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Introduction:
Rebuilt and enlarged approximately four times from the 7th
through 13th centuries, the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis realized its unique
status as pioneer in Gothic architecture under the innovative guidance of
Abbot
Suger (1122-1151). Suger's memoirs, chronicling
these renovations of the
Abbey
Church between 1137-1144, form one of the most important documents of the
Middle Ages in providing a first-hand look at the transition from the Late
Romanesque to Gothic architecture in France. Above the Romanesque crypt with
its massive walls and semi-circular arches supported by low, thick columns,
the new choir built under Suger's direction formed a double ambulatory with
pointed arches and ribbed vaulting (fig.1). This lighter, skeletal design
permitted increased elevation and freed the walls from a primary load-bearing
capacity, allowing extensive use of stained glass windows in a higher, more
spaciou s, and light-filled interior. Sculptures on the church portals, meanwhile,
developed into a level of figurative sophistication not seen since Late Antiquity
(fig.3).
Along with its role as the birthplace
of Gothic architecture, the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis also continued as
a protectorate of the monarchy and as the burial site of French kings spanning
from the Merovingian era (AD 447-751;) to the later Bourbon dynasty (1589-1789
and 1814-1830). The rich sculptural art of the church includes both striking
Biblical figures created during the Late Romanesque and Early Gothic era
of Suger, and a notable series of Late Gothic tomb effigies of French rulers.
[Fig.1: The spacious double ambulatory of Saint-Denis, enlarged
by Abbot Suger with uniform ribbed vaulting ca. 1140-1144 (photo: Athena
Review).
The Legend
of St. Denis and creation of the Abbey Church: According to
a 9th century Carolingian legend, St. Denis, the first bishop of
Lutetia (Roman Paris), was beheaded around AD 250 by Roman soldiers
in Montmartre, but then walked away with his severed head in his hands beyond
the center of Paris before dying. Various 5th-9th century legends say he
was buried in a clandestine ceremony after his martyrdom near the Roman town
of Catolacus, about 11 km north of Paris. Rusticus and Eleutherius,
companions of St. Denis referred to as the "Holy Martyrs" by Abbot Suger,
may have been buried with him.
In about AD 475, St. Denis was reburied
in a Gallo-Roman cemetery at the eventual site of the monastery named for
him. St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, constructed the first
church here to commemorate the life of St. Denis, whose burial site had begun
to attract many pilgrims. This small Merovingian church was enlarged between
630-638 by Dagobert I, the official founder of Saint-Denis, who also established
a Benedictine monastery to regulate pilgrimages.
During the Carolingian era, the Abbey
Church of Saint-Denis became one of the most renowned in France. Abbot Fulrad
substantially rebuilt the church in 750-775. Many of Fulrad's construction
methods such as the piers of the Carolingian nave hark back to ancient Roman
models (Bony 1983). On February 24, 754 Pope Stephen III consecrated Pepin
the Short (714-768), at the abbey in the presence of his wife and sons,
Charlemagne (the future Holy Roman Emperor) and Carloman. In this church,
a martyrium, or crypt holding the remains of saints and martyrs as a shrine
for prayer, was also added under the choir.
When Suger became abbot of Saint-Denis
in 1122, he began plans to renovate the old late 8th century Carolingian
Abbey Church, which had become too small to hold the entire congregation
on the main religious feast days. Unlike St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who believed
that secular persons should be excluded from the house of God, Suger wished
to welcome as great a crowd as possible. The abbey had also gained an
increasingly prominent position in France as a result of its close ties with
the French monarchy. Suger's role as an advisor to Louis VI, "the Fat"
(r.1108-1137) and Louis VII (r.1137-1180) as well as his appointment as regent
during the Second Crusade (1147-1149) strengthened the position of the Abbey
Church.
The Foire du Lendit, the largest
market for merchants in France, was held in Saint-Denis, greatly improving
the church's financial situation. Granted royal recognition by King Louis
VI in 1109, this market supported the development of a town around the abbey
(Bussmann 1980). In particular, a donation of royal incomes from the lendit
market by King Louis VI, a long-standing friend of Abbot Suger, facilitated
plans for renewing the Abbey Church.
