Suger
Suger (French:
Life
Suger's family origins are unknown. Several times in his writings he suggests that his was a humble background, though this may just be a
On his return from Maguelonne, Suger became abbot of St-Denis. Until 1127, he occupied himself at court mainly with the temporal affairs of the kingdom, while during the following decade he devoted himself to the reorganization and reform of St-Denis. In 1137, he accompanied the future king,
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Suger served as the friend and counsellor to both Louis VI and Louis VII. He urged the king to destroy the feudal bandits, was responsible for the royal tactics in dealing with the communal movements, and endeavoured to regularize the administration of justice. He left his abbey, which possessed considerable property, enriched and embellished by the construction of a
Contribution to art
Abbot Suger, friend and confidant of the French Kings
Suger began with the West front, reconstructing the original Carolingian façade with its single door. He designed the façade of Saint-Denis to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion. The rose window above the West portal is the earliest-known such example, although Romanesque circular windows preceded it in general form.[citation needed]
At the completion of the west front in 1140, Abbot Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use. He designed a choir (chancel) that would be suffused with light.[4][5] To achieve his aims, his masons drew on the several new features which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows.[citation needed]
The new structure was finished and dedicated on 11 June 1144,[6] in the presence of the King. The Abbey of Saint-Denis thus became the prototype for further building in the royal domain of northern France. It is often cited as the first building in the Gothic style. A hundred years later, the old nave of Saint-Denis was rebuilt in the Gothic style, gaining, in its transepts, two spectacular rose windows.[7]
Suger was also a patron of art. Among the liturgical vessels he commissioned are
Writings
Suger became the foremost historian of his time. He wrote a panegyric on Louis VI (Vita Ludovici regis), and collaborated in writing the perhaps more impartial history of Louis VII (Historia gloriosi regis Ludovici). In his Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis, and its supplement Libellus de consecratione ecclesiae S. Dionysii, he treats of the improvements he had made to St Denis, describes the treasure of the church, and gives an account of the rebuilding. Suger's works served to imbue the monks of St Denis with a taste for history and called forth a long series of quasi-official chronicles.[8]
References and sources
- References
- ^ For a summary of the 'arguments against' Panofsky's view, see Panofsky, Suger and St Denis, Peter Kidson, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 50, (1987), pp. 1–17
- ^ Conrad Rudolph, Artistic Change at St Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth Century Controversy Over Art, Princeton University Press, 1990
- ^ Kibler et al (eds) Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 1995
- ^ When the new rear part is joined to that in front,
The church shines, brightened in its middle.
For bright is that which is brightly coupled with the bright
And which the new light pervades,
Bright is the noble work Enlarged in our time
I, who was Suger, having been leader
While it was accomplished.
Abbot Suger: On What Was Done in His Administration c.1144–8, Chap XXVIII - ^ Erwin Panofsky argued that Suger was inspired to create a physical representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, however the extent to which Suger had any aims higher than aesthetic pleasure has been called into doubt by more recent art historians on the basis of Suger's own writings.
- ISBN 9781856695848
- ^ Wim Swaan, The Gothic Cathedral
- ^ Anne D. Hedeman, "The Royal Image : Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274–1422", Berkeley, Los Angeles & Oxford, University of California Press, 1991, Introduction, pp3 - 6
- Sources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 48.
- "Suger", The Middle Ages, A Concise Encyclopedia, H.R. Loyn Editor, 1989 (ISBN 0-500-27645-5)
- Abbot Suger of St. Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France. ISBN 9781317899686.
- The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture & the Medieval Concept of Order (Third Edition), Van Simson, Otto. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. Bollingen Series XLVIII. (ISBN 0-691-09959-6).
- "Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis" Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, ed. Michael Kelly, 2nd ed., 6 v. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014) v.6, p. 78-79
See also
Further reading
- Gerson, Paula Lieber (1986), Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis: a symposium, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 9780870994081.
- Hunt, Patrick (29 January 2006), "Abbé Suger and a Medieval Theory of Light in Stained Glass: Lux, Lumen, Illumination", Philolog, Stanford University, archived from the original on 17 March 2016.
- Suger (1992), The Deeds of Louis the Fat, translated by Richard Cusimano; John Moorhead, Washington, D.C.: ISBN 0-8132-0758-4.
- Suger (1999), The Deeds of Louis the Fat, translated by Jean Dunbabin.
- Suger (2018), Selected Works of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, translated by Richard Cusimano; Eric Whitmore, Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, ISBN 9780813229973.
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