Basilica Of Saint-Denis: The Church

The next day, Sunday, September 19th, we still had sufficient energy for another major visit, and so took the long Metro ride out to the former village of Saint-Denis (it's just a suburb now) to see the former abbey church there, now the Basilica of Saint-Denis. We'd visited Saint-Denis in 2014, but its historical importance, architecturally and otherwise, warrant another look. Saint-Denis is where its abbot, Suger, in the 12th century, put together all the elements that define the Gothic, and, importantly, wrote about it all too, giving it a theological as well as architectural basis. Within a century, Gothic architecture had covered the Ile de France and was spreading rapidly, even beyond France. Suger, BTW, was no mere abbot. A schoolboy chum of the next king, he was Regent of France while said king was off crusading, and was a close advisor to the next king. No wonder the thing spread like wildfire. Anyhow, we leisurely toured the cathedral, paying rather more attention to tombs and memorials than we did in 2014. Saint-Denis has been the official burial site for French royalty from nearly the beginning, although the tombs were ransacked and vandalized during the Revolution. As I have observed elsewhere, the Church was hated nearly as much as the monarchy in the late 18th century. Then, after three more revolutions (1830, 1848, 1870), they stopped having a monarchy. Anyhow, I'll have to do two posts for Saint-Denis, one the church, the other, the royal necropolis.

It used to have two towers, but alterations and high winds, over
the centuries, necessitated removing the north tower; there is
talk of adding it back

Helpful floor plan; Suger's original Gothic 
included just the top and bottom parts, chancel
and west end and narthex; he left the Carolingian
nave alone for the time; it was rebuilt to Rayonnant
Gothic standards in the 13th, which is more or less
what we see now

West tympanum; the usual judgement; such a sculpture common
to all Gothics; before, not so

The west rose window now turned into a clock (very un-Gothic);
was covered up inside by the organ anyway

Still the west entrance...some beautiful sculpture;
perhaps not original (!)

Suger in the Judgement, praying; we'll see him again

Now inside; the north rose window

Closer up

Now in an adjacent education center (headed outside for the
Medieval garden), looking at the helpful model of what the
village and the abbey looked like in 1600; the good old days

Spare parts

Medieval garden tour (not in English, too)

Looking up at the flying buttresses around the chancel area;
themselves buttressed by probably 20th century iron rods

Outside on the north side now; the various cathedral repair and'
renovation shops are functioning today in an educational mode,
allowing the kiddies and adults to try their hand at stone
cutting, sculpture, blacksmithing, glass and tracery, etc.

South tympanum: beheading of Saint Denis; the Bishop of Paris
reputedly picked up his severed head and carried it five miles
up the road (past our apartment) to the spot where he wanted his
abbey to be located; " just a flesh wound!"

South rose window 

Now in the crypt, admiring the Romanesque capitals

Green man

Tomb of Suger

Still praying

From one of the windows in the chancel; still praying

View from near the altar

Looking up; this is the original Suger Gothic, 
mid-12th; some bits of the chancel windows are
original; they've been through a lot

Ditto

Way abaft the beam, west end, the organ

Chancel ceiling

Half the miniscule choir; I seem to remember the Revolution
used the original for firewood

Exiting the gift store, looking back at the grand
old church, grand-daddy of Gothics

The gift store; nearly the smallest we've seen in a cathedral

Sainte-Chapelle

After a pleasant rest in the solitude of Delacroix's garden, we felt our second wind, and decided to go for the hat trick, three sites in a day, something we rarely do now in our dotage. European Heritage Days no doubt had something to do with it. The third site was Sainte-Chapelle, the royal chapel in the Capetian palace area of the Ile de la Cite, dating to the 1240s, commissioned by Louis IX to house his collection of holy relics (bought at a big discount from Baldwin II, emperor of Constantinople), that is one of the greatest gems of Gothic architecture. Of course, we have seen it before, more than once, as well as its siblings at Saint-Germaine-en-Laye and Vincennes. Sainte-Chapelle is one of those places that, at the right time of day and season, never fails to amaze, even transport. We hit the time (late afternoon) and season (not winter) just about right. There was a line, but it moved quickly. For a fuller view, see the above posts.

We always skip the bargain basement (for courtiers, 
palace employees, hangers-on) and head directly for
the upper floor, for royal use only (and close personal
buds)

The windows and light are always glorious

Rose window at the stern

Revelation 

Definitely Revelation

Outside, the sculptural program is a Judgement

Hell is in the archivolt, Vicki observed (her Southern Baptist
upbringing has given her special insight)

Downstairs not obscured by gift shoppe and 
turbuss mob

Spare parts

An Annunciation, said to be the oldest fresco in Paris

Why the north windows are never as well lit as the south...well,
latitude has much to do with it, but the Conciergerie building 
almost flush next door doesn't help

Musee Delacroix

After the d'Orsay, we walked up the river, turned a droite, weaved in and out a bit, and eventually arrived at 6 rue de Furstenberg,* the Musee Delacroix. Delacroix is one of the most revered of French painters, by the French anyway. Fantin-Latour's Homage a Delacroix, one of my favorite group portraits, gives evidence of this, and we have seen plenty of Delacroix's work, at the Louvre and elsewhere (e.g., Saint-Sulpice), and especially at the wonderful exposition on "Romantic Paris" we saw at Petit Palais in 2019. Everything quickened in the 19th century...not that the preceding centuries were dull and uneventful. Art was no exception, and went through at least as many "periods" as the French had governments...neo-classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, post-Impressionism, etc. Delacroix was the acknowledged leader of the Romanticists, although in later life he was a supporter also of Courbet and the Realists. In any case, his admirers bought his last apartment, studio, and garden, on rue de Furstenberg to save it from destruction, maintained it as a museum for many years, then handed it over to the Louvre, which manages it today. We'd walked passed it many times, never entered it, but finally went for it, for European Heritage Days. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you get my drift.

Entrance to the house, which is pretty undistinguished on the outside

Delacroix is most famous for Liberty Leading the People, 
celebrating the 1830 revolution (not the American revolution),
which, like its predecessor, succeeded in simply replacing one
monarchy with another; Liberty resides at the Louvre, where
we've seen it and will see it again; we've also seen it at the
Louvre outpost in Lens, where it lived 2012-2014

The Musee Delacroix has this small sketch...

Also his Seated Nude, aka Madamoiselle Rose,
1820

Also his Education of the Virgin, 1842

His palette

Mirabeau before Dreux-Breze (23 June, 1789), 1830; patriotic
stuff, especially if you're not a monarchist; for the actual paintings,
that's about it; granted, Delacroix's most famous stuff is in 
museums around the world, in French state buildings, churches,
etc....but we'd hoped for rather more; oh yes, there was a video 
loop playing of some of the other paintings...

Delacroix lived into the 1860s and is thus

one of the few "old masters" of whom there

is a photograph; looks pretty much like the bust

(thanks, Wikipedia)

Outside, in the garden, looking back at his studio

All in all, we were happy to have done this one for free

*If you're really missing Thailand, the Jim Thompson store is just a door down the rue...