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The Sainte-Chapelle, also known as the
Sainte-Chapelle du Palais, is a palatine chapel built on the Île de
la Cité, in Paris, at the request of Saint Louis in order to house
the Holy Crown of Thorns, a piece of the True Cross, as well as
various other relics of the Passion that he had acquired from 1239.
It is the first built of the holy chapels, conceived as a vast
building almost entirely glazed, and stands out for the elegance and
boldness of its architecture, which manifests itself in a
significant elevation and the almost total removal of the walls at
the level of the windows of the upper chapel. Although built in a
short time of no more than seven years, no construction defects have
been found, and the decoration has not been neglected. It makes
particular use of sculpture, painting and the art of stained glass:
it is its immense original historiated stained glass windows that
make up the richness of the Sainte-Chapelle today, because it was
deprived of its relics during the French Revolution, and thus lost
its main reason for being.
Served by a college of canons
until 1787, the Sainte-Chapelle was closed to worship around 1790,
then emptied of all its contents and diverted into the headquarters
of the Sainte-Chapelle Club. In 1797, it was transformed into an
archive depot of the courthouse, and the expansion of it threatens
its very existence.
Its rescue was decided in 1836 under the
pressure of public opinion, and its restoration was launched a year
later and lasted twenty-six years. As an emblematic building of the
radiant Gothic style, the Sainte-Chapelle is classified as a
historical monument by list of 1862, a year before the completion of
its restoration, which is one of the most successful of its time. It
is for these relics which constitute, according to the expression of
the historian Jean Richard, the palladium ("sacred shield") of the
kingdom of France, that the upper chapel is arranged. We were able
to define the so-called "relics" canopy as "the key to the entire
iconographic program".
Together with the Conciergerie, the
Sainte-Chapelle constitutes one of the remains of the Palais de la
Cité, which extended over the site covering the Palais de justice in
Paris. It is managed by the National Monuments Center, to which it
was allocated as an endowment by an order of April 2, 2008. Served
by the Cité metro station, the monument welcomed more than 1,375,000
visitors in 2019, making it the third monument managed by the
National Monuments Center the most visited after Mont Saint-Michel
and the Arc de Triomphe of the Star.
During the siege of Constantinople in 1204, Baldwin VI
of Hainaut seized everything he could find in the Boucoleon palace,
including the True Cross and the Holy Crown. These relic badges are not
sold at first, but remain at the Latin emperor's home and are passed on
to his successors. In 1237, the last Latin emperor of Constantinople,
Baldwin II of Courtenay, arrives in France as part of a European trip
with the aim of finding allies to help him confront the Bulgarians who
are besieging Constantinople. In order to finance the defense of his
empire, Baldwin pawns the Holy Crown in September 1238, to Nicolo
Quirino, a Venetian merchant close to the Doge of Venice. It is planned
that the merchant will only become the owner of the relic if Baldwin
fails to repay him within four months.
Not inclined to military
aid, Saint Louis is on the other hand interested in the purchase of the
Holy Crown. After a series of talks in order to verify the authenticity
of the relic, he acquired the Holy Crown for 135,000 livres tournois,
more than half of the annual income of the royal estate, which,
according to de Wailly, for ordinary income alone, amounted in 1238 to
235,285 livres parisis. Under the leadership of the Dominican preachers
Jacques and André de Longjumeau, the relic set off for France in 1239.
On August 10, she makes a solemn entrance to Villeneuve-l'archevêque
(Champagne), then the procession stops in Sens the next day. The king,
his brother Robert I of Artois, bishop of Puy, their mother Blanche of
Castile and the archbishop of Sens, Guillaume Cornut, go to meet the
procession and check the seals, which guarantee the authenticity of the
relic. The king lays down his. Then the journey continues by river. On
August 18, the Holy Crown enters Paris, in the presence of a large crowd
of spectators and all the clergy of the capital. During a great ceremony
held the next day, the relic is deposited in the chapel of Saint-Nicolas
of the palace of the City. Two years later, in 1241, the king pursued
his ambition by acquiring a large piece of the Holy Cross and seven
other relics of the Passion of Christ, including the Holy Blood and the
Sepulchre Stone. The following year, pieces of the Holy Spear and the
Holy Sponge were added to the Holy Collection.
With the acquisition of this collection of relics,
Saint Louis decides to build a chapel designed as a real shrine in order
to be able to venerate it. However, he does not intend to turn it into a
national shrine or a place of pilgrimage of the first order, which is
expressed by the absence of external access to the upper chapel, place
of exhibition of the great shrine. The new building takes place in the
Palais de la Cité, the main place of residence of Saint Louis with
Vincennes, and replaces the old Saint-Nicolas chapel which was then
destroyed. The choice of a location within the Palace is not trivial: it
affirms the sacred link between the relics and the royal crown, as did
the Byzantine and Germanic emperors, with respectively the chapels of
the Boucoléon and Aachen palaces. This proximity also has a judicial
role, because it is on the relics that one takes the oath in the
proceedings between lords and vassals.
The chapel must respond to
a quadruple vocation: setting for the conservation of relics also
allowing their veneration; palatine chapel; seat of a college of canons;
and place of worship for the staff of the castle. Not all chapels linked
to a royal or episcopal residence necessarily combine all these
functions. The oldest example is certainly the Cámara Santa of Oviedo,
which dates from the mid-ninth century. It is already a double chapel.
In France, the shape of the Sainte-Chapelle crystallizes with the
episcopal chapels of Laon, Paris and Noyon, and especially that of the
Archdiocese of Reims. It is not the best suited to cope with the influx
of crowds of pilgrims: the absence of an ambulatory does not allow a
scroll in front of the relics, and visitors must take one of the two
spiral staircases of the western facade. It is believed that it is Louis
IX's desire to have a quiet place of prayer that motivates this party,
and not the king's desire to reserve the relics for the royal family and
his entourage, which fits less well with the personality of Saint Louis.
Therefore, the chapel does not have a royal tribune, because on ordinary
days, only the clergy, the royal family and their guests have access to
the chapel. It is connected to the palace by the Merciers gallery, which
delimits the may court to the west and serves the king's private
apartments. In the chapel, the king has an oratory which is just a niche
made in the wall of the fourth bay, to the south. The chapel initially
contains no stalls: the audience, including the canons, take their
places on the stone benches that run all around. A rood screen is
installed only later, a little east of the limit between the second and
third spans.
The exact date of the start of construction remains
unknown. The work began between the autumn of 1241, the date of the
arrival of the relics in Paris, and May 1244, the date on which a papal
bull mentions the work for the first time. From 1246, Saint-Louis
founded a college of five master chaplains responsible for guarding the
relics, maintaining the stained glass windows and lighting fixtures, and
celebrating worship in the chapel. The building was officially
consecrated on April 26, 1248, the legate of Pope Eudes de Châteauroux
consecrating the upper chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, and the
Archbishop of Bourges Philippe Berruyer consecrating the lower chapel
dedicated to the Virgin on the same day. The duration of the work is
therefore between four and six years, at a total cost of 40,000 livres
tournois.
The speed with which the work is being carried out
illustrates the financial health of the kingdom, whose treasury can
raise large sums in a very short time. Saint Louis is a king builder,
who built military buildings, such as the ramparts of Aigues-Mortes and
Jaffa; civil buildings such as the castle of Tours, the hospice of the
Fifteen and the hotels-Dieu of Compiègne and Pontoise; and especially
many religious establishments, such as the abbey of Maubuisson founded
by his mother in 1236, and the abbey of Royaumont, of which he is
himself the founder. He also pushed the abbot Eudes Clément to rebuild
the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Suger. We know that he personally visits
the construction sites to control their progress, takes an active part
in the scheduling of buildings and sometimes helps the workers. Thus, it
is almost certain that he designed the Sainte-Chapelle in close
collaboration with the master builder. The architect in charge of the
construction remains unknown. The oral tradition, dating back to the
sixteenth century, evokes Pierre de Montreuil, architect of the chapel
of the Virgin of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the south arm
of the transept of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. However, only the
style of the sculpture shows a kinship with the Sainte-Chapelle.
Different hypotheses have been put forward about the main architect, who
has a more conservative conception of architecture than Pierre de
Montreuil: Robert Branner evokes Thomas de Cormont, master mason of
Amiens Cathedral, while Dieter Kimpel and Robert Suckale evoke his
predecessor, Robert de Luzarches. These hypotheses are based in
particular on the architectural relationship noted between the
Sainte-Chapelle and the Chapel of the Virgin of the Cathedral of Amiens.
