Note 340 — Chapter X · Gothic Art in Normandy[314]

To a Romanesque abbatial of St. Ouen, burned in 1136, belonged the two-storied chapel called the Chambre-aux-Clercs, now set against the northern limb of the transept. In 1318 Abbot Jean Roussel, called Marc d’Argent, began the present abbatial, making its choir and transept in twenty years, as well as one bay of the nave. After a pause, two more bays were finished by 1390. Another cessation of work came during the Hundred Years’ War. Alexander Berneval set up the transept’s south rose (1439), made the pretty southern portal (1441) called after the marmosets decorating it; his son put up the north rose. Both architects repose in the same tomb in the church. Many hold the central lantern (c. 1490) to be a prime success of Flamboyant art. Flame tracery appeared in the XV-century windows, but the Rayonnant first plan was adhered to for the chief lines, so that the church, whose building extended over two centuries, is homogeneous. The abbatial was finished under Abbot Bohier (1491-1515). The Huguenots stripped it of its tombs, and lighted bonfires in the church. In the XIX century was added the mediocre west façade.

La Normandie monumentale et pittoresque. Seine-Inférieure, p. 105, “St. Ouen”; p. 129, “St. Maclou”; H. Havard, éd., La France artistique et monumentale, vol. 2, p. 79, “St. Ouen,” L. de Foucaud; p. 85, “St. Maclou”; Dom. Pommeraye, Histoire de l’abbaye royale de St. Ouen (Rouen, 1662), folio; Jules Quicherat, “Documents inédits sur la construction de St. Ouen de Rouen,” in Biblio. de l’École des chartes, 1852, vol. 3, p. 454; H. de la Bunodière, Notice sur l’église St. Ouen de Rouen (Paris, 1895); Camille Enlart, “L’architecture gothique au XIV siècle,” in Histoire de l’Art (éd., André Michel), vol. 2, partie 2 (Paris, Colin, 1914).