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y hat astonishes every visitor to France is the richness and profusion of the religious buildings. It

is true that war, neglect and the hand of time have all taken their toll of the French churches, but what

is left is bewildering in its variety and beauty. There is a phrase quand les cathédrales étaient blanches

— when the cathedrals were white — a phrase that carries us back to the early Middle Ages when France |

was adorned with what has been poetically described as “a white robe of churches”. It is true that

this robe is no longer white — in the towns it is even a little tarnished — but weathered and mellowed

into rich tints and colours. The shrines of France are living things, whereas most of the castles and country-houses are empty

and many of the ancient dwellings fallen into decay. The Church is eternal and plays its part in men’s

lives to-day as it did yesterday and in the ages when the most impressive religious monuments were erected,

The beauty of the ancient sanctuaries is a beauty that was created by the combined efforts of a whole

people inspired with a longing to dedicate for the service of God the most lovely edifice they were able to

produce. During the “ ages of Faith”’ all classes united in the creation of the shrines dedicated to

God or Our Lady. But, naturally enough, the ancient churches were not only built by the combined efforts of all sorts

of men, but the sanctuaries are marked with the taste and by the workmanship of successive generations.

The erection of a great church or of a cathedral demanded so much time, money and labour that we

can often read the history of several centuries reflected in the different styles which are to be found, side

by side, from Apse to West Front.

The parish-church, the House of God and the House of Everyman, was the heart of town or village

alike. So it is that the humblest and simplest country chapel is an essential part of the hamlet.

We can perceive a certain unity of design throughout all the styles of F rench ecclesiastical architecture

from that of the earliest Romanesque basilicas to that of the reinforced-concrete churches of our own

time. A church came to be an image of the Cross, the Nave and Choir forming the upright or “‘ tree”

and the Transepts the crosspiece. As, in the Middle Ages, processions increased in number and in

dignity, Ambulatories were constructed around the High Altar. The cult of the Virgin and of the

Saints led to the provision of chapels in the Chevet and then, later on, to the utilisation, for still other

chapels, of the bays between the buttresses of the Nave.

Such, in brief, was the plan which triumphed, but it was no foreordained one. For instance, the

churches of Germigny-les-Prés (in the Loiret department) and of Sainie-Croix-de-Quimperlé show

the attempts made to develope another scheme or design, that of the round church with the altar in the

center. The Abbey-church cf Charroux (in the Vienne department) was one of the largest of medieval

France, but, of this building, unfortunately only the central octagon remains. This rotunda-type of

church gave way, however, before the cruciform edifice with its sanctuary turned towards the Holy Land.

In order to understand both the design and the method of construction proper to each style of French

ecclesiastical architecture, we must realize not only the problems with which the architects were confronted,

but we must also discover how these problems were solved. When we have approached the question thus

we shall begin to see through the haze in which romantically-minded writers have so freely enveloped

the Middle Ages, and what we perceive is that French medieval architecture was produced by men whose

thought and planning were remarkably logical.

ROMANESQUE CHURCHES

The main problem which confronted the Roma- nesque architects was that of how to replace by stone vaults the wooden roofs of the Roman basilicas. It may be that there were several practical reasons for this substitution, but the dominating aesthetic reason was probably that ceilings of wood were thought to lack the grandeur it was sought to introduce into Christian shrines. The problem was solved in three different ways.

The first was by the employment of transversal vaults thrown over the bays of the nave and with each vault leaning on its neighbour and thus contributing to its equilibrium. A classical example of this method is to be seen in the splendid abbey- church of Saint-Philibert at Tournus in Burgundy. The second solution adopted seems to have been

suggested by oriental models. It was that of covering the nave and the transepts with domes or cupolas such as we may observe in the churches of the provinces of Périgord and Quercy. The third method of vaulting was eventually adopted all over France and it was the scheme known as that of the barrel-vault. The practical and structural consequences of the

use of the barrel-vault were the following : the very heavy roof bore uniformly, and heavily, upon the upper part of the lateral walls and tended to press them outwards. The architects fought against this pressure by thickening the walls and by strengthening them with buttresses set at regular intervals. But no large openings can be cut in such walls for fear of weakening them, hence the small size of the Romanesque windows which are always topped by rounded arches. An alternation of narrow lights with massive

and severe buttresses not only determines all the outward appearance but also sets the rhythm and balance of a Romanesque edifice. The Romanesque style marks the first peak of

