A History of Architecture

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A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
A HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE
VOLUAIES I AND II
BY
RUSSELL STURGIS, A.M., Ph.D.
VOLUME III
BY
A. L. FROTHINGHAM
LATE PROFESSOR OF ARCHEOLOGY AND, THE
HISTORY OF ART PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
VOLUME III—GOTHIC IN ITALY

FRANCE AND NORTHERN EUROPE
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
IMCAIXV
Copyright, 1915, by
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
All ri>^hls rt:servjd. im'liidiny, lliat of translalion into jorcii^n languages including the Scandinavian
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
"A History Architecture" vas originally planned there
AS of
were to ha\'e been three volumes; the trrst and second co^'er-
ing the architectural forms before the coming of Gothic,

leaîng to the third ^•olume Gothic, the Renaissance and more recent
developments. After a large part of this last volume had been written
and was ready was found that Air. Frothingham,
for press, however, it
who had undertaken work after ]\Ir. Sturgis's death, had so much
the
important material that it seemed ad\-isable to di\-ide his work into
two parts. As now issued Volume III covers Gothic in France, Italv,
Northern and Southern Europe; and A'olume IV Gothic in Great
Britain, the Renaissance throughout Europe, and the modern forms.
Unfortunately, the book had progressed so far before this change
became necessary that it was impossible to alter the numbering of
the illustrations and still publish the volumes when planned; there-
fore the original system has had to be retained, and as these volumes
are now issued figures 1-873 run through the two final \-olumes. To
facilitate reference the volume number is prefixed wherever the figure
referred to is in the other volume.

The long delay in publishing the tAvo final A-olumes is due to the
death of Air. Sturgis, shortly before the completion of the second
volume. For, on Air. Frothingham's undertaking the completion
of the work, the preparatory study for the volume which Air.
last
Sturgis had made had to be done o\-er again. As they are finally
issued these two volumes go into the study of Gothic and Renaissance
forms in far more detail than would have been possible under Air.
Sturgis's original plan, and it is hoped that they will therefore be of
more importance than if the author had been more hmited in his
discussion.
;
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BOOK X.—RISE AXD EVOLUTIOX OF GOTHIC IX FRAXCE
CIIAPTKR TACE
I. RE^•IE^v OF Rojl\xesque akd Origixs of Gothic ix

Fraxce 3
Apparent lack of unity in Romanesque; domical

churches, tunnel vaulted churches; groin or ribbed
vault churches; development of skill in stone cutting
and vaulting; transformation of pier, column, capital
and base the architectural schools studied in \ôlume II
;
the Lombard, the Rhenish and the Anglo-Norman

Schools; increasing recognition for architects; Gothic
seed de\'elops near Paris; Gothic displaces Romanesque
and is displaced by Renaissance; the phases of Gothic;
characteristics of Gothic; structural and artistic eôlu-
tion ; favorable social conditions ; la}* and monastic crafts-
men; traveling architects lessen pro^•incial differences;
the Parisian, the Angevin and the Southern Schools;
traveling French artists disseminate their art; importance
of stone-work in Gothic; Gothic vaulting; the Gothic
pier with vaulting shafts; the thing buttress; successive
steps in Gothic cathedral construction.
11. The DE^'ELOP]\ÊXT of Gothic ix Fr.\xce . . .22

Paris and its vicinity the birthplace of Gothic; early
and transitional examples; cathedrals succeed abbeys;
St. Germer, the first Gothic structure; St. Denis spreads
the new ideas; Senlis shows some early developments;
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
Noyon exhibits some advances; some experiments at Sens;
St. Germain-des-Pres has one of the earliest apses;

Notre
Dame de Paris embodies transitional Gothic; Laon
cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris compared; St. Leu
d'Esserent and Notre Dame; Mantes and Notre Dame;
after Notre Dame, development succeeds experimenta-
tion; Bourges connects the Senlis with the Chartres type;
gallery over aisles at Bourges; Chartres shows originality
and unity; its fagade and towers; Soissons cathedral;
Reims cathedral, the grandest work of Gothic art;
Amiens cathedral; its fagade; its interior, the standard
of Gothic perfection; Mr. Goodyear's discoveries at
Amiens and Reims; cunning architectural refinements;
secrets of the medieval guilds; the mathematical basis
of Gothic; use of triangle, circle and square; symbolism;
Beauvais cathedral choir a beautiful failure in spite of
precautions; development of the Gothic plan; the
Romanesque churches for the clergy, the Gothic for the
people; plans changed accordingly.
III. Early Gothic Figured Sculpture and Stained Glass

IN France 86
Excellence of Gothic figured sculpture; its subject

matter; Vincent de Beauvais and his system of human
knowledge ; reliefs and figures on French cathedrals placed
according to a well considered plan ; their artistic character
and development; the west front of Chartres; the

figures at Le Mans; the lintel reliefs at Senlis; other
sculptures at Chartres; the Virgin at Notre Dame;
exuberance in the Amiens fagade; Reims cathedral, the
"Parthenon of Gothic Art"; sculpture not much used in
interiors; interior of west facade at Reims; introduction
of choir screens; those in Notre Dame and in the Sainte
Chapelle; color decoration; mosaic painting; mural
painting; stained glass; the glass at Chartres; the Paris
School of vcrriers; their art grows more independent and
pictorial; as lay architects become more common, their
TABLE OF CONTENTS
personalities become known to us ; tlie architects of Reims

and Amiens; Villard de Honnecourt's album of sketches;
use of models and detailed working drawings; the stand-
ing of the nuiitrc dc Vivmi-e.
lY. Local Schools and Later Gothic in Fbance . . 86
Local French schools; the churches of Normandy; the

cathedrals of Lisieux, Rouen and Coutances; character-
istics of the Norman school; the school of Burgundy;
Notre Dame at Dijon; the Angevin school; Corroyer's
theory; the churches at Angers; cathedral at St. Maurice
an epoch-making structure; the well-Hghted interior
produced by the ^'aulted hall further development of this
;
t^-pe; the hall-church with two or three naves of equal
height; cathedral of Poitiers shows a new t>'pe of interior;

Poitiers compared with Laon and with English plans;
St. Serge at Angers; characteristics of the Southern
school; Albi cathedral; the church of the Cordehers and
of the Jacobins at Toulouse; the later Gothic in France;
St. Quiriace at Provins; the cathedral of Troyes; the
nave of St. Denis; Robert cle Coucy's plan for Reims;
the fagade of St. Nicaise at Reims; a study of St. Urbain,
Troyes French architecture pauses during the fourteenth
;
centur}'; St. Ouen, at Rouen, the highest achievement of

orthodox French jNIiddle Gothic; nave and transept of
the cathedral at INIetz; St. Nazaire, at Carcassone, a
presage of the flamboyant; the origin of the French
flamboyant; its main characteristics; St. Maclou at
Rouen; its original model; Normandy has the best
examples of the flamboyant; the choir of Saint Pierre and

Jacques at Dieppe; La Trinite at Ven-
the facade of St.
dome; Toul cathedral; the memorial chapel at Brou;
flambovant and Renaissance at the cathedral of Tours;
Saint Wulfran d'Abbeville; St. Pierre at Caen; the choir
at Saint Michel; Martin Chambiges, an important
Mont
architect of this age; some examples of his work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
V. Civil, Military and Monastic Gothic in France . 132
Town halls comparatively unimportant in France; the

French communal houses; Hotels de Ville at Cordes, Com-
piegne and St. Quentin; Palais de Justice, Rouen; town
belfries; private dwellings at Rouen, Reims, etc; house
of Jacques Coeur at Bourges; Hotel de Cluny, Paris;
Chateau of Josselin; staircases of the Castle of Chateaudun
and the Hotel de Bourgogne in Paris; Hospital of Bcaune
in Burgundy; Military architecture; independent castles;
the " Krak" the HaU at Tortosa; the Chateau of Coucy;

;
the fortress-palace; Pierrefonds; the Ducal Palace at

Poitiers; a city stronghold; the semi-military Papal
Palace at Avignon; monastic architecture; Mont St.
Michel, military and monastic; some cloisters; the
refectory of St. Martin des Champs, Paris; the kitchen
at the Abbey of Fontevrault; hall of the archbishop's
palace at Sens; the Sainte Chapelle du Palais at Paris
VL Development of Arciiitectltial Detail and Decora-

tion IN France 175
Window and window tracery; plant forms used in
capitals; surface decoration; gargoyles; decorated
gables; the intrusion of figured work; spires; piers;
profiles of vaulting; bases and plinths.
BOOK XL—GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

I. Gothic in Spain
197
Historical background;
Moorish influence; influence
of French an early church near Zamora;
ecclesiastics;
monastery churches at Poblet and Vernela; monastery
of Las Huelgas shows development and Anglo-Norman
influence; Fitero monastery; traces of the military

style in church at Siguenza; transitional interior of
Zamora cathedral; Lerida cathedral; Tarragona cathe-
dral; Anglo-Norman influence in transitional
cathedral
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER PACE
at Cuenca; the late transitional cathedral of Tudela in

Navarre; de^•eloped Gothic; the great trio of Spanish
cathedrals —Burgos, Leon and Toledo; the French style
at Burgo de Osma; the school of Castile; Tarazona
cathedral; the school of Catalonia; Barcelona cathedral;
Palma cathedral; JNIanresa cathedral; S. Maria del j\Iar,
the most representative Catalan church; the great nave
of Gerona cathedral; geometrical cathedral at Pampeluna;
Seville cathedral the largest in Christendom; the two
cathedrals at Salamanca; Moorish influence in Zaragoza
cathedral; the importance of Spanish cloisters; Plater-
esc]ue decoration; English influence; civil buildings;
Palace of Justice at Barcelona; the Lonjas at Valencia
and Palma.
II. Gothic in Portvgal 231
Spanish and Portuguese Gothic compared; the church

of Alcobaca; Batalha church and monastery; "Manoe-
lino" style in the " Capellas imperf eitas " ; Indian in-
fluence; the Manoelino masterpiece at Belem.
III. Gothic in Italy 247
Italy's resistance to Gothic art; bmldings at Fossa-

nuova; monastery at CasaAvari; other buildings of the
Cistercian proto-Gothic group; S. ]\Iartino al Cimino;
the church at San Galgano; S. Andrea at YerceUi; rise
of the Dominican and Franciscan influence; church of
St. Francis at Assisi; the church for preaching; French
influence in the three-aisled church of S. Tâncesco at
Bologna; S. Anastasia at Verona and S. Maria Novella
at Florence; some churches at Venice; characteristics of
the cathedral churches; more

the cathedral of Siena,
Romanesque than Gothic; OrA'ieto cathedral and its
fagade; two hall-churches, Perugia cathedral and S.
Fortunato at Todi; examples of the Tuscan school at Pisa
and Lucca; the Romanesque cathedral of Palermo; the
church cloister of INIonreale; the cathedral, Florence,
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
where the purely Italian school tries to express itself in

Gothic terms; Sta. Croce in Florence; S. Maria delle
Grazie at Milan, in the Lombard style; Romanesque

specimens in and about Bari; the great Gothic cathedral
of Milan; German and French influence; plan for S.
Petronio at Bologna the best tj'pe of native Italian

Gothic; cathedral at Como; lack of unity and harmony
in Italian church design; Italian civil buildings more
successful; the group at Florence; the Bargello; the
civic group at Siena; Town Halls at Udine, Piacenza, etc.;
Italian arcaded palaces; the three-sectioned Venetian
palaces; Italian baptistries; late survivals of Romanesque
in Italian cloisters ; the campaniles ; use of brickwork and
terracotta; two fine terracotta fagades; examples of
Italian tracery; scarcity of decoration in church interiors;
decorations in the Sala della Mercatanzia and the Sala
dei Notari at Perugia; use of wood as substitute for
vaulting.
BOOK XII.— GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE

I. Gothic in Geriiany 303
"Germany" used broadest sense; her contributions
in
to Gothic; the Hall-church; strictly no "transitional"
in Germany; French-trained men introduce the new
ideas; the choir at Magdeburg cathedral, the earliest
proto-Gothic German structure; the cathedral of Lim-
burg-on-the-Lahn; St. Gereon of Cologne; no transitional
or early Gothic style in Germany; church of the Virgin
at Trier shows strong French influence; St. Elizabeth,
Marburg, a German version of French forms; the Rhine
and Saxony—national evolution; Strassburg cathedral;
Freiburg cathedral shows diminishing French influence;
Cologne cathedral; the exquisite St. Catherine at Oppen-
heim influenced by Cologne cathedral; the Cologne style
not widely followed in Germany; Halberstadt
cathedral
a characteristically Saxon structure; the historically
TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii
:hapter page
interesting church at Wimpfen; the Cistercians; their

church at Marienstatt; the monastic buildings at Maul-
bronn; the Soutli; Regensburg cathedral, an example
of simplicity; Ulm cathedral, a national German monu-
ment of the Holy Cross at Gmiind; the monastic church
at Zwetl; conditions in Austria; cathedral of St. Stephen
in Vienna; three contrasting churches at Nuremberg;
Erfurt cathedral choir a fine example of Middle Gothic;
the Dominicans' three-aisled basilica at Erfurt; changes
of style in the fifteenth century in Germany; Bohemia;
the cathedral choir at Prague; St. Barbara at Kutten-
berg; work of Peter Parler in Bohemia; Royal Castle

hall, at Prague, an example of late Gothic; Hungary
almost bare of Gothic; St. Martin at Kaschau; Zagrab
cathedral, Croatia, an example of later Gothic; the brick
churches of Northern Germany; the Marienkirche, at
Llibeck, the protot}q:)e of this class; the colossal Marien-
kirche at Danzig; civil Germany; brick
architecture of
gates of the free cities; Thor at Stendal
the Uenglinger
and the Treptower Thor at Neu Brandenburg; the town
halls at Braunschweig, Breslau, Miinster and Tanger-
miinde; merchants' exchanges or Kaufhaiiser at Freiburg-
in-Breisgau and Cologne; German stone, timbered and
brick dwellings; military architecture; the Schloss
Marienburg; the Albrechtsburg at Meissen; Vayda
Hunyad, the pearl of Hungarian Castles; the castle of
Karlstein, a Bohemian masterpiece.
II. Gothic in the Netherlands 383
Belgium, French and German features in the Low

Countries; the cathedral Ste. Gudule at Brussels; St.
Martin at Ypres; two Brabantian cathedrals at Malines
and Louvain; Antwerp cathedral; St. Jacques, at Liege,
a fine tjqje of flamboyant Gothic; Belgium's civil archi-
tecture, the richest in Europe; the splendid Cloth Hall
at Ypres; the town halls at Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and
Louvain; Bishop's palace at Liege; Flemish late Gothic
dwellings; examples at Bruges and Ghent; Holland more
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
backward than Belgium; almost invariable use of brick;

wooden vaulting five noteworthy churches; the interest-
;
ing town halls at Gouda and Middlebourg.
III. Gothic ix Other Northern Countries .... 397
Scandinavian Gothic complicated and uninteresting;

Throndjem and Linkoep-
scarcity of good building stone ;
ing cathedrals inNorway; Roeskilde cathedral in Den-

mark; the hall-church at Wadstena in Sweden; Switzer-
land not an architectural unit; examples at Lausanne,
Geneva, Chur, etc., the Gothic monuments in the Levant
chiefly relics of the Crusaders; Byzantine art dominates
Russia and excludes Gothic, save in a few instances.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BOOK X.—RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE
Structure of severies in vault 1.5
Domical Gothic vaulting 13

French quadripartite vaulting with apsidal vault; and sexpartite
vaulting; showing curved surfaces and coursing of severies .
14
4 Triforium of church at Beaumont IS
S Pier and vaulting system, nave of Amiens cathedral 16
6 Tas-de-charge, evolution 17
7 Construction at spring from columnar shaft 17
8 Tas-de-charge, shaft and vaulting masonry, in XIII century 17
9 Section of vaulting system above piers, nave of Amiens cathedral iS
lO Primitive buttress of St. Remi at Reims iS
II
12
Transition buttress of nave of Noyon cathedral ....
Early Gothic double-batteried buttress at cathedral of Soissons
18
. 18
1.3 Buttress system of nave of Amiens, reinforced with sub-arches, and
with open gallery 19
14 System of nave of Abbey church of St. Denis, showing developed
French type, with glazed triforium and union of triforium with
clearstory 20
Abbey church St. Germer; gallery closed 24
i6 Germer, System
17
St.
St. Denis. Ambulatory of choir .... 25

26
i8 Senlis cathedral, west front 26
19 Senlis cathedral. Section along center of nave 27
20 Cathedral of Noyon; plan 28
21 System of cathedral of Noyon 28
22 System of cathedral of Sens 28
23 System of choir of St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris 29

24 Notre Dame, Paris. Showing changes due to addition of chapels to
nave and choir

Notre Dame, Paris, seen from rear ....
25
26 West fagade of Notre Dame, Paris ....
P,1CE
27 Irterior of Notre Dame .33
28 Pier of Soissons Cathedral and sixth pier of Notre Dame ,34
29 Seventh pier of Notre Dame 34

30 System of Notre Dame .34
31 Window of Notre Dame, showing older and later forms .35
32 Structural details of nave of Notre Dame .35
^T, Interior of Laon Cathedral, looking west 36

34 Cathedral of Laon, west front 37
35 Plan of cathedral of Laon 38
36 Pier with detached shafts in the cathedral of Laon
37 St. Leu d'Esserent, from the rear
38 Interior of St. Leu d'Esserent 39
39 Ambulatory Leu d'Esserent
of choir of St. 40
40 Cathedral of Bourges, from the rear .
41
41 System of Bourges cathedral 41
42 Interior of Bourges cathedral, seen from ambulatory of choir 42
43 Plan of cathedral of Chartres 43
44 System of cathedral of Chartres 43
45 Nave of Chartres cathedral 44
46 Clearstory of nave, cathedral of Chartres 44
Cathedral of Chartres, view through aisle across transept
47
48 Flying buttresses of Chartres cathedral
Cathedral of Chartres, west front
.... 44
45
49
50 Tower
Plan
of cathedral of Senlis,
of Soissons cathedral
with detail .... 46
46
51 46
52 Restored view of cathedral, Reims, as it was in the XIII century
47
53 Drawing by architect, beginning XIII century, for facâde cathedral
of Reims 48
54 Cathedral of Reims
49
55 Rose window, west front, cathedral of Reims, in process of restoration
showing erosion of stonework
56 Interior of Cathedral of
Section of nave of
Reims ....
Reims cathedral
50
SI
57 52
58 System and details of nave of Reims cathedral
52
59 Plan of Reims cathedral
53
60 Plan of Amiens cathedral
61
62
Amiens cathedral, west front ....
Plan and elevation of Gallery of Kings, Amiens cathedral
53
54
55
63 Cathedral of Amiens. View showing how a French cathedral o\-er
shadows the city
56
64 Cathedral of Amiens, interior. Nave from west end
57
65 and buttress scheme, Amiens cathedral
Gallery, clearstory
58
66 Geometry of plan of choir of Amiens cathedral
59
67 Scheme of Amiens cathedral, both nave and choir
59
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -W 11
pa(;e
6S((7)Widening refinement of nave of Reims; see plumb line on left side 60
6S{b) Curve in plan of gallery of Reims cathedral; see surveyor's chain 61
69 Aisle of Iôuen cathedral, with plumb line on right, showing widening
refinement 6r
70 Section of choir of cathedral of Bcauvais 63
71 Beauvais cathedral; view at transept 64
72 Beauvais cathedral; exterior at choir 65
73 Early west portals of cathedral of Chartres 69
74 Lintel of west portal, cathedral of Senlis .
70
75 Statues in west portal, cathedral of Senlis 71
76 North portals, cathedral of Chartres 72
77 Statues in north porch, cathedral of Chartres 73
78 Statues in left portal of west fagade of Reims cathedral 74
79 Head of St. Joseph from statue in central west portal, Reims cathedr; 75
So Corbel head, cathedral of Reims 75
81 Relief at right end of fagade of Reims cathedral 76
82 Inner wall of west front, cathedral of Reims .
77
S3 Choir screen (reredos) at Notre Dame, Paris . 7S
84 Restored choir of Notre Dame, Paris 79
85 Early stained glass window at cathedral of Sens 81
86 Stained glass window in church of Kuppel 83
87(47) Original drawing of XIII century for detail, cathedral of Reim 84
87 (b) Project drawing made for tower of Ulm cathedral
SS(u) St. Pierre, Lisieux .... 85
86
SS{b) Nave of cathedral of Rouen S7
89(0) Pier with gallery, cathedral of Rouen 88
8g{b) Plan of cathedral of Rouen 88
90 Detail of base of lantern, over transept, cathedral of Coutances 89
91 Apsidal aisle of Coutances cathedral 90
92 Plan of Coutances cathedral 91
93 West front of cathedral of Coutances 91
94 Tower of St. Pierre at Caen 92
95 System of cathedral of Eu .
93
96 Dijon, church of Notre Dame .
94
97 Apsidal design and construction of Notre Dame, Dijon 95
98 Clearstory gallery at S. Jean, Sens . 96
99 Burgundian structural juxtaposition 96

100 Cathedral St. Maurice, Angers . 96
lOI Cathedral St. Maurice, Angers .
97
102 System of cathedral. Angers 98
103 System of cathedral, Poitiers 98
104 Interior of cathedral, Poitiers, from aisle 99

Plan of cathedral, Poitiers 100
105
106 Cathedral of Poitiers .... .
lOI
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
rro. PAGE
107 St. Serges, Angers, at choir 102
loS Plan of cathedral of Albi 102
log Interior of Albi cathedral 103

no System of cathedral of Albi 10
111 Albi cathedral, seen from apse 104

112 Portal of cathedral Ste. Cecile at Alfi 105
113 System of the church of the Jacobins at Toulouse . 105
114 Section of the church of the Jacobins at Toulouse .
106
115 Exterior of the church of the Jacobins at Toulouse 106

116 Choir of St. Quiriace, Provins 107
117 Bays nave of
of St. Denis 108
iiS Buttress system nave of cathedral, Reims
of . 109
iig Fafade of St. Nicaise, Reims, by Libergier, now destroyed no
120 Choir of St. Urbain, Troyes III
121 St. Urbain, Troyes. Interior 112
122 Dissection of windows and vaulting of St. Xazaire, Carcassonne
....
1 1.5
123 System of apse of St. Urbain, Troyes 1 1.5
124 Lower apsidal window of St. Urljain, Troyes 114

124(61) Plan of window at St. Urbain, Troyes .....
Balustrade over upper choir windows of St. Urbain, Troyes

114
125 113
126 Plan, section and bay of St. Ouen, Rouen 116
127 Triforium of Cathedral of Metz 117
128 Choir of St. Xazaire, Carcassonne 118
129 Flamboyant buttress of St. Wulfran, Abbeville 119
130 Spring of vaulting and pier, St. jMaclou, Rouen 121
131 Choir of St. Pierre at Dieppe 122
132 Facade of St. Jacques at Dieppe 123
133 Facade of La Trinite, Vendome 124
134 West front of cathedral of Toul 125
135 Fafade of chapel of Brou at Bourg 126
136 West portals of cathedral of Tours 127
137 St. Pierre, at Caen 128
138 Choir of Mont St. Michel .
129
139 Nave of St. Xicolas-de-Port
1.50
140 Hotel de Ville at Cordes
^33
141 Hotel de Ville at Compiegne
134
142 Hotel de Ville at St. Quentin
1.35
143 Council-room of Palais de Justice, Rouen
i,3S
i43((j) Belfry and Chapel of Notre Dame du Kreisk er at St. Pol de Leon 136
144 Part of Court of Palais de Justice, Rouen
137
145 Frame house, panelled, on stone basement, at Rouen 135^
146 House at Reims
147 Half-timbered house at Rouen ... 130
140
148 Timber ossature of a French house of the XIII century
141
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIX
P.iiGE
149 Half-timbered house at Gallardon , , , ,

142
150 Group of houses at Orleans 142
151 Detail of house of the musicians at Reims 14.3
152 House at St. Antonin 144
153 Brick house at Caussade 144
154 Stone house with half-timbered gable at Chateaudun 144
155 Hotel de Ville at Dreux 145
156 Plan of house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges 146
157 Bird's-eye view of house of Jacques Occur at Bourges 146
158 House of Jacques Coeur; rampart facade 147
159 House of Jacques Cceur; street fajade 148
160
161
Staircase of house of Jacques Occur
Bird's-eye view of Hotel de Cluny, Paris
.... 149
149
162 Arcades in Court of Hotel de Cluny, Paris 150
163 Chateau of Josselin ... ... 151
164 Staircase and part of Court of Chateau of Chateaudun 151
165 Newel-post and vaulting in Hotel of Jean-sans-Peur at Paris
166 Doorway of Chapel of St. Hubert at Chateau of Amboise 152
167 Court of the hospital at Beaune 153
168 Bird's-eye view of Chateau of Coucy 156
169 Plan of Chateau of Coucy 156
170 Section of donjon of Chateau of Coucy .
157
171 Interior of main hall of donjon at Coucy 157
Bird's-eye view of Chateau of Pierrefonds 158
172
173 Plan of Chateau of Pierrefonds .... 159
174 Elevation of Chateau of Pierrefonds 1.59
175 Chateau of Pierrefonds (section on C-D of plan) 160

176 Chateau ofMehun-sur-Yevres . . . . 160
Section of donjon of Ducal Palace, Poitiers 161
177
178 Elevation of donjon at Poitiers .... 161
179 Salle des Gardes, Chateau of Poitiers, upper end 162

180 Plan of Papal Palace at Avignon 163
181 Facade of Papal Palace at Avignon . 163
182 Gateway ofPapal Palace at Avignon 164
183 Mont St. Michel; general view of monastery . 165
184 Plan of main story of Monastery of Mont St. Michel 166
185 Elevation of the "Merveille" or N

front and entrance of monastery
of Mont St. Michel 167
186 Mont St. Michel; cloister of monastery .

167
Cloister of Cathedral of Rouen 168

187
Cloister of St. Jean des Vignes at Soissons 169
188
189 Cloister of the museum, Toulouse ....
Martin des Champs, Paris
169
170
190
191
System
System
of refectory of St.
of hospital of Ourscamp .... 170
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PIG.
PAGE
Interior of hospital, Ourscamp 171

192 .
193-194 Kitchen of monastery of Fontevrault 171
Synodal hall at Sens 172

195
196 Synodal hall at Sens; section 17.3
197 Exterior of Ste. Chapelle in Paris

198 Evolution of wheel window 17s
199 Rose window and gallery of south transept at Notre Dame, Paris 176
200 Detail of rose window of the Ste. Chapelle in Paris 176
201 Rose window of St. Nicaise at Reims, reconstructed 177
202 Evolution of window skeleton in early French Gothic 177
203 Struction of window of cathedral, Amiens I7S
204 Window and wall systeni'of nave of St. Denis 178

205 Window of Ste. Chapelle, Paris I So
206 Window of transept at St. Nazaire, Carcassonne 180
207 Window of choir of church at Eu .... .
iSi
So
20S Fig-leaves, natural and carved
209 Early capital at St. Leu d'Esserent .... iSi
210 Capita] or pier of nave, Cathedral of Reims . iSi
211 Capital of refectorj', Notre Dame des Cham[)s, Paris iSi
212 Capitals in cathedral of Reims IS2
213 Crocket and foliated archivolt in chapter-house of Noyon cathedral 182
214 Capital from Amiens cathedral 183
215 Sill-course and cul-de-lampe at Notre Dame, Semur I S3
216 Cul-de-lampe carrj-ing statue at Ste. Chapelle, Paris I S3
217 Decorated ribbing 184
218 Cornice at top of tower of cathedral of Amiens 1 84
219 Sill-course of triforium of cathedral of Amiens 184
220 Cornice in choir of cathedral of Troyes 184
221 Summer-stone at St. Pere-sous-Vezelay . IS3
222 Surface decoration, lower arcade, interior Ste. Chapelle, Paris 1 86
223 Surface decoration, central portal, west facade, Notre Dame, Paris 1S6
224 Relation of gable, gallery and cornice to structure, at Ste. Chapelle
Paris 1S7
225 Upper balustrade of facade, Notre Dame, Paris 187
226 Balustrade of south transept of Notre Dame, Paris, c. 1260 187
227 Profiles of larmiers 1S7
2 28 Cusp end of portal at cathedral of Amiens 188
229 Finial of the cathedral of Troyes 18S
230 Key of vault in transept of cathedral of Laon 188
231 Pendant of key of vault in choir at Eu .
1S9
232 Conduits and gargoyles for discharging rain water from 189
233 Gargoyle of cathedral of Amiens 189
234 Gargoyle of the Ste. Chapelle, Paris .
189
235 Late gable of Portail de la Calende, cathedra] of Rouen 190
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XXI
FIG.
PAGE
236 Central gable, main fa(;ade of cathedral of Reims
190
Porch gable of church at Vezelay
191
23S Summer-stone of west front, Reims cathedral
191
239 Cul-de-lampe from west portal of Amiens cathedral
192
239(a) Decoration of south-west tower of cathedral, lieims
192
240 Roof of cathedral of Reims 192
241 Central spire of Amiens cathedral
241(a) Frame of belfry of Amiens cathedral
193
242 Norman wood key-pier
194
243 Profiles of church at Semur
194
244 Vaulting profiles of Notre Dame, Paris
194
245 Types of profiles
19s
246 Prismatic pier at St. Urbain, Troyes I OS
247 Base in choir of Chartres cathedral .
19s
248 Base in choir of Notre Dame, Paris .
19s
249 Base in cathedral of Laon .
196
250 Base in nave of Reims cathedral 196
251 Base of pier at cathedral of Meau.x .
196
252 Base of half-pier in choir of St. Nazaire, Carcassonne 196
253 Fusion of base with plinth in XV century 196
BOOK XI.— GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

254 Chapter-house of monastery of Las Huelgas
255 Interior of cathedral, Siguenza
Bird's-eye view of cathedral, Lerida
.... .
199
201
256 202
257 Facade of cathedral of Tarragona 203
25S Interior of old cathedral, Tarragona, at transept 204
259 Interior of cathedral, Cuen(;a, at transept 205
260 Tudela Cathedral; interior at transept .
206
261 Burgos Cathedral 207
262 Puerta do Sarmental of north transept, cathedral of Burgos 208
263 Burgos Cathedral; interior, near transept 209
264 Leon; interior of cathedral at transept 210
....
.
265 Leon cathedral; view of apse 211

266 Toledo Cathedral; general view from west 212
267 Toledo; portals of cathedral .... 213
268 Toledo Cathedral; interior at transept 214
269 Barcelona Cathedral; interior .... 216
270 Palma Cathedral; interior from aisle 217
271 Barcelona; section and bay of S. Maria del Mar 218
272 Gerona Cathedral; interior .... 219
273 Cloister of Cathedral of Pampeluna . 220
1
XXll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PACE
274 Cathedral of Seville; section 221
Salamanca; bay of nave of cathedral 222

275
276 Zaragoza. Plan of old cathedral 223
277 Burgos Cathedral; central tower 224

278 Barcelona Cathedral; view of baptistry 226
279 Cloister of S. Maria la Real at Najera 227

280 Staircase in court of Palace of Justice at Barcelona 22S
28 Interior of Exchange (Lonja), Valencia 229
282 Interior of monastic church, Alcoba(;a
28:; Sections of monastic church, Alcoba(;a
284 Batalha; plan of church and monastery 2.34
285 Batalha; general view of church and monastery from west 2,35
2S6 Batalha; section of church 236

287 Batalha; interior of church 2.37
28S Batalha, church; view of Capellas imperfeitas 2.39
289 Batalha, church; detail of unfinished upper part of Cape!

perfeitas 240
290 Batalha, church; entrance to the Ca])ellas im]jerfeitas 241
291 Plan of monastery of Belem 242
292 Interior of church, Belem .... 242
293 Belem; south side of church 24.3
294 Belem; galleries of cloister of monastery 244

Court of cloister, Belem ....
295
296 Claustro Real, Batalha
Lavatory of Claustro Real,
....
Batalha
245
245
297 .
246
298 Fossanuova; monastic church .
24S
299 Fossanuova monastery; Chapter-house .
249
300 Fossanuova monastery; cloister; later section 230
301 Detail of cloister at Casamari
302 S. Martino al Cimino, monastic church .
303 Cloister of S. Maria della Verita, Viterbo
304 S. Andrea, Vercelli 25.3

305 Interior of S. Andrea, Vercelli .
254
306 Church and cloister of St. Francis, Assisi
25s
307 St. Francis, Assisi; upper church 25(5
30S S. Alaria Novella, Florence
257
309 SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice; apse
310 S. Maria dei Frari, Venice
Cathedral of Siena; fa(,ade
.... .
258
259
311 260
312 Cathedral of Siena; view from gallery 261
313 Cathedral of Orvieto; facade by Lorenzo de Maitani 262
314 Original projet for fa(;ade of cathedral of Orvieto, in c. 1295 263
315 Detail of portals, Orvieto cathedral
264
316 Exterior of nave, Orvieto cathedral .
26s
LIST OF ILLUSTR.\TIONS
FIG. P.VGE
Orvieto cathedral; interior 266

Cai)ital of nave, cathedral of Orvieto 266
319 Interior of S. Fortunate, Todi, from aisle
320
3^1
Verona cathedral; interior
Arcade of the Campo Santo, Pisa
.... 267
36S
269
322 Cathedral of Lucca; view across transept 270
Cloister, Monreale 271
324 Cathedral S. JNIaria del Fiore, Florence, before the new facade 272
325 Giotto's Campanile, Florence, showing corner of cathedral fa(;ade
before new work
326 System of cathedral, Florence .... 273
327 S. Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Choir of cathedral, Milan

.... 274
27s
3 28 27S
329 Cathedral of iMilan; fl3dng buttresses and roof 279
Section along centre of nave, cathedral of !Milan 281
Wooden model of S. Petronio, Bologna, as originally planned, seen
from apse end to show parts never built 282
Interior of S. Petronio, Bologna 2S3
333 Restored view of the main scjuare of Siena, as it was in the XIV
centurj', with the Communal Palace on the right 2S6
334 Palazzo JMarsili, Siena 2S7
335 Communal Palace at Udine 287

33^ Detail of Foro dei Mercanti, Bologna 28S
337 Palazzo del Tribunale, Verona 2S9
338 Signorini Palace, Vicenza 290
339 Palazzo Ca d'Oro, Venice 291
340 Baptistry of Pistoia 292
341 Cloister of S. Paolo, Rome 293

342 Window in Vitelleschi palace, Corncto 294
343 Fa(;ade of Ospedale Maggiore, Milan 294
344 Pisa, Palazzo Agostini 29s

345 Cremona Cathedral window; in minor facade; terracotta detail 296
346 Monza, S. Maria in Strada; central detail of facade in brick and

terracotta 297
Carrara Cathedral; carved marble rose-window 297
347
34S Detail of triforium of St. Francis, Assisi ....
dei Frari, Venice
298
Carving of Gothic choir-stalls, S. Maria 298
349
350 Shrine in apse, S. Domenico, Bologna ....
Communal Palace, Perugia
299
300
351 Panelling of the Sala della IMercatanzia,
352 Wooden carved and painted wagon roof of S. Fermo Maggiore,
Verona, XIII century 301
XXIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BOOK XII.— GOTHIC IX XORTHERX EUROPE

P.\CE
353 Choir of cathedral, Magdeburg .... .505
354 Upper gallery in choir of cathedral, Magdeburg .305
355 Transept of cathedral, Limburg-on-the-Lahn .307
Plan of Liebfrauenkirche, Trier ,3ocj

356
Plan of St. Yved, Braisne .... .
.309
357
Liebfrauenkirche, Trier .... ^10
358
359 St. Elizabeth, Marburg ....
360 Detail of main portal of St. Elizabeth, Alarburg
361 St. Elizabeth, ^Marburg ....
362 System of St. Elizabeth, ^Marburg
363 Cathedral of Strassburg .... ,31.3
.31.5
364 Strassburg Cathedral from south-east .314
365 West front of cathedral, Strassburg .

.315
366 Interior of Strassburg Cathedral, from aisle ,316
367 Strassburg Cathedral; facade .317
368 Virgins of west portal, Strassburg Cathedral ,318
369 Cathedral, Strassburg; view of aisle from nav e, wi th ulpit .319
370 Spire of cathedral, Strassburg

372 Detail of spire, Strassburg cathedral
372 Cathedral of Freiburg in Breisgau
373 View of Freiburg cathedral from south-east 322
374 System of buttresses of cathedral, Freiburg .3 -'.3
375 Cathedral of Cologne .325
376 Cathedral of Cologne, showing choir 326

377 Cathedral of Cologne; view from choir .327
378 Detail of exterior of nave, St. Catherine, Oppenh ,32s

Interior of St. Catherine, Oppenheim
379
380 Cathedral of Halberstadt
Plan of Halberstadt cathedral
.... .329
.3.30
381
....
.
.3.31

Choir church
.... .3,31
.3.32
384 of Cistercian of Riddagshausen 3.3.3
385 Choir of Cistercian church of Ebrach

.3.3.3
386 Choir of Abbey church, Chorin .
.334
387 Plan of Cistercian monastery of Maulbronn
334
388 Cloister of monastery, Maulbronn 335
389 Choir of cathedral, Regensburg .
336
390 Facade of cathedral, Regensburg. The fa(;ade as built is on extreme
left. The other three are original projet draw ings that were not
carried out
337
391 System of cathedral, Regensburg
338
riG.
392 Cathedral of Ulm, after completion of tower

339
393 Plan ofUlm Cathedral
340
394 Interior of Ulm Cathedral from further aisle
341
395 Church of St. Cross at Gmiind .
343
396 The Alarienkirche at Reuthngen
344
397 Choir of monastic church, Zwetl
39S Plan of cathedral, Vienna .... 345
399
400
Ba}' of cathedral, Vienna
Vienna Cathedral
.... 345
346
347
401 Spire of Church of jNIaria Stiegen, Vienna
402
403
St. Lawrence, Nuremberg ....
Main portal of St. Lawrence, Nuremlx-rg
347
348
349
404 The Frauenkirche at Nuremberg 350
405 Fagade of the Frauenkirche, Nuremberg .
351
406 Nave of St. Sebald, Nuremberg
407
40S
Choir of Erfurt Cathedral
Erfurt Cathedral, at transept
.... 352
353
354
409 Church of the Dominicans at Erfurt
410
411
St. George at Dinkelsbiihl
Aisle of cathedral, Braunschweig
.... 354
355
412 Portal of castle at Chemnitz ....

Entrance to Royal Oratory at cathedral, Prague
355
356
413
414 Choir of cathedral, Prague
Choir of cathedral, Prague
....
....
357
35S
41S 359
416 Tower of the old bridge, Prague 360
417 Detail from tower of the old bridge, Prague 360
418 Ladislas's throne-room. Royal Castle, Prague 361
419 St. JXIartin atKaschau (Kassa) .
361
420 North portal of St. JNIartin at Kaschau (Kassa) 362
421 The Marienkirche at Liibeck 363
422 The Marienkirche at Wismar 364
423 St. Catharine, Brandenburg 365
424 The Ueglinger Thor Gate, Stendal 366
425 Neu-Brandenburg, Treptower, Thor 366
426 Brick and terracotta battlements of tower of the Steinthor at Branden
burg 367
427 Braunschweig, Rathaus 367
428 Town Hall (Rathaus) at INIiinster 368
429 Rathaus at Breslau 369
430 Town Hall at Tangermlinde 370
431 Terracotta decoration of Rathaus, Brandenburg 371
432 Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Kaufhaus 371
433 Merchants' Exchange (Giirzenich), at Cologne 372
434 Stone and frame houses at Hildesheim 373
PAGE
435 House at Steyr 374

436 House at Innsbruck 374
437 Balcony of house at Freiburg-im-Breisgau 374
438 Window in parish-house of St. Sebald, Nuremberg 375
439 Windows of gallerj^, main hall, Castle Vâyda Hunyad 375
440 Brick gable of house at Liineburg. Building (brick) at Zinna monastery 376
441 Overstolz House, Cologne .
376
442 Plan of Schloss Alarienburg 377
443 Grand ^Master's House at Schloss ^larienburg 378
444 Refectory at Schloss !Marienburg 378
445 Plan of the Albrechtsburg at Meissen 379
446 The Albrechtsburg at Aleissen, section 380
447 The Albrechtsburg at ^Meissen . 3S1
44S Castle Vayda Hunyad .
382
449 Main hall of Castle \'ayda Hunyad 382
450 Nave of St. ^Martin, Ypres .
3 84
451 Cathedral of Antwerp .
3S5
452 St. Jacques at Liege 3 86
453 ^lerchants' Exchange, Ypres 3S7
454 Town Hall, Bruges 38S
455 Town Hall, Brussels 389
456 Hotel de \'ille, Ghent .
390
457 Hotel de \'ille, Louvain 391
458 Court of the Bishop's Palace, Liege
459 Houses at Bruges .... 392
460 House at Bruges

Hotel de Ville at Gouda
.... 393
393
461 395
462 Hotel de Mile at ^Nliddelbourg .
396
463 Interior of cathedral, Throndjem, looking east 398
464 Choir in cathedral, Throndjem .
399
465 Cathedral of Linkoeping
399
466 Cathedral of Lausanne 401
INTRODUCTION
the preparation of these concluding volumes I feel
am
INassuming that I
a somewhat complicated responsibility. Mr. Sturgis
had left no manuscript covering any part of it, nor any memoranda
that could be used; neither had he outhned its plan. I had no means
ofknowing at what time he proposed to close the historic survey, and
whether he planned to include the antecedents of contemporary archi-
tecture. More than this, as he left the closing part of Volume II. un-
finishedand incomplete, there are some gaps in the treatment of
Romanesque architecture that must be reckoned with— such as that
of Spain and the Lombard monuments of ApuUa and there is the—
obvious need of a summing up of the Romanesque movement and of
the conditions that led to the opening of the Gothic age. From a long
intimacy with him, and thorough familiarity and sympathy with his
work, it is easy for me to imagine what he would have hked to write.
In the few pages of my preface to the Gothic movement it was not
feasible for me to do more than outline this probable synopsis of Mr.
Sturgis.
Of course, not possible nor desirable for one writer to attempt
it is
to lose his identity in that of another so I have not been guilty of any
;
mechanical imitation of Mr. Sturgis' style or method. Still, I con-

ceived it not only right but artistically advisable to sink personal
preferences as to arrangement and treatment in order to follow what I
fancy would have been Mr. Sturgis' scheme, at least in its general fines.
I fiave, in particular, followed Ifis plan of making the bulk of the text
consist of descriptive details based on the illustrations, so that every-
thing pivots on these illustrations, though I can hardly hope to have
accomplished this with a felicity equal to his. In the general styfistic
and historic considerations where this was not possible, I have given
illustrations to cover every important statement. In doing this I have
borne in mind that Mr. Sturgis was not only a practical architect, but
addressed himself largely in this book to an audience of architects.
xxxiii INTRODUCTION
In following the same policy I may have become at times even some-
what more addicted to technical descriptions.
Consequently, under these conditions I have reduced to a minimum,
both as a matter poUcy and from space requirements, the correlation
of
of architectural de\'elopment with the rest of contemporary civiliza-

tion, —pohtical, social, intellectual and rehgious. I have given of such
material only what was absolutely necessar}^ in its suggestiveness as
an explanation of the wherefore of certain architectural forms, historic
For example, the fact that the fun-
phases, or stylistic connections.
damental differences between the ground-plans of the English and
the French cathedrals, which have such important artistic conse-
quences, are due to Uturgical differences in worship: the fact that the
architectural barrenness of France in the Fourteenth centur}- and her
subsequent adoption of the Flamboyant style, was due to the English
conquests and supremacy in France. ]\Iy personal bias is toward a
considerable development of these aspects of the subject. It seems
only logical to refer to the cause when studying the effect. It is im-
possible to segregate works of art from the rest of medieval life, as it
is more possible to do for modem times. Nobody can understand

the wherefore of the thousands of figures on a Gothic cathedral who
does not know something of medieval thought, behef and encyclo-
paedic learning. In the same way the spread of early Gothic, through
the instrumentality of the Cistercian monks, can be appreciated only
by knowing how their period of expansion happened to correspond and
their centre happened to be France. Howe\'er, as ]Mr. Sturgis wished
his history to be distinctl\- limited to the purely artistic and con-
structive aspects of architecture, it is on this phase that I have con-
centrated.
The present have the advantage o\'er the previous volumes of
greater unity of content. Except
Turkish monuments, which
for
would logically have been described with the rest of ^Moslem archi-
tecture, and those of Russia, which are at first only an offshoot of
Byzantine art and belong also to \'olume IT, the whole of the material
described is European and closely interrelated.
Aside from certain more recent phases of neo-classicism and art
noiiveau this material falls under the two general titles of Gothic and
Renaissance. There
be in the course of this volume an analysis of
will
these two movements from the points of view of historic development
and technical character, but I would like to state at this point exactly
INTRODUCTION xxix
what I conceive to have been the role played by each, the special
niche of each, of them in the general history of architecture, viewed
by and large, and in a quasi-philosophical manner.
The basal concept of Gothic, as a philosopher would word it, is
dynamics; it is the architecture of vital energy and arrested motion,

as contrasted with static architecture which is based on the law of inert
resistance. Earlier styles had been either wholly static, hke Greek
and early Christian, or a mixture of static and dynamic elements like
Roman and Byzantine. The small percentage of dynamics in the
Roman domical system had been so developed, it is true, by Byzantine
architects that the ultimate expression of possible fusion of the two
schemes had been reached. But the product, after all, was hybrid
and without a future, with statics in the seat of power, and darkness
instead of light the dominant note in a Byzantine interior. It was the
force of inertia opposed to inert mass. That it did not have the germ
of life in it is proved by the fact that it shot its bolt (St. Sophia) at the
ver}' beginning of its history. Medieval Europe took a hand in the con-
game with less biased mind. After the experiments of the
structive
Romanesque age, made in the attempt to go beyond the primitive
statics ofwooden-roof building, had resulted in mixed methods of
—
tunnel vaults and domes merely palliatives the Gothic solution —
came, after many groupings, as a perfect embodiment of pure dynam-
ics. was the first time in architectural history that a living
It
force was set in motion to overcome and neutralize the action of an-
other living force. A Roman vault had been a piece of matter made up
of devitalized atoms fused and coalesced into an inorganic whole, a
mere dead weight. A Gothic skeleton, headed by its vaulting com-
partments, was a living organism, made up of constantly interacting
units which preserved their individuality while acting in concert.
Like a surgeon familiar with the healthy action and interrelation
of every part of the human body, the Gothic architect knew how vital
to the health of the whole structure was the correct interrelation of
the material forces he was setting in motion. Not an atom of his

structure was irrelevant or out of perspective: nothing vital was
left to whim or chance. The laws of beauty were subordinated to the
laws of scientific life—as in nature—and so a Gothic building became
a living organism, none the less organic because the creation of man
and not a natural growth. A growth, too, it was, and a slow growth.
It took the combined genius of a century to evolve the perfect

form,
XXX INTRODUCTION
that was toembody its law of life, and this century, 1140 to 1250,
was the most momentous in architectural history and the one that
most thoroughly repa}'s study. Nothing has been done since then
that can be set beside its achievements.
Because it was so organic and logical the personahty of the artist
was lost in the generic process of evolution diversified merely by the

influence of environment and national traits. This logical quahty
led, finally, when carried to its dry and clear conclusion, to the re-
action of an individual and decorative debauch which made the advent

of the Renaissance easier.
The style of the Renaissance was not only based upon a return, as
far as possible, to the static scheme but upon a divorce between what
the Italians considered to be the irreconcilable elements of art and
science in building. The heated controversies between Northern and
Italian artists that centred around the international construction of
Milan Cathedral just before and after 1400, showed the unbridgable
chasm that existed between Italy and the rest of Europe in the concep-
tion of true architecture. In developing the Renaissance style Italy
considered that she was freeing art from the trammels of logic and
scientific necessity: whereas Gothic architects had rejoiced in con-
forming their forms and proportions to the laws of matter. Renais-
sance architects wished to be free to use any proportions and designs
that taste or fancy dictated or their standards of aesthetics allowed,
and just in so far as the structural laws of Gothic balance interfered,
they disliked and disregarded them. They open or hidden
called in the
help of metal chains, rods and beams overcome the effect of natural
to
law, so as to enable them to build loftier and lighter domes and to
carry out what they considered the laws of beauty. In divorcing art
from science (as even their own pseudo-Gothic architects had often
done), they also divorced decoration from construction. In this the
Renaissance leaders merely followed Roman and Italian traditions,
which had always treated decoration as largely a matter of independent
incrustation instead of as an expression of the structure.
The Renaissance style, therefore, was rather a system of design
than of construction, and aimed severally or collectively, at three
things: proportions, decoration, and simpHcity. In Palladio, for
example, we see the quintessence of proportion and simplicity: in the
Florentines and Lombards the quintessence of proportion and decora-
tive effectiveness. To Gothic emotionalism and moods, due to the
INTRODUCTION xxxi
fact that every detail was expressive

matter as force in motion, the
of
Renaissance opposed the expression of calm, completeness and finality,
corresponding to its keynote of matter at rest. And, as inertia is much
simpler in its manifestations than action, the forms and norms of the
Renaissance were as simple and stable as those of Gothic had been com-
plex and fluid. Hence the beauty of serenity and the obvious rhythm
in the Italian masterpieces. Free from serious constructive fetters, art
could and did lend itself more readily to the stamp of individual genius,
and in this there is another striking contrast between the two styles.
It unimportant to know who built a Gothic cathedral: it was the
is
work rather of an era than of a man. But it is absolutely imperative to

ask who built a Renaissance palace. Art biography is now to over-
shadow art history. Yet the Renaissance architect was not free. He
forged his own fetters; limited his own genius. Living largely upon
the classic past he sought to standardize his own style and the whole
style by a search for abstract beauty and for formulas based on antique
models.
The story of the Renaissance style is the story of the passing from a
rather free manner, full of individual charm, life and inspiration, in its
handling of the antique orders and proportions, to a manner increas-
ingly restricted and academic. This forced, as had been the case in
Gothic, a schism between the partisans of the correct, logical and limpid,
under the leadership of PaUadio, and the lovers of the picturescjue and
the dramatic, under the impulse of Michelangelo.
It is plain to see, then, why it is so much easier for modern men to
understand and imitate Renaissance work, which is so largely a matter
of external beauty and proportion, and why it is so much more difficult
for them and more subtle Gothic, gen-

to appreciate the less obvious
erated from within, whose laws no modern architect has yet fully mas-
tered and applied. This difficulty is increased by the great variety

of forms in which Gothic can be embodied, compared with the sim-
plicity and uniformity of Renaissance, to whose advantages must be
added that in its emphasis upon decoration rather than structure, and
on civil rather than religious buildings, it is, more essentially than
Gothic, in line with modern developments.

Yet even the simpler Renaissance norms and linear relations, as they
are explained by early masters such as Alberti, Filarete, Martini and
De rOrme, have not been mastered or hardly even studied by modern
architects and historians. It is in these geometrical ratios and rela-
xxxii INTRODUCTION
tions, in this applied study of optics and perspecti\-e, that we find a con-
necting link between the masterpieces of both the Gothic and Renais-
sance styles, each in their way perfect works of architecture. If in
the Renaissance later architects have found an inexhaustible mine of

motifs it is not merely because they could assimilate it more easily — at
least in a superficial way —and because and
its classes of structures
modes of life correspond more closely, but because it went back to the
same classic sources from which modern art is continuously borrowing.
Gothic, on the contrary-, suffers imder the disadvantage of its loneli-
ness, which is hardly counterbalanced by its superior plasticity and

picturesqueness. In modern work it is often difficult to disentangle
the Renaissance from the Classic elements, but Gothic work is unmis-
takable. And, being so foreign to us, we have only begun to
lately
understand it and most imperfectly to reproduce it, whereas Renais-
sance with its ofl'shoots lies at the basis of almost everjlhing we build.
In regard to the period when this history closes, there may easily
be some dift'erence of opinion. After Barocco became prevalent the
treatment has been made briefer; and only the briefest sketch is given
of the historical trend after the first decades of the Eighteenth century.
Yet I think architects will admit that the fifty or sixty years that
followed the first bloom of the neo-classic revival were the most
melancholy in the whole course of architectural history since the
Carlovmgian era. Then came the aberrations of neo-Barocque and of
Art Nouveau beside the usual negligible platitudes. So, there would
be nothing to be chronicled worthy of study until we reach the men
who ha\'e been the teachers of the present generation. Of these men
and of the effect of their work it is too early to speak.
"BOOK X.—RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC
IN FRANCE
CHAPTER I
REVIEW OF ROMANESQUE AND ORIGINS OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE
THE main current

been fohowed in
of European mediaeval architecture had
Volume II., under the caption "Later
Romanesque," as far as the Transition, in the middle or close
of the Twelfth century. It is not easy for us to realize what tremen-
dous progress had been making during the last hundred
civilization
years of that period; whatnew territories it was bringing under its
—
sway especially in northern Germany, Great Britain and the Slavic
provinces. Then and in the next century, architecture was carried
into new regions and wood was replaced by stone or brick.
There is, we have seen, less unity in this Romanesque than in any
other style. In fact, it is a misnomer to call it a style, if we use the
term to mean the buildings erected during a certain period in Europe.
There no stylistic connection whatever between a church in Rome
is
and its contemporary in Milan: the one an almost exact replica of

an early wooden-roofed thin-walled Christian basilica, the other a
sombre, heavy, vaulted structure that looked forward instead of back-
ward. While this is true if we inspect every work produced between
c. looo and 1150 or 1200 in various countries, the question takes a
different aspect if we eliminate all works, like wooden-roofed churches,
which do not enter into the evolution of vaulting as it seeks for the
perfect solution thatwas to culminate in the Gothic system. If we
do this, then the monuments that count fall into place under three
great heads; domical churches, tunnel vaulted churches, groin or ribbed
vault churches. The domical style, as we have seen, did not become
popular; aside from central domes as at Ancona and Pisa, or domical
'
sports such as St. Mark's or the Eremitani at Palermo, there was but
'
one large native domical school, that of Perigord in Central France.

4 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
This school radiated, to be sure, over neighboring provinces of France
and survived in the Plantagenet Gothic, creating an interesting type
of ribbed vaulting that was essentially a ribbed dome, and most
effective in its broad lines. The second group, that of the tunnel
vaults, with semi-barrel vaults over the aisles, was also not only created
but developed and centred in France, being based on Roman proto-
t}'pes in Provence. Its vaulting was most ingeniously combined in
developed cases with the groin and ribbed vaulting of the third group,
but it did not satisfy the men who were trying to create a well-lighted
and well-proportioned interior, in which neither nave nor aisles should
be sacrificed. The necessity of a continuous counter-thrust for the
tunnel vault of the main nave could not be overcome. So, this method
did not go beyond southern, western and central France, except for
some few imitations in Spain and Italy. The third group, that which
used groin and ribbed vaults, was not only more generally diffused
but is historically more significant. It dominated all the vaulted
schools of Italy, of Germany, of England and parts of France such as
Normandy, parts of Burgundy, etc. The ribbed vaulting quickly
drove out groin vaulting and led to the use of the grouped Romanesque
pier and to the gradual improvement in wall and vault construction.
To the old method of horizontal beds in vaulting was substituted that
of radiating beds. The most radical of all changes was that of the
use and treatment of stonework. Until the eleventh century, brick-
—
work was very general, a Roman inheritance,—and a stone was
regarded not as a unit but as part of a mass. There was no stone-
cutting worth mentioning; no skill in handhng surfaces or mouldings.
Now, before the close of the eleventh century, the entire aspect of the
had changed. The classic instances at Winchester
stone-cutters' art
and elsewhere, where Saxon or early Norman crudity stand side by
side with the later exquisite handhng, are typical. The keynote to
this change was that, breaking away from the antique method of
finishmg surfaces after construction, the Romanesque architects estab-
Hshed the rule of finishing each block before setting in place, thus
ensuring individual responsibihty. It was some time, it is true, be-
fore they broke entirely with the Roman tradition of their revet-
ments for parts of the exterior, but this progresswas also made before
the beginning of the Gothic era. With the progressive refinement of
stone-cutting, which culminated toward 1150-110 the mortar beds
,
became thinner, the joints and profiles sharper, the mouldings more
Chap. I] ORIGINS OF GOTHIC IN FR.\NCE 5
numerous and skilfully grouped for light and shade. Decorative

sculpture which was at first largely flat in its effects, like a stone
tapestry, developed on a larger variety of planes and was more and
more concentrated in the portals, whose depth and richness were con-
stantly increasing. Aside from the vaulting methods employed, one
finds differences between schools and styles to depend largely on
different methods of treating the stone work, and this in turn depended
fundamentally on the quality of local and provincial quarries, of looser
or finer texture, allowing greater refinement of detail or restricting to
bolder and broader effects. This is well exemplified in the English
schools of the northern, eastern and western sections. In other words,
the Romanesque that really counts is as much an architecture of stone
as Gothic was to be.
With the increased skill in stone-cutting there came, at the close
of the Eleventh and the beginning of the Twelfth century, far greater
confidence among the architects as to their ability to vault. Large
Norman and Rhenish churches left unvaulted when built were covered
with vaults, and experiments in statics were attempted. These ad-
vances were most marked in those provinces that were to take a
prominent part in the Gothic movement.
In reviewing the situation as to architectural details, we must not
forget the transformation of pier, column, capital and base. The
grouped pier was substituted for the monolith column or the plain
square pier. Columns were used with decreasing frequency, and often
built in courses. Bases, at first insignificant, became of increased
importance and intricacy; they were used to increase the stability
of the piers and usually followed their outline in their lower section or
plinths. The base proper tended toward the shape of an inverted

capital, but the general Attic scheme was adhered to, with the frequent
addition of corner spurs. There was, of course, considerable difference
in schools, with greater classic influence in Italy and France. In the

capitals there was the greatest variety. The cubic capital, plain or
decorated, was a popular novelty. Quite as popular and far more
general throughout the south, were the debased Corinthian and Com-
posite capitals. The third class, which we may term the historiated
or figured, was covered with fantastic animals or human figures, some-
times with actual BibHcal or aUegorical scenes; it was due to the
fantasy of Lombard and other Northern artists and was current
especially in the Central provinces. It is the least artistic. Finally,
there are those where the ornamentation has mainly a geometrical
basis of interlaced patterns or of heraldic and schematic fohage. No-
where do we find the tendency to copy natural forms which was to
dominate Gothic decoration. In this particular it may be said that
there is no preparation for Gothic as there was in construction. For
decoration the change was not evolution but revolution. This applies
not only to the capitals but to mouldings of all kinds and surface
decoration, which, as we have seen, was particularly rich, for example,
in Central, Southern and Western France. In England, on the con-
trary; in Normandy; in Germany; in Southern Italy, there was prac-
tically no decorative sculpture before the Gotliic age, and figured
sculpture as well was extremely rudimentary and rare.
The various architectural schools studied in Volume 11. , as we
approach the Gothic age, fall into a few large groups that must be
There is the Lombard School centring at
reckoned with as factors.
Milan and Pavia and ruHng even as far south as Apulia, to which
iscommonly ascribed the merit of first developing ribbed vaulting.
With it must be grouped the Rhenish School, which led in Germany,
and, in its origins, the Norman School. There is in this group a
thoroughly Teutonic tone; broad, heavy, simple, yet with fantasy and
originality of design. How the interrelation was established we are
not certain; but though there was in the north greater
it existed,
sobriety and a more developed feeling for composition than in Italy.
This school was the most closely related to Gothic. The second group
is centred in France, in the western, central and southern provinces,
vrtth offshoots in Spain and Portugal. Auvergne, Poitou, Burgundy
belong to it. It is impossible to give its character in a few words,
because it was so many-sided. From its Burgundian section sprang
the two greatest INIonastic arclritectural influences of the age Cluny —
—
and Citeaux, which carried certain forms of Romanesque and early
Gothic over a large part of Europe. » Cluny was responsible for the
peculiar plan English cathedrals, with double transepts; and the
of
Cistercians for their square choirs.

