| Sainte-Chapelle : Description |  |
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Architecture
Les plans sont probablement dus à Pierre de Montreuil qui l'édifia en un temps record : de 1242 à 1248. Ce bâtiment est un petit chef d'oeuvre de l'art gothique, certains auteurs considérant qu'il marque l'apogée de cet art. Conçue comme une châsse précieuse devant mettre en valeur les reliques y étant conservées, elle devait également servir de chapelle royale, étant construite dans le palais royal de l'île de la Cité. Elle superpose deux chapelles, l'inférieure pour les gens du commun, la supérieure pour l'entourage du roi, selon un usage courant dans la construction des palais royaux du Moyen Âge. Dans les premiers temps, la chapelle haute n'était d'ailleurs accessible que par les galeries supérieures du Palais, Saint Louis n'ayant pas fait construire d'escalier public.
Chapelle basse
La chapelle basse, dédiée à la Vierge, était accessible aux gens de service et sert de socle à la chapelle haute. Basse de plafond, bordée de piliers massifs supportant tout le poids de l'édifice, elle n'existe que pour son utilité fonctionnelle et architecturale, permettre d'alléger au maximum la construction en supportant tout le poids de la chapelle haute.
Chapelle haute
Les murs de la chapelle haute sont totalement supprimés, remplacés par de larges baies laissant passer la lumière, seulement séparées par de minces faisceaux de piliers. Les vitraux représentent des scènes religieuses. Celles-ci ont été choisies en fonction de l'emplacement des personnages royaux suivants les offices, des vitraux évoquant le roi David ou le roi Salomon étant placés près du roi.
Les vitraux constituent un ensemble homogène, dont les dominantes rouge et bleue donnent à cette chapelle son éclat.
Les fenêtres de la nef d'une hauteur de 15,35 mètres et d'une largeur de 4,70 mètres, sont divisées en 4 lancettes et surmontées d'une rose à 6 lobes et 2 quadrilobes (élément en forme de trèfle à 4 feuilles). Les fenêtres de l'abside d'une hauteur de 13,45 mètres et larges de 2,10 mètres, ne comportent que 2 lancettes et 3 trilobes (élément en forme de feuille de trèfle).
Les scènes des vitraux représentent :
- la Genèse
- l'Exode
- le livre des Nombres
- le livre de Josué
- le livre des Juges
- le livre d'Isaïe
- Jean l'évangéliste et l'enfance du Christ
- la Passion
- la vie de Jean-Baptiste et le livre de Daniel
- le livre d'Ézéchiel
- les livres de Jérémie et de Tobit
- les livres de Judith et de Job
- le livre d'Esther
- les livres des Rois
L'histoire des reliques de la Passion
La rose (côté sud), de 9 mètres de diamètre, représente l'Apocalypse. |
| Sainte-Chapelle : History | |
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The Sainte-Chapelle, the palatine chapel in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Ile de la Cité, was built to house precious relics: Christ's crown of thorns, the Image of Edessa and thirty other relics of Christ that had been in the possession of Louis IX since August 1239, when it arrived from Venice in the hands of two Dominican friars. Unlike many devout aristocrats, who swiped relics, the saintly Louis bought his precious relics of the Passion, purchased from the Latin emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres, which was paid to the Venetians, to whom it had been pawned. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build. In 1241 a piece of the True Cross was added, and other relics. Thus the building, consecrated 26 April 1248, was like a precious reliquary: even the stonework was painted, with medallions of saints and martyrs in the quatrefoils of the dado arcade, which was hung with rich textiles.
At the same time, it reveals Louis' political and cultural ambition, with the imperial throne at Constantinople occupied by a mere Count of Flanders and with the Holy Roman Empire in uneasy disarray, to be the central monarch of western Christendom. Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace into the Sainte Chapelle.
The Royal chapel was a prime exemplar of the newly developing culminating phase of Gothic architectural style called "Rayonnant" that achieved a sense of weightlessness. It stands squarely upon a lower chapel which served as parish church for all the inhabitants of the palace, which was the seat of government (see "palace"). The king was later granted sainthood by the Catholic Church as Saint Louis.
The most visually beautiful aspects of the chapel, and considered the best of their type in the world, are its stained glass for which the stonework is a delicate framework, and rose windows added to the upper chapel in the 15th century.
No designer-builder is directly mentioned in archives concerned with the construction, but the name of Pierre de Montreuil, who had rebuilt the apse of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and completed the façade of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is sometimes connected with the Sainte Chapelle.
Much of the chapel as it appears today is a recreation, although nearly two-thirds of the windows are authentic. The chapel suffered its most grievous destruction in the late eighteenth century, during the French Revolution, when the steeple and baldachin were removed, the relics dispersed, and various reliquaries, including the grande châsse, were melted down. The Sainte-Chapelle was requisitioned as an archival depository in 1803. Two meters' worth of glass was removed to facilitate working light, and destroyed or loosed upon the market. Its well-documented restoration, completed under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1855, was regarded as exemplary by contemporaries and is faithful to the original drawings and descriptions of the chapel that survive.
The Sainte Chapelle has been a national historic monument since 1862.
A replica of the Sainte Chapelle can be found in Chicago, Illinois. The St. James Chapelle of Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, located on 103 E. Chestnut St, was built in the early 1900s under the direction of George Cardinal Mundelein in founding the high school seminary.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License |
