A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Part 14

_a, a_, _Penetrations by small semi-circular vaults sprung from same level_. b, _Intersection by small semi-circular vault sprung from higher level; groins form wavy lines_. c, _Intersection by narrow pointed vault sprung from same level; groins are plane curves_.]

+THE POINTED ARCH+ was adopted to remedy the difficulties encountered in the construction of oblong vaults. It is obvious that where a narrow semi-cylindrical vault intersects a wide one, it produces either what are called _penetrations_, as at a (Fig. 109), or intersections like that at b, both of which are awkward in aspect and hard to construct.

If, however, one or both vaults be given a pointed section, the narrow vault may be made as high as the wide one. It is then possible, with but little warping of the vaulting surfaces, to make them intersect in groins c, which are vertical plane curves instead of wavy loops like a and b.

The Gothic architects availed themselves to the full of these two devices. They built their groin-ribs of semi-circular or pointed form, but the wall-ribs and the transverse ribs were, without exception, pointed arches of such curvature as would bring the apex of each nearly or quite to the level of the groin intersection. The pointed arch, thus introduced as the most convenient form for the vaulting-ribs, was soon applied to other parts of the structure. This was a necessity with the windows and pier-arches, which would not otherwise fit well the wall-s.p.a.ces under the wall-ribs of the nave and aisle vaulting.

+TRACERY AND GLa.s.s.+ With the growth in the size of the windows and the progressive suppression of the lateral walls of vaulted structures, stained gla.s.s came more and more generally into use. Its introduction not only resulted in a notable heightening and enriching of the colors and scheme of the interior decoration, but reacted on the architecture, intensifying the very causes which led to its introduction. It stimulated the increase in the size of windows, and the suppression of the walls, and contributed greatly to the development of _tracery_. This latter feature was an absolute necessity for the support of the gla.s.s.

Its evolution can be traced (Figs, 110, 111, 112) from the simple coupling of twin windows under a single hood-mould, or discharging arch, to the florid net-work of the fifteenth century. In its earlier forms it consisted merely of decorative openings, circles, and quatrefoils, pierced through slabs of stone (_plate-tracery_), filling the window-heads over coupled windows. Later attention was bestowed upon the form of the stonework, which was made lighter and richly moulded (_bar-tracery_), rather than upon that of the openings (Fig. 111). Then the circular and geometric patterns employed were abandoned for more flowing and capricious designs (_Flamboyant_ tracery, Fig. 112) or (in England) for more rigid and rectangular arrangements (_Perpendicular_, Fig. 134). It will be shown later that the periods and styles of Gothic architecture are more easily identified by the tracery than by any other feature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 110.--PLATE TRACERY, CHARLTON-ON-OXMORE.]

+CHURCH PLANS.+ The original basilica-plan underwent radical modifications during the 12th-15th centuries. These resulted in part from the changes in construction which have been described, and in part from altered ecclesiastical conditions and requirements. Gothic church architecture was based on cathedral design; and the requirements of the cathedral differed in many respects from those of the monastic churches of the preceding period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 111--BAR TRACERY, ST. MICHAEL'S, WARFIELD.]

The most important alterations in the plan were in the choir and transepts. The choir was greatly lengthened, the transepts often shortened. The choir was provided with two and often four side-aisles, and one or both of these was commonly carried entirely around the apsidal termination of the choir, forming a single or double _ambulatory_. This combination of choir, apse, and ambulatory was called, in French churches, the _chevet_.

Another advance upon Romanesque models was the multiplication of chapels--a natural consequence of the more popular character of the cathedral as compared with the abbey. Frequently lateral chapels were built at each bay of the side-aisles, filling up the s.p.a.ce between the deep b.u.t.tresses, flanking the nave as well as the choir. They were also carried around the _chevet_ in most of the French cathedrals (Paris, Bourges, Reims, Amiens, Beauvais, and many others); in many of those in Germany (Magdeburg, Cologne, Frauenkirche at Treves), Spain (Toledo, Leon, Barcelona, Segovia, etc.), and Belgium (Tournay, Antwerp). In England the choir had more commonly a square eastward termination.

Secondary transepts occur frequently, and these peculiarities, together with the narrowness and great length of most of the plans, make of the English cathedrals a cla.s.s by themselves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 112.--ROSE WINDOW, CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, ROUEN.]

