Architecture

The church of Notre-Dame is a forgotten masterpiece, its past glory ruthlessly suppressed. The crusaders had brought back eastern techniques to transform Notre-Dame into a beacon of mystical exploration. They longed to join the angels in passionate union with the divine and built this church to make that possible.
Notre-Dame was provided with vast sums of money to turn the promise of transcendence into a daily reality. Yet today we sense the contradiction between the magnificence of the architecture and its present role as the local parish church. We know it must have been more.
What it was has been taken.
After only 70 years, Notre-Dame's mission was brutally suppressed, its unique beauty silenced, the Glory window sealed, sightlines erased until it became a shell of its former self. Yet the secrets in the architecture whisper still. They describe the clash between a very personal search for mystical union and the hierarchic policies of the Church that insisted only the clergy knew how to guide the soul.
What one king had cherished his successor deemed heretical and ruthlessly suppressed. Why the brutal reversal? Why the violent resistance from the congregation? Why suppress its mystical ambitions and why hide the facts? Was it a heresy that was too dangerous to tolerate? The clash between faith and power remains etched in the silence of the masonry, so we may still unravel the distant echoes of their quest for spiritual union, a quest that still resonates in the shadows of this remarkable church.
"Glory and Tragedy in Notre-Dame d'Etampes" unravels the forgotten saga of a silenced masterpiece, where religious intrigue and architectural brilliance collided. It remains a poignant reminder of the persistent struggle between institutional power and individual enlightenment. It is a tale of breathtaking triumph with devastating consequences.

A further volume in this monumental series on the architecture of the Gothic churches of the Paris Basin.

A complete collection of all the capitals carved in the Paris Basin before 1130 - over 4,000 - few of which have ever been published before. From this has come a profoundly significant analysis: That these carvers pursued what might be called a Quest for Order, a quest that grew into an obsession over the next two generations. By following each step in this quest in the dateable buildings in the rest of Europe, James has dated nearly every campaign in theBasin to within ±5 years - a unique achievement possible only because every one of the 147 remaining works have been included. This holistic approach provides the evidence that pointed arches and rib vaults were both being employed in the Paris Basin from the mid-1080s. Volume 3 in Part B of The Creation of Gothic Architecture: The Ark of God provides valuable insights into the development of Early Romanesque carving and architecture prior to theseminal work at Chartres and Saint-Denis. It complements Part A and, with the later volumes, aims to establish from all the evidence a comprehensive chronology for the Creation of Gothic Architecture.