St. Etienne de Bourges
TheCathedral of St. Etienne de Bourges partakes of the same honours which are accorded to the premier quartette of the Isle of France. Nearly contemporary with Paris and Laon, this cathedral steps into its rank with a grandeur and firmness that in a less stolid or more ornate edifice is often wanting. It retains certain of its Romanesque features, perhaps unduly pronounced; likewise it has certain attributes of Burgundian luxuriance; but withal it presents the highly developed Gothic tendency to a far greater degree than either. Although not far to the south of Paris, Bourges is thoroughly of another climatic environment, which not only shows itself in the changed conditions of life, but in the manner of building as well.
The great transeptless church of St. Etienne is another of those soaring monuments which rise skyward and hold the eye whenever one is in its vicinity. Standing on an eminence ofnot very great height, it dominates, from every point of view, the plain which surrounds the city and reminds one of Noyon or Laon in its comparative isolation. Not because its domicile is not a place of some magnitude, but rather because the neighbouring houses lie so huddled in a valley or plain, does the city give the impression of being of less size than it really is.
The view from the railway on entering the town is, as it has been called by some imaginative Frenchman, "but thehors d'oeuvreof the architectural feast to follow," and on drawing still closer, it composes grandly with the swift-flowing little river lined with the tall slim trees which are so distinguished a feature of a French landscape.
Like Beauvais, Amiens, and, in only a slightly lesser degree, Le Mans, the sheer fall of the nave and choir from ridge to ground startles one by its exaggeration of perpendicular lines. Though by no means of the great height of these other examples, its great size first impresses one as its distinguishing feature. It sits, too, on the edge of a beautiful wooded park which, in conjunction with the modern Episcopal Palace, forms an ensemble of stone and verdure not often to be seen as the environmentof a French cathedral. The gardens are quite open to the public and are set forth with clipped hedges, trees, and monumental stone work of no mean order.
Bourges is another of those ancient foundations of mid-France where Romish influences died hard, and Gothic, as a perfected type, never, as it were, attained its majority. Here, the mixture of style is notable; pointed and rounded arches intermingled, apparently indiscriminately, with thoroughly Gothic supports, mullions, and piers. These, with the characteristically Renaissance north and south porches, with their carven doorways, all go to complete a series of typically fashioned details, each true to its own age. Such a combination of varying virtues should give the student, or the seeker after new sensations, something more to think about than a mere catalogue of consistent charms; for it cannot be denied that this church, standing aloof from any other single type, is a marvel of grandeur and impressiveness, whatever may be its failings when dessicated by the theorist or the archæologist.
It is unlikely that Saracen or even Moorish influences were ever at work so far north as this; but there is an unquestionable tendencyin much of the debased decoration of this church to more than suggest a similarity to both. It is, of course, not Gothic, as we know it, nor Byzantine,pur sang, and it is certainly not Italian, but something quite different. It is, perhaps, worthy of record that the inverted horseshoe arch more nearly approximates what is commonly considered the Moorish form; or, to give it a widerlocale, Mediterranean, at least. The polygonal turrets which flank the towers and the chapels of the abside look, too, not unlike a sub-tropical feature, possibly Saracen. Such details are markedly noticeable here, and it is because of features such as these that one is minded to consider the church as something quite different from anything seen elsewhere.
To carry the argument still farther, if these details are to be considered in any sense Gothic, or any outgrowth thereof, it certainly augurs much for the possibility of this style having come originally from the East, or at least the Mediterranean countries. It has been claimed before now by English and French writers alike, that it may have developed from the arts of the Moors of Spain, or that it may have grown up from a primitive style in vogue in the Far East. The comment is given withoutfurther elaboration; but here, at least, we see some basis for the claim that Gothic is but a transplanted flower after all, and that it developed so boldly only from the seed's having been blown hither from some other land, and finding a favourable soil in which to take root and flourish.
Without transepts, the long flank of the nave and choir is singularly beautiful, broken into at regular intervals by buttresses which, if not remarkable examples, are at least graceful, though so light that they have been visibly stayed by iron rods, as is frequently the case elsewhere, at Beauvais particularly, where the whole fabric appears to be hung together by wires.
The actual inception of the cathedral is attributed to Rudolphe de Turenne, forty-sixth Archbishop of Bourges. Of his known work only the round-arched crypt remains, upon which foundation the present grand pile was reared.
