Amiens

La Cathedrale Notre Dame d’Amiens
MARY KATHERINE HENDERSON Amiens Cathedral serves as a testament to the beauty and grace of the French Gothic movement in the Middle Ages. This stunning cathedral stands in the once thriving and bustling town of Amiens, France, roughly 140 kilometers north of Paris. The cathedral was built to replace the previous church, which was destroyed in a fire in 1218.Work on the cathedral was started in 1222 and ended in 1269. The cathedral survived a fire during construction, in 1258, which damaged the walls of the fledgling church, setting construction back. The bishop who broke ground on this tremendous undertaking was Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy (1211-1222). The construction was completed under Bishop Bernard d’Abbeville (1259-1278). There were four bishops inbetween these two who saw the Cathedral’s humble beginnings and it glorious completion. The original master builder, Robert de Luzarches, died two years into construction of the church, according to local legend, and it is not clear who oversaw the subsequent design and construction of this masterpiece of High Gothic. The plan of Amiens is very typical of the Classical Gothic buildings in France.The transept is pulled down the body of the nave, instead of copying earlier models that have a transept more towards the east end of the building. The transept is not the focal point of this church, but instead is very short and truncated. The nave and the two side aisles are the center of attention, leading to the apse and ambulatory. Coming away from the ambulatory there are seven radiatingchapels (see Figure 1). This plan is very similar to the plans of cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, and Notre Dame de Paris.
Mary Katherine Henderson is a junior history major at the University of Arkansas. She intends to pursue a career teaching medieval political history at the collegiate level.

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Figure 1.Theplan of Amiens. Courtesy Sacred Destinations, http:/ /www.sacred-destinations.com/france/amiens-cathedral. The Cathedral does not stand apart from the crush of the city; instead, it rises from the squat buildings of Amiens very forcefully and abruptly (see Figure 2). Because of this, the towers on the west façade demand the eye’s attention (see Figure 4). Built out of white stone, the Cathedralalmost seems to glow in the sunlight. The portals are intricately carved and are dedicated to different holy figures. The center portal is dedicated to the Beau-Dieu, or Handsome Christ, while the left portal is dedicated to St. Firmin, Amiens’s first bishop, who was martyred in the beginning of the second century. The right is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The eye is soon pulled away from theentrances, first by the large, beautiful rose window nestled between the two towers, and then to the vertical thrust of the towers flanking the rose window. The façade has a very strong horizontal pull caused by the gallery level with its profusion of capitals and statues, while the portals and the large rose window strongly demand the eye’s concentration. This façade is dominated by the Beau-Dieuportal, not surprisingly because of its central location. The roof’s gable pulls the eye upwards, but the width of the space also pulls the eye to the outer boundaries of the portal. The doors of the Cathedral are very passive within the portals, their height and simplicity are overwhelmed by the profusion of statuary above and around them. In each portal, the gable interior is articulated with amyriad of smaller carved figures surrounding the tympanum. These do not hold the viewer’s attention, but merely serve to draw the eye towards the tympanum, central statue, and the doors. The jamb

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Figure 2. Street view. Courtesy “Amiens Cathedral,” Sacred Destinations, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/amienscathedral. statues, however, stand apart from the...