11 juin 2007
The museum of Cluny (Paris)
The
palate of the Thermal baths of Cluny, which was used at the same time
as citadel, was built, according to any probability, when Constance Chlorinates, the cesar of Gaules, the conqueror of
England, which lived in Lutèce from 287 to 292 after Jesus-Christ, was emperor.
In year 360, césar Julien the Apostate was in this same place proclaimed emperor, by the army and the people
and it attached his fame to it, because it is called commonly the
Thermal baths of Julien. One owed well him this honor in recognition of
the particular attachment which it had for “its dear Lutèce”. After
him, the Valentinien emperors and Gratien spent the winter of 365
there.
Leaned
two-track Romans: the main road of the South, whose layout is indicated
today by the street and the Saint-Jacob suburb, and another whose
substructions were discovered in 1839 pennies the ground of the street
of the Toothing-stone, now represented by the Eastern side of the
boulevard the Michaelmas, the imperial palate was to present at midday
its principal frontage, in front of which to the street Soufflot the
campus extended or places of weapons.
Side
of the west, it dominated of immense gardens prolonged until the
current site of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and to the Seine on the
northern side.
The
palate of the thermal baths will be built on the model of all the great
establishments of public baths established then in the capitals of the
Roman Empire: a hot room (caldacium), a tepid room (tepidarium), a cold
room (frigidarium). One allots his construction to the powerful
corporation of Nautes of Paris, which held the monopoly of water. It
was fed out of water by the Roman aqueduct of Arcueil, and was equipped
with sewers and the underground corridors, oldest of Paris. It will be
used as refuge with Parisian during the successive invasions of Huns
and the Norman ones.
The
merovingian king Childebert still lived it and the poet Fortunat sang
of it the magnificence at the beginning of VIIth century. The
carlovingians emperors, who usually resided in Aachen, gave up the palate of
Paris; the Alcuin English, who was like the minister of Charlemagne for
the development of the education state, there establishes, says one, a
school or rather a workshop of manuscripts and miniatures.
The current ruins represent only one third of the vast Gallo-Roman
building undoubtedly built by the powerful corporation of the Parisian
nautes. The Thermal baths consisted of spaces for the baths like the
caldarium (hot room), tepidarium (room tepid) and frigidarium (cold
room), or of the common parts and services. Undergrounds fed the system
of heating (hypocaustes) allowing a drainage in the Seine. The supply
water was ensured by a long aqueduct of almost 15 kilometers directly
connected to the plain of Rungis. The Thermal baths were ransacked and
set fire to by the barbarians at the end of IIIth century.
The
construction of the enclosure of Philippe-Auguste, while inserting in
the city the vast gardens of the palate, which one called the Field of
Laas, i.e. of the citadel (in Latin arx, as old French Li ars),
determined the allotment and the parcelling out of it. The districts
Saint-Andre-of-Arts, to the Hautefeuille street and the street of
School-of-Medicine, are formed at the expense of the old gardens of the
old palate. It was whereas Philippe-Auguste, by a charter of 1218, made
gift to his chamberlain of the palate itself, Henri, tiny room to the
state of rural field, because it contained a press
About
1330, Pierre de Châlus, abbot of Cluny-in-Burgundy, buy the ruins and
the grounds bordering to built there an hotel intended for the abbots
come to the college which it has just founded close to the Sorbonne.
Rebuilt by Jacques d' Ambois, bishop
of Clermont at the end of XIIIth
century, this private residence of XVth still comprises medieval
elements the such turrets receiving the staircases or the battlements
on the covered way but it precede also the future Parisian private
mansions with a building built on a plan out of U and a body of the
home between court and garden. The hotel accomodates Marie of England,
widow of Louis XII, in 1515 then the nuncios of the pope in the XVIIth
century.
During
the Revolution, the hotel is issued quite national. It is sold and in
1833, Alexandre of Sommerard comes to place in Cluny and installs there
a collection of art objets of the Middle Ages and Rebirth. Lastly,
when the State went purchaser, after the death of Mr. of Sommerard, the
admirable collection formed by this antique dealer in the hotel of
Cluny, the town of Paris offered in pure gift the ruins of the palate
of the Thermal baths, and the new museum was consisted the law of July
24, 1843 under the name of museum of the Thermal baths and the Cluny
hotel.
