Ouen, at Rouen, seen in profile]
[Illustration: Head of Christ, in the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen, seen in front]
According to tradition, it was this same Alexander Berneval who executed
the beautiful circular window in the southern transept. But being
rivalled by his apprentice, who produced a more exquisite specimen of
masonry in the northern transept, he murdered his luckless pupil. The
crime he expiated with his own life; but the monks of the abbey,
grateful for his labors, requested that his body might be entombed in
their church; and on the stone that covers his remains, they caused him
to be represented at full length, holding the window in his hand.
These large circular windows, sometimes known by the name of rose
windows, and sometimes of marigold windows, are a strong characteristic
feature of French ecclesiastical architecture. Few among the cathedrals
or the great conventual churches, in this country, are without them. In
our own they are seldom found: in no one of our cathedrals, excepting
Exeter only, are they in the western front; and, though occasionally in
the transepts, as at Canterbury, Chichester, Litchfield, Westminster,
Lincoln and York, they are comparatively of small size with little
variety of pattern.
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