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| An
exquisite moment |
Those
men of the years 1480-1560,have left such sensitive
traces that our eyes and maybe our hearts can still decipher
them without too much difficulty. If for a long time the
inhabitants of Champagne considered themselves French,
the Champagne of the C16th had its special
characteristics, one finds it: in the monuments, the paintings,
the sculptures, the stained glass windows, the books from
local printers, are still numerous and in themselves a
real echo of the faith, the fears and the hopes of the
inhabitants still comes back to us.
Art historians have tried to understand the " Champagne
miracle " of the Renaissance : that exquisite
moment when the still vigorous Middle Ages found enough
strength to renew old forms particularly by means of engravings
, and at the same time to accept the Italian influence
by the use of simple decorative motifs. |
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| A
wind from Italy |
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As
in other regions of Europe, the wind from Italy penetrated
softly and as if by accident, by the means of decoration.
For stained glass windows and monumental sculptures,
it's garlands of putti and flowers that race all around
a window or ornament the stone work around doorways;
for statuary it is by an expression a little more accentuated;
for architecture the classic forms (rounded
arcades, columns with ancient capitals...) appear
timidly in the middle of the century beside the Gothic
flamboyant forms; such as the western facade of
the church of Pont - Saint - Marie.
Towards 1560 classicism had won out on for example
on the western portal of Saint - André - Les - Vergers
or at Saint - Pantaléon in Troyes.
The Champagne Miracle was a time of balance that
lasted longer than elsewhere between the sustained vigour
of Gothic forms, the assimilation of the Flemish and
German realism and the acceptance of the temptation
of expressionism with an Italian influence.
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| At the
end of this slide, artists continued with virtuosity to
sculpt cherubs and baskets of flowers whilst abandoning
the Gothic " framework " marked by ascending lines for
flat classical structures moved by horizontal lines sustained
by columns more or less imitations of antique styles.
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| A
land of masterpieces |
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The
marriage of these elements gave some masterpieces: the
crypt of Chaource, the rood screen of the Madeleine in
Troyes, the sculpted panels of the wooden rood screen
in Villemaur that are copies of Schöengauer, the altar
screen in Géraudot, the stained glass window of the apocalypse
in Chavanges copied from Dürer, the statue of Saint Marguerite
in Bouilly... If these marvels of balance touch us, it
is largely due to the synthesis of which they are the
fruit. |
| No matter
whether it was the C12th, under the enlightened authority
of the counts or later of the merchant princes, the towns
of Champagne, Troyes especially, had always been places
of exchange and mixing, open to all of Europe in the the
north up to the Baltic, and in the south just to the gates
of the Orient. Their vocation and habits gave the inhabitants
of Champagne not only a wide vision of the world but also
a good understanding of the specialness of the kingdom
and their province. |
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| Pierre
Leroy, Collège de France, Scientifique Advisor for the
PNRFO © PNRFO |
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