Abbot Suger
is credited as the father of Gothic architecture. In 1091 at the age of 10, Suger was given to the abbey of Saint Denis as an oblate in the service of God. Suger rose to be one of the most influential church and statesman of the Middle Ages. Suger was active in both religion and politics. He was confidant and counselor to both Louis VI and Louis VII. He is most remembered for inventing the Gothic style of architecture in the rebuilding of Saint Denis basilica outside of Paris. Born 1080 or 1081 the exact date unknown Died January 15, 1151 Nationality: French, Westman |
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The Abbot Suger Story: The Birth of Gothic
Unlike the renaissance period in the history of Westernkind the names of the great builders and architects of the medieval period are mostly lost to us in the mist of history. We do however have a record of one individual, a man named Suger, the Abbot of Saint Denis Cathedral, outside of what is now known as Paris. Abbot Suger is the man credited with introducing the Gothic style of architecture to the world. After the fall of Rome, Westernkind struggled to recreate what had come before. First to re-emerge was the style known as Romanesque. Romanesque architecture is marked by rounded arches and the heavy walls needed to keep the arches from buckling out. Romanesque was a descriptive though derogatory term applied by later architects as if to say close but not quite as good as the ancients had done. There is no consensus for the beginning of the Romanesque period, estimates range from the 6th to the 11th century, with the later date of the 11th century being the most commonly held. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as the Norman architectural style as it came to England with the Norman invasion.
Suger called his new style “modern”, but as time passed and Westernkind entered the Renaissance period the form Suger pioneered and thought of as modern began to be thought of as barbaric. Barbaric to the point of being reminiscent of the barbaric Goths. The name stuck. The basilica cathedral of Saint Denis stands on the site of a Gallic-Roman cemetery which is a-top the tomb of Saint Denis. Saint Denis is thought to be the first bishop of Paris who was martyred in 250 AD. According to legend Denis was beheaded on the near by and aptly named Mount of Martyrs, but Denis did not care for this particular location as his final resting place. After being beheaded he stood up, picked up his head and carried his head to the location where the current church stands. As if saying, no not there, but here you shall build my cathedral. He set his head down and expired. The first chapel to occupy this spot was built sometime in the 4th or 5th century.
Around 475 St. Genevieve purchased some land and built Saint-Denys de la Chapelle. In 636, on the orders of King Dagobert I, the relics of Saint-Denis, a patron saint of France, were reinterred in the basilica. The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings with nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries. Saint-Denis was the burial place of the kings and queens of France from Dagobert (639) to Louis XVIII (1824). Altogether 43 kings, 32 queens along with 10 servants to the monarchy were buried there. Suger was thought to be born of peasant parents in about 1081. The origins of his family are somewhat obscure though and we don’t have a clear picture. In 1091, at the age of ten, Suger was given as an oblate to the abbey of St. Denis. An oblate is a young boy given to the Abbey to be raised by the monks in the service of God. Suger was a boy of immense intelligence and he Eventually rose to be become the Abbot of the Monastery as well as confidant and advisor to the kings of France.
Suger's achievements as a patron of the arts were so extraordinary that they have overshadowed other aspects of this remarkable man's involvement in twelfth-century life and affairs. Suger's influence went far beyond his contributions to the world of art and architecture. As counselor to both Louis VI and Louis VII, Suger was instrumental in developing the theory of kingship, which led to the evolution of the nation-states of Europe. After becoming Abbot, Suger guided the monks of St. Denis back into a life of greater piety and religious observation than they had known under their previous Abbot, where the monks had gained a reputation for behaving in a secular manner. Around 1137, Suger, who had become the friend and confidant of the King, decided to rebuild the great Church of St. Denis. Saint Denis had become the burial site of the French Monarchs but The centuries had taken their toll and the church was in a state of dis-repair.
Suger rebuilt the church in stages starting with the West front which was completed in 1140. At the completion of the West Front Abbot Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use and as is. He designed a choir that would be suffused with light. Suger would design with light. He believed in 2 types of light, the natural light of the sun as created by God and God’s light, the light of the world, the light of truth and logos as manifest in Jesus Christ. To our senses the world around us is defective and imperfect but yet it is the reflection of something perfect in essence. God’s essence is but a reflection of the light. Through light Suger believed the soul could be transformed to focus on the eternal essence, the source of all things.
To that end the use of stained glass in the Gothic would be revolutionary and transformative
light–would come to define Gothic as it spread and developed. Loftier and brighter than their Romanesque predecessors, the new Gothic churches provided a drastically different venue for worship. Space and light become a physical expression of the mystery of God leading the soul up into the light to contemplate the divine. To achieve his aims, Suger’s masons drew on the several new features which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the open ambulatory with radiating chapels, clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large stained glass windows.
Thus was born the Gothic. In a few short years the course of Western art was changed: a new style of architecture and sculpture emerged, new forms such as the statue column were invented, stained glass found its first large-scale monumental use. As the Gothic style matured it would come to dominate European art for the next three centuries, and its influence can be seen up into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Unlike the popular conception of Goth today the Gothic was open, full of light, spreading its arms upwards towards God. The new structure was finished and dedicated on 11 June 1144, in the presence of the King. The Abby of Saint Denis is cited as the first building in the Gothic style. Abbot Suger died in 1151, laid to rest in his beloved Saint Denis.
Post Script
The purpose of the video was to highlight Suger, one of our Great Westmen whose name survives to this day. A further study of The Age of Gothic is a worthy pursuit. I purposefully left out any discussion of the free masons, Durham Cathedral and Vezely. Our purpose here was a hat tip to a Great Westman:
Abbot Suger
Father of the Gothic Style
Born 1080 or 1081 the exact date unknown
Died January 13, 1151
Unlike the renaissance period in the history of Westernkind the names of the great builders and architects of the medieval period are mostly lost to us in the mist of history. We do however have a record of one individual, a man named Suger, the Abbot of Saint Denis Cathedral, outside of what is now known as Paris. Abbot Suger is the man credited with introducing the Gothic style of architecture to the world. After the fall of Rome, Westernkind struggled to recreate what had come before. First to re-emerge was the style known as Romanesque. Romanesque architecture is marked by rounded arches and the heavy walls needed to keep the arches from buckling out. Romanesque was a descriptive though derogatory term applied by later architects as if to say close but not quite as good as the ancients had done. There is no consensus for the beginning of the Romanesque period, estimates range from the 6th to the 11th century, with the later date of the 11th century being the most commonly held. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as the Norman architectural style as it came to England with the Norman invasion.
Suger called his new style “modern”, but as time passed and Westernkind entered the Renaissance period the form Suger pioneered and thought of as modern began to be thought of as barbaric. Barbaric to the point of being reminiscent of the barbaric Goths. The name stuck. The basilica cathedral of Saint Denis stands on the site of a Gallic-Roman cemetery which is a-top the tomb of Saint Denis. Saint Denis is thought to be the first bishop of Paris who was martyred in 250 AD. According to legend Denis was beheaded on the near by and aptly named Mount of Martyrs, but Denis did not care for this particular location as his final resting place. After being beheaded he stood up, picked up his head and carried his head to the location where the current church stands. As if saying, no not there, but here you shall build my cathedral. He set his head down and expired. The first chapel to occupy this spot was built sometime in the 4th or 5th century.
Around 475 St. Genevieve purchased some land and built Saint-Denys de la Chapelle. In 636, on the orders of King Dagobert I, the relics of Saint-Denis, a patron saint of France, were reinterred in the basilica. The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings with nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries. Saint-Denis was the burial place of the kings and queens of France from Dagobert (639) to Louis XVIII (1824). Altogether 43 kings, 32 queens along with 10 servants to the monarchy were buried there. Suger was thought to be born of peasant parents in about 1081. The origins of his family are somewhat obscure though and we don’t have a clear picture. In 1091, at the age of ten, Suger was given as an oblate to the abbey of St. Denis. An oblate is a young boy given to the Abbey to be raised by the monks in the service of God. Suger was a boy of immense intelligence and he Eventually rose to be become the Abbot of the Monastery as well as confidant and advisor to the kings of France.
Suger's achievements as a patron of the arts were so extraordinary that they have overshadowed other aspects of this remarkable man's involvement in twelfth-century life and affairs. Suger's influence went far beyond his contributions to the world of art and architecture. As counselor to both Louis VI and Louis VII, Suger was instrumental in developing the theory of kingship, which led to the evolution of the nation-states of Europe. After becoming Abbot, Suger guided the monks of St. Denis back into a life of greater piety and religious observation than they had known under their previous Abbot, where the monks had gained a reputation for behaving in a secular manner. Around 1137, Suger, who had become the friend and confidant of the King, decided to rebuild the great Church of St. Denis. Saint Denis had become the burial site of the French Monarchs but The centuries had taken their toll and the church was in a state of dis-repair.
Suger rebuilt the church in stages starting with the West front which was completed in 1140. At the completion of the West Front Abbot Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use and as is. He designed a choir that would be suffused with light. Suger would design with light. He believed in 2 types of light, the natural light of the sun as created by God and God’s light, the light of the world, the light of truth and logos as manifest in Jesus Christ. To our senses the world around us is defective and imperfect but yet it is the reflection of something perfect in essence. God’s essence is but a reflection of the light. Through light Suger believed the soul could be transformed to focus on the eternal essence, the source of all things.
To that end the use of stained glass in the Gothic would be revolutionary and transformative
light–would come to define Gothic as it spread and developed. Loftier and brighter than their Romanesque predecessors, the new Gothic churches provided a drastically different venue for worship. Space and light become a physical expression of the mystery of God leading the soul up into the light to contemplate the divine. To achieve his aims, Suger’s masons drew on the several new features which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the open ambulatory with radiating chapels, clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large stained glass windows.
Thus was born the Gothic. In a few short years the course of Western art was changed: a new style of architecture and sculpture emerged, new forms such as the statue column were invented, stained glass found its first large-scale monumental use. As the Gothic style matured it would come to dominate European art for the next three centuries, and its influence can be seen up into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Unlike the popular conception of Goth today the Gothic was open, full of light, spreading its arms upwards towards God. The new structure was finished and dedicated on 11 June 1144, in the presence of the King. The Abby of Saint Denis is cited as the first building in the Gothic style. Abbot Suger died in 1151, laid to rest in his beloved Saint Denis.
Post Script
The purpose of the video was to highlight Suger, one of our Great Westmen whose name survives to this day. A further study of The Age of Gothic is a worthy pursuit. I purposefully left out any discussion of the free masons, Durham Cathedral and Vezely. Our purpose here was a hat tip to a Great Westman:
Abbot Suger
Father of the Gothic Style
Born 1080 or 1081 the exact date unknown
Died January 13, 1151