Very fine indeed is the
workmanship of this monument. The figures which surround Jovinus are men
of handsome countenance, evidently portraits, their dress and arms being
finished with the utmost nicety of detail. The figures are about half
life-size.
The other tomb is that of St. Remigius, a Renaissance work erected by
Cardinal Delenoncourt in 1533. It is sumptuous and gaudy rather than
beautiful. Twelve statues, full life-size, represent the twelve peers of
France, six are the prelates of Rheims, Laon, Langres, Beauvais, Chalons,
and Noyon; the six lay peers are the dukes of Burgundy, Normandy and
Aquitaine, and the counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Toulouse. The white
marble of these somewhat stagey figures is beautifully worked and the
effect is imposing.
The western wall of the interior is faced with niches, in which the
statues seem to emerge from a cloud of gloom. At one time tombs of the
most magnificent sort crowded the aisles, enshrining the relics of saints
and bishops, but during the raging of the Terror the Revolutionists
violated these tombs, seizing their treasures, breaking down with ax and
hammer their carvings.
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