Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T23:23:52.233Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE ABBEY CHURCH OF LESSAY (MANCHE) AND ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN NORTH-EAST ENGLAND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2014

Malcolm Thurlby
Malcolm Thurlby*
Affiliation:
2 Cooper Court, Brantford, Ontario N3T 6G2, Canada. Email: thurlby@sympatico.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The date of the Romanesque fabric of the abbey church of Lessay (Manche, France) has been much debated by architectural historians. Was the eastern arm of the church completed by the time of the burial of Eudes de Capel in the choir on 3 August 1098? Or do features such as the high rib vault and scalloped capitals preclude a date in the late eleventh century? This paper argues that the choir was completed by 1098, and that the master mason of Lessay was acquainted with architectural developments in north-east England in the 1080s and early 1090s, especially those at York Minster, St Mary's Abbey, York, and allied churches.

Résumé

La date de la fabrique romane de l'église de l'abbaye de Lessay (Manche, France) a été longuement débattue par les historiens spécialisés dans l'architecture. La partie orientale de l'église a-t-elle été achevée lors de l'enterrement d'Eudes de Capel dans le chœur le 3 août 1098? Ou bien, les éléments comme la croisée d'ogives et les chapiteaux festonnés excluent-ils une date située à la fin du XIe siècle? Cet article avance que le chœur aurait été achevé vers 1098 et que le maître-maçon de Lessay connaissait les nouveautés architecturales du Nord-est de l'Angleterre dans les années 1080 et au début des années 1090, notamment à la cathédrale de York, à l'abbaye Sainte-Marie de York et aux églises alliées.

