Collegiate Churches.

641. Section of Cathedral at Bourges. (From Drawings by F. Penrose, Esq., Architect.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

The greater part of the western façade of this cathedral is of a later date than the building itself, and is extended so much beyond the proportions required for effect as to overpower the rest of the building, so that it is only from the sides or the eastern end that all the beauty of this church can be appreciated.

As far as regards size or richness of decoration, the cathedral of Orleans deserves to rank as one of the very first in France, and is remarkable as the only first-class Gothic cathedral erected in Europe since the Middle Ages. The original church on this site having been destroyed by the Calvinists, the present cathedral was commenced in the year 1601 by Henry IV. of France, and although the rebuilding proceeded at first with great vigour, and the work was never wholly discontinued, it is even now hardly completed.

Considering the age in which it was built, and the contemporary specimens of so-called Gothic art erected in France and England, it is wonderful how little of classical admixture has been allowed to creep into the design of this building, and how closely it adhered to every essential of the style adopted. In plan, in arrangement, and indeed in details, it is so correct, that it requires considerable knowledge to define the difference between this and an older building of the same class. Still there is a wide difference, which makes itself felt though not easily described, and consists in the fact that the old cathedrals were built by men who had a true perception of their art; while the modern example only bears evidence of a well-learnt lesson distinctly repeated, but without any real feeling for the subject. This want betrays itself in an unmeaning repetition of parts, in a deficiency of depth and richness, and in a general poverty of invention.

It would not be difficult to select out of the collegiate churches of France as complete a series as of the cathedrals, though of inferior size. But having already gone through the one class of buildings, we must confine ourselves to a brief notice of the other. The church of Charité sur Loire was one of the most picturesque and beautiful in France. It is now partially ruined, though still retaining enough of its original features to illustrate clearly the style to which it belongs. Originally the church was about 350 ft. in length by 90 in breadth. One tower of the western front, one aisle, and the whole of the choir still remain, and belong without doubt to the church dedicated in 1106 by Pope Pascal. The presence of the pointed form in the pier arches and vaults has induced some to believe that this church belongs to the reign of Philip Augustus, about a century later, and when the church was restored after a great fire. Its southern position, however, the circumstance of its being the earliest daughter church of the abbey of Cluny, and the whole style of the building, are proofs of its earlier age. All the decorative parts, and all the external openings, still retain the circular form as essentially as if the pointed had never been introduced.

The most remarkable feature in this church is the exuberance of the ornament with which all the parts are decorated, so very unlike the massive rudeness of the contemporary Norman or Northern styles. The capitals of the pillars, the arches of the triforium, the jambs of the windows and the cornices, all show a refinement and love of ornament characteristic of a far more advanced and civilised people than those of the Northern provinces of France.

Among those who were present at the dedication of this church was the Abbé Suger, then a gay young man of twenty years of age, who about thirty years later, in the plenitude of his power, commencedthe building of the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris, the west front of which was dedicated in the year 1140, and rest of the church built “stupendâ celeritate,” and dedicated in 1144. Though certainly not the earliest, St. Denis may be considered as the typical example of the earliest pointed Gothic in France. It terminated the era of transition, and fixed the epoch when the Northern pointed style became supreme, to the total exclusion of the round-arched style that preceded it. The effect of Suger’s church is now destroyed by a nave of the 14th century—of great beauty it must be confessed—which is interpolated between the western front and the choir, both which remain in all essentials as left by him, and enable us to decide without hesitation on the state of architectural art at the time of the dedication of the church.

A few years later was commenced the once celebrated abbey of Pontigny, near Auxerre, probably in 1150, and completed, as we now find it, within 15 or 20 years from that date.

