Nicolas Le Mercier - Suspected workmaster (XVI century)
Maybe have worked on the bell tower or the choir.
Origin and history
The Saint-Martin church of Cormeilles-en-Vexin, located in the Vexin Regional Natural Park, is a composite building marking several architectural eras. Its Romanesque nave, dated from the last quarter of the 11th century by most historians, is distinguished by its large arcades with archaic capitals. These elements, as well as the western portal, are among the oldest preserved in Val-d'Oise. The nave was vaulted with warheads about a century after its construction, towards the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century, an intervention that also altered the sides.
The choir, rebuilt in the 13th century under the influence of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, illustrates the Parisian Gothic architecture of the period of Saint Louis. Its elevation on three levels (large arcades, triforium, high windows) and its flat bedside reflect the cannons of the Franciscan school. However, the upper floor of the high windows was not completed until the 16th century, when the bell tower was also raised to dominate the roof of the choir. The structural disorders of the poorly designed bow-buttons necessitated prolonged reinforcements in the 20th century before a complete restoration between 2006 and 2008.
The transept, contemporary of the nave, preserves rare Romanesque vaults in the region: cradle for the crucifixes and ridges for the cross. His 14th century murals, in false apparatus, mask the traces of medieval changes, including the consolidation of the bell tower piles. The crucifixes, initially prominent, were visually integrated into the choir's collaterals after the suppression of their gables in the 14th century. The arches between crusillons and collaterals, reborn in the 16th century, adopt a prismatic profile characteristic of the flamboyant era.
Ranked a historic monument in 1911, the church benefited from several restoration campaigns, notably under the direction of Jules Formigé from 1915. The works included the demolition of a modern porch in front of the western facade (1987), the consolidation of the choir's bows ( 1940s and 1950s), and a major restoration completed in 2008. In spite of these interventions, original elements remain, such as the carved models of the facade or the capitals of the triforium, witness to the radiation of the Abbey of Saint-Denis.
The church houses remarkable furniture, including nine classified elements: 16th–15th century statues (saint Nicholas, Virgin with the Child), a 17th century carved group (Charity of St Martin), and 16th century bas-reliefs integrated into the high altar. These works reflect local devotion and successive artistic influences, from Renaissance to Baroque. Under the Ancien Régime, the parish depended on the archdiocese of Rouen, then became part of the diocese of Versailles after the Revolution, before joining the diocese of Pontoise in 1966.
The western facade, restored in its original Romanesque state, reveals a characteristic sobriety: flat buttresses, bays in the middle of the hangar, and a portal adorned with billets and grimacing heads. Inside, the blind nave contrasts with the luminosity of the choir, whose high windows, inspired by the cathedral of Pontoise, illuminate a vaulted space with light crossovers. The collaterals, unchanged since the 13th century, retain their original warheads and doubles, while the bell tower, mixing Romanesque and Renaissance elements, dominates the building with its geminous berries and its summital egg-eye.
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