Nothing specific is known about the progress of the construction
site. The architectural program is accompanied by a symbolic program
that manifests itself both in the content of the reliquary and the
decoration of the upper chapel. The relics coming from the Byzantine
Empire — what contemporaries know perfectly well — the Capetian monarchy
thus appears as the true heir of the imperial idea, and in the extension
of this idea, Pope Boniface VIII qualifies Louis IX as emperor in his
canonization bull of 1297. It is also a question of responding to the
translation of the relics of the Virgin from the chapel of the Aachen
Palace into a new building in 1238/1239, which is at the beginning of a
new pilgrimage, and places the Holy Empire for a while at the center of
the Christian world.
At the time of the crusades, the Capetians
also sought to appropriate the legitimacy of the monarchy of Israel,
which was facilitated by the possession of the rod of Moses, which is
among the relics that arrived from Byzantium in the early 1240s and
which is kept in the great shrine of the relics of the Passion. Louis IX
has a particular predilection for the cult of the Passion, and
undoubtedly wants to convey a certain image that shows that he is
walking in the footsteps of Christ, which is why he proceeds to wash the
feet of the poor every Holy Thursday. But contrary to the gloomy vision
of the fourteenth century, the Passion is perceived as inseparable from
the Resurrection of Christ, represented on one side of the great shrine.
Despite the representation of scenes of martyrs under the plated
arches of the window bases, the symbolic program of the upper chapel and
its entire architecture express the optimism, which emanates from the
dizzying elevation of the space, the high spire, the dematerialization
of the space where the glass wins on the walls, and the harmony of
colors. The spire is a new tower of Babel, which, founded on
Christianity, does not collapse. The pillars between the spans are
provided with the statues of the Twelve Apostles, who by their preaching
formed the columns on which the church rests. The stained-glass windows
illustrate the history of the people of God, and stage the precursors,
namely the prophets and Saint John the Baptist. As a whole, the symbolic
program of the Sainte-Chapelle and the significance of its architecture
are understood and appreciated by contemporaries. The Sainte-Chapelle is
also the successful realization of a dream, that of a building with
walls of light or an image of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is also the
fusion of all the arts of the thirteenth century: architecture,
sculpture, painting, stained glass art, goldsmithing (for the shrouds),
illumination (for the missals and evangelicals) and music (for the
singing of the canons and their deacons)
Thanks to a privilege attached to the crown of France,
the clergy of the Sainte-Chapelle do not depend on the bishop, nor on
the parish on the perimeter of which the Palace of the City is located,
that of Saint-Barthélémy. So that this exemption is not disputed by the
Bishop of Paris, he is not invited to the consecration ceremony, which
is presided over by the apostolic legate and the archbishop of Reims.
In 1273, the pope officially attached the clergy of the
Sainte-Chapelle to the Holy See. The clergy was installed in January
1246 by an act of Louis IX called the "First Foundation", and consisted
of members of three ranks: five master chaplains later called canons,
and for each of them, a sub-chaplain and a deacon or subdeacon. The
temporal is administered by two churchwardens, whose posts are however
abolished under Philip the Bold. On the other hand, his grandson Philip
V of France doubles the clergy. In addition, there are sub-chaplains or
perpetual foundation chaplains, who are attached to one of the secondary
altars, and have the attribution of reading masses for the deceased of
the royal family. These perpetual chaplains are not part of the college
of canons, which is also never established as a chapter, and the
Sainte-Chapelle does not become a collegiate church, so as not to confer
on the college the additional rights that would have resulted from it.
The head of the master chaplains is the treasurer, since his main
responsibility is the custody of the treasury. At the same time, he is
the parish priest of the Sainte-Chapelle, and watches over the souls of
its clergy, its lay staff and some palace officers, including the
concierge.
The second most important personage of the
Sainte-Chapelle is the cantor, who must be present at all services and
lead the choir at all festivals, which represents such constraints that
it is often difficult to find a person who agrees to be appointed
cantor. All the clergy of the Sainte-Chapelle are under house arrest at
the palace. He earns comfortable salaries, and the master chaplains ride
in carriages and have a stable of four horses, but the service
accommodations are cramped and unsanitary.
These are the great ceremonies that punctuate the life
of the Sainte-Chapelle throughout the year. It is necessary to
distinguish between those relating to the relics of the Passion, which
are three in number and were instituted by Saint Louis, and those
relating to the cult of Saint Louis himself, established after his
canonization in 1297, and which are two in number. The king of course
attends these ceremonies, but his presence during the other masses is
rather exceptional. For guests or famous people, the king sometimes has
extraordinary services celebrated in order to make his guests benefit
from the virtues of the relics.
Other ceremonies are those
deriving from privileges granted to many religious orders; they can come
on any given day of the year and celebrate a Mass with their own clergy.
On the night from Thursday to Good Friday, the True Cross is exposed for
the sick, especially those suffering from epilepsy, which often ends
with attacks of mass hysteria. Masses are celebrated daily in the upper
chapel and in the lower chapel, one intended for the court, the other
intended for the staff of the palace and the Sainte-Chapelle.
The
quality of the music sung reaches a high level, and among the music
masters, another office that exists at the Sainte-Chapelle, we find
recognized musicians and composers such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier
(1698-1704) and Nicolas Bernier (1704-1726). An organ is attested from
the beginning; it is replaced in 1493, 1550 and 1762. A vicar appointed
from among the canons is in charge of the lower chapel, assisted by one
of the chaplains. All the rest of the clergy intervene only in the upper
chapel, except of course the many perpetual chaplains who say the
foundation masses in front of the side altars, which are distributed
over the two chapels. The foundation masses are not to be confused with
the Eucharistic celebrations addressed to the circle of faithful who
have access to the chapel; they take place in silence and often without
assistance. The Liturgy of the Hours was established by Charles VI in
1401, but it turns out that these services are rarely attended by the
clergy themselves. It seems that the obligations and duties of the
canons are so numerous that they end up no longer being observed;
therefore, reforms must be carried out three times, in 1475, 1521 and
1681, each time, on the initiative of the king.
If the Palace of the City is abandoned as a royal
residence by Charles V, the Sainte-Chapelle is honored by all the
succeeding dynasties, and even when Paris is ruled by the Duke of
Bedford after the Battle of Azincourt in 1415, he is keen to respect the
customs. However, royal and sacred weddings have no longer been
celebrated in the Sainte-Chapelle since the end of the fourteenth
century. Until then, we can mention in particular the coronation and
coronation of Princess Marie of Brabant during her nuptials with Philip
the Bold, on June 24, 1275 ; the marriage of the future Emperor Henry
VII of the Holy Empire with Margaret of Brabant on June 9, 1292; the
coronation and coronation of Princess Marie of Luxembourg during her
marriage to Charles IV on May 15, 1323; the coronation of Joan of Evreux
on May 11, 1326; and the coronation of Isabeau of Bavaria in 1389.
Then the Sainte-Chapelle was only used for funeral services, in
particular that of Philippe le Long, celebrated with great pomp every
year until the time of Louis XIV. After the death of Louis XV in 1774, a
dispute about the right to choose the funeral speaker and to draw up the
list of guests, breaks out between the chamber of accounts and the
college of canons. The consequence is an order from King Louis XVI,
prohibiting for the future any funeral service in the Sainte-Chapelle.
Quarrels and legal proceedings brought by members of its clergy to other
official bodies also punctuate the history of the Sainte-Chapelle.
Outwardly, the canons often give an image of harshness for gain and
meanness; they are suspicious and jealously defend their many
privileges. To the detriment of the regulations, they sometimes cumulate
the functions and neglect their main missions.
In the eighteenth
century, the philosophy of the Enlightenment contributes to a
questioning of the authenticity of the relics and discredits their
veneration. On March 11, 1787, the King's Council of France decides on
an administrative and financial rationalization of the various Holy
Chapels of the kingdom. The property and rights of the college of canons
are placed in receivership, and appointments to vacant positions are
prohibited. Thus, the Sainte-Chapelle falls into a lethargy two years
before the French Revolution. In 1790, the lower chapel of the
Sainte-Chapelle was however still the seat of one of the 52 urban
parishes of the diocese of Paris. It is open to the inhabitants of the
courthouse and its outbuildings. Its parish priest since 1784, Father
Jean-François Roussineau, takes the constitutional oath with the
thirteen other priests who make up the clergy of this parish. In
February 1791, by a series of decrees of the Constituent Assembly taken
on a proposal from the city council of Paris, the Basse-Sainte-Chapelle,
like the nine other churches of the Ile de la Cité, loses its status of
parish seat in favor of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris.