The
entry of the Hotel of Cluny is street of Sommerard, in which one
penetrates by a door in surbased arch. The frontage of the abbey hotel
is composed of a large main building flanked of two wings, and divided
in its line of centers by a large turret with cut sides.
The
frontage and the turret are surmounted by an up to date gallery behind
which high richly carved attic windows rise, and whose tympanums
represent the escutcheons, the badges and the currencies of the family
of Amboise. The left wing, while entering the court, is bored of four
ogival arcades which give access in a room communicating to the palate
Thermal baths.
The
walls are those of a Roman construction, whose antique cover was
altered only in 1737. One replaced it in the last years. The right wing
formerly contained the kitchens and the offices. The well, located in
the angle of the court, preserved its old and artistic fitting. In the
opposed angle, joining the principal frontage, the entry of the museum
and its collections is.
Around
the buildings, side of the street of Cluny and on the large
septentrional frontage that skirts the Saint-Germain boulevard, a green
garden spreads its freshness and its shade on the stone monuments,
statues, columns, pilasters, low-reliefs, inscriptions, furnace bridges
and tomb stones which in the open air double the interior collections
of a museum. It is there that one rebuilt the gate of the Saint-Benoît
church, found under the false frontage of the theatre of the Pantheon,
demolished by the passage of the street of the Schools.
The vault contiguous to this room also preserves its vaults at fine
veins, falling down in beams on a central pillar, supporting that of
the first stage, and which supports a vault with the ogival arcades; it
is surmounted by a capital carrying K (Karolus) crowned of the king
Charles VIII, and them weapons of the family of Amboise; one considers
it, according to the expression of Mr. E. of Sommerard, as the stone of
dedication of the building.
Today
the rooms of the palate of the Thermal baths are filled with
sculptures, statues, low-reliefs, votive ornaments, etc, drawn either
from the Parisian ground, or of old monuments coming from the old
provinces: Roman antiquities, remains of the Middle Ages and the
Rebirth, sad wrecks of our religious, political or only municipal
revolutions. It is in the large room of frigidarium that the curious
ones about Parisian antiquities can contemplate the oldest monuments
discovered on the ground of Lutèce; they are the four high Gallo-Roman
furnace bridges with Jupiter by Nautes or body of the marines of
Lutèce, under the Tibère emperor, who date consequently from the 1st
century of the Christian era and were found on May 16, 1711, as we
already said, in the foundations of a very old wall who crossed north
to the south the chorus of Notre-Dame, by the workmen charged to dig
the site of a vault for the burial of the archbishops of Paris.
The
first of these furnace bridges is composed of two sitted superimposed
and forms a square cippe representing Jupiter, Vulcan, the Gallic Mars
or Esus, gathering the crowned GUI, and a bull carrying three cranes,
with this inscription: TARVOS (FOR TAURUS) TRIGARANUS. The second
furnace bridge is decorated, on three faces, of figures and rough
inscriptions.
One of these stones contains the important inscription which is reproduced below:
TIB. CAESARE
AVG. I0VI. OPTVMO
MAXSVMO….M (ARAM)
NAVTAE. PARISIACI.
PVBLICE. POSIERVNT.
I.e.:
“Under the reign of Tibère César Auguste, in excellent and very large
Jupiter, NaUtes Parisian posed this furnace bridge publicly. ” It is
thus proven that, as of the beginning of the Christian era, four
centuries before the foundation of monarchy, it existed in Paris a
company of navigators or fluviatile traders, that it is plausible to
regard as the ancestors of the Parisian municipality.
The
third furnace bridge represents on a side the figure of Pollux, armed
with the lance and overcoming a horse; opposed side, a similar figure,
but without name, which must be Castor; on the third face, a bearded
old man, whose face bald person is armed with two horns of stag in
which passed from the rings. It is the god CERNUNNOS, to whom
Guilhermy, the Parisian archaeologist par excellence, lent a purely
imaginary mysterious character; because it is the very legitimate name
of horned Bacchus (in Greek horn) who is in several gallo-Latin
inscriptions collected by Forcellini; the fourth face represents the
profile of a man, perhaps Hercules, holding up a bludgeon on the head
of a snake. The fourth furnace bridge is as mutilated in its figures as
in its inscriptions.
