very noteworthy, and is, perhaps, one of the earliest examples of a
type which was developed afterwards into the well-known arrangement
of the belfry of the south-west tower at Chartres, and this, with the
influence of the churches of the Rhine,[38] developed in almost all
subsequent modifications of the spire with its gabled spire-lights;
one of the windows under this pediment is planned in a most ingenious
manner, presenting externally a semi-dome pierced by two pointed
arches; another window is pierced with a trefoil head, the diameter of
which is much larger than that of the light it surmounts. This is a
favorite form of cusping throughout this district. I have seen it in
Lyon, at Vienne, often at Le Puy, at Brioude, at Notre-Dame-du-Port,
Clermont, and in the south porch at Bourges; and there can, I think, be
little doubt that it is somewhat Eastern in its origin, and analogous
to the horseshoe form of arch.
The cloister on the north side of the church appears to be in part
coeval with the earliest,[39] or, perhaps, the second portion of the
fabric, and in part with the later additions to it. It consists of a
simple arcade of round arches on rather solid piers, with a detached
shaft on each face. The capitals are all richly sculptured, some with
figures, some with foliage. The spandrels of the arches are filled
in with a reticulation of coloured stones; above the arches runs a
band of similar ornament, and above this again a carved cornice,
which in the later part of the cloister forms a sort of frieze. In
this portion the arches have sculptured key-stones, a peculiarity
which I hardly remember to have met with before in work of the same
date. On the south side there are two fluted shafts and one spiral;
all the rest are circular, but noticeable for their very considerable
entasis. The groining is all quadripartite without ribs, and executed
with rough stones, set in concrete, on a centring of boards. The
cloister was surrounded on all sides with buildings. On the south is
the cathedral; on the east, and opening to the cloister by an arcade
of open arches, is a large hall covered with a pointed barrel-vault.
This was originally called the choir of S. André, and in it masses in
commemoration of the dead were said, and services held on the feasts
of the Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, and on the feasts of
S. Andrew and S. Eustachius. It was also called “cæmeterium,” being
used for the burial of the clergy, and is now called the chapel _des
Morts_. On the wall are still to be seen remains of a painting of the
Crucifixion, with many prophets and angels, S. Mary and S. John, the
sun and moon, etc. In the northern gable of this building is a fine
cylindrical chimney, built in alternate courses of dark and light
stone, and rising from a fireplace in a chamber over the hall, and of
the same date as the hall. M. Viollet-le-Duc gives a drawing of the
fireplace, which is of a not uncommon early type, the head projecting
considerably on a semicircular plan. At the north end of the _Salle
des Morts_ is a passage leading to the cloister, and along the whole
northern boundary once stood a vast range of building called the
Maîtrise.[40] Nothing now remains of this save its undercroft, which
was spanned by bold pointed arches of stone, on which the wooden floor
rested. The Maîtrise was pulled down a few years since, and, not long
before, a tower close by it, called the tower of S. Mayol, was also
destroyed. It is described as an erection of the eleventh century,
battlemented, but without machicoulis.[41] It seems to have served as
part of the fortification of the church, which was also attended to
in an alteration of the building on the west side of the cloister, in
the fourteenth century. This building contained, below, a hall on a
level with the church, which was the chapel of the Holy Relics; above
was the _Salle des États_ of Velay, with a stone barrel-roof, now
both thrown into one room. Above these again was an open space under
the roof, protected on the side towards the town by a magnificent
overhanging battlement and machicolation of the fourteenth century,
and quite open on the side towards the cloister save for the stone
piers supporting the roof. The machicoulis are some of the finest
I have ever seen, and project from the buttresses as well as from
the walls. The only access to this stage of the building seems to
have been from the roof of the cathedral. Le Puy was, in the first
instance, selected as a site for the cathedral because it afforded so
secure a refuge from attack, and in later days it seems to have been
not less necessary to provide against danger: for among other enemies
the Lords of Polignac, whose magnificent castle is visible from the
steeple of the cathedral, only some four miles distant, were the most
conspicuous as they were also the most powerful. M. Viollet-le-Duc
supposes, indeed, that the tower of the cathedral was meant in part
for defence; but I see no evidence of this, and possibly he had in his
mind the destroyed tower of S. Mayol, which, as well as the double
wall of enceinte which formerly surrounded the whole cathedral, was
no doubt a purely military construction. Fortified churches are by no
means uncommon in this part of France. At Brioude is a painting showing
the church entirely surrounded by a crenellated and turreted wall in
A.D. 1636; and Royat, near Clermont, and the abbey church of Menat,
also in Auvergne, still retains provisions for defence. The _Salle
des États_ contained formerly the archives of Velay, and in removing
them a few years since (about A.D. 1850) portions of a hanging of
blue wool, “semée” with fleurs-de-lys, and adorned with the armorial
bearings of Jean de Bourbon, Bishop of Le Puy from A.D. 1443 to 1485,
were found.[42] At the same time a curious painting on the east wall
of the lower chamber was discovered under the whitewash. It represents
four liberal sciences--Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, and Music--as females
seated with ancient worthies at their feet. Priscian sits below
Grammar, writing; and two boys, with open books, are on her other side.