The most significant relics are preserved in the large
chest that sits in the apse of the upper chapel, first on a platform
accessible by a chapel, then from about 1254 on the vaulted aedicule
that we currently see, accessible by two wooden screw staircases, and
symbolically sheltered by a canopy. The large chest is a 2.70 m wide
goldsmith's safe, with two exterior leaves opening at the back, and two
interior lattice leaves as a second protection. The king carries the ten
keys on himself at all times, and entrusts them to trusted people only
against the signature of letters of credence. The interior contains
several reliquaries in the form of crosses, vases, busts and paintings.
They contain: the Holy Crown; the Blood of Christ; a large part of the
wood of the Spear; pieces of the iron of the Spear, the Purple Cloak,
the Reed, the Sponge, the Holy Shroud; linen which the Lord had used to
Wash the feet; handcuffs; a piece of the stone of the Holy Sepulchre; a
Holy Face ; the Cross of Victory; flags of Childhood; milk of the
Virgin; hair of the Virgin; pieces of her veil; miraculous blood from an
image of Christ struck by an infidel; the top of the head of Saint John
the Baptist; the rod of Moses. In order to facilitate the exposure to
the faithful, a pivoting mechanism makes it possible to turn the large
casket on its axis. Its decoration was architectural, and included
bas-reliefs on three sides: the Crucifixion to the west, the
Flagellation of Christ to the north, and the Resurrection of Christ to
the south. - The Sainte-Chapelle has, of course, a large quantity of
other relics, most of which are kept in two large cupboards in the
sacristy, in conjunction with small precious objects.
Twenty-seven years after his death, Louis IX was canonized by Pope
Boniface VIII, as before him the sovereigns Clovis and Charlemagne. This
formality is important for French royalty, because it honors the entire
Capetian dynasty and more firmly establishes the royal power. For its
part, the church hopes for favors from the King of France, and more
particularly the protection of the papal monarchy. The body of Saint
Louis was lifted as part of a great ceremony in the Basilica of
Saint-Denis, on August 25, 1298. Then the new silver shawl is carried in
procession to the Sainte-Chapelle. Philip the Fair wants it to stay
there forever, but the religious of the Saint-Denis abbey oppose it, and
in February 1300, the shrine joined the royal necropolis of the Basilica
of Saint-Denis. After six years of negotiations with the pope and the
monks of Saint-Denis, the king finally obtains to be able to remove the
head of his ancestor, except the lower jaw, and place it in a golden
reliquary on May 17, 1306. It is transported to the Sainte-Chapelle,
near which the Parliament of Paris now has its final seat: the presence
of the relic, symbol of a king who embodied fairness and justice, must
remind judges that they must uphold the laws, protect good people and do
justice to all. Thus, the Sainte-Chapelle becomes, in a way, the head of
the kingdom.
The inestimable value of the relics of the Passion
does not prevent successive sovereigns from collecting parcels of them
in order to offer them to monastic communities and bishops in France and
abroad, because the sharing of relics does not diminish their holiness.
Louis IX himself established this practice as early as 1248, when he
offered plots of land to the Bishop of Toledo. Thus the relics multiply,
and to take only the example of the True Cross, eight reliquaries have
been created in the provinces. As long as the beneficiaries are
religious establishments, these generosity are honorable, but when
Charles VI offered the bones of Saint Louis to the Dukes of Berry and
Burgundy in 1492, the monks of Saint-Denis decided not to open the
chapel anymore. In this case, it is a question of using the relics for
purely personal purposes. Still in 1672, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria
abuses relics in the same sense, and has a piece of the True Cross taken
intended for her son, Louis-François of France, in order to preserve it
from accidents. Even thefts diminish the reliquary: pieces of the True
Cross enclosed in separate reliquaries are stolen in 1534 and 1555 and
will never be found. Since the circle of people with access to it is
restricted, it is suspected in 1555 that Henry III and his mother
Catherine de Medici had pawned the object in Italy. To calm the rumors,
the king takes another piece of the True Cross and places it in a
reliquary identical to the one that has just been stolen. But, he also
removes five large rubies from the Holy Crown, estimated at 250,000 ECU,
in order to pledge them. In 1562, Charles IX removed ornaments from
several reliquaries and sent them to the Mint to be melted down.
The French Revolution means the end of the reliquary of the
Sainte-Chapelle. Contrary to what is observed elsewhere, the relics
themselves are not desecrated, because because of their antiquity, they
impose respect even on non-believing revolutionaries. While the great
shrine was melted down in 1791, and the reliquaries in 1791 and 1793
especially, always with the aim of recovering the precious metals, the
relics were entrusted to Jean-Baptiste Gobel, constitutional bishop.
They are transported to Saint-Denis, and it is there that many of them
disappear in conditions that have not yet been clarified. The Holy Crown
was deposited in the Cabinet of Antiques in 1793, and handed over to
Cardinal Jean-Baptiste de Belloy in 1804. It is preserved today in the
treasury of Notre-Dame de Paris. The cameo of the Triumph of Germanicus
and the bust of Constantine are sent to the cabinet of Medals, and the
missal and three evangelicals with gold binding plates to the Manuscript
department of the National Library of France. The reliquary of "the
stone of the sepulchre" and the ivory Virgin are kept in the department
of Art Objects of the Louvre Museum; and the reliquary of Saint Maxien,
saint Lucien and saint Junien at the Cluny museum.
The date of the definitive end of the cult has not
been recorded, but it seems that the suspension of the treatment of the
clergy by the decree of May 11, 1787 already puts an end to the regular
service of the Sainte-Chapelle. On the eve of the Revolution, she
remains officially assigned to worship, but her fate is already more or
less sealed, and she is about to be definitively sacrificed to budget
restrictions. No difference is made between the Sainte-Chapelle de
Paris, which in the eyes of the population is of particular symbolic
importance, and the other Holy Chapels of the kingdom, which also have a
dedicated clergy. This set causes significant expenses that come
directly from the state coffers, while monasteries, colleges and
parishes are self-financed by tithes and by rents, which come from land
holdings and foundations.
The National Assembly examines the
question of the Sainte-Chapelle and orders a report from Canon
Sauveur-Jérôme Morand, who is precisely a member of the college of
canons of the Sainte-Chapelle. The canon had been in charge of the
inventory of the titles of the Sainte-Chapelle in 1787 and combed
through all its archives. The result is the book History of the Royal
Chapel of the Palace, which is submitted to the Assembly on July 1,
1790. Morand seems to be embarrassed when he explains the adoration of
relics, which seems almost suspicious in the eighteenth century. As
already mentioned, the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle was largely
destroyed in 1791, long before the Terror and its iconoclasm: it was
time for the civil constitution of the clergy, the suppression of
monasteries and the reduction of the number of parishes, but nothing yet
portends the prohibition of Catholic worship to come. Like the other
disused religious buildings, the Sainte-Chapelle should have been sold
as a national asset, but it finally remains the property of the state
and hosts the Sainte-Chapelle Club. The spire built between 1634 and
1671 only is demolished ; this was already the fourth spire of the
Sainte-Chapelle. As soon as the ban on worship is lifted, the lower
chapel becomes the meeting place of the Church resistant to the civil
constitution.
In 1797, the upper chapel was converted into an
archive depot of the courthouse, but neither use prevents the cutting up
of the Sainte-Chapelle, which becomes almost an empty wreck: although it
remains public property, it is believed necessary to remove the statues
of the Apostles from the upper chapel. Two are broken, and ten are sent
to the museum of French monuments by Alexandre Lenoir, and will be
scattered at the end of this museum in 1816.
The state of the
Sainte-Chapelle is deplorable at the end of the Revolution, and there is
no longer any liturgical furniture, the stained-glass windows are
partially disjointed or broken, the sculpture of the lower portal is
mutilated, the architectural decoration of the lateral elevations and
the bedside is largely damaged or missing, and even more serious, there
is only a temporary frame and no more spire. The sacristy, which
contained the Treasure of the Charters upstairs and evoked a small
chapel to the north of the bedside, had already been demolished in 1777.
Neither under the Empire, nor under the Restoration, the restoration of
worship in the Sainte-Chapelle is envisaged. Almost no one cares about
the preservation of medieval architectural heritage: only classical or
neoclassical architecture is on the rise. In 1811, the shops and masures
established between the buttresses were razed as part of the
construction of an external staircase attached to the south facade.
