Part 6 (2/2)
_North side of the Choir, upper compartment._]
The _twenty-sixth_ and _twenty-seventh plates_ shew the interior of the choir, as the _thirty-third_ does the most remarkable of its capitals.
This part of the church, in its general arrangement, very much resembles the same portion in St. Georges and in Norwich Cathedral. The second, however, of these buildings, retains the original groinings of the roof, which in our English church have been sacrificed, to make room for large pointed windows; while in the church of the Trinity they have given place to a s.p.a.cious dome, painted with a representation of the a.s.sumption. In the foreground of this picture, is seen the royal foundress of the abbey; and, according to common tradition, the portrait of a female dressed in the habit of a nun, on the north side of the high altar, is also intended for her. But traditions of this nature are too vague for much reliance to be placed upon them. The altar-piece itself is an _Adoration of the Shepherds_, not devoid of merit.--The plain arches, with their truncated columns, seen in the upper part of _plate 26_, near the front on either side, and repeated in the following plate, are those which terminate the flat part of the choir. The wide unvaried extent of blank surface beneath them is attributable to modern masons, who have filled up and covered arches without mercy or discretion, and have pierced the walls anew with plain mean door-ways. The windows are lofty, and of fine proportions. Their glazing is probably of the time of Louis XIV. when the gorgeous splendor of painted gla.s.s gave way to the less beautiful and less appropriate ornaments, supplied by the fancy of the plumbers.[61] The narrow pa.s.sage formed in the thickness of the wall, with its small arches variously decorated, surrounds the whole building; choir, nave, and transepts. In the architectural arrangement of this portion of the edifice, where every large arch of the windows is flanked by two lesser ones of the triforium, the church of the Trinity agrees with the cathedral at Oxford, as figured in Mr. Carter's work on ancient architecture[62] and there treated as a genuine Saxon building, erected by King Ethelred, after the destruction of the monastery by the Danes in 1004. But the capitals of the columns in the two churches bear only a slight resemblance to each other. Those at Oxford[63] are among the most beautiful left us by early architects, consisting chiefly of foliage; and, in one instance, of a very elegant imitation of a coronet.
In the abbatial church at Caen, they display the same mixture of Grecian and barbarous taste, the same beauties, the same monstrosities, and the same apparent aim at fabulous or emblematic history, as has been previously remarked at St. Georges. On the angles of one, which contains four storks, arranged in pairs, will be found an obvious representation of the heraldic fleur-de-lys. In that, figured below it on the plate, is a head placed over two lions, commonly believed to be intended for a portrait of the Conqueror.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 28. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Arches under the central Tower looking from the South Transept._]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 29. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_East side of the South Transept._]
The _twenty-eighth_ and _twenty-ninth plates_ are devoted to the transepts: the first of them exhibits two of the arches which support the central tower. Finer specimens of the kind are scarcely to be seen in Normandy; and the decoration of them is very peculiar, consisting altogether of numerous bands of quatrefoils in bas-relief. The sculpture of the capitals is likewise remarkable: that of one of them represents entire rams; while the opposite one has only the heads of the same animal at its angles, accompanied with an ornament, which the writer of this article does not remember to have met with elsewhere. The arch that separates the tower from the nave,[64] rises higher than any of the rest, and is obtusely pointed; but its decorations correspond with those of the others, and it appears to be of the same date.[65] For the purpose of more effectually marking the connection of the _twenty-eighth plate_ with the preceding, it may be well to observe, that the string-course, seen in the former through the first arch and adjoining the base of the truncated column, is the same which, in _plate twenty-seven_, forms the base-line of the windows. The same string-course in the choir runs immediately below the gallery; but in the transepts, this gallery is upon a different line, being elevated by the interposition of a very beautiful range of small blank arches, between the larger arches below and the windows of the clerestory; and these latter, in conjunction with the small arches, only occupy the same s.p.a.ce as the windows of the choir. The southern transept has been here selected for publication, as being the most perfect. Had the opposite one been equally so, it would have been preferable, from the curious character of its capitals, many of which are taken from scripture-history. But these are, unfortunately, much mutilated.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 30. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Interior of the Nave looking west._]
