

by Adelard of Bath. 46 Moreover, how

lation

in the Latin trans-

to construct the sectio aurea

geometrically could be learned from Ptolemy's Almagest.* 7 interest that a Latin translation

of

this

of Bath, seems to have been completed around either to Thierry of Chartres or to

Bernard (Silvestris?). In conclusion,

I

48

[See

It is

1

150 and to have been dedicated

his successor as chancellor

of the school,

Add.]

should venture the following suggestion.

The

system used on the west facade of Chartres was furnished to masters by the Cathedral School.

The

geometrical

its

master or

school wished to underscore the theo-

of the four mathematical disciplines by having them

significance

logical

not without

work, attributed to the same Adelard

represented, in the allegories of the quadrivium, on the portal of the Incarnation.

And

to the

ciple

of order that alone could convey to the senses the vision of ultimate glory

to

of that Platonic academy, geometry appeared

which the

entire facade

is

dedicated.

The

facade evokes

more

as the prin-

perfectly even

than that of St.-Denis the mystical character of the sanctuary as "the house of

God

and the gate of heaven." Surrounding the majesty of Christ depicted

central

tympanum

in the

there appear the choirs of angels and saints in the "concert"

of the heavenly hierarchy. In "measure and number and weight" Thierry of Chartres sought to seize the primordial principle of the Creation.

45.

With

section

in

Quadratum,

regard to the place of the golden Euclid's p.

Elements,

134: "[it

is]

see

Ad

Lund,

the only one of

all

geometrical proportions which enters constantly into a multitude of proofs"; and Heath,

Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, 46. Clerval, p.

Euclid in the

190

ff.

On

II,

97

The ff.

the tradition of

Middle Ages, see Lund, pp.

143

ff.;

The

great

Cantor, Vorlesungen zur Geschichte der

and Heath, I, 92 f. Halma and Delambre, Paris, 181 3), p. 26; cf. Cantor, I, 907 and II, 7; and Funck-Hellet, "L'Equerre des maitres

Mathematik,

91

II,

47. Almagest

d'oeuvres et

la

niques de Tart,

f.;

(ed.,

proportion" (Les Cahiers tech-

II,

1949).

48. See Bliemetzrieder, Adelhard von Bath, pp. 149

ff.

Plate

22b


I56

may have

schoolman

lived to see the unforgettable tribute paid to the

by the master craftsman who created the cathedral

principle

49. Postscript (1956). This

book was

in press

before the appearance of Ernst Gall's review

(AB, XXXVII,

1955) of Crosby, LAbbaye royale de Saint-Denis. Gall seeks to refute the

continuation of those

Again,

facade.

same

49

Romanesque antecedents?

we compare

Suger's facade with that of Chartres West, Noyon, or even Paris, and his choir with that of Chartres (which Gall if

view that Suger's St. -Denis represents the original creation of Gothic church architecture, basing his criticism on the following arguments. Since Suger's church was completed only in its

himself will hardly call "late" Romanesque or

western and eastern parts,

According to Gall, Gothic "may be said to begin with the conscious effort to permeate the

the

fluenced

it

cannot have in-

Gothic cathedrals

"since

their

we

"late" Gothic), can stylistic

principles

buildings

were

seriously

underlying

deny that the Gothic

these

formulated in St.-Denis?

first

decisive characteristics are found in the shape

elevation with a distinct vertical tendency,

of the nave." Moreover, St.-Denis preserves

bodied in the dynamic power of slender rising

many Romanesque

... a symbol of transcendental forces which are to fill the soul of worshipers with deep longing for the celestial kingdom of God." I am far from sure that such verticalism was altogether absent from Suger's choir, but verti-

elements, not only in

sculptured decoration but also in

toward

a unified

its

its

tendency

ground plan and the fusion of of this view, Gall claims

spatial units. In

marks the

that such unification

late

phase of

both Romanesque and Gothic, whereas clarity

of articulation

is

characteristic of the "flower-

The

em-

shafts

calism

is

neither

Gothic nor even

exclusive

the its

property of

most prominent

feature.

argument seems dubious not only on grounds of logic but

Gall says nothing of the diaphanous character

on the basis of the evidence. Gall attributes the ground plan of Notre Dame, Paris, to its pecul-

evidence for the romantic assumption that the

ing" of both styles. to

me

iar location

but

fails to

latter

mention

its sister

church,

the cathedral of Bourges; nor does he mention

Chartres.

As

to the

Romanesque elements

in

St.-Denis, no one has ever denied their exist-

The

whether the survival of such details outweighs the novelty of the design as a whole. If we compare Suger's facade with that of St.-Etienne at Caen or his choir with that ence.

question

is

of St.-Martin-des Champs, can justice to St.-Denis

we

by describing

it

do mere

really as a

of Gothic. Yet, while

I

know of no

historical

Gothic architect employed verticalism in order fill the soul with longing for the kingdom of God, we know from Suger himself that lumi-

to

nosity

was the

esthetic principle he strove to

realize in St.-Denis.

attested

How

even today by

well he succeeded his

is

ambulatory and

how well he was understood is attested by the triumph of luminosity in the Gothic cathedrals. These facts alone, it seems to me, chapels;

warrant the claim that Suger's St.-Denis

deed the

first

Gothic church.

is

in-

PART 5

THE CONSUMMATION

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN

6.

We

cannot

be certain about the exact date on which the Royal Portal of

Chartres Cathedral was completed. However, since the statuary has influenced the figures of the southern portal of Le Alans Cathedral, executed prior to

some, at 1155.

1

least,

of the sculptures of Chartres

West

1 1

58,

can hardly be later than

But work on the facade as a whole, including the three magnificent

windows above

the

Royal Portal, may have continued through the

quarter of the century, if not longer. leadingly

named vieux

counterpart

The

— was not completed

"ad opus ecclesiae" made

in

until

great southern tower

was

clocher, since it

—somewhat mis-

actually begun after

around

1

1

64.

2

And

entire third

its

northern

individual donations

subsequent years by individual of the ca-

thedral chapter suggest that perhaps plans

were under way, or work had even

been started, for the completion of the northern tower occurred that must have altered

During the night of June

all

when

the catastrophe

existing plans. 3

ro to 11,

1

194, a general conflagration, the causes

of which are unknown, destroyed a large part of the town of Chartres, the splendid episcopal palace built for the

by Bishop Yves, and the

west facade. The impression the disaster

tremendous. Guillaume gustus, mentions

it

left

entire cathedral, except

upon contemporaries was

author of the Chronicle of Auxerre also recorded the event, and this

source into the celebrated Speculwn

1.

See above, ch.

2.

Lefevre-Pontalis, "Les Architeetes et

construction

(SNAFM, 3.

des

de

la

Chartres"

7th series, IV, 1905).

Lefevre-Pontalis;

cf.

historiale

it

4

the

ed from

of Vincentius of Beauvais.

thedrale de Chartres et ses maitres d'oeuvre"

5, n. 29.

cathedrales

Au-

Breton, the historian and court poet of Philip

le

both in his Philippic! and in his history of the king;

Lecocq,

(SAELM, 4.

Augusti,

"La Ca-

169;

VI, 1873; CC, III, 80). IV, 598, and Gesta Philippi

Philippid,

cf.

LXXIII (Delaborde, ibid.,

XVII, 336

ff.

128). See

ed., II,

HLF, XVI,

121; 191

I,

ff.;

Plate

26


l6o

Beyond

the Channel, the English reader found a record of the great fire in the

Chronicle of William of Newbridge. 5

That

the calamity that had befallen Chartres, above

all

the destruction of

cathedral, should arouse such prolonged and distant echoes

its

The

is

not surprising.

sanctuary was one of the most revered shrines of the Occident.

relic,

the tunic or shirt that the Virgin

Mary was

said to have

worn

chief

Its

at the birth

of Christ, had for centuries attracted large numbers of pilgrims. 6 Early

in the

Nogent noted

name

twelfth century, Guibert of

were venerated "by almost the

of the Virgin of Chartres,

The

that the relic, as well as the

entire Latin world."

abbot of Nogent did not regard without skepticism the cult of

encountered

relics as

among many contemporaries. Yet he looked with

it

7

he

the most

reverent affection upon the Sacred Tunic of Chartres.

The relic,

Bald

cathedral

owed

its

may

dition.

may merely Gaul

Mary,

the Virgo paritura. liefs.

The

On

tioned,

See of Chartres made

Bulteau,

Delaporte,

art.

et

itself the

mouthpiece of such be-

ibidem

of

reliqucs

Monod).

On

Ca-

in Baudrillard, eccle'si-

totius

De

.

.

.

pene

nomen

cujus Latini

vita sua,

I,

orbis

16

(/'/,,

Guibert's attitude toward the

see

that

its

devastation kindled the deepest

See the famous

8.

(CC,

I,

2,

pp.

1

work and

fF.,

below, pp. 225

f.

des

Lefranc,

.

.

.

Vieillr

Chronique of 1389

especially 54

ff.).

influence, see ibid.,

its

The

1

About f.,

and

author certainly did not

invent his fabrications. In 1367 Charles

dared the cathedral

"Le Traite de Guibert de Nogent" (Etudes relics,

liturgy. 8

this

de geographic

"Domina Carnotensis

871).

men-

la

ff.

veneratione coluntur."

cult

wonder

Monographic de

97 ff. "Chartres,"

544

pignora

its

I,

d'histoire

CLVI,

No

the fire and the literary sources see

Dictionnaire

7.

In-

a century be-

of prophets and sibyls about

in response to the oracles

The

more than

of Chartres was thus the center of the cult of Mary in ,

astique, XII,

et

said to have been built

solemn language of

basilica

thedrale de Chartres, 6.

believed, had called Chartres as the first of

knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation.

was

not in western Europe.

5.

was

tra-

Before the end of the Middle Ages they had been embodied even in the au-

thoritative and

if

it

to the

deed, the sanctuary itself fore the birth of

sanctuary as a great pilgrimage

this

have acknowledged the existence of a much older

Divine Providence,

the churches of

not only to this

Emperor Charles the

to the basilica in 876,

it

wished to establish

either have

center or he

Mary

association with the cult of

however. In presenting

V

de-

to be "in antiquissimo tcm-

pore fundata videlicet adhuc vivente beata Maria." See also the prayer in the Missal of Chartres of 1482: "Domino, civitatcm istam quam primam apud Gallos Carnotensem .

dc mvstcrio isti."

.

uue

.

incarnationis instruerc volu-

Bulteau, Monographic,

p. 226.

I,

9;

and below,

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN human emotions. The

They

ously.

l6l

historian has every reason to take such emotions seri-

provide the impulse without which great collective efforts are im-

possible and unintelligible. In Chartres, the grief over the destruction of the

ancient shrine prompted, soon after the calamity had occurred, the resolution to rebuild

more splendidly than

it

it

had ever been before.

The

general

mood

dur-

ing those days can perhaps alone explain the almost incredible effort that pro-

duced, within the brief span of one generation, the cathedral that

day

we

ire to-

as the loftiest example of medieval art.

We

are fairly well informed about the

after the fire, thanks to a curious

of the cathedral, who,

if

mood

that prevailed in Chartres

document written by

a cleric, perhaps a canon

he was not an eyewitness of the conflagration, was

certainly well acquainted with the events and sentiments he describes. treatise, Miracles of the Blessed Virgin

around

10, that is,

2

1

Mary

was

chapter

later,

who had

translated into

The

to help raise funds for this enterprise.

and after the building had been completed, the

considered sufficiently meritorious by a

still

literary inclinations

—

a certain

member of

Jehan

le

little

Marchand

—

to be

opens with a vivid description of the enormous damage caused

The

fire.

author dwells on the distress of those whose houses and

personal property had been destroyed, but maintains that such grief tirely

work

the cathedral

French verse. 9

treatise

by the great

The

Church of Chartres, dates from

from the years when the construction of the new cathedral

was under way, and was probably written

Haifa century

in the

overshadowed by the consternation

of the cathedral,

in the ashes

felt

by everyone

was

en-

at the devastation

of which had also perished, or so

it

was

believed,

the Sacred Tunic.

The against

people of Chartres had long looked upon this relic as their shield

all perils.

In 911,

when

the

Norman

Rollo besieged Chartres, Bishop

Gaucelinus had mounted the city gate; and displaying the sancta camisia like a standard in front of them, he had thrown the terrible

panic and

flight.

10

Two

9.

97

f

warriors into

centuries later, in 11 19, the relic, carried in solemn

procession by clergy and people, had

Miracula B. Mariae Virginis

ecclesia facta, p.

Norman

in

Camotensi

33; cf. Bulteau, Monographic,

I,

moved Louis VI, then 10.

at

war with

Lepinois, Histoire de Chartres,

Bulteau, Monographic,

I,

33.

I,

38

ff.;


l62

Thibault of Chartres, to spare the

have destroyed the

city. 11

The disaster of

194,

1

which seemed to

was generally looked upon

relic as well as the sanctuary,

as a

sign of divine wrath. Because of the sins of the people, the Virgin had abandoned

her shrine, which had been "the glory of the city, the pride of the country, 12

an incomparable house of worship." his

own

was

personal losses momentarily.

that

would be

it

Its

disappearance

The

prosperity,

At city.

its

security, and indeed

its

forget

reaction, significantly enough,

first

or the town.

futile to rebuild either the basilica

destruction of the cathedral, the numinous

made everyone

power

to

With

he seems to have united great

orator with unusual diplomatic

skill.

man who was

in the

gifts as a teacher

and

Celestine III had appointed him papal

legate in . 13 According to the Miracles of the Blessed Virgin,

considerable extent this

its

existence seemed to have departed.

time Cardinal Melior of Pisa happened to be sojourning

this

A renowned canonist,

the

which Chartres owed

responsible for changing the

it

was

to a'

mood of the

cathedral chapter as well as of the people of Chartres from despair to en-

thusiasm.

The bishop,

cardinal

was well acquainted with

Renaud of Moucon,

in the recently

istrative setup (see below, p.

Melior undertook two and at

steps.

He

176).

the chapter.

He

had assisted the

completed reform of the chapter's

Now,

immediately after the

fire,

convened with the bishop and prebendaries,

conference he pointed out with great force of argument that the

this

only adequate answer to the calamity that had befallen Notre build the cathedral.

The

Dame was

to re-

impression of his words was such that bishop and

chapter decided to commit the greater part of their revenues for the next three years, excepting only

what was necessary

to their subsistence, to the rebuilding

of the church. 14

11. Suger,

ed.), pp- 92 12.

Vie de Louis

le

Gros (Molinier,

"Specialem

urbis

domum

gionis speculum,

gloriam,

tocius

re-

orationis incompara-

."

Mine., pp. 509 f. 13. Mirac, pp. 509 f. On Melior, see Bulteau, Monographie, I, 103, and HI.F, XV, ^16,

bilem

where,

.

.

however,

Melior occupied

Bultcau's

contention

a chair in Paris is

that

declared to

"Convocatis ad se episcopo

gloria

postmodum

dcm animos

planus

ostcndcrct,

ct canonicis

et

eos

ad penitenciam provocans eorumsuis

sermocimationibus emolliret.

canonid partem redditum suorum non modicam per tnennium conferen-

Episcopal igitur

dam

ad reparationem ejus ecclesie absque ulla

contradictione pp.

et

513

ff.;

concesserunt."

also Stein,

Cf.

Mirac,

Les Architectes des ca-

thedrales gotluques, p. 37; Bulteau,

be unfounded. 14.

divine animadvcrsinnis vindictam ct a quanta cedisscnt

ff.

I,

104.

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN The

Cardinal of Pisa next chose a feast day to

townspeople of Chartres. Before

call

crowd he repeated

this

163 an assembly of the

his plea

with an elo-

quence that brought tears to the eyes of his audience. And, by what seemed to be a happy coincidence, at this very

moment

the bishop and chapter appeared

carrying in solemn procession the Sacred Tunic,

which contrary to general

belief had, safe in the cathedral crypt, survived the conflagration

The wonderful

undamaged.

occurrence caused an incredible impression. Everyone pledged

the possessions he had salvaged to the reconstruction of the sanctuary.

we

medieval temper, as

ean often observe, was given to sudden changes from

despair to joy. In Chartres

it

was now suddenly believed

that the Virgin herself

had permitted the destruction of the old basilica "because she wanted a

more

The

new and

beautiful church to be built in her honor." 15

Guillaume

God, who

is

Breton echoes

le

poem

Latin

his great

in

called and indeed

sanctuary that

shown

to be the

so specially hers to be

is

"At

this sentiment.

this

time," he writes in

honor of Philip Augustus, "the Virgin and Mother of

Lady of Chartres, wanted

more worthy of

her.

the

She therefore

permitted the old and inadequate church to become the victim of the flames, thus

making room

entire world."

16

Cardinal of Pisa.

which has no equal throughout the

for the present basilica,

The

first

Not

to voice this conviction

may

actually have been the

unlike Suger of St.-Denis, he represented the building

of a magnificent sanctuary as an act of spiritual edification, a work of true penitence that demands that every endeavor be placed in the service of Christ

and

his

mother.

The emotions of those who were about project are noteworthy in both aspects

I

to undertake the great architectural

have described. There

intensity of grief at the loss of the sanctuary. It

the description of this grief a pious or poetical

man was

15.

communication with

"Beata Dei genetrix novam

parabilem ecclesiam

Mirac, 16.

a

paratu,

et

colens fabricari

incom.

." .

p. 510.

".

docet

sibi

et

.

.

re

Virgo Dei mater, que verbo se Carnoti dominam, laudabiliore

Ecclesiam reparare volens specialiter

of all the in

commonplace or simply an

exaggeration by the author of the Miracles of the Blessed Virgin.

medieval

is first

would be a mistake o see

The

a sacred reality that

religion

was

of

invisible,

Quam

dicat ipsa sibi, mirando provida Vulcano furere ad libitum permisit in illam, Ut medicina foret presens exustio morbi

ipsi

casu

Quo Domini domus

ilia

Et causam fabrice daret

situ ilia

languebat inerti, ruina future, Cui

toto par nulla hodie splendescit in orbe." IV,

598 (Delaborde,

II,

121).

—


164

yet immediately and continuously present.

medieval

life

—Suger

intelligible unless the

properly understood.

more

The

directly,

among

and St.-Denis have furnished us an example

immediacy of

The

life

this relationship

as the Miracles of the Blessed Virgin

The

people.

in the sanctuary. It

Can we marvel

that the

probably the most venerable to spell the city's

doom;

that

that the Virgin had departed

relic it

all

to

was here

city's patron saint.

quite plain, prevailed

was

referred to as the

other sanctuaries dedicated to

one another

that

in

those days.

They

Our Lady dwelt among

her

assumed destruction of the Sacred Tunic of Mary possessed by Christianity

was generally considered an ominous

—seemed

indication

from Chartres?

Conversely, the miraculous recovery of the her continued affection for her city.

now viewed

make

cathedral

residence on earth," and preferred by her to

one

is

of the Mother of God," selected by the Virgin as her "special

Notre Dame. 17 Heaven and earth were close as

un-

of the city depended upon the divine power and,

the population of Chartres.

"celestial court

—are

with the supernatural

upon the protection and intercession of the

This sentiment,

were

veneration of saints and their

the repercussions that this cult exerted upon nearly every phase of

relics,

And

relic

seemed

to be a token

the destruction of the cathedral

of

was

not as a calamity but, almost paradoxically, as a sign that A4ary

had indeed destined Chartres to be her special residence, and that she expected the faithful to bend every effort for the erection of a sanctuary

exalted destination.

But

in

Hence

worthy of this

the sudden change from despair to joyful confidence.

urging that the task of reconstruction be undertaken at once, the

Cardinal of Pisa did not only express the religious sentiment of the community;

he also made himself the spokesman for

The

its

economic and

political interests.

prestige and prosperity of the city depended upon the religious clement to

such an extent that to rebuild the celebrated church was a necessity survival

We

was

to be assured.

do not

easily realize to

spheres interlocked in those days.

what extent the

The

religious and

17.

Sec Charles V's is

called

Virgo gloriosa

letter

of 1367, where the

"quam quidem

elegit pro sua

ccclcsiam ipsa

camera

spcciali,"

economic

age of the towering pilgrimage churches

and cathedrals was, economically speaking, the age of the great

cathedral

if the city's

and quite similarly the 1389 (CC,

I,

2,

56).

fairs. It is

Virille

well

C.hronique of

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN known how powerfully of the economic medieval city.

The

— spasmodic concentrations — stimulated the development of the

these recurrent markets

of entire regions

life

fairs,

however, are inseparable from the religious

Middle Ages; indeed they originate

the

165

in

"by

torian of the medieval fairs has written,

it.

life

of

"Religious festivals," the his-

by the number of

their solemnity,

people they attract, by their regular recurrence, and by the security that divine protection extends to

all

gatherings taking place under the auspices of such

provide opportunities for commercial transactions.

festivals necessarily

temple has always attracted the merchant just because .

.

There

.

is

for the other."

Fairs

no great feast without

its fair,

fair

were naturally held on those

religious concerns

feast

On

without

its feast:

one

calls

became

days that drew the largest crowds

these occasions, the merging of eco-

strikingly apparent.

convenient to adopt the guise of pious travelers

found

it

selves

of the many benefits accorded pilgrims. As a

was unnecessary. The church herself had every able sources

The

attracts the faithful.

18

of worshipers to a given sanctuary.

nomic and

no

it

of revenue, the markets and

of the most important

fairs

in

rule,

Merchants often

order to avail them-

though, this expedient

interest in protecting, as valu-

fairs held

under

its

patronage.

Some

of the time were actually established by monasteries

and cathedrals. In that event, the religious element remained a decisive factor in the

development of these

fairs.

As we have

seen, the Lendit originated in

the feast established in honor of the relics preserved at St. -Denis. jurisdictional claims

over the

fair rested

on

The

this fact; so did the vast

abbey's

income that

the house derived from the fairs.

This curious interrelationship

is

but another aspect of the religious

"personalism" of the age. Every concession granted to a religious institution,

every economic activity from which

it

derived material benefits, were con-

sidered personal tributes to the holy patron. Their infringement

was an outrage

committed against him. Charles the Bald occasionally directed

his officials to

protect the possessions of a monastery "as if they

consecrated to God." 18.

The

Huvelin, Essai historique sur

m'arcfie's et

19.

19

des foires, pp. 37

Fournier,

Nouvelles

abbot of St.-Denis threatened with excommunicale

droit des

de , p. 83;

cf.

Lesne, "Histoire de

la

propriete ecclesiastique en " (Memoires

ff.

recherches

curies, chap'itres et unii'ersites de

were things offered and

sur

les

Yancienne eglise

et

travaux publies par des professeurs des Facultes

Catholiques de Lille, fasc. VI).

V

1

THEGOTHICCATHEDRAL

66

any way the merchants attending the Lendit. 20

tion

whoever dared

The

security and even the commercial benefits of

were thought so directly

to molest in

was he understood

a sudden decline of prices that occurred at

equally true for Chartres.

is

city centered primarily in four great

those attending the fair

saint

of the abbey. Indeed,

commercial gatherings that

to interfere in these

one of the Lendits was interpreted

as a miraculous intervention of St. Denis in favor

All this

all

by the patron

to be jealously guarded

2l

of the consumers!

Here the economic

life

of the entire

which, by the end of the twelfth

fairs,

century, had acquired nearly the reputation of the fairs of Brie and

pagne. 22

The major

fairs

of Chartres coincided with the four

feasts

Chamof the

Virgin (Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, and Nativity), which drew

innumerable pilgrims to the cathedral. As the

by the cathedral chapter, had originated

fairs, in all

probability established

in these festivals, so

they remained

dependent upon them. Religious souvenirs and devotional objects were purchased by pilgrims in very considerable quantities. At the

fair

of the Nativity

of the Virgin was celebrated on Septem-

(called the Septembresce, as the birth

ber 8), such articles seem to have comprised the bulk of all goods sold. 23 These devotional objects were most often small leaden images of

Our Lady

or of the

Sacred Tunic, but the more well-to-do pilgrims liked to take home real chemi-

when

which,

settes,

were thought

blessed by a priest,

armor

in battle.

Tunic. This fishmongers famous. 20.

e

de Paris,

22.

CC,

I,

During the

of textiles

— the most famous product from the

cult

of the Sacred

— the bakers, butchers,

festivals

of the Virgin, business throve for

"La Benediction du Lendit

La

Corporations,

l"

Industrie

siecle" (Bulletin de la Societe de I'histoire

Chartres du XI"

XXIV,

The symposium volume La

Levillain,

Lccocq,

1897). sur

"Essai

CLV,

origines

les

du

du

(SAFLM,

lxxviii); Lepinois,

du commerce de

la

I,

la Societe

Bodin,

all

et

these tradescommerce

le

siecle a la revolution,

pp. 172

a ff.

Foire (Recveils de

Y) appeared too

late for

con-

sideration.

1927).

"Histoirc

de Chartres"

Histoire

his

—and the merchants of Beauce wine, the quality of which was once

Lendit" (RH,

Dame

sale

as well as indirectly

even truer for the producers of victuals

Cf. Roussel,

au XI

21.

25

—profited directly is

under

24

Thus, even the manufacture and of the region

to be beneficial to the

who wore them

expectant mother and even to protect the knight

Notre-

clottTC

1858,

378 f

,

.

;

I,

I,

H2

ft".;

Levasseur, 82

ft".

On

the other fairs held at Chartres, see Aclocque,

:;.

I.ccocq, "Histoirc." p. 14-.

Lecocq, "Recherchea sur lei enscignes de pclcrinagcs et lea chemisettes de NotreDame de Chartres" (SAl.l. W, VI, 1S73). 24.

25.

CC,

I,

ccxxviii

ft".;

Lepinois,

I,

509.

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN men. Their professional organizations, the as the

modern

stained-glass

windows

windows of

all

67

very conspicuously,

guilds, figure

with astonishment, among the donors of the

the reconstructed sanctuary. In fact, the five great

in the chevet that

important of bakers. 26

visitor notices

1

were the

honor the Virgin and are

gifts

in a sense the

most

of merchants, principally the butchers and

These translucent compositions thus seem

to have retained something

of the emotions, of the sense of attachment to their cathedral, that animated the merchants and craftsmen of Chartres in

Without the great hardly imaginable.

Dame,

that

is,

194.

would indeed have been

basilica their professional life

The

in the

1

fairs

of the Virgin were held

in the cloitre

of Notre

immediately ading streets and squares that constituted

the property of the chapter and stood under

its

jurisdiction.

The dean

guarded

the peace and security of the fairs. Merchants erected their stands in front of the canons' houses.

The

three squares just outside the cathedral

were the scenes

of the most lively activity. Fuel, vegetables, and meat were sold by the southern portal of the basilica, textiles near the northern one. 27

under the cathedral portals or

in certain parts

At

night strangers slept

of the crypt. 28 Masons, car-

penters, and other craftsmen gathered in the church itself, waiting for an

employer to hire them. Even the

of food

selling

in the basilica

sidered improper if carried on in an orderly fashion.

had to forbid the wine merchants to

sell their

29

product

was not con-

At one time

in the

the chapter

nave of the church,

but assigned part of the crypt for that purpose, thus enabling the merchants to

avoid the imposts levied by the Count of Chartres on sales transacted outside. 30

The many

ordinances ed by the chapter to prevent the loud, lusty

the market place from spilling over into the sanctuary only

separable the

two worlds were

religious and

merchants.

It

facts

economic elements

was usual

of in-

in reality.

Even more revealing than these tween

life

show how

is

the intimate interconnection be-

in the corporate life

of artisans and

for medieval guilds to place themselves under the

protection of a patron saint and to in the regular observation of certain

devotional practices. Elsewhere, however, these were entrusted to confraterni26.

Delaporte and Houvet, Les Vitraux de

cathedrale de Chartres, pp.

27. Lepinois,

I,

la

464 ff. 186 f.; Lecocq, "Histoire,"

p.

149;

CC,

I,

lxxviii;

Acloque, pp.

28.

Acloque,

p. 34.

29.

Acloque,

p.

30.

Bulrcau, Monographie,

253. I,

118.

172

ff.


l68

although formed within and recruited from the hip of a given

ties that,

guild,

maintained an independent existence. 31 In Chartres, however, guild and

confraternity tended to merge. fraternity.

One

The

heads of the guild also headed the con-

treasury served both organizations, and

impossible to one without the other.

were

several professions

It is

seems to have been

it

of great interest that

before they received their statutes as guilds. In one of the

chevet of the cathedral

blem of the later.

32

hosiers,

in

Chartres

originally organized as religious confraternities long

we

windows

in the

see a banner with a red stocking, certainly the

who became

a

em-

sworn community only three centuries

Again, in the second chapel of the northern part of the ambulatory, a

window

is

dedicated to

St.

who

Vincent by the linen weavers,

their first statutes until 1487. In the dedicatory inscription

did not receive

of the window they

identify themselves as "confreres de St. Vincent," the patron saint of their

profession. 33

Even the corporate

in a religious reality

life

of the artisans of Chartres was thus rooted

whose mainstay was

the corporate existence of Chartres

This aspect of medieval

life is

the cathedral.

Without

the sanctuary,

was inconceivable. foreign to our

own

outlook.

We

concede

and appreciate the sincerity of religious convictions. But the penetration of such convictions into the world of business and politics

quite another matter.

is

It

has been suspected that invoking religious sanctions on behalf of such activities

was

hypocritical.

And

the expenditure of vast public effort and the resources

of an entire community on a religious project seems equally incomprehensible.

Compare

the snail's pace at which, in our

own

large and opulent country,

progresses on the cathedrals at Washington, D. in

New

York with

the building of Notre

Dame

C,

of Chartres by a small commu-

nity of less than 10,000 inhabitants within less than a generation; or

our church-building ventures

then,

we do

were

built in

Abbe

between

11

31.

For

the

following,

see

Acloque,

pp.

ff.

The window was donated bv a eertain Gaufridus and his family; he may have occu32.

Bulteau, usually

So and 1270. But

not perceive the Virgin, as did the people of ("harries, invisibly

yet radiantly enthroned in our midst. "If you are to get the

54

compa

with the incredible figure of eighty

in their entirety

cathedrals and nearly five hundred abbeys that the

cautious historian, insists

work

and Morningside Heights

pied

an important

his

profession.

full

enjoyment

office in die confraternii

See

Delaporte

and

Houver.

p. 4(>g.

33.

Deiapod

pp. 319

rf.

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN Chartres,"

Mary

as

Henry Adams

Bernard

.

.

.

1

69

has written, "you must, for the time, believe in

and

did,

feel her

presence as the architects did in every

stone they placed, and every touch they chiseled."

This rapport with the supernatural explains the mood and the public effort of Chartres.

that created the Cathedral

makes

it

the Sacred

relic

peculiar pattern of medieval

life

community might not have survived the destruc-

quite likely that the

of the

tion

The

of the Virgin; and the reconstruction of a sanctuary worthy of

Tunic was

of its hive for a

a task as inescapable as is the rebuilding

colony of bees.

But the religious sentiment that demanded so great an undertaking also provided the means for ecclesiastical building,

realization. It has recently

its

been suggested that

from the viewpoint of economic history, was the most

Middle Ages; that the cathedrals ruined the

destructive undertaking of the

economic health of the epoch.

34

As

if the

economic and

spiritual forces

of the

time were antagonistic or could be conceived as independent of one another! In point of fact,

ecclesiastical building

developed technical

skills

people, and even created

opened up new natural resources,

and insights, provided work for large numbers of

new

professions.

In the cases of both St. -Denis and Chartres, the magnificent dressed stone

of which these churches were built was yielded by quarries whose very existence had remained

unknown

until the determination to build

had led to their

discovery. In the technological sphere, the thirteenth century has been called

an age of "great ideas rather than great deeds." tressing of the great

35

Yet the vaulting and but-

Gothic churches represented achievements that

have given a fresh impulse to the science of statics (which begins

development 34.

at this

very time)

Lopez, "rZconomie

36

et architecture

medi-

tuececi?" (A, VII, 1952). criticism of sumptuous church building by

Petrus

Cantor

—who

died

a

Cistercian

based primarily on ascetic considerations.

economic argument is

II,

is

incidental.

The

—

is

The

age

printed in Coulton, Life in the Middle Ages, 26.

Die Technik der Antike und des

Mittelalters, p. 277.

36.

almost

identity

Les Origines de

The key

statics is

figure in the history

well

of medieval

Jordanus Nemorarius, about whose

nothing

is

known. Duhem,

97 ff., assigns the earliest treatise attributed to Jordanus to the la statique, I,

century

twelfth

"at

2,

latest."

Straub,

59 ff., History of Science, p. 613, both incline to place Jordanus'

and Sarton, Introduction III,

the

der Bauingenieur-Kunst,

Geschichte

—and

life

35. Feldhaus,

may

prodigious

and greatly widened the scope of the mason's

evales, cela aurait-il

The

its

it

—

of medieval

statics

in the thirteenth century.

cording to

Moody

Science

Weights,

of

to the

the beginnings

along with

pp.

Ac-

and Clagett, The Medieval p.

14,

Jordanus

mathematics on the faculty of

taught

arts at Paris in


I70 This

craft.

even truer for the profession of the glazier. This craft might

is

have honored the Apostle of as

its

patron saint, inasmuch as the meta-

whose

physics of light produced translucent churches

large glazed surfaces

gave a sudden boost to the art and techniques of windowmaking. Religious impulse

was

so all-pervading an element of medieval

even the entire economic structure depended upon the

economy received from

needed for

numerous

religious

it.

customs and experiences the impulse

artisans.

Work on this

enterprise

.

.

how were

it

was promptly accepted by of business acumen. 38

The

A

celebrated relic II

of Con-

Crown of Thorns

as security for a large

the Venetians,

who

cannot be reproached

acquisition of a

famed

quent building of a sanctuary permitting

numbers of pilgrims represented,

occupied, directly

Emperor Baldwin

a valuable object, even in financial .

for lack

site that

37

projects of such magnitude financed?

stantinople did not hesitate to offer the loan;

it

undoubtedly transformed the

.

upper part of the town into one immense building

was

that

static otherwise,

growth. "At Chartres, the building of the cathedral attracted

its

or indirectly, an entire population of workers."