Creation of the architect Antoine-Marie Peyre, this staircase qualified
as neo-Egyptian replaces the remains of that of Louis XII.
In
1825, the reflections on the future of the palace of justice begin: some
are attached to the old palace, the others want a completely new palace.
The Sainte-Chapelle is perceived as an obstacle by this faction, and
moreover it is not parallel or perpendicular to the other buildings,
because liturgically oriented east-west. The question of the
reconstruction of the courthouse was not decided quickly, which left a
reprieve for the Sainte-Chapelle. From then on, the fight led by the few
supporters of its preservation is twofold: that for its restoration, and
that for its isolation within the Palace of Justice, in order to
highlight its elevation and to let enough light penetrate through its
stained glass windows. In the mid-1830s, the men who are committed to
the medieval architectural heritage are Adolphe Napoleon Didron and
Prosper Mérimée. However, the preservation of the monument is only
possible through public awareness, which takes place partly thanks to
the novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. It was precisely he who
pointed out the Sainte-Chapelle as one of the most popular buildings in
Paris in an article in the Journal des débats in 1835 and asked that it
be given an appearance worthy of its history. At the same time, the
young architect Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus presented a work on the
Sainte-Chapelle at the Salon of 1835, which earned him a gold medal.
The courthouse is placed under the supervision of the
Council of Civil Buildings, which is made up of a large majority of
neoclassical architects. Under the impetus of the historical monuments
department, he decided to restore the Sainte-Chapelle in 1836, while
keeping control of the project himself. This one is placed under the
responsibility of the architect Félix Duban as the main contractor, to
which Jean-Baptiste Antoine Lassus is deputy as the first inspector of
the works. While the former has no knowledge of medieval architecture,
the latter is still inexperienced, but together they make an excellent
team. They already know each other from Henri Labrouste's workshop, and
collaborate so closely that it is often impossible to attribute the
kinship of this or that element of the Sainte-Chapelle to one or the
other. They presented a first project to the Civil Buildings Council,
and thanks in particular to the first president of the royal court
Pierre-Armand Séguier, a credit of 600,000 francs was opened for the
restoration, and entered in the public Works budget.
The
restoration presents itself as an experimental project, because few
major monument restorations had yet been carried out at the time, and
often the results were inconclusive. It is also a training site, which
allows many craftsmen and artists to gain experience, which they will
later be able to apply to other projects. Although it is a risky bet to
experiment with new methods on a first-rate monument, the restoration of
the Sainte-Chapelle turns out to be one of the most successful
restorations of the nineteenth century. Several cases that will become
recurrent in the restoration of historical monuments arise for the first
time, such as the antagonism between the defenders of heritage and the
supporters of progress accusing the former of pasteism, and the conflict
with urban planners on the built context of the monument. Between the
two main approaches to restoration, which are either the complete and
systematic repair, or the replacement of the only missing parts, the
second one has been chosen. All the actors show great scrupulousness in
the reproduction of the smallest details, and carry out a tedious
research work in order to solidly base their contributions on historical
realities. The restoration of the nineteenth century is of great scope,
to the point that it has sometimes been estimated that only the
thirteenth and nineteenth centuries had counted for the building; the
main facade, however, retains the appearance acquired after its
modification in the fifteenth century, and in particular its large
flamboyant rose.
Almost all the exterior cladding must be taken
over, because the lack of maintenance for more than fifty years is felt.
Since the sculpture, like all the architectural decoration, fulfills a
precise role in the design of the building, it seems inconceivable to
leave everything as it is. Thus, the sculpture must be completed in
large part, which raises the question of the connection with the
remaining parts. Sculptors and students of Fine Arts only know classical
sculpture, and their restoration experience is usually limited to museum
pieces. Nor do we want, like Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in Vézelay, to
disassemble the fragments and recreate everything from scratch. It is
therefore necessary to develop a specific mortar. For the portals, the
only clues are brief descriptions of Abbé Lebeuf. We therefore take as
models contemporary achievements in a better state of conservation, as
well as miniatures in manuscripts. The two portals are the work of the
sculptor Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume. Regarding the statues of the
Apostles inside, it is assumed that they still exist, but Duban and
Lassus must conduct a real police investigation to find them all. Four
had been mutilated during the revolution of 1830 and buried at Mont
Valérien; two had been smashed during the Revolution in 1793: they are
entirely redone by Delarue and Perrey inspired by the insignificant
fragments.
To the question of sculpture, is added that of the
architectural polychromy, which was still quite well preserved in the
upper chapel, except on the bases of the windows. In the lower chapel, a
flood in 1690 had seriously altered the decoration, and on the reverse
of the facade, it was absent due to the presence of the organ until the
Revolution. For Duban and Lassus, the restoration of the polychromy
seems essential to restore the monument to its original appearance, but
the approach is nevertheless not unanimous, and some decry it as a
ridiculous trick to exalt the religious feeling. Duban is the proponent
of a certain restraint in the intensity of the colors, while Lassus is
more ambitious. As far as possible, however, the original polychromy is
preserved as it is, in particular in the upper chapel, and the colors
are revived thanks to a hot wax application, a method that had proven
its worth at the Château de Fontainebleau. Wherever it is necessary to
repaint, the condition before the work is scrupulously documented by
watercolors. This task was entrusted to the painter Auguste Steinheil,
who also restored the medallions with glass paste inlays and glassware
on the reverse of the facade, and executed the murals under the arches
of the facade, where nothing had survived. Samples of the old paintings
are taken and subjected to chemical analyzes carried out by
Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Jean-François Persoz, in order to find the
processes used in the Middle Ages. Thus, it turns out that the
medallions of the lower chapel consist of a gilding background applied
directly to the wall without any preparation, and a layer of lacquer. We
also do not forget the details, such as the paving of the floor executed
by Bœswillwald according to the project of Lassus, or the luminaires.
But we remain with temporary wooden luminaires, which are quickly
dismantled, while the final chandeliers are not delivered until much
later. They are curiously executed on a reduced scale, and the number of
chandeliers per span thus increases from two to six per span.
The
flagship project of the restoration is the construction of the new
spire, which was designed by Lassus in 1850, and imitates the flamboyant
Gothic style of the fifteenth century. Around 1460, the third spire of
the Sainte-Chapelle had been begun, shortly before the death of Charles
VII. The second dated from 1383, and the reason for the disappearance of
this one, and of the first original spire, is not known. Normally,
ethics would have wanted us to restore the last spire completed in 1671,
which was in Gothic style despite its construction period, but the
"bastard" style of the modern era was frowned upon by lovers of Gothic
architecture of the mid-nineteenth century. Otherwise it would have been
logical to retain the style of the thirteenth century, but the proposal
submitted by Viollet-le-Duc in 1841 was rejected, and it turns out
impossible to redraw the original spire because of the scarcity of
iconographic representations. To a lesser extent, the problem also
arises for the spire of 1460, and Lassus himself recognizes that it is a
creation rather than a reconstruction. For the erection of the spire in
1853, the new roof completed no later than 1840 was completely
uncovered, and the work is a virtuoso structural work as had not been
done since the sixteenth century. It appears as a technical feat, and it
is the methods of the Middle Ages that we adopt, instead of assembling
prefabricated cast iron parts, as Jean-Antoine Alavoine had done in 1838
at the cathedral of Rouen.
While knowing that the Sainte-Chapelle
had only obtained an external staircase at the end of the fifteenth or
early sixteenth century, Duban and Lassus propose a new staircase in the
thirteenth century style, quite sober, to replace the "neo-Egyptian"
staircase. This creation of Peyre was indeed demolished in 1849/1850,
but the funds for its neo-Gothic reconstruction were not allocated. In
1849, Duban resigned, and the management of the site was entrusted to
Lassus. The restoration is sufficiently advanced to celebrate the "mass
of the institution of the magistracy" in the upper chapel this year, in
imitation of the masses of the Holy Spirit under the Old Regime. This
annual mass remains the only religious use that the building knows after
the Revolution. It was abolished in 1895 as part of the first secular
laws. Credits became scarce from the beginning of the 1850s, which led
to a slowdown in the construction site. Lassus loses the fight for the
isolation of the Sainte-Chapelle in 1855, and a short discussion he
leads with Napoleon III during his visit does not change the situation.
