Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul Part 7

Where the uniformity of the fronts is broken by the projecting transepts and chapels, it is broken after one manner, so that when you have seen the north side you have seen the south, excepting for the above-mentioned difference caused by the slope.

The North and South Fronts are approached by flights of steps of black marble. The steps on the north side are twelve in number, and are reached from the whole semi-circle; on the south side they are twenty-five in number, and are reached from the ends, the front having a low wall. Here, the flanking urns on either side afford another instance of the disregard of Wren's wishes. The difference in the number of the steps is caused by the slope towards the Thames, and is interesting as affording an instance of a difference between the two fronts. The Corinthian pillars, of the full diameter of four feet, cleverly support the semi-circular entablature above, which is part of the general entablature continued all round. These porticoes have semi-dome shaped roofs, and are flanked on either side by the windows of the transept aisles. The central windows above the porticoes are slightly larger than the others, and have niches on either side. Above these are triangular pediments, and above these again, and in alignment along the bal.u.s.trade, are statues of ten of the Apostles--five to each front. The sculpture on the northern pediment depicts the royal arms, with angels bearing palm branches for supporters, and on the southern is a Phoenix with the motto "Resurgam."

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTH-EAST VIEW OF ST. PAUL'S.]

By universal consent these facades are admirable in the justness of their proportions, and the harmonious way in which they blend both with the west front and the entire building. Caius Gabriel Cibber received six pounds for modelling and a hundred pounds for carving the Phoenix.

=The East End.=--The Apse was intended for the reception of the altar.

It has three windows in either stage. Underneath the lower central window is a crown, with cypher of William and Mary, surrounded by the garter. This device was intended to show in whose reign the choir was built. It was probably correct when put up; but poor Mary died before the completion. The apse is of the breadth of the centre, and on either side are the windows of the aisles, while the central one in the bas.e.m.e.nt belongs to the Crypt Chapel. There is nothing very striking or remarkable in this part, the details being similar to the rest of the church. Very different is the case with our next feature of interest.

=The West Front.=--The best view is that from the direct front; but by looking from the north or south-west the conjunction of the chapels comes in sight, and the spectator can judge for himself whether or no, so far as the exterior is concerned, they are any improvement. A few additional dimensions are necessary. The summits of the towers are 222 feet high; the statue of St. Paul above the apex of the pediment is 135 feet. I have already given prominence to the cause of the defeat of Wren's original conception of one main order and an attic, namely, that he could not get blocks of stone of a sufficient size. The Approved Design, so far as the colonnade is concerned, seems to have been borrowed from the portico of Inigo Jones. The dimensions of the blocks had been discovered, yet there was only one order of columns, with a second story of three windows, and supported by Inigo Jones'

harp-shaped b.u.t.tresses; the only b.u.t.tresses that Wren even wished to have visible. Now, the old portico was not cleared away until 1686; and the west front was built after Wren's taste and judgment had been given time to ripen. In consequence we have a complete revolution, so far as the Approved Design is concerned, and something infinitely more n.o.ble and dignified; and we may congratulate ourselves that his blocks of stone were no larger, so that he produced two orders of columns. At St. Peter's, where marble of 9 feet (8-1/4 only according to more recent accounts) was used, the pillars have a shaft of 74 feet, not including capital or base, and the highest statue is 175 feet from the base, as compared with the 135 feet of St. Paul's.[84] Yet Wren, by resorting to two orders of columns, has so increased his apparent height, that those who have compared the two, a.s.sert that the west front of St. Paul's _appears_ to be as high as St. Peter's.

In the lower order the columns are twelve in number, fluted and in pairs. Claude Perrault had recently adopted this method of coupling in the eastern facade of the Louvre, as is duly acknowledged in the "Parentalia." According to Stephen Wren, it "_is not according to the usual Mode of the_ Ancients _in their ordinary Temples, which for the generality were small; but was followed in their Coloss or greater Works; for instance, in the Portico of the_ Temple of Peace, _the most magnificent in old_ Rome, _the Columns were very properly and necessarily doubled to make wider openings._" Italian buildings are likewise cited. The columns project slightly in advance of the Front; and as the central part with the great doorway is recessed some twenty feet, a depth of shadow is produced in the p.r.o.naos.

As the great doorway for "Solemnities" requires a wider opening in front than the two side ones in daily use, the two central pairs are placed _Eustyle_--_i.e._, with a supposed s.p.a.ce between of two and a half diameters--while the rest are placed _Pycnostyle_--one and a half diameters.[85] In the second story, owing to the towers above, the outside couples are displaced by pilasters; and the eight remaining columns support the architrave and cornice, and the great triangular pediment above of seventy-four feet in breadth and eighteen in height.

