How France Built Her Cathedrals Part 49

"... So sleep, forever sleep, O marble Pair!

Or, if ye wake, let it be then, when fair On the carved western front a flood of light Streams from the setting sun, and colors bright, Prophets, transfigured saints, and martyrs brave, In the vast western windows of the nave; And on the pavement round the Tomb there glints A checkerwork of glowing sapphire tints, And amethyst, and ruby--then unclose Your eyelids on the stone where ye repose, ... And looking down on the warm rosy tints Which checker, at your feet, the illumined flints, Say: 'What is this? We are in bliss--forgiven.

Behold the pavement of the courts of Heaven.'"

V. Nodet, _L'eglise de Brou_ (Collection, Pet.i.tes Monographics), (Paris, H. Laurens); C.J. Dufay, _L'eglise de Brou et ses tombeaux_ (Lyon, 1879); Paul Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpteur francaise de son temps_ (Paris, 1901), p. 365; Dupasquier et Didron, _Monographie de Notre Dame de Brou_ (Paris, 1842), in 4 et atlas in fol.

[163] In the XV century the dukes of Bourbon filled their capital of Moulins with art treasures, and Souvigny's abbatial, close by, was their necropolis. The present choir of Moulins Cathedral, originally the chapel of their palace, was begun by Agnes of Burgundy, daughter of Jean sans Peur, and finished by her sons, Jean II de Bourbon and Pierre II sire de Beaujeu, who in 1475 wedded the daughter of Louis XI and governed France with his wife during the minority of Charles VIII.

Jeanne of France and her husband are portrayed on the folding doors of the splendid triptych (1488-1503), by some unknown French _primitif_ now in the sacristy of Moulins Cathedral, and again in one of the three windows--warm in color and with fine, clear portrait work--in the square east wall of the chevet, gla.s.s that belongs to the transition from Gothic to Renaissance as the XV century merged in the XVI.

Fifteenth-century windows are comparatively rare, so the twelve possessed by Moulins' chief church are precious. Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, who beautified Lyons Cathedral, also appears in the Bourbon dukes' window with his two brothers. The nave of Moulins Cathedral, in black-and-white Volvic stone, is a modern rendering by La.s.sus and Millet of the Primary Gothic of the region.

Souvigny was a Cluniac priory, in which died the two great Cluny abbots, St. Majolus (d. 994), who brought to France the noted William of Volpiano, the organizer of the Romanesque renaissance of architecture, and St. Odilo (d. 1049). In 1095 Urban II stayed in Souvigny, and so did Paschal II in 1106. The XII-century church was largely reconstructed in the late-Gothic day when the prior Dom Geoffrey Chollet wished to house fittingly the splendid new Bourbon tombs. That of Louis II (comrade in arms of Dugueselin) has been attributed without proof to Jean de Cambrai, who made the Berry tomb at Bourges. M. Guigue has ably a.s.signed to Jacques Morel the tomb of Charles I and Agnes of Burgundy. The Bourbon line, direct in descent from St. Louis, mounted the French throne with Henry IV.

_Congres Archeologique_, 1913, p. 1, Chanoine Joseph Clemat; p. 182, Doshoulieres; J. Locquin, _Nevers et Moulins_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, II. Laurens); H. Aucouturier, _Moulins_ (1914); R. de Quirielle, _Guide archeologique dans Moulins_ (1893); Abbe Requin, "Jacques Morel et son neveu Antoine le Moiturier," in _Revue des Soc.

des Beaux-Arts des Departements_ (Paris, 1890); L. Courajod, "Jacques Morel, sculpteur bourguignon," in _Gazelle archeol_, 1885, p. 236; A. J.

de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, 1914); L. du Broe de Segange, _Hist. et description de la cathedrale de Moulins_ (Paris, 1885), vol. 2, Inventaire des richesses d'art de la France; L.

Desrosiers, _La cathedrale de Moulins, ancienne collegiale_ (Moulins, 1871); H. Faure, _Histoire de Moulins_ (Moulins, 1900), 2 vols.; G.

Depeyre, _Les ducs de Bourbon_ (Toulouse, Privat, 1897).