Far from being a place crowned at the beginning, the museum became by the significant number of crowned objects themselves which it contains. Among them, a black virgin coming from Auvergne, some beautiful parts of representation of the Christian goddess-mother. One of them carries even holes on will chakras. The famous tapestry of the lady to the unicorn is the subject of an article with whole share.
http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/monuments/28b.htm
Church Saint Severin (Paris)
While
leaving the Saint-Julien-the-Poor street for the Galande street , some
steps bring back for custom to the Saint-Jacob street, the outlet of
the Saint-Severin street, which skirts the septentrional wall of the
church of this name.
It
is placed and have choked in the center of has network extremely
curious butt narrow and tortuous streets, remain by miracle
between the broad ways of left bank.The narrow place in front of the
gate is strangled to the left in A lane which is called the street of
the Priests.
St Severin is the senior of the parish churches of left bank of the the Seine.
Saint-Severin church, merovingian origin, was built towards 650 by the Saint-Severin hermit monk, named the recluse. Closed It had been withdrawn to the southernmost door, At the time of Childebert the first, near year oratory dedicated to saint Martin.
It
had have has disciple Clodoald, the future Saint Cloud, the last small
its of Clovis who had escaped with the massacre of his family by his
uncles. The small oratory which honoured Severin became has vault
thereafter then has basilica there because the women of kings of France
who lived the Thermal baths then took the practice to come to make their devotions.
The
church will Be rebuilt in XIth century after being burned and being
plundered with many recoveries by Norman the two centuries earlier. The
priest Foulques de Neuilly will preach the fourth Crusade there in face
of important year crowd the faithful ones.
The
church will Be rebuilt in XIIIth century, under Philippe-Auguste, in
the Gothic style blazing which we know today. The unquestionable
frontage preserved vestiges of the Lovesong period.
St Severin became also the church of the travellers because it is located near the Small Bridge, the individual bridge which connected to the Average Age the island of the City to left bank of the Seine. Those took the practice to come to dedicate to their horseshoes to St Martin before leaving one has journey.
In
the church of the XIIth century,the vault of the virgin was coupled
with the bedside, with the current junction of the entry of the chorus
and the sacristy. There was set up in 1311 the first brotherhood
established in France in the honor of the very Blessed Virgin under the immaculate design. The students of the college of Norman seem to
cuts been At the origin of this new devotion. The
builders of the XVth century perpetrated of it the memory in the
keystone: the kiss of Anne and Joachim, the parents of Marie, expresses
the pure design of the child.
Always
with the XIIIth century, the students put on oath in front of
Notre-Dame of good hope, nothing to say gold Write which could offend
the very Blessed Virgin. The Wood rules disappeared in the XVIIIth
century.
Knowing the students and the brotherhoods, under this ritual surely another thing hides. Its remind me cuckolds of Le Puy gold troubadours and them trobar clus.
The
church is today robust has 38 meters of width, 58 meters length, and 17
meters height Gothic monument located in the middle of the Latin
Quarter. Capital It contains one of the bells oldest of the which bears
the name of Macée, melted in 1412.
Surrounded by waste-gas hands which dominate the frontage of the vaults of the sides, the church is surmounted by a public garden, and a bell-tower. The aspect of the lanes surround the old town.
The
current church present, seen side of the frontage, has high triangular
pinion, accosted of has bell-tower in the shape of public garden tower,
of elegant and fine structure, bored of two training courses of long
ogival bays, furnished with delicate posts in splayings.
This leaves of the building goes up in XIIth century; its crowning, its
pinnacles and its balustrade are two centuries younger. The tower ends
in A very acute arrow, decorated with attic Windows and capped with has
skylight, whose not, exceeding the high houses of the old working, is
let see of all the line of the quays of the the Seine.
The
church included/understood has nave with six spans, has flat bedside
and thewith dimensions ones without ornaments. The second side aisle,
with southern dimensions, date from XIVth century and side chapels from
the end of XVth.
The
nave with the shape of has parallelogram finished by has semicircular
apse. It does not cuts has transept. It, like that of Notre-Dame,
collateral doubled, five naves in width, surrounded of has center
of vaults, provision which gives year astonishing size to all the
building. Those are decorated with marble platings, which wrap the
pillars and transform the warheads into curved arcades; this
decoration, strong rich, goal which denature the style of this share of
the church, was carried out in 1684, have well have the small baldachin
of the high altar, At the expenses of Miss of Montpensier, that which
one called the Broad Miss, the German cousin of Louis XIV.