The third orAnglo-Norman School is almost as important as the
French. While England was at first dependent on Normandy, it soon
reacted on its mother-school. It is a fact
not sufficiently recognized
that Enghsh Norman Churches
surpassed in size as a class all those
on the Continent. If one were to select the notable peculiarities
of
this school, one would pick out the splendid second-story
galleries and
Chap. I] ORIGINS OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 7
the enormous columnar piers. A desire for light in so northern a

climate prevented this school from abandoning wooden roofs until the
Gothic age, and from experimenting with the darkening tunnel vaults
that were less detrimental in the more southern schools of France.
The elongated plan and low narrow effects that were to characterize
Enghsh as distinguished from Norman churches originated at this
time as well as the stone-cutting skiU in which the English preceded
the Germans and even the French, in a species of bravura.
In all these schools architectural composition had become an art be-

fore c. 1 100, and a master architect was a personage of importance,
whether he were monk or layman. Monks not only built their own
churches and monastic estabhshments but were called from their
monasteries by bishops and communes to take charge of building opera-
tions. Laymen like Master Raymund were given full power. When
he was engaged to build the cathedral of Urgel in Catalonia in 11 75,
he not only had untrammelled charge of the works without supervision,
but charge also of the finances and property of the cathedral under a
seven-year contract. It was, in fact, during the Twelfth and early
Thirteenth centuries that head architects, both lay and monastic,
had the most power and could be most certain of unity of plan and
detail in their building operations.
The above facts can be verified by a comparison between the
illustrations of Romanesque work in Vol. II. and those of the following
chapters. This progress in scientific methods corresponded, of course,
to the larger opportunities in the field of architectural achievement

afforded by the increasing wealth and culture of society, and by the
rivalry in building operations between the rapidly organized free
cities and municipalities, the large monasteries and the bishops,
assisted the generosity and helpfulness of an age of general religious

by
enthusiasm among rich and poor. Architects had an ideal backing
and ideal opportunities.This stimulus added to the new mastery
over materials and a higher education, made the evolution
of Gothic
matter of dispute where the

out of Romanesque possible. It is a
structural seed for the new synthesis was sown:
whether in Lombardy,
Normandy, England or the province of Paris, but there is no question

was nurtured, grafted on the old Romanesque
as to where the seed
protection given a chance to come to its own
trunk and under its
This took place in the neighborhood of Paris between
efflorescence.
1 100 and 1 1 50.

The rest of the Middle Ages is mainly occupied with the develop-
ment of a certain type of Romanesque into the Gothic style; with
the gradual displacement of Romanesque methods and forms as the
new style demonstrates its superiority and pushes its way from France
into other European countries, and with the various historic and
national transformations that ensued.
The process of internal evolution which produced developed
Gothic lasted for almost a century, until shortly after 1200. The
process of dissemination outside of the land of its birth in Northern
France, took considerably longer, not being completed until the
close of the thirteenth century. There were even a few sections,
such as parts of Central and Southern Italy, where Romanesque
survived until the advent of the Renaissance. Aside, however,
from these sporadic Romanesque survivals, the Gothic monuments
furnish the student with the great bulk of material to be studied
between the years 1200 and 1500. Of course the date 1500 is quite
arbitrary. The process of the supplanting of Gothic by Renaissance
was slower and more irregular than its conquering process had been
because, while Gothic was the logical flowering of Romanesque,
Renaissance was the anthithesis of Gothic. The supplanting process
commenced in about 1420 in Italy where Gothic was never under-
stood or liked, and before 1 500 the downfall of Gothic was practically
complete throughout the peninsula. France was the quickest to

follow, but while she admitted Renaissance forms soon after 1475,
she did not entirely abandon Gothic until about 1550. Spain, Ger-
many and the Netherlands were even slower, and England practised
a form of late Gothic until after 1600.
During this period there was no stagnation but a continued evolu-
tion. Attention was first concentrated on structural problems;
then on the relation of materials to structural forms; then on the
modification of forms to suit mathematical ratios and aesthetic ideas-
then on the decorative use of these forms and the adaptation of
decorative details to subserve structural purposes. We give certain
names to these and the later successive phases, taking mainly for
our norm the French buildings which must be the source and standard
of true Gothic. So we speak of Early or Transitional; of Developed;
of Rayonnant or Geometrical; of Flamboyant, Curvilinear and
Per-
pendicular. England contributes important elements durino- the
latter part of this development. These terms are of quite general
application, for while local characteristics strongly colored style in

each country these were overpowered by international stylistic waves.
Whydo we call this art Gothic? The term is purely conventional
and seems to have been invented in Italy during the Renaissance
as a derogatory way^ of describing pointed mediseval as distinct from
classic buildings, as if they were the product of barbarians. Illogical
as it is, modern critics, after fruitlessly suggesting substitutes, have
decided to retain it. The term, while originally applied to archi-
tecture, is expended to include every other branch of art as developed
during the same period. This is perfectly correct, because archi-
tecture was lord and master of the entire artistic field as at no other
time in its history. It conditioned the two most extensively used
branches: figured sculpture in stone and stained glass windows.
The treatment of Gothic architecture is perhaps the most satis-
factory to the historian not only because of its position as artistic

dictator but for other reasons. The period it covers was one of
unrivalled building activity. Its inception and development out
of previous premises can be traced with comparative ease. It coin-
cides with the high-water mark both of technical perfection and of

which are so seldom properly combined. It is more
aesthetic ideals,
consistent and logical and spread over a wider territory than any
other style and rests on mathematical and scientific premises that
are undeniable. There followed a remarkably clear and successful
adaptation of means to ends and a fuller embodiment in art of the
ideas of the age than at any time since Greece. Nothing funda-
mental was left to the whim of individual artists. To the student
who has mastered the intricacies of the style and their real causes,
there are no mysteries and no real difficulties. He can date any part
of a Gothic building in normal cases within fifteen or twenty years
merely by looking at it without knowing anything of its history.

Using France as a basis, the characteristics of Gothic architecture
can be given in a few sentences. These characteristics are primarily
constructive and secondarily aesthetic. Gothic architects were above
all things mathematicians, geometricians.

They aimed at a safe
system of vaulting by means an interacting skeleton or framework
of
based on static laws which, after a long and bold but careful process
1 The other favorite term was " German " (Tedesco) style because so many German
architects happened to be called to Italy (e. g., Cath. Milan) to put up Gothic build-
ings.
of experimentation, were understood as they never had been before,
assisted by an increased perfection of technique in stone cutting
and laying. Walls were practically ehminated as a necessity. The
scheme was to reconcile safety with the extremest possible pre-
ponderance of voids over sohds, in order to secure plenty of light and
unity in church interiors. This was done under the guidance of a
love for aerial perspective and ver ical effects. Everything con-
structively unnecessary was eliminated: every structural element
was frankly shown. The science that dictatedwas exulted m.
it
The time required to develop Gothic was simply the time during which
laboratory experiments were being conducted in the chantiers to
gradually adapt the forms to the new principles.
At the same time an artistic evolution was in progress that paral-
leled the structural evolution, though, of course, it began a little
later and depended upon it. This shows itself in the scheme of
geometric decoration; the scheme of floral ornamentation taken
directly from plant life; the new school of figured sculpture which
turned the cathedrals into Encyclopaedias of science, history and
and the creation of the art of figured stained-glass windows
religion;
which was to give the tone to church interiors as well as supplement
figured sculptures in their mission of instructing the people. All these
forms of art seem so absolutely a part of the new architecture that we
cannot think of it without them all, and feel that when any one of
them conspicuously absent or weak, the completeness of the work
is
as an embodiment of Gothic art has vanished. In them as well as

in the constructive work the abolition of plane surfaces is the material
keynote.
Political and social conditions were then particularly favourable
in France. The spread and well-being, the organization of
of education
flourishing self-governed cities, the newly awakened rehgious fervour
the rise of Episcopal power and the sympathy between clergy, people
and universities, made for the building of large cathedrals and the
generous co-operation of every class in the production of works of art.
—
Everything was planned on a large scale so large that it was often
found impossible to complete the work. The cathedrals became the
pride of the new communes, and the centre of their Hfe.
In studying these structures it must be remembered that
until
then the great building agencies had been the monastic orders
and
that practically all the architects and other artists had been
monks.
Chap. I] ORIGINS OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE n
In the monasteries were the teachers; the mass of workmen were
either the lay brethren or dependent workmen. The organization of
guilds of lay artisans during the Twelfth century made it possible for
Gothic art to be developed outside monastic influence. When the
movement began, we have a contemporary document which gives
some idea how a large building was erected. It is Abbot Suger's report
on the construction of the Abbey Church of St. Denis in c. 1140. He
says that he gathered artists from all parts of France. Soon after we
find that was the custom to issue an invitation to architects to
it
compete for the honour of directing the erection of a cathedral. The

historian Gervase tells us how this was done in the case of Canterbury
Cathedral in 1175. The big chantier which was then opened was not,
as heretofore, a sort of succursale of a monaster}^, under a strict semi-
military discipline, but an aggregation of independent lay artisans.
This explains the freedom and variety in the workmanship which
charms us. It is like the old Greek work under similar conditions.
As Gothic mania spread during the
art progressed, as the building
thirteenth century, the lay guilds increased in power and numbers,
until art guilds existed in every cit}', and a sort of relationship and
commmiity of action estabhshed between those of each country.
Artists were continually travelling or being called away. New knowl-
edge soon became common property.
This was a help in the breaking down of the provincial differences
of style which had been so characteristic of Romanesciue. In France
difficult to find
itself, where these had been so numerous, it is not only
more than five or six schools, in place of more than a dozen Romanesque
schools, but in some cases the differences between them are not at all
fundamental. say that there are mainly three

In fact, one may
groups: that headed by the Ile-de-France or Parisian School; that
of
the Angevin Schools, and that of the South. To the first group
belong
the schools of Normandy, Champagne, Picardy and Burgundy. The

characteristics of each one will be studied later.
Outside France it
was natural that the introduction of Gothic should everywhere weaken

the local building traditions.
Monastic builders like the Cistercians and then the Dominicans
Franciscans, who carried the new style wherever they went,
were
and
cosmopolitan. French lay artists to England, Italy,
The calhng of
Germany, Hungary, Scandinavia is a matter of record, and they

often
went in groups and taught the new style to local artists. The dif-
ferences which we observe when these local schools develop are mainly
national and not, as heretofore, local, and are due to temperament,
degree of artistic taste, and Umitations imposed by materials and
training.
There are two other points to consider at the outset: first, that
Gothic is essentially a style based on stonework and to which stone
is absolutely necessary for its proper expression; and second, that it
was developed to solve the problem of several-aisled interiors with

their interrelated thrusts. Therefore when a building is in brick or
in wood, it cannot be a complete exponent of Gothic neither can ; it be
when it is a one-roomed structure, or one formed of a series of inde-
pendent single vaulted units. In this particular, again, we note the
analogy to Greek architecture, where the temple design was the one
norm —copied in tombs, in treasuries, in portals. Gothic stonework
had to be in small units. This is evident when we remember that the
style abolished all broad expanses of wall masonry, and that when,
as in the vaults, there was a considerable uninterrupted surface, this
surface had to be so varied in its lines that the smallest units were
required in order to follow the curved planes. The plan of rubble
core with stone facing was
abandoned except, for instance, in
largely
miUtary and engineering works, and the stonework was formed
throughout of these small units. The period of the greatest technical
perfection in stonework was that of the formation of the style, from c.
1 1 60 to c. 1220; whereas in many of the greatest cathedrals of the

developed style of the thirteenth century the workmanship shows
carelessness.
The first thing to consider in detail, then, is Gothic vaulting, as it
is germ from which the whole style springs.
the
The fundamental difference between Romanesque and Gothic
vaulting was not at all the substitution of the pointed for the round
arch, but the use of ribs as a support for the masonry of the vault.
The diagonal ribs were not usually pointed, as some writers state, but
round; and they divided the vault into four independent compart-
ments. In the groined vault the structure was an undivided unit
formed quite simply from the intersection of two barrel vaults and
therefore a work requiring great care in its execution, as any flaw
would affect the whole, and the diagonal ridges were lines of danger
where the junction and interpenetration of the, units had to be made
with particular care. The placing of projecting ribs along these
ridges transformed them into lines of sustaining power and a sort of

permanent centring. These ribs formed a framework (Fig. i) not
only self-supporting but able to sustain the weight
of the entire vault. The French called them arcs
ogives, from aiigcre, "to add," because they so in-
creased the strength of the vault. In order to give
the ribs this function the surface of each vaulting
compartment was shghtly arched and at times,
especially in early vaults, it was somewhat dome-
shaped. As these vaulting compartments were thus
made to shift their responsibilities, it was no longer — Slructurc of sev-
necessary to construct them so heavily: they became crics in vault. (From

Viollet-le-Duc.)
merely screens or transmitters. The change that
took place here was the exact parallel to what happened later in
the gradual thinning and elimination of the solid wall surfaces of

naA-e and aisles. The ribs were now able to discharge the weight
they received not along one continuous line, as
was done before, but at the points where the ribs

ended either against a wall or on a support in the
form of a pier or column. In order to assist in
the transmission of this thrust the lines of the
ribs and the \'aulting surfaces were given a
slightly downward slant which became perfected
in the thirteenth century, after the domical
tendency had been eliminated. To the old uncer-
tainty as to the weak points in a structure there
was substituted absolute knowledge of the points
where counter-thrusts should be established, in
the form of buttresses. Two other sets of ribs
beside the diagonal or groin ribs were required
to complete the framework: the wall or longi-
tudinal ribs and trans\'erse ribs for which the
French term is arc-doublcau. The ^'aulting com-
2 — Domical Gothic \-ault- partments or panels —which English writers call
ing.
Duc.)
(From Mollct-lc-
" severies " — rest on this framework without being
incorporated in it. The two sets of ribs just
described were given the pointed form in order to partly counterbalance

the greater span of the diagonals. It was (Fig. 2) natural for the
Gothic architect to make the crown of his vaults at the meeting of the
diagonals higher than the crown of the longitudinal and transverse
ribs, but it is a mistake to imagine that a pronounced domical form
was usual, for this was a specialty of the Angevin school. The incline
was usualty slight, even in early work, and became even less apparent
during the thirteenth century. In some cases stilting was also used,
in order to raise still more the crown of the framing ribs. In longi-
tudinal ribs over clearstories, the springing was on a higher level than
that of the diagonals, merely a form of stilting. I shall not speak

here of other classes of ribs, of decorative or constructive value,
which appear in later Gothic works, especially in England.
A'-. B.
3 — French quadripartite vaulting (.1. S. Pierre, Lisieux) with apsidal vault; and sexpartite
vaulting (B. cathedral, LaonJ: showing curved surfaces and coursing of severies.
(From Simpson.)
There is, however, a form of vault that influenced the early plan
and structure: the sexpartite vaulting in which there was an inter-
mediate longitudinal rib bisecting the centre of the vault and trans-
mitting part of the thrust. This feebler thrust required less support
below. Hence the alternation of columns and piers in some transitional
buildings. In Fig. 3, the left-hand vaulting illustrates not only
the normal quadripartite form, but the radiating vaulting compart-
ments developed in choirs. The sexpartite vaulting is given on the
right. In these illustrations we can study the minuteness of the units
and the curves they take in following the vaulting planes. The ribbing
here extremely delicate, and was reached only after a hah-ccntury
is
of progressi^•e diminution in bulk. In Fig. 4 there is an illustration

of the way in which the three ribs spring from the abaci and of the
diagonal arrangement of units in
the vaulting cells: it does not
illustrate so well the fact that the
wall ribs as a rule spring from a

considerably higher level than the
transverse and diagonal ribs, thus
giving a decided twist to the sur-
faces. In certain French prov-
inces, as we shah see, a domical
form of ribbed \'aulting was used,
which is illustrated in Fig. 2, but
it came into general use
ne\'er
and after a while was superseded
even in its own section by the
normal t}'pe.
The second element in the
Gothic framework was the pier,
and the vaulting shafts connected 4 —Triforium of church at Beaumont.

(From photo.)
with it. In this the practical
Gothic spirit shows itself as clearly as in the vault. There are three
stages in its development. First is the pier of the earliest transitional
buildings, which has a square core with engaged shafts on its pilaster
faces to support the ribbing shafts and the archivolt mouldings. This
necessarily hea\'y support was discarded wholly or in part in the
second stage of primiti^'e Gothic, embodied at Noyon, Notre Dame
and other works of the second half of the twelfth century, in fa^'our of
the simple round column; not monohths, like the Roman shafts,
but built up in courses. The vaulting shafts and archivolt mouldings
start from the capital of these hea^y columns. In Fig. 6 the mechan-
ism of this structure is illustrated and in Fig. 7 we can study the
progressive increase of the tas-dc-cJiargc or single block above the
capital. As this arrangement is evidently a sin against the otherwise
inexorable logic of Gothic ideas, because it does not fohow the con-
structive forms, we must believe that it was due to the desire for room
on the ground floor. The third stage, beginning shortly before 1200,
i6 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
returns to the scheme of the grouped pier, which can now, owing to
the progress toward dehcacy of form, be made much slenderer. The
basis of the group, however,no longer a square nucleus. It is either
is
a circular core (the column) with four shafts engaged in its surface;
or else a core faced with an elaborate group of shafts corresponding
in outline to all the mouldings of vaulting shafts and archivolt mould-
ings. The former simple scheme was that adopted in most of the
masterjîeces of the thirteenth century, and is here illustrated by the
pier and vaulting of Amiens in Fig. 5. This final form made Gothic
logically homogeneous. Of course,
--^c there were variants and transitional
forms which will be noticed in
describing the monuments. Their
bulk is steadily reduced until the
minimum of safetyand is reached,
they are spaced more and more
widely according to the same plan
until the choir of Beauvais showed
what this Umit was. The capitals
and plinths of the supports have a
charming variety; they are treated
with a plastic elasticity to ensure
the greatest strength and to adapt
themselves to the outlines of piers
and mouldings. The treatment of
the masonry immediately above the
capital is illustrated in the simplest
form of its evolution in Fig. 6,
S —Pier and vaultin; system, nave of which gives evolution before 1250,
its
Amiens cathedral (From Viollct-le-
Due.)
showing the gradual change in the
tas-de-charge or courses
from which
the archivolts spring. How worked out in detail, as to moulded
this
ribs, also appears in early simple form in Fig. 7 and in the more
complicated memberment made necessary by the grouped pier in
Fig. 8, where the mouldings of the early thirteenth centur)^
tyiîcal
are given for all the ribbings— transverse, diagonal and wall. An
even fuller understanding of the elaborate juxtaposition of mouldings
in the vaulting at a certain level above the pier on all sides is given
in the plan of Fig. 9, from Amiens. The exactness and delicacy of
Chap. I] ORIGINS OF GOTHIC IN FIANCE 17
the handUng required
for the sort of designs that henceforth prevailed,
far suipassed am'thing thus far
known in architecture.
;'/7
6 —Tas-do-chargc, evolution. 7 — Construction at spring from columnar

(From Viollet-le-Duc.) shaft. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
The third clement is the flying buttress. In Romanesque vaulted

buildings where the thrust was continuous, it was, as we have seen,
necessary to pro\-ide a continuous counter-thrust. This was done,
<-. c^,r^^//ô r
S — Tas-cle-charge, shaft and vaulting masonry, in XIII century. (From Aiiikihi Arcli.)
for example, in Burgundy, Auvergne and Provence, by the placing of
a semi-tunnel vault o\'er the aisles to abut the tunnel vault of the
nave. When the ribbed cross-vault was introduced the concentra-
)

tion of the thrust at the base of the diagonal ribs made it necessary
to reinforce the wall at these points. It was found that buttress-piers
were not sufficient for this, so it was imagined to run up free-standing
• piers from the walls of the side-aisles
( ^ opposite these buttress-piers and con-
- '-^
-, nect the piers with a flying buttress of
f ^
^
g — Section of vaulting system above lo —Primitive buttress of S. Remi at Reims.
piers, nave of Amiens cathedral. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
(From ViolIet-le-Duc.)
a shape not unlike a segment of a semi-tunnel vault. This flying

buttress met the wall-pier just above the base of the vaulting ribs of
each internal compartment, where it could receive the diagonal thrust.
Ti —Transition buttress of 2 — Early Gothic double-battericd

nave of Noyon catlie- buttress at cathedral of Sois-
dral. (From i\Ioore.) sons. (From Viollet-le-D uc .
It did not abut directly against the waU but against a buttress-pier. At
first hidden under the roof that covered the aisles it soon emero-ed into
the open, after 1150. As it was the last element to receive careful
study, it in embryo until about 1160, was better understood

remained
toward and perfected soon after 1200, when the arclied section was
11 80
made verj' delicate and pinnacles above its point of juncture with the
pier were used to load down the structure. It soon became a two-storied
or double-batteried construction, pierced and decorated. A primiti^'e
form is given in Fig. 10, from St. Remi at Reims, where the angle is too
sub-arches, and witli open gallery.

I— Buttress s\-stcm of nave of Amiens, reinforced u-it!i
(From plroto.)
in both the
wide and the arch too slender. There is greater efficacy
direction and weight of the buttress of Noyon
cathedral in Fig. 11,
pilaster also rises beyond it. Still before the close of the
where the
of Soissons cathedral
- twelfth century comes the double-batteried system
Chartres, whose
which was only slightly lightened in the cathedral of
illustrated later, in Fig. 48. It will easily be seen,
splendid system is
how rapidly the scheme was

by reference to the next few pages,
lightened between 1210 and 1250 to keep pace with the thinner walls
and enlarged clearstory. The culminating stage, with its pierced
masonr}^, here illustrated in Fig. 13, from the nave of Amiens, which
is
required reinforcing. In the nave of St. Denis, given in Fig. 14, we

see a good instance of the finished product at the close of the evolution.
Assistedby a sketch of
ViUard de Honnecourt and
by traces still remaining at
Amiens, Reims and Beau-
vais, Choisy has shown the
successive steps in the erec-

tion of a typical Gothic
structure. The lower part
of nave and aisles was first
built to the base of the

clearstory of the nave, in-
cluding the buttress-piers.
The pent roof over the
aisles was then added and
under its protection the
vaults of the aisles were
built: in preparation for
them temporary bind-
ing rods or beams were
stretched across at each
pier above the capitals to
counteract the thrust and
settlement of the masonry.
These were removed in
14- -System of nave of Abbey church of St. Denis (c. course of time. The main
1245), showing developed French type, with glazed walls of the nave were then
triforium and union of triforium with clearstory.
(From Viollet-le-Duc.)
run up to their full height.
When the point was reached

of the springing of the vaulting shafts, a line of binding rods or beams
was stretched across the nave and imbedded masonry, as had
in the
been done in the aisles. Then the high-pitched roof was added and its
heavy beams performed at the top the same soHdifying function as the
beams or rods did below when the main vaults were constructed beneath
it, and the centrings were removed. When all settling was over, the
;
colonnettes surrounding the central shaft of the supports of the nave

were added in cases where they had not been built in courses with the
main pier. Being monohths, they would be in great danger of breakage
had they been set in place between their capitals and bases before the
settlement was over. The construction proceeded from east to west
that is, it began at the choir (which was often temporarily enclosed for
worship) and proceeded towards transept and nave, ending at the
facade. But the entire ground story was usually completed even to the
facade before the gallery and clearstory were commenced. Architects
made drawings and sometimes models of the entire building, and these
were kept in the architect's oilice or ceuvrc usually attached to each
cathedral. But while the original general scheme was generally
followed even when the work lasted more than a century, the devia-
tions in details and in style were very important because the working
drawings, often of natural size, were not made until that particular
part of the work was actually under way and were often in the style
of the day. I was so fortunate as to discover and identify the only
existing original architect's model of a complete Gothic structure,
that of the church of St. Maclou at Rouen, which I will reproduce and
describe on page 121. It is important because it illustrates a fact of
fundamental bearing that when a building was begun it was conceived
:
as a whole by a single architect and not constructed piecemeal as

modern critics often imagine. There was a complete scheme for plan
and elevation. If there were substantial deviations from it in the
course of the work it was usually a misfortune, not an improvement.
After this introduction we will see how these facts are illustrated
in the monuments.
CHAPTER II
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC EST FRANCE
THAT part of Central France which was the nucleus of the old
Royal domain, called the Ile-de-France, saw the birth of the
new constructive movement. We may call it the Paris school,

for its earliest stages can be studied only in and near Paris. This
region was ripe for new had no tenacious traditions.
ideas because it
It was architecturally backward and had no particularly important

structures built during the eleventh century. It had gone on using
wooden roofs without experimenting with domes or barrel vaulting.

When its architects were called on to put up buildings on a larger
scale required by the new prosperity of the towTis, they took as a basis,
perhaps through Norman influence, the ribbed vault, and at once
began using it in a plastic fashion, to cover oblong compartments or
compartments of irregular shape over choir ambulatories. Those
who are curious in such matters may study the way in which the experi-
ments in this field were carried on in the Ile-de-France in Mr. Moore's
book, where he starts with the apsidal aisle of Morienval in c. iioo,
with very heavy and rudimentary ribbing, with but little progress
until Bury in c. 1125, which is still heavy and tentative and lacks the
longitudinal rib. In Paris itself, at St. Germain-des-Pres, the apse has
a celled vaulting on ribs which has the germ of the later choir vaulting.
So, we reach St. Germer, in 1140, without discovering anything but
preliminary and rudimentary sketches of parts of the new church.
But from this time forward one is bewildered by the buildings
that can be used to illustrate the transitional period: the most promi-
St. Germer and St. Denis, the cathe-
nent are: the abbey churches of
drals of Sens and Senhs, of Noyon and Laon, St. Leu d'Esserent,
Notre Dame of Paris and the cathedral of Meaux. For comparative
purposes I have taken the liberty of borrowing from Choisy his
Chap. II] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IX FRANCE 23
illuminating birds-eye sketches of St. Germer, Sens, Noyon and

Notre Dame. This carries us over a period of a half-century from
about 1 140 to 1190, if we exclude all of Notre Dame but the nave,
which was the first part to be built. Now, before we come down to
details, certain general facts will be noticed. In the first place, the
form of the supports changes, and the heavy built-up column replaces
the Romanesciue pier. Then, the il}'ing buttress, which was kept
low and concealed by the roof at St. Germer, is found to function
properly only when it is made to abut at a higher point, so it is raised
above the roof and in plain sight. It is quite plain, but passes from
extreme heaviness (St. Martin at Laon) to a gradual lightening of
the arch (St. Leu d'Esserent).
Thirdly, the faôurite form of vaulting
becomes not the Lombard quadripartite but the Norman sexpartite
vault and this affects the form of the supports, which from being
entirely grouped piers often become either entirely columnar or
alternate columns and piers.
At the time when the movement began the age of the monasteries
was on the wane and the rule of the cathedrals had began. The first
two monuments we shall study are the abbey churches of St. Denis
and St. Germer, but after that we shall meet mainly with cathedrals.
The genesis of the Gothic vault has been looked for in Lombard
churches like S. Ambrogio at jNIilan; in Norman churches hke the
Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen. If the true primitive form with pointed
trans^'erse arch was used in the cathedral of Durham (Vol. II, p. 3S5)
in about 1090 then this favours the claims of the Norman school. The
heavy ambulatory vaults of Morienval, however, in the Ile-de-France,
dating from about the same time, were followed by so continuous a
progressive series of vaulted examples in the same region that it seems
quite certain the development took place here and not in Normandy.
The aisles alone were first vaulted: then the choirs and finally the
naves: the nave co^'ered with the ribbed vaulting was that
first of
St. Germer, which followed very closely after the vaulting of its
narrower spaces.
The abbey church of St. Germer is the first building with a
homogeneous Gothic structure throughout, although to the super-

ficial observer it would appear to be purely
Romanesque. In fact, the
exterior is so absolutely Romanesque that one of the foremost French
critics, M. de Dion, has imagined that it was earher than the present
interior. But this is only, in reality, a perfectly logical relationship.
as Gothic features began with the innermost part of the structural
interior and worked gradually toward the exterior. In looking at the
interior view given in Fig. 1 5 it must be remembered that one of the
most characteristic features, the open gallery over the aisles, has been
destroyed. If we mentally restore it in the nave, from the remaining
gallery in transept and apse, we shall have a design that has very few
signs of indecision. Only the triforium gallery has the old-fashioned
groin-vault: all the rest of the vaulting system is Gothic. The choir,
which is thought to be the earliest to show the new system on a large
scale, dates between
1 130 and 1 140. The

piers have a square
core —a Romanesque
inheritance —faced on
the outside by a single
engaged round shaft
to support the archi-
volts of the arcades of
the apsidal aisle, and
on the outside by a
group of three engaged
round shafts to con-
nect with the vaulting
shafts on both sides.
A grandiose effect is
produced by the great

pier at each side of
the entrance to the
15 -Abbey church St. Germer. EarUest Gothic nave; gallery
closed. (From photo.) choir. These heaA^
piers, as well as the
zig-zag decoration of the archivolts, are Norman features
in the period :
ofdeveloped Gothic we shall meet them in the cathedral of Coutances.

The vaulting of the aisles of the apse shows a perfect adjustment of
the troublesome irregularities due to the curved plan which had
puzzled the builders of the previous twenty or thirty years since
Morienval. There are the various ribs each with its supporting
shaft, and a vault that shows a slightly dcmical form. The main
piers of the nave are heavy, but they are more logically Gothic in
their lines than the later columnar type, as the vaulting shafts rise
Chap. II] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 25
without interruption from the pavement, resting on a very high base-

ment. The stilting of the arches of the choir and of tlie trans\'erse
arches of the aislesvery noticeable and somewhat awkward. The
is
pointed arch has now passed from the structure of the vault to the
main arcades: the minor arcades and
the windows, where there is less need
of structural strength, remain round-
headed. The cross section in Fig. 16
will show the curious elementary fl}'ing
buttresses over the triforium gallery.
They were concealed under the roof
and abutted against the clearstory
wall. They are the earliest example
of the new plan of receiving the thrust
of the vaults only at the points of
greatest pressure. Another feature
that now obscured is
is the very rare
double transept. The usual one at
the end remains: that to the
east
wdst is two of
obliterated except for
the massive corner piers.
At St. Denis only the two extrem- 16 — St. Germer. Sj-slem. (From Choisy.)
ities of the original abbey church
built by Abbot Suger in about 1140 remain: the facade and the apse.
It was the most famous church of its day in France, except perhaps
the abbey church of Clun}-, and through the gathering of artists from
different parts of France to build and decorate it, as we can read in
Suger's own account of the work, itmust have been a powerful means
of illustratingand spreading the new ideas. The vaulting of the
aisles and chapels of the choir show an advance in refinement over
St. Germer, and the plan with five aisles gave the model for the large
cathedrals. A revolutionary innovation was the substitution of the

column for the pier as a support in the choir-aisles. It is a charming
innovation which seems less happy in later and hea\der examples such
as Notre Dame. Here at St. Denis it is delicate and symmetrical.
Another feature in this choir is the stilting of the arches, which is so
characteristic in choirs of the developed style (Fig. 17). In default

of the body of the church which was replaced by one of developed
Gothic style in the following century, we must turn for a record of the
next advance to the
cathedrals of Noyon and
SenHs, begun between
1150 and 1 160.
In these buildings we
see the earliest cathe-
drals representing the
newly established com-
munal life. The fagade
of Senlis (Fig. 18) is the
first with some Gothic
features that has been
preserved. It has the
three stories, the two
flanking towers and the
three portals between
buttress-piers thatwe
find in some Roman-
esque churches, but the
portals are pointed and 17 — St. Denis. Ambulatory of choir. (From Enlart.)
the central one has the carved

decoration that is to be char-
acteristic of developed Gothic
art. Of course the traceries
in the windows of this facade
are a much later addition,
but the windows themselves
are The immense
original.
pointed central window was

the predecessor of the rose
or wheel window, which first
appears in miniature above,

then, as at Chartrcs, is enlarged
so as to rival the pointed
windows below and finally, as
at Laon (Fig. 34), the wheel
window descends and occupies
18 — Senlis cathedral, west front. (From Moore.) the centre of an imaginary
Chap. 11] DEVELOPMENT OF GOl^HIC IN FRANCE 27
H
round-topped window, or else reduces these
lower windows to a gallery, as at Amiens.
The interior of Senlis is (Fig. 19) interesting
and original. Although the primitive vault-
ing no longer exists,' the plan shows that it
was sexpartite. There is an alternation of
heavy piers of a type more developed than
those of St. Germer, with simple cylindrical
shafts on whose plinths the minor vaulting
shafts rest. This substitution of the sex-
partite vault for the oblong quadripartite
vault appears to have come in with the in-
troduction of the column as a support, and
one suspects that the column was used in
order to give more space for the congregation.
2a-Cathedralof Noyon: plan.
The proportions are Still " about as heavy as
(From Viollet-lo-Duc.) o V-.
at bt. Germer, but there a more varied articu-
lation of mouldmgs and shafts, and the pointed arch is introduced
into new portions such as the triforium gallery.
2i-System of cathedral of Noyon. 2 2-S)'Stem of cathedral of Sens

(From Choisy.) (From Choisy.)
'The present quadripartite vaulting was substituted in the XIII century.
Chap. 11] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 29
Noyon seems a little more advanced, in certain ways; it was begun

between 11 50 and 1155. The plan of Noyon in Fig. 20 is especially
remarkable for the curved outline of its transept ends —a unique
peculiarity —
and for the development of its fajade scheme. It was
planned for the same system of sexpartite vaults with alternating piers
and columns, but the present vaults are of the quadripartite oblong
form that prevailed after 1200, and this mars the logical perfection
of the interior. There is
a greater lightness, espe-
cially in the triforium gal-
lery, which is on a larger
scale and with pointed
arches. Above it is a line
of false arcades or upper

triforium below the clear-
story, which is a feature
already found at St. Ger-
mer and Sens. The cut
from Choisy restores the
sexpartite vaulting (Fig.
21) aswas originally
it
planned, and shows the

heavy fl}'ing buttresses
also as they were before
restoration. Both round
and pointed arches are
used and it is interesting
to note that in the longi-
^y -System of choir of St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris.
tudinal ribs of the choir, (From Choisy.)
extreme stilting is used
and the round arch retained just where it would seem most natural to
use the pointed arch in order easily to reach about to the level of the
diagonal crown. In the choir all the supports are in the form of
columns; in the apse itself they are extremely slender. In the three
stories of the choir the ground-story is round-arched—a curious sur-
vival —while the two upper stories are pointed.
interesting experiment was tried in the Cathedral of Sens.

A most
Here the intermediate support for the sex-partite vaulting consisted
of two independent cyUndrical

shafts, with common base and capi-
tals. This innovation, picturesque but structurally dangerous, found
no imitators in France, though it did in England (Fig. 22). There is
no gallery over the aisles, only a line of false arcades to relieve the bare
wall, according to the scheme that was to be adopted in the thirteenth
century. On the other hand, the scheme is old-fashioned in its use
of square vaulting compartments after the Rhenish, Lombard and
Norman Romanesque method: another sign of archaicism is the
evident intention originally to use the ribbed vault only in the nave
Original plan. Final plan.

24— Notre Dame, Paris. Showing changes due to addition of chapels to nave and choir.
(From VioIlet-le-Duc.)
and to be satisfied with a groin vault in the aisles. This is clear from
theawkward corbels inserted at the base of the ribs that were used
when the vaulting was actually built. Evidently Sens was planned
at about the same time as St. Denis
(c. 1140), but the upper
parts
of nave and aisles were not constructed until later (c. 1168), which
accounts for the suppression of the gallery.
One of the earliest apses
with radiating chapels is that of St.
Germain-des-Prcs in Paris, completed in 1163. Here the gallery is
much reduced in size. In its fine symmetry this choir takes on some
of the lightness that is to characterize developed Gothic. In the nave
the oblong quadripartite vaulting was used, in
continuation of the tra-
dition of St. Germer and Poissy, at a time when
sexpartite vaulting
had already been introduced (Fig. 23).
Notre Dame, the cathedral embodies the spirit of transi-
of Paris,
tional Gothic even better than some contemporary buildings, for the
very reason that it is not homogeneous. One can trace (Fig.
24) a good
part of the changes that went on from about 11
63, when it was founded.
-Xotre Dame, Paris, seen from rear. (From photo.)
until about 1235, when its fagade was nearly completed, with even
later peculiarities in the south transept with its portal of 1257. It
has the advantage of a splendid isolation by the Seine, which gives

full value to its exquisite choir with flying buttresses wKich are evi-
dently an addition of the XIII century when the chapels were built.
Work was begun, as usual, at the choir end (Fig. 25), but we may
study the fagade (Fig. 26) iirst because its design is eviderlth' the
primitive one, though not carried out until after 1200. It is the most
symmetrical of the great Gotliic fagades. In fact it is the first of the
truly Gothic tj-pe. As Choisy well remarks, it is based on a square
above which rise the flanking towers. The three portals are set in solid
masonry and are crowned with the gallery of kings. The buttresses
with their without the pinnacles, the niches and
oilsets are still plain,
the surface decoration that are to distinguish XIII century work. For
the last time we see uncovered flat waU surfaces. The second story
grouping of the windows is certainly finer and more symmetrical than
that of the later facades.
The open gallery above
it is distinctly of later
design than the rest,
with exquisite shafts: it
conceals the gable of the

roof of the nave. The
hnes of the buttress-
piers are continued in
the towers which still
retain the square plan

in one unbroken story,
with coupled buttress-
piers. The church was
planned with five aisles
but without the chapels
which were added be-
tween the buttresses c.
1240, using what was

otherwise wasted space:
one of the earliest cases
of what became quite a
general way of planning
26 — West faffade of Notre Dame, Paris. (From photo.) before 1300. Compare
the early tracery of the
clearstory with the developed tracery of the chapels and the difference
in age is evident. This change eliminated from the plan any projection
of the short transept. Another peculiarity of the plan is the perfectly
semi-circular line of the choir which was more often provided with
radiating chapels.
The interior (Fig. 27) is without thesoaring quahties popularly
ascribed to Gothic, though it is higher tlian other transitional interiors.
Chap. II] DEVELOPAIENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE
33
The supports are heavy and as the)- do n<it alternate
circular shafts
^\lth piers it has been suggested that the original plan
provided for
quadripartite instead of the sexpartite
vaults Avhich we see. The
change ^vould haxe occurred in the course
of construction. But, as we
shall hnd later, this alternation
occurs in the aisles and that may have
been thought sufficient. Another interesting peculiarity is the addition
of one engaged shaft m
the sixth pier from the
transept on the side fa-
cing the nave, to carry
the weight of the shaft
of the main vaults. This
was in the nature of an
experiment ; it proved
unsatisfactory because
while it provided for the
most pressing need it
was a makeshift (Fig.
28). Consequently the
architect in charge built
the seventh (Fig. 29)
and last pier with four
engaged shafts instead
of one, so as to meet the
minor vaulting shafts of
the aisle and the mould-
ings of the archi volts.
Perhaps was the
this
origin of what became
the classic form of pier,
used at Chartres, Reims -Interior of Xolrc Dame. (From photo.)
and Amiens. INIean-
while, the form of the sixth pier, with its single shaft, served as the scheme
for the interior of the cathedral of Soissons, begun in 1175. Perhaps the
most striking feature is the high gallery or second story of the aisle.
It is the ultimate expression of this form, which goes out of fashion
immediatel)' after iiSo. It is interesting to notice that while there is
no alternation of heav}' and weak supports in the nave, that alternation
exists between the side aisles. Choisv keenlv remarks that as the
28 — Pier and sixth

of Soissons Cathedral pier of Notre 29 — Seventh pier of Xotre
Dame. (From Moore.) Dame. (From Moore.)
thrust of the vaultmg is not vertical, but oblique and outward, it was
logical that the piers that most needed strengthening were those
between the side aisles.
The circular core has a
ring of engaged shafts.
Some of the differences
between the church as
first built and as we see
it after the changes of
the XIII century, are
instructive. In the cut
(Fig. 30), taken from
Choisy, the right-hand
half shows the original
structure, while on the
left we see it as it is.
The principal changes

are: the substitution of
large traceried windows
for a rose-window or ocu-
lus surmounted by a plain
-System of Xolre Dan-ie. Right-hand lialf shows orig-
inal scheme of 1163. Left-hand half shows
low window (Fig. 31) the ;
final
scheme of XIII century. (From Choisy.) use of light one-storied
DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 35
buttresses for the heavier double-
batteried structure; the loss of
the triforium over the gallery.
It is important to bear these
things in mind because the stu-
dent ordinarily concludes that
he sees before him, aside from
the chapels, the scheme of the
twelfth century. The restora-
tions affected the vaulting,
which
is remarkably perfect and accu-
rate in its construction (Fig. 32).
31 —Window of Notre Dame, showing

older and later forms. (From
Viollet-le-Duc.)
Side by side with Notre

Dame one naturally places
several churches which dupH-
cate its essential features and
in a way are more instructive
because they are more homo-
geneous. These are especially
the cathedrals of Laon and
Mantes (which is a copy) and
St. Leu d'Esserent.
Laon has an interior (Fig.

^T,) almost exactly the coun-
terpart of Notre Dame in its
32 — Structural details of nave of Notre Dame.
columnar supports, its splen- (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
did gallery, its sexpartite vaulting and its grandiose fafade. Still there
are certain fundamental differences; its long and narrow plan, with only
three in place of five aisles ; its projecting transept ; its square-ending apse.
It is interesting to compare the facades. That of Laon (Fig. 34) is evi-
dently the earlier tjqê and less well thought out. The stepping of the
upper section of the f agade is awkward : so is the line of small windows
above the portals. The towers, however, are remarkably fine, and that
-Inlerior of Laon Cathedral, looking west. (P'rom photo.)
they were so considered by the early Gothic builders themselves is
shown by the sketch made of one of them by the architect Villars de

Honnecourt before 1250: he declares them incomparable. They give
a type later and more beautiful than that of the towers of Notre Dame,
partly because they are developed on an octagonal instead of a square
plan. In certain features the interior shows a fine richness: in the
transept, for instance (Fig. 35), and the piers with eight detached shafts
(Fig. 36).
St.Leu d'Esserent not only stands very close to the older parts
of Notre Dame but, though small, is so homogeneous as to be exceed-
34- -Cathcdral of Laon, west
front. iFrom photo.)
38 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk X
35 —Plan of cathedral of Laon. 36 — Pier with detached shafts in the cathe-

(From Viollct-le-Duc.) dral of Laon. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
ingly valuable for comparative criticism. The choir and transept date
from about 11 70, and do not yet show anj^ tracery in the windows.
The nave must belong to the close of the century and is particularly
interesting for its windows with almost the first attempt at tracery,
<7 — St. Leu d'l';sscrent, from the rear. (From photo.)

Chap. II] DEVELOP]\IENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 39
and the buttresses with double ramp, but still perfectly plain. Fig. 37,
though on a small scale, will show the character of this plain but sym-
metrical and logical structure. The windows are still disjointed in
this first composition of the cinq-foil oculus in the field over two lancet
windows enclosed by a pointed arch. It is still plate tracery and is

interesting to compare with the windows of the nave of Notre Dame,
where bar tracery is introduced into the design, which is the same ex-
cept that all the elements have been welded together. The buttresses
are probably similar to
the original ones of
Notre Dame. The

delicacy of the interior
is shown in Fig. 38,
which has more charm
than the larger church.
In Fig. 39, taken from
the choir, this v.ill ap-
pear even more clearly.
As for the Cathe-
dral of INIantes, already
referred to as practi-
cally a reduced copy of
Notre Dame, it repre-
sents of course the later
phase of the original 38 — Interior of St. Lt-u d'Ksserent. (From photo.)
and need not detain us
except to note that instead of a uniform use of the column to divide
nave and aisles it has alternate columns and piers, to coincide with
the sexpartite vaulting.
After Notre the great cathedrals in which architectural
Dame
development is best illustrated for the half-century from 11 90 to 1250
are: Bourges, Chartres, Soissons, Reims, Amiens, Le Mans,
Auxerre,
Troyes and Beauvais, with certain other contemporary masterpieces

that are not cathedrals, such as St. Yved at Braisne and St. Urbain
at
Troyes. In all these works Gothic art shows that it has successfully
completed its attempt to create both a logical constructive system
mth
a minimum of material and a maximum of strength, and an x-sthetic
system in perfect harmony with this construction and with the intel-
lectual and spiritual temper of the age. The period of experimenta-
RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
40
been left behind. The solution reached
tion and of transition lias
file with amazing
through the leaders was adopted by the rank and
in style.
unanimity and enthusiasm, and great unity resulted
Bourges cathedral, be-
gun between 1170 and 11 80,
is in some ways earlier, in
others later than Notre

Dame. It connects the type
of Senlis with those of Char-
tres and Meaux. This is
especially evident in the

fagade, the centre of which
is occupied by an enormous
pointed window and below
by a magnificent group of
five sculptured portals in

place of the customary three.
The view of the exterior from
the choir end given in Fig.
40 is quietly harmonious and
stands midway between the
plain transitional tj-pe illus-
trated in St. Leu d'Esserent
(Fig. 37) some twenty years
earlier, and that of the thir-
teenth century at Reims or

Amiens. We can see in the
tracery of the windows, the
tendency toward the unity
of design of Reims and
Amiens. Bourges is, in fact,
the last great work of the
twelfth century, whereas
Notre Dame embodies in
39 — Ambulatory of choir of St. Leu d'Esserent.
(From Viollct-le-Duc.)
some parts that of the thir-
teenth, especially in the re-
modelled sections. The five-aisled scheme is still followed at Bourges
and the vaulting remains sexpartite: also, the choir outline remains
semicircular. These are conservati\'e traits. On the other hand, the
40— Calhedriil of Bourges, from the rear, (From photo.)
transformation of the lower portion of the main support from a cylin-

drical shaft to a bundle of mouldings that carries the vaulting shafts to
the ground level, an innovation that first appears here and in a more
is
logical and advanced form than was afterward used in most of the
masterpieces of the thirteenth century. It has eight auxiliary shafts
instead of the four used at Chartres, Reims, Amiens, Beauvais, etc. This
richly featured pier was
tried, a few years later, in
the choir of St. Yved at

Braisne, a charming work
otherwise modelled on
Laon. It was also used, in
the last decade of the cen-
tury, at the cathedral of
]\Ieaux, throughout the
building.
There is also in the in-
terior of B ourges a curiously

tentative preservation of
the gallery over the aisles,
which heralds its complete

disuse. By pushing it so
far up and making it prac-
tically a triforium instead
of a second story of the 41— system of Bourges cathedral. (From Clioisy.)

the architect changed the entire proportions of the interior,
aisles,
because he increased enormously the height of the nave arcade and of

the aisle vaults. glance at Fig. 41 from the invaluable Choisy series
A
shows aU these points. We begin now to see the soaring proportions
42 —Interior of Bourges cathedral, seen from ambulatory of choir. (From photo.)
of the thirteenth century. It was a splendid attempt, but its pro-

portions were not repeated in the relation of the parts. It remained
in this a solitary work of genius, the beauty of which can be seen in

the view from the choir in Fig. 42,
The most striking originality is shown in the cathedral of Chartres,

begun after a fire in 11 94 and built with such rapidity that the choir
was consecrated in 11 98, the transepts almost completed in 121 2 and
the structural body of the church shortly after 1220 (Fig. 43). It has
the unity lacking at Notre Dame, and springs from the brain of an
architect of genius who understood how to use the local coarse stone
for massive effects. In the section of Fig. 44, in the view of the
43 — Plan of cathedral of Chartres. 44- -System of cathedral of Chartres. ,.'
(From VioUet-le-Duc.) (From Choisy.) _
interior in Fig. 45 and in the clearstory window in Fig. 46, the main
characteristics can easily be seen to be: the massive but superbly
articulated buttress piers; the double buttress arches with their unique
arcade; three in place of five aisles; the central shaft reinforced by four
colonnettes as a pier; the quadripartite in place of the sexpartite vault;
the absence of domical curves in the vaulting compartments; the
imposing roses in the clearstory; the suppression of the second story
over the aisles. The originality shows itself also in the smallest details.
In the main supports, for example, every other pier consists of an
octagonal central column surrounded with four round shafts, while the
intermediate pier has four octagonal shafts around a circular column.
This is shown even better in
Fig. 47 with its charming view
of aisles and transept. This al-
ternation is carried out in the

grouped vaulting shafts that
spring from the abacus of each
pier. Fig. 48 gives details of the
buttresses.
The fajade (Fig. 49) is not as
advanced as the interior because
part of it remains from the earlier
church destroyed by the fire of
1 193. The triple portal is the
most important remaining group

of the sort and will be described
under Sculpture. It is the proto-
type of the richer works of the

developed period and is perhaps
the finest instance of the subor-
dination of figures to architec-
46- -Clearstory of nave, cathedral of Chartres.
tural line. The two towers are (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
particularly interesting to both the student and the craftsman. That on

the right belongs to the older church and is one of the two or three most
artistic examples of the late Romanesque spire. It is massive without
hea\dness. How this type developedshown in Fig. 50 where the
is
spire of the Cathedral of Senlis is given, which was added to the church
toward the middle of the thirteenth century. Here and at Chartres the
_^S Flying buttresses of Chartres cathedral. (From photo.)
cleverly managed
passing from square to octagon at the base is most
and supplemented by the pignons and dormers addorsed against the
It is a most original design, de-
sides of the upper part of the spire.
delicacy. Returning to the
veloped at Senlis into forms of aspiring
side) had remained un-
Chartres fagade, the toAver on the left (north
finisheduntil the close of the Gothic age, and was completed in 1515
in the flamboyant style quite out
of keeping with the rest of the
facade but in itself extremely
artistic. The plan of keeping the
tower design intact, separate from
the facade, is a scheme largely
abandoned in later designing but

which appeals by its logic. The
central buttress in the towers is
also an unusual feature. There is
as yet no projecting porch, and

the large rose-window is not yet
brought down to where we find
it at Notre Dame and Laon, and
49 — Cathedral of Chartres, west front.

(From photo.)
50 —Tower of cathedral of SenUs, with detail. 51 — Plan of Soissons cathedral.

(From Viollet-lc-Duc.) (From Viollet-lc-Duc.)
Chap. II] DEVELOPJMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 47
52 —Restored view of cathedral, Reims, as it was in tlie Tliirteenth century. (From ViolIet-le-Duc.)
its sustaining group of three large pointed windows shows a designer

halting between two central focal points for his facade and so repre-
sents an earlier stage than the Notre Dame fagade.
The architect of Chartres seems to have given the classic model
)

which was followed merely with such stylistic changes as would
naturally occur in consequence of the continuous desire for greater
delicacy and lightness. Soissons cathedral (before 12 12) in certain
parts harks back to earlier schemes as in ; its main supports which are
transitionalbetween Notre Dame and Chartres, because the central
circular column is reinforced merely by a single shaft facing the nave
(Fig. 28). But the buttresses are double-arched as at Chartres, and
the plan has only three aisles for both nave and choir. A peculiarity
of the plan is the semicircular choir-like ending of the transept on
the south side (see Fig. 51), with its aisle. The construction began
at this point, toward 1175, and
it would seem as if the intention
of the architect was to end both
transepts in a semicircle, as had
just been done at Noyon (but
without aisles). Then a new
architect came, or at least a new
and larger plan was adopted
which sacrificed the symmetry
of this part of the building and
broadened the transept on the
other side.
We now pass quite beyond
the He - de - France into the
53 — Drawing by architect, bcKinning XIII cen- neighboring province of Cham-
tury, for fajade cathedral of Reims. (From
Choisy. pagne, to a school dependent
largely on the Notre Dame and
Chartres schools but with an added splendor, a love of classic beauty
and a joy in the freest expression of life. I mean Reims cathedral,
the grandest work Gothic
VioUet-le-Duc has given in Fig. 52,
of art.
a restoration of the building as the architect planned it and as it

existed before its spires were burned down. I give in Fig. 53 an
original drawing for the fagade, a projet of c. The architect of
1211.
Reims preserved in his facade the scheme of Notre Dame, which had
rot, however, been actually carried out when the design for Reims was
made in 1211. From what we know of the custom of the Gothic
making sketches and drawings before the work was begun,
architects of
which were presented and discussed, it is evident that the architect
of Reims could make use of the Notre Dame plans even before execu-
Chap. II.] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 49
54 — Cathedral of Reims, west front. (From photo.)

so RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
tion. One two important changes. The portals are
notices, however,
made beyond the line of the facade and even of
to project strongly
the buttresses and are crowned by gables. These gables are a later
addition; as well as the smaller end gables which crown the base of
the corner buttresses, and a few other parts of the decoration. In
this feature the influence of Laon (c. 1192) is evident. The second
difference is the suppression of the gallery of the kings above the por-
tals and the transfer of its line of statues to the lofty arcades at the
55 — Rose window, west front, cathedral of Reims, in process of restoration, showing erosion
of stonework. (From photo.)
base of the towers.Here again the Laon type is followed. The other
differences are merely
due to the natural evolution of the style which
tended toward the substitution of openings and decorative details for
plane surfaces. Notice the suppression of the wall over the portals,
the false arcading, the pinnacles and the niches for statues on the
buttresses, the use of the pointed in place of the round arch as a frame
for the wheel window, and the development of tracery and decorative
detail at every possible point. There is a perceptible lightening of
the upper story of the towers, where the incredibly slender shafts of
me corner pinnacles have a similar effect to those on the Strassburg
Chap. II] DEVELOPMENT î GOTHIC IN ERANCE SI
50— Interior of Cathedral of Reims. (From photo.)
fagade. The general view in Fig. 54 is on the whole more harmonious

than any other of the great cathedrals and the wealth of its sculpture
is not obtrusive. In speaking of sculpture the extraordinary interest
of all this part of the exterior will be discussed: in this alone it has
no equal in Europe. The recent restorations have afforded a unique
opportunity to photograph
details.I give in Fig. 55
a remarkable view of the

great wheel window showing
its condition before and dur-
ing restoration. Here and at

Amiens we see the efflores-
cence of the earty and sim-
ple form of bar tracery devel-
oped out of the plate-tracery
which was given up soon
after r. 1 200. For the but-
tress system and windows
see Fig. 1 1 8 ; f or the roof, Fig.
240; for a gable, Fig. 236;
for a capital, Figs. 210-2.
The interior of Reims
impresses (Fig. 56) at first
57 — Section of nave of Reims cathedral.

as standing midway between Chartres

and Amiens in its proportions. The
piers are heavier than at Amiens. In
the triforium gallery the same type is
used as at Chartres and Soissons:

there is no subdivision by a central
V
y
1
shaff- \'\(} enclosing of the arcades by BT

an (\<ch with traceried tympanum.
We /e a sen if virility and robust-
:t N
- ll
' ttfTl"
ne' |uj ' di; ":
from the grace of
An / as we pass up to
—System and details of nave of Reljis
the feeling changes. cathedral. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
;iiM
Chap. 11] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC I?j FRANCE 53
The design, to be sure, is the same as at Chartres, a division of the

window into two sections, in place of the four at Amiens, but in the
execution the effect of extreme highness is gi\'en by the men who car-
ried out the 1 212 design in tlie manner of c. ir 50-1 2 7 5. Tliis coin-
cides with an extreme lightening of the wall structure, which is thinner
even than at Amiens. The main vaults, also, are raised \-ery high and
59 —Plan of Reims cathedral. 60 — Plan 01 Amiens cathedral.

