Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/588

 556 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. The most remarkable feature m this church is the exuberance of tne ornament with Avliicli all the parts are decorated, so very unlike the massive i-udeness of the contemporary Norman or Northern styles. The capitals of the pillars, the arches of the triforiiim, the jambs of the windows and the cornices, all show a refinement and love of orna- ment characteristic of a far more advanced and civilized people than those of the Northern provinces of France. Among those who were present at the dedication of this church was the Abbe Suger, then a gay young man of twenty years of age, who about thirty years later, in the plenitude of his power, commenced the building of the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris,the west front of which was dedicated in the year 1140, and the rest of the chnrch built " stupenda celeritate," and dedicated in 1144. Though certainly not the earliest, St. Denis may be considered as the typical example of the earliest pointed Gothic in France. It terminated the era of transition, and fixed the epoch Avlien the Nor- thern pointed style became supreme, to the total ex- clusion of the round-arched style that preceded it. The effect of Suger's church is now destroyed by a nave of the 14th century — of great beauty, it must be confessed — which is interpolated between the western front and the choir, both which remain in all essentials as left by him, and enable us to decide without hesitation on the state of architectural art at the time of the dedication of the church. A few years later was commenced the once celebrated abbey of Pontigny, near Auxerre, probably in 1150, and completed, as we now find it, within 15 or 20 years from that date. Externally it displays an almost barn-like simplicity, having no towers or pinnacles — plain undivided windows, and no ornament of any sort. The same simplicity reigns in the interior, but the varied ■W'.i. (Jlievec, Pontigny. (.From Cbiiillou des liarres.)