[164] _Congres Archeologique_, 1860, 1863, 1871, 1878, and 1910, p. 267, on the cathedral; p. 280, on Le Mans' two Benedictine churches; Abbe A.

Ledru et G. Fleury, _La cathedrale St. Julien du Mans_ (Mamers, Fleury et Dangin, 1900), folio; Gabriel Fleury, _La cathedrale du Mans_ (Collection, Pet.i.tes Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); E.

Lefevre-Pontalis, _etude historique et archeol. sur la nef de la cathedrale du Mans_ (1889); Abbe A. Ledru, _Histoire des eglises du Mans_ (Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 1905-07); R. Triger, _Le Mans a travers les ages_ (Le Mans, 1898); E. Hucher, _Vitraux peints de la cathedrale du Mans_ (Paris, Didron, 1865), folio and supplement claques; A. Echivard, _Les vitraux de la cathedrale du Mans_ (Mamers, 1913): _Bulletin Monumental_, studies on Le Mans, in vol. 7, p. 359; vol. 14, p. 348 (Hueher); vol. 26, on the Geoffrey Plantagenet enamel; also vol. 31, p.

789; vol. 37, p. 704; vol. 39, p. 483 (Dion); vol. 44, p. 373; vol. 45, p. 63 (Esnault); and vol. 72, 1908, p. 155 (Pascal V. Lefevre-Pontalis); De Wismes, _Le Maine et l'Anjou, historique, archeologique et pittoresque_ (Paris, A. Bry), 2 vols., folio; Guenet, _Le Maine ill.u.s.tre_ (Le Mans, 1902); Abbe R. Charles, _Guide ill.u.s.tre du Mans et dans la Sarthe_ (Le Mans, 1886); Kate Norgate, _England Under the Angevin Kings_ (London, 1887), 2 vols.; Mrs. J. R. Green, _Henry II_ (London, 1888); see also Davis (London, 1905); Robert Latouche, _Histoire du comte du Maine pendant le Xe et XIe siecle_ (Paris, H. Champion, 1910); H. Prentout, _Le Maine_ (Collection, Les regions de la France), (Paris, L. Cerf); _Histoire litteraire de la France_, vol.

11, p. 250, "Hildebert de Lavardin"; p. 177, "Geoffrey, abbe de Vendome"

(Paris, 1759); on Hildebert, see A. Dieudonne (1898) and P.

Deservellers.

[165] The abbey church of the Trinite has in its transept walls parts of the edifice dedicated in 1040. At the beginning of the XIII century that transept was vaulted in the eight-rib Plantagenet way, the keystones being well carved. The ambulatory and radiating chapels are early-Gothic; the choir is late XIII century; the easternmost bays of the nave are of the XIV, and its westernmost bays of the XV century. The facade is a gem of Flamboyant Gothic. There are also windows of the XIII and XV centuries, and some well-known carved choir stalls. The Merveille of Vendome, its tower of 1140, prototype for the Primary Gothic ones at Chartres and Rouen, stands free of the church. From the earlier abbatial was saved a famous XII-century window of the St. Denis school, a Byzantinesque Madonna.

_Congres Archeologique_, 1872; Abbe Plat, _Notes pour servir a l'histoire monumental de la Trinite_ (Vendome, 1907); La Martelliere, _Guide dans le Vendomois_ (Vendome, 1883).

[166] W. H. Goodyear, "Architectural Refinements in French Cathedrals,"

in _Architectural Record_, 1904-05, vols. 16, 17; _ibid._, "Architectural Refinements, a reply to Mr. Bilson," in _Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tute of British Architects_, 3d series, 1907, vol. 15, p. 17; Anthyme Saint-Paul, "Les irregularites de plan dans les eglises," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, p. 135.

Professor Goodyear's theory of intentional asymmetry in mediaeval buildings--such irregularities as curves of alignment, vertical curves, want of parallelism in walls and piers, deflection of axis--has not found favor with various French and English archaeologists, but much of what he has noted may some day be accepted as self-evident.

[167] In Le Mans are two Benedictine churches of archaeological interest.