But

Almost

life

relic

and the subse-

solemn exposition before large

its

financially speaking, not a

waste but a wise

investment. Although this aspect of the cult of relics was not the most important one in the minds of those responsible,

The

fantastic auction (no other

of relics seized

in

it

certainly could not be ignored.

term seems quite adequate) of the great booty

1204 by the crusaders

in

Constantinople, and the subsequent

transfer of these relics to the religious centers of the

example. that

it

39

One of the

would

was

relics

attract a great

West,

sent to Chalons-sur-Marne. It

number of pilgrims and

substantial offerings in the sanctuary.

offer a

good

was expected

that these

would leave

This mere expectation was considered

so sound as to be judged acceptable as collateral for a large loan, part of which

was applied

to the completion of the Cathedral of Chalons, part to the con-

struction of the city bridge.

Notre Dame of Chartres likewise received

the early part of the thirteenth century.

The

Rohault de Fleury, Memoire sur

38. Cf.

authors call the Liber de ratione ponder is, which

instruments de

Duhem

and 357

believed to be the

work of a "gifted They print it,

pupil," Jordanus' chef-d'oeuvre.

a gift

la

ion de

N.S.

les

f.-C, pp. 213

ff.

39. Cf.

de Riant, "Des depouillecs rcligicuses

along with the Elementa super demonstrationem

enlevees a Constantinople au XIII e siecle ct des

ponderum, on pp. 127 ff., 174 37. Acloque, p. 10.

documents historiques nes de leur transport en Occident" (SNAFM, 4th series, VI, 1895).

ff.


1

7

I

out of the sacred hoard of Constantinople. Louis, Count of Chartres, purchased

and sent to the cathedral the head of St. Anne, a

relic that

undoubtedly proved

an incentive for additional donations to the building fund. 40

What was

the actual

from

seen, obtained

the building of his

this

new

St.-Trond in Belgium.

amount of these pious donations? Suger,

choir. 41

42

The

Another example

tomb of

is

Abbey of

provided by the

the titular saint produced a flood of

now

abbot of the house, "all the revenue then or

equivalent of the purchasing to Professor Coulton's rule

Thomas produced one

by the abbey."

collected

Thomas of Canterbury amounted

on the occasion of the translation of

his relics, to nearly

power of £43,000

of thumb. 43 Over

a

in 1220,

£1075, roughly the according

in the early 1930's,

number of years the

shrine of

fourth of the cathedral's annual revenues.

was an added advantage

It

have

donations they offered "exceeded by far," according to a later

Contributions to the shrine of St.

St.

we

During the second half of the eleventh century the

miracles that occurred at the pilgrims.

as

source the greater part of the resources required for

that such

income yielded by

a popular relic

hardly strained local resources but was mostly contributed by pilgrims from

And

"abroad."

if

an extraordinary event, such as the necessity or desire to

rebuild the sanctuary sheltering the relic, called for extraordinary expenditure,

the area to be

drawn on

for donations could be increased

still

further

by sending

the relics abroad on a fund-raising campaign. Early in the twelfth century the

canons of Laon sent their relics as far as England in order to funds. 44

The

40. CC,

relics

of Chartres were taken abroad for the same purpose,

60.

I,

solicit building

William Letwin and

friend

41. See above, p. 91; Suger spent no

more

than

skilled

named

drew 6

by

individuals,

on the

have based our

calculations on the average daily

650 livres (roughly the equivalent of $208,000 [see below, n. 43]), not counting unspecial donations

I

worker

in

early

wage of an un-

thirteenth-century

and present-day America. d.

Histoire economique de la propriete

Suger, p. 142.

49I-)

Cheney, "Church Ages" (BJRL, XXXIV,

42. For the following, see

Building in the Middle

On medieval building costs, see also Graham, "An Essay on English Monasteries" 1951/52).

(Historical Association Pamphlet,

CXII, 1939).

"The Meaning of Medieval Moneys" (HAL, XCV, 1934). Needless to 43. Coulton,

say,

all

such computations, as Coulton stresses,

are at best but rough approximations. Other

computations yield quite different figures.

My

The former

(med.), the latter $8. (See d'Avenel,

construction of his choir and crypt. See Aubert,

On

in the

.

.

.

,

III,

today would be tournois. I have as-

this basis, the dollar

the equivalent of -g^ livres

sumed this rate wherever I have tried to give approximate modern equivalents of monetary values in medieval . On some of the problems involved, however, see Blanchet and Dieudonne, Manuel de numismatique francaisc, II, 95 fF., and Bloch, "L'Histoire des prix: quelques remarques critiques" (A, I, 1939). 44. Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, III, 12

(PL,

CLVI,

11 13).


172 eleventh century

we

as

when

the

Romanesque

was being

basilica

built,

45

and again,

worked

shall presently see, after its destruction in 1194. If the relics

miracles, their appeal was, of course, thirteenth century, after

work on

the

all

more

effective. Early in the

the west front of St. Albans had to be

interrupted for lack of funds, the abbot organized a preaching tour through

many

sent relics and also a cleric

named Amphibalus whom

raised from the dead after four days,

by the merits of St. Alban

dioceses.

the

Lord had

and

St.

"He

x\mphibalus, so that he might bear ocular evidence for the miracles of

these saints."

46

We

are told that a great deal of

money was

raised

by

this

appeal.

From

the thirteenth century the practice of indulgences provided additional

possibilities for financing the reconstruction

of a famous church with the help

of contributions from abroad. In 1272, the Bishop of Regensburg took ad-' vantage of his presence at the Council of Lyons to persuade twenty-two of his fellow bishops, including those of distant Toledo and Compostela, to proclaim

indulgences in their dioceses for those

who

gave money for the building of

Regensburg Cathedral. 47 In representing the reconstruction of Notre Chartres as an act of penance that would earn spiritual rewards for pants, the Cardinal of Pisa in if

194

may

all

of

partici-

well have proclaimed what was in

fact,

not in name, an indulgence in behalf of that project. 48

As as

1

Dame

was

regards this cathedral, a relic as universally revered throughout Europe the Sacred

Tunic not only demanded the speedy reconstruction of the

destroyed sanctuary but was also bound to attract funds adequate for the execution of even the most grandiose plan.

Virgin.

Its

The

age was indeed the age of the

most noble aspirations were directed

to the cult

Heaven. And the Cathedral of Chartres was her palace. diocese,

it

seems

in retrospect,

was

at that

would have,

as

Guillaume

le

Politically speaking, the See

46.

was Chartres

to erect a sanctuary

Breton wrote, no equal

1882, VII, 300).

Cheney.

47. See Janner, Die Bauhutten des deutschen Mittelalters, p. 180.

other town or

in

Christendom.

of Chartres was one of the "royal episco-

45. Bulteau, "Saint Fulbert ct sa cathedrale"

(SAELM,

No

or any other time better prepared,

spiritually, politically, or economically, than

that

of the Queen of

48.

"The

practice of indulgences began to

expand during the thirteenth century." Leclercq, "La Consecration legcndaire de la basilique

de Saint-Denis

et

la

question

indulgences" (RA1, XXXIII, 1943).

des


1

73

pates" that had helped the kings of the Capetian dynasty so greatly to increase

The

ascendancy over . 49

their

counts of Chartres were certainly in a

position to jeopardize that ascendancy. Thibault the

Champagne queror, he

allied to

Under such conditions nominate the bishop

much

The

grandson of William the Con-

we

England and Normandy, and

enemy of Louis VI and Louis VII he continued

dable an

as

A

and Blois.

as well as Chartres

was

Great was the ruler of

it

was

who was

political control

the

all

more important

spiritual ruler

how

formi-

many

years.

have seen to be for

for the king to be able to

of the count's capital and exerted

over the town of Chartres as did the count himself. 50

bishops appointed were, of course, loyal ers of the king. Bishop

Geoffrey, the builder of the west facade of Notre Dame, was so close a friend

VI

of Louis

that Thibault the

Great for some time prevented him from taking

Upon

Geoffrey's death in 1149, Suger reminded the

possession of his see. 51

owed

chapter of the loyalty that every bishop of Chartres

.

The as a

See of Chartres thus being

wedge

to establish their

tions with the counts

the

to the king

of

52

power

in their hands, the

Royal Assembly, not infrequently

site

Even when

town.

in this

And

53

in

his plan for a

1

1

50,

pressive and representative as possible.

regis,

when Suger

Crusade, he chose

of the gathering that he had every reason to make 54

it

their rela-

of Chartres were strained, the kings held the curia

convoked the assembly that was to decide on Chartres as the

Capetian rulers used

in hostile territory.

as

im-

a revealing fact that, at least

It is

names Chartres

since the mid-twelfth century, the popular epic

one breath

in

with Paris as one of the royal capitals and residences. 55 49. See

Newman, Le Domaine


p.

21;

Royal sous

Imbart de

Its

Tour,

la

Les Elections episcopates dans Veglise de , p.

424;

Fawtier,

p.

71;

Schwarz,

Frankreich"

Les

Cape'tiens

"Der

et

la

,

Investiturstreit

in

(Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte,

54. Recueils des historiens,

Cf. Luchaire, Etudes sur pp. 178

f.,

To

55.

247

ed.,

Couronnement de Louis,

Chronique,

mand and Raynaud,

52. I,

52. Oeuvres completes de Suger, pp. 256 53. Luchaire,

narchiqucs de I.

254

flf.

la

Histoire

sous

des les

institutions

mo-


cit

v.

de

Saint-Gilles

2378); "Paris ne (Le Chevalrie

d'Orellois"

Ogier de Danemarche, v.

Count

f.

le

11,185);

fussies en , a Paris u a

Elie

90.

few examples: "Voist

s'en en , a Paris o a Chartres" (Langlois,

Chartres ne

I, 2,

614, 523, 648. de Louis VII,

f.

give but a

XLII, 1923). 50. CC, I, xxiv; and for an interesting reflection of episcopal claims, see the Vieille 51. Lepinois,

XV,

les actes

"Que

vos

Chartres" (Nor-

eds., Aiol, v. 459). In the

(Raynaud,

ed.,

45

ff.),

Julian of St.-Gilles reproaches his son

for not having departed as yet

"pour Paris ou fils de eel costume en

pour Chartres au service du roi Louis,

Charlemagne." See also

"Si'st


174 This

political role

of the town demanded the demonstration and symbolic

The

display of royal authority.

was destined

for the

Cathedral of Chartres, as

solemn enactment of those festive

liturgy proves,

its

which

curiae coronatae in

the sovereign, to the exultant accompaniment of the Laudes regiae, appeared

embodiment of the

invested with the insignia of his royal power, the living

Christlike dignity that his office bestowed upon him. the Capetian kings toward

Notre

56

Dame of Chartres was

The

munificence of

designed to underscore

and enhance the importance of the basilica as a royal cathedral.

During the second half of the twelfth century, the

relations

between the

houses of and Chartres-Champagne gradually underwent a complete change. Louis VII appointed Thibault the Great's son, Thibault V, Grand

A

Master and Seneschal of .

few years

(1160) the king married

later

the count's sister, Alix; and the subsequent birth of the future Philip Augustus

two

united the

illustrious

houses forever. In

64 a brother of Thibault V,

11

William, Cardinal of Champagne, was appointed to the episcopal see of Chartres.

by

At

the same time, the count married Adele, a daughter of Louis VII

his previous

marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

new

mentation of the

alliance that in

1

1

It

was

a significant imple-

67 the troops of the count as well as

those of his brother, the Bishop of Chartres, ed forces with Louis VII in his

campaign against the King of England. The house of Chartres-Champagne,

as its blood

zenith of

and fortunes merged with those of the French dynasty, reached the

its

power.

When

Philip Augustus, in

1

188, departed for the

Land, he appointed a regency council composed of

Holy

mother, Alix of Cham-

his

pagne, Cardinal William, and his half-sister, Adele, Countess of Chartres. ,

it

might be

said,

was momentarily

ruled by the house of Chartres-

Champagne. 57

a Paris et a

Chartres" (Koschwitz,

Charlemagne, Voyage a Jerusalem

et

ed.,

a Constant!-

nople, p. 654). In the chanson de geste the king

usually

is called,

qualifie par lea

dence" lix).

p.

Chartres

not

(Mayer,

The is

significant.

see

I

de Frame, "mais licux 011

(inart

tr.,

frequent

concerning Chartres Irs

rot

noms de

pairing

esc

fait sa resi-

de

Roussillon,

of Paris and

For further information

in

the chansons de geste,

anglois, Table des norns propres

chansons it gate.

il

il

.

.

.

dans

56.

cance,

On

the curiae coronatae and their signifi-

Luchaire,

see

francaises,

Frankreich,

ff.

On

liturgiques scries,

57.

institutions

et

significance

composees

V, 1874), Lepinois,

1,

p.

a

p.

100, and Prost,

des quatre pieces

Metz" (SNAFA1,

185.

103

Laudes

the Laudes of Chartres,

Kantorowicz, Laudes,

"Caractere

des

Kantorowicz,

122;

p.

Regiae, pp. 92

sec

Manuel

460; Schramm, Der Konig von

p.

ff.

4th

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN The

75

prestige and prosperity of the See of Chartres could only profit

was

such close alliance of the king, the bishop, and the count. It that this political constellation coincided

The

dral.

we

great sanctuary, as

with the reconstruction of the cathetestimony to the fact

shall see, bears eloquent

of and Chartres vied with one another

that the rulers

from

fortunate

in embellishing

it.

from Philip Augustus

The

particular interest and the project received

may

be ed for by the fact that the blood of both houses flowed in his

veins.

The

bishop under

Renaud of Moucon also a his

(i

whom

work on

the

new

was begun was

cathedral

nephew of the Queen of and of the Cardinal of Champagne,

since

mother had been a daughter of Thibault the Great. 58 Renaud's family

connections as well as his in

the

182-12 17) of the family of the dukes of Bar. But he was

skill as

an were of decisive importance

rendering the building of the basilica possible and in aligning his chapter in

of the undertaking.

The

A

word must be

said of this body.

Dame was one of the most illustrious of the Middle Dame de Chartres" became a synonym for a chapter

chapter of Notre

Ages. "Li clerc nostre equally distinguished

by the

birth of its prebendaries and their cultural achieve-

ments, by the splendor with which they enacted the liturgy, and by their possessions. 59

The

ecclesiastical province

of Chartres was

the largest and wealthiest of ; even

Rome

"great diocese." Encoming an area of 100 churches, not counting those in the

at that

referred to

by 130 miles

town of Chartres

—

its

time possibly

simply as the

it

—911

parish

grain harvests

and silver alone yielded the bishop the immense income of nearly $ 1,500,000 in

modern money annually. 60 The the bishop

$700,000

58.

by

GC, VIII, CC,

The dean

total

alone

revenues of his chapter exceeded those of

drew an income

that

would today be over

a year. 61

59. Lepinois,

60.

far.

I,

1

I,

xiv,

Societe francaise

from these two sources of revenue

152.

543; CC, lxviii

f.,

as

amount-

ing to 463,917/. 28c. (value of 1862); the ratio

I, xi.

and Luchaire, La

au temps de Philippe Auguste,

p. 156. The editors of CC base their estimate on an annual grain harvest of 796 muids (although the measure of the muid varies from

province to province, it may be said to be roughly the equivalent of 35 hectoliters) and

income from silver amounting to 7 livres of Chartres. They calculate the bishop's income 1

1

1

of the franc to the livre is given as 100 to 1. For the (more than tentative) method of computation I have used, see above, ch. 6, n. 43. 61. CC, I, lxxvii f., xcix ff.; Amiet, Essai sur r organisation du Chapitre Cathedrale de Chartres, p. 43, where the dean's income is given as 2300 livres annually. It may be noted that the annual income of Louis VII is given as 228,000

livres; see

Fawtier,

p. 99.


I76 If the treatise

view of

authorship

its

part of this

committed

on the Miracles of

we

the Blessed Virgin

is

to be believed, and in

have no reason to assume the opposite, the greater

enormous wealth was,

to the reconstruction

in

194 and for a period of three years,

1

of the cathedral. This far-reaching decision on

the part of the chapter must have been greatly facilitated a year before, the istration

of

by the

fact that, only

revenues had been taken out of the

its

hands of the provosts (whose malfeasance had long provided both chapter

and population with ample ground for complaint) to be placed directly under the authority of the chapter. 62

The measure

revenues of the prebendaries. 63

of Champagne;

was completed by

it

Moucon, whose

and by the Cardinal of Pisa

wonder

that both prelates

new

very palpable stake

seem

fire,

in this project.

Renaud of

in his capacity as papal legate. 64 It is

no

the part of the

they pleaded for extraordinary sacrifices

The

its altars.

65

The

possible to raise a large

their property.

They

This income could only be expected

chapter's decision, in

sound and even inevitable.

was

cathedral

fame of the sanctuary and

The

successor,

to have been generally ex-

cathedral. But, of course, the canons themselves had a

derived a sizable income from to increase as the

have nearly doubled the

been initiated by the Cardinal

met with sympathetic response on

chapter when, after the great for the sake of a

said to

nephew and

his

relations with his chapter

cellent,

Christian world.

is

The reform had

194,

1

spread throughout the

its relics

was

budgetary ,

thus, in

preceding istrative reform made

sum almost

at once.

Even

so, that decision

it

must have

involved grave deliberations.

How

regrettable

What amount

is

it

that

we know

nothing about their exact nature.

did the canons retain for their subsistence?

of the medieval bishop and

his chapter

resemble

in

many

modern government. Revenues must be balanced

The

responsibilities

respects those of a

against budgetary

com-

mitments that cannot be canceled from one day to the next, no matter what

emergency may occur. By accident the record of a payment of something over 307 livrcs has survived, apparently but one installment of 62.

(X,

The

I,

xxix

ff.;

I,

ff.

;is

model. Cf. Foumier,

.1

2,

i88ff.,

225;

II,

Chartres settlement was often used

283

63. This assertion

is

p. 1S1

made

in

ff.

the obituary ol

the Cardinal of

a

regular obligation

Champagne (CC,

64.

("(.',

I,

2,

65.

CC,

I,

cvi

::6. t.,

lxxviii

ff.

III,

169).

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN that the Bishop of Chartres paid, in

At

that time

work on

nearly $100,000 in

1

177

202, to Philip Augustus' bailiff at Etampes. 66

was

the cathedral

in full progress.

The amount

of 200 livres that the same king offered a few years later to Notre 67

the building of the sanctuary." for the bishop 1

1

Such regular obligations made

paid,

the

sum

Dame

"for

modern currency, compares very favorably with

impossible

it

and chapter to shoulder the immense burden they assumed

94 for more than

a

in

few years

But the chapter could count on the co-operation of the town, which had never been more prosperous than grant antiquite, Burgeis

i

was

it

"La

just then.

vile esteit

aveit riches et d'aveir grant plente"

mult bone, de

("The town was

very good and of great antiquity, and there was a rich and opulent citizenry"),

wrote

Wace

about Chartres

in his

Roman

Rou around

de

1

160. 68 Textiles

from

Chartres were sold at the fairs of Frejus in distant Provence. 69 In the same province harnesses and weapons from the city's famed armories competed

with those of Edessa. 70

The wealth

accruing from such transactions was never

and onitions of the medieval Church. Bishop

likely to evade the needs

Maurice of Sully, under whose istration Notre in his

famous sermons was wont to depict the devil

against the rich that

were hardly needed

were unwilling in Chartres.

prosperity of the city

was

make

to

We

tied to the

Dame of Paris was

as a

begun,

merchant and to thunder

charitable gifts. 71 Such onitions

have seen

how

intimately the economic

fame of Notre Dame. But

just before the

great fire an event occurred that highlighted the significance of the alliance

between town and cathedral.

For many generations the canons had claimed and exerted the right of itting into their domestic family any burgher of Chartres they chose.

66. See Lot,

he Premier budget de

la

monarchic

francaise, le compte generale de 1202/3, P- 65. 67. Lepinois, I, 120: "ad opus edificationis

68.

Rou 818

ecclesiae." See the obituary of this king in the

necrology of Notre Dame, where the

deceased

"istam

precipue

it is

said that

sanctam

clesiam, speciali favoris gratia et quasi

ec-

habebat erga ipsam dilectionis affectum, multociens affectu operis comprobavit." CC, et quern

III,

138.

(ed.), Maistre

dues de

Normandie

W

ace's

.

.

.

,

Roman I,

6,

de

vv.

f.

69. Laurent,

Un Grand commerce d'exportation

au moyen-age: La draperie des Pays-Bas en et

quodam

amoris privilegio, fovit propensius et protegit,

Andresen

et des

Those

dans

les

Pays Mediterraniens, pp. 67 ff. I, 399. On other activities of

70. Lepinois,

the merchants of Chartres, see Acloque, pp. 1

84

ff.

Robson, Maurice of Sully and the Medieval Vernacular Homily, pp. 105, 136. 71.


I78

who that

became avoues of Notre Dame partook of the

thus is,

as well as taxation

upon

liberties

of the

cloitre;

they enjoyed the valuable privilege of exemption from the jurisdiction

The

of the count.

custom which reduced

this

led to close alliances

of course, looked with hostility

latter,

between the canons and

evade the count's jurisdiction.

income and often

his authority as well as his

Armed

influential burghers anxious to

skirmishes, even invasions of the

resulted. In each such case the chapter resorted to

its

cloitre,

weapons, interdict

spiritual

and excommunication, which proved invincible. 72 In

1

192,

V

Thibault

however, the dangerous situation developed into an acute

of Chartres ed into the hands of

widow, Adele, while her

his

son, Louis,

resided at Blois. This princess, the daughter of Louis VII, resolved to

quarrel

come

was appealed Cardinal of

crisis.

having been killed the previous year on crusade, the government

to a head. to

There were

Pope Urban

Champagne

III,

who

as arbiters.

arbitration committee, appointed

of violence on both

acts

appointed the

Their

efforts

sides.

let

The

Queen Mother and

were of no

by the next pope, Celestine

avail.

the

issue

the

But a new

III, finally

reached

a decision that completely upheld the chapter and formally recognized

privileges in the matter of the avoues.

The main

Dowager Countess Adele and Bishop Renaud, were alliance

and the close

relatives,

between the houses of and Chartres prevented any more

serious political issues being raised.

While

this

may have

fact

acquiescence in the settlement on the part of the countess,

it

facilitated

did not diminish

the significance of the victory for the chapter, as well as for the town.

town was not recognized

as a

commune

until a

century

later.

The

Chartres the door that eventually led to municipal liberty.

proved the cathedral chapter to be the champion of that

Pope Celestine appointed fire.

The

close alliance.

Dame

make

town of

verdict also

73

the arbitration committee four days before the

town and chapter

in

had proved to be the source and mainstay of the

town's freedom as well as of her prosperity. to

liberty.

disaster that struck the cathedral found

Notre

The

The

verdict in

the matter of the avoues, as has been justly observed, opened for the

great

its

parties to this struggle, the

The townspeople

the rebuilding of the cathedral their

own

had every reason

cause.

But the contributions of the royal house, the count, the people, and the 72. CC,

I,

exxix

(.,

Lepinois,

I,

125

ff.

73.

CC,

I,

2,

227

ff.;

Lepinois,

I,

116

ff.


1

79

bishop and chapter of Chartres did not yet suffice to bring the great edifice to

were

completion. Additional funds

The procedure Virgin.

At

raised with the help of the cathedral's relics.

again reflected in the treatise of the Miracles of the Blessed

is

the end of the three-year period during which bishop and chapter

had underwritten most of the building expenditures, a financial so acute that

was not even

it

possible to

pay the wages of the workers currently

engaged on the building. According to the author of the

when

subsided

through which

a

new wave of enthusiasm was

Our Lady made

and received far

74

manifest "that she had indeed chosen Chartres

This time contributions for the

away from

Chartres.

The

was probably written

Virgin of Chartres spread knight from Aquitaine

all

whom

for the

The

over and even beyond

she protected in battle;

75

sanctuary of Chartres.

Miracles of the

it.

to the

We hear of a

of a young scholar from

London, who, upon returning home after completing

new

solicited

same purpose. Devotion

happened to enter a church where a preacher was behalf of the

were

basilica

chapter sent relics accompanied by

preachers abroad in an attempt to raise additional funds. Blessed Virgin

emergency

treatise, the

kindled by a series of miracles

and "wanted her church to be rebuilt with incom-

as her special residence"

parable magnificence."

developed,

crisis

his studies in ,

sermon on

just delivering a

The youth was

so

moved

that after

an inner struggle he parted with the only valuable he possessed, a golden necklace he had meant to take

home

for the girl he loved; he gave

it

instead to

Our Lady. Even Richard the Lionhearted heard of the Virgin the tion.

The

74.

young man was

episode and of the vision of

this

said to have had after he had offered his dona-

king too was touched. "Although then at war with the King of

Mirac,

pp.

510

f.

"Verum

ad

tanti

ecclesiam

colens

sibi

ibidem miracula, ejusdem

nequaquam

meriris suis et precibus incitavit

sufficerent

nisi

episcopus et

[ut]

canonici tantam, et supra dictum est, ex propriis

tribus annis pecuniam conquod siquidem, transa[u]cto eodem omnibus manifesrum apparuit, cum

redditibus

tulissent;

triennio,

omnis

subito

preerant

operi

pecunia

quod

defecisset,

daretur

ita

ut

operariis

qui

non

75.

Mirac, pp. 526

apart, there

in order to

.

.

."

cult of relics

in thus solicit-

I

of Coutances

(1049-93)

approach Robert Guiscard and other

r architecture

.

.

facienda

potentiam

sent his emissaries as far as Apulia and Calabria

humano penitus deficente auxcum necessarium esset adesse divinum, beata Dei genetrix novam et incomparabilem .

sui

Even the

was nothing unusual

Bishop Geoffrey

Norman

ilio,

filii

ing contributions abroad for church building,

haberent, aut quid dari posset de cetera non

viderent

f.

ad

fabricari

structuram operis Iaicorum munera vel auxilia

notables in this region. See Mortet and

Deschamps, Recueil de et

a

la

textes relatifs a Vh'ntoire

de

condition des architectes en

aumoyen-dge,\, 73.


l8o

," he received the emissaries from Chartres with great kindness, insisted "like another

David"

relic that the clerics

out his kingdom. 76

window of

that he himself carry the chasse containing the sacred

had brought along, and granted them safe conduct through-

The

material success of this journey

may

be attested by a

the cathedral donated by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter-

bury. 77

As

a whole, however,

Notre

Dame

of Chartres

monument.

a national

is

Bishop Fulbert had obtained contributions for the Romanesque basilica from

Knut, King of England and Denmark, from the dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine. 78 Later a tower had been donated by William the Conqueror. early in the twelfth century, at a time

when

his relations

And

with King Philip of

were strained, Yves of Chartres secured substantial contributions from

Henry

I

of England and

his

the basilica. 79 Again, the

queen for the "preservation and embellishment"

Abbey of

was

St.-Denis, according to Suger,

with the donations of princes and prelates.

He

has not found

it

or"

built

necessary to

mention the innumerable lesser benefactors whose offerings on the

feasts

of

St.-Denis helped to raise his church. But a century later, the nave and facade

of Strassburg Cathedral were

built

the bishop and chapter and allowed

The Gothic

by the burghers only, who were

them no share

Cathedral of Chartres was the

hostile to

in the project.

work of and of

, as no other great sanctuary had been before.

The

bear magnificent testimony to the national effort. 80

I

all

windows

cathedral

have mentioned those

contributed by the guilds. Along with them appear the ancient feudal houses of

Montmorency J\

the Tle-de- as donors: Courtenay, Montfort, Beaumont,

The

counts of Chartres, but especially the royal house,

76.

Mirac, pp. 528

I,

on her

121.

78. Bultcau, "Saint Fulbert," pp. 294 79. Bulteau, Monographic,

This

general

sense

Notre Dame of Chartres

On

the

cover

of the

is

I,

66

left

of attachment

to

attested elsewhere.

cathedral

necrology

No. 1032), which there were represented of angels,

apostles,

martyrs, confessors, and virgins; on the other hand, the image of the blessed

left,

Virgin with

and

pe.1s.1nts

and kings, queens, burghers, and

peasants on her right."

ff.

ff.

(Bibliotheque de Chartres,

was begun in 11 24, "on one hand, choirs

great con-

pontiffs, clerks, knights, burghers,

ff.

77. Bulreau, Monographic,

80.

made

The

read: "Pontifes, clerus,

inscription on the

cum

militibus dare

Undique dona ferunt burgenses atque coloni"; and on the right: "Reges, rcgine pariter sua raunera donant, Dant et nut rone, que burgi, que quoque ruris." Merlct and proni,

Clerval, p.

l'n

Mtmtserit chartram

XI'

141.

81. Dclaporte and

Houvct, pp. 439

ff.

sieclt,

THE PALACE OF THE VIRGIN tributions.

82

The

given

entire composition in the northern facade, consisting of the

windows and

rose and lancet

l8l

exalting

Mary

and her Biblical ancestors, was

by Queen Blanche, the mother of St. Louis. All corresponding windows were donated by Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany. 83

in the opposite transept

The

splendor and ostentation of this contribution have always aroused a

good deal of speculation. to sur that

What prompted this

of the French queen?

gift

which seems almost designed

The house of Dreux was

the Capetian dynasty, Peter a great-grandson of Louis VI.

a side branch of

Having acquired

Brittany by his marriage to the heiress, Alix of Thouars, he set out to raise the

power of the duchy

at the

very time when the other great feudal dynasties

the duchies of Aquitaine and

Normandy

(the

duke of which had once been the

suzerain of the ruler of Brittany), the counties of Toulouse,

Flanders

—were succumbing one by one

power. Peter owed to

his

dukedom

have disturbed the king, and

Champagne, and

to the irresistible progress of Capetian

to Philip Augustus; his

schemes do not seem

monarch's death

until the

in

1223 Peter re-

mained generally loyal to the monarchy. 84

No

other French prince of his time could have entertained the idea of ap-

main benefactor of Notre

pearing, along with the royal house, as the

Chartres. call

it,

It

was, in any event, excellent political propaganda, as

not the

less,

Dame

of

we would

perhaps, because there existed in Chartres an influential

and prosperous colony of Bretons, whose lent enthusiastic to the reconstruction of the cathedral. 85 Prior to his donation of the transept

windows, where

along with those of his wife and children, ap-

his portrait,

peared below the figures of prophets and evangelists, Peter had also given the statuary of the great southern portal: his image and that of Alix of Thouars

appear under the feet of the statue of Christ in the central trumeau. 86 decision to enrich each end of the transept

by three sculptured

porches did not form part of the original design for the cathedral.

reached so late that 82. Delaporte

493

and

it

became necessary

Houvet,

pp.

475

ff.,

85.

125

ff-

83. Delaporte and 84. See Painter, Peter of Dreux,

to cut

Houvet, pp. 43 ff. The Scourge of the Clergy,

Duke of

1

Brittany.

The

portals and It

was

back the already completed

Mirac,

p.

522; Bulteau, Monographic,

I,

f-

86.

Not "over

the

head

of the

central

Christ," as Painter, p. 31, erroneously states. Bulteau,

II,

292.


82

buttresses of the facades. 87 ble

To

what extent was

this

change of plan made possi-

He had only acquired his duchy in Dame of Chartres seems to have been Philip Augustus, to whom he owed his

by the munificence of Peter of Dreux?

12 12,

and

among

the

his great donation to

Notre

of his government.

first acts

sudden ascendancy, had the sanctuary much

made

to

its

embellishment, Peter

may

the sovereign, as well as his loyalty to the

For

this public

at heart;

by the contribution he

have wished to express

his loyalty to

Queen of Heaven.

demonstration of his piety and prestige Peter

may well

have

chosen the most imposing place the cathedral offered. Erler has proved that the southern transept and portal of the Cathedral of Strassburg served, during the thirteenth century, as the setting and backdrop for courts of law

convoked and

presided over by the bishop in his capacity as spiritual and secular lord of the

town; here and elsewhere, representations of the Last Judgment were designed to remind judge, defendants, and witnesses of the eternal source of the bishop's judicial

the

power and of

Cathedral the

the eternal principles of justice to which the verdict of

human judge must be

may

attuned. 88

The

spacious southern porch of Chartres

well have served the same purpose, and the Judgment scene in

tympanum, donated by Peter of Dreux, may have addressed

itself to

man's

concern with justice as well as to his hope for redemption. According to a

medieval legal

text,

quoted by Erler, a representation of the Last Judgment

to be placed in the courtroom because "wherever the judge there,

and

in the

same hour, God

is

sitting in his divine

sits in

is

judgment,

judgment above the

judge and the jury." 87. Cf. Grodecki,

Chartres Cathedral:

"The Transept Portals of The Date of Their Con-

According to Archeological Data" (AB, XXIII, 1951).

struction

88. See Erler,

Das

Strass burger Miinster

im

Rechtsleben des Mittelalters, and Gall's review in

Kunstchronik, VII, 1954, pp. 315

f.

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES

7-

A

large

part of the preceding chapter has been devoted to the economic

aspects of cathedral building, especially to the economic aspects of the building

of Chartres Cathedral. ment. But

it

The

material effort does not explain the artistic achieve-

does reflect the significance of the great project for

made

contributions

its

realization

possible.

Our

all

willingness

those whose part with

to

material possessions for the sake of values other than material provides something like a crude yardstick by which

matters for our

Dame

life

we

and our experience.

can measure the relevance of spiritual

The

building of a cathedral like Notre

of Chartres required an economic effort

art, religious

to that

In our

or otherwise, has an importance that

which compelled an

into the construction of the

gradually and breathtakingly above the

The mood,

is

entire generation to pour

cosmos of stone

demanded

far greater than that

by any other public project of the Middle Ages.

that,

own

time, no

work of

even remotely comparable its

energies and resources

between

town of Chartres.