Zusammenfassung

Über das Datum der romanischen Bausubstanz der Abteikirche von Lessay (Manche, Frankreich) ist von den Architekturhistorikern schon viel diskutiert worden. War der östliche Flügel der Kirche zum Zeitpunkt der Beisetzung von Eudes de Capel im Chorraum am 3. August 1098 bereits fertiggestellt? Oder schließen das Kreuzrippengewölbe und die bogenförmigen Verzierungen der Kapitelle eine Datierung ins späte 11. Jahrhundert aus? Diese Abhandlung argumentiert, dass der Chorraum bis 1098 bereits fertiggestellt war und dass der Maurermeister von Lessay mit den architektonischen Entwicklungen im Nordosten Englands in den Jahren von 1080 bis nach 1090, vor allem an York Minster, St. Mary's Abbey in York und den damit verbundenen Kirchen, vertraut war.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 94 , September 2014 , pp. 71 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baylé, M [1992]. Les origines et les premiers développements de la sculpture romane en Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie 100, Art de Basse-Normandie, CaenGoogle Scholar
Baylé, M 1997a. L'Architecture normande au moyen age, 2 vols, Presses Universitaires de Caen, CaenGoogle Scholar
Baylé, M 1997b. ‘Structures murales et voutements dans l'architecture romane de Normandie’, in Baylé 1997a, i, 49–78Google Scholar
Baylé, M 1997c. ‘Lessay: Abbatiale de la Trinité’, in Baylé 1997a, ii, 97–100Google Scholar
Baylé, M 1997d. ‘Caen: Église Saint-Nicolas’, in Baylé 1997a, ii, 62–4Google Scholar
Bertaux, J-J 1995. ‘L'art medieval normand’, Annales de Normandie, 45, 552–554Google Scholar
Bilson, J 1906. ‘The eleventh-century east ends of St Augustine's, Canterbury and St Mary’, York’, Archaeol J, 63, 106–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilson, J 1911. ‘Newbald Church’, Yorkshire Archaeol J, 21, 1–42Google Scholar
Bilson, J 1922. ‘Durham Cathedral: the chronology of its vaults’, Archaeol J, 2nd ser, 29, 101–160CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, J 1985. ‘Secular minster churches in Domesday Book’, in P H Sawyer (ed), Domesday Book: a reassessment, 104–142, Edward Arnold, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bony, J 1939. ‘La technique normande du mur épais à l'epoque romane’, Bulletin Monumental, 98, 154–188CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bony, J 1954. ‘Le projet premier de Durham: voutement partiel ou voutement total?’, in Urbanisme et Architecture: etudes écrites et publiées en honneur de Pierre Lavedan, 41–49, Laurens, ParisGoogle Scholar
Bony, J 1976. ‘Diagonality and centrality in early rib-vaulted architectures’, Gesta, 15, 15–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bony, J 1983. French Gothic Architecture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, University of California Press, Berkeley, CAGoogle Scholar
Coffman, PThurlby, M 2001. ‘Blyth Priory: a Romanesque church in Nottinghamshire’, Trans Thoroton Soc Nottinghamshire, 105, 57–72Google Scholar
Curry, I 1986. ‘Aspects of the Anglo-Norman design of Durham Cathedral’, Archaeol Aeliana, 5th ser, 14, 31–48Google Scholar
Dugdale, W 1821. Monasticon Anglicanum. Vol III, Longman, LondonGoogle Scholar
Everson, PStocker, D 1999. Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. Vol V: Lincolnshire, Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Faull, M LStinson, M 1986. Domesday Book: Yorkshire. Part 1, Phillimore, ChichesterGoogle Scholar
Fernie, E 1993. ‘Design principles of early medieval architecture as exemplified at Durham Cathedral’, in Jackson 1993, 146–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernie, E 1995. ‘The Romanesque church of Selby Abbey’, in Hoey 1995, 40–9Google Scholar
Fernie, E 2000. The Architecture of Norman England, Oxford University Press, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernie, E 2007. ‘La seconda cattedrale di Durham’, Medioevo: l'Europa delle cattedrali: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi Parma, 19–23 settembre 2006, 132–40, Electa, MilanGoogle Scholar
Frankl, P 2000. Gothic Architecture, 2nd edn (rev P Crossley), Yale University Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Froidevaux, Y-M 1958. ‘L'abbatiale de Lessay’, Les Monuments Historiques de la France, new ser, 4, 97–150Google Scholar
Froidevaux, Y-M 1966. ‘Eglise abbatiale de Lessay’, Congrès archéologique de France, 124, 70–82Google Scholar
Gardner, S 1980. ‘Notes on a view of St. Lucien at Beauvais’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser, 96, 149–156Google Scholar
Gardner, S 1982. ‘The nave galleries of Durham Cathedral’, Art Bull, 64, 564–580CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gem, RThurlby, M 1995. ‘The early monastic church of Lastingham’, in Hoey 1995, 31–9Google Scholar
Goodall, J 2011. The English Castle 1066–1650, Yale University Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gosselin, S 2005. ‘L'abbaye de Lessay du XIe au XXe siècle: Histoire et architecture’, unpublished thesis, École de Chartres, 〈http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2005/gosselin〉 (7 May 2014)Google Scholar
Grant, L 1994. ‘Architectural relationships between England and Normandy 1100–1204’, in D Bates and A Curry (eds), England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, 117–129, Hambledon Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Harrison, SNorton, C 2012. ‘Lastingham and the architecture of the Benedictine revival in Northumbria’, Anglo-Norman Stud, 34, 63–88Google Scholar
Harrison, SThurlby, M 1995. ‘Observations on the transepts, crossing and nave aisles of Selby Abbey’, in Hoey 1995, 50–61Google Scholar
Héliot, P 1959. ‘Dates de construction des abbatiales de Bernay, Cerisy-la-Forêt et Lessay’, Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, 188–204Google Scholar
Henriet, J 1983. ‘Saint-Lucien de Beauvais, mythe ou realité?’, Bulletin Monumental, 141, 273–294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoey, L R (ed) 1995. Yorkshire Monasticism, Archaeology, Art and Architecture, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans xv, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Hoey, L RThurlby, M 2004. ‘A survey of Romanesque vaulting in Great Britain and Ireland’, Antiq J, 84, 117–184CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Impey, E 2008. The White Tower, Yale University Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jackson, M J (ed) 1993. Engineering a Cathedral, Thomas Telford, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, J 1983. ‘The rib vaults of Durham Cathedral’, Gesta, 22, 135–145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, CCronne, H A 1956. Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154. Vol II: Regesta Henrici Primi 1100–1135, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Kidson, P 1996. ‘The Mariakirk at Utrecht, Speyer and Italy’, in E de Bièvre (ed), Utrecht: Britain and the Continent. Archaeology, Art and Architecture, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans xviii, 123–36, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Kidson, PMurray, P 1962. A History of English Architecture, John Murray, LondonGoogle Scholar
King, J F 1986. ‘Possible West Country influences on twelfth-century architecture and its decoration in Normandy before 1150’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 139, 23–39Google Scholar
McGee, J D 1986. ‘The early vaults of Saint-Etienne at Beauvais’, J Soc Architect Hist, 65, 20–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merlot, M 1966. ‘L'eglise de La Barre-de-Semilly’, Congrès archéologique de France, 124, 300–307Google Scholar
Musset, L 1975. Normandie romane. Vol I: La Basse-Normandie, 2nd edn, Zodiaque, La Pierre-qui-Vire, YonneGoogle Scholar
Phillips, D 1985. Excavations at York Minster. Vol II: The Cathedral of Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Taralon, J 1959. ‘La restauration de l'abbatiale de Lessay et ses conséquences sur le plan archéologique’, Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaries de France, 186–188Google Scholar
Taylor, H MTaylor, J 1965. Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 2 vols, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Thurlby, M 1993a. ‘The purpose of the rib in the Romanesque vaults of Durham Cathedral’, in Jackson 1993, 43–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurlby, M 1993b. ‘The high vaults of Durham Cathedral’, in Jackson 1993, 64–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurlby, M 1994. ‘The roles of the patron and the master mason in the first design of Durham Cathedral’, in D Rollason, M Harvey and M Prestwich (eds), Anglo-Norman Durham 1093–1193, 161–184, The Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Thurlby, M 2002. ‘Minor cruciform churches in Norman England’, Anglo-Norman Stud, 24, 239–277CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurlby, M 2004. ‘Romanesque architecture and sculpture in the Diocese of Carlisle’, in M McCarthy and D Weston (eds), Carlisle and Cumbria: Roman and medieval architecture, art and archaeology, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans xxvii, 269–90, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Timmers, J J M 1976. A Handbook of Romanesque Art, W W Norton, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Timson, R 1973. The Cartulary of Blyth Priory, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Vergnolle, E 1994. L'Art roman en France, Flammarion, ParisGoogle Scholar
Welander, D 1991. The History, Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, Alan Sutton, StroudGoogle Scholar