Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
The two Bayeux had done the interior of the south door of the
transept, but it was Berneval who did the chapel of SS. Peter and
Paul, and his son who, after 1441, worked at the central tower, the
gem of the exterior. This younger Berneval lies buried near his
father, and the plan of his octagonal "drum" is set above his grave.
To that first magnificent conception the crown was not added until
Antoine Bohier's days, between 1490 and 1515, for whom Jacques
Theroulde worked chiefly. The same Abbot completed the Sacristy, but
the rest of his additions were not so fortunate in their execution,
for the style of the end of the fifteenth century did not mate happily
with the earlier work. The carvings and general style of the south
portal, called "des Marmousets," is for instance a striking
deterioration from the bold conceptions and brilliant handiwork upon
the great transept gateways of the Cathedral. He added four more bays
to the nave, using simple instead of double buttresses, flamboyant
work instead of rose windows, longer arches, and a lower line of
capitals. Under Cibo, his successor, the last four bays of the nave
were finished, and a splendid beginning made to the west front that
has perished utterly, and been replaced by the miserable monstrosity
of a frigid and ill-proportioned "restoration." Seldom has that
much-abused word so richly deserved all the invective that could be
heaped upon it. By Lelieur's plan we know that in 1525 the western
front of Cibo scarcely can be said to have existed. But it cannot
have been long after the reign of Francis I. that Cibo's architect
carried his west front between 40 and 50 metres high, because the
crest and devices of that monarch were preserved in the old work. In
1846 it will hardly be credited that so much of that old work still
remained as may be seen in the drawing, copied from the sketch of a
contemporary architect, which I have reproduced on page 236. From this
it will be observed that one of the most ingenious and original
devices of the Middle Ages at their close had been developed for the
entrance to St. Ouen.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL WEST FRONT OF ST. OUEN WHICH WAS PULLED
DOWN TO ERECT THE MODERN FACADE]
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