florida state university college of visual arts, theatre and dance ...

The combination of royal imagery, Jesuit saints, and scenes from the life of Christ
imparted to the altarpiece several functions. 108 The first was the Jesuit belief that art should be
used as a tool to enhance the worshiper’s knowledge and religious experience. 109 Not only does
it portray the mysteries of the faith and the presence of Christ in the central painting, its upper
tier reminded viewers of God’s sacrifice. 110 Second, the inclusion of Jesuit saints emphasized
the Society’s foundation and its missionary objectives. The final function was to demonstrate
the close relationship between God and the French monarchy, a relationship that granted the king
the right to rule directly from God. 111 By placing the most illustrious kings and the royal arms
and crown next to the central images of the altarpiece, the ensemble reinforced the divine right of
French monarchs.
The twin themes of the interior are further carried over to the area of the dome. The
Jesuit belief in the universality of the Catholic Church presents itself at the merging of the ribs
on the choir’s vault, nearly directly above the high altar. 112 Here a sculptural relief depicts God
the Father holding a globe surmounted by a cross within a circular field surrounded by clouds
and angel heads (fig. 47). It certainly referred to the Jesuit mission to spread Christianity
throughout the world, but also suggested the wide-reaching power of the Church.
The Jesuit symbolism is countered with the theme of French kingship in the drum of the
dome (fig. 48). It is articulated with sixteen paired pilasters, which alternatively frame four large
arched windows and four grisaille paintings of important French kings. In addition to St. Louis
and Charlemagne, the other figures represent Clovis (481-511), the first Christian king of France,
and King Robert (996-1031), renowned for his piety. Although the original images were
destroyed in the Paris Commune of 1871 and replaced in 1873 with paintings by Paul-Joseph
Blanc, seventeenth-century engravings of the dome indicate that the lost images also represented
the same kings standing in niches (fig. 43). 113
The combined symbolism was originally distributed throughout the rest of the interior.
One example is the frieze of the entablature, encircling the interior. Today it is decorated with
foliage mixed with cherubim’s heads and the monograms of Christ and the Virgin Mary, but
prior to the French Revolution it consisted of fleurs-de-lis and martyrs’ palms interspersed with
the monogram of the Society of Jesus, the abbreviation IHS topped with a cross (fig. 49).
Another allusion to French kingship is found in the cartouches located above the clerestory
windows in the hollowed-out space of the barrel vault. A few of the shields still show the letter
103