Note 347 — Chapter X · Gothic Art in Normandy[314]

Notre Dame at Caudebec-en-Caud, called by Henry IV “the most beautiful chapel of my kingdom of France,” has its “tiara” united to its shaft by flying buttresses. Other Flamboyant Gothic monuments in Normandy are Louviers’ lacelike portal (1493); churches at Dieppe; the transept of Évreux Cathedral; St. Jacques at Lisieux; St. Pierre at Coutances; Les Andelys, Elbeuf, Gisors, and the joyous festival of stone of Notre Dame at Alençon, where the shady north side of the nave is adorned with Old Testament scenes, and the sun-lit southern wall opened by spacious Flamboyant traceries that frame the New Testament; its Jesse tree is unusual. Notre Dame at St. Lô (which has a Becket window) shows Perpendicular traits. Its west portals are strangely dissimilar, as are its monumental towers. Near Fécamp, the Estouteville family founded Valmont abbatial (1116) now unroofed save its Lady chapel, in which are splendid tombs, a reredos of the Annunciation that is a gem of XVI-century realism, and a window that inspired Eugène Delacroix’s palette.