French church-building,

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In Romanesque architecture everything is subor- dinated to the main plan and it may be said that the monument, as a whole, decides what the details shall be. Decoration is applied first of all to the West Front where the Porch, whose Archivolt, supported on columns, is adorned with stylized

sculpture and supports a Pediment where the Glory of God is proclaimed with a wealth of carving which transforms the stone into scenes of transcendent significance. Then we have the sculptured Capitals of the columns and these are often of great delicacy and interest, being, gene- rally speaking, devoted to the representation of familiar incidents taken either from the Bible or from legend or from everyday life. The broad

smooth surfaces of the walls and roofs are often decorated with frescoes. At Saint-Savin-sur-Gar-

tempe (in Poitou) for instance, most admirable, glowing pictures cover the whole of the barrel-

vault. The Apses, the peculiar sanctuaries of the

Lord, were, in Romanesque edifices, always adorned with carving and colour. Moreover, all the scul-

pture, both exterior and interior, was polychrome.

Porches and West Fronts blazed with vermillion,

azure and gold. It is difficult for us to imagine what were the sumptuousness and the variety of the

medieval Romanesque shrines since we see them

to-day as the faded images of their former selves.

But the complicated geometrical motifs, the

stylized floral designs, the naturalistic or fantastic

animals and the curious and diversified scenes

— sometimes of a moralizing tendency and some- times, again, almost startlingly comic — indeed, all Romanesque decoration, is kept rigorously

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subordinated to the architectural plan. Angels are fitted into the bends of spandrels. Prophets stretch their length along piers. Animals twist and twine in formal strap-work. But nothing is ever allowed to interfere with the main lines of the building.

In their pictorial epics, the Romanesque sculptors and painters sought to convey an intimation of

eternity. On pediment and wall, frescoes and carvings blazon forth, in majestic fashion, the marvellous miracle of the Man-God. The human figures assume a_hieratic appearance and are robed in vestments that fall in long, supple folds of a strangely oriental aspect.

In the different provinces of France, the Roma- nesque style underwent certain modifications. The Norman School developed the earliest.

Here the severe arrangement in tiers, the lantern-

towers rising above the intersection of the tran-

septs and the tall facades, all afford a foretaste of

what were to become features of the great Gothic cathedrals. In the Norman style are the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames at Caen. Then we have the Abbey of Lessay, much

damaged during the war, and magnificent churches, such as those of Bernay and of Boscherville. The churches of Poitou are wrought and

chiselled like reliquaries. The West Front of

Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Poitiers is divided into

compartments almost every stone of which is

decorated. Among the more notable of the Poitou

churches are those of Sainte-Radegonde, of Saint-

Porchaire, of Saint-Jean and of Saint-Hilaire, all in the town of Poitiers and to these we may add the

churches of Saintes and of Chauvigny. It is in Burgundy that the Romanesque style

reached its most imposing development. At Cluny was the headquarters of a great monastic Order which covered western Christendom with a net- work of splendid sanctuaries, while the abbey- church of Cluny itself, with its seven naves and its many belfries and towers, was, until its destruc- tion at the beginning of the last century, the most

magnificent of all Romanesque shrines. The archi- tecture and the sculpture of the Cluniac Burgundian School may be admired at Paray-le-Monial, at Autun, at Beaune, at Dijon and, above all, at Vézelay, whose glorious basilica stands out and dominates the surrounding country from the summit of a high hill. However, the refinement and the subtlety of

the grandiose Burgundian Romanesque were thought by St Bernard unsuited to the austerity which should characterize the monastic life.

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Thus it was that in the home of the most beautiful Romanesque sculpture, there arose, under the influence of St Bernard, the severe style of the Cistercians in which was combined perfection of proportion with superb technical mastery of exe- cution. The Cistercian monastery at Fontenay and its southern counterparts, such as Sénanque, Silvacane and Thoronet must rank among the most notable examples of pure architecture to be seen anywhere. The School of Auvergne is marked by what

seems to be an adaptation of architecture to landscape. The somewhat squat and dumpy forms of the démes or isolated hills of Auvergne appear to be reflected in the sombre and compact naves of such churches as those of Saint-Nectaire, of Orcivel, and of Notre-Dame-du-Port at Clermont- Ferrand. Some of the Auvergne sanctuaries are most curious; for instance, the fierce-looking

church at Issoire has a West Front that is a mosaic of red, white and black stone, while at the curious place known as Le Puy-en-Velay, the church of Saint-Michel-l’Aiguille is perched right up on what seems to be an obelisk of lava.

