The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture Part 5

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The hatched, or saw tooth.

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The nail head.

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The lozenge.

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The studded trellis.

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The diamond fret.

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The medallion.

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The star.

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The scalloped or invected moulding.

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A variety of other mouldings and ornamental accessories are also to be met with, but those above described are the most common.

Q. What kind of string-course do we usually find carried along the walls of Norman churches, just below the windows?

A. A string-course similar in form to the common Norman abacus, with a plain face and the under part bevelled, is of most frequent occurrence; a plain semihexagon string-course is also often to be met with. Sometimes the string-course is ornamented with the zig-zag moulding.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Norman Mouldings, from Binham Church, Norfolk, and Peterborough.]

Q. What difference is there as to their general character and appearance between the early and late examples of Norman architecture?

A. The details of those buildings early in the style are characterized by their ma.s.siveness, simplicity, and plain appearance; the single or double-faced semicircular arches, both of doorways and windows, as well as the arches supporting the clerestory walls, are generally devoid of ornament, and the edges of the jambs and arches are square. The undercroft of Canterbury Cathedral, the work of Archbishop Lanfranc, between A. D.

1073 and A. D. 1080; the crypt and transepts of Winchester Cathedral, built by Bishop Walkelyn between A. D. 1079 and A. D. 1093; the plain Norman work of the Abbey Church at St. Alban's, built by Abbot Paul, between 1077-1093; and the north and south aisles of the choir of Norwich Cathedral, the work of Bishop Herbert, between A. D. 1096 and A. D. 1101, not to multiply examples, may be enumerated as instances of plain and early Norman work. In buildings late in the style we find a profusion of ornamental detail of a peculiar character, and numerous semi and tripart.i.te cylindrical mouldings on the faces and edges of arches and vaulting-ribs. The transepts of Peterborough Cathedral, built by Abbot Waterville between A. D. 1155 and A. D. 1175, exhibit vaulting-groins faced with roll mouldings, and other details of an advanced stage; whilst the Galilee, Durham Cathedral, built by Bishop Pudsey, A. D. 1180, is remarkable for the lightness and elongation of the piers, which are formed of cl.u.s.tered columns; and the semicircular arches which spring from these are enriched both on the face and soffits with the chevron or zig-zag moulding. There are many intermediate gradations between the extreme plain and ma.s.sive work of early date, and the enrichments, mouldings, and elongated proportions to be found late in the style; and in detail we may perceive an almost imperceptible merging into that style which succeeded the Norman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Base. Crypt, St. Peter's, Oxford, c. 1100.]

FOOTNOTES:

[52-*] Defunctus autem Rex beatissimus in crastino sepultus est Londini, in Ecclesia, quam ipse novo compositionis genere construxerat, a qua post, multi Ecclesias construentes, exemplum adepti, opus illud expensis mulabantur sumptuosis.--MATT. PARIS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vesica Piscis in the tympan of the south doorway, Ely Cathedral]

CHAPTER V.

OF THE SEMI-NORMAN STYLE.

Q. What is the Semi-Norman style?

A. It is that style of transition which, without superseding the Norman style, prevailed more or less, in conjunction with it, during the latter part of the twelfth century, and probably even from an earlier period, and gradually led to the complete adoption, in the succeeding century, of the early pointed style in a pure state, and to the general disuse of the semicircular arch.

Q. By what is this style chiefly denoted?

A. By the intersection of semicircular arches, the frequent intermixture of the pointed arch in its incipient state with the semicircular arch, and the pointed arch with its accompaniments of features, mouldings, and ornamental accessories, exactly similar to those of the Norman style, both in its earlier and later gradations, and from which it appears to have differed only in the contour or form of the arch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early specimen of intersecting Arches, St. Botolph's Priory, Colchester. (12th cent.)]

Q. Whence are we to derive the origin of the pointed arch?

A. Many conjectural opinions on this much-contested question have been entertained, yet it still remains to be satisfactorily elucidated. Some would derive it from the East and ascribe its introduction to the Crusaders; some maintain that it was suggested by the intersection of semicircular arches, which intersection we frequently find in ornamental arcades; others contend that it originated from the mode of quadripart.i.te vaulting adopted by the Normans, the segmental groins of which, crossing diagonally, produce to appearance the pointed arch; whilst some imagine it may have been derived from that mystical figure of a pointed oval form, the _Vesica Piscis_[76-*]. But whatever its origin, it appears to have been imperceptibly brought into partial use towards the middle of the twelfth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Semi-Norman double Piscina, Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge.]

