LIBRARY OF

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

FROM THE FUND OF

EBEN NORTON HOR^FORD

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
IN

FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND ITALY

IN

TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME
I

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CLAY, Manager FETTER LANE, E.G. ffiUtnburgi): loo PRINCES STREET
C.
F.

EonUon:

Ciitagn:
JSombag,

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd SToronto J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. arofeso: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
ffialcutta anti ilKatiraB:
:

AU

lights reserved

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
IN

FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND ITALY

by
SIR

THOMAS GRAHAM

JACKSON,

Bart., R.A.,

F.S.A.

Hon. D.C.L. Oxford, Hon. LL.D. Cambridge Hon. Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford Associ^ de 1' Academic Royale
de Belgique

Nec minimum meruere decus

Ausi deserere
et celebrare

vestigia

Graeca

domestica facta. HoR. Ars Poettca.

Cambridge
at

the University Press

1915

Catnbtitjge:

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

193

PREFACE
.-^ALTHOUGH this book, Ix. period of Post- Roman
independently,
I

which

treats of a

definite

architecture,

may be

read

it is

in fact a continuation of the history

1913 of the Byzantine and Romanesque styles.' I venture to hope that by the two books, taken in connexion with one another, the student may be
in

pubHshed

helped to a consistent idea of mediaeval architecture, from its origin in the decay of Roman Art to its final

have therefore not hesitated to refer -frequently from this book to its predecessor. It is only by regarding the Art as a whole, tracing its career, following its steady and unbroken growth, and showing how it changed as the times changed, and kept pace with the progress of society that it can really be
stages in the i6th century.
I

understood.

development two countries, like yet unlike, overlapped and influenced one another, though they diverged ever more and more widely as time went on.
its

Gothic architecture attained

perfect

in

France and England.

The

styles of the

In Italy, though

it

was the cradle of Romanesque

architecture from which Gothic sprang, Classic tradition

was never
difference.

lost,

It

and Italian Gothic is Gothic with a has a charm of its own, depending perhaps

VI

PREFACE

rather less on architectural form than on lovely material,

supreme technique of execution, refinement and delicacy of ornament, and above all on splendour of colour. I had intended an account of the Gothic art of the Low Countries and of Germany, but the present unhappy war has prevented a
visit to

those parts to revise

my

notes taken many years ago. German Gothic however is

of minor importance in

the history of the Art.

It

was an imported and not an

and therefore has less to teach us. In my first chapter I have said that Gothic is mainly a Teutonic art, because it arose and flourished in Northern and Eastern France, in England, and in certain parts of
indigenous
style,

where the older population had the largest infusion of Teutonic blood Goth, Frank, Burgundian and Norman in France, Saxon, Dane and Norman in England, Goth and Lombard in Italy, Norman in Sicily and Apulia. Not that the mere Teuton was the author of the new style, but it seems to be the fruit of grafting a Teutonic Except in music the element on an older stock \ Germans, who claim to be unmixed Teutons, have not
Italy,

excelled in the Arts, nor indeed

in

the

Sciences,

as

a creative race. Their part has been not to originate, but by patient research, like the Saracens of Southern Italy and Spain, to pursue and enrich the discoveries
of others.

They have produced

rank,

but two painters of

for

the

first

no great

sculptor,

the

admirable

metal work of Peter Vischer is on a small scale, their Romanesque architecture was imported from Lombardy,
1 If we are to believe Professor Sayce the Teutonic element in England and we have has been over-estimated, and has long ago been absorbed now reverted to the Neolithic type. His theory however is not universally
;

accepted.

PREFACE

vii

and their Gothic borrowed rather late from France. Cologne Cathedral is based on Amiens, of which it exaggerates the weak points. The style suffers from megalomania,
the
sure
sign

of

weak

artistic

sensibility.

Cologne Cathedral is an example of this, especially since its completion by the monstrous twin steeples at the

West end. At the same time German Gothic South Germany has its place in the

especially that of
history of the Art,

and
in

regret

its

omission here.

The Arts found a happier soil in which to flourish Belgium and Holland, the land of the Van Eycks, Memling, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Rubens. The
work
in

necessary omission of some account of the fine churches,

splendid town-halls, and rich domestic

Belgium

is the more unfortunate, because many of the buildings have already been destroyed, and many more will in all

likelihood suffer

by the systematic

brutality of

German

warfare.

The

Cloth- Hall at Ypres, perhaps the finest

municipal building in Europe, and the Cathedral have

been demolished for no conceivable military purpose, Louvain has been deliberately destroyed out of revenge. Arras and Aerschot are in ruins. Antwerp and Brussels will be in peril when they come within the range of battle, and the same danger will overtake Ghent and Bruges in the like event.
Similar disasters menace, and indeed have partly befallen the splendid architecture of

North-Eastern France,

the very flower of the style, which

may

already have

become a thing of the past before these pages reach

publication.

Since the following chapters were written

of Reims,
sculpture
b
:

Germans have battered the Cathedral destroying much if not all of its inimitable
the
J.

G. A.

viii

PREFACE
is
;

now undergoing the same treatment Senlis has been damaged Noyon, Laon, S. Quentin, and
Soissons
;

Tournay, which are

still

in possession of the

enemy,
foe,

will

be exposed to the
the

artillery of

both friend and

if

and

Germans have promised

that

they are turned out

of Alsace and Lorraine they will not leave a building

behind them.
Italy

has

now

joined in the war, and the priceless

treasures of her art are in danger.

fallen

near the Ducal Palace at Venice, and

Bombs have already we may

With
the

hear any day of their falling on S. Mark's.

destruction of that Church, and that of S. Sophia which

during the Balkan war the Turks threatened to blow up

if

they were driven from Constantinople, one splendid

chapter of European architecture would be deleted.

Although
art out of

it

is

only

Germans who destroy works

it is

of

pure malevolence and spite

architecture
is

difficult to

see

how any
war.

to survive

modern methods of

Buildings that have for hundreds of years looked

of masters, and have survived battles

down on changes

and sieges during the Middle Ages and the Napoleonic campaigns, crumble into dust at the awful touch of Unless wars should modern engines of destruction.
cease in
all

the world

we may be

the last

who

will see

the wonders of ancient architecture.

Some
that

reviews of

my

former two volumes complained

buildings
referred
to

were not complete others pointed out that something might have been said about certain buildings which were not But it was not my purpose to write mentioned at all. a guide-book on one hand, nor on the other to give an My object then, and exhaustive catalogue of examples.
the accounts of the
:

PREFACE

ix

now, has not been to describe a number of architectural works, but to give a rational view of the style as a whole.

To

supply the reader in fact with a skeleton scheme

which if he properly understood it, might be filled up For that purpose I have from his own observation. chosen for description such buildings or parts of buildings as are typical of the history and development of the art, and have described them only so far as was needed to More than that would not illustrate the subject matter.
only encumber the book, but also distract the attention of
the reader from
its

object.

As

a further limitation

have

confined the examples almost entirely to buildings that

I

opportunity offered, those with which

to

have myself studied, and among them, where the have happened I
be professionally connected.
little

To

write about architecis,

ture at second-hand from the accounts of others

I
I

am
say

convinced, of very

value.

For

this reason

nothing of the highly interesting Gothic of Spain, for

have never been in that country, and can add nothing of my own to what Street and others have told us. My drawings and notes have been made at various times during the last half century, but I have purposely revisited many of the buildings referred to, and have for So far as I could I have the first time seen Sicily.
I

used original sketches for illustration rather than photographs, which besides making a dull book often convey

a false idea of the subject.

in Sicily are

Several of the drawings

;

by

my

son Basil

those by others are duly

acknowledged.

My
his fine

thanks are due to several friends

who have
;

kindly helped

me

to

Mr

Gerald Horsley

for the use of

Mr W.

S.

drawing of the interior of Milan Cathedral to Weatherley for leave to reproduce his beautiful

PREFACE
at

drawings of the statuary

Westminster, and that of the

Chapter house

to

Mr

Waller, the architect in charge

of Gloucester Cathedral, for

much

information and for

;

drawings of the construction of the choir

to

Mr

Francis

Bond
I

for the loan of his plate of the interior of King's

;

College Chapel

to Professor Salinas of Palermo, deceased

am

sorry to say since

my

visit,

for

much

assistance
;

there,

and

for the gift of

some of
;

his publications

also

to

Professor Orsi of Syracuse

to Professor
;

Prior for

Plate

XCI

of two statues at Wells

at

to the Science
for the

and

Art department

South Kensington

photographs

from which Plate

CLXVIII

is

taken; to the Editors of

the Builder and the Btiilding Neivs for leave to reproduce

several illustrations from those papers
;

and to

my

friend

the Rev. George Horner for kindly reading the proofs.

Lastly
I

have

to

thank the Cambridge University

Press for the extreme care that has been taken in the
printing, illustration,

and comely production of the book. I have appended at the end of the second volume a comparative table of dates of the

As

in the

former work

principal buildings referred to in the text, with the addition

of a few more.

This

hope

will

be found instructive

and

useful to the student.

T.
Eagle House, Wimbledon.
Sept.
3,

J.

191 5.

: :

CONTENTS OF VOLUME
CHAP.
Preface
List of illustrations in vols.
I
i.

PAGE

and

II.

....
S.

v
xii

Definition of Gothic architecture

II

The Gothic The Gothic

vault
vault,

III

continued

......
Denis
:

i6
31

IV

Early French Gothic.

Senlis
:

The

transitional period.
etc

Sens

Noyon,

53

Early French Gothic, cotitinued.

Notre
:

Dame
:

at

Paris

Laon

S.

Remy

at

Reims

Soissons

Bourges
78
106

Chartres, etc

VI
VII

Early French Gothic, continued.

Reims
:

....
S.

French Gothic.
S*^

Amiens and Beauvais

Denis, nave

Chapelle at Paris
styles.

116

VIII French provincial

Normandy
Burgundy
:

136

IX

French provincial
Anjou,
etc.

styles, coniiftued.

Toulouse
.

French towers and spires

156
171

X
XI

Later French Geometrical Gothic

English
S.

Gothic.
:

The
Wells
:

transitional

period.

Worcester
180

David's

Canterbury, etc
Lincoln,
etc.,

XII

The Early English

style.

divergence of
199

English and French Gothic

XIII The Early English

style, contitiued.
:

Peterborough: Cis-

tercian architecture

Rievaulx

Southwark

Worcester
221

choir: Salisbury: Wells: Ely:

Durham

Beverley, etc.

XIV

Early pointed architecture of France and England compared

247
262

XV
XVI

Westminster Abbey and the mediaeval architects Westminster Abbey, continued

Appendix.

On

widening refinements

....

270
289

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Xlll

XIV

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Vol. & page

Caudebec Cefalu

Steeple
Exterior {Basil H. Jackson)
Cloister

Do. Do. Do.

Capital in

Chalons-sur-Marne

S.

Do. Do. Alpin

...

...

...

Chamfer cusping Chartham Window tracery Chartres Cathedral Royal portals

Plan
Bay.
Elevation and section
Capital in nave

Do. in ambulatory North Porch. Interior Do. do. Exterior {M. Adams in Building A-ews) Do. Statues in North Porch

The old steeple The N. W. steeple

S. Pierre Chiaravalle Chichester

Interior

Section
S.

transept
in

Window

window Lady Chapel

Chinon Flamboyant crocket Christchurch Priory Reredos

Cistercian Abbeys Plans of Citta della Pieve Wmdov^ {Anderson) Clapham Tower window Cluny, Hotel de (Paris) Flamboyant crocket

COMO

Broletto

Coutances Cathedral

Exterior

Plan of piers Choir aisle. Interior Plan of apse West tower

...

Crema
Cusping

Window
Soffit

in

Duomo

Darenth
Dereham, East

Chamfer Timber spire

Do.

Window
(From Spring-Gardens
vaulting
...

DuNMOw, Little
Earl Soham Eltham Palace

sketch book)

Durham Cathedral Nave

Chapel of Nine Altars

Nave roof

...

Roof of Hall

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
/ Ely Cathedral
Vol.

XV

& page

Ray

of the presbytery

...

Etton Exeter Cathedral

Plan of the octagon Bay of choir (from Fergusson) Plan of choir vault Transept roof truss East window

Window
Interior

tracery

Diagram

of vault

Fan vaulting, Fano Florence

French bases Genoa

v.

Vault

Window
Plan of

in

Palazzo del

Comune

Duomo

Giotto's tower (in colour)

Jamb
Do.

of portal in

Duomo

panel in do.

Gloucester Cathedral

Exterior view Plan of triforium pier Do. of clerestory pier

...

...

Section of choir
Interior of choir

Diagram of choir
Cloisters
S.

vault

Transept window

Graville

Window
Chimney

Harringworth Haverfordwest Hereford

Window
Carved spandril

Howden Hythe
Ilchester
Ipswich, S

Window Window Window

Leonard's Tower Tower and
...

Ketton
KiRBY

spire

Knole Langres Laon Cathedral

Entrance and Hall Cartoon gallery Plan of vault

Plan
Interior
{/.

O.

Scott

in

SpringExterior

Garde fis sketch book) Choir and North transept.

West
Base.

front

...

Capital

Section of

Lavenham
Ledbury

Interior of nave

Spring chapel.

Parapet and inlay

Window

XVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Vol. & page
S.

Limoges

Michel aux Lions.

spire

Tower and

Lincoln Cathedral

Plan of Eastern part Plan of choir pier Double wall arcade

Interior

Exterior view
Choir.

Capital in Dean's Chapel

do. do. Do. do. Do. do. Do. in presbytery Plan of choir vault Do. of nave vault do. Do. do. Nave. Interior

N.Transeptwindow (the Dean's Eye) do. do. (the Bishop's Eye) Do.
Presbytery or angel choir

Two

angels in do.

South door of presbytery

of the Church and the Synagogue Pierre Bay of nave (from Building News) Plan of column

Statues

LisiEUX,

S.

S.

Jacques
v.

Interior

Plan of column and base

Little Dunmow,

Dunmow
Melford
Interior of

Long Melford, Lucca

v.

Duomo

Triforium in do. Window (from Anderson) Casa Guinigi

Luffenham, North Tower and spire Mantes Cathedral Interior of apse Aisle with flint inlay Melford, Long

Merstham Milan, Duomo

Timber
Plan
Exterior

spire

V
S. S.

Interior (by Gerald Horsley)

GoTTARDO Campanile Ambrogio Plan of bay

View
of

...

bay

Monreale, Duomo

Elevation of bay Section Plan

Interior

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VoL&page

xvu

MONREALE, DuoMO Mosaic at West end The apse. Exterior

Cloister

...

and fountain

...

M0N2A

Do. arcade (by Basil H. Jackson) Do. capital (by Basil H. Jackson) S. Maria della Strada ...
v

New Romney,
NORREY

Romney Tower and

Frieze

spire

Capital and arcade

NORTHBOROUGH NoYON Cathedral

Transept Plan East end.

Nave.

Exterior

Capital of wall arcade

Interior
front
...

West

Capital in narthex

Oakham Castle
OCKHAM
Orvieto,

Exterior
Capital

East window

Duomo

Exterior
Interior

Oxford,

window Michael's Tower window Divinity School Interior Tower and spire S. Mary's
Aisle
S.

Do.

details

Cathedral

Spire
Interior
frieze

Palermo, Capella Palatina

Mosaic

La Martorana

Plan
Interior

Mosaic of King Roger... Campanile ...

Gli Eremiti

Plan Exterior (by Basil H. Jackson)

The
S.

cloister (in colour)

Cataldo

Plan
Exterior
Interior

Capital

Pavement
Parapet

La Ziza

Interior

Capital

Arcivescovado Doorway

XVIll

LIST OF

ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

XIX

XX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Vol.

& page

LIST OF
Vaulting
{cont.)

ILLUSTRATIONS
Vol. & page
Plate

XXI

Vault at S. Denis Do. do. Langres

Diagram

of thrusts
do.

Choir vault, Lincoln

Nave

do.

Do. do. do. French way of filling

in

English do. do. Chapter House vault ... Vault with intermediate ribs Do. do. at Exeter
Ely, stellar vault

Gloucester, diagram of choir vault

Venice

Do. Cloister fan vault Winchester nave vault Westminster fan vault Fondaco dei Turchi
Byzantine Palace Do. do. panel Venetian dentil

...
...

...

...

Ducal Palace, Piazzetta Front Do. do. Capitals Do. do. Judgement of Solomon Venetian crocket Palazzo Sagredo Palazzo Cicogna
Palazzo Cavalli
Palazzo Ca' d' oio (drawing by F. T.

Vercelli,

S.

Baggallay in the Builder) Do. do. battlements Palazzo Contarini Fasan Interior SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Andrea Plan
Interior

...

Exterior

VlTERBO

Cloister in

...

Wells Cathedral

Nave. Interior Nave. Plan of pier Nave. Capital North porch Do. carved spandril

Sculpture

West front ... Towers from cloister Figures on West front (from Prior

and Gardner) The Resurrection

XXII

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Vo:

& page
72
131

Plate

Cut

Wells Cathedral

The choir. Interior S. Cuthbert'S The Tower Westminster Abbey Plan

Interior, looking

...

I I

CII

CXVIII
99

East

...

270 262
274 277 216 ,278.
.

Triforium gallery

LXXVII LXXVIII
100 92
lOI

Do. Do. Do.

elevation
capital

and base
do.
III

do.

Tomb

of

Henry

.^i^ LXXIX

Coronation chair Do. gesso decoration (in colour)... Chapter house. Interior ( IV. S. Weaiherley)

LXXX
II.

36

Diagram

of vault

Tomb

of

Aymer de Valence
chapel, vaulted roof...

Henry VII's Do. do.

Do.
do.
S.

plan of pier

...

Three
...

statues

Westminster Hall

{W. The

Weaiherley)
etc.

roof

West Walton Westwell

Window
Interior

Winchester Cathedral Nave.

North transept

Elevation and section

Back Nave

of feretory vault
...

Window
Wingham

Norman

single light

Diagram of inner

arch,

v.

Tracery

Window
of

Witney Tower and spire Worcester Cathedral Western bays

Brakspear
Choir.
in the

nave

{H.

Builder)

Elevations and section

roof
...

Wymondham
York Cathedral

Nave

Exterior
Clerestory of Presbytery

Mary's Abbey

Nave

aisle

CHAPTER
The arts
that
1

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC
of Western

Europe during the Middle Ages,

12th to the

is

to say, speaking roughly, from the

6th century are generally

known

as Gothic;

title

of

vague and loose application. was invented at the revival of learning as a term of reproach. In literature compositions were called Gothic which were not Classic that is to say such as did not follow the style of Greek and Latin authors. The term expressed the contempt of the enlightened men of the Renaissance for the works of their mediaeval
rather
It
:

Gothic

a"ynonym
baraus"

predecessors
Latinity,

for their jingling

rhymes, their unclassical

of Vitruvius and

and
In

their barbarous attempts in the vernacular

tongue.

the

Arts

the

disciples

worshippers of the five orders branded as Gothic all the works of the preceding centuries during which the rules of Classic proportion and detail had been forgotten or ignored. The Goths who had overthrown the Western Empire, and founded kingdoms in Italy, Spain, and Gaul, were taken to typify all the Germanic tribes whose invasions and settlements had changed the face of Europe, and wiped out the civilization of the ancient world. The secondary meaning of the word '' Gothic " in the New English Dictionary is " Teutonic or Germanic," and to
J.

G. A.

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC
With
Italians

[CH.

synonymous with

German

Raffaelle's

idea of

Gothic

was always the German Pope Leo X that after the fall of Rome "the Germans {i Tedeschi) began to revive Art a little, but in their ornaments they were clumsy and very far from the fine manner of the Romans." Vasari and Palladio join in pouring contempt on those who admired the German style, the only excuse for which according to Raffaelle was that it originated in imitation of growing trees, whose interlacing boughs formed pointed arches, and that it was so far conformable to nature, and therefore not entirely despicable \ The Italians were of course mistaken in supposing
the
Italian

the Gothic
Tedesco.

style

style, lo stile

Raffaelle writes to

that the architecture

we know

as Gothic originated in
its

Germany, but
Gothic a Teutonic
art

if

we

take Gothic in

wider sense as

Teutonic

it

is

a very good

name

for the style.

origin,

was an

art essentially of

Northern

For it and grew up

among those peoples who had the strongest strain of German blood. In France its cradle was in the North;
in the old

Royal Domain, where Goths and Franks had

established their rule, and mingled their blood with that

of the old Gallic inhabitants. says

M.

"The North of France," Guizot, " was essentially Germanic, the South
;

essentially Roman." The Burgundians and Normans were Teutonic peoples and in England, where the style had an equal development with that in France, the old

Celtic race

was almost

lost

among Saxon, Danish, and

all

Norman conquerors who were In Germany itself the new art

Romanesque
stage,

of Teutonic origin.

lingered longer in the

itself

which was
;

a transition from

Roman
^

to Gothic architecture

but there too, in the end,

bench^ questa origine non sia in tutto da sprezzare pure e debole, perch^ molto piu reggerebbero le capanne fatte di travi incatenate, e poste ad uso di colonne, con li culmini e coprimenti come
continues,

He

descrive Vitruvio,

etc.,

etc.

CH.

i]

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC

Gothic attained a splendid development.

the

These were
Gothic
in
'^

where Gothic architecture achieved its greatest triumphs, while in Southern France it made its way with difficulty, and was never fully accepted and in Italy it assumed a special form which never quite broke
countries
;

less

Latin
'^
"^

with the traditional art of earlier ages.

We may therefore say that Gothic

art,

is

mainly a Teutonic

The
period in-

more exactly. Who can Its say precisely when it began and when it ended ? roots may be detected in buildings of the Romanesque
but
it is

difficult to define

it

period,

and

at the

other end of

its

existence

it

melts

imperceptibly into Neo-Classic.

Is the Castle Hall at

its

Oakham
to

with

its

round arches and

pointed windows
;

be classed with Romanesque or with Gothic

and can

the Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings at Oxford and

Cambridge, at Longleat, Bramshill, Burleigh, and Kirby be reckoned as anything but Gothic, in spite of their
Corinthian and
Ionic
shafts

and

capitals,

or

the

five
?

orders of Bodley's tower in the old schools at Oxford

would exclude such buildings as the Cathedrals at Lucca and Orvieto and many other churches in Italy which are nothing if not Gothic in spite of their round arches, as well as the Flamboyant buildings in France which abound in flattish elliptical heads to doors and windows, not to say a great deal of late Perpendicular and Tudor work in England. An American author, Mr Moore\ who has written on the subject with useful particularity, would confine the name to what he calls " organic " constructions, where
define
it

To

as Pointed Architecture

Gothic not riGCcssariiya

J'^yi"'^

Attempt

name

to

buUdings

buildings are articulated into self-contained bays, each

complete

in itself
is

of the vault
'

and vaulted, and where every member logically represented by its own individual
Architecture., C.

Development and character 0/ Gothic

H. Moore.


"

4
support.

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC
From
is

[ch.

these premises he concludes that the

that of the churches in the

only real and true Gothic

Cathedral.

perfect example is Amiens But this is after all only a matter of words and names, and comes simply to this, that Gothic architecture gave more logical expression in some places than in others to those principles of construction which

He de France, of which the

it

obeys everywhere.

To

exclude

from the style

all

English work except so much of Canterbury Cathedral

as

was

built
is

by a Frenchman, and perhaps the nave of and

to confine the conception of a great

Lincoln,

to mistake the part for the whole, the letter

for the spirit,

wave
Vaulting
tiai to

of artistic emotion to

one only of

its

outward

manifestations \

Gothic

Vaulting played a great part, perhaps the greatest, though certainly not the only part in developing Gothic architecture but it will not do to define it as simply The Romans were the expression of scientific vaulting.
;

masters of the art of vaulting long before

they used,

probably invented,

the

cross-vault,

concentration of thrusts on isolated points.

and understood the It was from

as
well,

them, and from the

Eastern

Rome
how
to

that the

Romanesque
roofs,

builders learned
in their turn

make

their stone

and they

passed the art on to their

it

Gothic successors,
their

who improved and developed own way, making in the end almost a new art

in
it.

of

must be remembered that most of the problems of But scientific vaulting had presented themselves before their
it

"wherever a framework maintained on the and counterthrust is wanting there we have not Gothic This would exclude the Ste Chapelle at Paris, and many {pp. cit. p. 8). more vaulted buildings where the thrust is taken directly by buttresses. Mr Porter does not accept Mr Moore's limitation of the term. Medieval
^

Mr Moore

writes that

principle of thrust

Architecture.

New

York, 1909.

CH.

i]

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC

and had been partially at all events solved by their predecessors, though not so completely. Nor is it correct to regfard vaulting- as an essential feature of the style, however great its influence may have been on the structure of great churches. In England and yet if except on a grand scale it is exceptional Westminster Hall with its stupendous timber covering, and the Fen churches with their glorious wooden roofs, and the splendid ceiling of the nave at St David's are not Gothic what are they ? And what else can we call the countless village churches, gems of modest art, that stud our country far and wide, and constitute one of its greatest charms, though it is only here and there that
time,
. .
;

Vaulting not
essential

they aspire to the dignity of a vaulted ceiling

Again

if

the test of Gothic

is

to be the logical ex- Domestic

pression of a vaulted construction what becomes of domestic

which vaulting certainly does not play an important part ? Are the townhalls of Brussels, Ypres, and Louvain not Gothic, nor the
architecture

both

here and abroad,

in

Broletto of

Como, the

pontifical palace at Viterbo, or that

?

of the popes at Avignon, or the ducal palace at Venice

Still less is
.

Gothic architecture, as
i~

it

has appeared to

r*i the ordinary layman, a matter ot quatreioils

,.
.

ir*i and tretoils,

Gothic not a matter of form but

^^'"*

of cusps and traceries, of crockets and

finials,

pinnacles

and flying buttresses.

These are but the accidents of

But

the style, though no doubt they resulted naturally from the application of certain principles behind them.

they might

all

fly

away and

yet leave a Gothic building

behind them.

framework
If

is

an old tithe barn of rough timber as truly a piece of Gothic architecture as

Many

York Minster or Salisbury Cathedral.

then none of these attempted definitions are really
coextensive with the Gothic style of architecture, for a

6
building

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC

[ch.

Gothic not

may be Gothic and yet have none characteristics, how are we to define it ? The true way of looking at Gothic art is
it

of these

to regard

formbut
of spirit

not as a definite style

infinitely various,

bound by
and

certain formulas

j^ jg

but rather as the expression of a

spirit

for

which inspired the whole method of doing things during the Middle Ages It in sculpture and painting as well as in architecture. cannot be defined by any of its outward features, for they are variable, differing at different times and in
certain temper, sentiment,
different places.

They

are the outward expression of

these principles are

them, and though good styles, Gothic among them, the result of applying them to the buildings of each age, country, and people will vary as the circumstances of that country, that age, and that people vary.
certain

cardinal

principles

behind
to
all

common

Gothic
princi^pie

To
^

arrive at anything

like

an exact definition of

Gothic architecture, therefore, we must look deeper than

^^iq

notbyform

to

mere outward phenomena by which we are accustomed To judge from them alone, no words recognize it.

could be framed to describe in

so

common
Chapel

terms buildings

diverse

as

King's

College

and

Salisbury

Cathedral.

Yet

they both result

tion

from one another regularly and naturally from the applicadifferent as they are

Con-

Rom7n
Gothlc^"^

same principles under somewhat different circumstances. These principles were already at work in the Romanesque buildings of the preceding centuries, and it is to their consistent application that the development of the new style is due. The same principles which brought Romanesque architecture to birth out of the style of ancient Rome, when carried further and
of the

pushed to their logical consequences, produced the arts There was of the Middle Ages which we call Gothic.

CH.

i]

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC
in

no interruption, no break of continuity

into

development

the earlier style melted gradually, almost imperceptibly the

other

passed gradually and naturally into the next.

no break

in

Spalato to

and afterwards one phase of Gothic There is the sequence from the latest Roman work at from the basilicas of Rome and Ravenna
; ;
;

nave of S. Ambrogio to the great churches on the Rhine and the Conqueror's churches at Caen and to Vezelay, S. Albans, Winchester, and Durham
to the
;

them

onwards to Conrad's glorious choir, S, Denis, Sens, the work of the two Williams at Canterbury, the choir of Lincoln, Salisbury, Westminster, Paris, and Amiens. Three grand principles have governed the development of Gothic architecture, as indeed they have that of
every good style that the world has ever seen. The first is that the construction must be sound and
good.
tecture
this
:

Three
principles
tecture
i.

SoUdity

Good

building

is

the foundation of

good

archi-

no amount of design can make up for defect in This however does not take one beyond respect.

mere utility, and engineering, and does not touch the bounds of Art. The second great principle is that of Economy by which I mean not merely thrift, though that comes in too, and the Gothic builders might have said with
:

2-

Eco-

Pericles
f>L\oKakovfxev /xer
evrekeias,
is

but economy in the original sense of the word, that

to

say a nice regard for arrangement and proportion, the due observance of circumstance of time and place, of the

your disposal, and of This the mode of using them to the best advantage. of treatment suitable The takes us a step farther.

means

available, of the materials at

material so as to

make

the best of

its

natural qualities

DEFINITION OF GOTHIC

[ch.

without waste or misapplication carries us a long

way

towards our third great principle.

3.

Aes-

This third principle

differs

is

that the design should be the

expression

aesthetic expression of the construction.

For architecture
it

from mere building simply

first

in this, that

is

the

art

of building expressively and therefore beautifully.

principles are within the

Rules of

app^u^^
cation

compass of everyone, but the third can only be applied in an artistic age and by an artistic people. It is with nations as with individuals. Just as two men may do the same thing, but one will do it gracefully and the other awkwardly, so the buildings of one age and one people will be beautiful, while those of another, though possibly no less commodious, will be vulgar and distasteful. In either case the artistic faculty is a gift of nature which may be cultivated but cannot be implanted when it is absent. It is by conforming to these three rules of solidity, economy, and aesthetic expression that all good styles, Romanesque and Gothic among them, are justified. In plain language they must be strong, they must be sensible, and their work must show that they are so. But though these principles are of universal application

The two

they lead to different results in different countries and This is inevitable if they are to be true to themages.
selves, for they
Variety
in result

demand

the expression of the special

conditions in each case.

true and living style
difference in
to

The difference between one and another does not arise from any principle, but from difference of circumstance
their

task

It will be our on the development of Gothic architecture through the circumstances amid which

which those principles are applied.

to

trace

influence

the style arose.


CH.
i]

NATURE OF GOTHIC
in

9
the

The Byzantine and Romanesque

into

styles are the phases Gothic

mTnt o?

which architecture passed

Eastern and Western

the phase, or rather

Europe, respectively, from the decay of the older style of

the

esque^"'

Roman

world.

And

Gothic

is

the succession of phases into which the art passed out of

Romanesque during
differs

the Middle Ages.

For

late

Gothic

from the early styles as much as they do from

parent

Romanesque. Henry VH's chapel at Westminster and Henry Hi's choir are both Gothic, but they differ from one another almost as much as Henry Hi's work does from the nave of Durham. Romanesque art out of which Gothic was developed spread in various forms through all Western Europe But from Italy where it began, to our own country. Gothic which was essentially of Northern origin, and a Teutonic art, though it had force enough to push its way into the heart of the Latin population of Southern Europe, where classic tradition never wholly expired, was unable to find there its full and free development. There was in fact a flux and reflux of the two styles, Classic and Gothic, from South to North, from North to South, and back again. Just as the influence of Roman art spread beyond the Alps, inspired the rude beginnings of the native styles of France, Germany, and England, and formed the basis of Romanesque architecture there
their
;

Romanumversai

Gothic

fiux and

Roman
^"
^
^^

no

less

than

in

Italy,

so

when northern Romanesque

its

passed into Gothic the new style overflowed into those

countries where Classic architecture had
affected their art
till

origin,

the

wave spent

its

force

and and ebbed

back again Northwards. The sentiment of Gothic architecture

to the

is

in fact alien Gothic

southern
^^'"p^^'

clear positive

It reflects in its

temperament of the Latin races, gloom and mystery the romantic temper

lo
No
Byzantine
fectu're

NATURE OF GOTHIC
North.

[ch.

of the

In the Byzantine and Italo-Byzantine and even in S. Sophia itself and the domed All is open churches of the East there is no mystery. like those portals cavernous visible. There are no and of Chartres and Amiens, no dimly seen perspectives like those of Canterbury or Westminster, no surprises like those of the eastern parts of Wells, Winchester or
basiHca,

Salisbury.

Even

the crypts of Italian churches are light

and

cheerful, unlike the ghostly dimly-lit vaults,

and the

dark mysterious recesses of our northern undercrofts.

no place for mysteries of Udolpho, sliding the scene panels, hidden chambers, and secret passages of Horace Walpole's " Gothic Romance " had been laid more appropriately among the robber castles on the
Italy
is
;

Rhine, or in the wilds of the Black Forest, than

Otranto.
Gothic a
individual-

at

ism

One more characteristic. Gothic is the style of freedom from convention, and of individuality. Romanesque had only half achieved liberty it was still held back by Roman tradition, though it no longer obeyed strict Vitruvian rules. It was left for its Gothic successor to complete the escape, and to travel on its way in entire
;

freedom from Classic impediments to take

tradition,
its

and without any fresh

place.

The

adoption

of the
its

pointed arch was no doubt the principal instrument of

liberation, as will presently

be explained
it

but the change

ran through
all

was not limited

to construction only,

parts of the design in the direction of greater naturalism.

In its ornament the forms of animal and vegetable life were treated with constantly improving art and constantly
greater truthfulness
of
statics

traditional

and in construction the natural laws and equilibrium were studied rather than formulas, and the very forces which endanger
;

CH.

i]

NATURE OF GOTHIC
its

ii

the stability of a building were enlisted in

service

and
Construc-

made to The

contribute to

its

security.
to

relation of construction

nature

is

of course

not concerned with direct imitation of natural form, but

on natural
oTnaturai

with observance of natural law.

Gothic architecture

is

not as Raffaelle thought imitated from the intersecting

branches of an avenue of trees

of Vitruvius,

a notion as idle as that the Ionic column the

who

derives the proportion of the orders

from a human
ringlets,

figure,

and sees

in

stature of a maiden, in the volutes of the capital her

and in the fluting of the shafts the folds of This to be sure is sad nonsense, though it her dress. was long taken for gospel truth. Construction is natural when it takes the directest way to its end, by availing itself of the natural laws of force and weight, and the
natural qualities of material, instead of observing con-

ventional rules that

make no allowance
is

for circumstance.

Thus

regarded, Gothic
it

the most natural style in the

world, because

is

the most free from convention.

results
its

From
Gothic
in
is

this

freedom

exuberant variety,

variety

the style of individualism.

Though obeying

a general

way

the school or

manner of the day no two

alike.
is

Gothic buildings are ever really

of

The

distinction

cathedrals

and larger

buildings

unmistakeable

each can generally be recognised at a glance from sketch But this variety is not less remarkable or photograph.

on a smaller

scale.

One

rarely enters an old village

church without finding something new, something original,

something that gives the building an individual character though conformable in the main to the style of its period,

Romanesque,

Decorated, or Perpendicular.

Contrast

Monotony
lanarchi-

this with the immobility of architecture in Egypt, where

century after century, millennium after millennium passed

12

NATURE OF GOTHIC

[ch.

and the same style continued under the Ptolemies and Caesars, with but slight modification from what it had been under the Pharaohs thousands of years
unnoticed,
immo-

before.

Contrast

it

also with the uniformity of

Roman

Roman
lecture

architecture,

where

certain patterns of temple, theatre, or

baslHca were stereotyped, and carried with the spread of

empire from

Rome

to Syria, Africa, Gaul,

reflects

and

Britain.

Roman
empire
tions
Restlessness of

architecture
in

the

centralization

of

the

Rome, and the immobility

of imperial institu-

and of the society that lived under them.

Gothic

architecture expresses the restless temper of the

Gothic

world,

II-

Its

passion tor progress,

its

grasping at

modern -1 new ideas

Long
of

Roman-

and novel methods. It never stood still. As fast as one problem of construction was solved, something beyond it invited a fresh departure. No sooner was one style perfected than the builders tired of it and moved on to something else. For barely three and a half centuries Gothic architecture ran its impetuous course and then sank exhausted before the returning tide of Classic at the Renaissance. It had taken nearly eight centuries to dcvclop Romanesque slowly and tentatively from its

esque

Roman
Lincoln.

origin
to

down

to the beginnings of

Gothic

from
of

Ravenna
Short
of Gothic

Chartres,
in less

Canterbury,

and the choir

But

than half that time Gothic archiits

tecture ran through

all

successive phases, from the

chaste severity of Sens and Paris to the wild luxuriance

of the Flamboyant work at Abbeville and S. Riquier,

tranTiUon

and from the last efforts of Norman in the west front of Ely and the Galilee at Durham to the fairy vaults of Windsor, King's College, and Henry VII's chapel at Westminster. The Norman nave at Peterborough was hardly finished before the Early English west front was begun. Those who helped to raise it might in their old

CH.i]

NATURE OF GOTHIC
last

13

age have seen the

examples of Geometrical Decorated work, and their grandchildren might conceivably have worked in the earliest perpendicular style, on Abbot
Stanton's relining of the choir at Gloucester, or on Bishop

Edyngton's west front at Winchester. The rapid development of the sister

in Italy

art of painting Compariis

during the 13th and two following centuries

MstoTyof
P^^"^^"g

marvellous enough, though there was an interval of over

240 years between the birth of Cimabue and that of Raffaelle. But in the history of Gothic architecture
150 years sufficed to carry it into no less than four distinct phases in England, and three in France,

where there is nothing corresponding to our Flowing Decorated of the 14th century. From De Lucy's Early English lancets at Winchester in 1202 it is but 40 or 45 years to Henry Ill's choir at Westminster where bar Another half century brings us to the tracery appears. Chapter House at Wells, where geometrical forms begin to melt into ogee curves. Twenty years later, in 132 1, the Lady Chapel of Ely was begun in fully developed curvilinear Gothic, the very flower of the art in England and another quarter of a century closes the Decorated period and ushers in the Perpendicular style at Gloucester in 1350, and Winchester a few years later, which had a longer life than its predecessors and lasted till the advent
;

Early

f^S^^^

Decorated '^

Perpendi'^"^^ ^^^

of the Renaissance in the i6th century.

Surely there has never been another such astounding

instance of artistic growth in the world's history.

The
to

spirit of

Gothic art pervaded

its

all

that

was done

Universal

during the period of

existence.

To

confine the
is

name

tSn of
^^^'^

one of

its

manifestations, that of vaulting,

spirit,

to take

the letter for the of the movement.

and

to mistake the

whole nature

It is

the art of liberty as opposed to

14
Gothic
vaulting

NATURE OF GOTHIC
it

[ch.

artificial

formula, of reason as opposed to convention.

Applied to stone roofing

vault with
its

has given

us

the Gothic

attenuation of support, and equilibrium

;

^^

attained
suited

by counter-thrust
the

applied to

woodwork

it

re-

woodwork

in

magnificent roofs of Westminster Hall,

stalls

Eltham Palace and Hampton Court and the

traceries

of

Winchester, Lincoln, and Gloucester with their delicate

to constructive

problems

and canopies. But it was the same spirit that them all, the spirit of reason and direct adoption of the simplest means to the end, regardless of convention and tradition. To reduce thrust the ^ pointed arch super' scded the Roman and Romanesque round arch in spite of inherited love for the older form. For greater convenience of plan, and greater economy of material, voids
inspired

were enlarged
piers of

at

the expense of solids

the massive

Roman and Romanesque

;

builders

became mere

slender clustered columns

the support of solid walls

was replaced by that of buttresses turned at right angles to them on the transverse line of the piers and the high vaults were strutted by flying arches bridging the aisles. This surely was the most unconventional feature
;

ever introduced into building

a purely mechanical conlight

trivance which an artist might well have despaired of

making

comely.

For greater

the

intervening

curtain walls between buttress and buttress, having no

longer anything to do but to carry themselves, were

converted into windows, groups of detached lights at first, till tracery came in to hold the glazing with the
least
Gothic the
Reason as

amount of solid support. Through all these developments we see the working
^"^ precedent.
artist

^^ rational motives free from restraint of conventional

^^^^

convention

There was a reason

for

them

all.

The Gothic

followed unhesitatingly the lead

of

CH.

i]

NATURE OF GOTHIC

15

every novel requirement, waiting for no authority but that

of

common

sense and economy, and gladly welcoming

in turn,

every fresh constructional problem

as affording

the most fertile suggestion for artistic expression.

The same spirit may be traced in all he did in humble village church as in mighty minster, in lonely manor house as in lordly palace, in timber construction no less than in masonry. Gothic art is the flower of the freedom-loving Teutonic intelligence, the outcome of natural unaffected application of means to an end and the shape it took was the natural, perhaps the inevitable result of the conditions of time, place, and people amid which it arose.
; ;

CHAPTER

II

THE GOTHIC VAULT

General
conditions of architecture

Three

cardinal principles, as

we have

said,

govern

all

great and living styles of architecture.

Firstly Solidity,

which gives us sound construction. Secondly Economy, which prescribes proper use of material, and. adaptation of design to particular needs by due observance of local

Particular conditions of architecture

Aesthetic expression of the two preceding conditions of sound building on one hand, and appropriate design on the other. These three general principles apply to all styles and the difference between style and style arises from
circumstance.
lastly
:

And

the particular economical circumstances of each country,

each age, and each people.

was pointed out in the last chapter how the unchanging character of Egyptian civilization was reflected in the immobility of Egyptian architecture and how the universal spread of Roman architecture throughout the Empire expressed the cenIt
;

tralization
It

of

Roman

institutions

in

the imperial city.

remains to trace the economical conditions of modern,

Europe which gave direction to the art of the Middle Ages, made it what it was, and found aesthetic
expression in the style which
Romanesque
archi-

or post- Roman

we know

as Gothic.

All styles of architecture are based on

what has gone

for the

before

and when

his turn

came the only models

tecture

Romanesque

architect

were

Roman

buildings.

But the

CH.

ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

and vaults of

17

expensive character of Roman work, constructed with huge

stones, colossal walls,
scientific construction,

work of wealthy princes with an unlimited command of labour and materials, and possessed of all the known science of their time, made it hopelessly beyond his power of imitation. The Romanesque style in its infancy was the child of poverty and incompetence. The architect had to produce with small stones and rude appliances the best version he could of the work of the Masters of the World. He pilfered columns and capitals from deserted temples and palaces and set them up in rows in his churches, propping the short ones on blocks of stone to make them range with the long ones, putting capitals on shafts that they did not fit, and forming architraves and cornices of fragments of classic entablatures that had nothing to do with one another, as we see them in the Matroneum of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura at Rome. Vaults were beyond his humble skill, and his roofs were of wood over both nave and aisles. For his arches the great he could stones of the Roman were out of the question neither quarry nor work them, and probably he had no Hence came the system of subtackle to lift them. ordination of orders in the arch, which was to play so
the
: .

its diffi-

Use of
at second

-Subordination of orders

leading a part in

all

subsequent architecture.

Instead of

the large voussoirs of the

Roman which
little

reached from

side to side of the arch through the thickness of the wall,

two or economize by three successive rings, and still further to This introrecessing each ring within that outside it. duced at once an aesthetic motive. Pleased with the
he learned to build the arch with
stones, in

concentric shadows cast by his receding rings or orders

he set to work to decorate them by moulding the square

edges of the stones, and thus led the way to the richly
J.

G. A.


i8

THE GOTHIC VAULT

[ch.

ii

arcades, and the sculptured portals of the Middle Ages. For the gorgeous doorways of Paris, Bourges, Amiens, and Lincoln with their wealth of imagery, have the ornament disposed on concentric rings And or orders retired regularly within one another^ of and economy thus a device originating in poverty

decorated

material

resulted in one

of the

main

artistic

motives

of Gothic architecture.
Ambition

The Romanesque architect did not rest here. The Romans had covered their buildings with vaults of stone or concrete, and his own wooden roofs did not content him he felt he must do as the Romans did and protect
:

his
Danger of
^"
roofs

churches with a more monumental and less perishable

covering.

danger.

The wooden roof was a constant source of The Romanesque churches were always getting
At Tours the abbey of
S.

burned down.

Martin and

Chartres twenty-two churches were burned in 997. Cathedral was burned in 1020, Vezelay in 11 20, when
eleven

hundred
all

and

twenty

seven

souls
in the

perished.

S. Front at Perigueux

was consumed

same

year.

Nearly

the

Carolingian cathedrals were burned,

five or six times,

many
years.

of

them

during a period of
told,

S. Martial at

Limoges, we are
1

200 was burned

Aisles first vaulted

in 954, 955, 1053, 1060, On every 140 and 1167-. ground both of security and dignity the Romanesque architect felt that he must have a stone vault. His first achievement was that of vaulting the aisles, and it was long before he had skill and courage enough

to vault the nave.

Many Romanesque

churches never
the nave

did receive a vault over their naves.

*

At Ely

The development

of the Gothic orders

is fully

explained and illustrated

226.

in

my
^

Reason in Architecture. France a PEpoque Roniane,

p.

Lasteyrie, Architecture Religiense en

ch.

ii]

the GOTHIC VAULT

at

19
still

and transepts, and

their

Winchester the transepts

the
roofs

bear

wooden
but

roofs.

At Peterborough, though

Norman

aisles

are vaulted, the high

;

wood

in

this case stone vaulting

and ceilings are of was contemplated

for

and preparation made

constructing
It
it

for

it,

though when time came

the courage of the builders failed them.

risk of vaulting so
Perseverbarrel
^^"^'^'"s

was not only

deterred the

wide a span that Romanesque architects from the attempt,

geometrical kind presented themcross-vaulting so large a space.
parts of France, especially in the
barrel vaults continued to be
to the
latter

Other

difficulties of a

selves in

the

Consequently

in

way of many

Auvergne and Aquitaine,

turned over the nave
1

down
still

half of the

2th century,

and may

be seen

at Aries,

Clermont-

Nectaire, Autun, and in many But the inconvenience of this form of vault which prevented an adequate clerestory, and the

Ferrand, S. Junien, S.

other places.

itsincon-

difficulty

of supporting the continuous thrust

of such

vaults along the side wall,

made

it

imperative to revert to
The
cross-

the cross-vault of the

Romans, which allowed large and high clerestory windows, and concentrated the thrust on isolated points that could be fortified by buttresses.
This introduced a new element into the plan of the
It

Articuia-

church.

was now

articulated, or divided into bays, at

churches

the points where the thrusts were concentrated and the

buttressing applied.
itself,

Each bay was a complete

fabric,

unit in

an epitome of the whole

system.
in

and the building

consisted of a group of these independent bays associated

in a

common

element
sight

This articulation is an important Gothic architecture which must not be lost

a novel feature, for
it

the

of. At the same time it is not Romans had invented it and used

already.

A familiar instance of this is

the Basilica of Maxentius

2

20
Basilica of

THE GOTHIC VAULT

the

[CH.

II

in

Roman Forum,
in

of

which

illustrations are to
It consists

be

found

most books on

architecture'.

of a

vast nave of three square bays with a span of about

80 ft. which are cross-vaulted. On each side are three chambers 56 ft. deep, forming something like aisles, and divided from one another by massive walls, pierced by an arch, which buttress the central vault at the points where the thrusts are concentrated. Barrel vaults are
turned over these side chambers from wall to wall, their
axis being at right angles to that of the

main

hall,

and

these vaults are kept low

enough

to leave the lunettes of

the nave vaults open as a clerestory.

In this building

the system of concentration of thrusts and supports, and

articulation of the structure
is

already

perfectly developed,

and carried out

on a gigantic
The quadripartite

scale.

The

simplest form of a cross, or

is

vault

quadripartite, vault

that generated

C\
1-^

by the intersection at right angles of two semi-cylindrical vaults, which cut one another on two diagonal planes. These planes are represented on plan by the two diagonal lines and BC (Fig. i) drawn

^'^-

AD

across

the

bay,

compartment,

or

articulation of the structure.

These

diagonal lines are the groins, which Fig. I. form a projecting edge or arris, from which the two cylindrical surfaces recede on each hand. These groins, obviously, can only lie straight over the true
1 e.g. Fergusson, Nis^. of Architecture, vol. I. p. 330 Simpson, Hist. oj\ Architectural Development., vol. I. p. 130; Viollet-le-Duc, Lect. iv Hist. of\ English Church Architecture, Plate v, G. G, Scott, Junr.
;
;

CH.

ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

when

21

diagonal lines
equal span.

the two semi-cylindrical vaults are of

Were

they unequal the line of intersection

would not be
difficult to

straight, but

wavy, and not only unsightly, but

construct and unsubstantial

The
lines

usual plan therefore was to

when constructed. make each bay of the

Square
^^^

aisle square,

or so nearly square that the intersecting

or groins should be regular,

strong rib was

thrown across the aisle from pier to pier, and CD (Fig. i) which defined the articulation and so gave expression to the constructive idea, though not really necessary, for the constructive method so long as and between these ribs there the nave was not vaulted was no difficulty in forming a square groined vault. But the nave is generally about twice as wide as the aisle, and therefore if its bay were of the same length as that of the aisle the compartment of the nave vault would be not square but oblong, and one of the intersecting half-cylinders of a cross-vault would be twice as wide as the other, and also a good deal higher, so that no true diagonal groin would result. This difficulty retarded the science of vaulting for
generally

AB

Difficulty

anohlons^
^'^^

some places, as for instance in the cathedral of Valence in Burgundy the architect contented himself with cross-vaulting the aisles, and barrel-vaulting The nave vault is strengthened by transverse the nave. arches, and the aisle vaults are kept high enough to
a long while.

In

vaience
'^^^
^''''^'

This allowed of no clerestory windows, and indeed did not challenge the difficulty at all. the first A solution in one way was found for perhaps ^ The nave Muan. there bemg in Ambrogio time at S.
afford abutment'.
*

s.

AmbmMilan

gio,

V. illustration in

my

Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture^

is

vol.

ii.

p. 115.

The

construction at S. Savin
p. 52.

the

same except

that there are

no

transverse ribs, v. lUust. do.

22

THE GOTHIC VAULT

is

[CH.

II

twice as wide as the aisle

divided into square bays,

A, B, C,

(Fig. 2), each of

them as long
lie

the aisle which are also square.

vaults are regular,

two bays of Consequently the crossas

in

and the groins

it

true diagonal

planes in the nave as well as in the

Alternation of
piers

aisles.

From
of this

the plan (Fig. 2)

is

will

be seen that the result

arrangement
B,

that

the piers A,

C,
;

have
re-

double work to do for they

ceive the concentrated charge of the great vaults of the nave

as well as those of the lesser

and arches of the aisle and triforium above it while the intermediate piers E and
vaults
;

receive that of the lesser

vaults

and arches alone.

of
stress
is

This
well

inequality

for and expressed by the greater substance given to the main piers A, B, C, D which are clustered, and have

provided

not only the

carry the
additional

members

that

lower arches but

members

that

run up to carry the arches

of the nave vault.

The intermediate piers E and F, on the other hand, which alternate with the great piers, are smaller, and have only the members needed by the nave arcades and the aisle vaults (Fig. 3). The
of S.
construction of a cross-vault on a square plan
is

Thesimple
cross-vault

and on a small scale

easy, but

on the

scale of the

nave

Ambrogio

it

is

not such a simple matter.

is

The

difficulty,

as always,

with the groins.

CII. ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

23

24
The
groin-

THE GOTHIC VAULT

Let US take
first

[CH.

II

an example of a cross-vault over

size,

ing line

a square bay of moderate

say that of the crypt at

Winchester which is about I4'xi4'. The four equal bounding arches are represented by A, B, C, D in Fig. 4, of which one A, E, B is set up in elevation over its base. The two half-cylinders of the vault being equal in span

Fig. 4.

the groins will

lie

true in a straight line between

AC

and DB.

On

the

base

of the diagonal groin,

up the elevation of which the crown M' will of

set

AC

we

course be level with E.

by what are called direct arch A, E, B, which is the true section of the half-cylinder, is divided on the base line AB into equal parts at F, G, H, I, and
the diagonal likewise at
J,

The curve ordinates. The

of the groin

is

found

K, L, M.

Then

if

J' is

CH.

ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

in

25
G',

made equal
to

height to

F
I

H H', and M M' to

ellipse.

K K' G L L' E, a drawn through

F',

to

line

their

tops will give the true curve of the groin, which will be

an

This

is

the usual vault of

all

Norman

crypts,

and

Ellipse of

Norman aisles and

sions
;

Romanesque
is

vaults of small dimenall

and the crown of the arches being

level its

on the

same
it

convenience

obvious, for in one case

carries the floor of the church,

and

in the

other that of

the triforium.

glance, however, tells us that the ellipse of the Weakness

is

diagonal

not so strong a form as the semicircle of the

cargroin

do well enough, but on the scale of the nave at S. Ambrogio it would be It is true that there were cross-vaults with dangerous. a level crown, and consequently with elliptical groins, on a much vaster scale over the Basilica of Maxentius at Rome with its 80 foot span but they were moulded in concrete, and compacted into shells of enormous strength, and the Lombard architect had no such resources at his His solution of the problem was a bold one. disposal.
direct arches.

On

a small scale

it

will

gave up the elementary idea of a cross-vault being the intersection of two equal half-cylinders, and drew his This diagonal groin semicircular instead of elliptical. made an end of the level crown, for the wide semicircle
of

He

Semigroin^*^

the

diagonal

rose

much higher than

that

of

the

narrower direct arches, and the four cells or panels of the vault, which represented the elementary quarter-

The from the side to the centre. vault therefore became in a manner domical, though of course without any real domical construction (Fig. 5).
cylinders,

had

to rise

This was a daring innovation a new departure in and it was accompanied by an innovation groining Romanesque vaulting had perhaps still more novel.
: ;

26

THE GOTHIC VAULT

Fig.
I

[CH.

II

long been divided into bays by strong transverse ribs

{v.

su/>.)

even

in

the case of barrel vaults, and

in

wall-ribs

had

been

constructed
half-cylinders.

the

side
in

walls

to

generate
The
dia-

the cross

But

addition to

these the high vaults at S. or arches of brick laid

gonal rih

Ambrogio have diagonal ribs under the groins. Whether they

Fig.

5.

were suggested by a wish whether they were a device

four

to

fortify

the

groins,

or

to ensure a true curve

if

on
the

the diagonal line which would have been uncertain

ramping panels or

cells of the
I

vaulting surface had

been simply brought together,

am

not sure.

Probably

CH.

ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

in

27
is

both motives had a share

very important one, for
it

the Invention which

anticipates the

whole system

of the rib and panel vaulting of the Middle Ages.

shall return to this presently.

We
I'lanof
the piers

Let us now look at the plan and construction of the

piers

on which the arches of walls and vaults rest. It has already been pointed out that they are of two kinds,

main

piers

and

intermediates

alternately,

the

latter

carrying the lower arches and vaults only, the former carrying these and the high vaults as well.
If

they are

Correof^pie?"*^^

examined

it

will

be found that the members of the

clustered pier bear a distinct relation to the

of the arches that
piers
fall

members

^"

"'^

upon them
flat

(z>.

Fig. 3).

The main
left

AB
is

have a wide

pilaster in front

which carries
Right and
is

the

flat

tranverse arch of the nave vault.

of this

an attached shaft from which the diagonal arch

set

of the groin springs, and the capital of this shaft

obliquely in the direction of the groin.

small square

member next

to this shaft carries the wall-rib.

Within

the wall-rib are the two arches of the triforium, each of

which consists of two rings or orders, the subordinate one being retired within the outer. Each of these orders
has
its

own

support, a square

member

carrying the outer,

and an attached
is

shaft the inner.

similar

arrangement
is

appears in the lower storey, except that the outer order

not separately provided for in the jamb, and this
a
flaw in the strict logic of the design.

In the intermediate piers

of the

EE

the three outer

members

main pier are omitted, for they are not wanted, and only those remain which serve the lower arches. At the back of each pier similar provision is made for the vaults of triforium and aisle.Finally comes the question how the thrusts of the

28
System of
thrusts

THE GOTHIC VAULT

piers, are

[CH.

II

high vaults of the nave, which are concentrated on the

main is no
nave.

met and
there

resisted.
is

At

S.

Ambrogio there

difficulty, for

no clerestory, and the vaults

to support that of the

of the triforium are high

enough

strong transverse arch of the triforium vault,

on which a heavy buttress wall is raised, meets and counterthrusts the nave vault at the main piers on which

Fig-. 6.

the thrust

is

concentrated, and
is

is

itself

supported by the
in

outer wall, which

equilibrium (Fig.
Difficulty

strongly buttressed, and forms the

is

ultimate point cCappui, so that the whole structure

6).
is

It is

when
i

the nave

raised hig^h

above the

aisles

created

'>>'

clerestory

With a clerestory that further modes of support have to

be devised, and other countervailing thrusts have to be

called in to neutralize the disruptive force of the high

CH.

ii]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

nave.

29
shall

vault of the
presently.

With
of

this

problem we

deal

The
S.

construction

this

Romanesque church
is

of

General

Ambrogio
all

at Milan, of

which the foregoing

a brief

tionofs.
'^"^'^

anatomical account, furnishes an early and simple example

of nearly
tecture.

"^

the elementary principles of Gothic archiConcentrationand

articu''^^'"
.

We find there in the first place that concentration

, ,
.

ot thrusts

^1

at
is

on isolated points and concentration 01 resistance those points to meet them, of which the consequence
the articulation of the building into distinct self-con;

tained bays
discovery,
buildings,
,.
.

for
it

and though this was not exactly a new there is something like it in Roman was carried much farther in Romanesque
styles.
1

and the following

,

subordination 01 orders

We find there, secondly, that I'll which plays almost as important

1

Subordination of orders

a part in mediaeval architecture as the vault

is
:

itself,

and

is

for the vault an even more distinctive characteristic not a Gothic invention, whereas nothing like subis

ordination of orders

found

in classic architecture.

We
"^^ '"^

have

thirdly, at S.

Ambrogio the

free use of arches of Free

different

span and

rise in the construction

of the vault,

instead of the
level crown.
ribs,

regular cross-vault of the

Roman

with

We

transverse, diagonal,
use.

to

Roman
into

have also the whole system of vaulting and wall-rib, which is foreign And finally we have the piers broken

Correof pier^"^ ^^^

up

members

that correspond logically to the

members

of the arch or vault they carry.

To
thrusts

these elementary principles,

ist,

concentration of

particular

and supports and consequent

;

articulation of the ofGoThS

;

freedom and 4th correspondence between members of arch and load, most if not all the subsequent developments of Gothic
building
2nd,

subordination of orders

3rd,

of vaulting arches and use of vaulting ribs,

30
architecture

THE GOTHIC VAULT

may be more
or less directly referred.

[ch.

ii

The

construction of this single

Romanesque church has been

if

explained at some length, because

the reader has once

mastered
of the

it

he

will

have a key

to the full

understanding

later

and more

intricate

problems of Gothic

construction.

CHAPTER
THE GOTHIC VAULT
The scheme
80 far as
it

III
{continued)

of S.
:

Ambrogio
it

is

logical
all

and complete
the bays shall

Limitasquare

goes

but

requires that

be square, and
possible to

it

was not always convenient or even

nave, occupying of cross-vaulting

J^y""^

two of

make square bays in the those in the aisle. The difficulty

Fig. 7.

an oblong bay had still to be encountered, and also that of raising the nave vaults high enough for a clerestory.

An
and
bays:

oblonpf o

bay J

is

shown

in Fig. o

7.
'

The
and

DC

represent the transverse arches

is

AB .... dividing the

lines

Difficulty

of vaulting

anobiong
^^

AD

the wall-arch:

and

AC

BD

are the

32

THE GOTHIC VAULT

On
each base line
is

[CH.

Ill

diagonal groins.

set

up

its

arch,

which
It will

in early

work would of course

it is

be semicircular.
to

be seen at once that

no easy matter

form

a cross-vault with

three arches so different in height.

The Welsh
groin

Between the transverse and diagonal arches the difference is not too great to be got over by making the vault domical but the cross-vault generated by the wall-arch is more difficult to deal with. We might of course carry this half-cylinder horizontally to intersect the main vault, making what is called a Welsh or coal-scuttle vault
:

(Fig.

8).
all,

That however can hardly be

but
is

called a cross-

vault at

only a barrel vault with side pockets.

The
at

groin

Vezelay

Moreover it gives very little height for a clerestory window. Another plan was adopted at Vezelay, and at S. Jean in Autun, where the cross half-cylinder is sloped up towards the crown of the main vault, but that gives a very irregular line of intersection and leaves only the same room as the other plan for the clerestory window. The next device was to stilt the semicircular
wall-arch in order to raise
it

nearer the

level

of the

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

:

2>3

others

but that

made

the smaller half-cylinder encroach

-^^

on the surface of the larger, behind the true groining

and caused an awkwardly winding surface like the blade of a plough-share or screw-propeller, which it was hard to construct solidly even when the groin was
line,

strengthened with a diagonal

rib.
Difficulty

The whole difficulty, as will have been patent from what has been said, arises from the use of the semicircular arch, which is inelastic, its height being half of its span, and its form therefore incapable of variation. The solution was found in the adoption of the pointed arch, which could be raised to any required height and made of any required curve. It is not worth while to go at any length into the question of the origin of the pointed arch, which has
Long before it came into use for been much discussed. construction its form must have been familiar, for we
find

arch*""

The
ach^

Greek tombs, though without the structure of It was used in their buildings by the Arabs an arch. long before its adoption in the West and was employed by them, or by those who worked for them, probably Byzantines, in the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque
it

in

its early

East"

El Aksa at Jerusalem

in

the 7th century.

It

occurs in
Bishoi,

the arcades of the Coptic churches of Dair

Anba

and Dair-es-Suriani in Egypt, which are attributed to the 6th century^; and the arches of the mosque of Ibn Touloun at Cairo, which was built in 878, are pointed. Nor need we stay to enquire whether its introduction into the West was due to returning Crusaders who had seen it in the East, or whether its employment was suggested by reasons of construction, which is the more likely explanaFrom whatever source it came we find it was in use tion.
^

A.

J.

Butler, Coptt'c Churches^ vol.

I.

ch. vil.

J.

G. A.

34

THE GOTHIC VAULT

[ch.

iii

Preference

arch"""

Intro-

pointed"
arch

by the Romanesque builders early in the 1 2th century both They found it convenient to give for arches and vaults. a pointed section to their barrel vaults, which were constructed in one with the outside gabled roof, because in that way they diminished the mass of masonry which and they further observed that its loaded the crown thrust being directed more downwards the pointed arch was easier of abutment than the round arch which At first it cxerted a more powerful lateral pressure. seems to have been adopted somewhat grudgingly, as a useful but unwelcome expedient. The round arch which they had inherited from the Romans still had a firm hold on the affection of the builders, and long after the advantages of the pointed arch had brought it into general use in constructive features the round arch was employed for windows and doors, and such features as wall-arcading which were purely decorative. At first the pointed form was used timidly, and not raised much above the semicircle. For the diagonal groin was generally made semicircular and the transverse arch did not need to be raised much to reach the same level. Over a square bay this caused no irregularity the vault was as simple as the Roman cross-vault. But over an oblong bay the narrow side arches had to be more acutely pointed, and this caused difficulty. Fig. 9 shows an oblong bay of the same proportions as that in Fig. 7,
;

but with a vault of pointed arches instead of round ones. The diagonal arch, raised on the base BD is semicircular,

and the transverse on the base AB and the wall-arch on AD are pointed and raised to the same height as the diagonal, so that the crowns of the cells or panels are
level.

little

consideration of such a vault as this will

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

freedom of the arch, begun
the

35
at idea
of

convince us that the

S.

Ambrogio and completed by

adoption of the

seating

pointed form, entirely upset the primitive idea of the

abandoned

by the intersection of two half-cylinders or half-barrels either round or pointed.

cross-vault being generated

The

surfaces

of the

vaults,

instead

of

being simply

cylindrical,

were now too irregular to meet symmetrically on regular lines, for the panels required to be twisted and tilted in order to come together at all. It was as

Fig.

9.

much
It

for this reason as

for

that of strengthening the

lines of intersection that ribbed vaulting

was invented.

Riband
JauUing

was impossible

to

make an even junction by simply much

bringing the curved surfaces together without so

winding and twisting as to be dangerous: but it was easy enough to build ribs with a regular curve which

would be both sightly and strong, and the panels or vaulting surfaces could be fitted between them and rest on them securely in spite of their winding surfaces.
32

THE GOTHIC VAULT

Rib and
panel
vaulting

[CH.

Ill

Henceforth vaulting was not as heretofore a system

of intersecting surfaces, but a system of ribs and panels
;

of arches and filling-in

skeleton,

the ribs forming a framework or

ceiling fitted

and the panel being a covering or

n^^

D ^wltuolnaL
12. ?, /C )Ji

Fig. lo.

between them, possessing, however, owing to its arched form an independent strength of its own. The system of constructing vaults on the new system
in

explained by Fig. lo where one bay is shown with the skeleton of ribs only and others with the panel filled in.
is

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

of the

Zl
it

One advantage
the
is

new

construction was that

Economy
of centering

dispensed with a great part of the centering required for

Roman

vault.

To

construct a vault without ribs

it
:

necessary to form centering under the whole surface

in

framed centres must be put

the

the line of the groins and

transverse arches, with

others between,
slats
is

on which

"lagging" of planking or
centering
is

laid
in

to

receive the

vault of stone, brick, or concrete.

But

ribbed vaulting
ribs,

and the ashlaring of the panel can be filled in, course by course, on a moveable piece of wood resting on the centering of the ribs and shifted as soon as each course is finished.
only necessary

under the

Fig. II.

It is

of course obvious that the ribs

may be made
all

to Double
of ribs

contribute largely to the strength of the vault, especially

when
there
ribs

laid
is

under the diagonal groin, and above

when

much winding

in

the panel.

The
But
really

transverse

might often be safely omitted, and

is

in fact are so in in

each alternate articulation at Durham.

cases the purpose fulfilled by the rib
of acting as a centre,
that of support.
filling in,

many
that

more

as

it

by giving a true arched line, than rib was not bonded to the should be, by a web on the back (Fig. 1 k)
Often the
1

The
webbc'l

^b

but simply laid under the ashlaring as in Fig.

is

1 1

b.

It

so in

De

Lucy's retro-choir at Winchester where the ribs

to the strength of the vault.
It is

add but

little

so also

38
The
weblied
rib

THE GOTHIC VAULT

^

[ch.

iii

in

the vault at Lincoln where in one case the rib has sunk away leaving the ashlar vault standing without it. In one of the great cross-vaults under the ruins of the
,
.

Bishop's Palace at the

same place the

ribs

have perished

from decay, but the ashlar groining shows no sign of

weakness

in

consequence.

The web

believe did not

1

make
till

its

appearance before the end of the

3th century

then the rib was simply laid under the vault as in

1
1

Fig.

B.

The web seems to occur generally

I

in

Decorated

work, and

think always in Perpendicular vaults, as for

instance in the choir aisles

and Wykeham's building at Winchester and in the vault of the Lady chapel at Christ Church Priory, which I had occasion to repair and partly
reconstruct.
I

am

told the

same

distinction of

web

or

no web occurs
Ripon, and

at Chester, S. Patrick's, Dublin, Hereford,

Hexham\ The

early 14th century vault over

the two western bays of the nave at Worcester has ribs

without the web, the ribs of the rest of the nave vault,
dating from 1377, have it. This systcm allows of
y^[i\i

Winding
of surfaces

many

liberties

being taken
could

the form of the vaulting surfaces.

They

now
very

be made to wind without danger so as to give more

room

for a clerestory.

The

wall-arch in Fig. 9

is

narrow and would cramp the clerestory window. The remedy was to stilt it, as in the nave of Sens Cathedral (Plate I) where the wall-rib springs from the capital of a
small shaft that rises from the cornice at the springing
of the main vault.

The pocket
left
these

of the vault being taken

up straight with
the wall-rib
^

this shaft as

high as the springing of

am

is

therefore
as
to

behind the main vault, which

latter

For information

instances
to

indebted
all.

to

Mr Thompson
for

of Peterborough

who has had

do with them

He

says

that in the Maiden's Aisle at Chester either the rib or the vault

had slipped

want of the web.

0,

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

in

39

advances
rib.

front of

it

with the sweep of the diagonal

Consequently the group of

springing at
in front

(Fig. 12)

of the

jamb C

as

shown at their after rising a short way comes shown at B, and in an elevation
ribs

drawing would hide it. As it is seen from the church rtoor of course it does not have that effect, for you look

up behind

it.

Mr Moore
vertically for

seems

to

think that this stilting of the

Object of
waii-rib

wall-rib, so that the panel of ashlaring

next the wall rises

some height

instead of spreading laterally

along the wall, and thereby reduces the width of the

conoid of vaulting where
it

reaches the wall,

is

mode

of confining the thrust of the vault against the side wall

to the area of support given
this

by the buttress
panels

outside.

In
wall

he

is

mistaken.

The two

next the

exercise no thrust

without

it.

upon it whatever, and would stand At Winchester the outer wall had settled
vault, so that there

and parted from the

for the

was a longitudinal
into the church

crack through which you could look

down

whole length of the aisle between the wall and the vault, which showed no tendency to follow the wall in its movement. At Worcester, where the vaulting is somewhat irregular, the ashlaring seems never to have
been made up to the
top of the wall-rib.
wall,

but leaves an interval on the

stilting of the panels

The

has no

40
Other
object

THE GOTHIC VAULT

but
that

[CH.
for

Ill

of

giving more room

the

clerestory windows.

Owing

to this stilting the panel

soffit

BC

(Fig.

12) has a
its

strongly winding

in

order to recover

proper

position at the crown.

In a quadripartite vault, such as

we have
be
building
;

hitherto been dealing with, this position

would

at right angles to the side wall

and the axis of the

but at Sens

we have

not a quadripartite but a

different kind of vault,

The
sexpartite

which requires explanation.

at S.

It will

be remembered that

Ambrogio

the nave

vault

was divided

into square bays twice as

wide as those of

the aisle, so that one bay of the nave occupied the length of two in the aisle.

The

square bays of the nave were

covered with a simple quadripartite vault, and the piers

Abbaye
aux

Hommes,
Caen

Alternation of piers

were alternately larger and smaller according to their Something like this was attempted at S. Etienne, load. or the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen, which was built by William the Conqueror in 1066. Originally only the aisles were vaulted, and the nave and triforium had wooden roofs. For some reason not very clear, the piers were alternated as at S. Ambrogio, larger and smaller, the larger having a pilaster and shaft on the
front to the nave,

the lesser only the shaft.

In both

cases the shafts ran to the top of the wall to receive

the tie-beams of the

alternation at S.

wooden roof. The reason for this Ambrogio has been explained: but it

has no meaning in an unvaulted church, and one wonders

whether Lanfranc of Pavia, the first abbot, was influenced simply by recollection of a familiar Milanese building\
In the
1

2th century the

wooden

roofs at S. Etienne

were

superseded by vaults; the wall shafts were cut

^

down and
is

M. de

Lasteyiie, however, maintains that the church at

Caen
p.

the earlier

of the two.

Archit. Relig. en France a VEpoqiie Romatie.,

260.

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

refixed
at

41

the

capitals

a lower

level

to

receive

the Thesexvault

springing of the nave vaults, and quadrant barrel vaults

were turned over the triforium, as in the churches of Auvergne, to give abutment. The nave had a quadripartite vault
S.

over the square double bay,

like that at

Ambrogio, with regular diagonal ribs, but apparently it, and from the intermediate shaft he threw a transverse rib meeting at the crown the intersection of the two diagonals. On the back of this
the architect did not trust

The

inter-

transve'rse
"^'^

Fig. 13-

he raised a thin wall for some height and then spread

out with vaulting surfaces right and
left to

it

meet those of the main vaults. The two pockets or cells thus formed described an ellipse on the main walls, and their crown naturally ran obliquely towards the centre of the main vault where the various ribs met. In Fig. 13 AD and BC are the transverse arches dividing the bays, and AC and BD are the diagonals EF is the intruded transverse arch, G the common point of intersection, and
:

42
Abbaye
iionimes,

THE GOTHIC VAULT

show the
14.

[CH.

Ill

the dottcd Hncs

direction of the crowns of the

Several cells or pockets.

is

shown

in

Fig.

The effect of this construction The diagonals cut very much in

all

front

of the clerestory,

the

more because they are

Fig. 14.

segmental, struck from a point below the springing, a device no doubt to avoid a domical crown; and the surfaces of the panels are very winding. In the vault of the Abbaye aux Dames at Caen

CH.
this

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

avoided

43

is

by not turning any

vault

from
building
soffit
is

the Abbaye

intermediate
thin

transverse

EF,

but
rib

simply

a
of

Dames,

wall

on the back of the

a regular quadripartite vault.

like

up to the This however

more
Sens

shoring than vaulting.

These are perhaps the first examples of the sexpartite vault, which occurs frequently in early Gothic churches, as for instance at Sens (v. sup. p. 38, Plate I) where the
alternation of the piers according to their office
is

very

re-

markable.

The main

piers are clustered,

and are massive,

having besides the members that carry the nave arcade

group of shafts in front which rises and diagonal ribs of the high vault. The intermediate piers on the contrary consist of a pair of columns placed one behind the other like those in S. Costanza at Rome\ which may possibly have given the suggestion for them. These receive the nave arches and the aisle vaults, and from their capital rises a slender shaft which runs up to take the intermediate rib, which
and the
aisle vaults a

to receive the transverse

converts the quadripartite vault into a sexpartite.

In the composition of the great piers the relation of
Relation

the support to the load

of the vault has
its

is

logically expressed
it,

each rib
shaft

\n^d^^

own

shaft to carry
its

and each of the

two orders of the nave arcade has

below.

own proper

In no part of the vaulting of a church was the

new
sur-

vaulting
pian"^'^"^'^

system of construction with rib and panel found more

convenient than
in

the

circular

ambulatory that

rounded the apse and in the apsidal chapels opening from it. On this irregular plan, where no two arches in the circular walls of the bay were equal, and no two sets
of vaulting surfaces were alike, the intersecting lines of
*

Illustrated in va.^

Byz.attd Ro7natiesque Architecture,

vol.

i.

plate

X LI V.

44

THE GOTHIC VAULT

[CH.

Ill

unequal cylindrical and sometimes conoid surfaces were

Brionde

and twisted so much as to be not only unsightly Fig. 15 shows the effect of these interpenetrations in the vaulting of the ambulatory at Brioude in Auvergne, which could only be made safe by very careful masonry at the groining lines involving difficult geometrical problems, for every stone had to be accurately shaped to a different winding plane. This difficulty
distorted

but insecure.

disappeared when ribs of a true arch form were turned

Fig. 15

from V.-le-Duc.

from point to point, and the irregular winding of the panels between them was not only disguised by the regular curve of the ribs, but became of little consequence
for the panels

being relieved of any

structviral duty,

had

only to carry themselves, and could repose securely on the skeleton of the ribs.
Aisle vaults at
S.

In Fig.

16

is

shown the plan of one bay of the

apsidal chapel at S.

Denis

ambulatory with

its

Denis, where

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

45

5^

DENIS

Fig.

6 adapted from V.-le-Duc

46
Aisle
s.

THE GOTHIC VAULT

[ch. hi

there are two aisles round the great apse of the choir,
the outer one being in fact absorbed into the chapel.
I

Denis

take the description of these vaults from Viollet-le-Duc,

restored the church in i859\

who

"The

circumference

of the interior circle which defines the chapel meets the

abacus of the cylindrical column at

arches

A so

that the diagonal

AC, DC,

EC

are

equal.

Having drawn the

transverse arch

F and

the archivolt

G"

(which carries

the main apse of the choir),

"the architect takes the and draws the two diaofonals BIK, HIM and the transverse arches HB, BL. It is clear that all these arches are independent, and the
middle of the axis

GF

at

architect

may

please himself in fixing their springing.

But,

and

here the necessary consequences of the new

system show themselves,

various heights
if

had

he made these arches

at

semicircular their springing would have had to be

they were to come to a level at their

crown, since they are of various spans, and there would

have arisen the old trouble in filling in the triangular Or again had the arches all been made vaulting spaces. to spring at one level they would not have been level at the crown. The architect therefore employed the pointed arch which gives him full liberty to bring the crowns to the convenient level. So the elevation shows the transverse LB at L'B' and BH at B'H'; at C'E' one diagonal rib of the chapel, at OB' the transverse arch BFM, and at B"V the rib BI. The result is that the crowns CFI are level; and the crowns of the transverse arches BH, BL are also level with one another, though lower than CFI. It remains to fill in the triangular vaults which repose on The lines of the crowns of these these pointed arches. fillings-in necessarily abut on the point of each of these
1

V.-le-Duc, Diet.

Rat's, ix. 505.

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

CG."

47

arches as the dotted Hnes show, and they meet on the

axial line

The

perfection of this system of vaulting at S. Denis

Persistence
tradition of

was only reached after many tentative experiments. It was some time before the builders, with the tradition of

^^"^^^"S

Roman

cross-vaulting
full

still

strong within them, grasped

the idea of the

liberty at their disposal,

and dismissed
necessarily

from their minds

results

the

theory that

vault

from the intersection of simple curved surfaces.

as at

At

first,

Morienval, the diagonal

ribs

were not

Morienvai

Fig. 17.

drawn

straight but on a curved line, such as

resulted from the intersection of

circular plan.

would have two barrel vaults on a

to diagonal inter- Langres
^' ^
'^^

At Langres, being used

one plane, they drew the diagonal ribs in a straight line (Fig. 17) from A to D, and C to B with the result that the point of intersection was not over the middle of the aisle but near one side of it with a very awkward effect. There is another instance of this in the
sections in

South Choir

aisle

of S.

Pierre at Chartres.

This was

remedied when the discovery was made that the two

48

THE GOTHIC VAULT

lie

[CH.

Ill

halves of the diagonal need not

in

one plane but

Fig.
i6.
It
is

might meet unnecessary

Gothic
vault perfected at
S.

at

an angle as BI

IK

in

to

go

into these experiments in detail for

our present purposed

before,
at
S,

Whatever approach may have been made towards a more scientific system of vaulting
it

Denis

and in 1140, that we find it perfected, and the theory of Gothic vaulted construction fully developed probably for the first time, unless as some suppose the work at Sens, which is similar, is
is

Denis,

slightly earlier.
Difficulty arising

To
in

the invention of ribbed vaulting, which allowed

rest,

from
clerestory

the wall-arch to be raised to the level of the

fact
it

though
windows,

was often kept

slightly

lower,

causing the

transverse section of the vault to be arched from side to

side,

is

due the

possibility of large clerestory

and

this

involved further provision being

made

for exterior

support.
Buttress-

In
or
in
it

Romanesque

buildings either there was no clerestory

ing at S.

Ambrogio

was of

insignificant dimensions.

At

S.

Ambrogio

Milan, nave and aisle are under one unbroken slope of

In

Auvergne

At Vezelay

and a clerestory is impossible (Fig. 6, v. sup. p. 28). It was the same in the churches of Auvergne and Toulouse, where the barrel vaults of the nave are abutted by quadrant vaults in the aisle, both being under one roof as at S. Ambrogio. At Vezelay, where perhaps the nave was cross-vaulted for the first time, a clerestory window
roof,
is

accomplished but

it

is

kept low, the wall-arch being

not so high as the

rest.

But now there was nothing

full

to

prevent the clerestory being of the

width of the wall-

arch of the vault, and as high as the space between the

1

V. Viollet-le-Duc, Diet. Rats. vol. iv.

"Construction,"
is

vol. ix.

"Voute."

The

history of the development of vaulting in France

carefully traced

by

Mr

Moore,

in his

Development and character of Gothic Architecture.

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

the
triforium

49
vault,

roof over

provided only proper support could

and the crown of the be given

to

the

upper storey.

When there was no aisle it was easy enough to apply an exterior buttress against each point where the thrust
was concentrated, as was done at King's College Chapel, Cambridge, the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, the western
side of the great transept at Salisbury, the eastern bays
at

Buttress-

ITo^aTsieT

Southwell and Rochester and the eastern transept at

Durham. The difficulty arose when there was an aisle, which removed the buttress pier from the main wall to the outside wall of the aisle. This difficulty was met by
the invention of the flying buttress to bridge across the

and reach the main wall of the clerestory stage at the proper spot to receive and resist the thrust of the
aisle

high vaults.

A
(Fig.

diagram
18).

will

explain the nature of this structure The

flying

The

dotted line

AB
If

the thrust of the high vault

outwards,

shows the direction of and CD that

of the aisle vault inwards.

not resisted their effect

would be to force the upper part of the wall out, and the lower part inwards\ A thrust may be defeated in two ways you may either annihilate it or divert it. The
:

enormous load of the superstructure which overpowers it by direct vertical pressure: the upper is partly diverted by means of the flying buttress to the great buttress pier E, and partly converted into a downward direction by the thrust of the flying buttress at F. Everything depends on the immobility of this great pier E, which is the ultimate point d'appici in which all the conflicting forces find rest.
lower thrust
is

CD

annihilated by the

Thrust
lated

Thrust

immobuuTess
pier

'

This actually happened at

S.

Thomas's Church, Portsmouth, which

4

it

fell

to
J.

my

lot to repair.

G. A.

50

THE GOTHIC VAULT

this pier

[CH.

Ill

From
fact

the nave vault might be stayed by a

single prop of timber without

any

flying buttress,

and

in

when we are called upon to rebuild a flying buttress what we do is to supply its place temporarily with just But the stone arch EF is something more such a prop. than a prop for were the nave wall away it is obvious
:

Fig.

8.

Inward
thrust of flying buttress

the arch would

weight.

inwards towards the nave by its own This weight therefore constitutes a thrust against
fall

the nave wall,

weight,

and
It

for thrust after all

is

only a matter of

this helps to divert the thrust

AB
more

into a
easily

more

vertical direction
is

which

is*

of course

resisted.

curious that this inward thrust of the

CH.

Ill]

THE GOTHIC VAULT

51

which surely is of value, does not seem have been appreciated by the French architects, v^^ho often put a small shaft close against the nave wall to support the head of the flying arch at F, thereby preventing it from exercising any pressure on the wall, and treating it merely as a prop to convey the thrust upon
flying buttress,
to

the great buttress pier

E\
architecture

Arrived at
tradition.
It

this

point Gothic

considered to have shaken off the last traces

may be of Roman

End

of

tradition

was bound by no formula of module and minute, by no stereotyped plan for house or temple, by
Its

no conventional rules of construction, plan, or design.

only laws

were those of

nature,

of

statics
It

and
free
individuartist

geometry, of convenience and economy.

scope to the individuality of the

gave

artist as well as to

the

manner of the school

in

which he was trained.

He was
modes
is

as free as air to indulge his

own

imagination, to devise

ever fresh methods of construction, and ever fresh

of expression.

The

result

was a

style

which

ever

surprising us with designs that are never stale but always

and new, and that constantly astonish us with their The artist was bound only by obedience infinite variety. to the three great canons which all good styles must obey: his construction must be sound, his work be economically contrived, and his design must reflect and
fresh
*

The
fanonsof
archi-

tecture

A curious

instance of the inward thrust of a flying buttress

at

is

afforded

by

what happened
left in

Bath Abbey.

The

nave, though designed for vauhing, was

ceiling, but in 1833 flying buttresses

the 17th century with a

wooden

imitating those of the choirwere placed on both sides of the nave, which it is said began to push the wall in. The nave had its present fan vault constructed by

middle of the 19th century to resist this inward overpower the buttresses, which buckled and threatened disaster. On examination I found they were hollow, and had to But though too infirm for their work take them out and reconstruct them.
Sir Gilbert Scott about the
thrust, but the vault

began

to

their unresisted thrust

had been too much

for the walls.

42

52
express

THE GOTHIC VAULT

aesthetically

[CH,

III

the

conditions

under

which

he

worked.
The
particular canons of

From

these general principles, applied to the

Gothic

Middle Ages, were evolved the particular principles which have been explained in the preceding chapters, and which differentiate the new style from all that had gone before it; (i) concentration of thrusts and supports and articulation of the structure more fully developed than in Roman work; (2) subordination of orders, which was an entirely novel feature; (3) freedom of arched construction by the introduction of the pointed arch and the system of rib and panel vaulting and (4) correspondence between the load and its supports This seems to me to be as near a logically expressed.
circumstances
of the
definition of Gothic architecture as the subject admits.

Appreciation

Hitherto

we have

dealt almost

entirely with

con-

of construction

struction, because without understanding that the style

necessary

cannot be understood at
necessary to explain
the

all.

In no other style has the a

part.
It was coming to

constructive problem played so large

it

in

some

detail before

more

aesthetic

part

of the

subject,

because that

depends largely on the former and without some clear knowledge of it would be unintelligible.

CHAPTER

IV

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

The
fully
r
11
1

13th centurv, in which Gothic architecture was

1
1

Character
of 'he 13th century

'

developed and reached

its

prime, has been described

it

by one philosopher,
stupid century.

think

is

Leibnitz,
at

as

the

With Innocent

III

the beginning,
it

and Boniface VIII

time

at the close of the period,

was the

when ecclesiastical pretensions reached their zenith, and when the Church claimed supremacy in every sphere of public politics as well as of private life when thrones and dominions were held to be at its disposal, and when
;

the clergy were placed above the reach of the

law.
It

common

was the age of what Gibbon calls " the most signal triumph over sense and humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation and the origin of the Inquisition." It was the age of Christian persecution of Christian, of the inhuman crusade against the Albigenses, which deluged the most flourishing and civilized part of France with blood, and reduced it to a desert. But it was also the age of the growth of more liberal The opinions, and of civil liberty. In our own country, if it nSy was disgraced by the surrender of John to the Pope, it was also the age of Stephen Langton and the Great Charter; of Grostete; of the younger Simon de Montfort and the development of better justice and more regular

54

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

;

[ch. iv

Parliamentary institutions

of the growth of Oxford

learning.
letters,
it

of

The Italian
mu^es

Roger Bacon, and the beginning of secular Italy, which then led the world in art and
the age of Frederick II,

In

was stupor mundi, perhaps the most

interesting figure in the middle ages, to which indeed

he hardly seems to belong.

plain

The
in

free

of

the

Po,

rejoicing

their

communes in the liberties won at

and cathedrals as monuments of civic greatness, rivalling and fighting one another till fear of Frederick drew them together Venice, Genoa, into the second league of Lombardy.
halls

Legnano, were raising their town

and Pisa controlled the commerce of the world. Florence had raised those second walls to enclose a larger cityj which Dante bewails as the beginning of her moral and the simplicity of Bellincion Berti with his decline belt of leather and buttons of bone, and his wife who could leave her mirror with face unpainted, had begun It was the to yield to the growth of wealth and luxury \ Dante traces the age of the birth of Italian poetry.
;

origin of the true I talian language to the court of Frederick,

said to have been and the end of the century produced the history of Villani and the Vita Nuova, to be followed by the Divina Commedia itself. As in Lombardy, so in France, England, Germany and Flanders the communes had already in great measure

whose

chancellor, Peter

De

Vinea,
;

is

the father of the Italian sonnet

Communal
fheTest'of
"'^^^

achieved

municipal

liberty

during

the

12th

century,

The
Communes

everywhere encouraged more or less directly by the crown to balance the power of the feudal nobles. In France Beauvais acquired communal rights in 1099, to which the bishop took the oath. At Noyon the bishop granted a charter, which he asked the king to confirm.
^

Paradise, XV. 112.

CH. IV]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

55
The

Mantes demanded one of the king, who was its feudal lord. Laon in iiii, excited by the example of Noyon and S. Quentin, revolted against its bishop. It had always been a turbulent city, where " brigandage was endemic." Nobles oppressed the burghers, the burghers trampled on the commons, and the bishop tyrannized over all. The bishop was bribed to consent to a charter, and when Louis Le Gros visited the town he was offered 400 livres to confirm it. The bishop however outbid the townsmen with 700. Louis retired in time to avoid the outbreak, but the townsmen stormed the palace and murdered the bishop, whom they found hidden in a tub clerks and nobles had to escape by flight, women of the town despoiled the ladies, and the cathedral was burned. The king returned and sacked the town, but the commune was re-established in 1128. Amiens after a four years' war gained her liberty in 1 1 1 7 S. Riquier in 1126; Soissons between 11 16 and 11 26; Abbeville in 1 1 30; Reims in 1139. In 1146 Sens was granted a charter by Louis VII which was revoked three years later upon which the citizens rose and murdered the abbot of S. Vif and his nephew. At Vezelay the townsmen in alliance with the Count of Nevers triumphed over the abbey in 11 36, but the alliance prevented their
;

com"""""^^

achieving complete liberty.

That the movement should be hated by the clergy, " Commune," cried especially the regulars, was natural. the Abbot Guibert of Nogent, in holy horror, "name It was in the towns that the novel, name detestable."' new lay spirit of liberty flourished, " Everywhere they revolted against bishop, abbot and chapter. They braved the curses of popes they could only grow at the expense
;

Lavisse, Histoire de France^ vol.

ll. p.

349.

56

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[en. iv
It is

of powers local and general, and of the Church.

by

the emancipated bourgeoisie that the laic spirit arrived

at

modifying from top to bottom the character not only

of public powers and social relations, but also of the \" literature and intellectual life of the country

was the beginning of the reign of freedom in thought as well as in politics. The ground thus gained was never lost, and in this period were sown the seeds of the great revolutions of the i6th century. For though the pretensions of the Church never rose higher than in
It

the

13th century, they contained already the seeds of

decay.
It was in France, and in the royal domain of the He de France chiefly, that the transition from Romanesque to Gothic began, and it is with that school that we had best begin the account of the new style. The importance of the crown had grown steadily in the
1

Ilede France the

cradle of

Gothic

2th century under Louis le Gros, and Louis le Jeune,

and in the 13th century the new royalty was consolidated by Philip Augustus, who added to the old territory of the He de France the provinces forfeited by John of England.

Then

took

place

that

astonishing

burst

of cathedral

building which has no parallel except the great building

period in England that followed the

or the development of railways in our the reign of Philip, from
The
French
cathedrals
1

Norman Conquest, own day. During

180 to 1223, were founded the cathedrals of Paris, Chartres, Bourges, Laon, Soissons, Meaux, Noyon, Amiens, Rouen, Cambrai, Arras, Tours,
Seez, Coutances, and Bayeux, and before the end of the

century they were nearly

all finished.

What was
ment
.-^

the

It

had,
^

probably,

meaning of this extraordinary movetwo causes: the decline of

Lavisse, Hisioire de France^ vol. n. p. 356.

CH. IV]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

rise of the

57

monastic influence, and the

communes.

For

Decline of
1^^"^'*''^

long there had been antagonism between the regular

and secular
cloister

clergy.
first

Till the
in

end of the 12th century the

monks stood

popular esteem.
;

The

life

of the

was thought the higher life the monks had charge of education, and were the repositories of learning, and from their ranks men like Suger were chosen to fill great offices of state. Pontifical bulls favoured them at the expense of the bishops, from whose jurisdiction they had obtained exemption. This had always been a sore grievance and led to constant quarrels. The Bishop of
Orleans
his
in

Antagon-

Tegukr
sectiar
'^'^'sy

987

tried to

gather the vintage from land

claimed by the Abbot of S. Benoit, and

men

waylaid the

when prevented abbot and abused him, killing some

:

of his men.

Pulques, Bishop of Orleans in 1008, tried to

the

enter the monastery of Fleuri

monks

resisted,

and

beat
S.

some of
in

his

men

to death.

An

episcopal council at

995 was routed by the vassals of the abbey, and the archbishop was wounded and barely escaped with life. In 1069 Hugh, Bishop of Langres, burned the abbey of Pothieres, to which he had been refused ad-

Denis

mission\

The men

of Vezelay with the countenance of

the Count of Nevers sacked the

monastery, and the

great

Pope wrote

to charge the

Bishop of Autun with having

Early
JJcathe-^
fbbeVs"

instigated the outrage".

feudalists with

The abbeys had become

outshone

enormous revenues. Their churches far cathedrals, which till the end of the 1 2th century were of modest dimensions like those of Avignon, Aries, Autun, and other places where the old cathedrals have survived. At P^rigueux the cathedral of S. Etienne was a very humble affair compared with
the
^

Lavisse, Histoire de France^ vol.

ll.

p. 339, etc.
I.

D'Achery, Spicilegium Hist. Vizeliacensis, Lib.

Epist. XVII.

58

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

No
church

[ch. iv

the great abbey of S. Front.

this side the

Popularity

Alps could compare with the vast abbey of Cluny. The bishops were ready to take advantage of the

cLh^eXair

and the rise of the communes gave them their opportunity. Not that we are to As great credit them with any democratic sympathies.
decline of monastic influence,

feudal lords the bishops were no less antagonistic to the

commune

than the
of

nobles and the abbeys.

liberty

But the

achievement

civil

inspired

in

the citizens

the passion to adorn their city with buildings that should

surpass those of their neighbours.

in

So

it

was,

we know,

Cooperabishop

and

laity

would seem to have been in France. The old cathedrals were condemned and thrown down, and on their ruins men set to work to build something With this object in view bishop and commune far finer. could cooperate, however much they differed otherwise. Policy caused bishops, like those of Beauvais and Noyon, ^^ grant charters and swear to the commune, however much they may have disliked it. The bishop no doubt was the main mover in the pious work, and probably the Maurice de Sully is largest contributor to the expense said by a contemporary to have built the cathedral of Paris much more at his own cost than by gifts from But in most cases the bulk of the money must outside. have come from the people, as it had done previously The contemporary in the rebuilding of the Abbeys.
Italy

and so

it

account of Ordericus Vitalis^ implies the cooperation of

the

monks and " the faithful " Henry I, and there would seem
in

in

the

time of King

to

have been the same

between bishop and people

the case of the secular

^ Omnis enim ordo Religiosorum, pace fruens et prosperitate, in omnibus quae ad cultum Deitatis pertinent omnipotentissimae intus et exterius suam diligentiam satagit exhibere. Unde templa domosque fervens fidelium devotio praesumit prosternere, eademque melioranda renovando iterare. //t'st. lib. x.

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

Rebellious and turbulent

59

rebuilding.

Laon began the

new

cathedral within 45 years from the confirmation of Within a century after their achievement her liberties\
of freedom
rebuilt or
all

the great cities in the royal domain had

their cathedrals,

were rebuilding

and

this

must

be something more than a coincidence.

able,

It is

remark-

and

significant of the cooperation

of bishop and

commune in the pious work, that some of the grandest among the new cathedrals are in towns like Laon where
the bishops had formerly been most fiercely opposed^

The architects were now laymen; in the early Romanesque period they had been monks, though not
necessarily, nor perhaps usually, in holy orders.

The

lay

In those

troublous times

it

was only
But

in

the shelter of the cloister

that the arts could survive,

their
rule.

own
It

builders.
is

this

and the monks had to be had long ceased to be the

true that only a few

names of

architects

during the
laymen.

nth

and 12th centuries have been preserved,

it

but those whose names have survived seem to have been

In the 13th century

is

still

rarer to find a

name,

for the

monks were the only

historians,

no interest

in secular buildings or builders.

artist's

and took But in Italy,

where the
are
all

name more

generally survives, they

laymen, and so are those whose names have been

in

preserved
^

France during
it

this period'.

Luchaire says
It
is

curious that

was begun about 1170, others put it 20 years later. M. Luchaire should draw an opposite conclusion

from
^

this fact.

M. de Lasteyrie mentions Isembardus at Bernay, Rencon at Tournus, Umbertus at S. Benoit sur Loire, in the nth century, and in the 12th, Renoldus at S. Savin, Brunus at S. Gilles, Gofredus at Chauvigny, Gilebertus and Gelduinus at S. Sernin Toulouse, Willelmus Martini at S. Andre le bas Vienne, Constantin de Jarnac at S. Etienne Pdrigueux, Giraud Audebert at Monkish artists, he S. Hilaire de Foussay, Rogerus at Chartres Cathedral. Archit. Relig. en France d V^poque says, are always styled Prater^ etc. Romane, p. 237.

6o
S.Denis

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

In the abbey church of S. Denis (Fig. 19),

[ch. iv

we

first

find

something

like

a fully developed Gothic construction.

Fig. 19.

This

is

so well understood, and the

work
it

is

so intelligently

planned on the new system, that

is

obviously the out-

come

of continued experiment, and the climax of a series

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

predecessors
;

6i
s. Denis

of less perfect

but the general opinion

first

cannot be

far

wrong

that here for the

time, at all

events on a grand scale,

we

find the

development of

Gothic architecture.

The
been

old church of Dagobert, founded in 625, had

by Pepin-le-Bref, and apparently again rebuilt in the nth century. It was however still small and inconvenient. Suger says, we would fain hope
reconstructed

with picturesque exaggeration, that

"

the

women

with

much

pain, clamour,
it

men's heads as

and tumult ran to the altar over the were on a pavement^" The new
it

church was built with extraordinary and, as

out, injudicious speed.

has turned

Viollet-le-Duc suggests that Suger,

conscious of the decline of monasticism, was in a hurry

to

show

to the

world an abbey

in the

van of progress,
The west

instead of decrying the splendours of art with the austere

His rebuilding began at the west end which much ceremony in 1140, as he recorded by what he calls an " Epitaph," concluding with
Cistercians.

was consecrated with

the lines

Annus millenus et centenus quadragenus Annus erat Verbi, quando sacrata fuit.
In the

same year he began rebuilding

at the east The

east

end, which from crypt to topmost vault he finished in

three years and three months, as he recorded by a repetition of his

for

Epitaph, substituting the word quartus

annus
it

in the

second

line.

