Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul Part 8

CHAPTER VI.

INTERIOR.

The measurements show a marked diminution from the exterior--viz., 460 feet in length, a little under a hundred feet in breadth without reckoning the recesses underneath the windows, and 240 feet across the transepts.

In the Surveyor's favourite the Dome was almost everything; the four short arms being so constructed as to afford picturesque and varied vistas. Probably the acoustic properties would have been superior, and for the ordinary purposes of congregational worship there would have been less unused s.p.a.ce. Hence it need take no one by surprise that some, although they recognise the superiority of the present exterior, give the preference to the originally designed interior. The short arms were expanded into choir, transepts, and nave; the elaborate vestibule has gone, but the west chapels have appeared. Finally, the curved lines at the angles of the arms, designed to aid the interior vistas, have given way to the orthodox right angles. It is impossible to say how far Wren would have altered his opinions had he ever seen the present building filled from door to door, as it now occasionally is.[90]

Disappointed at the rejection of his pet scheme, Wren turned his attention to the Basilica of Constantine, with its three aisles of three arches apiece. "_This Temple of Peace being an Example of a Three Aisle Fabric is certainly the best and most authentic pattern of a cathedral Church, which must have three Aisles according to Custom, and be vaulted._"[91] Piers were used in this building, the columns being merely ornamental; but the interior of St. Paul's is in many respects essentially different from its Roman model. In the Temple of Peace three arches cover the enormous length of over 250 feet, and seriously diminish the apparent size; in St. Paul's their span is less than half of this. Indeed, in this respect Wren adopted a _via media_ between the Roman and the Anglo-Norman and Pointed. Old St. Paul's, for instance, contained twice as many arches in the same length as its successor, and Rochester still more. This use of larger arches renders the perspective less effective, as any one can see by comparing the views of Old and New St. Paul's. A second alteration from the Temple of Peace to be mentioned is the ma.s.siveness of the piers. Wren's regard for stability caused him to make his vast square supports of a solidity exceeding those of Mainz and Speier. From the Romans the Surveyor adopted the round arch, with its borrowed Grecian architecture partly cut away; and this, next to the dome, is the most striking feature of the interior.

Before proceeding to the different members, the symmetry and correspondence of parts and details require to be mentioned. They strike the eye everywhere. Those who claim that in this respect Exeter is the most perfect cathedral, not only in England but throughout the world, must limit their comparison to the older buildings. Here, when we have described the details of the architecture of the nave, we have little or nothing that requires to be said of the architecture of the choir and transepts. The dome, of course, has features peculiar to itself.

THE NAVE.

As we pa.s.s under the western portico we notice the bas-reliefs of Francis Bird above the doors, and on either side of the main door.

They are respectable and nothing more. Over the central door St. Paul is preaching at Berea. The original pavement of Purbeck, Welsh, and Torbay marble remains throughout the building, excepting where the new reredos has necessitated certain alterations. The length to the dome area is a little over 200 feet, the width as above, and the height of the central vaulting 89 feet.

The main west doorway has the round arch resting upon coupled pilasters, the keystone is adorned with the head and arms of a winged figure. On either side are likewise coupled pilasters of the largest size. The doors of the small rooms or closets on either side reveal the enormous size of the end piers projecting from the west wall.

Above the entablature of the main arch is a gallery, and the window has lately been filled in with designs in Munich gla.s.s in memory of Mr. Thomas Brown, of the firm of Longmans and Co. The subjects are appropriately taken from the life of St. Paul--the Conversion, and the subsequent visit of Ananias at Damascus. The kneeling figures below are those of Mr. Brown and his wife.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHOIR AND NAVE, FROM THE EAST END.]

The general ground-plan is of five compartments. Four are formed by the arcading, and the fifth by the great transverse archway connecting the nave and dome. The western bay or severy has a greater extension east and west than the three to the east, and corresponds to the adjacent chapels. It is square in the plan, and the others oblong; an important difference, as we shall see when we come to the Vaulting.

There are throughout in reality three stages in the elevation--The Main Arcade, Triforium Belt, or "Attic," and Clerestory. The pedantic objection to the use of this simple and familiar terminology and system of cla.s.sification seems to have arisen from the idea that St.

Paul's must be treated as though it were a purely Cla.s.sical building.

