Life of a Cathedral: Notre-Dame of Amiens - ap036

Durand Choir Clerestory and Triforium Tracery

admin — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 15:07:45 +0000

Choir Clerestory and Triforium Tracery (Durand)

Body:

The work of Renaud de Cormont in the 1250-60s. Renaud favored the trefoil--a form already used by his father Thomas in the nave triforium. Here, below, you see the reverse side of the choir triforium which is glazed, providing abundant light for the interior of the choir. In the clerestory, above, Renaud has elaborated his trefoils with trilobed cusping and capped the entire window with a gable, lending a "post modern" jagged look to the exterior.

Detail Page ID:

tracery

ap036

Durand Choir Aisle Window

admin — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 18:51:31 +0000

Choir Aisle Window (Durand)

Body:

This choir aisle window by Master Thomas (1230s) is framed by an arch which is not as steeply pitched as in the nave aisle (1220s). The earlier windows are dominated by an enormous central oculus over two lancets; now we have three smaller oculi of equal size surmounting four lancets.

Detail Page ID:

tracery

ap036

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

Choir, north flank
To the right, the bishop's palace and above that, the east side of the north transept; to the left, Viollet-le-Duc's winter chapel c.1850.
We see the three straight bays of the choir; great buttresses rise to form the uprights (culées) of flying butresses. Chapels were never added in the choir, so the projecting buttresses form emphatic bay divisions so unlike the smooth outer walls of the nave chapels. In the lowest level of the wall you can see two blocked doorways--they once led to the two-story treasury that housed the head of John Baptist (see the engraving below). This ancillary structure once blocked the lower part of two of the windows: when it was demolished c 1750 the windows were opened up to admit more light. The enclosing arches of the aisle windows are not as steeply pointed as in the nave and instead of a single great oculus there are three smaller oculi of equal size.
Above the level of the aisle roof we see a sharp change. The simple flat-sided buttresses turn into more delicately articulated uprights; the flying buttresses have openwork tracery panels; the clerestory tracery is more complicated with triple lancets paired under a great oculus, and the upper roof line is punctuated with gables.

Detail Page ID:

ap036