_De Cultura Dei_ is now Notre-Dame-de-la-Couture. When the church was rebuilt after a fire in 1180, big Plantagenet Gothic vaults, each section with eight ribs, were flung over the wide nave, which originally had possessed side aisles. Vestiges of a Carolingian church, built a decade before 1000, are in the crypt and the lower walls of choir and transept, where alternance of stone and brick work appears. The chevet is the oldest example now extant of an ambulatory and radiating chapel.

In the XII century the upper choir was rebuilt, and again it was retouched during the XIII and XV centuries. The facade and the well-sculptured portal are late XIII century. A charming XVI-century Virgin, by Germain Pilon, on a pier opposite the pulpit, is to be cla.s.sed with the prolongation of the Region-of-the-Loire school of sculpture whose center was Tours. Across the Sarthe lies the other Benedictine church, the former St. Julien-du-Pre, a Romanesque edifice of the XI and XII centuries, revaulted in the Flamboyant Gothic day.

[168] "O n.o.ble peuple d'artisans! Si grands, que les artistes d'aujourd'hui n'existent pas aupres de vous!"--RODIN, _Les cathedrales de France_.

[169] De la Tremblay, Dom Coutil, _L'eglise abbatiale de Solesmes_ (Solesmes, Imprimerie St. Pierre, 1892), folio; Paul Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpture francaise de son temps_ (Paris, 1901); Dom Guepin, _Description des deux eglises abbatiales de Solesmes_, and also his _Solesmes et Dom Gueranger_ (Le Mans, 1876); Dom Gueranger, _l'Annee Liturgique_ (Paris, 1888), 12 vols., tr. Worcester, England, _The Liturgical Year_, and also his _etudes historiques de l'abbaye de Solesmes_; Cagni et Mocquereau, _Plain chant and Solesmes_ (tr. London, 1902).

Among those who have taken part in the discussion as to who made the sculptural groups at Solesmes are L. Pal.u.s.tre, Girardet, Charles and Louis de Grandmaison, Benj. Fillon, Celestin Port, Lambin de Lignin, E.

Cartier, A. Salmon, and Abbe Bosseboeuf.

[170] The church of St. Elizabeth, in Marburg, is one of the earliest Gothic monuments in Germany, 1235-83. The saint was linked with the new system of building. For the king of Hungary, Villard de Honnecourt built Ka.s.sovic church. Her aunt was the gentle Agnes of Meran, married to Philippe-Auguste. Her half sister, Yolande, wedded that other builder of churches, Jaime el Conquistador, from whom sprang Yolande of Aragon, King Rene's mother, also a builder. St. Elizabeth's niece, daughter of the king of Hungary, married Charles II d'Anjou, who began the best Gothic church in Provence, at St. Maximin.

[171] Amedee Boinet, _Verdun et St. Mihiel_ (Collection, Pet.i.tes Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens).

[172] Amedee Boinet, _St. Quentin_ (Paris, H. Laurens); Ch. Gomart, "Notice sur l'eglise de St. Quentin," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1856, p.

226; and 1870, p. 201; Pierre Benard, _Monographie de l'eglise de St.

Quentin_ (Paris, 1867), 8vo; also his studies in the publication of the _Societe Academique ... de Soissons_, 1864, p. 260; and 1874, p. 300; Lecocq, _Histoire de la ville de St. Quentin_ (St. Quentin, 1875); J. B.

A. La.s.sus, ed., _L'alb.u.m de Villard de Honacort_ (Paris, 1858; and London, tr. by Willis, 1859); Jules Quicheral, _Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire_ (1886), vol. 2, on Villard de Honnecourt's alb.u.m; Camille Enlart, _Hotels de ville et beffrois du nord de la France_ (Paris, H.

Laurens, 1919); _ibid_. on Villard de Honnecourt, in _Bibli. de l'ecole des chartes_, 1895.

[173] Alfred Noyes, _Collected Poems_ (London, Methuen; New York, Fred.

