This is when you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. The experience of entering Sainte-Chapelle is visceral. There’s nothing you can do but offer a helpless gasp. Or swear. Actually, I’ll come clean. I swore. Too loudly, but it was a gasp in spirit.
Dating to the 13th Century, it was built to house relics from the Crusades. In the BBC series Art of France, Andrew Graham-Dixon called the Sainte-Chapelle, “...the most sublime expression of the Gothic spirit... where architecture abolishes itself ... you experience it in terms of light and colour... a gigantic light box.” Andrew can go on a bit (he goes off like a two bob watch in Episode 3 when he gets to Duchamp’s bottle rack) but he got this very right.
Adjacent is the Conciergerie, another part of what was the royal palace for several hundred years. This building became a prison, and garnered infamy for housing many of those destined for the guillotine during The Terror that was the last year or so of the French Revolution. Most notably, Marie Antoinette, the Princess Di of her day, spent her last couple of months here. It so happens there is an exhibition running on all things Madame Veto. It focussed on her celebrity, so my only takeaway was the fact that Mattel produced a Marie Antoinette Barbie doll in 2003. Insert another helpless gasp here minus the visceral.
Surrounding the exhibition was the permanent display of matters revolutionary, and this served to illustrate that Paris probably still hasn’t got over what happened. There’s nothing like 40,000 executions to put a dampener on égalité and fraternité. What happens to liberté goes without saying.
Of much more interest than a celebrity princess and slightly over-enthusiastic French revolutionaries was the ceiling. I don’t think you can go past a good vaulted ceiling, and the Conciergerie has a cracker. It’s a huge space, relatively low, and it’s decidedly liquid and sensual in appearance. See for yourself:
There was one thing that stood out to me, and I’m afraid it was a bit disturbing .
Look closely. The points of each arched rib are out of alignment. It’s as if the vaults “wander” down and across the building.
The implications are worse than you might think. I’m going to have to spend the rest of my trip checking the alignment of vaulted ceilings.
I might need to make a spreadsheet.
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| Image: Pixabay |
Dating to the 13th Century, it was built to house relics from the Crusades. In the BBC series Art of France, Andrew Graham-Dixon called the Sainte-Chapelle, “...the most sublime expression of the Gothic spirit... where architecture abolishes itself ... you experience it in terms of light and colour... a gigantic light box.” Andrew can go on a bit (he goes off like a two bob watch in Episode 3 when he gets to Duchamp’s bottle rack) but he got this very right.
Adjacent is the Conciergerie, another part of what was the royal palace for several hundred years. This building became a prison, and garnered infamy for housing many of those destined for the guillotine during The Terror that was the last year or so of the French Revolution. Most notably, Marie Antoinette, the Princess Di of her day, spent her last couple of months here. It so happens there is an exhibition running on all things Madame Veto. It focussed on her celebrity, so my only takeaway was the fact that Mattel produced a Marie Antoinette Barbie doll in 2003. Insert another helpless gasp here minus the visceral.
Surrounding the exhibition was the permanent display of matters revolutionary, and this served to illustrate that Paris probably still hasn’t got over what happened. There’s nothing like 40,000 executions to put a dampener on égalité and fraternité. What happens to liberté goes without saying.
Of much more interest than a celebrity princess and slightly over-enthusiastic French revolutionaries was the ceiling. I don’t think you can go past a good vaulted ceiling, and the Conciergerie has a cracker. It’s a huge space, relatively low, and it’s decidedly liquid and sensual in appearance. See for yourself:
Look closely. The points of each arched rib are out of alignment. It’s as if the vaults “wander” down and across the building.
The implications are worse than you might think. I’m going to have to spend the rest of my trip checking the alignment of vaulted ceilings.
I might need to make a spreadsheet.