It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
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Cathédrale de Reims
Notre-Dame of Reims was the site of the coronation of French kings. It was the centre of an important “cathedral complex” and the representation of Heavenly Jerusalem for the people of the Middle Ages.
It was also the symbolic centre of the Archbishop’s power, as Primate over the bishops of several dioceses in Northern France.
Erected between 1211 and 1516, in accordance with an architectural program of immense artistic richness, the Cathedral of Reims survives as one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic art.
The architecture of the Reims Cathedral is characteristic of Gothic Art: it represents a moment of equilibrium between the experiments of Early Gothic (second half of the 12th century), and the decorative evolutions of Radiant Gothic (about 1230-1350) and Flamboyant Gothic (about 1350-1500).
The monument displays a classic unity to which the successive builders remained faithful, through the decades, by conserving as closely as possible the architectural vision adopted during the years 1210-1230 and the construction of the choir.
The interior elevation is remarkable for the impression of vertical tension created by the upward thrust and relative narrowness of its volumes (there is only one side-aisle).
The division into three levels is typical of 13th century architecture: grand arcades on the ground floor, triforium, and large, high windows.
To the three galleries of circulation habitual in similar edifices (two high: a parapet walk at the summit of the goutterot wallswith a passageway at the base of the high windows, a median, and the triforium); the Cathedral adds an interior passage at the base of the low windows: the “Passage Champenois”. Each of these passageways allows one to walk completely around the edifice.
Sainte Cécile Cathedral, Albi, France, 1282-1390
Portail de la cathédrale de Bourges - Le Jugement dernier
Bourges Cathedral is of considerable importance in the development of Gothic architecture and as a symbol of the strength of Christianity in medieval France. However, its principal claim lies in its striking beauty, combining masterly management of space with harmonious proportions and decoration of the highest quality. As the figurehead of the Capetian domain facing the south of France, the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne had to be unique in design. The architectural style chosen by the unknown master-builder is based on a plan with no transept and plastic effects of great modernity for their time. The cathedral is still surrounded by the half-timbered houses of the medieval town.
A royal city since the year 1100, Bourges has grown in size and prosperity; the new Gothic cathedral was a hymn to the authority of the Archbishops of Bourges, primates of Aquitaine.
There had been a Christian cult centre on this site since the 3rd century, when Roman Avaricum became the first Christian community in Gaul. A Romanesque basilica dedicated to St Stephen was erected there in the 11th century and other religious buildings quickly clustered around it. A small crypt from the Romanesque structure has survived beneath the present cathedral. In the 12th-century transepts and a monumental west front were added, but fires in the early 1190s necessitated complete rebuilding (contemporaneously with the main construction of Notre-Dame de Paris).
In 1195, Archbishop Henri de Sully decided to rebuild the cathedral, starting with the chevet, in the new Gothic style: work began and continued throughout the 13th century. The new cathedral was built to a simple but harmonious plan. It is basilical in form, with chapels surrounding the nave. The cathedral has a very simple plan, with double side aisles, a double ambulatory, and no transept. The perspective of the side walls and the unity of the interior space are outstanding features of the building. The architectural features of the whole edifice are already visible in the chevet: the pyramidal composition of the elevation and the audacious double flying buttresses, which are intended to create effects of perspective and harmony of volumes inside the edifice.
In 1199, Archbishop Guillaume de Dangeon, a former Cistercian abbot, succeeded Henri de Sully and played an important part in the development of the site and in the definition of the iconographical programme: the cathedral as a whole, its carved decorations and the stained-glass windows, which are the assertion of religious doctrine against heresy. The second stage of construction, including the nave and the west front, was finished around 1230; five carved portals completed the facade. The architects who succeeded the first master-builder maintained the coherence and the apparent simplicity of the programme, the absence of a transept contributing to the effect of unity of space.
In the early 13th century, stained-glass windows were added to the three levels of the choir: they represent the Christ of the Last Judgement and the Apocalypse, the Blessed Virgin and Saint Étienne are flanked by the trade guilds, parallel scenes from the New and Old Testaments, the life of the Saints and Martyrs, the Archbishops of Bourges, the Prophets and Apostles.
The tympanum of the central portal of the west facade is bears a grandiose sculptural representation of the Last Judgement that is both realistic and timeless, in which Hell swarms with demons and creatures in the torments of despair. The sculptures on the north and south doors and the Last Judgement on the west facade are notable examples of the art of the period.
Other historic buildings in the precincts are a 13th-century tithe barn, those elements of the 17th-century Bishop’s Palace which survive as the Hôtel de Ville and the cathedral gardens in classical French style. The structure is essentially as it was when it was completed in the late 13th century, both in form and materials, although many elements have been replaced over the centuries, as is the case with all Gothic cathedrals.
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
Medallion
Date:before 1227 - Made in, Limoges, France
These medallions probably come from a large traveling chest that belonged to Cardinal Guala Bicchieri. A collector and bibliophile, he purchased several such coffrets in Limoges and took them to his residence near Turin. Later the medallions were used as decorative elements on the choirstalls of the Church of Saint Sebastian in Biella, a dependency of one of the cardinal’s foundations. At an unknown date, the originals were replaced by copies.
The nave of Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Condom - one of the churches in Condom, France
Condom Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Condom) is a Catholic church and a former cathedral, and a national monument of France, located inCondom, Gers. It was formerly the seat of the Bishops of Condom; the diocese was added to the Archdiocese of Auch in 1822.
