The church of St. Ouen at Pont-Audemer will always have for the writer
that peculiar charm of almost proprietary right which the discoverer is
sure to feel in something upon which he has happened unexpectedly. On
his way through the town he saw the church, and having noticed from the
outside that the windows contained stained glass, he stopped and went
in, undeterred by the positively dishevelled look of the unfinished and
dismantled west front. A delightful surprise awaited him. Around the
walls of the nave, the space usually occupied by the triforium gallery
here becomes a broad frieze so exquisitely carved in Gothic patterns as
seemingly to drape the walls with lace. In fact, you hardly notice the
unfinished condition of the upper part of the church, so engrossed are
you in this very unusual feature, one of which any cathedral in France
might be proud. And in the embrasures below, what a gallery of
harmonious glass! Not only are the individual windows excellent, but
they harmonise so well as to make one feel that each artist must have
been at the greatest pains to make his work contribute to and not
interfere with the general scheme. It is for the glass hunter a treasure
trove to find a church which has preserved a complete glazing of one
period, but to have the windows all good, and better still, in such
charming accord with each other, makes the occasion of his visit to
Pont-Audemer a red-letter day. The ground plan of the church is somewhat
broken up, but even that seems but to add to the charm of the interior.
The first window to the left in what might be called the choir
ambulatory is not only the best but by far the most interesting. Without
any definite division of its surface into panels, the whole picture
seems to gracefully resolve itself into four contrasting scenes from the
Old and the New Testament, entitled "Devant la Loy," "Soubz la Loy,"
"Devant la Grace," "Soubz la Grace." The effect of clouds in the sky is
very elaborately worked out, while here and there between them peep
forth the head and wings of little cherubs--it is really very engaging.
Possibly the over-captious visitor may consider the combination of small
heads and surrounding clouds somewhat reminiscent of the buttons holding
down upholstery, but such a carping critic should be packed off about
his ill-tempered business! In a window on the right side of the nave the
donors are ranged along a little gallery in the lowest panel. This
method has in its favour that it does not present them as intruders on
the picture, so often the case in this century. We carry away with us a
charming impression of the service rendered by the glass in toning the
light for the graceful stone carvings on the nave walls. The effect is
unique.
On the outskirts of the town there is a small church, St. Germain, whose
east window is an agreeable example of fifteenth century canopy work.