Upon their fronts the piers have great Corinthian pilasters. These are continued above the capitals, and the great transverse arches of the vaulting spring from the continuations on a level with the top of the triforium. These great pilasters form the divisions east and west into severies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ORDER OF THE INTERIOR.

_Drawn by Peter Cazalet._]

=The Main Arcade.=--The sides of the piers (east and west) have smaller pilasters, coupled and with narrow panels between, and above these is a plain entablature from which the broad arches rise. This method of making the arches spring from an entablature instead of letting them rest naturally upon the capitals, was an idea borrowed from the Romans, who in turn borrowed it from the Greeks. With the Greeks the entablature was useful, as they had no round arch; and the Romans, just as they borrowed Greek forms and Greek metres for their native Italian literature, in a like spirit borrowed their entablature. It is not necessary, and Freeman calls it a mere _stilt_.[92] The earliest instance we know of its disuse is in the colonnade of the great hall of Diocletian's palace at Spalatro. The greater s.p.a.ce of the west severy is diminished by the introduction of detached columns, so that the arches may all be of a like span. These columns, coupled and placed in front of the lesser pilasters, are of white veined marble, and exceedingly graceful. As the arches more immediately rest upon them than upon the pilasters, the Roman use of the entablature as a stilt can be here more clearly seen. I may add that in the church of St. Apollinare Nuovo, at Ravenna, the pillars have only blocks above their capitals, instead of the old entablature reaching from column to column; and this church, built about 500 A.D., accordingly represents the Transition stage between the Roman proper and the Romanesque.

Turning next from underneath the arches, and taking our stand in the central aisle, we are in a position to notice the details of the main entablature above the arches. The keystones are ornamented with heads and other pieces of sculpture. As Wren employed so few arches they rise to a great height, and of the different members of the entablature which rests upon the Corinthian capitals of the greater pilasters, part had to be cut away. The crowns of the arches take a great piece out of the architrave, and their keystones reach well within the plain and narrow frieze. Only the cornice of the first stage remains intact, and this runs round the four limbs of the church like a string course in any Romanesque or Gothic building.

=The Triforium Belt.=--This used to be called the "Attic," in imitation of the Cla.s.sical nomenclature; but surely this term is incorrect, since there is a clerestory above, and the vaulting springs from it as well. On the other hand, "Triforium" pure and simple implies arcading, and the above term is adopted from Fergusson as less open to exception.[93] In continuation of the greater pilasters are abutment piers, from the summits of which spring the great arches spanning the nave, the window arches of the clerestory, and the pendentives which connect these with the vaulting. The blank fronts between the piers are relieved by panels, but otherwise dest.i.tute of adornment. Openings connect the nave with the galleries behind.

=The Clerestory.=--This stage again calls for little or no comment.

The windows, hidden from the exterior by the curtain wall, are slightly rounded. Above and on either side are sections of spheres, ornamented with festoons. These are the ends of elliptic cylinders in connection with the vaulting.

=The Vaulting.=--The great arches overhead divide the vault as the greater pilasters and their continuations do the walls. Between these arches are the small saucer-shaped domes, 26 feet in diameter. The reason for these and their accessories, the pendentives, may best be understood from Wren's own words. He says that his method of vaulting is the most geometrical, and "_is composed of Hemispheres, and their Sections only; and whereas a Sphere may be cut all Manner of Ways, and that still into Circles ... I have for just Reasons followed this way in the Vaulting of the Church of St. Paul's.... It is the lightest Manner, and requires less Butment than the Cross-vaulting, as well that it is of an agreeable View.... Vaulting by Parts of Hemispheres I have therefore followed in the Vaultings of St. Paul's, and with good reason preferred it above any other way used by Architects._"[94] The saucer-shaped domes are sections of spheres, as are both the pendentives and the sides of the clerestory windows. He set to work something in this way. After satisfying himself that he had hit on a better plan than the plain cylindrical or the cross-vaulting of the Romans, or the other forms of intersecting vaults, he seems to have taken a hemisphere as a plan to work upon, and fixed his imaginary centre about the level of the top of the triforium. In the great square western severy of the nave this was easier, but the other severies are oblong. Here he stretched his sections out, so as to include the clerestory windows and their much-needed light. The usual way of expressing this is to say that the vault is intersected across by an elliptic cylinder. The wreaths, garlands, and festoons, and the various conventional patterns with which the edges and surfaces of the various parts of the vaulting is adorned cannot be estimated from the pavement. We may add here that the pendentives were purposely constructed of "_sound Brick invested with Stucco of c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l lime_," and not of Portland stone, for further ornament if required.[95] So are the circular sections.