This church has the oldest triforium of Paris, a very beautiful déambulatoire composed of 10 double spans of pillar-palm trees.
The
sacristy, built in 1540, will be increased six years later. The
architects will adopt a triangular structure comprising a central
pillar to solve the problem of voûtement which was to take support on
narrow bases because of the width of the building. The companion of
Purple the Duke, Lassus, will graft in 1839 the gate of XIIIth century
of the church Saint-Pierre-with-Oxen of the island of the City,
recently demolished during the boring of the street of Arcole.
This monument comprises many medieval sculptures as well as busts of Pierre Saint and Paul Saint, carried out at the XVIIth century. The Virgin with the child was carved by Joseph Marius Ramus in 1839.
The
external garden, curiously called cloister, and whose sides consist of
curious niches of Gothic architecture, is an old cemetery. In fact,
they are the notable Parisian tombs built starting from XVth
century. In the center were buried in a common grave the skins of
disinherited.
Mass
grave in the beginning, this cemetery was not less one place of life.
It is here that in 1474 the first surgical operation was carried out on
one condemned to death suffering from renal calculi. The operation
having succeeded, the man was pardonned. In addition, as of the XVIIth
century, the niches were closed to be used as dwellings to the priests
of Saint Severin . It had to be waited until 1920 so that they are
restored.
http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/monuments/27b.htm
http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS01901.html
http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/france/sseverinp.html
Church of Saint-Julien-le-pauvre (Paris)
At
the crossing of the Roman ways, towards Orleans and Lyon then Italy, a
sanctuary occupied the place since VIth century. Since VIth century
rose with the site of the current Church, an oratory was built on the road
of Saint-Jacob of Compostella which successively had Saint-Julien the Martyr, bishop of Brioude, Saint-Julien the Confessor, bishop
of Mans says the Poor one and Saint-Julien the Hospital for saint patron. It was a
place of merovingian burial . The church is offered in
ruins by king Henri first to the chapter of Notre-Dame in 1045.
Destroyed by the Norman ones, a larger church high of 1165 to 1220 by
the monks of Longpont for the pilgrims and the travellers without money
under the name of Saint-Julien the Poor one, was accompanied by an old
people's home.
The vice-chancellors are elected there.
Since
XIIIth to XVIth, the Church is the seat of the assemblies of the
university. The Church is however closed to them in 1524 after the
students abused the Church at an agitated meeting. In 1655, the Church
becomes a vault of the Hospital.
Strongly
damaged at the XVIIth century, where one replaced in particular the
frontage by that we can see today, it is used of attic with salt
and store of fourage during the Revolution. Thereafter, Saint-Julien is
become again a simple vault, attached to XIXth century to the Hotel
God.
Today
still, it has the pace of a Gothic church of countryside still marked
by the novel. Thus, the large buttresses which support the absidioles
(small round vaults behind chorus) are characteristic of the XIIth
century. In the XVIIth century, the church was so damaged that it was
partly demolished. Being used as attic with salt during the Revolution,
the church was affected in 1889 to the Greek catholic worship
melkite, catholic Eglise of Byzantine rite as its interior
decoration testifies some.
Inside,
Saint-Julien offers a simple decoration, the pillars carry restored
capitals, the nave of four spans is a vault out of frame and platre.
The well that we can see outside, of the VIIth century, was formerly
installed in the church. The source located outside the church Saint
Julien the Poor one was considered miraculous and was sold with the
profit of the church.
It
is probably necessary to put titulature of the vault Saint Julien de
Saint Bertrand de Comminges in relation to the Parisian church.
History of Saint Julien:
Return of hunting, the young person and noble Julien believed one
day to surprise his wife with the bed with a lover. In an access of
fury, it killed the couple. Horrible mistakes: in her absence, his wife
had accomodated the proper parents of her husband come to see their son
and had made them sleep, by respect, in their own room which was most
beautiful of the home. New Oedipus killing without the knowledge his
own parents, Julien, frightened of his act made wish of poverty and
from humility withdrew itself on the edges of a river having decided to
devote the remainder of its life to be made pass the travellers on
other side of the river.
One evening terrible of storm, a humble pilgrim, leprous, arised at the frontier runner and asked him, in spite
of the great dangers to make it pass on other side.
After some
hesitations, Julien accepted and invited the foreigner on his boat. In
the middle of the river, the head of leprous became luminous. Julien then recognized Jesus come to raise of his sins
the unhappy parricide.