On this is represented in bas-relief the Conversion of St. Paul. Saul of Tarsus still seated on his horse, which is crouching on the ground, looks up at the rays of light; and the alarmed escort are trying to control their frightened steeds. In the distance is Damascus. The sculpture is the work of Francis Bird, and he was paid for it the handsome sum of 650. The statue on the apex is that of the patronal saint; the two near him are those of St. Peter and St. James, while the four more remote are those of the Evangelists, with their emblems taken from Rev. iv. 7.

The Towers, with their Italian details, complete the Facade. They consist of five stages besides the domes, of which the two lower correspond with the rest of the front. The third is pierced with circular openings, which in the southern are filled up with the faces of the clock. The fourth is transitional between the square and the octagon; from each angle of the square below spring two pairs of Corinthian columns, half-concealing, half-revealing the supports of the small domes. The fifth is an octagon, with two orders of open arches in each face, and an exterior arcading, urn-shaped pedestals being freely adopted as in the stage below. The domes, the pine of which was modelled by Francis Bird, is designed with curves of contrary flexure for the purpose of adding to the height. Mr. Longman likens these towers to Alpine aiguilles, and points out how picturesquely they form outposts to the great ma.s.s of the dome.

Both towers are used as campaniles. The north contains the "five minutes" bell, and the new peal, numbering twelve. The southern contains the three bells on which the clock is struck; and the largest of these, weighing 5 tons 4 cwt., is the pa.s.sing bell on great occasions. On June 3, 1882, the citizens heard for the first time their new Great Paul. This monster, weighing nearly seventeen tons, came from the foundry of Messrs. Taylor, at Loughborough, and its progress by road was duly chronicled like that of some great personage. It was placed in the south tower, and is reckoned amongst the largest bells in the world. Part of the magnificent railings, cast without the use of coal, at Lamberhurst on the Kent and Suss.e.x border, have been removed, and, after suffering shipwreck, now enclose a monument at Toronto. We can but regret that some second home was not found in London for such a specimen of an extinct industry: but the throwing open of the area, so that justice might be done to the view of the cathedral, is in strict accordance with Wren's views. So is the present arrangement of the steps. In the landing the red marble is from Laconia, in Southern Greece, the dark grey from Porto Venere, near La Spezia, in Italy, and the granite from Shap, in Westmoreland.

Posterity may be thankful that Wren was allowed a free hand in departing from the Accepted Design, and in carrying out his more fully developed conceptions. The well worked out designs of the different parts and details, and the combination of these into one harmonious whole with the dome for a background, leave nothing to be desired.[86]

Before leaving, the visitor may stand by Queen Anne's statue and reflect that near that very spot was erected the scaffold on which suffered Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wynter, John Grant, and Thomas Bates, for their share in the Gunpowder Plot. Digby was said to have been the handsomest man of his day. He died "penitent and sorrowful for his vile treason," as did all save Grant.

=The Dome.=--To the end, Wren's wish seems to have been to have made the external height no greater than was required by the formation of the internal cupola. "_The old Church having had before a very lofty Spire of Timber and Lead, the World expected that the new Work should not in this Respect fall short of the old (tho' that was but a Spit and this a Mountain). He was therefore obliged to comply with the Humour of the Age, (though not with ancient Example, as neither did Bramante) and to raise another Structure over the first Cupola._"

Stephen might have said _two_ other structures. Not only did Wren wish the interior height to be somewhat less, so as to make it more perfect for the purpose of an auditorium, but he thought any greater exterior height unnecessary, and would have finished off the exterior elevation in some other way.

As matters eventuated, he raised the internal sphere so that the disproportion with the external might be reduced. The whole dome has three sh.e.l.ls. (_a_) The majestic exterior visible to the eye, an outward roof of wood covered with lead and ribbed for the sake of ornament. (_b_) The intermediate brick cone which supports the lantern and its accessories of 700 tons weight. This springs from the level of the stone gallery, and rises in straight lines which converge at the circular opening beneath the lantern. This, although seen neither from the outside or from within, const.i.tutes the most solid and substantial part. Between this and the outside visible sh.e.l.l is an ingenious network of beams supporting the latter, and at the base of this network a strengthening of which the account had better be given in Stephen's own words: "_Altho' the Dome wants not Butment, yet for greater Caution, it is hooped with Iron in this Manner; a Chanel is cut in the Bandage of Portland-Stone, in which is laid a double Chain of Iron strongly linked together at every ten Feet, and the whole Chanel filled up with Lead._"[87] (_c_) The interior dome, also of brick. The height of this third and smallest sh.e.l.l reaches only to the level of the curved lines of the fluted patterns of the exterior sh.e.l.l, a difference of from fifty to sixty feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTION OF THE DOME.]