A. Stokes Co.).

[174] J. Berthele, "L'architecture plantagenet," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1903, p. 234; E. Lefevre-Pontalis, "L'architecture plantagenet," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1910; Prosper Merimee, _Notes d'un voyage dans l'Ouest de la France_ (1836); Choyer, "L'architecture des Plantagenets," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1871, p. 257; Celestin Port, _Dictionnaire de Maine-et-Loire_, 3 vols.; Abbe Bosseboeuf, _L'architecture plantagenet_(Angers, Lachene, 1897).

[175] Saintes lies on the Charente, some fifty miles from Angouleme. In the venerable XII-century church of St. Eutrope cropped out one of the early sporadic uses of diagonals. Its crypt, which is one of the largest in France, is braced on heavy, semicircular arches. The exterior of the apse is decorated. Nothing is left of the original nave; the present one is transitional work. The choir and part of the transept are of the XV century. The superb tower, with corner-turret effects that rise from base to summit, was finished with a spire by 1480. It is said that John XXII, who promulgated the Angelus by his bull of 1318, had learned its usage from a custom of St. Eutrope. The church of St. Pierre, at Saintes, rebuilt in 1117, and again in 1450, has another Flamboyant Gothic tower of good design, which is now much wasted by decay. See _Congres Archeologique_, 1894; 1912, pp. 195, 309; also _Bulletin Monumental_, 1907, vol. 71; J. Laferriere et G. Musset, _L'art en Saintonge et en Aunis_; Ch. Dangibeaud, _L'ecole de sculpture romane saintongeaise_ (Paris, 1910).

[176] _Congres Archeologique_, 1858, 1901, and 1910; Chanoine Roux, _Monographie de St. Front de Perigueux_ (Perigueux, 1920); J. A.

Brutails, "La question de St. Front," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1895, p.

125; 1906, p. 87; 1907, p. 517; Anthyme Saint-Paul, on St. Front, in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1888, p. 163; 1891, p. 321; 1906, p. 5; Felix de Verneilh, _L'architecture byzantine en France_, 1851; R. Michel-Dansac, _De l'emploi des coupoles sur la nef dans le sud-ouest Aquitain_; Corroyer, _L'architecture romane_, 1888; _ibid._, _L'architecture gothique_, 1899; Ch. H. Besnard, "etude sur les coupoles et votes domicales du sud-ouest de la France," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1912, vol. 2, p. 118; Abbe Pecout, _Perigueux_; R. Phene Spiers, "St. Front de Perigueux et les a.s.sises a coupoles," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1897; 1907, p. 175.

[177] The cathedral of Cahors was damaged by earthquake in 1303, after which its apse was rebuilt as Gothic, but not too much out of harmony with the rest of the church. The ancient frescoes are full of interest.

At the north end of the transept is a now unused portal, whose sculpture belongs to the same Midi school as Moissac, but later and calmer work.

The Christ of its tympanum is cla.s.sed with Vezelay, Chartres, and Beaulieu--the supreme Christ images of Romanesque art. M. Forel praises the angels' magnificent gesture of adoration. The XIV-century west front resembles those of the Brunswick churches whose facade and towers comprise one ma.s.sive up to the roof. John XXII (1316-33), the second Avignon pope, was born in Cahors, where he founded the university, contributed toward the cathedral, and built a bridge over the Lot which is considered the handsomest of the Middle Ages. In the diocese of Cahors is Rocamadour, the most picturesque pilgrim shrine of Our Lady in France, visited by St. Louis. E. Rey, _La cathedrale St. etienne de Cahors_ (Cahors, J. Girma, 1911); _Congres Archeologique_, 1907, p. 413; Alexis Forel, _l'Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_, vol. 2, p. 52; "Le cloitre de la cathedrale de Cahors," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1883, p. 110; E. Rupin, _Roc-amadour_ (Paris, Baranger, 1904).

[178] _Congres Archeologique_, 1847, 1903, and 1912; Biais, _La cathedrale d'Angouleme_ (Paris, H. Laurens); H. de la Mauviniere, _Poitiers et Angouleme_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, H.

