Art of the Late Middle Ages (1250–1400) 2. Art of Southern France

Architecture

During the heyday of the North French Gothic in the XIII century, the beautiful south of France, absorbed in religious strife and wars, remained outside the artistic movement, which emanated from the heart of the country and captured the whole world. In the South French church architecture, the Romanesque style, once the pride of this region, did not create anything remarkable, sometimes mixed with poorly understood Gothic details, but did not even turn into any integral transitional style. The few truly Gothic buildings that emerged during the 13th century south of the Loire, such as the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand (started in 1268) and the extensive choirs of the Toulouse and Narbonne cathedrals, were produced, in all likelihood, by North French architects, and moreover for the most part only in the second half of this century. The exception is the choir laid out in 1213 in the Bayeux Cathedral and the huge cathedral in Bourges, the new construction of which borrowed its plan from the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The memory of an earlier pore, like its side portals, is a semicircular lower chorus, almost the only crypt in the whole of Gothic.

The fact that in the South of France was missed by the XIII century in architecture, the XIV century with its style, represented by logic, as it were, embodied with quick steps. The choir (1260–1310) and the transept of the Bordeaux Cathedral, attached to its earlier single-nave longitudinal body, were built in the purest Gothic style. The later parts of the cathedral in Bayeux are strict and grand. A strong impression is made by the eastern, corresponding to the transept part of the church of Sts. Nazariya in Carcasson, with its ledge formed in the form of a 14-gon between wide surfaces, in which giant windows are made, decorated on the outside and inside with an extremely luxurious through stone carving. The special, often recurring South French Gothic type belongs constructed between 1282 and 1390. single-nave, but equipped with empores over the side chapels Albi Cathedral. Outside, with its thick walls, narrow windows and round towers of the western facade, it resembles a fortress, while its interior - a hall covered with twelve cross vaults with strong arches in the hall - is distinguished by rich but sober Gothic forms. A sala-like structure like a fortress - like a type of gothic church!

To the south of the Loire, the secular gothic is brilliantly represented. Residential buildings are preserved, for example, in Saint-Gilles, Albi, St. Antonin and Figeac. St. Antonin also houses the oldest surviving French town hall, a building erected in the 13th century, crowned with beautiful towers and conceived in good proportions. Of the castles of the XIV century, the papal palace in Avignon (1356–1364) is remarkable - the majestic mass dominating the city and its surroundings. Of the episcopal palaces in the south of France, the palaces in Albi and Narbonne are magnificent buildings of the fourteenth century. Among the castles of secular rulers, especially the palaces of John the Berry, the brother of Charles V., his palace in Poitiers, which later became the building of the court, was erected in 1384–1387. Guy de Damarten. The large hall of this palace is famous for its southern wall, turned into richly decorated windows, with balustrades decorated with through-carvings and spiral staircases. Also famous are the palaces of John of Berry in Bourges and Megan-sur-Ivre, which now lie in ruins. Finally, the castle at Carcasson, still Roman; only in the XIII – XIV centuries. it merged with the rest of the fortifications proudly towering, surrounded by strong walls and towers of the upper city into one, in which the aesthetic side of the fortification art is also particularly effective.

Sculpture

The visual arts of southern France also developed under the influence of the north. In his plasticity, Bourges depended on Paris no less than in architecture, but in this area he also knew how to impart a special imprint to his creatures of the thirteenth century, distinguished by greater vitality. For example, the composition “The Last Judgment” in the timpan of the middle western portal of the local cathedral, with the complex compositions “Resurrection of the Dead” and “Weighing of Souls” are among the most powerful creations of French medieval art (Fig. 254). In Southern France, Gothic sculpture spreads its wings only in the XIV century, but even at this time here, in almost all cases, it is necessary to assume North French work or the direct influence of the northern school. Portals of Lyon Cathedral in their small relief medallions placed on pedestals, the plots of which are borrowed from the fairy-tale world and mythology, the Bible and the lives of saints, partly also from everyday life, have striking similarities with similar images on the base of the southern portal of Rouen Cathedral. The luxurious plastics of the northern and southern portals of Bordeaux Cathedral are again marked by the influence of Notre Dame Cathedral. Especially clear in form, for its time, it is simple and true.

