The great eastern limb of the church is raised above the transepts by three steps. Once we have passed into the Ambulatory, or pourtour, of the choir, we are in the most interesting part of the building; for here our story is of historical monuments and decorative objects still happily existing, and not an account of things which have long since ceased to be. When we step into the ambulatory, we pass from newer to older work, but we experience no violent transition from one style to another. The style of the choir is, speaking generally, the style of the whole church. The differences, interesting as they are to the minute student of architectural development, are such as would remain unnoticed by those who do not pretend to special knowledge. This unity reminds one of an Italian Romanesque basilica rather than a Gothic cathedral. Viollet-le-Duc has noted that the capitals in the triforium of the choir seem to be earlier in date than those of the main arcade beneath it; that if nothing were left save the capitals of the two parts, one would conclude that those of the triforium were earlier. This is manifestly impossible, but it shows that not the smallest deviation of style was allowed in constructing the upper story.

Among the capitals of the columns in the choir there are a few representations of animal life amongst the conventional foliage, while the capitals in the nave represent foliage alone. The choir is throughout a shade nearer Romanesque than the nave, but the difference is so slight that only close examination reveals it. Already we have remarked on the superiority of an apsidal termination to any other form in a Gothic church. The ordered grandeur of Notre Dame is nowhere more impressive than in the beautiful sweep of the apse with its spacious ambulatory. It must have been even more imposing in its simplicity before the construction of the side chapels was undertaken, although we are far from regretting an addition which, though it may have reduced the original dignity of the church, has added variety to it and rendered it more interesting.

Let us begin our detailed examination of the choir and its chapels with the famous Screen of sculptures by Jehan Ravy and his nephew Jehan le Bouteiller, which we must study from the ambulatory. In his History of Sculpture, Professor Wilhelm Lübke devotes considerable space to this series in the chapter devoted to “Northern Sculpture in the Late Gothic Epoch” (1300 to 1450). After stating that France exhausted herself during the golden age of Gothic sculpture, and that the period under discussion was so stormy as to be unfavourable to the production of works of art, he writes of the screen as follows:

“One of the most important works of the epoch [the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries] are the extensive reliefs which cover the choir screen in the interior of the Cathedral of Paris. These are only the remains of the formerly far richer plastic ornament which, in a great measure, fell a sacrifice under Louis XIV. to a vain love of ostentation. The earlier series on the north side contains a crowded representation in an unbroken line of the History of Christ; from the Annunciation to the Prayer at Gethsemane. These representations are vividly conceived, and the style in which they are executed breathes the spirit of the thirteenth century. Perhaps they belong to the end of that century or to the beginning of the next. The reliefs on the south side are different in many points. They continue the History of Christ; and, indeed, the whole was so arranged that the cycle which began at the east passed along the north side to the west end of the choir, and was continued on the lectern,[15] where the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection were depicted in front of the congregation, concluding at the south side in a scene moving from west to east. Of the latter scenes, the only ones now in existence are those which extend from the Meeting of Christ as the Gardener with Mary Magdalen to the Farewell to the Disciples after the Resurrection. The artist of these later scenes left his name, in an inscription that has now disappeared,[16] as Jehan Ravy, who for twenty-six years conducted the building of Notre Dame, at the end of which time it was completed under his nephew Master Jehan de Bouteiller, in 1351. Master Ravy evidently thought that he could improve upon his predecessor’s work on the north side; for while the latter had combined the scenes into one unbroken series, he divided his into separate compartments by arcades, so that these later representations, which are still in existence, are separated from each other by small columns. In so doing he followed the general taste of the century, which was inclined to exchange a picturesque character for the calm epic relief of the former period. While, however, his somewhat short figures are certainly superior in correctness to the figures of the north side, owing to his understanding of the physical structure and to the neatness of execution, there is in the figures of the north side a fresher tone of feeling and more grace of action, compared with which the far more constrained attitudes of the later works form an unpleasing contrast, and even occasionally degenerate into commonplaceness. Thus in these works, in spite of all expenditure of artistic care, there is an unmistakable decline of creative power.”

[15] The Rood-loft.

[16] This has been restored, and reads: “C’est maistre Jehan Ravy maçon de Notre Dame par l’espace XXV ans qui commença ces nouvelles histoires, et Jehan le Bouteiller son nepveu qui les aparfaites en MCCCLI.”

The series on the north side should be visited first. The scenes are fourteen in number, and have reference to the Visitation:

The later works on the south side, in which Professor Lübke traces a decline of creative force, represent: