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cathedrals 10: |
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francenew! Cathedrale Saint-Gatien at Tours the fire at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris stained glass and cathedrals in Normandy on first arriving in France - driving
gothic cathedral and church construction
Germans in France - their impact on cathedrals
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Cathédrale Saint-Julien du MansHenry II was born in Le Mans in 1133, as the Angevin (or Plantagenet) house was moving to the height of its power. Henry was probably baptised in the old Romanesque cathedral. By the time of Bishop Maurice, the Capetians of Paris had considerably changed the balance of power. In 1215, Bishop Maurice came to Le Mans. He was obviously a big-time mover and shaker of his time. He wanted one of the brand new Gothic cathedrals, and petitioned Philip II (Philip-Augustus) to okay the project. Maurice was involved in a series of councils at Rouen between 1214 and 1224, introducing the reforms of the Great 4th Lateran Council of 1215. These were exciting times. 1215 was also the year of the Magna Carta and the year that Philip-Augustus established the University of Paris. As you see in the plan of the cathedral, the new layout involved extending and building up the site beyond the old city wall. This brought into being the magnificent, combined structure you now can see.
This postcard is a view looking up from the old market area below the cathedral. The structure looks like some great alien space craft making ready to return to its home star system. If I were so minded to take up residence in one cathedral city to explore its cathedral in detail, I would chose Le Mans. And we can even take time off to bathe in the wonder of the world at Chartres, just 80 miles, or 128 kilometres up the road. The cathedral of Saint Julien is one of those fascinating religious edifices which is both Romanesque and Gothic. There are rounded topped windows and pointed Gothic ones. |
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 Google satellite view of Le Mans cathedral and its environs, including the River Sarthe |
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go to cathedrals, an illustrated glossary related pages:
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Around the nave are simple stone ledges wide and at a height to use as a seat. These were the seats available for the old and infirm of the congregation. The healthy members stood on the bare nave floor, perhaps using a stave or a stick as a support. Seats like these are also to be seen at Poitiers cathedral.
bifurcating buttressesFrom the east, the flying buttresses on the outside of the chancel present an unusually dense forest of masonry, owing to their unique system of bifurcating flying buttresses. Each of the sloping flyers splits in two, presenting a 'Y'-shape in a bird's-eye view. Thus, each arm originates from the same upright braces at the cathedral end, and engages with two outer braces to make the flying buttress system. This is repeated at each level. Although this design was not taken up elsewhere, it lends an uncharacteristically graceful and delicate feel to the eastern end of the building, especially when seen from the bottom of the hill (from the Place des Huguenots).
Because of the bifurcation, the buttresses are arranged so they do not throw so many shadows upon the windows.
violent damage from wars and revolutions1562, from 3rd April, the Huguenots ransacked the town for three months. In the cathedral statues, altars, tombs and windows suffered considerable damage. On the 20th of Brumaire, year 11, it was announced by the mayor that this “ancient house of error” was to be demolished, while another entrepreneur wanted to turn it into a handkerchief factory. 1798 ... pulling down the cathedral and replacing it by jails and law-courts is considered. Fortunately, the influential Société des Arts stepped in and saved the cathedral. the stained glass windowsLe Mans cathedral is one of the very greatest Gothic structures in France, its collection of 12th and 13th century stained glass being second only to that of Chartres. twelfth century glass |
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The window above is one of the twelfth century windows in the cathedral. It is must count as one of the most beautiful specimens of twelfth century stained glass. Close to half the panels that fill this large window contain old work, more or less mutilated or restored, that date from the beginning of the second half of the twelfth century. The border and the central figure of Saint Julien were executed in 1896 by Félix Gaudin, master glassworker, at Paris. The Latin inscriptions below the panels are a recent addition, probably added in the 19th century when other repairs and restorations were made.
Some of the stained glass windows in the Romanesque part of Le Mans cathedral are among the oldest windows in France - note the rounded top to the windows. The Ascension window is one of the earliest windows known.
