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Art and spirituality: questions about religious iconography

Keywords: Abbey of Saint-Denis, Gothic Architecture, Medieval Philosophy, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Suger of Saint-Denis.

This essay analyses Abbot Suger’s (1081-1151) spiritual work at the rebuilding of the entrance and the choir of the Abbey of Saint-Denis (1130/1137-1144). We based our research on his writings On the Consecration of the Church of Saint-Denis and On What Was Done under His Administration, as well as on the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Furthermore, the remnant physical structure of the church was analysed to strengthen the concepts advocated by the Abbot of Saint-Denis. Our intention was to demonstrate that in supervising the rebuilding of his abbey, Suger used Art and Architecture to communicate his spiritual beliefs based on the metaphysics of the light: the spirits would ascend from the material world, thanks to Christian contemplation, to the immaterial world, towards the Light.