6/21/2023 0 Comments Medieval architecture timelineIn contrast to the chapter house from Pontaut, which remained intact and in situ despite the dissolution of the monastery, the sculptures from the Saint-Guilhem cloister, a two-story structure, were largely removed following the French Revolution. The fragility of the stones necessitated a skylight roof for protection. Its current location, which gives direct access to the Cuxa Cloister, follows the tradition of a typical monastic plan and highlights the important function of the chapter house.Ĭreating a cloister with sculptures from Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, a Benedictine monastery near Montpellier, required far more effort ( 25.120.1–.134). The recent removal of the chapter house, aided by methodical documentation, rendered its reconstruction at The Cloisters free of guesswork. Consequently, although the chapter house arrived in New York almost in its entirety, a modern floor was needed (by modeling after a twelfth-century floor tile), as were new webs (in reinforced concrete). In the interior, a thick layer of dirt had obliterated the original floor, and the plaster vaults, especially the webs (the flat surfaces between the ribs), were in poor condition. Photographs taken at the time show an upper story above the chapter house that might have been the monks’ dormitory two of the three large openings of the facade were blocked, obviously to keep the animals inside. This self-contained room, used by monks for regular meetings since the twelfth century, became a stable after the Revolution until 1932, when it was purchased by a Parisian dealer. The chapter house from Notre-Dame at Pontaut, on the other hand, presents an ideal opportunity to display a historical structure ( 35.50). Only portions of the original cloister in Cuxa survived the French Revolution, yet its ruinous state was captured by artists at the height of Romanticism, providing valuable information for the layout of the Cuxa Cloister in New York to approximate the original appearance in France. The reconstructed Cuxa Cloister comprises some 460 fragments additional parts needed for the reconstruction-for example, there are 36 original capitals but only 12 shafts to support them-were replaced with the same pink Languedoc marble quarried specifically for this purpose. This layout resembles a typical medieval monastic plan, in which a square or rectangular courtyard is circumscribed by a ring of rooms serving the daily needs of the monastic community. Serving as the focal point for the main level of The Cloisters museum, it has at its center a garden bordered by covered, arcaded passageways ( 25.120.398–.954). Take, for example, the twelfth-century cloister from the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. There are, inevitably, fragments from sites that are destroyed, undocumented, or simply unknown arranging them required studied consideration of their styles, dates, and geographical origins. These spaces, in turn, provide appropriate settings for the objects on display. We can imagine the challenges facing the founding curators and architects who, with fragments from different sites, created a variety of spaces within the museum to evoke or suggest their original appearance, function, or character. This seemingly banal expression is in fact descriptive-the museum building is more than a shell “housing” a collection of medieval art, it incorporates medieval architectural elements that make itself a work of art.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |