Life of a Gothic Cathedral: Notre-Dame of Amiens 1220-1530 is intended to change the way we understand and teach the cathedral. This website allows you to see that Amiens Cathedral is not a thing of the distant past "1220-1269:" it manifestly exists in our own time and space. The "completion" date of 1269 (derived from the inscription of the choir axial window) is deceptive: artistic production in the Gothic mode continued for three hundred years, down to the 1530 death of the last great building dean, Adrien de Hénencourt.

The three-hundred year "life" of the Gothic cathedral embraced the agency of three overlapping worlds of makers and users: the layfolk who visit it, the clergy in their sumptuous choir and the artisans who built it. The website will allow you to enter into each of these three worlds. You can do this by clicking on the three major buttons at the top of the home page or by reading the EText which is linked with the images.

For the more hasty user we provide direct access to the three most exciting features: the panoramic tour and the interactive maps of the portal sculpture and the choir stalls.

It is hoped that this website may change the way we prepare instructors for the task of teaching the Core Curriculum at Columbia University. Rather than an ephemeral oral "briefing" we offer an EText that will remain online and will be subject to continuous editing in light of experience. We have sequenced and mapped our images and added texts that will prompt you to tell stories. The teacher no longer has to go to class equipped with a Powerpoint (ie. a digital slide carroussel) but can teach directly from the website with its high resolution, zoomifiable images, panoramas and animations.

     Production Team

Stephen Murray: Concept, photography, and narratives
Emogene Cataldo: Lead content editor and design architect  
Lindsay Cook: Panorama photography and consultant
Tori Schmitt: Lead content editor 
Kate Burch: Interactive and animated features 
Myles Zhang: 3-D model builder and animator
Tim Trombley: Site development and structure
Gabe Rodriguez: Image management and cataloging 
Stefaan van Liefferinge: Director of the Media Center
Andrew Tallon: Additional photography
Rory O'Neill: Arch simulation 

     Amiens Cathedral Choral Experience

Philippe Belley
Alexandre Nervet-Palma
Stephan Olry
Erwan Picquet
Vincent Pislar
Christian Ploix
Damien Rivière
Jesús Rodil Rodríguez

Benjamin Bagby: Producer
Frédéric Billiet: Musicologist
Marie-Angélique Mennecier: Sound Engineer

     Thanks to

The Media Center for Art History
The Department of Art History and Archaeology
Mapping Gothic and the Andrew Mellon Foundation
Partner University Fund of the FACE Foundation
Métropole d'Amiens
Direction régionale des affaires culturelles, Amiens; Delphine Lacaze, conservateur régional
Musée de Picardie
Archives départementales de la Somme
Aurélien André
Susan Boynton
Don Edouard Courlet de Vregille, Rector of Amiens Cathedral
Katarina Livljanić
Louis Mouton
Thierry Sanchez
Christian Sutcliffe