George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund
History
George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic; Church architecture -- Europe; Europe -- Description and travel; Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
[7] This will be Messer Cino--of Dante and Mr. Hewlett.--G. G. K.
[8] Eastern? queries Street in pencil.
[9] Attributed to Jacopo della Quercia; it is not hard to divine why,
when Donatello had failed to satisfy, Jacopo should offend.--G. G. K.
[10] Qy.: S. Vincent?--G. G. K.
[11] The same ornamentation appears in the doorways opening out of the
Great Cloister at Las Huelgas (province of Burgos, Spain).--G. G. K.
[12] The plan of six-foot cubicles, open above, with separate windows
but a single lofty roof, carried on immense stone arches spanning the
vast hall, is that of the great dormitory at the Cistercian abbey of
Poblet, in Cataluña.--G. G. K.
[13] Our ancient sculpture is therefore of inexpressible value to
us; and it is to be hoped that we shall hear less and less of that
destructive and dangerous process called “restoration” in connection
with it. The _Guardian_ lately contained a paragraph stating that
a London carver is employed on the restoration of the ancient
figure-sculpture at Lincoln. I shudder to think of the havoc which (if
I may judge of him by the former performances of his class) he must be
making. If the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln possessed a picture by an
old master, would they employ a painter to touch up the noses and put
in new heads where the old painting was defective? Assuredly not. And
can they not feel that any sculpture is just as much a work of art,
owing all its interest to the genius of the artist, as any painting can
be, and as far beyond restoration therefore?
[14] I am, of course, aware that some of these churches are not
locally situated within the Île de France, and one of them--Rouen
Cathedral--might have been expected to be purely Norman in its
character. To my mind, however, it represents a fusion between the
Norman and the real French style, affected, moreover, at first to some
extent by Italian influences. And Rouen, as well as most of these
churches, was comprised within the _Domaine Royale_ before the death of
Philip Augustus.
[15] The plan of an aisle or “procession-path” without chapels is, in
execution, the only form of apse, the effect of which is decidedly
inferior to our English square ends. It is on the exterior that its
deformity is most conspicuous.
[16] The chapels round the apse of Senlis Cathedral form an
intermediate link between the two plans at S. Leu. They form exactly
half a circle on plan, and have only two bays, one of which is lighted
with a window. Externally they have stone roofs, finishing under the
triforium windows. These two churches should be studied and compared
together.
[17] No one who visits S. Leu should omit to go also to Senlis. He will
find a tower and spire of unusual--if not unique--beauty and elegance.
There are two fine desecrated churches, and other remains which, with
the charming cathedral, make a _tout ensemble_ not easily forgotten. It
is a walk of about six miles only from S. Leu--passing by Chantilly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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