The west front possesses a quintette of portals, deeply recessed, but of a decidedly mixed Gothic and Renaissance treatment as to decoration. Such a range of elaborated doorways is hardly to be found in such luxuriance elsewhere, though the fact that there are fivein all, standing grandly in a row, is perhaps not unique of itself. They are profusely decorated with sculptured forms of angels, saints, and kings. The tympanum of the central portal contains a "Last Judgment," remarkable alike for its magnitude and workmanship. Throughout, these portals vary in date of their construction, their treatment, and their excellencies, but in general they are homogeneous and convincing. In the gables of three are circular piercings which open into a sort of vestibule or porch; but these are entirely without glass. Another unique feature of this western front is a curious lofty double-storied structure, a chapel-like building, of whose functions most will remain in ignorance. It is connected with the main body of the church by a long tentacle-like ligature through which, says Henry James, "the groaning of the organ or the pealing of bells must be transmitted with distressing clearness."
The hybrid tower on the extreme left, with many round-arched windows and much florid ornament, is familiarly called the "Tour de Beurre," and, as its compeer at Rouen, was built from the contributions of those who were willing to forego themselves the luxury ofbutter. To the right is a much less imposing tower, but one that is much more true as to its style. It rises scarcely above the central gable, and helps to exaggerate the lack of uniformity of the façade, a condition much deplored by the true Gothic builder, though whether such varying detail does not after all make a more interesting, and perhaps as edifying a work for pleasurable contemplation, is an open question. There is, in any event, a marvellous power in this massive west front to confirm one's opinion that it is a comprehensive and yet varied thing. Another curious feature of this front is a pair of overlying buttresses of no apparent purpose as to staying power, since the wall space which they flank is of no inordinate height. The window space, though, is ample; and, though mostly in blank to-day, at a future time those blanks might be broken out; hence the necessity for these extra props.
The interior gives, likewise, a grand impression, one of vaster magnitude than in reality exists. The length is probably exaggerated by reason of the lack of transepts; but its breadth, including nave and aisle, is unusually great, and the height is further magnified by the fact that the aisles themselves havethree ranges of openings, above which, in the nave, rise the triforium and clerestory,—surely alone a sufficiently unusual arrangement to account the church as of remarkable planning. Its great beauty may be said to be the magnificent proportions throughout, rather than the preëminent intrinsic value of any specific detail.
The rose window of the west end, though of grand proportions, appears to fail utterly as a supreme effort because of the flatness and depression given to its circumferential outline. Like that of St. Gatien at Tours it is of an uncertain lozenge shape, while the effect is further lessened by the mediocrity of its glass and framing.
The general appearance of the interior is one of symmetrical grandeur, wherein the effect of each dimension is probably enlarged, but with a fine and consistent proportion. Its conventional embellishments are not unduly ornate; though, for that matter, they do not give the impression of being wanting to any great degree either in quality or quantity. In no particular, however, is the sculptured form of figure or foliage of that excellence and magnitude of that of the cathedral at Reims or at Amiens.
The magnificent proportions of the choir well merit the term of "Burgundian opulence." Its termination opens with an amplitude often wanting in even a larger building, the piers being wide apart, without screening, which heightens still more its generous proportions.
The two picturesque cardinal's hats, with cord and tassels, have long been pendant from the vault of the choir, and are now dimmed in colour and thick deep with dust, seemingly destined to fall of sheer old age and decrepitude. Further particulars concerning this picturesque detail are wanting only from the lack of any one in attendance from whom one might get this information,—perhaps some reader of these lines may be more fortunate.
On the pavement of the nave is a brass rule, inlaid diagonally from the north to the south wall. Its original use appears to be clothed in some obscurity, one informative person stating that it is the line of departmental division, and another that it marks the meridian of Paris, which is shown on all French navigation charts. Its real purpose is evidently topographical rather than of religious or symbolical significance.
An ardent French writer deplores the factthat there is no monument here to show respect for Louis XI., who was born at Bourges and baptized in the cathedral; a pity, perhaps, and certainly a subject worthy of the consideration of "the powers that be."