The body
that

ends.

was next attacked, in order might be conformable and worthy of the two new But here I gather he did not entirely pull down
of the church
1

The nave

Gesta Sugerii Abbalis, cap.

XX v.

62

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

This part of
:

[CH. IV

the old fabric\

his

work, however, has not

Remains
of Sugar's

was rebuilt from the designs of Pierre de Montereau between 1231 and 1 281, and of Suger's building we have only the
to us

come down

the bulk of the church

work

eastern ambulatory

aisle

with

the

chapels,

the

crypt,

and the west front with the two bays next to it. The whole church has been so much pulled about by successive restorations, and undoing of restorations, and
restoring afresh, that
it

is

very

difficult

to

make

sure

Fig, 20.

Fig. 21.
it.

of any detail or to found any argument upon

In the

part which can be referred with any certainty to Suger

The

crypt

round and pointed arches both appear, and though the pointed arch rules the construction of the upper part, that of the crypt is more primitive. The bays in the crypt are divided by plain transverse ribs which are round-arched, and there are no diagonals, the arris of the
groin

being slightly pinched up

but the longitudinal

arches from pier to pier are pointed.

The

central part
in

under the choir

*

is

surrounded by a solid wall

which

is

Reservata tamen quantacumque portione de parietibus antiquis, quibus Pontifex Jesus Christus testimonio antiquorum scriptorum manum Gesta Sugerii, cap. xxix. apposuerat.

summus

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

63

some Romanesque arcading, remains

the iith century.

of a church older
in

than Suger's time, perhaps dating from the rebuilding

The
The

inner columns of his ambulatory

it

stand away from this wall, and are joined to

by narrow

pointed arches.

apsidal chapels have shafts in the

A. S.DENIS.
BZLAOT^

^nfiO.
.llSc.

C PARIS

^U6}.

D.AMirN5();220.

K. 31 A.VVA\S.,12^J.

Fig. 22.

angles, united

by round arches, and the groins radiate to the centre of the vault without any ribs at all. The capitals of the main columns seem all to have been renewed or at all events scraped, and it is difficult to feel sure of the genuineness of any one (Fig. 20). The little

64

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

jamb
in the chapels

[ch. iv

capitals of the

shafts of the windows, however, are

untouched here as
S. Denis.

above (Fig.

21).

The

choir

Suger's choir ends in an apse (Fig. 19), raised over the crypt and reached on each side by a flight of several
steps.

The French

type of chevet with an ambulatory

Fig. 23.

and radiating chapels is completely developed, and the vaulting is planned and constructed with perfect knowledge and skill {v. sup. Fig. 16, p. 45). The double aisle is divided by monocylindrical columns \^^' in diameter with tall wide-spreading bases (Fig. 22 a), on a

CH. iv] plinth

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

which
is

65

square with the corners cut

off.

The

s. Denis

torus of the base has very primitive toes at the angles.

The
with

capitals (Fig.

23) are very Byzantine in character,

raffled,

the

leaves

sharply

and

laid

within

one

another.

The main columns

of the apse, on the other 22 d and

e), and have bay and single in

hand, have capitals a crochet and bases moulded like those

at

Amiens and Beauvais

(Fig.

attached shafts,

triple in the straight

those round the curve.

They

run up to the later work

above and are

in

in the solid of the

column, from which

sup-

pose that Pierre de Montereau inserted

the place of Suger's,

new apse columns

when

rebuilding the upper part.

The

chapels (Figs. 16 and 21) have two plain wide The

each,

pointed windows

which have preserved their original capitals of a Byzantine type (Fig. 21). The shafts are detached and tied in with bronze rings. In the early narthex between the towers of the west front, which is also Suger's work, all the
with
shafts
capitals

jamb

The diagonal ribs are have Byzantine foliage. semi-circular and heavily moulded with rolls, and the Byzantine capitals are set obliquely to receive them, but
all

the other arches are pointed.

were richly carved with Romanesque scrolls, diapers, and figures, but though here and there an old fragment may be recognized the greater part is modern imitation, and therefore of little historical value. The middle and right hand portals were hung by Suger

The west

portals

West

with

new doors of bronze, modelled with scriptural subjects.

left

In the

hand

portal

Suger re-hung the old doors,

underneath a mosaic picture, which, he says, "though contrary to the new fashion I caused to be made here, and fixed in the arch of the doorway." This mosaic
lasted
J.

till

the

i8th century

when

it

was displaced
5

for

G. A.

66
S.

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

Brun\
to
rival

[CH. IV

Denis

a modern sculpture by
elsewhere
tells

Suger's

aim,

as

he

us,

was

the splendour of the

The
mosaic

Eastern basilicas^ with their wealth of gold, mosaic, and In the Musee de Cluny are some precious stones.
mosaics from S. Denis, labelled ''art Italien
Frangais.
stcr dessin

XII siec/e."
any
in

There are

griffins

and monsters
art,

within interlacing borders, but the interlacing patterns

are not like

Byzantine or Italo-Byzantine

and
all

this justifies the description

on the

label.

They
fact

are

of

Qrlass,

from which, and also from the

that the

beasts

are all one way up, I conclude they were muraP, and some of them may possibly have been in the tympanum of the doorway mentioned above. Among

them, within a

circle,

is

a kneeling figure of a

monk

in

colour on a gold ground, with an abbreviated inscription

which
opvs.
in

read thus

hoc pater albricvs nobile fecit

is

On

a border round the circle

lines
:

another inscription

two elegiac

+ Qvi te devotvs org cvi servio totvs + MARTYR SCE DEI QVESO MEMENTO MEI.
The
towers

About I200 the north-west tower, which had

a spire of wood, received one of stone.
in old prints,
tells

till

then

It is to

be seen

us that
its

it

and was
is

is

prevent

falling.

tower
^

at

present

by Viollet-le-Duc*, who his sad lot to have to take it down to It was never rebuilt, and the only the sister one at the south-west angle
illustrated

MM. Vitry and Briere, UEglise Abbatiale de S. Denis, p. 53. Conferre consuevi cum Hierosolymitanis, et gradissime addiscere quibus Constantinopolitanae patuerunt gazae et Sanctae Sophiae ornamenta, utrum
^

ad comparationes illorum hacc aliquid valere deberent.

Abbaiis, cap.

Gesta Sugerii
to

xxxn.
them
have been
in

^ MM. Vitry and Briere {op. cit. p. 67) suppose the pavement, for which they are quite unfit. * Diet. Rats. vol. v. pp. 435 438.

Plate

II

SENLIS The

Choir

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

The vanished
spire

67
s. Denis

had triangular tabernacles at the corners of the tower, and gabled spire-lights between. The spirelets of these eight structures had the front face upright and the back sloped. This device occurs also in the spire at Senlis, which I imagine must
of the fa9ade.

have been by the same

effect

architect, with the

very unhappy

of making these pinnacles seem

to bulge outwards.
Seniis

once a cathedral, of Notre Dame at Senlis cannot differ much in date from that of S. Denis\ and indeed some of its details seem more primitive. The choir has- an early apse with ambulatory, from

The

church,

Viollet-le-Duc dates the choir between 11 50

is

that the sculpture of the capitals Rats. vol. VIII. p. 222.

little

and 1165. He remarks backward in development. Diet.

52

68
Seniis

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. iv

which shallow chapels project (Fig. 24). The triforium The is vaulted, and has windows above the chapels. apse is polygonal, but the outer wall of the ambulatory is
round.

The

clerestory

is

flamboyant, but the capitals

of the early vault remain at a lower level.

The nave

and choir were once continuous, but are now interrupted by a transept with a magnificent flamboyant end to the
south.

The

vaults

are

sexpartite,

the

principal

piers

being clustered and very long

are pointed.

in plan, alternating

with

intermediate piers, which are cylindrical.

All the arches

The

triforium has generally an

open unit

divided arch, but in one bay at the spring of the apse

is

divided into two lights (Plate H).

as they

The

apse rests on

six cylindrical columns,

the vaulting shafts rising from

The

steeple

do in the intermediate columns main clustered piers they run down to In the aisles the regularity of the rib and panel the floor. cross-vault is somewhat disturbed by the elongated plan of the main piers, which causes a winding surface between the diagonal and longitudinal arches (v. Plate II). The west front has two towers, and a central portal with good statuary, and the side portals are simple and interesting. The two towers are alike up to the belfry stage, where the northern one stops and is finished with a pyramidal slated roof. The other was carried up in the 1 3th century, with a magnificent octagon lantern crowned with a spire, and with shafted tabernacles to fill out the angles of the This splendid steeple has been much praised, square. and has many beautiful parts, but it is not happily composed. The best aspect is that on the diagonal, as I have drawn it (Plate III). Seen in direct elevation it is painfully lean, and at a distance looks like a huge
their capitals,

elsewhere

in the

pinnacle, or a lighthouse, on a square base.

The

angle

Plate III

'it

\^;i/>r^--:(iiij

T. G. J.

SENLIS

T. G.

J.

SENS

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

;

69
Seniis

tabernacles are so slight and open and detached that

they do not give the solid outline the eye desiderates

and

the eight curious gabled spire-lights with their sloping

from
part

backs and upright fronts, like those that have disappeared S. Denis, seem to bulge outwards by a well-known

optical illusion
is

and have a bad

it

effect.

The

detail of this

lovely, but
:

does not condone these defects of

is

outline

for in a steeple outline

everything.
Sens

The
in

cathedral of

Sens has been already referred to

It

1143 and finished in 1 168, with the exception of the west end which dates from the middle of the next century. The arches
in

preceding chapter.

was begun

are pointed, the sexpartite vaulting regulates the alternate

arrangements of clustered piers, and cylindrical columns, doubled in this case, and the vaulting shafts of the main

transverse and diagonal groups of ribs are carried

to the ground.
is

accurately

down The whole logic of Gothic construction expressed. The traceried windows in the
fire,

clerestory are not original but date from the later part- of

the 13th century after a

when
I,

the vaults also had to

be reconstructed^

(v.

sup. Plate

p. 38).

The

carving

is

abstract

and
in

in the great piers simple;

but in the wall arcading are capitals with foliage of a

Byzantine character, mixed

some cases with animals

is

The

pretty staircase to the treasury (Plate IV),

difference in date,
if

rather

more advanced, but the

be very great.

any, cannot
^"'^'^ ^

The west

portals are rich with imagery, The

and afford a good example of the lofty enriched basement on which the columns of the jambs rest in many French
churches (Plate V).
In this case there are three tiers

of panels above the plinth.

^

The upper row

p. 349.

contains

V.-le-Duc, Diet. Rats. vol. n.

Illustrated in

my

Reason in Architecture, Plate

II.

70

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. iv

T<ErJ-i8i7-

Plate

),

:/;

^j.

'

<

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

arts

71
Sens

figures of the liberal

and

sciences,

and the lower

of
the

has a skiapod'^, and other natural and fabulous creatures

from the

bestiaries.

The ornament on one

jambs, shows the conventional scroll-work of the preceding period in an advanced stage, with an early

foreshadowing of the natural foliage that was soon to be achieved (Fig. 25). The treatment of the other side of
the
at

same

pier

is

still

Sens abound

in

more naturalesque. The windows some of the most magnificent grisaille

be found
in

glass, with coloured borders, to

France and
,

the cathedral at Auxerre has

It is

more of the same

kind.
The

remarkable that the large vaulted triforium of

Noyon, and still later churches, has been abandoned at Sens in favour of one that anticipates those of Reims and Chartres. The architecture at Sens is rather in advance of its date.
Senlis,

The

church of

S.

Alpin, at Chalons-sur-Marne
quadripartite and not sexpartite

s. Aipin.

shows on a smaller
there
(Plate
is

scale a logical Gothic construction, sur^Marne

is

except that as the vault

no reason
VI).

for the alternate variation of the piers

The main
in the

arches

are

pointed,

but

the

round arch lingers

The

vault has no wall-rib, but that as

is

elsewhere

and clerestory. have explained not a necessary feature of rib and panel
aisles
I

windows of

construction.

The
has

fine

church of

Notre Dame

in the

same town

Notre
chaions-

Romanesque towers with

rather ugly leaded spires at

sur-Marne
*

We
in

lived

learn from Ctesi'as that these one-legged umbrella-footed people " Hominum genus, qui Monosceli vocarentur singulis India.

cruribus, mirae pemicitatis

in majori aestu

ad saltum

humi jacentes

resupini,

eosdemque Sciapodas vocari, quod umbra se pedum protegant." Plin.

Nat. Hist. Lib. vn. Cap. ll. Their nearest neighbours were the Troglodytes, but the people who had no necks, and wore their eyes between their shoulders were not far away.

72

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

when
is

[ch.

the west end, and others at the transept which date

apparently from 1145

rebuilding.

there seems to have been a

All the

The

rest
;

later in the century.

is

arches are pointed and there

a vaulted triforium gallery,

with a second triforium above united to the clerestory

lights.

The sweep

of the apse starts from the towers at

is

the transept.
is

Although the vault

in

quadripartite there

a slight alternation of the piers.

Many

of the capitals

are quite

Byzantine

the character of their foliage,

Fig. 26.

though
capitals

it

is

fair
if

to

say they seem to have been well

scraped even
scroll-work.

Other are Romanesque with wildly knotted foliage and

they have not been renewed.

The

apse resembles that of S.

triple arches.

Remi

at

Reims, with
to an
Noyon
cathedral
1
1

triple clerestory lights,

and chapels opening

26)

ambulatory with
cathedral of

The

Noyon
fire
1 1

(Fig.

was begun

in

50 after a disastrous
in

which burned the older

church and the town

30.

The new

cathedral,

which

Plate

VI

^^^^
1/
/

Plate

VI

'ii^

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

73
Noyon

was finished with the exception of the west end about 1 1 90 or 1200 is one of the finest in France, and illustrates perhaps better than any other the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. Bishop Baudoin who rebuilt it was a friend of S. Bernard, and of Abb^ Suger, who had just finished his church at S. Denis in the new style; and Noyon has many points of resemblance to S. Denis, and possibly, as Viollet-le-Duc suggests, was built by workmen released from the other building. It is on a grand scale, and has a vaulted triforium. When this occurs the triforium gallery no longer corresponds to the space between the back of the aisle vaulting and the lean-to roof above it, for the roof has to
be raised a storey higher
cases,
;

Resems.^DenL*'

The
triforium

consequently in
find

many

such

as

here at

Noyon, we

a second triforium

above the other, represented by a sunk arcade, which however is not always pierced with a passage. The choir and transept are Bishop Baudoin's work not only there, however, but in the nave as well which was later, though finished before the end of the century, round and pointed arches are used indiscriminately. The transepts have rounded apsidal ends like those at Tournay, which had been united with Noyon in one see till II35^ M. Vitet suggests that the canons of Noyon adopted this plan as a reminiscence of the sister church they had lost, and a protest against the recent separation. The choir, which is the oldest part of the church, has three straight bays, and an apse of five bays, semicircular, and surrounded by a semi-circular ambulatory from which radiate five semi-circular chapels between the great buttresses (Plate VII). In the columnar buttresses between the windows we see a survival of Romanesque
;

The
^""^"^^p'

The

choir

V.

Gallia Christiana, Eccl. Noviomensis.

74
Noyon

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

Viollet-le-Duc

[CH. IV

tradition.

observes

that

these

chapels

what was the ultimate plan of a cathedral chevet, for at Paris, Bourges, Laon, and Chartres, there were originally very few chapels or none at all, though and he these churches are later than that at Noyon suggests that their presence here is due to the example of S. Denis
anticipate
;

Fig. 27.

The
built.

piers to receive a tower

have have bays

apse

bay of the choir is prepared with massive on each side, which was never In this bay both the arcade and the triforium plain round arches, the latter undivided. Theyi two orders. The capitals of the further straight! The] are very primitive and carry round arches. columns are monocylindric and carry arches that]
first

^ Diet. Rats, vol. II. Originally the cathedrals had either no p. 303. chapels or very few, while the abbeys had many. They were added afterwards in great numbers by different families for their own use and credit.

Plate

VIII

'

^.

%fi^|i

'4.

^^
%.

/7

T. G.J.

NOYON CATHEDRAL The

Nave

CH. IV]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

75
Noyon

A blank arcade represents the upper triforium, but the arches here are trifoliated, while The apsidal those in the nave are plain and round.
are pointed and stilted.

chapels have regular rib and panel vaults well devised

and constructed the diagonal ribs cross one another in one plane, and seem struck from an equal radius. All the windows in this eastern end are pointed (Plate VII), The fine sweep with good mouldings and jamb shafts.
:

of this end

is

very striking, and the renaissance buttresses

of the upper part do not hurt the design.

taste lingers in

Romanesque

some of

the capitals of the arches into

the chapels, and of the wall arcading (Fig. 27). the

The nave (Plate VIII) is rather more advanced than choir. The arcade is pointed, as well as the triforium,
is

The nave

which
shield

divided into two lights, with piercings in the

;

above

but the upper triforium arcade, and

all

the

clustered
vaulting,

windows are still round arched. The and cylindrical, as if prepared

piers are alternately

for sexpartite

though the vaults are actually quadripartite.

There was, however, a fire in 1293, and the vaults may have had to be reconstructed then, and the plan changed. That the sexpartite form was originally intended is proved by the greater substance given to the transverse arches resting on the larger piers. The apsidal transepts have no aisles round them, thus escaping the heaviness of those at S. Maria in
Capitolio at Cologne.

The west
with
its

front (Plate

IX)

is

of a later date, but The

is

west

great towers and projecting porch

quite

among

the finest in

France, nor need

we

regret the steeples

which would have taken the place of the picturesque The 14th century roofs which now crown the towers. and stripped of defaced ruthlessly portals have been

76
Noyon

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

some

[ch. iv

theiV Statuary but retain

foliage.

exquisitely carved natural

Fig. 28.

On
said to

the north side of the nave

was a small

cloister,

have been

built in 1270, of

which only the west

Plate

IX

T. G.

J.

NOYON West

front

CH. iv]

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

^^
Noyon ^^^ The
cloister

walk remains, and that is much broken. The carving is naturalesque here and in the fine chapter house opening out of it. The foliage round the inside of the entrance archway is extraordinarily natural, and reminds one of
. .

^"^
chapter

house

that at Southwell.

In the choir of the church of S.

Paris,

which was consecrated in mixture of round and pointed arches as

arcade
is

Germain des Pres at 1163, there is the same

at

s. Ger-

pres, Paris

Noyon,

The

The

round-arched but the high vaults are pointed. aisles have round transverse arches, with very domical
In the nave the piers are elongated, like fragments

vaults.

of a wall, and have attached half columns for the arches

and one in front running up to the high vault There is no triforium in the nave, but in the choir there is one with square headed lights which are united by shafts to the clerestory so as to form one composition with it
(Fig.
28),

Several of the capitals are quite

classical,

with the acanthus leaves, volutes, and hollow abacus of

the Corinthian type.

With
period

these examples

we may

conclude the transitional End

art

of the

of

French Gothic, during which the

was

gradually advancing step by step, from the early and

tentative

work

at

S.

Denis to the bolder and more

assured construction of the 13th century.

CHAPTER V
EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC
The cradle
{continued)

show It is true the system of what Gothic in its infancy. we understand by Gothic construction was thoroughly developed in the art of Suger and Baudoin. The vaults
gTcat French churches hitherto described

The

were turned with rib and panel, the thrusts brought to isolated points and scientifically supported by counter thrusts and flying buttresses, and the use of the pointed But Romanesque traditions arch was fully appreciated. were not yet entirely forgotten. We still find round arches mixed with pointed, and primitive sculpture by the side of carving more directly based on nature. Nevertheless the movement from the old to the new style was unmistakeably there, and Viollet-le-Duc is tempted to ask whether in the church of S. Denis, and the cathedrals of Noyon and Senlis, we may not see the
cradle of pointed architecture.
Paris.

Dame

In the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris (Fig. 29), which was begun by Bishop Maurice de Sully in 1163, and partly completed during his lifetime, we find the transition complete, and Romanesque tradition finally % put aside. He demolished the old church of S. Etienne
to

make way

for the eastern part of his

new

building,
for

leaving the modest cathedral of Notre

present standing.

Dame

the

The new

choir rose rapidly.

In 1177
it

a traveller, Robert du

Mont, records that he saw

Plate

NOTRE DAME l-AKIS The

Nave

CH. V]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

roof,

79
Paris,

finished, all but the great

altar

and

in

1182 the high

was consecrated by the papal legate. At the death Dame of Maurice de Sully in 1 196, the choir and transepts were finished and the nave, excepting the towers and three western bays, had begun to rise from the ground, which had been cleared by pulling down the older cathedraP. Before the death of Philip Augustus in 1223, the nave
;

was completed and the west front raised to the base of the topmost gallery, and the gallery and the upper

NOTRE DAnE< PARIS.

HALF FLAK -AD

SCALE or

FEET

were finished and the whole church between completed 1235 and 1 240. There were therefore three stages in the construction first the choir and transepts, 1163-1182, then the nave up to the last three bays, 1 182- 196, and lastly the three western bays and
part of the towers
;

the towers, 1218-1223.

was that of a simple basilica with a shallow transept and a double aisle on There were no each side carried round the east end.
original

The

plan (Fig.

29)

M. Marcel Aubert believes the nave was

1

finished, all

but the roof,

thus far by

196.

La

Cathidrale Notre

Dame de

Paris, p.

ro.

8o
Paris^

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. v

Dame

chapels between the buttresses, but only the principal altar in the choir apse, with the bishop's throne behind
it. There was, as now, a vaulted triforium gallery, but it had large windows behind, for which the pocket of the vault was tilted up, and this only left room above its roof

for a small clerestory.

The

roof space over the triforium

Early
alteration

was lighted from the nave by rose-shaped lights, taking the place of the second triforium at Noyon, Soissons, and elsewhere. The flying buttresses were in two flights resting halfway on a middle pier. Scarcely had the canons finished their building" before v /x-^ they began to alter it (Fig. 30). The interior would have been imperfectly lighted by the clerestory windows which were very small, and by those of the triforium A and of the aisles, which were remote. A fire gave the opportunity for alteration, and for following the example of other churches that had risen since Notre Dame was designed, with larger windows and ampler space for painted glass. The roses of the upper triforium J were abolished and the clerestory windows P lengthened downwards, widened, and filled with simple tracery: the windows at the back of the triforium were shortened, and
gallery
i

the roof lowered.

The double

flight

of the buttresses

we now see them, the middle pier being removed (Plate X). In 1258 a further alteration took place the transepts were lengthened one bay by the architect Jean de Chelles. Lastly, in 1296, Bishop de Bucy filled in the spaces between the
;

was

altered into a single flight as

buttresses of the apse with chapels opening by triple arches to the outer ambulatory aisle and this brought the plan to what we now see. Of these chapels the
;

architect

Jean.

was Pierre de Chelles, presumably a son of They do not seem to have been finished till 13 15.

Plate

XT

NOTRE UAAIE PARIS

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

Paris.

Notre

Dame

Second form x
J.

Original form

Fig. 30.
G. A.

(V.-le-Duc.)

82
Paris.

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

The
choir,

[ch.

which
is

is

the oldest part,

is

five

bays

lon[-

Dame

^^ which the

first

four are in pairs with sexpartite vaultin

and the

fifth

slightly
is

bowed outward, forming

in plan.

part

v)*^

the apse which

a horseshoe

Five narrowr-

bays form the semi-circular apse, which has ribs radiating

to the centre of the chord,
ribs of the fifth bay,

where they are met by the which works in admirably with tb

it.

sexpartite vault next to

The

rib

of the
is

fifth

ba

being

longer

than

the

other

four

made

slightl)

segmental.

The
doubled

vaulting of the double aisle round the apse

is

very ingenious.
in

The
;

arches between the

at

aisles

ar

number, and

the openings to Pierre d

Chelles' chapels trebled

so that in the chapel bay ther

t

are three arches, and in the central aisle arcade two,

one

in the

main arcade of the

choir.
is

This makes th
well

vaulting
(Fig.

irregular,

but the difficulty

got

ove

29).

and carry pointer arches with square soffit and a single roll on the edg( The choir triforium has two-light openings divided by column, under a pointed arch with a shallow order con
sisting of a roll

All the columns are cylindrical

traceried
is

moulding (Plate XI). It is now lit b windows in the back wall, which of cours
original
lights

not

the

plan.
is

In

the

transept the
circle.
:

shieL'

above the two

capitals

pierced with a

In th

we

lose the

Romanesque element

some of then
i

approach the type ^ crochet, though there are non( actually of that kind except near the west end, which
later.

shows one of the more elaborate kind In those carrying the main arcad( others are simpler.
Fig.

31

the abacus
aisles

is

square

in those of the

arcade dividing
as

th<

the

corners

are

chamfered

off

they are a

CH. V]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

All the foliage seems based on water plants,
Paris,

Canterbury.

such as cress, and hits a happy

mean between convention

Dame

and nature. The bases are of the Attic type as modified by the mediaeval men, and have a singularly delicate and refined section, reminding one of Greek profiles
(Fig. 2 2
c,

p.

63).

Over the crossing

is

a quadripartite
originally The
nave

vault very highly domed.

The nave would

have had above the triforium gallery a second triforium

Fig. 31-

of the rose lights with their singular tracery, which must

have had a very remarkable and unusual effect. These were all removed, and the clerestory lengthened and made into two lights with a mullion carrying a plain In the bays of nave circle, as was done in the choir. and transept next the crossing, Viollet-le-Duc has restored this original arrangement of the rose triforium and the small clerestory from traces and fragments which he 62

84
Paris.

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

:

[ch.
all

Dame
The nave
tnfonum

found of the original design (Fig. 30) bays Were alike

-j^j^g

till

then

the

divided by trifoHum of the nave has three lights " columns under a pointed including arch, and the main
'

arcade has two orders with

mouldings instead of one as in the choir. The gallery is lighted by arched triangular windows, something like those at Westminster, containing a sexfoiled circle^ The nave vaulting is sexpartite in five double bays, but no difference is made in the vaulting shafts, nor in the great cylindrical columns of the arcade, which are all alike, though in the range dividing the two aisles cylindrical columns alternate with
roll

clustered piers.
The west
front

The
most

front (Plate

XI)

is

perhaps on the whole the

It is

satisfactory of

all

the great French facades.

simpler than those of Reims and Amiens, more compact

than that of Bourges, and

two
of

rich

effect.

its three great stages divided by bands of arcading have a magnificent breadth The towers, no doubt, were to have had lofty
I

spires of stone, but

think they are just as well without

them.

zontality of the

and

in

Their present square tops suit the general horidesign, which is strongly emphasized, which we may trace the last expression of
tradition.

Romanesque Romanesque
and

There

is

also

no

doubt

feeling in the great colonnades of the

nave
the

aisles within

the church, in the low proportion of

the arcade, and the greater

importance given

to

triforium gallery, but this disproportion

1

would have been

restoration,

These rose openings were found by him during the between the publication of the first and second volumes of
Raisonn/.
2

and

his Dictionnaire

Compare
lights

the elevations in vol.

to

i.

p.

192, with those in vol. n.

pp. 290, 291.

These

seem

be designed by

MM.
v.

without any guidance from what they found, Noire Davie de Paris, p. 52.

Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc, Marcel Aubert, La Cathddrale

Plate

XII

T.G.J.

NOTRE DAME PARIS .South

Aisle

of

Choir

CH. v]
less

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

85
paris.

marked when the range of rose openings ran along between the gallery and the clerestory. Their removal has altered the whole scheme of proportion between the storeys. Be this as it may there is no nobler interior in France than that of Notre Dame, and the views in the aisles when the defective proportion is not seen, are as fine as we could wish (Plate XH)'. If we look round France and compare the work at Paris with what was being done in the provinces while Notre Dame was rising, we shall be struck with the
great advance

Dame

iiede

romp"ed
'""rovinces

domain.

made in the architecture of the Royal At Autun and V^zelay we still find Romanesque

and semi-classical details. In Auvergne the local round arched and barrel-vaulted style was in full swing. At Perigueux the domes of S. Front were only just finished and the Romanesque fronts of Aries and S. Gilles were in process of building. Much remained to be done to perfect the Gothic idea, but the conception was firmly grasped by the architect of Notre Dame, and it only remained for his successors to develop it further.
construction,
;

The

cathedral

of

Laon
of

(Fig. 32),
Paris,

which

in

many

Laon
'^^'^'^^'^'^'

respects resembles that

dates from the last

older cathedral was

quarter of the 12th century.

The

burned by the

citizens in

1 1 1 2,

as has been related in

a former chapter, when their promised charter was refused and they rose and slew the bishop^ It seems to have been repaired in 1 14 when the miraculous ox helped to
1

Dame may still be found relics of the canonical a I2th century vaulted chaped dedicated to S. Aignan now a squalid stable, which may be found with a little trouble. In this chapel disguised priests ministered during the Terror of the Revolution. There is also a fine staircase of heavy woodwork of Renaissance date in the
'

In the purlieus of Notre

buildings.

There

is

Rue
'^

Massillon, which probably belonged to a canonical house.

V. sup. p. 55.

86
Laon
cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[CH.

The
apsidal choir

draw the materials, but about 1160 an entirely new building was begun by Bishop Gautier de Mortagne\ Starting as was the general plan at the east end, the east side of the transept and the first three bays of the choir were first built, finishing eastward with a semiNext followed the nave, circular apse and ambulatory. the west front with the two towers, and the lower part,
as high as the roof, of the other five towers originally
projected.

All this seems to have been finished by 1205.

SCALE OF FEET

Fig. 32.

The upper

stages of the

Tour de

S. Paul at the

west

Thesquare ended
choir

were added before the year Tour de I'Horloge and corresponding those of the 1225, The other two towers at the south transept rather later. flanking the transepts on their eastern side never rose any higher. At the same time that the nave was built The apse was the choir was altered to its ^ present form. destroyed, and the eastern arm of the building was prolonged till it was almost equal to the nave, and finished with a square east end, contrary to usual French
side of the north transept
.

Laon

et ses

Environs^ Lucien Broche.

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

87
Laon
cathedral

Fig. 33.

(Drawing by

J.

O. Scott.)

88
Laon
cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

-r*

[ch. v

custom \
as at

Lateral chapels were added in the 14th century

i

The
restoration

and Amiens, and the south transept was remodelled in the same century. During the last century the towers threatened rum, and extensive repairs had to be undertaken, involving much reconstruction and
raris
, ,

11
1

underpinning, and the antiquity of the building has

in

consequence suffered considerably.

portals
The
vaults

The

statuary of the

is

modern.
arches
are

The

pointed everywhere,
Paris.

and

rest

on
are

mono-cylindric columns as at
sexpartite
in
;

The

vaults

the vaulting shafts rise from the nave capitals, groups of five shafts and three alternately, corresponding

to the alternation of the vaulting ribs.

There

is

a vaulted

triforium gallery,

and above

it

the second triforium of

Noyon and
'

originally of

Paris,

with a passage in the

the

wall (Fig. 3s). When rebuilding the choir on a

straight

line

The
capi a
s

columns of the apse were used again, and they bear traces of having been made to suit a circular plan. The capitals are very simple those carrying the five vaulting shafts of the main cluster of ribs are polygonal to fit their
;

load, those carrying the three shafts of the intermediate

are square.

The

foliage

is

very severe

that

shown

in

Fig. 34 has an abstract form of leaf

common

in

Rutland

and Northamptonshire.
Attic type (Fig. 22
Severity

The

bases are of the quasi-

b, p.

those at Paris (Fig. 22

there
is

c).

63), but without the delicacy of Indeed throughout the building

little

a kind of roughness, virile but a

clumsy

and heavy-handed, which has something

Norman
Northern
character
^

work.

He de France,
France,

in common with The central lantern is unusual in the but common in Normandy, and general in
cites a
21.

M. Leftvre-Pontalis
Broche, op.

number of square ended

choirs in the Ilede

cit. p.

Plate

XIII

T. G.

J.

LAON Choir

and North Transept

Plate

XIV

LAU-N West

front

CH. V]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

cathedrals.

89

Anglo-Norman
is

At

the ends of the transepts Laon

the cross gallery at triforium level, formed by returning

the arcade, which occurs at Caen, Cerisy-la-Foret, and

and on the eastern side of the transepts are apsidal chapels in two storeys like those at Christchurch Priory (Plate XHI). All these are Norman features, and the sexpartite vault itself seems to have originated in Normandy, though it spread beyond its limits. Viollet;

Winchester

Fig. 34-

in the architecture something of the rude and masterful character of this turbulent city. It is not known who was the architect one may imagine him a northerner, of a different school from those who designed the cathedrals of Soissons and Reims.

le-Duc traces

The

towers at Laon are highly original.

Wilars de

Thetowers
front

Honecort sketched them, and writes against his sketch that in all his travels he has never seen a tower to equal

90
Laon

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

Those of the west
front (Plate

[ch. v

them\

XIV), are

extra-

ordinarily massive, with deep

to the roof level.

projecting buttresses up

Their projection is disguised by the pedimented gables over the portals which are brought
forward to the face of the buttresses ^

The

next stage

has in the centre a rose window under a round arch

The oxen

between two pointed single lights, all similarly recessed between the buttresses. Then comes the usual arcaded gallery with which the nave gable is hidden as at Paris, Above this the towers break into Chartres and Reims. octagons, with projections at the angles carrying open
tabernacles on colonnettes, square in plan in the
stage, octagonal in the second.
stair
first

In one of these a spiral

The

spires

managed, and from between the peep out the oxen which commcmorate the legend. A crocketted spire between four spirelets surmounted each of the four towers, and Wilars s sketch shows the lower part of those on the western They have now all disappeared, but that on tower. the Tour de I'Horloge lasted till the Revolution, when it had to be removed, being dangerously out of the
on colonnettes
is

colonnettes of them

all

upright.

The construction
s. Pere

of these

openwork stages
In the

is

obviously

unsuitable for carrying weight.

later,

but some-

what

similar tower at S.

Pere sous Vezelay

in

Burgundy

Wzeiay

(Plate

XV), there

is

only a wooden spire.

This charming

which dates from about 1240, is attached to a humble church, and the great gable with its niches and
steeple,

statuary has nothing behind

*

it.

The porch

or narthex,

J'ai este
liu

aucun
Plates
2

en mult de tieres si com vos porez trover en cest livre. onques tel tor ne vi com est cele de Loon. Ed. Willis, p.

En
57,

LXVII, LXVIII.

of the restoration,

These porches, however, were entirely reconstructed by the architect M. Bceswillwald. Broche, op. cit. p. 24.

Plate

XV

T. G. J.

s.

ri-:KE suL's x'lzllav

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

91
s. Pere

on which the picturesque effect of the composition depends Great lightness is given to SO much, IS a later addition. the angles of the tower by the detached shafts, and the whole effect is airy and delightful. The union of the octagon with the square is artistically contrived by running
the angle shafts of the octagon

Vczeky

down

into the square.

But the tower abounds in awkwardness of detail, which however does not mar the effect seriously. To return to Laon. We must not overlook the ancient Evech^ with its great hall overlooking the ramparts and the wide plain below, and its two-storeyed chapel in the Bishop Gautier, the earliest pointed style, built by
founder of the present cathedral
of S. Martin with
its
;

Laon.

6veche

nor the early church

s.

square east end like the cathedral,

Martin

There are few towns in France more full of interest than Laon, and the picture of the ancient city crowning a mighty hill with the many-towered mass of its cathedral
is

not easily forgotten.

The
.
.

fine
f.

church of S.

Remy

at
1

Reims shows the

s.
^t

Remy
Reims

transition irom

round
;

to pointed architecture

a very

for in the nave we see Gothic coninteresting way It struction visibly engrafted upon a Romanesque stock. was at first a rather rude round-arched building of the nth century, with a triforium gallery, but no second The piers were plain round clusters of triforium above.

shafts

carrying a square unbroken abacus.

in

To

these

were applied
of the original

the

late

12th

or

early

13th century

stoutish vaulting shafts to carry Gothic vaults in place

wooden roof

(Fig. 35).

The two

western

bays were rebuilt with pointed arches and a sexpartite

vault,

the intermediate pier consisting of two columns,

In their capitals the Corinthian one behind the other. hollow abacus survives (Fig. 36).

92
S. at

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

The
choir was entirely rebuilt at the

[CH.

Remy
Reims

same time with

pointed arches, a triforium divided by slender colonnettes,

and a second triforium above. All the columns are mono-cylindrical, and have well-carved capitals (Fig. 37).

Fig. 35-

The

clerestory has triple lights, the middle one higher

is

than the others, and this

repeated in the triforium,

where the lights are wider, and the middle one breaks up through the cornice on the outside (Plate XVI). The head of the flying buttresses is propped with a colonnette, behind which is a passage on the top of the triforium wall, the clerestory being set back to the inside. The apsidal chapels open to the ambulatory with a
triple arch.

Plate

XVI

wT^r

^^ '*?

f/

y
^

-:^^J0

T. G.

J.

S.

REMI REIMS

Plate

XV11

T. G. J.

SOISSONS

CATHEDRAL South

Transept

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

93
Soissons

In the south transept of Soissons, which dates from

Fig. 36.

1175,

we

find

the pointed style completely developed.

it

Like those at Noyon,

is

apsidal, but

it

is

much more

94
Soissons

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

in design.

[CH.

advanced

Strong clustered piers divide the

bays, with vaulting shafts that rise to take the vaulting ribs, and each bay contains narrow arches on slender

columns opening to the

and the triforium gallery Above is a second triforium with an open (Plate XVH). with triple lights of which the clerestory arcade, and a middle one is higher than the others, like those at
aisle

S.

Remy.

Fig. 37-

Bourges
cathedral

The

present cathedral of Bourges was begun at the

opening of the 13th century. The> ground plan (Fig. 38), but for the absence of a transept, was like that of Notre Dame, before they were both altered by the addition of Both had a nave with sexpartite vaults and chapels. But the section a double aisle carried round the apse. Like S. Demetrius at at Bourges is quite different. Salonica, both aisles have a triforium open to the central
nave
;

and not only

its

that, but the inner

its
is

aisle

has also

a clerestory of

own above

triforium, in order to

contrive which the outer aisle

kept very low, and the

Plate

XVIIl

v.-,

gMglfttiliaggt

fr-/

T. G.

J.

BOURGES CATHEDRALNorth

Porch

p
CH. v1

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

The
1
/-

95
Bourges
cathedral

inner one very high.

triple

inner aisle therefore has the

/-

stage of arcade, triforium,

11 and clerestory

equally

11

Fig. 38.

(V.-le-Duc.)

with the nave.

first

The

effect of this surprising interior at

fine,

sight

is

extremely

but after a closer examination

96
Bourges
cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

makes
itself felt that

[ch. v

the iinpression

too

much has been

and that the proportions of by the importance given to the The nave columns look unduly pulled out, and aisle. the triforium and clerestory seem crushed up against the There is also a poverty in the details, resulting vault.
g^(,j.j|^(>g(j j-q j-j^jg

single effect,

the nave have suffered

probably from insufficiency of means, which ran short

where the vault of the aisle was reached. The execution of the work in the crypt on the contrary, which was built while funds were plentiful, is excellent, and this part
of the building
is

of remarkable beauty.

The absence

of

a transept gives a certain classical dignity to the interior

of this cathedral, with

its

long unbroken vaulted ceiling

The

side
s

porta

from end to end. There are two side portals where the transept would have been had there been one. The doorways are
relics of the older cathedral, refixed in the

new

building,

Le Mans

Chartres cathedral

and are fine examples of Romanesque. There are few more beautiful scrolls than that over the north doorway, and few more beautiful porches than those built in the That on 13th century over the entrances on each side. Round one of the the north is shown by Plate XVHI. two arches is a series of little owls, and round the other one of little monkeys. The Splendid choir of Le Mans, which was built at the end of the Romanesque nave about 1220, is like that at Bourges, with a double aisle round the apse, of which the inner one has its own triforium and clerestory. The Original cathedral church of Chartres (Fig. 39), was burnt in the nth century and rebuilt by Bishop Fulbert in 1028, who at the same time remodelled the Between 1134 and ancient crypt of the 9th century. 1 145 the north tower was built, detached and in advance

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

97
Chartres cathedral

Fig- 39G. A.

(V.-le-Duc.

J.

98
Chartres cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

The

[CH. V

of the west front.

1

south tower followed between

145 and 1 1 70, and the space between the towers and the church was at the same time covered by a narthex, of

which the present royal portals formed the facade. This was placed at the back of the towers, which stood detached on three sides\ Before long however these
doors were removed to their present place, flush with the
front of the towers,

and

to this probably they

owe

their

escape from the fire in 1194 which destroyed Fulbert's church with the exception of the crypt. The towers
also

were uninjured.

The

south tower always had

its

present magnificent spire, but the northern one had only a spire of wood, which after being twice burned down,

was replaced between 1507 and

stone steeple of Jehan
The
royal

15 13

by the beautiful

le

Texier, of Beauce.

doors

important link

XIX) form an French decorative sculpture. The three arches are pointed, and filled with carving. The jambs are flanked by solemn mystic figures, attenuated to the proportions of columns, and drilled into
The
royal portals of Chartres (Plate
in the series of

ranks of sacred imagery.

The tympanum

of the

left

doorway has the Ascension, that of the right the life of the Virgin Mary, and that of the centre a figure of Christ within an aureole, surrounded by the four apocalyptic Elsewhere in the arches are the signs of the beasts. and the capitals zodiac, and the liberal arts and sciences
;

are

filled

with scenes from the

life

of our Lord.

The

jambs have not the semi-classic grace of they are strictly subdued to their those in Provence architectural function which is further expressed by the
statues in the
:

A plan of this

de la

original arrangement is given by M. Merlet, Monographie CatMdrale de Chartres. The credit of the discovery is due to

M. Lef^vre-Pontalis.

Plate

XX

T. G.

J.

CHARTRES CATHEDRAL Norlh

Puich

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

;

99
but
Chartres

long and straight Byzantine folds of the drapery

the heads are
full

of character and individuality, and that

of Christ

is

superb, and

may rank
fire

with his portraiture at

of 1194 was carried The
m94-i2?2

Reims and Amiens.

The
pleted

rebuilding after the

through with amazing energy, and was practically comis unknown, for though there was a labyrinth in the nave floor as at Reims and Amiens, the central figures which would have revealed his identity are missing. Bound by the towers on the west, and by Fulbert's crypt on the east, the sanctity of which forbad any interference, the architect had to be satisfied with a short nave, and his east end had to

by

12 12.

Who

the architect was

stand on Fulbert's walls, and this in

his plan.
1

The whole

conception was magnificent: besides The

at the

the two western towers there were to be two at each

transept,

two more again

built,

111
many ways The
six only
is
-T^i
1

affected
nine towers

chord of the apse, and

central tower,

a central tower over the crossing.

however, was never

and the other

reached

the eaves of the church, so that of the nine that were

intended only the two original western steeples exist.

The
that at

architecture of Chartres

a step in advance of
,
. ,

Advance
in style at

T-.

Pans and Bourges.

:

-r^

he vaults are quadripartite

chartres

throughout

the vaulted triforium gallery has disappeared,

choir and transepts,

and
four

is

replaced by a simple arcade on colonnettes, with

in

arches

the

nave, five

in

and two in the apse. The triforium has a passage, and in France it is rare to find it in the English a back wall fashion open to the roof space behind. The pointed arch has finally triumphed and the round, arch disappeared. The windows of the aisles, and of the apse clerestory, are plain wide single-lights, but the other clerestories have
:

two-light

windows with

a circle of plate tracery in the

72

loo

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. v

CHAKTRES CATHEPIM.

INfe'lDE"-

Ol/T^IDE'.

sircrioN.
Fig. 40.

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

40).

lOI

with painted ^JJeSi emerald The ruby, dass of the richest and deepest hues of painted J and sapphire, and this makes the church very dark. gUss The glass in the western triplet is of the 12th century

head (Fig.

Every window

is

filled

1111
;

and was moved with the old fagade

the rebuilding in the 13th.

the rest dates from

The columns

are

alternately

octagonal

with

four Th^^^^

round colonnettes attached, and round with four octagonal The colonnette facing the nave has no colonnettes.
capital,

but the abacus of the rest of the group runs

Fig. 41.

Fig. 42.

round

it,

and from that

rises a

group of vaulting shafts and do not

succeeding The

that run up to take the ribs.

The

capitals are very simple (Fig. 41),

artistic
skill,

show much
styles
1

but they introduce us to the

all
1

cap-a-crochet, a type

which runs through

</-

m
.

"T^

France

-n
till

it

becomes somewhat wearisome.

42).

d,-crochei

The columns The

dividing the choir aisles are cylindrical and

have caps of the same kind (Fig.

proportions of the interior have always struck'

It

Proportion

me
of

as singularly happy.
Paris

has neither the depression

church

and Rouen, nor the extravagant altitude in relation to its span of Amiens. In the bay we find a

I02
Chartres cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

scale of relation
,

[ch.

new

suppression

of the

vaulted

between the three storeys. The triforium gallery and the

,,...
in

consequent reduction of height

unusually
lofty,

that storey allowed

the enlargement of the other two.

The

clerestory

is

and the arcade is much higher than that at Paris, which is too low, and much lower than that in the nave at Bourges which is too high. If we divide the height from floor to apex of vault into 32 parts, we get the following comparative table, which shows roughly the gradual increase

and has a

fine effect in the apse,

in

importance of the lower storey during this period.

Paris. Chartres.

Reims.

Amiens.

Bourges nave.

Arcade

CH. v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

103

Chartres cathedral

Fig. 43.

(Drawing by M. Adams.)

I04
Chartres cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

and delicate natural
It is said that

[CH.

figures, flutings, diapers,

foliage in a

masterly way.
in the

there are over 700 figures

north porch and portals alone. The statues attached to the columns preserve something of the rigidity of those in the royal portals, as befits their function, but

they are modelled with niuch greater freedom and variety, the heads are full of character, and some of the figures
reach a high classical standard'
interesting to

(Plate

XXI).

It

is

compare the group of the Salutation of

Mary and Elizabeth in the left-hand door of the north porch with the similar subject at Reims.
The
choir screen

The interior of the choir has been brutally disfigur,ed with Rococo work, but fortunately the fine i6th century
sculptures on the ambulatory side of the screen wall have

been spared.
old steeple

The

The
dates as

old tower at the south-west corner (Plate

XXII)

and was designed to stand clear of the church, which not only was set back, but probably was much lower than the present building. Consequently it is smothered by the present front, and does not do itself justice when seen from the west, and
1145,
it

we have seen from

suffers especially

from the heavy arcaded gallery that

joins the towers across the gable.

It is a magnificently sturdy piece of work, quite the finest 12th century steeple in France, if not anywhere. It rises through three heavily buttressed stages, each shorter than that below,

and

then

breaks

into

an

octagon with
fill

four

gabled

structures placed diagonally to

out the angles on the

oblique faces.

On

the four direct faces are large

windows

under a steeply gabled pediment, of a type with which

we
1

are familiar in the south

The
sculpture at Chartres
that
title.

of France, at
by

Le Puy,
Marriage

is

fully illustrated

Mr and Mrs

in their

book bearing

Plate

XXI

T. G.

J.

CHARTRES CATHEDRAL

cii.

v]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

105
Chartres
CcltIlGCir3.1 -

Brantome and elsewhere, and also at Vendome in the north. The apex of this pediment cuts through the
cornice

which finishes the octagon, from which

scaling.
it is

rises

the spire proper, decorated with angle and intermediate

rolls,

and covered with

The whole
a
little

design

is

majestic in the extreme, but

to the division

indeterminate as

spires there

is

between tower and spire. In our English never this doubt, but here one may almost
division at the top of the octagon,

as well

mark the

where the true pyramid begins, as at the bottom of it where it breaks from the square without any very particular feature to express the transition. This uncertainty is characteristic of many other French steeples. But whatever
is

we may
;

think about

this,

the old steeple of Chartres

perfectly successful in

or obliquely

and

is

whether seen directly a magnificent object from every

its

outline,

point of view far or near.

We
most

reserve the other steeple for a later chapter.

is

Chartres cathedral, which, says Viollet-le-Duc,

the

piaceof

solidly constructed of all the cathedrals in France, ory^of" between the earlier churches such as ^^'^^^' stands midway '
lecture

Noyon, and Notre Dame at Paris, with their vaulted triforium and low nave arcade, and the later buildings where the French type attained full perfection. It has some awkwardness in the choir vaulting, and in the pillars of the ambulatory which are spaced unequally, and fail in geometrical regularity\ showing that the builders were still in a tentative stage, though they had made a great advance beyond anything that had been
Senlis,

done
1

before.
is

This

perhaps partly due

to the necessity of building

on Fulbert's

substructure.

CHAPTER

VI
{continued)

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

Reims
cathedral
.

