tion is also Norman, and occurs at Notre Dame-sur-l'Eau of Domfront.1 But little ornament was employed, generally speaking, in the French Romanesque monuments of the XI century (Ill. 157). Most interesting, however, is the use of griffes (Ill. 155) which must have been derived from Lombardy. Chevrons and dogtooths do not occur in the XI century. The capitals have usually a great volute under each angle of the abacus (Ill. 155); the bases have an attic profile. The roped moulding is common. Arched corbel-tables usually have a triangular form peculiar to this region - a good example of this ornament may be found at St. Baudry, Aisne. Arcades are used especially towards the end of the century. The single ornamental innovation introduced in this period was the plated ribbon moulding whose character is clear from the reproduction (Ill. 197). This motive, peculiar to the Ile de France, assumed great prominence in the XII century. ROMANESQUE MONUMENTS OF THE ILE DE FRANCE MONUMENTS OF THE FIRST CLASS MORIENVAL, Oise. Abbaye Notre Dame. (Ill. 155, 156, 164, 186.) This monument offers the best extant example of two crucial periods in the history of architecture the Romanesque of the XI century and the first phase of the transition. The Romanesque church, as restored by M. Lefèvre-Pontalis, consisted of a nave three bays long; of two side aisles returned across the western front so as to form an interior narthex, over the central bay of which rose a western tower; of transepts with eastern absidioles; and of a choir, a single bay long, ending in a semicircular apse and flanked by two towers, whose lower stories formed a lateral chamber opening off the transepts. The piers separating the aisles were square with four engaged shafts, one on each face: the shafts facing the nave were continued as a system to the roof, although the main body of the church was not vaulted, but covered with timber; those at the ends of the piers supported the second order of the archivolts; those towards the side aisles, the transverse ribs of the groin vaults with which these aisles were covered. The transepts had a timber roof, as did the crossing; the choir was covered with a round barrel vault, and the apse with a half-dome. 1 M. Lefèvre-Pontalis finds no indications that the Romanesque monuments of the Ile de France were affected by foreign influence. — Architecture religieuse dans l'ancien diocèse de Soissons, passim. Of this church there remains to-day only the three towers, portions of the piers of the crossing, and the piers on the north side of the nave. The aisle vaults have been entirely reconstructed, but doubtless on the original plan, for the section of the piers shows that transverse arches existed in the north aisle, and certain débris found in 1853 proves that the intermediate spaces were groin-vaulted. Whether these vaults were contemporary with the original church is open to question, but probable. Since the vaults must have been erected on an oblong plan, the restorers have probably made no error in doming the crowns. While there is no documentary evidence for the date of the XI century building, archaeologists are agreed in assigning it to the last half of the XI century, and I should place it c. 1080. At all events, early in the XII century important works of reconstruction were begun, the old apse being replaced by the now world-famous ambulatory. Since the old towers of the XI century edifice prevented access to this ambulatory from the side aisles, and since the ambulatory itself was extremely narrow the distance between the piers is only 0.65 meters, or about two feet - this structure must have been added solely to provide room for additional altars. The ambulatory, which comprises in all four bays, is semicircular in plan and separated from the choir by round columns; its interest centers in the rib vaults erected on a curved plan · the earliest known example of such a construction. These vaults are characterized by imperfectly pointed transverse arches, by pointed arcade arches, and by much depressed wall ribs. The curved form given in plan to the diagonal ribs seems to show an effort to avoid the extreme one-sided position of the longitudinal ridge which would have resulted had they been straight. The date of this ambulatory has been endlessly discussed. No one believes any longer in the old attribution to c. 1080. M. Anthyme St. Paul has recently brought forward a text which relates that new relics were acquired by the church in 1122; he plausibly suggests that the ambulatory was built to accommodate these. M. Enlart seems inclined to agree with this hypothesis, but M. Lefèvre-Pontalis assigns c. 1110 as the latest date possible. I am inclined to accept the theory of M. St. Paul. The high vaults of the choir were reconstructed about the same time (1122), the straight bay being covered with a rib vault (which still survives) and the chevet with a ribbed halfdome. This ribbed half-dome was subsequently (about the middle of the XIV century) replaced by the present polygonal chevet with radiating rib vault. Thus this part of the choir was in all three times remodeled. The remainder of the church has also been much altered: the great chapel of the transept was added in 1240; in 1652 1 See Bibliography. 