CATHEDRAL of S. CYR & Ste. JULIETTE NEVERS
A unique experience is one's first contemplation of the "gay little city of Nevers" from the Pont du Loire, with the none too large Cathedral of St. Cyr and St. Juliette crowning, as it were, the apex of a series of steep rises from the Loire, which, even at this distance from the sea, still retains its ample breadth. Said Arthur Young in his plain and bald phraseology, "Nevers makes a fine appearance." Here, on the very threshold of the southland, it is something of a shock to bebrought at once into intimate association with Italian influences and types of architecture; for, be it recalled, Nevers has been truly "an Italian stronghold in the midst of France," with little to remind one, but its speech, that it is merely a provincial French market-town. Nevers was the seat of the Italian Dukes and Counts of Nièvre, who built the ducal palace, theci-devantchateau, now the Palace of Justice. Here, later, dwelt the nephew of the great Mazarin, who said his king "had a heart more French than his speech." Through his efforts the Nivernais was incorporated with the French crown in 1669.
This fine turreted, towered, and decorated building, with its sculpture attributed to Goujon, is to-day, in appearance at least, what it was in the past,—the typical urban domestic establishment of grand proportions and splendid appointments; though it may hardly be said to vie with such masterpieces as Chambord, Chenonceau, or Blois. Nor, for that matter, is the town itself entitled to rank, as to its events of historical importance or the fame or personality of its bishops or counts, with either Chartres or Le Mans, both of which it somewhat approaches in point of size.
Aside from its many and varied charms,which have been duly set forth by most writers on the French provinces who have had anything whatever to say about it, Nevers should be doubly endeared to all makers of guide-books and students of ecclesiastical architecture, from the fact that the Abbé Bourassé, Honorary Canon of Nevers, here wrote and dedicated to his bishop, Mgr. Dufêtre, a work treating of the French cathedrals which will ever rank as one of the most delightfully written and useful books of its class. This fact perhaps is hardly to be reckoned as of historical moment, but pertinent to the plan of the present work nevertheless.
Nowhere, not even in Provence or Acquitaine, are to be noted more significant tendencies toward a southern influence in the matter of civil and ecclesiastical building. True, many of the minor structures have to-day descended unto base uses, and many of their perfections and beauties are therefore sunk below the surface. For instance, where a palace has become a warehouse, or a church been turned into a stable, or been given over to the uses of a wine factor.
Before even considering the cathedral itself,—dedicated to the hero of the legendary tale concerning St. Cyrus, who, depicted as anaked child riding astride a wild boar, was able to turn the infuriated beast from a certain King Charles (further designation not given) and preserve him from danger,—it is well to know that most authorities agree in giving habitation here to one of the most perfect Romanesque churches in all northern Europe, that of St. Etienne, built in 1063-96, and consecrated in the latter year by Ivor, Bishop of Chartres. Of the century contemporary with this fine work, as yet hardly spoiled by any offensive restorations, are two columns, in the easterly portion of the Cathedral of St. Cyr, which bear the date of 1024. From this foundation the lover of churches will rear for himself an exceedingly interesting and uncommon type.
Not of the first rank, St. Cyr has the power to hold one's attention far more closely and interestingly than many of greater worth and magnitude; and its environment, from every point of view, composes itself into a picture which it would be hard to duplicate. The grouping of the chevet of the choir with the low roofs of the town lying at its base, and the gardens of the ducal chateau in the immediate foreground, forms an unusually varied combination of the picturesque.
The wealth of Nevers in architectural monuments would be notable in a town many times its size. The Port de Paris, a not especially attractive Renaissance gateway, guards the northerly, and the Port du Croux the westerly, end of the town. This latter groups nobly with the west end and tower of the cathedral, and is of itself a monument of the first rank, being so designated by theCommission des Monumentes Historiques. A feudal defence, square, broad-based, turreted, flanked with circular watch-towers, and still further strengthened by a barbican which once held a portcullis, this wonderfully effective barrier more than suggests the mediæval stronghold. Two other towers of the ancientenceintestill remain, the Tour Gougin, and the Tour St. Eloi.
