1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL, 



329 



HISTORY OF DECORATIVE SCULPTURE IN FRANCE. 

 ( ConcUided from page 259.J 



When the kings of the first race founded the French kingdom, they 

 built churches, some of vfhieh are mentioned by Gregory of Tours 

 (B. 2 i 14, 15, &c.), but which have all unfortunately been destroyed. 

 Some remains of these primitive edifices are still however to be seen 

 in marble capitals used in the churches rebuilt after the Norman ra- 

 vages. Thus at Montmartre there are capitals of white marble, the 

 style of which calls to mind degenerate antique forms, and which can 

 only be assigned to the first ages of Christianity ; this is evident from 

 the Greek cross still to be seen on the volutes of one of them, the 

 irregular management of the foliage, the inferior execution, and the 

 sharp forms which made their appearance with Christianity, and did 

 not leave until the Revival. These are features belonging to a period 

 of art very nearly approaching the Lower Empire, but Christian not- 

 withstanding as the emblems plainly show. At Jouarre, a place famous 

 for its abbey, is still to be seen a subterranean chapel at the end of the 

 cemetery, having, like the church of Montmartre, several capitals of 

 white marble, which in the singular form of their leaves, and in the 

 variety of their composition, since there are no two alike, show more 

 of the classic character of antiquity, and on the contrary present all 

 those which are proper to the first centuries of Christianity. The 

 church of St. Denis has on several capitals (?e«roK8, like those of Jou- 

 arre, and which might have formed part of the church of Dagobert. To 

 the same period a Greek cross, found some years ago behind the apsis 

 of the present church, appears to belong. The ruins of the Abbey of 

 St. Medard, at Soissons, have among them a marble capital, in which 

 may be recognized the degenerated traces of ancient art, and seeming 

 to belong to some of the edifices of the kings of Soissons, who were 

 buried at St. Medard. 



Between this first period of modern civilization and the eleventh 

 century, monuments are wanting to enable us to follow up step by step 

 the history of the subject before us, a deficiency which must no doubt 

 be attributed to the numerous invasions, which took place during the 

 Carlovingian reigns. When the reign of the Capets commenced 

 Robert the Pious rebuilt the churches, and art took a new direction, 

 of which there is now abundant evidence. The church of St. Germain 

 des Pres, at Paris, for instance, notwithstanding many details attri- 

 butable to the barbarism of the age, has some fine parts, particularly 

 around the choir. There, the capitals, composed of large leaves, con- 

 tain chimerical animals, contributing to the eflTect of the composi- 

 tion, and the great variety which prevails is good proof of the rich 

 and fertile imaginations of the medieval artists. At this period the 

 leaves of the acanthus and the volutes, with other elements of ancient 

 ornament, still formed part of decoration, but their general forms were 

 entirely modified. The historical capitals of the nave of St. Germain 

 are also of the eleventh century, and are not less interesting than those 

 of the choir. (See Figs. 1 and 2.) 



During this period of art, the capitals form two very distinct classes, 

 1st, of those in which, in imitation of the Pagans, Christian artists 

 only Imitated foliage as the basis of decoration ; 2nd, capitals enriched 

 with human or animal figures, and of which the origin is also to be 

 found among the ancients. The first are evidently a consequence of 

 the capitals of the first period of our era, of which we have mentioned 

 that there are examples at Montmartre, St. Denis and Jouarre. In the 

 eleventh century they exhibit an imitation more or less exact of the 

 Corinthian column. The ornaments of the astragal of the capital in the 

 church of St. Spire at Corbeil, and of Esnay at Lyons, are composed 

 of water leaves, imitated from the antique, and executed badly enough. 

 In the cloister of Moissac they are replaced by Byzantine rosettes. 

 The foliage of this period presents acute forms, removing the artist 

 from the study of nature, a direction which was given to art by the 

 Orientals in the time of Justinian, and afterwards adopted in the west. 

 Above the astragal is the capital, differing from that of the ancients as 

 it takes every imaginable geometric figure, the details of the Corin- 

 thian foliage gradually disapjiearing and giving place to original com- 

 positions, sometimes not without harmony and taste. The sub- 

 joined capital from the church of St. Germain des Pres is an instance 

 of this. 



During the whole period, included between the last Carlovingians 

 and the 13th century, the principal elements of ornamental sculpture 

 are an imitation, more or less good, of the acanthus, their leaves edged 

 with pearls, palms, scrolls, ana other exotic types. 



The second class of medieval capitals is distinguished from the first 

 by heads of men and animals, chimeras, and sea or land monsters, mixed 

 up with acute foliage imitated from the oriental flora, and which are 

 afterwards succeeded by religious, historical, or symbolical subjects 

 covering the whole surface of the capital to the exclusion of other 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Capitals at the Church St. Germain des Pres. 



ornament. This second system, like the first, owes its origin to 

 antiquity. The Etruscans often mixed up the heads of men with 

 foliage in their capitals;* the Romans introduced persons on foot, of 

 whicn a fine example is to be found in St. Lawrence without the Walls. 

 Without leaving France, ancient examples are to be found of this 

 mode of decoration, as at Vienne in Dauphiny, where on a beautiful 

 Corinthian marble capital of large proportion, are four heads of Pagan 

 divinities. The Museum of the same city contains a fragment seem- 

 ingly rather later, and in which are also figures and animals in the 

 midst of foliage. A Medusa's head is in the middle, two serpents in- 

 tertwined form the volutes, which rest on large acanthus leaves. The 

 church of St. Germain des Pres shows the whole progress of the sys- 

 tem, some of the capitals being covered with historical and religious 

 subjects. (Vide Fig. 2.) The royal vault in the subterranean church 

 of St. Denis, is decorated with purely historical capitals, representing 

 kings of France, bishops removing relics, &c. (Vide Fig. 3.) 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



Capitals at the Church St. Denis. 



In the 12th century national art acquired a less barbarous tendency, 

 and in St. Denis, we see in the parts built by the Abbot Suger, capitals 

 of good character and scrollwork still more remarkable, forming the 

 decoration of the pilasters of the north side door to the cemetery of 

 the Valesians. At this period, more than in the preceding, painting 

 was applied in aid of sculpture, and in the next century, it attained its 

 complete development. Even in the 12th century the Christian artists, 

 deprived of ancient models, sought for the elements of ornament in the 

 national flora; and in the succeeding period the acanthus and all the 

 exotic plants were wholly excluded from sculpture, and gave way to 

 French flowers and foliage. The execution of ornament in the end of 

 the 12th and 13th centuries is very good, for the sculptor, being per- 

 fectly acquainted with the forms he was to imitate, produced broad 

 and noble compositions, in a style which, although severe, was com- 

 pletely in harmony with the buildings. In the 13th century Peter of 

 Montereau, architect to St. Louis, one of the most skilful artists of his 

 time, gave new vigour to the art of decoration; he introduced in the 

 chapel of Our Lady in the church of St. Germain des Pres, and the 

 Sainte Chapelle of the Palais, ornaments of remarkable precision and 

 taste. Notre Dame, which has some parts of the same date, shows 

 in the great capitals, supporting the columns of the nave, and in the 

 details of the doors, how much the art of the scultpor was advanced. 



See an example in the British Museum.— Eorr. 



2 X 



