I left Troyes in the evening, but I fancied I could distinguish that we did not leave the chalk till about Bar sur Seine. In the morning I found myself in a deep valley, broken by limestone rocks, and bright little streams bursting out by the road side, and hurrying down into the Seine, which seemed here about as large as the river Lee at Ware. Woods are scattered about, but in small proportion, and not enough to prevent an appearance of nakedness. After some time we left the valley, and again entered a wide common field, but much more hilly than those to which I have lately been accustomed, and here and there with a spot of wood. At last we descended through a forest, to the little village of Val Suzon. It is situated in a very deep valley, to which I can think of no nearer resemblance than Dovedale, but the rocks are less bold, and the hills less steep and high; still however, it is a fine romantic hollow, too uniformly covered with brush-wood, which, as is the case in most of the French forests, is preserved merely for fuel; and deficient in trees. Deep and narrow ravines opening into this valley, seemed a suitable resort for wolves, but it was not a time of year, or of day, to see any of these animals. The botany for the first time differed essentially from that of England. Crossing again a range of hills, we soon arrived at Dijon, which is situated at a little distance from their base.
The cathedral of St. Benigne, at Dijon, has been called a very fine building, and Millin speaks of it as a very ancient one. I therefore was in great haste to visit it, but was very much disappointed. It is indeed, of the thirteenth century, and perhaps later in style than in date, but small, poor, and deficient in expression. An older church was crushed by the fall of a lofty central tower in 1271, and the present edifice was completed in 1291. Its want of effect is perhaps partly owing to the unstained glass, and to the whitewash. Till the period of the French revolution, an ancient domical temple existed behind the choir of this church. It was composed of two circular peristyles, one above the other, and is said to have been erected A. D. 173, under Marcus Aurelius, in honour of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. In later times it was consecrated to the Virgin. Near the cathedral are two other churches, one of which is now a stable, and the other the office of weights and measures. The porch of the first is pretty good. In another part of the town there is also a group of three churches.
J. Hawksworth. Sculp.
Capital of Columns in the Porch of Notre Dame at Dijon
London. Published by J & A Arch. Cornhill. March 1st. 1828.
The principal is that of St. Michel, which is said to have been built, or rebuilt in 1030, and restored in 1338. But in 1497 it threatened ruin, and the parish repaired it, and added the present choir. Here the windows are very long and narrow. Some are united in pairs, with a rose over them, but not included in any common arch. At the ends of the transept the rose windows and the openings below them are filled with tracery. The aisles are high and well lighted, but the general effect is heavy and displeasing. The western portal is the most singular part of the edifice. The architect was Hugues Sambin, a native of Dijon, who is said to have been the friend and pupil of M. Angelo Buonarotti. The porch is a return to the first Gothic style of shafts and statues; the latter indeed have been destroyed in the storms of the revolution, except those in the soffites of the arches, where angels are represented with wings and fiddles, and these are very little damaged. Many parts are ornamented with Arabesques, and some of the capitals have the Gothic trefoil topsy-turvy. The arches are semicircular, and are surmounted by an entablature in a continued line. It seems, that on the first introduction of Italian Architecture, the first period of the renaissance, as everybody here calls it, the great lines of the construction were better preserved than they were afterwards. I met a gentleman who contended that this porch was copied from a Roman arch of triumph, and presented all the characters of one, though there is in fact no resemblance. The ease with which a Frenchman seems to utter all that comes into his head, without any fear of ridicule, ought, one would think, to give him an opportunity of speedily correcting his errors, but for some reason or other this does not take place. The middle of the porch has a little cupola. Over the porch, the five orders of architecture, disposed in all ways, are heaped over one another, “as if,” said a blacksmith, in whose shop I sheltered myself from a shower of rain, “they had got hold of Vignola, and determined to execute all he had described.” This remark was the more just, as the orders really resemble those of Vignola. It would do well for a front to St. Eustache, at Paris. The two other churches of this group are no longer used as places of worship, and the outsides did not incite me to be at the trouble of examining them within.
But the church at Dijon most worthy of attention is that of Nôtre Dame. It was built, according to Agencourt, by St. Louis; and probably therefore, in the first half of the thirteenth century; and there are many circumstances which put one in mind of the church at Mantes, attributed likewise to that monarch; but we have no account of its consecration before 1334.
The western front has some resemblance in its lower part, to the southern portal of Chartres. It has an open portico, of three arches in front, and two arches deep, with a little square additional piece. The central part is vaulted in oblique groins. The doorways are ornamented with columns singularly crowded together, and statues have been placed on some of those of the front row, but these, as usual, have been destroyed. I could not determine whether there had been any projection at the feet of these statues to give them an apparent support. The canopies above them are rather appended to the capitals, than forming part of them, and they consist of models of architecture; nearly the same subject being repeated in all of them. The space over these arches has been ornamented with figures, and we find also a sort of Roman or Arabesque ornament; but I consider this, not as indicating a difference of date, but as an approximation to a style I may expect to find in the South of France and in Italy, retaining much more of the ancient architecture, than that of our northern parts. Even in the north of France, we meet frequently with approximations to the Roman orders and ornaments in the early Gothic. Above the door of the southern portal a row of disks still remains, placed, I suppose, behind the heads of statues of saints, which have been destroyed. These are observed also at the porch of St. Germain des Prés, and in some other buildings, where they are considered as proofs of high antiquity.
Over this porch or portico are two ranges, each of nineteen columns, supporting little arches, and above and below, and between these ranges are richly ornamented bands. On these bands, in several places, are indications, as if there had been figures of animals projecting directly forwards, as you may frequently see in cases where they are introduced as water-spouts, and such figures are still seen at the back of this façade. The annexed sketch may give you an idea of what I suppose to have been the original design of the composition.