Intimate acquaintance with the cathedral shows a blending, not offensive, but in no slight manner, of the Romanesque, early and late Gothic, and finally Renaissance styles. Nevertheless there is an apparent cohesiveness often lacking in a larger work, or in one built within a shorter period of time. One distinctly northern feature there is; namely, the singular effect given by the double apse of the nave and choir, reminiscent mainly of theRhine builders, that of the eastern end being much the older. The half-obliterated frescoes of the domed vaulting of the western apse indicate that it was completed after the pure Italian manner at a considerably later time than the opposite end. It is hardly a beautiful or even a necessary feature to either the exterior or interior of a great church, and, fortunately, is unusual in France, though common enough in Germany, notably at Mainz, Worms, and Treves. The most remarkable interior effect, aside from this western apse, is that of the lofty Gothic arches, springing high above the Romanesque arches of the nave, and naturally of a much later date. Certainly this must be, so far as the respective proportions of each are concerned, an entirely unique feature. Notable evidences are to be seen of frescoes, probably the work of some Italian hand, both on the screen and in the domed apse. They have apparently been whitewashed over many times, but remorse, if tardily, has evidently come lately, and such restoration or renovation as has been possible, has been undertaken.
A dainty and diminutive spiral stairway, suggestive of having been modelled on the lines of the grand spirals at Chambord orBlois, and half enclosed in the surrounding wall, leads to the Chapter Room above. The eastern apse, and the crypt beneath, are the earliest parts readily to be observed and are probably the remains of the Romanesque structure built by Hugh II. early in the eleventh century, after the common type of the Auvergnat and Angevine churches.
Perhaps the best workmanship to be noted is that of the thirteenth-century chapels surrounding the choir. Reclus, a French authority, has declared that the ornamental foliage here is not only really admirable as to itself, but is the "perfection of imitation," and extends this commendation also to the work on the pillars and capitals of the north doorway by which the church is usually entered.
The interior generally is brilliant and pleasing, though good glass is mostly wanting, and the uninterrupted flood of light detracts measurably from the warmth and geniality suggested by the memory of Bourges, Chartres, or Auxerre. The rose window over the western apse is pitifully weak and quite lacking in effectiveness.
A canopiedbaldacchinorises above the altar and, being of stone treated in a graceful Gothic manner, is an ornament much more ingood taste than the hideous mahogany or oaken serpentine atrocities which are often erected.
It is impossible to come into close contact with the exterior of this cathedral except by approaching it from the eastern end. West front there is none. As one has said, "It possesses merely a western end." The western tower, of two non-contemporary orders of Gothic (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), whether viewed from near or far, is far more pleasing than any other general exterior feature. The chevet of the choir extends, as it were, well into the nave, there being no transepts. This is evidently a local custom, recalling the neighbouring cathedrals at Bourges and Auxerre.
The sculptured decoration of the later portion is exceedingly well disposed, and of such magnitude and numbers as to lack that poverty in the ensemble often apparent in a more pretentious work.
The Church of St. Etienne in Nevers, so thoroughly Roman in inception of design and execution of detail, indicates more vividly than any other example that might possibly be taken, the shortness of time in which the Gothic development actually took place.With Notre Dame at Paris full in mind, it is well to recall that these accepted perfect examples of two contrasting types are scarce a hundred and fifty miles apart, and, in point of time, but sixty years. What an exemplification this surely is of the transition which came to the art of church building in the twelfth century; what extraordinary rapidity of conception and development, and how narrow were the confines of the true Gothic spirit, indigenous only to the royal domain, which alone produced the churches which fully merit the concisely expressed definition of Gothic: "A manner of building maintained (sustained) by a system of thrust and counter thrust."
CATHEDRAL of S. MAMMES LANGRES
Langresis reminiscent of but one other cathedral city in the north of France; like Laon, it occupies and fortifies the crest of a long drawn out hill, or, to give it dignity, it had perhaps best be called in the language of the native "de la montagne de Langres," since from its apex, it is truly dominant of a wide expanse of horizon.
Of the Burgundian transition type, the Cathedral at Langres, dedicated to St. Jean the Evangel and St. Mammes, is in many ways a remarkable architectural work, but contaminatedbeyond cure by two overbearing Greco-Roman towers and a portal of the mid-eighteenth century. As a relief, there adjoins the main body of the church, on the southeast, one of those masterworks of the supreme Gothic era,—a canon's cloister of an exceeding thirteenth-century beauty. In other respects, the exterior is of little note except as to its wonderful degree of prominence in the general grouping of the roofs of the town, when the city is viewed from below.
