How France Built Her Cathedrals: A Study in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly

[203] De la Croix, Étude du baptistère de St. Jean de Poitiers (Poitiers, 1903); E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, “Les fouilles du R. P. de la Croix au baptistère de St. Jean à Poitiers,” in Bulletin Monumental, 1902, vol. 66, p. 529; Mgr. X. Barbier de Montault, Œuvres complètes (various studies on the monuments of Poitiers and its region), (Poitiers, Blais et Roy, 1899).

[204] Like other Greek works of the period the Minerva at Poitiers shows the influence of Egyptian art in its stiff, regal attitude. The proud, full chin is uplifted. The shapely back is molded by a leopard’s skin. The right arm is missing, but the left arm is honey-hued and as delicate as flesh in appearance. She bears the olive branch of peace, this wise Minerva.

[205] Lucien Magne, Le Palais de Justice de Poitiers.

[206] Congrès Archéologique, 1850 and 1895; Abbé Ph. Gobillot, La cathédrale de Clermont (Clermont-Ferrand, F. L. Bellet, 1912); H. du Ranquet, La cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); ibid., “Les architectes de la cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand,” in Bulletin Monumental, 1912, vol. 76, p. 7; G. Desdevises du Dézert et L. Bréhier, Clermont-Ferrand, Royat et le Puy-de-Dôme (Collection, Villes d’art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1910); Louis Bréhier, L’Auvergne (Collection, Les provinces françaises), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1910); ibid., in Revue de l’art chrétien, 1912, on the capitals of Notre Dame-du-Port; G. Fraipont, L’Auvergne (Collection, Montagnes de France), (Paris, H. Laurens); E. Vimont, Les deux principales églises de Clermont; R. de Lasteyrie, L’architecture religieuse en France à l’époque romane (Paris, 1912); H. Stein, Les architectes des cathédrales gothiques (Paris, 1912); Prosper Mérimée, Notes d’un voyage en Auvergne (Paris, 1838); Alexis Forel, Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols.; Saveron, Les origines de la ville de Clermont; Ambrose Tardieu, Histoire de la ville de Clermont; G. Desdevises du Dézert, Bibliographie du centenaire des croisades à Clermont-Ferrand (Clermont-Ferrand, 1895); D. Branche, Auvergne au moyen âge (Clermont-Ferrand, 1842); Paul Allard, St. Sidoine Apolinaire (Collection, Les Saints), (Paris, Lecoffre); Taylor et Nodier, Voyage pittoresque dans l’ancienne France. Auvergne (Paris, Didot, 1829-33), 3 vols.

[207] “Il est peu de constructions ogivales qui se présentent d’un façon plus dégagée et plus pittoresque. La sombre masse se détache de la ville aux rues tortueuses comme une haute statue de son piédestal. Les deux flèches hardies s’encadrent dans la cirque majestueux de montagnes volcaniques. Il semble que la cathédrale soit le Mont-Saint-Michel de cette baie aux lumières mouvantes. Tantôt silhouettée par de vigoureux éclairages, tantôt estompée par les vapeurs qui planent dans la vallée, et quelquefois, aux heures matinales émergeant de leur nappe grise, comme une haute mâture au-dessus de la mer tranquille, elle reste toujours fière, imposante, poétique.”—Louis Gonse, L’art gothique (Paris, 1891).

