Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St. Denis and Its Art Treasures

This text is not a philosophical treatise. At least, apparently.But it is a text that lives IN and OF a very precise philosophy. And such philosophy is an entire life, a world, a universe: it is the philosophy of the CLARITAS, the Clarity, the Light, the Divine Light that shines in the splendor of the beauty and shines in the miracle that has allowed the Abbot Suger to build a wonder of light out of dark, heavy stones. A wonder of light, a gothic cathedral.“An entire life, a world, a universe” did I say ?Let’s see.First of all we have to notice that Erwin Panofsky correctly emphasizes (Introduction, p. 20) the extraordinary quotation from “John the Scot” (John/Joannes Scotus Eriugena/Erigena) :“lapis iste vel hoc lignum mihi lumen est”[ JOANNES SCOTUS ERIGENA, Expositiones Super Ierarchiam Caelestem Sancti Dionysii, in MIGNE, Patrologia Latina, MPL 122, columns 0125-0266 B, col. 129]:“this stone or this piece of wood are light to me”.This is certainly the ancient and eternal Sophia that fascinated also the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church, who wove immeasurably precious texts about the metaphysics of Light.And Panofsky does not forget to mention that at St. Denis had been deposited – p.18 – “a manuscript of the Greek texts” by Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite “obtained by Louis the Pious from the Byzantine Emperor Michael the Stammerer” (manuscript which is now at the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris): and these are exactly the texts that John the Scot had translated and commented. And these are the texts that the Abbot Suger evidently took into serious consideration…LAPIS ISTE…”this stone”…is Light…So we do see here an entire Tradition, a world, a universe, the very life of many generations of Thinkers, Saints. Centuries of culture.But the Abbot Suger did not weave a text: he “wove” a cathedral…literally a “Philosopher’s Stone”: that legendary Stone was supposed to transform lead into gold, instead the architecture of the cathedral transmutes the dark and heavy stone into miracles of light and wonder.We should also remember here what Hegel said about architecture:(GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL, Art as a moment of the Absolute Spirit, from Aesthetics, lessons of the years 1820-1830 ) :“…the beautiful Architecture. Its duty is to elaborate the extreme inorganic nature as to make it – as the external world conforming itself to Art - similar to the spirit. … by the work of architecture, the external inorganic world is purified…”.Yes, of course, Hegel is talking about aesthetics, therefore he likes to say “purification” because he wants us to think about “art AND catharsis”, but he is actually talking about alchemy, although he probably wouldn’t admit it, about that specific “alchemy” of architecture that can transform the dark and the heavy into wonder and light.And wonder weaves the lines of the Abbot Suger’s diaries also: the wonder of beauty, the wonder of seeing his dream of a Temple of Light coming true in this world.So, an entire universe of life, reflections, and wonder is evoked in the pages of the Abbot Suger.Get the book, get on a plane, walk the walk: in St. Denis, at Nôtre Dame, at the Cathedral of Chartres you will see by yourself if this “alchemy” worked or not, if the stone turns into Light or not.But don’t miss this book.And don’t blame me if you will find it dry and / or NOT very much inspiring: it’s the journal of an Artificer, and the Secret of his Art is hidden…until you will find it in your own Spirit.The solid stones of those Cathedrals will certainly help you to find the secret…ask them.A PRUDENT POSTSCRIPTYes, I do know that, up to this very day, so many centuries after the building of the Gothic cathedrals, and half-a-planet away from the cathedral of Saint Denis, Teachers and disciples gather, today like one thousand years ago, around the texts of the Tradition of the Od gSal (the Ösel), the (Radiant) Light. And we could certainly, and boringly, list innumerable other cultures and traditions in which the Light has been the center of human reflections.Up to the fine jokes of the Blues Brothers about it, yes.So, yes, we can mention “Ösel”, and we could indeed quote Tibetan words to comment on gothic cathedrals.Traditions that are apparently so very different remind us of one (ultimately one, and philosophically one) and the same cultural world and indeed more than that: they remind us of one spiritual world … Do you want to call it the universe of Wonder ? it could be a good idea.