Logic holds a lizard in one hand and a scorpion in the other, and
Aristotle is arguing below. The inscription underneath is--“Me sine
doctores frustrâ coluere sorores,” and each figure has a corresponding
leonine verse inscribed below. Rhetoric holds a file in her left hand,
and Cicero sits at her feet. Music plays an organ, whilst Tubal,
with two hammers, plays upon an anvil. There used--according to the
“_Chronique des Médicis_”--to be a second painting here with figures
of young demoiselles gorgeously clothed, and from the same chronicle
it appears that Messire Pierre Odin, official of the Bishop Jean de
Bourbon, who died in 1502, presented both:--“Il estait si grant orateur
que, par son mellifère et suaviloquent langage, fust commis plusieurs
fois estre ambassadeur devers le Pape à la requette du très-excellent
et redouté Prince Louis XI. roy de France, lequel dudict Pape obtint
grande louange et avoir, ce que il employa en divers façons et moyens
en aulmosnes et à la décoration de cette saincte église du Puy.” The
picture has considerable merit; its detail is a mixture of Renaissance
and Gothic, and the Gothic portion--as for instance, the chair on which
one of the figures sits--is not Italian, and I should be inclined to
suppose that it was the work, therefore, of a French artist. Its date
must be between 1475 and 1502. Louis XI. came to Le Puy on a pilgrimage
in 1475.
The external side elevation of the church is best seen from the
cloister, and, with a few words upon this, I will leave this portion
of the building. Here, even more clearly than inside, the division
of the building into work of different epochs is seen. The two bays
nearest the crossing have large coupled windows in the aisle, with
parti-coloured voussoirs and jamb shafts. The clerestory is very
peculiar in its treatment, and undoubtedly very effective; the windows
are of one light in each bay and round-headed and on each side of them
above the springing there is a recess in the wall, in the centre of
which a detached shaft is placed to carry the cornice. A similar recess
and a smaller shaft occur immediately over the arch of the window, and
the window-arch being built of alternately dark and light stone, and
all the sunk panels being filled in with geometrical patterns, composed
in the same way, an extremely rich effect is obtained. Recesses of the
same kind in the upper part of the walls occur all along the eastern
face of the transept at Le Puy; and between the clerestory windows
of Notre-Dame-du-Port, Clermont; S. Paul, Issoire; and commonly in
Auvergne. But so far as I can judge from the portion of the cathedral
in which they occur, and from the early and simple character of the
work itself, I am inclined to believe that it is earlier here than in
any of the other examples. It would be of great interest to have some
more positive evidence on this and other similar questions of date.
But, so far as I have been able to discover, there is no such evidence,
and we are left in doubt, therefore, whether this portion of the
architecture of Velay came from Auvergne, or whether the reverse was
the case; as also whether this external decoration of the fabric is
coeval with its first erection, or is a subsequent addition.
