Creativity and religion are two terms which historically have been at odds, and this tension is even greater when looking at the Catholic Church. Suger was a French monk, taught at St. Denis abbey from childhood. After higher education, he returned to the Abbey as the Abbot, and served the kings Louis VI and Louis VII. Throughout the 12th century, Suger served as friend and counsel to the two, on personal and state matters. His greatest contribution was not in matters of Church or State, but in art and architecture. In 1137, Louis VII sanctioned the rebuilding of St. Denis Abbey. As resident Abbot, and friend to the King, Suger had a great deal of freedom in rebuilding.
Traditional churches of the era were closed and dark, with little in the way of “high art.” Vanity or devotions to the works of man were frowned upon at the time, but Suger would not be dissuaded. With a divergent approach to worship, Suger spent the next seven years directing the building of St. Denis in a radical new fashion, which would spread across Northern France and then Europe. The Abbey build under Suger is widely recognized as the first example of Gothic Architecture, with vaulted ceilings and an ornate façade. Suger also tripled the window area in the reconstruction, with almost all of it stained glass. Suger would go on to write a number of treatises justifying his extravagant applications of new Romanesque architecture in the religious world, fueling the development and spread of the Gothic style.
“Often we contemplate, out of sheer affection for the church our mother, these different ornaments both new and old... Thus, when—out of my delight in the beauty of the house of God—the loveliness of the many-colored gems has called me away from external cares, and worthy meditation has induced me to reflect, transferring that which is material to that which is immaterial, on the diversity of the sacred virtues: then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world in an analogical manner.”
Compared to what would follow, Sugers work is dwarfed, but it represented a pivotal moment in European architecture and in the Catholic aesthetic.
Suger, On the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Treasures, ed. and trans. by Erwin Panofsky and Gerda Panofsky-Soergel (Princeton, 1979), 63–65.]
I remember learning about this in Honors 101, such a cool topic! Growing up Catholic I always associated the Church with the arts, so it's interesting to learn that there was a time when they were at odds. I don't remember that being mentioned when I learned this before, but I'm glad I know it now! So interesting!
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