(From VioUet-lc-Duc.) (I'rom VioIli^t-le-Duc.)
'the roof is steep. The vaulting compartments ai-e more inclined and
the transverse and wall-ribs \-ery pointed. These are late character-
t and show that the detailed drawings for th' section of the upper
istics
i-
structure must be referred to the middle of the century instead of to
! the 1212 period. These traits appear in Figs. 57 and 58. Fig. 59
i
shows the importance of the nave. Merely as a piece of construction
the building is considered to be easily the greatest in Europe. Nothing
has sunk, shifted or split to any perceptible extent.
J At Amiens (Fig. 60) the style is conceded to have reached its
apogee, and one may freely grant this of its general scheme, its interior
and its choir. The fagade of Amiens is a development of an original
design (Fig. 6i) that combined features of Laon and Notre Dame. It
is less rich than Reims and like it has parts that belong to the four-
teenth century or later. The increased height favored the insertion of
a rich gallery (Fig. 62) between the portals and the gallery of the kings.
The intricately designed rose-window and the upper story of the left-
hand tower are amojig

the latest parts. From
the architectural point
of view the lower sec-
tion is superior to
Reims because the but-

tresses are not con-
cealed by a screen of
sculpture which breaks
the strength of the ver-
tical lines, and there
areno over-rich gables.
Yet there are grave
defects which make me
consider it, contrary to
the general verdict, as
a work of less genius
than the Reims facade.
Not only are the towers
lacking in symmetry
but the breaking of the
61—Amiens cathedral, west front. (From photo.) design intO tWO fairly
even stories makes
them ineffective. It is true that the flamboyant gallery that con-
nects them and their flam.boyant ornamentation and balustrade have
helped to traduce the original
effect. Still the rather heavy design of
the open gallery under the gallery of the kings must be considered
original. As a pure expression of a master mind the Reims design
is superior, even though overlaid with florid superfetations which
vitiate it at some points.
In its general external lines Amiens gives the effect of compactness
and elevation, because of its greater proportionate width and height
when compared with all previous churches. This helps to give it the
Chap. II] DEVELOrMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 55
commanding aspect so characteristic of Fig. 63. Its apsidal arrange-
) I ment, with pol)'gonal radiating chapels is more picturesque than the
earHer unbroken circular line t>'pihed in Notre
creased by the greater size
of the central or Lady
__^ Dame. This is in-
Chapel. Of course this use

of polygonal chapels was
an old one, quite popular
in certain Romanesque
schools: after the time of
Chartres it became the
Gothic norm, the main
variation being that in
some cases (at Chartres
and Rouen, for instance),
the chapels are not con-
tiguous as they are here
at Reims. Fig. 64 gives a
general \-iew of the interior.
The interior of Amiens
is the standard of Gothic
perfection. The plan is
practically the same as at

Chartres and Reims: a
three-aisled nave, short
transept with aisles, five-
aisled choir with radiating

chapels. The fiAT-aisled
.^ iM^^^'M^^fS^M
na\'e
1}'
is, therefore, definite-
discarded, and the nave
^ ~W
has sLx bays, like Chartres,
instead of nine as at
Reims, and tliis similarity
>Si • # 3E •>
to Chartres is accentuated
-Vh and clc\-ation of Gallery of Kings, Amiens
by the size of the choir cathedral. (From Mollct-le-Duc.)
(Fig. 60). Contrary to
usage, the na^•e was the earUest part of the church to be built and it
was exactly contemporary' with that of Reims. In its scheme it is the
same, but its proportions are much slenderer. The piers are elongated.
raising the arches and the aisle-vaulting very considerably. Their
plan is identical: a central round column with four engaged shafts;
but the vaulting shafts are in groups of three in place of five and
there is no capital to break the verticahty of the central shaft. The
triforium is the same except that it also is elongated. The clear-
story design is the same (Fig. 65), also with the two-storied flying
buttresses, but the buttress piers are more heavily weighted and the
upper battery abuts against the nave wall at a lower point than at
63 — Cathedral of Amiens. View showing how a French cathedral overshadows the city.
'
(From photo.)
Reims and this seems more logical. A further weighting is secured by

corbelling out the pier over the wall of the aisle. The only detail in
which Reims has more of the element of upward sweep that we asso-
ciate with developed Gothic, is in the lines of the main vaults which
are much more pointed than at Amiens.
We must not forget that the long lines of side-chapels that flank the
aisles of the nave were an addition made long after construction in order
to utihze the vacant spaces between the buttresses, a fashion first set
c. 1240 at Notre Dame. We have now reached the choir, which was
built in about 1250 by Thomas de Cormont, in a style slightly more
Chap. 11] "DE\'ELOPI\IENT OF GOTHIC IN FR.\NCE 57
6t — Cathedral of Amiens. Interior. Xa\e from west end. ^From plio'.o.j

:;
S8 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRAN'CE [Bk. X

advanced than the nave and on a geometrical basis laid out in
Fig. 66.
The apse of Amiens is the first which may be considered as final
in structure and form. The scheme of Chartres is here brought to

completion, as Mr. Moore has shown, by making the choir-plan a
polygon of seven sides in an
arc of something over a half-
circle, so that the quadri-
partite vaulting, adopted at
Amiens as it was in all thir-
teenth century buildings,
was brought into perfect
union with the vaulting com-
partments of the apse. Tn
Fig. 67 the left-hand half
gives the scheme of the nave
the right-hand half that of
the choir. '
Two differences
strike one immediately in
this drawing. The first is
the change in the buttresses

a single replaces a double
arch, and in order to elon-
gate the surface of pressure
without giA'ing too much
weight the fl}'ing buttress
is pierced with openings;
here again we see the influ-
r ence of Chartres. The deco-
rative possibilities of the
buttress piers are also util-
6s- -Gallery, clearstory and buttress scheme, Aniiens
cathedral. (From Viollct-Ie-Duc.) ized to the fullest extent.
The second difference is in
the triforium. The architect was notwith having here a
satisfied
line of dark arcades opening on a blank wall under a pent roof; which
had been the previous solution, illustrated in the nave itself, as well
«,s at Reims, Chartres, etc.The craze for extending the light-giving
stained-glass surfaces led him to make of this triforium of the choir
a secondary clearstory, under the main windows and adjusted to them.
-
Chap. 11] DEVELOPAIENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 59
bv using a series of ridged roofs
at right angles witli tlie na^•e,

with \'alleys at the buttresses to
carry off the water. It was a
solution £esthetically beautiful
but constructively vicious, as it

led to grave danger from im-
perfect discharge of rain water.
On account of its addition, how-
ever, to the beauty of the in-
terior tliis open and glassed

triforium was adopted in nu-
merous buildings, especially in
the region around Paris and in
Champagne. It is found, for
example, at St. Denis and the
66 — Geometry of plan of choir i:>f
Amiens calliedral. I, From MoUct-

le-Duc.)
cathedral of Troyes. It is
the second step in the trans-

formation of the triforium,
which had been of use in its
original Romanesque (esp.
Norman) form of a wide

gallery or upper aisle, but
seemed without logical use
as a narrow line of quasi
blind arcades, wliich were
retained, in Choisy's opin-
ion, not for use but to mark -Scheme of Amiens cathedral, both na\'e (left) and
the scale of the building: choir (.right). ^From Choisy.)

6o RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
that is to give it greater apparent size by increasing the number of
Hnear units.
It is natural in connection with Amiens and Reims to allude to
Mr. Goodyear's remarkable discoveries, though they have a far more
general application. I refer to his theory as to certain architectural
refinements which, if it is true, raises the art of building to an even

higher plane of artistic and scien-
tific attainment. He believes
that Gothic architects in plan-
i ning a building did not plan it
mechanically in horizontal and

vertical lines, by plumb and
chain, but that they arranged
for curves in plan and in eleva-
tion, for deviations from the
straight Une, in order to produce
certain effects of perspective, to
correct certain disagreeable opti-
cal illusions or to create certain
other agreeable illusions. Mr.

Goodyear's contentions are sup-
ported by a large number of
special photographs in which the
plumb line and the surveyor's
chain are made to prove them.
—
C8a "Widening refinement of nave of Reims: What particularly interests us is
see jilumb line on left side. (From Mr.
what he calls the 'widening re-
Goodyear's photo.)
finement,' as it is exemplified at
Reims and Amiens. As Reims is a perfect instance of structural
solidity it is interesting that the widening should be greater here
than at Amiens. From the ground to the capitals of the main
arches the piers are perpendicular: from the capitals to the springing
of the vaults the deviation is of about eight inches at the height of
the capitals, increasing to fourteen inches at the top of the clearstory
windows. This makes the nave 28 inches wider at the top from this
reason. The widening is not in a curve but in a straight line, though
it would appear as if this juxtaposition of two straight lines at a

slight angle gives the impression, at a distance, of a curve. Had
the widening been due to shifting or settling after construction
1
Chap. II] DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 6i
through \'ault-pressurc, there would be fissures in the vaults 28

inches wide! (Fig. bSa.)
A second reiincmcnt is the corollary and result of the first. It is
a cur\'ature in plan. This is also very prominent at Reims. As the

big piers at the transept are absolutel)' perpendicular and as the tower
piers at the entrance ha\'e an inclination of only four inches, whereas
bSb — Cunc in plan of gallon' of Reims 00 — Aisle of Rouen cathedral, with jilumli line
cathedral: see surveyor's chain. (From on right, showing widening rehnenient.
Mr. Goodyear's photo. (From Mr. Goodyear's photo."!
the inclination in the centre of the na^•e, where the widening is greatest
(lo inches, including 2 inches otTset\ it follows, if the widening was
planned and not accidental, that the wall of the upper part of the na^•e
would show a slight conêx curve, more pronounced toward the tran-
sept, less pronounced toward the fagade. In Fig. 68/), which shows the
wall-plan at the base of the clearstory windows, a surveyor's chain
62 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Ek. X
stretched from end to end, shows a curve of ten inches. This is exactly
repeated in the corresponding wall on the opposite side.
To a less degree the same thing is repeated at Amiens, where

settling has made the fact a trifle less uniformly evident. But Fig. 64
shows the widening in the nave very clearly.
These widening refinements at Reims and Amiens commenced only

above the capitals at the main supports of the nave. But Mr. Good-
year found in other buildings that the deflection from the vertical
began at the pavement to be continued in a straight line to the vaulting.
Of his examples I shall refer only to two, both at Rouen, the cathedral
and the church Ouen, the former being illustrated in Fig. 69.
of St.
There has been considerable scepticism among scholars not as to

the actual fact that these deviations occur, but as to their being in-
tentional: I do not beheve this scepticism to be justified. While it is
probable that certain instances should be eliminated as due to accident,

to settling, to pressure, etc., enough remain which are not only in-
tentional but seem based on a rational principle, which underlies build-
ings earlier than the Gothic style. In fact these or corresponding
deviations can be traced backward through Romanesque and Byzan-
tine buildings to Roman and Greek originals. One is tempted to see
in the rules and geometrical studies that lay at the basis of these re-
finements a part of the secret of the medieval Guilds which all mem-
bers were sworn not to divulge or to teach the journeymen. They were
never embodied in writing and were certainly transmitted orally by the
master-builders and imparted to full guild members after initiation.
There is one chapter in the history of medieval architecture that
has not yet been written; it is the treatment of the mathematical basis
of the Gothic system. It will already have become evident that I am

a partisan of the scientific point of view. I believe that Gothic archi-
tects had a canon of building proportions just as truly as Greek
sculpture had the Polyclitan and then the Lysippan canon of human
proportions. No more in the first case than in the second does the
use of the canon kill inspiration or individuality.
There is nothing novel in the belief that the triangle was the basis
of Gothic proportions; modern critics such as Heinzelmann, Viollet-
le-Duc, Dehio and Lamperez have sought to prove it. It has been
accepted by Choisy. Detailed demonstrations have been made on
such buildings as the cathedrals of Milan, of Toledo, of Strassburg
and many more. Until quite recently there had not been much in the
Chap. II] DEVEL0P:MENT of GOTHIC IN FRANCE 63
way of contemporary proof, except documents relating to the
in the
cathedral of which will be referred to elsewhere.
IMilan, But
recently Lamperez has made known a treatise by a Spanish arcliitect
of the Renaissance whose dida were based confessedh' on those formu-
lated b)' the last of the great Gothic architects of Spain, Gil de Hon-
tanon. His formula for establishing the ground-plan of a Tn-e-aisled
cathedral was tested by applying it to
the Cathedral of Toledo, and it was
found that Toledo's architect had fol-
lowed the formula in e^•er^• detail.

The circle and square were used, as
well as the triangle. The scjuare lies
at the basis of man}' fa evades, as ChoisA'
demonstrates in connection with the
original drawing for Reims Catheciral
in Fig. 53. A person enamored of
s}'mbolism might see in the use of the
square, — the material emblem, — in
connection with the exterior of the
church, and of the triangle, the —
spiritual —
emblem, in connection with
the interior, a reflection of the well-
known medicA'al idea, that the exterior
of the church represented the world
and its interior the New Jerusalem,
the Church on earth. In any case,
there can be no doubt that a tri-
)
— Section f clioir of cathedral of
angulation, based on the equilateral, Beauvais. (.From \'iollet-le-Duc.)
the isosceles inscribed in a square and
the Eg\qitian triangles lay at the basis not onh' of the general pro-
portions but of the interrelation of parts; and this I hope to prove in
detail elsewhere.
The choir of Beauvais cathedral is an object lesson of the greatest
historic interest. It is both a failure and a \-er}' beautiful work.

Amiens cathedral seems to us the ultimate perfection of its style. The
architect of Beau\'ais believed he could go a step further. The build-
ing commenced in 1247 and was completed in 1272: it belongs, then,
to the generation that succeeded the designer of Amiens, though in

its actual construction it preceded the Amiens choir. The emphasis
of vertical lines, which first appears evident at Amiens, is carried
much further. The main vaults was increased from

height of the
42 to nearly 50 metres. The is thinner and the tracery
wall-screen
and openings obliterated even more completely any flat surfaces.
71 — Beauvais cathedral: view at transept. (From photo.
This can be seen by comparing the triforium arcades of the two

structures. In Figs. 70 and 71 the elongation is evident in every
part, especially in the aisles, the clearstory and, of course, the but-
tresses. If we can obliterate the changes due to reconstruction it is
easy to agree with Choisy that the choir of Beauvais was clearly con-
ceived, harmoniously proportioned, with soaring lines of
unparalleled
beauty, and was the most ideal work of French architecture. And
yet, its architect went beyond what was safe in rehance on his knowl-
edge of the science of equihbrium and the resistance of materials. The
great vaults soon cracked and gave way, in 1272. In reconstructing
them in 1288 no one had the audacity to follow the original plan. The
distance between the vaulting ribs was considered too great at that
height. Intermediate ground-piers were added; two narrow arches
were built under each of the original arcades, and the oblong
quadripartite vaults be-
came sexpartite. These
changes can be studied
quite well in the view of
the exterior of the choir
in Fig. 72.
A study of the de-

tails of the original con-
struction makes it quite
clear that its instability
was not due to any care-
lessness or lack of scien-
tific knowledge on the
° _
72 — „lieauvais cathedral:
. , , ,
exterior at ch
part of the architect. It
was necessary for someone to experiment in order to determine the limit
of safety. This architect cast himself into the breach for the sake of his
art. He took every possible precaution. This is illustrated especially
in two things: in the form and of the buttresses. The core
of the piers
of the pier is not circular, aswas customary, but oval, the elongation
being toward nave and aisles, in order to allow a deeper imbedding of
the vaulting shafts and the consequent stiffening of the support. Then,
in the buttresses, we see that the mass as it ascends is subdi^'ided and
that the inner wall is projected over the aisle vaulting toward the
building in order to oft'er greater resistance. It had been found that
only two portions of the solid buttress piers such as were used fifty
years before at Chartres, had any real value; the innermost section,
which took care of the downward pressure after the fashion of a pier,
and the outer section which counteracted the diagonal pressure. Act-
ing on this knowledge the architects of the preceding generation had
timidly opened galleries and passage ways in the lower part of the but-
tresses. But here at Beauvais, beside doing this, the architect broke
the mass above the chapel-roof into two independent piers which were
connected at the top by a double flying buttress.
Having reached the climax of masterpieces, it will be interesting to
summarize the results achieved in the development of plan, construc-
tion, elevation; to give a glimpse of the various schools that arose
throughout France, and of the decorative and figured sculpture, tracery
and stained glass. Finally, a discussion of the men who created the
new art will prepare the way for following its journey around Europe.
In plan the changes affect mainly the transept, the number of aisles,
and the use of chapels. From the beginning the choir was strongly
developed. The transformation took place under the influence of per-
fectly clear and practical requirements. The Romanesque plan had
been dictated by the monastic orders and had been necessary to have
it
transepts as well as choir to accommodate the monks and lay brothers,

who numbered from three to six hundred. The public were not
often
the first consideration. The Gothic plan was arranged by the secular
clergy and the bishops primarily for the convenience of the people;
it was the cathedral plan, in which the main consideration was to make
it easy for the masses to see and hear the religious services. Therefore
the transepts were very soon shortened or eliminated the ; number of the
aisles even in the largest churches reduced from five to three, as the
multiplication of supports interfered with sight and hearing. Hall

churches of a single nave or two equal became frequent. After
aisles
a time the interest of the wealthy was stimulated by the addition of

chapels to the aisles, often connected with special families and their
patron saints. The raising of the aisle vaulting and the diminution in
the bulk of the piers can be attributed partly to the desire for giving the
interior as much of a hall-likeform as was compatible with symmetry.
The changes in plan are evident by comparing that of Laon at the
beginning, with a transept that extends three bays (including inner
porch) beyond the nave, with Notre Dame, where it does not project
beyond the chapels. But Soissons, a few years later than Notre Dame,
still has a projecting transept, though less prominent than Laon.
At Notre Dame there are five aisles. Architects seemed to hesitate
for a time whether to adopt the three or five-aisled arrangement. It
became quite popular compromise by having the nave with three
to
aisles only, for the convenience of the people, and the choir with five
aisles. The balance was often restored in such cases by the addition of
Chap. II] •
DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE 67
aisle chapels between the buttresses. These became popular after c.
1250. The transept was moved down almost to the centre of the
church. In the typical plans of Chartres, Reims and Amiens the choirs
all have and the naves only three, while the aisle chapels
five aisles
appear only at Amiens and Notre Dame. At Chartres and Amiens the
transept projects one bay beyond the choir; at Reims hardly at all.
The idea of an unbroken choir outline, such as we see at Notre Dame
and Bourges, was discarded in favour of the projecting chapels either
—
touching or separated by a wall hne straight or curved. Of course
this was the more picturesque solution. The t}'pe with adjacent chapels
prevailed, and its perfect form was given at Amiens and Beau^•ais,
which the rest of France and N. Europe copied. In them were solved
the difficulties of adjusting the \'aulting of the irregular compartments
of the ambulatory and the central vault. -At the West end, the prob-
lem was how to treat the base of the two great towers wliich were an
integral part of the facade. At Chartres we have seen that the inherit-
ance from the twelfth century involved a separation from the body. At
Noyon and Soissons there was a gradual approach to making of the base
of the towers a bay of the interior the process was almost completed at
:
Notre Dame, where the piers supporting the two inner angles of the
towers are merely heavier than those at the transept. The final solu-
tion appears in two forms, at Reims and Amiens. At Reims, the
Notre Dame plan is perfected; but at Amiens, by making the towers
shallow instead of square and b}' increasing the projection of the fagade,
the towers are supported by the triple porch.
Of course, we are now discussing what might be termed the ortho-
dox plan. Every pro^•incial school, as well as organizations such as
the Cistercian order, favored certain peculiarities of plan. This par-

ticularly aft'ected the choir and facade. The Cistercian order favored
square-ending choirs: the South favored hall churches. There were

frequent cases of single towers in the centre of the west front, etc.
The changes tended toward a gradual reduction of the
in elevation
main horizontal elements from three to two, by the reduction and then
eHmination, first of the super-aisle and then the reduction of the tri-
forium and its final absorption into the clearstory design. The move-
ment was toward a logical unity, that had a dangerous element of
uniformity; toward a but chaste decorative use of every con-
full
structive element, while reducing these elements to their simplest

expression and smallest bulk.
CHAPTER III
EARLY GOTHIC FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS IN FRANCE
THERE as
has never been a period
architectural and as
when
abundant.
figured sculpture
With the Greeks
was
it
hardly ever entered into the fibre of the building, but was
a more or less harmonious adjunct. One feels with regard to the
pedimental figures of Greek temples that they are rather an intrusion,
more or less awkward. Roman art was more successful, especially
in such creations as the triumphal arches with their historic reliefs,
but never attempted anything on a grand scale, the decorative em-
phasis being laid on color.
Gothic sculpture had less independence, and for that reason its
beauties have been generally overlooked, merged as they are iff* the
general effect. were the place it would be easy to be eloquent
If this
as to the dignityand grace, the piquancy, verve and humour, the happy
faculty of seizing salient and characteristic traits, the variety of pose,
the broad understanding of draped effects, the harmonious merging of
ornament and figure and, last but not least, the study of the nude under
extraordinary difficulties due to the sentiment of the age. But most
of these qualities concern us here only indirectly, as contributing to the
sense of power and harmony that they convey.
life,
What is more pertinent in architectural study is to analyse the

basis of this close union of the two arts, in design and significance, so
that we cannot only understand its principles but apply them to-day.
In the matter of design the earliest works give the keynote, because
from the very fact that they are stiff and over-elongated, they show the
evident intention of the designer to use figures as a part of the archi-
tectural lines. The statues in the portals of the facades of St. Denis,
Le Mans, Chartres (West Front) and Corbeil, which are contemporary
(1140-1165) with the earliest transitional forms of architecture, are
68
Chap. Ill] "figured SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS 6c,
73 — Early west portals of cathedral of Chartres, (From photo.)
even more strictly the forerunners of the riper works of the Golden Age
than was the case witn the contemporar_\' forms of architecture. In both
spheres the changes were made largely under the impulse of a growing
sense of beauty.
Before tracing this development, a word must be said of the subject-
matter of these sculptures: only a word, because this is not a treatise
on Christian Iconograpliy. In the Romanesque period when sculpture
was used, it was more or less at haphazard in so far as the placing and
grouping of the scenes was concerned. But the Gothic age was the age
of encyclopedic learning, of systematic and analytic thinking. A
recent writer, Male, has taken a volume to show how the works of fig-
ured art of this age expressed its learning and its beliefs. The typical
encyclopedia of the day, the Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais, is based
on a system of universal knowledge which corresponds almost exactly
with the arrangement of the thousands of figures carved on the exteriors
of French cathedrals. The scenes are grouped under these heads:
exposition of Christian Faith; moral philosophy, with exposition of
-Lintel of west portal, cathedral of Senlis. (From photo.)
both the good and evil in humanity; natural philosophy, or the world
and man; his labours and occupations, physical and intellectual; the
history of the world. A glance at the four ponderous folios of Vin-
cent of Beauvais would not only correct the common delusion of
medieval ignorance, but would give a high idea of the current knowledge
of Oriental, Greek and Roman antiquity, and of the broad and keen
insight which is also so evident in the sculptures. It will be enough to
say here that with this encyclopedia in hand, it will be perfectly clear
that the reliefs and figures on a French cathedral are so carefully placed
that the slightest change would make nonsense of them. This is said
to destroy the common delusion that these works are merely decorative
and fantastic. They were carefully planned by consultation between
the artistsand the leading learned men of France.
Now, as to the artistic character and development. The triple por-
Chap. Ill] 'FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS 71
tal of the west front of Chartres, already mentioned on p. 44, is the

masterpiece of its age. We have gixxn in Vol. 11, p. 355, a richly carved
triple portal at St. Gilles, in Southern Romanesque style, but while
highly decorative, this and the similar work at St. Trophime, Aries,
cannot compare in quality, nor do they stand in the line of de\'elop-
ment toward Gothic work. Fig. 73 is particularly happy in its
perspecti^-e view of these portals of Chartres where the figured work
is so adapted to the archi-
tectural lines as to make
it a model for the later
artists.How it was al-
most at once imitated in

Spain, at Avila, is shown
in Vol. II, p. 425. Other
works in Central France
show how prevalent was
the manner of the Char-
tres school. At Le INIans
the way in which the fig-
ures are merged with the
columns in front of which
they stand makes them
even more like caryatid
architectural members.
The king and queen from
Corbeil are careful por-
traits of exquisite work-
manship and illustrate the
fact that the figures of
kings which in the thir-
75 — Statues in west portal, calhedral of Senlis.
(From photo.)
teenth century were given
a separate gallery on the upper part of the fagade, were then placed
in the portals.
The next step is illustrated at the Cathedral of Senlis, shorth' be-
fore 1200. Here w6^nd a most interesting and new ^'i^'aciousness in
the lintel reliefs (Fig. 74) which remind one of the ON-er-Aitalit}' of Greek
athletic figures at the close of the archaic age. In both cases it was the
natural reaction of men who were freed from a long technical inability
to express action and feeling. This makes it all the more significant
that the statues in the same portal, below this lintel (Fig. 75), preserve
their straight architectural lines.
Of the sculptures at Chartres cathedral the early west portals have
already been mentioned. Their position on the west front can be
seen in Fig. 49. The rest illustrate two stages, one before Notre
Dame and one contemporary with Reims. The Christ and statues
of Patriarchsand Fathers in the portals of the transepts together
with the tympanum and archivolt reliefs are rigid and (in the smaller
76 —North portals, cathedral of Chartres. (From photo.)
figures) heavy, without the beauty so soon to be shown at Notre

Dame. They illustrate the stage after Senlis. Their date is 1200-
12 10. But the projecting porches that were added to these portals
toward 1240 are in the fully developed style, often more graceful than
the contemporary works at Reims. Nothing could more beautifully
express the chivalry of medieval knighthood than the statue of St.
Theodore, which has the simplicity characteristic of all truly great art.
A general view of the triple porch of the north transept is given in
Fig.76 and a detail in Fig. 77 illustrates what progress had been
made since Senlis in giving individual values.
Chap. Ill] FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS 73
A further ach'unce, be-

tween I2IO and 1225, is
shown in the ^^•est front of

Notre Dame. The digni-
fied statue of the \'irgin in
the centre heads the inter-

esting group of caryatid-
hlie statues that stand un-
der the centre of the lintels
of cathedral portals. The
Coronation of the \'irgin
and the rest of the scene
in the tympanum of the
left-hand portal is also a

most harmonious triumph
of high-relief sculpture: it
is a simple and rhythmic

art, in which the conscious-
ness of life and power has
entered somewhat timidly.
Very soon, between 1225
and 1235, greater exuber-
ance and variet}' appears
in the statues and relief of
the Amiens fagade; but fin-
est of all the figures, the
"Beau Dieu" or figure of
Christ against the lintel,
has retained all the majes-

ty of Notre Dame with
an added intensit}-. The
artist gives rein to his new
desire for the picturesque
only in the statues that
surround the central figure.
It Reims which will
is
furnish the most wonderful

and varied decorative work
in sculpture. It has been 77— statues in north porch, cathedral of Chartres.
(From photo.)
I
Chap. Ill] FIGURED SCITLPTURE AND SIWINED GLASS 75
70 —Head of Si. Joseph from staluo in central west portal, Reims cathedral. (Froni Jlichel.l
called the "Parthenon of Gothic Art." The vcrsatihty of its school is
amazing. The portals on the west front are the earliest in date. In
the gables that surmount them are groups added during the fourteenth
century (Fig. 230). The general
arrangement appears in Fig. 54,
taken before restoration. The

style of the single statues and
their relation to the architectural
frame is gi\Tn in Fig. 78, where
the six statues show an extraor-
dinary mastery of draper}- which
equals the antique and shows
even greater variety of treat-
ment. The poses show figure
study from models. The tran-

septs and flanks have also richly
carved portals. Statues are scat-
tered e^•er}^vhere else under can-
opies, and corbels rest upon heads so-ôrixi head. cUudrai .
.f k
of masterly (Fig. So) character. (Vn,m photo.
The expressiveness of the St. Joseph of Fig. 79 is inimitably quizzical.
In fact one can say definitely that these sculptors were realists of the
extremest type whether in reproducing beauty or deformity, that they
were also idealists in creating types of both these opposite kinds, that
they were careful stu-
dents of the nude. Wit-
ness not only the way
in which the body is
given through the drap-

but especially the
eries,
wonderful rollicking
tympanum reliefs in
Fig. 81 from the right-
hand buttress of the
facade, where the nude
is treated with so much
abandon and mastery.
Finally there is an evi-
dent knowledge of the
antique and an adapta-
tion of. its best t}'pes of
drapery and form. It
would be quite beyond
our purpose to follow
the further develop-
81 —Relief at right end of facade of Reims catlicdral.

ment of sculpture;
(r>om photo,) there were no novel
ways imagined after
this date in France. became more and more
Sculpture, to be; sure,
used in civil structures; palaces, chateaux, town-haUs, etc. This was
because the increased luxury showed itself in the phenomenal increase
of art apphed to private purposes. The type for this was set in the
decorations of the old Louvre in the reign of Charles V.
It was very seldom that the rich carving of the exterior
overflowed
into the interior. We cannot be too thankful for this restraint and
regret the few exceptions, such as the placing of statues on brackets or
otherwise against the supports of the nave, a vicious practice
occasion-
ally occurring in Germany (Cologne, S. Lawrence at
Nuremberg, Frei-
burg), and even in Italy (Milan cathedral).
Chap. Ill] FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS 77
There is, however, one beautiful instance at Reims of internal
surface carving, characteristic of the luxuriance of this great building.
This is the carving of the central section of the west fagade, below
the rose window. It appears like a sculptured reproduction of a
tapestry, with single figures under trilobated arcades and a surface
ornamentation that is extraordinarily exquisite e\'en for the best
Gothic period. Its studied simplicity and repose make it a very
successful bit of decorative
work (Fig. 82).
One form of sculptured
ornament was introduced
toward the middle of the
thirteenth century which,
while it was not an integral
part of the structure,
strongly affected it. I mean
the choir screens, wood
screens a.nd jubes by which
the choir was separated
from the rest of the church.
They were solid high struc-
tures, highly decorative and
lavishly carved, introduced
through a change in litur-
gical usage to segregate the

clergy from the congrega-
tion. They broke up the
unity of the interiors, de- 82- -Inner wall of west front, cathedral of Reims.
stroying the sweep of lines (From photo.)
in the lower part of the
church. Most of those in France have been destroyed some of them at
;
the Revolution. That of Notre Dame remains in part and we know the
sculptors who carved it during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
In. Fig. 83 one gets some idea of the polychromy of Gothic figures, which
has been somewhat preserved in these interior sculptures. The entire
design was approximately as Viollet-le-Duc has restored it in Fig. 84.
Later screens of extremely elaborate character exist at Brou, Albi,

Amiens and Chartres. They are stiU numerous in Spain, Belgium and
England.
In a few cases free-standing statuary was used; the most striking
illustration is the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, where the twelve apostles
are arranged at equal distances on both sides in two rows. Here also
there was enough color remaining to allow Viollet-le-Duc to restore a

brilliant polychromy.
Color Decoration. As affecting Gothic interiors three forms of
color decoration must be reckoned with; polychromy, stained glass,
wall-painting and, to a very slight extent, mosaic painting. In itself
the art of mosaic work is the ideal method of adding the element of
8j — Choir screen (rercdos) at Notre Dame, Paris. (From photo.)
color to a wall surface and we have seen how skilfully this was done in
Early Christian and Byzantine art, as well as in Italy as late as the
close of the Romanesque period. But in Gothic buildings of pure tj^De
it had no place, owing to the suppression of wall space, and it sur-
vived during this period only where Gothic principles were not followed,
mainly in Italy. Its most interesting examples are, perhaps, the apses
of some Roman churches, such as St. John Lateran, S. Maria Maggiore
and S. Maria in Trastevere. In exterior work its happiest use is m the
fagade of the cathedral of Orvieto, where it is combined with a rich
sculptured decoration. The gables are
with figured compositions.
filled
This fa(;ade also illustrates the decorative value of mosaic inlay in set
patterns in the twisted and other forms of columns and colonnettes
Chap. Ill] -FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS 79
which the portals (see Figs. 313 and 315).
fill
They also form the
decorative kejoiote of the beautiful cloisters of Rome (Lateran, S.
Paul, Sassovivo, etc.) and its vicinity. All this, however, is a side issue,
pertinent only to Italy.
Mural painting as an
adjunct to Gothic archi-
tecture was of real im-
portance only in Italy
and in a small part of
Germany. This was a
foregone conclusion as
soon as the suppression of
interior wall space became
a general fact. It is an in-
teresting hypothesis that
had the Italians been
as thorough converts to
Gothic skeleton construc-
tion as the rest of Europe,
the grand style of fresco
painting would have died,
and not only would we
have had no Giotto but no
Sistine Chapel or Stanze,
no masterpieces by Pin-
turicchio, Michelangelo,
Raphael, Correggio or
Paolo Veronese.
In France it has been
84 —Restored choir of Notre Dame, Paris.
noticed that the sparse (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
examples of mural paint-

ing show that its technique was transformed under the influence
of the new art of stained glass. This was shown mainly in two ways:
in construction by the adoption of small compositions, especially in the
form of medallions in tone by the use of solid colors laid on in masses
;
without much shading. This was not at all the case in Italy, where the
tonality was kept subdued and varied and an increasing realism was
given to both figures and setting. Such decorative ensembles as we
find at Assisi, Subiaco, Sta. Maria Novella in Florence, Sta. Anastasia
8o RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
at Verona, the Eremitani at Padua and the Sancta Sanctorum Chapel
in Rome are eminently a part of architectural design. A view of St.
Francis of Assisi in Fig. 307 will show how the lines of the diagonal lon-
gitudinal and wall ribs are not only followed by the painter but are
emphasized by parallel decorative lines framing the scenes. Every
other architectural feature is utilized as a framework and no space is
without its pictorial covering in a style that harmonizes with the archi-
tecture of the building; in the compositions themselves buildings and
an important part. This emphasis on the
architectural details played
decorative side of mural painting was very strong up to about 1350.
It then passed through a similar evolution toward independence that,
both figured and decorative, we have noticed in France in the case

of stained glass and sculpture.
What was quite revolutionary in the field of color and universal in
its bearing on Gothic style, was the development — one might almost
say the creation — of the art of stained glass. It is sometimes thought
of carelessly or ignorantly as painting on glass, but what can be prop-
erly called by this name is a later and regrettable deviation from true
medieval methods. This method consisted in forming a composition
by the grouping together, by means of a leaden framework, of a mosaic
of small pieces of glass colored in the mass and to which enamel colors
were at times added and fused with the colored glass. This explains
the depth of color in medieval work and an effect corresponding to
mosaic painting.
An occasional window is met with in Romanesque buildings of the
twelfth century, but only in its later half, with the increasing size of the
openings, was there any sign of the new art. It seems as if the abbey
church of St. Denis, where so many artists gathered from everywhere,
was the source of the movement in this as well as in architecture. A
few works can still be seen at Le Mans, Chartres, Angers, etc., of this
pre-Gothic style, which was but little changed when work was com-
menced toward 12 10, on the great undertaking of filling the windows of
the cathedral of Chartres, the first (except Notre Dame) to furnish a
characteristic Gothic clearstory Avith windows occupying all the wall
space. In the course of the work great progress was made and the new
art was definitely established. The windows are filled mainly with an
aggregation of small medallions and lozenges or arcades, set in a tap-
estry-like framework and decorative ground and filled with minute
figures, the whole being encircled by a wide band of interlaced linear
Chap. Ill] FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS
and floral patterns. Char-
marks the definite
tres, then,
exodus mural painting in

of
France, and, as the most

recent of art historians be-
lieves, the masters formed in
her chantier developed and
introduced the new art not
only throughout France but
into England and, perhaps,
Germany. This judgment
was foreshadowed in the
admirable words of John
Lafarge in the Dictionary
(III, 1071), which need quot-
ing here: "In the older
"stained glass, such for ex-
" ample as the glorious west
"windows of Chartres, all
"the principles of work in

"glass are stated, though in
"an archaic form. A clear
"understanding or appre-
"hension of the difficulties
"of color radiation and its
"effects from one color upon

"another, the opposing or
"harmonizing effect of the
"use of complementary col-
"ors and design, arising from

"an adjustment of these dif-
"ficulties —these points can

"be seen stated there as in
"a grammar." The eft'ect
of distance on these phe-
nomena and in changing the
proportions and shadings of
the figures is here carefully 85 — Early stained glass window at cathedral of Sens.
discounted; and the super- (From Jlichel.)

e

position of colors by plating is already thoroughly understood. The
effect of the heavy tones of the leads on the design, which might easily be
detrimental, is turned to the best advantage. Finally, the window is so
connected with the wall by design and color as to seem a part of it, and
the small scale of the figures is calculated to add to the apparent size
of the interior. A typical design is given in Fig. 85 to give

:
it in color
would be to traduce it. It is a window at Sens. It is practic,ally
impossible, however, to appreciate this sort of work except on the spot.

On entering the thirteenth century the dominant color note of the
ground, which had been blue, tends to a deep red, and this prepares
the way for the later violet. As found to be the case in figured sculp-
ture, this earliest Gothic stained glass is more strictly a part of the
architectural design than was the case with the more developed and
freer art. Modern architects in planning church interiors would do
well to reintroduce this type of work both as to coloring and scale. It
is the most perfect that could be imagined, from their point of view, even
though a painter might criticize the drawing and lack of naturalism.

Other fine series of windows by the artists of this school still exist at
Bourges and Le Mans, and a few at Sens, Laon, Tours, Rouen and
Lyons. Some of these French verriers went to England, probably at
the same time as the French master-masons, and we see their works at
Canterbury and Lincoln unless we imagine that these windows wef
:
executed in France and shipped to England.

In the middle of the thirteenth century the School of Paris gained
the ascendancy and introduced some radical changes witness the two :
enormous rose-windows at Notre Dame and the series of the Sainte

Chapelle, to be followed by numerous works in the cathedrals of Tours,
Clermont-Ferrand, the upper choir of Le Mans and many more. In
these and later works there is a distinct loss of decorative value and
harmony. The wide borders become thin and insignificant, the ele-
ment ornamentation dwindles before the dominance of the figured
of
compositions. The figures themselves constantly increase in size.
There is a distinct change of The
becomes livelier and
scale. coloring
more transparent, with a large infusion of violet. In line with this
comes the use of thin grisaille, a greenish white glass, either mixed
with the heavily colored glass or used by itself. This later style is
illustrated in Fig. 86. The entire tendency is to make of the window
less a translucent wall-space than a picture in an opening.
We are disappointed in the little that remains of the windows at
:
Chap. Ill] FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASS

Amiens and Beauvais, as they show the early stages of this mistaken
artistic evolution. At Auxerre and Troyes (St. LTrbain) are some
charming combinations of deep-colored glass with grisaille, which is
often used as a frame and background. Of course, there was constant

progress in the artistic treatment of figure and composition, but for
the architect this does not compensate for the broader losses. One of
these losses is connected with
changes in technique. Glass-
makers had learned to manu-
facture glass in much larger
pieces, so that the composi-
tions lost their mosaic-like
aspect and there was a great
diminution in the use of leads,
which were largely replaced
by iron bars. A new process
by which it became possible
to paint a glass surface with
ochre and chloride of silver,
led to the wide use of yellow

this and the increase of white
glass combined with the gri-
saille to kill during the four-
teenth centur}- what was left
of the old harmony. The

windows in the choir of the
cathedral at Evreux are topi-
cal of this later phase.
It would be out of place
to trace here the story of
S6- -Stained glass \\indow in church of Kuppel.
the art in the other parts of
(From ilichcl.)
Europe to which it was intro-
duced from France. It is in Germany that it can be studied in the
greatest profusion; and it is Italy which was the least producti\'e.
Architects. As long as architects were almost exclusively monks,
their personality and power were not conspicuous. All was for the
glory of the monastery, not of the individual and the work was largely
:
a corporate effort. But when, in the transitional period, toward 1150

or 1 1 60 the lay architects began to acquire first the ascendancy and
then the monopoly with powerful lay guilds at their back, then we
begin to have numerous records of prominent and influential archi-
tects. Reims and Amiens with the names of their
We can connect both
architects. Robert de Coucy conceived the plan of Reims in 121 1 or
1 212; he was followed as head architect successively by Jean Leloup,
author of the portals of the main fagade, by Gaucher of Reims, Ber-

nard of Soissons and Jean d'Orbais. The man who gave the plan for
Amiens and began its construction was Robert de Luzarches, who was
succeeded first by Thomas and then by Regnault de Cormont. There
is proof that the employment of a head architect for a new or re-
modelled cathedral was after free competition with other candidates
for the work. The album of sketches left us by one of their con-
temporaries, the architect Villard de
Honnecourt, gives us some idea of the
freehand hasty sketches made in the
course of travel and study. The one
here given (Fig. 87a) is one of several
details of Reims. Every day docu-
ments are coming to light giving the
names of the men who created the
churches of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries. Models and draw-
ings were commonly made before work
was begun and submitted for approval
87a — Original drawing of XIII century
for detail, catliedral of Reims.
to building committees. Modern no-
tions as to the crudity or lack of such
drawings are erroneous. Also it is a mistake to believe that detailed
working drawings were not made as required. The cathedrals of
Vienna, Strassburg, Cologne, Milan, etc., preserve many such drawings
and the texts mention them as a necessary prerequisite. Later, in the
chapter on German Gothic, the projets for the fajade of Regensburg
cathedral will be reproduced (Fig. 390). I have already given in Fig.
53 a projet for the fajade of Reims cathedral, drawn in about 121 2,

together with a detail of the same period; and a specimen (Fig. 314)
of Italian drawings of the same century, though later, c. 1290, is a
charming projet for the facade of Orvieto cathedral. In Fig. S76 is an
accurate detailed projet for the spire of Ulm cathedral. We know
that the early drawings or models were often used during the course
of several centuries by successive generations of artists when a church
Chap. Ill] -
FIGURED SCULPTURE AND STAINED CLASS 85
was long in course of construction or needed partial reconstruction.

Of course, there are numerous cases where differences in style show
that this rule was not followed. At times
the general scheme may be preserved, but in
the tracery, the form of the arcades, etc., it is
evident that the working drawings were made
at the time of execution. The power of the
head architect, the maitrc dc Vmivrc, was by

no means despotic, though in the Twelfth cen-
tury it was almost so, with progressive elimi-
nation of power. He was accountable to the
Building Committee. On important occa-
sions his work was scrutinized by a Com-
mission of Architects whose recommendations
he was obliged to follow or whose report
might result in his dismissal. During the
Fourteenth centur}' his authorit}', such as it
was, suffered gradual diminution, through
increasing independence of the difl'erent sub-
ordinate arts and their unions. He submitted
designs for the fagade, or the vaulting or
rose-windows, in competition with others and
his need not be the ones adopted. He was
at first constantly in charge of a single build-
ing and in daily attendance, himself working
at the decorative and figured sculpture and
supplying the necessary drawings. Gradu-
aUy, he came to occupy a different position,
ceased to work himself, except to gi^•e the
preliminary sketches and instructions; took
charge of a number of enterprises which he S;6 — Project drawing made for
would visit occasionally and relied on a chcf- lower of Ulnr eathedral.

(From Dehio.)
de-chantier for working drawings. He was
quite a personage at all times, the equal of the upper bourgeois; was
honored by monuments and inscriptions and even by portraits.
Opposite p. 122 is a reproduction of the exquisite model made
for St. Maclou at Rouen before its construction by the architect in
charge.
CHAPTER IV
LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC IN FRANCE
ZOCAL French characteristics

Schools. After this excursion into general Gothic
we must return to a consideration of French
works and glance at the local schools in France.
'
Normandy was not only important as furnishing, in all probability,

a number of the constituent elements of primitive Gothic such as the
sexpartite vault (which we find in
the two abbey churches at Caen),
and the triforium gallery; it con-
tinued to show great individu-
ality throughout the Gothic age.
The Cathedral of Lisieux illus-
trates, on a small scale, the same
decades and a similar juxtapo-
sition of successive styles (Fig.
88a) as Notre Dame, with its
columnar nave of 1160-1188 and

its choir of 1226-1235, where the
triforium gallery is particularly
symmetrical and quite advanced
in its delicacy. As the vaults of
the nave are quadripartite they
probably are coeval with the
choir. In the cathedral of Rouen,
one can see in Fig. 886 that the
88a — St, Pierre, LlsieiLx. (From photo.) choir (1202-12 20) with its col-
umns is earlier than the nave,
and decidedly the most beautiful part of the building. The nave,
which was built later in the century, has none of the excellencies of
86
Chap. IV] •
LOCM. SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 87
contemporary work in the Ile-de-France, Champagne and Burgundy.

It adopted the ckistered pier of the St. Denis t^-pe, but gave it a
Norman heaviness, and this heaviness and lack of sâiimetry pervades

every part. At a time when the double-storied aisle had been elsewhere
abandoned, the upper arcade appears here in colossal dimensions with
a single arch but it is unique in opening not on an independent gallery
;
over the vaulting of the aisles but into the aisles themselves. Possibly,
there was a change made in the
course of construction and the
aisle-A'aults as planned were con-
sidered low (Fig. 69), so the cluster
of shafts (Fig. 89a) was added in
the aisles over the capitals of the
piers and carried up to the gallery
openings where the piers of the
vaulting shafts rest. This raising
of the level of the aisle-vaults
was doubtless partly owing to the
plan for adding the line of aisle-
chapels. The entire building gi\'es

a feeling of heterogeneousness,
and this is natural, because
though begun soon after the fire
of 1200 one of its richly carved
portals (Portail de la Calende)
was not added until after 1460,
and after that the great tower
called Tour de Beurre (14S7-
886 — Xa\'e of cathedral of Rouen.
1507) and the decoration of the (From photo.)
main fagade (150S-27). This,
and the impossibilit)^ of obtaining a good îew of the whole exterior,
rather obscures certain very interesting and beautiful features, espe-
cially the windows of the chapels inserted between the buttresses and
—
the Portail aux Libraires both charming thirteenth century works.
It is important to note the peculiar arrangement of the great towers
in relation to the facade. They do not stay within the plan of the
church but project sharply beyond the aisles, forming a flanking mass
of imposing effect. The scheme is pecuharl)' a Norman invention and
spread to Spain and England, where we shall iind twin towers pro-
jecting in both directions from the west front—a sign of Norman
influence. The choir plan is also unusual in its chapels (Fig. 89^).
Even when compared with the more famous cathedrals of the Ile-
de-France, there is a building in Normandy which is, to my mind, one
of the most splendid masterpieces in France. It is the cathedral of
Coutances. It has the Norman strength with the Romanesque heav-

iness eliminated. The massive piers at the crossing and the tower-
'^^f
mm^
v..
\
89a —Pier with gallery, calhedral of Rouen. S96 — Plan of cathedral of Rouen.
(From VioUct-lc-Duc.) (From ^'iollel-le-Duc.)
dome they sustain carry one for comparison to Spain and its cimhorios.
Every designer will find a treasure-house of felicitously proportioned
details. In Fig. 90, which gives tl/. base of the ribbed dome (58 m.
high) there , is a gallery which is admirable. By minute subdi^dsions the
architect managed to reduce the apparent size of all heavy units, and to
give splendid sweeps to his lines. In the choir aisles sho\vn in Fig. 91
the columns of the preceding stage are retained the rest is in the thir-
:
teenth century style, and an admirably rich example, with unusual

coupled shafts. In the nave the horizontal lines are over-emphasized
Chap. I\'] ' LOC-\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 89
90 — Detail of base of lantern, over transept, cathedral of Coutances. (From photo.)
by the hea^y balustrade of the triforium gallery and a second balus-

trade under the triforium. When the line of nave chapels was added
toward 1270, great ingenuity was shown in eliminating the solid
masonr}' of the walls and buttresses, as a glance at the plan in Fig. 92
will make quite clear.
gi —Apsidal aisle of Coutances cathedral. (From photo.)

Chap. IVj •
LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 91
In the fagade there is a distinct note of origi-

nality. On the ground of symmetry one may
not approve of the semi-masking of the towers
by the tower-like triple turrets that contain the
staircases for these towers and also serve as
buttress-piers. Still, we note the admirable way
in which the two planes of the facade are managed
by the union of these piers with the triple portal
and by the projection of the central section.

There is a glimpse of the central octagonal lan-
tern, which has a single story of unusually high
and slender two-light windows. An effect of
extreme verticality — almost ascetic — is given
by the en-
tire upper
part of the
92- -Plan of Coutances exterior.
cathedral. (From
Viollet-le-Duc.)
The tow-
er s are
among the most beautiful of
the early Gothic period. The
view in Fig. 93 gives an idea
of the value of the composi-
tion, but a great part of the
charm comes from the splendid

quality of the stonework.
There are many other mas-
terpieces in Normandy in the
thirteenth and fourteenth cen-

turies the choirs of St.
: Stephen
at Caen and of Bayeux, the
monastic buildings at Mont St.
Michel; the cathedrals of Seez,

Evreux and Ouen at Rouen.
St.
It is natural and interesting to

note in many cases character-
istics that we shall meet also
in England: the slender lan- -West front of cathedral of Coutances.

93-
cets, single or in groups of two (From photo.)
and three; the aversion to
tracery; a tendency to re-
tain the triforium ; a heavi-
ness of walls and supports.
Some of these buildings
will be described else-
where. In the matter of

decoration it is noticeable
that there is very Uttle
figured sculpture, and this,
combined with a rather

puritanical absence of or-
nament and tracery, is one
of the main differences
from the school of the He-
de-France. Only two more
works will be here selected
for illustration on account
of their unusual quality:
the great tower of St. Pierre
at Caen (Fig. 94), where an
effect of height is given by
a single story of richly
moulded immensely tall
windows and the church at
;
Eu (Fig. 95), whose system,

as shown in the left side of
Choisy's cut, affords the on-
ly case resembling Rouen
cathedral in having a gal-
lery opening into the aisle.
The other main pro-
vincial schools are those
of Burgundy, of the South-
west (Angevin) and the
South. The differences in
the first two schools are of
04 — Tower of St. Pierre at Caen.

(From GurliU.)
Chap. IV] LOC.\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 93
less radical importance than those of Normandy, so need not be

discussed separately to any extent.
In Notre Dame at Dijon (Burgundy) the fayade is unique in France,
with its three-storied closed porch. The triple portal is a monastic
type. It has been suggested by M. Enlart that this form of porch
served as model for certain porches in Italy (Piperno Cathedral, S.
Clemente di Casauria), but the reverse is more probable, especially as

the two galleries of decorati^•e arcades are evidently an Italian impor-
tation. At all events, the design at
Dijon is thoroughly un-Gothic in its
horizontality. It was to have had two

flanking towers that were never built.
As a specimen of a parish church this is
the most interesting of its class among
early Gothic buildings and is an admir-
able subject of study for an architect
planning a church of moderate dimen-
sions (Fig. 96).
The choir at Dijon (cf. choir of
Vezelay) is a beautiful example of
scientific simplicit}', but for the Bur-

gundian school the choir of the Abbey
Church of Vezelay is of capital im-
portance. It is one of the earliest
with a ring of chapels and these are
shallower than in the Ile-de-France
95- -S.\'slcm of callu'dral of Eu.
and open widely into the ambula- (From Choisy.)
tory. Simphcity, solidity and scien-
tific structure are the main Burgundian characteristics. This appears
in the system of the apse at Dijon in Fig. 97 and especialh' clearly
in the dissection of its masonr}' on the right. In connection with the

outside serA'ice galler}' for the clearstory, which can be seen here,
it is interesting to compare the other tjpe, rare in France, but
common in England, of the internal service clearstory gallery in the
church at Sens (Fig. 98). Normally a French architect did not care
for so heavy an upper wall mass as this required. The effect here is
charming. It led to such effects as in Fig. 99, a characteristic Bur-

gundian grouping.
Some years ago a prominent French writer, Corroyer, expressed the
A
Chap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 95
acter,with either a single nave or three aisles of almost equal height
separated by very slender supports. At Angers there are several
churches which illustrate the different stages of the style. The cathe-
dral of St. Maurice, built c. 11 50, is the earliest (Figs. 100-102) and is
an epoch-making structure of great interest, offering a different solu-
tion of the problem of a well-Hghted interior— a vaulted hall.
Its
97 — Apsidal design and construction of Notre Dame, Dijon. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
fagade is of the normal northern type, with flanking towers. It is in
the interior that the originality appears. Like the earlier domical
churches it had a single nave, divided into three bays of almost square
plan. The transepts and choir each have a similar single bay. Al-
together the plan is that of such domical churches of the Latin cross
type as the cathedral of Angouleme, with the substitution of domical
ribbed vaults. It is interesting to note that there are here three forms
of such vaults: the quadripartite in the nave, the sexpartite in the
choir and the octopartite in the transept. It must be remembered,
however, that those of the transept and choir are later (thirteenth
century). The great width of the span, fifty feet, and the simpUcity
and massiveness of the detail make this interior
impressively successful; of a type of transition

quite distinct from that in course of development
in the north. All the ribbing is heavier than
the northern. The absence of aisles made flying
buttresses unneces-
sary; but the but-
tress piers are very
massive. The
coupled windows
are of large size for
their period. The
wall piers have a
heavy and strictly
logical Gothic 99 — Burgundian struc-
memberment. The tural juxtaposition.