The interior spreads itself out in severe and imposing lines with hardly a remarkable feature in either transepts or nave. The organ-loft, a Calvary, and a marble statue of the Virgin, by Lescornel, a sculptor of Langres, and a few modern sculptured monuments, are the only decorative attributes to be seen, if we except the Renaissance Chapelle des Fonts Baptismaux with its sculptured vaulting on the left.
The symmetrical choir is in itself the true charm of St. Mammes. It has a fine ambulatory, and a range of eight monolithic columns, removed, says tradition, from an ancient Pagan temple. Their capitals are ornamented with carven foliage, grimacing heads, and fantastic animals.
A sixteenth-century screen surrounds the choir, but is more like unto a triumphal arch than a churchly accessory.
The high altar is a comparatively modern work, as may be supposed, and dates only from 1810.
On the right of the choir is an elaborate Roman doorway, and preserved in the Chapter Room are five paintings depicting the "Chaste Susanne." A remarkable collection of reliques is shown by the sacristan, in the Chapelle des Reliques.
The small town of Auxonne, lying between Dijon and Besançon, is seldom thought of in connection with a cathedral church. There is little there to compel one's attention beyond the fact that the Church of Notre Dame, of the fourteenth-sixteenth century, is an interesting enough example of a minor edifice which at one time was classed as a cathedral.
The church is mainly Gothic and has the unusual arrangement of a Romanesque tower rising above the transept.
Noarbitrary territorial arrangement can be made to include with exactness each and every ecclesiastical division, but, since the Royal Domain and the immediately adjacent territory includes the major portion of what are commonly accepted as the Grand Cathedrals, it has been thought permissible, in the present case, to make a further subdivision which shall include Boulogne and St. Omer, north of Paris; eastward to the Rhine and southward to include Dijon and Besançon. A topographer might not make such a division or arrangement of territory; but no other seems possible which shall include the region lying between the extremes of Besançon and Boulogne.
The local characteristics or architectural types differ widely within these limits, both as to style and excellence. In one way, only, have they advanced under conditions of unity,that of the establishment of a Christian church, but, otherwise, now favouring the northern influence and now the southern. The frontier provinces have, as a natural course, been subject to many retarding influences which have been wanting elsewhere; for invasion from without may be depended upon to be as baneful for the preservation of a nation's art treasures as a revolution from within. The Christian element early forced its way among the Franks, and Clovis, at the solicitation of his Christian queen and her bishop, was not averse to adopting what he might otherwise have regarded as a superstition. His conversion at Reims not only fostered and propagated Christianity, but gave an impetus to the foundation and building of churches in a most generous fashion.
The region to the eastward of Paris, which has played no unimportant part in the history of France, while prolific as to varied types of church building, possesses but one example of the very first rank,—and that, as a style which typifies Gothic art, may be said to rank supreme over all others,—Notre Dame de Reims. As the seat of the Metropolitain, and the City of Coronations, it was allied closely with early affairs of Church and State.
The principles and manner adopted by Guillaume of Sens in his great works early affected the style here, as seen by the many transition examples, just as the influence of the Monk of St. Bénigne of Dijon caused the round-arched species of the west of France. At all events the primitive Gothic influences were early at work and in a measure absorbed the Romanesque tendencies which had flourished previously.
The most notable exception, an example of the distinctly southern type, is at Besançon, which has a remarkable array of contrasting style, with the Romanesque, though not of the best, predominating.
With the cathedrals in the extreme northerly section we have little to do,—in fact there is little that can be said. St. Omer is possessed of a wonderful old church which at one time ranked as a cathedral, and which has glimpses here and there of very good Gothic. There are also, in this otherwise not very interesting city, two other church buildings worthy of more than an ordinary amount of attention, the ruins of the Abbey of St. Bertin and the Church of St. Denis.
Boulogne-sur-Mer has a modern pseudo-classical structure built well into thenineteenth century. It is more notable as a monument to the industry of the man who brought about its erection, taking the place of a former structure burnt during the Revolution, than as a satisfactory example of a great church. The same may be said with equal truth of the atrocious Renaissance and Pagan structures to be seen at Cambrai and Arras, though the conditions under which they were built differ. At Cambrai, however, the present building replaces a former structure levelled by fire.
