History of art . he flames of the great rosewindow. On fair-days, people at the top of the towersof Laon would see the oxen bending to their work inthe fields. On coronation days, or at times of royalpomp, when the processions defile between the rows ofnarrow houses where the tapestries hang, people followthe harmony and the tumult of the marchers and areengulfed with the latter in the five porches of Bourgesthat shimmer with their painted sculptures; while atRheims, the sculptures are carried on up to the summitof the cathedral, from which there pours the incessanttorrent of the forms and col
History of art . he flames of the great rosewindow. On fair-days, people at the top of the towersof Laon would see the oxen bending to their work inthe fields. On coronation days, or at times of royalpomp, when the processions defile between the rows ofnarrow houses where the tapestries hang, people followthe harmony and the tumult of the marchers and areengulfed with the latter in the five porches of Bourgesthat shimmer with their painted sculptures; while atRheims, the sculptures are carried on up to the summitof the cathedral, from which there pours the incessanttorrent of the forms and colors of nature. But inside—not an image. The nave would losesomething of its sonority, its grandeur, its light. The CHRISTIANITY AND THE COMMUNE 301 vault, the generating principle, is bare, and only thecapital of the columns is permitted to flower. The long,slender shafts, the long ribbing that ascends and de-scends to outline the stained glass of the windows, theabsolute lines that converge and that answer one. FlaVIGNY (Côte-dOr) (xiii Century),of the abbey. Capital, choir another, the pure radiance of the rose window—everything has the abstract force and the nakedness ofthe mind. And everywhere it is function that deter-mines form. The armed castle is a church turned insideout, its exterior bare for purposes of resistance, andcovered with frescoes and carpets within, well supplied 302 MEDIEVAL ART with carved wood furniture and with forged iron forthe dehght of the eye and for repose. The only Frenchcathedral in the ogive style, whose exterior is bare andwhose form presents a hostile mass, was built at Albiin a spirit of defiance and combat—it is a fortressrising in a block to surround the sanctuary of the spiritwith armor. In the south, the Roman majesty of thewall is retained, and even, at certain moments, en-hanced. Especially in those places where the Roman-esque spirit and the ogival spirit fuse, at Saintes-Mariesde la Mer, at Aigues-Mortes, at Albi, at Agde, at
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