+PROPORTIONS AND COMPOSITION.+ Along with these modifications of the basilican plan should be noticed a great increase in the height and slenderness of all parts of the structure. The lofty clearstory, the arcaded triforium-pa.s.sage or gallery beneath it, the high pointed pier-arches, the multiplication of slender cl.u.s.tered shafts, and the reduction in the area of the piers, gave to the Gothic churches an interior aspect wholly different from that of the simpler, lower, and more ma.s.sive Romanesque edifices. The perspective effects of the plans thus modified, especially of the complex choir and _chevet_ with their lateral and radial chapels, were remarkably enriched and varied.

The exterior was even more radically transformed by these changes, and by the addition of towers and spires to the fronts, and sometimes to the transepts and to their intersection with the nave. The deep b.u.t.tresses, terminating in pinnacles, the rich traceries of the great lateral windows, the triple portals profusely sculptured, rose-windows of great size under the front and transept gables, combined to produce effects of marvellously varied light and shadow, and of complex and elaborate structural beauty, totally unlike the broad simplicity of the Romanesque exteriors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 113.--FLAMBOYANT DETAIL FROM PULPIT IN STRASBURG CATHEDRAL.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 114.--EARLY GOTHIC CARVING.]

+DECORATIVE DETAIL.+ The mediaeval designers aimed to enrich every constructive feature with the most effective play of lights and shades, and to embody in the decorative detail the greatest possible amount of allegory and symbolism, and sometimes of humor besides. The deep jambs and soffits of doors and pier-arches were moulded with a rich succession of hollow and convex members, and adorned with carvings of saints, apostles, martyrs, and angels. Virtues and vices, allegories of reward and punishment, and an extraordinary world of monstrous and grotesque beasts, devils, and goblins filled the capitals and door-arches, peeped over tower-parapets, or leered and grinned from gargoyles and corbels.

Another source of decorative detail was the application of tracery like that of the windows to wall-panelling, to bal.u.s.trades, to open-work gables, to spires, to choir-screens, and other features, especially in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (cathedrals of York, Rouen, Cologne; Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster). And finally in the carving of capitals and the ornamentation of mouldings the artists of the thirteenth century and their successors abandoned completely the cla.s.sic models and traditions which still survived in the early twelfth century.

The later monastic builders began to look directly to nature for suggestions of decorative form. The lay builders who sculptured the capitals and crockets and finials of the early Gothic cathedrals adopted and followed to its finality this principle of recourse to nature, especially to plant life. At first the budding shoots of early spring were freely imitated or skilfully conventionalized, as being by their thick and vigorous forms the best adapted for translation into stone (Fig. 114). During the thirteenth century the more advanced stages of plant growth, and leaves more complex and detailed, furnished the models for the carver, who displayed his skill in a closer and more literal imitation of their minute veinings and indentations (Fig. 115). This artistic adaptation of natural forms to architectural decoration degenerated later into a minutely realistic copying of natural foliage, in which cleverness of execution took the place of original invention.

The spirit of display is characteristic of all late Gothic work.

Slenderness, minuteness of detail, extreme complexity and intricacy of design, an unrestrained profusion of decoration covering every surface, a lack of largeness and vigor in the conceptions, are conspicuous traits of Gothic design in the fifteenth century, alike in France, England, Germany, Spain, and the Low Countries. Having worked out to their conclusion the structural principles bequeathed to them by the preceding centuries, the authors of these later works seemed to have devoted themselves to the elaboration of mere decorative detail, and in technical finish surpa.s.sed all that had gone before (Fig. 113).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 115.--CARVING, DECORATED PERIOD, FROM SOUTHWELL MINSTER.]

+CHARACTERISTICS SUMMARIZED.+ In the light of the preceding explanations Gothic architecture may be defined as that system of structural design and decoration which grew up out of the effort to combine, in one harmonious and organic conception, the basilican plan with a complete and systematic construction of groined vaulting. Its development was controlled throughout by considerations of stability and structural propriety, but in the application of these considerations the artistic spirit was allowed full scope for its exercise. Refinement, good taste, and great fertility of imagination characterize the details and ornaments of Gothic structures. While the Greeks in harmonizing the requirements of utility and beauty in architecture approached the problem from the aesthetic side, the Gothic architects did the same from the structural side. Their admirably reasoned structures express as perfectly the idea of vastness, mystery, and complexity as do the Greek temples that of simplicity and monumental repose.

The excellence of Gothic architecture lay not so much in its individual details as in its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it was developed--its triumphs were achieved in the building of cathedrals and large churches. In the domain of civil and domestic architecture it produced nothing comparable with its ecclesiastical edifices, because it was the requirements of the cathedral and not of the palace, town-hall, or dwelling, that gave it its form and character.