The history was taken again by Flaubert: http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_L%C3%A9gende_de_saint_Julien_l%E2%80%99Hospitalier
The abbatial church of Saint-Germain-des-prés (Paris)
The
church and the monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés go up, like
the church cathedral of Notre-Dame in the City, and like the collegiate
church of Saint-Germain-the Auxerrois on right bank, at the oldest
times of merovingian monarchy. In this time, Childebert Ier, a son of
Clovis, and Ultrogothe, his wife, reigned in Paris (511 to
538.)
The current abbey of Saint-Germain-des-prés was founded in the
site of the old abbey created by Childebert in years 540. It wished to
shelter there the Tunic of saint Vincent obtained from Arabic at the
time of the catch of Saragossa into 542. The abbey is then dedicated to
the Holy-Cross and Saint Vincent. It made there come from the monks of
the Abbey Saint Symphorien of Autun.
The historians generally consider that this church is the oldest in Paris.
It holds its name of the bishop Germain (496-576) who took part in his foundation and which managed it. As of 557, Germain, bishop of Paris in fact a place of worship and when this one dies into 576, his tomb is deposited there and the church becomes a place of pilgrim. It will take the name of Saint-Germain (Meadows) in IXth century.
Childebert Ist was buried there and, after him, the abbey will receive the burials of the merovingians kings of Paris: Childebert Ist in 558, Chilpéric Ist in 584, Frédégonde in 598 and Clotaire II in 628.
The bodies, surrounded by a shroud, were deposited in tombs placed in the chorus of the monks, thus the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, was, before the abbey of Saint-Denis, the first royal necropolis. Charlemagne gives him privileges and immunities which make it independent of civil authorities and religious of Paris.
In 861, the abbey is set fire to by the Vikings, it was rebuilt from 990 to 1021 pennies the direction of the abbot Morard. Lombard, Guillaume de Volpiano, become Abbot in 1024. It reforms the monastery which follows then the rule of Saint Benoit. The number of monks being increased, the chorus is increased, it is devoted by the Pope Alexandre III in 1163. In XIIIème century the conventual buildings are rebuilt.
The
abbey remained insulated a long time on the southernmost slope from
small Pre with the Clerks; the high walls raised around the convent in
1239 per Simon, abbot of Saint-Germain, became into 1368
fortifications by order of Charles V, who, in war with the English,
feared a surprise of their share against the suburbs of Paris; at the
same time a small broad channel from eight to eleven measuring
apparatuses and deep of five measuring apparatuses was dug, which put
the ditches of the abbey in communication with the Seine. This channel,
called the small Seine or the Valley, and which separated the small Pre
one with the Clerks from large, filled about the middle of XVIth
century, became then the file of Small-Augustins, then the street
Bonaparte.
A small agglomeration was formed around the abbey
of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, located as its name indicates it outside
the agglomeration to the Middle Ages, it is it which will form the
German Holy District of the meadows. Later it yields part of its
grounds at the edge of the Seine (Pre-with-Clerks) to the University of
Paris.
During all Middle Ages, the abbey was very rich and
very powerful. The monastery becomes, with the centuries, one of the
great European intellectual centers.
During The ancient Régime (XVI - XVIIIth centuries), the Abbey changes, it adopts
the rule of the Benedictines Saint of Maur in 1631 and profits from a
intellectual revival. New buildings are built.
The abbey is
dissolved at the time of the French revolution and, in 1791, the church
becomes initially a parish church then is converted into salpetre
factory. The old tombs of the merovingians kings are dispersed, the
statues of the gate are destroyed and the library disepear in a fire
in 1794. The buildings and appendices of the Abbey are finally sold.
The grounds are parcelled out by residential buildings.
The buildings are devastated by the boring of the street of the Abbey in 1800.
In
1803, the church is returned to the worship and during years which
follow, she then threatens to fall in ruins so much so that one plans
to demolish it. The two turns on the level of the bedside are
destroyed. From 1819 to 1823, the nave of the church is condemned for
reason of safety. Thanks to the active safeguard campaign carried out
by Victor Hugo and the priest of the parish, the church and the abbey
palate, street of the Abbey, are restored at the XIXth century by the
Goddle architect whereas the painter Hyppolite Flandrin covers the nave
of mural compositions.
