The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy: Royal Architecture in Thirteenth-Century Paris (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107025578)

This book offers a novel perspective on one of the most important monuments of French Gothic architecture, the Sainte-Chapelle, constructed in Paris by King Louis IX of France between 1239 and 1248 especially to hold and to celebrate Christ's Crown of Thorns. Meredith Cohen argues that the chapel's architecture, decoration, and use conveyed the notion of sacral kingship to its audience in Paris and in greater Europe, thereby implicitly elevating the French king to the level of suzerain, and establishing an early visual precedent for the political theories of royal sovereignty and French absolutism. By setting the chapel within its broader urban and royal contexts, this book offers new insight into royal representation and the rise of Paris as a political and cultural capital in the thirteenth century.

Author: Meredith Cohen
ISBN-10: 1107025575
ISBN-13: 9781107025578
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/24/2014
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.95lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.00w x 1.00d