+PERIODS.+ The history of Gothic architecture is commonly divided into three periods, which are most readily distinguished by the character of the window-tracery. These periods were not by any means synchronous in the different countries; but the order of sequence was everywhere the same. They are here given, with a summary of the characteristics of each.

EARLY POINTED PERIOD. [_Early French_; _Early English_ or _Lancet_ Period in England; _Early German_, etc.] Simple groined vaults; general simplicity and vigor of design and detail; conventionalized foliage of small plants; plate tracery, and narrow windows coupled under pointed arch with circular foiled openings in the window-head. (In France, 1160 to 1275.)

MIDDLE POINTED PERIOD. [_Rayonnant_ in France; _Decorated_ or _Geometric_ in England.] Vaults more perfect; in England multiple ribs and liernes; greater slenderness and loftiness of proportions; decoration much richer, less vigorous; more naturalistic carving of mature foliage; walls nearly suppressed, windows of great size, bar tracery with slender moulded or columnar mullions and geometric combinations (circles and cusps) in window-heads, circular (rose) windows. (In France, 1275 to 1375.)

FLORID GOTHIC PERIOD. [_Flamboyant_ in France; _Perpendicular_ in England.] Vaults of varied and richly decorated design; fan-vaulting and pendants in England, vault-ribs curved into fanciful patterns in Germany and Spain; profuse and minute decoration and cleverness of technical execution subst.i.tuted for dignity of design; highly realistic carving and sculpture, flowing or flamboyant tracery in France; perpendicular bars with horizontal transoms and four-centred arches in England; "branch-tracery" in Germany. (In France, 1375 to 1525.)

CHAPTER XVI.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Adamy, Corroyer, Enlart, Hasak, Moore, Reber, Viollet-le-Duc.[20] Also Chapuy, _Le moyen age monumental_. Chateau, _Histoire et caracteres de l'architecture francaise_. Davies, _Architectural Studies in France_. Ferree, _The Chronology of the Cathedral Churches of France_. Johnson, _Early French Architecture_. King, _The Study book of Mediaeval Architecture and Art_. La.s.sus and Viollet-le-Duc, _Notre Dame de Paris_. Nesfield, _Specimens of Mediaeval Architecture_. Pett.i.t, _Architectural Studies in France_.

[Footnote 20: Consult especially articles ARCHITECTURE, CATHeDRALE, CHAPELLE, CONSTRUCTION, eGLISE, MAISON, VOuTE.]

+CATHEDRAL-BUILDING IN FRANCE.+ In the development of the principles outlined in the foregoing chapter the church-builders of France led the way. They surpa.s.sed all their contemporaries in readiness of invention, in quickness and directness of reasoning, and in artistic refinement.

These qualities were especially manifested in the extraordinary architectural activity which marked the second half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth. This was the great age of cathedral-building in France. The adhesion of the bishops to the royal cause, and their position in popular estimation as the champions of justice and human rights, led to the rapid advance of the episcopacy in power and influence. The cathedral, as the throne-church of the bishop, became a truly popular inst.i.tution. New cathedrals were founded on every side, especially in the Royal Domain and the adjoining provinces of Normandy, Burgundy, and Champagne, and their construction was warmly seconded by the people, the communes, and the munic.i.p.alities. "Nothing to-day," says Viollet-le-Duc,[21] "unless it be the commercial movement which has covered Europe with railway lines, can give an idea of the zeal with which the urban populations set about building cathedrals; ...

a necessity at the end of the twelfth century because it was an energetic protest against feudalism." The collapse of the unscientific Romanesque vaulting of some of the earlier cathedrals and the destruction by fire of others stimulated this movement by the necessity for their immediate rebuilding. The entire reconstruction of the cathedrals of Bayeux, Bayonne, Cambray, Evreux, Laon, Lisieux, Le Mans, Noyon, Poitiers, Senlis, Soissons, and Troyes was begun between 1130 and 1200.[22] The cathedrals of Bourges, Chartres, Paris, and Tours, and the abbey of St. Denis, all of the first importance, were begun during the same period, and during the next quarter-century those of Amiens, Auxerre, Rouen, Reims, Seez, and many others. After 1250 the movement slackened and finally ceased. Few important cathedrals were erected during the latter half of the thirteenth century, the chief among them being at Beauvais (actively begun 1247), Clermont, Coutances, Limoges, Narbonne, and Rodez. During this period, and through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, French architecture was concerned rather with the completion and remodelling of existing cathedrals than the founding of new ones. There were, however, many important parish churches and civil or domestic edifices erected within this period.

