Regarded merely as works of art, a large proportion of the two thousand
odd statues in the porches of Chartres deserve almost as much praise as
they excite interest. But when we consider the intentions of the artists
who made them, and remember the conditions under which they were
wrought, as they have been suggested in the previous chapters, we shall
be able to appreciate them with a more perfect sympathy and to judge
them with a broader understanding. The sculptors of the thirteenth
century did not aim exclusively at sensuous beauty or at anatomical
perfection, and they did not attain it. They were concerned with
psychology as well as and even more than anatomy, and they strove to
give by their art not only pleasure but instruction also. The perfection
of the human body was not so obvious to them as the imperfection of the
human soul. For them the flesh was only desirable when it exhaled the
odour of virtue, when it was inspired by the sympathetic sadness which
springs from the consciousness of frailty and resignation to the burdens
of this life, combined with a burning desire for the eternal life to
come, or when it was rendered sweet by the holy joyousness of spirit
which springs from peace, pity and love. They added, then, to the
science of art, the science of ideas. And if, therefore, mediæval
sculpture never rose to the height of artistic perfection achieved by a
Phidias or Praxiteles, yet their work remains fulfilled with a quality
not possessed by any Apollo, the charm of a spiritual intelligence.
DIMENSIONS OF THE CATHEDRAL.
ft. ins.
1. Total Length {Exterior, 506 4
{Interior, 426 5
This is less than that of the Cathedrals
of Le Mans, Reims, Amiens, Bordeaux
and Rouen.
2. Length of Nave, 240 4
3. Length of Choir, 121 5
4. Length of Transept (largest in France), 211 6
5. Width of West Front, 156 0
6. Width of Nave (largest in France), 53 6
7. Length of Crypt, 366 6
8. Width of Crypt, 18 0
9. Height of Vaulting of Nave, 122 3
10. Height of Vaulting in Aisles, 45 6
11. North Tower (Clocher Neuf), 377 4
12. South Tower (Clocher Vieux), 349 6
13. Diameter of the three large Rose Windows, 44 0
CHAPTER VIII
_The Birth of the Bourgeoisie and the English Occupation_
‘Servanti Civem querna corona datur.’
_Town Motto._[83]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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