Field trip of a lifetime? Bien sûr!
Above: The north facade of the Basilica of Saint Denis
By Hannah Benoit
During spring break, 10 students from the senior seminar in art history journeyed to Paris and beyond with Professor Evelyn Lane for the ultimate field trip, visiting Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Chartres Cathedral and other treasures of Medieval art.
The trip was made possible through the generosity of Kathy Denniston '73, who has funded previous art history projects at Wheaton. The European excursion gave students a firsthand look at art they have known only through books and slides.
"The students will choose a paper topic based on this trip," Lane said, "and they will get a sense of what on-site research is like."
Seminar student Beth Raynor echoed that thought. "If you are a history student, you read primary texts to learn about a topic," Raynor said. "Visiting these amazing pieces of work is exactly like reading a primary text, and is the only way to get a sense of the impact the cathedrals would have had on the Medieval visitor."
The group visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the nearby Sainte-Chapelle with its magnificent collection of Medieval stained glass. They also viewed Medieval and Renaissance objects at the Louvre as well as the famed Unicorn Tapestries of the Cluny Museum, partaking of on-site lectures and discussions at each location. Between visits to these venerable sites, the students feasted on French cuisine and visited such favorites as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Musée D'Orsay, with its beloved Impressionists collection. An overnight trip to Chartres Cathedral capped off the trip.
First stop: Saint-Denis
Riding the Metro to a northern suburb of Paris, the students arrived on a bracing March morning at the first stop on their Medieval tour--the Basilique de Saint-Denis (Basilica of Saint Denis), considered to be the oldest Gothic structure in Europe. Though they were shivering from the cold, their radiant expressions revealed their excitement.
"It's almost impossible in the States to help students understand what a Gothic building is like," Lane said. Although there are a few examples of Gothic architecture in New York and Boston, "there's nothing like this!"
Gathering on the plaza in front of the church, the students listened as Lane recounted the building's history. She explained that Saint Denis, bishop of Paris in the third century, became a martyr when he was executed by beheading. As the story goes, Denis picked up his head after his execution in Montmartre and proceeded to carry it several miles to Saint-Denis, his eventual burial place.
"It is more likely--not that I don't believe in miracles--that a woman or a man found it and picked it up and brought it to a location near here," Lane told her students.
The saint's burial place became a shrine, and in the 5th century Saint Genevieve built a simple chapel on the site. The church was rebuilt in the 7th century, but it was the Abbot Suger, a 12th century Benedictine monk, who oversaw its reconstruction into a Gothic masterpiece. Over the centuries, the church became the burial place of the French monarchs and others, and its crypt and surrounding areas contain some 15,000 tombs. (Above right: Statue columns on the north transept portal at St. Denis. Below: Detail of the tympanum depicting the beheading of St. Denis.)
A Gothic treasure
Before leading the students into the church, Lane prompted them to declare in unison, "Medieval art is cool!"--a sentiment in which they were clearly well versed. When Lane asked them what defined the building as Gothic, they quickly cited the rose window, the three front portals, and the double-tower construction of the front facade (one tower is no longer extant).
Lane led the group inside for a tour of the basilica and its crypt, recounting more history and pointing out Gothic characteristics such as the ribbed ceiling vaulting, the massive stone piers (columns) and the soaring vertical lines. She also noted features that dated from other periods. The stained glass in the nave and transepts, she explained, is a modern (19th century) addition; almost all of the original Medieval stained glass was removed in the 18th century, when fashion favored a lot of light in church interiors.
Meghan Quinn '06 studies a 12th century capital showing St. Benedict performing a miracle.
|
Still, to stand in the transept of the great basilica and admire the delicate tracery of the rose windows is to be transported back in time.
"I finally understood what Medieval people would have felt when entering into a Gothic cathedral," Beth Raynor later reflected. "I experienced Saint Denis in a way pictures cannot do justice."
Back outside, Professor Lane pointed out some gargoyles looming low on the south façade, and she recalled the solo visit she had made to the basilica the week before to prepare for her presentation.
"Last week, when it was raining, the gargoyles were spitting on me," she joked.
That would be a great tee-shirt," said Beth Raynor: "'I was spit on by a gargoyle at Saint-Denis.'"
Medieval art is definitely cool.