(From VioUet-lc-Duc.)
double wall ribbing
and the corresponding pointed arcade
below are Gothic in tendency, making
it possible to lessen the thickness of the
screen and en-
large the win-
dows. This was
not a solitary
work. The
church of La
Trinite at La-
-Clearstory gallery at St. Jean, Sens.
(From Viollet4e-Duc.) val, built at the
same time, is
almost identical in system, more advanced
in its ossature, less happy in its proportions.
Others were Notre Dame de la Couture and
Ste. Radegonde at Poitiers.
We may as well follow the development of
this type a little further. In La Trinite at
Angers instead of the Latin cross we have the
plain scheme (as at Ste. Radegonde) of three '"v^.S"''^?;;!. .J^S^'
Chap. IV] "
LOC\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 97
simple bays with a small choir of three chapels. But the great novelty
isthe transformation of the buttress piers. The plan shows a series
of chapels in the nave, of apsidal form, two for each bay, divided
by heavy buttresses which project only slightly from the outer wall.
Ever}-- —
other buttress that cor-
responding to the transverse arch
— is hea^'ier in its projection. This
corresponds exactly to the alter-
nation of columns and piers in the
transitional three-aisled interiors
of the Ile-de-France. The in-
termediary thrust required less
counter-thrust. The vaults here,

being octopartite, are most closely
derived from the domes of the
Perigord school. The style re-
mains massi^•e and simple. In St.
Pierre At Saumur we find at last
the incoming delicacy of mould-
ings characteristic of the early
thirteenth century in the north.
We ha^'e seen the transitional
plans in the Southwest with a sin-
gle nave, and that with side chapels
added to this single na\'e which
is to be developed at Albi and
Toulouse. There was a third
tj-pe, that of the hall-church with
two naves of equal height or of
three naves of equal or almost
equal height. Here the plan was
southern, but the style was more
largely northern than in the previ-
The earliest -Cathedral St. ilauricc. Angers.
ous schemes. of these
(From photo.)
hall churches is the cathedral of .
Poitiers, as important for its t}ê as St. IMaurice of Angers and, like
it, one of the masterpieces of the Twelfth century. Considering the
importance of the hall Germany, Spain, Italy, etc., we may
tj^ê in
fairly call this an epoch-making interior (Fig. 103). The ^êw in

gS RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
Fig. 104, if compared with the interior of Laon in Fig. 33, will show
rival tj/pes built at the same time. Taken in themselves—without
regard, that is, to the beauty of the class of building evolved out
of Laon—onemight regard the Poitiers interior as the more satis-
factory. What is lost by the absence of nave clearstory is more
than compensated by the unity and sweep of the interior. There
is here, in about 11 62-1 170, a slenderness of pier and a delicacy
that may have served as an inspiration to the men in the North
.1^1
102 — System of cathedral, 103 — Sj'Stem of cathedral, Poitiers.
Angers. (From Choisy.) (From Chois)-.)
who built Bourges and the rest at the close of the twelfth cen-
tury. The square form bays and the curved surfaces of the
of the
octopartite vaults clearly show the derivation from the dome. But
what a contrast between these slender piers and the enormous masses
that supported the domes of St. Front! The plan of the piers is of
the Romanesque tyjie, a square core with engaged shaft in pilaster
offsets. In this interior the design is the same throughout, but the
execution of the west end is later and the difference is evident in
the more advanced character of the details. The plan is a three-
aisled church of eight bays without apse (Fig. 105). The east end is
square and is without chapels. The analogy to English plans is evident.
There would seem to be a transept in the fourth bay from the east end,
but the projection is more to be considered as a pair of chapels in the
foundations of what were probably to have been twin towers. The
analogy to English types is also (Fig. 106) found in the facade. The
104 — Interior of cathedral, Poitiers, from aisle. (From Gurlitt.)
central section is not particularly characteristic in its lower section,

which has the northern t^^pe of triple connected gabled portal. But the
two towers, instead of rising flush with the facade and being bounded
by the walls of the aisles, as in the north, project boldly toward both
front and side but especially toward the front. We shall find this
in English and Spanish Gothic churches and were it certain that it was
loo RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
a part of the original design of 1161 at Poitiers, its French origin
would
be unquestioned. In so far as the execution is concerned it is of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
We must return to Angers, and the church of St. Serge. The view
of its interior in Fig. 107 shows that the scheme of the hall-church of
three aisles of equal, or practically equal, height is here brought to a

climax of delicacy. The domical vaults have eight ribs which gather
gracefully over a very slender column standing on a high base. Heav-
ier examples of the same scheme are at Cannes and Mezin.
The South of France was like a foreign
country to Gothic art. Politically it was di-
vided from the North very sharply until well
into the thirteenth century, when the wave of
royalism and unification reached it. There

were, in the latter part of this century, some
buildings due to northern architects, like the
cathedrals of Clermont, Rodez and Limoges;
but the majority were by local architects who
strongly modified the style and came under
the influence of the Angevin or Plantagenet
school. The most prominent southern charac-
teristics are : a profuse use of brick the absence
;
of figured and decorative sculpture; the plan

with a single nave instead of three or five
aisles. These hall churches are almost repul-
los —Plan of cathedral, Poitiers.
(From ViolIet-le-Duc.) sively bare, and this effect is only slightly
relieved by the line of chapels inserted be-
tween the buttresses. This school extends over Provence and Lan-
guedoc and even into Auvergne. Toulouse is the centre for the use of
brick instead of stone.
The Cathedral of Albi is a typical building. Its long single nave of
twelve bays is flanked by chapels (Fig. 108) separated by the internal

buttresses supporting the main vaults, which project slightly on the
exterior in a pecuHar curved outline. The pointed arches that open
into these chapels and the heavy moulded piers between produce almost
the illusion of narrow aisles. The clearstory is long and very narrow.
The main vaults are among the boldest and broadest in France (Fig.
109). It was begun in 1282.
Its chief interest Ues in oi?ering an independent and novel solution
Chap. IV] LOC/\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC loi
of the equilibrium question, by utilizing as chapels and

at the same
time as counter-thrusts the space between the buttresses (Fig. no).
iEsthetically the e.xterior (Fig. ii i) is quite as remarkable. A military
io6 — Cathedral of Poitiors. (From Gurlill.)
aspect is given by its battlements and hea\-y tower, and the combined
narro-wness and height are imposing. The simphcity of the scheme
gives particular effectiveness to the decorati\-e features of the portals,
which were a later feature, for it is not one of the least remarkable
I02 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
features of this church
that notwithstanding its
unity it was over two

centuries in construction
(1282-1512). The portal
given in Fig. 112 is a
most original specimen of
flamboyant decoration.
Toulouse was perhaps
the most important ar-
chitectural centre in the
South. Its church of the
Cordeliers follows the
same type as Albi except
for the absence both of
the tower in front of the
facade and the projection
of the buttresses. But we
find there, also, the best
type of a two-aisled
church in developed
Gothic style in the church
107 — c, c
bt. serges,
V
Angers, » ,
at choir.
.r^
(From T-> ,
Dehio.)
•
N
Jacobins which served as a model for monas-

tic churches where preaching was important.
Not only is a great height given to the vaults
but the central line of six columns is of un-
equalled slenderness. Nothing hke it exists
in France. It probably served as a model to
the Catalan school. There is also originality
in the vaulting in the choir, especially in the
use of a central shaft (Figs. 11 3-1 15). The
reinforcing of the buttress piers by hea\'y
wall arches was novel, as well as the substi-
tution of a single octagonal tower on the
north flank for the pair of western towers.
There is no attempt add any decorative
to
details to the plain brickwork either on ex-
108— Plan of cathedral of Albi.
terior or interior: even the capitals are elimi- (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
Chap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER CiOTHIC 103
109 — Interior of Albi cathedral. (From photo.)
nated. The octagonal tower has been compared

to that of S. Gottardo at Milan.
This church has brought us to the delicate style
of the fourteenth centur}- and it will now be neces-
sary to retrace our steps, to take up once more the
main stream of development in France and carry
it through the geometric, cur^•ilinear and flam-
boyant stages to the Renaissance.
Golhic ill France after i2fio. —The school of
Champagne was not mentioned because, while it
has some of the Burgundian peculiarities, it is essen-

tially a progressi^'e school, always in the van and
contributing to the bone and fibre of the new move-
no — System of cathe-
an integral part of the main
ment. It is, in line,
dral of Albi. (From
Choisy.) stem. A vicAv in Fig. 116 of the interior of Saint-
III — A!bi cathedral, seen from apse. (From photo.)
Quiriace at Provins, where one can study the change from the simple
round arcading in the apse to the trilobated arches with oculus in the
transept, will give a good idea of the slight differences between this
school and that of the Ile-de-France at the close of the Twelfth century.
It has a great resemblance to the Frankish cathedral of Sens. Then,
the cathedral of
Troyes was planned,
soon after 12 14, ex-
actly after the new
scheme as exempHfied
at Reims, but with
much greater light-
ness, as shown in the
choir, which was the
only part then com-
pleted. This tenden-
cy to eliminate mass
became an obsession
with the architects of
this region, and led
it into dominating the
movement in tracery
and the piercing of
solid surfaces. For
further developments
we will turn again to
a chronological treat-
ment.
112— Portal of cathedral Ste. Cecile at Alfi. (From Gurlitt.)
We had closed our historic survey of the

main strain, composed mainly of the com-
bined schools of the Ile-de-France, Picardy
and Champagne, with the decade 1240-12 50.
In resuming it we are confronted with a
group of buildings that show a logical almost —
too logical — development of the previous
premises. Of these we will study: the na^'es
of St. Denis and of St.Urbain at TroA'es.
The old na^'e of St. Denis had been left
when both ends had been rebuilt in the
pre^'ious century. In 1240 the present nave
113 — S\-stem of the church of
was begun. It is a Vvonderfulh- S}-mmetrical
the Jacobins at Toulouse.
(From Choisy.) and graceful design. Two bays are gi\-en in
' 1 '
io6 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
*/•
^^««. "~^ -^^ ^ *f

'>
îl'
-^%rr^^
' 1
I
5 )
LI
/"•
114 — Section of the church of the Jacobins at Toulouse. (From Moniim. Hisi.)
Fig. 117 and the system has appeared in Fig. 14. We notice two
features: the clustered piers and the lighted gallery. Until now the
classic norm had been the circular core with four subsidiary
for piers
shafts, one for each face: but the plan of making as many mouldings
spring from the floor as there were vaulting shafts and archivolts was
.«'*^
115 — E.xterior of tlie church of tlie Jacobins at Toulouse. tI'"rom Moitiim. Ilisl.)
Chap. IV] LOC.\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 107
logical and had long since been tried at Meaux, St. Yved at Braisnes,
etc. Its perfect formulation at St. Denis led to its general adoption.
The second peculiarity, the lighted gallery, was adopted against good
structural reasons, because it invoh-ed the loss of the pent roof over the
side-aisle and the substitution for it either of a pavilion-roof or of a
flat terrace, both of these expedients dangerous on account of their
inefficiency as water-shedders. The question of carrying off the rain
had become an impor-
tant one as soon as the
size and especially the
height of the buildings
had been so enormous-
ly increased. In Figs.
14, 57, 70, iiS, we see
how at Reims, St. Denis
and Beau^•ais the fly-
ing buttress and the
buttress piers were
used as water conduits
in connection with the
gargoyles for both the
upper and lower roof;
an ingenious utilisation
of resources not yet
practised by the archi-
tect of Chartres (see
Fig. 48). In both the
\4ews of Reims and of
Amiens we see how slim
was the pitch of the 116 — Choir of St. Quiriace. Provins. (From Gurlitt.)
roof over the aisle
vaulting, which coêred the area of the inner gallery. In order to
let in the hght at this point, the architect of the Amiens choir,
the Cologne choir, the St. Denis nave, the Troyes choir and
other constructions planned after 1240, used pavilion-roofs with
valleys along the wall-line of the nave and between the roofs.
This made leaks far more likely and constant repair necessary,
but the idea spread and was applied to porches and chapels, in
order to increase the area of light and the unity and logic of the
io8 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
design. The architect of St. Denis may have been the initiator of the
novelty.
In Fig. 52 a restoration of the exterior of Reims was given as
Viollet-le-Duc imagines Robert de Coucy to have planned it. Aside
from details the scheme is fairly certain. The spires of the transepts
and the crossing were of wood and lead and were burned in 1481:
those of the towers on the western facade were never built. Such a
reconstruction is very useful, as
we are obliged otherwise to use
so much imagination in visualising
the schemes of the architect of
this period. It will serve as a
good starting-point, a touchstone
for judging of the developments
after c. 1250. The city of Reims
itself will furnish us with a mas-
terpiece illustrating the next step,
in St. Nicaise.
There is a record of the facade
of a church destroyed at the
French Revolution, which is here
reproduced from a drawing (Fig.
119) because of its unique value.
It is the facade of St. Nicaise at
Reims, a church built by the
architect Libergier in the short
117— Bays of na\-eo( St. Denis. (From photo.) space of time between 1229 and
1263. There is nothing remaining
that corresponds to it. The facades of Notre Dame and Laon repre-
sented twelfth-century t>'pes: those of the cathedral of Reims
and
Amiens are not only in an imperfect condition but have their thirteenth-
century nucleus overlaid with fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
additions and changes, so that nothing remains of the pure developed
Gothic tyrpe of the Golden Age because such a work as the
Cou-
tance fagade represents not the main stream but Norman
provincial-
ism. This fagade of St. Nicaise corresponds in its way to the aerial
ideals of the choir of Beauvais and of St. Urbain of Troyes. It is
the apotheosis of delicacy and triumph over matter. The soHd
part consists merely of the four great piers that divide
the fagade
Chap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC ,09
into its three sections, with the arches uniting tlicm. The centre
is one enormous pointed window in which the idea of an encased
rose or wheel is carried to its uhimate conchision from the ten-
tative and hea\y embryo expressed in the central \\indow of the
cathedral m Reims itself. The same window, which, coupled and
filled with glass, supports this rose, is used separately as an open
iiS — Buttress system of na\'c of cathedral, Reims. (I'rom Demaison.)
arcade in the towers, whose unique lightness is startling. There is
a monastic restraint in the simplicity and unit}' of this design and

the absence of figured and decorati\'e ornament at a time when it was
so universal. The design of the charming porch, with its simple
columns, was a happy solution in the absence of sculpture. Libergier
showed himself in this creation one of the greatest among the French
—
no RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X

giants. Dehio attention to a detail in which his logical originality
calls
behind the
shows itself: in the placing of the gable in front instead of
buttress lines in those
crowning balustrade. The continuation of the
of the tabernacles of the towers and the union between these and the
arcade of the upper balustrade
is extremely happy.
The detail of the wheel win-
dow of St. Nicaise, which appears
in Fig. 20I, shows how the entire
front was transformed and the
wheel made merely a part of the
traceried whole, in a carefully
planned and scientific piece of
stone-thrusting open work. It is
interesting to compare it with

the beautiful large roses in the
transepts of Notre Dame, dating
from about the same time, or a
little later, 1257. Here the rose
is inscribed in a traceried square
instead of a traceried arch and
is set on a cornice resting on a
traceried arcaded gallery. In such
cases it was the good fortune
of the architects to have a re-
markably fine-grained resistant
stone to work with. We have
noticed how the architect of
Chartres had been obliged to
eliminate delicacy of form on ac-
119 — Facade of St Nilu l Rliiti 1\ Libtrîtr
ncn\ dLbtro>cd. (From DlIiio.) count of the quality of limestone

he was given. Even the de-
signers of Reims cathedral were prevented from refining their forms,
in particular in the rose-window, —by the comparatively loose texture
of their limestone.
The really epoch-making work of the latter half of the thirteenth
century is St. Urbain at Troyes, of the school of Champagne, begun in

1262. It marks the apotheosis of delicacy and the culmination of logic
in design. It also shows how stone-cutters and architects had come to
Chap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC iii
consider the stonework almost as a puzzle made up of innumerable

interdependent atoms which preserve their individuality. It is com-
paratively simple in plan and modest in size; without the orthodox
radiating choir. Its interest lies in the wonderful system and perfec-
tion of its detail, not merely of such apparent detail as the tracery but
the concealed mechanism of the masonry. The main feature of the
^ *
i_,o— Ch.jir of St. Urbuin, Troyes. (From photo.)
interior is the completed fusion of triforium and clearstory.

The ex-
than any-
tremely open dehcacy of the window tracery, more extreme
thing yet attempted, and the extension of the clearstory line down to
constructively too
the main arcade, gave a new model; one that was
in a
dangerous to be popular, though it was followed increasingly
but-
modified form. The entire onus of stability was thrown on
the
also
tressesand theirunusually careful construction is worth studying:
the manner in which the tracery is articulated to minimize the danger
of breakage.
:

The view of the exterior at the choir end in Fig. 120 certainly
makes an impression quite distinct from anything we have yet

studied.
An analysis will show the reason. The absence of apsidal chapels

makes flying buttresses unnecessary at this point, and the
buttress
to view
pierswhile very salient are extremely thin and leave exposed
surface in a
the most wonderful expanse yet constructed of glazed
major and a minor
clearstory extending to
the base line. The
muUions and tracery
are so delicate as to be
almost thread-like, and
the effectiveness of
light and shade is
given by the project-

ing arched gables that
spring from the but-
tresses. These are a
Champagne character-
istic. They appear
even more dominantly
o^'er the two windows
of the transept. Two
details must be noticed
that these gables are
traceried and that they
break the cornice and
balustrade lines. The
-St. UrVjain, Troyes. Interior. (From Gurlilt.) tracery in the gables
and in the masonry of
the triangles made between them and the balustrades is one of the
most charming innovations, first developed, as would appear, in this
building. The same note is struck, in a minor way, in the smaller
coupled and tripled gables of the smaller windows below. Henceforth
these traceried gables were to become very popular and prominent
features, especially over portals.
In the interior view of Fig. 121 we can study the real strength of
the construction and understand how the "fenestrage" is an absolutely
independent puzzle-structure that could be taken apart and removed
without interfering with tlie building. It shows the double system

of choir and transept, the heaviness of piers and lower wall-screen,
invoh'ing elaborate archi\'olts. A few details wiU show the methods
employed. In Fig. 122 the interrelation of windows and ^•aulting is
made clear: in Fig. 123 the screen-like system of the apse. The novel
coupled windows of the lower part of the apse are gi^•en in Fig. 124.
t 1
I
i23-S>-stem of apse of St. Urbain,

I,, -Dissection of wiiidoNvs and vaulliiiK of St.
(From VioUet-le-Duc.) Tropes. (From VioUet-le-Diic.)
Xazaire, Carcassonne.
Here was carried out on a large scale the novelty of tall traceried
line of balustrade. This is shown
gables over windows breaking the
in detail in Fig. 125.
architectural
The fourteenth century was for France a period of
occupation,
nullity, on account with wars with England, the English
poverty and depression
the internal chaos, the social disruption, the
among all classes. When England was at her highest point of archi-
tectural prosperitv, and Flanders, Germany and Spain were e^•olving
•: -^fiVt"!****!**!*' Wa«M
new types, France, after giving her new style to Europe, saw her
architectural history interrupted at a point crucial for the majority
of her most important buildings. Only a few buildings need be
studied for this period and until the opening of the flamboyant age.
f Themo^st monumental is not
a cathedral but a monastic
<:]iu-rchj St. Ouen.
In St. Ouen at Rouen, we
have a building of cathedral
dimensions, planned in the
fourteenth centur>% and repre-
senting the highest achieve-
ment of orthodox French Mid-
dle Gothic. Though in Nor-
mandy it belongs less to the
local school than to the general
trend. There are important
portions, such as the central
tower and the rose-windows
and portals of the transepts
which show the flamboyant
style of the period of their con-
struction in the fifteenth cen-
f=FI
124 — Lower apsidal window of St. Urbain, Tnij-cs. 124'! — Plan of window at Si. Urbain,
(From VioUct-le-Duc.) Troyes. (From ViolIet-le-Duc.)
tury, but the interior was carried out quite consistently on the original
lines, laid down, probably, before building was commenced in 13 18.
The fagade may be at once eliminated, as it is a commonplace

modern work which involved the barbarous destruction of what had
been built at this end in the fourteenth century, including an interest-
ing diagonal placing of the twin towers, which involved a polygonal
ending to the interior of the fagade. But the fagade of the south
transept has originality and charm. Below the famous flamboyant
Chap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC "5
rose-window by Berneval, the design is of the greatest simphcity with
two acutely pointed windows above an open porch the Portail des —
Marmosets.
The dicvd shows the earher exterior work in its geometric sim-
plicity. It illustrates again how the monastic churches, as already
noticed in the case of St. Nicaise at Reims, were the enemies of sculpture
and decoration: pinnacles, buttress-piers and flying buttress are all of
this tyiê. A few crockets and
a thin balustrade are the only
decorative features.
The effect of the interior of
St. Ouen (Fig. 126) is so dift'er-
ent from that of the cathedrals
of the thirteenth century that
it is worth while examining in-
to its causes. A comparison

with Fig. 14 will show that it
is an evolution of the St. Denis

type, carried to its ultimate
conclusion. Not only are the
main piers clustered, and the
mouldings corresponding to
the main vaulting shafts car-
ried up without a break, but
—Balustrade over upper choir windows of St.
this idea of the unbroken sweep Urbain, Troyes. (From VioUet-lc-Duc.)
is transferred to the shafts that
correspond to the archivolts of the arcades, and their lines sweep un-
brokenly to the crown of the arch except in the central shaft where the
necessity of giving a flat surface to the inner face of the arch made it
necessary to crown the semi-circular shaft by a small capital. The
fusion of the triforium with the clearstory is made more complete
by giving greater importance to the triforium, completing its tracery
in the angles and so eliminating wall surfaces that the effect is of a
single design. The entire space above the main arcade is in this
way converted into an immense glazed surface, with the glass held
in a framework so slender as to approach metallic effect, in the same
way as we noticed in St. Urbain at Troyes. It is true that the
arcading of the triforium gallery is much lower than the glazed openings
in the outer wall, but this fact is concealed from the spectator who
ii6 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
126 — plan, section and bay of St. Ouen, Rouen. (From Monum. Hist.)
stands on the ground floor and it allows of an inclined roof in place

of the inadvisable pavilion roofs. It must be remembered that in
its actual construction the nave of St. Ouen was not earlier than
the fifteenth century, only the choir and part of the transepts belong-
ing to the previous century but the design; is fundamentally the same
after a century and a half, though the tracery is flamboyant.
An intermediate stage between the St. Denis nave and that of
St. Ouen is represented by the magnificent nave and transept
of the cathedral of Metz, built, it is supposed, by an architect of
the school of Champagne
shortly after 1332. Here
the aisles are sacrificed to
the nave, which exceeds
in height even that of
Amiens, being over 43
metres to Amiens' 40 m.
and St. Ouen's 32.50 m.
Here the triforium is
glazed but its tracery is
not elaborated nor its wall

space traceried, but there
is an extraordinary de-
velopment given to the
clearstory windows show-
ing the influence' of the
Troyes school. This is
emphasized on the exterior
by the steep gables crown-
ing these wide windows. 127 —Triforium of Cathedral of Metz. (From Gurlitt.'
As they interrupt the cor-

nice and balustrade which ordinarily are continuous, they add an
unusual picturesqueness and are evidently a richer form of the type
of St. Urbain of Troyes. (Fig. 127.)
There is greater individuality in another building: the cathedral

of Carcassonne, St. Nazaire, where one sees the germ of certain
features that fully emerge in the flamboyant age. The nave is Ro-
manesque; the east end was built between 13 10 and 1320. In a way
it was an invasion of the south by the northern style, but as Fig. 128
will shoAv, it was a curiously original style. The pier on the left is a
regular Romanesque pier, similar to the old piers of the nave, while
the pier in the right is columnar, not with the squat proportions of
Notre Dame but with the elongation that presages the flamboyant
ii8 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
buildings sucli as Saint Nicolas-de-Port. The probability is that this
columnar feature should be connected with the school of Toulouse
where it had appeared in such buildings as the Jacobin church with
even greater slenderness. Structurally this choir is most skilfully
and scientifically planned. The bays differed in width in every case,
yet the crowns of the vaults were level. We see in Fig. 128 how this
was managed. The way in which the vaulting ribs above the right-
hand pier emerge from
the wall surface at
varying levels, in order
to obtain the correct

vaulting cells, presages
the methods of the
flamboyant period. It
is evident that here

as in Saint Urbain at
Troyes, the architect
prepared his working
drawings with the
greatest abundance
and accurac}' , and that
each stone, cut in ad-
vance, was adjusted
like the parts of an
elaborate puzzle.
Wlien France be-
gan to recover from the
disastrous wars with
England and the con-
128 — Choir of St. Nazaire, Carcassonne. (From Gurlitt.)
sequent chaos, and
again undertook build-
ing on a large scale, her architects developed a style of decoration which
is called Flamboyant, and which gives its name to the last phase of
the style before the advent of the Renaissance. There has recently
raged cjuite a lively controversy as to French flambo}'ant between
M. Enlart and M. Anthyme Saint-Paul. RI. Enlart champions the
theory that was derived from England, while his adversary main-
it
tains that French flamboyant was an independent mo^'ement analo-

gous to the iMiglish. Though flamboyant forms appear at Amiens
Chaj). I\] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 119
cathedral in a chapel built as earh- as 1373, it did not attain to general

popularity until after 1400. In England, as \\-iIl appear, all the
elements of the ilamboyant existed in the later decorated style before
1350. Without deming the transmutmg hand of French artists,
itseems undeniable that England by giving France her flamboyant
was paying back some of her earlier architectural indebtedness. Here,
again, we must read histor}' in order to understand how the great
French schools of the thirteenth century had been wiped off the
by the pohtical and social disruption
slate of the fourteenth century
when France practically
ceased to exist as a nation. -jt-
It isan interesting fact that

while France was in process
of absorbing flamboyanc_v
from England, England was
abandoning it for the Per-
pendicular.
A few words as to the
main characteristics of ^
the flamboyant. It was, of

course, the flame-like cur\'es
of its tracer}- that ga\'e to it
its name: this sinuosity was

applied to the mouldings
and its key-note is the re-
IJO — FUimboyanl buttr if St. Wulfran, .Vbbcvillc.
^'erse curve. Every cur\T U'rom \"iollel-le-L)UL.)
called for its converse curê.

This passed also into the constructive field, resulting in reêrsed cur\'e
arches, of which the earlier ]Moslem t^pes were illustrated in O and P of
Fig. 173 on p. 1 89 of \'ol. II. AMiile appearing constructi\'ely in some
buttresses, as in those of St. Wulfran at Abbeville (Fig. 129), it was
mairil}' used in connection with openings either in the tracery and sub-
sidiary forms or in the form called ''en accolade"' where the hood-mould-
ing or the outer archivolts are treated in this form, or where the arch
itself as a whole has the re\-erse cur^•e when it is not constructive but
decorative. For structural arches the normal pointed arch continued
the rule, but for doorways and windows the form called "anse de
panier" or basket-handle arch became quite common (see Fig. 134).
\Mien one reflects on the ^\•a^ in which, since the close of the thir-
teenth century, tracery and surface decoration had dominated the
design,it is evident that the substitution of these swaying, sinuous inter-
weaving curves for the straight Hnes and abrupt terminations of all
previous French design, made a radical change. French archaeologists

call the main forms of tracery that resulted by the terms "soufflets"
and "mouchettes," which mean, Hterally, "bellows" and "snuffers."
The English influence appears also in a second important innova-
tion, the use of forms of vaulting both structural and decorative,
that differed from the plain ogival vault thus far uniformly used, with
its four plain vaulting compartments. The simple diagonal ribs
were now either supplemented or supplanted by the ribs called Hemes
and iicrcerons, which will be explained under Enghsh architecture,
where they originated. To these again were added other ribs and
finally, under Flemish influence, there was at times a tapestry-Uke
decoration of the vaulting surfaces and even of the ribs. The design
includes also the stalactite-Hke hanging key-stones, of which the inte-
rior of St. Pierre at Caen is an interesting example (Fig. 137).
Passing now to the piers, capitals and mouldings, the break with
earlier work is almost as clear. The capitals are to a great extent
suppressed in order to facilitate the merging of the lines. This is the
rule in the minor forms, in doorways, windows, etc. ; in the case of the
main piers of the interior there is often a simple or decorated band or
frieze in place of the capital, and to this scheme a simple moulding
corresponded in minor forms. The piers themselves are quite differ-
ently formed. They are often either frankly columnar, as at St.
Nicolas-de-Port, or their projecting mouldings are so dehcate and
lacking in body and projection that they are rather like arrises or
flutings of antique columns than like the individualistic shaftings of
the old school (Fig. 130).

The changes in the shaft and capital involved a change in the treat-
ment of mouldings, archivolts and the springing of the vaulting shafts.
Instead of starting frankly from the floor line or from the capitals
they often emerge or evolve from the body of the masonry, without
any strong horizontal demarcation. When we remember the hea\y
brackets and consoles of the earlier periods the change is significant
of the new ideas of fusion of lines.
Perhaps there is another trait due to English influence : the relative
lowness of the vaulting and the loss of vertical effects. The vaults of
St. Wulfran at Abbeville are, to be sure, 31 metres high, but those of
C^hap. IV] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LAI ER GOTHIC 121
St. Riquier and of St. jNIaclou at Rouen only 24 metres. The o\-er-
loaded ornamentation, often hea\'y in borrowed partly

its detail,
from England and jiarth' from Flanders, ineluded an abundance of
traceried galleries, which with their horizontal outlines often o^•erpow-
ered the vertical lines. This was in part counteracted by excessive
acuity and elongation of the gables o^'er doors, porches, windows, and
other details. With this there often went a tapestry effect in decora-
tion. The old effecti\'eness of Hght
and shadow, of contrast, ga^•e way
to surfaces only slightly broken up
by a thin or flat ornamentation lack-
ing in vitality. At times, as at Notre
Dame de I'Epine, the excessive orna-
mentation which we note, for exam-
ple in the choir of i\Iont St. Michel,
is in abe}-ance and \^"e find an abun-
dance of flat surfaces such as we have
not seen since the transition.
In assigning certain traits to the
entire mo^•ement it must not be for-
gotten that there was not absolute

uniformity. It is true that the old
French local schools had been killed
during the English wars: but two ^

factors must be reckoned with, (i) I
the greater amount of English influ-

ence in Xormand}', anti (2) the ex-
130 — Spring of \"auUing and pier. Si. ilac
Ion. Rouen. (From \'iollet-lo-l")ue.)
istence, both north and south, of a
strong Flemish influence. Flanders had been enjoying uninterrupted

prosperitv and was then reaching the height of her artistic de\-elop-
ment. In Norman territory, which is especially rich, the old mamier
retained more elements in the new st}-le: there was less of the basket-
handle arch, less of the re^•erse cur^-e in "accolade," however much

it dominated in tracery.
Among the few flambo>-ant churches in which the ornamentation

was and vet not excessi\-e, and the composition harmonious in its
rich
lines, the most satisfactory- is St. ]\Iaclou at Rouen. The extreme
deUcacy of its stonework, especial!}- in the gables and galleries, has,
to be sure, led to considerable damage from storms, in^-ol^•ing renewal

of many Also the tower became so unstable that it was found
details.
necessary to entirely rebuild the spire. It is difficult to obtain a satis-
factory view of it as a whole owing to the way the town crowds it. So I
give a plate of it from the original model made by its architect (PI. I).
I was so fortunate as to identify the model as the original project of the
architect and not a copy made a couple of centuries later. It is, I

beheve, the only model by a Gothic architect that has been preserved.
One of the novelties of the period illustrated in this fajade is the
polygonal porch, which breaks up the usual straight facade profile.
t
4*3
h^HfS"
••
.J^^^*=s^_j ^Sfi'/'f^
ill!!, it •
i,U — Choir of St. Pierre al Dieppe. (From photo.)
Its five arches with their high open-work gables form a sort of pendant
to the apsidal termination. It is a peculiarity to be seen in other
buildings of this time, especially in Normandy —at Argentan (St. Ger-
main), Alengon (Notre Dame), and at Abbeville. Taken as an ele-
ment in the composition it must be confessed that, given the premise

of a central tower as high as this, with as short a body for a base to
it, the pyramiding effect produced by setting this boldly projecting
porch with receding ends in front of the facade, is exceedingly felici-
tous. . This pyramidal helped by the solid richness of the but-

effect is
tresses whose diagonal profiles are continued in those of the central

gable. A comparison of the details of the model with those of the
Chap. I\-] LOCAL SCHOOLS AND LATER CiOTHR- 123
church is interesting for two reasons: lirst, because it shows how close-
1>' an original plan was adhered to b_\' the successi\-e architects in
charge of a building for at least a centur)-; and second, because we
can trace in this way the changes that occurred in tracery and orna-
i^^j — Fa<,~;ulo of Si. Jacques at Dieppe. (.From photo.)
ment between about 1420 when the model was made and about 1500
when the church was completed all but the upper jxirt of the tower.
Also, as the original spire had to be taken down in the eighteenth
century, the elaborate spire of the model is our best e\ddence as to its
design. It is extraordinarily rich and formed in its lower half of

open receding stories, surmounted by slanting stories of openings,
^33 — Fat.adL III L;i Trinite,\'cnd6mL-. (l^'roni photo.)
with heavy Its loss is irreparable, as no spire exists in France

finials.
open work comparable to that of Strassburo- and

of this rich stone
other German master-pieces. One can also study in this model the
iwwnt
134— West front of cathedral of Toul. (From Monnm. Hisl.)

galleried buttresses of the style just preceding that in
Fig. 129, the
extremely pointed and open traceried gables and the galleries connect-
ing them with the corner pier-finials: a composition so fragile that

it has been, in the church itself, largely destroyed by wind-storms.
In connection with this tower of St. Maclou, one should study the
"
two most important remaining French towers of this style the Clocher :
Neuf " of Chartres and the Tour de Beurre of the cathedral of Rouen.
In Fig. 49 the arrange-
ment and the contrast
to the transitional
tower on the right can
be seen but on too
small a scale to show
the change in treat-
ment of details during
the intervening three
centuries.
Normandy is richer
than any other section
in buildings of this
style: Notre Dame at

Alengon, Saint Ger-
main at Argentan, the
choir at Mont Saint
Michel and churches
at Dieppe and Caude-
bec. In Picardy and
Artois the most inter-
esting buildings are
1,^5 — Facade of chapel of Brou at Bourg. (From photo.) Saint Riquier and
Saint Wulfran at Ab-
beville. Further east, near Chalons, there is the charming Notre
Dame de I'Epine and the chapel at Brou; and in the centre the facade
of the Cathedral of Tours.
Many buildings begun on a large scale in the thirteenth century
and left unfinished through the disastrous years of the fourteenth
century, were added to and completed in the happier days of the
flamboyant. This was the case with the cathedrals of Amiens, Rouen,
Tours, Chartres and a host more. In fact, it is more interesting
—
to study flamboyant work in the grandiose setting of these earl}'

works than in tlie poorer and smaller buildings entirely built in the
flambo}'ant age. The portals of Rouen cathedral and the rose win-
dows of Amiens and Saint Ouen are especially finished productions.
The chapel of Cardinal de La Grange at Amiens, built in 1375, is now
thought to be the first flamboyant work of any consequence.
In the A'iew of the choir of Saint Pierre at Dieppe in Fig. 131 we
get a good idea of the
pavilion roofs over the

chapels which were
more popular in Nor-
mandy than elsewhere,
though m this partic-
ular case both roofs

and parapet are a res-
toration. The tracery
in the difl'erent win-
dows, belonging tofour
types, illustrates the
great diversity of de-
sign in flamboyant
tracery. The two late
t}-pes of fl}'ing but-

tresses —the traceried
buttress and the slen-
der cusped buttress
are iUustrated in Figs.
132 and 133.
The facade of St.
Jacques at Dieppe in i .,;,— West portals of cathedral of Tours, (From Gurlitt.)
Fig. 132 is practically

a reduction of that of the Cathedral of Rouen, with a single massive
tower on the right in place of the two tOAvers. It shows how the
Norman scheme of detaclring the tower from the facade was conthiued
tiU the end. It allowed the architect to eliminate the hea\y mass of
masonry at the facade and the awkward approach to the interior which
were the bugbear and exercised the ingenuity of the architects of the
orthodox tA-pe.
One is tempted to dwell on these flamboA'ant facades. That of

La Triniteat Vendome (1492-1529), given in Fig. 133, is a wonderful
bit of decorative design in its panelling and balustrades, enclosed in
very plain masonry. This contrast is one of the differences between
early and late Gothic in France : in the early and middle periods the
decoration was more evenly distributed. There are some flamboyant
facades, however, where this idea
of distribution is very success-
^Îj W^/^^^^^MM^^ W fM fully carried out and seems to
K\ I^HjH^^^^^^^'' :
entail also a certain repression of
'
\
flHS^H^ÎSEiJ^ t the usual exuberance. The most
. 'N ^fm^^m^Bm% '
J m symmetrical of these facades is
^ i !^H^^^^Hh \ ''
'
i Hm ^^^ admirable west front of the
Cathedral of Toul, which adheres
to the old-fashioned scheme quite
faithfully. There is a curious
asymmetry in the centring of the
windows and portals on either
side as compared to that of the
towers. Its architects were Tris-
tan d'Hattonchatel and Girard
Jacquemin and it was built be-
tween 1460 and 1547 (Fig. 134).
One of the gems of this style
is in the southeast, near Bourg, at
137 — St. Pierre, at Caen. (From photo.) Brou, which illustrates the con-
siderable share taken by Flemish
art in certain phases of French flamboyant. This is more a memorial
chapel than a church, and contains three magnificent mausoleums:
of Margaret Bourbon, her son duke Philibert and his wife ]\Iargaret
of
of Austria, which are among the masterpieces of decorative and

figured sculpture of the early fourteenth century, and, with the rich
juhe or choir-screen and the stalls, largely characterise the interior.
Their over-rich ornamentation complement the flamboyant details
of the architecture. The scheme has more unity than is usual between
furniture and architectural design, especially as instead of wooden
carving, the screen is of stone. A view of the main portion of the
facade in Fig. 135 will ser^•e to epitomise most of the best characteristics
of the various flamboyant specialties.There is none of the confusion
and crowding of some other contemporary works nor is there any of the ;
elaborate tracery, the open-\York and acutely pointed gables, such as

appear at Amiens and elsewhere. On the contrar}', the detail has
strength and firmness. A dominance of round arches is one of the
signs that we are approacliing the Axr}' closing daj's of flambo}'ancy
and the advent of the Renaissance. Tliis is natural, for the church
was not begun until 1506 and completed in 1536. The main portal is
a noble example of the low curved arch called "anse de panier."

The most imposing of the facades that \vere begun in this style is
that of the Cathedral of

Tours. But its effect was
marred by the domical
crowning of the towers in
Renaissance style. Evi-
dently the spires were to
have started on a level with
the summit of the char-
acteristically sharp gable,
but the Renaissance de-
signers filled in the double
arcade opposite the gable,
which were original^ tra-
ceried windows and above
the next story made a solid
base for their superstruc-
ture. It is a fearsome in-
stance of the incongruit}-

of the two st)des, which
merged here quite easih*
because Tours was one of
the earliest cities where 13S — Choir of Jlont Si. ^Michel. (From Eiilart.)
the Renaissance obtained

a strong foothold. If one eliminates this objectionable upper part,
the rest of the fagade seems symmetrical and fairly simple, as appears
from the view of the portals in Fig. 136. An interesting peculiarity
is the polygonal form and decoration of the four buttresses. It was
a peculiarity of this style to give this wedge-shaped outline to the
buttresses of the west front and to cover them with rich ornament.
Perhaps the richest is the fajade of Rouen cathedral, where it is an
obtrusive element.
I30 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FR.\NCE [Bk. X
At Saint Wulfran d'Abbeville the design of the three portals is one
of the best. The panel arcading above them is simple and the interest
remains centred in the portals themselves, whose gables are of unusual
delicacy. This church ihustrates the use of the triforium, which was
rare at this time except in Normandy, where it persisted as an archaistic
survival. At Abbeville, where it is a dark gallery in the old fashion
anterior to 1250, the broad coarse tracery is finely planned. There is
also a blind triforium at

Argentan (Saint IMartin).
In Saint Pierre at Caen
the triforium is also re-
tained, but without tracery,

its openings being covered
by the low flat basket-
handle arch. A view of the
interior is gi^•en in Fig. 137,
as it is happier than most

of the flamboyant interiors,
perhaps because it retains

so many archaicisms. In its
vaults we see the pendant
keystones, not so common
in France as in England.
The choir of this church is
interesting as exhibiting a
139 —Nave of St. NicoIas-de-Port. (From Michel.)
juxtaposition of late Gothic
and early Renaissance forms in harmony. A figure under French
Renaissance gives the chapels in the foreground and they retain enough
of the general outlines of late Gothic work to avoid a clash of styles.
It is interesting to compare with this choir that of the abbey church

of Mont Saint Michel (Fig. 138) with the terraced roofs of its chapels
and a Flemish heaviness. It is extraordinary' to note how few are the
flamboyant traits in this design and how simple it is notwithstanding
the richness of its eftect.
Martin Chambiges is the name that occurs most frequently as the

architect of important works of this age. In Paris his style can be
judged by the famous Tour St. Jacques, at Sens by the two transepts,
at Beauvais by the north transept, at Troyes and Pontoise by the
facades respectively of the Cathedral and St. Maclou.
Chap. IV] LOC'\L SCHOOLS AND LATER GOTHIC 131
Quite a different type of interior is illustrated (Fig. 139) in Saint

Nicolas-de-Port. It has several unusual features. The entire effect
is one of great lightness and luminosit}', with the ad^•antages of the
hall-church scheme. The disuse of the triforium is utilised to raise
the aisles. The southern peculiarity of the elongated column is em-
phasised by the continuation of its outline in the form of a broad
shaft out of which emerge the vaulting ribs, which are of the type
with liernes and ticrcerons. The same principle governs the evolution
of the ribs of the aisle N'aulting. The transept is di\ided into two equal
aisles by a high central shaft which gi\-es to this part something of the
aspect of the two-aisled churches we have noted in describing the
Jacobins at Toulouse on p. 102. The lofty lancets in the choir arc
an English feature. Altogether this is among the most successful of
flamboyant interiors and one which justifies the assertion that this
style made a last advance in formulating Gothic ideas of space.

This church of Saint Nicolas, the chapel of Brou and others were
works of the early part of the sixteenth centurA'and bring us to about
the year 1530 with hardly a sign of the in\-asion of Renaissance, which
began to affect ci\'il before it did religious architecture.
:
CHAPTER V
CIVIL, MILITARY AND MONASTIC GOTHIC IN FRANCE
THE churches belonging to the monasteries have been already-

described whenever they were of sufficient importance: St.
Denis, St. Germer, St. Ouen at Rouen, etc. Architectural
style and history were created by church architecture. Yet, to the
modern student, and especially to the architect who is in search of
suggestive and artistic models, there is more material for study out-
side of church architecture. Few cathedrals are now being built.
This is not the age of religious architecture. Halls, houses, castles,
villas, palaces, municipal buildings, cloisters, chapels, refectories; even
corridors, staircases, kitchens, gateways, fountains, etc., were all
treated with originahty by Gothic architects and with a plasticity and

a charming asymmetry in striking contrast to the rigid canons that
were ushered in by the Renaissance in Italy.
—
Town-Halls. If France is not rich in municipal buildings and
guild-halls such as we find in Flanders, Germany and especially in
Italy, it was due to different political conditions which prevented the
development of civic autonomy. There were, of course, buildings
appropriate to whatever public business was transacted. There were
separate towers or belfries, the orthodox symbol of communal au-
thority, and in the base of which the town prison was often situated.
At other times the belfry was connected with the Hotel de Ville, which
contained the meeting halls and the administrative offices of the
municipality. This communal house consisted usually of two stories
a basement, often with an open porch or even consisting entirely of an
oi)en arcadcd public market, supported by columns or piers. On the
second story were the meeting rooms; the hall of the Echcvins, the hall
of justice, the hall for meetings and the chapel. The few buildings of
this class in France that are of any architectural importance are:
13^
Chap. V] CIVIL, lAIILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 133
the Hotel de Ville at Compiegne, that at St. Quentin, and the Palais
de Justice at Rouen. They all belong to the latest period of Gothic,
and are charming examples of tLambo>-ant. It will be noticed that
they are aU in the north, where municipal life was alwa}-s far more
vigorous than in the south.
The modest dimensions and simple stj'le of the town-halls of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are shown in the fagade of that at
Cordes in Fig. 140, with clear simple lines, and a charming asymmetric
grouping of arcades and windows that sa\-es it from formalism. As a
140 — Hotel de \"ille at Corde;. (From .'lonurn. I'lisl.)
tjpe it stands midway between the town-halls with solid lower floor and
those with open arcades.
At Compiegne (Oise), the Hotel deA'ille (Fig. 141) was buflt between
1505 and 151 1. Its architect was Pierre Xavyer. The wings, in
Renaissance style, are a later addition. The
is charming, mainly design
through the grouping of the central and the corner turrets.
belfr}'
Otherwise the scheme does not dift'er materially from the fagade of a
private house, because the architect did not follow the scheme of the
open basement which had usually prevailed. The sohd central section
under the belfry is very happily treated, and within the belfry is used
as the stairway.
Far more florid is the Hotel de Villa at St. Quentin (Fig. 142)
which represents the other tyjie of facade; the tjqoe with open porch
and without structural belfry. What it gains in richness of openings
141— Hold (Ic \'illu a,l ConipicKne. (From iroiiinn. Ilisl.)
it loses in effectiveness of composition. There is a l^clfr^- to b- sure.

set back of the central gable, but it is later in design and biiiU of wood'
as many belfries were. It is also interesting to note the contra stîn
:
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND :\IONASTIC GOTHIC t35
/'\
i
1
1 ii 'ii '%!'
l:# .11
^11
11 11 li If
wm 1
%i Vi -m
:||'ll
1
-^S^"-.t=«î!yt^£i..4^-y^
^
|J
142 — Hotel dc \"illc al St. Qucnlin. (From Moiuim. Ilisl.)
the arcades of these two structures: at Compiegne the basket-handle

arch with cross mullions and at St. Quentin the pointed arch. In both
cases we liave the reverse curve arch in "accolade" and at St. Quentin
143 — Council-room of Talais do Justice, Rouen. (From Gurlitl.t

the cusped round arch in the tracery, so common in late flamboyant.
The alternation of broad and pointed arches in the basement is the
secret of the charm of this facade.
The most magnificent Gothic municipal building in France is cer-
tainly the Palais de Justice at Rouen; splendid in its extent, in the
beauty of its design and the perfection of its detail. was built as
It
the Court of Exchequer

of Normandy during the
latter part of the fifteenth
century, being completed
in 1506. The architects
were Richard and Roger
x\ngo and the most inter-
esting documents give us

every detail of the methods
used in its construction,
the scaffolding, the work-
men, the materials. It is
built around a very large
—
court so wide as to give
plenty of perspective for
the inner facades. At one
end is the great communal
hall, dating from 1493,
with a splendid interior re-
minding of the Sala della

Ragione, the communal
hall at Padua, with its im-
pressive and well-propor-
tioned jointed wooden ceil-
ing rising from a massive
143a — Belfry and Chapel of Notre Dame du Kreiskcr at
cornice. We must replace
St. Pol de Leon. (I'"rom Moniim. Hisl.)
the statues in their niches
in order to obtain the full effect (Fig. 143). traceried balcony The
is more than the plate can show, obscured as it is here
effective
by the front lights. There is another large hall, in the main buildino-
{La Grande Chamhir), with its original carved ceiling. But, the o-reat
beauty of the building is in its exterior. A large part is comparati^•ely
simple, except for the gorgeous dormer windows, with their elaborate
Chup. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AN"D MONASTIC GOTHIC 137
tracer)' joining the high gables
and the corner pinnacles. The greatest
richness centres on the facade with the chapel, i^rt of \\'hich appears
in Fig. 144. Here the chapel, which stands in the middle, is shown,
projecting as a polygon, and the windows adjoining it, instead of being
architraved, ha^-e the basket-handle form with cusped archi\-olt and
144 — Part of Côurt of Palais dc Juslice, Rouen. (.From photo.)
richh' decorated base. The roof balustrade which elsewhere is inter-

rupted onl_\' by the buttresses has an arcaded superstructure, and the
buttress piers are built higher for decorative effect and connected with
the dormers b}' flying buttresses of excessi^•e richness. This part of the
design is somewhat confused and one is inclined to criticise the statues
surmounting the iinials of the balustrade arches. One of the best
features of the composition the arrangement of the perrons or stair-
is
ways of approach to the large halls on the second or main floor, which
are reached not from the interiors but directly from the outside. One
is to the right of the chapel and another in the left-hand fagade.
Another and even rarer tyiê of civic building was the tOAvn belfry as
a separate structure or connected Avith a small building at or around its
base. This also was in the north, and the most charming design is that
of St. Pol de Leon where the belfry is connected with a chapel (Fig. 143a) •
14s —Frame hoiise, [ intllcrl in stone I iscnunt it Riicn (Frim Yiollct-lc-Duc.)
Private DivcUings. —
During the later period especially, when France
began to recover her prosperity during the fifteenth centur-s', artistic
wood construction became fashionable. This was probably due to
foreign inllucncc. German}^, Flanders and England had ahvaA's used
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 1,39
wood more frcel}^ than stone in pri\'ate architecture. The rise in land
values led at the same time to a gradual increase in height. There are
in France houses of the fifteenth century to which French taste has
140 —House at Reims. (From \'iollct-le-Due.)
given a greater symmetry and charm of detail than we find in other

countries. This will appear in such a design as that of a house at Rouen
(Fig. 145), where the entire front above the stone basement is composed
of carved wood panelling of charming flamboyant work. Such elabora-
tion was, of course, exceptional. Two structural peculiarities gave pic-
turesqueness. One was the projection of the entire superstructure above
the basement on corbels formed by hea\'y diagonals. This was relative-
ly rare, and is illustrated in a house at Reims on the Place des Marches
which is remarkable for the excessi^•c development of the glazed sur-
also
face, which characterises this period of the fifteenth century (Fig. 146).
Here the body of the structure is of stone and the wooden fagade
can be put together so as to admit of this development. Far more
common was the graduated corbeUing out of each story, in the way
shown in Fig. 147 in a house at Rouen which is interesting to com-
'!
/
-^c:
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 141
Here we have the common type of sucli houses before one or two stories
were added to tlie normal freight in the fifteenth centur)'. In a part of
France there was a rich and pecuhar marlcing of the structural features
b}' lines of j'jilaster-strips or semi-columns, resting on brackets and
sometimes di\'iding each stor\' into two or more sections. An irregular
14S — Tinilicr ossature of a French house of the thirteenth century.

(From MoUet-le-Duc.)
and charming use of this design appears in the house of the flamboyant
style at Gallardon (Eure-et-Loir), where the carving shows Renais-
sance influence (Fig- 149)-
It is interesting to study the group of houses from a street at
Orleans in Fig. 150 with its juxtaposition of half-timbered and stone

houses. The city of Orleans is full of interesting mediaeval and
'.jPp
illimiMl 4a
®i
« • « '
••••••«• •••IV
HI •
140 — Half-limbLTcd house at Gallardon. (From Moiitim. Hist.)
iMil II i.teHii
rn
150 — Group of houses at Orleans. (From Monuiii. Ilisl.)

Chap. V] CI\'IL, AIILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 143
Renaissance houses, rivalling Rouen, centml versus northern France,

in its st)ie.
Among stone houses of rather unusual interest as dwellings miclwaA'
between the ordinary bovn-geois house and the seigncurial dwelling,
the most interesting early instance is at Saint Antonin: tliis house
was, in the fourteenth century, transformed into a municipal building.
151 — Detail of house of ihc musicians at Reims.

l^From ViolIet-le-Duc")
Its arcliitraved gallerv is full of character. Evidently it is a work of
transitional art, shortly before 1200.

Somewhat house of the musicians at Reims of pure
later is the
thirteenth century stonework, of which only the central section is

oiven in Fig. 151 with the statues of the musicians. In the south
of France at this time brick was quite popular in place of stone, as it

I
'
1 t
i
^£^.
r ,
^
C '
I,
^
I _ I ^ ,4'
,1-1
"z&^^ ll J
—
Chap. \-] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 145
^Yas in church architecture
and the difference that the
material made in the treat-
ment is illustrated in two con-
temporary houses, one in stone

at St. Antonin (Fig. 152) and
the other in brick at Caussade
(Fig. 153). It is in these houses
of the thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries in stone
or brick that what is charac-
teristically French can best be
studied. The houses of the
class first described, either
^\•holly or in part half-tim-
bered, belong to a broad cate-
gor}- differing only slightly
from what we shall find in
Belgium, Holland, Germany,
and even England. Two other
charming examples illustrate
difi'erent methods of treat-
ment: a house of the middle
period of Chateaudun (Fig.
154) with ver}' pointed half-

timbered gable; and a later
house at Dreux (Fig. 155)
afterward turned into a Hotel-
de-MUe, which has a modest
admixture of Renaissance or-
nament with its flamboyant.
Of city houses on a larger
scale there are three that repre-
sent the renewal of prosperity
in the fifteenth century. The
first of these is the house of
Jacques Cceur at Bourges.
This bourgeois milhonaire
fished to rival the greatest 155— Hotel de Ville at Dreux. (From Moiiiim. Hist.)
feudal nobles and built this
palace in the city as an adap-
tation of the fortified chateau
in the country.
The plan in Fig. 156 and
the birds-eye view in Fig. 157
illustrate the resemblance to
the military type. The house
faces on the street to the
right, and on the extreme left
the corner tower joins the city

wall. The charming irregu-
larity of plan is partly caused
by the situation between the
city wall and the street and
by Jacques Coeur's decision
to utilise the old Gallo-Roman
city towers as the corners of
his mansion. But it is also
characteristic of mediseval
156 — Plan of house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges.
(From Yiollet-le-Duc.) builders, in contrast to those
of the Renaissance, to
welcome and emphasize
natural irregularities, for
their picturesque possi-
bilities. This mansion
must be described in some
detail. From the central
body two wings project
on either side of a court
toward a street facade
with a central pavilion
45 metres (148 ft.) long.
The rear fajade along
the ramparts, given in
shows how the
Fig. 158,
Gallo-Roman towers of 157— Bird's-eye view of house of Jacques Ccjeur at
brick and rubble were Bourges. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND iMONASTIC GOTHIC 147
used to give a feudal castellated air; that on the left being con-
tmued in the stone masonrj- of the new work, \îth rich pavilion
and balcony. A polygonal turret-tower with spiral
staircase was
annexed each of these antique to^êrs and the old bastion be-
to
tween them served admirably to break the hne toward
the centre
with a highly gabled projection. Though the plainest, this was the
loftiest side, having originally at its base tlie wide city moat.
15S —House of Jacques Cu;ur: rampart I'afade. (From photo.)
The entrance on the street (Fig. 159) is one of the most delightful
of civil flamboyant compositions, with its perfectly poised asymmetry,
a porte-cochere and postern, a staircase-turret flanking the tower-
like centre with its splendid window, leading to the chapel which
formed a large hall over the entrance. The plan of the loAver floor in
Fig. 156 will explain the arrangement around the court, of which
the arcades of the right side are interesting to compare with those of
the Hotel de Cluny in Fig. 162. Nearly the whole of three sides consists
of closed porticoes of basket-handle arcades. That on the right (D on
plan) was where the poor of the town gathered to be fed and receive
159 — House of Jacques Coeur: street fai;ade. (From photo.)
alms. Beyond it, in the corner next to the staircase X, is the entrance
to the kitchens through a small court with a well. Between the large
dining hall in I and the smaller kitchen is the buttery, M. In connec-
;
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND IMONASTIC GOTHIC

tion with this hall is the main staircase, H, which
leads to the principal or general hall on the floor
above. The view of it in Fig. i6o shows a window
of the dining hall and of the reception hall abo^•e
this is the central part of the court from the
decorative point of view. It is characteristic
that, beside the two stairs already noted in con-
nection with the old towers, there are seven stair-
cases, all but one of them spiral. This multi-
plication of stairs in media;âl mansions was in
harmony with shown in every
the practical sense
detail of the internal arrangements. The scheme
of a single, monumental, central stairway, which
has become so integral an element of modern
architecture, was part of the apparatus of the
Renaissance, which sacrificed comfort and sense
of ultra-symmetry and centralization.
If the mansion of Jacques Cceur illustrates
the restrained style current in part of Central

France, the Hotel de Cluny illustrates a slightly
richer side of late Gothic work. It also was a
private residence, and is familiar to many who
visit Paris as the ]\Iusee de Cluny. Fig. i6i shows
i( o — St iirtase of house of
how it was built irregularly around a court, or J.uqULb Cu-ur. (I r >m
JCnlart.)
i6i— Bird's-eve view of Hotel de Cluny, Paris. (.From Mollet-le-Uiic,

ISO
rather a small garden fronting on a side

street. The detail of the
than that of Jacques
arcade on the short side in Fig. 162 is richer
pointed arches, in
Coeur in the greater quality of the old-fashioned
second floor, and the
the decorative value of the hood arches on
the
162 —Arcades in Court of Hotel de Cluny, Paris. (Froni photo.)
gradual working up of an ascending decorative climax culminating

in the over-rich dormer with its sculptural coat of arms and festoon-
holding angels.
The development of this style into the richer flamboyant forms is
charmingly expressed by the Chateau of Josselin, in the Morbihan,

at the close of the XV century, before any of the inroads of Renais-
sance forms. There is a splendid long facade at this chateau of which
the view in Fig. 163 gives only a small part at the extreme right. It
is sufficient to show what free variety the architect has given in the
Chap. VI CR'IL, IMILITARY, AND ^MONASTIC GOTHIC 151
placing of windows and their

size, in setting the middle
story windows partly in the
dormers, in turning the usu-
ally rather insignificant roof
balustrade into the most
prominent decorative motif,
with a variety of design
which is stiU further varied
along the rest of the front to
the left. Note also the fly-
ing buttress connecting the
pinnacles with the gable of
the dormers, in similar fash-
ion to the palace at Rouen.
Such work as this and as
that of the Chateau of Cha-
teaudun places late French
Gothic cIniI buildings on a iHj— Chateau of Jossclin. U-rom pholo.)
distincth' more artistic le\"el than

the similar work of their greatest
ri^•als in England, where there is
comparatively little attempt at

an}'thing in the way of decorative
detail.
Quite another t}pe is the fam-

ous staircase Dunois at the
of
Castle of Chateaudun (Fig. 164),

where instead of a projecting
tower, as at the house of Jacques
Coeur and in most cases, it stands
in a recessed storied galler\', with
niches on the way up for seats and
lanterns. This chateau is, besides,
one of the most exquisite of the

rich Flambo}-ant manors, so that
it is worth \'\-hile not only to study
164 — Staircase and part of Court of Chateau
of Chateaudun. (From Enlart.) the three stories that contain the
u
I
Chap. V] CI\7L, AIILITARY, AND MONASTIC GOTHIC 153
stairwa}- cage, with its perfect
adaptation of church tracer^• and gables
but also the whole left wing of which
the chapel is in ihe centre: a
highly dramatic composition centering
about a four-storied pa^•iôn
with basket-handle arches, almost concealed
by a lacework in stone
The details are handled with great delicacy.
Particularly interesting is
the mtroduction of the classic cornice in an
otherwise pure Gothic design.
As a fantastic piece of personal design, before
leaving the subject
of staircases, we will give the newel-post
and vaulting of the stairway
of the Hotel de Bour-
gogne in Paris (Fig.
165), built for Jean-
sans-Peur earl}- in the
XV century. It is one
of the few examples in
France of that trans-
mutation of Gothic
constructive forms in-
to purely naturalistic
vegetable forms which
became so popular in
Germany and Spain,
but which French art
had too much taste to
use except sparingly.
This particular in-
stance is dangerously
charming.
Sometimes, though
not often, there was trg-
ured sculpture in these 167- -Court of the hospital at Beaune. (From \'iollet-le-
Due.)
civil mansions, espe-
cially after the middle of the fourteenth century. There was some in
the house of Jacques Coeur, and a beautiful piece of very late work is
the doorway of the Chapel of St. Hubert at the Chateau of Âmboise

in Fig. 166.
There are few cases, also, of construction in wood on a large scale

in compositions similar to the courtyards of the princely houses we ha\'e
been studying. The most important of these is the court of the hos-
pital of Beaune inBurgundy (Fig. 167), which we can also compare, in a
way, to the court of the palace at Rouen. Its two-storied design is most
effective, surmounted by large gables, so that one hardly notices the
necessary absence of detail and ornament. It is also a very rare
example of a mediaeval hospital in use in modern times.
Military Architecture. —As this is a history of architecture as an
art, and not a study of works of engineering or of mere construction,
there are certain classes of buildings that must be excluded. Among
these are the majority of the products of military architecture; those
in which the exigencies of the art of defense and offense have either
eliminated the art of architecture or reduced it to a neghgible quantity.
Thus Roman camps, Gallic fortifications. Crusading fortresses have
not been described. But there came a time in the Gothic age when
feudalism still ruled but had put on a mantle of magnificence and cul-
ture previously unknown, the age when troubadours and Courts of
Beauty and gorgeous tourneys were but part of the pomp of life.
Castles became splendid and luxurious abodes instead of mere fortresses.
Their inner courts, chapels, halls, were gems of architecture and decora-
tion. Only the exterior portions, exposed to assault, remained grim
and simple. The change begins to affect architecture in the age of
St. Louis. It spreads over Europe during the course of the XIII
century. The result is interesting and well worth studying. In the
first place there are certain scenic conditions of great importance. The
site must be strong and almost always high and precipitous. This
gives a picturesque, irregular and commanding situation. To such
conditions the mediaeval styles were peculiarly adapted. Both classic
and Renaissance architecture disliked the picturesque and irregular
and could not adapt themselves to it. They sought rather to bend
nature. Gothic art combined common-sense and adaptability to
material facts with imagination and inventiveness. Hence a brilliant
and varied development of military architecture merging in the XV
century into the non-military palatial type called for by political and
social transformations.
The mass of material makes it necessary to select only a few ex-

amples from each country. There are three main types: (i) the in-
dependent Castle connected at times with a dependent town; (2) the
Fortress-Palace connected with a city; (3) the City House that is part
of the city plan.
It is an interesting fact that the Orient had always been far in ad-
vance of the rest of the world in military architecture, from the time
Chap. V] CIVIL, MILITARY, AND INIONASTIC GOTHIC 155
of the ancient Hittites to the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs. The
Crusaders learned from the Oriental fortresses the real science of
fortification. Those great military orders of the Knights Templars and
Knights of St. John (Hospitalliers) built in S>Tia enormous castles which
were never equalled in The two most imi)ortant castles were
Europe.
the inland one called the " Krak" and the seaboard fortress of Tortosa.
Both of these are works of the close of the XII and first half of the
XIII century. To realise their size it is only necessary to say that the
"Krak" was habitually garrisoned by 2,000 men-at-arms and was
capable of receiving about 20,000 persons. Both of these castles are
distinctly European, of transitional and early Gothic style, and built
apparenth- by French architects. The great Halls where the Knights
held their meetings were evidently deri\'ed from the chapter-houses
of the monasteries or the halls attached to cathedrals. That at the
"Krak" is 25 m. long and 7 m. wide, divided into three bays with cross-
vaults, and along one of its long sides is a covered and vaulted porch
of sLx bays, of exactly the same design as an Early Gothic cloister of
c. 1225-50. The Hall at Tortosa is even more imposing. Its length of
44 metres is di^•ided by columns into two aisles of six ba}'s. These two
great semi-monastic orders, with their new requirements, transformed
the character of the art. France, England and Germany followed
their example but ; it was on a smaller scale because nowhere were there
such enormous bodies of men to be pro\-ided for. England, perhaps,
approached the more closeh", because the scheme of King Edward I
provided for a network of fortresses to be garrisoned on a large scale for
the protection of the kingdom, whereas in France and Germany the
castles were usually pri\-ate enterprises of feudal lords.
The Chateau of Couc}- in France is the first to show the new art.
It was distinctly a priâte enterprise, >'et the lords of Couc}' were of
the first rank. The castle has been carefully restored. A bird's-eye
view is given in Fig. lOS from the incomparable \'iollet-le-Duc, and

it can be elucidated from the plan in Fig. 169. The key to the de-
fense is, of course, the Keep or doiijoii. The circular plan of Oriental
origin has here replaced the Norman rectangle. The new forms of
Gothic vaulting have been utihzed to turn the three stories of its in-
terior into o-randiose halls with ingenious and striking \-aulting sur-
faces, quite difl'erent from an>- used in church building (Fig. 170).
The upper hall was the general gathering-place for the garrison and,
with its balcony, could hold about 1,200 men (Fig. 171). Its outside
u
'^'Z^,,>i^^^, M
o
5 O
TO I
o =^
i;' -W ;^
Chap. \] CIML, -MILITARY, AND -AIOXASTIC eiOIHIC 1^7
diameter was about 100 ft. and the height of the keep about 200 ft.
The buildings facing on the court were mosth"
remodelled c. 1400
The most interesting is the chapel which projects
into the court
from the main hall called the SaUe des Preux,
from the statues of
nine warriors. It ^^•as about bo m. long, and coN'cred with a wooden
waggon roof. Another smaller hall \N-as called the Salle des Preuses
from its statues of women. It \\-as preceded b>- an arched portico. A
I ;o — Scclion of donjon of Chateau of Coucy. 1 7