The
,

Cathedral of Reims carries the art another step

i

and may indeed be considered to have brought the model of a French cathedral to perfection. The earliest cathedral was rebuilt by Archbishop Ebbon in 820, to whom the Emperor Louis le Debonnaire lent one of his serfs, skilled in architecture, named Rumaud. It was finished by Hincmar, after 841, and improved by Adalberon in 976, who is said to have filled the windows with painted glass ^; and it underwent many other changes before it was burned down in 12 10. On the first anniin

advance,

versary of this catastrophe the foundation stone of the

by Archbishop Aubri de Humbert, and for the next twenty years the work was pushed on with vigour. Large sums were raised by peripatetic quests of the clergy, by Papal indulgences, and by the formation of Confraternities pledged to annual contributions, and in 1241 the chapter was enabled to take possession of the new choir. In 1251 not only were funds exhausted but the building was heavily in debt fresh appeals restored the finances, but the church was not finished till the end of the 14th century, nor the upper part of the towers till 1427.
present
building
laid
^

was

...diversas continentibus historias.

La

Cathedrale de Rei/ns^'D&maAsor)..

Plate

XXIII

REIMS CATHEDRAL

CH. VI]
It

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

He
is

107
Reims

has generally been said that Robert de Coucy was has been pointed out by later writers that the

the original architect.

so styled by Viollet-le-Duc. The

But

it

epitaph of Robert de
cloister of the
in

Coucy on
S.

his

monument
as

in

the

abbey of
century,
et de

Denis

at

Reims, which existed

the

i8th

describing

him

Maistre de

Saint Nicaise, gave the date of his death in 131 1, a century too late. Fortunately par- The ticulars have been preserved of the labyrinth in the floor

Nostre

Dame

of the cathedral, which was destroyed by the canons in

1778 because children amused themselves by running round the maze. At its corners were four compartments containing figures of four Maitres de rceuvre, each holding the square or compass of his profession Bernard de
:

Soissons, master for 25

years,

''

qui fit cinq voutes

et

ouvra a r O''

Gaucher de Reims, master for 5 years, ''qui ouvra aux voussures et portaux'' Jean d'Orbais, and Jean le ''qui encojnmenfa la coiffe de l Eglise'" Loup, " qui fut maitre de l' J^glise seize ans et encommenga
\ \ \

lesportaux^r
the

As Robert de Coucy's name did not appear, pavement would necessarily be older than his connexion with the building, and was probably coeval with the similar labyrinth at Amiens which is dated in 1288. If by the coiffe we should understand the ckevet, where
we know
design
is

the church began,

the credit of the general

Jean
architect

due to Jean of Orbais, a town in Champagne with a fine abbey church rather older than the cathedral, M. Demaison suggests that Jean le Loup succeeded him and made the transept portals, and was himself succeeded by Gaucher, who was followed by Bernard de Soissons who made the western bays of the nave, and the great
1

La

Cathidrale de Reims, L. Demaison

see also notes by Professor

p. 208.

Willis in his edition of the Sketch

Book of Wilars de Honecori,

io8
Reims
cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

window
of the facade.

[CH. VI

mentioned in a deed of 1287 as Matstres Bernars de Nostre Damme^. Robert de Coucy's share in the work included probably the completion of the west front, and other architects are mentioned after him down to the middle of the
or rose
is

He

15th century.

The

design therefore of this splendid church, the

Gothic,

masterpiece of French

should be credited to

Jean d'Orbais, whose general scheme must have been followed by his successors with only such slight modifications as their
Change
in con-

age suggested.
a difference of opinion about the date of the
choir.

There

is

struction

upper part of the

Viollet-le-Duc observes that

and of half the nave is of unusually massive construction up to the level of the aisle vaults, and that above that level the conAt this point struction suddenly becomes much slighter. he believes that funds ran short, and that work was suspended from 1230 to 1240 and then begun again; but that the choir was not finished till nearly a hundred years later, during which period succeeding builders
the lower part of the walls of the choir

followed

loyally
this

the
is

design of the original architect ^

Against

view

urged the improbability of the

for their choir, the record in

Chapter waiting a century

the chronicle of S. Nicaise that the canons occupied the

1

M. Demaison

calculates the careers of these architects thus:

Jean

d'Orbais 1211-1231, Jean le Loup 1231-1247, Gaucher de Reims 1247-1255, and Bernard de Soissons 125 5-1 290. But, as he says, this depends on the It allows also an date of the labyrinth being correctly placed about 1290.

between Jean le Loup and Gaucher. The inscription number of years occupied by Jean d'Orbais was unfortunately illegible when the copy of the labyrinth was made. ^ C'est ce qui donne a cet edifice un caractere d'unite si remarquable,
interval of three years

giving the

quoiqu'il ait fallu

un

siecle

pour conduire

le travail

jusqu'aux voutes hautes.

Diet. Rais. vol.

ll.

p. 321.

CH. vr]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

109
Reims

and the portrait in the glass of the choir clerestory of Archbishop Henri de Braine who died in
choir in 1241,

Honecort are five sheets of drawings of Reims cathedral. That showing an inside and outside elevation of a bay, apparently of
the choir,

1240. In the sketch-book of Wilars de

wiiarsde
drawings

represents

it

as

still

incomplete

the vault
is

and the flying buttress are absent, and there

unhappily

only the

base of the pier from which the flyer would spring.

But
visit,

we do

not

know

the date of Wilars'

which

is

variously placed in 1235, 1244, and 1250.

The

sketches differ so widely from the actual building that

M. Lassus imagines them

work
after 1231.

to

be copies from working

drawings made by Wilars during the suspension of the

Professor Willis, with more probability,
thinks allowance must be

made

for the

sketchy draughts-

manship of the time, and points out many inaccuracies Wilars' drawings of the chapels and other parts which we know were certainly finished at his visit, and before his eyes\ Everything seems to show there was a change of architect about 1231, when we may suppose Jean d'Orbais died after which the work was carried on by his successor, apparently Jean le Loup, till in 1241 the choir was roofed in though perhaps not yet vaulted, and was available for service. The completion of the vaults and of the nave, except the four last bays, proceeded as funds came in, and these four bays with most of the west front were finished towards the end of
in
;

Change of

the

13th century.

In the nave The simple (Fig. 44). the double aisle of vQhartr^" and Paris is abandoned, and

The ground

plan

is

plan

as there are

no chapels between the buttresses the flank

>

Willis, op.

cit. p.

220, etc.

no
Reims
'

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. vi

cathedral

Fig. 44.

(V.-le-Duc.)

A B
Plate

XXIV

fi

is

*,

REIMS CATHEDRAL

REIMS CAIHEDRAL

Plate

XXV

M>

*^^*'

H^4M/lh t'-h '^'^^^^s^^

REIMS CATHEDRAL- West

front

CH. vi]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

its
,
1

in
row of
is

of the church has a magnificent effect with

-11 I'll massive buttress-piers below, and enriched

A
noble and
impressive, especially in the

Reims
cathedral

stages above.

stern simpHcity reigns in the interior, which

very
its
I

apse with

cylindrical columns,

and well-spaced arches( Plate

XXH

).

The columns elsewhere are cylindrical with four attached The capitals are in two courses, marked in the colonnettes alone by a necking in the middle. The
colonnettes.
foliage
is

The
'^^^^ ^

more advanced toward naturalism than

it

that at

Chartres or Paris, but in the choir

earlier type

still

retains

some-

thing of the stiffness, and artless arrangement of the

(

Plate

X X V a). Ad vancing westward, howI

ever,

we

find gradually increasing natural treatment in the

nave (Plate

XXIV b),
in

the foliage being sometimes mixed

with figures, as

the famous vintage capital.

The

last

three capitals westward, belonging to the latest stage of

the building operations, have

character, difference

foliage

of

14th century

crowded,
is

confused,
in

and inexpressive.
as well as in

The
the

The

bases

shown

their bases

capitals, for the quasi-Attic

base of the other columns,

well-modelled toes at

like that at Paris (Fig. 22 c), with

the angles,

is

exchanged

for a simpler section without

the scotia or hollow moulding.

The

vaulting throughout

is

quadripartite, the trans- The

vaults

verse rib being accentuated, and the arrangement of the

construction
is

masterly, without the tentative efforts of

previous examples.
the
first

The

ritual

choir

is

projected into

three bays of the choir westward of the transept,

a local peculiarity which occurs also at S.

it

Remy.

Here

was probably occasioned by the great space needed at royal coronations, for it was at Reims that French kings were crowned. In the chapels of the choir chevet Jean d'Orbais has

112
Keims
cathedral

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

[ch. vi

Fig. 45.

(V.-le-Duc.)

CH. vi]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

himself.

113
Reims

surpassed

They

are
it

incomparably the most

would seem they made a great impression at the time they were built. Wilars de Honecort sketched them in his queer way both inside and out, and writes in the margin " This is how those at Cambrai must be if they are made right^" (Fig. 45). The development of the chevet with its radiating chapels, from the unpretending projections of Senlis (Fig. 24, Denis, p. 6']), through the better defined plans at S. Noyon, and Chartres, was now perfected, and later examples are only variations on what we find at Reims. In their plan these chapels show a change of purpose, for they begin with a circular base, which at the window cill
beautiful of their kind,

and

is

converted into a polygon, so as to provide a

flat

plane

window between the buttresses, and escape the distortion which we see in the earlier examples, where windows are opened in a curved surface.
for the two-light traceried

In these chapels, which must have been built up to The

the cornice before 1230, are perhaps the earliest examples of bar tracery.
J^lcery

The windows
circle

are of two lights, uncusped,

All the

and carrying a
in the

with sexfoil cusping.

windows
in the

throughout the church are of the same kind, varying only

width of the
lights,

which are compressed

apse so that the

lights,

circle is of the full

width of the two

and the arch very highly stilted. But the subject of the development of tracery must be reserved for a
future chapter.

Except the upper part of the towers and of the part between them, which is later, the west front (Plate XXV), was finished at the end of the 13th or the beginning of
de Canbrai son lor fait droit." Wilars is believed to have been architect of the now vanished cathedral at Cambrai.
'

The west

" Dautretel maniere doivent estre celes

cit.

Willis, op.

Plates

LIX and LX.

pp. 217 etc.

J.

G. A.

114 Sdrai.

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

The towers were

[ch. vi

^^^ ^4th century.

intended to carry

Thetoweis spires

spirelets

of stone on their central octagon between four on the angle tabernacles, and the base of these
actually started.

spires

is

But, as at Laon,

this

open

structure, consisting largely of slender detached columns,

seems quite unsuited

to carry such a load. The front has the usual three great portals, but their tympana are not sculptured, and are filled with glazed tracery. Above

The
sculptures

window of Bernard de Soissons, which geometrical bar tracery is perfectly developed. The jambs and arches of the portals are filled with very remarkable figure sculptures. They are not all of one
is

the great O, the rose

in

date,

and those of the same date are not

hand.

The

figures of the right

door are archaic, and are middle door of the north transept at Chartres, which are dated between 1220 and 1225. It may be debated which
the original, and which the copy, and the explanation offered for them here is that they were carved in advance,
set
is

all by the same jamb of the right-hand identical with some in the

Another idea is that where the break above noticed occurs, and that these figures were removed thence when the church was lengthened by
till

and

laid

by

they were wanted.

first

the west front was

built

farther back

royal

command
contrast

to
to

its

present

extent \
in

They
opposite

are

in

marked

the figures

the

jamb

which are very fine, and inferior only to those in the middle portal. These are beyond all praise, and the finest mediaeval figures I have ever seen. The sculpture of the Middle Ages culminates in the four figures of the
Annunciation, and the Salutation (Plate XXVI). In the former the Virgin has an air of delightful simplicity, and
* M. Demaison thinks this an impossibility, but with the west front at Chartres {v. sup. p. 98).

it

was done as we know

CH. vi]

EARLY FRENCH GOTHIC

115
irresistible Reims

the angel smiles,

the angels
is

at

Reims have an
;

smile that

makes you smile too

but

the other group of

is

the Salutation of

Mary and
worthy

Elizabeth

indeed by a

master hand and

to rank with the masterpieces

of antiquity. The draperies are magnificently composed, and the heads, which are obviously taken from life, are beautiful and expressive in the highest degree (Plate VH). There are other figures in the series scarcely less excellent. What they want in technical perfection is compensated by a character and a spirituality of expression unknown to Greek sculpture. In a side doorway of the north transept on the trumeau is a statue of Christ of unusual beauty and dignity. It would take too long to multiply examples of early chaionsGothic buildings in other parts of France. At ChAlons- Mame. sur-Marne in Champagne the church of Notre Dame ^^g

XX

has pointed arches, a vaulted triforium gallery, with a

second

triforium

clerestory windows,

above which is combined with the and an apse with chapels resembling
Vezeiay

that at S.

abbey of
for

Remy. In Burgundy the fine choir of the Vezelay was built between 1198 and 1206,

which the convent ran into debt, and deposed its extravagant abbot \ The apse is supported on monolithic columns, there are many traces of classic detail, and round arches are used side by side with pointed ones. The church of S. Pierre at Lisieux is a fine example of
early pointed

Lisieux.

work in the north. But it was in the He de France that the style first reached that full development which is described in the following chapter.
1 Diet. Rais. Illustrated by ViolIet-le-Duc. Reason in Architecture., Plate XIII.

vol.

I.

p.

231-232, and in

my

CHAPTER

VII

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

is regarded by most writers French Gothic. It is on an enormous scale, and lavishly decorated, and both inside and out it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable buildings in Europe. It was begun at the west end, instead of as was usual at the east, the object probably

cathedral

^^^

Cathedral at

Amiens

as the perfect flower of

being to save the ancient church of S. Firmin

sufficient

till

part of the

pulling
first
1

it

down

to

new cathedral was make way for the new

built,

before

choir.

The

stone was laid

2 20,

by Bishop Evrard de Fouilly in and the nave seems to have been occupied in 1236

time of his successor, Geoffroy d'Eu. This included the nave to the top of the vaults, and the west front with the statuary of the great portals and the rose
in the

window above them. The choir followed, and

the radiating

chapels of the apse were finished in 1247. Funds then ran short, work was suspended till 1258, and the choir

was not

finished

till

1269, a date which appears in the

glass of the apse clerestory.

The

side chapels of the

nave were added rather late in the 14th century, and in 1366 the completion of the west front from the gallery above the rose was undertaken but the north tower was
;

not finished

till

the 15th century.

Plate

XXVIII

AMIENS CATPIEDRAL

CH. vii]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

"house of Daedalus^"
in

117
the
floor,

labyrinth, or

Amiens
'^

which was destroyed in the last century, and is now replaced by a copy, had an inscription in brass round the
centre, giving the date 1220 when the church was begun, and the names of Bishop Evrard, King Louis, and the three architects employed on the work, the last of whom says he placed this inscription here in 1288.

xhe^
^'"''^'t^'^^^

******
nommes
Thomas
fu apres luy
et apres
filz

Chil qui maistre yert de I'ceuvre

Maistre Robert estoit

Et de Luzarches surnommes
Maistre

De Cormont
Ses

maistre Regnault qui mettre

Fist a chest point

chy ceste

lettre

Que rincarnacion valoit XI IP ans XII en faloit.

In the centre were figures of the bishop

and the three

masters of the work, inlaid in white marble

There
three

is

nothing to

tell

us what part each of the

inscription

took in the design, unless an

stone,

over

the south transept door, of which the date 1220, a mention

of the

first

and the name Robert could alone be

Duomo
of Lucca

^ A labyrinth engraved on a pier of the portico of the has an inscription beginning thus

HIC QVEM CRETICVS EDIT DEDALVS EST LABERINTHVS

The use

of labyrinths in church floors has not been explained.

:

Viollet-

le-Duc, Diet. Rais. vol. vi, suggests a masonic symbolism

and as they

seem connected with the names and figures of architects that may be so. He says they do not occur before architecture passed into lay hands. They were sometimes called "the road to Jerusalem," and the devout traced the route on their knees, but only a few labyrinths were large enough for that. * This central piece, much mutilated is said to be now in the museum La Cathedrale d^ Amiens^ G. Durand. The author points out at Amiens. that Master Regnault de Cormont has made a slip in his chronology, for Louis VIII did not succeed till 1222. The inscription makes him king
in 1220.

ii8
Amiens
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

[ch. vii

Fig. 46.

(V.-le-Duc.)

cii. vii]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

119
Amiens

read,

may be

taken to show that Robert de Luzarches

work thus far. Before the addition of the nave chapels the plan The (Fig. 46) was very like that at Reims. There was a
carried the

plan

nave with a single aisle on each side, a transept with aisles and a choir of four bays with double aisles ending

J^!>
Fig. 47-

in

an apse and ambulatory

radiated.
into

aisle

from which apsidal

the
for

chapels
directly

As

at

Reims these chapels open

fill

the

ambulatory and

space

from

buttress to buttress, leaving no

room

the aisle as at Chartres and Bourges.

Paris the chapels project
aisle, at

windows into At Chartres and

beyond the second ambulatory Reims and Amiens they occupy the place of it.
are cylindrical with four attached colon- The

The columns

nettes, of which the one that runs up to take the nave

I20
Amiens

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

it

[ch. vii

vault has Only the abacus moulding round

(Fig. 47).

more advanced than those at Chartres, but are still simple. Those of the colonnettes are shorter than that of the main column, unlike those at
capitals are rather

The

x^*^Fig. 48.

Reims
the
Gothic.

(Plate

XXIV,

p.

108),

and

this feature

became

in later French Geometrical shows a capital of this kind in a later stage of development at Auxerre. The bases (Fig. 22 d, p. 63) are well profiled, and good examples of the

common arrangement
Fig. 48

n -4-

>

4 "'

HIII

II1 II1I

II

.1-

ii

nMi<^m-

POPM

Plate

XXX

W%

^Q

l^^^
L,

AMIENS CATHEDRALThe
Drawing by G. G.

Nave

Scott, junior

CH. vii]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

version
of

121
vault
is

mediaeval

the

Attic
ribs are

base.

The

Amiens

quadripartite

and the wall

for the

much

stilted to
of.

give
four

ample room
(Plate

large clerestory
six
in

windows

lights in the nave,

and

the transepts and choir

XXVIII). The triforium in

the nave has three lights with slender The

^" """"^

shafts carrying a great trefoil of plate tracery with foliated

tips to the cusps,

and below
which
is

it

runs a string course of

beautifully carved foliage (Plate

XXX).

The

triforium
it

has a back wall

is

in

a relieving arch, and above

a terrace outside the clerestory windows, which are set

to the inside of the wall.

On

this terrace stand

columns
The
buttresses

carrying the head of the flying buttresses, leaving room

XXIX). The nave r n two tiers 01 simple flyers, and the flank of this part would have been as fine as that of Reims but for the chapels added in the 14th century which spoil it. There are two triforium openings of three lights each in the bay, and here, as at S. Germain des Pres, where it was done perhaps for the first time\ the triforium and clerestory are connected by running the shafts of the upper storey down into the lower (Plate XXX). As the style progressed these two storeys were more and more closely associated, till in some of the later churches both in England and France they are practically united into one composition. The choir, which is later than the nave, seems to Perhaps Robert de be by a diff"erent and inferior hand. Luzarches was dead and Thomas de Cormont had taken his place. There is an attempt at greater splendour the clerestory is increased, the triforium which has
to
,

pass

behind

them
.

(Plate
,

buttresses are massive with

The

choir

V. sup. p.

76 and Fig. 28.

122
Amiens
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

.

[ch. vii

double tracery, the outer face being glazed, is filled with geometrical tracery and surmounted by an unmeanmg
,

crocketted gable on the inside, and the two flyers of the

buttresses outside are united

by tracery-work which gives

air.

them a very heavy and ungraceful

the apse bays
at Chartres.
is

The

spacing of

not so successful as at Reims, or even

are too near together and

The columns

the arches are pinched up, too narrow and too highly stilted, and this in a church of such enormously high
The
ciapeb

proportions has a very unsatisfactory

^^
^j^^ 2Lpse.

effect.

The

chapels

are very lofty, and in themselves beautiful,

;

especially within

but outside they dwarf the central

is still

apse of the choir, which

seen.
Difficulty

further smothered

by the

double traceried flying buttresses, and can hardly be

Adequate spacing of the apse columns was the most

troublesome problem that the French architect of the
13th century had to solve, in spite of the fact that he

theapse"^

could

make them

slighter than

the other columns, as

they only received one vaulting rib instead of three.

As each bay
too
far

of the apse radiated from the centre through

if

the aisle to the chapel beyond,

the apse columns were

cir-

apart the width of the bay at the outer

cumference became too great for vaulting. On the other hand if the convenience of vaulting the aisle alone were
studied
together.

the

apse columns would be drawn

too near

At

Paris the architect succeeded in

making

the bays of the apse about as wide as those of the

straight part,

by the ingenious method, explained above,

of multiplying the columns in the aisled

Where, as

at

the trouble was

Bourges and V^zelay, there are only five apsidal chapels less, and more liberal space could be
^

V. sup. p.

79 (Fig.

29),

&

p. 82.

Plate

XXXI

AMIENS CATHEDRAL

CH. vii]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

:

123

allowed
is

but at

Amiens

there are seven, and the result Amiens

that the apse arches are

cramped and the columns

is

crowded too

closely together.

The west

front (Plate

XXXI), which
still

the work of West

front

Robert de Luzarches,is a magnificent composition, perhaps

rather overdone with ornament, but

a masterpiece.

Compared with Reims

the finer fa9ade.

think on the whole

Amiens has
:

Thefa9ade

The towers

here are more solid

is

at with^Rdms

Reims the stage above the

beyond, and this gives an
the openings do not begin

portals

pierced,

and you

look through and see the flying buttresses of the nave

air
till

of weakness

at

Amiens

above the roof

level.

The

pediments also over the portals are better managed here, for the clustering tabernacle-work on the middle gable at Reims is unhappy. In both fronts the pediments conceal

more or
this

less the

lower part of the tower buttresses, and

^

according to M. Coifs

puts them both out of the

is

pale of Gothic architecture, but this

less the case at

Amiens than at Reims. is not much to choose between them, but if Amiens can show sculptured tympana where Reims has only windows, there is nothing at Amiens to equal the groups of the

In splendour of sculpture there

Annunciation and Salutation at the other church (Plate

XXVI,
The

p. 114).

figures

here are by different hands,

and of

The
^^" ^
^^'^

various degrees of merit.

the people of
efforts

The

statuary on the whole

fared pretty well at the revolution, owing to the pride

Amiens took
it

in their cathedral,

and

their

to

save

from mutilation.

Many

heads and

hands, however, were knocked off and have been re1 Un pareil r^sultat d^montre k la derni^re Evidence que les architectes de cette cathddrale n'ont jamais connu le style gothique proprement dit. He calls it L'/cole Gothiqiie Allemande, p. 92, J. F. Coifs (Bruxelles, 1892).

sculptor's work, not architect's.


124
Amiens
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

much
restoration

[CH. VII

was needed in the great portals. That of the south transept, la Porte de la Vierge dorde, has on the tr7imeatt- or central pier the figure, charming in its natural expression, of the Virgin smiling at the Child on her arm, while three little angels flutter round her head. But the statues in the jambs are poor works the faces are clownish, and the whole very second-rate. Possibly they have been a good deal mended. The sculpture in the arch and tympanum is superior. Far finer is the work in the great west portals le beau (Plate XXXI I), with the famous figure of Christ, Dieu d' Amiens, on the central pier. In its sublime
placed, but not
;

abstraction

it

has, as

M. Durand
which

says, the " impassive

majesty of the Egyptian statues, or the Greek primitives,

and

that apparent rudeness

at first sight

is

dis-

concerting\"
at Chartres
is

The

fine early Christ of the royal portal

and more powerful, and that on Reims more human and sympathetic the three together combine to make a wonderful presentment of our divine Lord and Saviour.
sterner,

the north transept at

Amiens,
the

In comparing these great Gothic churches together would, as

it

Gothic
ideal

M. Durand very wisely

first.

says,

"be

childish to

enquire which to place

Still,"

he continues, "what

Amiens, is that which Gothic art has displayed the plenitude of its system and its resources, where it has most closely approached its ideal, where decisive solutions have been found, and where in a word we have the type of Gothic construction^"
will

nobody

deny

to the cathedral of
in

it is

the

monument

Its logical

All this
all

is

quite true.

We

have here

in perfection

completeness

the system of thrust and counterthrust, necessary to

satisfy

Mr

Moore.

The
1

points of support are isolated,

cit, p. 51.

op.

Plate

XXXII

AMIENS CATHEDRAL West

Portal

CH. VII]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

to

125
curtains Amiens

and the walls between them are reduced

to

mere

enclose

the building,

made

mostly of glass.
its

Each
clear of

vaulting rib descends separately on

capital

the rest, and has

its

own

separate shaft to carry

it.

The

whole construction is visibly expressed by the architectural Every problem involved in building a great Gothic form. church is solved, and there seems nothing further to be done in the way of improvement. It is perhaps this very perfection that to some extent
robs
it

its
'*^

of

its interest.

You

miss that restless energy, that

effJct^

forward push, that yearning and striving for something

which characterises all the work of the Romanesque period, and all the earlier Gothic work we have till now
better,

been engaged
is

in describing.

For

their youthful vigour

is

substituted a classical repose which

alien

to

the

northern temper.

Revisiting the idols of our youth after

a long interval, one looks at them with a fresh eye, and

must confess that when I saw Amiens again the other day I failed to rise to the level of its ardent admirers. Its splendid scale, its vast height and spaciousness impresses you with a feeling of satisfaction and successful
I

achievement, and yet

facade with
its

somehow

it

left

me

cold.

The
to

glorious sculpture indeed leaves

little

be desired, but the interior seems too fine-spun,

much

drawn-out,

too

too

lofty for its width.

of the arcade to the superstructure strikes

The proportion me as disagreeat

ably high, though the

the nave, with
is

same proportion
is

Westminster

on a scale one-third smaller

in
its

agreeable.

The

triforium
its

shallow including arch and

plate,

tracery,

very poor and shadowless, and has a thin

papery look, while that in the choir I think ill-designed and almost ugly. I have already mentioned the crowding together of the apse columns and the consequent pinched

126
Amiens
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

is

[ch. vii

more observable on account of the immense spread of the clerestory windows in the nave and the straight bays of the choir, which
look of those bays and this
the

almost provoke a feeling of insecurity.

In
all

these particulars the interior of

Amiens must
is

yield to that of Reims,

less scientific,

where the construction

virile

scarcely
peril,

but

is

not pushed to the verge of

is

and the whole design

Beauvais
cathedral

and reassuring. From Amiens it is natural to go to Beauvais, to see the great church which was designed not merely to rival
its

but to eclipse

neighbour.
in the 9th century,

Bishops existed at Beauvais

The Basse
CEuvre

and

one of them was killed by the Normans in 851. The nave of an early cathedral known as the Basse CEuvre still remains, though it has been restored to death, and
only a few patches of the original facing remain.
It

has been variously dated

but
it

in

the 6th, 7th, and 9th century,

is

now supposed

to

be the church of which the

Rivalry with

Amiens

Herve in 990. It was by fire in 1180 and 1225, and in 1227 Bishop Milon de Nanteuil resolved to build a new cathedral. The present choir was begun in 1247. By this time the nave of Amiens was finished and the choir well advanced, and its magnificence provoked From the men of Beauvais to do something still finer. first to last they suffered from megalomania which repeatedly brought them into trouble. The vault of Amiens was 141 ft. high; theirs should be 13 ft. higher. The construction at Reims was light and daring, theirs should But no sooner had be still lighter and more audacious.
foundation was laid by Bishop
injured

Failures of construction

been reached than the vaults In 1272 they were fell in for want of proper abutment. rebuilt only to fall again in 1284, and then the builders
their ambitious dimensions

CH. viij

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

to

127
Beauvais

were forced
each
its

introduce three additional columns on

side, to

span.
till

not

support the middle of the arch and halve These repairs occupied forty years, and it was 1 500 that the great transepts were begun, when

the art had passed into the flamboyant stage.

new

nave was
This time

to follow
fit

and one bay was actually begun, but

The tower

then another
inspired

of megalomania attacked the builders.

it was not Amiens but S. Peter's at Rome that them to emulation, and they built a gigantic spire over the crossing, near 500 ft. high, with an aperture in the vault to let you look up to the top from

This steeple, which, to judge from the views of it that have been preserved, must have been very ugly, stood for little more than 20 years, and then the It fell in 1573, bringing down with it piers gave way. a considerable part of the transept and choir. Beauvais therefore is but a fragment a colossal
the floor.

Fail of the

fragment, of a too ambitious design.

From
is

its

history

you
;

might expect

to find

it

a mere pretentious tour de force

outside naturally

an amorphous but it is not so. mass, all head and arms and no body, though the early part, when seen without the rest, has a charm of its own.

The

But the
(

interior

of

the

choir

is

strangely

beautiful

XXXIII). I know hardly any interior which dwells memory so vividly, and this is the more curious because accident has almost as much to do with it as The great height of the vault, which is extradesign. It is only little ordinary, does not so much matter.
Plate
in the

Height of

minds that take magnitude for greatness, and a design must not be valued by feet and inches. Many a building of only moderate dimensions is able to impress you with As Burke finely says "designs a sense of sublimity. dimensions, are always the vast only by their that are

I2J
Beauvais
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

common and low
it

[ch. vii

sign of a
art can

imagination.

No work

of

be great, but as

deceives

to

be otherwise

Superiority to

is
is

the prerogative of nature only,"

Amiens
beauty

in

many degrees more

is

beautiful than

For me, Beauvais Amiens for where

;

Amiens

coldly

correct

Beauvais

is

lovely \

The

double windows
are far

in the clerestory, resulting

from the sexquadripartite,

partite vault here, while that at

Amiens

is

more

beautiful than the great single

;

windows

at

the other church

and the straight bays, narrowed by

the intruded columns, carry on the scale of those round

the apse, and avoid the original abrupt passage from

Partly accidental

narrow arches to wide. All this of course results not from the original design but from the alterations made
after the
fall

of the vaults in

284,

when

the straight

bays were halved by the intruded columns.

they were 28
quadripartite,
ft.

Before then

wide, centre to centre, the vault was and the clerestory window would have sprawled as widely as those at Amiens. For the narrow

bays

in the clerestory are inconsistent

with the original

wide arch, of which the outline may still be traced in the wall the middle vaulting shaft, descending to the intruded column, cuts it in two (Plate XXXIV). Never was an
:

accident

more

fortunate, for

it

is

the narrowness of the

bays, and the

clerestory that
1

new proportion given to the triforium and makes this interior unlike any other, and

judgment

cannot help quoting a letter I had in 1896 from one with whose I have always been glad to find myself in accord, my late friend, Richard Norman Shaw. " I am so pleased to hear that you like Beauvais so much, as I like it myself....! have not seen it for fifteen or sixteen years, but I know the outside fetched me immensely. And why it is so fine, and why Cologne (that I was looking at the other day) is so hideous, is not easy to say, except that it looks all right at Beauvais and all wrong at Cologne. Street would never listen to Beauvais, said it was not to be compared to Amiens, and shut me up sharp. I shall go again and see it perhaps this year; I have been wanting to go for ever so long."
I

Plate

XXXIII

BEAUVAIS CATHEDRAL

Plate

XXXIV

T. G.

J.

liliAUVAIS

CATHEDRAL

CH. vii]
gfives
it

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

its

129
Beauvais
cathedral

peculiar beauty.

The same

reason explains

the sexpartite vault, because the choir being over 50 feet

wide from centre to centre of the columns and the length of the bay being now reduced to 14, a quadripartite vault over such a long and narrow bay was hardly conceivable.

iJRAL.

SCALE
Fig. 49,

Of

/^ETTRES.

Fig. 49 is a plan of the choir, in which the original and intruded piers are distinguished, as well as those which were rebuilt after the fall of the tower in the
1

Plan of

6th century.

Only one of the

original four piers at the

;

crossing remains, that at the south-east corner

J.

the rest
9

G. A.

I30
Beauvais
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

rebuilt in the

[ch. vii
first

were
pier

flamboyant style as well as the

intruded pier on the north side.

is

The

area of the original

and the load on it at a rough calculation, in which I am probably below the To have mark, is not less than 12 tons per square foot. added that vast tower to this was little short of madness^
barely 64 square
feet,

Fig. 50.

The

aisle

The
curious.

use

vaults

made of the intruded piers in The original quadripartite vault

though
in

the aisles

is

of the wide

bay
is

is

retained,

the choir

it is

turned into sex-

partite,

but at the intruded pier a skeleton rib (Fig. 50) thrown across the aisle to support the crown of the
According
to

modern

rules

the load that can safely be placed on

5 to 8
is

ordinary stone, per square foot, varies from stone 14 tons. But I have no doubt this mediaeval churches.

or 9 tons and on Portland constantly exceeded in great

CH. vii]

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

i.^i

Beauvais
cathedral

Fig. SI.

9-2

132
Beauvais
cathedral

AMIENS AND BEAUVAIS

[ch. vii

vault, with a square top

and pierced spandrils. This is omitted in the two bays next the crossing which are rather narrower than the others, and in another bay only Where half of it exists, the outer half being omitted.
this
rib is

complete

it

naturally cuts in half the outer

aisle

clerestory
is

The

apse

above the chapels. Room by keeping the chapels This is a great gain outside, for they do not dwarf low. central apse like those at Amiens. the The apse though polygonal within is round outside, but the bays being narrow the distortion of the window

window of the

made

for this aisle clerestory

arches
less

is

not obtrusive.
at

The

flying buttresses are

much
51).

crowded than

Amiens and much

is

simpler,

and the

exterior of this part

extremely successful (Fig.

S. Denis.

The

There are no flying buttresses to the intruded piers, for which indeed there is no room, but only a flat shallow buttress between the two windows in each bay. In 1 23 1 the monks of S. Denis set about rebuilding the body of work only the west
their church, retaining of Suger's

choir

and nave

front

with

the narthex, and the

lower part of the east end, with the crypt below it, It was less than a which has already been described.
century since the completion of Suger's structure
;

but

whether the
instance the

new

project

was due

to the failure of his too

hasty building, or to the desire of Louis IX, at whose

work was undertaken,

was Pierre

to provide a

more

splendid shrine for the royal burials,

The
architect

The
in a

architect

we are de Montereau, who is

not told.

described

deed of

247, relating to the purchase of stone from

near Charenton, as Cementarius de Sancto Dionysio, and

though without absolute proof, the Ste Chapelle of the Royal Palace, that of S. Germain en Laye, and the refectory of S. Martin des
to

whom

also are attributed,

cii.

vii]

S. at Paris.

DENIS
new choir, nave and
Gothic
style.

133
transepts
s.

Champs

Pierre's

Denis,

are in the fully developed

The

arcades

building

are lofty, the piers slender and

shafts, the vaulting shafts rising

composed of groups of

from floor to springing. The clerestory is spread as widely from pier to pier as that at Amiens, and the clerestory and triforium are combined by running the mullions of the windows
those of the triforium.

down
.

to
triforium

The
.

idea of the glazed triforium The glazed

.

tact

amounts

to a contmuation ot the clerestory

wmdow

below it on the outside as well as on the on the inside the tracery of the triforium had already at Amiens been united with the window above. The device had its inconveniences, for the aisle could no its jnconvenience longer have a pent roof against the main wall as heretofore, but had to be covered either by a flat or by a spanroof, which made it difficult to get the water away from But it gives an extraordinary effect Lightness the interior gutter. of lightness to the construction, and of this the transept strSon end at S. Denis is an extreme example, the whole being occupied by an enormous rose window, resting on a delicate arcade ranging with that of the triforium, and It is pierced with a continuous range of windows. impossible to conceive a more airy construction than this gossamer web of masonry. This glazing of the triforium, of which S. Denis Recovery perhaps set the example, was a recovery of the lights that triforium ^'" "^^^ had illuminated the great vaulted triforium galleries of When these galleries were Paris, Noyon and Laon. given up for a mere passage in the wall as at Reims and Chartres these windows disappeared with them, for the
into the storey

inside

pent roof of the triforium covered the outside of the

triforium storey.

They now

reappeared, but instead of

aisle

being over the outer wall of the

they were brought

134
s.

S.

DENIS

[CH. VII

Denis

forward to the main wall of nave or choir.

vaulting, according to

This was

another logical deduction from the principles of Gothic

which the wall between the skeleton of piers is only a curtain, which may be pierced and reduced to the margin of mere stability. The apse, of which the plan of course is Suger's, is very effective both inside and out, and the flying buttresses are extremely well designed (Fig. 19, p. 60 sup^. The apsidal chapels were covered by Debret in the 19th century with flat slabs of stone originally they no doubt had high-pitched timber roofs. The whole effect of the
:

which has a great deal of painted glass is fine, but it is verging towards the attenuation of the 14th century. Pierre de Montereau did not live to finish his work. He died in 1267, and the building seems to have been finished in 1281, according to his design.
interior,
Paris.

chapeUe^^

Pierre de Montereau been the architect of the

is

generally supposed to have

S'^

Chapelle

at Paris,

which
to

was

built

by Louis IX between
this at

1245

and

1248,

receive the inestimable relic of the

Crown

of Thorns.

The king had bought

S.

an enormous price from

Constantinople, and the rival crown, which the

monks

of

Denis pretended to show, was entirely thrown into the shade by this new acquisition. The Sainte Chapelle (Plate XXXV) was the private chapel of the Royal Palace
which
It
is

now

incorporated in the modern Palais de Justice.

:

has an upper and lower storey

interior

the lower one, depressed

and vaulted with an

royal
retainers,

row of columns, served the

relics,

the upper contained the sacred

and was used by the Court.

at the corners connects the

winding

stair in a turret

two together.
1

The upper
66
ft.

chapel which measures

15

ft.

x 36

ft.

and

in height, is

very simple

in plan,

consisting of four

Plate

XXXV

PARIS SAINTE CHArELLE

CH. VIl]

STE CHAPELLE

135

and seven pam. narrow bays with two Hghts forming the apse (Fig. 52). chaSi?^ There being no aisles, the vaults, which are quadripartite, are sustained directly by buttresses. These buttresses
are in fact walls set at right angles to the interior, and there are no others from the

straight bays with large four-Hght windows,

window

cills

whole structure
In the

is

a lantern of glass,

upwards the divided by very

:

slender spars or piers of masonry.

windows we
see
at

find the

system of Gothic tracery

perfectly developed without

that

any of the tentative attempts

But the subject of window

we

Reims.

Fig. 52.

(V.-Ie-Duc.)

tracery will be
hereafter.

more

fully dealt

with in a special chapter

an outside porch, and in the gable a large rose window which was inserted at a
is

At the west end

later date in place of the original

design of Pierre de

Montereau.

The whole
it

chapel has been a good deal restored, but

its

retains

most of
;

fine original

glass,

among

other

modern work and two of the

South

for the old glass

was

partly dispersed,
at
in

lights

Kensington.

may be seen in our museum The walls have been painted

modern times with mock-mediaeval patterns and with an unhappy result.

CHAPTER

VIII
IN

THE PROVINCIAL STYLES

Normandy

FRANCE

We have now traced the history of Gothic architecture

in

France to its full development in the Royal Domain, of which the typical instances are Amiens and Beauvais. But the art followed a rather different course in the provinces, and though the influence of the central school
affected all the local styles

more or

less,

many

of

them

never
ResemaJchitec^-^
!,"'^^'"
JN

fully yielded to
is

it.

Normandy
closely
,

so near our shores, and was long so

attached to the English

crown, that
in

it

is

not

ormandy

surprising: I^ o that of all the

,

Gothic schools

France the

and England

Norman school should be most like that of E norland. .... ,., In many ways it was formed amid circumstances like our
own.

Slight inClassic

France were there any remains of Roman architecture comand of all parable to those of Provence and Burgundy Romanesque schools, the Norman on both sides of the Channel is least affected by classic example. For want
Neither
in in the north of
;

England nor

of good models, such as those that inspired the sculptors

Rudeness

of

AHes and

S. Gilles,

Norman scupure

barbarous
^

during
;

the

Norman carving was rude and nth and earlier part of the
to

^^^

centuHes

ornament was generally confined

CH. viii]

NORMANDY

137

abstract

nail-heads,

and conventional forms, zigzags, billets, and which simple at first became, as the style
art.

progressed, elaborated with a great deal of

sculpture during this period

Figure

was

rarely attempted,

and

on those rare occasions unfortunate. The carver's greatest successes were in grotesques, in which our rough northern

humour took a
late
in

special

delight.

It

was not

till

quite

in the

12th century that

in

England or
I

Norman sculpture either Normandy approached that of con-

temporary schools

in merit.

have elsewhere^ described the connexion between Connexion Norman architecture and that of Lombardy, on which in Nomandy the I ith century it was largely based, through William of Lombardy Volpiano, Lanfranc of Pavia, and other ecclesiastics from
North
Italy

whom

the

Norman dukes

invited to their

Ambrogio, and possibly other Lombard buildings still older, of which S. Ambrogio itself was the outcome, may be traced at Jumieges and other great Norman buildings of the nth century. During this period Normandy seems to have progressed rapidly and to have outstripped the The duchy was settled, firmly other schools of France. governed and prosperous under its masterful dukes, while the royal domain of the He de France was comparatively weak and disorganized, with the result that architecture Things were reversed in the there was backward. Normandy was drained of men and following century. means by the conquest of England, to which country the court was transferred, and it was afflicted by the struggles between the Conqueror's sons for the possession of the Duchy. On the other hand the consolidation of the royal power in France under Louis VI, Louis VII, and Philip
province.
influence of the church of S.
1

The

Early adarchitec-

jJommndy

its decline there

Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture,

vol.

ii.

chap. xxiv.

i3^

NORMANDY
art
in

[C.L VIII

Auoustus was reHected bv the

architectural

astonisliino- outburst of

the royal
It is

domain which we have

already reviewed.

said that during the 12th century

French
iiilluoiice

on Normanilv

Bayeux Cathedral was the only great building erected in Normandy. With the French conquest at the opening of the 13th century art revived in Normandy, and came naturally
under the inHuence of the French school. The great churches of that period at Caen, Rouen, Seez, Coutances and others are mainly in the new Gothic style, though the Normans seem always to have worked with a special manner of their own. IMouldings were elaborated more than was usual in central France, where in the 13th century they seldom advanced beyond a simple roll on the angle,

Nonnan
mouldiniis

Interior Uihels

and the greater development of mouldings is an English The projecting label or hood-mould which characteristic.

uncommon
Round
abacus

EnoHsh Gothic is not Normandy, but so far as I know it does not occur elsewhere in F" ranee. At Rouen, Seez, Bayeux, Coutances, Dol, and Le Mans we find piers and columns
is

usual over the interior arches in

in

with a round abacus instead of the square or polygonal

form usual
feature.
I

in

French Gothic, and

this too is

an English

many of the
:

fa9ades, as for instance at Lisieux,

Seez and Coutances the rose window so typical of French

desien
it

is

wantino;"

in the front of the cathedral of

is

Rouen
in the

is

comparatively insignificant, and there

none
also

flamboyant facade of S. Maclou.

Sexpartile vaults

Normandy

seems

of which

have been the cradle of sexpartite vaulting, the origin we have seen at the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen, whence it spread far and wide into the He de France, Among minor Norman peculiarities to Paris and Sens.
to

The
balustraiies

may be mentioned

the balustrades to the triforium gallery,

in

of which there are instances

the

Abbaye aux Hommes,

Plate

XXXVI

T. G. J.

BAVIJUX CATHElJkAL-The

Choir

CH. viii]
S.

NORMANDY
Norman

139

Pierre at Caen, and in the cathedral of Seez.

The
interarca"cfes

corbel tables in which

buildings abound both in

are no doubt inherited from Lombardy. A reading with interlacing arches was a favourite ornament peculiar to the Normans, who carried it with them as far as Sicily, where we find it at Palermo, Cefalu, and Monreale, and in Italy at Amalfi and in the Gulf of Salerno, which was affected by Sicilian influence. In Normandy there is an early example of it at the church of Gravillea few miles from Havre, and in England Castle Acre and Castle it abounds at Canterbury, at Rising in Norfolk, at S. Cross in Hampshire, at Malmesbury and in Christchurch Priory. There are faint survivals of it in the porch at Wells and in the apse
at

Normandy and England

Norrey.
Cenuai

Another special feature in Normandy is the central tower, which in England is a regular constituent part of
our great churches, but
of France.
at
It
is

very unusual
S.

in

other parts

occurs at Caen in both the great abbeys,

Rouen

in the cathedral,

Ouen and
Norrey,

S.

Maclou, at

Bayeux,

Lisieux,

Coutances,

Bretteville,

and
is

numerous other churches both great and small, and

generally open from below as a lantern with a fine

effect.
Lisieux

But with these peculiarities the Gothic of

did in the main follow the style of France.
cathedral of S. Pierre at Lisieux, which

Normandy The fine

after
r)

was begun

the

fire

of 1136 by Bishop Arnoult (1143

118

and

by his successor before 12 18, is designed quite French manner, and the interior is very like that in the It is transeptal, and of Notre Dame at Paris (Fig. 53). has a nave of eight bays with pointed arches carried on
finished

stout monocylindric columns.

The

capitals are

tall,

with

simple foliage a crochet, except some at the west end

140

NORMANDY

[CH. VIII

Fig- 53-

From

the ''Building

News'

CH. viii]

NORMANDY
The The
:

141
four straight bays
Lisieux cathedral

which are more richly desig-ned\

of the choir are similar.

triforium has
is

two

lights

under an including arch

a
trefoil.
first

the shield

blank except in
it is

the two eastern bays of the choir where

pierced with

The

chevet consists of seven

narrow bays

the

two

straight, the rest in a semicircle.

The work

seems later and I should imagine is part of the restoration by Bishop Pont-de-l'Arche after the fire of 1226, who added the side chapels of the ambulatory. The arches are richly moulded, whereas in the choir and nave they have only a roll on the angle of the order, and
in this part

the detail of the triforium with

its

slender colonnettes,

and the quatrefoil piercings in the shield is much more delicate and advanced than
that of the rest of the building.

The

apse

columns are doubled with small shafts set between them on each side (Fig. 54), and
the
radiating
ribs

are

continued

in

a
^^'
'^^'

curious

way beyond

the central boss up

to the first transverse arch.

In the earlier nave and choir there are triple vaulting

shafts

with bases resting on the main capitals, as at

Notre Dame in Paris. All the vaulting is quadripartite, and all the arches are pointed, and the vault a good deal domed up. The central tower is open as a lantern. The interior of this church is as fine as anything in French Gothic. The only point about it which is especially Norman is that the gables of the front and the

two transepts have mullioned windows instead of a rose. The cathedral of Bayeux is an architectural puzzle.
Ordericus Vitalis" says
'

Bayeux

Odo

the Conqueror's half-brother,

vol. vill. p. 229.

Illustrated

by Viollet-le-Uuc, Diet. Rais.

Ord.'Vit. Lib. viii.

142
Uayeux
cathedral

NORMANDY

[CH. VIII

CH. viii]

NORMANDY

143

the fighting bishop of Bayeux, began a church here in Bayeux

ig86, which he finished splendidly.

This church was

burned in 1106 by King Henry who afterwards rebuilt it. Another fire preceded by an earthquake occasioned a fresh rebuilding in 1159', but the consecration seems not to have taken place till 1231. About the choir there is not much difificulty. It reminds one somewhat of Bishop Northwold's presbytery at Ely, which was built between 1235 and 1251. It has plate tracery, sunk and
carved paterae, rich undercut mouldings with pointed
rolls,

The

choir

and a

label

on the

inside

over

the

triforium

(Plate

XXXVI).

The

abaci are square or octagonal,

the vaulting shafts run up from the floor, and the clerestory

has a passage

in the wall,

an inner arch, and a pair of

lancets in the outer wall.

All the vaults are quadripartite,

and that over the crossing under the central tower has
ridge
ribs,

English fashion.

The
have a
with

difificulty lies

late

Here we nave (Fig. 55). Romanesque round-arched arcade, with square

in the

The nave

orders, the inner with a roll moulding, the outer decorated

Norman
rest

ornaments,

frets, zigzags,

and

birds' heads.

They

on huge clustered

piers, with diaper

work

in

the spandrils of interlacing scrolls and basket plaits, in

the style of the 12th century. are
all

The

capitals,

however,

in

much

later style (Fig. 56),

and cannot be

earlier than beginning of the 13th century,

when

the

upper part of the

wall, containing

a combined triforium

and

was placed on the Romanesque arcade. The consecration of 1231 probably followed the completion of this work and that of the choir.
clerestory,
Moulin, Hist. Gen. de Nortnandie, ed. 1681. Cited by Porter, Philippus Cathedralem suam incendio concrematam restaurasse Gallia Christiana. legitur... ad annum 1159.
1

Du

vol.

I.

p. 288.

