This western cupola, which is ovoid, and some fifty-three feet in diameter, like that of the east, is
divided by its pictorial scheme into eight sectors, separated by wide bands of boldly-designed fruits and flowers. [Fig. 116] gives an exact idea of the general arrangement. Eight colossal figures of prophets, varying in height from fifteen to sixteen feet approximately, form the chief motives of the decoration. David, the prophet king, and the four great prophets: Daniel to the left of David; then in order, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel on the right, towards the choir of the church, and the three minor prophets—Jonah, Esdras, and Habakkuk—are painted in modulated tones, the dark outline forming a setting, on a background varying from tawny to deep red. The figures are enframed in a firmly-drawn architectural setting. This architecture is painted in gray against the masonry, the courses of which are indicated by double lines of brown upon the pale ochre of the general surface. Each prophet holds a phylactery or banderole inscribed with his name in beautiful thirteenth-century characters.
The floriated bands which divide the sectors terminate above in a circular frieze surrounding the crown of the cupola. The latter represents a starry sky, the centre painted with the apotheosis of St. Stephen, the patron of the cathedral. The frieze is painted with scenes from the trial and stoning of the Saint; the life-size figures are full of expression and grouped with great variety. In these paintings there are evident leanings towards the naturalistic evolution; and though the figures of the prophets are still hieratic in certain respects, the poses, heads, and details all point to evident research in the matter of physiognomy. This research is carried very far in the figures of the circular frieze, where the hands have evidently been carefully studied from nature.
118. PAINTINGS IN CAHORS CATHEDRAL. FRAGMENT OF THE CENTRAL FRIEZE OF THE CUPOLA
Technically speaking, these paintings are not frescoes. "The medium employed seems to have been egg, the white and yolk mixed, and the method very analogous to that of water-colour painting.... The red tones were laid over a bed of deep orange, the effect being one of extraordinary vigour and brilliance, taking into account the means at command. The use of a prepared ground was systematic, and was resorted to whenever intensity of the tones or colour effects was desired. Evident efforts in the direction of modelling are noticeable, though these have been neutralised to a great extent by a lack of concentration in the lights, and if it were not for the thick outline in which each figure is set, there would be much in common between the methods of these paintings and those renderings of diffused light affected by our modern plein-airistes. The general tone is that of the simpler paintings of the thirteenth century, that is to say, of those in which no gold was used. The effect is warm and brilliant, the dominant hue orange, heightened by reds of various tints."[39]
[39] From the technical notes of M. Gaïda.
According to the archæological records derived from various works of the historians of Le Quercy, these paintings in the west cupola of Cahors were carried out under the direction of the Bishops Raymond de Cornil, 1280-93, Sicard de Montaigu, 1294-1300, Raymond Panchelli,[40] 1300-1312, or Hugo Geraldi, 1312-16, the friend of Pope Clement V. and of Philip IV. of France, who was burnt alive at Avignon, or perhaps even of Guillaume de Labroa, 1316-24, whose residence was at Avignon, and who governed the diocese of Cahors through a procurator. From this period onwards there was no further question of decorative works, the successors of these bishops being fully occupied in maintaining the struggle against the English invaders.
[40] Raymond Panchelli, or Raymond II., who in 1303 began to build the Bridge of Valentré at Cahors.
It seems reasonable therefore to infer that the Cahors paintings date either from the end of the thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth. In any case, these decorations are of very great artistic merit, and of the highest interest as an unique example of French decorative art at the finest period of the thirteenth century, when Gothic architecture had reached its apogee, and was producing masterpieces which served as models for contemporary artists, and even more notably, for those of the early fourteenth century.
That vigilant guardian of our beautiful cathedrals and historic monuments, the Administration des Cultes, has taken measures which do it infinite honour in this matter. No attempt has been made to restore the paintings, but all necessary steps have been taken to ensure their preservation as they stand, so as to leave intact the archæological value of these convincing witnesses to the genius of our French mediæval painters.