The nave is connected with the dome by the s.p.a.ce between the great piers or walls of more than 30 feet in length. These piers are also broader at their ends than those which support the arcading, the latter covering a square of about 10 feet. The greater ma.s.siveness is owing to their a.s.sistance being required in supporting the dome. They have large pilasters at the angles, and their coffered wagon vaulting, adorned with geometrical patterns, is very striking.

=The Nave Aisles.=--We will first point out an unnoticed feature in the great piers at either end. Their inner faces as seen from the aisles have recesses or niches for the reception of monuments, and other recesses are generally found in the wall opposite. At the west of the aisles there are eight of these altogether, just behind the coupled columns. They are repeated in all the great piers leading to the dome, but although of sufficient height to permit of the introduction of life-sized effigies, still remain unoccupied. The coupled columns are repeated at the entrances to the chapels. At both ends the perspective is narrowed; at the west by the chapels, at the east by the breadth of the great piers. The windows stand in recesses which are segments of circles. Their sides are made to represent piers with concave surfaces. These latter carry an entablature from which spring the round window arches. Festoons run below the actual windows, the concave side piers have panels, and the round arches above diamond-shaped patterns. There are only three windows on either side--the chapels taking the place of a fourth--and the depth of their recesses points out the thickness of the walls. Between each recess are Composite pilasters in couples, with others opposite against the piers. These correspond with the lesser pilasters of the arcading, and from them spring transverse arches, as in the great central aisle. The vaulting, owing to the severies being nearly square, is regular; in other respects similar to that already described. The height is much less than that of the greater aisle, reaching only to the first stage of the latter.

=The West Chapels.=--They may best be described as squares of 26 feet, with apses or tribunes at either end which increase the length to 55 feet. They suffer sadly from want of light, the one window in each being altogether insufficient; but Wren had to do what he could. He panelled them with oak, and made them of the same height as the aisles, with vaulting of his favourite kind, drawn out to meet the windows.

The North Chapel is called the Morning Chapel, from its original use for morning prayer on weekdays. The mosaic above the altar is in imitation of a fres...o...b.. Raphael. That at the west end, by Salviati, is in memory of William Hale Hale, a voluminous writer and editor of the "Domesday of St. Paul's," who was a Residentiary, Archdeacon of London and Master of the Charterhouse. He died in 1870. The stained-gla.s.s window is in memory of the metaphysician, Henry Longueville Mansell, Dean of the Cathedral, who died suddenly, after a rule of three years, in 1871. It is by Hardman, and represents the Risen Christ and St. Thomas.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GEOMETRICAL STAIRCASE.]

The South Chapel is called the Consistory Chapel, because the Consistory Court has been held here excepting during the time that it sheltered the Wellington monument. The reliefs in white marble at the ends--the east by Calder Marshall, and the west by Woodington--have to do with this monument. Certainly the most appropriate of the six subjects is that on the west wall which ill.u.s.trates the Baptist admonishing the soldiers. "Do violence to no man ... and be content with your wages." Wellington earned his name of the Iron Duke for the firmness and sternness with which he punished pillaging and outrage.[96] The stained-gla.s.s window by Mr. Kempe has been lately put in to the memory of James Augustus Hessey, Archdeacon of Middles.e.x (1875-93), whose Bampton Lectures, "Sunday," still remain for theologians the standard treatise upon the Day of Rest. The Font of veined Carrara marble, another work of Bird, rather resembles the round basins resting on stands of the ancient Greek baths than any of our usual models. As St. Paul's is one of those cathedrals with no parish annexed, only those connected with it have any claim for baptisms.

=The Geometrical Staircase.=--This is in the South Tower, and leads from the Crypt to the Library. It is circular, of a diameter of twenty-five feet, and so constructed that eighteen steps, each nearly six feet broad at the outside, lead from the outside entrance to the interior. The ironwork is worthy of the choir.

