6533b827fe1ef96bd12870a2

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Le tympan du portail central de la cathédrale de Nantes

Jean-marie Guillouët

subject

Sculpturemedia_common.quotation_subject11. SustainabilityFrance religious architecture 15th-17th centuries ; Nantes cathedral ; sculptured tympanum ; iconography ; Last Judgment.Art historyFacade[SHS.ART] Humanities and Social Sciences/Art and art historyArt[SHS.ART]Humanities and Social Sciences/Art and art historyIconographyComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUSOpenworkmedia_common

description

The tympanum of the central portal of Nantes cathedral. Owing to a reassessment of the available sources on the sculptured decor of the façade of Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul cathedral in Nantes, it is possible to bring some precisions about the original state of the building. The tympanum of the central portal of this façade did not present, as is usually acknowledged, an original openwork design which was filled up in the 17th century when the organ loft was erected. The analysis of the still existing remnants, as well as the size and nature of the stones used in this portal leads one to think that its present state dates back to the actual construction. Textual pieces of evidence allow the clarification of this hypothesis by re-establishing here a tympanal sculpture of the Last Judgment, sculpture which logically completes the layout of the arches. This new restoration leads one to reassess the position of this frontispiece in Nantes in the french monumental scenery of the second half of the 15th century : from that time on Tours will not be the principal and imperative model for the builders of Nantes.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
1998-01-01
https://hal.science/hal-02961702