1
— IiUerior of main hall of donjon at Coucy.
(.From Mollcl-Ie-Duc.) (From \'iollel-k--I)uc.)
A"iew of it is given at the further end of Fig. 178. It must not be imag-
ined that the castle had been preser^-ed in the form gi^-en in Mollet-le-
Duc's illustrations which are here reproduced; even of the keep itself
the upper \'aults had fallen.
While referring to restorations or reconstructions it willseem natural

to turn to Pierrefonds to show how the architects of France had de-
veloped military architecture. It realh" marks the transition from
fortress to place.
It was built for Louis d'Orleans, in 1390, under Charles VI,
whose reign was marked by such a magnificent efflorescence of
civil architecture. It was considered a fortress of the first rank
as well as a sumptuous and artistic residence. On every other

side but on the south the rock shelves abruptly down. It followed
172— Bird's-eye view of Chateau of Pierrefonds.

the most advanced methods of offensive and defensive

fortification
by circular towers and bastions, according to the theories brought
back by the Crusaders from th~e Orient. The bird's-eye
view in
Fig. 172, and the plan in Fig. 173, when compared with Coucy,
show the practical substitution of a rectangular palace for tht?
;
Chap. V] CI\'IL, IMILITARY, AND AIOXASTIC GOTHIC 150
circular donjon. Only the

outer fortifications (Fig. 174)
are really relied upon for
defense. Once forced there

is no ultimate place of refuge
only an artistic courtyard,

with a beautiful chapel and
groups of halls. The substi-
tute for the keep or donjon

in the centre of the south
side was the palace, divided
into four stories, a lower
vaulted one of storerooms,
and the other three, with
flat ceilings, for residence,
with their open tireplaces.
The three wings were for the

garrison and the servants,
'173 — Plan of Chateau ot Pierrefonds. l,From \'iollot-
including stables and store- le-Puc.)
174— Klovation of Chateau of Pierrefonds. yViom Moinim. HIs!.^.

i6o RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
J.r/
'^
\ f
<trsm
p V
'II ii
it.
175— Chateau of Pierrefonds (section on C-D of plan.) (From Uon'.im. Hisl.)
rooms. The section in
Fig. 175 gives part of one

side of the court, with the
fagade of the richly deco-
rated chapel on the right,
in the centre of the east
wing.
The present condition
of the Chateau of Mehun-
sur-Yevres gives so in-
complete an idea of its
original design that it
seemed best to give in
Fig. 176 a fac-simile of a

miniature from the H cures
of the Due de Berri, from
^', :
which we can judge what
progress had been made
before the close of the
XIV century toward a
176 — Chateau of Mehun-sur-Yevres, (from XV century
miniature.)
Chap. Y] CIVIL. ÎILITARY, AND :\IONASTIC GOTHIC i6i
residence for pleasure instead of defense. It was built by a famous

architect, Guy de Dammartin. It is a perfectly charming composition
and makes but little pretense at military architecture.
As an example of a stronghold in the cit}' I have selected for illustra-
tion the donjon of the Ducal Palace at Poitiers. It is an unusually mas-
sive structure, as its section in Fig. 177 \Yill show, but in the architec-
tural beauty of its exterior (^Fig.
17S) it places itself distinctly

in the class of palatial residences
—as was natural to such an artist
I-- — Section of donjon of Ducal Palace, i;S — Kle\-ation of donjon at Poitiers
Poitiers. i,From \'iollet-le-Duc.) I From \"iollet-le-Duc.~l
prince as the Due de Berri. The large hall in the more conspicuous
city palaces, etc.,
mansions, castles, manors, episcopal palaces, feudal
it was vaulted;
was more usuahy covered with a ceiled or open roof than
dining hall or other hall
but it was often on the second floor over a
An instance is the main hall, 220 ft. long, of this
that is vaulted.
Poitiers, built in 1303, of which the
palace of the Due de Berri at
donjon has just been described. The steps leading to the raised upper
feasted, held audience or sat
end'or estrade, where the lord and master
judgment, with the monumental triple fireplace, the exquisite triple
group of windows with and pinnacles and the flanking
their gables
staircases leading to the gallery are shown in the charmingly treated

composition of Fig. 179. In connection with some halls, such as the
dining hall of Jacques Coeur, there was a special gallery for the musi-
i7g — Salle des Gardes, Chateau of Poitiers, upper end. (From Michel,)
cians. Sometimes, though not often, the gallery was a balcony pro-
jecting around the room and upheld by colonnettes or brackets.
The most colossal work of the semi-military style and probably
the most important architectural undertaking of the century in the
south of France is the famous palace of the Popes at Avignon, of which
there is a plan in Fig. 180. This work of the XIV century, built next
to the cathedral to house the Pope and his court, household and garri-
Chap. Y] CIVIL, :MILITARY, AND AIONASTIC GOTHIC It):;
iSo — Plan of Papal Palace at Avignon. (From Mollct-lc-Duc.)
son during the se\-enty years of exile from Rome, is unique in Europe.
The necessity for a fortress to protect the person and treasures of the
papacy was more than once demonstrated during this time b}' the
necessity to resist raids and attacks b}' bodies of freebooters, as well as
by the siege of Benedict XIII in 139S. The main portion was built
after 1336. The style is the sober brickwork current in the south of
France, and the success and impressiveness of the composition is
entirely due to a feeling for mass that is so well illustrated, for ex-
ample, in the cathedral of Albi. The east front in Fig. iSi has the
chapel on the extreme left, running back so as to occupy the entire
iSi— Faiado of Papal Palace al .V\ igiion. (From photo.)

short south side. On and de-
the extreme right in the background
tached from the palace is the cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms.
The buildings are grouped around two courts a larger outer court and
:
a cloistered court. In judging the effect of the interiors of the halls

and the chapel, it must be remembered that while the architecture of
this palace was French, the internal decoration was in the hands of
Italian painters, especially of

the Sienese and Umbrian
schools, whose work was facili-
tated by the great expanse of
solid wall which the architects
of southern France preferred
to the extreme glazing of the
colder and darker north. Re-
storations during recent years
have brought to light several
interesting series of frescoes

=^ even in the papal sleeping
apartments. The chapel was
entirely frescoed. In the main
doorway, in Fig. 182, the gen-
eral sobriety of the exterior is
slightly tempered, and this is
done more freely in the courts.

Mo n a Stic A rch iteciure —
French INIonastic architecture
was far more important out-
side of France than in France
itself. We shall see how the
order of Cistercian monks,
182 — Gateway of Papal Palace at Avignon.
(From VioUet-le-Duc.) spreading as it did throughout
Europe just at the time when
the Gothic movement was in process, carried with it the new ideas,
the conservative and plain forms which it took in

particularly in
Burgundy, where the order originated. In Spain, Portugal, England,
Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, we find proofs of their proto-Gothic
and Gothic propaganda, in which they often preceded the lay archi-
tects and paved the way for perfected Gothic. In France itself their
work is hardly noticeable. The monastery of Pontigny a charac- —
Chap. \] CIVIL. ÎILITARY, AND .^lOXASTIC GOTHIC lo,-
teristic Burgundian work-can be appreciated hx a

stiRh- of Fos-
sanuox-a, Casamari and other ItaHan \\-orks, some of
which will be
here Ulustrated, so carefully was the st^•le
of the mother pro^'ince
e^-erywhere miitated. Its sobriety was changed during
the XIII
centur}- to harmonize \xhh the general
mo\-ement. The Benedictine
order did not figure as largely, e^•en in France.
After its share in
the earliest stage— at St. Denis and St. Germer—
it gi^•es wa}- to lay
art. There is, however, one class of monuments in which the monastic
buildings well repa}- stud>-: the subsidiar>- buildings. For cloisters.
iSj —Mont St. Michel: general \ie\v of moiiaslen". ^From jihoo
refectories, chapter-houses and other halls, for hospitals and e\'en

kitchens, we must turn to them.
The most spectacular Gothic monastery is the famous ^lont St.
^lichel, on the rock jutting out from the French coast toward Eng-
land. had to be
It a fortress as well as a monaster}'. E\-en now the
French goêrnment is studying wa\'S and means for gi\'ing back to it
its sea-washed aspect. Its picturesqueness is shown in the general
xiew of Fig. 1S3. A general plan of the buildings of the upper story
is given in Fig. 1S4. where the}' are grouped around the church, of
which only the choir appears. The halls on the left in the plan form
1 66 RISE AND EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC IN FRANCE [Bk. X
the group on the north front called the "Merveille," and the complete
elevation on this side, in Fig. 185, shows how many-storied was this
part of the pile. The total height is close to 235 ft. and the material
throughout is a fine granite, even the highly decorated choir of the
church. The double character, military and monastic, is evident in
the arrangement. On the rez-de-chausse is not only the monks' re-
fectory, with its double line of vaulted bays but the three-aisled
vaulted refectory of the garrison. On the main floor, which is here
reproduced in Pig. 184, there is the monks' dormitory in D, above
their refectory, and the garrison's hall or Salle des Chevaliers, above
184 —Plan of main story of Monastery of Mont St. Michel.

their refectory and corresponding in plan with loftier proportions.

In C is the vast crjqot rebuilt at the close of the XV century to sup-
port the new choir. In G are the lodgings of the Abbot and his guests.
On the story above, the cloister stands over the Salle des ChevaUers and
the church occupies the centre.
Its great halls partook more of a baronial than a monastic char-
acter, especially the Salle des Chevaliers. The architecture is almost
entirely of theXIII century. An exception is the late Gothic choir of
the church, which has been illustrated in Fig. 138. the various From
highly interesting units the one selected here for illustration
in Fig.
Cluip. \] C'RIL, jMILITARV, AND INIONASTIC GOTHIC 167
^.jt!f!itf«mtVittrtrtffff!f-r
j^ ijiiiiii iiiii|iiijii Sid ji I
,, 1 1
1" Hi; jFii
j,
'
i • !•• jj
II 11
11 II 'At ***** I I
*<** y
nri
pii'THi^-^
1S5 — Klovation of the "MervciUe" or N front and entrance of monastery of ilont St. ilichel.
(From Moniim. Ilisl.)
1S6 is the cloister. It is unique both in plan and ornamentation: in

plan because the two rows of colonnettes are set not opposite but
diagonally, so as to form triangles with peculiar vaulting; and in orna-
i<;o_jXont St. Jlichel: cloister of monastery. (From plioto.)

mentation because of the rosettes and other fohated decoration iiUing
the spandrels and forming the frieze. This is the more prominent
because of the Enghsh plain turned capitals. In fact, it is evident to
any one famihar with the more decorative school of English Gothic
after c. 1250 that the decorative scheme here is of English and
not
French origin.
187 — Cloister of Cathedral of Rouen. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
This cloister of Mont St. Michel was one-storied. In the same

region, at Rouen, the cloister of the cathedral, of which a bay is given
in Fig. 187, gives the rarer two-storied t}q3e of the developed style.
An ultimate stage in richness of detail is shown in Fig. 188, the ex-
quisite cloister of St. Jean des Vignes at Soissons, where the buttresses
have become absorbed into piers and pinnacles. In the South the
cloister of the present Musec at Toulouse has a most effective pent
roof (Fig. 189), which is interesting to compare with the pointed barrel
Chap. \] CRIL, ÎILITAR\ AXD MOXASTIC GOTHIC 169
at :Mont St. Alichcl and the

normal Gothic ribbed ^-ault-
,"^^
ing of others. /IS' f.
The elasticity of Gothic

forms is illustrated in the
small interiors of annexes to
monasteries or cathedrals.
Nothing could be more
graceful and daring than the
refectory of St. ^lartin des
Champs in Paris (XIII cen-
tury"), with its two rows of
vaults. The central shafts
are made perilously slender
to secure a hall-like eliect,
and the nccessit}' for flying
buttresses to secure equilib-
rium is aN'oided by centering
18S — C'!'ii<lcr 01 Si. Jean ilc? \"i,!:;ncs at Soissdiis.
the ^\aulting toward the in- I From \'iollet-Ie-Duc.l
jSo — L"k>isU'r of the musetim. Toitlousc. vIt'"''" photo.'

terior, as is shown in the diagram of the lower part of Fig. 190. Less
daring but still slender are the shafts that divide the main hall of the
hospital of the monastery of Ourscamp (Figs. 191-192). This interior
somewhat apes that of a church, with the superior width of the central
aisle. But it is noticeable that while in church interiors except —
—
toward the south plain shafts were abandoned at the beginning of
the XIII century, they continued in use in these subsidiary interiors
in the elongated form we have noticed in St. Serges at Angers and St.
Nazaire at Carcassonne.
190 — System of refectory of St. ^lartin 191 — S.vstem of hospital of Ourscamp

des Champs, Paris. (From Choisy.) (From Choisy.)
Finally, to show how much originality and architectural character

may be crowded into the most subordinate units of a monastery, Fig.
193 gives the exterior and Fig. 194 the sections of the kitchen of the
Abbey of Fontevrault. As a scheme for cooking for a large constitu-
ency it is perfectly convenient and practical, with its central plan; its
separate apsidal fires each with its chimney and with central ventila-
tion. The whole pyramidal design is artistically perfect.
Richer than the monastic were some Episcopal halls. The view
102 — Interior of hospiuil, Ourscamp. (From Enlart.)
.- c:r,trr
023
zi -
!;î,
mm^
Kitchen ol monastery of Fontexraiilt. iFroiu \"iollet-le-Duc.)
Chap. V] CIVIL, TillLITARY, AND ]\IONASTIC GOTHIC 173
of the long side of the S3iiodal
hall attached to the archbishop's palace
at Sens, m
Fig. 195, shows the external aspect of the richer of these
halls m
the XIII century. The windows in this instance are richer
than ni the two halls whose interiors ha^•e been
reproduced. This
meetmg-hall at Sens is narrow and ^'aulted, without any di\'ision into
aisles. In this way it resembles rather the class of chapels of which the
lOO — S.\'nodal hall at Sens: scclion. 107 — Exterior of Ste. Chapelle in Par
(From Violk-t-lc-Duc.1 (From photo.)
most famous is the Sainte Chajielle in Paris. The section in Fig. 190
shows its di^"ision into two stories and a cellar. It differs in t},pe from
the Sainte Chapelle in the absolute subordination of the lower stor}'.
The Sainte Chapelle du Palais, or chapel of the Law Courts of

Paris, is so well known that it hardh- requires description. As a work
of the middle of the XIII centur}- it stood for the highest contemporary
achievements, as did its contemporary, the nave of St. Denis. The
view in Fig. 197 shows its division into the upper and lower chapel and
the unusual double-storied open porch, which partially masks the
wonderful flamboyant tracery of the rose, which is illustrated in Fig.
200; while the windows are reproduced in Fig. 205, and the internal
decoration in Fig. 222.
CHAPTER VI
DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTUILIL DETAIL AND DECORATION IN FRANCE
AFTER
ments
this
in
survey of the histon- and various classes
France it only remains to analyse the development
of monu-
of specific forms during this period of c. 1 150-15 2 5, and es-
pecially the windows and their tracery; the piers,

with their bases and capitals; the principle under-
lying the development of ornament. As the t}pes
and changes of plan and elevation and the methods
of vaulting and construction have already been
studied, this will complete the analysis of French
Gothic, which had to be far more detailed than will
be the case in other countries.
As tracery is so important an indication of age
and style and as it, as well as the rest of Gothic
essentials, was first developed in central France, it
is interesting to trace its early evolution in connec-

tion with the forms of windows. First, the rather
special forms of the wheel or rose window. Fig. 19S
outhnes the three main t}-pes followed in the setting
of the opening deêloped out of the '"oculus" or

untraceried round opening in a solid wall. In their
variants one can follow the passage from primiti\-e 105 — E\"olution of
wheel windo\Y.
through developed and geometric to flamboyant
(From\'iollet-le-
forms; thev also illustrate the movement toward uni- Duc/)
fication of design. The primiti^•e scheme of a circular

opening in a which was used at Laon (Fig. 34^ Chartres
solid wall
largely replaced by that of an
(Fig. 49) and Notre Dame (Fig. 2b), was
though it survived until
opening framed in a pointed discharging arch,
as the great rose of Amiens
the end in such flamboyant masterpieces
(Fig. 6i). Such large central pointed untraceried windows as that of
SenHs (Fig. i8) heralded the second type, illustrated by the fagade of
Coutances and in its more developed and lighter forms in

(Fig. 93),
one of the minor roses over the portals of the west front at Reims
(Fig. 82). The present main rose at Reims, seen in Figs. 54 and 55,
is not part of the original scheme. Perhaps the drawing in Fig. 53,
which is of the Coutances tjqoe, represents the first draft. The restor-
ation by Viollet-le-Duc in Fig. 52
~ '
ll^ \
-if-^ shows his belief that the circular
Y
—
Chap. VI] DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL 177
form of the wheel or rose set in a square panel. It was originally a

variant of the Notre Dame type, and it can be seen in Fig. 106 at
Poitiers. most exquisite de-
Its
velopment came in the south tran-

sept of Notre Dame (Fig. 199)
where the panel is perforated in a
traceried design dating from the
middle of the thirteenth century
and also at the Ste. ChapeUe in
Paris (Fig. 200), where the tracery
had been elaborated and refined by
the schools of Champagne and Ile-
de-France. In this connection there

took place a further evolution. In
harmony with the tendency toward
unification of design and amalga-
mation of units which led, as we
have seen (p. in), to the reduction
of the three internal stories to two,
the architects of these schools com-
bined in one design the rose window
and the gallery under it. This was
done in the case of both types of
window that have been described
— Rose window of St. Nicaise at Reims,
I
reconstructed. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)

that inscribed in a pointed arch and
that inscribed in a square frame, and the reader is referred to Figs.
199 and 201, in which is reproduced the beautiful design of St. Nicaise,
for a comparison of the
vault, and especially to
Fig. 119, where the role of
the rose or wheel in the
fagade of St. Nicaise is
made clear. These latest

designs did not absolutely
displace previous schemes.
-Evolution of window skeleton in early French
Gothic. (From Dehio.) In Fig. 132 we see how
the round-headed relieving
arch and separate gallery were retained until a late date at Dieppe.
In so far as tracery is concerned the rose windows followed the type
x^f"^
set by the clearstory windows with added complexities, and with

certain interrelations made necessary by the special statics of the
broad rose in order to prevent dislocation by pressure of the fagade
wall. The late roses at Amiens (west front), St. Ouen at Rouen
(transepts) and Senlis (transepts) are particularly beautiful; so is
that of St. Nazaire at Carcassonne shown in Fig. 128.

But it is the more usual tj^Des of window that supply the safest
norms. Fig. 202 presents the successive stages in the relation of the
oculus to the sub-arches in the two-light normal clearstory window
from the beginning of tracery in c. 1200 to about 1250, showing the
progressive diminution of the oculus. The latter stages are illus-
trated in Figs. 204, which show how the rather hea\y design
203 and
of Amiens was lightened at St. Denis. In Fig. 31 we have seen how
the windows at Notre Dame were remodelled in order to introduce
this type, and in Fig. 46 is an instance of a primitive attempt at a
juxtaposition of two-light window and oculus at Chartres before the
new scheme had become established, shortly before 1200. Gables
were introduced, to give individuality to each window. An early
instance is the Ste. Chapelle (Fig. 205), and on p. 114 and Fig. 124
there is a charming variant with a double gable at St. Urbain of
Troyes. With the greater freedom of geometric tracery there appears

the mndow with three instead of two pairs of two-lights; an early
and beautiful example is at St. Nazaire of Carcassonne in Fig. 206
where the designer showed the same originaHty and daring as in his
whole building. It is a fine example of the geometric work of the
XIV century. Such designs as this led to the ultimate change fully
reahzed in the flamboyant age, when there is no difference in the
articulating value of the various parts of the tracery, by graduations
in heaviness or amount of relief. The window at Eu (Fig. 207) illus-
trates the type with uniform tracery of curvilinear design. There is a

curious overflow of late window tracery over the exterior, especially
of the main facades: for example, on the Vendome facade (Fig. 133).
The new attitude toward plant hfe assumed by Gothic architects
and decorators was one of the great events in the history of art and
its importance has already been referred to. M. ]\Iale and others
have classified and catalogued the kinds of plants and trees that were
utilized and transferred to stone. The natural and the XIII century
carved fig-leaf are illustrated in Fig. 208 to show how closely nature
was reproduced. Once the principle was accepted, the choice was
/ _?^
- a
Chap. VI] DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL i8i
unlimited. The heavier

water-plants that were the
favorites at the beginning
(e. g., Fig. 28) were largely
replaced in the XIII cen- <:^
tury by the more delicately
articulated forms, except in
such classes as crockets, -Fig-leaves, natural and carved. (From \'iollet-
le-Duc.)
finials, cusps and griffes.
Attempts have been made to give an historical succession to the way

in which the decorative foliage was connected with the background,
especially in capital designs, though the same principles are extended
209 — Early capital at St. Leu d'Esserent. 210 — Capital of pier of nave, Cathedral of Reims.
(From photo.) (From photo.)
to cornices, archivolts, culs-de-lampe and other details. With few ex-

ceptions the surface of the ground is kept as an outline distinct from
the decorative work. Of course when a comparison is made between
a capital of the t)'pe of St.Leu in Pig. 209
with one of the type of Reims in Fig. 210,
the earlier example may seem to illustrate
the merging of the two elements, while in
the latter the ornament seems applique.
But this is largely due to two reasons. In
the first place to the tendency to make the
crockets seem part of the ground, as is here
—Capital of refectory, Notre
illustrated in the wonderful capital of Notre
Dame des Champs, Paris.
Dame des Champs (Fig. 211), where the (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
contrast in treatment between the crockets and the rest of the foUage
is especially marked. The crocket idea is perhaps a concession to the
tradition of the classic anthemion. In the second place in capitals of
the St. Leu type, the illusion
is due to the spreading of the
decorative design at the base.
When, in later and freer work,
less affected by anthemion
traditions, thin-stemmed leaf-
age was put in this position,

the background was neces-
sarily exposed most at the
bottom instead of at the top

and the relation of the two
elements of ground and deco-
ration was reversed, as at N.
.I3-Capitals in cathedral of Reims. (From photo.,
D^me des ChampS. In the
very free type at Reims, given in Fig. 212, it is the centre that is left
free. The contrast between the lush hea\'y crockets and the stemmed
leafage is beautifully illus-
trated at the chapter-house

of Noyon cathedral (Fig. i
(^^
--^ ^ / ^ /'^
213). While the general 1 //jî&l t^-^.,
tendency during the XIII

century was toward deli-
cacy of detail, increase of
projection and prodigious

virtuosity of undercutting,
the decorators varied their
treatment according to the
quality of the free-stone at
their command as we have
seen was the case with the
Crockct and foliated archivoU in chapter-house of
window tracery. An ex-
Noyon cathedral. (From VioUct-le-Duc.)
treme example of irregular
and thin concealment of the bell of the capital is given in Fig. 214
from Amiens.
The development of free design in the capitals was assisted if not
caused by the change in the form and grouping of the capitals them-
selves that came with the substitution of the

grouped pier for the single column, as illustrated
by a comparison between Figs. 209 and 210 or
the still freer triplet of Fig. 212. The square
plinths became polygonal on a common-sense
principle of design. Among the types of varia-
tions that are here illustrated is the prolonging
of the capital by means of a wide neckband
with the design practically merging into the capi-
tal (Fig. 210); the creation of a super-capital
214 Capital from Amiens
even more thoroughly homogeneous (Fig. 215);
cathedral. (From Du-
the elimination of the solid bell of the capital rand.)
in cul-de-lampe schemes such as Fig. 216.

There were other ways in which the decoration of the capitals was
occasionally supplemented. A most unusual and charming design is
216 — Cul-dc-lampe carrying statue at

215 — Sill-courseand cul-de-lampe at Notre Dame, Ste. Chapelle, Paris. (From Viollet-
Semur. (From Viollet-le-Duc.) le-Duc.)
Fig. 217, where lines of foliage take the place for a certain distance
above the capital of the group of ribbings: the diagram on the left
shows that this was done to avoid the inartistic effect of vaulting ribs
springing from different levels. In the spread of foliated ornamen-
tation which was a gradual evolution of the half-century between
1200 and 1250 and kept pace with that of architectural detail, an exact
correlation of ornamental design to nearly each part of both exterior
217— Decorated ribbing. (From VioUct- 218 — Cornice at top of tower of cathedral of
le-Duc.) Amiens. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
o— Cornice in choir of cathedral of

Troyes. (From VioUct-le-Duc.)
219 — Sill-course of triforium of cathedral of

Amiens. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
Chap. Ml DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL 185
and interior was secured. The hea^•}' forms in Pig. 21S were suited
to their great height on the tower of Amiens. The bold projection
and simplicity of the triforium sill-course also at Amiens in Pig. 219
was equally suited to its position. So is the bold overhang of the
choir cornice at Tro>'es (Fig. 220). In fact, one of the features of
Gothic sculpture that most challenges admiration, evident also in
;i — Summer-stone at St. Pere-sous-\'czeIay.

\ Krom \"iollet-le-Duc.)
figured work, is the flexibility and ingenuity of the method of adapt-

ing treatment to place and height. One sees it e\Tn in such small
detached features as the crocket on the summer-stone at \'ezelay in
Pig. 221, with its extreme undercut and overhang.
Decorative work, like figured work, was severely restrained in
Gothic interiors in France — far more than we shall find to be the case
in England and Germany —and blossomed the exterior.
o\-er The Ste.
Chapelle in Paris is one of the exceptions, with its statues of the
apostles and the charming surface decorati<in of its lower arcade
(Fig. 222), in which color, foliage and figures are harmoniously com-
bined. The far more frequent decoration of external surfaces is

shown in Fig. 223 from
l2*<HfeJ^* ^^-^d^-^v^wî
Notre Dame in Paris, and
such work occurs in con-
nection with nearly all the
lower west fronts of the
best period and also on
many transept facades, as
we see in Fig. 77, from
Chartres, and even at a
considerable height, as in
and around the gallery at
Amiens (Fig. 62).
Plate II, reproducing
the spring of the arch over
the pier between two por-
-Surface decoration, lower arcade, interior Sle.
Chapelle, Paris. (From Viollet-le-Duc.) tals on the west front of
Amiens, is a particularly
charming instance of the extent to which surface decoration was carried
without passing the bounds of good taste. Reference to Fig. 186, the
cloister of Mont St. Michel, shows it carried perhaps to excess. The
structural relation of such elements of the decorative work as are not
carved in the mass is illustrated in Fig. 224 from the Ste. Chapelle,
showing the purely struc-
tural work on the left and
the decorative accretions
— gable and gallery — on
the right. The way in
which such balustrades
were constructed appears
in Fig. 225 from the west
front of Notre Dame, while
the more elaborate design
of a half century later can
be seen in the balustrade of
its south transept in Fig.
226. The larmier under
the balustrade for shedding
water had profiles that
.
--,5^SuiLuc dtcDiatmn, ccntial portal, west lacade,
were studied with care and Notre Dame, Paris. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
224 — Relation of gable, gallcr)' and cornice
to structure, at Ste. Chapellc, Paris. 225 — Upper balustrade of fafade, Notre Dame,
(From Viollet-le-Duc.) Paris. (From Viollet-le-Duc.)
226 —Balustrade of south transept of Notre Dame, 227 — Profiles of larmiers. (From Viollet-
Paris, c. 1260. (From Viollet-le-Duc.) le-Duc.)
228 — Cusp end of porlal at cathe- 229 — Finial of the

dral of Amiens. (From VioUet- cathedral of Troyes.
le-Duc.) (From ^'iollet-le-Duc.)
varied according to position, as can be seen in the types given

in Fig. 227. To return to Plate II, ' the decorative cusp ends
of the sexfoil and of the portals illustrate the objection to plain
ends and exposed irregular joints in developed Gothic. This is
illustrated in Fig. 228 from the same portal, and in the finial of
Fig. 224, or more in detail in Fig. 229; also in the ever increasing
richness of the key vaults, more or less pendant (Fig. 230), which be-
came such a feature in Normandy (Fig. 231) and England. The
turning to decorative account of a structural necessity involving jut-
ting masonry is best illustrated in the gargoyles. The diagram in
Fig. 232 and the two forms of gargoyles, the secondary gargoyle
/ vW^V^
230 — Key of vault in transept of cathedral

of Laon. (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
232 — Conduits and gargoyles

for discliarging rain water
from roof. (From Dehio.)
(Fig. 233) and the ultimate gar-

goyle (Fig. 234) will show how
necessary this system was for the
preservation of the structure, even
the exact amount of projection
being determined by practical
231 — Pendant of key of vault in choir at Eu. considerations.
(From \'iollet-Ie-Duc.)
To return to Fig. 224 and its
rather early form of a solid and

onl}' slightly decorated gable with
the usual cusped edge, it is impor-
tant to refer to the evolution of
the decorative value of the gable
and its transformation through
tracery and more elongated pro-
233 — Gargoyle of cathedral of 234 — Gargoyle of the Ste. Chapelle, Paris.
Amiens. (From Viollet-le-Duc.) (From Viollet-le-Duc.)

rt
S &H
J Q
O T
% e
J3 O
'
Chap. VI] DE\-ELOPÎEXT OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL 191
portions from the XIII to the X\' century into such forms as the open
gables of the cathedral of Reims in Fig. 235. The stuch' of this trans-
formation goes hand in hand with that of window tracer}'. In a few
cases the enrichment was in the direction of the substitution of ligures
for tracery as in the

charming Coronation of
the \'irgin in the central
gable at Reims (Fig. 230),
a late addition to the
'-1!
J C',
\!fl
m • [
^jS — Sunimer-slonc of
\vc^t front, Reims
-37 — Porch gable of church at \'ezelay. (.From \'iollet- cathedral. (From
le-Duc.) \'iollet-le-Duc.)
original design, with a fringe of tabernacles. This intrusion of figured

work was felt occasionally in unexpected ways. For example, at \'eze-
lay (Fig. 237), where the porch gable has not only statues between
each light but distributed in the field above under false arcades. At
Reims, again, the summer-stone between two portals of the west front
shows as the base for a figure in a tabernacle a Pelion-upon-Ossa of
car\-atid figures over and under two other figures (Fig. 23S). Heads as
corbels were very common, as has been noted for Reims, but figures
also were frequently used for foliage in the cul-de-lampe, as in
Fig. 239 from Amiens. Sometimes,
'ira'
heads appear in a false arcading, as in
239 — Cul-de-lampe from west portal of 239a — Decoration of south-west tower of cathe-
Amiens cathedral. (From Duraiid.) dral, Reims. (From Demaison.)
Fig. 239a, from Reims, a rather clumsy expedient which found favor
in England and Spain.
Passing to the crowning parts of a typical cathedral, it must be
240— Roof of cathedral of Reims. (From Demaison.)

rememboi-ed that there were originally spires both at the facades and
intersection as \'iollet-le-l)uc has restored at Reims, in Fig.
52, gix'ing
the wooden spires that were burned. Fig. 240 gi\'es a ^•iew of the
roof of Reims as it now is, and is interesting as showing also the
extremely steep pitch of the main roof as well as the makeshift crown-
ing of the towers. In this connection it is interesting to study Viollet-
v,| ,,|
le-Duc's drawing in Fig. 241 of the
\M+1| central spire of Amiens with its

\-ery open tracery. Such a frame
was probably unusual in France,
''
T\ '-!<
m
-41 — C'onlral spire of .Amiens cathedral. J4111 — Frame of belfry of .\miens cathedral.
(From X'iollet-Ie-Due.) (From Durand.)
where spires were usuall)- rather plain and solid. The model of St.
was one of the rare cases where oi:)en work approach-
]\Iaclou in Plate II
ing the Germanwas attempted. Car\-ed woodwork, sometimes
t^-pe
used with a lead covering in such spires, was of course more frequent
in inside decoration where, as in Fig. 242, it often imitated stone
design, and was admirabh' used in monumental doors.
The study of the foliated capital has led us far afield through the
^'arious applications of the decorati\'e scheme of French designers, and
it now remains to study the more strictly structural details of the
—

, / // interior, as typiiicd by
the piers and their bases
and the profiles of the
vaulting and arches.
In the study of pro-
files it would be, of course,
impossible to find the
same excess of originality
as in figured sculpture,
tracery and fohated orna-
ment. In Fig. 243, which
gives the profiles of an
early developed Gothic
structure at Semur, we
see the application of the
same scheme to the vari-
ous parts of the building:
to vaulting ribs, arcs-
doubleaux, cornices, etc.
242 — Norman wood key-pier. (From VioUet-le-Duc.) The simpler and earlier
scheme of Notre Dame

is given in Fig. 244. A clearer idea of the two schemes —a central
projection, or lateral projections — is given in the set of sections
given in Fig. 245, nearly all of which are early. A dift'erent system,
with convex in place of concave surfaces between some of the mould-
ings, is illustrated from St. Urbain
at Troves in Fig. 246.
Passing now to the base of the
column and pier, it becomes clear
that the old Ionic base and plinth
was soon to be modified and then
243 — IVoliles of ehurch at Scmur. 244 VaulliiiK profiles of Notre l>ame,

(From \'iollet-le-Duc.) Paris. (I'"rom \'iollef-le-Duc.)
Chap. Yl] DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL 195
::45 —Types of profiles. (From \'iolk-t-lL--Iluc.)
utterly transformed and obliterated. A good starting point for the

two tA-pes is, for the columnar base, the ambulatory of St. Denis in
Fig. 17, and for the pier the Romanesque base at St. Germer in Fig.
15, and both can be studied in Fig. 2,2 at Notre Dame. The square
plinth was very early cut into by
griffes at the four corners, as at Char-
tres (Fig. 247\ so as to make an easy
transition tirst and
to the octagon
then to the Or else the lower
circle.
part of the plinth was chamfered at

the corners, as at Xotre Dame (Fig.
24S), so as to send the grifle up to
form the transition from plinth to
r ^
vi^
columnar base. There was at the
^ ! (n S'
:47 — Base in choir of 24S —

Base in choir of
Chartres cathedral. Xotre Dame, Paris.
J46 — Prismatic pier at St. Urbain, Troves. (From Viollet - le- (From VioUet-lc-
(From Viollet-le-Duc.) Duc") Duc.)

same time a hybrid form created for the pier with detached colonnettes
around a central shaft: a crude makeshift (Fig. 249). The Anglo-
j Norman tendency to round pHnths is illustrated
at Coutances in Fig. 90. The orthodox pier
ithedral of 250— Base in nave of Reims 251 — Base of pier at calhe-
(From ^'iollct- calliedral. (From YioUet- dral of Meaux. (From

le-Duc.) Viollct-le-Duc.)
with four engaged shafts created the base and plinth we see at Reims,
in Fig. 250 (cf. Fig. 56 and Bourges, Fig. 42); but very soon the
prevalence of the articulated pier of the type of St. Denis (Fig. 14)
led to the necessity of a much more elaborate mode of transition from
grouped shaft to plinth which obliterated every vestige of the tradi-
tional base. Beginning, for example, at Meaux (Fig. 251) and passing
through the rich XIV century forms of St.
Nazaire (Fig. 252) and St. Ouen at Rouen
(Fig. 126), it ends in the complete fusion
of base and plinth in the XV century
(Fig. 253) with a totally different ratio
of proportions as well as memberment.
252 — Base of half-pier in choir of St.

Nazaire, Carcassonne. (From 253 — Fusion of basewith pUnth in XV
Viollet-le-Duc.) century. (From Choisy.)
BOOK XL— GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE
CHAPTER I
GOTHIC IN SPAIN
SPANISH Gothic to be understood requires more historic side-

Hghts than that of any other European nation. Otlicrwise the
overmastering character of the French influence, the pecuhar
geographical distribution of the monuments, curious outcrops of Anglo-
Norman peculiarities, the grouping of the earlier works in the north,
the strange Moorish Gothic in the south, would all remain inexplic-
able. Toward the end of the Romanescjue age, less than half of the
peninsula, in the north, was in the hands of Christian rulers. Cata-
lonia, Aragon and Navarre bordered on France across the Pyrenees.
Castile and Leon extended along the northern and northeastern sea-
board. The Moslems still held the rest of Spain, but were being
continually driven south of the Tagus. In 1147 they were pushed
beyond the Sierra Morena. In 1212 they were decisi^'ely defeated in
the great battle of Navas de Tolosa: Cordo^-a was taken in 1236 and
Seville in 1248. After that the Mohammedan territory was confined
to the kingdom of Granada. But this does not mean that Moorish
artistic influence did not count. The superiority of Aloslems over
Christians in education, culture, and artistic training during the
Middle Ages is undeniable. The artistic models in architecture and
decoration by the Oriental race in the cities of central and southern
Spain are responsible not only for certain elements in the Christian
art of the Gothic age, but for the creation of a special late style
which is called Mudcjar, from the name gi\'en to the Moriscos or
Spanish Moors.
Two distinct groups illustrate the transition in Spain : The Cister-
cian buildings and the cathedrals. Of course, there was more direct
French influence in Spain than in any other country, quite irrespec-
tive of the monastic influx. There was a constant inroad of French
197
198 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
prelates Cluny occupying Spanish bishoprics; one of the

and monks of
most potent factors of this sort was that the French archbishop of
Narbonne was the superior of the episcopal sees of Barcelona, Gerona
and Urgel. Broadly speaking the French schools of Burgundy, and
of the southwest, especially of Languedoc, had the strongest influence,
though traces of almost every other school can be found.
At first, however, the Cistercian monks and nuns came into Spain
from France in such numbers between 1135 and 1200, and erected
so many large groups of buildings throughout northern Spain that they
dominated the situation and made themselves felt in cathedral ar-
chitecture as well.
Near Zamora are the ruins of Moreruela, with an unusualty large
church, built in the Burgundian style between 1160 and 11 70. It still
has a tunnel- vaulted nave, but the choir with its seven radiating chapels
and the slender shafts and ribbed vaults of its choir aisle correspond
to French work of 1140-1150, with some very strange differences, espe-
cially in the lack of members to support the vaulting-ribs, which either
rest on brackets or project clumsily from the wall; this is a peculiarity

that recurs in other early buildings in Spain and Portugal, and not to
be found, it would seem, in other countries in this form.
It is impossible not to mention the monastery of Poblet. It is
true that the church has a barrel-vaulted nave and so hardly belongs
here, but the whole group of structures attached to — it chapter
cloister,
house, refectory, dormitories, library —are in a unique state of preserva-
tion and illustrate the transitional style of the early thirteenth century.
Bar tracery is well estabhshed in the cloister, though the old plate
tracery persists in the lavatory. A wall fortified with towers surrounds
the monastery and isolates it. There is no other monastery of this
age in Europe so well preserved. It is called the Escurial of Aragon,
as the early kings were buried in the church.
The church of the monastery on the whole an excellent
of Veruela is
example with Romanesque piers, heavy vaulting

of early transition,
ribs, single-light windows, but with a relatively delicate and advanced
choir with ambulatory and five radiating chapels of pure early Gothic
type. All the vaulting is thoroughly on Gothic principles. Veruela
is in Aragon, in the northern part of Spain, where all these transitional
monuments are found. Aragon soon became tributary to Catalonia in
its architecture, recovering its independence in the fifteenth century.
More advanced is the mysterious monastery of Las Huehâs at
^6"
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN SPAIN 199
Burgos, now occupied by cloistered nuns and inaccessible. Quadri-

partite vaulting is used throughout, with heavy and acutely-pointed
transverse arches. In the nave there is still insufficient memberment.
Nothing but a engaged shaft receives the vaulting ribs, so that
single
the wall-ribs and diagonals coalesce and rise from a single corbel.
But the advance is plain in the mouldings of the main arcades, the fine
piers at the transept and the excellent foHage of the capitals. The
details at the choir end seem to show the influence of the domical
Angevin school. The lantern over the intersection has an octopartite
domical ribbed vault which is exactly in the style of the French south-
west. The vaulting of the ^^_____^_
chapels of the choir with j^H^H^^N^ iî
delicate ribbing and domi-

cal surfaces shows the same
origin. The rich and pure
Gothic foliage used quite
profusely on the doorways
is so different from the
usual Cistercian work that
it would seem to show the
presence of lay French ar-
tists. Here at Las Huel-
gas, especially in the apse,
we find the sources for the
more developed work at
-Chapter-house of monastery Las Huelgas.
the cathedral in Burgos (From Lamperez.)
itself. The Anglo-Norman
elements are prominent in this view of the capitulary hall of Las
Huelgas (Fig. 254), with its Norman zig-zags on the archivolts,
its plain circular moulded plinths and capitals, and the cvlindrical
piers with eight monolithic colonnettes. I am not prepared to say
how much of this Anglo-Norman influence there was, but it seems
to have been quite widespread at different times, especially just be-
fore and after 1200. Salisbury and Lincoln cathedrals and the type
that led up to that like Beverley Minster were models. It betrays
itself at Burgos cathedral in details such as the setting of the flying
buttress directly against the nave wall instead of against a pilaster
strip. This would certainly not have been done by a French architect
or his pupils, but was current in England. There will be many other
similarities of this kind to which attention will be called as they are
met with because the importance of these similarities appears not to
have been noted. It is nothing to be marvelled at. At this time a
large section of France was as much a part of the English kingdom as
England itself, and English territory extended uninterruptedly from
the Channel to the Pyrenees. Beside this there were ties of blood
and alliance. The marriageKing Alfonso III of Castile in 1170 to
of
Princess Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England, was artistically
important (e.g., in the founding by her of Las Huelgas monastery), and
inaugurated a long and close intimacy.
The monastery of Fitero in Navarre, though very little known, is
among the largest of the Cistercian establishments and has the most
developed choir-design of any church of the transition. The ambula-
tory of the choir has four piers of a very curious shape; a circular shaft
in which a group of three small shafts is engaged on the side facing
the nave. The vaulting is throughout quadripartite and ribbed, but
the crude way in which the diagonal ribs are made to rest on corbels
that project very awkwardly from the wall shows a native and not a
Burgundian designer, as has already been noted. Transitional archi-
tecture is also found in the monastic buildings of S. Cueufate, of Hir-
ashe and others.
The military orders built several interesting churches of transitional
and early style. For instance,
S. Maria of Villasirga and the present
parish church of Villamuriel, both near Palencia, are of a pecuharly

noble simplicity, which connects them with the more advanced Cis-
tercian work.
The group of cathedral churches that corresponds to those just
described is well represented by Salamanca, Lerida, Zamora, Avila
(transept), Tudela, Siguenza, Tarragona and Cuenfa. There was
in these buildings greater variety and more innate possibilities for
development than monastic group.
in the
Some of these churches illustrate in the course of their construction
the changes in style that were going on. This is especially
true of
Siguenza (1184-1191). Its fafade is an instance of a mihtary
style
as characteristic as the apse of Avila cathedral is of the fortification
of the apsidal end. The heavy towers at each side take the place of
spires, and the fafade extends in a straight line between
and was
originally battlemented like them. The military air is continued by
the two heavy buttresses. In the interior we must eliminate the choir
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN SPAIN 2or
which is largely a modern work completed in 1606 (Fig. 255). The

use of the se.xpartite vaulting in the transept is one of the very few
instances of this form of vault in Spain. The body of the church,
though consisting of only four bays and the transept, is imposing and
effective on account of the massive, highly articulated piers and the
relatively high vaulting of the aisles. In this entire group of transi-
tional works we are impressed by the ability of the Spanish architect
to give the feeling of size and grandeur. In this he surpasses all other
-Interior of cathedral, Sisuenza. (From Street.)
nationalities. The scheme of fayade we see here, with flanking towers

projecting beyond the body of the church both on the sides and in
front, is pecuharly Anglo-Xorman (e.g., Cath. Rouen), and was one of
the most marked peculiarities of this school adopted in Spain.
At Zamora the exterior of the cathedral is an uninteresting patch-
work, with some of the original work left in the doorways. But the
interior is not only in excellent if somewhat hea\y transitional style,
but has the advantage of a certain date; it was built between 1151 and
GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
202
1 1 74. With not surprising that it is the heavi-

this very early date it is
est of the transitional structures, with

a nave hardly more than three
times (23 ft.) the width of the piers (7 ft.)-

Only the nave has ribbed
vaults; those of the aisles are groined.
Lerida and its dependencies is un-
The scheme of the cathedral of
masked by the immense cloister, which
usual, as the west end is largely
Street's
plays here the part of the atrium in the Christian basihca.
bird's-eye view (Fig. 256) is
the only one that would give
any idea of the internal ar-
rangement, though it does not
include the octagonal steeple
addorsed to the front right-
hand angle of the cloister.
This tower, 170 feet high, in

five stories, is one of the finest
of its class in Spain and quite
national in type. The most

advanced work is on the cim-
2ic6
^ — Bird's-eye,^view of cathedral, Lerida. ,
bono
.
over
î
the
• <_
intersection.
i.-
c^
(From Street.)>
,
The rest is of twelfth century

design though not actually begun until 1203. It has been a military
barracks for two centuries, ever since the building of the new cathedral,
and has been so cut up and disfigured that it requires an effort to

resurrect its original form.
At Tarragona the cathedral is, by general consent, reckoned among
the noblest works of Spanish medieval art. The visitor who approaches
its west front, obtains the impression of a design of the INIiddle Gothic
period in the broad type (Fig. 257), of which the Spaniards were mas-
ters, giving an idea of imposing size with relatively small dimensions.
This facade was begun in 1278, with an enormous richly carved portal
surmounted by a rose-window. By reducing the French elements
in a fafade to these two important features, the Spanish architect
secured an effective design. An examination of the geometrical
tracery of the window, evidently of the fourteenth century, shows it
to be later than the portal, where the simple, well-designed, sturdy
figures correspond to French work of c. 1 230-1 250. As soon as we
examine the walls on either side of the projection of the central portal,
it is evident that the two round-arched doors, of Romanesque simplicity,
257 — Fajade of cathedral of Tarragona. (From Junghiindel.)
leading into the aisles are of much earlier date. This prepares us for
the effect of the interior, which is the most satisfying of the transi-
tional group. But before studying it, a few words about certain
204 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE (Bk. XI
curious features of the exterior. Beside the central cimborio, which will
be referred to later, there is an octagonal tower on a square base rising
from the choir-aisle at its intersection with the transept. The presence
of this tower is a Spanish peculiarity. It appears as if Spain never
thoroughly adopted the French scheme of twin facade towers, but was
almost as partial as Italy to the single and relatively independent
tower, usually connected
with the transept or choir.
The octagonal was pre-
ferred to the square plan.
In connection with the
lantern over the intersec-
tion at Tarragona (Fig.
258), ofwhich I regret not

giving an exterior view,
with its low buttressed
single-story octagon, it
will be instructive to
study others of this group,
which is pecuHarly Span-
ish. The groups of lancet
windows as well as the
flying buttresses at Tar-
ragona show the transfor-
mation into a pure early
Gothic form, correspond-
ing, for instance, to that
of Coutances in Norman-
258— Interior of old cathedral, Tarragona, at transept.
dy, of the transitional
(From .Street.)
Romanesque scheme so
well shown Salamanca lantern, Vol.
in the II (Fig. 366). The roof of
this Tarragona lantern was never finished. Was it to be a low roof?
The lantern at Lerida, of about the same date, has such a stone roof.
On the other hand the later lantern of the cathedral at Valencia is
equally unfinished.
At Cuenga, in New Castile, is a cathedral of unique character, the
church in Spain which illustrates most fully Anglo-Norman influence of
transitional type. In the transept there is the alternation of columns
and piers; here and in the apse and nave the vaulting is sexpartite.
Nowhere else do we find these two peculiarities. Another indication

is the peculiar form of some of the composite piers with cylindrical
core and slender engaged and banded shafts of purely English type, as,
for instance, at Lincoln. The choir and transept were completed in
1208; the nave was later, though before 1250, and shows developed
Gothic details. The most original feature of the nave is the triforium-
clearstory combination, which is an adaptation of an English peculiar-
itydue to the low vaults of the na\'e. Either clearstory or triforium
must be sacrificed. The architect made a narrow vaulted passage or
gallery with a parapet flush with the face of the inner wall of the nave.
Then the entire space under the wall ribs of the ^•ault is occupied by a
wide pointed arch enclosing two cusped arcades surmounted by a large
oculus. The wall opposite
the oculus was pierced with
a traceried oculus-window
of corresponding size. This
amount of light would
hardly have been con-
sidered sufficient further
north. The effect of the
angel caryatids which take

the place of central colon-
nettes is marred by the
parapet which is a late ad-
dition (Fig. 259).
In this transitional
group the most ad^'anced
is the cathedral or colle-
giate church of Tudela, in
Na^•arre. In plan it is al-
most identical with Eerida,

but it differs from both
-Interior of cathedral, Cuen?a, at transept.
Lerida and Tarragona in
(From Lampercz.)
having no cimborio. The
consecration in 1204 gives its approximate date. One of the novel
features— used here perhaps for the first time, is the group of triple
windows in the transept, with a higher central window. They are
lancets and seem due to English influence. They evidently herald
the introduction of tracery (Fig. 260). Another form of transition

2o6 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
with domical vaulting of Aquitanian type is the cathedral of Ciudad
Rodrigo.
This brings us to the beginning of developed Gothic work after
1 200. Burgos, Leon and Toledo cathedrals mark the several stages
through which pure Gothic passed in Spain during the thirteenth
century and form what Lam-
perez calls the Spanish Cathe-
dral trinity, or, better still,
trilogy. They equal the best

French work in everything
but design. It remains even
a question whether they were
not wholly or in part the de-
sign and handiwork of French
artists.
The cathedral of Burgos

was begun c.1221, a few years
after Reims and Amiens. The
design of the fajade (Fig. 261)
is French: a development of
the Laon and Notre Dame
schemes. It is one of the few
in Spain that follow such a
cosmopolitan design, because
Spanish facades have either
been transformed or were con-
ceived on peculiarly national
lines, as, for instance, with
enormous addorsed towers or
entirely without towers. Still,
260 — Tudcla Cathedral: interior at transept.
(From Street.)
the fafade has suffered dras-
tically. The triple portals
with the common Spanish projection were mutilated in the eigh-
teenth century, losing the greater part of their statuary. The
second story is purely French, with a fine rose-window under -a
pointed arch in the center: the addition of a clock mutilated the

left flanking arch. The masking double arcade above this story
and the towers are later than the thirteenth century. In fact the
open spires are the work of a German architect, Juan de Colonia, who
began them in 1442, in the style then fashionable in Germany. The

iiamboyant cimborio over the intersection is even later (after 1539).
Both towers and cimborio are among the more important of their
class and will be referred to later. The original richness of the triple
west portal can be understood by a stud>' of the portals of the tran-
2O1 — Burgos Cathedral. (From Uhde.)
septs, especially that of the north transept, called Piicrta do Sar mental,
which resembles (Fig. 262) French work. This entire transept facade
is excellently preserved thirteenth century work. The cloisters are of
the same date and have several richly decorated portals. In the
annexes and chapels one can, in fact, see embodied nearly every stage
2o8 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
in architectural development in Castile until the late Renaissance,
with a profusion of excellent decorative detail, some of it German and

Flemish. The plan is French, obscured by accretions, which have
changed the original chapels of the chevet, which was wider than the
nave.
In the view of the interior in Fig. 263, which is extremely spectacular,
we can see almost nothing but the cimhorio and its neighboring vaults,
a reconstruction of the
latest Gothic of the six-
teenth century. The

enormous circular piers
of the crossing are part
of this new work. But
on the left is the origi-
nal scheme which re-
mains everywhere else
in the body of the

church. The most
radical difference from
previous churches is
the fine triforium with

its group of five ar-
cades. There had been

no triforium in previ-
ous churches, the other

early examples at
Cuenfa and Tarazona,
while earlier in design
were either contem-
porary or later in their
262- -Pucrta do Sarmental of north transept, cathedral of
Burgos. (From Uhde.) execution. The curious
line of heads decorating
the enclosing label is peculiarly Spanish. The details of the original
interior were otherwise extremely simple. The pier, with its eight
engaged shafts, varies from the normal contemporary French type
and is also much shorter, but it is logical in its memberment. The
clearstory is fairly well developed, but has not attained to the entire
width of the bay. The proportions are broader and lower than in
France, and are lacking in vertical effect. In fact, it is evident that
263 —Burgos Cathedral: interior, near transept. (From Uhde.)
2IO GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
while the architect has thoroughly mastered Gothic principles (except

in such details as the omission of buttress pilasters on the nave
wall),
he was certainly not a Frenchman, as has so often been suggested, but

a Spaniard. The use of the ridge-rib in the main vault would show,
in fact, a trace of English influence.
264 — Leon: interior of cathedral at transept. (From Lamperez.)
It is generally acknowledged that the cathedral of Leon is the most
perfect Gothic church in Spain. was begun before 1204 and was
It
practically completed in 1303, except for the two towers flanking the
facade and some exterior details. It has been suggested that these
towers placed in advance of the facade line and independent of it
which are hea\^, semi-military and quite distinct in style from the
rest of the building, were not part of the original plan. But a com-
parison with the earlier fafade of Siguenza and its strictly military
towers shows how the Leon and that its antecedents
tj-pe originated
were Anglo-Norman. Otherwise the exterior is logical and symmetrical.

