Identifier: montsaintmichel00adam (find matches)
Title: Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Adams, Henry, 1838-1918 American Institute of Architects Cram, Ralph Adams, 1863-1942
Subjects: Cathédrale de Chartres Middle Ages Le Mont-Saint-Michel (France)
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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der the regency of his widow, Blanche of Castile, and through thereign of her son, Saint Louis (1235-70), until about 1275, when thework was completed by Philip the Hardy. A gift of the royal family ofFrance, all the members of the family seem to have had a share inbuilding it, and several of their statues have been supposed to adornit. The walls are lined — the porch, in a religious sense, is inhabited•— by more than seven hundred figures, great and small, all, in oneway or another, devoted to the glory of the Queen of Heaven. You willsee that a hundred years have converted the Byzantine Empress intoa French Queen, as the same years had converted Alix of Savoy intoBlanche of Castile; but the note of majesty is the same, and the asser-tion of power is, if possible, more emphatic. The highest note is struck at once, in the central bay, over the door,where you see the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven, a favour-ite subject in art from very early times, and the dominant idea of
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w uPio Ph w HPSO w KW Pi H KN»tX AND R TOWERS AND PORTALS 79 Marys church. You see Mary on the left, seated on her throne; onthe right, seated on a precisely similar throne, is Christ, Who holdsup His right hand apparently to bless, since Mary already bears thecrown. Mary bends forward, with her hands raised toward her Son,as though in gratitude or adoration or prayer, but certainly not inan attitude of feudal homage. On either side, an archangel swings acenser. On the lintel below, on the left, is represented the death of Mary;on the right, Christ carries, in the folds of His mantle, the soul ofMary in the form of a little child, and at the same time blesses the bodywhich is carried away by angels — The Resurrection of Mary. Below the lintel, supporting it, and dividing the doorway in halves,is the trum.eau, — the central pier, — a new part of the portal whichwas unknown to the western door. Usually in the Virgihs churches,as at Rheims, or A

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