Q. What are the characteristics of this style?

A. In large buildings ma.s.sive cylindrical piers support pointed arches, above which we often find round-headed clerestory windows, as at Buildwas Abbey Church, Salop; or semicircular arches forming the triforium, as at Malmesbury Abbey Church, Wilts. Sometimes we meet with successive tiers of arcades, in which the pointed arch is surmounted both by intersecting and semicircular arches, as in a portion of the west front of Croyland Abbey Church, Lincolnshire, now in ruins. The ornamental details and mouldings of this style generally partake of late Norman character; and the zig-zag and semicylindrical mouldings on the faces of arches appear to predominate, though other Norman mouldings are common; but we also frequently meet with specimens in the Semi-Norman style in which extreme plainness prevails, and the character is of that nature as to induce us to ascribe such buildings to rather an early period. Single and double, and sometimes even triple-faced arches, with the edges left square, distinguish plain specimens of this style from the plain-pointed double-faced arches of the succeeding century, the edges of which are splayed or chamfered. In late instances of this, as of the cotemporaneous Norman style, we observe in the details a gradual tendency to merge into those of the style of the thirteenth century, when the pointed arch had attained maturity, and the peculiar features and decorative mouldings and sculptures of Norman character had fallen into isuse.[TN-2]

Q. What specimen of this style is there of apparently early date?

[Ill.u.s.tration: Semi-Norman Arch, Abbey Church, Malmesbury.]

A. The church, now in ruins, of Buildwas Abbey, Salop, founded A. D.

1135[79-*], is an early specimen of the Semi-Norman style, in which, with the incipient pointed arch, Norman features and details are blended. The nave is divided from the aisles by plain double-faced pointed arches, with square edges, and hood mouldings over, which spring from ma.s.sive cylindrical piers with square bases and capitals; whilst the clerestory windows above (for there is no triforium) are semicircular-headed. The general features of early Norman character, the absence of decorative mouldings, and the plain appearance this church exhibits throughout, are such as perhaps to warrant the presumption that this church is the same structure mentioned in the charter of confirmation granted to this abbey by Stephen, A. D. 1138-9.

Q. What other noted specimens are there of this style?

[Ill.u.s.tration: Intersecting Window Arches, St. Cross Church, Winchester.]

A. The church of the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, presents an interesting combination of semicircular, intersecting, and pointed arches, of cotemporaneous date, enriched with the zig-zag and other Norman decorative mouldings, and is a structure, in appearance and detail, of much later date than the church at Buildwas Abbey, though the same early era has been a.s.signed to each.

St. Joseph's Chapel, Glas...o...b..ry, now in ruins, supposed to have been erected in the reigns of Henry the Second and Richard the First, is perhaps the richest specimen now remaining of the Semi-Norman or transition style, and is remarkable for the profusion of sculptured detail and combination of round and intersecting arches. In the remains of Malmesbury Abbey Church a Norman triforium with semicircular arches is supported on pointed arches which are enriched with Norman mouldings, and spring from ma.s.sive cylindrical Norman piers. The interior of Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, has much of Semi-Norman character: the aisles are divided from the nave by four lofty, plain, and triple-faced pointed arches, with square edges, springing from square piers with attached semicylindrical shafts on each side, and banded round midway between the bases and capitals; and the latter, which are enriched with sculptured foliage, are surmounted by square abaci; the west doorway is also of Semi-Norman character, and pointed, and is set within a projecting ma.s.s of masonry resembling the shallow Norman b.u.t.tress. The circular part of St.

Sepulchre's Church, Northampton, has early pointed arches, plain in design, springing from Norman cylindrical piers. In the circular part of the Temple Church, London, dedicated A. D. 1185, the piers consist of four cl.u.s.tered columns banded round midway between the bases and capitals, and approximating the Early English style of the thirteenth century; and these support pointed arches, over which and continued round the clerestory wall is an arcade of intersecting semicircular arches, and above these are round-headed windows.