The School of Toulouse is distinguished by the use of red brick of a very rich and luminous effect under the southern sunlight. The sanctuary of Saint-Sernin, crowned by a daring and graceful tower, must be accounted the masterpiece of Toulouse Romanesque. The Provencal School, more than any other,

shows traces of Roman tradition. Roman columns and pilasters were, for instance, utilized at Saint- Gilles-du-Gard while Saint-Trophime at Arles and Saint-Victor at Marseilles were built on the sites of ancient temples and with materials taken from

pagan shrines. In Provence the architects kept their respect for the classical proportions of the Roman edifice. This obedience to antique tra- dition is magnificently expressed in the dome of the Benedictine Abbey of Montmajour. The School of Périgord is unique in the device

adopted to solve the problem of roofing. The churches are covered with a succession of cupolas — one over the choir, one over the intersection of the transepts and another over the nave — as can be seen at Cahors, at Souillac or at Saint- Etienne-de-la-Cité at Périgueux. In some of the churches, as, for example, the Cathedral of

Saint-Front at Périgueux, there is also a cupola over each transept. These domes lend an exotic appearance to the outside of the Périgord sanc- tuaries while the interiors are most spacious and grandiose.

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THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL

That style which we, strangely enough, call “Gothic” is entirely French both in origin and in development. It was in France that Gothic reached its perfection and it was in France that everywhere Gothic triumphed over Romanesque. The problem which the architects of the new

style set out to solve was the following : How could naves be built which would be at once both wide and vaulted? That is to say, how could the breadth of the wooden-roofed edifices be attained with the stone vaulting used in the narrow buil- dings of the Romanesque style? For the vaulted roofs of the Romanesque church could not be made very wide or they would be too heavy and would destroy the side-walls. The Romanesque architects, it is true, strengthened their walls, in some measure, by supporting arches which rested on then at points which were reinforced by the buttresses, but even with this device, it was not possible to construct naves either very high or very broad. The solution of the problem was discovered by

the invention of the ogee or pointed arch. Two transversal arches were thrown onto the same bay and met in the middle and these were called ogees or ogives (from the Latin augere, to increase). Once this scheme had been adopted it was only necessary to fill in the four compartments between the arches and a much lighter vaulting was obtained than any hitherto known. The new arrangement presented great advantages over the old. Barrel- vaulting was subject to cracks and splits; moreoever a slight settlement or movement of the walls could bring the whole edifice crashing down. The pointed arch afforded a far great measure of security. The consequences which followed on the use of

the new vaulting were immediate and far-reaching. First of all the lighter vaults allowed of much

greater height in the buildings. Then, again, since much of the weight of the roof fell not upon the walls but upon pillars and columns, it was

KEYSTONE

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possible to pierce much larger windows in the walls. However, buttresses were even more necessary

than before. If a main nave was enhanced with side-aisles of lesser height, the weight of the nave- vaulting could not be carried onto ordinary but- tresses since these would crush the roof of the side- aisles. Sorecourse was hadtothe elegant contrivance of throwing what we may call “ crutches ” over the roofs of the side-aisles. Such “crutches’’, or flying-buttresses, carried much of the pressure from the vault of the nave onto the abutments or close buttresses which strengthened the outer walls from the ground up. Thus were created the splendid Gothic cathedrals, buildings in which the play of poise and of counterpoise is so nicely calculated that great masses of stone soar upwards freed, as it were, from the rule of gravity.

This ‘‘ Gothic ” art, this marvellous creation of French artists and architects, was spread all over western Christendom and never has the Christian spirit found a more perfect expression than in the spacious, luminous and most majestic cathedrals of the French style. The Gothic art of the 13th century was inspired

by absolutely logical considerations. The West Front has, generally, three porches, which correspond to the nave and the two side-aisles : here the decoration was, at first, confined to the porches themselves, to the galleries above and ornamented with figures of the Kings of Juda, and to the mystical roses, those great circular windows of tracery like huge flowers. The summits of the abutments carry ornamented pinnacles serving as springing stones to prevent the displacement, under the pressure of the flying buttresses, of the upper part of the piers or abutments. Gargoyles carry and spout the rainwater well away from the walls.

