Paris, Notre-Dame, nave. Photograph:
Clarence Ward Collection. Courtesy of
Oberlin College.
1150s. Designed at prodigious scale, no doubt as a reflection of the prestige of the capital
and the wealth of the cathedral chapter, the new church dwarfed the earlier cathedral
group. The double-ambulatory scheme without radiating chapels, like the enormous
length of the chevet east of the crossing, was clearly intended to surpass in size and scale
any previous Romanesque or Gothic structure in the region. Perhaps it is this very size
that caused construction of the east end to proceed slowly, although in an orderly fashion.
The chevet was finished only after 1177, perhaps even after 1182, sometime after the
nave had been begun. The original elevation marked a significant increase in height over
any previous Gothic building, although there is evidence that it may not have been
initially planned to reach the present height of nearly 100 feet. The elevation had four
stories; the double side aisles and single aislewidth vaulted galleries above them were
succeeded by round oculi filled with carved tracery that gave into the gallery roof space
and, finally, clerestory windows. The prevailing architectural aesthetic is an expression of
thinness without depth, of surface without mass, that is uniquely Parisian. In spite of the
vast height of the new chevet, there is no evidence that the first builder intended to use
flying buttresses to brace the upper structure against wind pressures. In fact, that may
well explain the slowdown in construction just as the clerestory was reached.
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