Seventy-seven kilometres west of Toulouse there lies the interesting
city of Auch, built upon a hillside rising sharply from the river Gers.
Here one will happen upon many an ancient architectural bit which will
take him back to the days when Henry of Navarre here entertained, much
against her will, his mother-in-law, Catherine de Medicis, in this
south-western corner of France, far off from her beloved Paris. The very
remoteness has preserved many of its old-world features, and this
ancient flavour, combined with the picturesque position above the river,
renders it distinctly a town to be visited. But something more than the
general mediaeval air of Auch is the cause for our long jaunt hither.
This reason we shall find in the eighteen windows that adorn the choir
ambulatory of the cathedral of Ste. Marie. An inscription in the Gascon
dialect on the final one of the series tells us that they are by the
hand of Arnaud Desmoles and that they were finished June 25, 1513. We
have here the work of a Frenchman, a Gascon at that, and there is no
trace of Italian, German or any other foreign influence; it is the true
flower of the country's genius growing on its native soil. Perhaps the
drawing and the colouring are not quite so good as we may see elsewhere,
but it is purely French. Any imperfection of detail is hardly noticed,
because we are instantly struck by the ensemble of eighteen windows made
for the building which they decorate, as well as for each other, and all
by the same artist. His scheme of subjects, showing the agreement
between the teachings of the Old and those of the New Testament, is
fully carried through to its completion. The colours show strength and
yet are not too robust. The proportions, too, are very satisfactory,
each window being about three times as high as it is broad. Their
stories begin with the creation of the world and carry us on, step by
step, until they conclude with the appearance of Christ to His
disciples. The central part of each embrasure is filled by a large
personage, with sundry smaller figures above, and groups below. It is
but natural that so complete a series as this should have always enjoyed
a wide reputation. Although we may feel, after examining them, that they
do not reach the standard of perfection attained by some of their
contemporaries elsewhere, still they cannot fail to please us. The charm
lent by their logical completeness causes us to prefer them to others
where the perfection of drawing and style in the individual window is
partly offset by lack of harmony with others near it.