An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The goal of the course is a better appreciation of the High Middle Ages, a world that is still recognizably our own.
11.3 Truth Set in Stone
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From the course by Yale University
Age of Cathedrals
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From the lesson
Notre Dame de Paris
Moving to the heart of Paris, we explore the initial construction of Notre-Dame and the innovations that were undertaken almost as soon as the building began. We discuss the sculptural programs of Notre-Dame’s West façade, including the portal which depicts the life of Saint Anne, Christ’s grandmother, and Mary, his mother and the central portal of the Last Judgment. Along the south side, we discover the story of the stoning of Saint Stephen; and, along the North, the miracle of Theophilus and the Virgin. Moving inside the cathedral, we encounter the stunning rose windows of Notre-Dame.
Meet the Instructors
Howard BlochSterling Professor of French
French
One of those figures like Sant-Denis,
Theophilus is everywhere in the period we are studying.
And his presence is not limited to church sculpture.
There are some 10 Theophilus cycles in French and English illuminated manuscripts.
Nor is the Theophilus story limited to a gothic phenomenon,
since one of the most interesting and beautiful representations of
Theophilus is to be found in the Romanesque Abbey Church of Souillac in Southern France.
The Souillac Theophilus features the scene of the signing and exchange of the charter,
and of the devil placing his hands over those of Theophilus,
a gesture from the world of military feudalism.
In a ceremony known as homage,
a man of greater means became the lord of a man of
lesser means by placing his hands over those of his vassal.
Theophilus also figures in
no fewer than eight stained glass programs of the 13th century,
the most elaborate of which is to be found in the Cathedral of Beauvais.
Here for example, we see Theophilus making his written pact with the devil.
And here the devil makes Theophilus his man with the placing of hands.
In the upper scene, which stretches across two quadrants,
Theophilus uses his newfound wealth to build a church.
As two hods carry a basket of cement up what looks like a flying buttress,
and another lays courses of stone on top of a wall.
The Beauvais Theophilus cycle also shows him seated as a bishop and distributing alms,
a little devil at his side and in the upper two quadrants receiving gifts.
In this instance a fish on a platter.
Eventually however, Theophilus enters a church where he prays to a statue of the Virgin.
And finally, after his death,
the bishop reads a scroll containing the story of Theophilus.
In the Notre-Dame stone rendering of the Theophilus story,
we observe his making of a pact with the devil,
who as Lord, places his hands over those of his vassal.
In the middle right of the upper lintel of the north entrance to the cathedral,
Theophilus as Bishop distributes alms.
A little devil as in the Beauvais example at his side.
Though the Theophilus tale is depicted visually both in stained glass and in stone,
it is fundamentally a tale of sculpture.
In seeking Mary's aid,
the repentant cleric prays to a statue of the Virgin.
A figural sculpture within sculpture just as the statue itself is enclosed
within a miniature church with two towers and a trifle tracery topped by a gabled roof.
A church within a church.
On the far right,
the Virgin Mary wielding a sword takes back the charter from the devil on his knees.
Theophilus is a tale about writing,
about charters, written and retrieved.
And the poet Rutebeuf, who lived in
13th century Paris and who either saw the sculptural story of Theophilus
or inspired it produced a written version of "The Miracle
of Theophilus" where we read the following about the scene in stone.
"Our lady speaks - Theophilus,
I once knew you,
when you served me - long ago.
Now in your need,
trust me to redeem the deed that ignorance made you concede. I'll fetch it back.
Our Lady raises her cross, the devil falls.
And she treads him under foot."
Mary returns the written pact with the devil to
the repentant sinner with specific instructions. According to Rutebeuf.
"Now our Lady shall carry the covenant back to Theophilus."
And says, "My friend,
I bring the charter back.
Your soul's ship was almost wrecked without hope of better luck.
Now hear my words: Go to the bishop,
do not wait; Give him the charter that you made,
to read aloud inside the church,
before a crowd, so that good men are not seduced by such deceit."
In the tympanum of the north portal of Notre-Dame,
we see the Bishop with Theophilus in attendance telling his story,
holding up a book, possibly the very book we are reading.
Where Theophilus goes to the bishop tells his story and
asks that this be read so that others may not be deceived.
We read in Rutebeuf that the Bishop shall read the charter and say,
"The Bishop for Jesus' sake,
Mary's Son, Good people, listen;
you shall learn of Theophilus,
whom the devil cheated by his guile."
Here we have an excellent example of one of
the most important functions both of literature and of church sculpture.
That is moral pre-script to teach right action and to avoid committing unwise deeds.
After all, the name Theophilus itself means, "Love of God."
We also encounter in the combined visual and verbal versions of Theophilus story,
an important lesson in the fundamentals of Gothic architecture.
The bishop reads the whole story of Theophilus in
what is an inscription of the tale within the tale.
What was known as mise-en-abyme just as Theophilus
in sculpture involved sculpture within sculpture.
I want to leave you today with a suggestion that
this principle of identical smaller things within larger ones,
whether they are books within books,
or sculpture within sculpture is one of the prime principles of Gothic architecture.
Indeed, one of the mental structures of the age.
You might think of this as a fascination with the layering of forms within forms.
It can be seen in the scholastic mode of thought and theses that also took
shape in the shadow of Notre-Dame de Paris in the very decades of which we are speaking.
St. Thomas Aquinas would arrange his Summa Theologica as a series
of major and minor theses addressing questions as a series of categories,
subcategories and sub subcategories.
Similarly, the cathedral was built in modules of structure,
independent bays which correspond to
the homologous parts within parts of parts of scholastic thought.
It was decorated along lines of such imbricated forms.
Similar shapes within shapes which as we can see in this image of the whole of
the north portal are integrated to form an architectonic whole.
All along the area by which one enters
the church we find smaller pointed gables within gable's.
At the mid-level we find smaller lancet windows within larger ones.
On either side of the great rose window,
we see little chapels holding jam statues,
and on top of the counter buttress of the right,
a finial in the shape of a small church.
At the very top, more chapel like finials on
either side of a large ocular window containing
six smaller ones with another at the center to
form small concentric circles within a larger one.
As the great art historian Erwin Panofsky noted,
the basic principle of gothic stone buildings is thoroughly analogous to
the scholastic synthesis of great theological and philosophical truth.
In our next time together we shall look more closely at Peter Abelard,
the great thinker and pre scholastic who lived in love in the very space on
which the construction of Notre-Dame began some two decades after his death.
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