In the _thirtieth plate_ is given a general view of the upper half of the interior of the nave, shewing the western extremity, with the three compartments nearest to it on either side; and here, as in the two preceding plates, it is impossible not to regret the existence of the floor, which, by dividing the church into different stories, greatly injures the effect of the whole. Neither in this nor in any other part of the building, are there side-chapels or aisles. The architecture of the nave, in its general arrangement, resembles that of the transepts; except as to the arches of the second row, which are peculiar. Upon an attentive examination too, it will be found that, notwithstanding the apparent uniformity, no two compartments are precisely alike, while the capitals are infinitely varied. This playfulness of ornament is remarkable in a building, whose architect appears, at first view, to have contemplated only grandeur and solidity. At the farther end of the nave, are seen the five windows of the princ.i.p.al front, together with a portion of the great arch of entrance. The remaining part of this arch, as well as of the others of the lower tier, with the pillars that support them, are concealed by the floor. The gallery, it will be remarked, sinks at the western end, as in the choir, and is connected with the sides by a staircase. The roof is only of lath and plaster, painted in imitation of masonry.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 31. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_South side of the Nave, exterior._]
The _thirty-first plate_ exhibits three of the eight compartments of the clerestory, on the south side of the nave, as seen externally. The cloisters and conventual buildings hide the whole of the opposite side of the church; and, perfect as is the part here represented, there is nothing to be seen below; for a range of work-shops and of sheds has obstructed the view of the exterior, as effectually as the floor has of the corresponding portion within. The corbel-table, with its monsters of all descriptions, affords a curious specimen of the sculpture of the age. The string-course above it is rich and beautiful. The same is also the case with the decorations of the windows, as well as of the blank arches with which they are flanked, while the intervening flat b.u.t.tresses, edged by slender cylindrical pilasters, likewise indicate a degree of care and of taste which is very pleasing, and which is the more remarkable, when considered in union with the architecture of the exterior of the contemporary abbey of St. Stephen.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 32. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Crypt._]
The crypt (_plate thirty-two_) occupies the s.p.a.ce under the choir. The Abbe De la Rue, who terms it ”_une jolie chapelle_,” says that, in the fifteenth century, it was denominated the subterranean chapel of St.
Nicholas; but previously to the revolution, had a.s.sumed the name of the chapel of the Holy Trinity. It was originally entered by two narrow staircases from the transepts. Its length from east to west is about thirty feet: its width, about twenty-seven. The simple vaulted roof is supported by thirty-two slender columns, sixteen of them half imbedded in the wall, and rising from a stone bench, with which this crypt is surrounded, in the same manner as that of the church of St. Gervais, at Rouen. This chapel was, till lately, paved with highly-polished vitrified bricks, each about two inches square, diversified with very vivid colors, but of a description altogether unlike those in the Conqueror's palace. It is lighted by narrow windows, which widen considerably inwards, the wall being here of great thickness; and, according to all probability, there were originally eleven of them, though the greater part are now closed. One of them was lately filled with bones, and bricked up. Upon the place it occupied is to be seen the following inscription, placed between a couple of vases of antique form:--”_Oss.e.m.e.ns trouves dans l'ancien chapitre des dames de la Trinite, et deposes dans ce lieu le IV. Mars, MDCCCXVIII._”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 33. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Capitals in the Choir._]
In the same year, at the time when these drawings were made, no tombs whatever existed in the church of the Trinity. There had formerly been many here; but the revolution had swept them all away.[66] Among the rest were those of the royal foundress, of her daughter Caecilia, the first abbess, and of two other daughters of English kings, who likewise wore the ducal coronet of Normandy. The most celebrated of all was that of Matilda: according to Ordericus Vitalis, it was of exquisite workmans.h.i.+p, and richly ornamented with gold and precious stones. But the Calvinists demolished it in 1562; and, not content with plundering the monument of all that was valuable, tore open the Queen's coffin, and dispersed her remains. Towards the close of the same century, Anne de Montmorenci, then abbess, caused the royal bones to be collected, and again to be deposited in the original stone coffin; and things continued in this state till the year 1708, when the abbess, Gabrielle Francoise Fronlay de Tesse, raised a second altar-tomb of black marble, a representation of which has been preserved by Ducarel. In addition to this, she inclosed the bones of the princess for greater security in a leaden box, which she laid in the coffin; and these happily escaped violation in 1793, when the revolutionists destroyed the monument, because the arms of Normandy, with which it was ornamented, sinned against the doctrines of the liberty and equality of man. France being once more settled under a monarchical form of government, a fresh search was inst.i.tuted in March, 1819, by the prefect of the department, in the presence of the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Spencer Smythe, for the discovery of Matilda's remains; and they were found and verified, and re-interred in their original situation.--Another tomb, similar to that which was destroyed at the revolution, is also raised over them.