144
Bayeux
cathedral

NORMANDY
As
it

[CH. VIII

is

impossible that the carving of the capitals

I

can be of the same date as the arches they carry,

only suppose one of two things
left in
:

can

either that they were

block

when

the arcade was built in 1159, and not

no scale.
Fig. 56. Fig. 57.

carved

till

the

13th century, or that the arcades were

masonry of and spandrils. As bearing on the latter theory, I observed that while the piers have a very early base (Fig. 57 a) the clustered responds opposite them in the aisle wall have good Gothic bases (Fig. 57 b) with
rebuilt in the 13th century, using again the

the early arches

angle toes.
The
English
leaf

At Bayeux and
so far as

the neighbourhood alone in France,

my

observation goes, do

we

find that typical

early English leaf which played so great a part in the

foliaged capitals of our native Gothic during the 13th

from York and Lincoln in Winchester and Chichester in the south, minster in the east to S. Davids in the the examples here given (Figs. 56 and and in one (Fig. 58) the whole capital is There is no distinct triforium in the
century,

the

north

to

and from Westwest.

In both

58)

it

appears,
it.

composed of

nave, but there

CH. VIIl]
is

NORMANDY
tall

145
clerestory

a passage in the wall below the

in

windows
In

Bayeux
*^^

which have inner tracery,

the English manner.

Fig. 58.

one bay a shallow gallery is bracketed out for a platform on which the organ would have been placed (Fig. 55).
All vaults throughout the church are quadripartite.

The ornamentation
the church
is

is

conventional, and sculpture inside

confined to heads on brackets under the

gallery, the capitals,

in

the spandrils of the arcade.

are later,
in

and a few rude panels with figures The west portals, which have sculptured tympana, and the usual figures

tabernacles in the orders of the arch.

The west
rose.

front

and transept have traceried windows but no

Of

the

2th century cathedral at

S.

Rouen nothing
and

re- Rouen
cathedral

mains but the Tour

Romain and
is

the two side portals

S. Etienne.

of the west front, dedicated to S. Jean

The main
tive fire

part of the building

in
1

subsequent to a destrucfinished

200,

and the nave was probably

side portals, that of

before
at the

240.

The two

La

Calende

south transept, and that of Les Libraires on the

north,
J.

were finished

at the

end of the 13th century, about

10

G. A.

146
Rouen
cathedral

NORMANDY
Lady chapel was
in

[CH. VIII

1280; the

built in the 14th century, the

foundations being laid

1302, the

Tour du Beurre

in

1487, and the gorgeous west front between

1509 and

1530.
The nave

The nave (Plate

Above
is

XX XVI I) has eleven bays of pointed

g.

arches resting on clustered piers very deeply moulded.

The
false

a second arcade, also on clustered jambs,

aisle, like

false

triforium

open to the and Rochester, A way along the top of the arcade wall where the triforium floor should have been is carried very queerly round the pier on the side towards the aisle by a sort of balcony, supported on colonnettes which rest on a wide capital, from which the vault of the aisle would have sprung had the triforium been a real gallery. It would seem that the architect's original design was to make the usual gallery, such, as those at Paris, Noyon, and Senlis, and that he prepared his arcades in two
triforium

those at Lucca, Genoa,,

storeys accordingly, but that

when

the time

came

for

turning a vault over

the

first

storey of the

changed
The
real

his plan for the present one,

aisle he and devised these

balconies^ to avoid losing the passage along the wall.

There

is

a real triforium above with a passage through

arches on colonnettes.

triforium

the piers, under a segmental arch from pier to pier, with

a balustrade of

little

Above

is

clerestory of four lights with late geometrical tracery.

In the four eastern bays the triforium

is

enclosed by a

screen of 14th-century open work, mullions of which run

The

choir

up into those of the clerestory. This construction allows of very lofty and fine windows in the side aisle, occupying the height of two storeys in the nave. The choir is simpler and more in the regular French
style.
It
1

has five straight bays with lofty monocylindric

by Viollet-le-Duc, Diet. Rats.
vol. vi. p. i8.

Illustrated

Plate

XXXVII

ROUEN CATHEDRAL

Plate

XXXVI 11

i?;H4s;as.i; ps

T. G.

J.

SEEZ CATHEDRAL Nave

CH. viii]

NORMANDY

147
Rouen
Cfithcd.r3.1

columns bearing' capitals a crochet and a round abacus. The triforium consists of six pointed arches on colonnettes, and the clerestory has late geometrical tracery of very slight masonry. The aisles and chapels have plain lancet lights, and so, no doubt, had the clerestory originally.

There are only three apsidal chapels

in

the

Lady

chapel

the middle, dating from

1302,

is

prolonged,

the other two are original, and leave

room

for a pair of

wide lancets
the

in the

ambulatory wall between them and

Lady
is

chapel.

All vaults are quadripartite

verse

slightly pointed.

The

and domed, and the transcentral tower is open as

a lantern for two storeys in height.

In adopting the less massive
struction

and more

scientific con- seez

cathedral

of French

Gothic,

the

Normans sometimes

pushed the light construction to excess, as in the cathedral of Seez, which when I saw it in 1864 was in a very dangerous state. The nave was begun about the middle of the 13th century and finished before 1292^; the choir was rebuilt after a fire in 1260 on the insufficient founda-

and therefore constructed with extreme and perilous lightness^ The nave has a magnificent west portal, sadly mutilated, however, in which
tion of the older building,
still

hang the

original doors of the 13th century, covered

with arcading in woodwork.

arcade are very

shaft attached in

lofty,

The columns of the nave mono- cylindrical with one vaulting front, and with the round abacus already
is

alluded to
is

and the base also

round.
its

The

triforium

of a very peculiar design, with

Bishop John of Bernieres who died

triple

arcades of

as "aedificator ecclesiae Sagiensis."

2

state

in 1292 was described in his epitaph Dumaine, cited by Porter n. 324. VioUet-le-Duc, Diet. Rais. vol. H. p. 358. He remarks on the dangerous of this church, which was then under repair.

148
Seez
cathedral

NORMANDY
lights each (Plate

[CH. VIII

two

XXXVIII),
is

the middle one the

narrowest, the others divided unequally by the colonnette,

so that the outer light

narrower than the inner

is

and

as the point of the including arch

brought over the

lancet lights of

centre of the colonnette,

it is

awry.

The

the aisle also have their points outside the central line in

two enormously wide lights, and instead of advancing the glass and tracery to the inner wall-face as at Amiens and elsewhere in the He de France, it is set in the Norman way on the Consequently we have the clerestory outside wall-face. passage in the wall thickness, and the second tracery on the inside of the wall, which were inherited from the Romanesque style, and which are almost universal in the great Gothic churches of England. The choir is more thoroughly French in style, with glazed triforium and gablets inside over the main a arcade \ something like those over the choir triforium at Amiens. There is another church at Seez with a simple and pretty English-looking tower and spire.
the
clerestory has
Caen.

same way.

The

The
was

choir of the

Abbaye aux Hommes

at

Caen, which

Abbaye
aux

rebuilt in the 13th century, has a vaulted triforium

Hommes. The choir

gallery something like that in the nave of

Noyon, but with more elaborate mouldings, a clerestory of two lancets with a wall-passage and triple-arched inner tracery in the English fashion, and a round abacus to the vaulting There is a label moulding also over the arches, shaft. which is usual in English interiors but does not occur in the stricter French Gothic churches of the He de France. The carving is stiffer than the contemporary work in France. Fig. 59 shows the ornamented string-course
^

Illustrated

by ViolIet-le-Duc, Diet. Rats.

vol. ix. p. 296.

Plate

XXXIX

L..

ri,/.tJt-f:.7)

/.-.-___

_..

T.

(,. J.

A1;1;A\

i:

ALX HOMMESCAEN Sacristy

CH. VIIl]

NORMANDY

149
Caen.
^

below the clerestory, and Fig. 60 some of the capitals. A with a 1 3th-century apse above a Romanesque side chapel ^

aux

Hommes

Fig. 59-

Fig. 60.

basement has some interesting details, unlike the work of the He de France (Plate XXXIX).

I50
Norman
chur?hes.
^ ^

NORMANDY
in

[ch. viii

The neighbourhood of Caen abounds village churchcs. The tower and spire of
nificent
;

charming

Ifs are

mag-

the lower stages are Romanesque, surmounted

by a

fine belfry stage of early

pointed work that might

spire,

almost be
Saddle-

in

England, but the

is

with

its

angle

pinnacles and shafted lights,

distinctly French.

towers

Norrey

have a saddle-back roof: at S. Andre de Fontenay and at Herouville it is of wood with stone gables At at Louvigny it is of stone. AuTHiE is a very pretty one in the centre of the church, between nave and chancel (Plate XL), which are in an earlier style. In England there is a saddle-back tower at Tinwell in Rutland, and another at Maidford in Northamptonshire, but the form is rare with us\ Pyramidal stone spires also occur. Those at S. Michel de Vaucelles^ and S. Contest are Romanesque, but there is a charming 13th-century tower with a short square spire at S. Gilles in Caen and there is another, more lofty and with shafted spire lights, at La Basse Allemagne. Other saddle-back towers occur in the department of Calvados at Formigny, Ryes, and Crepon. NoRREY, between Bayeux and Caen, has a splendid fragment of a church which would be more at home in a town than in a remote village of two hundred souls. The nave is low and aisleless, with transitional windows. This is succeeded by a fine central tower of the 13th century with transepts and a short and high choir, which has the triple elevation of arcade, triforium, and clerestory, like a small cathedral. There is a chevet of five
of the towers
;
;

Many

Mr Bond
II.

illustrates others at Ickford in

Oxfordshire,

Wadenhoe

in

Northamptonshire and Brentingby

tecture, vol.
2

in Lincolnshire.

English Church Archivol.

ll.

Illust.

in

my

Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture,

Plate

CXXVIII.

Plate

XL

-T'Zn.

^Qalhk

'<S^~-

m
'1
2r<

Z^^-^^/./^v//^.

T. G.

J.

AUTHIE

CH. VIIl]

NORMANDY
all

151
Norrey

bays with pointed arches on coupled columns with side

shafts like Fig. 54, except that here

four are detached.

The capitals are mostly a crochet. Attached to the ambulatory are two apsidal chapels, each surmounted by
a
tall

semi-octagonal spire with a strange and rather

effect.

grotesque

There

is

a rich late geometrical porch

at the north transept, sadly dilapidated,

and a

four-light

geometrical
All the

window

in the

south transept.

mouldings are deeply undercut, like 13th There century English work, but not so well profiled. is a good deal of carving running round the ambulatory

wall below the

and

is

windows it is in high relief, and undercut, rather heavy, and has the look of being stuck on
;

(Fig. 61).

The

foliage

is

half-way between the older con-

ventions and the natural work of the 14th century.

part of this

One

band of ornament is occupied by a series representing the Massacre of the Innocents, which belonged to the older church of which the nave is a survival.
In the wall arcading of the ambulatory
part at Wells (Fig. 62
it is

interesting

inter-

to find the interlacing mouldings which play so large a

mouldings

and Plate LXI infra). The abaci of the apse columns are round, and so are

those of the spire lights.

152
Coutances
cathedral

NORMANDY
The
peculiarities

[CH. VIII

magnificent cathedral of Coutances (Plate

Gothic.

XLI)

shows most of the

of

Norman

Nothing

remains to be seen of the older

church, built between 1030 and
1083, though the

core of the

four

huge
is

piers

of the central

tower and that of

walls
struction,

many
in later
is

of the

probably of that con-

encased

work.
in the

The whole church

now

pointed style of the 13th century,

except the long Lady chapel and

the side chapels
The nave

of the nave,

No'^y

which are additions of the 14th. The nave, which dates from
1208, has clustered piers with
Fig. 62.

square abaci,

deeply moulded
floor.

arches and triple vaulting shafts rising from the

The

triforium,

which

is

now

blocked, has shallow mould-

ings, a rather coarse parapet of large quatrefoils,

circle in the shield

and a

of the head sunk with geometrical

patterns.

The

clerestory consists of a plain single light

with a wide

soffit

and jamb on the

inside,

cut square

through the

wall,

allowing a wall-passage in front of the

window.
later

The nave

has a single aisle on each side, with

buttresses,

chapels beyond between the

and the

party walls which form the buttresses are pierced with

traceried openings.
The
choir

The

eastern part of the church dates from between

1238 and 1248.

The

choir has three straight bays with

clustered piers, and a clerestory with double tracery like

that of the nave at

Bayeux

(Fig. 55 sup.).

The

apse of

< Q W
<

u
H o

CH. viri]

NORMANDY

153
Coutances
cathedral

seven cants rests on coupled shafts standing^ farther apart

than those at Sens, in order to carry a very thick wall.

This

is

prepared for
in

in

the clustered pier also, which

to the

is

arranged

two groups corresponding

two columns
choir

(Fig. 63).

double

aisle

with radiating chapels sur- The

rounds the choir and

cylindrical

chevet,

divided by an arcade on

columns with a round abacus. The inner of the two aisles has the triple arrangement of arcade,
triforium represented

and

this causes the

effect of this is

by a blank arcade, and clerestory, main arcade to be very lofty. The not good in the choir, the arcade being

Fig. 63.

very high, and the pairs of detached columns unduly pulled out. The choir has no triforium, but a balustraded
passage below and
in front of the clerestory
is

windows.

On

the whole the interior of Coutances

disappointing,
its

the best part being the inner aisle of the choir with
cylindrical

columns (Plate XLII).

all

In this part of the church

while in
the

the abaci are round,

nave they are square.

The
rib.

vaults

are
is

quadripartite with a longitudinal ridge

There

no ridge rib in the nave. and piers are very deeply

All the mouldings in arches

cut.

154
Coutances
cathedral.

NORMANDY
The
outside of the chevet
is

[CH. VIII

very pleasing, and the

at Paris,

The
outside
east

buttresses, which, as at
end

Notre

Dame

go

in

one

flight

over both

aisles,

are effective.

There

is

a curious

device in roofing the radiating chapels.

chevet the chapels
at

In the French

had each its own roof, polygonal as Amiens, or round as at Noyon, according as the chapel was round or polygonal. These often rose up into pyramidal roofs {ij. p. 73 sup., Plate VII). But the

Norman
at

plan at Coutances, the

Abbaye aux Hommes

Caen, S. L6, and Bayeux was to bring the eaves to a

if

straight line, or a curved line

the apse were semicircular,

Fig. 64.

from buttress to buttress, as shown in Fig. 64, by turning an arch from a b and from c d, with a small vault

behind
The
three

it

covering the triangular recess.

This enabled
its

the aisle to be covered by a simple lean-to roof.

The

glory of Coutances, however,

is

three great

towers

towers, two at the west end with spires, and one over

the crossing which sadly wants a spire too.

The two
stair-turret

western towers have each a square base, changing to an

octagon above the nave

roof,

and with a

standing clear at the outside front angle of the main

tower and only joining it angle to angle (Plate XLIII). This smaller tower also changes from square to octagon

Plate

XLIII

"1
,^1'

J^ t/w^/Y

Y.

^>^i6 iHH ^'f

'i*l>H r^^/?."

M\mr..

T. G. J.

COUTANCES CATHEDRAL

CH. viii]

NORMANDY
a spire.

155

and

finishes with

The

triangles left
filled,

on the
.

Coutances
cathedral

square by the departure of the octagon are

the main tower and in the stair-turret,

both

in

by enormously long hollow tabernacles pierced and shafted and crowned The whole effect is very rich, but rather by spirelets.
confused, especially
outline
is

when seen on the diagonal, when awkward and the effect is not successful.

the

A
nave

beautiful gallery of tracery, dating from

1371 to

1386, joins the

roof.

two towers, masking the gable of the

is

The

central tower

open

to the crossing as a lantern, The

the octagon being formed by corbelling out, and not by

This seems the usual Norman method. It two stages the lower has a passage behind a screen of columns and arches, the upper a balustraded gallery in front of the windows, two large lancets in and above is a vault of sixteen converging each bay,
squinches.
is

open

for

ribs.

The

interior effect of this

is

admirable.

Both nave and transepts have mullioned windows in Norman fashion, instead of the French their fagades,

rose.

CHAPTER
THE PROVINCIAL

IX
continued

STYLES,

Burgundy, Toulouse, Anjou

Tournus

Here and
tricities

there in different parts of France eccen-

occur in the construction of the vaults which are

always interesting.

Perhaps the most curious is that at Tournus in Burgundy, where the difficulty of combining a large clerestory window with a barrel vault is met by
placing a barrel vault transversely over each bay at right

angles to the axis of the church, springing

it

from arches

thrown across the church from side

a bridge with several arches.

to side.

The

long

section of the vault therefore looks like the elevation of

The
to

result

is

not beautiful,

and the plan does not seem elsewhere on a large scale.

Mantes
cathedral

have been followed

At
jolie,

the Cathedral of

Mantes however,
method
is

Mantes

la

a somewhat
Senlis,

similar

adopted with better

result

on a small scale

in vaulting the triforium.

This

belongs to the class of large triforium galleries like those

at

Noyon,

Laon, and Paris.

It is

vaulted with a

Tournus at and springing from lintels across the gallery supported by a row of colonnettes (Fig. 65). As the gallery rounds the apse these cross vaults radiate
series of barrel vaults placed like those at

right angles to the axis,

CH. IX]

PROVINCIAL STYLES

157

Fig. 65.

158
Mantes
cathedral

FRANCE
bay
;

[CH. IX
to the

conically from the narrow span of the choir

greater span on the aisle wall

this gives room for a huge round window in each bay, and these form a very unusual, and rather surprising feature in the exterior view. The church seems to date from the end of the 1 2 th century, and the west front has some admirable carving with a strong reminiscence of classic work\ All the arches are pointed, the vaulting is sexpartite, and

the piers are alternated with columns.

its

The

facade with

twin towers

is

a fine composition. a feature in the

for instance at

The Burgundian narthex

The western narthex which was

Romanesque churches
of

Burgundy, as

Vezelay, Autun, and Pontigny, occurs also in the Gothic

churches of that province.

at S.

One

has been shown already

now

imperfect,

Pere sous Vezelay (Plate p. 91 sup.) which There if indeed it was ever completed.
in the fine

XV

is is

another (Fig. 66)

part of France.
Champagne

church of Semur-en-Auxois,
in that

one of the most picturesque and romantic towns

The
which

splendid stone found in

Champagne provoked
been
impossible.

the architects of that province to daring feats of masonry

would
S.

otherwise

have

The
it is,

S. at

Urbain Troyes

church of

Urbain

at

Troyes which was

bes:un in

1262 and finished about 1276, and looks later than

consists of the choir

and transepts of what was to have been a larger building, of which the nave is unfinished. It affords an extreme instance of the hazardous lengths The whole to which Gothic construction can be pushed. church is a mere lantern of gorgeous stained glass framed
in slender spars of stone.

The
mere

mullions are slight like

bars of iron, the piers are

shafts,

and

as the floor of

the triforium
*

is

only twelve or fourteen feet from the

Illustrated in

my

Byz.

and Rom.

Architecture, vol.

II.

p. 264.

CH. IX]

PROVINCIAL STYLES

159

li

^\.^^-^r

sty-

Fig. 66.

i6o
s.

FRANCE
apse,

[ch. ix

Urbain
royes

which has no aisle or chapels, Clcrestory and triforium are g^^j^^ ^^ |^^ ^^ glass. practically one window with two planes of tracery and a passage between them, the outer tracery being glazed

ground the whole

and the inner in the clerestory. Never was anything more scientifically designed nothing in the construction is superfluous, and indeed but for the splendid quality of the stone, of which full advantage has been taken, the building could not have lasted in its
in the triforium
:

present state of perfection.

The

traceries are cut in single

slabs of stone slid into chases

between the

buttresses,

and

the two planes are bonded together by gutter courses

of the

same

material.

In point of lightness and hardi-

hood
are
I

this

church outdoes the most extravagant work of

the Flamboyant or Perpendicular period.

The

traceries

The

glass

Gothic in
Franc^J"

all of severe and vigorous geometrical forms and do not remember an ogee curve. The mouldings are delicate and pure in detail, though somewhat slender and wiry as the proportions of the mullions and tracery bar require, but still sufficient and effective, and the design has escaped that monotony and tameness which characterizes so much of the 14th century work in France\ Nearly all the windows are filled with painted glass of the date of the church, and on a consistent scheme, forming an harmonious system of decoration. A band of figure work bounded by straight lines forms a zone of splendid colour round the building on a ground of rich grisaille which sparkles like a tissue of silver. In the south and west of France Gothic architecture

ultimately
1

made
is

its

way, but

it

never quite effaced the

The church

fully

described and illustrated by Viollet-le-Duc in his

Diet. Rais. vol.
I v.

article

on Construction.

CH. IX]
traditional

PROVINCIAL STYLES
Romanesque of those
parts,

i6i

which yielded slowly and reluctantly to the new-comer. The Gothic Limoges seem out of place, cathedrals of Clermont and

and have an
of France

air of intrusion

among

the far

more interesting
ThePianstyle

buildings of the
is
full.

Romanesque period of which that part In Poitou and Anjou pointed archi-

tecture took a peculiar form very unlike that of the royal

domain, and retained

Romanesque
it

style.

many features of the preceding The cathedral at Angers, though

is

Angers
C3.tll 60.1*3.1

has regular rib and panel vaulting

not very far

.M<J^E]I^S

CAJH

Fig. 67.

De

Verneilh.

removed from the construction of the domed churches at Angouleme and Fontevrault. Its continuous nave and
choir,

without aisles or chapels (Fig. 67), covered by

in

vast quadripartite vaults which rise enormously,

fashion,

each

bay,

is

obviously

inspired
real

neighbouring
pendentives.

churches,, which

have

domeby the cupolas on

Angers.

This Angevin, or Plantagenet style, as De Verneilh calls it, pervades the district, and Angers has many
J.

Dieu

G. A.

l62

FRANCE

[CH. IX

AN(5ER5.

/4>

CLOI STER.
so
'0-1

Fig. 68.


CH. IX]

PROVINCIAL STYLES
it.

i6 3
Angers.

examples of
1

153

The ancient Hotel Dieu, founded in by our King Henry II, is a magnificent structure
measuring about

Dieu

consisting of a vast three aisled hall

200 X 75 feet, at the end of which is a beautiful chapel, with a Romanesque cloister, and a splendid granary in

two storeys, not the group (Fig. 68).

least

interesting

member

of the

The
a

great hall (Plate

XLIV), where
its

the patients were The

'^^^^^
till

lodged, was occupied according to

original purpose

modern

It is

was built some 50 or 60 years ago. divided by two rows of slender pillars with simple
hospital

capitals, carrying vaults of

pointed arches, highly domical,

roll like

with ribs consisting of only a small

cathedral.

those at the

Half columns form the wall-responds, and at the springing, 18' 5" above the floor, a simple string runs round the room, above which in each bay is a roundarched single-light window.

The

chapel adjoining at one end

dates
it

is

a
It

little
is

later

Viollet-le-Duc

about
central
in

11 80.

square

column into four square one of them, the eastern bays being again subdivided with an extra column. The columns, capitals, and responds are like those in the hall, but are surmounted by a plain block from which springs the groining, much domed up and with
building, divided

by a

bays with a shallow apse

same simple roll for a rib as those in the great hall. These ribs are very slight, and owing to the very great doming of the vaults are not really necesthe

sary to the construction.

In fact they
all

are not really developed at

as indein

pendent
vault,

ribs,

but are

embedded

the
'^'

merely marking the lines of the

groin

by

roll

moulding (Fig.

69).

^'

164
Angers. Hotel

FRANCE
triplet

[CH. IX

The windows

are round-headed, between round-headed

in

Dieu

blank panels, forming a

each bay, reminding

one slightly of the fenestration of the

in

Temple church
is

The
granary

London. The granary or storehouse (Fig. 70)

lower
is

in

two

storeys.
;

The

a vaulted crypt

hewn

partly out of the rock

Fig. 70.

the

upper
it

is

magnificent

with

dividing

into three aisles,

two rows of columns and roofs of open timber

framed with curved rafters. One of the arcades has coupled columns bearing a common impost through the
thickness of the wall.
Angers. S. Serge

In the

same Plantagenet

style is the fine

abbey church

Plate

XL V

T. G.

J.

S.

SERGE ANGERS

Plan

XLVI

e^-tf.^!

T. G. J.

POITIERS CATHEDRAL

CH. ix]

PROVINCIAL STYLES

165
Angers,

of S.

Serge (Plate XLV), perhaps the most beautiful example of it. The choir has three aisles of equal height
:

"^^
'

and nearly equal width, four bays long the middle aisle is projected one bay beyond, and ends square. The columns are slender like those in the Hotel Dieu, and have octagonal capitals. The vaults are domed up and have the usual roll by way of rib, though here again it is
not really a rib at
all

but a moulding worked on the arris

of the stones that form the edge of the groin.

Here, and
in

also at the chapel of the Hotel Dieu, the roll occurs also

along the ridge, like the ridge ribs

vaults, the
like

common

England,

but in the end bays, which are subdivided into lesser

doming of the

vault
rib.

makes

this ridge rib

mount

an ordinary groining
It
is

to

be observed that though

all

the vaulting

arches are pointed, the windows here, like those at the

Hospital, are round-arched with a simple splay round

them.

The
Angers,
(Plate

cathedral
11

at

Poitiers
is

(Fig.

71),

which

was

Poitiers

founded about
is

60 and
S.

contemporary with that of

in

another building

the
it

Plantagenet style
has three aisles of

XLVI).
little

Like

Serge

equal width, and nearly equal height, the middle one

being a

higher than the two others, piers slender

and lofty, domed-up vaults with a slight roll for a rib, and ridge rolls like the other examples that have been
described.

The

east

end
later

is

square and the church

east.

is

wider at the west end than at the

with
its

The

west end

two towers

is

and not so

interesting.

Round

the walls runs a lofty arcade with round arches

on slender shafts carrying a gallery or passage which passes in front of the windows, and through the piers
that divide the bays.

The

cathedral at

Angers has a

i66
Poitiers

FRANCE
is

[ch. ix

Similar arcade with a gallery, but the arches are pointed.

This

in the

a purely Romanesque feature and may be seen domed churches of Solignac and Cahors. The of these
aisleless

construction

churches,

for

Poitiers

Fig. 71.

VioUet-le-Duc.

is

really a

church not of nave and

aisles,

but of three

naves,

depends a great deal on these

interior buttresses,

and though at Angers there are considerable buttresses outside, Cahors and Fontevrault have only shallow outside

Plate

XL VII

I.

^^

T. G.

J.

TOULOUSE

Plate

XL VIII

'

I"

I^TJ^

w-v>JJJhS

-f#''

T. G.

J.

S.

LEONARD

CH. ix]

PROVINCIAL STYLES
piers
is

167
Poitiers

projections and deep

lower part of the wall

gallery that
I

between which the brought out and carries the

inside

have described.
of the old palace of the Counts of
Palais
Poitiers.

The
Poitou,

great hall

now

the

de

Justice,

at

Poitiers

has

justice

arcading round the upper part of the walls like that at

the cathedral, in which the windows are pierced.

Gothic peculiar to the domains of England, has a strong individual the Plantagenet kings of character, and very little relation to the Gothic work
style of

The Angevin

The

pian-

styie"*^

parts of the country,

It is a style

which we have been describing in the central and eastern where the royal power was supreme.
of great beauty and well deserves study.
It

has an extraordinary delicacy and refinement considering

and looks much later than it really is. In the neighbourhood of Toulouse little or no stone is to be found, and during the middle ages brick was the usual building material. It was used with nice discernment of its properties as distinct from those of masonry.
its

early date,

The tower of the Jacobin convent at Toulouse dating Toulouse. from the end of the 13th century (Plate XLVII) is a towV" The architect has avoided the trouble typical example.
of getting moulded bricks as

much

as possible, and has

economised stone to the utmost. The only masonry consists in the capitals and string-courses. The shafts at
the corners of the octagon and elsewhere are of shaped
bricks,

but for the

are ingeniously

window heads ordinary plain bricks made to serve by means of straight-sided

arches instead of curved.

gives

The

effect
its

is

excellent and

the tower a character of

own.

The

stages

rise, the outline leaves nothing to be and the design is altogether delightful. There does not seem ever to have been a spire on this tower,

diminish as they
desired,

68

FRANCE
brick.

[ch. ix

Toulouse

but Viollet-le-Duc says there are others of the same sort

which have short spires of

brick spires later in Italy.

We
is

shall

come

to
in

There

another tower

Toulouse at the Augustine convent, now the museum, very like that of the Jacobins, but it is imperfect and the
lower stage
differs.

In the district of the Limousin are some fine towers

with a peculiar arrangement of octagonal stages super-

Tower

of

S.Leonard

imposed on a square substructure. An early example is afforded by the imposing steeple of S. Leonard, between Limoges and Clermont. The two lower storeys are square, with two arches in the side, and the lower stage, which is open and serves as a porch, has a central column from which vaults spring to the outer walls (Plate XLVIII). The third and fourth stages are also square, and are a good deal set back from the face of those below. The fourth storey has on each face a

window with
Aquitaine, at
is

a steep gable over

it

like

those in the

steeples of Chartres,

Vendome, and some early towers in Brantome and elsewhere. The upper part
is is

octagonal in two receding stages, but the peculiarity

that the octagon

not set with sides parallel to the

in

square below but obliquely, so that an angle comes

the

middle of each face of the square, and at each it. The general outline is not very satisfactory, nor are the stages very well proportioned to
corner of

one another. There are three steeples

set obliquely in the
Liuioges.
S.

in Limoges with the octagon same way, obviously a local fashion. They have however the addition of an octagonal or

Michel

round pier over each angle of the square. Two of them, that of S. Michel aux Lions (Plate XLIX) and that of S. Pierre have spires that of the cathedral, built from
:

Plate

XLIX

%i.

J-^-*

^^

1-

ih.

rL /Ci

T\-\

,M

/'

T. G.

J.

S.

MICHEL AUX LIONS LIMOGES

Plate

/ifti^r;.it:"

fc!^.

Tf"' //

4
'j>'.,i

T. G.J.

CAEN S. SAUVEUR

CH. ix]

PROVINCIAL STYLES
its spire,

169

the ground inside an older square structure, either never

received
It

or has lost
in

it.

was

in

England and

Normandy

that the Gothic The

spire attained the greatest

excellence.

In France the

sphe

solid sturdy spires of the transitional period are very

satisfactory, but those of the 13th century, as for instance

above described at Senlis {v. sup. p. 68, Plate III), though admirable in detail leave a good deal to be desired The Normans had a surer eye for mass and in outline. profile and their spires of the late 13th and 14th centuries
that

The
sprT'^"

are admirable.

Two

beautiful 13th century spires sur-

mount the Conqueror's towers at S. Etienne, Caen, with In this admirably grouped pinnacles and spire lights \
case the towers are of an earlier date than the spires, but
in

the steeple of S. Pierre in the

.

same

city

we have
.

Caen.
S. Pierie

complete design from the ground upwards.

in

It

was

built

1308, and

is

perhaps the

finest

example of a type
Caen,
veur

which runs through that part of Normandy. S. Sauveur at Caen has a tower and spire very like that of S. Pierre, The tower of S. Jean, was but not so lofty (Plate L). to have been like it, but the foundations having given way, the tower settled some feet out of the upright, and
the spire was not attempted.

The
all,

towers of Audrieu,
so far as they were
of

Norrey,

Ifs,

and Bernieres, are

completed, of the same type.

In

all

a very lofty belfry stage with a pair of two-light

them there is windows

The
befry

on each face between a pair of narrow blank arches. An enriched cornice defines the division between tower and spire, which is often indefinite in the earlier examples. The spire is octagonal with a lofty spire-light on each
direct face,
'

The

spire

and a pinnacle, square or octagonal, hollow

in

pinnacles

Illustrated

my

Byzantitie

and Roinanesque Architecture

(Plate

CXXVII).

\jo

FRANCE
shafted,

[cH. IX

and

on the angles of the square, sometimes

standing on a broach, sometimes without.

Spire at

The

three at

Caen have a parapet with small outer pinnacles, and

they are perhaps a
little
is

Norrey

NoRREY
been
left

(Plate LI)

That at imperfect but room seems to have

later than the others.

there for a similar parapet.

The upper
is

part of
in

the spire was destroyed by lightning and

completed

wood and

slated.

The neighbouring church

base.
I

of Bretteville

rOrgueilleuse has a fine modern belfry and spire of the

The

spires

do not know whether there were any traces of an old one of the kind which gave the design for it. In the steeple at Norrey all the capitals have a round abacus. Further west in Normandy at Coutances and S. Lo

same type on a Norman

of western

Noraiandy

we

get a ditierent type

rr

the octagon

begms lower down

below the belfry stage, and the angles are filled with enormously long hollow and shafted pinnacles or tabernacles, each of which has its spirelet [v. sup. Plate XLIII). Both types have their different methods, but to an
English eye, perhaps prejudiced, that of the Caen
district,

like our own, seems to make the better composition and to give the finer outline.

more

Plate

LI

^*
KA*'-

A^-7-

T. G. J.

NORREY

CHAPTER X
LATER FRENCH GEOMETRICAL GOTHIC

At
in

Beauvais the reduction of solid support

is

pushed

to an extreme.

The

choir

is

a mere lantern of glass set

is

a frame of stone.
in

The

triforium
is in

pierced with glazed

windows

the back wall and

fact a continuation of

the clerestory, and the vaulting shafts that run from floor
to roof unite all three storeys into a single composition.

The

windows of the

completed by the large and those in the chapels which are seen through the main arches. With Beauvais the history of the development of We have Gothic architecture in France is complete. and tentative beginning simple from a traced its progress at S. Denis and Senlis to Noyon and Sens, where Romanesque tradition was almost lost, and to Paris and At Reims the Chartres where it is quite neglected. whole system of Gothic construction is understood, and
transparency of the whole
is

aisle clerestory

Gothic

ment com^
^"^^

carried out in

its

entirety, but

without weakness.

At
and

Amiens
not a
still;

the whole theory of construction was displayed,

to
its

and pursued
little

logical results with full assurance

temerity.

and

if

At Beauvais it was pushed further Amiens reached the margin of safety, Beauvais
it.

rashly overstepped

The system

could be carried no

172
further,

FRANCE

[cH.

s.

Quentin

and French Gothic In the 14th century, unless where affected by provincial differences, followed the lead of the 13th without its life and progress, declining in originality, and growing more and more attenuated and feeble, till the Flamboyant style appeared to give it fresh life and interest. A very few examples of later French Geometrical Gothic must suffice. The vast church of S. QuENTiN, on the way from Paris to Brussels, with a vault 127 feet high, dates from the later half of the 13th century and is supposed, I do not know on what authority, to have been designed by Wilars de Honecort. It has two transepts, the only remaining instance of which I am aware in France, though there had been two at Cluny. The nave which is a good deal later, though still in the geometrical style (Plate LI I), is very striking, with a fine clerestory to which the triforium is united, as had now become the fashion, and a great effect of height is given by the vaulting shafts which rise from the floor. The capitals are poor, with detached sprigs of foliage planted round There is a single aisle to the nave, but the the bell. choir, which is dated in 1257, has two aisles divided by cylindrical columns with better foliage. The triforium of this part consists of four pointed arches on colonnettes The eastern transept is at as at Reims and Chartres. the end of the choir, and the apse starts directly from
it.

The

chevet has chapels ranging with the outer aisle

and opening by triple arches to the ambulatory. There is no tower, though preparation was made for a pair at the west end, which has now a poor Renaissance
1

Mr

Porter

{pp. cit.

II.

from 1400

to 1470, but the

329) gives the date of the building of the nave design cannot be so late.

Plate

LII

T. G.

J.

S.

QUENTIN Nave

CH. x]
front.
in

LATER GEOMETRICAL
The church

173

has a good deal of fine painted glass

various parts.

The
transept.

magnificent church of S. Pierre at Chartres

aisles,

has a continuous nave and choir with side

It is of
is

....
The
aisle

chanres.
S. Pierre

but no

various dates.

lower part of the

has plain cross

eastern half
piers

of early

Romanesque work with massive

and the
ribs,

and cushion

capitals,

groining without diagonal

but the arches are pointed.

This construction goes round the apse, and as the constructors had not yet learned that the diagonal groins on a curved plan need not lie in one plane, they got into difficulties, and the intersection is not in the middle of
towards the inside crown \ The apse columns, originally mono-cylindric, have later vaulting
the
aisle,

but

falls

shafts

added
in

to them,

and

all

the superstructure

is

of

later date.

Next
is

order would seem to come the six western

bays of the church, between which and the eastern part

Here are pointed arches a distinct break (Fig. 72). on clustered columns with vaulting shafts that rise from
the capitals like those in the cathedral, and a triforium

of four trifoliated arches on colonnettes.

The

clerestory

has two enormously wide lights and a small circle in the

head.

The

eastern part which looks like 14th century work'

has five straight bays before the apse, a triforium with

double tracery pierced through the back wall and glazed,

and a
other.

fine clerestory above.

All the vaults are quadriis

partite,

and that of the eastern part

beautiful glass with
^

raised

above the

The

which the whole clerestory

p. 47.

As

to this

problem see above,

It is

said to have been finished in 1310.

174

FRANCE.

[CH, X

Fig. 72.

CH. x]
is filled

LATER GEOMETRICAL
has few
rivals.

175

In the western part the

windows

chartres.

are glazed alternately with figure subjects, and with a

mixture of figure and

in

grisaille,

two figures being placed

pale as an upright band of colour between spaces

of grisaille.

In the four-light windows of the eastern

in
grisaille,
effect.
chaionscathecfraT

part the lights are alternately storied and

which with an even number of

lights has

an odd

The Marne

late

13th century

cathedral
of

of Chalons-sur-

has

some remains

the
;

older

Romanesque

church, and a magnificent interior

and the flank, having no chapels, has something of the grandeur of that at
Reims.

The apse has only three bays, so that the much more open than usual, and the effect is good. The nave has cylindrical columns with octagonal capitals, but the foliage is poor. The triforium is glazed
arches are

and united

to the clerestory,

with a cusped circle in

which has four-light windows the head and two smaller circles

with quatrefoils in the sub-order.

The whole system

carried
out,

of

Gothic construction
interior of this
It

is

logically
is

and the

church

very pleasing.
multiply examples, did space
necessary.

would be easy
if

to

permit, or

further illustration were

The

tendency was constantly to diminish the solids on the

and increase the voids, and to return to simplicity of plan, of which the church of S. Ouen at Rouen is a typical example (Plate LI II). The present building was begun in 1318 on the site of a Romanesque predecessor, of which a small fragment remains on the north side. It is on a magnificent scale, and shows in perfection the final type of a great French church. It has a nave with side aisles and no lateral chapels, and this has a good effect. The transepts are short and only outrun the aisle by one bay, and this also is good and the apse
floor
;

Rouen.

176
Rouen.

FRANCE
I'ts

[ch. x
is

with

aoibulatory and chapels

planned with only

three cants, which gives a very agreeable proportion.

The whole
detail,

plan, in short,

is

simple and excellent.

disappointing.

The

on the contrary,
is

is

The

eastern

part only

of the 14th century \ and in the latest French

geometrical style: the nave was added in the 15th century,

and the west

front
is

is

modern.
is

There

is

a central tower,

which, however,

not open as a lantern.

The whole

construction

extremely slender.

The

choir has a clerestory of six-light

windows combined with

a square triforium bay, which has double tracery glazed

on the outside. The vaulting shafts rise from the floor. The main arcade is starved and thin, and the shafts are

meagre with poor

little capitals.

The

aisle

windows are

enormous, and the supports generally are reduced to a

minimum.

All the vaults are quadripartite.

West

of the transept

all

the windows are flamboyant,

the nave dating from the 15th and i6th centuries, with

reedy and thin mouldings, and the arcades have capitals

only to the central shaft of the group, the other members

being continuous with the mouldings of the arch.

The
owing

general effect of the interior from the west end,

and the excellence of and as the arches are thin and the vaulting shafts a good deal projected, the effect of the nave is columnar, the arches being hardly seen. But
to the simplicity of the plan
is

the proportion,

fine

beyond the general

effect

there

is

nothing to interest

one, the details being

poor and monotonous. In sculpture during this period the tendency was
The epitaph
frater

runs as follows he died in 1339 Roussel quondam abbas istius monasterii qui incepit istam ecclesiam aedificare de novo, at fecit chorum et capellas et pilaria turris et magnam partem crucis monasterii antedicti.
'

Hie jacet

of the abbot who built Johannes Marcdargent

it

alias

Dom. Pommeraye,

cited Porter,

ll.

317.

Plate

LIII

ROUEN S. OUEN

Plate

LIV

M.^

y^'^.^mt

'^

^^ '^

T. G.

J.

NOYON

CH. x]

LATER GEOMETRICAL
Some
cap-a-crochet,

177
14th
sculpture
'"

towards greater naturalism.

ing

of the capitals, break-

away from the convention of the

last,

which

continued almost to the

the chapter house of

are of remarkable beauty.

France

Mention has already been made of the natural foliage in Noyon\ There are capitals in the western porch of the same cathedral, most of them sadly mutilated, as fine as anything ever done in that way. The rendering of the wild geranium {G. pratense) in that shown by Plate LIV can hardly be surpassed. In figure sculpture there was the same tendency towards naturalism and as this prevailed more and more the statues became less sympathetic with the architecture, and declined into portraiture. The magnificent Reims seem figures at to stand at the turning-point between two extremes on one hand the stiff conventions of the Royal Portals at Chartres, where the figures are drilled into columnar forms, and are eminently architectural, and on the other hand the later statues, which
;
;

are merely lodged in their niches as decorative features,

decorate.

and have no special relation to the architecture they But sculpture plays a far less important part
during this period than in that preceding
it.

The

14th century was not a happy time for France. The

l^n

14th

Harassed by English invasions during the Hundred Years' War, ravaged by the Black Death in 1340 and afterwards, which is said to have swept off half the population, the French had other things to think of than Comparatively few great buildings were the fine arts. erected during that period, and the art showed little of the spirit that had produced the masterpieces of the preceding age. During the 14th century, says Violletle-Duc, " the architecture of religious buildings became
^

France

Character

French
geometrical

V. Slip. pp. 76, TJ.

Gothic

J.

G. A.

12

178.
nearly uniform over
all

FRANCE
;

[CH. X

the territory subject to the royal

power

the plans may, so to speak, be classified accord-

Bordeaux

Narbonne

and they follow without notable differences the arrangement and mode of construction adopted at the end of the 13th century^" I confess I find the later French Geometrical Gothic monotonous, and the great churches built during that pcHod Very much alike. Bordeaux has a fine Gothic Cathedral with good sculpture, and at Narbonne is another dating from 1272 which Viollet-le-Duc praises for its It is on a grand scale, 131 feet admirable construction. high, simple in design, with no carving, and glazed mostly with grisaille. But he says the aspect is bare and cold, the work " plutot d'un savant que d'artiste "I This indeed is the character of the 14th-century Gothic generally in France, as it is well described by the same writer. He says "at the end of the 13th century we no longer find the individual stamp which marks each
ing to the

dimension of the

edifice,

Monotony
of 14th century

building at the beginning of

it.

The

general arrange-

ment, the construction, and the ornament take already a

in

Gothic France

monotonous
of genius.
it.

aspect, which favours mediocrity at the cost

Science carries the day over

art,

Solids are reduced to the least possible,

enlarged to the greatest extent, spires rise

that

and absorbs windows on supports

seem incapable of carrying them, mouldings are divided into an infinity of members, and piers are composed of bundles of colonnettes as numerous as the arch
mouldings they support.
ture.

Sculpture loses

its

importance,

starved by the geometrical combinations of the architecIn spite of the excessive

the
architecture,
skill
it

and

presides over

leaves

presence of
1

its efforts, in
I.

which one finds

2

logic which you cold in more calculation

^^

Diet. Rats. vol.

p. 239.

/^/^_ yoj

p 278.

Plate

LV

ROUEN CATHEDRAL Purtail

cles

Libraires

Plate

LVI

ROUEN CATHEDRAL North

Entrance Screen

CH. x]

LATER GEOMETRICAL
It

179

than inspiration."^
life

was not

till it

Gothic woke to fresh

achieved any further

in

the Flamboyant style that

signal artistic triumphs in France.

One

of the most successful works of the later French

is

Rouen.
Libraire/^

Geometrical style

the north transept of the cathedral at

Rouen, with the Portrail des Libraires, which is dated about 1280, and of which Jean Davi is said to have been
the architect (Plate LV).
earlier
If this is

compared with the

fa9ades it will be seen how attenuated all the had become at the end of the 13th century, how thin and wiry the mouldings, and how shallow the
details

recessing of the planes.

A long narrow court leads up to this portal, entered from the street at the other end through a magnificent double gateway or screen, erected in 1484, where we find
fully

its

entrance screen

developed the next and

final

stage of French Gothic

style

Fiam-

(Plate LVI).
in

But

to the

Flamboyant

we

shall return ootWc

a later chapter.
^

Diet. Rats. vol.

i.

p. 154.

12-

CHAPTER
ENGLAND

XI

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

Saxon
architecture

Excellence of North-

umbrian
sculpture

The native architecture of Saxon England, which was highly interesting, and had a distinctive character of its own, was practically wiped out by the foreign style Many of its buildings were imported from Normandy. large and important, and even won the admiration of the conquering Norman and for a short period in Northumbria the school produced sculpture of remarkable excellence, scarcely equalled by any contemporary work in Southern Europe. The Saxon style bore stronger
:

traces of

seded
Intro-

duction of

Norman

Norman Romanesque

Roman influence than the Norman which superand which of all the Romanesque styles is least affected by Roman tradition. The first introduction of the foreign style into England by Edward the Confessor, a style, as William of Malmesbury says, never before was followed after the Conquest by such a seen there, burst of pulling down and reconstruction as was only equalled by the great period of cathedral building in France during the reign of Philip Augustus and no great structure of Saxon times has survived it. In a former volume^ I have traced the progress of English Romanesque from the Conquest to 1 170 or 1 180;
it,

Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture,

vol. n.

Plate

LVII

\s

ji-

T. G. J.

S.

DAVID'S

CATHEDRAL The

Nave

"

CH. xi]

THE TRANSITION
of Winchester and S. Alban's,
to

i8i

from the rude and semi-barbarous, though impressive

simplicity

the

more

refined

Norman

of Ernulf and Conrad at Canterbury,

these the round

the naves of Peterborough and Ely, and the delicate

arcades of the Galilee at Durham.

arch
still

In

all

held
still

its

own, and

if

the aisles were vaulted the

nave was

ceiled with

wood.

In France meanwhile

Beginning
arcM-"^

pointed architecture had appeared at S. Denis which was

begun
in
its
1
1

in

1140, at Sens which

was begun

in

1143 and

pj^ance"^

finished in 1168, at
1

50 and 1163. appearance in England as early as the middle of the

Noyon and Paris which were begun The pointed arch had already made
arcades of Fountains Abbey,
Fountains

2th century.

The nave

between 1140 and 1150 are pointed, though surmounted by a round arched clerestory. The transitional nave of Worcester Cathedral, of which only the two western bays remain, displayed a mixture of pointed The great arcades, dating arches and round (Fig. 73). from about 1175, have pointed arches on well-developed clustered piers; the clerestory triplet has two pointed arches flanking a round arch opposite the single round and the triforium has round-arched arched window The Romanopenings surmounted by a pointed arch. arches of triforium and the survives, esque square abacus and clerestory are decorated with the Norman zigzag and
built
;

f^^^I^^.Q

Worcester

"^7175

other primitive ornaments.

The
later,

high vaults of these

dating probably from
shaft

two bays of the nave are

of

early in the 14th century, but the clustered wall

Norman work
at

in

front

of the pier implies

that

had been intended from the first. Worcester form a very important link in the early development of English Gothic independently of any French influence.
vault over the nave

These bays

I82

ENGLAND

[CH. XI

From " The

Fig. 7Z. Builder'

CH. Xl]

THE TRANSITION
de
Leia

183
S. David's

The nave
Peter

of S. David's cathedral, buih by Bishop

between 1176 and 1198, is Romanesque, though of a very late type, with roundarched arcade and clerestory, plentifully adorned with a
great variety of

mainly

nave 1176-1198

Norman

zigzags

but

it

has a triforium

of pointed arches (Plate LVII).

is

Its transitional character

marked by the detail of the arch-mouldings which are

in detail (Fig.

almost Early English

Attic base,
capitals,

74),

by the quasi-

by the concave and by the primitive

profile of the fluted cushion

From

the wall-shafts

some of them. of the upper storey it would seem

foliage of

DAV5D'5 CATHh
i
ir

-feet

Fig. 74-

that de Leia's architect contemplated a sexpartite vault

over the nave.

The obvious intention both at Worcester and

S. David's Ambition
naves

to vault the naves in the last quarter of the 12th century, though in one case this was not done till later, and in the

other not at

shows that this final achievement of mediaeval architecture had already taken possession of the mind of the builders. It is even maintained that it had
all,

been actually realized half a century earlier at Durham (Plate LVII I), where it is argued by some writers that The the present ribbed nave vaults date from 1133'.
1

Mr

Bilson in Journal R. Inst. Brit. Architects, 3rd series, vol. vi.

;

p.

295, etc.

