(fl. 13th c.). In October 1253, the bishop and chapter of Meaux appointed Gautier de Varinfroy master mason of the cathedral, agreeing to pay an annual salary of ten pounds but forbidding him to stay more than two months per year at Evreux, where he also directed the cathedral workshop. Gautier’s career appears to have been devoted to the restoration and modernization of older buildings: at Evreux, he constructed the triforium and clerestory of the nave above a Romanesque arcade, while at Meaux he converted the four-story choir into a three-story elevation composed of elaborate panels of tracery. Stylistic analysis further suggests that this master mason rebuilt the upper levels of Saint-Pere, Chartres, in the 1240s and restored the western bays of the nave and fagade of Sens cathedral following the collapse of the southwest tower in 1268. Gautier’s insistence on flat, linear effects, his tracery patterns, and pier design remain firmly within the contemporary idiom of Ile-de-France architecture, yet his ability to create smooth transitions between new and older forms demonstrates a remarkable sensitivity and stylistic flexibility.
Michael T. Davis
[See also: EVREUX; MEAUX; SENS]
Branner, Robert. Saint Louis and the Court Style in Gothic Architecture. London: Zwemmer, 1965. Kimpel, Dieter, and Robert Suckale. Die gotische Architektur in Frankreich, 1130-1270. Munich: Hirmer, 1985.
Kurmann, Peter. La cathedrale Saint-Etienne de Meaux. Paris: Droz, 1971.
--. “Gauthier de Varinfroy et le probleme du style personnel d’un architecte au Xllle siecle.” In
Les batisseurs des cathedrales gothiques, ed. Roland Recht. Strasbourg: Editions les Musees de la Ville de Strasbourg, 1989, pp. 186-94.
--, and Dethard von Winterfeld. “Gautier de Varinfroy, ein ‘Denkmalpfleger’ im 13.
Jahrhundert.” In Festschrift fur Otto von Simson zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Lucius Grisebach and Konrad Renger. Berlin: Propylaen, 1977, pp. 101-59.
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