Tea at Trianon: The Cathedral as the Allegory of Strength and Beauty

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

The Cathedral as the Allegory of Strength and Beauty

From The Chivalry Guild Letters:

Of all the wonders achieved by the builders of the Gothic cathedrals, my favorite lesson they teach involves the relationship of strength and beauty, specifically the ennobling of strength by bringing it into the service of beauty. “Architecture is,” as Archbishop Sheen wrote, “a reflection of a philosophy of life.” This connection has unmistakable implications for anyone interested in the code of chivalry.
It’s easy enough to take for granted what the medieval builders achieved and to assume that the Romans and Egyptians and other ancient societies did something comparable. But that is not the case. The great cathedrals followed from an outburst of creative energy unlike anything the world had ever seen. Before them all upward aspirations in architecture were, in the words of Kenneth Clark, “limited by problems of stability and weight.” A building was a load on the ground. You could dress it up with all sorts of fanciness, but it was still a load. Medieval builders wrought something like a miracle in raising structures higher than ever thought possible, making “stone seem weightless."
Engineering innovations enabled this elevation—particularly the pointed arch, ribbed vaulting, and flying buttress. Once upon a time, I assumed these features were nothing more than frills or adornments, put there because people thought they looked cool. That was all I understood aesthetics to be—just about looking cool.
But arches, vaults, and buttresses are anything but frills; they are pure strength. And their make room for beauty, as the walls of the Gothic cathedral draw the eyes ever upward in awe. Not only that, these innovations free the high walls from having to bear weight, which meant that they could be decorated with stained glass windows that tell the stories of the Faith and flood the church with otherworldly glowing light. The overall effect, as Clark says, is to make the visitor feel vibrations in the air.
Beauty depends on strength to create the conditions in which it can flourish—no engineering fortifications means no high walls and no stained glass. And in the service of beauty, the arches, ribbing, and buttresses are ennobled and become strangely beautiful themselves, particularly as part of a larger unity. Beauty and strength fuse in this created order of the cathedral. (Read more.)