Canon Green well, Durham

Cathedral., p. 36.

i84
Durham
nave vaults

ENGLAND

[ch. xi

chroniclc of the abbey states that at the death of Bishop

Flambard in 1128 the nave was built usque iestudinetn, and that in the interval before the election of the next But as bishop in 1133 the monks finished the church. Mr Bond' and M. de Lasteyrie point out, testudo does It might mean a not necessarily mean a stone vault. wooden roof, and in fact the existence of wall-shafts in the south transept running up to the top of the wall implies that such a covering was originally intended There are other signs that the nave vault was an there. afterthought and not intended originally. The transverse arches are pointed, and in order not to rise above the height given by the Norman clerestory they are depressed and segmental, which seems to show the work was not prepared for vaulting and the builders were in a difficulty. The diagonal ribs do not spring from the main group of capitals but from corbels inserted in the wall beside them, which they would hardly do had they been intended at first. Moreover as Flambard only built up to the testudo, if the testudo be the present vault he would not have built the clerestory, for the vault springs But the clerestory is evidently coeval with below it.
the part below.

My own
in
1

impression

is

that at the death of

Flambard

128 the walls including the clerestory were ready for

or testudo, and that in the interval between

wooden roof
28 and
1

133 the monks put on this wooden roof; that about the middle of the 1 2th century the stone vault was
1 1

constructed, the capitals

refixed lower

of the vaulting shafts

being

down

to receive the ribs as

we know was

Caen, and corbels being inserted to take the diagonal ribs, for which there was no provision

done

at S. Etienne,

V.

Mr Bond

xn

Journal of R.I. B. A. above

cited.

Plate

L VIII

DURHAM CATHEDRAL The

Nave

Plate

LIX

T. G.

J.

WELLS CATHEDRAL The

Nave

CH. xi]

THE TRANSITION

185

in the group of shafts intended originally for the timber Durham cathedral n roor.

But whatever be the date of the existing vaults of it would seem that the choir had a stone vault of some kind even earlier in date which had become ruinous in 1235, and was then replaced by another. The chronicle speaks of it as an ancient structure erected over the shrine of S. Cuthbert by the
the nave and transepts
piety of former generationsl

The nave

of

Wells

cathedral (Plate

LIX)

is

now

Weiis
nave

attributed to Bishop Reginald de

Bohun (1174 1191) who consecrated the late Romanesque Lady Chapel of Glastonbury in 1186, though Mr Freeman and older
it

1 242) Bishop Jocelin ( 1 206 frontl But though the builder of the very different west

writers give the credit of

to

the whole nave

is

in

the

same
rest,

early style,

the three,

perhaps

four,

western bays appear to be by a different

and

later

hand than the

Jocelin,

and these may be the

not only of building but
it

work of

who speaks

of enlarging the church, for

is

hard to see where

:

^ M. de Lasteyrie seems to be of the same opinion " meme en conc^dant k M. Bilson que ses ogives sont parmi les plus anciennes d'Angleterre, elles sent tout au plus contemporaines de celles de Saint Denys." M. de Lasteyrie thinks on the strength of a springer which does not seem {o belong to the actual vault that the original idea was to throw an arched wall across the nave at each of the larger clustered piers that alternate with the cylindrical columns. A rc/iz/ec/ure Religieuse en France a VEpoque Roinmie^ pp. 497, 503. This was the plan at S. Miniato, Florence, and the Norman church of Cerisy

la Foret.
2

It would explain the alternation of the great and lesser columns. "ubi supra sacrum illius sepulchrum devotio veterum lapideas erexit testudines, quae jam nunc plenae fissuris et ruinis dissolutionem sui indicant imminere." Indulgence of Bp. Northwold of Ely a.d. 1235. ^ Cathedral Church Canon Church says there of Wells, E. A. Freeman is no direct record of Reginald's work on the cathedral, but several documents allude to building going on during his time. A deed apparently of 1194 contains a gift " ad constructionem novi operis, &c." Early History of the
;

Church of Wells,

p. 82.

i86
Wells
cathedral

ENGLAND

[CH. XI

enlargement could have been\ The difference between them and the west front, supposing both to be Jocelin's work, may be explained by supposing him to have finished the last three bays of Reginald's nave in
else his

the

local

style

early in his long episcopate,

probably
;

about 1219, after settling the dispute with Glastonbury and to have built the front towards the end of his life in
the

new manner

of Salisbury and Lincoln.

3catc

oj'^e^t. Fig. 75-

The nave

Here we have extraordinarily massive piers (Fig. 75) of clustered shafts carrying pointed arches richly moulded
surmounted by a triforium of pointed at S. David's, which is contemporary and may perhaps be the work of Somerset masons. The size of these piers at Wells may be appreciated by comparing them with those of Salisbury, which
in several orders,

openings resembling that

' Ecclesiam Sancti Andreae Wellensis, quae periculum ruinae patiebatur prae sua vetustate,...aedificare coepimus et ampliare. Deed of 1242, cited by Canon Church. Early History of the Church of Wells, p. 151.

Plate

LX

x\l

^'
i
1^'

i-

Plate

LXr

T. G. J.

WELLS CATHEDRAL- The

North Porch

CH. xi]
is

THE TRANSITION
larger church.
scale.

187
weiis
'^^^^^^''^'

much

In Fig. 75 they are both drawn

wall shafts to divide

to the

same

There are no

the building into bays, but the triforium forms a con-

tinuous arcade from end to end of the nave, giving that

part of the church the effect of a basilica.

The

vault has

pointed ribs both transverse and diagonal, and springs

from short colonnettes carried on corbels

of the triforium.
aisle roof,
It

in the spandril

has no flying buttresses above the

outside.

but rests on a thick clerestory wall, strengthened

by shallow buttresses
to

These are
below the

carried by

flying arches across the triforium

roof, too

low

be of any use in receiving the thrust of the vault. Both here and at S. David's the triforium arches have no jamb shafts, but the arch moulding is continued down

the sides.

The nave
quite like

capitals are remarkable,

and have nothing

The nave
"^'^'^
^

them elsewhere. They have the square abacus which savours of the vanishing Romanesque style, and in
their foliage consequently the tradition of the Corinthian

But they have a wonderful freedom of design that puts them in a category by themselves, and they must be the work of an independent
volute
itself
felt.

makes

genius (Plate LX).

admits
a

The north porch (Plate LXI), which even Mr Freeman may be older than Jocelin, is especially beautiful, Nothing can be more true gem of early Gothic art.
than
the
wall arcades,

The
^^^

north

delightful

simple below

with

wrought foliage in the spandrils (Fig. 76), and rich above with coupled and clustered colonnettes and vigorously sculptured capitals. Intersecting mouldexquisitely
ings,

such as these
at Wells.

in

the porch, are a feature of the

Bishop Jocelin's western towers, and the same idea of lines crossing and

work

They

occur again

in

ENGLAND
Wells
cathedral

[CH. XI

intersecting one another gives the motive of most of the

capitals^

The nave and

really

north porch at Wells are the

in

first

Gothic buildings of importance

England, and

they show remarkable originality, differing not more from

what preceded than from what followed under French influence at Canterbury and from the early English of Lincoln and Salisbury.

The
transition

From
the
1

these instances

it

is

plain that at the end of

2th century architecture, here as well as in France,

transitional stage.

was passing out of the

arch had

The

pointed

come into vogue, and though here and there Norman Romanesque still held the field, especially in
it

monastic buildings, yet even there

Durham
Galilee

had begun
In

to give
at

way
but
^

to a
in

lighter

kind of design.

the

Galilee

Durham
they

1175 we still find round arches with zigzags, were carried originally on pairs of marble
at

For similar intersections

Norrey

in

Normandy v.

sup. Fig. 62, p. 152,

CH. Xl]

THE TRANSITION

189

afterwards \

columns so slender that they had to be strengthened The monks at Peterborough still clung with monastic fervour to the round arch and to Romanesque bulk and proportion in their nave and transepts, which were not finished till 1193 but the round Church of the Temple, consecrated in 1185, has pointed arches on
;

Peternave*^^

The

clustered shafts of marble, though the triforium above Jh^dl^ has an arcade of interlacing round arches. Above all,

the architects had seriously undertaken to vault their

CATHEDRAL^
A-'. .
. ,
.

, ^^T#^

^tml^mrmM

q^viBVi

^
_j

4-

^cet

5o

200

300
Fig. 77.

naves and not only their

aisles

and

this influenced their

construction radically in the future.

The
spirit,

artists of the

day were consequently

in a

receptive

ready for any

to

movement

in

new

direction,

and

open

any fresh suggestion. for the second time, a foreign influence In 1 74, crossed the channel into England, and established itself
1

at

Canterbury

(Fig.

yy).
Canterc^th^edrai

In September 11 74, four years after the murder of Becket, the glorious choir of priors Ernulf and Conrad,

which had stood only forty-four years since

*

its

dedication",

V.
It

my

B_ys. anc/

Romanesque Archit.

vol.

II.

Plate

CXLVIII.

was begun

in 1093.

190
Canter-

ENGLAND
fire

[CH. XI

bury
cathedral

and was reduced to ruin. The monk Gervase who saw the conflagration and has left an account of it and of the rebuilding, tells us how the people were astonished that the Almighty should have allowed such things, and how they tore their hair, and beat the walls with their heads and hands, blaspheming the Lord and His saints, the patrons of the church, for not better protecting h\ Only Lanfranc's nave, with parts of the
caught
exterior walls of Conrad's building as

we now

see them,

and
William
of Sens

his crypt survived.

William
the English-

man

From among a number of architects, both French and English, the monks entrusted the work of rebuilding to one William of Sens, the place of Becket's exile, where the new cathedral had been completed only six years before the fire at Canterbury. When he had conducted the work for four years William the Frenchman fell from the scaffolding and was so much hurt that though he was able for some time to direct the building operations from his bed, he went home to France in 1 1 79. His successor was William an Englishman, "small in body," as Gervase says, "but in workmanship of many By this time the new choir kinds acute and honest." had been built, and vaulted as far as the east side of the and the next four bays, as far as the eastern transept narrowing of the structure, caused by the retention of the Norman chapels of S. Andrew and S. Anselm, had been erected up to the springing of the groining (Plan Fig. yy). It was a vast improvement even upon Conrad's Gervase points out the difference. "glorious choir." "The pillars of the old and new work are alike in
;

Stanley says "how far more like the description of a Neapolitan disappointment at the slow liquefaction of the blood of S. Januarius than of the citizens of a quiet Cathedral town in the County of Kent."
^

Dean

mob

in

Memorials of Canterbury.

Plate

LXII

T.G.J.

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL The

Choir

CH. xi]

THE TRANSITION
in length, for the

191

form and thickness but different

pillars

new

Novel
the
'^

were almost twelve

capitals

feet

longer."

Exquisitely
ones,

new

and whereas the old arches and other features of the masonry were plain, and wrought with an axe, the new work was The new choir well chiselled and appropriately carved. had innumerable marble columns but the old had none, the plain groining of the aisles in the ambulatory was replaced by fine ribbed and keyed vaults; and a beautiful vault of stone and light tufa took the place of the wooden
sculptured

replaced

the

old

plain

"'^'^^

ceiling of the choir\

This raising of the nave arcade by some twelve

involved an entirely

feet Heightportion'^of
^^^^'^^

new proportion

of the three storeys,

The
still

lower one was heightened at the expense of the

In the old choir of Ernulf and Conrad, and the
older choir of Lanfranc, the three storeys had been
in

upper.

proportioned

the

Norman

fashion,

with a triforium
it.

almost as high as the arcade below

proportion in the
in the

We
in

see this

Norman

transepts of Winchester, and

naves of Norwich, Ely, and Peterborough.

At

the contemporary cathedral of

triforium

Tournay

Belgium the

the

seems the larger of the two. At S. Etienne, at Caen, where Lanfranc was the first abbot, which seems to have been the model for his cathedral at Canterbury, if the whole height is divided into 32 parts, 13 go to the arcade, 10 to the Whereas in William triforium, and 9 to the clerestory. the Frenchman's choir at Canterbury, similarly divided, the arcade takes 18 parts, the triforium 5, and the A glance at the two elevations will show clerestory 9. the enormous improvement effected by the new proportion

Abbaye aux Hommes

(Fig. 78).
*

Gervase, cited in Willis's Canterbury,

p. 59.

192

ENGLAND

[CH. XI

bo

CH. xi]

THE TRANSITION
new work round and
in

193
Cantercathedral.

In the
together,

pointed arches are used

but the latter predominate.

Pointed arches

England as we have seen already. But Canterbury may stand in England, as S. Denis in France, for the first great building where the pointed arch
were not new
is

arches and

l^f^^
together

frankly adopted

as

the

ruling

feature in construc-

tion.

Conrad's

aisle

windows were lengthened upwards,

full

but not carried to the

height of the

new

aisle,

leaving

room above them

trefoil

for

a second row of windows, with The new

heads, and a passage along

them

in the thickness

of the wall.

These upper

lights contain

some of the
for

most splendid examples of the painted glass Canterbury is famous.

which
vault

The

high vaulting

is

sexpartite, with pointed trans- The

verse arches,

much

stilted,

springing from marble shafts

that rise from the capitals of the great columns in the

arcade

these shafts are clustered for the main transverse

ribs,

and diagonal group of

rib.

single for the intermediate

At the crossing of the transept, and at the point where the plan bends inwards, the pier is surrounded by
marble
shafts,

which are continued down

to the ground.

The

vaults are level at the crown.

Com-

view of this choir (Plate LXII) be compared with the nave at Sens (Plate I, p. 38 sj^p.), William's native place, many points of resemblance will appear, and also many points of difference. The proportion at Sens of
If the

sens

the lower storey to the upper part,

if

may
it,

trust the
is

accuracy of
identical,

my
,

sketch, for

did not measure

;

almost

Jf though simpler,

with
is

that at

Canterbury the triforium, The very like the English one.

is

vaulting at both places

rib springs in the
J.

sexpartite

the intermediate
that stands
13

same way from a colonnette

G. A.

194
Canter-

ENGLAND
capital of the great

[CH. XI

bury
cathedral. Difference

with Sens

column \ But at Sens the piers are alternately larger and smaller, expressing their different function as supporting the main ribs and the
on the
intermediate respectively.
points above mentioned,

At Canterbury, except
they are
all

at the

simple columns

mono-cylindric or polygonal, and the difference between

the main and intermediate ribs
alternation of clustered
is expressed only by the and single marble colonnettes

that stand on the capitals of the great columns.

The
coupled

The most
is

striking instance of resemblance

however

columns

in the

coupled columns which at Sens alternate with

Curi-

the great piers, and at Canterbury carry the structure of

Trinity Chapel and the great apse (Plate LXIII).

ously enough these are not the work of French William,

who had gone home before they were built, but of English William who succeeded him. William of Sens had indeed
used coupled columns
rib,

in one place under an intermediate where the bend in the structure begins, but he had combined with them a pair of marble shafts which

just

alters their character,

English William's coupled shafts

those at Sens than those of his

are

much more
Sens

like

predecessor, but instead of alternating them with larger

piers as at
to express their different load,

he has

used them indifferently throughout.

William, but he used

The

idea of the

coupled columns was no doubt given him by French

it in his own way, and probably not would have done. In the eastern part of the crypt, which is also the work of English William, the columns are round, and have the round abacus with a simple flat member below, undercut at bottom and with a necking, though in the upper church his shafts all have

Round
abacus in
crypt

as his predecessor

the square abacus.

^

The

clerestory

windows

at

Sens are not part of the original design.

*^

CH. xi]

THE TRANSITION

195
Cantercathedral.

The mouldings of both the Williams are enriched with Norman billets and zigzags, and also with the Early English dog-tooth. The zigzags are of the later refined
form, undercut and sunk.
sections of the arches

mouldings

But besides these

details the

elaborate than those at

and vaulting ribs are much more Sens, which consist only of square
[v.

orders with a

roll

on each angle

Plate

I).

In this

may be

detected English taste, for throughout the whole

Gothic period much more use was made of mouldings

here than in France.

One
At

feature

common

to the

two
bands

churches

is

the moulded band which ties the detached The

colonnettes to the wall.

Sens this occurs in the shaft

;

that carries the intermediate rib

in the

at

Canterbury

it

ties

marble colonnettes.

These colonnettes are used

all
English

much more

profusely here than at Sens, and they are

of Purbeck or Bethersden marble which gives a different

character to the design from anything in France, and
in
is

marble

an English characteristic of great importance. Its use at Canterbury was not invented by William of Sens, for it was already employed elsewhere in England, as far north as the Galilee at Durham, and other of Bishop Pudsey's buildings. William no doubt got the
fact

suggestion

instinct as a novel idea, for there

his

England and welcomed it with true artistic was nothing like it in own country. Marble was used thenceforth in all
in
;

Salisbury our important buildings for the colonnettes and the Early English part of Rochester are full of

them and at Westminster, Exeter, Ely, Lincoln, and the Temple not only slender detached shafts but main
;

columns too are made of

solid marble.

Often, however,

marble colonnettes in long lengths were set round columns

of free-stone in low courses, and in that case they must

have been inserted

after the inner

column had got

132

its

196
Cantercathedral

ENGLAND
Split,

[CH. XI

settlement, or the rigid marble

would have been crushed

and

being incapable of sinking with the ashlar

CANTKB

OAKHAH

Fig. 79.

courses.

Instances of such an accident have

observation.

come under
in

my own
is

This form of polychrome masonry

France,

distinctly

English and has no counterpart

CH. Xl]

THE TRANSITION

197
Canter-

where when coloured masonry was introduced, as for instance in Auvergne, the treatment is quite different. But however strongly English taste shows itself in the details the general effect of the interior of Canterbury choir with its apsidal end is quite French, and belongs to a type of early Gothic church with which we are
familiar

bury
cathedral

General
effect is

French

on the other side of the Channel. In nothing is its French parentage shown

more

The
sculptured
capitals

strongly than in the sculptured capitals.

The

foliage of

Fig. 80.

the coupled columns put up by English William (Fig. 79) might have been carved by the same craftsman who cut
that at S.

exactly

Leu d'Esserent (Fig. 80), which is almost These capitals must be the coeval with it.

work

of French carvers

whom

William of Sens brought

But it is curious that they over and left behind him. have no resemblance to the capitals at Sens, where those of the great columns are very abstract and severe, and those of the wall-arcades have foliage of a quasi- Byzantine

198
Cantercathedral

ENGLAND
many
cases with birds\

[ch. xi

type mixed in

In the angular
expres-

knots of foHagc that support the corners of the square

Survival of
'^"

abacus at Canterbury (Fig. 79) and

sion of the bell

in the distinct

typ""*

we

see the survival of classic tradition, and

of the Corinthian capital, though the hollow Corinthian

abacus,
that

so

long survived as a mere unmeaning

real

ornament below the is lost both here and

through
crochet.
all

abacus

{v.

Fig. 23,

p.

64

su/>.),

at S. Leu.

The same motive

in

runs
the

the capitals of the choir, resulting

in

smaller capitals

something

like

the

French
in

cap-a-

The
roundf a acus

This type of capital did not long survive

for the

England,
but

round abacus which soon made

its

appearance
:

required a very different treatment of the foliage

find

we

Oakham

something like it at Wells where the square abacus is retained, and in the Castle Hall at Oakham (Fig. 79), a building which is exactly coeval with English William's

work at Canterbury, and may perhaps have had the use It is one of the of some of his workmen (Plate LXIV). most interesting domestic buildings in England, and one of the best examples of the transition from Romanesque
to Gothic.
It consists

of a nave with an aisle on both

sides divided
single
order,

by an arcade of four round arches of a carried by three pillars and a respond

bracket at each end.

the side next the

On
The

the abacus there

is

room on
lights

nave

for a little seated figure holding a

aisle

musical instrument.
single round arch

windows are of two

with pointed arches outside, united on the inside under a

ornamented with the dog-tooth, and the same ornament is used in the windows and the
arcades.
*

There
II.

is

an

illustration of

one of these

in

my

Reason in Architecture,

Plate

CHAPTER
The

XII

THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE

influence of Canterbury on English architecture

was very considerable, but its ultimate effect was not so much to set a French fashion in architecture as to provoke the native style to break out on original lines, which from the first began to take an independent and
national direction.

From Stow in Lincolnshire the Saxon bishopric had been moved at the Danish invasion to the security of whence after the Norman Dorchester in Oxfordshire Fecamp, whom the Conqueror conquest Remigius of made bishop, transferred the see to the old Roman town Here, about 1075, ^^^ begun the first of Lindum\
;

Lincoln

cathedral of

Lincoln (Plate LXV), a cruciform building

ending
its

in

an apse, of which only the west end, with

deeply sunk portals and curious semi-circular niches covered by semi-domes, still remains imbedded in the
later frontispiece.

Richly decorated
in the older

Romanesque doorhave vaulted the

ways were inserted

ander about
1

arches by Bishop Alex-

141,

who

also

is

said to

1 "This Remigius was a man, though of so high and noble a mind, yet so unreasonable low of stature, as hardly he might attaine unto the pitch and reputation of a dwarfe So, as it seemed nature had framed him in that to shew how possible it was that an excellent minde might dwell in a sort
:

deformed and miserable body." England, etc.

Godwin, Catalogue of the Bishops of

200
Lincoln
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH
in

[CH. XII

had destroyed the original wooden rooP. In 1186 when Hugh a Burgundian from Avalon near Grenoble became bishop he found the church half ruined by an earthquake, and in 1192 he began the new choir which marks an era in the history
nave
stone after a
fire

of English architecture.
S.

Hugh's

Though
his
his.

S.

Hugh

of Avalon did not live to complete

is

choir

scheme, the plan of the present choir and transepts

at

Like Canterbury his church had two transepts, one the central crossing and the great tower, and another

The
architect

end of his choir, beyond which he built an apse with an ambulatory, and radiating chapels, in the manner of a French chevet, though with certain differences, of which the foundations have been traced below the floor, the apse itself having been destroyed in 1255^ (Fig. 81). The architect's name is for a wonder preserved he was Geoffrey de Noiers, who appears to have been an Englishman, though perhaps of French
at the east
;

or

Norman extraction. West of the work of Bishop Hugh of Avalon remained the central tower of the Norman church, and the nave of

Fall of the

tower

Remigius with the stone vault of Bishop Alexander. In 1237 or 1239 the old tower fell, crushing in its fall, it is said, the vault of Bishop Hugh's choir, and injuring some
of his piers.

And

this introduces the

controversy that

has raged over the date and original construction of this

part of the building.
It

has been maintained by

Mr Bond

^ Consecratus est Cantuariae vicesimo secundo Julii 1123. Anno deinde sequente ecclesia ejus Cathedralis, nuper constructa et vix dum absoluta, fortuito incendio conflagravit. Quam refecit ille, et contra similes casus

munivit, laqueari addito fornicato.

^

The plan

is

given

differently
in

by

different

writers.

take that by

Mr

Watkins, published

the Journal of the Royal Institute of British

Architects^ vol. xvill. 3rd series, p. 35.

CH. XIl]

EARLY ENGLISH

20I

bo

1=1

202
Lincoln
cathedral.

EARLY ENGLISH
Mr

[CH. XII 1

Theories
as to the

vaults

Watkins^ that Hugh of Avalon's choir was not intended to be vaulted, but was to have a wooden roof and that not only is the present vault with its flying

and

buttresses
authorities

later

than

his

time,

a point on
that
his

which

all

seem agreed, but

rests

triforium

and

Theory of
original triforium

what we now see. on the existence of a row of small triangular arched openings in the back wall of the clerestory passage, which now look into the triforium chamber. These it is pretended are the surviving heads
clerestory were quite different from

Their argument

of a row of tall lancet openings which once pierced the back wall of a triforium, with a similar row of more

decorated lancets in front, leaving a space or passage

Mr Bond
and Mr
Watkin's
design

between the two rows.

Mr

Watkin's conjectural restora-

tion of this design, not only substitutes a

row of lancets

of uniform height for the present clerestory, but on the strength of a sunk panel

now

existing in the back wall of

the clerestory actually pierces the wall over the piers,

which on
light
in

all

accounts ought to be

solid,

with a wide lancet

both storeys between

a
? ^

pair of wall shafts that run up to

the roof

This design
either

will

hardly

pass muster with an architect on

the
score
of
stability

or

architectural propriety^
S. Hugh's choir

There can be
that

little

doubt but
laid

intended
for vaults

when Bishop Hugh

of
his
it

the
inFig. 82.

foundation

choir

he

tended to vault
also.
^

and

its

aisles

What

other meaning

can
is

Journal of the R.I.B.A. above cited. The meaning of these curious openings

no doubt obscure

they

may

have been intended for relieving arches, but and even mischievous.

if

so they are quite superfluous,

Plate

LXVI

'?

^-^^^t^

*v-^.

T. G.

J.

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL The

Choir

CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH
made
to receive four

203
Lincoln

we

attach to the plan of his piers (Fig. 82) with the four

channellings

marble colonnettes, of

and the two side ones the arcade, while the front one, of which the lower part was cut away for the stalls about 1370, but of which the base remains, could have had no other purpose than
which the back one took the
aisle vault,

that of sustaining the high vault of the choir.

The

aisle walls of

S.

Hup^h's "
_

work have a curious

_ ^

Thedoubie
wall arcade

double arcade.

The

inner arcading consists of pointed

;

arches well moulded, and carried on detached shafts

the

outer of not very graceful trefoiled arches, also carried

on

detached shafts with a label moulding and carved figures

in the spandril (Fig. 83).

great point
S.

is

made

of this wall arcade by those

who hold that They contend

Hugh

did not intend to vault his aisles.

that the front arcade

was put on when, by

a change of purpose, vaulting was proposed, in order to

strengthen the wall for the additional weight.

The back
is

arcading which

is

in the solid of the wall

;

they consider
so

the original structure

and the front arcading which

it,

not concentric with the back, but alternates with

that the front shafts stand opposite the middle of the

back arches, they consider to be an addition, as it bonded to the back, but worked independently of On the other hand there simply stands against it.
fact that the wall

is
it

not

and
the

is

above containing the windows

is

solid

over both thicknesses of arcading, so that there can be

appreciable difference of date between them.

no

Moreover

the additional strength given by a thin arcading resting on 6" marble colonnettes is too trifling to be of any
account,

how
for

and lastly as to the absence of bond I fail to see work could have been constructed differently, there is no opportunity of bonding the two arcades
the

204
Lincoln
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH

[CH. XII

Fig. 83.

CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH
till

205
fact,

together

the wall above

I

is

reached, where, in

the

Lincoln

bonding does begin.

is

believe the double arcade to be

;

the original design \ though a very curious one

but
like

it
it,

not unique, for the triforium at Beverley

is

is

and there

the

same

alternation of colonnettes in the

Galilee at Ely^

The importance
question of date
;

of the controversy consists in the

import date

whether vaults were intended and

prepared for or not at the rebuilding of the choir in 1 192. It is very unlikely that they were not, for the nave had
already been vaulted after the
vaults at
fire

of 11 44;

the nave

Durham,

if

not so old as

some
1

think, are at

least as old as the

middle of the century; the choir of

Canterbury had been vaulted before

choir at Winchester

was vaulted

in fully

179 and the retrodeveloped Early

;

English work about 1202 or 1204.

time taken
its

Vaulting had by this

place in English architecture as the natural

it

had already done in France. Lincoln choir is often said to have been inspired by Canterbury. The two churches have in common the double transept, and Lincoln originally had also its apse, But though it is easy to understand that the novelty on English soil of the great work in Kent would excite a
ceiling for great churches, as
spirit

Lincoln

Canterbury
'^^^p-^'^^^

of emulation and apply a stimulus to invention

throughout the land, and that Lincoln would be influenced by it, still the work of S. Hugh differs so widely from

Difference

Canterbury
be
said
to

in

almost every detail that they can hardly

u^llin
t^^bm^"'

be
is

much

alike.

The view
Pearson, and

of

Lincoln

(Plate
*

LXVI)

taken from a similar point of view to

observe that Sir G. G. Scott,

Mr

Mr

Bilson are of the

same

opinion.

2 The whole controversy can be read in the Journal of the R.I.B.A. above referred to. Mr Bond's conjectures are interesting and ingenious but they are, I think, conclusively disposed of by Mr Bilson and others.

2o6
Lincoln

EARLY ENGLISH
The bays
to at

[ch. xii

that of Canterbury (Plate

parison.
14ft.

LXII) for purpose of comCanterbury are narrow, about

those of

from centre
is

centre of the columns;

ft.^

Lincoln are about 22

The
half.

great arcade at Canter-

bury
at

more than

half the total height of the

less

bay

that

Lincoln

much

than

If the total height is

divided as before into 32 parts the two choirs compare

thus
:

Lincoln.

Canterbury.

Arcade
Triforium
Clerestory

15

18
5

6\ io|
32

9
32
is

In width the bay at Lincoln

and Canterbury
simple
cylinders

6J.

9^ parts of the height, The columns at Canterbury are

those
at

or

polygons,

Lincoln

are

clustered with detached shafts.

The

simple triforium of

William of Sens

is

replaced at Lincoln by a richly shafted

arcade with piercings of plate tracery in the tympanum.

The wide

single

clerestory

window

of Canterbury
lights,

is

represented at Lincoln by a triple group of

with

an interior arcade carried on marble

to

shafts,

which seems
clerestory at

be a refined version of the

Norman

Winchester, Durham, Norwich, or Peterborough, where

a wide and high central light opposite the

window

is

set

between two smaller and lower openings. The feature which the two choirs have most distinctly in common is the group of marble colonnettes in two tiers at the angle
of the lesser transept, which
is

shown

in

both Plates

LXII

and LXVI, but it is difficult to see how otherwise it could have been done, and the difference in their capitals and
their

foliage interferes
*

with

the

resemblance.

For

at

take these dimensions from the published plans.

CH. XIl]

EARLY ENGLISH

207

Lincoln the abacus

at

is round instead of being square as Lincoln ^^^^^^ Canterbury, and this change carries with it an entirely

fresh motive in the sculptured

With
classic

the square abacus

away goes

all

tradition of the The

round

Corinthian capital, and with the round one comes

in the typical

English foliage which constitutes quite a

Fig. 84-

Fig. 85.

fresh departure in sculptured decoration.

Figs. 84, 85, 86

Hugh's work at Lincoln, which are quite free from any trace of Romanesque influence, and are designed on quite original lines, unlike any French sculpture. Except at Bayeux, where English influence might be expected ^ I know no example of

show three

capitals

from

S.

Early

foi^e

this

kind of foliage across the channel.

It is difficult to

1 There is a much stronger resemblance between Lincoln and HohTood than between it and Canterbur>-. Holyrood is illustrated in Spring Gardens Sketch Book, vol. I.

V. sup. p. 144.

208
Early English
foliage

EARLY ENGLISH
it

[CH. XII
clover, or scurvy

say on what natural leaf

grass, or columbine,
it

is

based

may have
With

given the suggestion, but

this leaf the carver

is

severely abstracted and conventional, and imitates

none of them exactly.

for
infinite variety

played

some seventy or eighty years, producing capitals of and consummate grace, expressing with
by
their springing upright lines

truth

below the curling

knots of foliage the function of the capital as a

member

iJLXLi

c.,i^6o
Fig. 86.

Fig. 87 shows a later and more fully developed example from the presbytery at Lincoln. This model spread throughout the length and breadth of the land it is to be found from Lincoln to S. David's, from Salisbury, Winchester and Chichester to Westminster to Ely, where perhaps the strong springing line is rather

of support.

CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH

209

over-weighted by the pendant knots, and on to York. It held its own throughout the Early Gothic period till
superseded by more natural foliage at the end of the
13th century, and
it

stands to Early English

same

relation that the acanthus leaf does to

work in Roman.

the

If the plan of S. Hugh's vanished apse at Lincoln has been correctly recovered from the foundations {v. Fig. 81 sup.) it bore very little resemblance to that of French

The Lin^^^^^^^

William
east end

at Canterbury.

It

had two straight raking sides

of two bays each, leading to a square bay closing the

;

so forming a sort of irregular and elongated

half-hexagon, a plan unlike any example

known

to

me

in

France or England, where apses are

or regular polygonal lines bay by bay.
It is

set out

on circular
Compared
Jeibury^"

two raking bays at Canterbury short of the apse, and it has been suggested that they were copied by De Noiers at Lincoln. But those at Canterbury are not part of the apse, but a good way from it, and they are caused by the desire to preserve the two Norman chapels of Conrad's choir. No such reason existed at Lincoln, and to have copied it without a reason would have been a piece of frivolous pedantry of which we may be sure De Noiers would not have been guilty. It is doubtful how far S. Hugh's work was advanced
true there are
at his

The

vaults

death in 1200.

In the opinion of Sir G. G. Scott

flying buttresses,

and
are

Mr
his,

Pearson the sexpartite vaults of the east transept

but the choir vault with
its

and

the lower arch across the triforium chamber date from

the middle of the 13th century.

They were probably

constructed after the

1239,

fall

of the central tower in 1237 or

and finished before 1255.

is
G. A.

The

transept vault

is

Eccentric

regular and so
J.

that of the choir

bay next the tower,

14

2IO
Lincoln
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH
is

[CH. XII

but the rest

The plan is very eccentric (Fig. 88). really quadripartite, but instead of the diagonals meeting in the middle of the crown they are drawn to separate
points

A and B, two superfluous ribs AC and BD are drawn

from those points to the springing, and as the diagonals do not meet it is necessary to insert a ridge rib to The result is a lozenge-shaped panel laid receive them. obliquely across the bay from corner to corner, C to D,
with a somewhat perplexing and disturbing effect to
the eye.

Fig. 88.

Lincoln

No

such whimsy diverted the architect of the nave at

nave

with a magnificent

a surer hand and seems to have been begun by Bishop Hugh of Wells 1209 1235 and finished in the who died in 1253. Bishop Grostete great time of the The lightness of the structure is remarkable, and according

Lincoln (Plate

LXVI I) who worked with

result.
It

to

Mr
is

Penrose the proportion of void to solid

greater than
in

in

the

plan

any large vaulted building in The piers are clustered, surrounded by marble Europe. colonnettes, the central column being in most cases of The bays are very wide, scaling on the marble as well.
published plans about 27 feet from centre to centre of the columns, which as the nave is 40 feet wide gives

CH. XIl]

EARLY ENGLISH

21

an

air of great

spaciousness to this part of the building.

Lincoln

and have ridge ribs and extra intermediate ribs (Fig. 89) which from this time play an important part in English vaulting, and lead up,
vaults are quadripartite,

The

xhenav^e
''^"^^

as will

be explained hereafter, to a new principle of

vault-construction peculiar to this country.

The outside elevation of this nave is perhaps the finest example of vigorous and severe Early English work.

Fig. 89.

Rather before the nave of Lincoln Bishop de Lucy winChester had built a large triple aisled retro-choir three bays long, De Lucy's building It is so much eastwards of the choir at Winchester. 1204 room for a great east give to as choir lower than the window above it in the choir gable, and the middle aisle
of the three
is is

not

much higher than

the other two.

and panel vaulting completely developed, and developed in a manner different from

The

ceiling

of rib

that of the French.

In French vaulting the ashlar-beds of the panel are

142

212
Difference

EARLY ENGLISH
;

[CH. XII

laid in courses parallel to the ridge-lines

in the longitudinal vault

that

is

to say,

between French and

English
vaults

they are parallel to the axis of

the church, and perpendicular to the transverse arch, and

in

the cross vault they are parallel to the transverse

section

and perpendicular

to the axis of the church

and

to the wall-rib.

They

thus meet at a right angle against

Fig. 90.

the diagonal rib (Fig. 90).

In English vaulting, on the

contrary, the beds of the ashlaring in the panels are laid

square with a line

panel,
The
French
vault

more or and they therefore meet

less

nearly bisecting the

at

an obtuse angle against

the diagonal rib (Fig. 91).

into so

In setting out a French

vault the transverse or the wall-rib would be divided

many

equal parts to

mark the width of the

ashlar

CH. XIl]

EARLY ENGLISH

213
Difference

courses,

and the diagonal would be divided into the same parts, but these would each be longer than those on the direct arches, because the diagonal line is

number of

French"

eI^hsk
^^"^'^

longer.

If these divisions are projected (Fig. 90)

from
give

the elevation on to the transverse and diagonal lines in

plan, lines

drawn

to join the points so

marked

will

Fig. 91.

the beds of the ashlaring of the panel, which will of

course be parallel to the ridge

length.

lines,

because the divisions

in

of the two arches are equal in

number though not

On

the other hand,

in setting

out an English

vault the divisions on

the diagfonal are

made

of the The
vadt^*

same length
there will be

as those

more

divisions

on the direct arches, and therefore marked on the diagonal rib

214
Difference

EARLY ENGLISH
it

[ch. xii

than on the Others because

if

is

longer.

Consequently

rSr
Elfgiish vaults

the divisions are projected (Fig. 91) and the points joined in the same way as before, it will be found that
i]^Q

beds of the ashlaring

lie

obliquely and not parallel

to the ridges, because the divisions are equal in length

but not in number.

In the French vault the direct ribs

receive the

and the diagonal

than the others.

all

same number of courses

at the

in English vaulting the diagonal receives more courses

The

ridge

crown of the vault the French ashlar courses meet naturally on the same straight line, but the English meet obliquely on a serrated The awkwardness of this junction suggested the line. ridge-rib which is one of the features that distinguish In De Lucy's work at English from French vaulting. Winchester there is no salient ridge-rib but there is a straight course in the ashlar, down the middle of which This course may runs the line of the apex of the vault.
Consequently
itself

be serrated to

fit

the abutting ashlar stones.

Construe-

system is that the panels one direction only, that following the ribs, and cannot very well be arched laterally from rib to rib, as is common in French work. The English system seems to distribute the weight
result of the English
in

One

are

commonly curved

contraS

^^^^ Uniformly on the skeleton of ribs, for the French In plan throws most of the weight on the diagonal. theory the transverse rib might be removed from a French vault with impunity, and we should then have
a continuous barrel vault into which
the cross vaults

would cut on a mitre-line, fortified by the diagonal rib whereas in an English vault the transverse arch is as

much

required as the diagonals

' For simplicity of explanation the vaults in Figs. 90 and 91 are shown over a square bay, and so they avoid the complications arising from stilted

CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH

215
in

In

De

Lucy's building at Winchester the windows

De

Lucy's

each bay are a pair of lancets between,

two blank lancet panels,

jambs.

on

the outside, winChester

all

with detached shafts in the

1204

The

vaults are simple quadripartite, with

moulded

diagonal transverse and wall-ribs.

The

piers of the great

arches are clustered with marble shafts, and half-clusters

of marble shafts form the wall-responds.

Their capitals

are carved with the Early English leaf in Purbeck marble

but the capitals of the window shafts are moulded, and

this

introduces

us

to

another

novelty which

is

dis-

tinctively English.

Moulded capitals are of course familiar to us in Doric, both Greek and Roman, but the Gothic form is something
quite new.
origin
in

The
capital

Sir G. G. Scott suggested that

it

took

its

Purbeck marble, which did though as a matter of fact capitals carved in Purbeck abound at Lincoln, To Westminster, Winchester, and many other places. mould the capital is really to treat it as the base was treated and indeed the overhanging and undercut bell bears some resemblance to an Attic base inverted and
the hardness of
easily to

not lend

itself

sculpture,

elongated.
to
in

The round English capital lent itself readily moulding, which in many cases might even be turned The moulded capitals of the 13th and 14th a lathe.
The base

centuries are very beautiful,

and the refinement of their Fig. 92 shows profile is comparable to Greek work. two varieties from the triforium at Westminster Abbey.

The

bases are often versions of the Attic, but flattened

so that the scotia becomes a sunk channel

arches,

more

suited

and winding panel-surfaces over an oblong

area.

But though these

disturb the

regularity of the system, the principles of the two kinds of

vaulting and their difference remain the

farther

same, and gradually lead them

and

farther apart.

2l6
to interior work,

EARLY ENGLISH
where
it it

[CH. XII
effect,

has an admirable

than

to exterior
End
of the
transition

where

holds water detrimentally.

1

Before the end of the

in

2th century architecture both

tional

France and England had emerged from that transiphase which we call Romanesque, and taken on
forms, which, after a period of fusion,
crystallized into the

itself fresh

became
style

at the

end of the period

new

Fig. 92.

Formation
of national
styles

form and the two one another. The great diverged constantly farther from work at Canterbury brought into England for the second time a foreign influence, which had its effect on the art but it was not strong enough to bend of the country Its effect was to the native school to the foreign type.
distinct national
:

which we call Gothic. style had already taken a

But

in

each country the

new

CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH
to emulation rather than to imitation,

217

provoke

and what

the English architects borrowed from the French was

soon assimilated and changed

said to

into

an English form.
is

Lincoln, where the influence of Canterbury

generally

be most strongly marked,

I

is

singularly unlike the

great church in Kent, as

both

in

proportion and detail.

have already pointed out, Canterbury may have

supplied the incentive to cover the central area with rib

and panel vaulting, though it is said the nave had previously been vaulted by Bishop Alexander but, except in the eastern transept which has a regular sexpartite vault, the other vaults took a line of their own, an eccentric one in the choir, and in the nave a new system of multiplying the ribs which never obtained in France, and was the beginning of a different and purely English kind of vaulting. Viollet-le-Duc, who visited Lincoln in i860 or 1861, said "I expected from what I had heard in England to find at Lincoln the French style of architecture... but after the most careful examination I could not find in any part of the Cathedral, neither in the general design, nor in any part of the system of architecture adopted, nor in the details of ornament, any trace of the French school of the twelfth century (the lay school from 1 1 70
;

vioUet-ie-

Lincoln

to

1220) so plainly characteristic of the cathedrals of

and even Rouen. The part of the Cathedral of Lincoln in which the influence of the French School has been supposed to be
Paris,

Noyon,

Senlis, Chartres, Sens,

found has no resemblance to

this.

speak of the choir."

is

He

goes on to say the vault construction

unlike the

French, and the slender arch-moulding deeply undercut, the round abacus, the tooth-ornament, are quite unlike

anything at Paris, Sens, or S. Denis.

He

concludes

" the construction is English, the profiles of the

mouldings

2i8

EARLY ENGLISH
work belongs
to the

[ch. xii

are English, the ornaments are EngHsh, the execution of the

English school of workmen

of the beginning of the thirteenth century^"

Geoffrey
architect

de Noiers, was claimed by the Count de Montalembert as a Burgundian, of Noyers, Noiers or Noers in the Department of Yonne. Mr Dimock

The

architect, Geoffrey

says there

is

another Noiers
in

in

Normandy, but claims

in

Geoffrey as an Englishman.

He

Noiers at Boarhunt

Hants

mentions a Gilbert de 1216, and a Robert

in

de Noiers, and his brother Almeric

1 1

Northants

in

99

1200,
in

sons of a Ralph de Noiers, together with

others of the

same name who seem

to

have belonged

to

Norton
their

Northamptonshire^

Many

families of

Norman

Causes of
of French
E^ngiish
^^^^^^

Two

cur-

foreigS influence

England after the Conquest, kept French names, and our architect probably belonged to one of them. Had he come directly from France his work would no doubt have been more distinctly French. The early divergence of the two styles, French and English, iUustrates on one hand the force of local sentiment by which the conquered population influenced their conand on the querors and in the end assimilated them other the strength of native craftsmanship, which though affected by the foreign fashions imposed upon it, gradually diverted them into a fresh channel, and developed a national and independent style. Twice during the nth and 12th centuries a distinct importation of foreign architecture was brought into England. At the Conquest Norman architecture almost
descent, that settled in
;

Letter to the Gentlemaiis Magazine, 1861, Part I, dated Paris, Ap. 15, 1861. 2 See correspondence in the Gentleman^ s Magazine for 1861, Part I, Thierry mentions a WiUiam de Noyers, one of three Norman pp. 180-674. knights who oppressed the citizens of Norwich after the Conquest. Hist, of
*

Viollet-le-Duc.

p. 551,

Norman

Conquest,

Book

v.


CH. xii]

EARLY ENGLISH

219

wiped out the older Saxon art, and yet began at once to be affected by it. We see this in the balustered windows of Oxford and S. Alban's in the square east ends of S. David's, Oxford, Romsey and S. Cross, and in the vast
;

Affected
art

mono-cylindric pillars of Durham, Waltham,

Gloucester,

Hereford, Malvern, and Malmesbury.

fresh

wave of

foreign influence,
its

not Norman,

made

way

to

Again in 11 74 a French this time and Canterbury, where we

have the double columns of Sens, the apse of Paris or But Soissons, and the sculpture of S. Leu d'Esserent, in spite of the undoubted effect of Canterbury in stimulating native English art, except at Westminster which was designed on a French model, no more French
apses were built in England, for the eastern chapels of

Tewkesbury and Pershore have very little resemblance to the chevet of Reims or Amiens. At first, at all It was natural that this should be so. events, the master-workmen that is the real architects would have been Normans or Frenchmen, and the direction of the work would of course be given by the

Foreign
direction

great prelates, bishops and abbots,

of the conquering race.

But the It is absurd to imagine that must have been English. the Normans imported from across the Channel all the masons, carpenters, plumbers, and other artificers who carried out the vast building operations which covered
the land with

who were almost all bulk of the workmen

Native

new

churches, castles, and palaces within

the short space of a hundred years.

They would have

found no lack of

artificers

here

the native English were

Hexham no mean craftsmen. and Ripon are praised by Norman chroniclers as wonders of architecture, that at Winchester is celebrated in an their elegiac poem of 330 lines by the Monk Wolstan
Their great Minsters at
;

220

EARLY ENGLISH

[ch. xii

Influence

craftsman

masonry was as good as that of the Normans, often much better, and we know that they surpassed their conquerors in some of the decorative arts. Consequently the Norman style in English hands soon began to change its character. This will be better understood wheu we remember how much larger a part in building was left to the individual workman in the Middle Ages, when there were no working drawings, when there was no professional architect sitting in his office a hundred miles away, directing the work by plan and letter, and

when
abbot,
in

the master-mason

the

real

architect

made

the

design following the instructions of the bishop, lord, or

by

whom

he was employed, but following them

setting the

his

own manner,

building out

on the

ground, and directing the construction on the spot, but

leaving the details in a great measure to be
the
artizans in
filled in

by

each craft under his general direction.

style in

Thus

the

Norman

English hands soon began

to take a distinctly national form, just as the

Normans

themselves gradually were assimilated by the native race, and from being naturalized Frenchmen became naturalized

Englishmen.

CHAPTER
THE EARLY ENGLISH

XIII
STYLE,
continued

At
know

the end of the 12th century the style which

as

we

Early English was

fully

developed, and the

periods had

round arch of the finally succumbed

arch
of Gothic

Roman and Romanesque

after a long struggle to the pointed

Peter-

Only some seven years after the completion of the nave of Peterborough in the Norman style the famous west front was begun in which there are but faint traces of Romanesque. It forms a magnificent portico, which like that of a Greek temple is
architecture.

fronTfio
'

"'^

of the

full

height of the building,

in front of a

western

same height. Over this transept were have been two towers, of which only one was finished, and the portico itself ends on each wing in a smaller tower crowned with a spire (Plate LXVIII). The three arches are surmounted by three gables the middle one is the nave roof prolonged, the other two run back to the towers behind them on the western transept, which has roofs gabled to north and south
transept of the
to
:

The

three

^^'^^

abutting on the return faces of the same towers.

This fa9ade has been accused of unreality. We are told by one writer that " the design is entirely unrelated that the arches are to the building which it encloses aisles behind them and the nave though height, in equal
;

Accused of
iiSgfcai


222
Peter-

EARLY ENGLISH
;

[CH. XIII

are of course unequal

that the gables have

not the

borough
cathedral

slightest relation to the roof contours,

and that the com-

position
in its

is

as

unhappy

in architectural effect as illogical

Accusation un-

founded

adjustment to the building\" This criticism, so far as relates to the construction, seems to me singularly ill-founded. The front certainly
does not correspond to the
because they do not reach
western transept which
building.
it,

aisles

how
full

could

it ?

but are intercepted by the

of the

is

height of

the

The
it

three gables are obviously the natural

;

way
see

of roofing the three bays of the Portico

fail
is,

to

how

could have been done otherwise.

It

of
is

course, a matter of taste

whether the whole design

unhappy or

not.
its

To most

people the audacity of the

conception, and

splendid breadth of light and shade,

together with the richness of the many-shafted piers and

the traceries and niches of the upper part will seem to
place the front of Peterborough high

among

the triumphs
in

of Gothic architecture where of apology.

it

would stand

no need

Trace of

Romanesque

Ruskin somewhere says this facade would have been almost unrivalled had not the middle arch been narrower This criticism leaves out all considerathan the others. tion of the two flanking towers, and regards only the ^ut I like to regard the three bays between them, composition as one not of three but of five parts, of which the three alternate bays are nearly equal, and are divided by two that are wider, and this, I think, is how So regarded the architect meant it to be considered. the difference in width seems reasonable enough. In the rose or wheel windows of the gables, which remind one of Patrixbourne, the detached paterae of the
'

Development and Character of Gothic Architecture^

C.

