Nevers, Saint-Étienne, nave.
Photograph courtesy of Whitney
S.Stoddard.
Saint-Étienne is mature Romanesque, contemporary with both the pilgrimage group of
churches, such as Conques and Toulouse, and the beginnings of Cluny III.
The east end of Saint-Étienne is three-storied: arcade, triforium arcade, and clerestory
with its semidome considerably lower than the nave. In the nave, five bays in length, the
elevation has an arcade surmounted by a gallery, vaulted with half-barrel vaults. This
format resembles Conques, Toulouse, and churches in Auvergne, but in Saint-Étienne a
clerestory is inserted between gallery and nave barrel vault. Thus, direct light into the
nave from clerestory windows, a feature adopted in the 11th century in Burgundy,
transforms the usual Romanesque elevation.
The multiple planes established by the rounded responds, the square matrix of the
piers, and the columnar supports of the nave arcade all give a unity to the interior
surfaces. Verticality is emphasized by the nave responds, which extend up through
gallery and clerestory and support the capitals from which the transverse arches and the
barrel vaults spring.
A dome, supported by squinches, crowns the crossing of the single-vessel transept. To
stabilize the cupola and support the crossing tower, diaphragm arches separate nave from
transept arms and arms from choir. This treatment of the crossing area is influenced by
such churches as Clermont-Ferrand, Issoire, and Saint-Nectaire in the Au-vergne, which
is southwest of Burgundy.
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