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Exterior views of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Lausanne, constructed from 1170 to 1275. The pointed tower over the transept was completed in the 19th century. A north tower to balance the great belfry was never completed. Photos by Charles Reeza.

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AN INCOMPLETE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ART LIX

Nôtre-Dame de Paris

The second of five posts on the long, complex history of the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame.

II. The Twelfth Century

The Capetian monarchy and Gothic architecture had been closely associated with each other since the style’s inception around 1140 at the royal abbey of Saint Denis. This mutually beneficial association conferred prestige on the style, which led to its early adoption in bishoprics outside the Ile-de-France, including Sens, Senlis, Laon, Angers and Noyon.

The bishopric of Paris, the principal city in the royal domain, was not an early adopter of Gothic architecture. Although several monastic and parish churches were partially rebuilt using elements of the Gothic style, at the time of Bishop Peter Lombard’s death in 1160, the city of Paris conspicuously lacked a major Gothic monument.

Although a series of repairs to the early Christian basilica had been carried out in the 1120s, the canons of the cathedral protested the deteriorated condition of the 800-year old pile. Louis VII, who believed that a large new church built in a dynamic, comtemporary style would reflect the growing prestige and power of the monarchy, chose a new bishop who would take on the monumental task of building a new cathedral for Paris. Maurice de Sully was that candidate and the church he built is Nôtre-Dame de Paris.

During his 36 years as bishop, Maurice de Sully went far beyond his original charge. He transformed the entire eastern half of the Ile-de-la-Cité into a unified, rational sacred precinct, separate from, and yet connected to, the rest of the city. Embankments increased the surface area on the small island available for building. Access and traffic flow were improved by the construction of the Rue Neuve connecting the cathedral precinct to the main north-south thoroughfare and a new bridge across the Seine.

A broad parvis created a buffer zone mediating the activity of the city from the contemplative, spiritual realm. An episcopal palace funded personally by Maurice, an hôtel dieu, a baptistry, and other support buildings were integrated into the epic urban restructuring project. The realization of Maurice’s master plan involved expensive buyouts of local property holders and several years of demolition work.

The centerpiece of this of complex was the new cathedral, the cornerstone of which was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163, after the site was cleared. The early Christian basilica was raised the ground, but the new cathedral’s width, five aisle ground plan and non-projecting transept were all carried over from the old church. The greatly expanded and elaborated eastern end of the Gothic church doubled the length of the 4th-century basilica. The dramatic change in the east endreflected centuries of revisions of the Christian liturgy.

The other dimension that changed dramatically change from the old to the new church was height. At 32.5 meters from the ground the interior of the Gothic structure stood twice as tall as its predecessor.

As was the norm in early Gothic architecture, the nave elevation was quadripartite. An arcade of ogive arches upported by massive columns carried the nave wall. A spacious gallery below the level of the aisles’ roof line wrapped around the nave and transept; a large triforium of roundels (seen today in a few bays of the nave and transept) masked a passageway; and the central body was lit by small clerestory windows. The external buttressing of the 12th century, supported the lower part of the central vessel; the nave wall supported much of the weight of the stone vaults. Consequently, the ratio of wall to openings in that wall is conservative.

Colonettes springing at the arcade capitals and from corbels at the clerestory connect to the ribs of the sexpartite vaults to formed a coherent linear network that clearly articulated the building’s structural system.

The first 20 years of construction were focused on the choir and double ambulatory, which were sufficiently complete by 1182 to allow for the consecration of the high altar and the resumption of services. The chevet closely resembled that of Saint Denis. (In their 12th-century forms, the chevets of neither Nôtre Dame nor Saint Denis had flying buttresses.) The three bays of the nave closest to the transept, the aisles and the tribune gallery were built at breakneck speed over the years 1182-1190.

Incredibly, the cathedral and its precinct were not the only major architectural projects underway on the Ile-de-la-Cité. The king, Philippe II Auguste, built a new royal fortified palace, the palais du Louvre, and a new enceinte, or circuit of city walls, taking in the left and right banks of the Seine. Both were completed by 1195.

Four successive master masons led the rebuilding project of Nôtre Dame between 1163 and 1200. Nothing is known about them; their presence is detected in subtle changes in the masonry only. Whoever they were, they remained surprisingly faithful to the original master plan approved by Maurice de Sully. In 1194, just two years before his death, a major cathedral fire altered the course of construction at Nôtre Dame.