The two central compartments of the nave have circular windows (sixteen
feet in diameter) to light the aisle, and round-headed windows in the
clerestory; and between the arches of the latter windows are small
arched recesses. In the two western bays the clerestory is similar,
save that the intermediate recessed arch is omitted. In both the
voussoirs are counter-charged, and the wall from the springing up to
the eaves is coursed with stone and lava. The transept gables are only
noticeable for the courses of inlaid patterns with which they are
enriched. All these patterns are formed with white stone and lava.
The latter, indeed, forms the whole ground of the walls, and varies
in colour from a greenish grey to black; and the patterns are formed
with the darkest lava and stone. The cloister is similarly inlaid above
the arches, but it has almost all been restored in a most injudicious
manner. They have _struck_ and _ruled_ (I believe that is the technical
phrase for this most abominable of inventions, is it not?) an enormous
red mortar joint between all the stones,[43] and wherever this has been
done the diaper appears to be formed with a chequer of black and red;
wherever the cloister has not been retouched the diaper is black and
white.
I have left, almost until the last, that which is after all the
crowning wonder of this singular church--the western porch. I have
already referred to its position and plan. The majesty, I may say
the awfulness, of this entrance, can hardly be exaggerated. It owes
little to delicate detail or enrichment of any kind, for, though these
have been, they are no longer; but it is the gloom and darkness, the
simple, nervous forms of arch and pier, the long flight of steps lost
in obscurity and crowded constantly (when I saw them) with a throng
of worshippers, which constitute the strange charm of this strangest
of entrances. I told you that in the nave the two western bays of the
aisle alone had groining ribs; in the porch below it is only in the
western bay that they are used, and this affords interesting evidence
of the very gradual yet regular development of our art.
The spaces below the aisles in the third bay from the west form
chapels--that on the right dedicated to S. Martin, and that on the left
to S. Gilles. Before the last extension of the building these chapels
were at the extreme west end. They have western doorways, which still
retain the wooden doors. Each of these doors was of four divisions in
height, covered with subjects carved in low relief. They are executed
either in cedar or oak (I am uncertain which, for they are covered with
paint), and the subjects, inscriptions, and borders are all obtained
simply by sinking the ground three-sixteenths of an inch. The figures
are, of course, only in outline, but it is still evident that they
were carefully painted with draperies, etc., so as to be thoroughly
distinct. There is some appearance of the ground having been painted
with broad horizontal bands of colour, but the traces are so indistinct
that it is difficult to speak positively.[44] The doors are hung
folding, and those to the chapel of S. Gilles contain subjects from the
early life of our Lord, whilst those in the chapel of S. Martin contain
subjects from His Passion. The meeting-rail in the former fortunately
contains an inscription of extreme value: “Gaulfredus: me: fct: Petrus:
epi”; after which some letters are lost. If my reading of the last
letter but one as “p” is correct, I think it leads to a most important
inference. No one who looks at the design of these gates can doubt that
they are thoroughly Eastern in their character; and, upon searching
for the lists of bishops of Le Puy since my return, I was delighted to
find that the first bishop of the name of Peter[45] was consecrated at
Ravenna by Leo IX. in A.D. 1043, and died at Genoa A.D. 1053, as he
returned from the Holy Land. Gates of the same description are said to
exist in the churches of Chamaillères and of Lavoulte-Chilhac in the
same district, whilst other evidence of intercourse with the East is
afforded by fragments of _tissus_ preserved at Monestier, at Pébrac,
and at Lavoulte-Chilhac. These _tissus_ are all extremely Eastern
in their character, and very similar to the famous cope at Chinon
described by M. de Caumont in the _Abécédaire_, and to the Le Mans
_tissu_ described by M. Hucher in the _Bulletin Monumental_ (1846,
p. 24). The date ordinarily attributed to them is the middle of the
eleventh century, which exactly tallies with the return of Bishop Peter
from the Holy Land. I dwell on this the more because, if the inference
I have drawn from the inscription be true, it gives the date also to
the second portion of the construction of the cathedral, to which the
chapels in the porch undoubtedly belong; and the result would be that
whilst I should date the earliest portion of the church at about the
end of the tenth century, or quite the commencement of the eleventh,
the second portion would be dated at about A.D. 1050; and, finally,
there is little doubt as to the whole having been completed in the
course of the twelfth century.[46] These dates are, as in all such
cases, of course only approximate; and it is pretty clear that there
was seldom any long pause in the works, and the development in their
architectural features is therefore very gradual.