1

194 and 1220, rose

1

the expectation, the suspense of the audience before the curtain

rises represent the specific challenge that confronts the artist.

standard that his

work

has to meet.

Our own

They

set the

indifference and lack of ex-

pectation are to be blamed for the boredom, interrupted

by attempts

to arouse

the public's attention with the help of cheap visual tricks, that characterizes

most monumental architecture today. pared

for, the

We

no longer expect, and are not pre-

overwhelming experience of a consummate work of architecture.

Consider, on the other hand, the responsibility of the master builder of Chartres. 1

.

It is

generally assumed that the construe-

from west to east and was in main completed by 1220. See Male, Notre-

tion proceeded

the

Dame

"The Cathedral: The

de Chartres, p. 34; and Grodecki,

Transept Portals of Chartres

Date of Their Construction According to Data" (AB, XXIII, 195 1),

Archeological p.

157,

who

refutes

(Monographie de 112)

The

la

that the choir

Bulteau's

Cathedrale de

contention Chartres,

was completed

in

I,

1198.

question, however, remains unsettled.


184

The

emotions that the great

demand

community, the

fire

for a

by the

these had to be satisfied

of

194 had kindled, the sacrifices of the entire

1

new

sanctuary of incomparable splendor

architect's achievement.

others not only in the eyes of

sur

all

herself

demanded

that

its

human

The

beings; the

Queen of Heaven

chamber."

as her "special

The

task

would appear staggering, or rather preposterous,

architect.

Not

so for the medieval builder.

what the new church was

inarticulate.

They

The

to be like,

to a

nevertheless limited the alternatives of his design and indeed

Greek or even

"myth" but

its

were probably vague and even

it.

In

some

the vision of the medieval cathedral resembles a great popular myth.

the

modern

expectations of his public,

provided him with something like a general outline for

tect, like the

all

beauty be commensurate with the rank she had

bestowed upon Chartres Cathedral

notions of

—

cathedral had to

to give

archi-

the Elizabethan dramatists, did not have to invent

concrete expression. "All art," the Irish dramatist

it

John Synge has written,

respects,

The

"is a collaboration."

That

well. Its architect had to give expression to an

applies to the cathedral as

image that he shared with

his

generation and that the long religious tradition of his people had gradually shaped.

That

tradition the master of Chartres accepted quite literally as the basis

for his design.

cathedral.

That

His

it,

rose upon the foundations of the destroyed

earlier church, built

eleventh century,

church above

own work

we know

by Bishop Fulbert

relatively well.

The

crypt,

and excavations conducted during the

determine the ground plan of the eleventh-century its

elevation, thanks to the singular

Fulbert's church, painted soon after

its

in the first third

which

last

edifice.

is

of the

as large as the

century, enable us to 2

But

we know

even

good fortune by which a "portrait" of completion, has survived.

The municipal

library of St.-Etienne (Loire) has long possessed an eleventh-century

manu-

script written for the Cathedral Chapter of Chartres, containing the obit-

uary of

this church.

been inscribed

in a

3

The names of its

deceased and benefactors have

calendar under the dates of their deaths. In the case of more

important personages, brief obituary notices follow the entries. These obit2.

Forts

Cf. Lefevre-Pontalis, et

les

crvptes

de

"Le la

Puits des Saints-

Cathedrale

de

Chartres" (BM, LXVII, 1903). 3. For the following, see Merlet and Clerval,

Un Manuscrit chartra'm du XI* siklr, pp. 47 The manuscript has recently been returned Chartres.

ff.

to

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES uaries

were read during the canonical

liturgy calls first for the recital

office

of prime

of the names of the

185

where the

in the place

saints

rated on that particular day, and second for a prayer

who

are

commemo-

on behalf of deceased

and benefactors of the community. Our manuscript,

therefore, con-

tains not only the obituaries of these persons but also a martyrology or

commemorated by

the saints

liturgical year.

And

it is

a kind of

the church of Chartres in the course of the

Sigon, has ordered a tumulus,

his, a certain

eulogy of the dead, to be inserted.

This tumulus seems to have contained originally the obituary, Fulbert

is

in

which

hailed as the builder of the cathedral, as well as three large minia-

of which only one has survived.

tures,

of

here, after the date of April 10, the date of Bishop

Fulbert s death, that a disciple of illustrated

list

It is this

one, however, representing the

bishop as he addresses his flock in the cathedral, that contains the portrait of the

Romanesque church.

date.

The

Mesmin

We

know

inscription mentions that

at Mici,

the author of this miniature as well as

Andrew of Mici, probably

near Orleans, has painted the picture.

a

monk

He undoubtedly

its

at St.-

started

the tumulus immediately after Fulbert' s death in 1028; and, since his miniature

shows the cathedral without the transept occurred in 1030, his

Andrew of Mici

—or perhaps

represent at the same time both

as well as the side aisles

These

after a fire that

before then. 4

its

because of

it

—

Roman-

that he tried to

external and internal appearances. His

Notre Dame and the archaeological evidence complement each

other perfectly. Fulbert's church

transept;

was added

has given us a remarkably accurate picture of the

esque cathedral despite the fact

"portrait" of

that

work must have been completed

was

a three-aisled basilica, the clerestory

amply illuminated by rows of windows.

It

had no

an ambulatory with three radiating chapels surrounded the apse.

as well as the apse

were covered by

windows (although Andrew's painting In addition to this information furnished

is

a half

dome and

illuminated

by

not entirely clear on this point).

by the miniature, we know through

documentary evidence that the nave was not vaulted but covered with a trussed

wooden roof destroyed by

the fire of 1030.

Of

the

two towers

rep-

may

have

resented in Andrew's painting, the one to the north of the sanctuary 4.

"Ultimus

in clero Fulberti

nomine Sigo/Andree manibus

hec pinxit Miciacensis." Merlet and Clerval,

p. 51.

Plate

so

I


86

been a remainder of the Carolingian building. However, the recent excavations

conducted by Etienne Fels have yielded evidence that the basilica of the eleventh century

was equipped with

a

monumental western porch and tower

not unlike that of St.-Benoit-sur-Loire.

The

fire

of 1030 destroyed only the upper portions of Fulbert's church

and does not seem to have touched

its

eastern parts. But in the course of the re-

had become necessary, Bishop Thierry added two slightly pro-

pairs that

truding transepts. 6 During the latter part of the eleventh century and in the

course of the twelfth, the cathedral underwent a number of slight modifica-

Three porches were added

tions.

southern facades. facade aisles

We have seen in the preceding chapter how the present west

was constructed

of the

west facade and to the northern and

to the

latter

after

1

1

34.

To

with Fulbert's church, the side

it

were prolonged westward and

vaulted aisles and as wide as the nave,

a narthex, consisting

was erected

in front

hind the three sculptured portals of the west facade.

The

of three

of the nave and beupper floor of

narthex was lighted by three stained-glass windows that are

still

this

among

the

of

194.

most beautiful of the cathedral. 6

Only

these western parts of the cathedral escaped the great

fire

1

All the rest seems to have perished in that disaster. But the old sanctuary

was

still

on

to live

in the

design of the new. Despite the delight that medieval

builders took in rejuvenating, enlarging, or even reconstructing their churches, a sentiment

of reverent awe prevented them from obliterating

all

vestiges of the

old sanctuary. Suger hesitated to demolish the walls of the Carolingian church,

which were

said to

have been consecrated by Christ himself. Crypts, especially

those parts that were hallowed by the remains of martyrs or other relics de-

were

posited there,

particularly sacrosanct.

The

architect of Chartres

thedral has taken extraordinary care to preserve the dimensions of the

esque church and to adapt his

even though

it

proved most

structure with the

own

edifice to the contours

difficult,

new Gothic

5.

Mcrlet and Clerval, pp. 65

6.

See Lefevre-Pontalis, "Les Facades sue-

cessives de

la

Cath&lrale dc

au XII" siecles" Chartres,

(SAELM,

1900), and

f.

and 80

Charms XIII,

as

vision of

.111

XI' ct

1904;

"Les Architectes

CA, et

la

of Fulbert's crypt,

we

shall see, to reconcile the old

what

a great sanctuary should look

construction

f.

Ca-

Roman-

(SNAFM,

cathedrales

des ;th

scries,

"l.e Porrail R0v.1l ct

la

IV,

de

Chartres"

1905);

Aubcrt,

facade occidcntalc de

la

Cathedrale de Chartres" (BA1, C, 194')- See above,

p. 148, n.29.

.

Fig. j. Chartres Cathedral.

Romanesque

Ground plan

cathedral in black, Gothic edifice in light gray, twelfth-century additions in dark gray

am

8

I


88

like.

This vision, molded by the religious and metaphysical ideas of the age,

the architect of Chartres shared with his contemporaries;

it

"collaborated"

with him as he designed the new cathedral. In their aesthetic aspects or consequences those ideas presented the consistent

development of the Augustinian and Neoplatonic trends that had

emerged so powerfully

the mid-twelfth century. In subsequent decades

in

these trends had gradually converged.

The

been marked, and innumerable personal

between them had always

affinities

connected

ties

St.

Bernard's followers

with the main exponents of the School of Chartres. Thus, to mention but two examples, Alan of Lille, the renowned disciple of the school,

Abbot Peter of Citeaux

adviser to

retired to the Isaac, abbot

may

have acted

mother house of the Cistercian Order, where he died

of the Cistercian monastery of Stella, on the other hand,

been a companion of

in 1202.

who

7

had'

Bernard and the austere William of St.-Thierry

St.

as

at the Third Lateran Council, and certainly

at

Citeaux and Pontigny, where he absorbed much of their mysticism, was also

imbued with Neoplatonism. His sermons contain

allusions to the Timaeus;

he shows himself to be strongly influenced by the Pseudo-Areopagite and

at

same time by the mathematizing method of the School of Chartres. 8

In

the

one of the sermons Isaac delivered before

his

monastic community, he ex-

pounds "measure and number and weight" as the unifying principles of the

monks

universe in order to lead his

and essence of

all

unity.

In Chartres itself,

to the contemplation of

we

new

as the source

can trace the survival of the Neoplatonic tradition

to the time

when

the school

was perhaps unique. The

the

God

9

cathedral

was being

built. In this

element of continuity

intellectual character

of the other French

schools of the twelfth century depended upon the interests and personalities

of their individual teachers and usually changed with them. In Chartres the tradition that 7.

On

8.

Isaac

successor

molded

Alan, see above,

was abbot of is

HLF, XXII.

not

its

scholars. 10

p. 32, n.

Stella

mentioned

1169;

the

see

XXVIII, 1946).

Bhemetzrieder, "Isaac dc Stella"

IV, 1932), traces the influences of Plato's Twiaeus, the Pseudo-Areopagite, and thc School of Chartres in Isaac's work. For a not altogether convincing attempt to connect

thought

with

the

art

of his

time,

"Iconography

his

(RTAM,

his

tradition, Platonizing

Grinnell,

:

from 1147;

until

This

see

Crucifixion

910.

Sermo XXI Sec

(/'/..

XU

V

at

CXCIV,

Brunct,

P.irc,

Renaissance Ju

and

Window

Steele

it

was

and focusing Philosophy

Poitiers"

in

(AB,

1760).

and Tremblay, La Les ecoles et rmseigne-

ment, p. 30; Poole, Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought and Learning, pp. 95 if.


1

89

around mathematical and musical studies, had been established as early as the eleventh century by Bishop Fulbert,

and Pythagoras.

tes

11

It

reached

whom

its fullest

compared with Socra-

his disciples

efflorescence, as

we

have seen, in the

twelfth century. True, with the death of Thierry the time of the great chancellors

of the Cathedral School was over. But the bishops

who governed

the see

and the school during the second half of the century were, as Clerval remarks,

among

most erudite Chartres had ever had. 12 Let us take

the

a brief glance at

these men.

Bishop Geoffrey's immediate successor was his nephew, Gosselin of

Musy

(1

A man of scholarly

148-55).

and

artistic inclinations,

responsible for the completion of the west facade of Notre

may have

bishop, Robert le Breton (d. 1164)

completed.

He took

Cardinal of Champagne, as the

lived to see the vieux docker

With his

we

and encourage

follower, William,

are already acquainted. John of Salisbury describes

most magnificent French prelate of his day.

Lombard, William employed

the

Dame. 13 The next

an active interest in the embellishment of his cathedral and

cultivated the ancient musical tradition of his see. 14

him

he was possibly

his

A brilliant pupil of Peter

almost unlimited wealth and influence to

many eminent men of

letters.

15

Among

these

was

Walter of Chatillon, one of the great poets of his century and equally renowned as a teacher.

Walter paid eloquent

tribute to the mathematical aesthetics

of his

time: Creatori serviunt omnia subjecta,

sub mensura, numero, pondere perfecta.

Ad

invisibilia,

sursum

trahit

11. Clerval, Les Ecoles de Chartres au dge, pp. 29

ff.;

per haec intellecta,

hominem

moyen-

Haskins, The Renaissance of the

ratio directa.

"mirifice"

repaired.

274

p. 276.

Clerval, pp.

CC, III, 32 Clerval, pp. 153 ff. That name was Gosselin of Musy, rather than of Leves, was established by Merlet, Dignitaires 13.

f*.;

his

Notre-Dame de Chartres, pp. xv, 230. His obituary (CC, III, 180) mentions

de Feglise 14.

See

also

Fisquet,

La

pontificate. Chartres, p. 92; Clerval, pp.

Twelfth Century, pp. 5 f. 12. Clerval, pp. 274 f.; Haskins, Renaissance, 1

16

ff-

See

15.

HLF, XV, 505 ff.; above, p. 174; 274 ff. The austere William of

St.-Thierry and the humanist Walter of Chatillon,

Peter of Poitiers, and Peter of Blois

all

dedicated works to the cardinal.

Wright

16.

The Latin Poems Commonly on the attribu3 2 Walter of Chatillon, see Wilmart,

Attributed

to

(ed.),

Walter Mapes, p.

;

several architectural undertakings and artistic

tion

donations by Robert. In the cathedral he had

"Poemes de Gautier de Chatillon" (RB, XLIX,

the

pavement

at

the

entrance to the

choir

to

1937),

and Curtius, European Literature and


190

William was succeeded by John of Salisbury

(1

176-78), the most famous

of all the bishops of Chartres. John did more than any of them to keep alive the great tradition of the

first

half of the century.

ings of Thierry of Chartres and, through his

He was

own

familiar with the teach-

teacher,

William of Conches,

whom

with those of Thierry's older brother and predecessor, Bernard, calls

John

"the most perfect Platonist" of his century. 17 But the broad and cultured

humanism of John of Salisbury

—did not

—he made no secret of

his respect for

Abelard

18

preclude his iration for the more austere religious trend that

emanated from Citeaux and Clairvaux. In describing the momentous encounter

between

Bernard and Gilbert de

St.

la

Porree at the Synod of Reims, John

characterizes the antagonists with an almost

Bishop of Poitiers, the most learned

man of

Homeric his time;

impartiality: the grave

and the abbot of Clair-

vaux, whose eloquence, John thinks, had been unequaled since Gregory the

Great. 19

We

have no record of John's views on religious

Webb

he was, as

Walter was

the Latin

Middle Ages, pp. 501

born

135 at the latest, studied in Paris and

in

1

ff.

Reims, and subsequently headed the School of Laon; later he was made a canon of Reims Cathedral and went from there to the court of

Henry

II

Plantagenet.

As

he journeyed to England

Walter

in

the king's emissary, 1

166. Later

as a teacher in Chatillon

and Rome.

The

and

we

Bologna

in

Champagne

Cardinal of

find

ap-

pointed him his notary and public orator, and later secured for

him

a

canonry

at

Amiens. Ac-

cording to his epitaph, "perstrepuit modulis Gallia tota." Walter's

by Strecker, Die and

poems have been

Literatur

edited

Gedichte Walters von Chatillon,

Moralisch-Satirische

Chatillon.

Gedichte

Walters

von

See Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen des

art.

In musical matters

observes, in sympathy with the Cistercian movement. 20 But

Mittelalters,

III,

920

ff.;

Raby, Middle

who

quotes from Walter's Alexandreis, Pitra,

Spicilegium Solesmense, Metalogiciis,

17.

John's Pare,

education,

Brunet,

II,

xxv

see

Clerval,

and Tremblay,

"The Masters of

the

Letterkunde,

LXXIV,

For interesting evidence of the esteem

1932). in

which

Walter's works were held by the Cistercians at the

end of the twelfth century, see Wilmart,

On ff.;

Poole,

of Paris and

School

John of Salisbury's Time" (EHR, XXV, 1920), and Illustrations, pp. 101, 176 ff. He was a friend of John Sarracenus, the transChartres

lator

in

of the Pseudo-Areopagite,

who

dedicated

PL, CIC, 143, 161 ff., 259. On John's library, see CC, III, 201. 18. "Clarus doctor et irabilis omnibus

to

him one of his

translations. Cf.

praesidebat" he calls Abelard, under

had once studied. Metalogicus,

19.

Historia

Pontificalis

R.

(ed.,

Writings of John of Salisbury, Platonic clement in John's

whom

to (PL,

II,

Oxford, 1927), ch. 12, p. 27. 20. Webb, John of Salisbury, schuetz, Medieval Humanism in

Afdeeling

30;

p.

Alan of Lille, see Huizinga, "Uber die Verkniipfung des Poetischcn mit dem Theologischen bei Alanus dc Insulis" (Mededeelingen der Akademie van Weetenschappen,

317

pp.

867); Poole, "Masters."

to,

467.

Ill,

ff.;

IV, 35 (PL, CIC, 938).

History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Ages, II, 190 ff. On Walter's influence upon,

and relations

anonymous

Gautier de Chatillon; and, on the

English Cisterican of the late twelfth century

p.

L.

he

CIC,

Poole,

26. Liebe-

the

Life and

p. 27, stresses

the

toward value of music

attitude

music. In insisting on the ethical John shows himself a pupil of Boethius; see

De nmsica

I,

1

(PL,

LXHI,

1

169

f.).

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES criticism of an overelaborate church music springs from

his

tation of the nature

191

a Platonic interpre-

and power of music. Music, he observes, embraces the uni-

verse, reconciling the dissident and dissonant multitude of beings

proportion:

"by

this

man governed."

well as

by the law of

law the heavenly spheres are harmonized, the cosmos

as

the Boethian notion of a triple music, cosmic,

It is

human, and instrumental. With the traditional reference to David playing before Saul (which

we

John of Salisbury invokes

also encounter in St. Bernard),

the authority of Plato, "the prince of philosophy," for the theory that "the soul

is

said to be

composed of musical consonances." Nothing therefore

is

more

apt than music, the proper kind of music, to educate and elevate the soul, and to direct

it

toward the worship of God. Even the Church triumphant,

of angels and

To

saints, renders

the reader

all

symphonic praise

to the Lord.

these thoughts will sound familiar.

musical metaphysics of Plato and Augustine.

The

ideas of a philosopher only.

And

in the choirs

21

They resume

the

they do not represent the

impact of metaphysics and theology upon

the actual practice and theory of music

evident throughout the twelfth and

is

thirteenth centuries and s for the dominant role assigned to the three

Pythagorean consonances. 22 John of Grocheo

eminence with

compare music and architecture because of the cosmic

applicability of the laws of quidem

"Disciplina

virtutis suae potentiae,

et

sibi

harmony, 23

liberalis

est

.

.

.

specierumque varietate,

famulantibus numeris, universa com-

plectitur,

omnium quae

1280) explains their pre-

moreover, musical writers of

a reference to the Trinity. Since,

the Gothic age explicitly

zi.

(c.

we may assume

that the Platonizing

(Traditio, II,

1944;

"Speculative

Thinking

(Speculum,

sunt et quae dicuntur,

III,

1945), and Bukofzer, in

Medieval Music"

XVII, 1942).

23. Professor Gerstenberg, of the University

my

dissidentem et dissonam multitudinem propor-

of Tubingen,

tionum suarum,

following ages, where music

id est inaequali

quaedam aequi-

tatis lege concilians. Hac etenim coelestia temperantur mundana sive humana reguntur .

." Policraticus,

.

I,

6 (PL, CIC, 401).

calls

attention to the is

two

compared

John of Grocheo (c. 1280), (Wolf, ed.), p. 108; and Speculum

to architecture:

Theoria

musicae by Jacobus of Liege (see above, ch.

SSM,

2, n.

For the decisive role of the three perfect consonances in medieval music, to the end of the

cantat, quis sine

thirteenth century, see Coussemaker, Histoire

edificium debet proportionari fundamento [an

22.

de Vharmonie au moycn-dge, pp. 8

Wolf, "Die Musiklehre des Grocheo" (Sammelbdnde der Musikgesellschaft,

I,

f.

and 36

Johannes

ff.;

de

Internationalen

Music in 446. For the

pp. 69 ff.); Reese,

the Middle Ages, pp. 294 ff., metaphysical background of this preference for

the perfect consonances, see Spitzer, "Classical

and

Christian

Ideas

of

World Harmony"

53),

II,

386: "Quis enim sine tenore dis-

fundamento

edificat?

Et sicut

interesting reflection of the architectural practice

of "taking the elevation from the ground

plan"!] ut toris, sic

sed

nee

edificium non ad libitum operasecundum exigentiam fundamenti,

fiat

discantans

ad ."

libitum

suum notas

For twelfth-century references to the affinity between architecture and music, see above, p. 125. proferre

debet

.

.


192

views John of Salisbury expresses about music applied equally to architecture, attesting the vitality of a tradition that

we

have traced

earlier. Its survival, at

the end of the twelfth century, in the School of Chartres

by John's

pupil, Peter

further confirmed

is

of Blois. 24

John's immediate successor as Bishop of Chartres was Peter, abbot of

He

Celle, and subsequently of St.-Remi at Reims. 25

was, like Suger, a Bene-

Between 1170 and

dictine abbot with a ionate interest in architecture. 1

180 he rebuilt the choir and western part of St.-Remi and seems, again like

Suger, to have intended eventually to rebuild the entire church. 26 Unlike the

abbot of St.-Denis, however, he was not concerned with political

preacher, he

was

self a disciple

of

man of ascetic and

a St.

He

Bernard.

who

mystical leanings

community

John of Salisbury has on occasion ad-

embodied

of Chartres,

speculations of the older theologians of Char-

1'antiquite profane et qui professait

tem considerare

desiderat,

illam

veram

unita-

mathematica con-

sideratione praetermissa, necesse est ad intel-

animus sese erigat." De VII (PL, CIC, 961). Such criti-

ligentiae simplicitatem Sept. Septenis,

cism has close parallels

in the writings

Lille (see above, ch. 5, n. 43),

and

of Alan of

in

John's friend, Peter of Celle (see below,

A

those of p.

194).

similar criticism of the exaggerated study of

si

CCVII,

si

ionne pour

singulier pour les lettres sacrees."

Memoire sin quelques Chartres, 31,

chanceliers

un dedain Haureau,

de Yecole de

significant that such a

2. It is

could be a canon of Notre Dame.

As

for

man John

of Salisbury, the extent of his Platonism appears in Policraticus,

VII (PL, CIC, 645

f.),

where

the thought of Plato, entirely in the spirit of the

older masters of Chartres,

is

found to be

in ac-

cord with the Biblical of the Creation.

the quadrivium, from the pen of John's pupil,

Peter of Blois (PL,

lettre

hu-

enlightened

the

manism of his time: "un

"Opinor ideo cum qui

had been

after he

ministered a gentle rebuke to the geometrical

tres:

famed

considered him-

so calls himself in a letter soliciting the con-*

tinued friendship and advice of the Cistercian

24.

A

was no humanist.

unlike John of Salisbury, his intimate friend, he

and

affairs

25.

HLF, XIV,

See

236

ff.;

Fisquet, p. 105

and above

Leclercq,

is,

f.;

Clerval, pp. 274

according to Clerval, pp. 294 ff., 317 ff., an indication of the intellectual situation that pre-

La

Spirituahte de Pierre de Celle. Peter belonged

to one of the

vailed in the Cathedral School of Chartres even

Champagne;

around 1200. Peter of Blois and

married

231, 311

his

ff.),

vounger

namesake are both

figures of singular interest.

The

who became

older

Peter,

William the Good of cellor

of

this realm,

Sicily,

preceptor of

and

later

chan-

never ceased dreaming of a

return to Chartres. But John of Salisbury as well

in

ff.;

all

most distinguished families of cousin, Agnes of Brainc,

his

second marriage Robert of , a brother of Louis VII and

Count of Dreux,

grandfather of the Peter of Dreux of

have spoken

earlier. Peter

The St.-Martin-des-Champs. at Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Pans

type that the thought and culture of Chartres

110

were diffused throughout Europe. The vounger who was master of the School and Canon

influence dans le rwrd de Fri/n:. p. 60;

Peter,

I

his

education

Renaud of Moucon bitterly disappointed him by refusing him a canonry. He finally ed into the service of Henry II and became Archdeacon of Bath. It is through men of his

as

whom

of Celle received

:6.

invited Peter to preach in their cathedrals.

On St.-Remi,

(CA. Reims, iqi Haukunst ff.;

'937-

in

1,

see the article by

1,

57 ff.); Call.

Frankreich

Antrav.

Demaison

DUG

und Deutschhuni.

U Architecture

pp.

normande. Son and BAA,

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES raised to the See

of Chartres

(i 180).

27

quench Peter's ion

inclinations did not

precisely in architecture,

more

193

more noteworthy

the

It is all

for building.

that such

On the contrary,

it

was

particularly in Gothic architecture, that he

sought and found the means to communicate his religious experience. 28

The

relatively

few writings of Peter of Celle include 29

exegesis of the Tabernacle of Moses.

cerned with Gothic architecture. Yet

The work,

needless to say,

man

with human hands or earthly materials but belongs to the

Tabernacle that Moses

Peter continues,

built, as a

visible to things invisible.

him

of Celle. not built

celestial, spiritual,

us visualize the historical

let

Moses himself meant

He, whose true tabernacle

it.

is

means of guiding our attention from things

by means of the work he was

initiated,

behind

so,

not con-

is

like the abbot

declares at the beginning that the tabernacle that concerns

and eternal world. Even

moral

of considerable interest for our under-

it is

standing of the meaning of Gothic in the eyes of a

He

a mystical and

is

minds of the

to direct the

building, to the spiritual vision that lay in heaven, has nevertheless

commanded

the building of His sanctuary here on earth, so that the eye, illuminated

and reason, might perceive, "as

faith

beyond. Hence where should

lies

we

in a

by

mirror and an enigma, the glory that

treat

of the tabernacle,

if

not in the taber-

nacle itself?"

For Peter and

his

contemporaries the tabernacle was a synonym as well as

the mystical archetype of the Christian sanctuary. 30 Although a curious state of 27. Ep.

CLXXIV

(PL, CCII, 632

friendship for both the Cardinal of

and John of Salisbury appears

f.).

Peter's

Champagne

in his letters. Cf.

were

PL, CCII, 567. 28.

See the references to the rebuilding of

Epp.

St.-Remi,

CLVIII In ".

the .

(ibid.,

last

spes

.

timere,

CLIV {PL, CLXVI

602),

letter

excitat

is

the

vota

CCII, (ibid.,

Interim

dormire volo,

sed

juxta

dormitare

sapientis

et,

neque

consilium

ut speramus,

cum

Dei adjutorio perficiemus." As Bishop of Charhe won the extraordinary affection of his (CC,

by

his charities.

III,

46,

According to

made

that part of the

great dressed stones of which the church

tres

flock

be with-

the suggestion has been

quaecumque possim instanter operari. Hinc est quod nobilem ecclesiam nostram tarn in fronte quam in ventre, cui caput secundum se deerat, fabricandam suscepimus,

may not

598),

moving age: mea mortem non

neque

large-scale projects; they

out significance for the history of the cathedral:

610).

sed amare, non fugare sed patienter

exspectare.

editors as that of Bishop Peter of Mincy), Peter paved the city's streets and built a considerable part of its walls out of his own funds. These

his obituary

erroneously identified by the

were in,

originally destined for, or even

is

built

employed

the city's walls. 29. Mosaici

expositio

Tabernaculi

(PL, CCII, 1047

different treatise lished

30. See,

147

e.g.,

moralis

et

A second, slightly

on the same subject

(from Troyes

Spiritualite, pp.

mystica

ff.).

MS.

is

pub-

253) by Leclercq,

ff.

the

Rationale

div.

offic.

by

Peter's contemporary John Beleth (PL, CCII, (ed., Moore and CorTabernaculum Moysi, pp. 69, no; or the Speculum ecclesiae by Peter of Roissy, Chancellor of the School of Chartres, a

15 f.); Peter

of Poitiers

bett), Allegoriae super


94

suspense and uncertainty pervades the abbot's exegesis, and to him the visible, in all its

beauty and splendor,

reality, yet

fact

is

compared with transcendental

as nothing

he knows that the visible mirrors that invisible reality and

our only guide toward

it.

is

in

31

Peter's treatise complements the writings of Suger.

The

abbot of

St.-

Denis interprets the church he has actually built in spiritual ; the abbot

of St.-Remi conveys his mystical vision by means of architectural metaphor.

Both take for granted the "anagogical" function of Christian architecture.

And

both see in Gothic design the appropriate expression of theological re-

ality. Peter's

choir of St.-Remi

is

a masterpiece of early Gothic, perhaps the

most perfect choir of the period between St.-Denis and Chartres; plan served as a model for the Cathedral of Reims.

Of almost equal Not

the alterations Peter undertook in the nave of his abbey.

demanded by the ribbed vault Plate 31

that replaced the

wooden

all

ground

its

interest are

of these were

The

ceiling.

pointed

arches over the gallery openings, the elimination of wall surfaces by the

tri-

forium and enlarged clerestory windows, are indications of a preference for the

new

style that

rather,

we

tecture,

on

is

based not on structural but on aesthetic considerations, or

should conclude, in view of Peter's metaphorical use of archispiritual considerations. 32 It

is

significant that after Peter had been

appointed Bishop of Chartres, his successor at St.-Remi completed the vaulting

of the nave but contented himself with a most superficial "modernization" of work

to

which

shall return later.

I

The com-

parison between church and tabernacle, moreover, occurs in the liturgy for the dedication of a church. See Andrieu,

Le

romaine au XIIIe siedc,

436

p.

Pontifical de la curie (xxiii,

66)

;

also, in

invisibilia

intentionem transferentes

too, introduces the into

his

cosmic

architectural

cantly, he has

no use

for

edifice

allegory; it

in his

.

.

." Peter,

of the Timarus but,

signifi-

present context.

In the Timaeus, he writes disparagingly, the

the Breviary, the office In octava dedicationis

reader will find a description ot the "visible

which Pope Felix IV's first letter, lengthy reference to the Tabernacle of

palace of the creation" so complicated that he

ecclesiac,

with

its

in

Moses, has been 3

1

.

will struggle

Peter explains the anagogical meaning of

Creator.

the sanctuary in that recall those of Suger:

"sed ubi agendum de tabernaculo,

nisi in taber-

Tabernaculum vero de quo tractare proposuimus est non manufactum, id est non

naculo?

hujus creationis, sed irabile, sed coeleste, sed

spiritale,

sed

Prae oculis tamen

angelicum, sed perpetuum. illud

with the subtleties of the author moved with iration for the

instead of being

inserted.

terrenum Moysi, opere

terreno fabricatum ponamus, ct a visibilibus ad

3 2

.

Further proof that the Gothic system was

introduced for

sumed choir.

its

functional

aesthetic qualities

To make room

rather than preis

evident

for the stalls, six

slender shafts under the vault ribs as

it

of the

were cut

were, well above the floor level and

as they often

the

in

do elsewhere, on consoles.

off,

rest,


I95

the older parts of the building that Peter had left untouched. Perhaps he did not

share his predecessor's spiritual vision and thus did not feel compelled to at-

tune the design of the church to

The

last

it.

of the twelfth-century bishops of Chartres was Renaud of

Moucon. His reforms,

we

as

have seen, had much improved the organization

of the chapter, and he was largely responsible for the prompt decision to rebuild the cathedral after the great fire. But he

statesman but also a soldier.

Champagne,

in the ill-fated

He

was not only an

Crusade of

1

188, and in

10 led his

2

1

33

Renaud's arms appear

in

own

troops in

Simon of Mont-

the Albigensian "crusade" to bring relief to the hard-pressed fort.

ecclesiastical

ed with his uncle, Thibault of Chartres-

one of the cathedral windows, but

we know may not

nothing about his intellectual or artistic inclinations. Contemporaries

have accused him unjustly of avarice and neglect toward the Cathedral School. 34

A

word ought

to be said,

however, about the chancellor of

Cathedral

his

School, Peter of Roissy,

who

His obituary praises him

as a distinguished theologian, philosopher, and orator;

occupied

between

this position

c.

1200 and 12

13.

he bequeathed to the cathedral an important library (which included the ser-

mons of St. Bernard and Seneca's De sizable

amount of money

naturalibus quaestioni bus) and in addition a

for the reconstruction of

Notre Dame. 35 This dona-

not the only reflection of his interest in the great church, which he saw

tion

is

rise

above Chartres during

his

term

in office. Peter

Mysteries of the Church, of which the

part

first

composed

is

a

Manual on

interpretation of the Christian basilica. 36 Such an approach to architecture

of course, customary dry and unreal, 33.

in the

we must

Middle Ages. And while

it that

in a theological

Delaporte and Houvet, Les Vitraux de

la

cathedrale de Chartres, p. 484. 34. Clerval,

pp.

274

ff.,

The

36.

it

context this

ff.;

Haureau,

14500,

fol.

126

Lat.

fF.;

Lat.

Chancellor

of Chartres"

des architectes en au

V,

Kuttner,

{Mediaeval Studies,

"Pierre de Roissy and

fol.