[Footnote 21: _Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture francaise_, vol. ii., pp. 280, 281.]

[Footnote 22: See Ferree, _Chronology of Cathedral Churches of France_.]

+STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT: VAULTING.+ By the middle of the twelfth century the use of barrel-vaulting over the nave had been generally abandoned and groined vaulting with its isolated points of support and resistance had taken its place. The timid experiments of the Clunisian architects at Vezelay in the use of the pointed arch and vault-ribs also led, in the second half of the twelfth century, to far-reaching results. The builders of the great +Abbey Church+ of +St. Denis+, near Paris, begun in 1140 by the Abbot Suger, appear to have been the first to develop these tentative devices into a system. In the original choir of this n.o.ble church all the arches, alike of the vault-ribs (except the groin-ribs, which were semi-circles) and of the openings, were pointed and the vaults were throughout constructed with cross-ribs, wall-ribs, and groin-ribs. Of this early work only the chapels remain. In other contemporary monuments, as for instance in the cathedral of Sens, the adoption of these devices was only partial and hesitating.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 116--PLAN OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 117.--INTERIOR OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS.]

+NOTRE DAME AT PARIS.+ The next great step in advance was taken in the cathedral of +Notre Dame+[23] at Paris (Figs. 116, 117, 125). This was begun, under Maurice de Sully in 1163, on the site of the twin cathedrals of Ste. Marie and St. etienne, and the choir was, as usual, the first portion erected. By 1196 the choir, transepts, and one or two bays of the nave were substantially finished. The completeness, harmony, and vigor of conception of this remarkable church contrast strikingly with the makeshifts and hesitancy displayed in many contemporary monuments in other provinces. The difficult vaulting over the radiating bays of the double ambulatory was here treated with great elegance. By doubling the number of supports in the exterior circuit of each aisle (Fig. 116) each trapezoidal bay of the vaulting was divided into three easily managed triangular compartments. Circular shafts were used between the central and side aisles. The side aisles were doubled and those next the centre were built in two stories, providing ample galleries behind a very open triforium. The nave was unusually lofty and covered with six-part vaults of admirable execution. The vault-ribs were vigorously moulded and each made to spring from a distinct vaulting-shaft, of which three rested upon the cap of each of the ma.s.sive piers below (Fig. 117). The +Cathedral+ of +Bourges+, begun 1190, closely resembled that of Paris in plan. Both were designed to accommodate vast throngs in their exceptionally broad central aisles and double side aisles, but Bourges has no side-aisle galleries, though the inner aisles are much loftier than the outer ones. Though later in date the vaulting of Bourges is inferior to that of Notre Dame, especially in the treatment of the trapezoidal bays of the ambulatory.

[Footnote 23: This cathedral will be hereafter referred to, for the sake of brevity, by the name of _Notre Dame_. Other cathedrals having the same name will be distinguished by the addition of the name of the city, as "Notre Dame at Clermont-Ferrand."]

The masterly examples set by the vault-builders of St. Denis and Notre Dame were not at once generally followed. Noyon, Senlis, and Soissons, contemporary with these, are far less completely Gothic in style. At +Le Mans+ the groined vaulting which in 1158 was subst.i.tuted for the original barrel-vault of the cathedral is of very primitive design, singularly heavy and awkward, although nearly contemporary with that of Notre Dame (Fig. 118).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 118.--LE MANS CATHEDRAL. NAVE.]

+DOMICAL GROINED VAULTING.+ The builders of the South and West, influenced by Aquitanian models, adhered to the square plan and domical form of vaulting-bay, even after they had begun to employ groin-ribs.

The latter, as at first used by them in imitation of Northern examples, had no organic function in the vault, which was still built like a dome.

About 1145-1160 the cathedral of +St. Maurice+ at +Angers+ was vaulted with square, groin-ribbed vaults, domical in form but not in construction. The joints no longer described horizontal circles as in a dome, but oblique lines perpendicular to the groins and meeting in zigzag lines at the ridge (Fig. 119). This method became common in the West and was afterward generally adopted by the English architects. The +Cathedrals+ of +Poitiers+ (1162) and +Laval+ (La Trinite, 1180-1185) are examples of this system, which at Le Mans met with the Northern system and produced in the cathedral the awkward compromise described above.