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 Key for labels on this Tree of Jesse |
thirteenth century glassThe windows in the Gothic part of Le Mans cathedral are in the standard arrangement, with different types of subjects in the different levels. [See reading stained glass.] Thus, on the lowest level are story windows, for more see comments on the page about Rouen. Although there are far more of them, the windows at Le Mans do not reach the quality of those at Beauvais. The Le Mans windows do tend to be a more primitive form of the art. There’s a lot of patchy and much restoration remains to be done. There are two or three very important windows. (link below) First a little on the architectural terms being used to describe the windows at the different levels in this cathedral. For Le Mans, to use ‘triforium’ and ‘clerestory’ is rather misleading. This is because the vertical cross-section of Le Mans is like that of Bourges, and so to be accurate the two levels are upper and lower clerestories. Middle level [triforium or lower clerestory] - many beautiful lancets integrated into art forms such as the window just below.
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Top level [clerestory or upper clerestory] - here are the usual prophets, kings and other worthies, see the example below that is part of a top level window, in the clerestory..
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Some notes on thuribles and upside -down angels. fifteenth century glass
These portraits are in the lancets below the rose window in the north transept, the only rose window in this cathedral.
le mans - the town and environsHenry II of England was born at Le Mans in 1133. Close to the city of Le Mans is the world-famous Le Mans race track, where the Le Mans 24-hour motor race is held annually. On the 22-23 June 2013 the 90th edition of this famous race will be held. cathédrale saint-étienne de bourges
Bourges cathedral is one of the great cathedrals of France. It has several peculiarities.
Outside, behind the cathedral to the south-east is a beautifully kept little park where you may come across a rock band playing on a summer’s day. Like Le Mans (and Noyon, Angers and Troyes), the Gothic cathedral was expanded outside the old city walls during the great cathedral-building revolution. Unlike the cathedral at Le Mans, where the site foundations were built up to accommodate the new, extended cathedral, at Bourges a lower crypt was constructed as the foundation. This is shown in the following illustration. Although some are impressed by the variety of the twenty-two early story windows in their many styles, to my taste they are more crude than those of the windows of more northern cathedrals such as Le Mans, Beauvais, Rouen or Chartres. However, the great variety of geometric designs is interesting. On the five doorways of the west facade, the archivault and tympanum carvings are worth a look. |
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triforium or tribune?
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Bourges cathedral has two walkways [A and B] between the upper, middle and lower rows of stained glass windows. On the external view of the cathedral, these triforia are beneath a sloped roof protecting them as the roof extends outwards beyond the row of windows above.
What’s the difference? The triforium is a relatively narrow walkway without windows. The triforium and the outside roof hide the space above the vaults. In that space, rubble was placed to to increase pressure and so to help stabilise the vaults below. The triforium also provides another row of colonnades and so contributes to the coherence of the cathedral interior. By contrast, a tribune is a much wider area, extending across the width of the aisle below. The tribune is more like a room, lit by windows to the outside. Here, to the right, is a thumbnail of the colonnades at Laon cathedral. Below the high clerestory windows is a triforium, a narrow walkway with no windows. And below that, and above the colonnade of the outer aisle is a wider, windowed tribune. (Click on the photo to be taken to a larger version.) Notice that the triforia come opposite protective roofs on the outside. This hiatus is the meeting between levels of aisle arches. You can see a tribune glazed at the second level between the low-level windows and the clerestory at Laon - see the two cathedral cross-sections below. The triforium does not have a walkway in some cathedrals, or parts of cathedrals. In this case, it is often referred to as a blind, or false, triforium.
The windows in cathedrals do not tend to be labelled consistently. You will see ‘lower storey’, ‘clerestory’ (a more standard label), and several other references. You will also see ‘tribune windows’, as at Laon (see diagram above) and ‘aisle windows’, that is the windows within the aisle - the first storey. You may see ‘nave windows’, an alternative to ‘clerestory windows’ in the Laon cross-section above. As there are two aisles at Bourges, maybe someone calls them ‘inner’ and ‘outer aisle windows’, but I have yet to come across this choice of labels. Notice that the inner pillars (closest to the nave) often carry more than one storey/vault.
For more information about the reinforcing iron chain and tie-rods, see using metal in gothic cathedral construction. bibliography
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