14923,

4

ff.

144

fol.

ff.;

14859,

Nouv.

Mortetand Deschamps,

relatifs a Vhistoire

de

way

the only

Nationale possesses

Bibliotheque

Memoire; Merlet, Dignitaires, p. 105. CC, III, 171 f. On Peter and his work, 35. see Kennedy, "The Handbook of Master Peter, 1943);

is

is,

somewhat

strikes us as

the following manuscripts of the

307

the

devoted to an allegorical

work

acq.

:

Lat.

288

fol.

lat.

ff.;

232,

Recueil de textes

I 'architecture et

a la condition

moy en-age,

II,

183

ff.,

have published the relevant ages from the

Robert of Flamborough" (Traditio, II, 1944); and Kennedy's answer to a criticism of Kutt-

last

Manuale Magistri

Petri Cancellarii Carnotensis de

ner's in Mediaeval Studies, VII, 1945, p. 291.

misteriis ecclesie.

have used Lat. 14923 (early

MS. mentioned,

saec. XIII).

I

the

title

of which

is


I96

which architecture can be introduced

in

make

that

There

at all.

two

are

specific reasons

Peter of Roissy's treatise interesting reading for the student of

Chartres Cathedral.

His allegory, than are similar

to begin with,

works of its

closer to the actual architecture of his time

is

kind. It

was doubtless intended

as an "anagogical"

two or

interpretation of existing buildings. Peter speaks of churches of

"stories"

—apparently

we

he meims churches with what

quadripartite elevations. 37 Such consideration of

two

alternatives

three

tripartite or

call

is

interesting.

In Peter of Roissy's time the more sumptuous churches had quadripartite

own

elevations; in his

cathedral, however, the architect had gone back to the

simpler theme of Sens and had given

its

it

Again, Peter

classical solution.

speaks of a church that has "major" and "minor" columns for s. 38

we

column surrounded

see here an allusion to the pilier cantonne, the large

smaller ones, which

was one of the

finest inventions

May by*

of the master of Chartres?

Peter also gives an elaborate allegorical interpretation of the church windows. 39

on the symbolic significance of the square: the

Finally, he dwells repeatedly

church and

its

ad quadratum)

towers ,

(in

both cases Peter seems to be referring to their design

the lower parts of the windows, even the dressed stones of

which the church

is

of

built, are

the moral perfection of

man

(it is

The

this shape.

square thus recalls for Peter

the ancient notion of the "square"

the "unity" of the Ecclesia, which

was mystically prefigured

in

man) and

Noah's ark

and Solomon's Temple. 40 Peter of Roissy's architectural allegory

37. et

in

"Et

sicut in

Templo

erant tria tabulata

Noe secundum quosdam,

archa

ita

in

quandoque sunt duo tabulata que contemplativam vitam et activam.

ecclesia

significant

Vel

tabulata

tria

significant

hominum

tria

40.

may

thus have been patterned on

"De forma

ecclesie

.

.

.

ecclesia quad-

rata est a fundo [Lat. 14923 has "quadrata est

conum, per quos figurain archa Xoe, que uno cubito." "Sunt autem

in fronte"] et tendit in

rur

unitas

ecclesie,

consummata

est in

quadrate

sicut

quia

genera, in ecclesia conjugatos, continentes et

fenestre

virgines."

debent quadrari virtutibus." "Lapides quadrati

38.

"Columne quae

vel minores ccclesiae

p.

227),

.

sancti

.

."

sunt in ecclesia maiores

See Suger, De consecration*

Dionysii,

where there

is

V

(Oeuvres completes,

a similar allegory re-

though no distinction between major and minor columns. Cf. Sauer, Die Symbolik des Kirchengebaudes, p. 34.

garding

the

columns,

1

39.

This

allegory

follows

pattern. Cf. Sauer, pp. 120

ff.

a

conventional

inferiori,

in

prelati

significant quadratura virrutum in Sanctis

sunt:

temperancia,

justicia,

fortitudo,

que pru-

sunt ctiam quadrate dentia." "Turres ." On que designant quadraruram virtutum allegorical interpretations of arithmetical or .

.

.

.

.

geometrical aspects of architecture, see

"Le Quatrain mystique de Romainc" (RU, C1X, 1951).

baud,

Ram-

Vaison-la-

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES the Cathedral of Chartres.

mentioned architect

41

But there

may

is

yet another reason

well have wished to convey in his design.

extent ecclesiastical builders 42 Suger the sanctuary.

Even

why

it

ought to be

reflect ideas that the

We have seen to what

were concerned with the symbolic

significance of

not alone in insisting that such ideas have actually

is

make

shaped the pattern of his edifice. His design was to the beholder.

may

His interpretation

in the present context.

197

at the

this relation clear to

end of the Middle Ages, the architects of Milan

Cathedral, not clerics but professionals, propose four towers at the corners of

model" of the apocalyptic vision of Christ

the crossing tower "after the

rounded by the four evangelists.

Our own

43

[See

sur-

Add.]

skepticism about the architectural relevance of such comparisons

springs from a nominalistic attitude that has

Ages. As was suggested sidered archetypes to

application to the

little

earlier, the architectural visions

which the

religious edifice

Middle

of the Bible were con-

must conform. Even

a Renais-

sance architect like Philibert Delorme regretted having deviated from the

God

"divine proportions" that the

Old Testament. 44 The

religious milieu

himself had revealed to the inspired builders of

architect of Chartres

of the cathedral.

of the chapter to which

He would

his plans

in the intellectual

the "anagogical" interpretation to

and

certainly heed the views and wishes

had to be submitted.

likely that the theological ideas of the chapter all,

worked

It is

impinged upon

therefore quite

his design.

which the church might lend

itself

After

was

a

function of the edifice as legitimate and nearly as important as the liturgical one.

The beauty of

significance.

the basilica

was experienced

in

of such anagogical

Man's thinking and experience are never divided

partments. Just as our

own

art

into airtight

com-

and taste are related to our view of the world,

so the design of the medieval cathedral builder and

its

impression upon con-

temporaries were colored, and indeed inspired, by the metaphysical vision that

dominated medieval tions of Platonism

life.

We

must assume therefore that the aesthetic

tradi-

and also the allegorical theology that Peter of Roissy ex-

pounded were factors that affected the

imagination and "col-

architect's

laborated" (in Synge's sense) with him in his design. 41. See the comparable reference to Paris— "apud Lutetiam Nostram" in John Beleth's Rationale, to which I have referred earlier, which was probably composed around 1165

—

(PL, CCII, 16;

cf.

HLF, XIV,

218).

42. See above, p. 134.

43. Annali,

I,

209

f.

44. See below, p. 228, n. 108.


198

How

closely Gothic architecture and the metaphysics of the thirteenth

century are interconnected

is

shown by

come down

architect that has

model book of the Picard

to us.

the only theoretical I

architect, Villard

de Honnecourt.

temporary of the master of Chartres Cathedral have worked

youth

in his

work by

—he saw, completed or

A

younger con-

—under whom in the process

he

in his

own

right,

what he considered the

forth

he composed

model book

his

principles that underlie

may even

of completion,

nearly every one of the classical cathedrals of the Ile-de-. 45

guished architect

Gothic

a

have already mentioned the famous

in

A

distin-

order to set

composition,

all artistic

not only building but sculpture and painting as well. These principles are geometrical.

On

discipline;

every one of

designs,

based upon or derived from simple geometrical figures.

is

nearly every page of his his

work

Villard pays tribute to this

human

models, whether

figures or architectural

procedure he describes was the practice actually followed by the

And

high Middle Ages. 46

it

is

The

artistic

artists

of the

but the application of the metaphysical and

cosmological views of the time. Focillon has pointed to the astonishing similarity between the aesthetics

of Villard and the natural philosophy of his contemporary, Robert Grosseteste (1

175-1253),

who

declares that without geometry

stand nature, since

can be reduced to

all

forms of natural bodies are

lines, angles,

and regular

figures.

impossible to under-

essence geometrical and

in

47

is

it

One may add

teste also offers the metaphysical confirmation of the

that Grosse-

Gothic tendency to

blend the aesthetics of harmony and "musical" proportions with that of

The beauty of

he maintains,

light,

45. See above, p. 16, n. 34.

is

The model book

due to

Kunst,

its

p.

simplicity,

by which

48; also Thibout,

"A

light.

light

is,

propos de pcin-

Chapelle Ste.-Catherine de

reproduces details from the cathedrals of Laon,

tures murales de

Reims, and Chartres;

Montbellet" (BM, CVII1, 1950). Art des sculpteurs romans, pp. 47. Focillon, 219 ff., quoting from De lineis, angulis et figuris

cf.

Hahnloser, Villard de

Honnecourt, Pis. 18; 19; 20B; 30B, C; 60-64;

Add.] 46. The correspondence between Villard's drawing of a head "according to true measure" 6;

17. [See

(cf.

in a

Hahnloser,

window

PI.

38E) and the head of Christ

in the choir

of Reims Cathedral

was

first pointed out by Panofsky, "Die Entwicklung dcr Proportionslehre als Abbild

der

Stilentwicklung"

On

the

use

of such

(MKW,

XIV,

geometrical

1921).

aids,

see

Ueberwasser, Von Alaasz und Macht der

alten

la

V

(BGPM,

191

2,

IX, 59

f").

"Utilitas considera-

tions linearum, angulorum, et figurarum est

maxima, quoniam impossibile est sciri naturalem philosophiam sine illis." These geometrical forms "valent in toto universo et partibus ejus absolute"; "omnes enim causae erfectuum naturalium habent dari per lincas, angulos et figuras."

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES like unison in music,

"ad se per aequalitatem concordissime proportionata"

("most harmoniously related to Villard's

I99

itself

by the

ratio

of equality")

48 .

model book expounds not only the geometrical canons of Gothic

architecture but also the Augustinian aesthetics of "musical" proportions,

proportions that correspond to the intervals of the perfect musical consonances.

He

is

our earliest theoretical witness to the proportion "according to true

measure"; even more interesting, however, the ground plan of a Cistercian church

of the side

aisles

plan are derived.

is

is

one of

his designs representing

drawn ad quadratum,

the basic unit or module from which

And

all

i.e.,

the square bay

proportions of the

these proportions, as Professor de Bruyne observes, cor-

respond in each case to the ratios of the musical consonances, the same ratios that, as

we

have seen, were actually employed by the Cistercian builders. Thus

the length of the church

The

related to the transept in the ratio of the fifth (2:3).

is

octave ratio (1:2) determines the relations between side aisle and nave,

length and width of the transept, and, practice,

of

we may assume on the basis of Cistercian The 3:4 ratio of the choir evokes the

the interior elevation as well.

musical fourth; the 4:

5

of nave and side

ratio

aisles

taken as a unit corresponds

to the third; while the crossing, liturgically and aesthetically the center of the

church,

is

based on the 1:1 ratio of unison, most perfect of consonances. 49

Villard's testimony

is

He may

of great significance.

have received

architectural training at the Cistercian monastery of Vaucelles, and tainly

employed

as an architect

was

his

cer-

by the order. His design, probably intended

as

the ideal plan of a Cistercian church, undoubtedly embodied the aesthetic tradition of the Cistercians that

was

alive in his time,

and thus bears testimony to

the ties that connected this tradition with Gothic art. 50 Indeed, the musical ratios occur in

some of

the

most perfect architectural compositions of the

thirteenth century. In the southern transept of

Lausanne Cathedral (before

1235) the magnificent disposition of the inner wall "conveys an overwhelming

48. See Baur,

des

losophie

Bruyne, Etudes

"Das Licht

Robert

in

der Naturphi-

Grosseteste,"

and

de

d'esthe'tique medievale, III, 131 ff.

49. Hahnloser,

Villard,

PI.

28, p.

I,

Villard's

22.

proportions.

With

regard

the

to

his

figure (Hahnloser,

Villard, p.

"harmonical"

interesting

37), see

interpretation

of Kayser, Ein harmonikaler Teilungs-Kanon.

250; de

This ground plan may not be the only example of the "musical" motivation of Bruyne,

human

50. See Enlart, "Villard les

Cisterciens" (BEC,

Villard,

pp.

79,

Recueil de plans

179,

de Honnecourt

et

LVI, 1895); Hahnloser, 233

f.,

250;

d'e'glises cisterciennes, p.

Dimier, 41.


200

experience of harmony" with the 1:2:3 ratio of

consonance of the

York.

We

"sounded"

fifth is

horizontal division. 51

its

in the facades

The

of Paris, Strassburg, and

Chartres itself the realization of the Au-

shall presently find in

gustinian aesthetics of measure and number.

The

ideas

expounded by Villard and Grosseteste, by John of Salisbury

and Peter of Roissy, suggest something of the intellectual climate master of Chartres created

who commissioned

those

Among does Notre

saw

the church and

We,

design responded to them. the study of this

These

his cathedral.

it

were

ideas

which the

in

in the

completed, and the master's

too, should recall these concepts as

we

turn to

monument.

the great

Dame

works of architecture none conceals

of Chartres the masterful solution of

all

as successfully as

technical problems

The Par-

behind a seemingly conservative rendering of a traditional theme.

dome of Florence

thenon, the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople, Brunelleschi's

Cathedral, Michelangelo's in fact; the

minds of

dome of

St. Peter's are

not only novel and unique

novel and unique nature of the achievement strikes us at a glance as

The same

did contemporaries.

There

thirteenth century.

is

is

some of the Gothic

true for

it

sanctuaries of the

an element of the virtuoso in Peter of Montreuil,

the builder of the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris (and of the St. -Denis that replaced Suger's), and in Robert of Luzarches, the architect of Amiens Cathedral.

Com-

pared with them, the master of Chartres seems restrained and austere, the en-

emy of everything

that

zeigt sich der Meister"

Chartres Cathedral.

is

emotional, ostentatious, novel. "In der Beschrankung

—Goethe's dictum

The

is

is

the

way

imposed upon

to advantage the restrictions that tradition

We

eminently true for the architect of

hallmark of his genius

in

which he turned

his design.

have already seen that the ambulatory and choir of the old church,

the contours and foundations of which survived in the crypt, were also to de-

The

elevation of the latter, however, wtl

Romanesque but Gothic. Indeed,

the master decided to base his design

termine the outline of the to be not

new

choir.

on the model of St.-Denis. The decision cathedrals,

5

1

.

Beer,

Lausanne,

p.

Notre

Die

Dame was

Rose

der

is

not surprising.

likely to take

Kathedrale

m. For another example of

use of such "musical" proportions, see

von the

Webb,

As one of the

"The Sources of the Design of of

royal

up the theme that Suger had

Peterborough

Journal,

LV1,

Cathedral"

suppl. 1952).

the

first

West Front

{Archaeological

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES sounded

201

"Dionysian" motifs, incidentally, are generally

in his great church.

conspicuous in the Cathedral of Chartres.

On

the southern portal, above the

Last Judgment, the sculptured choirs of angels are arranged in the hierarchical order described by the Pseudo-Areopagite. 52 In the southern transept, St. Denis is

represented, in one of the most beautiful of all the windows, as an abbot of his

monastery presenting the oriflamme to the donor,

Another window, apparently St.

Denis. 54

As

a gift

who was

marshal of . 53

of King Louis VIII, depicted the

life

of

regards architectural disposition, the task of placing a "Di-

onysian" choir upon the foundations of Fulbert's apse presented problems that

may have seemed insurmountable. 55 The three deep chapels that jutted forth from

at first

mitted

little if

any

light into the latter.

The

the old ambulatory ad-

made no concession

old plan

to the

Gothic taste for either luminosity or that unbroken continuity of outline which Suger's perimeter of shallow chapels provided. chapels did not converge in a

common

The

walls of the

Romanesque

center, nor did they divide the cir-

cumference of the ambulatory into equal intervals.

A solved single

comparison of the two ground plans will show all

by

resulting difficulties. After the a

that Bishop

model of

double ambulatory, ingeniously using for

Thierry had

built in the

how

the Gothic master

St. -Denis,

this

he replaced the

purpose the transepts

mid-eleventh century.

The

second ambula-

tory reduced the depth of the old chapels by nearly one half. Their number,

moreover, was increased from three to seven.

The

the three chapels that rose in the place of their

unify the external contour

still

additional four flank each of

Romanesque predecessors and

further. Shallower than the old chapels, these

smaller chapels appear as a gentle outward swelling or expanding of the

ambulatory. Throughout, solid walls have been replaced by transparent walls

of windows between buttresses: each of the three main chapels has

five large

windows; the smaller chapels have two and three windows, respectively. Cylindrical piers the cross-ribbed vaults over the ambulatories.

The same happy

synthesis between the traditional and the novel

rather the will to conceal the novel behind the traditional

52.

Male, Notre-Dame de Chartres,

53. Delaporte

54. Delaporte and

p. 50.

and Houvet, pp. 439

55. Merlet,

ff.

37

f.;

La

—

is

—or

apparent in the

Houvet, pp. 475

Cathedrale de

f.

Chartres,

Male, Notre-Dame de Chartres,

p. 35.

pp.


202

Here

general elevation of choir and nave.

dimensions. But the

Romanesque

edifice,

imposed

again, the old building

of very large dimensions for

its

time,

its

had not been vaulted; the Gothic cathedral was to receive a cross-ribbed vault.

The

span that the master covered in this fashion was wider than that of any of

the Gothic cathedrals

And

pleted.

praising the

—Sens,

Noyon,

new

cathedral,

which he thought

the world, the poet Guillaume

which he thought would

was

—that

at a

much

had

to be without equal

came

anywhere

in

which had been, contemporaries thought,

l'Eveque, 57 only about five miles from Chartres. soil

been com-

end of time; and the magnificent dressed

built,

miraculously discovered in a quarry on the episcopal

very

just

greater height. 56 In

Breton singled out two features: the vault,

le

last to the

stone of which the church

Laon

Paris,

was sprung

the vault of Chartres

As

fief

in the case

of Bercheres-

of St. -Denis, the

to the assistance of the architect: without these resources, his.

would not have been

technical and artistic achievement

possible.

For, despite the weight of its great vault, the cathedral was to be luminous as

no other church had been before.

To

doned the quadripartite elevation, more

renowned among Paris,

his

Noyon, and Laon. From the viewpoint of

large as Chartres,

and side

aisles.

galleries fulfilled an important static

ripartite elevation in Chartres

Plates 32,

ss

shows, as clearly as

of translucent walls

we

was

can wish, the integra-

able to realize with perfect consistency the principle

in all parts

of the building.

possible to render the side aisles 56.

The

heights

of the

24.40,

22.70,

four

10.50,

in

the

much

cathedrals

32.50,

and

meters, respectively. Their naves are

24

15.25,

and 12 meters wide (measures by Seymour, Notre Dame of Noyon

13.14,

as given

Twelfth

Century,

quad-

specifically, the influence

He

could

now

give greater

height to the side aisles as well as to the clerestory windows, and

mentioned are

nave

upon the development of architecture. By omitting

light

the gallery the master

its

purpose inasmuch

The abandoning of the

of aesthetic and structural considerations, more

of the aesthetics of

of

especially in a church as

for large congregations in

they buttressed the thrusts of the nave vaults.

tion

in the cathedrals

the requirements of congre-

were unnecessary,

which offered ample space

But the

most

specifically, the gallery that the

immediate predecessors had adopted

gational worship, these galleries

as

render this possible the master aban-

p.

101).

it

shallower, since their width

was

also

was no

Add.]

"Que, lapide exciso surgens nova, corSub tcstudinco, jam consummata decore, Judicii nihil usque diem timet igne 57.

pore

toto

noceri." Philippid, IV, 598.

[See

I

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES longer determined by that of a gallery above (which in turn

curvature of the vault thrusts).

The

windows, thus became a luminous

203

was

limited

side aisles of Chartres, illuminated

foil

by the

by large

enveloping the nave.

All that remained between nave arcades and clerestory was the narrow triforium zone,

its

wall surface dissolved by the openings of the pointed

tri-

forium arcades, four in each bay of the nave, five in the transepts, and two in the apse.

The

entire wall surface above the triforium

was replaced by windows:

a

double lancet in each bay divided by a slim mullion laid in horizontal courses

and surmounted by a rose.

The

tripartite elevation as such

the elevation of Suger's St.-Denis

Vincent

(1

175-1205)

and perhaps more Sens, the

known

likely,

may have

as

we

have seen, even

been of this type; the abbey of St.-

Laon, a town whose monuments the master of

at

Chartres seems to have

was no innovation:

he

well,

may

may

have provided another model, 58

or,

have been influenced by the Cathedral of

mother church of the metropolitan province

to

which Chartres be-

longed. Yet neither the aesthetic nor technical aspects of this church invited adoption. Its vault, the section of which approaches a hemicycle, seems to be

hunched above

its

s.

And

in

order not to weaken the clerestory walls at

the critical junctures with the vault thrusts, the master of Sens kept the win-

dows

And

small.

The

architect of Chartres gave his vault a

he relieved the walls of their function

as s

tresses that he placed perpendicularly to the course tresses are far

Notre

Dame

more nearly

much

by

steeper section.

the great

row of but-

of the walls. These but-

perfect than those which the master of the nave of

of Paris had employed a decade or so

s meets the thrust of the vault by means of

earlier.

two

59

Each of the great

arches.

The

third

had discovered a number of structural weaknesses that time had

caused in the cathedral fabric. But fulfill

tect

it is

a necessary or useful function,

of Notre

Dame

and far from probable that the great archi-

Lambert, "L'Ancienne abbaye de St.Vincent de Laon" (AIBLM, 1939). 59. Aubert, Notre-Dame de Paris, pp. 86 ff. 60. The experts' report nowhere blames the 58.

builder for the

doubtful whether the additional arches

can be blamed for any of the flaws uncovered. 60

damage found. With reference

to the buttressing arches,

it

merely speaks of

At any

the need of filling the ts with mortar. See

Mortet, "L'Expertise de la Cathedrale de Chartres en 13 16" (CA, LXVII, 1900). It is an exaggeration if Colombier

(Les Chantiers des

cathedrales, p. 72) calls the report

Plate

38

Plate

39

may

have been added early in the fourteenth century after a group of consulting architects

Plates

"devastating"

and evidence for the imperfection of Gothic


204

of Chartres are the

rate, the flying buttresses

first to

have been conceived, not

only structurally but also aesthetically, as integral parts of the over-all design.

They seem

made

to have

a

profound impression upon contemporaries. 608 Built

huge blocks of stone from Bercheres,

in

quality of this material;

bespeaks no

it

genius which characterizes the

Obviously, both the master and Inside, the

system presents

their shape

irably attuned to the

is

less that virile,

somewhat coarse-grained

work of

the master of Chartres throughout.

his stone

were natives of the same

itself as a series

soil.

of "canopies," each composed

of four piers ing the vault over each bay. 61

It is

an architecture designed

windows, developed from the magnificent conception of transparent

for the

walls. This appears with particular clarity in the design of the apse. Its contour is

no longer hemispherical but polygonal. This device became necessary

as the

windows were no longer openings

as

soon

in the walls but walls themselves;,

their flat surfaces required the transformation of the spherical apse into a

polygon. Here again the architect has not invented his solution; in the Cathedral of Laon, the apses of the transepts, and originally the main apse Such imperfections are not infrequent I know no evidence

building. in

of

Gothic architecture, but it

in

Chartres Cathedral. See also Viollet-

le-Duc's analysis of the Chartres buttresses, Dicticmnaire

raisonne

de

I

'architecture francaise,

Add.] 60a. Kunze, Das Fassadenproblem der franzosischen Fruh- und Hochgotik, p. 63, seems to have first suggested that the buttressing arches I,

65,

fig.

54. [See

of Chartres are represented in the aedicula enframing the image of the Virgin in the northern transept of

Reims Cathedral. Recently Panof-

tional shrine

altogether

of the Virgin

easy

in

imagine

to

, that

itself,

not

it is

such

pre-

eminence should have been so emphatically acknowledged in the great rival sanctuary at Reims. 61. The term canopy (Baldachin) was first introduced into the analysis and history of architecture by Sedlmayr, "Das erste mittelalterliche Architektursystem" (KunstivissenschaftForschungen,

liche

further

1933), and subsequently

II,

developed in

Die Entstehung der

his

Kathedrale, im. In the symbolic and aesthetic

sky, in Early Netherlandish Painting, p. 146, has

emphasis that he gives to the "canopy" as the

interpreted the architecture of the famous relief

decisive element in Gothic architecture, Sedl-

as an abridged representation of

Notre

Dame

of

Chartres. Both theses, appealing though they are, present

we would

some

difficulties. If

Kunze

is

right,

not only have to date the sculpture

considerably later than French scholarship, at

we would also have himself its, why should

least, is still inclined to

to ask, as the author

Sancta

do;

Maria Remensis have been depicted

within a model of the Cathedral of Chartres?

The

only alternative, which Panofsky does not seem to exclude, would be that the relief was actually meant to be a representation of Our Lady of Chartres. Granting that Chartres, as we have seen, had become something like the na-

mayr sight

surely goes too far, even though his inis

a valuable one.

The

the term canopy, ciborium,

Latin equivalent for

was

actually used

by

medieval writers to denote the crossing or the

tower over the crossing. See Lambert, L Art ff., and Annali, I, 209 f. Sedlmayr has shown that the monk Gervase, in his chronicle of the building of Canterbury Cathedral, also calls the bays of the

gothique en Espagne, pp. 60

nave ciboria. "Ein zeitgenossischer Fachausdruck fur die Raumform 'Baldachin' " (Osterreichische hist.

Akademu

der

Klasse, 1949, p. 23).

Wissenschaften,

phil.-


205

62 closed as polygons, at least at the level of the windows. But in Chartres, and

not in Laon, the device appears as the consistent application of the concept of 63 transparency that pervades every part of the edifice.

The comparison of luminating,

all

the

the elevations of Chartres and

more

Laon

is

generally

knew

so since the master of Chartres certainly

il-

the

Cathedral of Laon: in the facades of his transepts he combined the lower part

of the west facade of Laon with the upper parts of the transept facades of cathedral. Its realized) of

surmounting the eastern parts of

group of towers. Its

64

was begun, dated back

to the

1

when work on Notre Dame of Chartres

170's or

design appeared altogether obsolete.

1

It

To

180's.

but was already abandoned in Notre is,

in the

more recent

the master of Chartres that

combined sexpartite vaults with an

alternating system of s that had also been

that

with a monumental

his edifice

Yet he remained indifferent to the interior elevation of Laon.

design, though not yet complete

itself,

Dame

employed

in

Sens and

of Paris and eventually

parts of the nave.

He

dropped these features along with the gallery.

The master of

new

The

Noyon Laon

in

Chartres

adopted instead the quadri-

partite vault, sprung over rectangular rather than square bays.

adopted a

this

famous towers likewise seem to have given him the idea (never

And

he also

Plate

37

type of pier.

earlier cathedral churches

of had employed either a uniform

type of heavy cylindrical pier or compound piers that rose to the springing of the diagonal vault ribs and alternated with single or double columns.

columns are employed, slender shafts that correspond to the vault the abaci of the columns.

marked

Wherever

ribs rise

These older systems of introduce strongly

contrasts: in the alternating system, a horizontal contrast

compound

piers and columns; in the

"The

'Crazy'

Lincoln Cathedral" (AB,

XXXV,

Frankl,

Vaults

of

1953), and

cathedral

windows

Carolingian St.-Denis were already polygonal,

decki,

as was that of St.-Maurice at Agaune (751). Sedlmayr is thus factually mistaken in sug-

et au

gesting (Die Entstehung, p. 257) that the polygonal apse appears first in Chartres; yet this

is

indeed the

first

shafts of the

where

this design is

the logical realization of the distinction between

Adenauer, Die Kathedrale von Laon, pp. 19 ff. According to Crosby, Abbaye royale de Saint-Denis, pp. 13, 15, both apses of the

U

between

uniform system, a vertical contrast be-

tween the bulky cylinders of the columns below and the slender 62. See

above

and

s

translucent

"membranes"

—between them.

63. Cf.

"Le

Frankl, Vitrail

"'Crazy' et

Vaults";

l'architecture

XIll e siecle" (GBA, series

6,

—the Gro-

au XIIe

XXXVI,

1939), and Vitraux des eglises de , p. 64. See Lambert,

(GBA, XIII, XIV,

5.

"La Cathedrale de Laon" 1926).

Plate 21


206 colonnettes above.

To

the master of Chartres such lack of homogeneity con-

stituted an aesthetic flaw,

These piers

—so

which he overcame by the design of his

far as

we know,

the

first piliers

cantonnes

—

65

of four slender colonnettes that surround a powerful central core. Plate

40

unity could not have been satisfied

by

more

a

piers.

are

composed

The

sense for

felicitous invention. It eliminates

the contrast between the heavy monolithic shape of the column and the soar-

ing bundle of shafts above base,

owing

it-

In Chartres, the vertical

to the deeply shaded zones

rhythm begins

at the

between the colonnettes, which seem

to dissolve the total bulk of the into four vertical lines.

On

the other

hand, the pilier cantonne of Chartres reduces the contrast between the colonnettes that merely the nave arcades and the shafts that rise to the springing

all

the

of the vault: even these shafts are articulated by a

way

profile

that continues the abacus over the capitals of the rest of the pier. Again, the* capitals

of the colonnettes under the nave arcades are only half as high 66

of the main s

—another

detail that the architect

may

as those

have borrowed

from the Cathedral of Laon. They thus mediate between the earthbound heaviness of the main piers and the soaring verticalism of the shafts under the vault ribs. Articulation rather than contrast, articulation that does not disrupt unity,

the aesthetic principle that appears as clearly in these piliers cantonnes

is

as in the entire

system of Chartres.

This principle

is

shown

in yet

employed alternation without piers

consist,

alternatively,

another aspect of the piers.

sacrificing the principle

The master

has

of homogeneity. His

of a cylindrical core surrounded by octagonal

colonnettes, and an octagonal core surrounded

by

cylindrical colonnettes. It

worth noting that William of Sens had already alternated octagonal s in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral

(1

is

cylindrical and

175-78);

67

in the

crossing, he had even used the motif of slender colonnettes surrounding a cylindrical core. Relations close.

between the sees of Chartres and Canterbury were

The appointment of John of

are told, meant to be an act of 65. Male,

Notrc-Dame de

Chartres,

p.

36;

Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, p. 79.

The

Hanked by four colonnettes

seems to appear for the (c.

1067)

;

first

time

see Lefcvre-Pontalis,

normandes dans

lc

nord dc

la

we whom

Salisbury to the See of Chartres was,

homage

in Jumieges "Les Influences " (BM,

to St.

LXX,

Thomas of Canterbury,

to

1906).

66. See

Viollet-le-Duc,

Dictionnaire,

VII,

employed

in the

165.

67.

The same

alternation

nave of Oxford Cathedral.

is

[See

Add.]


207

John had been close and whose martyrdom he had witnessed. be surprising, therefore,

Thomas

It

would not

of Chartres Cathedral had studied

if the architect

the magnificent shrine of St.

had begun

68

that his countryman, master William,

than a generation earlier. Yet, here again, the master of Chartres

less

gave to the elements he borrowed an aesthetic significance they had not before possessed.

The

of the s

slight variation

eye to perceive not one bay but two as a the ground plan of

unit.

just sufficient to induce the

is

The

reason cannot be doubted:

two consecutive bays comprises

a square.

which he had This fact

also

employed

its

most

significant aesthetic aspect.

In the choice of his proportions, as in so tect

was not

cessors had

entirely free.

employed

He

in the

light not

many

other respects, the archi-

had to consider the proportions that

Romanesque

measurements of the vieux clocher

thrown much

square,

be entirely lost in the nave.

our attention to the proportions employed in Chartres Cathe-

calls

they constitute

dral;

in the side aisles, to

Although the

want the

architect had adopted rectangular bays for his vaults, he did not

[see above,

his prede-

cathedral. Professor Ernst Levy's

my preface to the

only on the proportions used

in the

2nd edition] have

south tower but also

on the conservatism with which these proportions were re-employed by the Gothic architect and even by

The ground measure."

The

Jean of Beauce.

his sixteenth-century successor,

plan of the vieux clocher

is

developed "according to true

basic square has a side length of 16.44

mM

or,

we may

of 50 feet of 0.329 m. each, a measuring unit that comes close to others

have been

in use at the time. 69

width of the crossing,

as

it

The same dimension of

had also determined that of

cessor. Its length, however, measures

crossing, in other words, does not

from the centers of the

piers.

Now

1

We 68.

—

-

known to

determines the

Romanesque prede-

form a square, this

is

peculiar.

if distances are

What

measured

calculation led the

— and of the bays of the nave

in this fashion?

know

that the medieval architect determined all dimensions of his

Gervase of Canterbury, Opera

pp. 259

its

m

3.99 m. The present ground plan of the

architect to determine the length of the crossing

and choir

16.44

assume,

historica,

69. See, e.g.,

was, according to Viollet-le-Duc (Dictionnaire, s.v.

f.

Arens, Das Werkmass

in der

Baukunst des Mittelalters; also Berriman, Historical Metrology, p. 136. A pied of 324.839 mm.

"echelle"), used in the cathedrals of Reims,

Amiens,

and

Semur.

Peter of Montreuil in

The module St. -Denis

according to Crosby, Abbaye,

used by was 0.325 m.,

p. 61.


