Art And Architecture In Medieval France

Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained Glass, Manuscripts, The Art Of The Church Treasuries

Whitney S. Stoddard

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429973765
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

This is an English-language study on the architecture and art of medieval France of the Romanesque and Gothic periods between 1000-1500. In addition to essays on individual monuments there are general discussions of given periods and specific problems such as: why did Gothic come into being? Whitney Stoddard explores the interrelationship between all forms of medieval ecclesiastical art and characterization of the Gothic cathedral, which he believes to have an almost metaphysical basis.

PART I

Romanesque France

CHAPTER 1

Historical background

THE ENTHUSIASM for Romanesque art shared by contemporary architects, historians, and sensitive travelers is a relatively recent phenomenon. In 1818, the archaeologist de Gerville, describing Norman buildings, wrote of an “opus romanum dénaturé ou successivement dégradé par nos rudes ancêtres.” This characterization of Norman structures as the crude derivations of Roman art is understandable in the context of the Neo-Classic movement. As the eighteenth century deridingly labeled the seventeenth century as the “Baroque” and the Renaissance dismissed “Gothic” as the malformations of the barbarian Goths, the early nineteenth-century critics saw only negative connections between Norman and Roman. De Gerville’s observations, however, led eventually to the use of the word “Romanesque” to designate Medieval art between the decline of the Carolingian empire in the ninth and tenth centuries and the beginnings of the Gothic period in the middle of the twelfth century.

Archaeological disclosures and scholarly research in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resulted in the discovery and definition of many architectural styles. These new perspectives in terms of which the past was re-evaluated and reorganized coincided with the nineteenth-century assumption that the architectural forms of the past were ideals which could be imitated, but scarcely improved. Architectural practice in the nineteenth century thus became eclectic and decorative; architects treated the past as an enormous architectural copybook from which forms could be plucked at random. But some few architects, in particular Henry Hobson Richardson, reinterpreted creatively the power and vigor of the monuments of the past. Richardson’s buildings in Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, constructed in the 1870’s and 1880’s, give ample evidence of his extraordinarily sensitive transformation of Romanesque structures within the limitations of the broad revivalist movement. Richardson designed Henry Adams’ house in Washington and in the process converted Adams to an interest in French Romanesque.

Henry Adams’ famous book Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, privately printed in 1904, published in 1913, has served as the key to the understanding and appreciation of Romanesque art in the twentieth century. His penetrating descriptions of the militant, mural strength of the fortified island and its monastery gave new meaning to hundreds of structures which dot the western European landscape. By the marked contrast of the rugged Mount, the Archangel’s fortress, and the soaring verticality of the Cathedral of Chartres — the Virgin’s palace on earth — Henry Adams established a clear distinction between Romanesque and Gothic architecture and between the historical eras out of which these two periods of the Middle Ages grew.

Currently, the Romanesque is comprehended as a unique period of history — a period not “dark,” but possessing tremendous vitality. Modern architects react to the mural massiveness, the spatial conquests of barrel and groin vaults, and the excitement of the bold massing; and their reactions are related in turn to new achievements in reinforced concrete. Modern painters and sculptors are excited by the discovery of the visual sensitivity inherent in the interlacing forms of Romanesque sculpture and murals. Somewhat belatedly, historians are joining art historians in setting off the Romanesque as an historical period distinct from the confused century following the collapse of the Carolingian empire and at the same time distinct from the Early Gothic period of the twelfth century.

To place Romanesque art in its proper historical ambient, it is necessary to explore briefly some of the forces and factors of the early Middle Ages. In the broadest terms, the Middle Ages was a fusion, in varying degrees of importance, of three phenomena: (1) the persistence of the notion of empire, looking back to the golden past of ancient Rome; (2) Christianity and the Universal Church, with all mankind unified under one God; (3) the barbarians, with their Germanic codes and lack of political unity. All through the Middle Ages these three phenomena were in some kind of conflict. The revived Roman way of life, with its secular, worldly emphasis, was opposed by the spiritual otherworldliness of the Universal Church, while the successive waves of barbarian invasions forced marked changes in the political structure of society as Germanic institutions were grafted upon the Roman way of life.