Laurens, 1908); J. George, _La cathedrale d'Angouleme_ (Angouleme, Cha 1901-04); Michon, _Histoire de l'Angoumois_, 1846; _ibid._, _Statistique monumentale de la Charente_, 1844; Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire de l'architecture_ (see article _coupole_); Sharpe, _A Visit to the Domed Churches of Charente_ (London, 1876); J. A. Brutails and Spiers, "Les coupoles du Perigord et de l'Angoumois," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1895, 1897, 1906, and 1907.

[179] Four miles from Angouleme is the curious octagonal church of St.

Michel d'Entraignes (1137), built up to its big dome, as it were. Close to it is Fleae, whose three cupolas have no separate bases, but are pierced directly by the big arcades, which is more the Byzantine way of making a cupola than the French. Six miles from Angouleme are the ruins of La Couronne abbatial, where once was a Plantagenet Gothic choir; and ten miles away, at Roullet, is a remarkable sculptured facade. Aulnay's fine church has a decorated front, well-cut capitals, and a ribbed cupola, without distinct pedestal. Pont l'Abbe possesses one of the best Romanesque facades in France. At Ruffec and at Civray are others. There is a church at Charroux with the curious plan of three aisles round a central octagon. Cupola churches are to be found at Plazzac, Ba.s.sac, Gensae, Cognac, Souillae, and Solignac, six miles from Limoges. Studies of these churches by E. Lefevre-Pontalis, L. Serbat, and Andre Rhein are to be found in the _Congres Archeologique_, 1912.

[181] _Congres Archeologique_, 1862 and 1910; L. Magne, "L'ancienne abbaye de Fontevrault," in _L'architecte_, 1910, p. 60; A. de Caumont, "Fontevrault," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1867, p. 73; Bernard Pal.u.s.tre, "Les coupoles de Fontevrault," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1898, vol. 63, p. 500; Honorat Nicquet, _Histoire de l'ordre de Fontevraud_, 1642; G.

Malifaud, _L'abbaye de Fontevrault, notices historiques et archeologiques_ (Angers, 1866); Abbe Bosseboeuf, _Fontevrault, son histoire et ses monuments_ (Tours, 1867); edouard, _Fontevrault et ses monuments_ (Paris, 1874), 2 vols.; Joseph Joubert, "Les mausolees des Plantagenets a Fontevrault," in _Mem. de la Soc. d'arts d'Angers_, 1903; and 1906, p. 61, Chanoine Urseau; Vietor Pavie, "Westminster et Fontevrault," in _Mem. de la Soc. d'arts d'Angers_, 1866, p. 229; _Histoire litteraire de la France_ (Paris, 1756), vol. 10, p. 153, "Robert d'Arbrissel."

[182] Louis Corroyer, _L'architecture gothique_ (Paris, 1899), p. 1. "La coupole, sous sa forme symbolique, est l'oeuf d'ou est sorti un systeme architectonique qui a cause une revolution des plus fecondes dans le domaine de l'art."

[183] "_Dans ces choses-la on eu dit plus qu'il n'y en a, mais aussi il y a souvent plus qu'on eu dit_," says the discreet historian Mezerai.

[184] _Congres Archeologique_, 1910, the cathedral of Angers; p. 161, Chanoine Urseau; p. 182, St. Serge; p. 228, the chateau; p. 232, l'eveche; Louis de Farcy, _Monographie de la cathedrale d'Angers_ (1910), 3 vols. and alb.u.m; _ibid._, _Les vitraux de la nef de la cathedrale d'Angers_ (1912); J. Denais, _Monographie de la cathedrale d'Angers_ (Paris, 1899); John Bilson, "Angers Cathedral, the Vaults of the Nave," in _Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tute of British Architects_, 1911-12, p. 727; also in the _Congres Archeologique_, 1910, vol. 2, p.