642. View in the Church of Charité sur Loire. (From a Sketch by the Author.)

Externally it displays an almost barn-like simplicity, having no towers or pinnacles—plain undivided windows, and no ornament of any sort. The same simplicity reigns in the interior, but the varied form and play of light and shade here relieve it to a sufficient extent, and make it altogether, if not one of the most charming examples of its age, at least one of the most instructive, as showing how much effect can be obtained by ornamental arrangement with the smallest possible amount of ornament. In obedience to the rules of the Cistercian order, it neither had towers nor painted glass, which last circumstance perhaps adds to its beauty, as we now see it, for the windows being small, admit just light enough for effect, without the painful glare that now streams through the large mullioned windows of the cathedral of Auxerre.

To the Englishman, Pontigny should be more than usually interesting,as it was here that the three most celebrated archbishops of Canterbury—Becket, Langton, and Edmund—found an asylum when driven by the troubles of their native land to seek a refuge abroad, and the bones of the last-named sainted prelate are said still to remain in thechâsse, represented in the woodcut, and are now and have been for centuries the great object of worship here.

643. Chevet, Pontigny. (From Chaillou des Barres.)

About a century after the erection of these two early specimens, we have two others, the dates of which are ascertained, and which exhibit the pointed style in its greatest degree of perfection. The first, the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, was commenced in 1241, and dedicated in 1244;[41]the other, the church of St. Urban at Troyes, was begun in 1262, and the choir and transept completed in 1266. Both are only fragments—choirs to which it was originally intended to add naves of considerable extent. The proportions of the Sainte Chapelle are in consequence somewhat too tall and short; but the noble simplicity of its design, the majesty of its tall windows, and the beauty of all its details, render it one of the most perfect examples of the style at its culminating point in the reign of St. Louis. Now that the whole of the painted glass has been restored, and the walls repainted according to what may be assumed to have been the original design, we are enabled to judge of the effect of such a building in the Middle Ages. It may be that our eyes are not educated up to the mark, or that the restorers have not quite grasped the ancient design; but the effect as now seen is certainly not quite satisfactory. The painted glass is glorious, but the effect would certainly have been more pleasing if all the structural parts of the architecture had been of one colour. Thereis no repose about the interior—nothing to explain the construction. The flat parts may have been painted as they now are; but surely the shafts and ribs could only have been treated as stone.

644. West Front of Ste. Marie de l’Épine. (From Dusomerard.)

The other was founded by Pope Urban IV., a native of Troyes, and would have been completed as a large and magnificent church, but for the opposition of some contumacious nuns, who had sufficient power and influence even in those days to thwart the designs of the Pope himself. Its great perfection is the beauty of its details, in which it is unsurpassed by anything in France or in Germany; its worst defect is a certain exaggerated temerity of construction, which tends to show how fast, even when this church was designed, architecture was passing from the hands of the true artist into those of the mason, whose attempts to astonish by wonders of construction then and ever afterwards completely marred the progress of the art which was thought to be thereby promoted.

About seventy years after this we come to the choir of St. Ouen, and to another beautiful little church, Ste. Marie de l’Épine (Woodcut No.644), near Châlons sur Marne, commenced apparently about 1329, though not completed till long afterwards.[42]It is small—a miniature cathedral in fact—like our St. Mary Redcliffe, which in many respects it resembles, and is a perfectbijou of its class. One western spire remains—the other was destroyed to make room for a telegraph—and is not only beautiful in itself, but interesting as almost the only example of an open-work spire in France.

The church of St. Ouen, at Rouen, was beyond comparison the most beautiful and perfect of the abbey edifices of France. This was commenced by Marc d’Argent in the year 1318, and was carried on uninterruptedly for twenty-one years, and at his death the choir and transept were completed, or very nearly so. The English wars interrupted at this time the progress of this, as of many other buildings, and the works of the nave were not seemingly resumed till about 1490, and twenty-five years later the beautiful western front was commenced.

Except that of Limoges, the choir is almost the only perfect building of its age, and being nearly contemporary with the choir at Cologne (1276 to 1321), affords a means of comparison between the two styles of Germany and France at that age, entirely to the advantage of the French example, which, though very much smaller, avoids all the more glaring faults of the other.

