File:History of art (1921) (14760416896).jpg

Identifier: historyofar02faur (find matches)
Title: History of art
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Faure, Elie, 1873-1937 Pach, Walter, 1883-1958
Subjects: Art
Publisher: New York and London : Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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zens and themerchants strive for freedom. At Chartres, whetherthe vision of the pure façade and the spire dominatesus or whether, on passing through the nave, we aregripped by the sensation of poignant mystery, we knowwell that we are in the presence of an obscure tragedyof the heart. The prodigious harmony has somethingdisenchanted about it, something in which one divinesthe torment of an imprisoned conscience. How couldRoman austerity tolerate in its shadow the radiance,given forth by the sensuous glory of the race of statueswhich guards the enigma of the nave.^^ Here theocraticwill clashes with popular desire without either onebecoming aware of it, and from the unconscious con-flict there spurts up an invisible flame—the dull. ^The greater part of the ideas expressed in this chapter have alreadybeen defended with profound logic and authority by ViolIet-le-Duc in hisDictionnaire d Architecture. It must be said, however, that his writingsuffers from an excess of laical narrowness.
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Chartres (xii Centur\). North portal of the cathedral. 288 MEDIAEVAL ART mystical, agonizing beauty of a great idea that containsthe secret of a world and cannot formulate itself. IV Everywhere else the multitude is master of theworks. The honest master builder, to whom theCommune and the Bishop turn, knows practicallynothing save his trade. Behind him is the confusedByzantine-Romanesque tradition which he possessesimperfectly; before him is a problem to be solved: tobuild an edifice vast enough to contain the inhabitantsof a city. He knows his material well, the stone ofFrance, powdery, watery, and easy to work. He hashis compass, his water level, his plumb line, and hissquare. Around him are good workmen, of the samespirit as himself, filled with faith, not in the leastdisturbed by worry as to social questions or by doubtas to religion. He possesses that clear good sense,that free and direct logic, which later brought out ofthe same soil such men as Rabelais, Montaigne, Mo-lière, L

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