Inside the Gothic cathedrals the abundance of

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the perpendicular lines, deprives the capitals, which were such striking features of the Roma- nesque buildings, of much of their significance. The ogival arched roofs, unlike the barrel-vaulting of the Romanesque edifices, are not painted, but the great bays pierced with lancet-windows that break into delicate tracery, glow with marvellous and multicoloured glass.

Gothic decoration, and especially Gothic stained glass, is conceived and executed with a threefold object. First of all, of course, the ornamentation adds to the beauty of the whole work, but the artificers and artists of the Gothic style desired also to bring home the truths of the Faith to the faithful. So we see, portrayed for us in a thousand ways, the age-long preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the Advent foretold by the Prophets, and then we have the sufferings of Christ and of the Virgin and the sorrows and the glories of the Saints. The third aim was that of impressing men with a realisation of the intimate relationship between Man and his Creator.

If we bear in mind this threefold purpose, the plan of the stained-glass lights becomes clear enough. In the higher windows of the nave we have tall figures of the Saints and Prophets which can be seen well from afar off. In the lower windows, on the other hand, are innumerable scenes arranged in geometrical patterns of infinite variety, while, everywhere, shine the inimitable colours of the medieval “enameller’’, dazzling reds, rich blues and sumptuous gilded yellows which glitter like silken stuffs shot with gold. The sculpture and the glass of the greater

Gothic cathedrals — of Chartres, Bourges, Rheims, Amiens or Notre-Dame de Paris, to name a few only of the more famous — display such technical mastery at the service of noble spiritual quality that these works of art must rank among the most significant of any land or time.

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First of all we have Notre-Dame de Paris. This magnificent church was simply planned but exe- cuted upon a vast scale. Solidity and majesty are the dominant characteristics of Notre-Dame. Even the elegant vaulting and the graceful flying buttresses of the choir are somehow restrained, while the soaring West Front is tempered, though

not diminished, by its massive flanking masonry.

Chartres, a great shrine soaring into two peerless but unequal spires, stands out on the

wheat-covered plain of the Beauce. The cathedral is a miracle of perfect proportion. The sculpture and carving of the three fagades is superb. The “Royal Portal’? is adorned with a wealth of impressive and rather mysterious statues. The splendid nave is adorned with the greatest number of magnificent medieval stained glass windows which has anywhere been preserved in one building.

Rheims is still the great national cathedral of France. Here, in olden days the Kings were crowned and despite the damage inflicted upon the sanctuary during the first World War, a damage all too visible in the myriad mutilated statues, Rheims is still one of the most beautiful and impressive of French Gothic cathedrals.

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Amiens cathedral has the most lofty nave and its sculptured decoration is the richest in France. The Beau Dieu and the Vierge Dorée are two statues in which Gothic sculpture presents what may be regarded as its ideal expression.

The builders of Beauvais sought to outdo Amiens but their enterprise was doomed to failure.

Twice the steeple collapsed. Only the choir was ever erected, but this choir is the most lofty vaulted structure in the whole world and Beauvais marvellous, unfinished cathedral is the most exalted shrine in all christendom.

Strasbourg cathedral has an astounding West Front with one steeple, the highest in the world.

Bourges: this superb monument has what is,

probably, the most majestic of all West Fronts. The five portals or doorways make a most imposing impression. The towering, lofty and luminous nave is embellished with stained-glass windows which for the beauty of colour and significance of design are unrivalled anywhere. We can only mention a few others : Senlis not far

from Paris, the Breton cathedrals such as Tréguier

and Saint-Pol-de-Léon. In Normandy there are Sées and soaring Coutances, and Evreux and Lisieux, all masterpieces of Norman Gothic. There is Narbonne in the south-west and Saint- Bertrand-de-Comminges. mn

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southern France to fortify their churches, so, to this

day, the red cathedral of Albi in the heart of

what was the territory of the heretic Albigenses,

has the look of a keep surrounded with the but-

tressed walls of a castle. The cathedral of Agde,

the sanctuaries of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and of

Maguelonne, owe much of their harsh beauty to

their fortress-like appearance.

LATHER PHASES

In Gothic art of the golden age, decoration was

kept subordinate to architecture. In the 14th

and isth centuries, however, the equilibrium was

broken and decoration was allowed to run wild.

The new churches were often more light and airy

than those of the 13th eentury and sometimes these

later buildings were constructed with very great

technical ability.