The three remaining limbs differ only on the plan; in the other features of their architecture they are essentially similar to the nave. While the Pointed architecture suggests upward lines, and the Greek entablature horizontal lines, the round arch suggests a neutral position between the two. The great span of the arches and the general largeness of the different parts diminish the apparent size. The uniformity in the details produces that symmetry which is a peculiarity of the Renaissance.

THE DOME.

The Dome rises from its foundation in the Crypt of a square of 190 feet, and of this the solid parts are more than equal to the vacant s.p.a.ces, and are of a thickness of 20 feet.[97]

Coming to the level of the church, these solid parts are represented by twelve supports. The chief of them are the bastion-like piers at the angles of the transepts. They are hollow at the pavement level; and the south-west is used as a staircase, the north-west as the Lord's Mayor's vestry, the north-east the Minor Canons', and the south-east the Dean's. It gives some idea of their ma.s.siveness to reflect that these rooms inside them are nearly twenty feet across.

The eight other supports are the huge wall-like piers, thirty-five feet by ten, at the entrances from the four limbs.

=The Arcading.=--When Wren planned his dome interior he had the difficulty caused by the four limbs and their side aisles to overcome.

It was easy enough for the architect of such a church as St. Genevieve (or the Pantheon) at Paris to construct one, as he had neither this complicated arcading nor so heavy a superinc.u.mbent ma.s.s to consider.

Wren's path, then, was beset with difficulties, and he must have turned to his uncle's cathedral at Ely for enlightenment. In the earlier years of the fourteenth century the central tower at Ely collapsed: and the Sacrist, Alan de Walsingham, who acted as architect, seeing that the breadth of his nave, choir, and transepts happened to agree, took for his base this common breadth, and cutting off the angles, obtained a s.p.a.cious octagon. The four sides terminating the main aisles are longer than the four alternate sides at the angles of the side aisles; but at Ely this presents no difficulty, owing to the use of the pointed arch. As you stand in the centre of the octagon under the lantern you see eight s.p.a.cious arches of two different widths, all springing from the same level and rising to the same height of eighty-five feet, the terminal arch of the Norman nave pointed like its opposite neighbour of the choir. Amongst Gothic churches the interior of Ely reigns unique and supreme, certainly in England, if not in Europe.[98] Wren was familiar with this cathedral, and even designed some restorations for it; and he adopted the eight arches in preference to any possible scheme of four great arches of sixty feet: but the use of the round arch, as distinct from the pointed, deprived him of Sacrist Alan's liberty, who without incongruity made his intermediate arches of the shorter sides, springing from the same level, rise to the same height as the others.

Wren was compelled to make use of some expedient to reconcile his two different s.p.a.ces between piers of forty feet and twenty-six feet, and accordingly arched these four smaller intermediate s.p.a.ces as follows.

A smaller arch, rising from the architrave of the great pier, spans each shorter side of the octagon, and has a ceiling or quarter dome in the background, coming down to the terminal arches of the side aisles.

A blank wall s.p.a.ce above is relieved by a section of an ornamental arch of larger span, resting on the centre of the cornice; and above this a third arch, rising from the level of the triforium cornice, rests more upon the _outer_ side of the great supporting pier, and thereby obtains the required equal span of forty feet, and equal height of eighty-nine feet from the ground. This also has a quarter dome; and the platform beneath on a level with the clerestory is railed.

The reduction of the octagon to the circle is facilitated by giving the spandrels between the arches the necessary concave surface; and this stage is finished off with a cantilever cornice, the work (at least in part) of one Jonathan Maine. The eight great keystones of the arches by Caius Gabriel Cibber are seven feet by five, and eighteen inches in relief.

=The Whispering Gallery= is almost exactly a hundred feet from the pavement, and curiously enough about the same distance across. We are still, be it understood, below the level of the apex of the exterior roof, and the Cross is quite two hundred and sixty feet above us. The gallery projects so that the lectern steps and the pulpit are underneath. The attendant whispering across the whole area can be distinctly heard, an acoustic property seemingly caused by the nearness of the concave hemisphere above.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF THE DOME.

