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Contemplation and Splendor
Architecture of Truth:
The Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet
by Lucien Hervé
Phaidon Press, 2001, 160 pages
During a recent trip to Germany I had the opportunity to visit the Eberbach Monastery. Eberbach has some notoriety as the site of some of the interior shots in the film The Name of the Rose, and it is a beautiful complex, laden with a history of prayer, silence, and, I’m sure, it’s share of institutional intrigue. I was impressed mostly by the interplay of light, stone, and empty space, as well as by the unknown minds and hands that conceived and crafted the buildings.
I am no skilled photographer, but a few of the snapshots I took managed to capture the feel of the place. Upon returning home, however, I was glad to find this book, Architecture of Truth, waiting for me. Originally published in the mid-1950s, Architecture of Truth has now been repackaged by Phaidon Press, arranged to follow the monastic hours and with accompanying devotional texts from the Bible and early church writers on monasticism.
A reviewer can only point to the good reasons to invest in this substantial volume. First and foremost, of course, are the photographs. They are, as Le Corbusier points out in a brief introduction, “witnesses to the truth.” Le Thoronet Abbey, built in the twelfth century, is a monument of stone, light, and shadow, and Hervé’s photographs honor those who made it and inhabited it. The viewer can study a single photograph for an extended amount of time and never seem to reach its edge. Each photo seems to be a world unto itself despite our knowledge that we are viewing just a small part of a greater whole.
The choice to design the book after the monastic hours (matins, lauds, terce, etc.) and provide devotional text sets Architecture of Truth apart from books of mere architectural studies. In the hour of lauds, the sun bursts upon the façade and doorway of the monastery lavabo (a small room containing the monastery fountain, which provides water for everyday use), and the accompanying text from St. Ambrose reads:
May the day go by joyously in the morning of purity, in the high noon of faith and without nightfall upon the spirit.
The juxtaposition of image and word supplements the already prayerful tone of the photos and gives the book added potential for readers who desire to put contemplation before architectural and photographic splendor.
Notes and information about the abbey, Cistercian history, and Lucien Hervé complete this stirring package. Architecture of Truth is a beautiful presentation that uniquely and expansively restores to print some of the great architectural photos of the twentieth century.
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