and clerestory. These campaigns were conservative in design when contrasted with the
daring elegance of the Saint-Denis choir (1140–44).
By 1185, the upper choir, the unusual transepts, and the first bay of the nave were
completed. The transepts have an arcade of windows above a blind arcade, a triforium
with inner passageway, a gallery with passageway, and a clerestory with exterior
passageway under embryonic flying buttresses. Reversing the gallery and the triforium is
a design detail of extraordinary quality. Blocks of stone extend from exterior to interior
walls stabilizing the solidity of the structure, as Norman master masons had done. The
nave of Noyon emphasizes the alternation of piers and columns to support the six-part
vaulting system, which was replaced in the 13th century by four-part vaults.
The exterior of Noyon, with its rounded aisleless transepts and its choir with radiating
chapels and flanking towers and massive western towers, is quite different from the
cathedral of Sens and the choir of Saint-Denis. Indeed, Noyon is very unlike all other
Early Gothic cathedrals. It possesses an intimacy of scale, consistency of forms, and,
especially in the design of the transepts, moments of great creativity.
Until recently, little was known about the monumental sculpture of Noyon except the
presence of a fine seated Virgin and Child, badly damaged in 1918. However, in a 1992
article Charles T.Little connected stylistically three other life-size, seated figures to the
Noyon Virgin and Child: Moses (The Cloisters, New York), Prophet (Lugano, Baron von
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection), and upper torso of John the Baptist (?) (Duke
University). All these statues are distinguished by heavy, swirling folds that reveal
contours of arms, elbows, knees, and legs. In style, they display marked similarities to the
sculpture of the west portal of Senlis (ca. 1170). Further, Little, in a photomontage, has
successfully placed this sculpture in the south-transept portal of the cathedral.
Whitney S.Stoddard
[See also: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE]
Little, Charles T. “Resurrexit: A Rediscovered Sculptural Program from Noyon Cathedral.” In The
Cloisters: Studies in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary, ed. Elizabeth C.Parker. New York:
Metropolitan Museum in association with the International Center of Medieval Art, 1992, pp.
235–59.
Seymour, Charles, Jr. Notre-Dame of Noyon in the Twelfth Century: A Study of the Early
Development of Gothic Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Art and Architecture in Medieval France. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
NUNNERIES
. Throughout the early Middle Ages, religious women had many fewer opportunities for
the clois-tered life than did men. Nunneries were far outnumbered by male monasteries,
and most nuns had not entered the religious life as children, as had the oblates in houses
of Benedictine monks. Rather, the majority of nuns had taken the veil as widows,
although there were always a certain number of girls, usually from wealthy families, who
joined such houses. Although in the early Middle Ages, both in Britain and on the
Continent, double monasteries were sometimes found, where a male monastery and a
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