The building had never been completely isolated: the first bay
communicated with the Merciers gallery of the palace, rebuilt under
Saint Louis. To the north of the apse, stood the Treasury of the
Charters, and between the two, the parchment had been built later. But
during the major works launched in the area of the Courthouse in 1855,
the northern elevation disappears until halfway up behind a new wing,
which borders the courtyard from May to the south. Apart from the
staircase, other projects remain dead letter: the closing grid of the
tribune of the relics, a definitive high altar, and above all the great
shrine. Without an altar, a church is not one, and without the pulpit,
the Sainte-Chapelle loses all its meaning. Only the altar canopy is
rebuilt by reusing elements previously stored at the School of Fine
Arts, the former museum of Alexandre Lenoir. Lassus died prematurely on
July 15, 1857, aged only fifty. He was replaced by Émile Bœswillwald who
completed the restoration in 1863 after twenty-seven years of
construction. The classification as historical monuments by the list of
1862 comes so late that it no longer has an impact on the course of the
restoration.
The Sainte-Chapelle subsequently became a model of
restoration for other churches, whose taste is often tried to imitate,
without taking into account that deep research on the primitive state
had been carried out upstream, and that their results had dictated the
choices of the restorers.
From 2008, several restoration
campaigns are led by the chief architects of the historical monuments,
Alain-Charles Perrot, then Christophe Bottineau. To date, the masonry
and the canopies of the east, north and west elevations (with the
fifteenth-century rose) have been restored.
Like any monument open to the public, the
Sainte-Chapelle is continually exposed to risks of degradation. Unable
to prevent them, the conservatives are still trying to minimize them and
slow them down as much as possible. Several measures were then put in
place.
There are in particular protective canopies, studied so as
not to harm the general legibility of the building. Made from a
thermoformed glass on an imprint of a chosen stained glass window, they
then take up all its details and defects. Placed in the medieval
locksmithing of the Sainte Chapelle, their role is to stop the external
alteration factors that can damage the canopies, while ensuring the
building a certain tightness.
Although it may seem insignificant,
the delimitation of the space reserved for visitors by barriers proves
to play a great role in safeguarding the works and the building itself.
Indeed, they keep the public away from the works, preventing them from
accidentally touching or damaging the objects on display. These barriers
also fulfill a vandalism prevention role, by their mere presence, they
deter the few people who could be ill-intentioned.
In order to
preserve the Sainte-Chapelle as well as possible, conservators and
restorers frequently monitor the general condition of the building in
order to anticipate certain damage and intervene before they become too
important.
This masterpiece of radiant Gothic architecture
responds to a plan of great simplicity without collateral, nor transept,
nor ambulatory, which makes one of the two main characteristics of the
Holy Chapels, the other being an elevation on a single level, without
large arcades, which results from the absence of collateral, nor
triforium. Regularly oriented, the chapel has two floors, which gives
two superimposed chapels, called the lower chapel and the upper chapel.
The ensemble is preceded by a porch on the side of the western facade,
and has four long bays (plus a choir bay) as well as a seven-sided apse,
all vaulted with ogives. Stair turrets located at the north-west and
south-west corners flank the facade and allow intercommunication between
the lower chapel and the upper chapel. Under the Ancien Régime, access
to the upper chapel was mainly via the Merciers gallery which led to the
porch on the north side, but an external staircase existed at certain
times. The fourth bay of the upper chapel has a recess on the south
side, which protrudes slightly between the buttresses. This niche is
called the oratory of Saint Louis.
Externally, the
Sainte-Chapelle is 36.0 m long, 17.0 m wide and 42.5 m high without the
spire. It reaches a height of 33.25 m, which places its summit at 75.75
m above ground level. Internally, the two chapels are 33.0 m long and
10.7 m wide. The height under the vaults of the lower chapel is only 6.6
m, while the upper chapel rises to 20.5 m. By its internal area, the
Sainte-Chapelle is comparable to a village church, but the width of the
single vessel is comparable to the nave of the cathedral of Laon, and
its height is comparable to the first Gothic cathedrals, including the
cathedral of Noyon. Until 1777, a small annex building called the
Treasury of the charters was located to the north of the apse, and
reproduced on a small scale the plan of the Sainte-Chapelle, which made
it possible to better understand its dimensions. The lower level served
as a sacristy, while the room located at the level of the upper chapel
hosted the acts and the royal seals, as well as two reliquary cabinets
guarded day and night by one of the canons. The two levels were
connected to the Sainte-Chapelle by means of short galleries. There is a
similar layout at the Sainte-Chapelle in Vincennes.
The Sainte-Chapelle is designed as a glass shrine
highlighting the relics that were kept there. The lateral elevations and
the bedside are similar, except that the sections of the apse are, of
course, narrower. The first and last sections of the apse are even
narrower than the others, because the architect wanted them not to be
seen when entering the chapel, in order to visually move the apse back
and make the building appear longer. The great height of the whole and
the particularly protruding and strictly vertical buttresses are the
most striking features of the building. The architect did not use any
subterfuge to visually reduce the size of the buttresses, which he could
have done by pushing the windows outwards and creating a passageway or
Champagne passage inside. But despite their projection, the buttresses
are insufficient to counterbalance a building of such height and to
oppose enough resistance to the thrust of the vaults. Buttresses were
not conceivable in the absence of collateral, because their abutments
must necessarily take a step back from the walls.
The solution
was the innovation of a metal chaining, very early for the time since it
was rediscovered only at the end of the nineteenth century. The
medallions are horizontal and cross the pillars, but remain
imperceptible because they merge with the iron bars that separate the
different registers of the stained glass windows. The buttresses as well
as the walls present three retreats by means of glazes forming a
teardrop: at the threshold of the windows of the two floors, as well as
at the intersection between the two floors. At this level, a frieze of
acanthus leaf hooks runs all around. At the level of the windows of the
upper chapel, the buttresses also have four levels of teardrops. The
windows occupy the entire width available between the buttresses: on the
left and on the right, there is just enough room for the two thin
columns of the infill. Practically all the carved decoration is
concentrated on the upper parts, near the roof. Each window is
surmounted by a gable surmounted by a finial, the creeping ones being
trimmed with hooks. The windows themselves have archivolts molded with
tori and gorges, which, when falling down, merge into the buttresses. A
frieze alternating brackets and applied leaves completes the archivolts.
As for the buttresses, they are cushioned by richly decorated pinnacles
equipped with gargoyles, connected to each other by an up-to-date
balustrade pierced by narrow three-lobed arcades, with shamrocks on the
spandrels. These railings are supported on a cornice of hooks 39,40.
To the south, the wall of the oratory of Saint Louis is notable for
its lily flower balustrade, by two gargoyles and by bust figures holding
phylacteries at the top of each corner. The windows are rectangular, and
in the center of the trumeau, we can see a small statue of the Virgin in
a niche, which marks the top of a gable. Trimmed with hooks and adorned
with plated lattices, it rests on undulating pillars, which, like the
busts and bellows on the plated lattice, announce the flamboyant Gothic
style. Two large niches with statues and their finely chiseled canopies
decorate the corners and house statues of Saint Louis and a bishop.
These facilities date back to the period of Louis XI. The gable suggests
a portal, but it is not so: we only find a niche under a vault of
ogives. This is the old cemetery chapel, removed in favor of the
restoration of the primitive state in the lower chapel.
The roof
is covered with large sheets of lead. At the eastern limit of the ridge
line, there is a monumental statue of the Archangel Saint Michael,
designed to rotate with the sun by means of a clock mechanism. The spire
of 1853-1855 was entirely executed in wood and coated with historiated
leadwork. Of octagonal plan, it consists of a basement, two openwork
floors of arcades and a high point which is the spire proper. Fine
steeples surround the first floor and are connected to it by buttresses.
The details abound: foliage, hooks, florets and golden fleurs-de-lis on
the edges of the tip. Gold rods cover the joints between the lead
sheets. Colossal statues of the twelve Apostles are leaning against the
three-lobed veneered arches of the basement, at the rate of two per
face, except in front of the west and east faces, where the creepers of
the roof do not leave room. According to a medieval custom, Saint Thomas
received the features of Lassus; we recognize him thanks to his
attribute, the square. The painter Steinheil lent his features to Saint
Philip. Other, smaller statues are found at the birth of the point; they
are angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. The statues were
executed by the workshop of Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, by
Michel-Pascal and Aimé-Napoléon Perrey, who usually collaborate on the
construction sites of Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc. Exhibited at the
Universal Exhibition of 1855 before being mounted, they were favorably
received by the public, and the spire aroused a concert of praises for
its technical prowess, the archaeological scruple of its designer, and
its elegance. She served as inspiration for the arrow of Viollet-le-Duc
at Notre-Dame de Paris.
