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Burgundy excelled in monastic architecture—The cradle of three great cloistral centers—Luxeuil, Cluny, Cîteaux—Luxeuil, founded by St. Columbanus (610), reorganized the VII century—Cluny, Christendom’s supremest monastic congregation, founded 910—St. Hugues of Cluny (1049 to 1109) trained the leaders who remade Europe’s civilization—Peter the Venerable, abbot from 1120 to 1156, continued building Cluny’s vast church—Abélard died in a Cluny house, 1142—Revolution destroyed the glorious abbatial church—Paray-le-Monial, the favorite priory of Abbot Odilo (d. 1049) of Cluny, initiator of the Truce of God—Its Romanesque church has fluted pilasters (XII century)—Autun Cathedral’s Romanesque portal the ancestor of the sculptured doors of Gothic cathedrals—Abbey church at Saulieu (note)—Beaune’s collegiate of Notre Dame has lovely tapestries—Hôtel Dieu at Beaune (1444 to 1457), founded by Nicolas Rolin, contains Roger van der Weyden’s best work—Hospital hall at Tonnerre (founded 1293) the prototype for Beaune’s hospice—Fontenay, the oldest Romanesque Cistercian church extant—Dedicated by Eugene III in 1147—Avallon’s church of St. Lazare blessed by Paschal II in 1107—Has a well-known Romanesque entranceway.

   

Some Primary Gothic churches in Burgundy—Montréal’s collegiate can be visited from Avallon—Built by a returned crusader late in the XII century—Pontigny’s abbatial the oldest Gothic in Burgundy—Its nave (1160 to 1180), with bombé vaults, was begun as Romanesque—Its choir used structural features as decorations—Three archbishops of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket, Stephen Langton, and St. Edmund Rich, found refuge at Pontigny—Vézelay’s abbatial of the Madeleine the stateliest church in Burgundy—Its Romanesque nave and Gothic choir belong both to the XII century—Its imaged portico (c. 1132) a supreme work of French sculpture—Second Crusade preached by St. Bernard at Vézelay, 1146—Philippe-Auguste and Richard Cœur-de-Lion rallied here for the Third Crusade, 1191.

   

Burgundy’s best Gothic monuments—Collegiate of Notre Dame at Semur a gem of the Burgundian school, begun about 1225—Its sculpture exceptional—Auxerre Cathedral begun in 1215, the model of Gothic churches in the province—Auxerre’s sculpture and its opaline glass rank with the first—Bishop Jacques Amyot (d. 1593) restored the cathedral after the Calvinists sacked it—Cathedral of Nevers has an apse at both west and east ends (note)—Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, led in art, under its four great dukes, 1364 to 1477—Flemish-Burgundian school began modern imagery—Dijon’s cathedral of St. Bénigne, formerly an abbatial, is mediocre late-XIII century—Crypt of St. Bénigne begun 1001—Oldest monument of the Romanesque renaissance—William of Volpiano, abbot of St. Bénigne, initiated the revival of architecture after the year 1000—Rebuilt Tournus abbey church (note)—Church of Notre Dame, Dijon, is a gem of Burgundian Gothic (1220-1240)—Its subtleties of construction have never been excelled.

   

St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux (d. 1153), born near Dijon, the greatest son of Burgundy—His reform laid the spiritual foundations of Gothic cathedrals—His puritanic taste in architecture made Cistercian churches bare and simple—Cistercian Order, founded 1099, instrumental in spreading Gothic over Europe—St. Stephen Harding, its practical founder, welcomed St. Bernard at Citeaux in 1113—Five hundred Cistercian monasteries founded in Europe before the middle of XIII century—Spirit of St. Bernard, greatest of Cistercians, lives in the Imitation of Christ.

  X. GOTHIC ART IN NORMANDY 472  

Monastic architecture best expression of Norman character—Normandy, like Burgundy, was a land of monasteries—Bernay’s abbey church an ancestress of Norman Romanesque (note)—Bec Abbey, the Cluny of Normandy—Lanfranc made the school of Bec world-noted—At Bec, St. Anselm began the philosophical movement of the Middle Ages—William of Volpiano pioneer in the rebirth of architecture in the duchy—Jumièges, the first Norman church of architectural pretension, begun 1040—Only vestiges remain of St. Wandrille abbey—Caen, the Mecca of Norman Romanesque and the queen city for towers—Three good towers at St. Pierre-sur-Dives—St. Georges de Boscherville the best type of Norman Romanesque—Fécamp’s Primary Gothic abbatial rose after the fire of 1169—Gothic abbatial at Eu built after the death of St. Laurence O’Toole, 1180—Mont-Saint-Michel the greatest of Norman abbeys—Its Merveille (Gothic halls), building from 1203 to 1228—Choir of Mont-Saint-Michel, the best work of Flamboyant Gothic, begun 1450.

   

Rouen Cathedral, not local in character—Its tower of St. Romain begun in 1145—Its transept façades and Lady chapel XIV-century Rayonnant work—Abbatial of St. Ouen a gem of Rayonnant Gothic—No city richer than Rouen in Flamboyant Gothic monuments—Trial of Jeanne d’Arc at Rouen in 1431 and her Rehabilitation in 1456.

   

Lisieux Cathedral the earliest Gothic cathedral in Normandy—Begun after 1160 as Ile-de-France Gothic—Its Lady chapel built by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, Jeanne d’Arc’s venal judge.

   

Évreux Cathedral not homogeneous, but has much charm—Its choir (1298-1310) a gem of Rayonnant Gothic—XIV century’s best array of glass in its choir.

   

Séez Cathedral modest in size—Norman in style—Its choir a forerunner of Rayonnant Gothic—Has XIV-century windows.

   

Bayeux Cathedral the Gothic of the duchy at its best—Romanesque part of its nave remarkable—Bishop Odo, brother of the Conqueror, built the crypt, and of his time is the Bayeux Tapestry—Choir of Bayeux a masterpiece of Normandy’s elaborate Gothic.

   

Coutances Cathedral loveliest in Normandy, begun after the fire of 1218—Its three towers notable—Aisles of choir are of different height.

   

Gothic art of Brittany—Brittany more a land of shrines than cathedrals—Her religious soul best expressed by her Calvarys—XIII-century cathedral at Dol has fine eastern window—Cathedral at Nantes possesses the last great work of Gothic sculpture—Cathedral of Quimper very Breton in spirit—St. Pol-de-Léon Cathedral entirely complete—The Kreisker is Brittany’s grandest tower—St. Yves of Brittany helped build Tréguier Cathedral.

   

Summing up—Gothic art gave way before the pagan Renaissance and the contempt for legends roused by the Reformation. In the World War France again displayed the spirit that had built cathedrals. Unquenchable idealism of the French race.

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