Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-11

|
 Arles when architects and sculptors derived their ideas, and perhaps their education, from the East, it is supposable .that the turmeau occurred to Eastern and Western architects l alike and was used wherever so large door
 was needed that one stone as a intel could | not stretch over it with a suffciency of bear
 ing power. The view is large enough to show
 the sculpture contained in the rympan un. Ii ! represents our Saviour enthroned; his right
 hand raised apparently in benediction, while
 in his left hand is the book that was sealed with seven seals. About him are the signs | of the evangelists. On his right the angel of | St. Matthew and the lion of St. Mark. On
 his left the eagle of St. John and the OK of l St. Luke. The representation of the evange-
 lists under the form of winged beasts sur
 rounding our Saviour goes back to the earliest
 centuries of Christianity and is one of the very first objects Of Christian iconography. It is derived from the description in the fourth
 chapter of Revelations. This supposed repre- sentation of one of the scenes of the last judg- ment remained substantially unchanged till
 the beginning of the thirteenth century and when in that century the portals of the cathe- drais of Paris, Rheims and Amiens.. were filled
 out with 8 completed imagery. Our Saviour | enthroned at the last day remained the chief | theme, the governing motive that regulated | all other scenes and subordinated to this one central idea. How the scene was elaborated | will appear as we proceed. The beginnings of it's development are seen even here at Aries. On the intel are the twelve apostles assisting our Saviour in judgment. To the l right of our Saviour, where the frieze extends
 around the abutment, are sculptured the bles- | sed, clothed in righteousness, all with their
 faces towards the throne; to the left are the | wicked represented naked, stripped of their | self ghteousness. chained and led away by
 the demons to everlasting punishment. Be- | low the frieze and between the pillars are
 saints and martyrs, witnesses against their prosecutors and murderers. In this rapid presentation let me take you away now to an | other part of France where new but still con- sistent ideas are represented. The next view l is of the west front of Chartres cathedral, a part of the cathedral which was built in 1170, | but of which much of the sculpture must be of still earlier period.
 Chartres cathedral is mine of inexhaustI- bIe richness to the student of Christian icon- ography. It has within and without, painted on glass and carved in stone, over nine thou sand figures. The view does not give details, | nor could we stop to examine them. It pre- | sents clearly the fully developed cathedral front with it's three entrances. No perfectly satisfactory reason is given for the existence of three main entrances. From an architect urel point of view it seems reasonable that where church has two spires there should be
 an entrance under each and larger entrance in the centre. It is found in books and may be accepted that while choir and rounded
 
 transepts his two arms; the two western spires correspond to his two feet So that l the two spires being accounted for thsologi- cally, the three openings follow as an archi- | tsotural sequence. Another and later req son for the three entrances Is that they COL respond to the three different kinds of wor- | ship praetised in the Romish Church-Dulia (from the Greek, slave), which is the lowest kind of worship, that offered to ssints-Hy- perdulia, superior kind of dulia, that offer l ed to the Virgin, and Latria Gfrom the Greek. a worshiper), the highest kind of worship, that | offered to God alone. If this be the true req son for three entrances, it should be sustained | by the imagery that respectively adorns them, and in some cathedral churches such is the case, at Paris for instance. The imagery of | the central entrance relates to our Saviour, that of the north entrance to the Virgin, while the tourneau of the south entrance bears the figure of St. Marcel, bishop of Paris of the 9th century. A similar division exists at
 Amiens, but not at Rheims, nor here at Char tres" |" + After the feudal system, and France having
 become a kingdom, with many citizens ac- quiring wealth, distinction and power, there came an era of church-building. This was at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Kings, nobles, bishops and burghers could and did unite in building edifices to the glory of God, lasting evidences of the new condi- | tion of society and of strong prevailing relig-
 
 Chartres Cathedral. This cathedral was built | before this grand social movement had fairly commenced. The speaker in this connection | noted that the superiority of French over Eng fish cathedrals resulted from the fact | that the former were built by all the people and were the expression of a national faith, while the English were
 built by bishops of foreign birth, or descent. with moneys wrung from conquered and suffering peasantry. Proceeding, the speaker added, with regard to Chartres cathedral, that the front was essentially monkish. The lay element was not represented. The inhabi-
 tants of cities delighted in the stories and tra- ditions of local saints. They wished these told and perpetuated in stone. Various views
 illustrative of the teachings of the lecture
 were now exhibited. vast difference be-
 twen the sculpture of Chartres and Amiens
 must have intervened between the erection of
 the two structures. Still, the contrast was
 no greater than between Grecian sculpture
 before and after the defeat of the Persians or
 that presented by Italian painting before and
 after the establishment of the Italian repub-
 lies. Art was most sensitive to political and
 social movements responds to them, and if
 properly studied, would show more accurate
 ly than date, when new thoughts became
 living principles
 The present Amiens Cathedral was com
 menced in 1920, among the latter years of the
 glorious Philip Augustus, and the west front,
 the lower portion of it, at least the part con-
 tain1ng the entrances, was probably finished
 while St. Louis was stripling and his moth-
 CT Blanche, of Castile, was regent. The
 speaker glanced at this point at the changed
 political condition of France, before alluded
 to. It was now @ kingdom in fact
 as well as in name, the common people were
 protected, cities chartered and 8 healthy &C.,
 tivity reigned Joinville's memoirs were quoted
 as a beautiful picture of those times, well
 worthy of careful study. The lecturer now
 illustrated many of the beautiful features of
 the Amiens cathedral, affording a wealth of
 information on the subject, and conveying it
 in lucid terms with grasp and vigor, the audi
 ence being evidently deeply interested. A host
 of religious truths, moral precepts and scrip
 tural lessons were inculcated by the en-
 during stone, and one scene was perpetually
 speaking sermon of the Jonathan Edwards
 type. The statue of our Savious at the tru-
 meau in the center was one of the finest typi-
 cal statues any age has produced. Violet le
 Duo considers it the crowning glory of Gothic
 sculpture. It manifests to 8 remarkable de-
 gree all the elements of true and pure art. In
 figure, face, attitude and expression there is a
 wonderful combination of dignity and gentle
 ness, ,frmness and sweetness, a dignity that is not repelling, gravity that is not sad. The lec- turer critically considered various features of the cathedral illustrative of the topic, purely as works of art, even to the technicalities of art, finding them eminently fine examples
 After further at length describing and DOT traying beautiful Christian object lessons dis played upon the cathedral, the lecturer pro- ceeded with the moral. viz: ''How beauti- fully and quaintly are here taught the lessons of virtue" One can imagine mothers bringing their children to the cathedral door to learn these easy lessons, and no doubt on Sundays and fete days some pious teacher was appointed to make clear all the impressive imagery. No wonder the monks in their tor turing monasteries had no sympathy with the cathedral builders of the 18th century. They, like the Pharisees had no teaching that the common people heard gladly. The monks who did the writing in those days took no pains to immortalize the artists who conceived and executed all these beautiful things, which have come down to us despite the hand of Father Time hence the paucity of informa- ton concerning them.
 The lecturer, after the presentation of other highly acceptable views, concluded his very valuable and interesting contribution to the 8. s. s. course as follows
 The entrance to the south transept of Amiens is sacred to St. Honore. The statue of St. Honore that occupied the trumesu is