The western facade is organized on four levels: the
gable flanked by the small spires of the two corner stair turrets; the
large flamboyant rose window from the years 1485-1495 which illuminates
the upper chapel; and the two floors of the porch which are
distinguished only by their height.
A particular decorative
effort has been made for the octagonal turrets and their spires, of
which the one in the north-west corner is no longer complete. The arrows
rest on round platforms, and their edges are trimmed with hooks. The
upper floor of the turrets is set back by the previous one, which allows
the decoration by plated arches, at the rate of one per face. The
penultimate floor is located behind the steeples that cushion the
buttresses, and doors open there towards a corridor connecting the two
turrets, passing behind an up-to-date balustrade reminiscent of that of
the false porch under the oratory.
The gable is set back from
this balustrade decorated with lily flowers, and is pierced by a rose
window which illuminates the attic. The network of this rosette is today
limited to the forms of inscription of the five clubs and the central
pentalobe. Three feigned oculi surround the rose window. They are of a
particular shape which results from the superposition of a square and a
quatrefoil, like the oculi of the floor of the galleries of the nave of
Saint-Martin-aux-Bois, and of the transept of Saint-Antoine de
Compiègne. The creeping ones are trimmed with hooks, and connected to
the turrets by up-to-date arcades topped with finials. All these details
are difficult to appreciate by the visitor, who can hardly contemplate
the facade with sufficient hindsight. On the other hand, the huge rose
window cannot go unnoticed. It seduces by the organic shapes of its
network, which is articulated around a central hexalobe. We can
generally distinguish six identical festoons, each of which has a
primary network of three specks, one of which, symmetrical, is attached
to the central oculus and points outwards, while the other two,
asymmetrical, are attached to the flanks of the first, and point towards
the center of the rosette. The secondary network comprises three small
specks for symmetrical shapes, and four for asymmetrical shapes. The
spandrels also have speckles, and the plated network on the walls
remaining free is always a variation of the same subject, essential to
the flamboyant period.
The two lower levels of the facade have
the portals, which are somewhat hidden by the double porch. The
architecture of this one is above all functional. It is supported by
four buttresses looking to the west, which delimit two particularly
narrow arcades, and a wide open arcade. The two buttresses framing the
central arch are narrower, but otherwise analogous to the buttresses of
the lateral elevations. They also end with steeples. Each floor ends
with a frieze of hooks and a balustrade. The arcades have molded
archivolts and open between two pairs of columns with capitals. The
capitals of the narrow arcades are located largely below the fall of the
arches, especially on the ground floor, where they are aligned with
those of the central arcade.
What makes the interest of the lower
part of the facade, are of course the portals. Their statuary had been
completely destroyed during the Revolution, leaving only the outlines.
We owe the reconstruction to Geoffroy-Dechaume, who also conducted the
preliminary research. The Virgin and Child of the trumeau of the lower
portal was reputed miraculous: Around 1304, the theologian John Duns
Scotus would have prayed in front of this statue, and she would have
bowed her head as a sign of approval of the theory of the Immaculate
Conception taught by this Doctor. The base of the trumeau and the
stylobates on which the two groups of four columns rest are covered with
diamond-shaped stripes, where fleurs-de-lys and Castilian castles
alternate.
The tympanum represents the Coronation of the Virgin
and is inspired by the north portal of the western facade of Notre-Dame
Cathedral, as well as the main portal of the basilica of
Longpont-sur-Orge. The Last Judgment is depicted on the portal of the
upper chapel. The main iconographic elements are attested for the
original portal. A blessing Christ welcomes the faithful from the
trumeau. Cords of flowers and foliage are inserted between the columns,
the stylobates of which have small bas-reliefs with scenes from the Old
Testament, including the story of Jonah, not unrelated to the main
subject. The lintel represents the general resurrection of the dead,
with in the middle, Saint Michael carrying out the weighing of the souls
on both sides, the dead who raise their funerary slab to the sound of
the children of the angels. On the left, Abraham receives in his bosom
the chosen souls, symbolized by small naked figures. On the tympanum,
Christ the Redeemer figures. The Virgin is seated on her right, and
Saint John on her left, interceding for the fate of souls. Two kneeling
angels hold instruments of the Passion (Crown of Thorns and Spear on the
left, Cross and Nails on the right). The three arches of the archivolt
contain sixteen angels who lead souls to heaven, bring crowns, and hold
censers, then two groups of chosen ones: ten martyrs who show the
instruments of their sufferings, and the twelve Apostles. Baron
Ferdinand de Guilhermy praises the sculptor's patience and skill, and
reports that the portal was once famous among hermetists, and that
singular interpretations have been given in the treatises on occult
sciences. The original leaves remain, but their state of conservation
motivated the establishment of copies. They have an ogival arch with
crosses and finial.
The dark atmosphere of the lower chapel and its
proportions evoke a crypt, but the finesse of the supports contrasts
with this impression, and the decor shows the same elegance as in the
upper chapel. As Jean-Michel Leniaud expresses it: "everything is
precious and delicate there: molding of the bases, proportions of the
columns, sculpture of the capitals with hooks and plants, drawing of the
tailors, profile of the ribs which interpenetrate at the fall, recess of
the etruscans which support the central vault, originality of the
network of the bays of the nave". So that the lower chapel can support
the weight of the upper chapel, each of the pillars is split by an
isolated column, placed a short distance inside the nave and the apse.
The result is false aisles and a pseudo-ambulatory as in Morienval: in
both cases, the gap between walls and columns is too small to allow
unhindered circulation, and the only reason for the row of columns is
the consolidation of the whole. The false aisles and the
pseudo-ambulatory are vaulted with pointed arches independently, and
their vaults are so narrow that the arcades separating their spans are
almost invisible between the vaults. What we see are the etruscans in
the form of a half-arch with a trefoil head, with openwork spandrels.
Two iron bars also connect each of the columns to the pillars engaged in
the walls. The free columns have capitals with eight-pointed star-shaped
cutouts, because the number of ribs to be supported is eight: four
ogives and four doublets. The interpenetration of the ribs is made
necessary due to the small size of the cutters. The profile is of a
thinned torus in the shape of an almond, accompanied by two tori for the
warheads, and four tori for the doublets.
On the side of the
walls, the ogives and doubleaux fall back on beams of a column with a
beaked bevel and four columns, two of which are unrelated to the
vaulting and are part of the plated arches of the base of the windows.
The formerets blend into these arcatures. There are five of them per
span, and they fall back on a total of five wooden columns using
octagonal cutouts. Trefoil heads are inscribed in the arches in a third
point, and shamrocks are pierced in the spandrels. The bases rest on
stone benches to the right of the walls. The windows, pushed high under
the vaults like the high windows of a small church with three levels of
elevation, are almost triangular on the lateral elevations. Their
primary network is formed precisely by a triangle with curvilinear
sides, in which a round oculus is inserted. The secondary network
comprises a hexalobe for the oculus, two clubs for the parts of the
triangle that remain free, and two trefoil heads for the spandrels below
the triangle, on the left and on the right. As for the ribs of the
vaults, the veneered arches and the vaults, the molding is toroidal,
which gives great coherence to the whole chapel. The apse has windows of
more conventional proportions, because the narrowness of the seven sides
gives them pedestals, which are missing on the triangular windows.
Nevertheless very small, the seven windows of the apse are provided with
a filling of two lancets in which three-lobed heads are inscribed, the
mullions being carrying capitals. The two lancets are surmounted by a
hexalobe. To the left of the apse, we can see a liturgical pool
reconstructed by Bœswillwald, and it is uncertain whether it takes up an
original layout.
The architectural polychromy with its very
intense complexions deeply marks the Sainte-Chapelle. It is intended to
highlight the stained glass windows, which in the lower chapel were all
torn off in 1691 and replaced by white glass. To mask the damage caused
by the flood of 1690, the walls had been whitewashed at the same time.