Since the outside cupola does not bear the heavy weight of the lantern it has been denounced as a sham, but this is an exaggeration. It is evident, as we look at it, that it is incapable of bearing any such weight. Much more practical is the objection of Gwilt that the elaborate framework of beams supporting this outside cover is certain to decay in course of time. A third objection is that of deception--the exterior and interior are presumed to be one and the same. This is not correct. Neither roof nor steeple is a.s.sumed to have such correspondence, and Wren might surely be allowed a like liberty with his dome. As Mr. Wightwick very properly says, it will be time enough to find fault when the roofs of churches are the same outside as within.

The Romans are credited with first applying the Dome to larger buildings. It travelled eastward to Constantinople, and was in use in Italy during mediaeval times. The word "Dome" is derived from the _Duomo_ of Florence, where Brunelleschi covered in the octagon with his famous cupola in the earlier part of the fifteenth century.[88]

But Wren's particular study was the Pantheon, which we have no evidence whatever that he saw; and, indeed, he erected his dome without having ever seen, so far as we know, anything like it.

A few words will suffice for the main features. The first stage of the superstructure is the Stylobate, of 25 feet in height and some 140 to 145 feet in diameter. The next, the Peristyle or Colonnade which lights up the interior. It has thirty-two Composite columns of a height of 38 feet, including the pedestals. Every fourth intercolumnation is filled up with an ornamental niche (if the term be allowable for a recess of the size) to hide the supports behind. This alternation, while it agreeably affects the play of light and shade, yet allows a partial glimpse of the supports. Why could not Wren have done as much with his curtain wall? Above the peristyle comes the Stone Gallery with its bal.u.s.trade--a great attraction for visitors--just about half-way up to the summit of the cross. Here the diameter decreases by the breadth of the gallery to 108 feet, and the Tholobate[89] rises. It has pilasters, with lights between, in the upper parts. Above is the outer dome proper--the spherical part--with a further contraction to 102 feet. Wren had the advantage of St.

Peter's to profit by, and abstained from inserting the "luthern"

lights of the larger edifice. The absence of these and the ribbing of the lead coating was, in his opinion, "less Gothic." The lights, again, could not easily have been reached for repairs; and if left unrepaired would have been the means of causing injury to the supporting timbers underneath. The effect, no doubt, is better, and the lighting above and below sufficient for the stairs leading to the lantern.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. S.B. Bolas & Co._ THE LANTERN, FROM THE CLOCK TOWER.]

=The Lantern.=--The Golden Gallery is almost exactly a hundred feet above the Stone Gallery. The Lantern is an elegant and graceful piece of design and workmanship, and consists of three square stages, each of them with lights and with recesses (or chamfered, so to speak) at the angles. The second has Corinthian columns, which must be fifteen feet in height, and a plain entablature, and some more urn-shaped pedestals. The third is completed with a miniature dome, and has upper and lower lights in each face. Standing immediately underneath, or by Nelson's tomb in the Crypt, these lights produce a striking and almost unique effect. The present gilt ball and cross, which crown the edifice, replaced the originals of Francis Bird, being put up by c.o.c.kerell--the then Clerk to the Works--in 1821. The extreme height is from 363 to 365 feet, and in 1848 the Ordnance Survey placed a "crow's nest" against the cross for the purpose of observations from the highest attainable point.

Miss Lucy Phillimore has published a paper of Wren's in which the Surveyor remarks that for the architect it is necessary "_in a conspicuous Work to preserve His Undertaking from general censure, and so for him to accommodate his Designs to the Geist of the Age he lives in, though it appear to him less rational_." As regards the height of the dome, we are the gainers because he was compelled to do this. It is not, indeed, the whole of St. Paul's or its only important feature; for St. Paul's is not a Byzantine church in which the dome is practically not a part, but the whole. It is the most magnificent member of a magnificent building, and with its graceful equipoise and conscious evidence of stability stands alone and in a cla.s.s by itself amongst the cathedral superstructures of the land.

FOOTNOTES:

[69] Fergusson's "History on the Modern Styles of Architecture," p.

243. The Pantheon at Rome as restored A.D. 202 was, or rather is, a rotunda with a portico. The rotunda, according to Fergusson ("Handbook," p. 311), is about 125 feet in internal diameter, and an external elevation of about 150 feet. The Basilica of Maxentius, or Temple of Peace, may have been finished in the reign of Constantine (Maxentius, A.D. 311-312; Constantine the Great, 325-337). The ruins show an oblong of 265 feet by 195 feet in internal measurement, including aisles. The whole length is divided into only three bays ("Handbook," p. 319). Fergusson should have added St. Peter's at Rome, which exercised such an influence over Wren. This immense building has, in the exterior, only one Order and an Attic. All three have the round arch.