H. Moore,

p. 231.

Plate

LXIX
^^y^r*^-^-^

T. G.

J.

RIEVAULX ABBEY The

Choir

CH. xiii]
spandrils,

EARLY ENGLISH

223
Petercrth'elfrai

and the billets that run up the pediments, we may recognize a lingeringtrace of transitional Romanesque, and the same may be said of the two pinnacles that divide
the gables, and of the rounded pilasters that form the

angles of the flanking turrets

but

in

the shafted jambs

and deeply undercut mouldings of the arch we see the new style fairly launched into independence.
Besides the native preference for a square east end The
in

this

country which was a matter of tradition from

architecture,

squire east

Saxon

and from Celtic buildings

to

earlier

^^^
still,

another influence helped

characteristic.

implant
rule

it

as

national
in
Cistercian
for square

The

Cistercian

spread

widely

England during the 12th century; and following the example of the parent church at Citeaux, which had a square east end\ all the great Cistercian abbeys of England end eastwards in the same way. Kirkstall, Furness, Valle-Crucis, and Buildwas (Fig. 93), which have best preserved their original plans, have short aisleless presbyteries ending square without any eastern aisle or ambulatory. Abbey Dore and Byland (Fig. 93) have square east ends, and Byland has an eastern aisle also square. Dore has the same with the addition of chapels but originally it ended probably like Buildwas. Netley, Rievaulx, and Tintern (Fig. 93), which are later in date, have presbyteries with two aisles all run out to the same length, ending square and without eastern aisle
;

or

chapels.

Fountains ends square with an eastern

transept, like that at

Durham, though
.

it

is

not part of
Square
transeptal

the original plan.

The same
eastern
i.

severe squareness of outline

appears
chapels
1

m
on

the Cistercian transepts,

their

1*11 which nave

of

square

chapeis

side

instead

the apsidal

V.-le-Duc, D/cf. Rats. vol.

pp. 270-2.

Cluny and Clairvaux were

apsidal,

224

EARLY ENGLISH

[CH. XIII

The
Cistercian

plan

bo

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH

225
Cistercian

chapels of Lincoln

western porch,

sort

and Christchurch\ A Galilee or of narthex, was a Cistercian

feature, of which there are traces at Byland, Fountains, and Rievaulx, There is one still remaining at the Cistercian church of Pontigny in Burgundy.

The
to

strict

Cistercian rule forbad

all

ornamental details

Ornament

but such as were of the most abstract form.

There was

be no carving except under the most rigid restrictions. In the earlier examples, such as Buildwas and Furness,
;

the capitals were of the fluted cushion type

as at

and when,

Abbey Dore and

foliage

Valle-Crucis, anything further

was allowed the

itself well

was of the severest and most

capital lent The
in

conventional kind.
churches, are
all

The English moulded

and
Rievaulx, and Tintern,

to Cistercian requirements,

the later
capitals

Netley,

capital

the

of that sort.
like the
Cistercian

Mussulman, the Cistercian was deprived of the resources of sculpture, and confined to purely architectural form, his artistic gifts found ample room for their display within those limits. Like the
But though,

ence^of
'"^^'^'^

Arab he learned

to trust for effect to dignity of scale,

and he elaborated his building with delicate mouldings, enriched them with graceful shafts, capitals of refined profile, arcadings, and The in the later examples traceries of wondrous beauty. choir of Rievaulx (Plate LXIX), begun soon after 1203, shows what may be done with pure architectural form,
nicety of proportion,

and beauty of line

Rievaulx
^

^^

without the help of sculptured ornament.

The
:

result

is

no doubt marked by a certain dry severity it breathes an air of harshness and coldness very different from the genial Romanesque, or the more indulgent Gothic of
^

Cistercian church.
J.

Wilars de Honecort has a sketch plan which he tells us is for a Ed. WilHs. Plate XXVII. It has a square end.
G. A.

15

226
Beauty of
sites^*^"^"

EARLY ENGLISH

[ch. xiii

Wells and Peterborough. But Cistercian architecture has a charm of its own, enhanced by the lovely sites in which it is generally found. The Cistercian houses

Ornament
tecture

were to be placed in valleys, far from the madding crowd and the haunts of men, in locis a conversatione hominmn semotis. They are to be looked for in bosky dells, or wide-watered valleys, lying embosomed in ancient woods, beside crystal streams, where they now make the most romantic ruins in our land. Above all they teach the invaluable lesson, so much needed at
the present day, that architecture

does not consist

in

applying ornament to building, but in building beautifully,

which may be done without any applied ornament

whatever.
s. Saviour's

Nearly contemporary with the choir of Rievaulx, but

rather less advanced in style
cathedral,
is

Southwar'k

the choir of S. Saviour's

built after a fire in
is
1

Southwark, which was

13

(Plate

LXX).

The
all

construction

extremely massive.

The piers, alternately circular and polygonal, have clustered

shafts attached to

four sides, those carrying the arcade

corbelled off just below the capital, the others rising to

carry the vaults of nave and aisle respectively.

articulation of the
shafts.

The

bays

is

well defined

by these vaulting

The

triforium, of four equal arches to a bay, has

a solid wall at back instead of being open as usual in

England, and there

wall

is

no passage

in the thickness of the

from bay to bay.

is

The
it

clerestory,

like

that

in

Lincoln choir,

a refined version of the

Norman

triple-

arched

clerestories,

but

has only one lancet light

All the capitals are
is

instead of the three at Lincoln.

moulded.

The

wall-rib of the vault

much

stilted

and

the panel winds a great

deal in

order to give room for

vaulting
is

the arcade of the clerestory.

The

quadri-

Plate

LXX

T. G. J.

SOUTIIWARK CATHEDRAL The

Choir

CH. xiii]
partite,

EARLY ENGLISH

227

and sustained by

flying buttresses over the aisle Southwark

roofs with massive piers.

Beyond
a reredos of

the east wall of the choir, which

is

faced with

many

storied niches like those at Winchester,

is

Christchurch, and S. Alban's,

a retro-choir three bays

long and four bays wide, one bay on each side corre-

sponding to the
are of one height

aisle,

and two

to

the

choir.

Four

chapels originally occupied the east end.

All four aisles

and have quadripartite vaults, with ribs of the same section throughout, and as the ashlars are laid English fashion the conoids seem more than half-way towards the fan vaults of Gloucester\ This
retro-choir
is

charming, but

it

is

now made
is

detestably

dark by modern glass.

Contemporary with

S. Saviour's

the eastern part of

Southwell

Southwell Cathedral which was begun by Archbishop Walter de Grey in 1215. The architect here had a
and though the capitals of the main arcade are moulded, we have carved consoles and carved capitals The church being low did not for the vaulting shafts. on the inside there admit of division into three storeys triforium and clerestory being both contained are but two,
lighter hand,
;

within

pair

of lofty lancet

arches.

The

choir

at

Pershore has a similar composition but with a

arch.

triple

All the capitals at Southwell are round, and the

arches have deeply undercut mouldings.

The

exterior
at
rib,

has something of the

Lincoln.

acute severity of the choir

quadripartite with a ridge
is

The

vault

is

but the eastern bay both in choir and aisles

quinque-

These vaults as well as those of the choir were, I believe, reset by Gwilt about 1825. But it may be assumed that they have accurately followed the old plan. I remember my master, Sir Gilbert Scott, saying that Mr Gwilt took the greatest pains to keep the original design.
1

Mr

15-2

228
Southwell
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH
r
^

[ch. xiii

having a central groin springing from the middle r r pier 01 the eastern group oi tour lancets, to meet the Quinquepartite vaults occur also in the ridge rib.
partite,

choir aisles at Lincoln, and in the beautiful sacristy of

Chichester cathedral.
feature at the east

In earlier work

we have

the

same

Worcester
cathedral

end of the Church of the Hospital of S. Cross in Hampshire. In I20I Bishop Wulfstan, who had been dead a hundred and six years, suddenly began to work miracles and attract pilgrims to his cathedral at Worcester, and he was promptly canonized. Many wonders are recorded in 1220 and 1221 and the monks with equal promptitude set to work to pull down the whole eastern limb of Wulfstan's church in order to build it larger, keeping The new only the beautiful crypt which still remains. work was begun in 1224^ All arches are pointed and the original windows were simple lancets, well moulded those in the clerestory in groups of three lights of which
:

the middle one

is

the highest (Fig. 94).

The

triforium

has two arches

in

each bay, each subdivided by a colon-

and instead of being open backwards to the roof space as is usual in England it has a solid back to a passage in the thickness of the wall, decorated with arcading and with a small doorway to the roof At Southwark also, as I have space over the aisle. said, the triforium is closed by a back wall, but there is no passage in the wall. At Worcester the clerestory also has a passage in the wall which has a total thickness
nette into two lights,

of 5

feet.

The

vault

is

quadripartite with transverse

diagonal and wall ribs, and a longitudinal ridge rib with The latter bosses but no ridge rib to the cross-vaults. centre, the wall-rib the wall to the rise considerably from
*

Prof. Willis, Archaeological Journal, vol.

XX.

CH. XIIl]

EARLY ENGLISH

129
Worcester
cathedral

230
Worcester
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH
There were
.

[CH. XIII
originally / o

being" lowcr than the transverse.

no flying buttresses, but only the shallow flat buttress Fig. 94, though there is a sign of something of the kind having been contemplated under the aisle

shown on
roof.

There are now two massive

buttresses, put

up

in

1712, to arrest a serious bulging of the clerestory wall.

Salisbury cathedral

Old Sarum

Salisbury cathedral, setting aside the upper part of is one of the very few mediaeval buildings which were built at one time, with one consistent design, and therefore show but one style throughout. It marks the final development of Early English architecture as yet untouched by the traceried window, which soon after appeared and revolutionized the art. The see was first founded by Osmund on a lofty hill a few miles away at Sarum, with an establishment of a Dean and thirty-two Canons and his cathedral was consecrated in 1092 in the presence of Bishop Walkelyn whose new cathedral at Winchester was consecrated in the following year, and Bishop John de Villula who was just beginning a vast cathedral at Bath.
the tower and the spire,
:

But Sarum was a royal

insult

fortress

the soldiers and

clergy did not agree, and the Canons had to put up with

and annoyance.
the
walls

On

returning from a procession

outside

they

found themselves
ale, to

locked out.
:

bull of

had

to

Pope Honorius recites buy water at the price of

their

their grievances

they

ask leave of the

Castellan to reach their church, to hire houses of the

townsmen having none of

would be endangered
Blois
if

own, and the

laity

were

excluded from the place on the plea that the fortress

they were admitted.
as

Peter de
solitary,

describes

the

site

barren,
;

dry and

exposed to the rage of winds

captive, like the ark of

and the church

as a

God

shut up in the profane house

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH
"

231
"

of Baal.

Let us

in

God's name," he continues,

descend

Salisbury

into the level.

vallies,

There are rich champain fields and fertile abounding in the fruits of the earth, and profusely
I,

watered with the living stream." Accordingly, in the time of Richard

Bishop Herbert
The new

Poore fixed on a site in a pleasant valley called Merryfield^ and in 1220 his brother and successor Richard laid the
first

stone of the present cathedral of Salisbury.

The

superintendence of the work was entrusted to Elias de

Derham, into whose charge the bishop placed the funds "in him he reposed the greatest confidence": and Leland has preserved the name of Robert, the mason who was employed for 20 years, and who would be the
for
real architect ^

symmetrical and regular (Fig. 95), for Thesymthe architect was not controlled like French William at pian
plan
is

The

his

Canterbury by consideration work was to be joined.

able to

for older buildings to

He

had a

clear site,

which and

perfect freedom of design,

and he has therefore been what in his time was the mediaeval conception of a cathedral. On the other hand there is none of that variety which invests many of our great churches with a charm of their own. Their picturesqueness is accidental, not designed, for no one

show us

in perfection

can design an accident.

When

the

Romans

laid out a
all

new town,
streets

or

Edward

built a Bastide, of course

the

were straight, uniform in width, and at right angles the crooked and irregular streets of London, Canterbury,
1

In

Leland's

quodam fundo, /////. The seat

field
is

ubi

nunc fundata
Merifield.

est,

of Nicolas

Wadham
Batten's

at Ilton,

ex antique nomine Miryfelde. founder of the college

is

that bears his name,

was called
manor."

The word
Sou//i

said to

boundary
"

of the

Somerset,
Diet.

mean "the "Mere" or

Mear "
2

a boundary, or landmark

New

Eng.

Cited Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral.

232

EARLY ENGLISH

[CH. XIII

Salisbury cathedral

to

be

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH
result

233
Salisbury ^^

or

Norwich
field

from accident or individual fancy.

And
clear

so the architect of Salisbury cathedral having a

before

him

has

given

us

regular
it

and

symmetrical plan, there being nothing to

wise.

make

other-

Wells and Winchester the high roofs end with the choir proper, beyond which at a lower level chapels extend eastward and there are the two transepts which
at
;

As

The
tmns"ept

form a characteristic feature of great English churches. In France they occurred at the abbey of Cluny, and
they remain at the church of S. Quentin\
before the time of French William.

The second
Conrad

transept at Canterbury existed in the choir of

Besides Salisbury
is

and Canterbury the second transept

in

to

be found at

Hereford, Lincoln, Rochester, Beverley, Worcester, and

a modified form at York, Southwell, and Wells.

Ely

end, and

and Peterborough have a second transept at the west Durham and Fountains at the east. The far
proportional

greater

length

of our

English churches,

compared with those abroad, invited this second interruption of what would otherwise have been a monotonous Moreover in those churches which were divided mass. between clergy and laity the second transept converted
the

eastern

part

into
rest.

complete

transeptal

church,

independent of the

The

proportions of the three storeys at Salisbury are

nearer those of Lincoln than those of Canterbury, with

which indeed Salisbury has nothing

to do.

Dividing the

elevation as before into 32 parts, the arcade has about i6|,

Professor Willis {Archaeolog. Journal, vol. xx. p. 84) mentions another " on the Continent the only known examples of this feature are S. Benoit sur Loire {c. 1080) and Cluny {c. 1089), the former of which was doubtless the prototype of the English examples." Neither he nor Viollet^
:

instance

le-Duc mention

S.

Quentin.

234
Salisbury

EARLY ENGLISH
6,

[ch. xiii

the triforium
(Plate

LXXI)
ft.

and the clerestory about g^. The interior is lit by immense single lights, less acutely
lancets

pointed

than the
to 6
ft.

of the

north,

varying from

No church is more generously was tempered by admirable grisaille glass of which notable examples remain. Built on a vast scale and with excellent stone, and carefully finished within and without, Salisbury shows the high-water mark of the fully developed Early English style. There is indeed in the body of the church but little sculptured ornament, and the effect is produced by delicate mouldings in arch and capital, but otherwise all the resources of architecture were exhausted upon it, and there was nothing left for after ages to do but the mighty central tower and spire, for which the substructure was never intended, and which has sorely tried the fabric. Purbeck
4 or
5

in width.

lighted, but the glare

marble

is

lavishly employed, almost too lavishly,

its

use

almost amounts to an abuse.

the triforium do not

The dark marble

shafts of

ground, and
material
is

in

show well against the dark backthe Lady Chapel the rigidity of the
the

exhibited almost painfully in

four bays in length,
aisles.

extreme

attenuation of the columns that carry the vaults.

The Lady
^ ^^^^

The

chapel

is

a nave with narrow

diameter.

and is divided into The two easternmost pair

1 1

of columns are of Purbeck marble about

inches in

The westernmost
Purbeck
shafts

pair

consist

each of five

detached

standing on a

common

only 5J inches in diameter, base, rising to a great height

and jointed halfway

up,

bronze socketted band.

where they are united by a Their stability rests on the

accuracy of their setting, for the least

movement

out

of the upright, by bringing the load on one edge of the

shaft,

would mean

ruin.

They

stand, however, perfectly.

Plale

LXXII

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH
'

235
shafts.
Salisbury

Master Robert was enamoured of detached

In the transept the columns are of stone, and consist 1^/ i^ Columns of four substantial shafts g-rouped closely toP"ether but in transept
,

^"^ nave
1

columns are of stone with detached shafts of Purbeck on four sides (Fig. 75,
not touching.
In the nave the
p.

186

su/>.).

The

effect of these is
is

very satisfactory.
the ribs

The

vaulting throughout

quadripartite,

springing from short clustered shafts bracketted out from

the spandril of the triforium.

Concealed below the

architect
is

aisle

roof

is

a regular series of flying buttresses abutting too low of

to be

much

use.

The

relied

on

his sub-

stantial clerestory wall,

which

nearly 6 feet thick like

those in the earlier buildings.

few flying buttresses

;

were added

later, especially

near the tower

but with that

exception there are none apparent above the aisle roofs,

the clerestory bays being divided by shallow external
buttresses not

more pronounced than

is

in

Norman
the

work,

or in the nave of Wells which

similarly constructed.
is

The weakest

part of the interior

distinct

triforium

which instead of having two

window openings

as at Lincoln has a single opening of four lights grouped in pairs under sub-arches and enclosed by an upper arch as wide as the bay. The height being not enough for a full arch, all these arches are depressed into segmental curves with a distressing effect, the ugliness of which is not compensated by the splendour of moulding and marble shafts with which they are adorned. The shields over the heads of the lights in
this triforium

are pierced with a simple kind of plate

tracery, foretelling

what was
is

to come.
It The porch

The
is

north porch
lofty,

a magnificent piece of work.

very

and the sides are beautifully arcaded and

lined with shafts carrying plate tracery (Fig. 96).

236
General
effect of

EARLY ENGLISH
There
is
it

[CH. XIII

about Salisbury a monotony, and a rather

Salisbury cathedral

cast iron severity at first repellent, but

grows on the

it is known. The composition broken outline and varied elevation, leading up to the glorious central steeple is perhaps without a rival there is certainly no cathedral abroad that makes so complete and perfect a picture, finished so fully in every detail, so well massed and composed

imagination the better

of the exterior, with

its

(Plate
The
front

LXXII). The west front, which

at

is

rather later than the nave,

is

the least satisfactory part of the exterior.

The

criticism

aimed
for the

the front of Peterborough applies with

is

more

truth here, for there

lofty
flat

no western transept

to account

fagade between two flanking towers.

Irrespective

of that, the high-shouldered effect of the

is

Wells
cathedral
front

and the ornament is too evenly spread over the whole surface. Far more satisfactory is the front of Wells (Plate LXXII I), which is very like it in detail, but much better in general design. Built by Bishop Jocelin, perhaps
screen-wall

disagreeable

included

in

the

consecration

of

1239,
in

at

all
it

events
is

probably finished before his death

style

1242,
"

in

entirely

different

from
in

the

nave.

The west

front," says

Freeman, "is
is

built in that

form of Early
rest of the

Gothic which
style of Ely,

common
built
in

other parts of England, the

Lincoln, and Salisbury.

is

The
in

England is almost peculiar to Somersetshire, South Wales, and the neighbouring counties, and which is much more like French work\" There is evidence that the western bays of the nave were also built by Jocelin but as they,
early

work

style

which

T/ie
it

about

that

Cathedral Church of Wells, E. A. Freeman. But the only thing seems to me like French work is the square abacus.

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH

237
Salisbury cathedral

Fig. 96.

238
Wells
cathedral

EARLY ENGLISH
in

[ch. xiii

though differing
^^^
j^^

some

respects from the parts eastward,

difference

^^^

same manner, the

between

his

work

there and in the west front can only be accounted for

having brought in workmen from SaHsbury, then being built by Bishop Poore, or from the same source whence his friend got them, instead of continuing the

by

his

local

masons

whom
is

he had employed
laterally

in the early part

of his episcopate^

The
'^

by the towers which and thus give a fine breadth of front to what is really one of our smaller cathedrals. Deep buttresses project from the towers both in front and at their sides, which are filled with niches, tier above
facade

The

expanded

stand out beyond the

aisles,

tier,

for a population of

more than 300

figures.

Many
make

of these have disappeared but enough remain to

this the finest collection of figure sculpture in the

kingdom
strongly

(Plate
Horizontal
phabized

LXXIV).
is is

In the general design the horizontal line

accentuatcd, and this

one characteristic of the earlier styles of English Gothic and to some extent those of France as contrasted with the German school. It is so at York, and Salisbury, notably at Winchester and S. Alban's, and indeed in most of our great churches. Here at Wells, in the upper part of the towers which date from the end of the 14th and the 15th centuries, the
vertical line

Jocelin's

the last
side,
1

more strongly expressed but below, in work the band of little niches with figures of judgement forms a level freize from side to
is
;

and

in the
at

middle there
may

is

not even a gable, but a

The work

Lincoln

also have influenced that in the front of

Wells, for
brother.

Hugh

of Wells, bishop of Lincoln

1209

1234,

was

Jocelin's

Plate

LXXIV

f^r

,i>'

.>

T. G.

J.

WELLS CATHEDRAL View

from Cloister

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH
in several storeys finishing

239
square wdis
cathedral

composition of niches
at top.

Both

at

Wells and Salisbury the doors form a very

The
porfaT

insignificant feature in the design of the fa9ade.

During

the Gothic period a great west portal never formed part

of the architect's

scheme in England as it did in France, where the utmost resources of the art were lavished upon In the earlier churches of the Norman style more it. was made of it than afterwards in Remigius's cathedral at Lincoln, and in many smaller churches such as Castle Rising and Iffley, the west doors were treated with dignity but the main entrance was usually by a side door with a porch, and the west door was seldom used\ Even in the Norman time it was so: most of the fine
: :

The
sidf door
^"'^ po^'^^

and

Norman doors of our village churches are at the side in many cases there is no door at all at the west Durham had originally fine western doorways, but end.
they were masked as early as the 12th century by the
Galilee,

At

Wells, Salisbury, Christchurch, Worcester,

is

Gloucester, and Canterbury the side door

entrance,

the principal

and is preceded by a beautiful porch which is one of the most important features of the exterior. The most splendid Norman porch and doorway in the kingdom are at Malmesbury, and they are on the south side of Westminster alone has a great portal in the church. the French fashion, but it is at the transept and not at the west end, and the most beautiful entrances at Lincoln are by the Galilee attached to the south transept and by
Our English climate had no doubt a good deal to do with it. There is Lord Grimthorpe's humorous if ungrammatical remark, "although a west tower door is very common, and looks well outside, there is no denying
1

truth in
that

is practically almost a nuisance, and is generally disused, from it allowing the wind to blow straight into the church, and therefore it is no

use to build them so."

(A book on building,

p.

255.

Weale's Series.)

240

EARLY ENGLISH

[CH. XIII

the magnificent south door of the presbytery.

Peter-

German
side doors

borough alone by its splendid portico emphasizes the western approach in a worthy manner. The same preference for a side entrance, and the same or even greater neglect of the west approach is characteristic of German churches even in the Romanesque time.

Ely
Galilee

porch

Ely has a fine west entrance, though still on a moderate scale, erected by Bishop Eustace between 1 197 and 1220 together with a western porch or Galilee The side walls are in front of it of remarkable beauty. arcaded in two storeys of which the lower is recessed with two planes of arches joined by a narrow vault.
S. Alban's has a beautiful western porch very like this at

S. Alban's

porch

Ely and of the same

date.

Ely presbytery

In S. Etheldreda, or Audrey, Ely had a popular saint,

The Norman
apse

Ely presbytery

whose shrine was much frequented by pilgrims, for whose accommodation more space was wanted, and in the 13th century a great eastward extension was made, as was done also for a similar reason at Canterbury, The Norman Worcester, Winchester, and Durham. choir at Ely seems to have finished eastward with a simple semi-circular apse, having no circumambient ambulatory like that built by Abbot Simeon's brother at Winchester\ This Norman east end was pulled down by Bishop Northwold, and between 1235 and 1251 the present presbytery was built which is perhaps the most splendid example of pure Early English work in the Unlike Winchester and Salisbury, where the kingdom.
eastern
^

parts are at a lower level, the roof

is

carried

show

Curiously enough the foundations, which have been explored, seem to that at some time after the semi-circle had been built the east end was

altered to a square.

Plate.

LXXV

///
II (J

T. G. J.

ELY CATHEDRAL The

Presbytery

CH. xiiij

EARLY ENGLISH
height to the
-I

241
Ely
cathedral.

of
r

its
1

full

nnishes with a

T magnincent

extreme east end, where it r composition ot three huge

The
^^^^ ^ ^^^

surmounted by five lights above, rising to the centre, and three lights higher still to illumine the roof space, set between two blank arches. The flanking buttresses have niches as at Wells but have lost their figures. It would be difificult to overpraise the interior of this It is much more satisfactory than lovely presbytery. that of Salisbury. Here sculpture comes to the aid of architecture, and though a generous use is made of Purbeck marble it is employed with much greater The main columns are judgement (Plate LXXV). cylinders of this material surrounded by four larger
single lights below,

and four smaller colonnettes of the same, attached to the main shaft by moulded bands. The capitals are well
carved with Early English foliage, the arches are richly

which the outer is enriched The triforium has two trefoiled lights with dog-teeth. under an including arch with rosettes and plate tracery in the shield, the jambs being deeply splayed and set thick with Purbeck shafts, between which vigorous

moulded

in several orders of

crockets of Early English foliage sprout forward.

The

clerestory has three lancet lights with a passage in the

and an inner arcade of three arches on Purbeck shafts, the middle one the highest, the others cusped in The vault is of the the outer sweep of their arch.
wall,

English
ridge

type

now

fully

developed,

with level crown,

It springs from wall and intermediates. shafts of Purbeck, rising from beautifully carved consoles of the same marble in the spandrils of the main arcade.
ribs,

The
J.

ashlar of the vaulting panels

is

laid

English fashion,

and there are regular flying buttresses exposed outside.

G. A.

16

242
Durham
Chapel of
nine altars

EARLY ENGLISH
The
cult

[CH. XIII

of S. Cuthbert at

Durham demanded

similar eastward extension to contain the shrine of the

and accommodate the crowd of pilgrims. The nature of the site forbad any long addition eastwards, and the
saint

new

building took the form of an eastern transept, the

chapel of nine altars, like that completed just before at

Fountains Abbey.

The

east wall

is

sustained by four

enormous buttresses with two smaller between each pair, on which the vaulting ribs converge. Two tiers of windows fill the intervals, each with a passage in the wall, an air of tremendous strength being given by their plain square cut jambs, and the severity of the
great lancet lights.
the

A rich

wall-arcade runs round below

window

cills,

against which on the east wall stood

the nine altars (Plate

LXXVI).
in

The work was begun

cathedral,

1243, five years after the

death of Bishop Richard Poore, the builder of Salisbury

who had been translated to Durham in 1229, and though not started in his lifetime the project was no doubt due to him. As it was not finished till 1280 this
chapel of the nine altars
is

the

last,

as

it

is

also in its

way

the grandest example on a large scale of the Early

style,

English

which before
into

its

completion had already

Gothic.

begun

to

pass

geometrical

The new
is

addition involved the removal of S. Carilef's apse, and

the reconstruction of the choir vault which

in

described

Prior Melsanby's appeal as ruinous and dangerous\ piece of

:

A
The
architect

good fortune has preserved the

''

architect's
is

name

a conveyance of a piece of land in the Bailey

witnessed by

agister Ricardus de

Farinham, tunc

architector novae fabricae Dzmelm,'' and a stone on a

buttress at the east
1

end

is

inscribed with the

name

of

V. sup. p. 185, note.

Plate

LXXVI

T. G. J.

DURHAM The

Eabteru Transept

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH
petram Thomas Moises.

243
Nicolas Durham

a mason, Posuit hanc

de Farnham was bishop of

Durham from
great round

1241 to 1249,
suggests,

and the

architect,

as

Canon Greenwell

may

have been his brother\ the middle bay in the upper part is the Canon Greenwell says it replaced in 1795 not the original window but one put there in the 15th century. At the north end is a fine geometrical traceried window apparently an early alteration from the lancet window But we must leave design of the original architect.
tracery to be dealt with in another chapter.

The

window filling work of Wyatt

The
shafts,

vaulting

is

peculiar.

It

springs from clustered

some of which

are of marble, and the ribs impinge

on

circular eyes or rings

which are beautifully carved.

is

The

general construction

a kind of quadripartite, but

an eccentric rib cuts irregularly across the two side bays

very awkwardly.
In this splendid chapel, as also in Lincoln, Ripon,
PecuU-

Hexham, and the Yorkshire abbeys, and farther still at Glasgow and Elgin one finds a different feeling from the contemporary early English of the South. There is a
sharpness here and a vigour
the narrower lights, the
in the

Northern

acute lancet heads,

the bolder forms which contrasts with the

more trenchant mouldings, and more elegant

its

grace of Ely and the fronts of Peterborough and Wells.

Even

Salisbury, in spite of

avoidance of sculptured
in its

ornament and a certain hardness

details,

sharp undercut

breathes a gentler air in

her wider lights and her

confined York
transepts

less sharply

pointed lancets.
cathedral the Early English style
is

At York

to the transept, north and south, which

was

built in the

time of Archbishop Walter Grey (12 15

1

1255)

who
16

lies

W.

Greenwell,

Durham

Cathedral^ p. 58, 5th ed.


244
York
cathedral transept

EARLY ENGLISH
Michael.

[CH. XIII

buried in the eastern aisle of the south transept in the

chapel of S.

His tomb may challenge comWestminster, as one of the most Gothic architecture.

parison with those of Bishop Bridport at Salisbury and

Aymer de Valence
beautiful

at

monuments

in

The
transept

south transept was finished in 1241; the north

was built and in 1247 finished by John le Romain, canon and treasurer from 1250 to 1260, a Roman whose son afterwards succeeded to the arch" The well-known group of the " five-sisters bishopric. In spite of many beauties, howneeds no description.
ever,

the
is

proportions

of

the

three

storeys

in

these

transepts

not agreeable.
in

Dividing the elevation into

they are apportioned as

32

parts
:

as

former cases

follows

Arcade,

roughly

The
triforium

The
wooden
roofs

Beverley minster

CH. xiii]

EARLY ENGLISH

245

Fig- 97-

(From Archaeol.

Inst.

Proceedings. 1846.)

246
Beverley minster

EARLY ENGLISH
York
called a minster,
is

[ch. xiii

Cathedral of

of early English

Its great

scale

date. This part includes the choir, the two transepts and One bay of the nave. The plan is on the scale of a cathedral the great transept has aisles on both sides, the eastern transept one on its eastern side, and preparation was made by four mighty piers for a central tower that was never achieved. The windows are all singlelight lancets, and the foliage of the capitals is of a simple early type like that in S. Hugh's work at Lincoln. The
;

three storeys are well proportioned, with a lofty arcade

and a
The

fine

clerestory

(Fig.

97).

There

is

no open

triforium,

but blank arcading of four trifoliated arches

on Purbeck marble colonnettes, behind which and touching it is a second arcade on colonnettes that stand in the middle of the front arches, the two arcades alternating
like the

Hugh's work at Lincoln (Fig. 83, p. 204, sup.). The back wall is very thin, and behind it a deep semi-circular arch is turned from pier For these arches in the second and third bay to pier. westward, and therefore beyond the Early English part, some Norman stones with zigzags on them are used, relics employed at second-hand as I conceive of the old Norman nave arcade\ This double arcading instead
wall arcading in S.

of a real triforium evidently caught the local fancy, for

and continued in the 14th century nave westwards, though with stone colonnettes
it

was

carefully

imitated

instead of marble.
has been supposed at Beverley that these are really Norman arches but they are far too high up for that, and they occur in the 14th century nave and spring from masonry of that date.
1

It

in position

CHAPTER XIV
THE EARLY POINTED ARCHITECTURE OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND COMPARED

The

account of the Early Gothic schools of France

and England has now been brought up to the time when both in construction and design they had been developed on original lines, free from trace of Romanesque influence. It will have become evident that by the middle of the 13th century they had so far diverged as to fall
into distinct national styles, with

Diver-

French
English
^^^^'^

many points

of difference

between them, and as time went on this difference was While in the 14th century English Gothic accentuated. melted into the graceful curvilinear Decorated style of the Lady Chapel at Ely, Selby, and the choir screen at
Southwell, the

English

which

in the later

French persisted in geometrical forms examples became attenuated and wirein stone,

drawn, triumphs less of art than of engineering

as for instance in S. Urbain at Troyes.

Before this phase ended English architecture had again passed into a new phase and stiffened into the Perpendicular of the eastern .t, r ^~>^ part of Gloucester m 1337 1377; and it was not till the 15th century that France broke out into that wild luxuriant Flamboyant style which has given us S. Maclou at Rouen, the north-west steeple at Chartres, and the gorgeous church of Brou-en-Bresse which may be con.

English perpendicuiar

French
boyant

248
Early Gothic in France

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

[ch. xiv

trasted with the contemporary Perpendicular

become luxuriant,

of Henry VI

once more

I's

chapel at Westminster.

and England compared

Both countries had mastered the science of constructing and panels, instead of the plain cross-groining of the crypts at Winchester and Canterbury, or the barrel vaults of Aries and Autun. In both the system of resistance to the thrust of vaulting was understood and successfully applied, but at first the French pushed it to its extreme logical consequences more thoroughly than was done on this side of the
vaults over wide spans, with ribs

Channel.
The
ideal of Gothic construction

The
in

constructional theory of a Gothic church, in per-

fection, is this.

Support should be given at those points the articulation of a buildino^ on which the thrusts are
it

concentrated by large buttresses at right angles to the

realized in

France

and King's College Chapel at Cambridge, or when removed out beyond an aisle bridging across it by a flying arch. These buttress piers may be regarded as sections of the side wall, wheeled round at right angles to the axis of the building. The space vacated by them is filled by curtain walls, which receive no thrust, have only themselves to carry, and may therefore consist mainly of windows. At Amiens and Beauvais we see this theory of construction thoroughly worked out. The lower windows of the aisles are enormously wide and reach the piers that divide them are very from pier to pier
wall, either directly applied to

as in the Ste Chapelle

little

sists

the triforium conwider than the outside buttress passage between them, the of two thin walls with a
:

inner wall, being pierced with traceried openings

and

the whole width of the space above which closes the side
vault
is

occupied by an immense window whose outer

arch forms the wall-rib of the vault.

The

piers

between

CH. xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

windows are only wide enough
massive pier

249

these clerestory

to receive

the flying buttresses which sustain the nave vaults, and

descend on the
Beauvais and
still

beyond the

aisle.

At
is

in

the nave of S. Denis the structure

by piercing the back wall of the windows looking over the aisle roofs, which are kept down on purpose. Both at Amiens and Beauvais the clerestory and triforium are combined, and at the latter especially the triforium becomes part of the fenefurther lightened
triforium with
stration.

The
friforium

By way of still further lightening the construction

is

the clerestory passage which

a constant

feature
in

in
tri-

Romanesque churches
passage
is

is

abandoned.

That

the
;

forium remains, but the outer wall goes no higher

wall alone

the

roofed with an exterior terrace, and the inner

is

carried

up

for the clerestory

is

window.
its

Thus every atom

right

of material

economized, and the

building consists of a series of parallel buttress-piers at economy

angles to the wall and

is

the axis of the church,

tapisserie,

^"pp^

between which
glass, to

curtain,

a
in

chiefly

of

exclude weather, which

theory might be taken

In practice of

away without disturbing the

structure.

course the piers are steadied by the great arcades and

the arches of triforium and clerestory.
piers receive through the

The

buttress-

medium

of the flying buttresses

the thrust of the high vaults, and the building stands by

equilibrium of contending forces.

These great

piers

and flying arches are frankly

in

acknowledged, regarded as features

;

the architecture,

and often treated ornamentally and the whole system is expressed visibly and intelligibly, thus satisfying our third general canon of architectural orthodoxy.
In England, though

we

see that this system

was

well

English
not

understood, and was more or less completely employed

ideal

250
English
avoidi

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

[ch. xiv

at Lincoln,

Norwich, Bath, Malmesbury, not to say at Canterbury and Westminster where French influence
in,

exueme

comes
It is

and seldom pushed

at

many

other places, yet

it

was

at first

in the

same way

to its full logical extreme.

in anything.

perhaps our way not to do this

;

We

are a people given to compromise

to think that

times the half

is

better than the whole.

We

somehave a

natural suspicion of theory, and put a higher value on

English
aversion
flying
uttress

temper that has saved us from French revolutions our political reforms have been worked out gradually and tentatively, not through blatant political clubs, nor by following doctrinaire teaching, or gospels according to Jean Jacques. We do not therefore find in the earlier Gothic of England that triumphant display of constructive science which we see at Amiens. For one thing our churches, though covering as much, or perhaps more ground, are never so high as those French churches where this construction is most thoroughly developed, and there was not the same But independently of these motives need of economy.
practice.
It
is

this
:

the EugHsh, like

the

Italians,

aversion from

the

flying

seem to have had an buttress, and to have sup-

pressed

it

as

much

as they could.

The
tie

Italians, rather

than support a vault or an arch by a buttress, preferred

to

confine the thrust

;

by an

iron

at

or near the

and the English when they did use the flying when possible to hide it under the aisle roofs. This in many cases made it useless, for the head of the buttress was too low to receive the thrust of the vault the proper place for abutment being about one In many cases they are third up the curve of the arch. not wanted at all as for instance where the vaults took the place of an old Norman ceiling of wood, and where the
springing
buttress tried
; ;

CH.xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

walls

251

Norman
in
flat

were retained though re-cased or otherwise

is so,

Gothicized.

In the nave at Winchester this

ft.

the walls winvault

the clerestory being 7

in.

thick, or including the nave

Norman

buttress outside 9 feet (Fig. 169, Chap, xxi

William of Wykeham's vault might have been trusted to rest securely. His architect, William
//".).

On

this

Wynford, however, did construct flying buttresses across the aisle, which are curiously combined in one with the transverse arch of the aisle vault, and are hidden under
the roof.

They

are quite useless, abutting far too low,

and

in fact

they take no thrust from the nave vault, for

the aisle wall on which they bear has settled outwards,

drawing them with

joints

it,

and leaving the nave walls upright.

In consequence the flying buttresses had sunk, their

had opened, and they were doing harm rather than good\ At Gloucester in the same way the thick Norman wall remains in the nave, to which a Gothic vault was affixed in the 13th century, and here there are occasional flying buttresses hidden under the roof, three on one side and two on the other, placed apparently where signs of movement had appeared. At Worcester it is the same. The choir vault has no flying buttresses except two massive constructions of masonry built in 1 71 2 when movement of the choir walls had given alarm. At Tewkesbury there are none at all, and it may be in order to escape the need of any that the springing of the vault is kept so low in the wall as to cramp the upper storeys. Our national square east end also gave no opportunity for flying buttresses like the French ckevet, round which
'

Gloucester

Worcester

Tewkes'^'"^^^"

In the recent repairs

have raised and wedged them up

but they are

of httle use.

The

outer wall has been securely buttressed.

252

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

[ch. xiv

they cluster thickly on radiating lines as at Beauvais and

Cologne, and form one main feature of the design.

s. Paul's

Lastly, at S. Paul's, Sir Christopher's flying buttresses

a'*e

bunSsses

carefully hidden behind

aisle,

the great masking wall of

it

the

a deception for which

is

difficult to find

an

excuse.
Norman
sliffident

In considering the system of vaulting and

at

its
it

supports

Winchester, Gloucester, and Tewkesbury

that in each of

should be

abutment

remembered
to

them the vault was applied a Norman wall of great thickness, carried up without

diminution to the top, with passages in the thickness of

the wall both in the triforium, and except at Winchester where the design has interfered with it, in the clerestory also. It is the same in the other great Norman churches, Chichester, Durham, Ely, Peterborough, and S. David's, in none of which originally vaulting over the nave was seriously attempted. Those of them to which a nave vault was added in a later style really hardly needed buttresses at all, and some have done entirely without

them.
Thick

But even
'"

in those

English churches of the 12th and

a view to being

waib"
England

13th centuries which were built with

vaulted
style

we

find the clerestory

passage of the

Norman

still

retained, giving a thick

clerestory wall like

that of the older buildings.

This
in

is
1
1

the case at Canterbury

74,

though

and in the choir of S. at Lincoln, in the early pointed work at Southwark and Wells, at Beverley, Salisbury and Rochester, and even in buildings of fully developed decorated work at Carlisle and the angel choir at Lincoln. In the Presbytery at York, built between 1361 and 1373, though the window of the clerestory is set in the inside of the wall, the architect would not forego his thick wall and has
built

by a Frenchman

Hugh

cH.xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

it

253

recovered
(Fig.
98),

in

a curious

way by an
clerestory

exterior arcade York

thus
in.

making a

passage outside

instead of

Fig. 98.

In early work, with which alone

we have

hitherto Waii

been concerned, the clerestory consists either of single reSedir

lights as at Canterbury, or

double lights as at Southwell,

^"festory

or

triple

as

at

Lincoln,

grouped

in

the bay but not

254
Wall
space in English
clerestory

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

[ch. xiv
lights

conjoined into a single window.

With separate
It

such as these of course a good deal of solid wall necessarily

remained

in the clerestory.

remained also when

there.
It

Its

reduction

was not till later that the clerestory passage disappeared, and that the windows expanded to the width of the bay as in the French perfected system, and as at the choir of Norwich,

windows of decorated tracery appeared

the transept of Chester, at Exeter, Bath, King's College

Chapel at Cambridge, and the contemporary chapels at Westminster and Windsor, forming the upper storey into
a lantern of glass, glazed between slender piers carrying
vaults supported
English
construction not

by buttressing on the

outside.

It

is

plain

therefore that in

Early English work,

down
same

to the latter part of the 13th century the science

pushed
to logical

of constructing vaulted buildings was not pushed to the

logical

extreme

result

as

in

the contemporary buildings

of France.

understood, as
the
S.

The art of opposing thrust to thrust was we see by the work in the nave and by
;

vault and flying buttresses which were added to Hugh's choir at Lincoln between 1239 and 1255 but it was applied imperfectly. The English architects did not choose to take full advantage of it by reducing the thickness of the clerestory and curtain walls between one they still liked to see subbuttress pier and another stantial walls, and perhaps valued the convenience of a
;

clerestory passage in case of repairs.

Mr
Moore's
definition

For
their

this reluctance of the

English school to pursue

of Gothic

system of construction to the same logical result as that achieved at Amiens Mr Moore says it is not Gothic Real Gothic according to him is only found in at all.
aisled

and vaulted churches, where equilibrium is attained by counter-thrust, and by counter-thrust alone. There must be a chevet with radiating chapels. The vaults

cH.xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

255

must rest on transverse, diagonal, and wall -ribs, but must Mr on no account be incorporated with them. The ribs of definUion ^^"^^'^ the high vaults must spring from shafts rising from the floor and grouped with the piers of the arcade, together with other shafts carrying the main arches and the aisle vaults. There must be an outside buttress in the triforium rising into the clerestory and exposed, against which the " Walls proper are almost entirely flying buttress abuts.
omitted.
walls of the

Those that are retained are the low enclosing ground story, and the spandrils of the various
spaces between the piers are entirely open,

arcades.
like

The

the intercolumniations of a colonnade.

They

are

formed into vast windows divided by mullions and tracery which support the iron bars to which the glazing is
attached \"

This
else, for

is

an admirable description of a

3th century

its in-

French cathedral, such as Amiens, and apparently little even Reims does not seem quite to satisfy the But to say this and nothing else is Gothic is not writer. inconvenient, for there is no other word to describe only
the style generally, but also quite misleading because
it

^ ^^"^'^^

limits

the

style

to

only one

of

its

manifestations.

Amiens may show

it

the

most perfect development

art, that

of

Gothic principles as applied to vaulted construction.

only illustrates one chapter of the

But

of vaulting,

and vaulting however important does not cover the whole ground. Gothic art is something far wider. Exception might even be taken to some of Mr Moore's conditions, on the ground that an architectural feature is only justified by a structural meaning. For instance the wall-rib does not really belong to the vault at all, but to the wall into which it is bonded. It is rather ornamental
*

ExcephiTcon^'''"^

C,

H. Moore, Gothic architecture^

p. 20.

256

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

It is often

[ch. xiv

than necessary.
rests

omitted, and the side panel

on a chase or set-off in the wall just as welP. Again there is no structural reason for carrying the

shafts that support the ribs of the high vaults

down

to

the ground

for as Viollet-le-Duc points out, the thrust

and weight fall mostly on the back of the pier towards the aisle, and the front may be retired without danger.
This
justifies

the

common

English habit of corbelling out

the vaulting shafts from the spandrils of the great arcade,

as in the choir of Ely, the nave

and presbytery
Again,
if

at Lincoln,

and the nave and choir at Exeter, or even from the

triforium spandrils as at Wells.
essential

a chevet

is

Mischief of the
limitation of the

term

what becomes of Laon French churches like S. Serge at Angers } This attempt to limit the term " Gothic " is not as It touches might be supposed a mere matter of words. the whole conception of Gothic art by attempting to What other word is confine it to one of its phenomena. there to cover the whole of mediaeval art through the whole period and in all its branches, which all reflect equally the mediaeval mind, whether the medium be
and other square-ended

wood

or stone, glass or iron, painting or sculpture, prose

Gothic the
style of youthful

same restless energy, the same striving for more perfect modes of expression, the same discontent with what had been done and the same rush ever onward to something new. It was the time of If it was the youth, almost of the childhood, of Europe. the age of faith it was also the age of credulity and
or poetry.

In

all

we

see the

Europe

superstition.

Like children the men of that time were

always asking "why," and not satisfied with an answer

was not positive and authoritative. The world of unseen powers was ever near them, good and evil,
that

V. Plate

VI,

p. 72, sup.

cH.xiv]
saints

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

;

257

and devils, especially the devils. It was a time of ever widening intelligence of the beginnings of science, even if it were confused with witchcraft of the stirrings
:

of philosophy, the cult of Aristotle, the disputes of the

School-men and the battle, of which the far-off echoes reach us, between Nominalists and Realists. We can
read
is

all

this in the art.

Gothic

in all its various

branches

Gothic

the true expression of the mediaeval mind.

In the ofA?^'^^
mfnd^^"^^

great prelates

we

see the religious fervour which inspired

them
of

to undertake these vast constructions to the

honour

God and

the glory of their peculiar saint, not less than

the desire to eclipse the splendour of the nearest minster.

In the people

who

supplied the means, and poured their

riches into the coffers of the church

we

see the blind of these holy

devotion which hoped with the

buildings to pave a

stones

we

see the passion for

way to heaven. In the architects new experiments and daring feats

them
its restless

of construction never before attempted which drove

from style to

style,

abandoned
still

as

soon as mastered.
^'^^^^^^

The

art

never stood

in

painting and sculpture any

more than

in architecture. From the heavy mosaic glass which sheds a dim mystery on the aisles of Canterbury, Chartres, and Bourges, betraying, as Mr Winston observes, the origin of the art in sunny lands, the design

soon passed to the

grisaille of Salisbury

and Angers, and

the seven sisters at

York

to the lighter treatment of

at
;

Oxford and on to the brilliant glass of the east windows of York and Gloucester. The progress of sculpture was not less rapid from the stiff conventional figures of Aries, S. Gilles, and V^zelay, to the classic grace of Chartres, Paris, and Reims, and the fine statuary of Wells and Westminster. To understand the meaning of Gothic art it is necessary to regard it as
J.

Wells and Merton Chapel

G. A.

17

258
Gothic the
of the

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

_
.

[ch. xiv'

a wholc, Hot piecemeal, as in fact the language by which

the mind of the Middle
.

Ages found outward and

visible

Middle

Ages

expression

m
.

every

rield oi art.

The
artists

and their craftsmen it has been the fashion to imagine them working with a piety and devotional fervour now unknown. But I fancy they were very like the workmen and artists of the present day, allowing for difference of education and knowledge. Art and religion I fear do not always go hand in hand, and if Fra Angelico rose from his knees to paint his pictures, Perugino whose work breathes the tenderest
for the artists

As

religious

feeling was, according to Vasari,

infidel.

little

better

than an

The

art-workers of the Middle

Ages

shared of course the religious beliefs as well as the

superstitions of the day.

In the

Romanesque period we

read of diabolic interruptions of the holy. work, and of

miraculous assistance by saints and angels, but these are

confined to that period,

when

the cloister was the crafts-

man's school and monkish hands and brains were employed on the building. When the art passed into the hands of laymen we hear no more of these supernatural interventions, and the chronicles are silent about the triumphs of the Gothic school, which no longer had the same
interest for a
later schools

monkish historian. The sculptors of the amused themselves with ridicule of the holy
and the Benedictines of Norwich,
objection to caricatures of
stalls.

fathers of rival orders,

like the rest,

made no

monks

and
Mediaeval scamping

friars in

the misereres of their

I work always as well done in the Middle Ages as it should have been. There was bad building and scamping then as now. Not to go beyond my own experience, I have constantly been surprised by the carelessness of the old builders about

Nor,

regret to say, was the

CH.xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

At Winchester they

259

their foundations.

are laid on a

peat bog and stand in water.

