"Troys Portaulx et Deux Grosses Tours": The Flamboyant Façade Project for the Cathedral of Clermont.

The large drawing on parchment of a Flamboyant façade, now housed in the Archives Départementales du Puy-de-Dôme in Clermont-Ferrand (series 3G, armoire 18, sac B, côte 29), was created as part of a concerted late fifteenth-century effort to complete the construction of the cathedral of Clermont. Although it cannot be dated precisely, the façade apparently was designed in close connection with a 1496 estimate of the cost of the remaining work on the cathedral. Intended as a finished working plan, the Clermont façade elevation sheds valuable light on Late Gothic drawing and design. A study of the drawing reveals that its author was concerned both with pragmatic architectural considerations and with the creation of a visually exciting and impressive image that seems to have been aimed at arousing the interest and financial participation of wealthy benefactors—in this case, the king of France and the bishop of Clermont. This appeal to a few aristocratic patrons, rather than to the general populace, represents an important shift in the pattern of building finance at Clermont. The description and analysis of the forms of the façade project suggest that its designer was a local architect, perhaps Pierre Montoloys, who was nevertheless familiar with contemporary Flamboyant developments in France. The new project was designed to harmonize with the existing structure by honoring the established disposition and even the earlier forms of the cathedral. However, the author of the Clermont façade project, liberally drawing motifs from contemporary monuments and striving consciously for originality, created a design which is unique in Late Gothic architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]