Since the restoration led by Bœswillwald, they have burst out again in
red and blue, and gold is used to enhance all the molding, the capitals
and keystones. Small gold motifs are applied to the vaults, on the
columns and on the walls; they are essentially fleurs-de-lis, castles of
Castile in reference to Blanche of Castile, and plant motifs on the
spandrels of the arcades. This decoration is based on the remains found,
with the exception of the false tapestries of the arcades, which were
imagined by Bœswillwald. They do not correspond to the project
elaborated by Lassus, who had wanted a diagonal grid, in imitation of
manuscript backgrounds. The current stained-glass windows are the work
of Steinheil, and use the grisaille technique. Steinheil also returned
the medallions, which were initially located in the middle of each
series of arcatures. Very few vestiges have survived of these
thirteenth-century paintings enriched with glass paste inlays and
glassware; in the apse, an Annunciation was revealed in 1849, as well as
a Virgin and Child surrounded by two angels. These two medallions were
repainted after chemical analysis, but the other paintings on the
bedside were too erased to guess their patterns. The twelve medallions
of the nave represent the Apostles, and serve as consecration crosses.
These are apparently not real reconstructions, but the subject of the
Apostles was a sure given, and the iconography is essentially taken from
the missal of Saint Louis. As for the floor, it was still covered with
tombstones at the end of the restoration in the mid-nineteenth century,
but it has since been redone. The lower chapel is now used as a souvenir
shop of the National Monuments Center, and is apparently not perceived
as interesting enough to justify a enhancement. The sparing lighting
reinforces the crypt atmosphere, while the dark character of the chapel
is largely attributable to the adjoining buildings of the courthouse,
and not a wish of the architect.
The multitude and intensity of the colors mark the
most the atmosphere of the upper chapel, as well as its elegance and its
height, which is equivalent to almost twice its width. Although
luminous, the upper chapel is generally not flooded with light, because
the stained-glass windows of the thirteenth century are semi-opaque. The
elevation is much simpler and more clearly structured than in the lower
chapel, and the entire architecture of the Sainte-Chapelle has been
designed to allow this large single space encumbered by no free pillars,
which highlights the verticality of the walls almost entirely hollowed
out. As the exterior layout suggests, no gaps remain between the columns
of the windows and those of the supports of the vault. It is undoubtedly
to reinforce the dematerialization effect that the master builder made
no concessions to the aesthetics of the exterior of the chapel, and did
not push the stained-glass windows outwards to make the buttresses
appear less prominent. There is therefore no messenger at the bottom of
the windows, and their network is not split as in Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
which would have given an effect of depth which was apparently not
wanted. This party may pass for conservative for the 1240s, but it was
simplicity that was sought, and not the multiplication of perspectives
according to the position adopted by the spectator, characteristic of
most large Gothic buildings. Nevertheless, certain tricks have been used
to make the vessel appear longer: the two right sides of the apse are 35
cm narrower than the others and are only discovered when approaching,
and the windows of the apse are lower than the others: they measure
13.45 m instead of 15.35 m. The bedside therefore seems more distant
from the western portal than it really is. At the same time, the
narrowness of the sections of the apse and the approximation of the
strongly protruding vaults, acting as lampshades, would have caused the
tops of the windows to lose sight if they were higher. The difference in
height of the windows is not easily seen, nor the domed shape of the
vaults of the apse that results from it. The width of the side windows
is 4.70 m, and that of the bays of the bedside of 2.10 m.
The
windows are inscribed directly in the formerets, whose capitals are
located higher than those of the ogives and doubleaux, which is common.
They are almost as small as the round capitals of the windows, aligned
with the first ones. The primary network and the secondary network both
have capitals, which gives three capitals which rub shoulders on the
left and on the right (with those of the formerets) and three also for
the central mullion. This is common to the two lancets that form the
primary network, and which are surmounted by an oculus in which a
hexalobe is inscribed, a common motif with the lower chapel. The
secondary network of the large lancets consists of two lancets with
three-lobed heads, surmounted by a four-leaf, the spandrels being
openwork. The bays of the apse are different, and present two lancets
with three-lobed heads not inscribed, surmounted by three shamrocks. —
The vaults are painted in blue and enhanced with small gold stars, and
not with fleurs-de-lis as on the ground floor. The profile of the ogives
and doubleaux is analogous to the lower chapel, and they fall back on
columns of two different diameters, a little stronger for the doubleaux.
Counting the columns of the formers and windows, we note four different
diameters. This adjustment to the strictly necessary is characteristic
of the virtuosity of the radiant period, and makes it possible overall
to reduce the scale of the supports. The systematic use of monolithic
barrels goes in the same direction. The capitals of the ogives and
doubleaux are arranged with beaks, and those of the ogives are placed at
an angle in order to orient themselves directly towards the ogives, an
arrangement that is known from the end of the Romanesque period.
The painted decoration of the supports is more complex than on the
ground floor, and dates largely from origin. The Apostles who are an
integral part of the symbolic program are no longer: the six original
statues that had found their place after their restoration in the
mid-nineteenth century joined the others at the Cluny Museum. Experts
have long debated whether the Apostles are not a little later than the
chapel, and their style perceived as "modern" by the revolutionaries
would have saved them, but some undeniably have the invoice of the
1240s. Now, all the statues bear a consecration cross and therefore must
have existed in 1248, but they may be the work of two different artists.
The painted hangings under the veneered arches were imagined by Lassus,
and the medallions on the theme of martyrdom were restored, and partly
completely redone, by Steinheil. The arches are more elaborate than in
the lower chapel, and take up the pattern of the secondary network of
the side windows of the upper chapel. These are three arcades in a third
point, each resected in two lancets with three-lobed heads, which are
surmounted by a clover. A frieze of foliage runs below the window sills,
and cords of foliage surmount the arcades. The spandrels are trimmed
with busts of angels in high relief. An exuberant decoration also exists
on the reverse of the western facade, where a passageway protected by a
balustrade connects the two stair turrets, at the foot of the large
flamboyant rose window 9.00 meters in diameter. The portal opens under a
broken archway, and two narrower arcades in a third point flank it. The
tympanums of these three arcades were painted by Steinheil, who could
not rely on anything existing, because the presence of the organ tribune
had meant that this wall remained blank. The motifs are the three scenes
of sacrifice from the Old Testament; a blessing Christ flanked by
praying angels and framed by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; then the
three figures of the sacrifice of the Cross: the immolation of the
Paschal Lamb ; the blood on the houses of the Hebrews (that the angel of
death might spare the firstborn); and the brazen serpent of Moses in the
wilderness. — The floor paving was designed by Lassus after drawings by
Steinheil, but realized by Bœswillwald. It consists of hard stone
engraved in hollow, where various colored mastics have been inlaid. In
the nave, scrolls frame birds, quadrupeds and heraldic emblems, and in
the apse, the four rivers of paradise have been represented as a symbol
of divine grace, as well as the seven sacraments that spring like
springs from a rock.
In the middle of the apse, rises the tribune
of the relics, which had been completely dismantled at the Revolution.
The stone canopy that surmounted the shrine had been transported to
Saint-Denis, and one of the wooden stairs and fragments of the arcades
had remained at the Petit-Augustins convent after the abolition of the
museum of French Monuments. These remains were recovered by Duban and
Lassus, and installed again in their authentic location, where the
missing parts were redone in a long and patient work that lasted from
1843 to 1850. This long delay is explained by the difficulty of defining
all the details. Indeed, the Pontifical of Poitiers of the Duke of
Bedford and an engraving by Nicolas Ransonnette were the only
iconographic sources known, and helped to specify the project. The
lateral arches are in any case analogous to those of the window bases,
but the central platform has a particularly rich decoration. Concerning
the six angels on the spandrels of the arcades that support it, they do
not appear on the old representations, and we are not sure if they
correspond to lapidary remains found, or if they are a fantasy of the
restorers. In any case, these are works of undoubted quality. The
scarcity of credits from 1850 prevented the realization of the fence
grid, the high altar and the large chapel. Thus, the canopy, a symbol of
royal power, has never regained its function, and the symbolic program
of decoration, of which the stained-glass windows, the Apostles and the
scenes of martyrs of the medallions are part, remains incomplete without
the bas-reliefs of the great shrine: with the scenes of the Crucifixion,
the flagellation and the Resurrection of Christ, they marked its
culmination. The temporary altar used for the magistracy institution
masses has been dismantled and is stored in the attic.
The glazed area of the upper chapel covers about 615
m2 according to Louis Grodecki, without the rose window. All the stained
glass windows were in place from the beginning, but a significant number
were redone in the mid-nineteenth century, without altering the overall
rendering and in perfect respect of the original iconography and style.