[70] Fergusson, "Modern Architecture," p. 390.

[71] An _Attic_ is a small story above the cornice, or princ.i.p.al elevation of a building. [The same would read better by subst.i.tuting "story" for "elevation".] An _Attic order_ is an inferior order of architecture, used over the princ.i.p.al order of a building. It never has columns, but, sometimes, small pilasters. (Longman, note, p. 164.) Very common in Roman and Italian, but unknown in Greek.

[72] "At St. Paul's the Surveyor was cautious not to exceed Columns of four Feet, which had been tried by _Inigo Jones_ in his Portico; the Quarries of the Isle of _Portland_ would just afford for that proportion, but not readily for the Artificers were forced sometimes to stay some Months for one necessary Stone to be raised for their Purpose, and the farther the Quarry-men pierced into the Rock, the Quarry produced less Stone than near the Sea. All the most eminent Masons were of Opinion, that Stones of the largest Scantlings were there to be found, or nowhere. An Enquiry was made after all the good Stone that England afforded. Next to _Portland_, _Rock-abbey_ Stone, and some others in Yorkshire seemed the best and most durable; but large Stone for the _Paul's_ Works was not easily to be had even there.

For these Reasons the _Surveyor_ concluded upon _Portland-stone_, and also to use two Orders, and by that Means to keep the just Proportions of his Cornices; otherwise he must have fallen short of the Height of the Fabrick.... At the _Vatican Church_ [St. Peter's], Bramante was ambitious to exceed the ancient _Greek_ and _Roman_ Temples ... and although by Necessity he failed in the due Proportions of the proper Members of his Cornice, because the _Tivoli_ stone would not hold out for the Purpose; yet (as far as we can find) he succeeded in the Diameter of his Columns, viz., nine Feet."--_Parentalia_, p. 288.

[73] The Royal Commissions expired with the sovereign.

[74] Mr. Longman gives the two together, p. 143.

[75] Tracts in "Parentalia," pp. 352-353. Stephen Wren (p. 269) explains how his grandfather departed from the conventional arrangement of architrave, frieze, and cornice in his entablatures, omitting one or other of these whenever he thought good. Here, above the pilasters and windows of the lower order he seems to have merged the three, and in the corresponding part of the upper order to have omitted anything like a frieze.

[76] _Builder_, January 2, 1892.

[77] "Parentalia," p. 298.

[78] Ibid., p. 352.

[79] Ibid., p. 301, with diagram, showing how a wall does the same as b.u.t.tresses.

[80] Mr. Wightwick, quoted in Longman, p. 188.

[81] E.A. Freeman, _Fortnightly Review_, October, 1872, p. 380.

[82] Yet he preferred the Early English windows of Salisbury to any later.

[83] "Who among the crowds that gaze upon the building ever pause to admire the flowerwork of St. Paul's?... It is no part of it. It is an ugly excrescence. We always conceive the building without it, and should be happier if our conception were not disturbed by its presence. It makes the rest of the architecture look poverty-stricken, instead of sublime; and yet it is never enjoyed itself" ("Seven Lamps," iv. 13). All I can say is I have enjoyed studying it. Mr.

Edward Bell also sends me the following: "We have a familiar instance in the flower-work of St. Paul's, which is probably, in the abstract, as perfect flower sculpture as could be produced at the time; and which is just as rational an ornament of the building as so many valuable Van Huysums, framed and glazed, and hung up over each window"

("Stones of Venice," I., xxi. 3). In my humble opinion this criticism is overdrawn; and, after all, Mr. Ruskin commends the sculpture.

[84] Dugdale, p. 191; but some authorities give double that of St.

Paul's.

[85] Fortunately for effect the technical distances are slightly exceeded. The "Parentalia" says "alternately," but the central is wider than the remaining four, which are similar.

[86] The objection that the exterior of the West Front does not correspond with the interior is not accurate. The west end inside contains (_a_) the lower stage, with the great arch and doorway, and (_b_) the upper, with the window.

[87] "Parentalia," p. 292.

[88] A curious instance of how words change their meaning, (_a_) A building--domus; (_b_) the most important building; (_c_) the most important and striking feature of the building. As everybody now speaks of the "Dome" of St. Paul's, I have adopted the word instead of "Cupola."

[89] "Tholobate" means what its derivation implies, "the base of a cupola." Why should this part be called the attic? How can an attic, properly speaking, have a gigantic hemisphere above it?