203; V. G.o.dard-Faultrier, _Repertoire archeologique de l'Anjou_ (1865); L. Halphen, _Le comte d'Anjou au XIe siecle_ (Paris, Picard, 1906); Leon Pal.u.s.tre, _La Renaissance en France_ (3 vols.), vol. 3, Anjou et Poitou (Paris, Quantin); H. Jouin, _Les musees d'Angers_ (Paris, Plon, 1885), 4to; Pean de la Tuilerie, _Le Maine et l'Anjou_; Wismes, _Le Maine et l'Anjou, historiques, archeol. e pittoresque_ (Paris), 2 vols., folio; E. Lelong, "Histoire et mon. d'Angers," in _Angers et l'Anjou_ (1903); Lecoy de la Marche, _Le roy Rene, sa vie, son administration_ (Paris, 1875), 2 vols.; Kate Norgate, _England Under the Angevin Kings_ (London, 1887), 2 vols.; De Solies, _Foulques Nerra_; Celestin Port, _Dictionnaire historique, geographique, et biographique de Maine-et-Loire_ (Paris and Angers, 1874-78), 3 vols. also his _Notes et notices angevins_ (Angers, 1879); A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, Macmillan Company, 1914); Sir J. H. Ramsay, _The Angevin Empire_, (London, 1903).

[185] Ch. H. Besnard, "La coupole nervee de la Tour St. Aubin d'Angers,"

in _Congres Archeologique_, 1910, vol. 2, p. 196; L. de Farcy, "Tour St.

Aubin," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, p. 558.

[186] Beginning with a Breton woodsman, five counts of Anjou ruled before Fulk III the Black (989-1040). He held Vendome, Amboise, and Loches, where he founded Beaulieu Abbey, and he won Chinon, and Saumur, where he established St. Florent-les-Saumur. His grandfather, Fulk II the Good, a canon in St. Martin's at Tours, and a poet, had said, "_Rex illiteratus est asinus coronatus_," which Henry I of England was fond of repeating. The son of Fulk Nerra was Geoffrey Martel (d. 1060), who won Tours and Le Mans, but later lost the overlords.h.i.+p of the latter to William the Conqueror. He founded the Trinite at Vendome. Geoffrey and Fulk, his two nephews, succeeded in turn, but Geoffrey was kept imprisoned in Chinon for almost thirty years by his unnatural brother Fulk Rechin, or the Quarreler, who had all the greed, subtlety, and turbulance of his line, without its genius for statesmans.h.i.+p. He is counted as the first historian of the Middle Ages. (See _Hist. litter.

de la France_ (Paris, 1750), vol. 9, p. 391.) Fulk Rechin's son by the beautiful Bertrada de Montfort (who deserted him for the king of France) was Fulk V, who wedded the heiress of Maine. When later Fulk V won a second heiress in the East, he left Anjou and Maine to his son Geoffrey the Handsome, and reigned as king of Jerusalem (d. 1143). Geoffrey (d.

1151), nicknamed Plantagenet, married to the heiress of Normandy and England, always preferred Le Mans to Angers. His son became Henry II of England and a leader in Europe because of his territorial possessions on the Continent and his ability as a statesman.

[187] The abbatial of St. Nicolas-du-Ronceray is in a lamentable state; its nave serves as a hall for the Arts and Crafts school, the transept's north arm is a laundry, and its south arm a roofless ruin. The dome at its crossing is without distinct pedestal. The nuns of this house erected at the side of their own sanctuary, the Trinite church for parish use. The present admirable Trinite was built after a fire in 1062. Its chevet and transept are the oldest parts, and then rose the nave, covered with First-Period Angevin vaults (c. 1170). Chapel-like niches are lost in the thickness of the walls.

Angers' abbatial of St. Martin contains Gallo-Roman, Merovingian, and Carolingian vestiges, and parts of the XI, XII, and XV centuries. Fulk Nerra rebuilt it on returning from one of his pilgrimages. Over its transept-crossing is a dome modeled on the one at Fontevrault, without separate pedestal. The church possesses one of the earliest eight-branch Gothic vaults extant; King Rene added the Flamboyant parts. Chanoine Pinier at his own expense is restoring the choir and transept.

_Congres Archeologique_, 1910, vol. 1, p. 211, "St. Martin," Chanoine Pinier; and vol. 2, p. 12, "St. Nicolas-du-Ronceray," E.