2 Since these words were written there has appeared a new contribution to the “Morienval question." In the course of restorations executed in 1901 the bases of the columns of the chevet were excavated. These proved that the apse of the XII century church was furnished with ribs. It is impossible to suppose that the ribbed half-dome was not erected at the same time as the rib vault of the straight bay of the choir. The demolition of the XI century barrel vault which preceded the original apse was a consequence of the reconstruction of the chevet with ambulatory in the XII century, for this vault could not be adjusted to a pointed half-dome of higher level. Therefore M. Lefèvre-Pontalis concludes that his former hypotheses are disproved, and that the chevet and its vaults, both of the ambulatory and the choir, were rebuilt at a single time between the years 1120 and 1130. the abbess Anne III Foucault vaulted the nave and the crossing; and in the XVII century the southern side of the nave and the south side aisle were also reconstructed. MONUMENTS OF THE THIRD CLASS RHUIS, Oise. Église (Ill. 157, 158) consists of a nave, two side aisles terminating to the eastward in rectangular walls, a choir, and a semicircular apse. A plaster vault now occupies the place of the timber roof which formerly surmounted the nave; the apse retains its half-dome; the eastern bay of the north aisle is covered with a groin vault, undomed, evidently contemporary with the nave; the eastern bay of the south aisle is surmounted by a rib vault, also undomed, clearly an addition to the original structure since the ribs are carried on corbels; and the remainder of the side aisles are roofed in timber, as they always have been. The plain rectangular piers carry unmoulded arches of a single order, and the walls above are broken only by small clearstory windows. The exterior is notable chiefly for the tower-perhaps the oldest in the Ile de France or Picardy - and for the apse adorned with shafted windows and flat corbel-tables. M. Lefèvre-Pontalis assigns the main body of the church, together with the groin vault of the north aisle to the middle of the XI century; but the rib vault of the south aisle he believes dates from the first years of the XII century. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 211; Moore, 50.) - BINSON, Marne. Prieuré. "In the year of the incarnation of the Word, 1069, while Odabric, prévôt of the church of Reims was renovating this altar, he found beneath it the sarcophagus of the blessed virgin Posenne, parts of whose body were within, where they had been placed in former times; and as he had found it, so he replaced it in the same spot.' The restorations referred to in this inscription must have included the construction of the present choir whose style indicates the last half of the XI century. The existing nave, roofed in timber, is clearly later than the choir, and may be assigned to the first years of the XII century. The edifice consists of a nave four bays long, two side aisles, non-projecting transepts, a choir flanked by lateral chambers, and three eastern apses. Pilasters are engaged on the lateral faces of the piers to support the extra orders of the archivolts, but there is no system. The transepts, choir, and crossing are barrel-vaulted; the apses are surmounted by halfdomes. To support the weight of the central tower, the north nave wall is carried across the transept, unbroken save for two little archways. The southern transept, whose vault is perpendicular to that of the crossing, opens on this part of the building by a round arch in two orders. The choir deviates to the north. Externally the church is notable for the tower of the XII century, the apse decorated with engaged arcades, and the bases supplied with griffes. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 179.) OTHER MONUMENTS BERNY-RIVIÈRE, Aisne. St. Martin consists of a nave preceded by a nar 1 Vide infra, p. 58. 2 "Anno incarnati verbi mil sexag VIIII renovante Odabrico Remsis. ecce. pposito. hoc altare invenit subt. sarcofagu. beate Posinne virginis cu. particula corporis eius [quod interiu]s fuerat priscis tepor[ibus. depositum] atamen ut inpvenit ita [in eodem loco] recondidit." - Cit. Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 180. |