645. Plan of Church of St. Ouen at Rouen. (From Peyrée’s ‘Manuel.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

646. Church of St. Ouen at Rouen, from the S.E. (From Chapuy.)

Nothing indeed can exceed the beauty of proportion of this most elegant church; and except that it wants the depth and earnestness of the earlier examples, it may be considered as the most beautiful thing of its kind in Europe. The proportion too of the nave, transepts, and choir to one another is remarkably happy, and affords a most striking contrast to the very imperfect proportions of Cologne. Its three towers also would have formed a perfect group as originally designed, but the central one was not completed till so late, that its details have lost the aspiring character of the building on which it stands, and thewestern spires, as rebuilt within the last few years, are incongruous and inappropriate; whereas had the original design been carried out according to the drawings which still exist, it would have been one of the most beautiful façades known anywhere. The diagonal position of the towers met most happily the difficulty of giving breadth to the façade without placing them beyond the line of the aisles, as is done in the cathedral of Rouen, and at the same time gave a variety to the perspective which must have had the most pleasing effect. Had theidea occurred earlier, few western towers would have been placed otherwise; but the invention came too late, and within the last few years we have seen all traces of the arrangement ruthlessly obliterated.

The style of the choir of this church may be fairly judged from the view of the southern porch (Woodcut No.647). This has all that perfection of detail which we are accustomed to admire in Cologne Cathedral, and the works of the time of our Second Edward, combined with a degree of lightness and grace peculiar to this church. The woodcut is too small to show the details of the sculpture in the tympanum above the doors, but that too is of exquisite beauty, and being placed where it can be so well seen, and at the same time so perfectly protected, it heightens the architectural design without in any way seeming to interfere with it. This is a somewhat rare merit in French portals. In most of them it is evident that the architect has been controlled in his design in order to make room for the immense quantity of sculpture which usually crowds them. On the other hand, the position of the figures is often forced and constrained, and the bas-reliefs nearly unintelligible, from the architects having been unable to give the sculptor that unencumbered space which was requisite for the full development of his ideas.

647. Southern Porch of St. Ouen at Rouen. (From Chapuy.)

It would be easy to select numerous examples from the collegiate and parish churches of France to extend this series. Our limits will not, however, admit of the mention of more than one other instance. The sepulchral church of Brou en Bresse was erected between 1511 and 1536, by Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian, and aunt of Charles V., Emperor of Germany. It was therefore nearly contemporarywith Henry VII.’s Chapel at Westminster, and thus affords the means of comparison between the English and French styles of the day, which is wholly in favour of our own; both are the most florid specimens of their class in either country, but at Brou, both externally and internally, all majesty of form and constructive propriety are lost sight of; and though we wonder that stone could be cut into such a marvellous variety of lace-like forms, and are dazzled by the splendour of the whole, it is with infinite pleasure that we turn from these elaborate specimens of declining taste to an earlier and purer style. Fascinating as some of these late buildings undoubtedly are from the richness of decorative fancy that reigns in every detail, still they can only be regarded as the productions of the stonemason and carver, and not of the arts of the architect or sculptor so called.

In the city of Rouen we also find the beautiful church of St. Maclou (1432-1500), a gorgeous specimen of the later French style, presenting internally all the attenuation and defects of its age; but in the five arcades of its beautiful western front it displays one of the richest and most elegant specimens of flamboyant work in France. It also shows what the façade of St. Ouen would have been if completed as designed. This church once possessed a noble central tower and spire, destroyed in 1794. When all this was complete, few churches of its age could have competed with it.

St. Jacques at Dieppe is another church of the same age, and possessing the same lace-like beauty of detail and elaborate finish, which charms in spite of soberer reason, that tells us it is not in stone that such vagaries should be attempted. Abbeville, St. Riquier, and all the principal towns throughout that part of France, are rich in specimens of the late Gothic, of which we are now speaking. These specimens are in many respects beautiful, but in all that constitutes true and good art they are inferior to those of the glorious epoch which preceded them.

Back to Index Next