208

by mathematical,

edifice

—

ing from a basic unit

More

geometrical means.

i.e.,

our case 16.44 m.

in

—he developed

specifically,

with the help of geometrical figures set out, on the building

What

cords and pegs. 70

by means of

site,

geometrical method yielded the length of 13.99 m.;

what geometrical

or, rather, in

start-

other dimensions

all

figure does the ratio of 16.44:

answer, according to Professor Levy's calculations,

is

1

3.99 occur?

be the side of the pentagon; the radius of the circle circumscribing

The correspondence between

this figure

and 13.99

is

The

the pentagon. Let 16.44 it is

far too close to

1

3.984.

be acci-

dental, but not too close to prohibit our conclusion: despite the seemingly crude

we

methods of "setting out,"

have ample evidence for the surprising exactness

of results obtained. 71

The

use of the pentagon by the master of Chartres

The Gothic

artist

knew

the golden section, most perfect of

which he could develop the pentagon. 72

the matrix from

an earlier chapter, the

sectio

observe;

first to

73

it is

all

x\s

interest.

proportions, as

we

have seen

in

aurea occurs in the figures of the west facade of

Chartres. In the Gothic church the

of great

is

it

determines the ground plan, as Dehio was

also present in the esthetically relevant parts of the

elevation. Harvey, The Gothic World,

70. See

Salzman, Building

p.

16;

England, pp. 7 ff. Sec also Kletzl, Plan-Fragmente aus der deutschen Dombauhiitte

in

i

von Prag, pp. 18

tion of this

twelfth-century Life of

Nat.

f.

method occurs St.

A

curious illustra-

in a

miniature of a

Hugh

(Paris, Bibl.

lat. 77 6, fol. 43); Colombier, PI. IV, 6. ought to be added that the architect did not merely compose his design in his workshop, but executed the design of all important details, in 1

1

It

Maasze der Trierer Liebfrauenkirche." 72. See above, p. 155. The Geometria deutsch (1472) treats of the significance and application of the pentagon (see Heideloff, Die Bauhiitte des Mittelalters in Deutschland, pp. 95

einer ein funffort reisse will zirkel

.

.

The employment of

."

bv medieval

section

builders

question, even though not

by Lund,

Ad

Vom

Clermont,

du moyen-age" (Congres

a

itself.

and

elsewhere.

See de

Vcrncilh,

Urform

Geometric de

I'

and

del'art, 1947, 7>.

I,

{Les Cahiers techniques

11).

See the observations of Gall, "Uber die

analvses offered

Maillard,

(tle-de-)

;

sur l'emploi du

Nombre

59, for

nection

II, n.d.). is

d'esthctique

Of some

et

de science

interest in this COO-

rhe star-pentagon on the seal of Simon

Digmtaires, 73.

"Recherches

d'or par les architectcs

de Beron, canon of Chartres

tectea des cathedrales"

all

architecture, especially p.

Colombier,

and Anfray, "Les Archi-

no longer open to

an interesting analysis of the church of Tavern v

de fart,

66;

the golden

is

des Seins, are convincing. See Texicr.

"Construction des monuments ogivaux" (AA, VI. 1H4-); Kletzl, p. 9; Harvey, p. 31; p.

"So

Geheimnxs der Form und der

and Moessel,

on

size or

building site

:

Quadraturn, especially ch. XIII,

very large scale, on the Thus, on the granite slabs covering the side aisles of Limoges Cathedral, the architect sketched the outline of the piers, the curve of the ribs, and other details. The same practice can be observed in Narbonne, actual

flf.)

mit unveruckte

p.

(1

209)

.

see Merlct,

xxxiv.

Dehio and Bezold, Kirchliche Baukunst

des Abcndlandes, II, 562

ff.

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES The plan

209

dimensions and proportions obtained by the setting out of the ground

were

also

employed

for the elevation.

At my

request, Frederic Hebrard,

Surveyor of the Department of Eure-et-Loir, has measured the main parts of the elevation of Chartres Cathedral, with the following results.

The

height

of the piers (taken from above the plinth and to the springing of the nave arcades)

m. The height of the

8.61

is

shafts

above (excluding their capitals)

m. The distance between the base of the

13.85

course

is

5.35

m. The three

tions indeed to the ratios figure, 5.35,

means,

we

we

shafts and the

ratios, 5.35:8.61: 13.85, are

of the golden section.

lower string-

very close approxima-

starting

If,

is

from the smallest

calculate the sequence of the golden section

by arithmetical

obtain 8.656 and 13.880. Again, the actual measures taken are too

close to these figures to have been accidental.

How plan? If

may

he

are the dimensions of the elevation related to those of the ground

we assume

the master to have chosen the pentagon as his basic figure,

also have developed

from

regular decagon inscribed in the is

The

8.64 m.

we

it

the dimension of his elevation.

same

The

side of a

pentagon already mentioned

circle as the

height of the piers (to the capitals under the nave arcade)

have seen, 8.61 m.

very slight inaccuracy

The if

difference between the

we

two

figures

is

only

3

is,

as

cm., a

consider the difficulties of taking vertical meas-

urements by means of cords or rods. Again, Bulteau gives 13.85 m. as the width of the nave between columns (and also as the height of the vault of the side aisles).

74

As we have

seen, 13.85

is

also the length of the shafts under the

main

vault.

The lations

mark

heights of piers and shafts do not represent the only horizontal articu-

of the elevation.

Two

stringcourses,

below and above the triforium,

the level of the horizontal slabs that serve as floor and ceiling, respec-

tively, for the triforium age.

The lower

stringcourse intersects with the

vertical shafts at a level that divides these, if

we

include their capitals, with

great exactness according to the golden section (14.19 m.:8.y8 m.).

ness of these proportions

is

remarkable.

We

The

have seen that the medieval

Platonists ascribed a technical function to perfect proportion, conceiving

the ratio that bestows cohesion

upon an aggregate of

74. Bulteau, Monographie,

neat-

II,

10.

units.

it

One wonders

as if

Plate

35


210

considerations such as these did not determine the levels at which the string-

courses were set.

These

stringcourses,

which are the facings of the top and

bottom courses of masonry of the inner triforium wall, 75 have

a structural func-

tion with regard to the tall vertical shafts: they hold in place those sections

the shafts that are not engaged with the

chaining them to the triforium wall. 76

The

masonry of the walls or stringcourses therefore

turally the interconnection of the horizontal and vertical

Thus even

vation.

were not

these simple horizontal moldings

mark

of

of

by

piers

struc-

the ele-

installed for

purposes of decoration. But the beautifully proportioned divisions of the elevation that these stringcourses establish are largely responsible for the singu-

harmonious effect that the system of Chartres produces.

larly

should be added that the level of the lower stringcourse

It

is

determined

not only by the height of the shafts but also by that of the total elevation. architect, as

we

have seen, by the alternating forms of

duced the eye to see not one bay but two as a

unit.

The

his fillers cantonnes, in-

The

length of

two bays

is

equal to the width of the nave between the piers, each double bay thus forming 77 a square.

As we

look upward, the same square occurs in the elevation, the

lower stringcourse being placed nave.

The

height of the

at a height exactly equal to the

window

sills

width of the

of the clerestory, moreover,

equal to the diagonal of that square; in other words,

it is

related to

exactly

is it

"accord-

ing to true measure." According to Ernst Levy's recent measurements, moreover, the cathedral's exact height, from clef-de-voute to top of plinth,

meters. Colonel

Cox

(see

my

32.90

is

preface to the 2nd edition of this book) kindly

Maunoury, Chief

le-Duc, Dictionnaire, VII, 165, the middle shaft

Architect of the Department of Eure-et-Loir

is engaged with the wall while the four rcmaining colonnettes are built en delit. On the construction of these composite shafts and the

75.

"These

slabs," Jean

and of the cathedral, writes me, with reference to the stringcourse slabs,

"do not run beyond

the arcaded face of the triforium. functional,

however, as being

foot,

They

are

and cap,

A

curiously composite technique seems

to have been used in building the responds, as

be observed on the southern wall of the bay from the entrance. The five shafts of the responds were built in segments that are

can

still

first

the

wall.

M. Maunoury.

I

In

Choisy,

Histoire

de

I 'architecture,

II,

pp.

ing drawing of the ground plan of the

Reims

63C). 77. The bays of the nave are of unequal length. The Gothic piers and the intervals between them had to correspond to those of the piers (Hahnloser, Villard, Pis. 30B,

to

Romanesque nave, except for the two bays to the west where the architect had to take

Reims, according to Viollet-

of the existence of the facade and the towers.

alternatingly constructed en delit and engaged

with

108 f;

264, 350; and Villard de Honnecourt's interest-

layers of this arcade." 76.

function of the cornice in general, see ibid.,

owe

this

information

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES informs height

me

211

that according to his geometrical study of Chartres Cathedral this

exactly equal to the inner width, the design of the edifice being ad

is

quadratum.

The which

proportions of Chartres Cathedral

its

tell

us

design was produced; they reveal even

viction that stands behind

it.

much about

more about

the

method by

the artistic con-

Medieval metaphysics conceived beauty

as the

The

splendor Venturis, as the radiant manifestation of objectively valid laws.

elevation of Chartres Cathedral

of beauty.

The

is

the supreme vindication of this philosophy

perfection of this great architectural system

is

the perfection of

proportions, proportions that the master developed not according to his

its

personal intuition but by exact geometrical determination. the great attraction of these proportions to the

human

He

knew

certainly

eye; Platonic insistence

upon the correspondence between visual proportion and musical harmony can only have sharpened awareness of the aesthetic qualities of proportions that

were "right." has

(It is

worth noting

connection that the golden section

in this

musical equivalents too, the third and sixth, consonances that, though

its

considered "imperfect," were since the twelfth century allowed by medieval

musicians in order to relieve the monotony of the perfect consonances.)

Even

so, the

beauty of proportions was understood as a by-product, a function

of those laws which secured the stability and order of the church

the visible distances between piers,

The measurements of

inner width of the nave.

east to west, as given

Cathedrale de

the central bays, from by Lassus, Monographic

Chartres,

are

as

follows:

7.215,7.070,7.070,7.040,6.875,6.312,6.278 Lassus' measurements are generally very exact, far more so than his drawings of the cathedral. His measurements are taken between centers of piers. There is ample evidence to suggest, however, that the architect, in using the geometrical method of setting out, used as meters.

his lines

of direction not only the center

line

of

the wall (or the line connecting the centers of piers)

his

but also the lines representing the

inner width of the edifice. See above, p. 49, n. 69. In Chartres the rectangle of the crossing is

indeed determined by the intervals between

the centers of the piers.

The

square of the double

bays of the nave, however,

is

determined by

78.

Note

by the

the used

The

edifice.

See Lefevre-Pontalis, "Influences normandes."

de la

78

i.e.,

by the

thirteenth-

century mathematician, Campanus of Novara, in

his

description

of

the

golden

section:

"Mirabilis itaque est potentia lineae secundum

proportionem habentem medium duoque ex-

trema divisae. Cui

cum

plurima philosophantium

iratione digna conveniant, hoc principium vel

praecipuum ex superiorum principiorum

invariabili

procedit

solida

magnitudine turn basium numero,

turn

natura,

turn etiam figura, irrationali rationabiliter conciliet."

ut

tarn

diversa

quadam symphonia

Lib.

XIV

prop.

10,

from the Basel edition of 1537 by Chasles, Apercu historique sur Vorigine et le

quoted

dezeloppement des methodes en geometric,

See Lund, I,

50,

64.

p.

512.

Ghyka, Le Nombre dtor Campanus was chaplain of Pope

p.

140, and

Urban VII and

a

canon of Paris Cathedral.


212

architect's abiding concern with that order, his disregard for

and

effect, are

mere decoration

what render the Cathedral of Chartres so imposing.

It is

not the

use of mathematical proportions as such, or even the exactness with which they are realized in Chartres, that

is

noteworthy.

Few

ecclesiastical builders,

even

in

pre-Gothic times, seem to have disregarded the authority of i\ugustine and Boethius, and, as

was noted

mathematical formulae underlie nearly

earlier,

medieval architecture and indeed most medieval

from Romanesque

structural relevance of proportion.

The

grandest of

Romanesque is

basilicas,

St.

may

here represent the older style.

to connect

it

Michael's

with the mathematical writings of'

designed ad quadratum.

is

was well acquainted.

The nave

transepts describe three large squares, each of

three units of nine feet.

(The

these measurements seems to that of the side aisles,

which

ground plan. Thus even

trinitarian

The

design that a recent student, H.

its

Boethius, with which the builder, St. Bernward, St.

called the aesthetic and

Michael's, at Hildesheim, one of the

so conspicuous in

Rogênkamp, has sought

What distinguishes Gothic

A comparison will elucidate this difference.

eleventh-century abbey of

mathematical element

ait.

what might be

in this respect is

all

which

is

as well as the in turn

two

composed of

symbolism underlying the choice of

me quite obvious.) The height of the nave is

a perfunctory glance at

veals the presence of the "perfect" ratios

i

:

twice

of the basic square of the

in turn is equal to the side

ground plan and elevation

i,

i

:2,

2 :

3.

It is to

re-

be noted,

however, that these proportions constitute the principle according to which the church was designed but appear far is

because the architect

practice

—did not choose the

piers, as his lines

outer surfaces.

As

less clearly in the

— following what seems intervals

to

completed building. This

have been general pre-Gothic

between axes, the centers of walls and

of direction, but alternated instead between

their inner

and

a result, the squares do not appear as regular squares, be-

cause they either include the width of the wall and piers or "overlap" one another. Moreover, since the squares that determine the proportions of St.

Michael's do not coincide with the structural axes of the edifice, they do not articulate structure and are thus not relevant to

it.

The

architect seems to have

used mathematical proportion as an operational device rather than for

its

effect

upon structure or appearance. Elsewhere

in

St.

Michael's proportion appears with greater aesthetic

Fig. 8.

Abbey of St. Michael, Hildesheim. Northwest sept, Galleries

of Angels

tran-


214 emphasis. in the Fig. 8

The

north and south arms of both transepts terminated originally

magnificent Galleries of Angels, of which the composition in the north-

west arm, even after the heavy damage of the second World War, preserves

Two

original form.

ground

level,

galleries,

open with four and

The "musical"

six arcades, respectively, into the transept.

1:2:3 are thus immediately apparent; they also de-

ratios

termine the relative sizes of the ing columns. partite like that

its

superimposed upon the double arcade on the

The

of Chartres, and almost equally exact

entire elevation, tri-

in the application

of the

proportion chosen, thus invites comparison with the Gothic cathedral. This

comparison, however, reveals a profound contrast. In Chartres, proportion

comprehensive whole; and

it

it

is

experienced as the harmonious articulation of a

determines the ground plan as well as the elevation;

"chains," by the single ratio of the golden section, the individual parts'

not only to one another but also to the whole that encomes them

same desire imposed

all.

The

for unification that induced the architect to treat piers and super-

shafts

not as independent units but rather as articulations of a

continuous vertical rhythm suggested to him the choice of the proportion that might indeed be called the mathematical equivalent of that unifying design.

In St. Michael's, on the other hand, the characteristic tendency of treating

the different parts of the edifice as autonomous units

of proportion.

The

is

also apparent in the role

three types of columns in the transept endings are perfectly

proportioned to one another. Yet they are separated by broad strips of wall surface so that

we

experience their proportion not as a "chord" of simul-

taneously "sounded" harmonious units, but rather consecutively, by proceeding

from the

first

horizontal level to the second and from the second level to the

third.

This, however,

Michael's

is

likely to

is

not the most important difference.

No

remain unaware of the proportion used

visitor to St.

in the Galleries

of Angels or, for that matter, of the mathematical law that has determined

its

over-all design. Yet, as an aesthetic factor, proportion does not play a primary role in the elevation and appears, as

we

have seen, somewhat "stunted"

in the

ground plan. In the Galleries of Angels, wall paintings, remnants of which have been found, must have further increased the divisive effect of the wall

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES segments between the arcaded

215

stories, thus diverting attention

from the pro-

portion of the columns. This proportion, moreover, seems to be confined to the

columns and unrelated to the design or structure of the elevation as a whole.

Owing

to this fact, proportion in the elevation of St. Michael's, as in the

ground plan,

fails fully to

assert itself aesthetically.

In Chartres, on the other hand, the architect has used as his lines of direction either the axes

of the system or the inner width; proportion thus coincides

with and articulates the "ts" of the structural anatomy, and subjects even

windows

the compositions of the stained-glass its

law.

full

It is

when we compare Chartres with

to the magnificent

St.

Michael's that

geometry of

we

realize the

significance of proportion for the "geometrical functionalism"


Notre

Dame

of Chartres

an edifice without architectural ornament.

is

Even

light

would counterbalance the simplicity of

so, this architecture is extraordinarily austere. If

we

The

windows

architect designed his system with an eye to the great stained-glass

whose color and

of early

79

his architecture.

glance at the most

famous contemporary churches with which the Cathedral of Chartres had to stand comparison, and which his

own

plan,

it

were before the

architect's eyes as he developed

seems that the master created the

reducing the design of those earlier churches to a

We

ready mentioned the Cathedral of Laon. with the choir of St.-Remi

at

Reims and

79. For the above, see Beseler and Roggenkamp, Die Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim, pp. 100 (autonomy of individual parts), 84 (wall paintings), and 127 ff., for Roggenkamp's study of proportions. I have accepted in my own analysis his measurements, including the valuable determination of the foot used at St.

Michael's, without being convinced of conclusions. Is

it

all

his

really possible or necessary to

connect the sequence of 20, 35, 84, 35, and 56 feet, which, according to Roggenkamp, com-

first classical

new

may

cathedral

by

have

al-

simplicity.

also

compare Chartres

the southern transept of Soissons

cosmological function of the triangle and tetraI am uncertain whether the between the columns in the northwest galleries is realized by means of a module of five feet. Roggenkamp's measurements in-

hedron. 3

:

2

:

1

Again,

ratio

elude, not too plausibly, bases as well as capitals

and imposts. Since the shafts of the largest columns measure exactly nine feet, I wonder if the ratios, consistent with the trinitarian symbolism noted elsewhere, are not based on a module of three feet. Be this as it may, the

poses the main axis of the church, with Boethius'

author's

sequence of numeri

influence upon the builder seems to

solidi

corresponding to the

tetrahedron? Such a connection

thesis

the less

interest;

likely in that, as the author does not

seem to

a role at least as

realize, the builder could not

have

known

the

age in the Timaeus that deals with the

I

regarding

Boethius'

me

possible

of great

De musica may have played important as the De arithmetica.

think the

all

is

I

For the question of

lines

of direction used by

medieval architects, see above, n. 77, and p. 49, n. 69.


2l6

Cathedral, both masterpieces of the immediately preceding period and perhaps creations of the

and

rich.

same

Their style

artist.

at

is

we would

tributes that

The

once

design of these works

fiery

not apply to Chartres.

imparts to those churches a certain restlessness.

windows tends

the gallery

much more

is

varied

and delicate, dramatic and graceful,

The

The

at-

quadripartite elevation

light penetrating

through

and colonnettes even slenderer

to render shafts

than they actually are, and seems to suffuse the forms of the edifice with a luminosity that dissolves their contours.

By comparison, Notre Dame of

Chartres appears severe and restrained.

The contrast between The most

the capitals.

the

two

rustle in a strong breeze;

—are

the stone ax.

The

180's

style

capitals as those

compare

—we might saw of

much

light

and

use of the chisel rather than the stone

skillful

of Canterbury Cathedral, as rebuilt after the

the chisel, whereas in the

Such

1

deep undercuttings produce contrasts of

specifically points out that in the

80

particularly striking if we

rich and leafy; their majestic foliage seems to

shadow. Such work required the ax. In his description

is

characteristic capitals of the

the period before Chartres

Gervase

styles

new

edifice capitals

fire

of

1

172,

were carved with

simpler older church they had been cut with

of these years demanded the general use of the

of Laon, St.-Remi

at

chisel.

Reims, and the ambulatory of

Notre Dame of Poissy are truly monumental creations

that remind us that the

last quarter of the twelfth century was the age of that tempestuous genius,

Nicolaus of Verdun

—or

that

it

would

be,

were

it

not overshadowed by the

Cathedral of Chartres. 81

Throughout the nave the master of Chartres has employed Plate

40

capital, a volute

corresponding to each angle of the abacus above, as an almost

functionally efficient

means of linking the shape of the s with the

capitals

of the ambulatory, but

still

Gervase of Canterbury, p. 27. Salzman, p. 333, remarks that "the most momentous change in the working of stone was the introduction of the use of the chisel not only

Colombier,

for carving hut, to a rapidly increasing extent,

Oxford (MS. Auct.

80.

for dressing stones,

which occurred

in

the sec-

ond half of the twelfth century." See also

in

very simple by comparison with the

of the great sanctuaries of the preceding period. The crocket

Building,

spring-

more developed

ing of the vault ribs or arches above them. Floral motifs are the capitals

the crocket

81. terizes

capital

p. 23.

The same book

ficrv

monumentally charac-

illustrations

of

e.g., the great Bible in the

this

E. infra

especially fols. 67 v, 77

r,

90

period. Sec.

Bodleian Library, 2

r).

[S.C.

1427],

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES has

forerunners in

its

Norman

2

architecture of the eleventh century.

82

17

was

It

subsequently adopted by the Cistercian Order. Around the mid-twelfth century it

appears in the western ensemble of Suger's

tower of Chartres Cathedral.

Dame

is

Its

consistent

and on the southern

St. -Denis

employment

in the

Gothic Notre

well attuned to the spirit of conservatism and restraint that pervades

the edifice throughout.

There were surely material reasons

for such restraint.

may have been one reason, and for economy of time of money. The architect did not employ the time of his masons

need for economy

The

even more than

on the carving of ornate and elaborate

capitals.

planned to rebuild the cathedral before the

have sketched

There was yet another reason was the

first

one can have seriously

194; the architect cannot

1

his first design before that date. Yet, barely twenty-five years

1220, Guillaume le Breton

later, in

No

of

fire

to observe

how

saw

the great vault complete.

of design. Choisy

for the great simplicity

irably the master of Chartres turned to ad-

vantage the very limitations of his building material. 83

The

coarse limestone

he had to use precluded the possibility of basing the effect of his design upon

He

refinement of detail.

decided to

let

the stones speak their

own

truly "lap-

idary" language: the very simplicity of his design brings into play the im-

posing amplitude of the masses and the harmony of proportions that holds these

masses together.

harmonize

Finally, the architect's restraint attests his desire to

design with the the

spirit

fire

had spared.

It

was decided

aesthetic

of the older building, above

all,

to retain this masterpiece and, indeed, to concede to

prominence

it

deserved.

The

the

it,

To

82.

exfar

equalize their dimensions the master superimposed

Such as in Lessay, Caen, St.-Euenne (cf. Die Gotische Baukunst, pp. 316 ff.),

St.-Nicolas,

and

Mont-St.-Michel.

See

Lapeyre, "Les Chapiteaux histories de

also

l'eglise

de Deuil" (BM, 1938, XCVII, 401). For early antecedents in the Ile-de-, see Deshoulieres,

"L'Eglise

the

nave was to be

this

upon the Royal Portal and the three windows the rose that

Gall,

it

new Gothic nave was

tended westward as far as the facade. But the height of than the facade.

own

decision posed yet another problem. In

place of the old narthex and the chapel above

loftier

his

with the west facade that

Saint-Pierre

de

Mont-

(BM,

martre"

191

3,

is

LXXVII,

a grandiose especially p.

17); and for the entire development, Lasteyrie,

U Architecture

religieuse

gothique,

322

gothique" pp. 167

II,

ff.;

en

Jalabert,

a

"La

Vepoque Flore

(BM, XCI, 1932); and Seymour,

ff.

83. Choisy, p. 438.

.

2

Plate

25

I


8

development of the theme

first

employed

tuned to the older composition beneath

and yet beautifully

at St. -Denis

it.

This conservative attitude reappears very strikingly that terminate the transepts.

at-

The master had

in the

two

facades

not originally provided for them. 84

The

munificence of the houses of Dreux and

idea.

The

may

have suggested the

three entrances that lead from the north and south into the cathe-

porches sheltering them, were adorned with a profusion

dral, as well as the

of sculptures such

had never been seen before. In the present context

as

I

must again refrain from an analysis of this statuary, which influenced the

monumental itself,

and

of the thirteenth century

style

as the sculpture

as decisively as did the architecture

of the west fagade influenced the

of the second

art

half of the twelfth century.

The

were probably executed

first,

differ significantly

monumental sculpture had developed but facade of

which flank the two

statues in the jambs, especially those

portals and

The

Senlis. 85

difference

is all

few years

a

before, notably at the

more remarkable

the

of the Chartres figures comes from the neighborhood of

panum of the

central portal of Chartres

North repeats

central'

from the style that

since the stone

Senlis,

the

86

and the tym-

theme of the triumph

of the Virgin that had been previously represented over the main portal of the Cathedral of Senlis.

The

style

of the Chartres

figures,

however, can only be

understood as a deliberate revival of the style of the west facade.

any other masterpiece older, an adaptation

that

is

I

do not know

similarly attuned to a composition fifty years

prompted not by lack of

originality but

by an almost

reverent esteem for the earlier work.

The

statues of the Chartres transepts

move

us not so

much by

their in-

ventiveness or originality as by an austerity and reserve imposed by tradition.

At

first

sight they appear

west fagade not only

stiff,

even monotonous.

They

recall the statues

of the

and the motifs of their delicately pleated

in their attitudes

garments but also by the rigid order of their arrangement, which conforms completely to the simple geometry of the architectural setting. Yet their posture

and expression are neither forced nor

84. See above, p. 85. See

Aubert,

moyen-age, pp. 219

1

8

Theirs

is

the

same quality of soul

86. See Lefevre-Pontalis,

1

La Sculpture If.

lifeless.

francaise

au

rddiger

1906,

la

"Comment doit-on

monographic d'une eglise?" (BM,

LXX,

462).

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES that

moves

same

us in the statues of the

Old Testament

trayed his

utmost restraint, as

Royal Portal. The master of Senlis has poreven violent, movement.

figures in forceful,

figures are represented

The

on the northern transept of Chartres with the

if neither the

dramatic nor the lyrical

and simplicity render the figures unforgettable.

mood had been

Yet

sidered appropriate for the great forerunners of Christ.

The David

is

this

con-

very restraint

truly regal,

Moses

is

perhaps the most moving image

is

as essentially fresh

a lawgiver divinely inspired; John the Baptist

of

219

this saint in Christian art.

The

sculpture of the Chartres transepts

qualities within, or

even conceal them behind, a seemingly conservative and

retrospective form. This fact the cathedral rested, as

we

as the

new

The

chapter

may

well have

venerable continuity of religious tradition also demanded, so far

cathedral

was concerned,

And

with the conservative.

we

The fame and eminence of

hardly surprising.

is

have seen, on the cult of the Virgin, claimed to

have been practiced here since immemorial times. felt that this

and original

and even daring. Both, however, contain these

as the architecture is novel

a design that

combined the resplendent

even such understandable considerations apart,

have every reason to believe that the ecclesiastical body with which the

master of Chartres Cathedral had to deal was unlikely to be susceptible to

The

novelty and invention. thedral School

speculative impulse that characterized the Ca-

two generations

The mood was now

century.

though neither the Chartres,

was

earlier

had abandoned

nor the least

as an author certainly the

literate

of the chancellors of

most derivative of them

new

all.

And

it is

cathedral had to deal. Their

and wishes had to be taken into as he began to develop

None of them was

The

before the turn of the

retrospective, if not timid. Peter of Roissy,

least learned

with men of this type that the architect of the tastes

it

his design.

able to stifle the extraordinary forcefulness of his genius.

sculptures of the transept portals partake of the "noble simplicity and

calm grandeur" that truly characterize the architecture that

we

the

same

as a

whole

— so much so

cannot doubt that sculpture and architecture are essentially the artist.

What

knowledge of medieval cathedral

was

this

affinity

practice.

also in charge of

fully qualified to

The its

assume such vast

of style suggests master

who

is

work of

confirmed by our

directed the building of the

entire sculptural decoration. responsibilities.

The

And

he was

medieval builder had

Plate 41

.


220

ed through the same school as did the stonecutter and the sculptor. 87 apprenticeship of

came

a

all

"freemason"

began if he

in the quarry.

was

able to

The quarryman and

work

"freestone,"

i.e.,

The

stonecutter be-

fine-grained sand-

stone or limestone, carving moldings, capitals, ornamental figures, after models that had previously been designed

by the master. 88 The best freemasons created

the statues of the facades; the best

and leader of

This

the career

is

among

these rose to be master of the fabric

all.

we must

envisage for the architect of Chartres. Even as

he directed and carried the tremendous responsibility for the great work as a whole,

was

it

He

cution. 89

still

customary for the master to take an active hand

might carve the

figures, or at least the heads,

in its exe-

of the main statues

and he certainly supervised the design of the entire program.

This task of guidance and supervision, with the indispensable blend of authority and tolerance that

most

we

difficult

of all.

The

is

required in artistic matters, must have been the

statuary of the transepts

is

imagiers,

of whom

at least three

were

assisted

work of many

the

can venture a rough guess as to their number.

We

know

artists;

that fifteen

by an apprentice each, worked on

the main portal of the Cathedral of Rouen, creating, during fifteen years, thirty-four large statues as well as the

tympanum and numerous

smaller figures

on the bases and archivolts. This work dates from the early sixteenth century only. But

Mme.

Lefrancois-Pillion,

who

Yards and Master Ages" (Liturgical Arts, XIX, 1951); Mortet, "La Maitrise d'oeuvre 87. See Aubert, "Building

Builders in the Middle

dans et

les

grandes constructions du XIII e siecle

profession d'appareilleur"

la

Colombier,

1906);

p.

85;

and

(BM, LXX,

RDK,

art.

"Baumeister."

virgam

Jones, The Medieval Mason,

et

tamen

Rouen documents,

cyrothecas

dicunt: Par

ci le

majorem

me

in

manibus habentes,

taille, et nihil

mercedem

in-

aliis

laborant; et

accipiunt

." .

.

suggests that at this time (1261) at least the architect's abstention

from manual work was

not yet considered cither normal or satisfactory. It is

Knoop and

88.

has studied the

to be noted that Gisbergus, the master of

St. -Victor at

Xanten, carved himself "formas

of the

ad sculpcndum lapides," and Konrad Roriczer,

term freemason, see Frankl, "The Secret of the Medieval Masons" (AB, XXVII, 1945). Cf.

the architect of Regensburg Cathedral, executed

Colombier,

zur Geschichle der Bauhutte und des

pp. 86

89.

f.

For

a different interpretation

p. 41

This situation gradually changed, how-

owing

several statues himself. See Juettner,

Mittelalter, pp. 41

Colombier, pp. 58, and trise d'oeuvre,"

devolved upon the builders of the great cathe-

'Architect'

drals.

The

to the increasing theoretical

re-

often-quoted age from a sermon

of Nicolas of Briard, "Magistri cementariorum

1942)-

in

\m

For similar examples, see 74. See also Mortet, "Mai-

fF.

sponsibilitics as well as the social prestige that

ever,

Em Bettng

Bai/-j.eseris

Pevsner,

the Middle

Ages"

"

he

Term

(Sp,

XVII.

I

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES may

with good reason that Rouen

sists

221

be used as an example for building

90 practices in medieval generally.

The program of the

We

Chartres facade was

much

must therefore assume that nearly twice

ployed in

its

execution. Several

were

artists

vaster than that of Rouen.

many

as

of genius.

were em-

sculptors

The

of St. Anne

statues

and, in the southern portal, John the Baptist, the Christ, St. Martin, and St.

Gregory the Great (not

to

mention some

Modeste, that were executed somewhat masterpieces of the

first

rank.

such as the Theodore and

figures,

many

well as

later), as

Those who created them worked

willing to attune their styles and techniques to a

common

others, are

side

vision.

by

side,

When we

think of the self-centered and quarrelsome individualism of Renaissance and

modern

artists,

We

But

sistants.

the achievement seems truly astonishing.

know, of course, of many great

diversified.

the responsibilities

He

had to be an accomplished sculptor and

engineer and mathematician.

above

all

91

as geometricians;

geometry proves

it

—had

The

jects

—

his

knowledge of

artistic sphere. In Chartres, the financial

ecclesiae,

was

hands of two or three canons,

in the

or magistri fabricae

ecclesiae as

them the master was responsible.

models were submitted to them

tire chapter.

same time an

certainly studied the quadrivium. But his influence

the canonici provisores opens

To

at the

and the master of Chartres

istration of the cathedral fabric

called at a later date.

as-

great Gothic builders thought of themselves

and obligations extended beyond the

signs or

who employed numerous

artists

of a cathedral builder were extraordinarily

This body or

its

or,

more

92

they were

His original de-

likely, to the bishop

and en-

deputies also determined the iconographic sub-

of the great program of sculptures.

At

the

same time, however, the master's

artistic authority

of necessity

involved jurisdictional and social obligations of considerable scope. Since he

90. Lefrancois-Pillion,

Maitres

cfoeuvre

et

Notxe-Dame de Chartres" (SAELM, 1915-22,

de pierre des cathedrales, pp. 143 ff. The author estimates that at least three times as

XV,

many

drals in the

tailleurs

craftsmen

must have worked on the

statuary at Amiens.

244, 256). For a similar arrangement elsewhere, see Edwards, The English Secular Cathe-

Middle Ages,

p.

1

24; and

Thompson,

"Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages" (His-

91. See above, p. 34. 92. See Jusselin,

was

"La Maitrise de

tory,

l'oeuvre a

X, 1925).

On

the entire question of the

medieval architect's responsibilities and functions, see

now

Colombier, pp. 28

ff.


222

responsible for the quality of the work, he

was

also responsible, to a large extent

at least, for the hiring, training, supervision, and, if necessary, dismissal

He

very numerous workers employed on the vast undertaking. stake in their material and moral well-being.

No

deputy could have entirely

him of these manifold concerns.

relieved

When

the Cathedral of Chartres

come

tainly not yet

into existence.

was being

They were organized

those vast construction projects of which Notre

Dame

masons' lodges that

it

large and efficient organization. is

regarding the

silent

And

built

without a relatively

medieval institutions were more flexible'

often believed, and a great deal depended upon the individual.

were no precedents or

a forceful personality, in his

of Chartres was one of

has been doubted whether these ever existed in . 93

Yet the Cathedral of Chartres could not have been

there

only in consequence of

and French medieval sources are so curiously

first,

than

masons' lodges, with

built,

and division of functions, had almost cer-

their relatively clear-cut regulations

the

of the

had a similar

own

earlier experiences to be followed, a

might well be able (or even compelled) to concentrate

hands, as did Suger half a century earlier, the responsibilities of ad-

ministrator, architect, and contractor.