The cathedral dominates the town, which sits on a hill above the Baïse River. It was designed at the end of the 15th century, and erected 1506-31, one of the last major buildings in the Gers region to be constructed in the Gothic style of south-west France. The church has buttresses all around and there is a 40 metre square tower over the west front. The west front door has the Four Evangelists’ symbols in the tympanum, and the south nave door in theFlamboyant Gothic style still has 24 small statues in the niches of the archivolt.
Saint Foy abbey-church in Conques, France
The St. Foy abbey-church in Conques was a popular stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
There is little exterior ornamentation on Conques except necessary buttresses and cornices. The exception to this is the Last Judgment tympanum located above the western entrance. As pilgrimages became safer and more popular the focus on penance began to wane. Images of doom were used to remind pilgrims of the purpose of their pilgrimage. The tympanum appears to be later than the artwork in the nave. This is to be expected as construction on churches was usually begun in the east and completed in the west. The tympanum depicts Christ in Majesty presiding over the judgment of the souls of the deceased. The cross behind Christ indicates he is both Judge and Savior. Archangel Michael and a demon weigh the souls of the deceased on a scale. The righteous go to Christ’s right while the dammed go to Christ’s left where they are eaten by a Leviathan and excreted into Hell. The torture of Hell are vividly depicted including poachers being roasted by the very rabbit they poached from the monastery. The tympanum also provides an example of cloister wit. A bishop who governed the area of Conques but was not well liked by the monks of Conques is depicted as being caught in one of the nets of Hell. The virtuous are depicted less colourfully. The Virgin Mary, St. Peter and the pilgrim St. James stand on Christ’s left. Above their heads are scrolls depicting the names of the Virtues. Two gable shaped lintels act as the entrance into Heaven. In Heaven Abraham is shown holding close the souls of the righteous A pudgy abbot leads a king, possibly Charlemagne, into heaven. St. Foy is shown on the lower left kneeling in prayer and being touched by the outstretched hand of God. The tympanum was inspired by illuminated manuscripts and would have been fully colored, small traces of the color survive today.
Le Jugement dernier - fresque de la cathédrale d’Albi
The largest mediaeval representation of this theme, the Last Judgement at Albi shows stylistic similarities to Italian and Flemish painting of the same era.
Louis d’Amboise undertook to cover the interior walls with 300 square metres of decorative paintwork. The central part of this enormous mural was destroyed at the end of the 17th century. It undoubtedly featured a representation of Christ the Judge and Saint Michael, weigher of souls.
In the middle register of the painting, angels blow trumpets announcing the resurrection and the judgement. The dead rise up from their tombs.
The composition marks the rupture between Christ and the condemned, separated by a gloomy, greenish sky. The dead all carry around their necks the book of their good and bad actions, indicating that each shall be judged by their deeds on earth and that holy mercy alone does not suffice to assure salvation.
Hell appears as an underground world of despair, far from God. Disorder and chaos constitute its fundamental structure: swarming promiscuous masses, pandemonium, foetid, nauseating odours and an infernal din. Monsters proliferate; hideous clawed, flabby skinned demons arouse fear and loathing. Some have the heads of goats; putrid, diabolical creatures, symbolising lust.
An immense garden of torment, hell is represented as a furnace. Streaks of colour show the omnipresence of the fire burning, but not consuming, the damned. Other tortures are represented, the breaking wheel, forced feeding, boiling in giant cauldrons and impalement.
In this terrible world physical suffering (we see mouths pathetically screaming in horror) is accompanied by moral suffering which goes with the eternal separation from God.
Hell is organised into seven sectors, the same as the number of deadly sins. The first, at the left, corresponds to pride, which led Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and to fall into lust, which, with its accompanying punishment, features at the far right.
Between the two we see successively the punishments meted out to the envious, the wrathful, the slothful and the greedy. The lazy and their punishment were lost in the 17th century.
Cathédrale du Havre
Le Havre Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Havre) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Le Havre.
It was previously a parish church dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and is the oldest of the very few buildings in central Le Havre to have survived the devastation of World War II. It became a cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Le Havre in 1974, when the diocese of Le Havre was created.
The belltower dates from around 1520 and the main façade is Baroque. The building was kept unusually low because of the difficulties posed by the unstable ground.
The fine church organs were the gift of the Cardinal de Richelieu in 1637, when he was governor of the town.
Cathédrale St Louis, Blois
The Cathedral of St. Louis of Blois, commonly referred to as Blois Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Louis de Blois; Cathédrale Blois) is a Late Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral in Blois, France. It has benn a monument historique (a national heritage site of France) since 1906.
It is the seat of the Bishopric of Blois, established in 1697.
This was previously the collegiate church of Saint-Solenne, the original building of which dated from the 12th century. Apart from some traces in the crypt nothing survives of this. The façade and the belltower were built in 1544. The nave was destroyed by a hurricane in 1678, and the reconstruction in Gothic style took place between 1680 and 1700 under the architect Arnoult-Séraphin Poictevin (d. 1720). The Lady Chapel by the architect Jules Potier de la Morandière was added in about 1860.
To celebrate the church’s elevation to a cathedral in 1697, Louis XIV presented the organ loft in 1704. The new see thereupon took the dedication to Saint Louis.
Window: Scenes from the Lives of Saint Nicasius and Saint Eutropia
about 1205
