Life of a Cathedral: Notre-Dame of Amiens - ap032

Durand Nave Clerestory Window

admin — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 18:30:02 +0000

Nave Clerestory Window (Durand)

Body:

In the upper nave (c.1240) Master Thomas de Cormont has retained the great central oculus characteristic of the aisle windows but has created four lancets clumped in pairs and surmounted by smaller oculi.

Detail Page ID:

tracery

ap032

Durand Nave Aisle Window

admin — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 18:28:37 +0000

Nave Aisle Window (Durand)

Body:

Enclosed inside a steeply-pointed framing arch and with an enormous upper oculus surmounting two uncapped lancets, such windows originally existed along the entire length of the nave aisles. They were torn out in the fourteenth century to make way for the added chantry chapels. Such units still survive in the lower transept arms. The tracery of the windows on the west side of the south transept show signs of experimentation and modification which may suggest that they were the first in the sequence.

Detail Page ID:

tracery

ap032

South flank, from Abbé L. F. Daire, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, 2 vols., Paris, 1757

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 21:38:38 +0000

North flank, from Abbé L. F. Daire, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, 2 vols., Paris, 1757

Detail Page ID:

ap032

ap036

Amiens Cathedral

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 19:41:44 +0000

Amiens Cathedral, northern flank of nave

This view of the northern flank of the nave at ground level would not have been possible in the early life of the cathedral when the collegiate church of S-Firmin the Confessor existed parallel to the cathedral nave.

Dedication of the chapels, left to right
1. St Agnes c. 1300
2. St Louis c. 1300
3. St Honoré c. 1300
4. St Michael, c.1350
5. St John Evangelist c 1375 (Cardinal Lagrange)
6. St John Baptist c. 1375 (Cardinal Lagrange)

Window Chronology

A study of the window tracery (the delicate stone armatures in the window openings) provides a useful index of chronology and authorship. Which window is earliest and which is latest?

1. The earliest window is in the lower level, extreme left, north transept. Inside a steeply-pointed arched frame a circular cusped oculus surmounts two lancets. The enormous window occupies the entire space between two buttresses: there is no wall. This is the work of the first master mason, Robert of Luzarches, 1220s

2. Each of the upper windows (clerestory) of the nave has a similar cusped oculus. There are now four lancets grouped in pairs, each pair capped by a smaller oculus. A strongly hierarchical arrangement. This is Master Thomas de Cormont, 1230s.

3. Between the 1290s and around 1400 the lower nave was expanded with the addition of a line of chapels. The chapels were built from east to west (left to right) with much more complex tracery forms. Note the horizontal bar (transom) in the middle of each window.

Detail Page ID:

ap032

Approches_Northview_Numbered.zip