The arches of the nave, nearest the cross and the choir, ending
in a semi-circle, exhibit a more advanced state of the pointed style,
and are distinguished by the remarkable elegance of their graceful
clustered pillars. The circular ornaments in the spandrils of the arches
are very pleasing and of fanciful variety.'
We see in the interior of this cathedral a confusion of styles--a
conflict of grace and beauty with rude and grotesque work. The
delicately-traced patterns carved on the walls, the medallions and
pendant ornaments, in stone, of the thirteenth century, are scarcely
surpassed at Chartres; side by side with these, there are headless and
armless statues of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which have been
painted, and tablets (such as we have sketched) to commemorate the
ancient founders of the church; and underneath the choir, the crypt of
Bishop Odo, the Conqueror's half-brother, with its twelve massive
pillars, which formed the foundation of the original church, built in
1077.
[Illustration]
In the nave we may admire the beautiful radiating chapels, with their
curious frescoes (some destroyed by damp and others evidently effaced by
rude hands); and we may examine the bronze pulpit, with a figure of the
Virgin trampling on the serpent; the dark, carved woodwork in the
chancel; the old books with clasps (that Haag, or Werner, would delight
in), and two quite modern stone pulpits or lecterns, with vine leaves
twining up them in the form of a cross, the carving of which is equal
to any of the old work--the rugged vine stem and the soft leaves being
wonderfully rendered.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65