Preserved wonderful works of gravestone plastics. The monument to Archbishop de la Juzhe (died in 1274) in the Council of Narbonne is one of the most characteristic tombstones. But plastic aspiration for expressiveness, which led to realism of the 15th century a century later, is best shown in the monument to Duke John of Berry, who ordered it to be erected during his life (in 1392) to Jean de Cambre, a talented pupil of Bonevö, in Saint-Chapelle in Bourges. Of the weeping figures surrounding the sarcophagus, some are now in the Bourges Museum; a black sarcophagus with a magnificent white marble statue of a lying duke, at whose feet a symbolic bear sits on its hind legs, is now in the cathedral’s crypt and is an inseparable monument to Bourgeon of full-fledged North French-Dutch art.

Fig. 254. The Last Judgment. Sculptural decoration of the average portal of the Burzhsky Cathedral. From a photo of Nerdeinov

Painting

Perhaps, precisely because the main artistic movement of this epoch came from the north of France, traditional wall painting survived in the south longer than in the north. The frescoes in the apse of the church of Montmorillon (dep. Vienne), painted around 1250, represent in style the further development of the wall and ceiling paintings in the church of Saint-Savin (see fig. 162). These are still entirely contour, drawings illuminated with paints on a monochrome background; but their moving figures breathe new life. The Mother of God, sitting on the throne and holding the Infant Christ in her arms, kisses his hand with ardent love and reverence. In the “Chapel of the Dead” of Puy’s Cathedral, the Apostle John and the Mother of God, standing at the feet of the Crucified One, are depicted with such distorted sorrows by persons who would not dare to depict the art of previous eras. The successes made by the 14th century are even more clearly visible in the domed frescoes of the church of Sts. Stephen in Cahors: around the circle of the middle circle with the patron of the church written in it, 8 prophets are placed on a red background; their poses are medieval forged, but in their faces individual expressiveness is already noticeable.

The stained glass windows of the South French cathedrals of this epoch in general cannot be put on the same level as North French painting on glass, although they are mostly made by craftsmen from the north. These include the stained glass windows of the cathedral in Bourges, in which, as in the Chartres Cathedral, the most complete series of 13th century colored glass has been preserved, as well as the windows in the choir of Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral with the figures of apostles, prophets and patriarchs.

Enamel painting made its own steps in Limoges. At the end of the 13th century, the enameled enamels were no longer painted with enamel, but engraved on metal or embossed in relief, but only backgrounds filled with enamel paint. The transition from the old to the new technology is visible on a circular plate of the Louvre Museum depicting the vision of St.. Francis. About the style of the XIV century gives the concept reliquary of the abbey of St.. Martial in Limoges, made in 1360. The transition of the chambered enamel to the Limoges painted enamel (email peint) occurred only in the 15th century.

In the South French miniature painting of this era, North French influence was mixed with the Italian, reaching France as an echo of the great Tuscan art movement. Recall that during most of the fourteenth century (1309–1377) Avignon was the residence of the popes. The hierarchs of the Roman Church were followed by Italian artists there in voluntary exile. Simone Martini of Siena and his followers produced here, in the papal palace and in other places, a series of wall paintings, the influence of which was reflected in the works of many painters.

In a mixed Italian-French style, for example, the figures of the apostles are painted on the frescoes of the Cartezian Chapel in Vilnevevel-Avignon; South French easel paintings, which were at the Paris exhibition of 1904, for example, “The Adoration of the Magi” from the collection of Ms. Lippmann in Berlin, differed in the same style; we find the same style in the illustrations of South French manuscripts, which Dvorak paid attention to. In the middle of the 14th century, Avignon was the main center of miniature painting, where monks and laity, French and Italians, competed with each other in this art. Whereas Avignon manuscripts from the first half of the 14th century (for example, the Southern French Commentary to the Book of Genesis, kept in the Paris National Library) expose the North French style as well, the mid-XIVth century service library of the Avignon Library presents a mixture of Italian and French elements; in the Tuscan ornamentation of another Service Identity of the same library, along with French influence, Italian forms and colors are found. French deep colorful range replaces the combination of three bright colors: pink, azure and gold. The influence of Avignon art is felt in many places in northern Europe.