The thirteenth century knew two types of stained glass windows: those
intended for the high windows, the transept and the apse, which were
designed to be seen from afar and transmitted symbolic messages often
focused on royal or ecclesiastical power, and those intended for
collateral, which were designed to be contemplated up close and include
narrative cycles, with an iconography very close to illuminations. Since
the Sainte-Chapelle has no side windows, the windows descend quite low,
and the viewer is very close to the lower registers of the stained-glass
windows, which motivated the choice of the type of stained-glass windows
usually specific to the side windows. But the side windows reach almost
fifteen meters in height, and the reading of the middle and upper
registers becomes very difficult because of the remoteness and the
effort of concentration required to decipher these miniatures. Their
high number highlights their small size: there are no less than one
thousand one hundred and thirteen scenes. For this reason, the
Sainte-Chapelle has remained the only religious building where this type
of stained glass has been generalized. It was partially introduced into
the high windows of the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand and Tours, but
these tests remained without success. Regardless of their meaning, the
dominant red and blue stained-glass windows give the chapel its
brilliance, and the architectural polychromy is centered on these same
colors.
The reading is done from left to right, and from bottom
to top, line by line. There is no entanglement of scenes, but the
drawing of the fittings delimiting the panels puts some of them forward
to the detriment of the others, and the visitor can deduce a
hierarchical relationship which, in reality, does not exist. The
narrative always remains linear, except that certain types of scenes are
recurrent: they are those that relate a coronation. Due to lack of
space, other scenes useful for understanding have sometimes not been
selected for the stained glass windows. There are eight side windows,
seven apse windows, and the western rose window. Each of the windows
presents a different drawing, essentially composed of ellipses or
mandorls, quadrilobes, rhombuses and circles. Usually, we can
distinguish between the historiated panels, the framing and the
background mosaic, but sometimes the representation is denser, and the
background mosaic is deleted. The reading begins with the first window
to the north and the beginning of the Old Testament, and ends with the
rose window dedicated to the Apocalypse: its stained-glass windows date
from the end of the fifteenth century and are clearer, but the subject
was already the same in the thirteenth century, as the fragments found
prove. The narrative program begins with the Creation, illustrates the
history of the Hebrew people until their settlement in Israel with the
installation of royalty, and ends with the story of Saint Louis
receiving the relics of the Passion. There is inserted a prophetic cycle
around the life of Jesus Christ, framed by the lives of Saint John the
Baptist who announces the Lamb of God, and of the apostle John who has
the vision of the Apocalypse. The stained-glass windows referring to the
history of the people of God are gathered in the nave where the faithful
take their seats; their message is easily understandable for anyone who
has a good knowledge of the Old Testament. The stained-glass windows
with prophetic subjects convey a more spiritual message, and are
therefore grouped in the apse, reserved for the clergy. There are no
hagiographic stained-glass windows, Saint John the Apostle and Saint
John the Baptist not being represented as saints.
The Saint-Louis chapel of the castle of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, work of Pierre de Montreuil, is contemporary with
the Sainte-Chapelle of the Palace. It stands out in particular for its
rectangular windows and its passageway crossing the buttresses and
passing in front of the windows. We do not identify any common features
with the Sainte-Chapelle of the palace, other than the very type of the
Sainte-Chapelle, which is however older and finds its origin in the
cámara Santa of Oviedo, and has found its characteristic shape with the
episcopal chapels of Laon, Noyon, Paris and Reims. It is assumed that
the sites of the Saint-Louis chapel and the Sainte-Chapelle of the
palace had little contact. The Saint-Louis chapel belongs to an
architectural trend of the 1240s which is represented only by creations
by Pierre de Montreuil, and which includes the chapel of the Virgin of
the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près (destroyed), the refectory of the
same abbey (also destroyed) and the last three chapels of the north side
of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris. Its characteristics are a taste for
small-scale buildings, subtle effects in the molding, complexity in the
design of the multi-lobed oculi, and a search for clarity to the
detriment of the color of the stained glass windows. A second
architectural current of the Paris of the 1240s is represented by the
creations of Jean de Chelles, including in particular the northern cross
of Notre-Dame de Paris, begun around 1246/1247, but whose completion was
delayed due to the Crusades, and part of the southern cross.
The
Sainte-Chapelle itself belongs to a third current, which is initiated by
the narthex of the old church of the Temple, a little earlier: the
design of its bays is taken up by the Sainte-Chapelle. Even before its
completion, around 1245, the star-shaped tailors of the lower chapel,
the feigned oculi of the gable and the drawing of the side windows of
the upper chapel were taken over by the abbey of Saint-Martin-aux-Bois
(where the drawing in question is on the dummy bays of the side walls).
By its very high bedside with a single level of elevation with the
"glass cage" effect, Saint-Martin-aux-Bois has no equal, but we can't
help but think that the idea came from the Sainte-Chapelle, although the
style is very different. Another very singular building is the church of
Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières, which presents another form of bedside
equally flooded with light, which sometimes motivates the comparison
with Saint-Martin-aux-Bois. Stylistically, we note above all a proximity
to the Saint-Louis chapel of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, but the veneered
arches are the same as in the lower chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle, and
the side windows imitate the filling of the side windows of the upper
chapel, while renouncing the molding. Finally, the apse of the
Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Meaux, redesigned in the mid-thirteenth
century, has fillings and a triforium evoking the Sainte-Chapelle, and
more particularly its Treasury of Charters (demolished). The
characteristic feature of this architecture is a sense of economy or a
very short construction period, which pushes to go to the essentials,
and which gives strength and unity in the composition, and a rationality
in the choice of decoration.
Between the beginning of the
fourteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth century, ten Holy
Chapels were built by members of the royal family or the high nobility,
and six of them still remain. Due to the long period of more than sixty
years that separates these imitations from the Parisian model, we can no
longer identify direct stylistic influences: it is only the idea and the
concept that have been taken up. There are also many abbey chapels,
including those of Saint-Germer-de-Fly and Chaalis. The first appears in
many respects as a reduced-scale version of the Parisian model, and is
only slightly later. It does not have a low chapel, but the plan and the
elevation are identical, and the side windows follow the same design.
Even the frieze of brackets below the window sills reappears. The
windows of the apse are slightly different, and the veneered arches are
of the same style, without being identical. The only notable difference
concerns the supports, characterized by paired barrels, columns of the
formerets descending to the ground, and round capitals as on the
mullions of the windows. Of course, the numerous thirteenth-century
stained-glass windows, the architectural polychromy, the medallions and
inlays and the statues of the Apostles are specific to the
Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and no other chapel shows the same exuberance
of the decor. — After the restoration of the mid-nineteenth century, the
Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and its stained-glass windows served as a model
for the architect Tony Desjardins for the chapel of the Chartreux
Institution in Lyon, begun in 1859 and equipped with stained-glass
windows painted by Steinheil. Between 1916 and 1920, the Archbishop
Quigley Preparatory seminary in Chicago also appears as a miniature of
the Sainte-Chapelle, and its stained-glass windows are inspired by it.
If the Sainte-Chapelle has officially been disused
from worship since the Revolution, it is periodically returned to its
primary destination. Thus, the Catholic Group of the Palace, which
brings together magistrates, lawyers, clerks, and staff members of the
Paris courthouse, has ensured the Catholic spiritual presence in the
Sainte-Chapelle since the interwar period. The chaplain of the group
celebrates an annual mass of remembrance on All Saints' Day, as well as
a mass on Saint-Yves in May, one of the patron saints of lawyers.
On March 21, 2014, on the occasion of the opening of the Saint-Louis
year, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, led the Holy
Crown of Thorns in procession from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris to the
Sainte-Chapelle for the first time since the Old Regime60. A solemn mass
was celebrated there, and broadcast live on a giant screen installed on
Place Louis-Lépine.
Artus Aux-Couteaux, haute-cons and music teacher in
1634
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, succeeding François Chaperon, was
appointed master of music on June 28, 1698, a highly envied position,
the last he held until his death on Sunday, February 27, 1704. He
composed his last masterpieces there, among which we can mention the
Oratorio, the Judgment of Solomon H.422; the Motet for the offertory of
the Red Mass H.434; The Te deum in 4 voices H.148; The Mass of the Dead
in 4 voices H.7; the De profundis H.213; The Psalms of Darkness H.228,
H.229 and H.230; The Elevation H.273; the Oratorio In Nativitate Domini
Jesu Christi Canticum H.421 ; the Motet dedicated to Louis XIV In
honorem Santi Ludovici Regis Galliae Canticum H.365; and one of his most
beautiful masses written for the Assumption of the Virgin, Assumpta est
Maria, sex vocibus cum symphonia H.11, H.11 a.
Nicolas Bernier after
the death of his illustrious predecessor was appointed music master on
April 5, 1704.