Châlons-sur-Marne,—dear to every French patriot as being renowned for the manufacture of flags, a suffragan of Reims, has a remarkable cathedral of Romanesque foundation of the fifth to the seventh centuries. Its warlike record, from 273A. D., when Aurelian vanquished Tetricus, to the occupation by the Germans in 1871, is one long succession of military affairs. To-day the city is the domicile of the most important army corps of France.
These towns, with Nancy, Toul, and St. Dié in the valley of the Moselle, complete the list of those cities which by any stretch of territorial boundaries could be classed under the head of "East of Paris."
It may be a debatable point as to whetherStrasbourg and Metz might not have been included; the writer is inclined to think that they might have been, though their interests and influences have always been more Teutonic than Gallic,—still, they are thoroughly Germanized to-day, and, as we cannot interrupt the march of time, and the present volume will otherwise approach the limits originally set out for it, they must perforce be omitted.
CATHEDRAL NANCY
BOULOGNE
Boulogne-sur-meris one of those neglected tourist points through which the much travelled person usually rushes en route to some other place. It perhaps hardly warrants further consideration except for the history of its past, and its intimate association with certain events which might seriously have affected the history of England. It is, however, an interesting enough place to-day, if one cares for the bustle and rush of a seaport and fishing town,—not very cleanly, and overrun with tea-shops and various establishments which cater only to the cockney abroad, who gathers here in shoals during the summer months. There is, too, a large colony of resident English, probably attracted by its nearness to London, and possibly for purposes of retrenchment, for there is no question but that the franc, of twenty per cent. less value than the shilling, accomplishes quite as much asa purchasing power. This must be quite a consideration withpater-familiaswith a limited income derived from Consols or some other traditionally "excellent investment."
Most travellers are familiar with what attractions Boulogne really does offer, but few if any would consider its very modern and ugly cathedral one of them.
Perched in the centre of theHaute-Ville, overlooking the city and port, the Cathedral of Notre Dame exists to-day more as a monument to the energy and devotion of its founder than as a notable architectural work. It follows no particular style, except that it is Italian of the most debased general type, though no doubt parts of it meet the dimensions and formulas laid down by accepted good examples in its native land. There is no doubt but that its domed cupola is manifestly out of place, though this detail is the only feature which gives the cathedral any distinction.
A Gothic church stood here up to the Revolution, and the building of the present structure was devotedly undertaken to replace its loss by a doubtless earnest man, who, in his zeal, sought to build after what he considered a newer if not a better style. Parts of thecrypt are of the ancient twelfth century church; but the structure above dates from 1827-66.
Its façade, of a poor classical order, is flanked by two slight cupola towers equally meaningless and insignificant. Surmounting the central dome is a colossal statue of the Virgin.
The interior is in no way remarkable or interesting. There are a few monuments and a gorgeous high altar of precious marbles, mosaic, and bronze, the gift of Prince Alex Torlonia. The lady-chapel is still resorted to as a place of pilgrimage by the seafaring and fisher folk of the neighbourhood.
A modern reproduction of a sarcophagus from the catacombs at Rome forms the tomb of Mgr. Haffreingue (1871).
Cambraiis one of that quartette of cathedral cities of northern France which in no sense take rank as ecclesiastical shrines of even ordinarily interesting, much less beautiful, attributes. Of the other three, Arras, St. Omer, and Boulogne, St. Omer alone is possessed to-day of anything approaching the great Gothic churches which were spread broadcast throughout France during the five centuries of church building in the middle ages.
In manners and customs, and indeed in speech to some extent, these cities all partake somewhat of thelocaleof those of the Low Countries. These attributes, which have retained their original identities across the borders, were for many centuries, and even so late as the seventeenth century, existent in French Flanders. Curiously enough, in none of these cities are any of the primitive Gothic types to be noted in the cathedral churches, thoughmany possess their olden-time belfries and watch towers, preserved to-day with something of the local pride which evinces itself elsewhere with respect to cathedrals. It is possible that this is due to the fact that this great industrial centre of northern France is more given to the arts of manufacture than to the devotion of church-going or even of church building. Another notable and almost universal feature of these cities are the Renaissance or Romanesque gateways,—silent reminders to-day of the mediæval communities which they once protected, and of the warlike invasions of the past.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Cambrai is on the site of an older abbey church, which was of the same ugly style as the present edifice itself, but which dated, however, only from the early eighteenth century. The present building is said to furnish a replica, of the vintage of 1859, of the tasteless and crude style of the earlier building. There are statues therein of Fenelon, Bishop Belmas, by David d'Angers, and of Cardinal Regnier; and a series of grisaille windows, after originals by Rubens, by Geeraerts of Anvers.
