The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

by

Victor Hugo

Romanesque/Neo-classicist Term Analysis

Romanesque architecture is architecture in the style of ancient Rome and refers to pre-Christian and pre-medieval architecture. Hugo notes that this style of architecture (which used rounded arches and simple, harmonious designs) predated Gothic architecture which became popular in the medieval period, when the novel is set. Neo-classicist architecture refers to the style of architecture that became fashionable after the medieval period, when Gothic architecture had fallen out of fashion. It is referred to as Neo-classicist (new Classical) because it imitates the earlier Romanesque style but adds modern elements to it. Gothic, medieval architecture was considered unfashionable for a long time after the medieval period, until the early 19th century when writers like Victor Hugo revived public interest in it.

Romanesque/Neo-classicist Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The The Hunchback of Notre Dame quotes below are all either spoken by Romanesque/Neo-classicist or refer to Romanesque/Neo-classicist. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

Gringoire was what today we would call a true eclectic, one of those elevated, steady, moderate, calm spirits who manage always to steer a middle course […] and are full of reason and liberal philosophy, while yet making due allowance for cardinals […] They are to be found, quite unchanging, in every age, that is, ever in conformity with the times.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Related Symbols: Notre Dame
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

There was something about this spectacle which made the head spin, it had some peculiar power to bewitch and intoxicate hard to convey to a reader of our own day and from our own salons. Picture to yourself a succession of faces displaying all the known geometrical shapes one after the other, from triangle to trapezium, from cone to polyhedron; every known human expression, from anger to lust; every age of man, from the wrinkles of the newly born to the wrinkles of the dying crone; a whole religious phantasmagoria, from Faunus to Beelzebub; every kind of animal profile, from jaws to beaks and from muzzles to snouts. It was as if all those mascarons on the Pont-Neuf, nightmares turned to stone by the hand of Germain Pilon, had taken on life and breath and had come, one by one.

Related Characters: Jacques Coppenole
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 4 Quotes

Had Gringoire lived in our own day, how beautifully he would have bisected the Classics and Romantics!

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

[…] a vast symphony in stone, as it were; the colossal handiwork of a man and a people, a whole both one and complex, like its sisters, the Iliad and the Romanceros; the prodigious sum contributed by all the resources of an age where, on every stone, you can see, standing out in a hundred ways, the imagination of the workman, disciplined by the genius of the artist; a sort of human creation, in short, as powerful and as fecund as that divine creation whose twin characteristics of variety and eternity it seems to have purloined.

Related Symbols: Notre Dame
Page Number: 123-124
Explanation and Analysis:

And what we have said here of the facade has to be said of the church as a whole; and what we have said of the cathedral church of Paris has to be said of all the churches of medieval Christendom. Everything is of a piece in this logical, well-proportioned art, which originated in itself. To measure the toe is to measure the giant.

Related Symbols: Notre Dame
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:
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Romanesque/Neo-classicist Term Timeline in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The timeline below shows where the term Romanesque/Neo-classicist appears in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 3, Chapter 1
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge Theme Icon
Justice, Punishment, and Freedom Theme Icon
Notre Dame is not a purely Gothic cathedral—it is a synthesis of the Romanesque and the Gothic, medieval style. It was built after the decline in Romanesque architecture but... (full context)
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge Theme Icon
...architecture. The architecture of “Christian Europe,” for example, can be split into three periods: the Romanesque, the Gothic, and the Renaissance. The Romanesque is the oldest, the Gothic came next, and... (full context)
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
Appearances, Alienation, and Hypocrisy Theme Icon
...architectural changes only affect the outsides of churches, however. The interior design of churches remains Romanesque throughout and reflects continuity in the style of Christian worship. In this sense, the inside... (full context)
Book 3, Chapter 2
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
In 1482, the design of Paris only contained two styles of architecture—the Romanesque and the Gothic—so everything in the city looked balanced and like it belonged together. The... (full context)
Book 5, Chapter 2
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge Theme Icon
Architecture changes with society. Early Christian architecture was Romanesque because it was based on the ruins of Rome. These Romanesque churches became symbol of... (full context)