Suger, abbot of the French abbey of Saint-Denis, lived from 1081 to
1151. This book of essays about his life and achievements grew out of a
symposium sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art and by
Columbia University. The symposium was held in 1981 simultaneously at
The Cloisters and Columbia University in conjunction with an exhibition
at The Cloisters that commemorated the 900th anniversary of Suger's
birth. For the symposium, twenty-three medieval scholars from all parts
of the world, representing a wide range of humanistic disciplines, were
brought together to discuss the varied nature of Suger's activities.
Suger has been best known for his contributions as a patron of art and
architecture. As H.W. Janson wrote, "The origin of no previous style can
be pinpointed as exactly as that of Gothic. It was born between 1137
and 1144 in the rebuilding, by Abbot Suger, of the Royal Abbey Church of
Saint-Denis, just outside the city of Paris." Within decades of its
"invention," the style spread throughout the Capetian domains and by the
thirteenth century to all of Europe where it dominated architecture for
the next two to three hundred years. Perhaps because Suger's
achievements in art and architecture were so extraordinary, they have
eclipsed the public's awareness of his crucial role in the growth of the
Capetian monarchy and in other aspects of his participation in
twelfth-century affairs. As royal advisor, Suger illustrates that superb
collaboration between church and state so fundamental to an
understanding of the development of the national states of Western
Europe. As the essays in this volume devoted to Suger's political
activities and historical writings demonstrate, he was, in addition to
being a brilliantly innovative patron of architecture, an important
architect of the French state. Only by bringing together differing
humanistic perspectives on Suger and Saint-Denis has it been possible to
achieve, for the first time, a fully rounded appreciation of a man who
was, at the same time, a patron of the arts and literature, a politician
who adroitly used his ecclesiastical position to enhance the growth and
power of the monarchy, and a churchman consistently devoted to the
promotion of the cult of Saint-Denis, the patron saint of his abbey and
of France.
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