Notre-Dame D'Amiens

UNESCO Courier, March, 1997 by Cecile Romane

Notre-Dame d'Amiens, the largest cathedral in France and a masterpiece of the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture, is twice the size of Notre-Dame in Paris. Yet it does not give any' impression of being overpowering or disproportionately huge. On the contrary, harmony, elegance and rhythm are the words brought to mind by the thrust of the pillars, the daring of the high windows and the proportions of the rib vaults. Inside, the visitor is struck by the airiness, and looking upwards is charmed by the alternating vivid pinks and greens which cover the expanses of the vaults. Even though other French cathedrals elicit widespread admiration (Chartres or Rheims, for example), many people regard Notre-Dame d'Amiens as the Gothic cathedral par excellence.

A PASSION FOR BUILDING

The first Gothic church of Amiens, consecrated in 1152, burned down in 1218. Another church had to be built. Like most of their contemporaries, the people of Amiens wanted to improve on what had already been done and they had the resources to do so. Thanks to its weavers, its spinners and its dyers, who used plants to produce the highly popular Amiens "blue", the city was prosperous. The chapter was also growing rich from the influx of pilgrims. Bishop Evrard de Fonilloy lost no time in asking the architect Robert de Luzarches to build a cathedral in the Gothic style, which had begun to be used in the previous century and was then flourishing - construction work was already underway on the cathedrals of Chartres, Bourges and Paris.

The passion for building in the Middle Ages - which some people at the time described as morbus aedificandi (the building sickness) - covered France with monuments of which half, some 1,300 buildings, still exist today. Amiens cathedral (1220-1280) was built during this productive period when an aspiration towards splendour and novelty fostered technical prowess.

In due course, two other architects, Thomas de Cormont and his son Renaud, succeeded Robert de Luzarches. The success of the cathedral was due as much to Robert's plans and methods as to the innovations introduced by his two successors. Amiens was the first cathedral to be built to small-scale plans and also the first where the stone-cutting work was rationalized. Shelters were built in the quarry so that work could continue during bad weather, and the pre-fabricated elements the masons produced were then stored, ready for use when the weather improved.

Work on a church usually starts with the choir, the centre of worship. However, since the area where the choir was to be located was occupied, work at Amiens started with the nave and the high windows were placed on a blind triforium, the normal practice at that time. However, after the death of Robert de Luzarches in about 1223, when the choir and the apse were being added, the techniques for building an openwork triforium were known. This is why, at Amiens, light flows in abundantly at the back, conferring on the cathedral a grace which is felt by everyone who visits it, Christian and non-Christian alike.

From the twelfth century onwards, the Gothic conception of architecture attached more importance to emptiness than fullness, and soared skywards in search of beauty. This concern for clarity and for unity of space dictated certain features which contribute to the originality of Amiens.

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

On the West facade, the vast Beau Dieu porch is flanked by the smaller porches of the Mother of God and St. Firmin. The profusion of sculptures recounting sacred history has earned the cathedral the description of "a Bible in stone" The fifty-five main statues are placed in a hierarchical order with, in the centre, the twelve Apostles surrounding Christ giving his blessing, while the tympanum shows details of the Last Judgement. The right porch displays the history of the Virgin Mary, and the left the lives of St. Firmin, who came from Pamplona in the third century to preach in Amiens, and of other local saints.

In the past, the porches were used as shelters as well as entrances and justice was dispensed there. Beneath each statue, at head height, are two lines of quatrefoils, a typical French Gothic motif. The vices and virtues are represented at the feet of the Apostles. They are read vertically - with courage standing higher than fear - and symmetrically. Each virtue refers to its symmetrical counterpart on the other side of the porch - so that love faces chastity. Charity is represented by the gift of a cloak to a naked beggar. This allegory reminds us that it was at Amiens that St. Martin divided his cloak in two with a stroke of his sword and gave half of it to a poor man. St. Firmin's portal shows the work of the different seasons of the year and the signs of the Zodiac.

Very high up, above the Gallery of the Kings, which is found in all Gothic cathedrals in France, shines a rose window whose fine stone and glass tracery extends over a circle with a diameter of almost 13 metres. This colossal circle is as big as a circus ring with room for twelve galloping horses. On either side rise two towers of different heights, one completed at the end of the fourteenth century, the other in the fifteenth. When it was built, the interior of Amiens cathedral was the highest in the world, the central vault rising to more than 42 metres, the equivalent of fifteen storeys.