If you are interested in Gothic architecture and have been fortunate enough to be able to visit the northern outskirts of Paris where the grand St Denis basilica resides, you'll understand why this building has held such interest for both those who study the gothic architectural form and also those who simply admire the beauty and powerful of the style. St Denis looks a little old and, perhaps, decrepit, from a cursory front (western façade) view, but once one steps through the portal with the Seven Liberal Arts above and proceeds into the nave, the amazing beauty and emotionally powerful impact of the building becomes apparent. Go further eastward into the building to the choir and ambulatory, and you find yourself in a glass kaleidoscope of color and light which is matched perhaps nowhere except on the second floor of the Ste Chapelle in Paris. It's an experience not easily described in words, but one that countless of visitors and architectural historians have attempted with varying success. This 12th century Gothic masterpiece is simply one of the most stunning of a collection that already contains a star-studded list of entries (including Reims Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Notre Dame Cathedral, Ste Chapelle in Paris, and many others). If you are visiting in Paris, note, too, that reaching St. Denis is easy: you simply hop on the Metro line 13 and take north all the way to its second-to-last stop (station Basilique St Denis), walk two blocks, and you're there.But there's something that the casual visitor might not be able to know, and that is that the St. Denis basilica is actually one of the starting points of what was later to become known as "Gothic" architecture. In the 12th century, the abbot there, Suger, wanted to rebuild part of the existing structure and bathe it in intense colored light, making the inside like a massive reliquary, and having the sun's movement keeping the inside in a constant state of illuminated change. Suger had a number of requirements for such a reconstruction effort. The stained glass windows had to be large, had to be separated by as little space as possible, the ceilings had to be high, and a general sense of openness had to be present. This was all aimed at the east-most end of the building (the choir, apse, and ambulatory) but the requirements were enough that a new style had to almost be organically developed to support it. The end result was in what we now call the "Gothic" style, which distinguishes itself via three architectural forms: ribbed vaulting, flying buttresses, and pointed arches. All of these mechanisms had been previously and/or simultaneously used in other places (Sens Cathedral, for example, was being constructed at roughly the same time, and the Notre Dame of Paris was perhaps the first to employ flying buttresses), but used as a unifying concept and pulled together for effect, Suger's St Denis is sometimes heralded (not without controversy or detractors) as a "birth place" and archetypical form that was later copied all over France, and eventually, Europe.Which explains this book. Suger's kept meticulous writings on this 12th century project, and because of its important as both an architectural and artistic expression, his writings play a key role in the history of both. Panofsky, an American scholar who helped re-introduce medieval studies to American academia, took time in the early 1900's to meticulously translate these works, and his translations are considered some of the most important in the entire field of art history. Panofsky, like many academics, promoted a number of views which have not always been sustained over years of subsequent scholarly work, but have without question pushed the subject forward in a way that forever changed how academia would look at these things. This book contains the most updated and corrected version of his landmark translation work, updated in the 1960's with more recent scholarship finds and a variety of technical edits, and is therefore of great importance to anyone studying in the field. There are no color photos, few black and white photos (and are not to today's standards) and even less sketch drawings, but that is not the purpose of this book. If, however, you want to read what Suger himself said about the building of the choir of St Denis, this is the place to find it. Five stars.Make sure you go to visit the structure (Paris, Metro line 13, station "Basilique de St-Denis", second to the last station on the north end of the line) if you have any chance at all to do so. And, if you wish to see a great drama that has a dramatic point of inclusion of Suger and St Denis' construction, get  The Pillars of the Earth [Blu-ray ] if you have a Blu-Ray player. It's made up drama, but if you want to get a feel for a medieval cathedral building project, as well as St. Denis' role in it, it's a great drama. For a more direct (and also recent) documentary on the subject by PBS, I highly recommend  Nova: Building the Great Cathedrals .Compare with ... Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism Medieval Architecture, Medieval Learning: Builders and Masters in the Age of Romanesque and Gothic Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton Essays on the Arts)

Highly detailed, thoroughly researched account, documenting the medieval church St. Denis and it’s spectacular sculptures and artwork

Panofsky's translation of Abbot Suger's account of his administration of the Abbey of St. Denis in Paris is a classic, and gives you a good introduction to a side of the medieval world view you may not be familiar with. As Panofsky points out in his introduction, Suger likely wrote his account of the treasures he collected for St. Denis as a ripost to criticisms of excessive worldliness by his contemporary, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who voiced what one might think was a more typical medieval Christian rejection of such adoration of material beauty. And yet Suger is very much a medieval man, his view that the beauty of the materials used in the abbey mirror the beauty of heaven largely agreeing with the mystical theology of Pseudo-Dionysius. Suger's account along with his other writings portray a man who completely identified himself with the Church, his abbey, and the kingdom of France, and was more than a bit proud of all three. (My favorite part of the text is when he confesses his joy that certain travellers have told him that his abbey contained greater material beauty than the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople--quite a compliment in the twelfth century!)

more history

Note that half the book is in Latin.

A document for those who need to search for the origins of gothic art. Not a book for all.

Good.

