Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 1

by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Figs. 47, 48.—Nôtre Dame, Paris.

Fig. 49.—St. Leu, near Creil.

Capital from the apse.

Fig. 50.—Nôtre Dame, West Front.

Fig. 51.—St. Eusèbe, Auxerre.

harmonising with, and adding the utmost beauty to, the features of the architecture to which they are applied. I exhibit specimens of this class of foliage in Nôtre Dame ([Figs. 47], [48]). I will also call attention to a drawing of one of the capitals from the apse of St. Leu, near Creil (said to have been executed a little after a great accession of wealth to the abbey in 1175, M. le Duc says about 1190), as a specimen of the same advance in foliaged carving, and to some of the capitals from the west front of Nôtre Dame (about 1220) as examples of its success just before the systematic introduction of natural foliage.