_From an engraving by G. Coney in Sir H. Ellis' edition of Dugdale's St. Paul's._]

=The Drum.=--The actual bend inwards now begins, but for this part only in straight lines.[99] First comes the plain band or PODIUM, panelled and of a height of twenty feet. On this stand thirty-two composite pilasters, in reality, as well as in appearance, out of the horizontal. Three out of each four intervening s.p.a.ces are pierced with square-headed windows; and from them such light as the dome possesses, streams down through the windows of the exterior colonnade. The alternate fourth recesses, apparently nothing more than ornamental niches, conceal the supports which bear the weight above. In the recent scheme of decoration they have been filled with statues of Early Fathers--the four eastern, SS. Chrysostom, Gregory n.a.z.ianzen, Basil, and Athanasius; and the four western, SS.

Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Gregory. If the light allows, the Podium, at present bare, is a suitable place for mosaics.

=The Cupola.=--So, for want of a better name, we will call the topmost section or inner roof of brick, two bricks thick. Here the straight lines bearing inwards give way to the sphere; and here, too, the three separate coverings, which const.i.tute the dome, begin. The circular opening below the lantern coincides with the lower edge of the fluting of the exterior sh.e.l.l, and is about two hundred and fifteen feet from the pavement.[100]

These upper regions, hidden in an almost perpetual gloom, were decorated in monochrome by Sir James Thornhill; but his work has failed to resist the chemical action of the surcharged atmosphere. Yet a word or two about it may interest. Concentric circles surround the opening; and the remaining surface is ingeniously divided into eight compartments by designs of piers and round arches; the piers coinciding with the eight recesses below. In these compartments are scenes from the life of the patronal saint: (1) The Conversion, (2) Elymas, (3) Cripple at Lystra, (4) Jailer at Philippi, (5) Mars Hill, (6) Burning Books at Ephesus, (7) Before Agrippa, (8) Shipwreck. We have all of us heard from the days of our boyhood or girlhood the story of the painter, on a platform at a great height, who stepped back to get a better view of his work. As he did so, an a.s.sistant, standing by, brush in hand, observed with alarm that the slightest further backward step would entail his falling headlong and being dashed to pieces. He deliberately daubed the painting; and the artist, stepping instinctively forward to prevent this, saved his life. The painter is said to be Thornhill: the scene, the giddy height under the dome.

The interior height of two diameters will always be a disputed question. Stephen Wren[101] seemed to think that his grandfather hit the happy medium of a diameter and a half; but this only reaches to the windows and Early Fathers. He probably gives us the Surveyor's _intention_. Afterwards, when Wren was compelled to raise the height of the exterior, he increased the interior. St. Sophia and the Invalides are both less than two diameters, and give the idea of greater area. While it is difficult to see what aesthetic advantage is gained by a roof and upper regions immersed in perpetual gloom, the acoustic properties and the light might both have been improved by a more modest elevation. Yet the advocates of a smaller ratio injure their case by writing about "a great disproportioned hole in the 'roof.'"

=The Pulpit= was one of the additions suggested in Dean Milman's time, when the dome area was used for service. It is a memorial to Captain Robert Fitzgerald, designed by Mr. Penrose; and the marbles come from various places. It stands on columns, of which the gray are from Plymouth, the "dark purplish" from Anglesea, and the red from Cork. In the panels and elsewhere the green is from Tenos, and the yellow chiefly from Siena, with a little of the ancient Giallo Antico from Rome.[102] Alike in the design, and in the combination of these different marbles, the pulpit is a fitting and judicious adornment.

=The Lectern= takes the familiar form of an eagle, and is of bronze.

This fine piece of work was finished in 1720 by Jacob Sutton, at a cost of 241 15s.

=The Mosaics.=--Stephen Wren tells us that his grandfather intended his great building to be adorned with mosaic work, and that one of his numerous disappointments was his inability, thanks to the ignorant opposition of the Commission, to carry out this intention. The categorical statement of the grandson is corroborated by (_a_) the text of various Acts of Parliaments, (_b_) other Renaissance Churches and notably St. Peter's, (_c_) the use of material softer than Portland stone for various surfaces.[103] Bishop Newton, who was Dean a hundred and twenty years ago, roundly accused the authorities of filching the decoration funds for William's wars. Queen Anne's wars would have sounded more probable. It was not until our own day that in this respect, as in others, the Surveyor's ideas have been carried out.