George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund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George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers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
The exterior affords many features of interest. It is, as I have said,
almost entirely round-arched, and the choir affords a good example
of the triple division in height, rendered necessary by the groined
triforium and the projecting chapels of the apse. The clerestory
and triforium are each lighted with one window in each bay, whilst
the chapels have three windows,--a wide one in the centre, and a
much smaller one in each side. There are no flying buttresses to the
clerestory, but small quasi-buttresses, formed of three-quarters of
a shaft, finished under the eaves with a conical capping. The eaves
cornice all round the church, of intersecting round arches, resting
on corbels, is so similar in its character to some of the work in the
beautiful chapter-house of S. Georges de Boscherville, that I can
hardly doubt that they were executed under the same influence, if not
even by the same workmen.
The feature, however, which lends the most interest to the building
and aids so much in its picturesque effect externally, is the grand
Lady-chapel,[21] said to have been built by the Abbot, Peter de
Wesencourt, between the years 1259 and 1266. In plan, disposition and
general arrangement it appears to be as nearly as possible identical
with the destroyed Lady-chapel of S. Germain-des-Prés at Paris, built
by the celebrated Pierre de Montéreau, between the years 1247 and
1255. Pierre de Montéreau built also the S. Chapelle at Paris, between
1241 and 1248, and died on the 17th March, 1266. A comparison of the
design of these three buildings has induced me to believe that in
this Lady-chapel of S. Germer we have another genuine work of this
great architect, for it was built before his death, and is identical
in many of its features with work which we know to be his. The plan
of all these buildings is identical.[22] They all had two staircase
turrets and a large rose-window at the west end, a parapet above
the rose-window, and a smaller rose in the otherwise plain gable.
The design of the window tracery, the gables over the windows, the
detail of the staircase turrets, buttresses and parapets, are all so
similar that my suggestion really scarcely admits of a doubt. The main
differences are, that at S. Germer the original western rose-window is
perfect, whilst in the S. Chapelle it is a flamboyant insertion, and
that the chapel is of one story in place of two. In this last point,
and in its complete separation from the church, it agrees entirely
with the destroyed chapel at S. Germain-des-Prés. The passage between
the apse and the chapel is of three bays, with a doorway at the side,
but, so far as I could see, no trace of an entrance from the apse.
It is groined: the windows (of four lights) are much elaborated with
mouldings, and have trefoiled inside arches: and an ascent of six steps
leads from it under a fine archway into the chapel. There is a north
doorway in the chapel, and the whole is groined. The dimensions appear,
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