I have not read such an account of real inspiration bearing fruit for such a long time. Abbot Sugar was the Abbot who rebuilt the abbey church of St Denis, which became the model for what became known as the Gothic style, and initiated a cathedral building programme which spread across the whole of Europe, and which we today, inherit. Panovsky's introduction tells us about the man, and the texts - with the original Latin on one page and a translation on the other, tells us about the building, the problems faced, and how they were resolved. Sugar of course, was a contemporary of Bernard of Clairvaux, whose aesthetic sensibilities were the total opposite to Sugar's, as Panovksy notes, Bernard would not even have noticed if the ceiling was flat or curved. They had their famous differences, which in the end were resolved, free, of sustained criticism; Sugar did what Sugar did, and Bernard did what Bernard did. What was unusual about Sugar, was that everything was written down; the search for timber which he was told could not be found, and he went off with his advisors - whom he must has inspired, and found said timber; a similar problem arose with the search for marble for columns, and he was even thinking of the expensive task of bringing columns from Rome, but a rainy day revealed a quarry, where the stone would do the job.What inspired Sugar was John the Scot's translation and commentary on Dionysius the Areopagite, which described the ascent from the physical world to the divine world - anagogis mos, upwards, towards the light, and it is the this quality of 'upwardness', of being 'lifted' and light that characterises most people's experience of walking into a Gothic Cathedral. If Dionysius had a theology, it would be what could called the Theology of Light - which was very neo-Platonic, but it was also totally in harmony with St John's 'theology of light.' St Denis was where it all started, in the 'Isle de France', and the list of those who attended the consecration ceremony, probably illustrates how effective word by mouth recommendation was, even in those days. There has never been a building programme in the history of the west, that bears even the slightest resemblance in scale. Chartres, may nowadays be seen as the jewel in the crown, but it was one man, one small man by all accounts, who was inspired: vain in some respects, yes, but also humble. I supposed this 2nd edition edited by the late Panovksy's wife, Gerda, is of of particular interest to scholars of the 12th.c Renaissance, but it is about time we looked at what happened before the Italian Renaissance; which was a totally different world, where man looked up, and not out of windows.

For those not sure what they are getting by purchasing this excellent volume, it consists of lengthy extracts from Abbot Suger's commentaries concerning the construction and ornamentation of his abbey church. These texts are his "De Rebus in Administratione", the "De Consecratione", and an ordinatio issued in 1140/1. The left-hand side of the open book bares the original Latin, and the right-hand side an English translation. These texts take up only one hundred pages.They are followed by an extensive commentary (all in English) on the texts and their contents by Erwin Panofsky, which takes up 120 pages. The commentary is for me just as valuable as the original texts. There then follows a glossary, a bibliography, and an index. At the very end there are 31 black-and-white illustrations and a plan. (There are an additional five useful figures within the texts.)The whole volume is preceded by a wonderfully-written forty-page introduction, as well as prefaces from Erwin Panofsky (written in 1944 for the first edition) and his widow Gerda (written in 1976 for the second revised edition).This book is not a biography of Suger, but as Panofsky says in his preface, "it is impossible to translate Suger without commenting upon him". However, Panofsky is an art-historian, and so he fully realises that his work is focussed on "Suger's enterprises in the fields of architecture, sculture, glass-painting and the so-called minor arts." But he nevertheless expands the horizon to ask such questions as to why Suger felt it necessary to write what he did, for Suger's writings are those rare beasts, namely those of a patron of the arts. Panofsky answers this question by pointing at both Suger's character, namely his vanity, and at the circumstances of his times, in particular his need for self-justification and his need to make some kind of apology for his opulence, an apology directed mostly towards the aesthetes of Citeaux and Clairvaux.Panofsky also asks pertinent questions about Suger's consciousness of his own revolutionary acts in the realms of the arts: "Did Suger realize that his concentration of artists 'from all parts of the kingdom' inaugurated that great selective synthesis ... which we call Gothic? Did he suspect that the rose in his west facade ... was one of the great innovations in architectural history? ... Did he know, or sense, that his unreflecting enthusiasm for ... the metaphysics [of light] placed him in the van of an intellectual movement?"After his death, one contemporary described Suger as, "Small of body and family, constrained [therefore] by two-fold smallness, he refused, in his smallness, to be a small man." Although Suger's perceived role as an artistic revolutionary has been strongly questioned since this book was published, one thing is for sure, that reading these original translations will take you to the heart of Suger's thinking, and for that reason alone it is a must-read for all those interested in medieval art and Gothic architecture.

フランス・サンドニ修道院のシュジェール修道院長が如何にゴシック様式の開始を告げたサンドニ修道院の改宗を始めたかが分かる。ステンドグラスを通した「光」の神学こそ、ゴシック美術の根幹となる思想である。