This style, known as “Flamboyant ”’, is distin-

guished - much admirable and Sta scul-

pture in which, nevertheless, the earlier dignity

‘s lost in a maze of ornamentation much of which

is, all too often, merely pretty.

The Cathedral of Rouen and the church of

Saint-Maclou in the same town, the churches of

Saint-Vulfran at Abbeville and of Notre-Dame-de-

l’Epine at Chalons-sur-Marne afford good examples

of Gothic art and architecture in their later phases.

CHARTRES, ANGEL

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CLASSICAL AND BAROQUE CHURCHES

In Renaissance times men were much more

concerned with secular than with secred edifices. The “ new inspiration ” from south of the

Alps was hardly at all religious in essence or expression, as we may observe from the magnificent jubé or roodloft in the church of Saint-Etienne-du- Mont, at Paris, where are to be seen winged Victories with bare breasts and blowing trumpets. In some instances, Renaissance decoration was applied with skill and happy effect to buildings essentially Gothic such as the church of Saint- Eustache in Paris. The abbey-church of Brou, near Bourg-en-Bresse, is, despite the fact that it was erected in the middle of the 16th century, a Gothic monument. During the 17th century a complete break was

made with Gothic tradition and classical or Italia- nate vaulting was introduced. The new Order of the Jesuits, taking as a model the mother-church of the Gest in Rome, scattered throughout France chapels, churches and colleges in the new “ clas- sical” style. On countless fagades (of which a good example is that of Saint-Gervais in Paris) were displayed striking compositions of the three architectural orders superposed one above another. The West Fronts and the exteriors of these

‘classical’ buildings are generally bare and often unattractively harsh. On the other hand, the interiors, decorated with the careful profusion characteristic of the reign of Louis XIV, glitter with polychrome marbles and are often supremely elegant. The prototype and model of these sump- tuous shrines is the Royal Chapel at Versailles. As every visitor to Paris can see for himself the capital owes to the builders of the 17th century a whole series of magnificent cupolas and domes, such as the Sorbonne chapel, the church of the Val-de-Grace (built by Frangois Mansart) and then the masterpiece of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the parcel-gilt dome of the Invalides.

J.-M. Marcel

PARIS, INVALIDES CHAPEL

VERSAILLES (S.-ET-O.), THE ROYAL CHAPEL

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INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOAN OF ARC AT NICE (A.-M.). BUILT IN 1936. (ARCHITECT J. DROZ)

After a short-lived fashion for the graces of the Rococo or rather the rocaille style, taste veered again towards the “ classical ’’ and we have an ‘antique ’’ temple such as the Madeleine.

It was the Romantics who, in the early decades of the last century, proclaimed, after centuries of neglect, that medieval art and architecture were treasures unjustly despised. The teaching of the Romantics led to the formation and establishment of the Historical Monuments Commission and thus to the preservation from ruin of most of the French cathedrals. Some of them, unfortunately, suffered somewhat from the excessive restoring zeal of Viollet-le-Duc.

For fifty years or so the creative spirit in art and architecture seemed to be crushed and oppressed by the past. The architects of the mid 19th. century

turned out rather dreadry imitations. France was filled with pseudo-Gothic, bogus Romanesque and even what is euphemistically called ‘neo-Byzan- tine” edifices. Of the latter the Sacre-Coeur at | Montmartre is the best known. The recent revival in ecclesiastical architecture

and art is due, very largely, to the development of new techniques. For instance, the church of Le Raincy is of reinforced concrete (it is the work of Auguste Perret) and is constructed _as logicall as any early medieval monument. Several = these ultra-modern churches are edifices which copy no older styles and, lead us to hope, and indeed to think, that we may be on the eve of a renovation in sacred art and architecture. The churches which appear to offer the most promise as models | are those of Assy and of Nice.

M. Foucauli-Ed. Tel

ee ee

ae BY

DRAEGER FRERES A MONTROUGE

THE 1% NOVEMBER 1949

DESIGN BY JACQUES DUBOIS TEXT BY A-H-BRODRICK

_ , eee BY THE

MINISTERE DES TRAVAUX PUBLICS, DES TRANSPORTS

- ET DU TOURISME

COMMISSARIAT GENERAL AU TOURISME

PRINTED IN FRANCE - PUBLISHED BY AND FOR THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT

; ; | |

CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES

| - OF FRANCE