The external elevation in the west front is similar in style to the
clerestory on the north side, and mainly executed in alternate courses
of lava and stone. The aisle-roofs are masked by walls with pediments.
Throughout this part of the work you will observe that its early date
is proved by the fact that the round arch is almost invariably used for
ornament, and the pointed arch only where great strength was required.
A great buttress, which had been built against this vast front, was
removed during the recent restorations.
I observed before that there are doorways on the east side of both
transepts--the “ears” referred to in an old saying. The south transept
door is in itself remarkable for the peculiar form of the cusping of
its arch, and still more for the magnificent porch built over it. The
date of this is the latter part of the twelfth century. It is open
on the south and east sides, and abuts on the church on the west and
north, occupying the re-entering angle between the transept and choir
aisle. The arch is remarkable for a rib detached below the arch, and
connected at intervals with it by columns, so as to have the appearance
of being suspended. My impression is that the architect feared that
his arch had not sufficient abutment, and hoped by bringing some of
the weight on to the lower rims of the arch to remedy this defect. The
whole detail of this porch is a very rich kind of pointed, full of
half-Romanesque and half-Byzantine detail. The groining, in alternate
coloured courses, is quadripartite, but has the very rare feature (in
France) of ridge ribs. Above the porch is a room or chapel, to which
I omitted to gain access. Over the door of the other (north) transept
a great arch, thrown from the cathedral to the chapel of S. Jean,
carries another chapel, lighted with a first-pointed triplet. This
door is square-headed, and covered with rich though rude ironwork. The
door-handles have a resemblance to one in the cathedral at Trèves made
by Jean and Nicholas of Bingen, which struck me, and was remarked on
also, I find, by M. Mérimée. The lintel of the door is deeper at the
centre than at the sides of the door, pediment-like, and has figures of
our Lord and the Twelve Apostles carved on it, whilst above, under a
circular arch, is another figure of our Lord, with an angel on either
side. The whole has been very much mutilated and all the figures are
hacked to pieces. The ground was painted, and no doubt the figures were
also, and the woodwork of the door was covered with linen or leather
under ironwork.
The very ancient chapel of S. Jean is close to this door, and by its
side is a fifteenth century archway. The chapel is arcaded on its south
side and pierced with very simple windows. Some antiquaries assert that
it is a piece of Roman construction, and it is not impossible, though I
should be much more inclined to call it tenth century work. The chapel
has a rude quadripartite vault, and its apsidal chancel is roofed with
a semi-dome.
I must conclude my long notice of this church by some mention of the
extensive remains of painted decorations still visible. During the
late restorations of the cathedral, I understand from M. Aymard, the
greater portion were destroyed. The vaults of the north transept and
the semi-domes of its apsidal recesses are still, however, covered with
paintings, though they are scarcely intelligible, owing to darkness and
dirt. In one of them occurs a figure of our Lord giving the benediction
in the Greek fashion, and it is one of the many evidences which may
be adduced of the Eastern influence visible here in so many respects,
though I am not disposed to lay so much stress upon it as some of those
did who engaged in the controversy it occasioned.[47] In the western
porch there are also extensive remains of painting; the soffits of the
arches in the third bay from the west are all painted, and so too are
the walls over the altars in the chapels of S. Martin and S. Gilles.
The painting was executed on a thick coat of plaster, and the nimbi
are of gold with lines incised on them. No doubt the whole church once
glittered with gold and colour, and, seeing how fine its effect still
is, we may, aiding the indications still left with our recollections of
Assisi, of Venice, and of Padua, people the bare walls once again, and
bring before our eyes an interior of the most gorgeous magnificence.
