sepulture du Roi Francois I."[1] Although positive evidence may be wanting to prove that the tombs, now brought under the notice of this Institute, are identical with those thus distinguished in the seventeenth century as the memorials of the Abbots Adam and Peter, there appears no cause to question the statement of Lenoir, or regard the inscriptions (which he describes) as fictitious, according to the ungenerous insinuation of M. de Guilhermy.[2] One of these monumental portraitures, it must be observed, is undeniably not contemporary with the decease of the Abbot whom it is supposed to represent; and it may be questioned whether that attributed to Peter d'Auteuil may not have been executed some years subsequently to his times. Lenoir states that they both were placed by Abbot Mathieu de Vendosme, in 1259, in accordance with the directions of Blanche of Castillo, mother of St. Louis; and thus explains the occurrence of the castles, allusive to her paternal blazonry, found with the fleurs-de-lis of France in the decoration of the field, on these interesting slabs.[3] To the period of the rebuilding of the Abbey church, commenced by Abbot Eudes de Clement, in 1231, with liberal encouragement by St. Louis and the Queen Mother, and terminated, in 1281, by Mathieu de Vendosme, the Confessor of that Prince, and Regent of the realm during his absence on the second crusade, the date of these effigies may with confidence be assigned. To that Abbot, St. Louis had moreover assigned the charge of a new arrangement of the royal tombs, placing on one side the descendants of Charlemagne, and on the other those of the Capets, the paternal ancestors of St. Louis. The long series of commemorative statues, commencing with Clovis II., and still seen in the catacombs at St. Denis, were sculptured at this period.
In the course of the works attributed to Abbot Mathieu, we are informed that he caused the remains of the six abbots,
- ↑ Tresor Sacré, p. 533.
- ↑ Those who know and can appreciate the devotion in the preservation of works of art, shown by Lenoir, during the Days of Terror, and the difficulties which he encountered, will repudiate the illiberal innuendo of the author of the "Monographie," that the inscribed verge of these slabs had been cut away, leading to the conviction, that Lenoir had, "sous sa responsabilité personelle, décoré des noms de deux abbês illustres dans l'histoire du monastere de Saint-Denis, deux monuments appartenant à des personnages moins connus."—De Guilhermy, Monographie, p. 180.
- ↑ The castles, commemorative of the origin of the Queen-mother, were introduced in many decorations of the fabric, Felibien, p. 237. They occur on the decorative pavement-tiles, of which a small number were brought to light during the restorations of later years.