Exterior of Saint-Denis:
The innovative architectural style of the west façade
at Saint-Denis (fig.2), built between 1135-1140, was borrowed from Norman
churches such as St. Étienne in Caen. The two bays with two flanking
towers and chapels in the upper stories were consecrated on July 9, 1140.
Although the massive façade with its strong abutments and battlements
upon the third level belongs to Norman and Romanesque architecture and is
somewhat austere, its tri-partite arrangement would become the formula for
most later Gothic churches (Williamson 1995). This involved three sculptured
portals, three levels with different kinds of openings, and a crowning rose
window flanked by two towers (only one was ever built at
Saint-Denis).
The entrances, with their free-standing
jamb figures connecting the three portals to a visual and iconographic scheme,
were much more complex than those of Romanesque church façades. While,
unfortunately, most of the original sculptural decoration at Saint-Denis
was destroyed during the French Revolution, it appears that the twenty column
figures of Old Testament kings, queens, and prophets were originally attached
to the jambs or upright support of the façade p ortals, eight along
the central or Last Judgment portal, and six each along the north and south
portals. The creation of a royal portal as well as the introduction of a
statue, most likely Christ, on the trumeau or the central stone pillar of
a two-leaved portal had a powerful influence on later portal decorations.
Surviving sculptural fragments include
three heads in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (former Musée
de Cluny; fig.3) as well as several original heads of apostles and kings
from the Last Judgment (central) portal at the Musée du Louvre in
Paris. These Old Testament figures not only represented early protagonists
of Christendom, but also alluded to the divine right of the French rulers,
following in the succession of biblical kings.
Fig.2: West façade of the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, ca.1135-1140 (photo:Athena Review).
Suger also started the tradition of employing
craftsmen from outside of the Île de-France. The more ornate sculptural
fragments contrast sharply with the more primitive Romanesque art found in
the Paris region at that time. For example, the head of a queen from the
central portal, possibly the Queen of Sheba, shares stylistic parallels with
a sculpture of Eve's head at Autun Cathedral in Burgundy, attributed to the
sculptor Giselbertus. Both share the same deep boring of their pupils, and
'worm-like' strands of hair, and can thus be dated to around 1135-1140. In
contrast, the jamb figures of the north portal (ca. 1130-1135) resemble those
found at the St. Étienne Cathedral in Toulouse (Languedoc), which
have a similar posture with crossed legs, as well as decorative jeweled borders
(Williamson 1995).
The tympanum of the central portal, which
closely resembles the earlier Romanesque style, was reserved for the dramatic
theme of the Last Judgment, one of the most popular in Gothic cathedrals.
Christ enthroned is flanked by the apostles and the Virgin Mary; below, the
dead ascend from their coffins. The archivolts or decorated arch of the portal
are filled with the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse, and the doorposts
with the Wise and Foolish Virgins - all to become standard themes in Gothic
cathedrals. Fragments of two conjoined heads of the apostles and the two
elders, now at the Louvre, reveal the Gothic concern for sculptural volume
in the heavy treatment of the flesh and the typical feature of thick rimmed
eyes. This portal also contains the original 12th century carvings of the
Dove and the Lamb, as well as God and Christ.
The north portal's tympanum was originally
decorated with a mosaic ordered by Suger, which possibly depicted the Coronation
of the Virgin (Williamson 1995). Suger might have been under the influence
of the great
reformer
Abbot Desiderius' activities at the Abbey of Montecassino (about 50 km south
of Rome), which explains this unusual application of mosaic to the tympanum.
Suger's mosaic at Saint-Denis, nevertheless, remained the only Gothic example
in France.
The north doorway now contains a 19th
century relief of the Martyrdom of St. Denis as well as a statue of the Virgin
on the trumea u. Here St. Denis is portrayed in his final hours holding his
decapitated head, near the original 12th century carvings of the signs of
the Zodiac on the doorjambs. The south portal illustrates the Last Communion
of St. Denis, with the original heads replaced in the 19th century. A sculpture
of St. Denis, carved in a fully developed naturalistic style of the early
13th century, was once located on the gable. Recovery of the sculptural head
of Moses and a prophet (fig.3) from the south portal, now in the Musée
national du Moyen Âge at the Hôtel de Cluny, suggests that another
scene might have once occupied this space. The Labours of the Month on the
south portal's doorjambs date from 12th century.