There is no other large Spanish church where the side-aisles are kept
as low, after the fashion of the Ile-de-France,

Champagne, etc. Nor
is any other where the clearstory windows occupy the entire wall
there
space between the piers, and receive so splendid a height (Fig. 264).
There are many similarities to Burgos. The design of the pro-
jecting tower part of the west front is same and the well-preserved
the
sculpture of the three portals at Leon show what the effect was at
Burgos. But there is the substitution of the lancets in place of but-
tresses between the portals—an English touch. Also there is the in-
sertion of a rich low story of four windows under the rose which shows
that the Leon design is somewhat more de\'eloped than that of Burgos.
205 — Leon Cathedral: view of apse. (From Junghandel.)
A glance at the fayade of Coutances, where a flat balustrade crowns

the triple portico, will, I think, suggest an Anglo-Norman origin for
this feature also. See Fig. 93.
In its plan Leon has had the good fortune to escape the addition
of late Gothic chapels, so that we can see that it had the same arrange-
ment of five large polygonal and two small square chapels (Fig. 265), as
in France. In its five-bayed nave with single aisles, its broad aisled
transept and its double-aisled choir, its blind triforium duplicates
French models. The vaults are more oblong than at Burgos and
without the heavy ridge rib. There is considerable good thirteenth
and fourteenth century glass in the clearstory, which helps to make

of this the most exquisite and soaring of all Spanish Gothic interiors.
The French filiation
is just as clear in the

cathedral of Toledo,
which, as Dehio has well
said, is derived from
Bourges through Le
Mans. Founded in 1227,
its design is sufficiently

different from its French
models to give it a na-
tional Spanish character
of the Castilian school.
It stands on the same
level as the French mas-
terpieces. In area it ex-
ceeds them all, owing to
its great width of 178
feetcompared with, say,
the no feet of Notre
Dame and the approxi-
mately 100 feet of Char-
tres or Amiens. The
width of its nhve is prac-
tically the same as theirs
266 —Toledo Cathedral: general view from west.
(From Uhde.) (c. 50 feet). In Spain
itself it is ^xceeded only
by Seville and beyond the Pyrenees by Milan. The exterior (Fig. 266)
is much altered. Its imposing North tower has a late Gothic spire
which is one of the best in Spain. The facade is a mixture of Gothic
and Renaissance which can be studied (Fig. 267) in the portals. The
plan is of five aisles throughout, without projecting transept as at
Bourges. The original small radiating chapels of the choir have been
largely altered, and this is the main change. There is none of the ex-
panse of wall surface that wc shall see in the Catalan school. The six-
light windows of the clearstory are the most gorgeous in Spain and,
contrary to later Spanish usage, the windows of aisles and chapels are
made as wide as the space allows. The tracery and the mouldings
(Fig. 26S) are thoroughly French until the upper part of the church is
reached. Wh}-, then, are we given an impression so radically different

from that conve_\-ed by corresponding French interiors? There is so
much less spring, so much greater ponderosity. There seem to be three
main reasons: the heaviness of the compound piers; the lowness of the
central na\-e; the low, broad profile of the vaulting arches. The ab-
sence of triforium, except in the choir, is due to the low nave. Of course
one may attribute these facts to a lesser degree of confidence in the
strength of the new s}'s-
tem of thrusts. A cross-
section with heavy its
buttresses and piers and

double buttresses shows
great conservatism. But
beyond this there seems
also to be a certain
aesthetic trait in the
Spanish character which
shows itself in practical-
1}' all buildings which
are not absolutely domi-
nated by foreign meth-
ods. I mean, a certain
lo\'e of material gran-
deur that shows in an
excellent use of masses
both in themselves and
in compositions. A l_\'r-
ical admirer of Gothic

would sa}' that there was
j6;— Toledo: portals of cathedral. (Front photo.)
a lack of the soaring, the
aspiring element so char-
acteristic of French work and corresponding to the scintillating bril-
liancy of the Galhc race. In Spanish architecture— except for the

Catalan school— this sentimental critic would see an expression of the
scientist might
dignified and slow but sometimes florid Spaniard: a
say that Spain represented statics and France dynamics. Any mod-
em architect who wishes for inspiration in such Gothic tj^pes can find
in Spain more splendid models than anywhere in Europe.
There is a small cathedral at Burgo de Osma, begun in 1232, which
is of pure French style also in its details, and in this particular excels
even Burgos, which is supposed to have been its model. While this
dependence may appear in such features as the S. portal which recalls
the Puerta do Sarmental at Burgos, the treatment of details seems to
show direct French handling. The aisles are low, the piers cylindrical,
-Toledo Cathedral; interior at transept. (From Michel.)
and the plan Cistercian. The use of corbels for diagonal and
wall ribs is exceedingly well managed and some of the profiles recall
Amiens.
Another of the smaller churches
the cathedral at Palencia which
is
both and topographically stands midway between Burgos

stylistically
and Leon, and is less pure than either. When the church was lengthened
in the fifteenth century the nave was reconstructed so that only the
choir and one bay beyond the chapels remain of the original work.
The most beautiful feature is the triforium with its blind gallery.
All these works belong to the earliest of the provincial schools,
the school of Castile, which includes also such neighboring provinces
as Leon. The earliest de\-iations from the French and Cistercian

models showed themseh'cs here.
In speaking of Wn-uela, the dependence of Aragon on the Catalan
style was noted. As Veruela represented the transition, Rueda monas-
tery and church are examples of the primary Gothic ty-jye in Aragon.
But the Cathedral of Tarazona is the best example in the province of
a church of the northern French t^-pe of early Gothic. Its date is 1235
and French characteristics comprise a concentric choir with deam-
its
bulatory, triforium, cylindrical piers with engaged shafts flying but-

tresses and transept. The piers of the deambulatory are rhomboidal.
The main piers are extremely hea^y and appear still more so because
they are shortened to allow for the triforium, which is absent in other
late transitional churches. The choir follows the Bourges-Notre Dame
and the model slight!)' antedates 1 200. The double lancet hghts
t}^-)e,
with oculus under an enclosing arch help to date the t}'pe just before
the introduction of plate tracery; this is in the east transept.
The second really distincti\'e pro\-incial school is that of Catalonia,
with its capital at Barcelona. This pro\-ince had its share of the Cis-
tercian transitional monasteries, especially those of Poblet and Santa
Creus, and also of the transitional cathedrals, at Tarragona and
Lerida; but there were then no traces of a local style. This first shows
itself in the cathedral of Barcelona, begun in 129S. It developed dur-
ing the fourteenth centurj-. Two foreign influences are e\-ident, that
of the French southern school of Languedoc and that of Itah', through
the Franciscan monks and commercial relations. The one great ar-
chitect who moulded the style seems to ha\'e been Jaime Fabre, a
native of Majorca, so that it is not strange that the churches and build-
ings of Palma, the capital of this island, should be almost as important
as those on the mainland. It is possible, though not pro\'en, that Fabre
gave the designs for the cathedrals of Barcelona and Palma as well as
for other churches (e. g., Dominican church, Palma).
The cathedral of Barcelona is a work of striking originality. It
does not have its full eilect because it was never completed. The facade
was not built until 1 88 7-00. The feature of the external grouping
would have been the two octagonal towers at the transept which together
with the big lantern or cimborio over the nave at the entrance formed
a group of three towers. This cimborio was never completed but it
marks a return to national methods. The architect probably placed
it in this unusual position because if it were to be set at the intersection
2i6 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
it would have been too close to the smaller towers. With his sense for
mass the Spanish architect avoided this error. The originaHty of the
interior is more obvious, since it was thoroughly carried out. The
effect
is of a haU church with widely spaced highly articulated

piers, but in-
stead of the usual

chapels, two for each
il
t «ms;v&s, iK&%>i - a^tm^m bay, with a solid
f Ar. f \a \\ iWKKk wall above them, the
chapels are surmount-
ed by a high open
galleryframed by an
arch and with a pair of
pointed arcades fram-
ing the clearstory win-
dows halfway across
the gallery. I do
not remember this
arrangement in any
other building. In this
composition there was
an unusual opportuni-
ty for decorative de-
tail in moulding, false
arcades, parapets, etc.

and this makes the
absolute nudity the
more striking. It is
as consistent as if the
building were Cister-
269 — Barcelona Cathedral: interior. (From Street.)

cian. At the same
time the effect, espe-
cially at the intersection, as shown in Fig. 269, is undeniably gran-

diose in away that connects it with the far heavier early work at
Tarragona. The architect threw his influence here against the French
type of immense clearstories which had obtained at Leon and Toledo.
His windows are symmetrical and with good tracery but they cover
only a fraction of the wall-space. It was the natural reaction of the
south land that objects to overmuch light and heat. Henceforth
Spain was to be very moderate in her clearstories. It must be granted
—
that in this case, at any rate, the effect is successful. As usual an

appearance of gi'eat size is secured.
The greatest difference in the Cathedral of Palma is the choir

an uninteresting square-ending apse. The body of the church, how-
ever, is similar in its scheme: a hall-church with lofty side-aisles and
very slender high piers. But here the piers are of the octagonal t>q:)e
270— Palma Cathedral: interior from aisle. (.From "Majorque.")
familiar in Itahan Gothic— though ItaHan architects never made any

so slender (Fig. 270). By the close spacing of these piers and the
absence of memberment and capitals the effect is absolutely different
from that of Barcelona.

There is a curious deviation from the normal Catalan t}rpe in the
cathedral at :Manresa, begun in 13 28. The eleâtion shows the
Franco-Castihan proportions of low aisles, with the consequent
2l8 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
flying buttresses, but without triforium. The disproportionate width
of thenave (18.30 met.) is Catalan. In the buttress piers there is a
compromise between the two types, because they project both ex-
ternally and internally. The mode of treating the internal projection
is well-nigh unique. It was too slight to make it possible to build
chapels entirely between these projections, so chapels and aisle were
covered by a single line of vaulting, the like of which is to be seen only
in the smaller church at Villena. Another noticeable peculiarity is

the form of the piers similar to those at Palma. They are of simple
octagonal plan, of a type common in Italy, though also found in
Languedoc.
The next year, 1329, saw the beginning of the most symmetrical
and representative of the Catalan churches, S. Maria del Mar at Bar-
celona, in which the style that originated in the cathedrals of Barcelona
and Palma was carried to its ultimate conclusion in simple and arid
slimness. The aisle vaulting is raised and the piers are made so slender
that the effect of a hall church is accentuated to such an extent that
one hardly realizes the plan to be three-aisled. This can readily be
seenby a comparison between Fig. 271 and the interiors of Barcelona
and Palma. The vaulting is stilted, the triforium suppressed, the
271— Barcelona; section and bay of S. Maria del Mar. (From Dehio.)
7
chapel arcades lightened and increased to three in each bay. All the
piers are of the Italian octagonal ty[>e. Of course, one sees in an inte-
rior of this type the greatest similarity to churches of the south of
France of the single nave type, such as the cathedral of Albi and the
Cordeliers at Toulouse,
and this prepares us for
the splendid interior of

Gerona.
At Gerona the cathe-
dral is distinctly in two
styles and periods. The

choir was added to an
old Romanesque nave
(1316-1346), and is
frankly French, built

mainly by the architects
Henri and Jacques de
Favary, both of Nar-
bonne. In (Fig. 272) it
will be seen to have a

deambulatory and a cir-
cle of nine chapels built
in the slim and reed-like
proportions adopted by
the Catalan school. Two
other works of this type
have been already de-
scribed — the cathedrals 272 — Gerona Cathedral: interior. (From Street.)
of Barcelona and Palma

—and it is a question whether this exquisite Gerona choir is not
the original that inspired them. The acuteness and stiltmg of the
arcades and transverse arches is was not until 141
noticeable. It
that it was decided to add a new nave and as the
to the choir,
architect in charge proposed the unusual solution of a single nave in-
stead of a nave and aisles to correspond with the scheme of the choir,
it required a large committee of architects to pass upon the proposition
before it was carried out. The result was the construction of the widest
nave in Christendom, 22.25 ra- = 73 feet, in the clear. The nave of
Albi, on which it may be thought to be modelled, measures only 58
feetand the Cordeliers at Toulouse 63 feet, which is the closest approach

to the Gerona dimensions. The width of the Amiens nave is 49 feet.
To vault this space as was done was a splendid piece of daring. The
nave had four bays, each with two chapels. The choir seems somewhat
dwarfed, but the perspective effect is remarkably good. In Mr.
Street's opinion, this is well-nigh the grandest interior in Europe.
however, a superabundance of insignificant fiat surface,
There is,
though the clearstory windows are among the finest in Spain, and
273 — Cloister of Cathedral of Pampeluna. (From Enlart.)
might well have been supplemented by a triforium in place of the

line ofcusped opening. Of course such enormous vaults required
very powerful abutments, and the buttress piers between the chapels
were made about twenty feet deep.
In the northwest at Pampeluna, in Navarre, there is a well-preserved
cathedral illustrating the dry geometrical style, built between 1397
and c. 1430, before the advent of any flamboyant elements. The choir
has a peculiar scheme, perhaps through German influence; the choir-
chapels and deambulatory are thrown together, being covered by a
single vault. There is nothing remarkable in the body of the church
with slender clustered piers, no triforium and a line of chapels opening
on the aisles. But what gives this cathedral a high rank is its well-
preserved buildings grouped around a cloister, illustrating all the kinds
of Structure required by con\-entional canonical life. They are the most

perfect of their kind of the Gothic style in Spain. These annexes are
(Fig. 273), strangely enough, earher in date than the church, the
cloister
having been begun in 13 17. They seem all to be in a style almost
purely French. The cloister is one of the most exquisite of its class. It
has open, elaborately-traceried gables, with a parapet cutting across
the base-line, and the light and swaying lines of the geometrical tracery
are among the most artistic in Spain.
The cathedrals of Toledo, Seville and Zaragoza show that the five-
aisled plan was popular in Spain. Seville was begun in 141 2. The
chapter set themselves the stupendous task of building the largest
church in Christendom, and they succeeded, since it exceeds the cathe-
dral of ]\Iilan. In style it is strongly national. French characteristics
are reduced to a minimum. The strictly rectangular plan with the
proportions 2.3 and the lack of radiating choir, reminds one (Fig. 274)
-'74 — Cathedral of Seville: section. (From Dehio.l
of a jNIohammedan mosque, such as existed in Se\-ille itself. The hea\-y

but exquisitely moulded piers, the high arcades, the balcony and balus-
trade under the low, broad clearstory, were all elements that were to
be largely retained by Spanish architects until the end, at Segovia. Of
course, we miss the orthodox rich choir and this is hardly compensated
by the five naves and two Hnes of chapels, because of their hall-like
effect. The substitution, also, of the thin balcony for the triforium
of the earlier chmxhes, which was made necessary by the increased
height of the aisle, is a decided loss. Still, there is a simplicity and
character to the detail which allows the enormous dimensions to haê

their full effect. At least they would if it were not for the solid coro
in the nave.
At Segovia, the same architect, Gil de Hontanon, designed a few

years later a cathedral in the same style as Salamanca, but superior in
the scheme of its radiating choir and in its dimensions. Built between
1522 and 1593, it is an extraordinary proof of the late vitality of Gothic

in Spain. It is not only the last great Gothic church in Europe but
superior to any built outside of Spain during the previous half century.
Except for the dome of the lantern, the
north door and a few other details, it is
consistent. The roofs are flattened and
concealed by parapets, the chapels and
transepts (and even the nave) have small
or round-headed windows that give a be-
lated Romanesque or proto-Renaissance
air, and the flying buttresses are particu-
larly inconspicuous. The exterior is some-

what more successful than that of
Salamanca; yet its very simplicity has
something incongruous, unsymmetrical
and heavy. The interior is helped by
the rich stained glass which neutralizes
the lack of memberment. No string
courses break the mouldings of the heavy

piers so far as the spring of the vaults.
This is one of the points in which it
differs from Salamanca. Also, the main

arches are higher. The complete absence
of tracery may be ascribed to Renaissance
influence. The only elaboration of detail
275 — Salamanca: bay of nave of
is in the lierne vaults that cover nave
cathedral. (From Dehio.)
aisles and chapels similar to those of
Salamanca. Although the side-aisles are so high the hall effect is
decreased by the size of the piers.

Two cathedrals stand side by side at Salamanca that : of the twelfth
century, already described, and that of the sixteenth century. Their
facades and aisles adjoin. I think the condition is unique. The later
cathedral covers six times the area of the older building, yet the two
interiors by no means give one the corresponding feeling of difference.
It is an interesting object lesson in the greater skill of the earlier Gothic
architects in finding the right scale and proportions. In 151 2 Anton
Egas was placed in charge after a meeting of twelve architects had

been called to settle the plan, position, size and details. The square-
ending apse was not in the original plan but was substituted in 1588
when this part of the church was reached. A few years later the apse
at Segovia on far richer radiating plan shows Egas's idea of what it
should have been here also. At first glance the exterior is disappointing.
The plan is The near-Renaissance plainness
a plain parallelogram.
at the apsidal end is unsyrametrical. The Renaissance dome and the
upper part of the heavy tower, added by Churriguera in 1705, are too
prominent to be disregarded. The interior is far more satisfactory.
The view down the aisle shows its hall-like effect and gives its lierne
vaulting system very plainly. It is better than a view in the nave
because of the heav}' Renaissance coro which encumbers it. The clus-
tered piers are not far different in memberment from that of the Cata-
lan churches of the previous century, but their immense bulk contrasts
with the Catalan slimness. The bay in Fig. 275 has certain peculiari-
ties such as the double and triple round-headed windows with plain
tracery, which reminded rather of some early Florentine Renaissance
work rather than of Gothic.
The use of flying but-
tresses is among several
archaisms, in which the
architect seems to hark
back to the thirteenth cen-
tury ! But the main portal
of the facade is of its age:
an extremely rich and im-

posing sculptured compo-
sition in the latest Gothic
or Plateresque manner.
The way which the lofty
in
enclosing arcade over-

powers the small double
portal, is quite English,
after the fashion of Peter-
borough.
In Fig. 276 is the plan
of the cathedral of Zara-
goza which will show the 276— Zaragoza. Plan of old cathedral. (From Dehio.)
—

scheme used for this whole class of late Gothic cathedrals of the
South. It is different in being frankly a hall church, the largest
of its type in the world. Its piers are very lofty, with eight engaged
shafts and they support lierne vaulting. In date it slightly precedes
the group of three cathedrals just described, and differs from them
also in being strongly affected
on the exterior by Mudejar or
Moorish forms of decoration.
The Mudejar tower of 1504 is
particularly interesting, and
seems to be the latest part
the rest belonging mostly to

the fifteenth century.
This Mudejar style, which
precedes the Renaissance, was
confined largely to a small part
of southern Spain, and will
be illustrated elsewhere, both

in connection with civil and
Renaissance buildings.
The transition in its north-
ern form is well illustrated at
Burgos, in the central tower
or cimborio of the cathedral.
In the exterior, which is given
in Fig. 277, there is little ex-
cept the three balcony balus-
trades that departs from late
Gothic design; but in the in-
terior, which can be studied in
Fig. 263, the decorative forms

277- -Burgos Cathedral: central tower.
(From Dehio.) of the octagon and squinches
are distinctly Renaissance.
Spanish cloisters with their annexes, chapter-houses, refectories
and the like, are hardly inferior in value to the churches for a student
of architecture. In fact, there is no other important class of building,
because civic independence did not exist in Spain, so of that, except
in Catalonia, there are few Town Halls, Merchants' Exchanges, Bel-
fries, etc. Neither are there many Gothic palaces. Of cloisters there
Chap. I] GOTHIC IxN SPAIN 225
are perhaps more than in other countries in Europe, in an unbroken

series, from the eleventh to the sixteenth centur}-. Spanish conserva-
tism has preser\-ed the bulk of the cloisters annexed to the cathedrals
as well as those of the monasteries. There was a rich series of Roman-
esque cloisters. For the Gothic period, the gallery of the cloister of
Rueda with the entrance to the chapter-house, is a rich early transi-
tional work, purel}- French. The entire establishment is one of the
best preser\'ed in Spain, though not among the largest. The chapter-
house and librar)' are in the east \\-ing. On the south the octagonal
washing-pa\'ilion projects in front of the refector}-. These are not
often preserxed. A httle later in date is the chapter-house at Poblet,
where the cloister to which it is attached is in the de\'eloped style of
the late thirteenth centur}', with good tracery. The court of Tarra-
gona cathedral resembles the cloister of the Fontfroide in France very
closely, as does also the cloister of \'eruela, both in advanced but
simple transition, before the introduction of tracer}-. In these works
it was more usual to support the arcades with coupled than with
single shafts. But with the more delicate proportions of the four-
teenth centur}', single shafts were almost universally adopted. The
developed geometric st>-le of this period has already been illustrated
by the cloister of Pampeluna in Fig. 273. Among the greatest rarities
in Europe are cloisters with unchanged second stories. Spain is the
only countr}- in which the}' still abound. The cloister of Barcelona
cathedral is a peculiarh' beautiful example (Fig. 27S); the second is
flush with the hrst story. The part that includes the baptistry shows
some rich lierne and tierceron ^"aulting, which became as popular in
Spain as in England, whence it came to Sjiain. A gorgeous example

of very late work is the famous cloister of San Juan de los Rc}'es at
Toledo, and another is that of San Gregorio at \"alladolid. The
latter belongs {148S-96) to the barocco style of Gothic in which
the pointed arch has been abandoned; the details, however, are
more excjuisite and restrained than at San Juan, where fanc}- runs
riot.
At the Memastery of Ona near Burgos the cloister, built 1500-1512,

one of the most gorgeous in Spain, shou's what kind of geometric
tracer\' was used just before the adoption of plateresque design, and
when what might be called the perpendicular had superseded the
flowing lines. Of the stvle earlier than this, between it and the
Burgos t}'pe, comes the cloister of 0\iedo cathedral, in the flowing

278 — Barcelona Cathedral: view of baptistry. (From Uhdc.)
style. This plateresque ornament, so peculiarly Spanish, can be

studied to great advantage in man}- of these late cloisters.
Another tj-pe of this tracery is dc\'eloped in the cloister of S. J\Iaria
la Real at Najera (Fig. 279), where the Gothic geometrical system is

completely abandoned.
The inventors of plateresque decoration were lavish. Probably
there is nothing more extreme than some of the design for wall sur-
faces and architectural detail such as we find in the lantern of the
cathedral of Seville as an
instance of interior design,
and the lantern of Burgos
for external work. At
Seville, e^•er^^ bit of surface
of the vaulting compart-

ments, the ribs, the archi-
volts, is covered with a
filmy stone lacework.
Among the traits that
Spain and England have
in common is the develop-
ment of vault tracery to
^
S. ^raria la Real at Xajera
an extra^-agant degree of
O'ri^m Lamperez.)
richness and ^-ariety. In
its later phase, where the Platerescjue stAde prcA'ailed,
especially
the IMoorish element was apt to enter quite strongly. The rich-
ness was increased b}' the use of color and sculpture beside the
elaboration of rib design. The ridge rib, the lierne and tierceron,
the fan-A'aulting, have all been noted and illustrated. Perhaps the
form to be most richly developed was the star-vaulting, which can be
well studied in the vaulting of Calahorra cathedral. That it was
directly from England and not through German}' that Spain receiêd
the models for all these forms seems quite certain. It is confirmed b}'
the presence of many other English peculiarities, a few of which haA'c

already been touched upon, and which do not appear to have attracted
the attention thc}^ deserve: lancet windows, banded shafts, low and
broad arcades, round moulded plinths, low and broad triforium and
clearstoiy, projecting fagade towers, central tciwers, vault tracer}',
decoration of archivolts and A'aulting ribs, Normcn zig-zag ornament,
etc. The subject would bear investigation, ever since the time (1170)
'

when King Alfonso III of Castile in marrying Eleanor, daughter of
Henry II, inaugurated the long intimacy between England and Spain.
Civil Buildings. —Of the few civil structures two are selected for
illustration: one in the north, at Barcelona, and the other in the
south, at Valencia. In Fig. 280 is the most charming part of the
-Staircase in court of Palace of Justice at Barcelona. (From Uhde.)
Palace of Justice at Barcelona: the side of the court with the stair-
case. The style is middle Gothic of the delicate, slender, Catalan
type, and it compares with the best French work in its details, which
are well-preserved, even in the upper gallery. A contrast to this is
the Silk Merchants Exchange or Lonja at Valencia, built between

1482 and 1498. Its facade is not very interesting: a long straight
battlemented line broken in the centre by a tower which, had it been
completed, would have transformed the design, but as it stands, is a
merely stunted base. There is, however, on the left of the tower, a
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN SPAIN 22g
highly decorative upper gallery of arcades with flamboyant reverse-

curve accolade. It is the interior (Fig. 2S1) that strikes a distinctive
note. It is a hall divided by two rows of four columns into three
naves of equal height. The columns are very and slender and are
tall
without capitals. The style is supposed to be under the influence of

the south of France, but the most salient peculiarity, the twisted
arrises of the columns, is a perversion that is more Hkely to have come
jSi —Interior of Exchange (Lonja), \'alencia. (From Uhde.)
to Spain from Germany where we shaU see it used in the almost con-
temporary cathedral of Braunschweig (See Fig. 411). The John of
Cologne who designed the spires of Burgos toward 1450 was not the
only German architect who worked in Spain. There is another inter-
esting Lonja or Exchange at Palma, [Majorca, in the Catalan style,
built by the architect Sagrera between 1426 and 1450, with a better
designed exterior than Valencia.
It will be clear, after this review of Spanish Gothic, why it should
be studied immediately after that of France, for the influence of France
was more direct and continuous and proceeded from a greater variety
of French provincial and monastic sources than was to be the case
with any other country. It is at the same time both open to other
—
trans-Pyrenaean Gothic influences especially English and German—
and yet smacks strongly of the soil, showing that the Gothic spirit was
thoroughly assimilated in no narrow spirit, but allowing for the diverse
artistic tastes of the different provinces of Spain.
CHAPTER II
GOTHIC IN PORTUGAL
THERE ish
is a greater difference between Portuguese and Span-
Gothic than one would natural!}' expect, considering their
close geographical and historical relations. In the first place
the three large monasteries of Alcobaya, Batalha and Belem quite
overshadow the cathedral churches at each stage of Gothic de^'elop-
ment and furnish the dominant artistic types. Then, ^\hile French
influence exists, especially at first, we find very strong traces of direct
English influence, which is, in fact, dominant at Batalha, where it is
more apparent than in any other continental building. Finally, at the

close there is formed a style specifically Portuguese, cafled IManoelino,
because it was created during King Alanoel's reign. It has decorative
analogies, to be sure, with the late Spanish Platcrcsque, but its ^Moorish
traits are derived more directly from JNIoorish originals than in Spain
and there is added a curious element that seems Indian in origin,
due to the opening up of India to the Portuguese by \'asco de Gama.
What remains of the original plan of the cathedral of Lisbon
and the better preserved old cathedral of Coimbra shows that in the
middle of the twelfth century Portugal was dependent on Spain and

followed the tunnel-waulted type of Santiago and St. Sernin of
Toulouse, with groined vaults over the side aisles. The same form
of Romanesque was continued in the larger cathedral of Evora
(11S5-1204), with the substitution of pointed for round arches in
the nave. It was while these churches were being built that the
Cistercian monks brought from Burgundy— probably from Clair^-aux
itself— their form of early Gothic and embodied it in one of its most
grandiose productions in the country, the monastery of Alcobaga.
The church and monastery, begun in 11 58, were ready for occu-
pancy in 1223. The church was substantially finished in 1211. Its
282 —Interior of monastic churcli, .Vlcobafa. (From photo.)
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN PORTUG.AX 233
dimensions were imposing, with a length of 106.50 m.
(or 34S feet)
and a width at the transepts of 155 feet, making it much the largest
church in Portugal. The ground-plan is exactly like that of Clair-
vaux, with a crown of nine chapels in the choir, in an
unbroken semi-
circle. The only difference is that the nave of Alcobaâ has two
more bays. The two most
striking features of its interior (Fig.
282)
are: the spacing of the piers and the relative height
of nave and^ aisles
(Fig. 283). The twenty-four clustered piers of Romanesque plan
are so heavy and close as to largely mask the aisles and give para-
mount importance to the nave, whose very massive transverse arches
283 — Sections of monastic church, Alcobava. (From Dehio.)
and diagonal ribs rest on an unusual group of three engaged shafts

which descend almost to the floor but end on corbels. This closeness
of the piers is what prevents the interior from assuming the appear-
ance of a hall church, because the side-aisles are \-aulted practically
at the same level as the nave, the relation being 68 to 75 feet. This
makes a radical difference not only from Spanish Cistercian but
from the Burgundian models with which we are familiar, and intro-
duces the Plantagenet influence of southwestern France, which is
also evident in the domical form of the vaulting. But, even in this
part of France there remains no interior that is like it. Except in
the choir there are no flying buttresses and this explains the extraor-
dinarily hea\y masonry.

The section in Fig. when compared with Figs. 114 and 362, will
2St,,
show how this remarkable church stands midway bet-\\'een the cathe-
dral of Poitiers, where the aisle vaulting is slightly lower, and S.
Ehzabeth ofMarburg, where they are absolutely equal, while in its

effect it resembles neither, on account of the heaviness and closeness
of its piers. As Alcobaga antedates the Marburg church it fills an

interesting historical niche.
The choir is not only the earliest but the most interesting and
thoroughly Burgundian part. The richness of its double ambulatory
2S4 — Batalha: plan of church and monastery. (From Watson.)
and its chapels place it in a tjiê rare in the peninsula. Perhaps its
unusual development was partly due to the plan to use it as a royal

Pantheon and national monument.
The earliest of the cloisters, the Claustro do Silencio (begun in
13 10), is in pure French style of the late thirteenth century, with
coupled shafts and groups of three arcades and a rose to each bay,
showing communication with France during more than a century.
To judge by the rather inferior works produced during the thir-
- teenth and fourteenth centuries, Portugal was but little affected by
the example of Alcobaga. It is only by such exceptional works as
the choir and cloister of the Cathedral of Lisbon that we note a con-
tinuance of >good architectural tradition. The second of the great
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN PORTUGAL 235
monuments to be described is intimately connected with the estab-

lishment on a firm foundation of Portuguese independence, by the
great victor>^ of 1385 over the Castilian army. King John, or Joao,
had vowed to build a monastery on the battle-site in case of victory.
Hence the name of it, Batalha: more particularly Sta. INIaria da Vic-
toria. Another historical event intimately affecting the monument,
was the marriage in 13S7 of the new Portuguese King to Philippa,
daughter of John of Gaunt, which cemented the alliance between
England and Portugal already formed in 1386 by the treaty of Windsor.
2S5 — Bataiha: general view of church and monastery from west. (From Watson.)
This explains, perhaps, the English traits we shall notice in the archi-
tecture of the monastery of Batalha.
While at Alcobaâ verv^ little remains of the monastic buildings in
original condition and the church itself has been disfigured by van-
dalism, the case is quite dift'erent at Batalha. The plan in Fig. 284
shows the extraordinary^ richness and preservation of the entire group.
The church itself is only of medium dimensions (265 x 109 feet) and
of the simpler Cistercian plan without ambulatory or radiating chapels
and without aisles in the transept. It is the unity of design by which
the Founders' chapel at the facade and the cloister on the left are
brought into relation with the church, that gives the monument its
charm (Fig. 285). When the details are studied we find that we must
agree with Mr. Watson in disputing the absolute dominance of English
traits. But I would go further and find not merely native and French
but even German and Italian elements; to the extent of making of
Batalha an even more cosmopolitan work than Milan cathedral.
Two names of architects are especially connected with it. Alfonso
Domingues (+ 1402), who designed and began it, and his successor
Huguet, whose name seems to be French, and to whom the execution
286 — Batalha: section of church. (From Dehio.)
of Domingues' plan was largely due. This plan was never fully
carried out, though thework lasted, at intervals, until the middle of the
sixteenth century, and the buildings show two distinct styles.
To begin with the church itself; so simple inside, so decorative
outside. It is of the -hall type, inspired
perhaps by Alcobaja but in
a developed Gothic style (Fig. 286) interesting to compare with the
hall-type of the Catalan school, especially the Cathedral of
Barcelona.
There is just sufficient difference in the levels of
the crown of the
vaults to allow of low flying buttresses above the aisles—
a noAêlty in
Portugal. The elaborately cusped, crocketed and traceried buttresses,
combined with the open balustrades and delicate paneUing, give a
rich but delicate symmetry. In the fafade the main portal, which
stands alone, is like so many Spanish doonvays, of a design similar
to the French norm; but nothing else is French. One i^nds similar
pinnacled buttresses, flat roofs and panelled surfaces in England and
2S7 — Batalha: interior of church. (From photo.)
in Italy and the plan resembles that of S. j\Iaria dei Frari in Venice
and other Italian churches. The developed flamboyance of the
central window is later in its design than the rest, and is the most
elaborate in Portugal and thoroughly native in its close patterned
stone framework. The simple interior (Fig. 287) resembles Alcobaja

in the heaviness of its piers and walls. The effect is one of solid
verticality. The low clearstory over the aisles is the greatest devia-
tion from the Alcobafa type. The elaborate memberment of the
piers, articulated as it is, is not logical because it does not provide
any spring for the diagonal vaulting ribs a fact which alone would —
show the designer to have been a native. Both the pier plan and
the use of ridge-ribs in the vaults are English traits.
The most original and artistic parts of the Batalha scheme are
three concentric structures; the two memorial chapels and the chapter-
house. Each one is quite distinct in plan. The chapel of the founder
(King John), which opens into the nave on the right and continues
the line of the west front, is a square which passes to an octagon by
means of eight slender piers supporting a high octagonal lantern
original!}' surmounted by a spire. The arcades are extremely stilted
and extravagantly cusped, and their profiles and capitals are more
delicate than those of the church. The lantern with its large and
richly traceried windows was once surmounted by a spire, which
rising beside the fagade of the church must have been effective. The
chapel is large, forming a square of 80 feet, with its octagonal lantern
of 38 feet.
The second concentric structure is the chapter-house which opens
out of the cloister; and while it is somewhat smaller —a square of
about 60 feet (18.90 met.) — it is remarkable as being the boldest
piece of vaulting in Portugal and one of the boldest undertaken outside
France. The entire scjuare space is covered by a single domical
ribbed vault on octagonal plan obtained by bold arched squinches
across the corners. In England and even in France at least one
central support would have been used, which would, of course, have
much diminished the height and effectiveness. This is said, in fact,
by a single Gothic vault.
to be the largest space covered
Hardly had the Capella do Fundador (Chapel of the Founder)
been completed (^1433) than the founder's son planned, after the
Spanish and English fashion, a more magnificent Royal Mortuarv'
still
chapel off the centre of the apse and on its axis. How the architect,
who seems still to have been Fluguet, planned to join it to the church,
we cannot say, as the present connection is of later date. Had it
been completed this structure would ha^•c been the most magnificent
Gothic concentric structure in Europe. Its scheme was a central
octagonal dome, 72 feet in diameter, resting on eight heavy piers
and encircled by seven vaulted pentagonal chapels between which

were niches for sarcophagi. The original st}'le is best seen in the
windows and is jiracticall}' the same as the simpler
of the chapels,
part of the church itself, and extremel)- erfccti\'e. From its incom-
pleteness the chapel received the name of -'Capellas imperfeitas."
Some se\-enty }-ears after it was begun King IManuel joined it to the
church, remodelUng the apse and attempting to complete it (Fig. 288).
A.
jl' JfeiBSKal J. 'ii.«*» I

', -S ,1!!'"..
j£Eifeifi^.,.j.'i|j^
-vSS — BaUilha. churth: \-icw of Capellas imiiorfoilas. (From Watson.)
In this later work on the "Capellas imperfeitas'' we can study one

of the masteri3ieces of the peculiarly Portuguese style called "Manoel-
ino," grafted on a stem of pure middle Gothic. It was the nati^•e
form of the Renaissance it is tnie, but as it is a modification of Gothic,
it is allowable to include this example of it in this chapter. We know
of the wonderful colonial expansion of Portugal shortlv before and
after 1500, especially the conquests in India and Indo-China after
Vasco dc Gama's voyage of King ^lanuel (i 495-1521) in-
1408.
di\-idualizes this apogee of the power of Portugal. The splendid art
of India exercised a compelling influence on the Portuguese artists
and under this spell the>' created the semi-Indian style which was
Portugal's contribution to art histon^ Any one familiar with Indian
decorative work will recognize the source of the design in the upper
part of the Capellas imperfeitas given in Fig. 289. It is a superb
piece of adaptation and creation. Free work of this type was more
successful than where more of the Gothic elements are retained,
as in the immense main door-
way of the chapel (40 feet
high), though this also has
splendid sweeps in its lines,
notwithstanding its elaborate

cusps, crockets and finials
carved with a delicacy that is
unsurpassed in any Gothic

work (Fig. 290).
The third of these Portu-
guese monasteries is that of
Belem, in which we see the
transition to the Renaissance.
It commemorates another
great national event; the dis-
covery of India by Vasco
de Gama. It is the master-
piece of the Manoelino style.

289 — Batalha, church: Though commenced in 1500
detail of unfinished upper
part of Capellas imperfeitas. (From Watson.)
by Bowtaca, author of the
general scheme, it was not until about 151 7 when Joao del Castilho
was put in charge that the work assumed artistic importance. This
architect, through his work here, at Thomar and at Alcobaja, became
not merely the greatest Portuguese architect, but practically the
creator of a style. The group of buildings consists of church, cloister,
refectory, chapter-house, sacristy, hall and dormitory, forming a
homogeneous group, which was all carried forward simultaneously.
The plan given in Fig. 291 shows the richness of the vaulting (novel
as yet in Portugal) and the unity of the composition. Beside the
Spanish architect worked the French master Nicholas, to whom a
large part of the pure Renaissance detail is due, when distinct from
the native Manoelino.
The scheme of the church itself is that of a hall-church, more
logically carried out than either at Alcobaga or Batalha without
flying buttresses, with aisles of equal height, and with supports so
delicate as to give an unbroken hall effect to the interior, 80 feet high,

with an imposing transept and a later chancel (Pig. 292).
The exterior is massive and at the choir end is quite plain. The
most successful part is the south doorway, given in Fig. 293, with its
200 — BaUilha, church: entrance tc the Capellas inipcrfeitas. (From Watson.)
flanking windows. This group is t^-j'iical of the curious mixture of

delicate and fiambo}-ant detail peculiar to JNIanoelino work. The
pointed arch is perceptible only in a few minor details, though, of
course, the arrangement of statuettes under canopies is Gothic. The
decoration of the windows, part JNIoorish part Indian, with its semi-
<0 IMfosTêiipffl JfeTri©irB?iiKB©3
dl«3''TtI«3r4a
CMAfTER HOV9C.
SACRtaXY
RdrElCTORY.
CHOIR QAI-UCRV
iNTCNDCD EJiTRANCe. POI^CH
VMDCRCROI-T O^ OORMIXoRY
FEltT LOrSQ
291 —Plan of monastery of Belem. (From Watson.)
Gothic, semi-naturalistic crown, combines most of the elements

scattered here and there through Manoelino work, together with its
typical grasp of mass and pro-

portion.
The view of the interior
hardly does it justice, owing
to the coro, but it does show
the extraordinary boldness of
the slender piers, which seem
to be imique in their design,
with eight almost ridge-like
and infinitesimal shaftings cut-
ting up the richly-decorated
surface vertically, while bands,
brackets and tabernacles for
statuettes cut it horizontally.
No other internal piers are
comparable in richness to
these. The contrast to the
plain walls is extraordinary
292—Interior of church, Belem. (From Watson.) and makes it probable that
some wall decoration was intended. The vaulting, with Hemes and
tiercei-ons, springs lightly from the super-capitals. A feature that
does not appear in this view is the far heavier vaulting of the
transept: a bold quasi-tunnel vault 65 feet wide and 95 feet long,
rising above the nave vaulting and supported on that side only
by two piers heavier than the rest (they show in the foreground
293- -Belem: south side of church. (From Uhde.)
of Fig. It must be realized that though this transept vault

292).
appears to be divided into six compartments, none of these have a
continuous support, and that on one side of this enormous width of
65 feet the only support of this vaulting, about 90 feet high, is a
couple of piers not six feet in diameter. This, too, is a land of earth-
quakes, where the majority of the much more easily built Renaissance
domes have been thro\vn down.

I
Chap. II] GOTHIC IX PORTUGAL 245
In Fig. 294 is a view of the cloister. It is a notabh- rich piece of

decorative v.-0Tk, }'et hardh' as fehcitous as the best ]\IanoeUno designs.
The pilasters of pure Renaissance design toward the court were added
to mask the buttresses
which appear to ha\-e been
found necessar}' for coun-
teractmg the thrust of the
vaults after construction.
The curious tracen,- and
decoration has no trace of
Gothic forms }-et, howe\-er
one ma}' criticise, in this
case, the details —as one
certainly can in these ar-
cades — the general elTect is
satisfjing, in a strange
way. The \-iew of the
court, with its second-story
arcades, in Fig. 295 exer-
cises the same pecuHar fas-
cination.
In this connection it is
interesting to compare this
Belem cloister with the

205 — Court of cloister, Belem. (From Uhde.)
CI a us fro Real at the monas-
ter}- of Batalha (Fig. 296) to which tracer}- was added by the architect
Fernandez at about the same time that he was doing his wonderful
work on the "Capellas Imperfeitas." In this tracer}- there is nothing
-Claustro Real, Batalha. (From Watson.)

Gothic. Rather are we reminded of Cairene
or other Moresco-Spanish and Moorish pan-
elKng. To show the breadth of the artist's
sources he has run panels of reticulated tra-
cery across the lavatory, which appears in
the central corner of our illustration and in
Fig. 297, with a design based on interlaced
branches with leaves and buds in a close
schematic pattern.
For the rest of Manoelino work, especially
for that at Thomar, the reader is referred
to the chapter on Portuguese Renaissance,
297 — Lavatory of Claustro though the difference in style is so slight as
Real, Batalha. (From
to show how impossible it is to be too strict
Watson.)
in deciding whether to assign Manoelino
work to a Gothic or a Renaissance chapter. Architects and artists
should study and appropriate its motifs with far greater avidity than
they have thus far shown.
CHAPTER III
GOTHIC IN ITALY
is a well-recognized fact that of all European countries, Italy

ITshowed herself the least susceptible to Gothic art and never thor-
oughh' understood or liked it. The round arch was never entirely
eliminated; the ribbed-vault never wholly superseded the wooden roof;
the principle of balanced thrust was not properly applied; the architec-
tural forms such as the flying buttress and immense windows which are
the logical result of these principles were almost never used. The ex-
tensive choir, with crown of radiating chapels and its ambulatory, so
its
characteristic of a French interior, was never adopted. Of course there

are a few transitional and Gothic buildings built by Cistercian
architects which are relatively pure, but hardly a single structure due
to Italian hands can be judged by northern standards. They are
works siii goicris. Italy opposed science in architecture.
It seems, at first blush, strange that while in France the monks
had so little to do with the development of Gothic after the earliest
stages, and even elsewhere the background after the
retired into
transitional stage had passed, was the monks who not only furthered
it
its introduction but guided its further development in Italy. The la>--
guilds here held to the old traditions that smacked of the nati\-e soil,
and the cathedrals, which were so largely their work, ha^•e much less of
the Gothic character than the monastic churches. The earliest in-
troducers of the new style were, naturally enough, the Cistercian monks
from Burgundy in France. St. Bernard was placed by the papacy in
charge of monastic reform in Italy, and during the second half of the
twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth centuries, Italy was filled
from the Alps to Sicily with large establishments of the Cistercian

order, built or rebuilt in the plain style peculiar to it. Some allusion
to this fact was made in Yol. II, pp. 306-9. The buildings at Fossa-
nuova there referred to, are mostly by the hand not of Italian workman
but of the French monks and the church is similar to that of the order
at Pontigny in Burgundy. They form perhaps the most interest-

ing and well-preserved monastic buildings in Italy. In the exte-
rior most characteristic feature is the central
of the church, its
octagonal tower and lantern. There is no trace of Gothic features in
the plain small windows and the buttress-piers. It is a building
298 — Fossanuova; monastic church. (From photo.)
erected toward 11 90 in the style current in Burgundy in 11 50 to 11 60.
Its plan is important to observe, because it influenced the majority of

plans of churches in Italy during the next two centuries. It is ex-
tremely simple : a T with a square apse flanked by two square apsidal
chapels. The t}qoe, as is evident in France, Spain, England and
Germany is specifically Cistercian: it made but little impression in
France, but in Italy, where the choir never was developed into the rich
and beautiful grouping that we see in France, it was adopted by the
other monastic orders and became popular in Franciscan and Domin-
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN ITALY 249
ican churches. The interior, of which a view is given in Fig. 29S, is
typical of the plain Cistercian proto-Gothic of Burgundy, but ribbed
A-aulting appears only in the transept. The Cistercian monks next
built or rebuilt the
monastery at Casamari, where the church was con-
structed between 1203 and 1221. Here there is a logical use of ribbed
vaulting throughout, instead of only in transept and choir as at
Fossanuova. The windows become pointed: small rose-windows ap-
JOO — Fossanuova monastery: Chapter-house, (From photo.)
pear in the transepts. It corresponds approximately to the stage repre-

sented in the Ile-de-France by St. Germer, built about sixty years
earlier. While the plan Burgundian and the general direction was
is
undoubtedly French, the handling, especially in the capitals, shows

itself to be that of Italian pupils, whereas at Fossanuova even the
details are French. This is very clearly shown in the Fossanuova

Chapter-house (Fig. 299). The chapter-houses
the two monas- in
teries are extremely clrkrming and illustrate this

same relation of
French and Italian work. The one at Fossanuova has only one
central column, that at Casamari has two. Of the two cloisters, the
a
2 so GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
more recent of the galleries at Fossanuova has some of the most

interesting, varied and sharply-cut detail in Italy, in its capitals and
shafts (Fig.
300). Casamari has several features in its monastic
structures that we do not find at Fossanuova. There is an untouched
main entrance to the monastic enclosure, with double archway —
large one for vehicles and a small one for passengers. It includes a
porter's lodge and second-story room. Then, there is an open porch
with three arcades, attached to the facade, a feature planned at
300 — Fossanuova monastery; cloister; later section. (From photo.)
Fossanuova but never carried out. A bit of detail in Fig. 301 shows
Italian handling of a French scheme made classic.
The other principal monasteries in this Cistercian proto- Gothic

group are: Arabona in the Abruzzi, Chiaravalle di Castagnola near
lesi, San Galgano near Siena, and S. Martino al Cimino near Viterbo.
They strike a peculiarly exotic note in Italy, and while they are a
novelty they are at the same time an instance of arrested development.
All about them were imitations by Italian artists in churches, town-
halls and private houses, especially at Piperno, Sezze, Alatri and
other towns in the Roman province. S. Martino al Cimino evidently
proceeds from a different French original than that which inspired the
others. The view of the interior in Fig. 302 shows that instead of the
plain, Romanesque grouped pier with engaged \-aulting shaft ending
in a plain corbel, it has the alternation of column and pier popular in
France between c. 1160 and 1190. Another difference lies in its choir
which is not square-ending but
poh'gonal. Se\-eral cloisters at
the neighboring \"iterbo show
French, possibly Cistercian mod-
els, c. g., that of S. iSIaria della
Verita (Fig. 303).
Attention has recently been
focussed on a ruined church of this
group at San Galgano, because it
is known that monks from this
-Detail of cloister at Casamari. (From -S. Jlartino al Cimino, monastic church.

photo.) (From photo.)
monastery were in charge of the construction of the neighboring

cathedral of Siena, and the peculiarities of this important building
have been ascribed to this source. With this T cannot agree. The
Cistercian architects who were sent to build San Galgano in the first
half of the thirteenth century did not furnish any protot^-joe for Siena
and the San Galgano monks were at Siena in the capacity not of
architects, but merely of business managers. Se^•eral points are of
interest at S. Galgano. Its ruined walls show how brick was used for
the core of the structure, faced with stone instead of the customary
solid stone walls. The oculi above the windows in the clearstory are
also a novel imported feature, such as has been noticed at Notre
Dame. Here it is in embryo. It will become a general feature in
Italian Gothic.
All of these Cistercian churches are heavy, plain structures, with
thick walls, without large or traceried windows, and with none of the
303— Cloister of S. Maria della Vcrita, Viterbo. (From photo.)
features of even advanced transitional Gothic. A trifle more developed

in style is a very interesting building in the extrenie North S. Andrea :
at Vercelli. It is heavy in its exterior; its plan is similar,

(Fig. 304) as
except for its very large Norman-like central lantern, but the square
towers on the facade are exceptional, and also perhaps of Norman
origin. The use of flying buttresses is a transalpine trait and their
abutting against buttress strips and a wall arcade. On the other hand
the deHcate galleries arc an Italian characteristic. Otherwise the entire
composition is un-Italian and one of the most artistic in Italy. The
proportions of the interior, with its extremely pointed arcades, like
early English lancets, are much less liea\'y and it has alread}' con-
siderable Gotliic feeling. It was built between 1220 and 1230 and so
was contemporary with the latest of the Cistercian group. Like
S. Galgano, it combines stone with brick. Brick rules the exterior;
only the facade is of stone; in the interior the arcades are of brick;
the vaulting ribs, part stone, part brick, a peculiarity due perhaps to
Lombard influence. This inteiior may be considered the most artistic
of any in the earlier group. The round-cored piers and the details of
capitals and shafts are all transalpine (Fig. 305). The chapter-house,
supported on delicate columns, is even franker in the use of brick.
We
have now reached the period in the thirteenth century when
the two monastic orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis, founded in
304 — S. Andrea, \'ercelU. (From photo.)
1 and 12 iS, began to spread over Italy and to build monasteries.

21 2
These monks became the dominant force in architecture as well as in
c >ost every other form of Italian life. Their earUest architectural
masterpiece is the famous church and monaster}' of St. Francis at
Assisi. The church is, in a way an exotic, like the buildings already
described, but an exotic that not only entered into the fibre of Itahan
art and Hfe, but was partly moulded by them. It became the mother
church of the order, was freely imitated, and answered quite well as
a type of the auditorium which was best suited to the requirements
of the preaching friars. The churches of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries in Italy were planned to subserve a new form of
religion and the type of hall church was best suited to it. The old
service of devotion was replaced by one in which oratory was the
central attraction, with popular preachers speaking to crowded and
enthusiastic audiences. Interiors must oifer the least resistance to
the traveUing of sound and the least obstruction between audience
305 —Interior of S. Andrea, Vercelli. (From photo.)
and orator. The Cistercian type was quite unsuitable; so was the
basilical tyjoe with close-set hues of columns. Even the normal
developed French type, with its slender piers, was not the ideal form.
It had to be either a church with wide, single nave, or one with aisles
so high as to throw them into the closest union with the nave and with
supports as widely spaced as possible. This is, I believe, the real
explanation of the typical Italian interior, which is so severely criti-
cised for its unaesthetic bareness, and the large size of its units which
diminish the apparent dimensions. We may believe that had Itah'an

architects consulted only their artistic taste, the interior of Santa
Croce, in Florence, which may be taken as a fair example, would
have had quite different proportions. The analogies to this tjqae are
some churches of Southwestern France, of Catalonia and Germany.
St. Francis at Assisi has (Fig. 306) a most commanding position,
of which the best advantage has been taken. The bluff on which it
is builtwas terraced out and immense retaining walls were built.
306 — Church and cloister of St. Francis, Assisi. (From photo.)
The exterior is quite Italian, except for the portals. The tower is
in an unusual position near the transept. One turns to the South of
France as a source for the one-aisled interior, and to Northern France

for the decoration of portals and interior. It has been noticed that the
more cylindrical form of the buttress-piers has its counterpart at
S. Cecile in Albi: but Assisi is earher. In the lancet-windows and

the tracery in the transept windows there is for the first time a trace
of the innovations in the development of Gothic windows which had
obtained in France. The unusual juxtaposition of upper and lower
church is made possible by the steep sloping of the ground. The
2s6 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
heaviness in the forms of the lower church give it almost the aspect of
a crypt —but such a crypt as had never been seen. There is no more
admirable sweep of lines. The large, two-light windows with simple
but good tracery in the upper church are quite evidently of Northern
design and remarkable for their date. The suggestion has recently
been made that the upper church, because of its advanced and delicate
forms, was considerably
later than the lower
church; but there are
no grounds for such
a theory. The entire
structure was com-
pleted between 1230
and 1240. It served as
a model for a number

of churches in Umbria
and Tuscany, but none
of these show the same
foreign handling in the
details (Fig. 307).
Near Perugia the
Cistercian church of
Monte I'Abbate has a
cross-vaulted interior of
a single nave and the
resemblance to St. Fran-
307 — St. Francis, Assisi: upper church. (From photo.] cis is accentuated by
the immense crypt. The
interior is more imposing but less symmetrical. Another example of
a one-aisled church is S. Michele at Monte Sant Angelo in Apulia,

which has three instead of four bays besides a square apse. It is
simple in its details — all its ribs having square profiles —but its pro-
portions are bold and from 1274, and it seems natural
fine. It dates
to ascribe it to some architect from the South of France, such as
those who were in the service of King Charles of Anjou.
In the three-aisled type a corresponding position to the church
at Assisiwas taken at exactly the same time by S. Francesco at
Bologna. For a building so palpabh^ Italian in its effects, this church
has an extraordinary number of points in which it followed French
methods. A glance at the east end will show a peculiarity almost

amazing in Italy, the use of flying buttresses! They are perfectly
plain, without terracotta ornaments to relieve the bare bricks: but,
there are only a A'ery few other cases of their use in all Italy. In the
interior, again, we see sexpartite vaults, which were also practically
unknown in Italy; trnally, the apse has radiating chapels and an
ambulatory, another imported feature that was never adopted in the
peninsula. It is evident that the plan was furnished by a French
architect, perhaps a Cistercian from Burgundy. Equally certain it
is that it was an Italian who built it, when we study the octagonal
piers and the plain unmoulded vaulting-ribs as well as the lack of

,
tracery in the clear-
story, which are filled
with old-fashioned thin

slabs pierced with cir-
cular openings. The
general \'iew shows
that an interesting
composition of square,
colonnades and pyra-
midal structures were
planned.
Very soon after, in
the two decades fol-
lowing 1250, the Do-
minican and Francis-
can architects freed
themselves from too
close an imitation of (From photo.)
30S— S. Maria No\ella, Florence.
Cistercian models and
developed national traits Sent around by their orders from one
city to another and becoming the main protagonists of the new

style, their activity went contrary to the establishment of local
Gothic schools.
The two most symmetrical interiors of this early native monastic
school are those of S. Anastasia at Verona and S. :Maria Novella

(127S) in Florence, because, perhaps, the tendency to space the sup-
ports is restrained. In both plans we see, to be sure, the Cistercian
scheme of two chapels on either side of the apse opening on a transept,
^58 GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
and a three-aisled body with six bays. But at S. Anastasia the sup-
ports are cohimns —not the old basilical monoliths, but heavier shafts
of red marble —and the vaulting shafts rise from the capitals. The
triforium hardly survives, in the form of a line of blind oculi, with a
clearstory of highly decorated oculi. The windows have an elementary
form of plate tracery, and the interior has the advantage of one of
the most harmonious and well-preserved
systems of reliefs, wall-painting and poly-
chromy, dating shortly after the construc-
tion and well worth careful study. For a
more heavily-proportioned, widely-spaced
interior of this type, see Fig. 310.
At S. Maria Novella there is more Cis-
tercian influence, both in the plan and in
the use of piers in place of columns. In
its fagade we see a gem of Tuscan art, and
Alberti's Renaissance changes (Fig. 637) have
not fundamentally modified its medieval-
ism. But Romanesque, not Gothic.
it is
The Campanile on the left, perhaps the most

exquisite in Tuscany, is the only other com-
mendable part of the exterior, which is plain
and uninteresting. The interior (Fig. 308),
while satisfying in its lines, is unsatisfactory
in its lighting by the small oculi; and the
plain windows of the aisles are distinctly re-
trogressive when compared with those of S.
Francesco at Assisi or Bologna. For a good,
early Tuscan use of traceried windows one
3og —SS. Giovanni e Paolo,
Venice: apse. (From photo.) has to turn to a few churches such as S.
Pietro at Arezzo (1277), where the charming

interior bears some resemblance to S. Maria Novella. In Florence
itself, S. Trinita, with its square piers, is of even earlier design and
charmingly symmetrical.
The two churches of the same monastic orders at Venice, S. Maria
dei Frari and SS. Giovanni e Paolo, built considerably later (1330-
1390), have similar hall-like effects. They are of brick construction
and having none of the terracotta details that are common in Lom-
bardy, are quite plain. Their exteriors are negligible except for
the choir ends of this entire Venetian group (Fig. 309), which has tlie
most successful attempt at a grouping of large windows. They are of
extreme lancet design with tracery that is elaborate for Itahan work
earlier than 1400. Each window has two stories of two lights sep-
arated by a broad traceried band.
The scheme of windows is similar
in both churdies, so that their choirs, while of the same Cistercian
simplicity of central apse and four or six flanking chapels, are the most
effective of their class in Italy. The interiors are ^'aulted in the com-
310 — S. Maria dci Frari, \'cnicc. tFrom photo.)
mon monastic way, —square bays in the nave and oblong bays in the
aisles, — and the supports are plain columns. In Fig. 310 the nave of the
Frari shows the most obtrusive system of wooden tie beams with which
I am acquainted. Otherwise the effect is more symmetrical than in the
Florentine churches with the exception of S. Alaria Novella. The columns
at SS. Gio^'anni e Paolo are slenderer and give a somewhat more hall-
like aspect to the interior, which is bisected in the same disconcerting
manner by four series of wooden tie-beams, as was also S. Anastasia

at \'erona. Other Venetian churches of similar style are S. Gregorio
and S. Stefano; also S. Niccolo at Trexdso and S. Lorenzo at Vicenza.
26o GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
In the monastic churches that have been described there has been
hardly any question of local schools, partly because the monastic
architects were sent from one city to the other, as required, and
partly because of the absence in them of the decorative details that
form so large a part of the special features of any school. But this
simplicity is largely
eliminated when we
pass to the study
of the cathedral
churches. They were
richer in sculpture,
both figured and
decorative and in ar-
chitectural details.
They are also less
consistent in the use

of the pointed arch.
Probably the survi-
val of Romanesque
and classic forms in
this class of building
was due to the great-
er strength of tradi-
tion among the lay
guilds of artists and
artisans who built
them. The earliest
to which we can even
tentatively apply the
name "Gothic," is
311 — Cathedral of Siuna: fafade. (From photo.) the cathedral of Siena.

