a neat description is something else

yay, Ive just finished the first draft for my description of the whole St.Martin-des-Champs business. It was well hard and still needs alot of time to be spent on. Unfortunately the whole building is extremely irregular in its detailed forms and also geometrically not very straight. Basicly, I had to describe every little base and vault and arch and bay and .. well, I didnt really, but maybe I should have. Ive done a middle thing, I think, But its not very accurate yet. Just soemthign to work on. Still its a big first step towards a written scientific text that will need to be handed in at some point in the not too distant future.

The advantages of that detailed decription are manifold: firstly, I had to look at the whole thing for a long time, in order to recognize patterns or systems, had to check every detail in every bay, on every pillar, to make sure if it was the same, to find out which columns is carrying which rib and so on. In a way, its the first time Ive conciously looked at the building really thoroughly. Secondly, based on this detailed inspection I can now start to analyze the differences and regularities, maybe distinguish some links within the building in order to get a sequence of building, or also links to other buildings that have similar forms at a similar point of time in the 12th century. And then you always should not only provide the reader with good illustrations of the work of art youre talking about, but at the same time give a neat description of the whole thing, in order to point out the standard elements as well as the specialities.

Admitteldly, my description is not that neat yet, but I will work on it very soon.


PS: And Ive just received news that a 15 pages text about the 1916 works is waiting for me at the library!