Anyway, our

sources seem to indicate

that only after the second half of the thirteenth century

on the Continent

at least, to separate the financial

mason seems

93. In England, the master

have been frequently istration.

of the two

Where

man of genius,

in

At Exeter,

custodes operis

to

charge of finance and in

and

1

it

300, he

was

his

was one duty to

was

found expedient,

it

and economic aspects of

quos

gratis canonicos constituit, aunfabrum mirabilcm, pictorem doctum, vitrearium .

.

.

sagaccm, alios necnon, qui singuli prout cuique erat facultas, in officio suo descrvirenr."

Mortet

Here the artistic of the canons were the conditions

of the building (Knoop and Jones, Medieval Mason, p. 34); in Wells, around 1265, the master workman was similarly concerned with the financial side of

and Deschamps, Recited,

the fabric (ibid.); on the master mason's re-

Something similar may hive been true for Godefroid of Huy, the great rwclfth-centiirv goldsmith, who became a canon of Neumostier

keep

a

counterroll

sponsibility to hire and fire his workers, see ibid.,

pp.

34,

175. For

,

cf.

Die Bauhutten des deutschen Mittelalters,

and

RDK,

art.

p.

116,

"Baubetrieb." Conversely, how-

ever, the canons ters

Janner,

who were

appointed as "mas-

of the fabric" were surely chosen because

of their

artistic

and

technical

abilities.

At

Auxerre the bishop, Geoffrey <>t Champallement (1052-76), "Elegit etiam, cum laude ct cum grariarum capituli sui actionc, quosdam,

qualifications

I,

93.

of their appointment, and their share in the embellishment of the cathedral is bevond question.

and created beautiful

liturgical vessels for this

Thompson, p. these show how rash

church. See also

such as

Examples would be to

140. it

define too rigidly the master's responsibilities

on the basis of

his position.

The

position and

its

scope varied from place to place ami underwent certain

changes

Colombier,

p.

44.

in

the

course of time. See

THE CATHEDRAL OF CH A RTRES

223

cathedral building from the technical and artistic tasks, and to entrust these

and only these to a professional architect. 94

What

renders an exact understanding of the functions of a medieval archi-

tect so difficult is the

vagueness of medieval terminology. Magister operis

site,

may

of supplies needed on the building

refer either to the in charge

of financial matters, of labor relations, or the term

may

be used for the

may actually indocuments we possess in re-

architect in our sense. 95 But such indistinct use of terminology

Not only

dicate an indistinctness of functions.

gard to the cathedral fabric of Chartres

elsewhere % suggest

analogous situations

—

the

of a much

all

later date

—but

at least the possibility that the

also

master

of Chartres Cathedral united large istrative responsibilities with

And

architectural tasks.

chapter, the

more

his

the general supervisory authority of the bishop and

powers of the canons

specific

prozisores,

may

often have

complicated rather than facilitated the realization of the great project for whose

and technical aspects the master bore the responsibility alone.

artistic

Unfortunately, the thirteenth-century books of the Cathedral

of Chartres are

We have only

lost.

some shreds of evidence on which

to base

our estimate of the exact nature of the master's position and authority. Early century— —two magistri

in the thirteenth

way

under

at the time, that

operis are

cathedral, the other to the bishop.

is,

when work on Notre Dame was

whom is attached to the we may assume, was in

mentioned, one of 97

Only

the

first,

charge of the fabric. Both received revenues and privileges considered as a

A

century

drawn

One

up,

later,

which

around 1300, the so-called polyptych of Notre lists

entire prebend

is

the prebends, revenues, and possessions of the cathedral. set aside for the

master of the fabric: "prebenda magistri

operis que est perpetua pro quolibet magistro."

At what

this time, then, the

later

still,

fief.

Dame was

98

master was a prebendary of the cathedral. Some-

around the mid-fourteenth century,

we

learn that the chaplain

of the Altar of the Crucifix istered the sacraments of baptism, matri-

mony, and penance

to the family

of the master of the

94. Colombier, p. 61. 95.

On

this

terminology, pp. 53

ff-

see

much-discussed

most recently

fabric.

99

The

text

makes

96. Colombier, pp. 62, 74, and above, n. 92.

subject

of

Colombier,

97. Jusselin, pp. 253 98. CC,

II,

2,

ff.

279. Cf. Jusselin, pp. 235

99- Jusselin, pp. 247

f.

f.

it


22 4 clear that the

custom was considered

The prebend

and

a privilege

of quite unusual significance.

custom were certainly long-established

this

institutions at

when

the time they are mentioned, and very likely date back to the time

the

master of the fabric was not merely the supervisor of an existent building but the

famed architect who erected

measure of his achievement

edifice,

has reached the

in his lifetime.

shorter time, given the

to carry

As

out.

it

true of Notre

Dame

with

life

of

span granted a

and craftsmen

artists

was

likely as not he died before the cathedral

completed. But he did impress upon those his particular vision

get the

maturity of his talents) he designed the great

full

and perhaps assembled and certainly trained the

who were

To

sufficient to realize that within a quarter

it is

much

a century (and probably in a

man who

We may thus treat these scanty references

100

of the recognition the master received

as faint echoes full

it.

who worked under him and

sufficient clarity to

of Chartres an

make

artistic unit

after

him

the architecture and sculp-

of unexcelled homogeneity and

indeed the expression of his unique genius.

—and no

We

can say no more

whatever

is

known. His

Benedetto Antelami, ioo. Jusselin jouissait i

is

Italian

less

remarks: "Le privilege dont

354, remontait certainement a une epoque plus

ancienne,

et

ce

privilege

Of

his identity

a definite historical personality for us.

maitre de l'Oeuvre, constate en

le

—about him.

avait,

moral, une valeur exceptionelle." to the age in the polyptych

nothing

contemporary, the great architect and sculptor

of the cathedral.

What was On the

position at that time?

elsewhere,

it is

We

know

the

the scope of this basis of analogies

not impossible to maintain that

was the

dans l'ordre

the magister operis of Chartres Cathedral

With

of the cathedral fabric rather than

regard

of 300 he writes 1

its

and that he was the supervisor of

architect,

most unlikely

view of

n'auraient "Ces renseignements sans doute pas une forme aussi precise si la

the latter. But this

maitrise de l'Oeuvre etait un office de creation

have seen, two supervisors, whose functions would have overlapped with those of the lay

likewise:

.

recente." Jusselin has tried to office

.

.

show

of the magister opens of Chartres,

that the a

hered-

was purely

itary one in the fourteenth century,

istrative, and required neither the skills

of the architect nor those of the mason. This conclusion

is

certainly justified with regard to

the fourteenth century. But

was

it

deja penser que

travaux plus

le

"On

un

tel office

il

jouit."

ne pourra les

In other words, the

at the

Moreover,

we know

that in the

session of the chapter held at Christmas,

1

300,

Jean des Carricres was introduced, a mason, lathomus, who was also magister opens a certain

(Lepinois, Histoire de Chartres,

I,

179).

Hence

and position of magister operis referred to the master mason, and that the unknown architect of the cathedral held the same title and we

privileges of the magister opens originated, al-

most without doubt,

supervisor.

peut

rendre des services en rapport avec

privileges dont

we

there can be no doubt that at this time the term

jour ou cesseront les grands

a la cathedrale,

in

like

always

that? Jusselin himself observes that

is

the fact that the chapter had appointed, as

time of the building

—

may assume

— enjoyed

those privileges which

were enjoyed by men who had and needed no longer the qualifications of a great builder. later

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES we know

of Fulbert's cathedral, 101 and

artist

thirteenth century.

The names of the

the celebrated builders of the

Reims and iVmiens were

architects of

scribed on the labyrinths on the floor of their cathedrals; the

Montreuil or a

Hugh

with an iration reflected

tects

in-

names of a Peter of

Libergier survive in the proud inscriptions on their tomb-

We need no further proof that the age looked

stones. 102

225

upon celebrated

archi-

and economic position and

in their social

hardly sured in the Renaissance. 103 But the man, whose disciple every one

of the masters labyrinth in

name;

his

just

if so, it

listing his

mentioned should have considered himself,

Notre Dame of Chartres may have contained must have been

lost at a relatively early date.

revenues and privileges

make

clear that he

it

unknown. The

was

with

The documents

a layman. But the

whom we

could associate

any major capacity with the great work. Some canons are

listed as bene-

obituaries extant mention no one, cleric or layman, in

is

a metal plaque

none of these notices allows us to assume that they had any share

factors;

the design or execution of the cathedral. If Bishop interest,

we

have no record of this

monument of

similar importance

Renaud took an

would be

fact. In short, it

difficult to

whose maker or makers have been

in

artistic

name

a

com-

so

pletely forgotten.

Toward

the end of the fourteenth century, in 1389, an

101. See CC, III, 204: "Obiit Berengarius,

hujus matris ecclesie artifex bonus." Cf. Bui-

Fulbert

"Saint

teau,

(SAELM,

On

102.

the

see de Mely,

"Nos

1920, XI,

series,

sa

cathedrale"

tomb of Peter of Montreuil,

d'oeuvre"

maitres

et

1882, VII, 306).

vieilles cathedrales et leurs

(Revue archeologique, 5th 311).

The tomb of Hugh

Libergier, the builder of St.-Nicaise at Reims,

now

was first reproduced by Didron, "Les Artistes au moyenage" (AA, I, 1844); see also de Mely, p. 315.

is

in the

Cathedral of Reims.

103. Coulton's

notion

It

regarding

the

low

esteem and humble status of the medieval architect (cf. Social Life in Britain, p. 468)

refuted

by Briggs, The

pp.

66

ff.,

pp.

81

f.

was ably

Kletzl, pp. 6

who

of pounds

p. 47,

obvious that these master

—equivalent

were employed

.

.

.

their

Even

own

to

more than as many when they

take

to

of building

charge

75. a week, £18 a year, at a time when the possession of twenty pounds' worth of land

operations they frequently received equal to just over

entitled, or

to

become

Yevele,

in

even compelled, a knight.

October

manors ...

was

wages, see recently

is

thousands in modern money; and

and more recently by Colombier, architects'

remarks: "It

often undertook contracts running into hundreds

and

On

anonymous writer

and Salzman, Building,

masons were men of good standing the masters who were working on

History,

Architect in

f.,

given

the

a landed proprietor

Henry two Kentish

great mason,

389, received

of his salary of

in lieu

his predecessor,

(Oxon.)

1

The

1

2d. a

day;

Master John of Gloucester,

sergeantry

of

Bletchingdon

1256." See also Janner, pp. 35 ff., and RDK, art. "Baumeister." There is in

Salzman, Building, pp. 68 ff.; Harvey, p. 41; and Colombier, pp. 75 ff. On the position of the

also interesting information in Pariset,

great

sur l'atelier de la Cathedrale de Strasbourg"

cathedral

builders

in

later

times,

see

101

ff.;

(AHA,

VIII, 1929).

"£tude

Plate

6b


226 compiled

of the Cathedral and Chapter of Chartres, the so-called

a history

Vieille

Chronique, which acquired a considerable and ill-deserved reputation

among

the earlier historians of Chartres. 104

was

It

the author's main concern to

prove the venerable age of the sanctuary, which he claims to have been founded time of the prophets and sibyls

in the

in

honor of the Virgo

paritura. 105

The

writer was equally intent upon proving the existing cathedral to be far older

than

actually was. For this purpose he omitted

it

all

references to the

fire

of

194 or the subsequent rebuilding of the sanctuary, insisting that the Gothic

1

cathedral

The

was

same

the

that Bishop Fulbert had built in the eleventh century. 106

chronicler's authority

was

cepted as truth, and gradually

all

The

considerable.

legends he told were ac-

memories of the incomparable endeavor

that

had produced the present cathedral were silenced. Only the scholarship of the nineteenth century yielded incontrovertible evidence of the actual date of the church.

One wonders is

if the

oblivion into which the master of Chartres has ed

Whoever

altogether unconnected with this forgery.

tainly in a position that allowed thesis.

He

actually did erase the

Miracles of the Blessed Virgin. 101 that time,

him

it

memory of

Had

would have given the

Such conjectures

apart, there

concocted

was

it

cer-

documents that contradicted

to destroy

the fire of

poem

194 from the

1

his

the inscription on the labyrinth existed at to his fabrications.

lie is

a sense in

which the master of Chartres

may be brought into relation with the forgery that nearly succeeded in erasing the memory of his achievement along with that of his name. As we know him through

Dame

work, might he not have smiled

his

To

Chronique?

had been

consuming ambition.

his

104. Printed in CC,

I,

2,

1

106. CC, .

.

I,

2,

p.

14.

MoXXo,

Domini

"Hujus tempore, anno civitas

ct

adhibita diligencia, sua

dustria, dictam ecclesiam, a

ad

summum

totaliter

ejus, in

ecclesia

in-

I, 2,

pauca, que vix

magna

in-

fundamento usque

decore quo nunc est fere

consummavit

107. CC,

pp. 14

.

.

ff.

postmodum

He

had revived

editors add (n. 1),

eendio totalirer devastatur; sed postquam idem Fulbertus,

he could have seen the

Vieille

in his

own

church the

fhuic opcri sint, et supra patent, anncxa]."

ff.

105. See above, p. 160.

.

if

continue unbroken the tradition of the older builders of Notre

pour

f.iirc

miraculis

Bcripta reperta sunt,

les efforts

disparaltre dans le

drale qui cut lieu en

1

194,

malgre

The

du faus-

Poeme

Miracles route trace de I'incendie de

la

les

dea

catheV

dates

surcrurgecs, les vers cliaccs ou ajoutds et .nitres

sopercheries encore evidentes aujourd'hui,

neanmoins

laissc

perinettenr pas

."

"Dequibus

saire

"Malgre

la

ll

a

echapper des details qui ne moindre confusion cntre ces

deux incciulies." See also Bulteau, Monographie, I,

97.

ff.

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES destroyed sanctuary and

summed up

in his vision

Platonic legacy of the twelfth century.

Not one of the major

but a beginning.

The

227

and achievement the great

synthesis he created

was not an end

features of earlier architecture that he had

eliminated here was to appear again, while his innovations were adopted by the master builders of the thirteenth century.

They looked upon

the classical example of Gothic architecture and so have

Its

subsequent genera-

Add.]

tions. [See

It is

all

Chartres as

not impossible to explain the classical character of Chartres Cathedral.

design, authoritative and austere, offers nothing that one

to personal invention or individual fancy. Indeed,

we

would

attribute

can no longer distinguish

between structure and appearance, between the technical and the aesthetic accomplishment. its

The beauty of the

And

structural anatomy.

become inseparable from

its

these

it.

It is

like

is

not, as Professor

image of the heavenly

lusionistic

of the eschatological theme

Romanesque

every medieval church,

is

a

Sedlmayr suggests, an

city. Illusionistic in a sense are the

sanctuaries. But the term

is

Baroque, not medieval.

It

Cathedral of Chartres connects the basilica with

analogy that

in the

prototype

the clarity of order that

For

this analogical function

pected witness.

It is

il-

evoca-

mosaics and murals of Byzantine and

in the

does not apply to the grandiose abstraction of the Gothic system.

is

symbol of

the supreme solution of this theme, as the twelfth century defined

But the Gothic cathedral

tions

of the crystalline clarity of

aspects of the cathedral have in turn

symbolic character.

Notre Dame of Chartres, heaven.

edifice consists

two

number and

certainly

The

tie

of

its celestial

light establish in both.

even of the proportions

we

have an unex-

the French architect Philibert Delorme. Although he lived

in the sixteenth century,

he had a profound knowledge of Gothic building

practice. In the Preface to his treatise

on architecture, Delorme advises the

reader to look in the order of the universe for the model of the proportions on

which

his

own

buildings are to be based.

these proportions. Yet

God

is

Too few

ating the cosmos according to measure and

the

human

architects, he says, observe

the great and irable architect,

number and weight has

who by

cre-

also given to

architect proportions so perfect that without such divine help he

would never have been

able to discover them.

Delorme promises

to write a


228

work on

the divine proportions in which he proposes to deal with the "sacred

proportions" that

Moses his

God

prescribed to

(for the Tabernacle), to

Noah

Solomon

(for the building of the

Temple), and

(for the

Ark), to

to Ezekiel (in

description of the Celestial Temple). According to Delorme, nothing

proves more clearly the dignity of the architect's profession than that self has instructed

him about the measures and proportions

to

their aid the builder can design structures that, although they

comparison with those mentioned

more nearly

finitely

have

Scripture,

may

may

not bear

nevertheless be in-

perfect than anything the architects of emperors and kings

now. His own

built until

Holy

in

God himWith

employ.

nition they have found,

buildings,

now

Delorme

confesses, despite the recog-

appear worthless to him

if

he compares their

order with that of those divinely inspired buildings. If he could build them

anew, he exclaims, he would be to impart to

able,

with the help of those eternal proportions,

them an unheard-of perfection. 108

Delorme's statement

is

great Renaissance architect tion that, rooted in the

as revealing as

we

have the

moving. Here

it is

last

in the

words of a

acknowledgment of the convic-

cosmology and metaphysics of Platonism, had shaped

medieval architecture. His thoughts are no different from those of the Gothic builders. In the Cathedral of Chartres the architect has realized the cosmologi-

of luminosity and proportion to the exclusion of all other architectural

cal order

motifs and with a perfection never achieved before. Light transfigures and orders the compositions in the stained-glass windows. perfect proportion, harmonizes

Light and harmony,

all

the

number of

elements of the building.

to be noted, are not

it is

Number,

merely images of heaven,

symbolic or aesthetic attributes. Medieval metaphysics conceived them as the formative and ordering principles of creation, principles, however, that only the heavenly spheres are present with unadulterated clarity. Light and

have precisely tectural

this

system

in

ordering function in the Gothic cathedral.

which these principles are completely

The

realized

in

harmony

first archiis

that of

Chartres. In order to appreciate this

one of the 108. lecture,

achievement

earlier cathedrals, such as

Delorme, Le Premier tome de "Epistre aux lccteurs," pp.

1'arclii-

3 ff.

The

us

let

Noyon, age

compare Notre Dame with

the nave (i 185-1205) of

is

quoted by Jouven

architecture, pp.

20

f.

in

which

Rhythme

ct

Fig. p.

Noyon

Cathedral.

Ground plan

.


23O

was completed Plate

42

The ground Fig. 9

at the

If both edifices are

plan

very time when work was

viewed

is still

side

by

side,

Romanesque

Noyon

in that

in is

progress on that of Chartres.

curiously lacking in cohesion.

suggests an additive process of

it

composition: one could easily add or eliminate one or more of the rectangular

bays of which

made

it is

up.

The ground

plan of Chartres, on the other hand,

represents the compact cohesiveness of an organism; slightest alteration

cohesiveness

is

it is

a unit in

we

of any part would destroy the whole. As

owing

which the

have seen,

this

to the application of the golden section to the ground

plan.

We Noyon,

encounter the same difference

as

we compare

if

Seymour observes, we encounter

proportions" in almost every bay.

The

"shifts

two

the

elevations. In

of design and alternations of

variation of design in

Noyon may

tributed to the fact that the building of this cathedral extended over

be

at-

many

decades. But this time lag and the concomitant change of architects do not

fully for the variety

was not yet

shifts

of design. In the eyes of

was

architecture such lack of unity

demanded, and

this earlier generation,

a vice but rather a virtue. But to the classical age of Gothic

we know

intolerable.

that architects

Homogeneity of

parts that

bay shows is

a taste for variety

Noyon

typical of the period of transition. It

is

most

proportions.

Only

in the three

were completed

Seymour's

by an increasing

clarity

last.

The

At

the

and rigor of

western bays, which were completed

relation of the width of an aisle to that of the nave brought to a ratio

exactly one to two."

however,

significant,

that this variety and ornamental detail decrease perceptibly, as

parts are related to one another

to

even the

of detail and relative autonomy of

analysis has shown, in those parts of the nave that

same time

was

were often obliged by contract

carry out unaltered the original plan of their predecessors. In individual

interiors

last, is

the

"of nearly

elevation of Chartres, on the other hand,

is

a unit

bonded together by exact proportion.

The Noyon

master of Chartres began where the architect of the

had

left off.

tivity, in these

And

there

is

last

bays of

an element of necessity, a grandiose objec-

proportions that seems to withdraw the structure from the

realm of individual invention and render

it

anonymous, anonymous or im-

personal like the great mathematical discoveries or the classical experiments of science.

And

indeed Notre

Dame

bears

some resemblance

to these.

We

may

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES well define

But

May reason

it

as a

"model" of the cosmos

not this relation of his

why

the

medieval

man was no

Man

speak to us not as the

The

far

is

to an objective truth be precisely the

of the master of Chartres could so easily

more than

may

personal. In this case his

be ab-

work

will

unique experience but as the expression of uni-

artist's

which

that created

wanted

it.

an ultimate reality.

author of a sublime achievement of this kind, paradoxically

objective reality to

mind

I

has always craved recognition and fame, and

enough, recedes behind his work;

architect

Middle Ages perceived

It reflected

exception. But an individual's achievement

sorbed by a reality that

versal truth..

work

name and memory

have ed into oblivion?

vidual

as the

"model" was ontologically transparent.

this

2 3

this it.

to convey.

we

work

are absorbed infinitely

bears witness than

That precisely

On

is

the portal of the

we

more with

the

are with the indi-

the experience the medieval

Church of Pont-Hubert near

Troyes the master has written

Non

nobis,

Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.

postscript (1961) Since this book was

first

published a number of studies have again taken up

the chronology of the cathedral and

more

particularly the question whether

the building campaign proceeded from west to east or from east to west.*

While *

de

I

believe with Grodecki in the greater plausibility of the

See especially L. Grodecki, "Chronologie la

Cathedrale de Chartres"

{BM, CXVI,

first alternative,

1958), and P. Frankl, "Reconsiderations on the

Chronology XL11I, 1961).

of

Chartres

Cathedral"

(AB,


232

seem

the argument does not

great value in that

it

to

me

altogether settled. But the discussion

homogeneity of the cathedral and on the

These aspects

is

of

has focussed attention on the problem of the stylistic artistic personality

of

its

creator.

comment.

call for a brief

marked

In the controversy mentioned, the

differences between the flying

buttresses of the nave and of the choir have always played an important role. Plates 34, 35,

I

think both groups of buttresses are designed by the same master.

To

begin

with, there seems to be almost general agreement today that the lighter volume

of the choir buttresses must have been planned by the architect of the cathedral Plates 33, 43

from the beginning, since

it

was imposed by

the space available between the

windows of

chapels of the choir and between the

the clerestory. Another

reason was the more luminous structure of the choir aisles as compared with the side aisles of the nave: there are

instance as against one in the second. Plate

32

windows

in

two windows

each case: those of the side

to each

bay

in the first

worth comparing, moreover, the

It is

aisles

of the nave leave intact enough

wall surface to serve as relatively wide frames for them; but the windows of the choir aisles are so Plate 43

wide that

tirely. In short, the slender

their surface

consumes the available wall en-

design of the choir buttresses shows that increasing

reduction of volume and surface that also marks the other great inventions

we

the structure of Chartres that

by

that added luminosity

in

have studied, but was particularly called for

by which the master meant

to

enhance the esthetic

dignity of the choir.

conclude, as

Is it correct, therefore, to

that Chartres Cathedral

does not think

so.

is

the

According

have done

I

homogeneous work of a to him, the

in the

preceding pages,

single master?

Grodecki

same master who had conceived the

general plan of the nave, transept, and choir also directed the actual construction to the

moment of

second master with an older

man

is

the vaulting of the choir.

supposed to have taken over.

tributes not only the

At

this point,

artistic personality quite different

two porches (which

To

this architect

are indeed, as

however,

from that

we

.1

ot

Grodecki

at-

have seen, an

"afterthought") but also the transept facades, the choir vaults, and. last but not

least, the design,

That flyers

though not the slender volume, of the flyers of the choir.

the design of these flyers differs

of the nave

is

evident. Is

it

markedly from the design of the

necessary to explain this difference by as-

-

THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES suming the succession of two different tion that the real interest

the

two groups of

flyers.

233

artistic personalities? It is in this

ques-

of the problem resides. Let us compare, therefore,

The two main

arches of the flyers of the nave are

connected by short, radiating columns under round arches.

The

corresponding

Plates 34,

choir buttresses are slender "spokes" without bases and capitals

of the

and ing pointed arches.

tween these two

sets

of

The motif is

flyers, as

definitely

Grodecki has shown

more "gothic." But in his

be-

remarkably acute

and sensitive analysis, an intermediary or transitory group exists on the east side

of the transepts. From the flyers of the nave

columns; but their proportions the flyers of the choir.

my

group renders, to of

flyers,

artists.

The

this

group borrows the

and the pointed arches they point to

deliberately "transitional" character of this middle

mind, more

difficult the

assumption that the two types

between which that group mediates, were designed by two different

Grodecki, moreover, has pointed out that

transept and choir a

common

in the southeast corner

pier s one flyer of the

of the

"advanced"

(gothic) type and another flyer of the "intermediary" type, a fact that leads

Frankl to ask whether both of them must not have been designed as well as built

to

by one and the same

show

that

it

(excepting, that to

my

architect.

was the master is,

to

that as

it

may, there the

is

stylistic

evidence

main body of the cathedral

besides the west facade, possibly the porches, though not,

mind, the transept facades)

The windows of

Be

whom we owe who

also designed the flyers

of the choir.

the choir aisles consist of a double lancet divided

by

a pris-

matic mullion and topped by a rose. This austere design resumes (or rather

Plate

43

Plate

34

anticipates) in large dimensions exactly the design of the "gothic" flyers that

ad them, even the rose corresponding with the round openings that appear

above the prismatic "spokes."

in the spandrels

to repeat the

same motif

dimensions (see above,

produced by

My

this

in different parts

Chartres liked

p. 206, n. 67). In the present case the stylistic

device

is

harmony

particularly effective.

assumption, if correct, allows an insight into the creative scope of

the master of Chartres. Art historians

of a great

The master of

of the cathedral and in different

artist as

must have been

To how many

as

more

many

limited than

may it

be inclined to conceive this scope

actually

is

and to assume that there

artistic personalities as there are variations

different artists might

we

of style.

assign the oeuvre of Michelangelo

%

35

—


234 if

we

did not

to judge

know

him by

his

of the choir seems

it

to be the

work

in

work of a

—matured

many

single

man? The master of Chartres

as the great edifice progressed.

respects the

work of an old man;

realization of the architectural vision that guided

posterity has

come

it is

The

design

also the perfect

him throughout and

that

to define as classical gothic.

J

ADDENDA TO THE SECOND EDITION

Works

Also see Addenda to the List of

TO

P. 43,

PAR.

Cited, p. 263

2

"Bernard," G. Cattin rightly observes in his recent essay Saint Bernard de

"was

Clairvaux, i960, p. 51,

sensitive to

all

forms of beauty," and he quotes

the saint's onition, "Don't allow yourself to be ignorant of beauty if

you

do not want to be confounded by the ugly."

to

p. 48, n.

67

Hahn's dissertation has subsequently been published under the

title

Die friihe

Kirchenbaukunst der Zisterzienser, 1957.

TO In his remarkable work,

Hahn

P. 50, N. 72

(ibid.) has further

confirmed

my

conclusions

regarding the prevalence of the "Augustinian" proportions in early Cistercian architecture and Bernard's "intimate participation" in pp. 66

TO This S.

distinction,

M. Crosby

316

ff.),

his first

in

which seems

AB,

development

(esp.

P. 58, PAR.

to have eluded

my

(see

I

one reviewer of

book

XIII, i960, p. 149, and our correspondence, ibid., pp.

permeates Bernard's entire thought.

"To

you, brethren," he says in

sermon on the Canticle of Canticles, "one has to speak of different

things, or at least in a different

(PL,

its

ff.).

CLXXXIII,

785).

mode, than to those

living in the

world"


236

TO

P.

90,

END OF CHAPTER

Since the preceding remarks concerning the relations between the chanson de

and the

geste

political

and religious trends of Suger's time were written, a

masterful attack by the great Spanish scholar

Ramon Menendez

Pidal has

seriously shaken, if not invalidated, the "individualist" thesis of Bedier and his

school {La Chanson de Roland

et la tradition

epique des Francs, 2nd edn., i960).

According to Pidal the medieval French epic

is

not a spontaneous creation of

the eleventh century but the gradual elaboration, continued and uninterrupted since Carolingian times, of the historical deeds of Charlemagne;

neither inspired

of sanctuaries along the pilgrimage roads to Compostela.

the contrary, these legends and their fame

geste,

therefore,

by the Spanish "crusades" of the eleventh century nor rooted

in the pious legends

On

it is,

owe much

to the chansons de

which, always according to Pidal, are the works not of clerics of genius*

but of generation after generation of jongleurs. If this brilliantly substantiated thesis

is

accepted, several of

are of great interest within the present context.

Those

its

aspects

epic narratives fulfilled

the role of a national history, "a l'origine s'identifiaient a l'Histoire, continuaient a s'assimiler a l'Histoire, et a jouer le role de l'Histoire" (p. 496).

And

as such, as a patriotic "histoire chantee," the

memory of

conquering and converting the Spanish dained mission. considered

French epic kept alive the

the Carolingian past, as of an age in which the French armies,

it

Now

infidels,

had carried out a divinely or-

Suger's view of French history

his task as a

was no

different.

He

statesman to revive the legacy of Charlemagne (and

Charles the Bald) because he found in their reigns that intersecting of the political

and the religious spheres that to him demonstrated God's particular

love of the French nation. Pidal shows that these ideas and interpretations, far

from being inventions of the chansons de state papers

geste,

can be traced to chronicles and

of Carolingian times. As "histories," then, as part of the Caro-

lingian revival, these epics attracted Suger, and he used their

wide popular

appeal, as the heads of other great monasteries did, to further his political and ecclesiastical purposes. If Pidal utilizing "fiction,"

is

right,

I

have unjustly suspected Suger of

of being responsible for "historical and

political forgeries."

Alas, the puzzle of the Pseudo-Turpin remains. Pidal's observations regarding this

work

are of particular interest.

He

remarks, somewhat tartly, that the

ADDENDA TO THE SECOND EDITION Pseudo-Turpin and false theories

237

author, eight centuries before Bedier, incarnate

its

of "Bedierism": the author

indeed a cleric and his

is

explicitly designed to foster devotion to Santiago

for Christ in Spain as in the Orient (p. 341).

and to those heroes

But

in

all

the

work was

who

died

order to achieve this pur-

pose the Pseudo-Turpin has, according to Pidal, completely changed the

spirit

of the Chanson de Roland, transforming a heroic saga into a pious narrative.

This transformation, motivation, has

this

many

TO

My interpretation has

to

by Grodecki: see

emphasis on religious

121, n. 88

p.

1961, p. 24.

I,

122, par.

p.

best discussion of the St. -Denis

Christ," Essays in

its

works of Suger.

recently been confirmed by L. Grodecki, "Les Vitraux

allegoriques de Saint-Denis," Art de ,

The

with

attitude

clerical

parallels in the historical

2

windows

is

now

offered in

two

articles

and "Les Vitraux de Saint-Denis; L'Enfance du

ibid,

Honor of Erivin Panofsky, 1961. The author

stresses the

peculiarly "Sugerian" and "dionysian" character of the form as well as the

content of these compositions

—

welcome and convincing confirmation of

a

the thesis expounded in these pages.

to

As

to the possibility of a dual

141, n. 140

p.

—monarchical and

statuary of St.-Denis and Chartres, see

now

biblical

—

significance of the

Katzenellenbogen (see Add. for

Primarily, however, these statues of prophets and kings are surely to

p. 153).

convey Christ's words: things that ye see

.

.

"Many ."

prophets and kings have desired to see those

(Luke 10:24). Cf. the important observation of

P. Kidson (Sculpture at Chartres, 1958, p. 16) regarding the horizontal division

of the Chartres portal.

to Significant in this connection affinity"

between the

sculptures of Chartres

The

St.

Albans

is

p.

the recent insistence on "a

figure style

West

in

151, n. 35

of the famed

St.

O. Pacht, C. R. Dodwell, and

Psalter, i960, p. 113.

marked inner

Alban's Psalter and the F.

Wormald,

THEGOTHICCATHEDRAL

Z 38

TO

I53, N. 4;

P.

For the probable influence of the Cathedral School upon the sculptural pro-

gram of the west

facade, see

now A.

of Chartres Cathedral. 1959, pp. 17

Katzenellenbogen, The Sculptural Programs

The

ff.

author's interpretation of the group

my

of the Virgin and Child differs somewhat from

to Since these lines were written,

p.

it

155, par.

own.

:

has been pointed out that the

curs in only one of the jamb figures.

The

objection

is

sectio

aurea oc-

quite valid, even though

the ading figure offers at least a very close approximation to the

proportion. Are

same

the proportions of the other statues created by the head-

master of the west facade perhaps based on experiments with the golden section :

on

This seems to be

still

a possibility,

even though

do not wish to

I

insist,

it.

to ought to be mentioned

It

p.

p.

198, n. 45

P. Kidson, Sculpture at Chartres. 1958, pp. 55

to

The

a share in formulating the

(p. 78).

to

And now

may have had

Roissy

program of the transept facades

1

connection that Katzenellenbogen (see Add.

in this

for p. 153) believes Peter of

197, par.

p.

f.

202, n. 56

Cathedral of Chartres, according to the recent measurements of Ernst

Levy, measures 32.90 meters from plinth to

clef-i1e-voute; its

nave has

a

width

of 16.44 meters.

to

As la

to the date

p.