The chimes of Cambrai rank among the most noted in Europe. They are composedof thirty-nine bells and produce a carillon, "very agreeable," says a French authority. They certainly do,—the author can endorse this from a personal knowledge,—and they have not as yet descended to such banalities as popular military marches. The largest bell, given by Fenelon in 1786, weighs 7,500 kilos.
Notre Dame de Cambrai
UnderBaldwin of Hainault, Artois, including St. Omer, was ceded to the kingdom of France as late as the mid-seventeenth century. Few minor churches are possessed of the galaxy of charms and attractions of theci-devantCathedral of Notre Dame at St. Omer. Hardly in the accepted forms of good taste are the Byzantine slabs of marble stuck upon the walls here and there, as in a museum; the Renaissance screens; the overpowering organ case; the votive offerings and tablets without number; and the alleged wonderful astronomical clock, with its colossal wooden figures of the sixteenth century,—all of which go to compose a heterogeneous mass more interesting as to occasional detail than as a thorough expression of saintly temperament.
The decorative scheme is carried still further by the large number of paintings withwhich the church is hung; a tribute none too common in France, and more usually associated with the Flemish churches of nearly every rank. A reflection of their preëminence in this respect is naturally enough visible in French Flanders.
"The Descent from the Cross," attributed to Rubens, appears likely enough to be a genuine master, but it has been so roughly restored by overpainting, that it is to-day of impaired value.
St. Omer, among all the group of northeast France, presents a true Gothic example in its great Basilique de Notre Dame, and it is a pity that its further development was along lines which indicate a trend, at least, toward debasement. This is plainly to be noted in the tracery of the lower and clerestory windows of nave and aisles.
Its enormous tower covers nearly the entire western end of nave and aisles, in much the same way as those of some of the fortified churches of the south. Its Gothic is of the true perpendicular style, however, and, with the general grand proportions of the building, gives that immensity and massiveness which is associated only with a church of the first rank. Thearcs-boutantof thenave are hardly deserving of mention as such, though they are manifestly sturdy props which perform their functions in perhaps as efficacious a manner as many more graceful and delicate specimens elsewhere. There is just a suggestion of a central tower, which, as is often the case in France, has dwindled to a mere cupola, if it had ever previously grown to a greater height. The transepts are of imposing dimensions, that on the south having an enormous rose of perhaps thirty-five feet in diameter, with an elaborately carved portal below, which contains a "Last Judgment" in the tympanum. The choir, chevet, and chapels, while existent to a visible and very beautiful degree, are somewhat overshadowed by the great size of the transepts. There is this to be said, however: that the choir, a restoration of our own day, presents, as to style, the type of Gothic purity at its height. It has five radiating chapels, not including that of Notre Dame des Miracles, which adjoins the south transept and contains innumerable votive tablets. For the rest, except for the fact that the interior partakes of a mere collection of curios and relics, it is in general no less imposing in its proportions than the exterior. The clerestory windows,however, are of ill proportions for so grand a structure, being short and squat; and here, as elsewhere throughout the building, is to be found only modern glass.
The great bell of the western tower weighs 8,500 kilos.
Chief among the notable accessories and reliques is the monolithic tomb of St. Erkembode, bishop of the one-time see of Thérouanne, period 725-37. The sarcophagus itself, dating from the same century, was brought here from the original site. The tomb of St. Omer was restored in the thirteenth century and shows a remarkable sculptured group of Christ, the Virgin, and St. John, called the "Great God of Thérouanne." It was saved from the ruin of the church at Thérouanne, which was destroyed with the greater part of the town in 1533 by Charles V., in revenge for the "loss of three bishoprics," as history states. At this time the sees of St. Omer and Boulogne were founded.
The near-by Palace of Justice, built by Mansart in 1680 and enlarged for its present use in 1840, was the former Episcopal Palace.