Fortunately the walls are

unusually well built for that time, or the settlements,

dreadful as they were, would have been worse, and the

cathedral would long ago have been in ruin.

At

Christ-

church priory the south side of the nave has had to be

underpinned. At S. Cross the foundations are on soft wet ground, and serious settlements have taken place. At Ashbourne the subsoil is as bad as at Winchester, and the foundations are only of rough stone loosely piled
together without any mortar.

At Bishop's Waltham the

is

footings are laid on the top of the ground which

clay.

of

The mortar

is

often

mere

rubbish.

The

lovely

Early English tower of S. Mary's at Stamford, to which

Walter Scott used to take off his hat when posting through the town northwards, is put together with nothing
Sir

but dirt scraped off the road containing very

if

little

lime,

any.

It is

the

tower and spire

is

same at the pretty little 13th century of Duddington a few miles away, and
in

probably no better

most of the

fine

churches of
spire
fell,

Northamptonshire.

At Chichester, before the

the mortar of the interior of the piers ran out like water

when a stone was withdrawn, and I am told it was just the same at Peterborough. For all these sins of our mediaeval masters we are now paying the penalty. It seems to have been much the same in France, for
remarks that the execution of Gothic work, with a few exceptions, is far inferior to that of
Viollet-le-Duc
the

Romanesque

builders,

who showed much

greater

care and deliberation than their successors in preparing

masonry and in carrying it out. But though the men of the Middle Ages had their defects and their shortcomings like ourselves, they had
for their

172

26o
The
mediaeval
artistic

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

[ch. xiv

tempera-

ment

what we have In a great measure lost, a lively and free artistic temperament, which made it natural and easy for them to do things beautifully, because they did them For they had the inestimable advantage unconsciously. they knew no other style but their of having no choice own and had no more idea of any other way of expressing themselves in stone or wood, glass or metal, than they had in words. Whereas we, with our knowledge of all we the schools and all the ages, are hampered by it cannot forget it if we would, we ought not to try to do so if we could, for it is the condition of our day, and
;

therefore should enter into the conception of our art

it

if

is

to represent us.

But
is

this

does not mean imitation.

So long
long
will

as our

work

consciously imitated from what

was done
have any

in other
it

days and under other conditions so

be unreal.

The

only modern work that will

interest for our children will

be such as has

come
Conclusion

naturally and unconsciously to the artist to

meet

the occasion.

Unfortunately there

is

little

of

it.

Before closing the subject of French Geometrical

Gothic
arrived.

let

us briefly review the final result at which

It is

it

the outcome, as

have

tried to show, of

strict logical

progression from stage to stage, and

we
its

cannot but admire the steadiness and sureness of

advance.

Advantage was taken of every accident, of every experiment, to economise material, reduce obstructions,

and suppress

all

that did

not form part of the

constructional

skeleton.

But however much we may

in the

admire the science displayed

question obtrudes
itself

perfected style the

whether it did not go too far. In buildings where everything depends on the equilibrium of forces, where thrust must balance thrust and nothing is in repose, where no margin is left for safety, and

CH. xiv]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC

261

every part depends on the rest standing firm, so that if one gave way the rest would follow, one doubts whether

and whether too much has not been sacrificed to engineering ingenuity. Experience justifies this doubt. Amiens, where the theory of stability
the result
is

worth the

risk,

by equilibrium of forces finds the fullest expression, has had to be held together by iron cramps all along the gallery Beauvais and S. Denis have their buttress-piers Seez tied together with iron to prevent their buckling cracked and settled and threatened ruin long ago, and S. Quentin has I hope has by this time been repaired been propped and banded with iron and narrowly escaped Other instances are numerous. Fortunately collapse.
: : :

France

is

not subject to earthquakes, or

imagine a

shaken and decrepit though it be, would lay any one of the French cathedrals later than
S.

much down

milder shock than any that have failed to bring

Sophia,

that of

Reims
is

level with the ground.

it is

Logic

not everything, and in England

not our

way

to hunt our conclusions to death.

fine,

Our
in

buildings do

not drive things so

but leave something over and

do.

above the
I

least that

would

And

often turn from the fine-spun edifices of the

France I confess end of the

13th and the 14th centuries to the

scientific

solidity

of

the

preceding

more generous, if less period. For me

French Geometrical Gothic seems to have reached its highest achievement at Reims rather than at Amiens.
To-day,
press,

Sept.

21,

1914,

while

these sheets are passing through the

comes the news of the destruction of Reims cathedral by the brutal savagery of " cultured" Germany. We are told there was no military reason for it. The church was serving as a military hospital for wounded German prisoners, who were with difficulty saved by their French captors from destruction by the fire of their own side. The finest monument of French
architecture has been sacrificed to glut the disappointed fury of the invading

hordes, baulked of the easy triumph they intended.

CHAPTER XV
WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT
The Conchurch

The Norman church of the abbey of Westminster was begun by Edward the Confessor in 1055, and the choir was consecrated in 1065 when he was too ill to
attend, just before his death.

The name
By
his

of his architect,

"Godwin,

called Great Syd, master cementarius of the

church," has been preserved'.

name and

that
it

of his son Aelfwin he must have been a Saxon, and

is curious that he should have been the architect of what William of Malmesbury calls the first church built in

England
King Henry III

after the

Norman manner.
till till

The nave seems

1

not to have been begun

after the Conquest, in

100.

This church stood

-^^

the middle of the 13th century,

^^

reign of

Henry HI.

That

prince, Dante's king

:

he had an unbounded passion for architecture and the sister, and then subsidiary, arts of painting and sculpture, and
for collecting beautiful stuffs, jewellery,
relics.

of simple life^ was the greatest virtuoso of his time

Of

the last article on this

list

and not least of all there was no lack

of supply at that age, and

we hear

of a phial of the

Holy

* Charter in 29th Report of the Record Office. Cited W. R. Lethaby, Westminster Abbey and Craftsmen, p. 102. ^ Vedete il Re della semplice vita Seder Ik solo, Arrigo d' Inghilterra, Questi ha ne' rami suoi migliore uscita. Purgat. vn. 130.

Plate

LXXVII

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

CH. XV]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
left

263

Blood, warranted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and a

stone with a footprint

by our Saviour

at his Ascension,

which the king bore in procession from S. Paul's to Westminster. To Henry's taste for art we owe what
I

venture to

call

the

loveliest

of

all

churches (Plate

LXXVII),
of his

but his people had good reason to complain

in building

and the extortion by which it was supported, as the subjects of Solomon and Justinian in their time had done for the same reason. As early as 1220 a Lady Chapel had been built at the east end of the Confessor's apse, no doubt in the It had a wooden roof, and from style of Salisbury.
extravagance
traces that

The

first

chapei

have been found

its

it

seems

to

have occupied

the area of the nave of

of

successor, the present chapel

Henry VII.
1

To

this the

king had been a contributor.

241 he had ordered a golden shrine for the Confessor, and was no doubt contemplating the rebuilding of the
In

abbey church itself. After two years of preparation the work was begun The management of the expenses was entrusted in 1 245. to Odo the Goldsmith and Edward his son, who acted
as treasurers, like Julianus Argentarius for Justinian at

The new

Ravenna, and Elias de Derham

bury.

for

Bishop Poore

at Salis-

The

industry of Professor Lethaby^ has recovered

king's master-masons, the actual archi-

the

names of the

tects of the building.

The

credit of the general design The

first

of the presbytery and transepts, and the

bay of the

choir west of the crossing seems due to Master

Henry of

was succeeded in 1253 by Master John of Gloucester, who was followed by Master Robert But Master Henry's of Beverley from 1262 to 1280.
Westminster.
*

He

W.

R. Lethaby, Westminster Abbey

and Craftsmen.

work

for

which

students of English Art will be very grateful.

264
The
architects of the

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

commanded such

[ch.

xv

design

respect that both his successors,

instead of working in the style of their

own

day, as was

Abbey

usual in the Middle Ages, kept to the design of their predecessor, with only a few minor differences of detail.

These all held the office of King's Mason, for the work was done by the king and not by the monks, the church
having always been regarded as a sort of royal foundation, and to this day at the time of a coronation the state
officials
Position of the

take possession of

it

for that ceremonial.

In contrasting the modern architect with those

to

men

mediaeval
architect

The school
and the
individual

whose genius we Middle Ages, the position of the latter has been much When it came no longer to be believed misunderstood. that great prelates like William of Wykeham were the real architects of their buildings, we were taught that these buildings were not the work of individual architects, but of a school of craftsmen whose very names are unknown. Full credit must no doubt be allowed to the

owe the architectural triumphs of the

influence of the school, but

it

is

nevertheless obvious

that every one of the great works we admire must have been designed by some one member of that school, to
Need of a single
author
for the

whom
no
to

its

characteristic features are due.

artistic

conception without an author

There can be and it is absurd

in

design

suppose that the design of any great building

itself

the

Middle Ages came of

direct, as

from the associated labour of

a group of builders without a single head over them to

some

fanciful

people would have us believe.

great work of architecture can no

in that

more come

into

being

way, than a great picture from a committee

of painters, or a great

no great building of
^

poem from one of poets\ There is the Middle Ages which has not an

L'on n'a gu^re vu jusqu'k present un chef-d'ceuvre d'esprit qui soit

I'ouvrage de plusieurs.

La Bruy^RE.

CH. xv]

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

its

265

individual character of individual

own

the expression of an

working of course in the style of his day, what else could he do ? but who Nor is nevertheless put his personal stamp on his work.
;

mind

of a single

artist,

there any mystery as to

who

these

men

were.
;

They
Vasari
Possible

have indeed rarely put their name to their work is astonished at the stupidity and indifference

to

fame ofXir
""""'^^

shown by

their not

doing
all

so'.

But Professor Lethaby

gives us the names of

to do the

the Master-Masons and other

chief craftsmen at Westminster,

and believes

it

possible

same

for Canterbury, Lincoln,

York, Durham,

Salisbury, Wells,

and Exeter by
places'".

diligent search

among
to the

the archives of those

That
illiteracy

their

names are

often lost

is

due partly

of the age, and perhaps more

to the etiquette

which required that the building should be described And yet as the work of this or that abbot or bishop.

we do

find,

now and
.

then,
.,
.

the
,
.

craftsman
1

who

really

Architects

designed the work mscribmg his name on his masterpiece, as if he were anxious to secure the credit of it, and Gislebertus has put his did not wish to be forgotten. Gaufredus on the Autun at tympanum on the name
;

names
recorded

doors of Le Puy

on the stone he set at

Thomas Moyses has cut his name Durham and at Reims and
;

and names of the architects appeared with those of the bishop in the labyrinth on the floor. We have the names of Edward the Confessor's architect at Westminster, of Pierre de Montereau at S. Denis and

Amiens the

figures

trovato mai non che alcuna

in

havendo io veduti e considerati ... e non havendo memoria de' Maestri, ma ne anche molte volte che millesimo fussero fatti, non posso se non maravigliarmi della gof1

quali tutti edifizi

fezza e
d'

poco disiderio Arnolfo di Lapo.

^

di gloria degli

huomini

di quell'

etk.

Vasari,

Vita

Op.

cit.

preface.

266
Names
of

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

[ch.

xv

Paris,

of fourteen architects employed on the cathedral

the end of the 12th and the middle 6th century^

architects

of

Rouen between
1

of the

we have

that of William Joy, the

master-mason who built the chapter house at Wells for Dean Godlee^ that of Richard of Farnham, the architect of the chapel of nine altars at Durham, and at Lincoln is the gravestone of Richard of Gainsborough, builder of the central tower and the cloisters. Street gives a
;

list

of no less than 137 architects, sculptors and builders

in

Spain from
all

almost

He says he found that 29 onwards. the architects were laymen, and "just as much
11

a distinct class as architects of the present day^"

As
to

early as the 13th century the master-masons

seem

Wilars de

Honecort

have had an education rare at that age among some cases they were entrusted with the management of the building accounts. Wilars de Honecort could write, and write as beautifully as any scribe, as we see not only by the notes appended to his sketches, but by a whole page of manuscript at the end of his volume in which he gives recipes for a medicine to cure wounds, and for preserving flowers. He understood Latin also, and writes against his sketch-plan for a large church,
laymen.
In
Istud presbiteriu' invener't ulardus
d'

honecort

&
It

petrus de corbeia

ir

se disputando^

appears that the

Master- Mason acted to some

extent
The
king's

masons

modern architect, with the important was constantly on the work instead of directins^ it from a distance. The kin2:'s masons had " charge of all the royal buildings. Master Henry while engaged at Westminster was also employed at Windsor
like a

much

difference that he

Loisel,

La

Cathidrale de Rouen,

p. 129.

^
^ 4

Canon Church, Early History of the Church of

Wells, p. 296.

G. E. Street, Gothic architecture in Spain, Chap. xxi. Plate XXVIII, Ed. WilHs.

CH. xv]

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

267

and was sent to see about the fortifying of York castle. Master John of Gloucester, his successor, was also engaged at Windsor. Occasionally we find them supervising the building accounts, a painful duty well-known to modern architects. They were often contractors as well as designers and craftsmen, employing men under them, and paid by piecework. This practice continued down
to the 17th century.

In the building accounts of Wadham

College at Oxford

we

find

Mr

William Arnold receiving

;

Architects

20 shillings a week, evidently for acting as architect

at so

and Cam-

but he also supplies windows for the ante-chapel and hall

" ^^

much a piece, and carries out other work in the same way\ Similarly John Westley and Thomas and Robert Grumbold were employed on various buildings at Cambridge, both as architects and contractors^ The king's masons were all laymen. We hear of Thomas the Mason and his wife at Windsor in 1252; of Alice, wife of John of Gloucester, and his son Edward
in

King's

kymen

1260, and of Alicia the wife and the daughters of

in

13331 They held a good social position, and were owners of house property, citizens and

Simon of Pabenham

eligible to serve on juries and inquisitions. Master John of Gloucester is rewarded by the king in 1258 with gifts of land and houses for his excellent services at Gloucester, Woodstock, and Westminster. In 1255-6 five casks of wine are ordered to be returned to him for five which the king took at Oxford, an incident seeming to imply some personal intimacy\ Their wages were higher than those of ordinary craftsmen, and were increased and sometimes doubled My History of Wadham College, Oxford.

freemen,

Master-

remunem^^^

2 3
*

Willis

and Clark, Architectural History of Cambridge,

cit.

vol. ill. p. 531.

Lethaby, op.
Ibid. p. 161.

pp. 152-165.

268

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

to
1

[ch.

xv

travel'. John of Beverley in 1275 which was increased to i6d. when he travelled, and the king gave him a tun of wine. Twice

when they had

had

2d. a day,

a year they received

furred

robes,

a curious form of

remuneration which
well.

have seen

in foreign contracts as

Geoffrey de Carlton, cenientarius to the king at

in

1378 receives (id. a day and 20.f. a year for robe and shoesl In 135 1 a Master-Mason was paid
26.?.
8rtf.

Windsor

over his wages which were from

165-.

\s.

^d. to 2s. a

week, and
waiting for

4^. for his dress

in a pet,

and

shoes, but in 1354

he refused the dress

it^

because he had been kept

in
;

Henry Yevele, King's Mason

1389,

Mastermason's social rank

was promised a robe yearly of Esquire's degree in 1390 he was exempted from serving on juries, and the manors of Fremworth and Vannes in Kent were granted him in William Virtue's robe lieu of his pension of i^. a day\ in 1 5 10 was to be like the suit of Esquires of the Household', and his contemporary, William Drawswerd, . . oue of a famous family of image makers at York, was Sheriff, Member of Parliament, and Lord Mayor of his native city*. The gravestone of Richard of Gainsborough at Lincoln, a.d. 1300, represents him under a
.
..
.

rich

triple

canopy, equal to those of the canons.

It

would really seem that in the 13th and following centuries, far from being the humble unknown mechanic that has been supposed, the Master-Mason architect fared socially as well as the architect who represents him at the
present day.
The

Though sometimes
said already,
Lethaby,

the Master- Masons, as has been

had charge of the accounts^ they were

op. cit. p. 164.
*
^

Ibid. p. 197.
^

3 ^

Ibid. p. 202. Ibid. pp. 233-4.

Ibid. p. 215.
Ibid. p. 167.

Ibid. p. 229.

CH. XV]

THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECT

269

At Westminster he was called Keeper of the King's Works. At the beginning of the work this office was held by Odo the Goldsmith and his son Edward. In the roll of 1249 occur the names of Dominus Edwardus, Clericus, and
generally controlled by a Surveyor, or Treasurer.

Magister Henricus, Cementarius'^ In 1378 Geoffrey de Carlton was Cementarius at Windsor, and William of
.

wiiiiamof
"^

Wykeham, who was succeeded in 1389 by Chaucer, was Clericus. Again in 1362 we find the names of Mistre William Herland, chief carpenter, Henry Yevele, deviser
of masonry, and William of
1

as crerk

Wickham,

clerk.
In Italian contracts the
in

Cementarius
is

is

the usual term in England.

Master-Mason

styled Lapicida.

At Venice the architect Zuane Bon

1430 translates this into Tajapiera, Venetian for tagliapietra.

CHAPTER XVI
WESTMINSTER ABBEY,
French
taste of

continued

Henry

III

to

Henry HI had French sympathies, and he seems have determined that his new church should follow
1350:

MiKMJto:

Villi

Sealr

of- -frrt

Fig. 99.

the style of the cathedrals then either just finished or in

progress in the French royal domain.

The

cathedral at

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
in

271

Reims, which was begun

finished
in

12 13 after a

fire,

had been

con-

1241.

The

west front of Notre

was built between 12 18 and 1235. work at Westminster was started in 1245, the choir of Le Mans, and the nave of Amiens were just completed, and Pierre de Montereau was busy building the Ste Chapelle, and the nave of S. Denis. The effect of the king's French taste was to bring a foreign influence to bear on native English architecture for the third and last time till the Renaissance. It was fiveParis

Dame at When Henry's

wmkTrT'^
^'^^^^^

Disappear-

apseL
^"^land

and-forty years since S.

Hugh

built his

apse at Lincoln,

and since then apses had been given up, and the great English churches ended square. The Continental apsidal end, however, reappeared at Westminster (Fig. 99), with a regular cJievet of apsidal chapels radiating from an ambulatory aisle, the only example of the kind on this side the Channel for though there are chapels flanking an ambulatory at Norwich and Gloucester, and chapels had been attached to Conrad's apse at Canterbury, they were not grouped continuously, nor do they radiate and the quasi-chevets at Pershore and Tewkesbury are very imperfect and unlike the French model. In the of the north transept facade again we have the only English example of anything like the great French portals, and Professor Lethaby has observed its likeness
: ;

its re-

aScrat
^2\\^s\.^x

The north
^""^ ^

to

the west front of

Amiens^

The double range

of
is

flying buttresses also, as Sir Gilbert Scott observes,

French work than English. But however much French ideas were adopted in the design they passed through an English mind, and the result has been that they appear in an English version. "I should imagine," says Sir Gilbert Scott, "that an
like
^

more

English

French model

Op.

cit. p.

124.

272
Travels of
architects

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

[ch. xvi

English architect or master of the works was commissioned

to visit the great cathedrals then in process of erection
in

France, with the view of making his design on the

general idea suggested by them.

us his sketch-book \"
It

Would

that like his

to

contemporary Wilars de Honecort he had bequeathed

travel

was evidently the practice then for architects about, and see what was going on elsewhere
place

to
in

way of their profession. This explains able way in which changes of style took
the
currently in distant parts of the
Wilars de

the remark-

con-

same country.

Wilars de Honecort made his tour

buildings then rising, and
apsidal chapels at Reims,

among

the great

Honecort

we have
and

his sketch of the

his note that this

new was how

Work
Henry

of III

chapels at Cambrai should be done^ No doubt Master Henry of Westminster filled his album with similar rough notes of what he had seen at Reims, Paris, and Amiens. The eastern arm at Westminster is much shorter than the usual English proportion, for it was bounded by the Lady Chapel which had just been finished, and the
the

apse therefore occupies the area of that of the Confessor's

church.
chevet Work
of
I

King Henry's building included the apse and

Edward

and the short presbytery, the transepts, and the two lower storeys of the first bay of the nave. Westward of this remained the rude Early Norman nave of
1

100.

Edward

finished

the

clerestory
his work,

of the

first

nave bay, which has one jamb of

^

and one of

Gleaniftgs from Westminster

Abbey

p. 20.

Facsimile by M. Lassus, translated and edited by Professor Willis. Plates LIX, LX. Et en cele autre pagene poes vus veir les montees des capieles de le glise de Rains par de hors. tres le comencement desci en le fin ensi com eles sunt, dautretel maniere doivent estre celes de Canbrai son lor fait droit.
^

Wilars de Honecort.

CH. xvi]
his
father's,

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
as

273
^
;

Sir Gilbert Scott has

shown

and he
Work
ward
iii,
^"^

rebuilt in the

new style the next four bays of the nave. The remaining seven bays were built between 1350 and
1420,

and

afford

a rare instance of mediaeval respect

;

for

a previous style

the general design of the choir

^nd
^^^^^'^

being faithfully followed, though the details and capitals

betray the "Perpendicular" mason.

^^

From

the dates in the Fabric rolls

is

it

may be assumed

The
srcriitccts

Master Henry, and that the second part under Edward I though begun by him was finished, or nearly finished, by his successors John of Gloucester and Robert of Beverley. The completion of the nave in the Perpendicular period is due to Master Henry Yevele, the King's mason, who was also employed at the Palace and the Tower of London".
that the original design

due

to

Owing

to the shortness of the presbytery, the choir. The

choir

instead of being as usual in Benedictine churches under

the central crossing,

It is

is

moved

entirely into
is

the

nave.

one of the churches visited and studied by Master Henry. Westminster, though the loftiest of English churches,
the
at

same

Reims, which

certainly

measuring 100 feet to the crown of the vault, is surpassed in magnitude by its continental rivals. The outside, corroded by London fog and soot, patched, refaced, and remodelled by frequent restoration, has only its fine proportion and general features of construction to recommend
it.

for

richness
is

But the inside has no rival in Gothic architecture and beauty (Plate LXXVII). Nowhere
there such delicacy of detail, such grace of propor-

else
tion,

such

wealth

of marble

columns, such
else
is

splendour

of diapered wall.
^

Nowhere

there a triforium
p. 32.

V. illustration.

Gleanings, Plate X, Lethaby, pp. 165 214.

J.

G. A.

18


274

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
;

[ch. xvi

The

this, with its lovely double traceries and moulded and sculptured arches nowhere else are there vaults more fairly devised, or banded so choicely with stones of various colours. Compared with a bay of Westminster one of Amiens seems poor and thin, the triforium bald and shadowless, the mouldings slight and ineffective. There is no finer composition in Gothic architecture than the transept ends, with the huge rose

comparable with
richly

window above,
pierced

the return of the triforium beneath

at

it,

and glazed

back,

and

filled

with

angelic
find

sculpture in the spandrels.

And nowhere do we

wall-arcading to surpass that which runs round the lower

part of the walls, with
its

marble shafts and graceful

carving.
The
pro-

The
jjjjnster

proportions of the bays at

are very similar.

Amiens and Westin

:

porion

Dividing the height as

former cases into 32 parts

we

get this result

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
later,

275

or eight years
rose

the elaborate tracery of the great

that the

masons had nothing more to learn in that class of work. The S"" Chapelle which was rising at the same time as Westminster has traceried windows completely developed, some of which seem to have set the pattern for windows at Westminster^ But

windows showed

defer the subject of tracery to another chapter.

With
ends.

these points the resemblance to French

work

English

The Purbeck
;

columns, with their detached marble

and the round moulded capitals are all purely English so is the vaulting, which is quadripartite with the ashlar of the panels filled in English fashion, and banded with stones of two colours so are the acute arches of the main arcade, which are struck with a radius
colonnettes,
;

twice the length of their span

so

is

the carving, for the

French

artist
in

he detected

whose touch Sir Gilbert Scott thought some of the capitals of the wall-arcade is
This
last

the exception which proves the rule.

invasion

of foreign taste had even less influence than the former

on the current of English

art.

No more

apsidal churches
will

were

built,

nor except

in

a few instances which

be

noted by and by was the example of Westminster in

other respects followed elsewhere.

Westminster

itself

even at the ideas taken from the French were

all

Above

translated into English.

The According: ^ to the more usual fashion in England the
.

triforium at

Westmmster
at

is

open backwards

1111
when
it

triforium

to the space

over the
as at

aisle vaults,

instead of being closed by a wall

Amiens and

Southwark, or glazed with windows

it

as at Beauvais,

and as

is

here

returns across

the transept end.

The
1

aisle vaults are levelled

up and

a paved floor formed,

making a spacious
Gleanings,
p. 19.

gallery round

276
The
triforium

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
LXXVIII)
These

[ch.

xv

the church (Plate

capable of accommodating
triforium galleries

a great multitude of spectators.

were

common

in

Romanesque

churches, and in France

they were often covered with an upper vault, so that

the roof space above required a second triforium making
four storeys, as at Tournay,

Noyon, Laon, Paris, and S. Remi at Reims. The Gothic triforium was not always made use of, and at Lincoln and Salisbury it is not floored but you walk on planks over the ridge and furrow At Westminster pains were taken of the aisle vaulting. to make it serviceable by flattening its roof so that the outer wall could be raised high enough to contain a row
of triangular windows.
It

also

has the singularity of

being continued not only round the chevet but also over the apsidal chapels, making an upper storey of them.

The extreme beauty

in

of this triforium, both in detail and

It
is

proportion, must strike everyone.

its

a faultless

example of English Gothic at has no rival anywhere (Fig.

detail of the shaft.
The
clerestory

best,

and

in

my

opinion

100).

Fig. loi

shows the

The
vault,

clerestory

is

carried

up

to the level of the side

and quite

fills

the bay, thus satisfying the strict

logic of Gothic construction

by obliterating the curtain wall, the window arch forming the wall rib of the Owing to the narrowness of the bay the vaulting.
wall arch
is

stilted to

such a degree that the panel of

the vault has to wind a great deal, and for

some way
dis-

up there

is little

but a thin wall on the back of the ribs

next the side wall.

inside face.
Poly-

The

clerestory passage has

is

appeared, and the window

brought well towards the

chrome masonry

Westminster is one of the places in England where polychrome masonry, rare on this side of the Alps, is

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
?(BBE.Y

277

WfSTMINSTEn

CHURCH

TRIFORIUM

IM

NORTH-CAST BAY OF SOUTH TRANSEPT.

S8J8^,^^^^8|SSP38SPSi^^SSS8,8

I.T.P*

AFT5

Fig.

100.

(From Spring Gardens Sketchbook,)

278

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
There are
building,
is

[ch. xvi

employed.
early

traces

of chequer

work

in

the

Italian
Vfork

and the vaulting of the nave and banded with stone of two different colours with charming effect. King Henry's foreign inclinations were not limited Here alone in England till the time of the to France. Renaissance do we find specimens of Italian art. It was
of the cloisters

Norman

Fig. loi.

required of a newly elected abbot that he should go to Rome for confirmation, and Abbot Ware went there
in

The
mosaic

1258, the year of his election, and it is said also in 1267. From Rome he brought with him the materials
for

pavement

pavement of opus A lexandrinum, and an artist Odericus to lay it for him in front of the High Altar. Twenty-five years later in 1283 he was buried under the
a

%(-.

T. G. J.

Mens,

et

Del.

iSTMINSTEK

Al^'^^'-^Tomb of

Henry

III

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
own pavement
epitaph
in a place

279
chosen by
The
pavement

north side of his

himself where, as his

says,

he now bears up

the stones which once he bore from the City\

Abbas Ricardus de Wara qui requiescit Hie portat lapides quos hue portavit ab Urbe.

For the perfection of these pavements

to

it

is

necessary
red

use

the

materials

of

the

Italian

workmen,

Porphyry, green Porphyry or as they

call it

Serpentino,

and

Palombino, an opaque creamy-white stone

some-

thing like that used by lithographers I

will do as well, as those

No

other stones
tried to

know who have

do

without them.

They were

only to be had in

Italy, for

till modern times the porphyry quarries were unknown, and all the mosaic of the Middle Ages is made from antique fragments, sawn into thin slabs, from the ruins

of

Roman

buildings.
slices of

Many
and

of

the

circles

in

these

pavements are

antique columns cut horizontally.

slabs,

and interlacing borders of mosaic are set in white marble, but the only marble at the command of Odericus and the Abbot was our Dorsetshire Purbeck, which fails to do full justice to the colours of the inlay, and has moreover stood wear and damp rather badly. Another local peculiarity is the
In Italy the discs,
^

"

Ex

parte boreali juxta

Sporley,

penbroke."
Brit.

tubam DnI Odomari de Valenc Mon: Westm: Conipilatio brevis Qr^c. ^'c,
8.

coltis
p.

de

54, in

Mus. MS. Claud. A.

epitaph
is

The

now

lost.

There

is

an admirable woodcut

of

the

pavement

with a chapter on the mosaic by W. Burges. Canterbury has a pavement of opus Alexandrittum in front of the site of Becket's shrine, but it does not conform to the Italian pattern like that
in Gleanings, p. 96,

at

to a large scale in colour

Westminster, and cannot have been laid by by Fowler.

Italians.

It is

illustrated

2 I have heard this called coccola by Italian workmen whom have I employed for this kind of work. Burges {Gleanings, p. 97) says it is called Lactemusa in Sicily. Other marbles are used occasionally with Porphyry and Serpentino, but these are the principal components of the design always.


280
The
pavement
inscrip-

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
for
^

[ch. xvi
let

use of brass letters

the

inscriptions, ^
'

into

the
dis-

marble borders,
appeared.

of which
text,

unhappily

most have

tions

The

however, can be recovered partly

from what remains, partly from the casements in the stone, but mainly from the manuscript lives of the Abbots written by the Monk Sporley about 1460^ Camden seems to have followed Sporley, but not always
exactly".

Round the great square within the outer border still remain parts of an inscription in Lombardic letters giving
the date 1268 and the the
artist,

names of the
:

king, the abbot,

and

in

three

hexameter

lines

and a pentameter

with needless false prosody

:
: :

^_XPI MILLENO BIS CENTENO DUODENO CU SEXAGENO SUBDUCTIS QUATUOR ANNO :^ TERTIUS HENRICUS REX URBS ODERICUS ET ABBAS HOS COMPEGERE PORPHIREOS LAPIDES.
: :
:
:

Round

the interior quatrefoil of interlacing bands circu-

la7'iter scripti
SI

were

five

hexameter

lines

LECTOR POSITA PRUDENTER CNTA HIC FINEM PRIMI MOBILIS INUENIET.

REUOLUAT

SEPES TRINA CANES ET EQUOS HOIESQ.SUP ADDAS CERUOS & CORUOS_AQUILAS IMMANIA CETE MUNDI QDQE SEQUES PEUNTIS TRPLICAT ANNOS.
Sporley explains that by these lines " the writer from some fancy of his own, by a triple increase of numbers calculates
the end of the world."
^

Thus

three hedges stand for three

Sporley, op.

cit.

Camden, Reg-es., Regtnae, nobiles &^c. in Ecclesia Coll. B. Petri Weshnon sepulti, 1603. ^ Lethaby and the plan in Gleanings read subductns, but the casement
2

in the marble is distinctly I as it should be. the abbreviations as in Sporley's manuscript. were so in the pavement.

In these inscriptions
It

give

does not follow that they


CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
is

281

years, a dog's life

thrice as long as that of a hedge,

a horse's

life

thrice that of a dog, a man's thrice that of

till

a horse, a stag's thrice that of a man, and so on get the figure 19,683 for the duration of the world.

we

third inscription ran round the disc in the middle,

:

in circuitu unius lapidis rotundi

:
:

SPERICUS ARCHETIPU GLOBUS

HIC

MONSTRAT

The
mosaic

MACROCOSMUM,
by which, says the
this
fire,

pavement

Monk

Sporley, "

we

are to learn that

round stone having the four colours of the elements,

air,

water, earth, represents the

greater world in

Macrocosm or the which man the Microcosm or lesser

detail
is

world dwells\"

An
lacing

interesting

circle

of Arabic

inter-

work

in the outer border, introducing a touch

of that Oriental feeling which runs through so

much

of

the designs in South Italy and Sicily.

traceries occur within
circles
in

Similar Arabic
of Italian

the heads

windows.

There

is

one

at S.

Gemignano^
oia lass mosaic

third peculiarity of this

use of glass mosaic in

Anglo- Italian floor is the some parts, which Burges says

in
It
is

he has seen in no other pavement but that semi-Moorish palace of La Ziza at Palermo.

the
of

course unsuitable for such a position, except in the East

where shoes are taken

off before entry.

Glass mosaic, however, as well as marble was brought The Confrom Rome by Abbot Ware, for adorning the shrine [jf^'^'J'
of
*

Edward

the

Confessor,

together with

a mosaicist,

Monstrat, id est declarat in se, macrocosrh id est maiore mndm figuratifri principalem, microcosmus enim dicitur minor mundus sz homo, macrocosmus dicitur maior mndus iste videlt in quo nos
archetipu id est

habitamus.
2

Illustrated in Anderson's examples, Plates

LX, LXXIX.

18-5

282
The Confessor's

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
civis

[ch.

xv

Petrus
.

shrine

ing to the inscription, oi which only parts remain, was not finished
:

Romamis, ....
till

to
r

work
i

it.
i

This shrine, accord-

1280, after the death of

: : : :

Henry IIP.
: :

^ ANNO MILLENO DNT CU SEPTUAGENO

ET
:

CENTENO CU COMPLETO QUASI DENO _ HOC OPUS EST FACTU QUOD PETRUS DUXIT IN ACTU ROMANUS CIVIS HOMO :_CAUSAM NOSCERE SI VIS REX FUIT HENRICUS SCI PRESENTIS AMICUS.
BIS
: : :

was usual of a structure of stone with and retable at the west end, and above was the shrine proper of gold and jewellery, which formed
It

consisted as
altar

an

a sort of
in

lid

to

the receptacle in

the

stone structure

laid. This splendid shrine was by a wooden covering hung to counterbalancing weights^ In 1269 the Confessor's body was solemnly removed to this new shrine, of which illustrations are given in a MS. at Cambridge written for Eleanor, the queen of Henry IIP. Its extraordinary " I saw splendour is mentioned by many travellers. one day," says Trevisano, an Italian, in 1497, "the tomb of King Edward in the church at Westminster, and

which the body was

usually hidden

truly neither St Martin of Tours, nor anything else that

have seen can be put into any comparison with it^" The shrine was destroyed at the Reformation and the
I

body buried elsewhere, but

the lower part which

in

Sir G. G. Scott's opinion

At Queen
1

still remains was not taken down. Mary's counter-reformation the body was

Matthew Paris says the gold shrine was ordered by Henry

p.

in

1241.

Gleanings^
2

127, &c.

In Erasmus's colloquy,

Peregrinatio Religiojtis ergo,

at Canterbury.
ifiastiviabiles.

is

a description
theca contegit

of the shrine of S.
lignea
3
;

Thomas

Auream thecam

eafunibus sublata opes niidat

Two

pp. 136-8.
^

of the illuminations are illustrated in Burges's paper, Gleanings, '"

p. 9.

Cited Lethaby,

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
also

283
The Confessor's

replaced in the present

wooden case erected by Abbot

repaired
the

Feckenham, who
painted plaster to
inscription of his

lower

part

with

shrine

and put a painted original one, which was the own over
imitate

mosaic,

worked with dark blue glass on a gold ground. The shrine is of Purbeck marble slabs on edge, forming three recesses on each side where sick pilgrims
suffering from the king's
in
evil

could place

themselves

hope of the miraculous cure which the saint is said The to have effected in his lifetime by his touch \ whole was covered and lined with Roman Peter's glass In the spiral shafts mosaic, of which little now remains. and their inlay, like those in the cloister of S. Giovanni Laterano, and S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and in the quasibut in classic entablature we trace the Italian hand the trefoiled heads of the niches, and the tracery panels
;

we may detect an English motive. In the time of Edward I there was a fresh importation of Italian work. He was still in Palestine when
at their

backs

he heard of his
death of his
give

father's death in

shortly after the 1272, ' '

_

J^^nry

own son Henry.

sons,

"God,"

said he,

"may
he

Ills tomb

me more

but

not another father," and

to the records, but

brought home with him de partibus Gallicanis according more likely from Italy, the materials
for the splendid tomb in which Henry III now reposes It is the on the north side of the Confessor's shrine". first of the long series of royal monuments, Plantagenet and Tudor, and of royal burials in the Abbey which
>

then shown
us

Dean Stanley reminds us of the passage in the Spectator^ " We were Edward the Confessor's tomb, upon which Sir Roger acquainted that he was the first who touched for the evil." Metnorials of Westp. 112.

minster Abbey,
2

Spectator, No. 329.

in the

Henry was first buried before the high altar the Confessor had lain before his translation.

grave where Edward

284
The Coronation chair

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

[ch. xvi

Fig.

02.

(From Gleanings)

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
to our

285

come down almost

own

time (Plate

LXXIX).
is

Henry

The

lower part of Henry's tomb towards the aisle

part tomb

of the

podium which supports the

raised floor of the

Confessor's chapel, and contains a panel, once no doubt

painted.

Above
shrine,

is

a tomb

in

two storeys of Purbeck

marble, with twisted shafts of Italian design like those

of the

Egyptian

and on each side are inlaid slabs of Porphyry and Serpentino surrounded with

glass mosaic in Italian interlacing patterns.

From

the

inner side, and the lower part of the outside, which are

within reach,
the Abbey.
king,

the mosaic has mostly been picked out,

but enough remains to

in

make

this the
lies

most splendid tomb

bronze effigy of
full

On

the top
gilt,

the

the

diapered and

not

a
in

figure

in

the

round,

but flattened at the back

the

manner of a

high

relief.

The
it

figure

is

beautiful, a magnificent con-

vention,
statue
is

for

is

difficult

to believe that this graceful

a portrait, or even a highly idealized represtout,

sentation of the short,

ungainly king with the

drooping eyelid of
shrine

whom we
in
till

are told by a contemporary\

The tomb was begun

was not
finished

1281, and as the Confessor's

1280,

we may suppose

that

the mosaics in Henry's

like those

tomb
is

are by Peter the

effigy,

Roman,
\yiiiiam

on the shrine.
1291.
It

The

however, was not

the work of Master William the fashion to detect an been Torel, in whom it has He is, however, frequently mentioned Italian Torelli. as William Torel, goldsmith and citizen of London, and The there is no reason to suppose he was a foreigner I end of the figure sculpture of France and England at
finished
till

demissiore,

"Erat enim staturae mediocris, compacti corporis, alterius oculi palpebra This defect was ita ut partem nigritudinis pupillo celaret." inherited by his son. Rishanger, continuator of Matthew Paris ann. 1273. 2 See Gleanings^ p. Lethaby, op. cit. 153.
'

286

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
it.

[ch. xvi

the 13th century was not behind that of Italy, and

owed

nothing to
Queen
Eleanor's

Next

to this splendid
Castile,

tomb

Eleanor of

the

monument is that of Queen wife of Edward I, a princess

the

of Romance.

Her

exquisite bronze effigy, like that of

half in

her father-in-law only

round,

is

also

by

William Torel, one of three which he made for her, the others being at Lincoln and in the Blackfriars, London,

where her viscera and her heart were buried. The panel of the lower part towards the aisle was painted by Master Walter of Durham, but there is very little of his work now visible. Above is the splendid grille of wrought ironwork by Master Thomas de Leghtone, which is one of the triumphs of mediaeval smithery. He was paid 12 for it and 20i". more for carriage and
fixing^
The Coronation chair

One more monument The Coronation chair

fatal

of this time

may be mentioned.

(Fig. 102), which contains the

stone which

Scottish

Edward brought from Scone, on which kings had been crowned, and which we are

Mahanaim. The chair was at first to be made of bronze, and was partly finished in metal before the king altered his mind and paid lOOs. to Master Walter, the painter, for a chair
to believe served Jacob for a pillow at

Gesso
decoration

under the seat, enclosed within pierced quatrefoils, of which the front piece is lost. The four leopards or lions below are not ancient. The woodwork was covered with gesso, gilt, and
of wood".

The famous

stone

is

pricked with patterns of foliage and diapers, of which

^

See Gleanings^

p. 90,

and Digby Wyatt's Metal work.

quadam cathedra de ligno facta per Magistrum Walterum pictorem Regis loco dictae cathedrae quae prius ordinata fuit de cupro." Wardrobe account cited Gleanings, p. 122.
*

"Nunc eadem

petra in

Plate

LXXX

2^/

T.C.J-

WKSTMINSTKR AHBK^ Gesso

decoration on ibe Coronation ("hair

CH. xvi]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY
On
;

287
Coro-

only patches remain.

the back was the figure of The

a king seated and with his feet on a Hon

Plate

on the inside
is

chair

of the elbows are patterns of which one

shown

in

ornament is very indistinct; my drawing was made more than 50 years ago, with the help of a candle, and working on the seat of the chair the upholstering and varnishing which the chair has undergone for two subsequent coronations may have completed the obliteration of the design. The tracery panels on the outside of the arms may as Burges suggests have been filled with coloured glass on gilt or silver grounds. There is some decoration
full-size
;

LXXX. The

of that kind in the canopy of the

prior's

seat

in the

chapter-house at Canterbury.
of furniture.

Though now shabby and

ruined the Coronation chair was originally a superb piece

There are few places where the past comes home it does in Westminster Abbey. To stand in the Confessor's chapel, where splendid tombs in which kings and queens have slept undisturbed for centuries are set round about the Confessor's shrine, is to have
to

Assodawest-^
"'"^^^'^

one as

all

English history brought before one's eyes.

No

other

country has been so fortunate.

There
of

is

the Imperial

group

in

the

Duomo

of Palermo,

Constance, and their wondrous son, have been shifted about and are not in their proper place. S. Denis may once have rivalled Westminster before the royal dust was scattered and the tombs swept

Henry VI and but the monuments

away at the Revolution, but its antiquities are now modern restorations. S. Sophia has many memories but no monuments, and the only place where a few
bones of
the
little

Roman emperors and

chapel at Ravenna.

empresses

still

lie

is

No

church north of the

288

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

[en. xvi

Alps can compare with Westminster in the possession of so many royal and historical monuments in which the illustrious dead still repose. Here the returning Stuarts dug up and dishonoured the remains of the
Great Protector,

whom

living they

had

feared, to

but

it

has not generally been our English

the dead, and violate their graves.
Weststorehouse
the^arts

way

war with

It is

not only in historical association however that

is

Westminster

supreme.
Gothic.

It is

unrivalled as a storehouse
architecture
is

^f various kinds of art.

The
In

the very

flower of English

the

tombs, both early

and

late,

we have

the very finest mediaeval craftsman-

ship in stone, wood, and metal.

Abbot Ware's pavement

cannot be matched
of

this

side of Lucca.

The
any
of the
in

mosaics

Henry

Ill's

tomb

are

as

fine

as

Rome.
half-

Limoges enamels adorn the

brother,
retable

monument
in

his

Edmund

de Valence, and
to

wonderful

now removed

the

Jerusalem
of

Chamber we
mediaeval

have an almost unique example

painting.
West-

early

marks
oTsTyies"

We shall return to Westminster Abbey when we come to the later chapters of English Gothic. Thus far we have been dealing only with the earlier phase, of which Westminster marks the final stage. For Westminster
is

the last of Early English and

the

first

of

Geometrical Decorated buildings.

first

Here we have the

beginnings of window tracery in the choir of Henry HI, and from this beginning we follow on
all

steadily to

the subsequent splendour of the Decorated

period.

"

APPENDIX
ON WIDENING REFINEMENTS
August 27, 1666, six days before it fell a victim to the of London, Evelyn tells us he went to " S. Paule's church, where, with Dr Wren, Mr Prat, and others, including the Bishop of London and the Dean, they " went about to survey the general! decays of that ancient and venerable church. ...Finding the maine building to recede outwards, it was the opinion of Mr Chichley and Mr Prat that it had been so built ab
great
fire

On

origme, for an effect in perspective in reguard of the height, but

I

was with Dr Wren of quite another judgment." Mr Goodyear, Curator of the Brooklyn Museum

in

America,

has

made an

interesting study of certain deviations from the

upright in mediaeval buildings, which, like

to be intentional.

Mr

Prat,

he believes

He

calls

says he finds in a large

them " widening refinements." He number of French churches, Amiens

and Reims among them, that the piers are upright as high as the capitals whence the aisle vaults spring, but that the walls above diverge, giving with the vault a horse-shoe form to the
upper part of the section. S. Mark's and elsewhere in
I

He

detects similar refinements in

Italy,

and

in

the churches of Con-

stantinople, including S. Sophia.

have unhappily had so much to do with leaning walls and not due to refinement, that I can understand the scepticism of Mr Bilson and M. de Lasteyrie, who are not convinced by Mr Goodyear. Of S. Sophia at all events, on which I was asked by the Turkish authorities to make a report, I can testify that there is hardly a wall or a column which is not out of upright, but they certainly were not built so. Supposing Mr Goodyear to be right, the question arises, why
pillars, certainly

were these refinements made? The object of all other refinements of which we know, many of which we use ourselves, is The entasis of a column, the to defeat some optical illusion.

290

APPENDIX
all

battering of an angle, the spacing of an intercolumniation, the

have it for their end to make things look straight and regular which Now, if built really straight and regular would not look so.
curvature in the horizontal lines of the Parthenon,
the curve of a vault meeting an upright wall might conceivably

make

If this were observable, the wall seem to lean outwards. and were objected to, it might be corrected by making the

wall lean a
architects

trifle

inward.

think

it

likely that the

English

had something

like this

in

their minds,

and prac-

tised a refinement

when they

corbelled out their vaulting shafts

above the arcade instead of carrying them down to the ground.

On

the other hand, to

make

the wall lean outwards, instead

of correcting the optical illusion, would

make

it

worse.

The

eye naturally expects a wall to be upright, and is distressed if it is not so. Standing not long ago in the nave at Amiens

and looking west, without thinking of Mr Goodyear, I was struck by an apparent divergence of the walls, and shortly Whether this afterwards I noticed the same thing at Laon. were intentional or not, it was not agreeable, because it gave an impression of instability. A refinement to correct this would be intelligible I cannot consider it a refinement to emphasize it. Mr Goodyear seems to have proved by a plumb-line that the divergence is real and not an illusion it remains for us to explain it. But if there were an illusion Mr Goodyear would have us believe that so far from wishing to correct it the architect would have liked it and sought to
: :

exaggerate

it.

There are other

year's theory.
in the

facts

which seem to

tell

against

Mr Goodis

At Reims he says

the inclination

greatest

middle of the nave, the wall in fact describing a curve. This is exactly what one would expect if the wall had yielded to a thrust from the high vaults. Being held by cross walls at each end, the wall would be weakest in the middle of its length, and most likely to give way there. I have seen many cases of this in my own experience. Again, at Amiens and Paris the tower piers do not conform to the horse-shoe section, but
are upright;
it is

natural to suppose that this

is

so because the

APPENDIX
come ment

291

weight above steadied them. That the question of thrust does into the matter one gathers from Mr Goodyear's statethat

some of the nave columns

is

at

Amiens

lean in instead

of out.

Unless there

a defect in foundation this implies that

;

they have yielded to the thrust of the aisle vaults

of the walls in the opposite
p. 50).

may

it

not

be that the high vaults have been operative on the upper part
direction.-'
{v.

diagram, Fig.
in

18,

At Amiens
all

noticed

many

considerable cracks

the

nave

vault,

implying some yielding

hitherto

in the side wall.

Lastly,

object to correct

known refinements, having it for their illusion and make appearance agree with what
But these divergences
is

the eye demands, are not apparent, and can only be detected

by

careful

measurement.

strike the

eye

at once,
taste,

even when one

not looking for them, and, to

my

they strike disagreeably.

The subject is interesting and will certainly bear discussion. But the inaccuracy in setting out buildings in the Middle Ages is so great and so various that it is difficult to base any theory upon them. I have had to measure a great number of old churches, and have never found them quite regular. Very few
towers are rectangular,

very few

arcades

evenly spaced

or

opposite one another, very few naves or chancels have their

and very few columns are upright. When Verres wanted to fleece an unfortunate minor in Sicily, whose guardians had satisfactorily carried out the repair of a certain temple for which they were liable, he was at a loss how to manage it, till one of his satellites said, " There is nothing here, Verres, that you can lay hold of, unless perhaps you should require him to make his columns upright." Verres, who knew nothing about such things, asked what was meant by making them upright. He was told that scarcely any column can be really upright, and furnished with this argument he
sides parallel, very few quadrangles are square,

succeeded

in

his

nefarious purpose.

END OF VOLUME

Camtrtlrgr

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY,

M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Date Due
1iAY
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1980

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AUG. 1963

Art NA 440
Jackson, -1924.

J3 1915

Thomas Graham,

1835
/23.5JI3;I

mil

Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy

---3,5002 00389 6458

Go.h,c arch,.ec.ure
In

nee,

England,