Outside,
the old church is announced by a petty porch, built at the XVIIth
century and surmounted by a gross square tower; on its higher floor,
two curved bays of XIIth century, accompanied by columns, open on each
one of its four faces and let escape the vibrations from its sound
bells; finished by a high arrow covered out of slates, the tower of
Saint-Germain of the Meadows, with his Romance arches, majestueusement
dominates this area of Paris, which was born and developed under its
shade. A curious memory is attached to it: on November 2, 1589, Henri
IV, besieging Paris, went up at the top of the tower, accompanied by
only one monk, to examine the situation of the city; he made then the
turn of the cloister without entering the church, and withdrew himself
without saying a word.
The
building incorporates elements of very different times. The ribbed
vault of the nave dates from XVIIth century, the presbytery of XVIIIth
and most of the interior decoration of XIXth century. Lastly, a charming public garden, contiguous to the church, shelters the ruins of the
Vault of the Virgin.
With its 65 meters length, 21 meters of
width, 19 meters height, the church is small sized. If Roman abbey
architecture changed his aspect since XIth century, with the liking
of the destruction and the multiple restorations, there remains
nevertheless a great number of elements of origin.
The
capitals of the chorus with four spans present traditional topics
characteristic of the Roman style. Of the three bell-towers of
origin, the massive tower of frontage remains today, known as the
bell-tower-porch (built between 990 and 1014) which is one of the
oldest towers of France. It is in XIIth century that one will give to
this tower his arcades and his arrow, restored at last century. The
principal frontage dates from XIIth century, and one still
distinguishes the stocks of the two primitive side towers.
The déambulatoire preserves also about intact its Romanesque architecture of XIIth century. It is bordered by five radiating chapels, arched warheads and devoted in 1163 by the pope Alexandre III. The stained glasses of the fourth vault are the only ones with being composed of fragments the glass ones of XIIIth century.
The
arcades, built about 1163 on the model of Senlis, Saint-Denis and
Boundary-line (of which a part is still in semicircular arch), formerly
supported platforms (as in Notre-Dame), removed in 1646. The marble
barrels are much older and come from the primitive building of
Childebert. They constitute the most beautiful merovingians vestiges capital. The chorus presents admirable columns of the triforium. They
come from the very first merovingian basilica built in VIth century.
During
its last restoration, the whole church, from the vault to the walls,
was painted in various colors, under the direction of the Baltard
architect; this polychrome decoration applies even to the columns,
whose capitals are gilded.
http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/monuments/40b.htm
http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS01891.html
A few column bases represent surely indications when with the earth currents present under the church.
A beautiful stoup accomodates us on the left while entering. It is a large shell, the tridacne.
Larger mollusc of the world after the giant squid, the giant stoup or tridacne belongs to the sad list of the animals in the process of disappearance. Fished in an excessive way for the interest of its shell and because it is edible, the tridacne is today in danger and is the subject of an international protection.
This enormous shell whose valves are well-known at the entry of the
churches and the cathedrals, can reach dimensions enough surprising.
The known record borders 1,40 m for close to 250kg.
This
animal enjoys a bad reputation: the legend says that it could grab the
arm or the leg of a plunger and more to release them… A simple
observation of the biology of this animal shows that it is completely
unable to hurt whoever.
With that two reasons:
the
first comes owing to the fact that our giant cannot be
closed again on a possible prey without being wounded itself by
gripping the flesh of his coat which overflows of the shell, this
movement asking him for several minutes.
The second reason comes
owing to the fact that the tridacne is vegetarian. This mode
vegetarian which reassures us on the intentions of the animal, is
rather not very common. Indeed, to get its food, it shelters and
“cultivates” in its living tissue, of the microscopic green algas of
which it is nourished. To develop, these algae need light, which
explains why the stoup lives in not very deep water of the coral reefs
of Pacifique south-west.
As all the other species of stoups (there
are 6), the giant tridacne lives among the corals of the reefs,
inserted vertically, the opening of the shell directed upwards.
When
it is young, the animal secretes a byssus, tuft of filaments which
passes by the opening of the shell and which it is fixed at sea-bed,
the hinge directed downwards. As the colony grows, with the corals,
sponges, the algae covers it or surround it, dissimulating it under
their mass, while letting exceed only the edge. The slightly isolated
valves let foresee the coat brilliantly coloured in green, red, or
blue. The edges of this coat are roughcast of protuberance locking up
the hyaline bodies, kinds of lenses which concentrate the light in the
depths of fabrics and support there by photosynthesis, the
multiplication of microscopic algae. It is much beautiful in the water, isn't it ?