204, v. 60

of these third arches,

Cathedrale de Chartres,"

BM, to

cf.

CWI. p.

now

L. Grodecki, '"Chronologic de

1958, pp. 96

ff.

206, \\ 67

This alternation, of which the Master of Chartres seems to have been particularlv fond (sec ibid., p. 118),

ford Cathedral,

period.

it

occurs

in a

seems to be of Norman origin. Besides Ox-

number of other English

buildings ot the

same

ADDENDA TO THE SECOND EDITION TO See, however, J. Bony,

"The

P.

I

Resistance to Chartres in Early Thirteenth-

Century Architecture," Journal of

XXI, 1957/1958.

227, PAR.

239

the British Archaeological Association,

XX-

AB BREVIATION

S

A AA AB

Annaks; Economies,

ABSS

Association Bourguignonne des societes savantes,

Civilisations (Paris)

Societe's,

Annales archeologiques (Paris)

The Art

Bulletin

(New York) St.

Bernard

et

son temps

(Dijon, 1928)

AHA

Archives alsaciennes dliistoire de Tart (Strasbourg)

AIBLM

Academie des

Annali

Annali

BEC

Bibliotheque de Fecole des chartes (Paris)

BGAM

Beitr'age

BGPM

Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters (Miinster)

BJRL

Bulletin of the John

della

inscriptions et belles-lettres,

Fabbrica del

Duomo

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INDEX in italic. References to the text figures are indicated by an asterisk page number. Footnote citations of modern scholarship are not indexed.

References to the plates are after the

Aachen,

82, 84

Abelard,

Peter,

anagogical function, 22, 109, 115&77, 119, 120

44 w 190&77; cosmology

147&77,

28-29,

works: Theol.

39>

Io6

*

of,

!

^

45>

37-38;

Christ., 2977, 37/2

126, 127, 194&77, 196, 197 analogy, concept of, 54, 105, 115, 227-28 Anastasius the Librarian, 127

Anchin, Concordance of Gospels from, Mici, 185; PI. 50 angels, 41, no, n 177, 130, 139-40, Pl.2 9

Achardus, 4777

Acts of the Apostles, 103 ad quadratum, 1877, 144, 196, 199, 212 Adam, fall of, 36 Adam of St.- Victor, In dedicatione ecclesiae,

38/z

Angilbert,

Adelaide, queen of , 69 Adelard of Bath: De eodem et diverso,

Anglo-Norman 3472, 4277;

translation of Euclid's Elements, 155

Adele, countess of Chartres-, 174, 178 Aer, 4277; PI. 10 Agaune, church of St.-Maurice, 20577 Agnes of Braine, 19277 Ailbert, 3177

Ailred of Rievaulx, Speculum Charitatis, 4472 personification of, 4277; PI. 10

aisles, see side aisles

Alan of

(Alanus ab Insulis), 31-32,

Lille

124,

188,

19077,

claudianus,

19277;

De

3277;

works:

Incarnat.

4077,

AntiChristi,

153&77; De planctu naturae, 3277 Alban, St., 172

ologiae, 32

Summa

universae

the-

&w

St.,

Ambrose,

Life of, 15

3577,

cleric, 172 St.,

apse,

10-1

1

9&T7,

38;

1,

134

Norman,

see also

118;

Chartres

as

s.v.

polygon,

Cathedral;

abbey church; Sens

172

s.v.

Cathedral Apulia, 63, 17977 Aquitaine, 179, 181; dukes of, 71, 180 arcades, 7 3,

19,

of,

96-98, 219-25; 183-84;

as, PI. 6a; responsibility of,

social position of, 3477, 3577

19077,

facade,

141, 22177

Amphibalus, Amphibalus,

Apostles,

207-8&77; functions

177

11477,

225;

and

153

Anjou, count of, 68, 71 Anne, St., 171, 221 Annunciation, fair of, 166 Anonymous of Rouen, 141 77 Ansgerius, archdeacon of Blois, 15377 Antelami, Benedetto, 224 anthropomorphism: in architectural terminology, 3677, 13577; in Cluniac art, 43^ Apocalypse, see Revelation, Book of

God

Paris s.v. St.-Martin-des-Champs

200,

11377,

1

Hexaemeron, 132&77 ambulatory, 4, 677, 5677; see also Chartres s.v. Cathedral; St.-Denis s.v. abbey church;

tect,

3477

17-18, 194; round, 57, 101 56-57, 101, archetypes, and medieval thought, 133-41, 197 architect: defined, 30-31; exact results of,

St.,

Amiens Cathedral,

555

architecture, 6277, 107

arch: buttressing, 56&T7, 169; pointed,

Aliscamp, necropolis of, Aries, 80 Alix of Champagne, 1 74 Alix of Thouars, 181 Almoravides, 80 Alsace, 150, 15 177; PI. 22a

Amand,

1

animals: grotesque, 47, in, musical symbolism, 4277

St.-Denis s.v.

5477

Alexander of Hales,

St.,

204-5;

Albigensian Crusade, 63 Albrecht von Scharfenberg, Younger Titurel,

1

Angers Cathedral, 3, 63 Angevin architecture, 3, 63

Adams, Henry, 169

air,

15177

Andrew of

aciculus, 3577

20777; archi-

3577;

sculpture,

architecture: allegory of Peter of Roissy, 195-

and Augustinian aesthetics, 23-26; and Cathedral School of Chartres, 29-^9, 55-56, 188-97; Cistercian, 47-50, 5658,63, 12377, 188, 99 &77, 2 17; and meta-

97;

1

physics,

197-200; proportions,

portions;

svmbolism

archivolts,

see

Denis

s.v.

Chartres

see

of. xvii-xxiii,

s.v.

abbey church

pro-

148

Cathedral; St.-

INDEX Aristotle, 30,

arithmetic,

3

41,

32/7,

27,

101,

see also

132;

geometry; mathematics ark, Noah's, 38, 196, 228

Aries, 80

1

Bercheres-l'Eveque, 202, 204 Berengarius, 22577 Bernard of Chartres, 147, 190 Bernard of Clairvaux, St., xx,

377, 25, 2877, 37, 75, 76, 81, 89, 169, 192, 237; and architecture, 47-48, 56-58, 61, 98, 144, 188, 237; and art, 43-48, 1 12-13,

68,

Arnold of Wied, Archbishop of Cologne, 9 art: conflicting principles of, xxii-xxiii; and divine assistance, 128-29; and St. Bernard, see Bernard of Clairvaux; and science, 19-20 ashlar,

263

m,

152-53; and beauty, 237; and Henry of Sens, 144-46; and music, 39, 41-43, 191; and reform, 92-93, 136, 123,

m,

144, 145, 153, 190, 237; and Suger,

18

9377,

atrium, 4977

scoporum,

Augustine,

St., 15

13;

PL 22a; and

177,

architecture,

23-24, 29, 43, 55-56, 58, 135, 188, 212; and beauty, 24-26, 125, 131&77; and illumination, 52-53, 128-29; an d music, 21-23, 29, 32-33, 34, 36, 39-41, 48-50, 125,

191,

teram,

works: De Genesi ad

199;

5377;

De

libero

De

2377;

40&77;

Trinitate,

De

De

&w;

2 5

13077; Soliloquiorum,

9277,

1

1

277;

Sermones,

St., 2

bestiaries,

1

Sermones,

12977,

iyi

1

11477,

22277;

s.v.

1

1,

4477,

Romanesque

1

298C77; see also

Chartres

1

PL

6a

bishops, see episcopate

150,

1

5 177,

of,

2 2 577

of, xxii, 3677,

198&77,

19977;

32-33, 212; and science, 31; works: 3377,

4077,

21577;

21577 also

Chartres

Cathedral

Bohemond of Antioch, 71,81 Bologna, 19077 Bonaventure, St., xxi, 51-52, 54 Bond, F., 19

PI. 20b 1 Beaumont, house

Bony, Jean, 8, 57 Bourges Cathedral,

Becket,

;

of,

Thomas,

180 see

De

De

musica,

zin, 2477, 2877, 3177, 3577, 4077, 10177, 19077,

Beauce, 91, 146, 166 Beaulieu Abbey (Correze), tympanum, 1101

13577,

and church

ground plan, PL 7 Boeckler, A., 46 Boethius: and geometry, 34-35, 49, 21577; and music, 4277, 191; and proportions, 23-24, arithmetica,

basilica

Bath, archdeacon of, 19277

s.v.

De

Beverley Minster, towers of, 10 Bible, see New Testament; Old Testament Bible of Clairvaux, 46-47, 1 1 3/2; Pis. 12, i$b

Blctchingdon, sergeantry

vexillum

Baths of Diocletian, Rome, 94 bay: oblong, 56; square, 19; see

works:

Blois, 178

tinople, 170

basilica, 8-9,

Epi-

.

1

body, human: symbolism

see

.

Blanche, queen of , 181

Baldachin (Baldachin), 13477, 20477 Baldwin II, last Latin emperor of Constanbanner of St. Denis, Bar, dukes of, 175

190;

155,

Bible moralisee, 3577; Bilson, J., 56

Auxerre, Cathedral of, 51, Chronicle of, 1 59 avoues of Chartres, 178 ax, mason's, 34-35, 3577, 216

.

377

Bible historiee, PI.

Autun Cathedral, 144 Auvergne, Count of, 74

De moribus

universitate, 2777, 3277

Bernward,

12977;

1-

3 777

Silvestris,

mundi

De

vera religione,

1

145&77; Epistolae, 4177, 7477, Liber de diligendo Deo, 12377; Tract, de Bapt., 195; 3977;

Tract, de error,

Bernard

or dine, 21,

2377;

12377:

377,

1

Berneval, 107

iqn, 4077; Enarrat. super Psalmos, Retractationum,

1

lit-

arbitrio,

musica, 21&77, 22, 25, 4077;

1

works: Apologia, 43 &w, 44, 46, 47,

Assumption, fair of, 166 Athens, 105; Parthenon, 200

Thomas of

bury, St.

Canter-

15672

Breviary, 19477 Brie, fair of,

1

66

Bedier, Joseph, 83, 238-39

Brittany, 181

Belgium, 171 Benedictine Order, 46, 48, 95, 128 Benno of Osnabruck, 96

Brunelleschi, Filippo, 200

Bruyne, E. de, 33, 199 Bukofzer, Manfred, 25

INDEX

264 M. J., 168, 209 Burgundy, 67; architecture, Bulreau,

107,

no,

duke

of,

118,

115,

5677,

133,

68, 71; influence

58, 62, 95,

143-44;

135,

on sculpture,

150

Bury

St.

Edmunds,

10877

buttress, flying, see flying buttress

v-

Chartres: Assembly

St.-Iitienne,

facade

3;

15677,

PL

141/z,

18; nave,

PL 1

arches,

108-10,

PL 29;

200,

203,

201,

PL 24; ambula-

216;

apse,

archivolts,

233;

204;

153,

154,

bays, 207, 210&77, 211&77; build-

ing materials, 169, 217; buttresses, 201,

2

18

203-4, 232-33.

Pis. 32, 34, 55, 36, 38, 39, 44; capitals, 216-17; chapels, 201, 217, 232; chevet, 3677, 167, 168; choir,

Calabria, 17977

43,

Pope, 69-70, 85, 146

II,

emperor, 78,

of, 7677, 81

168,

choir,

21777;

and tympanum,

church of the Trinite,

Roman

bishops of, 146-49, 188-97 Cathedral, xx, 71, 81, 19877, tory,

abbey of

Calixtus

Charles Martel, 82 Charles of Anjou, 63 Charles the Bald, Holy

82, 84, 105, 127, 160, 165, 238

buttressing arch, see arch Byzantine architecture, 4, 6, 9&W, 95, 227 Byzantine art, 46, 15 177, 152&72

PL

Charlemagne, 75, 80, 81, 238; and St.-Denis, 82-90, 92, 98 Charles V, king of , 16077, 16477

calligraphy, Cistercian, 47

200-2, 207, 232-33,

Campanus of Novara,

nology,

2

1

177

canons provisores, 221, 22277, 223, 22477, 225 canopy, 204&77; s, 15*; see also baldachin

2

1

177;

200;

186,

184,

43, 44; chrocrossing, 207, elevation,

202-11, 214-16, 230; financing 82,

Canterbury:

crypt,

Pis.

232-34;

23177,

183,

ground plan,

195;

of,

170-

187*,

201,

archbishop

of,

108, 19277

207, 208-9, 214, 230, 232. PI- 34; height, 202 &77; labyrinth, 225, 226; narthex, 186,

Cathedral,

577,

64, 20477; capitals, 216; choir

217; nave,

3677,

202 &77, 203, 207, 209,

and crossing, xvii, 206 Capetian dynasty, 146, 152; and Charlemagne, 82-90; and Chartres, 172-75, 180-81; and Gothic style, 62-64; ar rel="nofollow">d St.-Denis, 65-71, 105-6, 138-41 capitals, see Cluny s.v. abbey; St.-Denis s.v. abbey churjh; crocket, 57, 216-17

216-17, 232-33, PL 40; and Noyon, 228-30; pentagon, use of, 208-9;

Carolingian architecture,

portions;

5,

1877,

3077,

98

Catalonia: animal carvings, 4277; wall painting,

577

Cattin, G., 237 Cefalu, presbytery of, 151 Celestial City,

xxi,

8-1

1,

37-38,

114,

128,

28&W

11477, 170;

1

Channel

205-7, 209-10; porches,

153, 154, 155, 159, 181-82, 201, 217-19, 221, 239, 240, Pis. 22b, 27-29, 41; prebends, 176, 223-24; proportions, see pro-

and

relics,

relics;

see

responds,

Alban's Psalter, 239; and St.-Denis, 200-3, 217, 218, 239; and St. Michael's, Hildesheim, 212, 213, 21415; sculpture, 148-56, 159, 181-82, 201, 20477, 218-21, 239-40, Pis. 22b, 27-29; 2

1

07?;

St.

207;

stained-glass

159,

167,

windows,

180-81,

168,

style, 108, 150, 15177

stringcourses, 154, 209

heaven, 227-31; towers,

186,

202-3,

717/,

152,

195,

20I,

153,

vaults, 201-3,

238

Prague Cathedral; St. -Denis S.V. abbey church; Paris s.v. St.-Martin-des-Champs

1;

as

symbol

ix, 14S,

152

oi $3,

triforium, 203, 209-10, Pi. 37: tympana.

chansons de geste, 75, 80&77, 83, 84, 87, 173 &w, chapels, 4, 50; see also Chartres s.v. Cathedral;

1

154, 159, 205, 207-8; transepts, 185, 186, 203, 218-19, 220, :;:, 133, 240, Pis. 40;

Chanson de Roland, 75, 238 1-4//,

181-82,

186, 218, 232; portals, 14177, 148&77, 149,

202-3, 204, 20577, 215-16, 217-18, 228;

2277, 26,

Chalons-sur-Marne, 71; Cathedral, See of, 67 Champagne, 181; fair of, 66

piers,

sections, 7%. 32-37; side aisles,

134 Celestine III, Pope, 162, 178 Centula, abbey of, 1 3477 Cerisy-la-Foret, church of, 118 12977,

Chalcidius, Platonis Twiaeus,

210-11,

154,

155,

182,

218,

Pis.

»S,

29:

232; walls, 203, 139; west facade, 45//, 57, 64, 148-56&77, 159, 173,

2 °7'

186, 217-21, 233,

Cathedral Chapter,

240, Pis.

2| rj

[54, 159, 166, 175-76,

INDEX 177—79, 184, 219, 226; canons provisores, 221, 223, 22472, 225; reform of, 162, 176

Cathedral School: chancellors of, 146-49, 189-97, 2I 9; an d geometry of 152, Chartres, 154-56; and music, see music;

Platonism

of,

25-39, 55-56, 153, 188-92,

197, 227, 228;

and proportions,

pro-

see

portions s.v. Cathedral School of Chartres

counts

of, 68, 71, 167, 171,

173-75

Romanesque

basilica, 148, 159-64, 167, 172, 200-1, 202, 207, 21072, 225, 226; appearance, 184-86, 187*, PI. 30; elevation, 184, PI. 30; towers, 185-86

180,

See

68, 74; political situation, 172-78 of: avoues, 177-78; and cult of Mary,

of,

town

160-64,

r

^6; fairs, 166-67; fire of

1194.,

159-63, 178, 184/f, 195, 226 chasses, 78, 137, 180

column

50-5 1 &72 and minor, 196&72; pilier cantonne, 196, 205-7, 2I ° com, 34&T2, 3 5&7Z Compostela, archbishop of, 85; see also Santiago de Compostela

abbey church; Sens 216&72

Cathedral

s.v.

chisel, use of,

choir, 4, 5677; see also Chartres s.v. Cathedral;

Fontenay Abbey; Le Mans Cathedral; Paris s.v. Notre Dame; Reims s.v. St.Remi; St.-Denis s.v. abbey church Choisy, A., 217

1

major

concordia, 3272 1 67-68 Conques, church of Ste. Foy, 9 consonances, perfect, see music Constantinople, 89, 170-71; Hagia Sophia, 95, 200

confraternities,

coronation

ritual,

138

cosmology, 96; Abelard, 37-38; Alan of Lille, 31-32; Boethius, 32-33; and cathedral symbolism, xx, xxii, 35-39, 121-22, 198, 21572, 227-28, 231; Cathedral School of Chartres, 26-29, 148, 191; and music,

Christmas, 55 ciborium, 20472

Cox, Leonard, ix, Courtenay, house

144,

190&77,

192;

architecture, 47-50, 56-58, 63, 12372, 188,

199&72, 217, 237; art, 43-47, 112; book 150, 152; calligraphy, 47;

illumination,

4072;

126,

132,

13972;

2

10180

of,

creation, act of, 29, 35-36, 52-53, 155, 19272,

228 crocket capital, 57, 216-17

I

Cistercian Order, 25, 39,

124,

Augustine, 22, 32 Coulton, G. G., 97, 171&77. St.

Crosby, S. M., 102, 117, 237 Cross: and church ground plan, 3672; relic of, 78; in tympana of St.-Denis and Beaulieu,

Christ, see Jesus Christ

libraries,

statues,

columns:

28&T2, 38, 428C72,

Chatillon, 19072

chevet, see Chartres s.v. Cathedral; St.-Denis s.v.

265

names

of

foundations,

44&W

IO,

I I

crossing,

172

Chartres

s.v.

Ca-

thedral

crown, French, 77 Crown of Thorns, 1 1 172, 70 crucifixes, and Cistercian art, 43 1

Crusades, 71,

Citeaux, 144; Statutes of, 47 Civate, church of San Pietro

see also

50;

10,

7272, 76,

79-81, 83, S^ff, 90, 95,

102, 146, 170, 173, 178, 195, 238; Albi-

al Monte, 9 Clairvaux: abbey of, 25, 26, 4072; Bible of, 46-47, 1 1 372, Pis. 12, 13b

gensian, 63, 195 crypt, see Chartres s.v. Cathedral; St.-Denis

Clarembaldus of Arras, De Trinitate, i-jn, 2872 Clermont, See of, 74 Clermont-Ferrand: Cathedral, 20872; Great

cube: Boethius on

Bible, 151

tions of

harmony

of, 33; in

propor-

Fontenay Abbey, 48-49

cul-de-four, 118, 14372

curiae coronatae,

Cluniac Order, 68, 81; architecture, 1

abbey church

curia regis, 173

cloisters, 16

15-17, 153;

Cluny, abbey

s.v.

of:

art,

43-46,

1 1

1,

377, 1

43, 57,

12-13

capitals, 4272; height,

Codex Calixtinus, 8472, 8572 Codex Guta-Sintram, 15 177

74

custodes operis, 22272

Cuxa,

13572

cylindrical s, 206

JDagobert

coementarius, 32

Cologne, Roman city gate, 109*, Colombier, P. du, 97

3&7Z

1

Curtius, E. R., 25

no

colonnettes, 7, 206, 21072, 216; PI. 5/

I,

Merovingian king,

8572,

98

Daniel, 13272

Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, 129

37, 52,

n

372,

1

1

INDEX

266

England,

David, 191, 219 decagon, 209

46, 57,

572,

5872,

64, 68, 107-8, 122,

147, 150, 160, 171-72, 173, 174, 179-80,

dedication ritual, 8&T2, 11, 4472, 129

19272

19072,

Dehio, Georg, 208 Delisle, Leopold, 127

Enoch, Book

Delorme, Philibert, 38, 197, 227-28 Demiurge, in Plato's Timaeus, 28 Denis, St., 66, 74, 8572, 91, 9Z&.11, 114, 170,

episcopate: Chartres, 172-75; and investiture,

PL

17;

banner

of, 71&72, 758c?/, 87, 89,

106; in Chartres

window,

104-6 Denis the Pseudo-Areopagite, Pseudo-Areopagite Descriptio qualiter Karolus as,

201; relics of,

veneration of,

70, 78-79, 86, 103, 137;

diaphanous, Gothic

see

Dionysius the

Dame,

72

1

Library

see measurements; proportions Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, 52-53, 58, 103-7, ro 9> I20-2 3i I2 6-27, 130-31, 133, 135, 139-41, 188, 19072, 201; WORKS:

Hierarchy,

Bernard on, 145-46

St.

Erigena,

see

Johannes Scotus Erigena

Erler, A., 182

Etampes, 71, 76, 177 Euclid, Elements, 155 III, Pope, 112

Eugenius

54&T2;

1

5 172;

Marbach-Schwarzenthann,

of

PL 22a

evangelists, 197 772;

dimensions,

nominibus, 12571 Dominicus Gundissalinus,

67-71;

84, 86, 88

MS., 152

De

divinis

excommunication, 165-66, 178 Exeter Cathedral, 22272 Exodus, I 2 172 Ezekiel,

Book

of, 9, 3572,

De

divisione philo-

37;

Temple

of,

11,

228 ra?ade,

Amiens Cathedral;

see

Chartres

St.-£tienne;

s.v.

Caen

s.v.

Cathedral;

Fontenay Abbey; Noyon s.v. Cathedral; Notre Dame; St.-Denis s.v. abbey church fairs, 78-79, 91, 13772, 177; of Chartres, 16667; and religious life of Middle Ages, 164-66; of St.-Denis, see Lendit false decretals of Charlemagne, 86, 88, 92 Fecamp, church of the Trinite, 1 Felix IV, Pope, 19422 Paris s.v.

sophiae, 3372, 4272

doors, see portals

Douai MS., 15 172 Dreux, archdeacon of, 14722; house of, 181, 218 Durandus of Mende, Rationale Div. Offic, 3672, 12072

Durham

1

equerre, 1472

evangelistary

Magnus,

4&T2, 15672

Dijon, church of Notre

Celestial

of,

epic, see chansons de geste, 87

Cathedral, ribbed vaults, 57, 107

dyad, 27, 49

Fels, £tienne, 186

rLagle, as image,

Eberbach, abbey

1

1

fifth,

372

religion, 167-82, 183

Edmund, St., Book of, 10872 Edward VI, king of England, monument de-

A

(facing p. 12)

Eleanor of Aquitaine, 137, 174 Eleutherius, St., 70 elevation: and geometry, 14, 15*, 4972; tripartite and quadripartite, 143-44, 196, 202, 203, 205; see also Chartres s.v. Cathedral;

Chartres

basilica; St.-Denis s.v.

Cathedral en

T.

delit,

body,

human PL

7;

flying buttresses,

edification, labor as, 128, 129, 131, 163

Eliot,

see

Cathedral, 200

Edessa, 177

sign to, PI.

human,

Flanders, 67, 181; count of, 71 Florence: Biblioteca Laurenziana MS.,

Ecclesia, xxii, 134, 196

economy, and

musical, 21, 33, 50, 199-200

figure,

of, 4872, 5072

S., xxiii

210&72

Enfances Guillaume, 8372

s.v.

abbey

Romanesque of;

Sens

s.v.

3, 7, 872, 5622, 201, 203-4, 232-33; Pis. 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 43, 44 Focillon, Henri, 62, 198

Fontenay Abbey: fagade, 4972; proportions, 48-50; side aisles, 48, 4972, 50, PL 11; walls, 4972 foot,

measures

formalism,

of,

Fouquct, Jean,

18&22, 207 &22, 21572

46

4522, 1

four-leaf-clovcr pattern,

1

5022

fourth, musical, 21, 33, 50, 199

, 19, 38^, 46, j8, 150; dynasty; lle-dc-

sco

di

Giorgio,

Frankl, P., 233

3622;

see also

PL

7

Capctian

INDEX

267

Frederick I, emperor of , 82. freemason, 220&.72

golden section,

Frejus, 177 Freudenstadt lectern, 4577 Fulbert of Chartres, 148, 180, 184-86, 189,

Gospels, Anchin Concordance of, 15 177 Gosselin of Musy, bishop of Chartres, 189&77 Gottfried of ont, 4277

201,

PL

225,

30;

works:

Philomela,

Gall, Ernst,

8,

griffin, as

16, 156/7

20 5i of Angels, 213*, 214-15; of Kings, 141

Garsia, monk, 13 572 gate of heaven, church facade

109*- 10,

as,

113-15, 121, 135. 155 Gaucelinus, bishop of Chartres, 161 Gaufridus, 16877 of, 26, 4477;

PL

1

6;

Hellenic studies at

grisaille

image,

St.,

PL 25

190, 221; reform,

1

1

377

n 377

windows,

3,

113/7, 12077

Grodecki, L., 231-33, 239, 240 Grosseteste, Robert, 51, 198&/2, 200 Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, 60 Guigue I, prior general of Carthusians, 4477 guilds of tradesmen, 167-68, 180 Guillaume le Breton, 172, 217; works Gesta 1

Philippi Augusti, 159; Philippid, 71, 159, 163&77, 202&77

5 377

12

Geoffrey, prior of St.-Pierre of the Vigeois,

85-86 Geoffrey I, bishop of Coutances, Geoffrey of Champallement,

1

7977

bishop

arte musica,

4

riagia Sophia, Constantinople, 95, 200 half dome,

118, 143, 185

6,

Harbaville triptych, 152/7

146-49, 173, 188 Geometria deutsch, 20877 10, 101;

Guta-Sintram Codex, 15 177 Guy of Burgundy, 69 Guy of Charlieu, Regulae de

of

Auxerre, 22277 Geoffrey of Leves, bishop of Chartres, 64,

geometry, 7-8,

of, 5477

:

Gauterius, archdeacon of Chartres,

Book

Temple

Greek Church, 152 Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory the Great, St.,

galleries, 4, 117, 202-3,

Genesis,

Grail,

St.-Denis, 127; philosophy, 105

215

10,

154, 155&77, 208-10, 211,

Greece: architecture,

132&72 Fulrad, abbot of St.-Denis, 98 function/form, and architecture, 4-20 functionalism, geometrical,

3477,

214, 230, 240

harmony: anagogical function of,

in aesthetics, 23-24, 32, 40, 49, 144, 198-200, 228; air as element of, 4277, PL 10; and Suger, xviii-xix, 123-33, H°i or

"

22,

109,

115&77,

119,

120,

126,

127,

197; as basis of medieval 13-20, 132; and Cathedral School of Chartres, 27-39, 56, 154-56,

194&77,

196,

proportion,

and Cistercian architecture, 48-50; 8, 10, 215; and Villard de Honnecourt, 198-200 Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Opusculum de 19277;

functionalism,

16, 19, 4577, 46, 5877,

7777, 82, 87,

63-64, 67, 68,

577,

20477, 216;

works:

Opera historica, 20777, 21677 Gilbert de la Porree, 2877, 190 Gilbert of Chartres, 147 Gilson, E\ H., 54 Gisbergus, master of St .-Victor, 22077 see

grisaille

ary

as,

windows;

stained-glass

windows glazier, craft of,

170 God, as architect of universe, PL 6a Godefroid of Huy, 22272 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 20c gold, 45, 50, 94, 119, 22277

1,

140, 227-31; gate of, sanctu-

io9*-io, 113-15, 131, 135, 155 see Celestial City

Heavenly City,

Hebrard, Frederic, 209 Heisterbach, 58

Henry

I,

1

5077

king of England,

xviii, xx,

25, 70,

107, 180

I46, I50, 22277

Gervase of Canterbury,

glass,

36/7, 38, 39,

hemicycles adosses,

aedificio Dei, 3277

,

universe, 28-29, 36-38, 191 heaven: church as image of, xviii-xx, 8-1

Henry II, king of England, 108, Henry V, emperor of , Henry of Sens, 64, 142, 144-46 Henry Yevele, 22577

19077, 19277

68,

69-70

Hildegard of Bingen, St., xx, 4277 Hildesheim, abbey church of St. Michael,

30/7,

212, 213*, 214-15

Hilduin, abbot of St.-Denis,

works:

Areopagitica, 104

hodegetria, 15277

Hohenstaufen family, 63 Holy Ghost, 29 Holy Land, 84, 86, 174

54/7,

105,

13772;

1

1

NDEX

268 Holy Sepulcher,

8

153,

Honoratus, St., 80 Honorius II, Pope, 144 Horace, 72 hosiers' guild, 168

Hugh,

6b

1

1

works: Commentaria, 139&.77; scripturis,

cael.,

36/2;

2977,

12

36/;,

De

Sennones,

177;

P., 165

John John John John

56-58; and Gothic 62-64, 95; sculpture, 14 177, 150 illumination: divine, 128-29; manuscript, 43, style,

45, 46-47, 48, 108, 150-51&77, 21672

symbols imagiers, 220 images,

see

125.

11577,

105,

5372,

De

works:

127;

2877,

divisione

12672; Exposi-

12572,

see

Revelation,

Book

of;

Beleth, Rationale div. offic, 19372, 19772

of Gloucester, 2 2 577 of Grocheo, Theoria, 191&72 of Salisbury, 28,4277, 106, 189-92, 19372, 200, 206-7; works: De Sept. Septenis, 19277; Historia Pontificalis,

122,

architecture,

cian

577,

St.: Apocalypse, Gospel of, 52, 55

198, 21772; and 180-81; and Cister-

118,

Chartres windows,

10-1

John,

Iconoclasm, 24 lle-de-, 67,

1

tiones super Ierarch. cael., 5472

50/7;

12072

1

naturae,

105. 120, 131/',

36/;,

Enid. Didasc,

4977;

n 572;

50,

40/7,

sacra??ientis,

Expositio in hierarch.

Huvelin,

as keystone,

84, 86, 91,

Hugh du Puisct, -4 Hugh Libergier, 225 &?7; PL Hugh of Noyers, 5 n Hugh of Sc.-Vicror, 3477, De

1;

Jews, and blindness, 12 172 Jocelin, bishop of Soissons, 136&72 Johannes Scotus Erigena, 28, 4077,

Life of, 20872

St.,

221; in Heavenly City,

181,

55,

1

134-35, an ^ king of , 137-38, 140; Last Judgment, see Last Judgment; ion, relics of, 78-79, PI.

