Renaud de Cormont

Renaud de Cormont was a French Gothic Era master-mason and architect who worked on the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Amiens after his father, Thomas de Cormont, who is believed to have been a disciple of Robert de Luzarches. There is speculation that Thomas may have been Robert's disciple. Renaud de Cormont, continued his fathers work on Notre-Dame of Amiens in the 1240s, believed to bring a form of architectural revolution to upper transept and upper choir of Amiens Cathedral through his introduction of a glazed triforium, openwork flyers, and new decorative forms. Renaud altered the eastern wall of the transept and upper levels of the choir into an ornate glass box held by extremely thin flyers. This failed monumentally: the triforium had to be replaced, the tracery panels on the flyers crumbled and the transept roses failed. Of more concern was the fact that the entire eastern half of the building needed to be held up using wooden beams, iron chain, masonry spines and an additional rank of flyers. Because of this, art historians have likened him to an Icarus whose defective work on the upper transept and choir led to a near disaster, likely a play on the fact that the center of Amines Cathedral contains a labyrinth designed on the floor and his father, or Daedalus in this case, had worked on the cathedral before him.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Renaud de Cormont". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.