Some photographs of expressive capitals, old sculptures.
The museum of Cluny II (Paris)
Virgin From Auvergne of XIIth century
saint Jacques , XIIth century
Saint Beard, XIIth century
Virgin surrounded of Christ and the Father
saint Michel
Baptism of Clovis
Heads of quartz lion, ornament of a seat, Roman worsens (between 300 and 550)
Christ in majesty coming from Saint-Germain-des-prés
In front of furnace bridge of the cathedral of Basle, beginning of XIIth century
Bishop's Sticks
Players of failures, stained glass coming from the hotel Bessée in Villefranche sur Saône
The gate which gives access to the room devoted to the statues of
Notre-Dame comes from the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris.
This last gave access to the vault of the Virgin built by Pierre de
Montreuil.
Tapestry of the lady to the unicorn (Paris)
In
an island blue-night, flanked of four different gasolines of trees
(pine, oak, orange tree and houx), one distinguishes the slim
silhouette from an elegant young woman…
The tapestry representing the Lady with the Unicorn belongs to a series of six, whose history is long and animated.
In
1882, the museum of Cluny buys at the town of Boussac, in the center of
France, a batch of objects of medieval origin, of which these mural
tapestries. The conservative of the museum estimated at the time they
were French tapestries left a travelling workshop, which worked in the
countries of the Loire.
At the time of their creation, in XVth
century, one distinguished the “tapestries with hystoires” and the
“greenery”. The Lady with the Unicorn belonged to these last, also
called “thousand-flowers”.
In
1965 and 1966, international experts examined them, and this thesis was
rejected. Since, one inclines to think that they are originating in
Brussels, as testifies their high degree to it to perfection and the
complex technique which they reveal. Moreover, the characters and the
animals which appear in it point out the powerful style of an excellent
painter, probably Hans Memling, one of the great painters of Brussels
of XVth century.
The presence of this animal in the British weapons contributed to mistakes in interpretation of this series of tapestries.
On
the tapestry, most represented, the unicorn contemplates its image in
the mirror which the lady tightens to him, in the center of the
composition. On the right, a lion is which holds between its forefeet a
pole, whose banner carries a blazon “of mouths to the band of azure
charged with three money crescents”.
On this subject, of many
experts wondered about the significance of this standard. Some
suggested that these tapestries could be ordered by prince Djem, wire
unfortunate of Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The ideal
of this prince, a long time captive in the Hollow one consisted in
joining together the Cross and the Crescent.
Finally
Edmond of Sommerard, named preserving of the museum of Cluny in 1842,
found the solution of this enigma. They were the weapons as of Viste,
important family of lawyers established in Lyon, and whose several
members occupied of the places in sight at the court of Burgundy. The
blazon of this family beside a lion, emblem of the nobility, should not
astonish us: indeed, a young lady Viste married a gentleman whose
nobility was of sword. These emblems represent the union of the two
families. These tapestries concealed introduced later by downward of
this union from the castle of Boussac, of which it had married the
lord. During a voyage in the Hollow one, George Sand discovered these
tapestries. This anecdote is only one episode moreover in the history
of the Lady to the Unicorn.
One
admits now that these tapestries represent the Five Directions, easily
discernible in spite of their discrete symbolic system.
The sight is symbolized by the attitude of the unicorn contemplating
its image in the mirror which the lady tightens to him. For hearing,
the young woman holds a small organ. The taste is evoked by the epic of
following which tightens a cut with its mistress; moreover, the monkey
is on the point of tasting a fruit, and the lion shows signs of
greediness. In the fourth, the sense of smell, the lady braids a
garland, and the symbol is accentuated by the mimicry of the monkey
breathing a flower.
With the fifth table, the touch, the lady
effleure of a hand the horn of the animal to the magic capacity and,
other, it holds the pole of the standard firmly.
As for the sixth
tapestry, known under the term “with my only desire”, it could be a
kind of philosophical conclusion: the lady would not choose a jewel in
the box which its following presents to him, but, on the contrary,
would deposit there, as a sign of renouncement, the collar that it
carries in the five other tapestries. According to certain authors,
this sixth tapestry would be the understanding, virtue which, with the
sight and hearing, defines the things of the spirit, whereas to touch,
taste, sense of smell are directions of the matter.