19077;

gicus, 19077; Policraticus, 19

177,

Metalo-

19272

John Sarracenus, 103&77, 19072 John the Baptist, St., 219, 221; PL 41 John the Evangelist, St., 103 jongleurs, 83, 86, 88, 238 Jordanus Nemorarius, 16972 jube,

Mainz Cathedral,

13572

Julian of St.-Gilles, Count, 17372

Incarnation, 36, 55, 153, 155, 160 indictum, 78-79; see also Lendit

Jumieges, abbey

of, 877, 20672

indulgences, 172 &72 initials,

and statue colonne, 150, 15 22a

177;

Pis. 12,

13b,

insignia, royal, 77, 87

154&72 keystone, 134-35, '43 Knut, king of England and Denmark, 180

interdict, 178

investiture,

67-70

Isaac of Stella, 188&72 Isabella,

Kantorowicz, E., 138 Katzenellenbogen, A., 239-40 Kepler, Johannes, Mystcnum cosmographicum,

Countess of Champagne,

kosmos, 29

3572

Isaiah, 13272, 15277

Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, 113;? Italy, 19-20, 4572, 46, 5872, 63, 64, 65, 81, 93,

17972

Langres: Cathedral, 144; See of, 67 language, and Style, xxiu Lanûedoc, 1 10-1 1

Langton, Stephen, 180

ivories, Byzantine, 15272

Laon, 71,81

Jacobus of

Lie<je,

Speculum musicae,

James, St., 8572, 15 in Jean de Papelcu, Bible historiee, PL Jean des Carrieres, 224/7 Jean of Beauce, 207

4277, 19 172

of,

13772

of,

171

Cathedral,

1

Jehan le Marchand, 161 Jerome, St., 52/7 Jerusalem, 87/, 10, 11, 3577, 37, 81, 86, 89, 95, 1

202,

19977,

215;

capitals,

205-6; height, 20277; 202 7/; towers, 16, 205;

216;

elevation,

nave-

width,

west

facade, 105

Librarv MS., \s\iu PL 22a St. -Vincent,

abbey

ot,

203

school of, 19077

12972

Jesus Christ, xxi, 103,

bishop canons

119,

9, ;-,

i,-:«,

allegories of,

1

;

;//,

163,

137/; in

36/7,

197,

40, 53, 101,

1987/;

animal

Chartres sculpture,

See of, 67 Last Judgment,

8;

Chartres,

182;

and Bcaulieu, 110-11, 113-14

St.-Dcnis

INDEX

Lucan, 72 Lucera Cathedral, 63 Luddy, A. J., 41&77

Leclercq, Jean, 127-28 Lefrancois-Pillion, L., 220-21 sculpture,

choir, 63;

luminosity, see light

Lyons: Council

159; vault, 63; walls, 63

of,

172; See of, 146

hi, 136&7?,

Lendit, 78-79, 82, 84, 90, 91,

165-66; PL 13a

Macrobius, Commentarius, 2in,

Leoprand of Aachen,

8372

macrocosm,

Lessay, abbey church of, 118, 21772 Letwin, William, 17 in

magister operis, 223, 22477 magistri fabricae ecclesiae, 2

PL 13b

Levy, Ernst,

abbey

Mainz Cathedral, jube

PL 29

of,

man: and of,

50-55, 58,

101, 103, 106, 114-15, 119-23, 133, 170,

198-99, 202, 228, 232; in medieval architecture, 3-4, 100, 1 17-19, 143, 156/2, 201-3, 215-16

Limoges: Cathedral,

20877; St.-Martial,

85

Lincoln Cathedral, 15177 linen weavers' guild, lines

of direction, image,

lion, as

1

1

1

4977, 211/7, 21577

and

Incarnation,

and medieval architec-

140,

19477;

1-13, 3877

5 177,

Museum MSS.,

3377, 3477,

Loomis, L. H., 89

Louis VI, king of , 65, 66, 68, 105, 107, 144, 146, 147&77, 161-62, 173, 181; and Assembly of 11 24, 70-71, 75, 82; and

Charlemagne, 82-90; death

of, 93;

dona-

tions to St.-Denis, 74, 76-79; Suger's Life

72-75, 82

137,

6677,

139,

72 &77, 76, 82,

173,

174,

17577,

178, 19277

181,

182, 184,

196;

30, 34&T7, 3577,94, 118, 19377,

carving

capitals,

Chartres,

169-70,

construction,

202,

216&77;

of,

204,

210&77;

22472;

^77

freemason,

22577; perfection in

craftsmanship,

5-6; see

geometry

Maximus

king of ,

the Confessor, xix; works: Mysta-

gogia, 126-27, *39 w

"measure and number and weight," 22, 25, 28, 32, 3677, 39, 155, 188, 227-28 measurements: Solomon's Temple, 37-38; of,

18&72,

207 &/7,

21577;

see

proportions

measuring rod, 34 medicine, 3577 Melior, cardinal of Pisa, 162-64, 172, 176

Louis VIII, king of , 201 St.,

153,

179-80, 226; in Reims Cathedral,

mason/masonry,

units

Louis VII, king of ,

Louis IX,

103,

Matthew, St., Gospel of, 114 Maunoury, Jean, 21077 Maurice of Sully, 177

Louis IX

105,

xxi,

matter: creation of, 27, 29, 3277; and light, 4

Louis, abbot of St.-Denis, 78

87, 93,

of,

221

also arithmetic;

Louis, count of Chartres, 171, 178

of,

St.,

monastery

and pre-Gothic architecture, 97-98 mathematics, 20^", 28, 3477, 188-89, 214;

PL 8

St., see

collections

220&./7; masonic poerns, 3377, 3477, 3 8 &w; masons' lodges, 222 &72; masons' salaries,

Lorraine, 4577, 46

Louis,

as

human

Marbach-Schwarzenthann, 15177; PL 22a

delit

lodges, 13, 14, l6, 22 2&T7

1

377;

13577; see also

in, 43, 45, 46-47, 48, 108, 150-51&77, 21677; see also sites of

172,

139&/7,

Logos, 52 London, 179; British

proportions,

3777, 4277,

20477

secration, xviii,

1

3677,

218; cult and relics of, 160-64, 166-69,

68

377

55;

body,

Mary, Virgin,

7

liturgy: Chartres, 160&77, 174, 175, 185; con-

ture,

13577

manuscripts, illumination

Martin,

Gothic architecture,

linearity in

2

of,

architectural

microcosm,

46

and metaphysic?

light: aesthetics

29,

3677

Majestas, St.-Ceneri-le-Gerei, 977

1

liberal arts, 153;

Liessies,

28,

Maine, 63

207-8, 240

ix,

Liber Floridus,

26,

3377

Lerins, 80

Leviticus,

emperor, 104,

13777

law, courts of, 182

3;

Roman

Louis the Pious, Holy

Lateran Councils, 70, 80, 188

Lausanne Cathedral, 199-200

Le Mans Cathedral,

269

9277,

141, 181

Menendez

Pidal, R.,

238-39

also

6

INDEX

70 merchants, guilds

58; and Suger, 124-26, 132, 133;

of,

167 Merlet, R., PL 30 dynasty, Merovingian 66

130-31, 133, 135, 139-41, 188,

Musica

St.

St.,

Virgin

Mary

the

in

3,

n 577,

36, 38, 39, 96, 104, ,

,

monad, 27 monasteries:

architecture,

see

Cistercian

Cluniac Order; art, libraries, 4077; and music, 40-41 money, medieval, and value, 91,

Order;

43-47; 171&77,

175&77, 177, 22577

monochord,

IN ails of the Cross, and St.-Denis, Naples, Museo Nazionale, 3477 Narbonne Cathedral,

1 1

177

20877

Chartres s.v. Cathedral; Denis s.v. abbey church Nativity, fair of, 166 Neoplatonism, 22, 26, 52, 104, 113, 188 narthex,

see

St.-

Neumostier, church of, 22277 Nevers, Count of, 768C77 nave, 4877,

15677; see also

Abbey;

Fontenay

Dame; Sens

Durham Paris

St.-Denis

s.v.

Cathedral;

Notre

s.v.

abbey

church;

Cathedral

s.v.

New Testament,

Moessel, E., 155

22, 33

monsters, representations of, 47,

m,

11 377,

121&77, 135, 15 177, 219; Acts of the Apostles, 103; Epistles of St. Paul, 120, 121&77; Gospel of St. John, 52, 55; Gospel of St. Matthew, 114; Revelation,

New

Book of, xxi, 8&77, 9-10, 120, 13277 York City: Cathedral of, St. John the Divine, 168; Morgan Library MS., 10877

Nicolas of Briard, 22077 Nicolaus of Verdun, 2 1

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, xx

153

Noah's ark,

Mont-St.-Michel, abbey church of, 21777 Montfaucon, B. de, 149 Montfort, house of, 1 80 Montmorency, house of, 80 Morienval, rib construction, 677 mortmain, and town of St.-Denis, 91-92

Normandy,

151-52;

mosaics,

5, 9,

1177,

Moses,

38,

121&77,

PI.

181; influence

Cathedral,

23 of,

world, 147 Munich, Bavarian State Library MS.,

PI. 9

29, 32-33, 37-38, 124, 189; cosmic symphony, 28&T7, 38, 124, 132&77, 13977, 191, 214; and golden section, 211&77; and John of Salisbury, 190-92; modulation, 21-23; and number mysticism, 22, 25; perfect consonances, xxt7, 21, 2 2&T7, 23, 14, 28&T7, 29, 2

102,

PI.

4;

facade,

plan, 229*, 230; height

16,

1

1 ,

'^

32-33, 37-38, 4°-43 v and proportions, 2 2 4 2 1

,

1

15677;

and nave PI.

42;

27, 3377, 13477,

228

nave, 228-30; vault, 202, 205

murals, 5&t?, 9, 101 music: and Cathedral School of Chartres, 28-

99,

ground

width, 20277; longitudinal section,

193&77, 228

1

on sculpture, 150-51

No yon:

Moslem

77,

228

1 17-19, 122, 133, '35, 142, 143, 217, 240; dukes of, 10877, 180,

Tabernacle

219;

38, 196,

67, 173; architecture, 6&77, 62-63,

95, 107-10, 115,

1

1

1-1

189, 191

Church of Chartres, 161-64, 176, 179&77, 18077, 226 missal of Chartres, 16077 Modeste, St., 221 modulation, science of, 21-22

9

1

number, 22-25, 27, 33 w I3477 228; Pythagorean, 21-22, 2277, 27, 28,

Bernard, 42-43, 56, 58

Miracles of the Blessed

1

9,

126, 188;

13577

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 200, 233 Mici, abbey of St.-Mesmin, 185 microcosm, man as, 3677, 3777, 4277, 13 $n Mignot, Jean, 19-20 Milan: basilica of San Ambrogio, 134; Cathedral, 197; Cathedral documents, 1920, 33, 34W

see

enchiriadis, 4277

mysticism,

19077, 201,

zi 1; and light, see light; St. Augustine,

21-24;

198-200

court,

metaphysics, 13, 27,97; Dionysius the PseudoAreopagite, 102-7, 109, 120-23, 126-27,

Michel,

symbols and Villard de Honne-

in sculpture, 4277;

;

proportions; and St. Bernard, 39-43,

See

of,

67

number mysticism, 22-25, numeri

solidi, 2

1

577

Octagon, 206 octave, 21, 33, 40, 48, 49, 144, 199 Odo of Deuil, 7277, 103; works: De Ludovici I'll

.

.

profectwfie, 7277, 7677

.

Old Testament, icles,

11;

J5«, 37; Genesis, 26, 4477, Isaiah, 13277, 15277; Leviticus,

Ezekiel, 9, PI.

12;

197, 219; Chron\\:n; Exodus, 12 177;

120, 12177,

Daniel,

NDEX 13b; and Paradise, Pis. 8-9; Psalms,

PI.

132/7;

mon,

Proverbs, 228022, 25,

Wisdom

3572;

of Solo-

perspective,

18922, 192 &?2

Peter of Celle,

;

de tribus quaest., 4177

Otto of Bamberg, 96 Otto of Freising, 3472, 73; works: Chronica,

3627,

192-95, PI. 5/; works:

19322; Mosaici Tabernaculi

Epistolae,

Opicinus de Canistris, xxii oriflamme, 7177, 7 5 &w, 76, 89, 201; Orleans, 7 1 See of, 74 ornamentation, 4-5, 43, 57, 15077 Othlon of St. Emmeram, 40-41; works: Dial,

Oxford:

Peter Peter

Peter Peter Peter of Poitiers,

works:

18922;

super Taber. Moysi, 19322 Peter of Roissy, 195-97, 200,

Peter the Venerable,

University: Bodleian Library MSS., 15 177, 2 677, PI. A (facing p. 12); Christ Church

Petrus Cantor, 16922 Petrus de Marca, Marca Hispanica, Pevsner, Nikolaus, 30

1

1477

.

.

Allegoriae

219,

240;

1958022, 19622

Cathedral, 20677

Library MS.,

.

194&22 of Citeaux, 188 of Dreux, duke of Brittany, 181-82, 19222 of Mincy, 19322 of Montreuil, 100, 200, 20722, 225802

expos., 1938022,

works: Manuale, 19322, Peter the Lombard, 189

3 172

J

&22

3

1

Peter of Blois,

2777.

Oliva, Bishop, 13577 Olschki, L., 87-88

I

27

perfect consonances, see music

44-45

4322,

1

3 522

I, king of , 68, 77, 83, 180 Philip II Augustus, king of , 63, 77, 159, 163, 174, 175, 177&22, 181, 182

Philip

x ainting: and geometrical laws, 16, 18, 3522; monastic, 43-44, 48; wall, 4-6, 9, 38-39,

Palermo, Palatine Chapel, 151, 15277; PI. 25 Panofsky, Erwin, 125, 137 Paradise, and Old Testament, Pis. 8-9 paradisus claustralis, 44&7Z Paray-le-Monial, priory church of, 1 5077 Paris, 71, 105, 16977, 173, 19072 Bibliotheque de 1' Arsenal MS., PI.

Bibliotheque 10572,

1

Nationale

5 172,

19522,

MSS.,

19672,

of, 144, 146,

Notre PI.

Dame j;

ambulatory,

102,

227, 228; Timaeus, 26, 28, 29, 33, 1888022, Pis.

13,

19422, 2 1522

poetry, xxiii, 25, 32, 83; masonic,

15222

177,

5622; buttresses,

203;

15627, height, 20227; nave, 722, 20222; relics, 11477,

141; vault, 202,

205; windows, 143

St.-Martin-des-Champs,

115,

116*,

Poitiers,

117,

15627, 19272

Sainte-Chapelle, 200

6627;

Church,

21122,

3322,

3422,

8&22

Poissy, church of Notre in,

facade, 16, 15622, 189, 200; ground plan,

78-79; sculpture,

205-7, 2I °

Plato/Platonism, 22, 2322, 25-39, 498022, 52, 54/f, 58, 104, 124-26, 153, 155, 209, 211,

8477,

19222, PI. 13a

Cathedral,

Pidal, R.

pinnacle, 14, 17*

3

Louvre, 149; Harbaville triptych

Menendez

166; and fairs, 164-66; and relics, 170-71 pilier cantonne, 196,

1

7122,

20822,

see

pilgrims/pilgrimages, 78, 79-81, 84, 86, 8827, 89-90, 91, 95, 1 12-13; Chartres, 160,

17

bishop

Menendez,

Pidal, R.

45, 101, 2 14-15 Pairs of , 67

Council

Dame, 216 of,

65;

St.

Peter's

3422

Poitou, sculpture of, 114

polygon, 14, 15*; and apse design, 204-5 polyptych of Notre Dame, 223, 22472 Pont-Hubert, church of, 231 Pontigny, abbey of, 5622, 188; abbot of, 144 Pontoise, 94, 99

Porcher, porta

J.,

47

caeli, see

gate of heaven

See of, 68, 74, 78 Parthenon, 200 Paschal II, Pope, 68

portals, 8-9; see also Chartres s.v. Cathedral;

ion, relics of, 78-79, 84, 86, 91, 110-11 Paul, St., 103, 104; Epistles of, 120, 121&72

Prague Cathedral,

Paul

I,

Pope, 104

Pelerinage de Charlemagne, 84, 9022

pentagon, 208-9

Pepin the Short, 82, 98, 104

St.-Denis s.v. abbey church Porter, Arthur Kingsley,

1 1

13; sepulchral chapel,

prebendaries, Chartres, 176, 223-24

precious stones, 50, 51, 119, 134

Premonstratensian canons, 11 primary bodies of world, 29 Prophets, 134

222

12*

5

3

n

NDEX

proportions: and Augnstinian aesthetics, iy-

32—33; and Carhcdral School of Chartres, 29, 32-33, 36/7, 37-38, 191; 2 5»

and Chartres Cathedral, see next entry; Delorme on, 227-28; Fontenay Abbey, 48-50; and geometry, 14-20; and golden section,

155&77, 208-10, 211, 214,

34/7,

and cathedral financing, 170-72; Chartres, 160-64, 166, 169, 172, 179-81; St.-Dcnis, 70, 78-79, 82, 84, 86, 90, 91,

relics:

103,

1

1,

1

Renaissance, 228;

1

37, 164, 165

xx/7,

A

PL

26,

124, 197, 221, 225,

j8,

(facing p. 12)

Renaud of Aloucon, bishop of Chartres,

230, 240; and musical consonances, xxw,

175, 1-6, 1-8, 19277, 195, 225

37-38, 42-43, 125, 126/7, Michael's, Hildeshcim, : 2-

responds, 6-7, 13477, 142-43, 21077 resurrection of the dead, 1 1

xxi/7,

22,

23,

198-200;

St.

1

and size of man,

15; Sens, 144;

proportions of Chartres

Revelation,

37?

Cathedral,

207-12,

214-15, 227-31 Provence, 63, 177 Proverbs, 3577 Psalms, 13277 Pseudo-Apuleius, Asclepius, 2877 Pseudo-Areopagite, see Dionvsius the PseudoAreopagite Pseudo-Turpin, 7977, 8377, 84-88, 92, 238-39 Ptolemy, Almagest, 155

Puig y Cadafalch,

xxiii

J.,

Pythagorean mysticism, 21-22,

27,

Kaoul of Vermandois, music

7677

consonances;

perfect

s.v.

of Torrigny,

redemption, 3677, 40 Regensburg, bishop

of,

172;

Cathedral,

14,

172, 22077

Rollo, 161

Roman

architecture, 6, 34/7,

Romanesque

PL

Chartres,

see

basilica;

141,

Libcrgier,

3477,

1877,

Chartres

s.v.

Romanesqueand orna-

light, 3, 122, 135;

47, 48; St. Michael's, Hikksheim, 21:, 213*, 2 14-15; and St.-Denis, 95, 98, 107,

and St.-Martin-des-Champs, 115-

m,

113/7,

153

19077,

194, 19877, 20777,

18;

PL

tomb of Hugh

6b;

tympanum of

4272,

PL

Romanos group of ivories, 15211 Rome, 190/7; Baths of Diocletian, citv

gate,

109*,

basilica of, 200;

1

Municipal Library MS.,

10

1

St.-Nicaise, 22577

St.-Remi, abbey church

and

1477,

57; antifunctionalism, 8-10;

16, 15677; sculpture in, 42/7, 43,

northern transept portal, 204;; Council of 19, 70, 93 1

94

architecture, xxii, xxiii.

4977, 230,

15677;

5&T7; ribs,

3477

of Gothic, 61-63; and

Reims, 71, 190 archbishop of, 137, 139 877,

148/7

mentation, 4-6, 38-39, 111, 2:-; as rival St. Bernard, 45,

rectangle, 3477, 49&T7, 155, 21177

palimpsest,

Guiscard, 17977 le Breton, bishop of Chartres, 189&72 of , count of Dreux, 19277 of Luzarches, 200 of Melun, Sententie, 3277

Roland, 797?, 84, 86, 238 Rolduc, Church of, 3177

proportions

2 2

Robert Robert Robert Robert Robert Robert

28,

(Quadripartite elevations, 196, 202, 205, 216 quadrivium, 31, 3477, 56, 153, 155, 19://, 221

2 1077,

Richelieu, Cardinal, 73

Roggenkamp, H., 212 2277,

189, 191

Cathedral,

10-11, 13272

Richard l'Eveque, 147 Richard I (the Lionhearted), king of England, 179-80

Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon,

Purification, fair of, 166

see

of, xxi, 8&.77, 9,

ribs, see vault

Roche Guvon, La, 73

Puiset Bible, 151

ratios,

Book

162,

of, 4277,

192, 194-

95; choir and capitals, 215-16; bay, PI. 5-/; windows, 194

double

110,

See

of,

135,

94; St.

Roman Peter,

127

Roncevaux, So Roriczer, Konrad, 22077 Roriczer, Matthew. 14, 17*, 10 Rouen, archibishop of, 108; Cathedral, sculpture of, 220-21 rubble,

1

18

Rusticus, St., 70

school of book illumination of, 45

See

of, 67, 7677,

Synod

of,

190

84

Sacred Tunic of Chartres, 160-64, 166, 169, 17'

INDEX Alban's Psalter, 239 Albans Cathedral, 172 St.-Amand, abbey of, 1 5 77 St.

1

St.-Benoit-sur-Loire, basilica of, 186 1

St.-Ceneri-le-Gerei, church of,

o/z

St.-Chef, church of, 9

St.-Denis: abbey church,

xxii,

99-100, 102,

PL

15677,

108, 20777; ambulatory, 117,

11377,

133,

134,

135,

16; apses, 98, 20577; archivolts,

materials,

building

99, 169; capitals, 217; chapels, 99-100, 118, 133, 149;

140,

94,

and Chartres, 200-3,

201;

15677,

217, 218, 239; chevet,

118; choir,

117,

99-101, 100*, 102,

xviii, 50, 91, 92,

1377,

1

5-19, 130, 133, 134, 139-40, H2W. '43. 148-49, 15677, 171; consecration of, 129, 1

1

130-31, 136-41, 149; crypt, 91, 98, 99; and Dionysian metaphysics, see metaphysics;

as

first

fund raising

1

16-17,

legend

Gothic church,

*33-

20I

keystone,

i

Charlemagne,

of

15677;

74, 76-79, 82, 91-92, 180; ground plan, 100*,

for,

171&77,

13677,

and

134;

82-90,

164;

narthex, 91, 99, 108, PL ty nave, 5, 92, 99, 101-2, 119, 133; portals, 1 14-15, 127, 153; prototypes of, 95-96, 107-11, 1 15-18; sculpture, 108, 110-11, 11 3-1 5,

149-51,

St.-Mesmin, abbey of, Mici, 185 Michael, abbey church of, Hildesheim, 3077, 212, 213*, 214-15 St.-Nicaise, Reims, 22577 St.-Nicolas, church of, Caen, 21777 St. Peter, basilica of, Rome, 200 St. Peter, church of, Wimpfen-im-Tal, 6477 St. Peter, church of, Poitiers, 3477 St.-Remi, abbey of, see Reims s.v. St.-Remi St.-Savin, church of, 5 St.

St.

St.-Bertin, Liber Floridus,

±7:

239; side aisles, 99, 102; stained-glass windows, 89-90, 94, 100, 108&77, no, 1 17-18, 120-22, 239; tow15677,

St.-Trond, abbey of, 171 St.-Victor, abbey of, Paris, 105

Xanten, 22077 Laon, 203 Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, 200

St.- Victor, cathedral of, St.- Vincent,

abbey

of,

155, 185; veneration of, 104, 137, 164; see also relics

saints, 41,

Monte, church of, Civate, 9 of monastic life, 128 Sant Ambrogio, basilica of, Milan, 13477 Santiago de Compostela, 79-80, 81, 8477, 85&W, San Pietro

al

sanctification, as goal

113,

238-39; bishop

172; guide to,

of,

132 Saul, 191

scholasticism, 104, 107 Schwarzrheindorf, church

of, 9,

1

science: and architecture, 30-31, 97; and art,

19-20; music sculpture, xxii,

as,

16,

21-22 63, 89; Burgundian

3277,

influence on, 150; monastic, 43, 44,

45-

46, 48; musical symbols in, 4277; Norman influence on, 1 50-5 1 Solomon and Queen ;

ers,

of Sheba theme, 141 w;

vaults, 99, 100, 102,

51&77; see also Amiens Cathedral; Chartres s.v. Cathedral; Le Mans Cathedral;

98-99, 102, 108; transept, 10:. 133; tympanum, 110-11, 113-15, 149, PL 20a; 1

17-18,

PL ty

walls,

west facade, 64, 91-92, 99, 101, 102, 108-10, 1 13-15, 120, 135, 148-

5,

134, 186;

1

127;

Assembly of

124, 70-71, 75, 82, 93; Hellenic studies,

127;

Lendit,

78-79,

PL

136&77, 165-66,

84,

13a;

91,

90,

reform

of,

111,

92-93,

in, 136; and Suger's writings, 72-75 town, freedom from mortmain of, 91-92 St.-Etienne, see

Caen

s. v.

St.-Etienne

St.-Etienne, Loire, library MS., 184 St. -Gall,

monastery

St.-Denis

s.v.

abbey

150-

church;

Senlis Cathedral

Sedlmayr, H., 142, 227

51, 153, 155, Pis. 14, 19

Royal Abbey, 65-66,

mason;

statue colonne,

De

20777

naturalibus quaestionibus, 195

Senlis Cathedral, 102; sculpture of,

218-19

Sens: archbishop

of, 137 Cathedral, 148, 196; apse, 143; and Bernard of Clairvaux, 145-46; chevet, 143; eleva-

tion,

143-44,

205;

ground plan,

144;

height, 20277; nave, 142, 143, 144, 20277,

plan, 1877

PL

St.-Georges-de-Boscherville, abbey of, 143 St.-Guilhem-le-Desert, 80

21; side aisles, 144; vault, 142-43, 144, 202, 203; windows, 143

St.-Martial, Limoges, 85

St.-Martin-des-Champs, abbey church Paris s.v. St.-Martin-des-Champs St.-Maur, 65 St.-Maurice, church of, Agaune, 20577

Semur Cathedral, Seneca,

of,

see

See of, 67, 68, 74, 146 synod of 1140, 145 Septembresce, fair of, 166

Seymour, Sheba,

C,

Queen

Jr.,

230

of, 14 177

1

1

NDEX

274 Sicily, 147,

151-52

Fontenay Abbey; St.-Denis

thedral;

abbey church; Sens

s.v.

Cathedral

s.v.

sixth, musical,

2

1

Soissons, 71; Cathedral of, 215-16; Council of, 14777

in sculpture,

Wisdom

1

4 1 w; Temple

37-38, 95-96,

3677,

577,

of, xviii,

228;

196,

134,

of, 2 2&77, 25, 2777, 3777

4277, 80, 85, 86,

1

238-39

140,

177,

7272,

7777, 7877, 8177, 8277, 8777, 9377, 9477,

27, 49&T7, 154,

19,

Chartres s.v. Cathedral; abbey church

St.-Denis s.v.

202

statuary, see sculpture 1

50-5

1

1

3-1

131, 135, 155; musical, 4277;

5,

22-25,

2 7>

10177,

13477,

2

1

3 3

w

1

&77, 1

»

34-3

1

34W,

5

;

228;

numtrini-

191, 212, 21577; veil,

symphony, cosmic, zS&.n,

124,

38,

132&77,

13977, 191

synagogue,

2

1

1

77

synesthesia, 33 Synge, John, 184, 197

1 abernacle, 38, 228; of Moses, 193 &77, 19477 Taverny, church of, 20877 temple, xxii, 9, 29; of Ezekiel, 11,228; Greek, 6; of Solomon, xviii, 11, 3677, 37-38, 9596, 134, 196, 228

50

statue colonne,

1

New Testament,

121-22

1877,

1,212 stained-glass windows, xxii, 3-4, 477, 6, 50-51, 159, 196; development of, 122; see also

statics, 34, 169&77,

10,

in

tarian,

196, 207, 210-1

&w

Statutes of Citeaux, 47 Stavelot Bible, 15172

tetractys, 22,

steeples, 16

28

tetrahedron, 21577

Stoddard,

W.

stone, see

mason

S.,

Theodore,

149

Strasbourg: Cathedral, 180, 182, 200; Grand-

St.,

221

theophanies, 36, 53 Theophilus Presbyter,

Schedula

Seminaire MS., 15 177 structure, and appearance, 4-20

theoreticus, 30, 31

stucco,

Thibault V, count of Champagne,

and language, xxiii Suger, abbot of St.-Denis, style,

149W,

xxiii, 5,

61-90,

14277,

163^, 186, 192, 194, 197, 222, 238-39; aesthetics of harmony, xviii-xix, xx, 123-33, '4°; aes ~ thetics of light, 119-23, 133; and archetypal orientation of medieval thought, 133-41; and Carolingian legend, 82-90; i<\bff,

151,

as diplomat, 65-66, 93,

diversarum

artium, 12277

4

144,

39",

xviii-xx, 8-1 1, 3677, 38, 39, 140, 227-31; cosmos, Celestial City, and sanctuary, 109*3 5—39, 134, 197; gate of heaven,

ber,

spheres, heavenly, 36-37

square, 14-16, 15*,

stars, 37,

137".

Gros, 6577, 6677, 6977, 7077, 7

le

symbols: and architecture, xvii-xxiii, 148; body, xxii, 3677, 13577, 150, 15177, 198&77, 19977, PI. 7; church as image of heaven,

Socrates, 189

Spain,

Louis

10777, 13677, 138-39, 16277

Simon de Beron, 20877 Simon of Montfort, 195

11,

'3 6w .

»

19677; Sugerii vita, 5177, 8177, 10777; Vie de

72-75,

Sigon, 185

Solomon:

i34 w

123-33,

Sn; see also Chartres s.v. Ca-

side aisles, 4,

107-8; election

as abbot, 65, 69-70, 93; as historian,

72-

75, 82, 88-90, 94, 238-39; and pilgrimages, 78-81, 84, 91, 1 12-13, 238-39; as

3577,

pagne,

140,

136,

Thierry of Chartres,

14777,

29,

162,

39,

173/,

10 177,

155-56, 186, 189, 190, 201; WORKS: De dierum operibus, 2777; Librum hum,

sex

2jn, 2877 third, musical, 199, 21

Thomas

Aquinas,

141//;

St.,

Summa

De

regimine principum,

Theologiae, 50&7/, 141

Thomas of Canterbury, St., 64, 171, 206-7 Thomas of Ireland, De tribus sensibus, 10577 threshold motif,

.,

Toledo, bishop of, 172 Toulouse, 181 Tournai Cathedral, 57; Cathedral School,

577,

6577, 6677, 72, 9277, 9577, 9877,

123, 13777;

De

1

14-15, 127

1977, 12077,

transept, 145ft

con seer., xviii-xx, 91/7, 9477,

towers, symbolism

IOI77, 10277, 10777,

9577, 9677, 9977,

I

1477,

IOOT7,

I

1

I

577,

0177,

I

Io8T7,

I

1

777,

195

147&77,

politician,

66-74, 93-94, 136-41, 173, 238-39; and St. Bernard, 111-13, 136; and St.-Denis, see St.-Denis; works: De

174,

178 Thibault the Great, count of Chartres-Cham-

of,

196-97;

see also

3177;

Bev-

erley Minster; Chartres s.v. Cathedral;

INDEX Chartres

Romanesque

s.v.

basilica;

St.-Denis s.v. abbey church of,

167

triangle, 28/2, 13472, 21572; equilateral,

18,

19,

Viollet-le-Duc, E. E., 18, 62 Virgil, 74&T2

27, 3472, 154

Trier,

Villard de Honnecourt, 16, 18, 19, 3372, 3472, 56, 2 1072; geometrical principles, 198-200

Vincent, St., 168 Vincentius of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, 159

Toynbee, Arnold, 61 tradesmen, guilds

275

Church of Our Lady,

virgins, wise

1

Trinity, 27; symbolism of, 10 172, 13472, 191,

and foolish, 114

Vitruvius, 30&.22,

3622, 4972

212, 21572

Wace, Roman

tripartite elevation, Sens, 143-44, IQ 6

Troyes, 231; count

of, 68, 71;

4072, 4772, 19372, Pis. 12,

"true measure," 19872, 199,

16,

18,

Library MSS.,

13b

19,

34, 49&T2,

154,

207

tumulus, 185

Tunic, Sacred, 160-64, 166, 169, 172 Turpin, Archbishop, 84, 86 two, as symbol of sin, 49 tympana, 7; see also Beaulieu Abbey; Chartres St.-Denis

Cathedral;

s.v.

abbey

s.v.

church

de Rou, 177

walls, 7, 18; and light, 3-4; paintings, 4-6, 9, 38-39, 101, 214-15; see also Chartres s.v.

Cathedral;

Fontenay Abbey; Le Mans

Cathedral;

St.-Denis s.v. abbey church

Walpole, R. N., 88 Walter of Chatillon, 3872, Washington, D. C, 168 Webb, C. C.J., 190

Wells Cathedral,

4472,

189&72, 19072

22272

William, cardinal of Champagne, 174, 176&72, 189&72, 19372

Ueberwasser, W., unison, 54, 199 universe, 227; and

William, Count, founder of St.-Guilhem-leDesert, 80 William I (the Conqueror), king of England,

18

number mysticism,

22, 28,

108, 14172, 173, 180

De

William of Auvergne:

35

Urban III, Pope, 178 Urban VII, Pope, 21 172

universo,

1

anima,

2872;

De

39

William of Conches, 28-29,

30, 3572,4072, 147,

190

V aison-la-Romaine,

Cathedral

of, 13472

Vaucelles, monastery of, 199 vault: cross-ribbed, 3, 672, 8, 63, 96, 99, 100, 102, 107, 117, 118, 134, 142-43, 169, 194, 201-2; false ribs, 6, 143; groined, 7, 872, 117;

paintings,

5&T2,

118; rib thrusts, 3472;

9-10; plowshare, ribs and responds,

6-7, 134&72, 135; sexpartite, 205; see also Durham Cathedral; Le Mans Cathedral;

Reims s.v. Cathedral; Reims s.v. St.Remi; St.-Denis s.v. abbey church; Sens s.v. veil,

Cathedral

symbolism

of,

121-22

William William William William

of Jumieges, 10872 of Nangis, Gesta Sancti Ludovici, 10572 of Newbridge, Chronicle of, 160 of St.-Thierry, 4372, 188, 18972

William of Sens, 64, 206-7 William the Good, king of Sicily, 19272 Wimpfen-im-Tal, Church of St. Peter, 6472 Winchester, School

windows,

of,

see grisaille

45

windows; stained-glass

windows winter solstice, 55 Wisdom of Solomon,

Velte, Maria, 16

Witelo,

2

2&T2, 25, 2772, 3772

5072

Venice, 170

Wolfram of Eschenbach,

verticalism, 4, 1 5672 vexillum, 71&72, 75&W, 87, 89, 106; Col. PI. I

world

Vexin, 107

Xanten, Cathedral of

Victor,

St., feast of,

3572, PI.

St.- Victor, 22072

41

Vieille Chronique, 16072, 16472, 17377, 226 Vienna, 13; Austrian National Library MS.,

Vienne, 69

Willehalm, 4272

soul, 29, 37

York

Cathedral, 200

Yves of Chartres, 68-69,

6a

Z/Oomorphism, 43

107, 159, 180

— — art/architecture

The Gothic Cathedral ... is the most stimulating and comprehensive work on the subject to date. Perhaps the main virtue of Dr. von Simson's book is the clarity which he brings to the complex interplay of medieval esthetic theory and practice. Moreover, he has not divorced this intellectual and artistic ferment from the social realities of the age: the "This magisterial study

.

cathedral

is

ical texts,

politics

.

.

depicted not only in the mystical light of theolog-

but against the sterner background of medieval

and finance, commerce and war."

—Allan

Temko,

New York Times Book Review 'The value two

of

The Gothic Cathedral The first one

essential problems.

appreciation of Gothic architecture. ing to Viollet le Due), or

Pol

Abraham)?

was

its

The second problem

is

Was in

approach to

concerned with the it

rational (accord-

illusionistic

was symbolical

It

swers von Simson; mystical in principles.

it

lies in its

its

(according to

conception, an-

aim, and calculated in

its

pertains to the relationship

between thought, society, and art. Von Simson shows that in Gothic architecture history creates its own symbols, whether political, economic, intellectual, or artistic, all of them following an independent but convergent spiritual pattern." Philippe Verdier, Yale Review "Dr. von Simson has placed every lover of Gothic architecture in his debt

by

this

deeply illuminating study. Only the scholar

will appreciate its thoroughness, but, like the itself,

it

will

appeal to

many

Gothic cathedral

besides the specialist.

format and numerous plates are worthy of the text."

The

Times

Literary Supplement

Otto von Simson stitut,

is

professor at the Kunsthistoriches In-

Freien Universitat, Berlin.

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