The engraved stone in _plate twenty-six_, marks the place which it occupies. Upon it is laid the original slab with the epitaph, which, by great good fortune, escaped unhurt from the hands both of democrats and Huguenots; and, as many of the subscribers to this work have expressed a desire that a fac-simile of it should be inserted, as ill.u.s.trative of the form of the letters, as well as of the manner of writing in use at that period, Mr. Cotman has had a pleasure in meeting their wishes, at the same time, that he has not considered it as sufficiently belonging to the publication, to justify him in making it an object of charge. The inscription, divided into lines, and written in modern characters, is as follows:--
”Egregie pulchri tegit hec structura sepulcri Moribus insigne germen regale Matildem Dux Flandrita pater huic ext.i.tit Adala mater Francor gentis Rotberti filia regis Et soror Henrici regali sede pot.i.ti Regi magnifico Wlllelmo juncta marito Presentem sedem presente fecit et edem Tam multis terris quam multis rebus honestis A se ditatam se procurante dicatam Hec consolatrix inopum pietatis amatrix Gazis dispersis pauper sibi dives egenis Sic infinite petiit consortia vite In prima mensis post primam luce Novembris.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 33*. _A fac simile of the inscription upon the tomb of Queen Matilda in the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity at Caen._]
NOTES:
[51] The will of the Queen has been printed by the Abbe De la Rue, (_Essais Historiques_ II. p. 437) from a ma.n.u.script in the royal library at Paris; but the writer of the present article is not aware that it has ever yet appeared in any English publication; and he therefore considers it desirable here to reprint it, for the antiquaries of his own country.--”Ego Mathildis Regina do Sanctae Trinitati Cadomi casulam quam apud Wintoniam [Winchester] operatur uxor Aldereti, et clamidem operatam ex auro quae est in camera mea ad cappam faciendam, atque de duabus ligaturis meis aureis in quibus cruces sunt, illam quae emblematibus est insculpta, ad lampadem suspendendam coram Sancto altare, candelabraque maxima quae fabricantur apud Sanctum Laudum, coronam quoque et sceptrum, calicesque ac vestimentum, atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur in Anglia, et c.u.m omnibus ornamentis equi, atque omnia vasa mea, exceptis illis quae antea dedero alicubi in vita mea; et Chetehulmum [Quetehou en Cotentin] in Normannia, et duas mansiones in Anglia do Sanctae Trinitati Cadomi. Haec omnia concessu domini mei Regis facio.
”Ex cartulario Sanctae Trin. Bibl. Reg. Paris. no. 5650.”
[52] The annual income arising from these, is stated by Odon Rigaud, Archbishop of Rouen, in the _proces-verbal_ of his visit to this abbey in 1250, to have amounted to one hundred and sixty pounds sterling; a sum nearly equivalent to eighty thousand livres of the present day.
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