I may conclude what I have to say about the cathedral with a few words
about the sacristy and its contents. The building itself is not more
than a hundred and fifty years old, and most of its treasures have
been lost. The most precious relic still left is a Bible, which, by a
note at its end, is stated to have been written by S. Théodulf, Bishop
of Orléans, in the ninth century, and sent by him, in accomplishment
of a vow, to the shrine of Notre Dame du Puy. It is a quarto of
347 leaves of very fine vellum, some white with black letters, and
others purple or violet with gold or silver letters. It contains the
Old and New Testament, commentaries on the text, interpretations of
Hebrew, Greek and Latin words, and some poems by Théodulf. The pages
are interleaved with excessively delicate tissues of various colours
and patterns, which appear to be of the same age as the book, and of
Eastern manufacture. They are made of china crêpe, cotton, silk, linen,
poil-de-chèvre, and camel’s hair, of extreme fineness, and of various
colours and patterns.[48] The binding is, however, later, and of red
velvet on chamfered oak boards, with good simple metal knobs. There
are also preserved here some wax candles, tapering considerably in
their length, and stamped with a pattern made by a pointed instrument;
and, finally, there is a tippet embroidered with a tree of Jesse,
said to have been of Charlemagne’s time. It is not so old as is said,
but may possibly be (though I very much doubt it) of the twelfth or
thirteenth century, but it has been much damaged by removal from its
original ground and by partial re-working. The sacristy also contains
a reliquary of very late sixteenth-century date, of which a photograph
has been published by M. Aymard, but which was not shown to me; and an
almost endless roll of vellum illuminated with a chronological tree of
the history of the world.
How much has been lost may be guessed from some statistics which I have
come upon as to the number of silversmiths and specimens of their work
in Le Puy in the Middle Ages: in A.D. 1408 there were no less than
forty resident in the city, whilst as to their work I find in A.D. 1444
there were in the sacristy 33 _châsses_ and reliquaries, 26 chalices,
11 statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and other figures, 10
candelabra, 9 crosses, 9 lamps, 9 mitres, crosses with their stems,
episcopal rings, crowns for the Virgin, censers, paxes, basins, plates,
books with covers adorned with chasings, pearls and precious stones,
and many like things; and in A.D. 1475 I find that Louis XI. gave 30
silver marks for a canopy over the miracle-working figure of Notre
Dame du Puy, which was made by François Gimbert, a silversmith of Le
Puy. Other churches in the neighbourhood have been more fortunate
in retaining some of their old plate, and a fair list might be made
out, if I had time, of their possession, many of which have been
photographed by M. Aymard.
The building of the greatest interest, after the cathedral, is the
little church of S. Michel, which crowns the rock fitly called the
Aiguille. It is reached by steps winding irregularly round the rock, to
the shape of the summit of which it has been most ingeniously adapted.
The oldest portion of the building is the square choir, covered with a
dome, under which stands the principal altar. To the (ritual) east and
north of this are apsidal projections, and to the south an archway,
which as it agrees exactly in dimensions with the others, opened,
no doubt, into a third apsidal chapel, like the others, whilst the
entrance was at the west. This archway now leads into a chapel of very
irregular form, part of which extends over the porch of entrance, in
the arrangement of which one may trace a certain kind of analogy to
that of the cathedral, though it is perhaps older. West of the choir
is a nave, somewhat like a cone in plan, and surrounded by an aisle,
from which it is divided by arches supported on slender shafts. The
choir has a square domical vault, and the chapel over the porch a true
dome, the pendentives under which are just like those of S. Fosca at
Torcello. The apsidal chapels have semi-domes and the rest of the
church has a waggon-vault of very irregular outline. An arcade against
the walls of the side corresponds with that between the aisle and the
nave. At the end of the nave is the tower, which was probably built
at a slightly later date than the main building. The whole interior
appears to have been richly painted, but faint indications only of
this portion of the decoration remain. In the central dome there is a
sitting figure of our Lord on the east side; emblems of the evangelists
are at the angles, and angels and seraphim around our Lord. Below these
is a line of single figures, six on each side--the four-and-twenty
elders--and below this again are subjects, the whole combining together
to make a very interesting example of the treatment of the Last
Judgement. The dome of the chapel over the porch is also painted with
our Lord, angels, and the evangelists.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLARS’ CHURCH AT SEGOVIA]
The walls generally are built of lava, though a little white stone is
used in the steeple and for the sculptured capitals.