Laon Cathedral, Sculpture

West facade, north door, ever-popular Last Judgment

In the archivolt, a wise virgin

And a wise ex-virgin; no, a foolish ex-virgin; whatever

Judgment up closer, note tiny resurrection scenes at bottom

Damnation; not least, a bishop

Coronation of Mary, major big tympanum

Abraham and Isaac; and big knife

Jews burning...a favorite Christian Medieval theme

Slimey creatures

All in a row

More of the towers

More menagerie

Rare female gargoyle

Looking up one of the towers...Cistercian
severity?

From the cathedral looking toward lower (and newer) Laon,
much battered in the WWs

Laon Cathedral, Architecture And Glass

Laon, in Piccardy, northeast of Paris, is one of the great early Gothic cathedrals, transitional by description, but pretty fully Gothic, if you ask me. It was begun in 1155 and finished in the 1230s.

Laon Cathedral...with restaurant, tourists, TI, and tourist train... 

The two west towers, with their menagerie of oxen, unicorns, etc; there were to be
seven towers, but "only" five actually were built

The white stone is marvelous and permits all kinds of coloration; we had the place
pretty much to ourselves; you can see you're off the beaten cathedral path when
the gift shoppe consists of a few postcards and a voluntary payment system;
anyhow, here is the knave view, great light, even greater up toward the bow

Elevation; aisles, real galleries, triforia, smallish clerestory
windows; note the columns, more like Romanesque...

View to the choir and bow, with great rose window and three
13th century lancets

Crossing

View abaft

Choir view

Alas, all the side chapels are walled-off, thus much diminishing
the sense of size inside; a later post-medieval innovation, one
imagines

Beautiful bow rose window

The Becket window; he did some time here at the cathedral
school, under the protection of the king of France, waiting to
see how much of a bribe the pope would require, and whether
Henry II could afford it

Birth of Jesus window; 13th century

Passion window; ditto

Jesus leaving the dinner at Emmaus

North aisle

Liberal arts window, north (port) transept

"Yippeeee!"

Louvre-Lens Out-takes

Giavanna Rascalli, mistress of the 4th Earl of Dorset

Wait, no, it's St. Hermaphrodite

Self-portrait in titanium: this is what everyone wearing the
smart-guide looks like...

"Sheesh! 205 years in Paris! And now...Lens?!"

Cafeteria tray

"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second
time!"

Nobody's perfect

Louvre-Lens Collection

The main collection is displayed chronologically, with different cultures side-by-side. It is, I presume, all or nearly all from the Louvre's vast collections. Frankly, I expected to see a whole lot of Watteau and Fragonard and not much else at Lens. I was pleasantly surprised to see a great array of objects, perhaps stronger in the ancient and archaeological areas, but still many of the great Louvre artists represented. Apparently, moving the Delacroix to Lens created an uproar in Paris, but I trust the Louvre has survived and the people of Paris will come to deal with it. Perhaps I'll feel differently as a Paris resident next year.

From an Egyptian tomb; not Xian

From the palace, Ninevah, Assyria

Floor mosaic, Roman Carthage

Fresco, Pompeii

Roman, one of the Mithra mysteries; I occasionally wonder
how things might have turned out if St. Helen had opted
for Mithra instead of Christianity: bad news for bulls

Christian, Medieval reliquary box

Medieval Muslim astrological globe

Damascus, 17th century unknown painter

Rafael's Baldesar Castiglione

A beautiful Botticelli, emphasizing, I'd guess,
the humanity of the baby J

El Greco

Never miss a Poussin

Nor a Rubens (they had a huge Rubens exhibit going on,
but we were Rubens'd-out in Antwerp) 

A great Claude Lorrain...you can see Turner evolving right
out of it...

Rembrandt's Matthew; an angel whispering in
his ear; sure it's an angel...

One Fragonard

One Watteau

A sweet Sir Josh Reynolds

And Delacroix's 28 July, 1830: Liberty Leading the People