DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0072
52
FRENCH AECHITECTURE.
Part II.
the earliest part as in the last instance, is here the most modern,
having been erectecl in the 1 lth century, when the church to which it
is attached acquired additional celebrity by the translation of the body
of St. Trophime to a final resting-place within its walls. As it is, it
forms a curious and interesting penclent to the one last quoted, showing
how in the course of two centuries the style hacl passed from debased
Roman to a purely native form, still retaining a strong tradition of
its origin, but so used and so ornamented that, were we not able to
54S. Porch of St. Trophime, Arles. (From Chapuy, ‘ iloyen Âge Monumental.’)
trace back the steps one by one by which the porch at Avignon led
to that of Arles, we might almost be inclined to doubt the succession.
The porches at Aix, Cuxa, Coustonges, Pracles, Valcabre, Tarascon,
ancl elsewhere in this province, form a series of singular interest, and
of great beauty of detail mixed with all the i’ich exuberance of our own
Norman doorways, and follow one another by such easy gradations
that the relative age of each may easily be determined.
The culminating example is that at St. Gilles, near the mouths of
the Rhone, w Thich is by far t-he most elaborate church of its class, but
so classical in many of its details, that it probably is somewhat earlier
FRENCH AECHITECTURE.
Part II.
the earliest part as in the last instance, is here the most modern,
having been erectecl in the 1 lth century, when the church to which it
is attached acquired additional celebrity by the translation of the body
of St. Trophime to a final resting-place within its walls. As it is, it
forms a curious and interesting penclent to the one last quoted, showing
how in the course of two centuries the style hacl passed from debased
Roman to a purely native form, still retaining a strong tradition of
its origin, but so used and so ornamented that, were we not able to
54S. Porch of St. Trophime, Arles. (From Chapuy, ‘ iloyen Âge Monumental.’)
trace back the steps one by one by which the porch at Avignon led
to that of Arles, we might almost be inclined to doubt the succession.
The porches at Aix, Cuxa, Coustonges, Pracles, Valcabre, Tarascon,
ancl elsewhere in this province, form a series of singular interest, and
of great beauty of detail mixed with all the i’ich exuberance of our own
Norman doorways, and follow one another by such easy gradations
that the relative age of each may easily be determined.
The culminating example is that at St. Gilles, near the mouths of
the Rhone, w Thich is by far t-he most elaborate church of its class, but
so classical in many of its details, that it probably is somewhat earlier