The cathedral of
Siena, begun in 1245, is a brilliant piece of hybrid design, more Ro-
manesque than Gothic and with an infusion of classicism. The
body remains as it was originally planned from the transept and
its dome to the fagade; but the choir was lengthened, not long
after its completion, early in the fourteenth century. This was for a
peculiar purpose. The ground sloped sharply down at the rear and
it was found that the baptistry could be built, in lieu of crjqot. under
pij— Calhcdral vi Siena: view from gallery. (From photo.)
the choir if it were lengthened to the extent of two bays. When
this was done the apse was given a broad, square end which was
designed as a second fagade, with triple portal on a much lower level
than the western fagade, and through which one passes into the bap-
tistry. A second transformation was planned soon after and com-
menced, but never carried to completion. It was to enlarge the church
31,5— Cathedral of Orvieto: far:ade by Lorenzo Mailani. ([''rom photo.)
by building a new nave at right angles to it, and turning the old build-
ing into the transept and choir of the new cathedral. The new work
was begun in 1340 but stopped by the frightful pestilence of 134S.
The two bays which were frnishcd and vaulted, the windows and door-
ways, show a purer and more symmetrical art than that of the old
cathedral and a closer adherence to Gothic design. The contrast of
black and white marble was considerably modified. There were only
lu'c bays, as in the old na^•e, but their span was forty feet.
The fa(;ade, which we may suppose to ha\'e been designed soon
after 1250, was commenced in 12S4, and is ascribed to Giovanni
Pisano. It is perhaps the earliest highly decorated and originally
designed Gothic facade in Italy and well worth study (Fig. 311). Its
triple division is marked by gables and buttresses. The central but-
tresses are illogically started at the line of the aisle-roof and are
less prominent than the corner but-
tresses which are gi^•en the aspect of
towers with spire and corner pin-
nacles. The wheel window is a Roman-
esque survival and not an imported
feature and is set in a square frame
in place of the northern arcade. The
sculptured ornament is rich but even-
ly distributed and does not admit of
iigures of architectural character in
the portals. While the flanks of the
church are simple there is not the
disagreeable contrast to the facade
that we will find at Orvieto. The tall
hea\y campanile of Tuscan Roman-

escjue, which stands at the transept,
314 — Oriw'inal projct for fafade of callu'-
has the same alternation of black dral of Orxicfo, in c. 1295. (From Fumi.!
and white as the interior and the
nave walls. E\'idently the more sparing use of black in the aisle wall
is a later addition at the time of the new work on the proposed nave.
In the interior the (Fig. 312) black and white is dazzhng. The
vaulting is Gothic; the piers are Romanesque with square cores faced
on each side with a half column. There is nothing Gothic in the
heaw, round arcades, with coffered archiA'olts. The main differ-
ence between this and a Aâulted Lombard interior is the greater height
of the supportsand the tendency to raise the aisles in order to produce
a hall-like interior. The dome, howe^'er, is a ver}' important feature
and its treatment is noA'el. It is the first time that a dome was built
—
wider than the nave almost as wide as ns-ve and aisles. Then its
plan is irregular, a hexagon turning into an oval through a dodecagon
which is formed by six large squinches. The dodecagonal section
or drum is decorated by an open gallery of shafts supporting an arcade
enclosing statues. We have here, quite distinctly, a prototype of
Brunelleschi's Florentine dome, not only in its importance in relation
to the plan but in the way it dominates the exterior. Ingenuity is
shown in the way the vaulting compartments adjoining the dome are
adjusted so as to furnish the most effective counter-thrust.
We must here consider the cathedral of Orvieto, although there
is little that is Gothic about it except the facade. This fafade is an
315 — Detail of portals, Orvieto cathedral. (From photo.)
extraordinarily rich combination of color and sculpture with a marked

architectural framework. One almost feels that it was planned by a
goldsmith —several Italian architects were also goldsmiths — it is so
like an (Fig. 313) enamelled reliquary. It is probable that Lorenzo
Maitani of Siena designed it and this explains its similarity to the
Sienese facade. Two original drawings for the fagade
remain in the
Opera church: one of these as (Fig. 314) carried out. The four
of the
buttresses are designed with more unity than those at Siena and give
almost the effect of towers with corner turrets and central spire. It
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN IT.\LY 265
is a concession to transalpine design. The upper gables and those

above the portals and the adjoining wall surfaces are co^•ered with
mosaic pictures, religious scenes culminating in a " Coronation of the
Virgin." There is no which an architect can study
fa jade existing in
so well the use of strong and broad expanses of color. The statuary
is concentrated around the really fine rose-window. The four but-
tress-piers have their lower surfaces covered with the most delicate
scenes in relief sculpture. The relief is so low that it hardly affects
the architectural lines. This unique
decoration is in itself one of the
most beautiful works of Italian
sculpture. One of the cleverest
features is the open gallery that
bisects the design. In Fig. 315 is
a detail of the central portal, show-

ing the combination of the mosaic
inlay of the Roman Cosmati school
and the work of the Tuscan stone-
cutters. It has an effective play
of light and shadow. \êry similar
is the beautiful portal of S. For-

tunato at Todi.
In Fig. 316 we see the section t)r\iclo cathedral.
3 1 <-i- -Extcrior of iia\c,
of the flank of the church to the (From jiholo.)
right of the fagade. It shows great
meao-reness. There is no attempt to make the bod}- of the church

harmonise with the fagade. The wart-like chapels are placed with
a curious disregard of the columns of the na\-e: they are a later

addition. The apse and transept are perfectly plain and square
endint^. The interior is not vaulted except at apse and transept
(Fio-. ^17), so thereno excuse for describing it under Gothic ar-
is
chitecture. There is, however, something so original in the capitals

that one is given in Fig. 31S. The treatment is an extraordinarily
belated adaptation of Byzantine methods of stone cutting with sharp
and undercut foliage of schematic t}-pe. Their piers are immense
columns and they support round arches.
The ultimate step in the type of three-aisled hall church is il-
lustrated by the cathedral of Perugia, built in the earl>- part of the
fourteenth century in a style somewhat closer than usual to trans-

317 — Orvieto cathedral: interior. (From plioto.)
318 — Capital of nave, cathedral of Or\-ielo. (From photo.)

—
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IX ITALY 267
alpine churches in Southern France, German}-, and Catalonia. The

piersare octagonal and unusually slender for Italian supports
though not when compared to those of some Spanish and French hall
churches, or with the similar piers of S. Francesco at Ascoli Piceno.
The aisles are only half the width of the nave and in order to lower the
crown of the central ^'ault sufficiently to place it on a le\'el with that
of the aisles, the trans\'erse arches are made semi-circular. A single
low roof covers the entire width. The forms are simple, but the out-
310 — Inlerior iil S. Fortunato, Todi, from ai^lc. (From pholo.)
lines and proportions unusualh' good. The common opinion that the
church was entirely rebuilt after 1447 is improbable and not satis-
factorih- proêd. Of similar hall t}-pe and worked out with even
greater structural skill is S. Fortunato at Todi. The view from the
310 shows well articulated slender piers, a skillfully
ri2:ht aisle in Fig.
contriN-ed irregular \-aulting of eên crowns and with higher cells

toward the outside as a help to the buttresses. The chapel arcades
give the effect of hve aisles. It is a work of the earl>- fourteenth
centur>-. :Midwa>- between this extreme form and the Florentine type,
is the s\-mmetrical interior of the cathedral of \'erona, with piers that
have the same eight engaged shafts as S. Fortunate, but are heavier
and with larger capitals. The vaulting is also well-planned, the wall
ribs springing from a higher level. The clearstory is dwarfed by the

great height of the aislesand the wide span of the arches (Fig. 320).
was to be expected that the Tuscan schools of Pisa and Lucca
It
with their briUiant use of different-colored marble facing and in-
crustation would produce some charming examples of Gothic decora-
tion if not of construction. The heroic period of these towns had
passed, however, and the Gothic on a small scale. The
work is
works by the Pisani (Niccola and Giovanni) are the most artistic.
320 —Verona cathedral: interior. (From photo.)
The chapel of S. Maria della Spina is usually selected as the most

decorative combination of pinnacles, niches, and gables, but the real
masterpieces are the Campo Santo, also at Pisa, and the cathedral at
Lucca. The cloistral court of the Campo Santo is one of the most
beautifully proportioned (Fig. 321) designs in Italy, and it expresses the
Gothic spirit better than any other work by a native architect(i278-83).
The cathedral of Lucca is (see Vol. II, Fig. 263) external^ a piece
of pure Romanesque, but the interior, while round-arched, is as un-

Romanesque as the Campo Santo (Fig. 322). Its gaUeiy lias dehcate
proportions correspondingly full of lithe symmetry. It was in 130S-
1320 that the reconstruction took place resulting in these Gothic
modifications, especially the lengthening at the choir end by which the
three-aisled transepts were added. It is to be noticed that the stone-
cutting of the cathedrals, for which the lay guilds of stone cutters
were responsble, is almost always far more perfect than that of the
monastic churches whose architects and workman did not have as
thorough a technical training. This is true at Siena, Or^•icto, and
elsewhere.
-Arcade ot the Campo Sanlo, Pisa. (.From photo.)
Two buildings must be here described which more properly be-

longed in Vol. II with the Romanesque monuments.
The cathedral of Palermo was begun in 11 70 and consecrated in
118=;, so that it was contemporary with
the church at ]Monreale,
described in Vol. II (p. 261). It was quite in the same style without a
trace of Northern Gothic in its original portions, as we do not con-
sider pointed arches in the nave in themseh-es Gothic features. The
interior has been modernized, but it is worth recording here that its
original architects attempted what I believe to have been an abso-
lutely original scheme. They employed the usual triple division, but
the pointed arches of the ten bays rested not on the usual single
columns but on a scjuare group of four free-standing shafts with
common bases and abaci, a scheme which shows that a vaulting
S3'stem was planned. To imagine the effect one may take the four
shafts of the angle-piers in the Monreale cloister or the Vercelli (S.
322 — Cathedral of Lucca: \'icw across UanscpL (Frum phuluj
Andrea) cloister and magnify them. The effect must have been
extraordinary.
The exterior of the cathedral, though marred by additions and
restorations, retains a large part of its original lines and details.
It is quite un-Italian in its organic use of towers; and almost German

in making two groups of them, one at each end.' The upper section
at tlic east end is an addition of really Gothic design. The battle-
'
Ciimparc, hdwcvcr, fur Norman influence, the towers of Molfetta, Bitonto, and
Bari cathedrals.
ments, corbelled frieze, and clearstory arcading are distinctly Oriental

features.
A second masterpiece of Sicilian art was left to be described in
this A-olume though it also belongs in Vol. II (Fig. t,2t,). It is the
cloister of the church of ]\Ionreale, the most interesting of its class in
Italy as well as the most bafifling in
its design. It was built in about
II 76,on a square plan of about 140 feet, with twenty-six pointed
arches on each side, supported by coupled shafts except at the angles
which ha\-c groups of four colonnettes. The peculiar heterogene-
ousness of the semi-Oriental Sicilian style seems to be responsible for
the illogical design. Arcades and shafts are obvious misfits, as if
two different designers were in charge of each section. One would
^2^ — Cloister, ilonreale. (From photo.)
expect supports in the form of piers with a torus moulding on the

inner faces corresponding to that of the arcade which actually pro-
jects entirely beyond the plinth of the capitals. The plain surface
ornament on the arcade contrasts with the rich decoration of the
capitals and shafts, some of which have mosaic inla}-, others a con-
ventional pattern. It has been suggested that the arcades are older
than the supports, but this is, of course, structuralh' impossible and
the only excuse for it is the painful lack of unity in the design
The cathedral of Florence, Sta. ^laria del Fiore, was planned on
a smaller scale than the building we now see, by the architect Arnolfo,
in I2Q4. The plan was changed, mainly by the architect Talenti,
and the church was built largeh* during the latter part of the fourteenth
century. It is characteristic that while the total length was increased
to 480 feet,and the greatest width at the transept to 300 the num- feet,
ber of piers was not increased, but their arch-span was widened
about fifteen feet. This expressed part of the difference between the
proportions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the de-
creasing beauty and increasing bareness of the interiors. Another
interesting point is that it reproduces more closely than any other
cathedral the monastic type, with an added richness of decoration.
The plan is an unusual one. It is not Italian. Heretofore we have
324 — Cathedral S. Maria del Fiore, Florence, before the new fafade. (From photo.)
seen mainly the Cistercian scheme or its modifications: the central

chapel and parallel flanking chapels forming a plain and insignificant
choir. But at S. Maria del Fiore a monumental form of tri-foil choir
and transept is developed, with pentagonal outline, heading a body
with only four enormous bays. This choir plan suggests the influence
of the school of Cologne. We notice, both outside and inside, how
strongly Italian artists cling to tradition. The brick structure is
completely incased in a veneer of marl^le slabs and strips forming

simple geometrical patterns after the fashion of the three preceding
centuries, as at S. Miniato, Empoh, etc. (Fig. 324). In the piers, the
use of thin pilasters in place of engaged shafts and the super-capitals

in the form of segment show imitation of classic and
of a classic frieze,
Romanesque features, as does the heavy main cornice with its corbels.
The exterior eiiect is
far more successful than
that of the interior. The
juxtaposition of tower
and facade give an ex-
cellent balance to the
dome. The unit}' is not
ruined, as was so often
the case in Itah', by a
concentration of decora-
tive features on the fa-
cade. Of course the ve-

neer of the fagade is
modern and from a nine-

teenth century design
(Fabbris). We can, per-
haps, infer what the origi-
nal scheme was from the
design of Giotto's tower
(Fig. 325) and drawings
of the old f agade. In fact,
contrary to all ItaHan

precedent, the choir end
is the more interesting.
In judging the in-
terior (Fig. 326), one fails
to realize the great height,
135 feet, slightly surpass-

ing that of Amiens ca-
thedral. This is partly

due to the immense span
of the arcades (56 feet)
325 — Giotto's Campanile, Florence, showing corner of
cathedral fajade before new work. (From old photo.)
and partly to the lowness
of the clearstory above the main cornice and the absence of a tri-
forium. By confining the clearstory to the space between the wall
arches of the vaulting the architect condemned himself to the use of
insignificant oculus windows in place of large traceried openings.
Probably was done from fear of raising the vaulting any further.
this
The windows and choir are narrow, with single and double
of aisles
lights. There is no interesting detail in the interior. The design of
the foliated capitals, in their three unrelated superposed tiers, is com-
monplace and of poor workmanship. One may consider the cathedral
of Florence as the ultimate effort of the purely Italian school to express
itself in Gothic terms as it understood them, and as far as it was willing
to adopt them. Before exam-
ining how a different policy re-
sulted in the Cathedral at Mi-
lan, a few minor types must be
studied.
A reference, at least, should
be made here to the large church
of Sta. Croce in Florence, though
it is no more Gothic than Or-
vieto cathedral. The nave and
aisles are covered with wooden
roofs : the nave being wider than
if it were planned for vaulting.
Yet the heavy and widely spaced
octagonal piers, the high pointed
arcades of the nave, the pilaster
strips resting on the capitals,
326 — System of cathedral, Florence. (From
Choisy.)
are features borrowed from
the vaulted churches. Notwith-
standing its size (361 by 123 feet), it is a characterless and inartistic
building, both outside and inside. The unfinished facade was faced
in modern times. There are many churches in Italy and some in
Germany arid Spain where the wooden roof persists throughout the
Gothic age. Domenico in Siena
S. is a one-aisled example.
The brick and terracotta style of Lombardy is expressed, with
all its shortcomings, in the exterior of Maria delle Grazie at IMilan.
S.
This is not the place to speak of the dome and transept added by
Bramante in Middle Renaissance style (Fig. 327). The fagade and
flank are similar to others in this region, at Crema, Cremona, Bergamo,
Brescia, etc. It is a sadly mechanical style without charm of detail
or design. The attempt at an aisle clearstory with an oculus above

two lancets — the basis of a t)q:)ical Gothic window, is ludicrous in its
clumsy lack of unity. Of course there were changes made twice in the
lower part of the facade during the Renaissance, which can easily be
recognized.
The province of Bari and neighboring portions of Apuha contain
magnificent specimens of Romanesque, which were only referred to
in Vol. II. An architect will find some of the most superb of medieval
detailed work in this region, especially at Bari, Ruvo, Trani, Bitetto,
Bitonto, Alatera, Barletta and Altamura. The portals and •windows
are the richest in Italy in their sculpture. The latest of these works
3 -"7^ -S. Maria dellc Grazie, Milan. (From photo.)
trench on the Gothic period of the thirteenth century and I cannot

refrain from mentioning the portal of the cathedral of Altamura, which
is a perfect specimen of southern Gothic design. It is strictly a develop-
ment out of the Byzantine Romanesque type of this region. Its
eft'ects are obtained by sharp contrasts due to heavy undercutting and

not to gradations of surface treatment. The keynote is a broad ex-
panse not broken up by parallel lines —a treatment that one might
really call anti-Gothic. In fact there is not in all the South a single
church with structure and decoration that could be termed purely
Gothic even by Itahan standards. There are, to be sure, such ap-
proaches to it as the picturesque rock-church of S. Michele at Monte
Sant' Angelo (1274) with its single nave of three bays vaulted in the
Gothic manner.
The cathedral of Milan is the only Gothic church in Italy that can
be placed beside the great transalpine churches. With all its faults
it is one of the great buildings of the world. In bulk its main rival is
the cathedral of Seville. It is the only large church with an exterior
entirely of white marble. But it is not only impressive and spectacular:
it is also so originally individual that it cannot be likened to any other
building or attributed to any school or even any nationality It is
a compound of German, Italian and French characteristics. Begun

was pushed forward rapidly until about 1410,
in 1386, its construction
and after that became It was for a time the focus of
intermittent.
international Gothic endeavor. This and the vastness of the under-
taking make it a fact of peculiar significance that the bulk of the ac-
counts, reports of meetings of the building committee and of architects,
official correspondence and other records have been preserved and
published, and that a number of early drawings, sketches and diagrams
still exist in the original or in published copies.
Now, there are several indications that in the fifteenth, and perhaps,
even in the fourteenth century, the Italians considered not France but
Germany to be the fountain-head of Gothic architecture. It was the
opinion of that lover and patron of architecture, Pope Pius II. In his
study of Germany, before he became pope, he states that in his
opinion the Germans were the greatest architects in the world. He
speaks with the greatest admiration of the cathedral of Strassburg
and other masterpieces of German Gothic. He obliged the Renaissance
architect who built for him the cathedral at Pienza to follow German
models in the interior. A century later Vasari, in the introduction
to his "Lives,'" calls Gothic architecture, Germanic. There can hardly
be a question that this feeling was largely if not entirely due to the
Cathedral of Milan. The proof of this is given by Cesare Cesariano
in his translation and commentary on Vitruvius. To illustrate
symmetry in architectural design he uses the cathedral of Milan, both
in plan and elevation, stating that the geometrical ratios that underlie
itsproportions can be applied to any buildings. The system here used
he frankly states to be German: "the method used by the German
architects" in the church of Milan. This statement he makes of the
ground-plan. He repeats it substantially in the title to the plan itself
which was made, he says, " after the German manner based on the
triangle and square." Each of his two elaborate sections of the
cathedral is labelled in similar fashion as "German." They are of
extraordinary value because they seem to be facsimiles of the original
drawings for the cathedral made by some German architect before
1392 (probably c. 13S7), because in 1392 the proportions were adopted
that were followed in the building whereas in these two drawings the
proportions are quite different and more purely transalpine. As the
dra^^dngs themselves have perished these woodcuts are about the
most valuable records of the application of geometry to Gothic archi-
tecture. Their early date is confirmed by a sketch made in Milan
by Antonio di Vincenzo, the architect who planned the Church of S.
Petronio at Bologna. This sketch is thought to have been made in
1390. measurements with Cesariano's illustrations;
It agrees in its
that is, it is based on the equilateral
triangle. There is another
record of the stage anterior to 1392. It is a sketch or diagram made
by a prominent architect named Stornaloco, called from Piacenza in
1 39 1 to give advice as to the right proportions for the elevation. It
has never yet been suggested that Cesariano's diagrams were made
from early drawings. They have been stigmatised as absurd and as
a "joke." But I have applied them successfully as a key to the de-
sign of other Gothic churches.
The matter of ]Milan cathedral is the most complex in Gothic his-
tory. Also, there is no certainty of opinion as to the origin of its
peculiarities. The reasons will appear from its history. When be-
gun, in 1386, there is no question that the plan for the entire structure
was made. As usual, construction commenced at the choir. It must
be borne in mind, furthermore, that the lower end of the nave was
never vaulted until the seventeenth century, nearly three hundred
years later! The designer is unknown, but it is probable that he was a
German. The Building Committee, as the documents show, engaged
and dismissed master-architects with vertiginous rapidity. It was
found that only German or French architects had the requisite scien-
tific knowledge to direct the work, yet there was such national an-
tagonism to the transalpine scientific point of \'iew that every foreign

architect v.âs opposed and thwarted and finally dismissed. The
Itahan cry was art versus science! Until the next was secured an
ItaHan stop-gap was engaged, with whose mistakes the next foreign
incumbent was obliged to contend. Leading architects from Strass-
3^8 — Choir of cathedral, Milan. (From photo.)
-a
a
I
28o GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XI
burg, Ulm, Cologne and Paris were called. Milan became a notorious
architectural storm centre.
The plan a Latin cross with short transept, short polygonal
is
choir and a five-aisled body. German influence may account for

the lack of dignity and size of the choir, which is without chapels,
though it has an ambulatory. The five aisles may be derived from the
plan of Cologne Cathedral. But the characteristic of the interior is its
and as this
hall-like effect, is found in Germany and Southern France
and had become long since acclimated in Italy,iOne hesitates to which of
the multiform influences to ascribe it. The oblong plan given to the
vaulting compartments of the nave would in itself be conclusive of a
non-Italian origin. The work began at the choir end, and was partly
under the Parisian architect, Bonaventure. There is documentary
evidence that the design of the magnificent windows given in Fig. 328
was his own, slightly modified.
The may be said to be the absence
special features of the exterior
dominant effect of the high side-
of towers, the forest of pinnacles, the
aisles, which almost conceal the buttresses and the nave wall; and,
finally, the balustrade parapets formed of a succession of minute open
gables, with strong vertical effect (Fig. 329). The original scheme for
the facade, as we can see from the buttresses, was merely a develop-
ment of the Siena scheme, applied to a five-aisled building. The choir
was consecrated in 1418. Several years previously it had been decided
to shorten the plan by three bays. The nave was not completed until
the second half of the fifteenth century; the central lantern was not
begun until 1481 and it was so badly constructed that a reconstruction
was necessary in 1490 under the direction of the famous engineer-
architect of the Renaissance, Francesco di Giorgio. Inside the Gothic
lantern is a dome, which follows the Romanesque scheme of not exceed-
ing the width of the nave. Buttresses connect it with a slender central
spire (in part of 1750) which is three hundred and fifty feet above the
pavement and yet is not as effective as it should be, owing to poor
composition.
If one considers that the bulk of the church was built subsequently
to the triumph of the Renaissance, it is only to be wondered at that
there was not a stronger infusion of the new style than what we see in
the doors and windows of the facade. The interior lacks the light and
color given by the immense clearstories of the northern cathedrals with
their stained glass. The continuity of the lines of grouped piers and
vaulting shafts is by the tabernacles that form super-

interrupted
capitals, a vicious feature. The transverse vaulting arches are ex-
tremely pointed and these and the diagonal ribs are heavy. Aside from
with their eight shafts encircling a central
their super-capitals the piers,
column, are finely proportioned the best feature of the interior. To do
;
justice to the original designers several points must be remembered:

(i)the vaulting of the nave was to have been higher and the clearstory
windows presumably larger; (2) the nave was to have been con-
331 — Wooden model of S. Petronio, Bologna, as originally planned, seen from apse end to show
parts never built, (From photo.)
siderably longer; (3) the ideas of the transalpine architects were

constantly thwarted by the Building Committee and by jealous
Italian architects. The long section in Fig. 330 will make further
description unnecessary. It must be remembered that the present
dome-tower is a design by a Renaissance architect after 1480, and that

it was originally planned as square. It is also a fact not sufificiently
appreciated that the bulk of the over-elaborate decoration of the upper
part of the exterior is as late as the seventeenth century or later.
In contrast to the cathedral of Milan, the church of S. Petronio
atBologna would have represented, on just as large a scale, the most
advanced and finest type of native Italian Gothic. It was planned at
about the same time (1390), and was to have been about six hundred
feet long. The plan was more symmetrical than Milan, with a choir
that would have been unique in Italy for its aisle and chapels and its
two bays; uniciue also in its extremely long transept. Its dome was
planned on a large scale. Only the nave was built, to the opening
of the transept, so that the present interior is out of scale and
iS2 — Interii.r of S. PeUonio, Bologna. (From pholo.)
does not do the architect justice. Fig. 331 shows the original plan,
and is taken from an existing wooden model made by a later architect
(15 14), probably reproducing substantially the original model made
in 1390by the architect, Antonio di Vincenzo. Its scheme has been
compared with reason to that of Pisa cathedral, enriched by the
development of choir and transept. Instead of five aisles, as at
Milan, there are three aisles with a continuous row of chapels in
place of the outer aisles —a feature which the cathedral of Milan
barely escaped. The wide spacing of the piers is of the usual Italian
type and involves so high an arcade as to sacrifice the clearstory. Both
the design and the detail of the exterior are far better. The large
aisle windows have some of the best tracery by an Italian hand.
Comparing the finished part of the fajade with the design in the model
with its five gables and remembering that the marble decoration was
in charge of Jacopo della Querela, one of the three greatest sculptors
of the earliest Renaissance, we can see how it would have been when
completed the most beautiful in Italy; not as rich as that of Orvieto
but in purer taste, and far more artistic than the patchwork style
of the Tuscan churches. The reliefs around the three portals are
masterly, both as works of sculpture and decoration. Work on it was
suspended soon after 1430, when about thirty feet of the marble
facing had been completed. While the aisle windows next to the fagade
are so thoroughly Gothic, it is curious that the portals should have
Hntels surmountedby a round arch. In criticising the interior it
must be remembered that the was to have been

original vaulting
considerably higher, allowing a high clearstory and flying buttresses.
This was not carried out by the architect Terribiglia, when he com-
pleted the upper part of the nave toward the close of the sixteenth
century. Gothic tradition was then completely lost in the matter
of proportions (Fig. 332).
From its situation in the extreme north the cathedral of Como
might well be expected to show German traits, but its only striking
transalpine peculiarities are its piers and the arrangement of vaulting
shafts; perhaps also the oblong plan of the vaulting compartments
of its nave. The construction was contemporary with that of the
cathedral of Milan (1396 to sixteenth century) and some Italian
masters were employed on both buildings. Nothing could show better
than the severe plainness of Como that the decorative scheme of Milan
was thoroughly exotic. Of course one excepts from this statement
such details as the exquisite Renaissance triforium windows which
were not part of the original scheme. Another contrast between
the two buildings is shown by the timidity with which the ItaUan
architects planned the lighting of Como. The windows are so in-
sufficient as to practically ruin the effect of the interior. The choir
end is Renaissance.
To sum up general conclusions, it is evident that there was in Italy
no attempt to create a church design that should have external har-

mony and unity, such as we find in the rest of Europe, especially in
France and England. The facade has often no organic relation either
to the structure it masks or to the rest of the exterior. The absence of
flanking towers as a part of the facade takes from it a large part of
its possibilities for picturesque, imposing and varied effects. The
placing of an independent tower in some relation to the building in
most cases —with the notable exception of Florence — is not success-
fully solved. By omitting the use of flying buttresses and of radiating
choirs, two main sources of rich effects in the rest of the exterior are
lost. In the interiors there are several reasons for failure. We miss
the exquisite carving of details so characteristic of French work; and
we miss the sense of scale that governs all northern Gothic.
Civil Buildings. —Italian architects were successful in their civil
buildings. Very few of these were referred to in Vol. II and they may
be grouped together here because not always easy to make any
it is
distinct break between those of the Romanesque and Gothic periods;

for instance, the Palazzo dei Consoli at Gubbio and the Palazzo della
Ragion at Fano. There are several principal groups: the communal
palaces and other public structures of this class; the feudal fortresses
and castles; the private palaces and houses. Italy is richer than any
other part of Europe in such buildings, so that only typical examples
can be mentioned.
The extraordinary development of the free cities of Italy led to the
erection of numerous public buildings for the meetings of the people as
a whole and of the various governing bodies. The arrangement of

such buildings varied according as the constitution was aristocratic,
as in the northern cities, or democratic, as in those of Tuscany. Some-
times the larger meetings of the people were held in the open square
in front of the town-hall, sometimes under an open arcade occupying
its entire lower story, sometimes in a immense enclosed hall on the
second floor. In democratic towns there was a great tower or belfry
whose bell called a meeting of the people.
The most interesting and varied group is at Florence, with its

Palazzo Vecchio, its Bargello, its Bigallo, its Loggia dei Lanzi and its
hall of Or San Michele.

What is now called the Bargello, was the Palazzo del Podesta, or
residence of the chief magistrate. It was begun in 1250 and is perhaps
the first civic structure in Italy in the Gothic style. It has become at
present the Museo Nazionale. At first glance it is clear that a con-
siderable portion is of later date. The area is c. 200 by no feet, and
the plan is quite irregular. The military aspect is one that was
evidently borrowed from the city walls and feudal castles, and remained
a characteristic of Tuscan civil architecture, determining the lack of
openings in the lower section, the use of battlements and crenelations,
the concentration of decorative features on the inner court and the
upper part of the structure. The tradition associates a German
architect with the design. A close connection is evident with the
work at S. Francesco of Assisi, in the two-light windows and in the
333 — Restored \'ie\v of the main square of Siena, as it was in the fourteenth century, with the
Communal Palace on the right. (From L' Architect.)
bold broad vaulting of the gallery and main hall. For the student of
architecture there are two features of extraordinary interest : the court
and the hall. There is little that is Gothic in the exterior of the court,
with its surbased round arches, except that the octagonal piers and
foHated capitals are of a normal Tuscan Gothic type. But the low
vaulting of the gallery, even though on a square plan, is Gothic.
A protot}T3e of the Palazzo Vecchio is the castle at Poppi in the
upper Arno valley. The court is renovated in a later style. All these
Florentine buildings are too familiar to require description. Perhaps
the most interesting way of studying this group in its primitive setting
is in such a reconstruction of the main square of a Tuscan city of this

time as is gi\-en of Siena in Fig. The Communal Palace on
t,t,;j,.
the right with its great tower is the only rival in Tuscany of the
Palazzo \'ecchio. The private pal-
aces of the same age, with their
simpler towers, such as can still be
studied in the neighboring San
Gimignano, are arranged about the
curved theatre-like outline of the
square. In the architectural details
—windows, battlements, doorways,
and even in the central courts, these
public structures are exactly par-
alleled on a smaller scale by the
private palaces. The)' show an in-
teresting fact: that here in Siena
both stone and brick were used con-
temporaneously and sometimes in
different stories of the same build-
In some parts Italy
334 —Palazzo Marsili, Siena. (From
ing. of the photo.)
style was strongly affected b}' the
material: here in Siena it was not so. One can hardlv tell the dif-
ference, stylistically, between a stone palace like the Saracini in the
main square and the brick Palazzo Buonsignori, of which the detail
illiin
335 — Communal Palace at Udine. (From photo.)
shows that if anything the terracotta led to an increased richness. A
further advance was made in the Tolomei Palace by the addition of
tracery in the field of the windows. Both double and triple mullions
336 — Detail of Foro dci Mercanti, Bologna. (From photo.)
were common, here and in Florence. The Palazzo Marsili at Siena is
a good simple piece of brickwork (Fig. 334), and the Palazzo Grotta-
nelli combines stone in the lower with brick in the upper story.
The communal palaces at Florence and Siena, just described, taken

with the somewhat later and more richly decorated Palace at Perugia,
and the simpler one at Pistoia, show the Tuscan and Umbrian t\'pe of
building with a solid lower story around a central court. There is
another t}i)e, with its lower story entirely open in arcades, na\'es or
galleries, which was riuite common in the north and due to a different
political constitution. The Town Hall at Udine in Venetia (Fig. 333)
is the most artistically perfect of this class, partly because it stands
3J7 — Palaz/o del Iribunak, \ LRina. Ij rum phulo.)
free on all and partly because of its characteristically Venetian

sides
grouping of windows, its moderate polychromy and its use of columns

instead of piers. The larger and better known Town Hall at Piacenza
has the normal plain piers, continuous second story windows and crown-
ing battlements, and combines brick and terracotta abo\ê with stone
below; so, although also isolated, it lacks the picturesque charm of
Udine. There are others of this t>'pe at Cremona, Ferrara, Bergamo,
etc., and there is the charming "Broletto"
at Como.
^Midway between these extreme t}pes is that with an arcaded

portico and a solid nucleus, also common in the north, in harmony
with the arcaded In Fig. 336 the detail of the Foro dei
streets.
Mercanti at Bologna gives such a composition and is also interesting
for its combination of marble details with terracotta and brick. Other
examples are given in Figs. 331, 337, 343, 344, 345 and 346.
In this connection it is important to note that the custom in North
Italian cities of turning all the main streets into arcaded avenues
338 — Signorini Palace, Viccnza. (From photo.)
developed a special type of house and palace that can best be studied
at Bologna, but also at Verona, Vicenza and elsewhere. The Palazzo
del Tribunale and the Casa dei Mercanti at Verona (Fig. 337) illus-
trate its use in municipal buildings, and the Palazzo Signorini at
Vicenza (Fig. 338) shows how it modified the Venetian t>pe of private
house. Sometimes a more or less crude form of wooden architrave

took the place of arcades; such forms as are illustrated by the court
of the Carrara palace at Padua.
Aside from the Tuscan fortified palace and the north Italian t}rpe,
often with arcaded lower story, the most artistic creation was, of
course, the Venetian palace, \\'ith its three sections; the highh' deco-
rated and wide centre with its balcon)' and wide glass area, and the
two simpler and narrower wings. It is entirely a pleasure-palace, at
the opposite pole from the Tuscan. Its complete decorati\-e surface
scheme of marble incrustation, slabs, tracer}', balconies, etc., is
also unique and was imitated only distantly in the terracotta

scheme of the\'cnetian mainland at Padua, \'icenza and else-
-Palazzi, C"a d'Oro, W'nicc. (From pholo.)
wnere. Among the rich ^•ariet_\• the Palazzo Foscari is pre-eminent as
a developed t^-pe just preceding, in the fourteenth centur>- the latest

flowering of the style in the Ducal Palace and Ca D'Oro Palace.
There is a temptation to illustrate it b\' the less familiar and more
unusual group of windows of the Palazzo Ariani with its effecti\-e
panel of continuous tracery, and the Foscari windows are more char-
acteristic of the school, yet the beauty of the Ca D'Oro (Fig. 339)
work is irresistible.
In Ecclesiastical buildings outside the normal church types there

were a number of classes of design that must be at least referred to.
There are chapels which are planned in a special way and with artistic
detail. This was especially the case in Tuscany, where S. Maria della
Spina at Pisa and S. Maria della Rosa at Lucca are well-known
340 — Baplistry of Pistoia. (From photo.)
masterpieces. The Baptistries, which were quite plain in Roman-

esque times except in a few cases like those of Parma and Florence,
were the most characteristic concentric structures, ranging from the
simplest forms at Volterra to the richer ones at Pisa. The Baptistry
at Pistoia which is selected for illustration (Fig. 340) is one of mod-
erate richness but good proportions, with the usual Tuscan marble
polychromy.
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN ITALY jq^
The cloisters arc numerous and several ha\'e alread>' been illus-
trated: those at Fossanuova (Fig. 300) Monreale (Pig. 323), Vitcrbo

(Pig. 303), represent different sections of Ital}', and to the same general
t>-pe belongs the excjuisite Campo Santo at Pisa. As of a t\pe iK^culiar
to the Roman school the cloister of S. Paolo at Rome is gi\'en in Pig.
341, with its infmite variety of coupled columns often inlaid with col-
ored mosaic cubes in elaborate patterns.
In connection with this round-arched cloister, the fact must be
emphasized that a large number of interesting works of the thirteenth
j4i — Cloister of S. Paolo, Rome. (From photo.)
and fourteenth centuries in Italy cannot be included under the term

"Gothic" by the widest stretch of the imagination. Romanesque
dominated even then in parts of Lombard}' and Piedmont, Apulia and
Compania: the basilical style still ruled in Rome. In Tuscan}- such
works as the famous Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence effected a com-
promise tîîcal of man}' Tuscan works and such as we ha^•e found in
the cathedral of Siena. Onl}' in such cjualities as the new delicacy
of detail and proportion, a change in the treatment of the capitals, can
we trace in such masterpieces as the Roman cloisters of S. John
Lateran and S. Paul's (Fig. 341) an}'thing of the Gothic spirit. The
court of the hospital at Lodi is a case in point. The capitals are of
pure French early Gothic design, but the rest is Romanesque in design,
though the terracotta detail again
.Lj_j-J,*-^ is Gothic. On the other hand,
had this been designed in the
Romanesque period the lower ar-
cades would have been supported
on piers, not on slender shafts.
Then again there is another move-

ment in favor of architraved ar-
chitecture, in the Roman school,
which appears for instance in the
interior of the basilica of S. Lor-

enzo in Rome: another work of
the thirteenth century of this
t}qoe is the porch of the Cathe-

342 —Window in Vitellcschi palace, Corncto. dral of Civita Castellana, which
(From plioto.)
will be illustrated in Fig. 561 in
connection with Brunelleschi's adoption of its design for the Pazzi
chapel facade.
«''»
343 — l''a<;ado of Ospcdalu Maggiorc, Milan. (From Schiilz.)

The fact that church design in Italy usually did not include any
towers in organic connection with the structure, made the campanile
of the Gothic age as independent as they had been in the Romanesque
age. But they are neither as numerous or important as they were
then. Giotto's Campanile is the only rival of the Pisa Tower. Occa-
sionalh', as in the tower of S. Andrea at ]\Iantova, there is an admirable
use of terracotta in highly decorated windows and cornices. Also, but
344 — Pisa, Palazzo Agostini. (From photo.)
not often, there is a peculiarly felicitous design, as at S. Gottardo of

JNIilan.
It was natural, as a legacy from Rome, B}-2antium and Roman-

esque, that Italy should haA'e made abundant use of brick. What is
amazing, howe\'er, is to see how Gothic artists in Itah' succeeded in

creating a S}'stem of decoration in brickwork and terracotta which,
with the help of marble colonnettes so paralleled the decoration in marble
that the general effect is almost identical. This, as has been said, is
well illustrated in the palaces of Siena; or for more decorative work by

the Vitelleschi palace at Corneto (Fig. 342), the Tabassi palace at
Sulmona, and the Ospedale Maggiore at ]\Iilan (Fig. 343), \\-here the
windows of stone and marble, or of terracotta, brick and marble, are
so closely alike. The same is true of the similarity between the terra-
cotta designs of certain houses at Vicenza (Fig. 338) and the marble
decoration of the Venetian palaces. Even in such details of church
design as rose-windows, which would seem absolutely to require the
use of marble, the artists of Lombardy were able to produce creditable

effects in terracotta. This is evident in works like the fagade of S.
345 — Cremona Cathedral: window in minor fafade; terracotta detail. (From photo.)
Marco at Milan, a symmetrical design where everything of conse-

quence except the portal is in terracotta and brick.
One of the richest fagades of a private house in terracotta is the
Palazzo Agostini at Pisa (Fig. 344). It is a late work and rather
inorganic in its panelled effects. There is a distinct effort here at
differentiating terracotta design from stone and marble. We find this
independence often in the terracotta work at Cremona. In Fig. 345
is an elaborate window from the flank of the cathedral, where this is
3+6 — jNIonza, S. Maria in Strada: central detail of fajade in brick and terracuUa.
(From photo.)
j^j_Carrara Cathedral: carved marble rose-window. (From photo.)

particularly marked in the panelling of the ground. This led at times

to a natural monotony from the repetition of the same mould, as in the
archivolts of the Pepo-
li palace at Bologna.
For a terracotta
composition of unu-
sual richness there is
nothing in better taste

than the central sec-
tion of the small f agade

of S. Maria in Strada
at Monza (Fig. 346).
Curiously enough, in
Monza itself the Ca-
thedral has a fagade
34S — Detail of triforium of St. Francis, Assisi. (From photo.)
with an equally rich
design on a much larger scale but in marble, which has the unusual
division into five instead of three parts. A glance at the Carrara
rose in Fig. 347 will give an idea of the richness of the corresponding
central section.
3^19 — Carving of (icithic choir-stalls, S. jMaria dci Frari, Venice. (From photo.)
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IX ITrVLY 299
WTicre Italy most closely approximates the best French and

Spanish tracery is in Tuscany. The arcades of the Campo Santo at
Pisa (Fig. 321) are excjuisite. Less familiar is the work in the gallery
of the cathedral of Lucca: its position in the church will appear in
Fig. 322. Heavier, but splendidly decoratix'c and e^'en less known,
is the work on the facade of the cathedral of Carrara; in the gallery
350 — Shrmc in apse, S. Domcnico. Bologna. (I-'roni photo.)
under the gable and the rose-window and its panel, iUustrated in Fig.
347. The ciuality of marble was an inccntix'c to such workmanship.
The same hand probably executed the charming facade of S. Caterina
at Pisa.
One of the peculiar features of Italian dccorati\'e design as distin-
guished from French is that where we should lind open tracery in

France we often find surface ornamentation in Italy. A spectacular
instance is the series of second story windows at the Or San Michele
in Florence. The less known and charming chapel of S. Maria della
Rosa at Lucca is of the same time and school. The more usual
open type is illustrated by the windows in the Vitelleschi Palace at
Corneto (Fig. 342).
The decoration of the interiors of churches is more unsatisfactory

in Italy than in any other country for two reasons: lack of stained
glass and insignificant clearstories; lack of architectural memberment,
particularly of triforiums. The charming detail from S. Francis of
Assisi, in Fig. 348, which combines architectural outUne with painting,
351 — Panelling of the Saki della Mercatanzia, Communal Palace, Perugia. (From photo.)
is due to French influence. The un-Gothic expanse of blank wall, now

so often whitewashed, was often frescoed. There was a lack of the
gorgeous choir screens of Spain and the north: and the main decora-
tion of the choir end was the carved wood stalls like that of the Frari
(Fig. 349). Occasionally there is a shrine like the monumental piece
of sculpture at S. Domenico in Bologna (Fig. 350), and numerous
monumental tombs.
Aside from this sort of choir decoration and the broad field of
church furniture, one turns to civil structures. Interior panelling of
Gothic design is so rare that the Sala della Mercatanzia in the Munic-
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN ITALY
ipal Palace at Perugia is worth special study. It is particularly unusual
in following exactly the planes of the Gothic rib-vaulting and the lines
of ribs, pilasters and arcades. The most beautiful detail, from the
centre of the hall, is given in Fig. 351. In the same building the Sala
dei Notari, with its flat ceiling and splendid arcs-doublcaux, illustrates
the more usual technique of fresco decoration, with its panelled coat
:0.P ^ls>\'^f'
:A,..:;:;j:y^
352 —Wooden car\cd and painted wagon roof of S. Fcrmo Maggiore, Verona, XIII Century.
(From photo.)
of arms; it is an extraordinarily effective interior. Both decorations

are of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
In connection with this panelling at Perugia it must be noted that
there are cases where wood was used not to line vaulting but as a
substitute for vaulting. In such plain though colossal pointed tunnel
ceilings as the great hall of the iNIunicipal Palazzo della Ragione at
Padua, over one hundred feet wide, there is nothing artistic, but there
is a distinct style about such a design as the larch-wood wagon roof of
S. Fermo at Verona (Fig. 352) of the fourteenth century. This \'ie\v

of it shows part only of one side, and is decorated with painted busts
of saints in the arcades.
BOOK XII.— GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE
CHAPTER I
GOTHIC IN GERMANY
THE word "Germany" is used, for coiiA-enience, in

sense, to include not only the pro\-inccs of the present Ger-
its broadest
man Empire but of Austria, with Bohemia and Hungar}'.

This is not so illogical, after all, because historical records show that
both in the matter and of lay architects, the
of the Cistercian invasion
Austrian pro\-inces were only slightly affected by direct French influ-
ence, being largelj' dependent on the more northern and Rhenish
schools. The Rhineland and Saxony were the first to feel the in\'asion
of the new sj'stem and it is there that we find interesting rudimen-
taiy or partiall}' Gothic buildings. Westphalia and Swabia followed.
Austria was e^•cn later, with Brandenburg, Prussia and the rest of the
extreme north and north-east. Bohemia received more direct French
influence than an}* part ofGermany proper except the Rhineland.
Each European countr}- in turn made its contribution to the Gothic
patrimony. Germany's addition to the common stock, aside from the
traceried spire, was the popularizing of brick and terracotta and the
evolution of the Hall-church, which not onl}' became the principal
form of interior throughout the length and breadth of Germany from
the Baltic to the Tyrolean Alps, but spread thence to Holland and
Italy. This de\'elopment of the air-space in a single nave or with
several aisles of equal or almost equal heights was in harmony with the
intellectual development of religion in Germany, with the popularity
of preaching in religious ser\'ices. under the auspices especially of the
Dominican and Franciscan orders. This made it ex]-)edient to bring

the whole congregation in closer connection with the pulpit. Such
seems, at least, to be the most plausible explanation, for in these
matters the exi>lanation is less likely to be aesthetic than practical.
It is. of course, true that it was in the Angevin pro^'inces of France
304 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
that the hall church type of Gothic construction originated, but it
never seriously affected French art, though it spread thence to Spain,

especially to Catalonia as well as to Germany. It was, however,
only in Germany that it became the prevalent national type. As
for the use of brick and terracotta, it cannot be called a legitimate
contribution to Gothic patrimony. In Germany as well as elsewhere
it was the Stone-cutters' Guild that dominated and directed the develop-
ment of the orthodox Gothic style. The brickwork branch was para-
sitic or, at least, inorganic. And, even in this sphere, the North
Italian school was aesthetically superior in its treatment of terracotta.
Even if there is, strictly speaking, no such thing as a "transitional"
style in Germany, or for that matter anywhere except in Northern
and Central France, there is an unusually interesting group of German

buildings that illustrate the conflict of the old and the new ideas.
They were built, it is true, at a time when the new art had already
found itself in France; but for Germany itself the question had to be
re-stated with a phrasing partly its own. Of these early efforts we
will examine the cathedrals of Magdeburg and Limburg and St. Gereon
at Cologne.
Origins. —How did Gothic come to Germany? It has been observed
by Dehio that to German architects travelling in France even during
the first decades of the thirteenth century the vast majority of the
buildings they saw were Romanesque, and that as yet hardly a single
building in the new had neared completion; the majority, like
style
St. Germer and St. Denis, seeming in their outward form to be mainly
a variant of Romanesque. Not being themseh-es in the thick of the

movement, and the movement itself not being self-conscious and
definite with a formula that could be stated, but tentative and pro-
gressive, builders in other countries could hardly be expected to fully
grasp its meaning and bearing until an array of developed masterpieces
had been produced; that is, not until about 1 225-1 240.
Meanwhile
it seems clear that many German artists had gone to France and been
thoroughly trained in every detail of the new art, including mouldings,
tracery and decorative sculpture, and that it was to the united work
of groups of such French-trained men that buildings like the churches
Marburg and Cologne were due.
of Trier,
The first German architect of an important work where we can

watch the embodiment of the new ideas is the author of the choir of
Magdeburg cathedral. The entire cathedral is commonly reckoned as
Chap. I] GOTHIC
the earliest proto-Gothic Ger-
man structure, but the second
architect, who built the nave,
re\'erted somewhat to Roman-
esque features, as in the widely
spaced piers, so that the choir
is the better illustration. In
Fig. 353 is a view of the centre
of this choir and in Fig. 354
the interior of the galler}-,
where the structural system

can be studied. Evidently
German-taught and French-
taught workmen worked side
by side, the French models
sho^^'ing plainly in the major- 353 — Choir of cathedral, Magdeburg. (From
pholo.)
ity of the capitals. The ar-
rangement of granite shafts and statues is thoroughly Germanic,

so is the lack of mouldings in the arches, though this peculiarity, as
354 — Upper gallery in choir of cathedral, Magdeburg. (From photo.)

3o6 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
well as that of the shaft rings, is Cistercian. The gallery is very close
to French work of c. ii 50-1 170. It is supposed that the French
building which especially influenced the German architect was the
cathedral of Laon. The plan of the choir, at any rate, is entirely
French and Gothic, with a deambulatory and five radiating chapels
of polygonal outline. As this choir was founded in 1209 (completed
c. 1 and as the choir of Reims, with perhaps the earliest polygonal
234)
chapels, was founded in 121 2, it is evident that the Magdeburg archi-
tect (who changed from the circular to the polygonal scheme in the
course of construction, exactly as the Reims architect did) must have
been cognisant of the latest French developments. Yet he did not
use flying buttresses but relied upon heavy walling. Otherwise the
exterior of the apse is even more thoroughly French than the gallery.
The same group of craftsmen may have worked on the facade of the
cathedral of Halberstadt, also in Saxony, which will be described later,
and which also shows the influence of Laon.
In the cathedral of Limburg-on-the-Lahn, begun shortly before
1220 (consecr. in 1235), the entire scheme seems based on Laon,
according to some critics, on Noyon, according to others. It has
already been mentioned in Vol. II., p. 402, because its imposing
exterior has as yet hardly a trace of Gothic (see Fig. 345 on p. 396).
But the plan which is there given (p. 396) will supplement Fig. 355
in showing how the interior is an almost exact reproduction of the
French transitional scheme, except that the sparing use of the flying
buttress necessitated heavier masonry. This view, looking from

transept to west end, shows sexpartite vaulting, with alternation of
light and heavy piers; high gallery over the aisles with double arcades
in the nave, triple in the transept and choir; triforium below the
The modern colored
clearstory. barber-pole decoration is a mortifying
commentary on German taste. The only material deviation from
the French model is that the intermediate pier is square, not round,
of the plain type so common in German Romanesque. The stflting
of the wall ribs and intermediate vaulting shafts gives a genuine

Gothic twist to the vaulting, but its extremely domical shape is more
Angevin than Frankish. The rose-window in the facade, with its
eight oculi, is French (see especially Chartres) in scheme, but how
characteristically German in treatment — as, in fact, is true of the
entire structure!
St. Gereon of Cologne is another church already mentioned in
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY 307
Vol. II. (p. 407), and its curious nave, in which the Gothic work
appears, is in the form of an oblong decagon, begun c. 1220 and com-
pleted in 1227. It is of quite different character from the work at
Magdeburg and Limburg, with features copied from some more ad-
3S5 — Transept of cathedral, Limburg-on-the-Lahn. (From Ilarlet)
vanced French model, which, according to Dehio, is the Cathedral of

Soissons. The clearstory of two- and three-light \\-indo\vs uses the
plate tracer}-. The vaulting cells are similar in construction to some
early French apsidal cells; in fact it has been suggested that the
scheme of this strange interior resembles two apses set face to face.
3o8 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
There an interesting breadth and boldness in the composition, and

is
decided originaHty in the treatment of the niches and of the sub-

clearstory. Scattered and less important instances occur, but as they
are sporadic and not interrelated and do not show any special German
school as adopting the new ideas, we can pass without further delay to
pure Gothic work.
Just as there was no real "Transitional" style in Germany, neither
was there an "Early Gothic" style. In the same way as what stands
for transitional work is merely the inorganic mixture of imported and
native elements, so the earliest examples of unmixed Gothic came
when early Gothic had given place to developed Gothic in France.
Notre Dame, Chartres, Bourges, Amiens, Reims, Beauvais and even
St. Denis nave and St. Urbain at Troyes were built or in course of
construction when Strassburg, Cologne, Freiburg and Regensburg

were being built and it was from these perfected works that the Germans
drew their inspiration. The process of assimilation which these and
contemporary German buildings, such as Halberstadt (except the
fagade), Marburg, Trier, Marienstatt and Altenberg represent, lasted
until the beginning of the fourteenth century. Then, between c. 1320
and 1360, after aU residuum of Romanesque had been sloughed off,
there grew up a German Gothic tradition, which declined to preserve
many of the French features of plan, elevation, decoration and struc-
ture, which had been copied in the churches built heretofore, such as
the choir with crown of radiating chapels and the triforium.

its
It is in the upper Rhenish province, at Trier (Treves), that we find
the earliest direct importation from France. The church of the Virgin
at Trier was begun in 1227 and embodies the latest French novelty;
the suppression of the triforium.The plan is concentric and original;
we know no French prototype (Fig. 356), though it is generally sup-
of
posed to be merely the result of doubhng the choir of St. Yved of
Braisne (Fig. 357), face to face, making the entrance in the polygonal
chapel opposite the Lady-chapel or apse. The square tower over the
intersection with its lantern, corresponds to the central dome in a Greek
cross design,and this effect is accentuated by the four enormous piers
that support it and by the equal width of nave and transept if we —
may be allowed to call them such. In fact, as in so many Byzantine
plans, what would appear on the surface to be concentric is in elevation
a cross. The church is rather a large chapel attached to the big cathe-
dral, as has been described in Vol. II., pp. 408-410. The view given
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY 30Q
in Fig. 3 58 looks toward the
choir, and shows the variety of supports
that are used; the central column with four engaged shafts, as in Amiens
and Reims, the plain column of unusual slenderness, and the elabo-
rately grouped and moulded pier. The windows are of the de\'eloped
Reims- Amiens t}pe. There is a singular spirited felicit^' in ever>' pro-
portion and every detail. Imagine from the plan the effect of the
other three polygons with their re-entrant angles and their continuous
deambulatory and }'ou will ha^'e a composition both picturesque and
stately. The slenderness of the piers and the height of the lower
356 —Plan of Liebfraucnkircho, Trier. 357 — Plan of St. Y\ed, Braisne.

(From Dohmo.) (.From Michel.)
story are more extreme than in the Ile-de-France. The plain walling
immediately above, where we should e.xpect a continuation of the
clearstory in the apse, is a defect required b)* the rooting slant.
The charming church of St. Elizabeth at ^larburg has already
been referred to as the earliest example of an interior of the three
naved Hall-t\-pe outside France. It is, in a way, an epoch-making

church and in itself, also, it has a great deal of quiet simple beaut}'.
Begun 1235 and consecrated in 1283,^ it is an unusually homo-
in
geneous and pure German -version of French forms as well as French

structure. This can hardly be said, to be sure, of the plan, for that is
merelv a modification of the Romanesque trilobate scheme so common
'The vaulting at the ^vcst end and the spires were not completed till e. 1,350, long
after the Ffeiburg spire had given a model for open stonework.
3IO GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
at Cologne (see Vol. II., Fig. 40), with no lengthening of the choir
and no deambulatory or radiating chapels: merely a single polygonal
apsidal and transeptal ending. It is in fact a plain basilica. This
severity of plan has its counterpart in the simplicity of exterior
358 — Licblrauenkirche, Trier. (From photo.)
(Fig. 359). The use of a central pointed instead of a rose-window

shows that the architect was more influenced by late twelfth century
French design than by the more recent developments, though he
adopted the style of tracery in current use, which became quite rich
on the latter part of the work, on the west front. The twin towers
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY 3"
follow French models and their solid spires are interesting to compare
with the later German spires of such unrivalled delicacy. One feels
the lack of sculptured decoration, so integral a part of the French

facades of this age. emphasizes the fact that only at the time when
It
this church was practically completed, were German sculptors be-

ginning to follow French sculptural models. The Bamberg cathedral
sculptures of c. 1280 are now recognized as having been executed by
a German artist who had studied at Reims cathedral and copied
559 — St. Elizabeth, Jlarburg. (,From Joseph.,
his models quite From this beginning came the inspiration

closely.
that spread through Germany. The INIarburg church came too

early to feel it. On the other hand the handling of the decorative
sculpture in capitals, archivolts, friezes and tympana is extraordi-
narily good, and patterned on the best French work from which
it differs mainlv in the accentuation of line instead of the delicate
360 — Detail of main portal of St. Elizabeth, Marburg. (From photo.)
graduating o.f surfaces that is the French characteristic. This is
evident in Fig. 360, taken from one of the portals.