St. Omer has also two other grand churches, St. Sepulchre, of the fourteenth century, and the ruins of St. Bertin (1326-1520), which,before the Revolution, with St. Ouen at Rouen, and the collegiate church at San Quentin, was reckoned as one of the most beautiful Gothic abbeys in France. To-day it is a magnificent ruin, its huge tower (built in 1431) and portions of the nave and crossing being all that remain. It was considered the finest church in the Low Countries, and for size, purity, and uniformity of style it ranked with the best of its contemporaries.
Thecapital of ancient Flanders was removed from Arras to Ghent when Artois was ceded to France, and thus it was that the city became French, as it were, but slowly, its Low Country traditions and customs clinging closely to it until a late day. The former Cathedral of Notre Dame ranked as a grand example of the ogival style of the fourteenth century, in which it was built, and gave to the city of the "tapestry makers" the distinction of possessing a church composed of much that was best of the architecture of a fast growing art. Such was the mediæval rank to which the cathedral at Arras had attained. The new Cathedral of St. Vaast, dating from 1755 to 1833, is of the Grecian style of temple building, little suited to the needs of a Christian church. The crucial plan consecrated by catholic usages of centuries is not however wholly abandoned. There is something of asuggestion of the Latin cross in its design, but its abside faces toward the southeast rather than due south, with its principal entrance to the northwest, a sufficiently unusual arrangement, where most French churches are duly orientated, to be remarked, particularly as there is little that can be said in praise of the structure. The interior follows the general plan of the Corinthian order; the windows, neither numerous nor of sufficiently ample dimensions to well serve their purpose, number nine only in the choir, and five on each side of the nave.
There are, to the abside, seven collateral chapels, some of which contain passable sculptured monuments, removed from the old abbey of St. Vaast, a foundation erected in the sixth century and reconstructed by Cardinal de Rohan in 1754. The remains of the old abbey buildings have been built around and incorporated in the present Episcopal Palace, the extensive Musée, and Bibliotheque; and are situated immediately to the right of the façade of the cathedral.
The grisaille glass seen in the interior is unusual, but mediocre in the extreme.
There are, however, some good statues in white marble in the Chapelle de St. Vaast,while in another chapel, given by Cardinal de la Tour d'Auvergne, is one equally good of Charles Borromée.
There are four great statues at the extremities of the transepts, representing the four evangelists; and three others in the choir, of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
In the north transept, also, are two triptychs of the Flemish school, by Bellegambe, a native of Douai (1528).
The Abbé Bourassé, in his charming work on the cathedrals of France, says, plainly, and without fear or favour: "We have tried to speak impartially of all species of architecture—but why do we not admire the Cathedral of Arras? It is against all traditions of 'notre art catholique.' We contend that this is not good. What, say you, can we praise? It is a great work—of the stone-mason; you should study it from some distance. It is without life, without movement, without dignity."
Whatever may be the faults of its cathedral, Arras is, nevertheless, an interesting city,—modernized, to be sure, by boulevards laid out along the old fortifications. The Citadel of Vauban (1670), called ironically "la belle inutile," may be classed as a worthless, if notwholly unpicturesque, ruin, though ranking, when built, as among the most wonderful fortifications of the times. The wave of Renaissance which swept northward has left its ineradicable marks here. The Hôtel de Ville is a remarkable specimen of that art of overloading ornament upon a square hulk, and making it look like a wedding-cake; though, truth to tell, coming upon it after the chilliness of the cathedral itself, it is a cheerful antidote. Dating from 1510, at which time was built the curious Gothic façade of seven arches, each different as to size and spring. The added wings in elaborate Renaissance are of the late sixteenth century and rank among the most effective examples of the style in France. A belfry surmounts all, 240 feet in height, the "joyeuse" of which weighs nearly nine tons.
Arras may perhaps be most revered for its tapestries, its workers taking rank with those of the famous manufactories at Paris and Beauvais. Indeed, it would appear as though experts knew not to which of these three centres to assign precedence, both Arras and Paris claiming the honour of having set up the first looms. It is an ancient art, as the work of craftsmen goes, and more than onewriter who has studied deeply the fascinating intricacies ofhauteandbasse lisse, of colour, texture, design, and what not, has not hesitated to proclaim the city as having been the grandest centre of tapestry-making which the world has ever known; and regret can but be universal that it came to an end when its citizens were put to the sword by Louis XI.