During the second and third centuries, the Roman empire had suffered from civil wars, economic decay, and pressure from the barbarians on its northern borders along the Danube. With the Edict of Milan in 313, the Emperor Constantine set the stage for the final acceptance of Christianity as the sole religion of the empire in the late fourth century. At the same time, the Visigoths, reaching the interior frontiers, defeated the Romans at Adrianople in 378, continued into Italy and sacked Rome in 410, and finally occupied much of southwestern France and Spain. In the early fifth century, the Vandals migrated across northern Gaul, through Spain, and into North Africa. They captured Carthage in 439, became formidable pirates, ravaged many Mediterranean ports and islands, and sacked Rome in 455. The Huns, under Attila, invaded the west in 449. Repulsed by Romans and Visigoths at Châlons-sur-Marne, the Huns overran most of northern Italy. Pope Leo I advanced to meet the oncoming Huns and was successful in his pleas to spare Rome (452). From 476 until 800 there was no Roman emperor in the west, while at Constantinople the Byzantine emperors carried on much of the spirit of the late Roman empire.

In the west, the Merovingian Frankish kingdom was formed by Clovis, who came to power in 481. At his death in 511, the Merovingians loosely controlled all Gaul and much of the area along the Rhine. Clovis and the Merovingians were converted to Christianity in the late fifth century by Irish and Anglo-Irish monks. As champion of the church, Clovis set the pattern of close ties between church and state, which was to continue through the Middle Ages. Clovis left his kingdom to his sons, who expanded it; yet subsequent quarrels between the different rulers resulted in its disintegration in the late sixth century.

The rise of Islam under Mahomet (c. 570–632) and its subsequent expansion to the Near East and across North Africa hindered travel and commerce by sea between west and east, though it did not stop them. In 711 Visigothic Spain was invaded by the Moslems (Saracens or Moors), and their penetration into France was stopped by Charles Martel in 732 or 733 at the Battle of Tours (Poitiers). The partial control of the shores of the Mediterranean by the Saracens lasted until the eleventh century, when the Normans conquered them in Sicily and South Italy. This Norman victory freed the Mediterranean for commerce and made possible an intensification of contacts between Europe and the Near East and Orient. The great contribution of the Moslems to Western culture was the preservation of the writings of Greek philosophers and scientists. The translations of these manuscripts into Latin and their availability to Western scholars profoundly influenced the Scholastics and theologians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The anarchy of western Europe in the eighth century was brought to an end by Charlemagne, the grandson of Charles Martel. After assuming power in 768, Charlemagne and his Frankish army defeated the Lombards in the 770’s, attacked the Moors in Spain in the late 770’s, extended Carolingian control into Bavaria, and subdued and converted by force the Saxons in 803. In 800 he had himself crowned emperor by the pope. In his dual role as major champion and self-proclaimed head of the Christian church and as Emperor of the West, Charlemagne united church and state. In his capital in Aachen, he constructed an elaborate palace and chapel and attempted to revive Roman law and learning. This Carolingian “renaissance” involved the importation of scholars such as Alcuin of York and the establishment of a curriculum in the palace school which included the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). In spite of this conscious attempt to revive the glories of ancient Rome, Charlemagne’s system of government followed Germanic traditions. He succeeded, however, in giving Europe a breathing space from invasion and at the same time established a new axis between the north and the Mediterranean world.

Charlemagne’s empire gradually disintegrated following his death in 814. The early Medieval practice of dividing land equally among heirs had splintered his domain into three sections by 843, and six by the 88o’s. The final death blow to the empire was administered by new waves of plundering barbarians from northwest and northeast. First, the Vikings, or Norsemen (Normans), ravished western Europe. From the 840’s on, France felt the fury of their devastating raids. Bands of Normans sacked towns and monasteries in land attacks or in amphibious operations up the Loire and other rivers. By 911, Rollo, the Norman, was granted Normandy as a fief and was baptized the following year. Thus, the ever-present threat from the sea was lessened and the tremendous energies of the Normans were localized in Normandy, only to break loose again with William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066.

The Magyars, or Hungarians, were the second new barbaric horde to descend on western Europe. Sporadic raids occurred in the 880’s, inflicting much damage on monastic establishments in Burgundy. The German Kingdom under Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great turned back two large Hungarian armies in 934 and 955. After these two defeats, the Magyars remained in Hungary and were gradually converted to Christianity.

By the Romanesque period, the three-pronged attack of Normans, Magyars, and Saracens had been contained, and there followed a period of extraordinary building activity. The Burgundian monk Raoul Gla...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Part I. Romanesque France
• Part II. Early Gothic of the Twelfth Century
• Part III. High Gothic of the Early Thirteenth Century
• Part IV. From Rayonnant to Flamboyant
• Part V. The Treasuries of Monasteries and Cathedrals
• Bibliography
• Index