Academic literature on the topic 'Notre-Dame (Chapel : Roche, France)'

The article discusses the ways, methods and means used by architect Le Corbusier to organize the light environment in his sacred buildings: the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Roncham; the church of the Dominican monastery complex Notre Dame de la Tourette; the Catholic church of Saint-Pierre-de-Firmin. The churches were built in France in the 50s and 70s of the last century, with the exception of the church in Firmin, which was completed in 2006. In these sacred buildings, built in the modernist style, the architect abandons the traditional architectonics of sacred buildings of the past and declares the renewal of artistic principles, the novelty of architectural forms and structures. The architecture of the churches, which speaks the language of pure form, found in precise proportions, reveals Le Corbusier's characteristic fusion of architecture and the plastic arts, their interdependence and mutual enrichment. By shaping the light-spatial composition of the interior of these churches, the architect tried to achieve an atmosphere of concentration and "silence" so necessary for contemplation, reflection, and common prayer. To create this atmosphere, Le Corbusier chose the twilight that prevailed in the interior of his churches, the austere and dry aesthetics of the wall surfaces, which compared to churches built in the Romanesque period. It was important for him to have a very refined, dosed natural light entering the sacred space of the buildings. He achieves this effect using different methods in each of his sacred projects. By controlling the amount of light, through a combination of direct, reflected and diffused natural light entering through skylights, the architect creates a changing light-spatial composition that differs from the light environment of traditional churches. According to the architect, the skylights, selectively and carefully placed in the spatial structure of the churches, should create an atmosphere of mysticism and focus the attention of the parishioners on prayer. The requirements of religion had little influence on the architect's plan. The shape of the temples and the light and space composition of the interior space were a response to the psychophysiology of the senses. The choice of an ascetic interior for his buildings, without any decoration, leaves room for the changing natural light that illuminates the magical, mystical, indescribable space, and is perhaps the only symbol of its sacredness.

The murals created by Jean Cocteau, for the walls of the Lady Chapel in London’s Notre-Dame de France (1959-60), are the only works of their kind outside of France. The visual art of Cocteau – better known for his poetic and filmic achievements – has suffered long-standing scholarly neglect. This dissertation seeks to redress this gap and to further our understanding of this renowned twentieth-century French multi-media artist. This study of Cocteau’s London murals demonstrates that they are informed by earlier artistic tradition, with which he was deeply engaged, as well as his own poetic and filmic œuvre; crucially also, by his own experience as a gay male in the mid twentieth-century. Despite the original and idiosyncratic beauty of this cycle, the paintings are amongst Cocteau’s least known. It is distinguished from the artist’s other religious projects; not only the smallest, but the London commission was the only one undertaken in his lifetime overseen and controlled by ecclesiastical authorities. Cocteau depicts three significant moments from the life of the Virgin: the Annunciation, Crucifixion, and Assumption. Cocteau’s murals are dissimilar to any other sacred art of the period, notably that of post-war Art sacré. What is revealed is Cocteau’s innovative method of re-imagining these canonical subjects, which he does in a manner that is both surprising and yet highly respectful of the Marist Order. A detailed case study, this thesis traces the progress of the commission, reconstructs Cocteau’s creative process as revealed in extant sketches, journals and other archival materials, and analyses the artist’s distinctive renditions of canonical religious subjects. In chapter 1, the historical context, the church itself and the commissioning order is examined. Cocteau’s original envisaged scheme is reconstructed and analysed in chapter 2. Chapters 3 to 8 examine in detail each of the three murals as they appear today.

Abstract: This paper explores Le Corbusier’s practice of collecting and studying everyday objects as inspiration for new architectural ideas. An avid collector of ‘objets trouves’ that Le Corbusier referred to specifically as ‘objets à réaction poètique,’ he promoted their use claiming they gave direction to an imagination that alone might not be able to detect. Perhaps the most famous object in Le Corbusier’s collection was a crab shell that he used as inspiration for the design of the roof for his Notre-Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France. Although Le Corbusier’s use of this shell is well documented in studies on his oeuvre, little attention has been given to the role he intended found objects to play in his design process. In themselves these objects, which have their own identities as shells, pinecones or pieces of bone, they do not immediately lend themselves to any architectural solution. Rather, they are evidence of Le Corbusier’s unique approach to design that relies on a what Louis Pasteur referred to as a ‘prepared mind,’ availed of all relevant data and information pertaining to a task, that can search for solutions in random object or events by spontaneously shift back and forth between analytic and associative modes of thought. Keywords: Architectural model, Ronchamp, Design method, Imagination, Play, Objet trouve. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.677