Fig.3: Head of a prophet, from a column on the south portal
of the west façade at Saint Denis, AD 1137-1140 (photo: Athena
Review).
The portal of the north transept, known
as the Porte des Valois (fig.4) after the destroyed tomb of the Valois
dynasty, also contained a richness of sculpture, now preserved at the Louvre.
Although carved between 1160-1170, this portal was not erected until the
13th century. The sculptural program included thirty crowned figures in the
voussoirs (truncated wedges making up the arch), framing the scene of the
Martyrdom of Saint-Denis. Six statues of kings, variously interpreted as
the elders of the Apocalypse, the kings of France, or vassals of St. Denis,
occupied the door embrasures. These are comparable to the slightly later
series of the Kings of Judah from the west façade of Notre-Dame. In
contrast to the statues of the royal portal, however, there is at Saint-Denis
a much more delicate treatment of the flesh with narrow almond-shaped eyes
and slender foreheads.
Saint-Denis held several cloisters, at
least one of which contained an interesting variety of Gothic art. The main
cloister, constructed sometime after Suger's death and destroyed ca. 1751,
has yielded the only remaining intact column sculpture of a king from
Saint-Denis. Now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
this intricately carved figure parallels sculptures on the west façade
at Chartres. The close resemblance to the north transept statues, moreover,
suggests that both belonged to the same workshop. The identity of this figure
may have been inscribed on the destroyed scroll that he once held. Other
remains from Saint-Denis preserved at the Louvre include a fragment with
the heads of three men carved with characteristic Gothic realism, and a capital
decorated with interwoven foliage and four harpies.
Two abaci adorned with the Corinthian acanthus leaves dating to the middle
of the 12th century, as well as the base of twin columns and a double capital,
may have also belonged to the cloisters.
Apart from the sculptural innovations
at Saint-Denis, architectural additions made by Abbot Suger also initiated
several trends of the Gothic tradition. The former oculus (small circular
window without tracery) on the west façade served as  a precursor of
the later Gothic rose window, one of the great innovations in western
architectural history. When Pierre de Montreuil rebuilt the naves and transepts
in the 13th century, the rose window occupied the north and south transepts
as well as the open triforium below. In 1258, Notre-Dame of Paris replicated
the beautiful design of Saint-Denis' rose window, and incorporated the story
of the Apocalypse in the eighty-six panels of stained glass in the upper
chapel. The north transept was originally intended to contain two towers,
but the second tower was never added. The upper
story on the north side contains other innovative features such as double
span flying buttresses (ca. 1230), which allow for the increased height of
the nave.
[Fig.4: Porte des Valois, illustrating
the Martyrdom of Saint-Denis, ca.1160-1170 (photo: Athena
Review)].
In contrast to the innovations of the
west side, the exterior of the east end reflects a greater combination of
Romanesque and Gothic features. The more conservative apse (ca. 1144) follows
the Romanesque style with rounded windows and relieving, heavy arches around
the crypt, where as the stained glass windows of the chapel belong more to
the Gothic period. At the time of Suger's death in 1151, the two ends of
the church were still joined by 8th century construction.
References:
Bony, J. 1983. French Gothic Architecture of the 12th and 13th
centuries. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, University of California
Press.
Büchsel, M. 1997. Die Geburt der Gotik. Abt Sugers Konzept
für die Abteikirche Saint-Denis. Freiburg im Breisgau.
Rombach.
Bußmann, Klaus. 1980. 1980. Paris und die Ile de France.
Die Metropole und das Herzland Frankreichs. Von der antiken Lutetia bis
zur Millionenstadt. Köln, DuMont.
Colboune, T.F. Morgan et al. 2003. Eyewitness Travel Guides: France.
London, DK Publishing.
Williamson, P. 1995. Gothic Sculpture. New Haven and London,
Yale University Press.
This article appears on pages 30-32 of Vol.4 No.2 of Athena
Review. .
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