DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0174
154
FBENCH ABCHITECTUBE.
Part II.
the building of the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris, the west front of
which was dedicated in the year 1140, and rest of the church built
“ stupendâ celeritate,” and dedicated in 1144. Though certainly not
the earliest, St. Denis ruay be considered as the typical example of the
earliest pointed Gothic in France. It terminated the era of transition,
and fixed the epoch when the Northern pointed style became supreme,
to the total exclusion of the round-arched style that preceded it. The
effect of Suger’s church is now destroyed by a nave of the 14th century
—of great beauty it must be confessed—which is interpolated between
the western front and the choir, both which remain in all essentials as
left by him, and enable
us to decide without
hesitation on the state
of architectural art at
the tirne of the dedica-
tion of the church.
A few years later
was commenced the once
celebrated abbey of Pon-
tigny, near Auxerre,
probably in 1150, and
completed, as we now
find it, within 15 or 20
years from that date.
Externally it dis
plays an almost barn-
like simplicity, having
no towers or pinnacles
—plain undivided win-
dows, and no ornament
of any sort. The same
simplicity reigns in the
interior, but the varied
form and play of light
and shade here relieve it to a sufficient extent, and make it altogether,
if not one of the most charming examples of its age, at least one
of the most instructive, as showing how rnuch efiect can be obtained
by ornamental arrangement with the smallest possible amount of
ornament. In obedience to the rules of the Cistercian order, it
neither had towers nor painted glass, which last circumstance perhaps
adds to its beauty, as we now see it, for the windows, being small,
admit just light enough for effect, without the painful glare that now
streamS through the large mullioned windows of the cathedral of
Auxerre.
To the Englishman, Pontigny should be more than usually inter-
View in the Chnrcb of Charité fiur Loire.
(From a Sketc.h by the Author.)
FBENCH ABCHITECTUBE.
Part II.
the building of the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris, the west front of
which was dedicated in the year 1140, and rest of the church built
“ stupendâ celeritate,” and dedicated in 1144. Though certainly not
the earliest, St. Denis ruay be considered as the typical example of the
earliest pointed Gothic in France. It terminated the era of transition,
and fixed the epoch when the Northern pointed style became supreme,
to the total exclusion of the round-arched style that preceded it. The
effect of Suger’s church is now destroyed by a nave of the 14th century
—of great beauty it must be confessed—which is interpolated between
the western front and the choir, both which remain in all essentials as
left by him, and enable
us to decide without
hesitation on the state
of architectural art at
the tirne of the dedica-
tion of the church.
A few years later
was commenced the once
celebrated abbey of Pon-
tigny, near Auxerre,
probably in 1150, and
completed, as we now
find it, within 15 or 20
years from that date.
Externally it dis
plays an almost barn-
like simplicity, having
no towers or pinnacles
—plain undivided win-
dows, and no ornament
of any sort. The same
simplicity reigns in the
interior, but the varied
form and play of light
and shade here relieve it to a sufficient extent, and make it altogether,
if not one of the most charming examples of its age, at least one
of the most instructive, as showing how rnuch efiect can be obtained
by ornamental arrangement with the smallest possible amount of
ornament. In obedience to the rules of the Cistercian order, it
neither had towers nor painted glass, which last circumstance perhaps
adds to its beauty, as we now see it, for the windows, being small,
admit just light enough for effect, without the painful glare that now
streamS through the large mullioned windows of the cathedral of
Auxerre.
To the Englishman, Pontigny should be more than usually inter-
View in the Chnrcb of Charité fiur Loire.
(From a Sketc.h by the Author.)