File:Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1913) (14802077653).jpg

Identifier: montsaintmichel00adam (find matches)
Title: Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Adams, Henry, 1838-1918 American Institute of Architects Cram, Ralph Adams, 1863-1942
Subjects: Cathédrale de Chartres Middle Ages Le Mont-Saint-Michel (France)
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ppears after the manner of the thirteenthcentury, on this church door, without regard to Marys feelings; andbelow, against the trumeau, stands the great figure of Christ, — thewhole Church, — trampling on the lion and dragon. On either sideof the doorway stand six great figures of the Apostles asserting them-selves as the columns of the Church, and looking down at us with anexpression no longer calculated to calm our fears or encourage extrav-agant hopes. No figure on this porch suggests a portrait or recalls a memory. Very grand, indeed, is this doorway; dignified, impressive, andmasculine to a degree seldom if ever equalled in art; and the left bayrivals it. There, in the tympanum, Christ appears again; standing;bearing on His head the crown royal; alone, except for the two angelswho adore, and surrounded only by the martyrs, His witnesses. Theright bay is devoted to Saint Nicholas and the Saints Confessors whobear witness to the authority of Christ in faith. Of the twenty-eight
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XuPi o WH O WKH c/)W Pi HPi< u THE NEW YORKPUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR. bENflX ANDTILUEN PniiNriATlONS TOWERS AND PORTALS 87 great figures, the officers of the royal court, who make thus the strengthof the Church beneath Christ, not one is a woman. The mascuHneorthodoxy of Pierre Mauclerc has spared neither sex nor youth; all areof a maturity which chills the blood, excepting two, whose youthfulbeauty is heightened by the severity of their surroundings, so that theAbbe Bulteau makes bold even to say that the two statues of SaintGeorge and of Saint Theodore may be regarded as the most beautifulof our cathedral, perhaps even as the two masterpieces of statuary atthe end of the thirteenth century. On that point, let every one followhis taste; but one reflection at least seems to force itself on the mind incomparing these twenty-eight figures. Certainly the sword, howeverit may compare with the pen in other directions, is in art more power-ful than all the pens, or volumes, or crosiers ever m

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