Identifier: byzantineromanes02jackuoft (find matches)
Title: Byzantine and Romanesque architecture
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Jackson, Thomas Graham, Sir, 1835-1924
Subjects: Architecture, Byzantine Architecture, Romanesque
Publisher: Cambridge, University Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ce that S. Denis occupies aforemost place in the ranks of mediaeval buildings : it isstill more remarkable as the place where the adoption ofthe pointed arch, and the system of Gothic constructionwas first shown on a grand scale. From its social andpolitical importance the abbey of S. Denis gave a power-ful impetus to the new school which was beginning tofree itself from the classic traditions of Romanesque artto which the monastic orders persistently clung. Inthe fa9ade (Plate CXXXII) round and pointed arches^appear together, but in the construction the pointed archgains on the other, and it may fairly be said that althoughpointed arches had been used elsewhere, and tentatively,it was at S. Denis that they first appeared as the rulingmotive of design on a large scale. One is naturally curious to learn what part Sugerhimself had in this artistic revolution. The questionmay be widened to include all the famous churchmen 1 Viollet-le-Duc, Lectures on Architecture, Lect. vil. Plate CXXXH
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S. DENIS CH. xxv) FRANCE—ROYAL DOMAIN 167 whose names are connected with great building move- s. Denisments that led to fresh departures in art, like Hughof Avalon at Lincoln, and William of Wykeham atWinchester. One reads in Sugers life that he gatheredround him from different parts of the kingdom work-men of all kinds, masons, carpenters, painters, smiths,founders, goldsmiths, and lapidaries, all renowned forskill in their several arts. He tells us that he watched Abbotand surveyed the work with the greatest care, that he paftTn^thewent himself to choose the materials, the stone from ^^^gPontoise, and timber from the forest of Yveline, andthat he directed the sculptured and other ornament,giving their subjects to the carver, the glass painters,the goldsmiths, and supplying the inscriptions. He seemsto have been at S. Denis what Justinian was at S. Sophia,who is described as haunting the work, dressed in whitelinen with a handkerchief round his head and a staff inhis hand. But thou

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