According to this theory, material world and spiritual world were linked in this fabulous animal. This symbolic system joined the hermaphrodite of hermetism and some saw in these tapestries a representation of the Philosopher's stone of the alchemists.
http://www.france-secret.com/dame_licorne_art2.htm
Other interprétaion, complementary:
In
the sixth and last tapestry of the famous series of the museum of
Cluny, entitled “the Lady with the Unicorn”, the young woman, who
strips her jewels, is about to be absorbed by the tent, symbol of the
divine presence and Vacuity. The inscription which surmounts the tent,
“A my only desire”, means that the desire of the creature merges with
that of the will which directs it. Insofar as our existence is a
“divine play”, our share becomes free and active, when we are
identified with the marionnettist who creates us and directs us. Then
it Oneself dissolves to make place with Large-Oneself, under the cosmic
tent connected to pole star.
The Lady by its grace and its wisdom (Sophia - Shakti - Shekinah, that which is under the tent) as much as by its purity, pacifies the antagonistic animals of Large-Work: the lion which symbolizes it suffers, and the unicorn, mercury. Often the Lady is comparable with salt philosophal. It is very close to the opposate of Hevajra whose name means “that which is without ego”. The drawn up horn of the unicorn, which symbolizes the spiritual fecundation and which collects the flow of universal energy is in agreement with the axial symbolism of the tent, prolonged by a point with the symbolism of the two lances, of the hairstyle of the Lady and its following, celebrate the mystical weddings of the East and of the Occident (the oak and the houx answering the orange tree and the breadfruit tree.) the oval island which supports the scene is cut out like a lotus, symbol of spiritual blooming. The small monkey sitting in front of the Lady appoints the alchemist in person, the “monkey of nature” taking care on its mistress, who can be comparable in “Materia Prima”;
http://esotcelt.unblog.fr/2006/11/26/la-licorne-et-son-symbolisme/
The
lion represents the force and in alchemy. The unicorn represents the
purity and in alchemy mercury. The griffon on the cushion represents
marital fidelity. The oak, the houx, the orange tree and the pine
represent the four cardinal points. The small monkey represents the
animality of the man. The hares are the symbolic system of the
underground life. The royal héron and the falcon symbolize the good and
the evil.
The lady with the unicorn strips these jewels to pass from the material life to the spiritual life.
http://tapisserie.com.free.fr/Explications.htm
Street of the vat
It owes its name with the vat established about 1550 on the current quay Voltaire and which was used for the XVIth
century for transporting the the blocks of stone intended for construction
of the palate of Tuileries, while crossing the Seine with the site of
current Royal Pont. This one was built under Louis XIV with the site of
the red bridge, built in 1632 by the Barbier financier.
Originally, the street was called main road of the Vat, then lane of the Vat and main street of the Vat. (Wikipédia)
With
the n°140 of the street, a porch, that which leads to the vault of the
miraculous virgin. Nothing lets appear outside which it passes in this
place a number impressing visitors. After the porch, the entry of the
vault, kept by Saint Michel. Normal, its opposite is present.
It
is in this street that the virgin appeared to Sainte Catherine Labouré,
in 1830. It is the origin of the creation of the miraculous medal,
carried today by million catholics. Exhumed in 1933, its body was found
perfectly preserved, and lie now in a coffin of glass in the vault.
Presence of a guard.
I must say that such a vault does not have anything first of all to attract me. I am naturally better in the construction much older, and more stripped.
But there, it is other thing. He releases from this place such an energy, which is not only the fact of the devotion of faithful.
The
Lady is there, energy of the Ground-mother, generous feeder which
opens its arms for all those which are present. Energy is soft but
powerful, and for me there, to be returned several times, different
according to the day or the state of mind.
Impossible
for somebody of sensitive to the subtle worlds to pass beside this
purifying bath. I believe that an important fault run in the
basement of the street, of comparable nature that that which passes to
Lourdes. the places of appearances of Mary are not established
randomly…
In the same day, meets interesting. A character haï on a side, admired other. I leave with each one the care to be made a oppinion. Just a remark, it makes me think of somebody…
Guy Gilbert, the priest of the hooligans, and Jean-Marie Vianney, the priest of Ars…