[208] The Chaise Dieu monastery, founded by St. Robert in 1043, was later affiliated with Cluny. The present church was begun in 1344 by Clement VI, who built the choir and four bays of the nave. The abbatial was completed, after 1370, by his nephew, Gregory XI. Clement had Avignon artists prepare his funeral monument, which originally possessed over forty statuettes representing his relatives, for he came of the great lines of Beaufort and Turenne. The Casa Dei abbatial, though possessed of grandeur, is dull and heavy. The aisles are as high as the principal span. The octagonal piers with uncut capitals lack elegance and lightness, the windows are the narrowest lancets, and there are no flying buttresses. Molds die away in the piers above the capitals—an early appearance of Flamboyant Gothic. The cloister (1378-1417) is frankly late-Gothic. The denuded church once was filled with the tombs of local magnates, among them those of the Lafayette family, precious pages of French history obliterated in 1562 and 1793. As if to shut out the funereal, humid aisles, the choir has been lined with tapestries (begun in 1492) unsurpassed in France. They reproduce the Mirror of Perfection and the Bible of the Poor, two books popular in the XIII and XIV centuries. Each episode of the Saviour’s life is accompanied by scenes of the Old Testament, prefiguring it. On the outer wall of the choir screen is a sketch, a Dance of Death, with the grim skeleton stalking in and out, touching with his chill finger pope, baron, burgher, page, field laborer, and little child. No XIII-century church had allowed so gruesome a theme on its walls. This lugubrious allegory came into vogue after the Black Death of 1348, when a third of Europe’s population perished. Congrès Archéologique, 1904, pp. 54, 402; E. Durand, La Chaise Dieu (1903); Maurice Fançon, L’église abbatiale de la Chaise Dieu en Auvergne; Émile Mâle, L’art religieux de la fin du moyen âge (Paris, Colin, 1910).

[209] “Quiconque en a senti une fois la beauté forte et simple de ce vigoureux style roman-auvergnat, dont l’origine demeure mystérieuse, n’oublie plus ces églises, solides, trapues, ramassées, dont l’ordonnance extérieure, au lieu d’être un décor plaqué, reproduit en relief l’ordonnance intérieure. Vue du chevet surtout, avec l’hémicycle de leurs chapelles serrées, accolées contre la masse de l’édifice, elles donnent une saisissante impression d’aplomb et d’unité.”—Paul Bourget, Le demon du midi (Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1913).

The feast of Notre Dame-du-Port falls on May 15th, and the city is illuminated with myriads of little lamps.

[210] Polychrome decoration is to be found everywhere in Auvergne: Royat, Riom, Mozac, Saint-Saturnin, Orcival, Saint-Nectaire (where are some of the best carved capitals in the region), Issoire (observe La cène sculptured on one of its capitals), Le Puy, and Brioude. This latter is one of the most beautiful of XII-century churches, showing Burgundian traits as well as those of Auvergne and the Velay. The influence of the Romanesque school of Auvergne spread to Parthenay, Saintes, Nevers, Toulouse, Santiago, and Avila. Congrès Archéologique, 1904, p. 542, E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, on Brioude; Congrès Archéologique, 1895, pp. 96, 238, 292, on Saint-Nectaire; and p. 177, “École romane d’Auvergne,” H. du Ranquet; Bulletin Monumental, 1909, vol. 73, p. 213, “Saint-Nectaire,” Abbé G. Rochias.

[211] Those who visit Riom (which lies close to Clermont) should go to Aigueperse, eight miles away, to see Mantegna’s St. Sebastian and a Nativity by a brother of Ghirlandajo. As the lord of the region, a Bourbon-Montpensier—who died in 1496, had married the sister of the Gonzaga ruler of Mantua, these treasures probably came through that source. Congrès Archéologique, 1895; and 1913, p. 124, Mozac, Abbé Luzuy; p. 144, Riom, P. Gauchery; Paul Mantz, “Une tournée en Auvergne,” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1886; Abbé R. Crégut, La vierge du Mathuret (Clermont-Ferrand, 1902); ibid., Les vitraux de la Sainte-Chapelle de Riom (1906); E. Clouard, Les gens d’autrefois aux XV^e et XVI^e siècles. (The controversy on the Madonna of the Bird is here summed up); Gondalon, Riom et ses environs (Riom, Jouvet, 1904); A. de Champeaux et P. Gauchery, Les travaux d’art exécutés pour Jean, duc de Berry (Paris, II. Champion, 1891); Camille Eulart, Le musée de sculpture comparée du palais du Trocadéro (on the vierge à l’oiseau), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1913).