There are two other
points to notice: the ab-
sence of flying buttresses,
made unnecessary by the
equal height of the aisles,
and the rooiing of each

aisle-bay with independ-
ent roofs at right-angles
to that of the nave. This
was done in order to avoid
the ugl}' effect of a single
high-pitch roof covering
all three aisles —an un-
aesthetic form which, how-
ever, became the common
German type during the
later Gothic period (see
Fig. 361). The view of
the interior, stately and
simple without heaviness,
301— St. lilizabeth, iMarburg. (From Joseph.) shoWS the adaptation of
the Ue-de-France system of vault-

ing with crowns hardly rising above
the transverse arches, and not of the
Plantagenet domical system, which
might have been expected, as the
hall-t>qoe was unknown to the Ile-
de-France. The piers are of the
Reims rather than the Amiens type,
quite heaxy and with continuous
but narrow capitals. It is interest-
ing to note that, although the hall
design has, of course, eliminated tri-
forium gallery and nave clearstory,

making the structure logicall}' one
of a single stor}', the fiction of a
two-story structure is created b}' the
double line of windows in both na\'e
and choir, as we ha\'e already seen
in the apse at Trier. This is well
illustrated in the section in Fig. 362, 30-— Sy stem of St. KIizal)eth, Marburg.
(I'rom Choisy.)
taken from Choisy. If one were
to criticise further, it seems as if a truer feeling of Gothic verticality
would have been gi\-en by adopting the St. Denis type of pier, with
its vaulting shafts starting from the floor line, especiall}' because in
the hall-tjqoe the mere lengthening of the Reims pier sets the spring-
ing of the vaulting ribs at too high a Jevel for s}'nimetry. In order to
realize the changes introduced in the course
of time throughout Germany, in the process
of nationalizing this tyi:)e of hall church, refer-
ence should be made to Figs. 394, 397 and

399. It seems curious that its later adoption
and development should proceed not from

the Rhenish province but from Austria,
whence it worked back northward, and also
from the farthest north to which it came
from southwest France. Among the excep-
tions to this is a group of early churches in
the pro\-ince
^
of Hesse, which follow the JNIar-
-Cathedral ot Strassburg. ,- •
i
(From Dohme.) burg ty^pe Very literally, for nistance the

Cistercian church at Haina; and a second group in Westphalia, the

early home of the hall-type in Romanesque times, where the cathedral
of Minden, with three naves of almost equal height, is a fine instance

of local thirteenth century development.
364 — Strassljurg Cathedral from southeast. (From photo.)
The Rhine and Saxony; National Evolution. —The middle of the
thirteenth century is reached, then, without our discovering the con-

struction in Germany of a single church of the normal cathedral type
on Gothic principles. Even then, in the two glorious masterpieces
at Strassburg and Cologne, this type was only partially carried out,
at Strassburg in the nave and at Cologne in the choir.
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY
305— West front of Cathedral, Strassburg. (From photo.)
At Strassburg the plan in Fig. 363 shows a plain Romanesque

apse, and a transitional transept (Fig. 364). We can study in the
transept, better than in any other building in Germany, different
stages in the acceptance of transitional forms. Strassburg, wlien its
3i6 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
reconstruction first began, stood for certain local Alsatian character-

istics, such as we see in the churches of SS. Peter and Paul at Neu-
weiler and St. Arbogast at Rufach, where there is a distinct type of
transition. What the cathedral would have been if built on these
lines is shown by Plate III. The walling and piers are heavier than
366—Interior of Strassburg Cathedral, Irom aisle. (From photo.)
the heaviest French transition (c. 1 180-1200). The vaulting in the

right arm of the transept is later and
than in the rest and
loftier
belongs to a second transitional stage, later than 1200. The splendid
boldness and originality of the designer is particularly shown in
the
so-called "Angel" pier which supports the four vaults.
The view of the ex-

terior from the southeast
in Fig. 364 shows the ex-
terior of this end of the
transept with its round-
arched doors and windows
and the curious imitation
of early French rose-win-
dows above. Then, the
nave was planned c. 1250
and completed c. 1275 in
a style equalling the best
French work. In the gen-
eral view of the exterior
in Fig. 364, the effect is
somewhat dwarfed by the

fafade, but in Fig. 365
the richness of the de-
tail in the buttress-piers
and the structural sj^stem
stand side by side with
similar work at Reims
and Amiens.
If we set the view of
the interior of Strassburg
(Fig. 366) by the side of
one of St. Dehis (Fig.
117), which had only just

been built, it becomes
perfectly plain whence
the German architect bor-
rowed his nave system.
The only important dif-
ference is in the lower

proportions; and for this 367 —Strassburg Cathedral: fagade. (From photo.)
the German architect is
not to blame, as a glance at Fig. 364 will show that the height of the
vaulting was predetermined by the already existing transept. At the
same time greater apparent height as well as lightness would have been
3if GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
achieved had the spring

of the main vaults been
set higher, as at St.
Denis, with less pointed

and heavy transverse
arches and less shifting
of the longitudinal ribs.^
Yet, it would be hard to

find a more satisfying ef-
fect than in this interior,
even if it lacks the soar-

ing qualities we shall find
at Cologne. Its design is
attributed to the famous

architect Erwin of Stein-
bach, but it was prob-

ably begun before he
took charge.^
The Strassburg f ajade
is most notable in
the
Germany and is a work
of extraordinary interest
and undeniable beauty.

It is perhaps the most
beautiful of all Gothic
facades. We know so
much of its history that
it is an object lesson in
368- - Virgins of west portal, Strassburg Cathedral.
(From photo.) the matter of the chang-
ing ideals between the
thirteenth and fifteenth centuries in the Rhenish province. A glance
at Fig. 367 shows what an enormous self-suflacient structure it-
is, even without its second tower. It also makes plain the fact,
^The vaulting of the nave was renewed in 1454-1469.

-The sculpture of the portals ascribed to Erwia's time is executed with marvellous
fineness, surpassing the more epic work at Bamberg. The Virgins, of which two are
given in P'ig. ,368, are perhaps the most noted of individual Gothic statues. .\s a
piece of later Gothic sculpture of unusual decorative value, the pulpit is given in Fig.
369, which is perhaps the most interesting of its class. Here also the details of the
window tracery can be studied.
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERAIANY 319
pro\xd any case by an early drawing, that the entire solid third
in
story extending from the roof ridge to the base of the towers, was an
addition to the original design made to suit the new ideas of the late
fourteenth centur}'. In the original scheme, which is given in an.early
drawing, still existing, the solid part of the facade was a scjuare,
as at Xotre Dame, on which rose the octagonal story that was to
carry the spire. These two lower stories were finished in about 129S
369 — Cathedral, Strassburg: view of aisle from nave, with pulpit. (From photo)
under the architect Erwin of Steinbach, to whom the original design

of the facade is was after 1350 that the third stor>'
attributed. It
as it stands was planned, in harmony with the current tendenc)- to

o\'er-elongation. The scheme was that of Ulrich of Ensingen (1399-
1419), except that a further elongation was carried out by his successor.
Hultz, who interposed a short additional story directly under the
spire I The spire itself, with its buttress-like corner staircases and its
broken lines of superimposed stones of tiny interpenetrating, open
octagonal tabernacles, forming a sort of jagged pj-ramid, is the greatest
existing tour-de-force in stone lace work, worked out with apparent

irresponsibility but with the most real geometrical science, as the de-
tails in Figs. 370, 371, indicate. In

design both tower and spire remain
unique. At a time given to over-
elaboration the lines were kept clean
and sharp, with only a minimum of
flamboyant tracery, for example, at
and below the base of the spire. It
is true that the original design was
more elaborate as well as more artis-
tic, that it was modified for economy,
especially in disconnecting the verti-

cal terminations, and that the actual
workmanship of the masonry is rather
crude if examined closely. Still this
remains the most beautiful tower in
the most beautiful facade.
The means by which the unusual
effect is obtained is the system of free-
standing decorative stonework which
masks the solid facade at a distance
ofabout 14 inches. This etherial net-
work of dehcate and elongated lines
casting sharp shadows is even set
across the large second story windows,
and its technique is well shown in
Fig. 365. Though it is doubtful
whether scheme originated as
this
early as Erwin of Steinbach it ap-
pears in an early drawing for the
fagade,and can hardly be later than
1315^1330, though the openwork gable
over the main door seems of later de-
370 — S|iire of cathedral, Slrassburg. sign and the tracery in the corners
(From photo.)
around the rose-window and in the
upper gallery can hardly be earlier than c. 1400, on account of their
flamboyant lines.
The activity of the Strassburg chantier bet'iveen c. iiSo and 1450
gave supremacy among the German masonic lodges when these were
it
organized. Its influence was at once illustrated at Freiburg.

The next early masterpiece of the Rlienish school, the cathedral
of Freiburg, is also a pol-pourri of different periods. The plan, Fig.
372, shows how when construction began, at the choir end, early in
the thirteenth centur)-,
Romanesque was still
dominant, with transi-

tional elements, as at
Strassburg(Fig. 363). To
this stage belong the tow-
ers flanking the apse and
the arms of the transept,
which has ribbed vaults
and pointed arches (c.
1230-1250). Anewarchi-
-Detail of spire, Strassburg cathedral. (From 72 — Cathedral of Freiburg in

ViolIet-le-Duc.) Breisgau. (From Dohme.)
tect, trained in French Gothic, must then have been put in charge of
building the nave. He put up the two bays next to the transept,
between 1250 and 1270. But, while contemporar)' with the Strassburg
nave, it is far from following French models as closely. The German
tendency to reduce elevations, simplify or diminish units and decoration
receives numerous concessions, especially when a second architect had
:
322 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE fBk. XII
superseded the and had given up the triforium. As at Strassburg

first
the piers are grouped and the vaulting shafts start from the
pavement
the arcades are low and wide. The effect is marred by the absence
of triforium without a lengthening of clearstory, which

leaves a broad
iiy^ .^ -'-^^-iJuflL 'n: ~ -1-

373 — View of Freiburg cathedral from soutlieast. (From photo.)
flat wall space. This would not have occurred in France, England
or Spain, but appears not to have been disliked in Germany, as it
reappears soon after in St. Lawrence at Nuremberg in somewhat more
extreme form, and even at Ulm cathedral. The clearstor}' windows,
also, are small : such as had not been used in France since before 1 200.
The proportions of the aisle-windows are too squat for beauty (Fig.
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERIMANY 323
373). If one examines, now, the nave west of the first two bays, the
general design of the four remaining bays is seen to differ Httle, but
the tracery changcs_considerabl}- and the upper clearstor}' has three

instead of two lights— a cliange which we found to have talcen place
in France between Reims and Amiens (Fig. 374). The reason is that
therewas a long intermission at this point. Work was stopped on the
nave and commenced at the west facade, on the beautiful tower which
374 — System of buttresses of cathedral, Freiburg. (.From Hartel.)
is one of the glories of Germany. It was begun 126S-1270 and it not

only furnished a model for future one-towered facades but for the towers
of open stone-work that were to exercise the ingenuity of the German
stone cutters and designers of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries.
As was completed in 12SS it is the earliest of these German master-
it
pieces and shows what the twin towers of Strassburg and Cologne
would have been had they been carried out as planned at this time,
because the drawing for them which is still preserved shows that the
Freiburg and Strassburg towers were drawn in the same workshop if
not by the same hand. The entire west front serves as base for the
tower in five receding stories, unbroken except for one splendid

portal and a purposely small central window. There may be French
forerunners for its general design, but there appear to have been none
for itsopenwork spire' and the large windows of its octagon.
Differing from Strassburg, whose primitive apse remains, the
Freiburg structure, some time after the completion of its tower, re-
ceived a new choir, equal in size to the main body. It was begun
after 1359, on the plans of John of Gmiind, of the same school as the
Peter Parler who worked at Prague. It has both an ambulatory
and radiating chapels and as at Prague these chapels are continued
in the choir nave in place of outer aisles, but the chapels have only
two instead of three faces, according to the common Germanic process
of simplification. It is difficult to say whether the scheme for this
choir came through Prague or directly from France. It received the
curious modification of the inner line of piers of the ambulatory

imagined by the Gmiind school, to which I will refer later, by which
four instead of six piers correspond to the six responds of the chapel
walls. This modification of the French apse gives a more open,
widely -spaced ambulatory, obviating the use of narrow stilted arches
and was in harmony with the German love of space. This Freiburg
choir is one of thg most extensive in Germany and in itself a wonder-
fully effective and Beautiful interior, but its dimensions dwarf the rest
of the building and are out of scale.
It is in the cathedral of Cologne that Germany approaches most
completely the norms developed by the leaders of the advanced
French School of the thirteenth century. Aside, however, from its
plan and general design, which have been carried out as originally
planned, the actual handiwork of the thirteenth to fourteenth cen-
turies appears first only in the choir and then on the fagade. It was
in 1248 that the building of the choir was commenced under the
architect Gerard. It is not certain that he was a German. In any
case he must have not only been trained in the Ile-de-France or
Champagne but have studied the drawings made by its masters for
the great buildings then in course of construction, because the Cologne
choir shows acquaintance with a development and amalgamation of
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY 32s
the schemes of the two most perfect French choirs of Amiens and
. Beaiu'ais. Now the Amiens choir was not actually begun until ten
years after Cologne (125S) and the Beauvais choir, while commenced
in 1247. was not completed until 1272. Evidently, then, Gerard had
been given access to the drawings already made for these two choirs,
and had adopted ele-

ments from each, '\\'hile
preserA'ing considerable
originality.
Cologne had seen the
most splendid displaj-
of Romanesque archi-
tecture of an}- German
cit)'. The cathedral was
planned on a \-er3' large
scale e\en for that am-
bitious age. It differed
from its French prede-
cessors in having a more
projecting transept and
five in place of three
aisles in the main bod}'.
A reference to the plan
in Fig. 375 shows that
there was a shortening of
the nsLxe corresponding
to its widening, and that
the pair of western to^^'-
ers assumed enormous

proportions in plan, as -Cathedral of ColoL^ne. (Frnm Dnhmc.)
they were each made to
cover the width of two aisles instead of one as was the case in France.
The architect opened up their base on four instead of with a single
vaulting compartment. Whether this was the original scheme or not
it had been adopted at the time of the comi)letion of the choir m 1322.
The fairest view of the exterior is that shown in Fig. 37b, which
gives prominence to the choirand shows the articulation of the towers
with the church without permitting them to dwarf it. An old print
shows exactly in what condition the work was left at the close of the
Middle Ages, with the crane still standing on the unfinished towers,
and the big gap between fagade and choir with only a small portion
as the
of one side of the nave at the transept built and then walled in
choir had been to wait for better days. In the majority of such gigan-
tic undertakings the work was carried along during the late Gothic and
376 — Cathedral of Cologne, showing choir. (From photo.)
Renaissance periods, but in this case it was not until the nineteenth
century that the task of the early Gothic masters was taken up. It
was done at a time when archaeological study of Gothic was well ad-
vanced, so that the style of the original scheme was strictly adhered
to; hence Cologne does not show the succession of styles that is so
usual, but has a perfect unity which is also a disadvantage because it

is the product of archaeological and not of artistic feeling.
Chap. II GOTHIC IN GERMANY 3-^7
j77 — Cathedral of Cologne: view from choir, (l-'rom photo.)
The view of the mterior m Fig. 377 is taken from the end of the
choir in order to gi^•e as much prominence as possible to the original
part of the structure. Comparing it with the view of Amiens in
Fig. 64 we notice at once that neither the string-course at the base

of the clearstory nor the cornice at the base of the triforium are carried
across the triple vaulting-shaft, and that the shafts for the diagonal
ribbing start from the pavement instead of from the capital of the
main arcade; in other words, the system is that of St. Denis, a scheme
which adds apparent to real height by strengthening the vertical lines.
The impression of great height is justified by the measurements.
At Chartres the width of nave is 46 feet and its height is 106, giving
the ratio of 2.3: at Amiens these measurements are 46 and 144, with
the ratio of 3.1. But at Cologne the figures are 41 and 155 feet, giving
a ratio of 3.8, with a nave five feet narrower and eleven feet higher than
its French model. In another particular the Cologne choir goes a
step beyond Amiens; that is in the development of tracery and the
abolition of remnants of wall space. The triforium is not only glazed
„ and united in design to
the clearstor}', but the
spandrels of the trifo-
rium arches are traceried
as at St. Denis; the wall
space between the crown
of the main arcades and
the base line of the tri-
forium is decreased, and

the spring of the main
\'aulting-ribs is set as
high as possible, to di-
minish the area of the
vaulting cells. In order
to secure the glazing of
the triforium, the pa\'il-
. ion roof was used o\'er

^^the aisles, as in the
78 — Daul of c\t(.ri f m\c St CiUiLrinc 0[ 1
LiiiiLi 1) Amiens choir (see p. 59).
(From Adam>.)
One improvement must
be granted in the inner semi-circle of the choir. At Amiens the stilted
arcades seem narrow and the piers relatively hea\y; at Cologne this
diminished by making the piers with a pear-shaped instead of
effect is
a circular core, a peculiarity borrowed perhaps from the Beau\-ais

scheme, which allowed of an increased span in the arcade. Other
characteristics in which Cologne is closer to the St. Denis nave than
to the earlier Reims-Amiens-Beauvais group is in the multiplication

of shafts in the piers and the loss of the individuality of its central
core; the diminution in the size and importance of the capital. Taking
these facts into consideration, together with the continuity of effect
gWen by the five-aisled
body of the church as com-
pared with the three-aisled
French cathedrals, it is
clear that the interior of

Cologne, while it is a mere
transcript of French forms
without the slightest infu-
sion of Germanicisms, gives
as a result something slight-
h' different from anj' that
we find in the larger French
cathedrals the culmination
;
in fact of the developed

manner, before the rise of
the geometric phase. The

effect of frigidity, when we
analyse it, is due largely to
the fact, that the body of
the church and the bulk of
the towers are modern in 379- -Intcrior of St. Catherine, Oppenheim.
(Freim Dehio.)
execution, even though car-
ried out according to the antique design. One of the interesting
points in this connection is the accidental discover)' in a shop of the
immense ancient project on parchment for the facade, a work of the
fourteenth century, and used in the modern work.
The fact that German critics see in the exc_[uisitc church of St.
Catherine at Oppenheim the hand of the Cologne school, and that
its architect did actually come from Cologne, proves what has been
said. It is not large, has a plan of the t\pe of St. Y\'ed of Braisne
(Fig. 357), and shows the influence
Champagne. Still, it has a
of
special character quite unique both in arrangement and in the t}-pe of
its lavish ornament. In Fig. 378 are four bays on its south flank. The
buttresses are internal, between a line of low chapels which appear in
the interior view of Fig. 379 as less in the form of chapels than inter-
33° GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
rupted outer aisles. The architect has taken directly from France the
closing up gap between clearstory and arcade and he has used the
of the
Norman form of the pavilion roof over the chapels in order to accom-
plish it. The richness, fantasy and variety of the tracery in windows
and gables is unequalled in Germany, I believe, and very unusual for
its date, which is about 1300.
The Cologne become acclimated in Germany.
style did not The
similarity to it in the contemporary abbey church of Altenburg, in the
380 — Cathedral of Halberstadt. (From photo.)
same province, is not as strong as it is generally supposed, considering

that its supports are not piers but plain cylindrical shafts, as at Notre
Dame. It was a Cistercian building and its prototj'pes are such
Cistercian churches of Northern France as Ourscamp. After 1322
the choir of Cologne was walled
and closed up. Its orthodox
off
French scheme of radiating chapels was not adopted: the tri-apsidal

Champagne plan was preferred by later German architects; still they
later evolved a polygonal choir with ambulatory but without radiating
chapels whichbecame practically a national tjpe that went even

beyond Germany, as, for example, to JMilan cathedral. Wc cannot,
to be sure, understand how such a t}i:ie could be jireferred aesthetically,
but neither can we understand how the English could prefer their
I I I f I I
A
7' f /
,^^-VV^V-:^^-^î4
11*1111
r*™A
3S1 — Plan of Halbcrstadt cathedral. (From Dohme.)
plain square apses to the French design. It is merely an idiosyncrasy

to be chronicled.
A similar unity to that at Cologne appears, for other reasons, in the
cathedral of Halberstadt. It is characteristically Saxon in its sim-
plicity when compared with Rhenish work. The \-iew gi\'en in Fig. 3S0
is almost as good as a ground plan, but the ground plan in Fig. 381
will emphasize its great length.

The apse is a pentagon with deam-
bulator}' but without radiating
chapels except for the low central
Lady Chapel. The transept is al-
most in the centre, the choir na\'e

having four bays beside the apse,
to the eight bays of the main b<^Hy.
This long and narrow plan is un-

usual. The building began, con-
trary to custom, at the west front.
In Fig. 380 the towers show plainly
an earlier style than the nave, but
it is not so clear at first glance that
the body is of different periods,
except that the great window in

the transept could hardly be earlier
than the fourteenth centur}- and
presupposes English influence.
The view of the nave in Fig. 382 3S2 — Cathedral of Halbcrstadt. (From photo.)
shows a scheme and vaulting shafts midway between the

of piers
Amiens and St. Denis naves. Although there is no triforium, the

height of the arcades and the length of the clearstory reduce to a
minimum the intermediate wall space, so avoiding this disagreeable
feature of the Freiburg interior. The main vaults are unusually high
in proportion to the width of the nave, having the ratio of 3.02, which
is about that of Amiens. The
transept is the part that most
clearly shows the handiwork
of the fifteenth century. The
fagade with its porch and
towers appears to date be-
tween 1220 and 1240, and
soon after (1240-76) came the
first three bays of the nave,
which determined the rest,
their design being apparently

followed. The view of the
fagade in Fig. 383 helps us to
see the connection with both
Magdeburg and Laon which
the lower part of the struc-
ture indicates, with its un-
Germanic planning of a pro-
jectmg triple portal on French
models which was never car-
ried out. The choir was not

finished until 1402 and then
followed a completion or re-
construction of the transept
and east end nave and, between 1470 and i486, the construction
of the
of the main vaults, which originally seem to have been planned as not
quadripartite but sexpartite, following the French fashion that was
given up c. 1200 —another sign of an early French model of the Laon
period. Taken altogether Halberstadt is most instructive even if it
is not altogether 'beautiful.

A small church at Wimpfen
Thai on the Neckar is historically
in
interesting because we possess the contemporary chronicle which re-
lates how in 1269 a skillful architect who had just come from Paris
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY ^1,7,
was placed in charge of the reconstruction which was to be in "the

French Style," opcrc Fraiicigcno. This is the "classic" passage relating
to the recognition by Germany in the new Gothic style as French,
and has been a trifle overworked, perhaps. The architect was rather
a German educated architecturally in Paris, than a Frenchman. The
church itself remains and bears out the statement, though its modest
dimensions and simple details recall parish churches rather than
cathedrals.
Cistercians. —There
no doubt, however, that French architects
is
had for years been coming to different parts of Germany to build

for the Cistercian monks who were founding monasteries from Bur-
gundy. Such was, for instance, the choir of their church at Marien-
statt near Hachenburg in Nassau, begun in 1243, which is one of the
earliest, if not the earliest choir of thoroughly French plan, with seven
radiating chapels. The Marienstatt church is only one of several
cases which show that while in Italy and England Cistercian archi-
tectural models come from the primitive source of the order, Burgundy,
•• •
• • -^ 4^ • ^
aiii;.j-
384— Choir of Cistercian cluirch of Rid- 385— Clioir of Cistercian cluirch of
dagshausen. (From Dohme.) Ebracli. (From Dolime.)
with its and undecorated forms and its preference for simple
simplified
apsidal endings, Germany received some Cistercian influx from
further north where the order had adopted Ile-de-France forms. An
interestingly rich development of Cistercian choir may be mentioned
at this point. It is illustrated at the monasteries of Riddagshausen,
Ebrach, etc. 384 and 385). These choirs replace the ordinary
(Figs.
plain Cistercian square apse with square flanking chapels. They are
provided with both ambulatory and a complete line of contiguous
chapels, but these are not radiating and the outline remains
unbrokenly
rectangular. It is rich and yet far less eft'ective than the circular end-
ing. English Cistercians

tried the ambulatory, but
not very extensively (By-
land,Dore), and never
with the chapels, so
this German Cistercian
scheme seems unique.
Germany owes much to
the Cistercians not only in
stone but in brick archi-
tecture. Heiligenkreuz,
Lilienfeldand Maulbronn
for stonework, Lehnin and
Chorin for brickwork,
were works of the first
rank and served as (Fig.

386 — Choir of Abbey church, Chorin. (From HartuiiR.)
3S6) models. In cases
such as the Swabian mon-
astery of Salem and the
Austrian of Zwetl, the
conservatism we associate
with the order is replaced
by a daring originality
that showed the way to
the cathedral builders.
The group at Maul-
bronn is famous as one of
the best-preserved transi-
tional and early Gothic
monastic establishments
in Europe. The plan is
given in Fig. 387, with

the tj-'pically plain facade
and closed porch. One
alwa}-s knows the distri-
bution of the various units
in a Cistercian establish-
3S7- -Plan of Cistercian monastery of Maulbronn. ment: the Chapter-house

(From King.) in the centre of the wing
next to the church (k); the Refectory (f) opposite the church, with
the Fountain-house (g) opposite its doorway. The view of the clois-
ter in Fig. 3SS shows several Cistercian ear marks which when they are
met elsewhere almost inevitably pro^•e a direct or indirect influence
of the order. They are: the banding of the shafts and the breaking
3SS — Cloister of monastery, Maulbronn. (From Dohme.)
of the vaulting shafts to rest on brackets, corbels or cith-de-Iampc.

Another characteristic is the use of ver}- heavy ribs. We will now
return to the study of the process of assimilation and the development
of a specifically German t}'pe.
TJic South. —As an illustration of the continuity of tradition, noticed
at Halberstadt, that often obtained in buildings begun after c. 1270,

the cathedral of Regensburg in Bavaria may be cited. Its choir and
transept were built between 1275 and 1309. The view of the exterior
389 shows a purity of style and a logical development

of the choir in Fig.
of tracery that keeps pace with the best French work later than
c. 1 250, as instanced in the
gallery between the large
windows. The propor-
tions, also, are perfect; a
branch of Gothic science
in which German archi-
tects were too often defi-
cient, even in such build-
ings as Freiburg cathedral.
The plan was certainly
the work of an architect
educated in France, who
also oversaw the building
of a large part of the choir
(except the upper part),
the lower part of the south
transept and the begin-
ning of the south aisle,
according to Dehio; but

he was forced to reduce
and simplify to suit Ger-
man ideas. His French
models were Burgundian,
perhaps St. Benigne at
Dijon.
The body of the church
followed slowly, for the
most part shortly before
and after 1400, but on the
old scheme. It was not
389 — Choir of cathedral, Regensburg. (From Joseph.) until toward 1500, how-
ever, that the fagade was
completed, on the scheme of one of the Roritzers, who were perhaps
the foremost of the German geometricians in stonework of the fifteenth
century. In Fig. 390 have been placed, side by side, three projds
for
this fajade, on which I shall comment later, and on the left the facade
T^- i^fa
"
--ritfiHi'^
J ji.v, .-^' - î
^T^r^'^v
K-e^-^^=;â
'"-^^^^^^m
3gi — System of cathedral, Regcnsburg. (From King.)
as it was actually carried out, the gable being completed by Matthaus

Roritzer toward i486.
It is curious to note the simplicity of its plan as compared with a
tjqiical French cathedral, differing in this from the Rhenish cathedrals.

It is a simple basilica with three aisles, each ending in a plain polj'gonal
—

339
apse; without radiating chapels or ambulatory or projecting
it is
tran-
sept. In this simplicity it is important as setting an
exam])le in
Germany in about 1275
which was potent in de-
termining the national
ground plan schemes.
For this reason it is illus-
trated here in unusual

detail, in Fig. 391 where,
the upper half relates to

the choir and the lower
half to the nave. This
brings out clearly the de-
velopment of glazed sur-
face in the choir \\'here
even the angles are
glazed in the lower clear-
story. The gables in the
upper clearstory would,
if designed before 1300,
show the influence of
Champagne. There is a
curious archaicism in the
lower clearstory of the
nave —^probably a Ger-
manicism which fails to
make the units coalesce.

There is a notable re-
duction in the height of

the vaulting of the na\e
in relation to the \vidth
of the building, when
compared to French in-
teriors, apparently in or-
der to bring the propor- 3g: — Cathedral of Ulm, after completion of tower.
(From Joseph.)
tions of the total width
and height scheme of the equilateral triangle
of the building into the
a proportionmore Romanesque than Gothic. This relati\-e lowness of
the nave made it unnecessary to ha\'e more than a single battery of
flying buttresses. These and the buttress piers retain the simplicity
of design prevalent previous to 1275, and give the feeling that the
architects of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had followed the
—
drawings of the original architect a theory made exceedingly probable
by the preservation even to the present day of so many of the original
drawings of the German cathedrals.
An example of a national German monument is the cathedral of
Ulm. It is the largest medieval church in Germany. It is also the
finest example of the developed style in the south. ^ The recent
erection, or tather completion, of its enormous
tower has now made it unnecessary to use one's
imagination as to its exterior. It is the culmina-
tion of the type of Freiburg cathedral, and the
tower is over 500 feet high (161 met.), the
highest in existence (Fig. 392).
The plan in Fig. 393 shows the simplest
form of German choir, practicaUy nothing but a
lengthened basilical apse and the entire plan is
that of a five-aisled basilica without transept,

as Regensburg was that of a three-aisled basilica.
The two towers flanking the choir act as a
balance to the central tower, in front of which
the triple porch is inordinately stilted in order to
avoid being dwarfed. In connection with this
tower it is interesting to note that it has been
built according to the original drawing made by
393 — Planof Ulm Cathc
dral. (From Dolime.) the architect of the cathedral, INIathaus Roblin-
ger, who designed the facade and tower soon
after 1477. was begun on a smaller scale, to be only as
Evidently it
wide as the projections on either side of the apse. Ulrich, who gave
it the five-aisled scheme would certainly have planned a richer choir.
The view of the interior given in Fig.

394 is the most characteristic,
far more so than one taken in the na.ve, which would have been com-
paratively commonplace even if impressive. But this view from the
right hand end of the outer aisle, shows how the architect
skillfullv
combined the beauties of a hall church with the scheme of a high
The square content in meters is: at Ulm 5100 sq. m.; at Strassburg 4100 sq. m •
at Vienna 3200 sq. m. The greater dimensions of Cologne (6200 sq. m.)
do not count
as the nuve is modern.
central nave by two expedients: by elevating the spring of the aisle

vaults quite high above that of the nave arcade and by making the
correspondingly elevated middle shafts extraordinarily slender. The
main objection to this is the awkward lack of functional connection
with the arcading of the nave, and the curious space left between its
394 — Interior of Ulm Cathedral fnim further aisle. (From photo.)
archivolts and the wall ribs of the aisle vaulting. The ribbing of
these aisle vaults is characteristically flamboyant, even though resting
on well marked capitals. The crossing of the ridge ribs and diagonal
ribs is a commoneT feature in Germany than in France and interferes
here with what would otherwise be a fan-shape efl'ect. The workman-

ship at Ulm, both outside and inside, is the best in Germany, and
illustrates the remarkable virtuosity attained by the stone-mason

guilds of Swabia, Franconia and the Rhine provinces between 1350
and 1425. The history of the building shows that though begun in
1377 at the choir it was not until an architect of genius, Ulrich of
Ensingen, was put in charge in 1392, that its building assumed para-
mount importance, involving both widening and lengthening. He
seems to have been the author of the final plan. Two generations
of the same family followed, completing the main vaults in 147 1 and the
aisle vaults in 1478. All critics remark on the contrast between the
richness of the exterior, especially the facade and the severity of the
interior, so apparent in the nave, with its expanse of fiat wall surface
similar to that at Freiburg. This was the consequence of the decision
of the architect not to employ the paviUon-roof scheme of Cologne
over the double aisles but the less dangerous lean-to roof. The view
given in Fig. 392 shows this clearly and illustrates the enormous length
of unsupported and highly decorated flying buttresses, which is another
proof of the daring of these German masons. The height of the nave,
42 met., equals Amiens. Until Boblinger took charge in 1480 the
great western tower had not progressed far if at all above the portal.
It is interesting that at the very time when the committee in charge
of the work at Regensburg cathedral was obliged to decide between
a single tower and a double tower facade and did so in favor of two
towers, the Ulm architect was busy building the three lower stories of
the greatest single tower ever planned.
In connection with the cathedrals of Ratisbon (or rather Regens-
burg) and of Ulm it is in point to call attention to these drawings of
such cathedrals including also those of Strassburg and Cologne.
Some of these are of large size and on parchment, e. g. those of Cologne
and Ulm. They belong to the century and a half between c. 1300 and
1450. Some are original; others seem to be copies of lost originals.
Some remain as projets that were not accepted; others were evidently
rejected; while others again formed the basis of the work so far as it
was carried on. They have been of immense practical importance
in modem restorations and completions.
For instance, in the splendid
tower at Ulm, the original plan of the architect Boblinger was followed,
because he was in charge of the cathedral when the completion of the
tower was planned and his drawing, still preserved, would have been
the basis of the work had been carried to completion in the fifteenth
it
century. We have already seen how such drawings enable us, in the
case of the Strassburg fagade to see how the original plan of the thir-
teenth century was modihed in the fifteenth century, to suit the new
ideas. Xow, in the case of the Regensburg fayade the three drawings
that are preser\-ed were none of them followed in the construction.
They e\'iclently date from the late fourteenth century, and were pre-
pared in competition by different architects or as alternate schemes
by the same architect, so that the chapter of the cathedral and
its advisers might decide whether they would prefer the single
tower or the double tower t3-pe. It has been noticed that while a
two-tower design was used it embodied some of the features of these
central tower drawings, notably the small porch and the windows.
Shortly before Ulm gaA-e such fame to the
vSwabian school an important church had been
commenced at Gmlind, that of the Holy Cross
(1351-1414), by the founder of the same family
of architects named Parler who worked at Prague
and throughout German}- and e\en in Italy
(Milan cathedral). This church at Gmiind and
the ideas (Fig. 395) of the school established the
supremac}' of the hall type not only in Swabia
but far be}'ond it. The choir ambulatory, as
well as the aisles, was given the hall elevation;
and the placing of the towers in projection

ob\'iated the usual hea^•iness at the entrance.
The plan shows the elaborate systems of ^-ault-
ing ribs de\-eloped in Germany during the four-
teenth centur)'. Se^'eral varieties are here com-
bined of star and fan and reticulated designs.
It made possible the use of only four ambulatory 505 — Church of !St. Cross
at Gmiind. (From
supports to correspond to eight chapel piers.
Dchio.)
Also in Swabia the Frauenkirche at Esslingen
was in part by the same architects as Ulm cathedral and shows the
same scheme of a central tower at the fagade. It was begun in 1360,
some time before Ulm, as a three-aisled hall church with a high-pitch
roof covering naê and aisles. A later and even more beautiful
version the west front of the Alarienkirche at Reutlingen (Fig. 396).
is
In examining into the origin of the spread of the hah scheme

at this
Gmiind from Austria, from

time, Dehio believes that it came to
e.g.
type
Zwetl and the cathedral of Yienna. On the other hand the hall
was known in Westphalia as early as the thirteenth century; this is

proved by the cathedral of Minden.
At Zwetl, in 1343, we see an interesting innovation in the plan
of the choir of this Cistercian church, an early example of the
plain
polygonal outline with a larger num-

ber of sides than those of the inner
polygon of the ambulatory. This pro-
duced a series of irregular vaulting
compartments in the ambulatory and
so increased the constructive difficul-
ties, but the idea became, neverthe-
less, fairly popular as it gave greater

freedom in designing apses. It was
followed almost immediately (13 51) in
this epoch-making church of Gmiind
in Swabia, and in some Bohemian
churches; and then, later, in such
churches as the Frauenkirche at In-
golstadt. The form was, of course, a
modification of the plan of the Hal-
berstadt choir (see Fig. 381). It is
illustrated in Fig. 395. This uitro-

mission into the general movement of
the south makes a few remarks on

Austrian architecture necessary
In Austria one must distinguish be-
tween the German provinces, includ-
ing Vienna, Bohemia and Hungar\^
It is an interesting circumstance that
while Austria was, quite naturally,
later than the Rhenish provinces and
Swabia in joining the moA-ement, she
soon became an important factor in
nationalizing it by her frank adoption
396- -The Marienkirche at Reutlingen.
(From Dohme.) and development of the hall-type in
a way that reacted strongly upon the
north during the fourteenth century, by means of buildings like St.
Stephen of Vienna and the Cistercian abbey church of Zwetl. Another
noticeable thing is the prominence taken by monastic establishments.
far greater throughout Austria than in any other part of Germany.

Large cathedrals, we shall see, were infrequent. In this the Cister-
cians took at first the
lion's share to be fol-
lowed by the Francis-

cans, Dominicans and
their offshoots. The
hall-like effect of .the
interior of the Zwetl

choir is given in the
section in Fig. 397, with
its massive piers. How
in brick architecture
the windows as here
are given an exces- 397 — Choir ot monastic cliurch, Zwetl. (From Deliio.)
sively lancet form has
already appeared in the Chorin choir (Fig. 3S6) with a noble simplicity
and lightness.
In the dearth of important cathedral structures in Austria proper,
the cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna has a unique interest for this
region, notwithstanding its unfinished state, because it is its most
monumental early embodiment of the
hall-church type, and because of its
splendid tower. It belongs to two

distinct periods, which even the plan
will make clear: a choir of the four-
teenth centuiy (completed 1340) and
a nave and tower mainh' of the fif-
teenth century, commenced in 1359

(Fig. 398). The transept is nothing
but the basement of the two enormous
flanking towers, which were planned to
be the most monumental existing in
this position. Only one of these, that
of the south transept, was completed.

Another peculiarity of plan is that the
398 —Plan ,,,,,.

of cathedral, \ lenna.
(From Dohme.)
equal
^
tically the Same

...
aisles almost but not quite (four-fifths)
the width of the nave; and prac-

ratio was given to the
elevation of their vaults, so that there is no fiat wall space in the main
nave even though the springing of its vaults is at a slightly higher
level. The grouping of the vaulting ribs is extremely awkward. The
structural form of the masonry is substantially that of a continuous
pointed barrel vault
intersected at each bay
by another barrel vault
on a much lower level,
the adjustment of the

surfaces being by means
of inverted pyramid-
oidal conoids (Fig.
399). The setting of

the spring at so low
a level brings quite a
mass of masonry in-
to these conoids with

pecuhar effect. The
absence of capitals, the
multitude of mould-
ings to the piers rising
uninterruptedly to the
vaulting gives some-
thing like the effect of
the spray of an archi-
tectural fountain. This
399 — Bay of Cathedral, Vienna. (From Dehio.) is secured partly by

projecting the mould-
ings so as to practically make them free from the central circular
shaft with which they are connected only by a narrow necking. The
use of pier statues and tabernacles is the worst in Germany. The
clearstory is enormous and is crowned by an extraordinarily rich
traceried gable.
Nothing can redeem the exterior in its unfinished state. The
single roof with its inordinate pitch dwarfs the great tower and would
have dwarfed the western facade. It is the ultimate expression of
this most unfortunate of Germanic There is the closest
peculiarities.
connection between the great southern tower and the Regensburg
towers, not completed till after 1500, and as the Vienna tower was
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GER]MANY 347
completed in 1433, it must be regarded as the greatest work of its

class since the Freiburg and Strassburg towers. It is clear from the
projection of the two ba}'S next to the f agade that two equall}- enormous
western towers were planned, as wide as the aisles, comj)leting a
^^ •
mi
401 — Spire uf Church

of Maria Sliegen,
Vienna. (From
(From pholo.) photo.)
400- -\"icnna Cathedral.
may safely be said to compose the most la\-ish and

quartette which
unrealisable scheme planned during the Gothic era
(Fig. 400).
Before lea^-ing Vienna it will be interesting to see

how the local
peculiar late form of openwork spire which is
school produced a
It is the charming tower of
strongly affected b}- the domical outline.
St. Maria Stiegen (Fig. 401).
Before studying the non-Germanic provinces of Austria it will
be more logical to complete our survey of the other provinces further

north and west, especially in Franconia, Bavaria and Saxony.
There are at Nuremberg, in
Franconia, three works of the thir-
teenth to fourteenth centuries,
that are typical of very different
currents and illustrate the fact
that one cannot find homogeneous
local schools in Germany; al-
though there does appear to

be some correspondence between
Franconian and Swabian work.
These are the churches of St.
Lawrence, of St. Sebald and the

Frauenkirche. The contrast ap-
pears at once in the two facades.
In the St. Lawrence (Fig. 402)
facade we see the evolution of
the old Romanesque type such a
appears at Limburg, etc. Its gen-
eral scheme belongs to the close of
the thirteenth (after 1276), but
most of the work to the following
century, such as the main portal,
the rose-window, the gable and
the spires. All this part conflicts
in its decorative feeling with the
plain and archaic towers. Com-
parison with Strassburg shows
Germanic perversions of design in
every part, and even Marburg,
though earlier, has a more ad-
402 — St. Lawrence, Nuremberg. (From photo.) vanced unity (see Fig. 359). The
interior of St. Lawrence has the
same contradictory effect in its low aisles and relatively high nave;
good, clearly articulated piers and arches, but above them a perfectly
plain expanse of wall without gallery or triforium and only an
insignifi-
cant clearstory. The same contrast reappears in the decoration.
^^^
There is none ornamental foliage and architectural detail
of the rich
of the Rhenish schools, but a rich development of
figured sculpture.
The main portal (Fig. 403), while inferior in its statuary to the best
Rhenish work, introduces a rich grouping of superposed
rows of
bas-rehefs in the field and is highly decorative.
403 — Main portal of St. Lawrence, Nuremberg. (From photo.)
The small Frauenkirche (1355-61), in reality a chapel, is a charming

and simple example of a three-aisled hall-church, though too low in its
vaulting for symmetry. This is redeemed by the delicacy and height

of the columns (Fig. 404). Its fagade is interesting as furnishing a
third type, differing from those with either the double or the single
tower arrangement. It has the form of the single, rather acutely

pointed gable, of stepped pyramidal outline with pinnacles, such as
is to be found so commonly in German houses. This is relieved by a
charming closed porch (Fig. 405) in two stories, with the rich sculpture
which had become characteristic of Nuremberg.
404—The Frauenkirche at Nuremberg. (From Dohme.)
The third church, of St. Sebald, is perhaps the most interesting.

The nave (Fig. 406) with its apse is of archaic type, built soon after
1 200. It might, in fact,
have been fairly introduced between Magde-
burg and Marburg in the stylistic sequence. It belongs to a small
group of buildings due to the influence of the Cistercian monks from
Burgundy. This is evident in the rectangular piers and in the
heavy
vaulting shafts that do not descend to the floor level but end
in corbels.
The gallery, however, comes from a non-Cistercian source. The in-

terrupting of the architectural memberment is a characteristic German
feature, which appears, for instance at iMagdeburg, Bamberg, etc.
405— Fasade of the Frauenkirche, Nuremberg. (From Dohme.)
each end, so
This church belongs to the old type with a choir at
beside the simple east apse that is sho^TO in our
view there was added
in 1361-77, at thewest end, a superb choir which quite overshadowed

the nave. The a three-aisled hall with slender octagonal
interior is
the absence of capitals.
piers with engaged vaulting shafts, which, in
connect directly with the ribs— a peculiarity which became current

only in the flamboyant age. The single row of windows has here
(cf. Chorin), replaced the double row,
which had been current in the
thirteenth century, at Trier and Marburg. This new type of choir
is splendidly illustrated at Erfurt, Soest, etc., and the views of it that
follow will serve to give an idea of the Nuremberg choir as well. A
good instance of it by the Rhenish school is at the cathedral of Aix-la-
Chapelle (see Vol. I, p. 128).
406— Nave of St. Sebald, Nuremberg. (From Michel.)
One of the finest pieces of middle Gothic in Saxony is this choir

of the cathedral at Erfurt. The view here given in Fig. 407 shows
it in process of restoration. This has already included the reestablish-
ment of the upper balustrade and pinnacles. The arched substructure
is unusually effective and harmonious, adding strength to the vertical
lines.' It extends around the right side until it joins a monumental
stairway that leads around past the north transept to a beautiful
portal on the upper level by which one passes into the nave. The main
body belongs and ends at the two tran-
to the thirteenth century
sitional towers with the later central belfry, which is an interesting
Germanic feature. Beyond them was originally an insignificant east
end for which the present masterly example of fourteenth century
work was substituted between 1349 and 1370. There is no finer
353
group of the long slender windows which then became the
favorite
form, as is seen in several other choirs of this t}rpe^ such as that of
St. Sebald in Nuremberg. The plan has three straight bays beyond
the tosvers and then the seven-sided end. The view of the interior
in Fig. 40S shows a hall effect with a great deal of stately symmetry,
and a use of lierne and tierceron vaulting that instead of interfcriix'
407 — Choir of Erfurl Cathedral. (I''runi Giirlitt.)
adds to the rhythm. The outline of the piers is lightened by the use
of deep and heavy channelling separated by slender shafts against a
narrow face.
There is another remarkable church in Erfurt, somicwhat earlier
than the choir of the cathedral: the church of the Dominicans, a

simple three-aisled basilica, built shortly before and after 1300. In
Fig. 409 the interior is given from the choir end with the interesting
arched jube separating it from the nave. The immense height and
3
a
O
B
I
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY 3SS
slenderness of the simple 55
octagonal piers produce

practically the hall church
effect. It is very interest-
ing to compare this in-
terior with some in the
south of France and in
Spain, for example that of
the cathedral of Palma in
INIajorca in Fig. 2 70. The
Dominicans were great
transmitters of forms and
the same pier as we see
here also characterises
some of their contempo-
rary churches in Italy.
During the fifteenth
century the changes of
410 — St. Geor{,'e at Dinkulsbuhl. (Frcm Joseph.)
style in Germany are not as drastic as in France or England because

less importance was gi^'en to
decorative work. Flamboyant

motifs were borrowed from
France and England: perpen-
dicular motifs from England.
But these features did not
dominate as they did in other
countries, and German archi-
tects by developing the plans

and proportions which they
had evolved during the four-
teenth centur}^, exaggerating

the elongated effects and the
li'
spacious hall interiors, empha-
sising the dry and thin style
that went with this manner,
diverged very far from the
early Rhenish t}-pc of the
thirteenth centur^'. The con-

4XX-Aisle of aaludrat^Bruunschweig. (From
^^^^^^.^,^ ^^j^^^^ ^f ^ê vault-
3S6 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
ing was no longer similar to the French but approached the form of
a barrel vault along the main axis, intersected by other lower barrel
vaults joined to the higher vaulting by pyramidal conoids. This
and other traits we have already seen illustrated in a number of
buildings, such as St. Stephen at Vienna. An excellent example in
Swabia is the interior of St. George at Dinkelsbiihl (1449-1499), by

the architect Elser (Fig. 410). It is a more symmetrical design, more
dignified and better articulated than its larger Viennese predecessor.
Two forms of fantastic design ran riot toward the close in certain
parts of the centre and south: the deformation of structural features
marked the first, and the introduction of arboreal and plant life the
second. Both were vicious tendencies
that found vogue only in the parts
of Germany that were partial to ex-
treme decorative effects. A view of
the left-hand side aisle of the Cathe-
dral of Braunschweig (Brunswick) in
Fig. 411 illustrates the first form in
the twisted spiral shafts of its piers
and in the reversal of their curves

in every other pier. The vegetable
aberration, combined with figured
sculpture in a way to force compari-
son with such orthodox portals as
those of Nuremberg in Figs. 403 and
405, appears in about 1514 in the
church of the Castle of Chemnitz
in Saxony (Fig. 412), based on tree
trunks and branches; a design that
would suit very well a princely Adi-
rondack camp and which can be com-
pared only to the far more artistic use
41J — Portal of casUe at Chemnitz.
(From Dehio.) of such motifs in the Manoelino style
of Portugal at about the same time.
Another side of the same school is illustrated in the decoration of the
vaulting of a chapel in the parish church at Ingolstadt, where coral-
like branches and octopus cones hang down from an elaborate ribbing;
or in the balcony of the royal oratory of the cathedral of Prague (Fig.
413) where a pair of half-vaults with wall ribs have similar fantastic
357
branchings. There is more of this sort (^f architectural debauchery in
Germany than in any other country. Yet, no style could be its more
ferocious antithesis than that other German product the northern
school of brick design.
BoHEMLi. The most ambitious churches of Bohemia
either were
never completed or were more or less thoroughly
destroyed by the
Hussite yandals in the fif-
teenth centur}'.
drals of
berg, \\-hich
Of the cathe-
Prague and Kutten- Rmwi
^^'ere planned on
the largest scale only the choirs
were built. The usual initia-
tion by Cistercian monks to
the new st}-le took place be-
tween 1 220 and 1250. It came
not direct!}' from B urgundy but
from German}-. Such German
monasteries as Tishnowitz,
Ebrach and Riddagshausen
furnished both monks and
architectural models, and there
are no traces of an}- special
local traits in the buildings at
41J- Eiilranrc lu Royal Oratory at cathedral,
the Bohemian monasteries of I'ragiiL'. ^From Leger.)
Ossek, Xepomuk and Hradiste
which were in ad\-anced transitional st}'le, largely of the Franconian
type. J\Iorc ad\-anccd were three monasteries of the close of the
thirteenth centur}^ in southern Bohemia Hohenfurth
: (c. 1 260), Golden-
kron (c. 12S0) and Sedletz (c. 1300). It was, in fact the buildings of
Sedletz which ilrst revealed to the Bohemians the full glories of
the new st}-le, though on a small scale the church of St. Ann had
already (1246) introduced pure Gothic to the capital, Prague. The
destruction of Sedletz, Ossek (except cloister and chapter-house)
and the rest pre\-ented a complete realisation of the point to which the
Cistercians carried earl}' Gothic in the south of the countr}-, but they
appear to ha\'e failed to awaken an}' enthusiasm.
During all this time, in fact until 1350, the work of these foreigners
seems to have been unable to de\'elop any nati\'e schools of Clothic
architects. When plans were, therefore, made on a large scale in

1344 for a new cathedral in Prague, which would have been larger than
Ulm, a Master Matthias of z'Vrras was called from Avignon, in France,
to direct the work. He and German, Peter Parler of
his successor, a
Gmiind, were able to build only the choir, which remains, fragmentary
as it is, the most charming bit of Gothic work in the country. The
French type is followed, of course, in the plan, with its deambulatory
and five polygonal chapels, and the influence of southern France
in particular (e. g. Nar-
bonne), appears in the con-
tinuation of the line of
chapels along the choir
nave, in place of open
aisles, and the lack of capi-
tals in the main arcade.
Northern characteristics,
however, seem to be the
pavilion roof for each
chapel,and the multipli-
cation of window lights
(German - Flemish). The
rich juxtaposition of para-
pets, pinnacles, gables and
paneUing, the cusping and
crockets of the two-storied
flying buttresses, and the
elaboration of the geomet-
ric tracery, especially in
the enormous clearstory
windows, are character-
414 — Choir of cathedral, Prague. (From Legcr.)
istic German traits Figs.
414 and 415; showing that while it is to the French architect we owe
the plan, it was to the German that most of the upper part of the
construction is due.
Practically the same proportion of the church of St. Barbara at
Kuttenberg was built (1386). In this choir, attached to a five-aisled
nave, the architect Peter Parler had a free hand. The French element
of projecting choir chapels is conseciucntly eliminated, and the German
scheme substituted. The eight choir chapels are here embedded in a

solid mass of masonry, forming a continuous circle and giving a tri-
—

359
angular base to the high and hcaiy buttress piers of the
same t\\'o-
tiered type as at Prague. The terrible catastrophe of the Hussite
rebellion put an end to the work here as at Prague
in 1419. The
scheme is extremely ornate, a development of the Prague
t}pe. The
close connection established by Peter Parler between these Bohemian
works and those in Swabia
and elsewhere due to his
family and other architects
of the Gmtind school is an
interesting illustration of
the inter-provincial dis-
semination of types.
The influence of Peter
Parler in Bohemia was as
great as his activity. Be-
fore the Kuttenberg choir
he had built its prototype
in St. Bartholomew at
Kolin(i36o-i37S). In both
cases the ambulatory has
a smaller number of piers
than there are cjiapel piers
to the choir; at Kolin it is
4 and at Kuttenberg it is
:5
6:7. This would have been

415 — Choir of calhedral, Prague. (From Lcger.)
a heres}' in France and led to strange irregularities of vaulting sur-

faces. We have already noted this on page 344.
Parler also furnished a charming t^pe of concentric church or
chapel in the Karlshoferkirche in Prague (1377). It is an octagon
of 22.75 ™- with a polygonal choir, and the single vault that covers
it is a very interesting combination of a low dome with elaborately
ribbed surface merging into fan-shaped Gothic pendentives.
It will not be out of place to refer here to another work of Parler
though it is not ecclesiastical —the great bridge over the INIoldau and
its gate. It illustrates another form of Germanic art introduced to the
Bohemians by this architect. Of the gates that on the right bank is
the best preserved and it is the most beautiful in Europe. Being built
of stone instead of brick it was susceptible of more artistic detail than
its prototypes in northern Germany. Its general lines (Fig. 416) are
happier and pig. 417 shows how charmingly details are treated grouped
under the gable. Later it was reproduced almost exactly in Prague
itself in Powder Tower.
the
Probably Parler was also the designer of the picturesque chapel
of the Town Hall with its echaugcUe. After his death no architect
of ecjual talent appears to have carried on his traditions though his
brother and son survived him. Perhaps to this workshop is due the
417 — Detail from tower o£

the old bridge, Prague.
416 — Tower of the old bridfjc, Prague. (From Leger.) (From VioUet-le-Duc.)
west front of the church of St. Mary of the Teyn, v/ith its peculiar
towers and inorganic gable decoration, which seems to show German

workmanship; the spires with their dormers are more like civil belfries.
In default of church architecture illustrating the last stage of

Gothic in Prague, we may make use of the halls of the Royal Castle
which belong to the part restored under Vladislav Jagellon (1471-
1576). His throne room, built by the architect Rieder in 1502 is one
of the most grandiose of the Gothic ci\'il interiors on the continent,
with a length of about 265 feet (74 m.). A barbarous modern decora-
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERiMANY 361
41S — Ladisla^'s throne-room, Ro\'al Casllc, Prague. (From LoKor.)
tion has almost ruined its effect (Fig. 418), so that it is quite an effort to
visuahze correctly the vaulting compartments of the flamboyant style,
with the fantastic curves of their ribbings " imported from Germ.any."
At the same time the Ger-
manic hall-t}-pe is illustrated
in the church at Brtix (1575)
where the buttresses are
all internal. The choir of
Kuttenberg cathedral was

continued as a five-aisled
structure whereas Parler had

planned it for onh' three,
and galleries were built o\-er
the aisles to take the main

thrusts, a fashion followed in
other churches. There is
comparativel}' little rich flam-

bo}-ant work. In the church
at Pilsen, where the design of
tracer}' and \-aulting is elabo-

rated it is in reticulated geo-
metrical rather than in flam-
4ig — St. ilarlin L Kaschau ^kassal [ From
boyant forms. Mkhd.)
Hungary.— In Hungary there is hardly any Gothic to be noted.

It was wiped out by the Turkish wars of the fifteenth and
largely
sixteenth centuries. It is epitomized in St. Martin at Kaschau, with
a choir of the fourteenth and a nave completed in the fifteenth cen-

tury, on a plan resembhng St. Victor at Xanten. The view in Fig.
419 gives its earhest part, the choir and transept, with vaulting of
quasi and flamboyant style, whose approaches are also evident in the
absence of capitals for the main piers. The attribution of the design
to the French architect Villard
de Honnecourt is evidently
preposterous, as there is noth-
ing in the work of the thir-
teenth century, and its origin
is clearly Germanic and of
the best Rhenish school. The
north portal given in Fig. 420
is decidedly original if not
admirable in its imitation of
the stepped pyramid gable fa-
cade and its truncated pointed
arches.
A slightly later stage is il-
lustrated in the Cathedral of

Zagrab in Croatia, completed
after the middle of the fifteenth
century. The fagade has a
single central portal, a small
rose-window surmounted by a
triplet of pointed windows, and
two towers with open-work
-North portal of St. Martin at Kaschau
(Kassa). (From Handbuch.) spires that betray their Ger-
manic origin the architect was
;
evidently from the Rhine or Swabia. This German influence can be

traced from the beginning of the use of Gothic design. The principal
example of transition, the abbey churchof St. Jak near Szombathelz,
is a splendid piece of pure Germanic work, with an interesting pointed

central doorway.
Brick Churches. —In a class quite by itself is the brick archi-
tecture of the far north in Germany. To appreciate its interest it is
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMAN\' 36^
absolutely necessary to free oneself from preconceptions based on the

norms of stonework, and to bring a fresh and unbiased judgment to
bear on these buildings.
The cities of the old Hanseatic League along the Baltic had a
special st}'le of brick church which is familiar to most students from
the buildings at Liibeck, but which also ruled at Stralsund, Rostock,
and especially in \\'is-
':
mar. Instead of the hall- '
like interior, instead of

the tri-apsidal or other
usual Germanic choir
ending, we find na\'e and
aisles in the normal re-
lation and choirs with

polygonal chapels; we al-
so find flying buttresses.

Dehio considers the
church of St. Mary in
Liibeck (Fig. 421) to be
the prototype of the en-
tire class. Before it there
had been transitional
churches of the Cister-
cian t^pe (01i\-a, Dar-
gun, etc.), and of the hall
type, but in this Liibeck
church the stone st}-le of
Belgium and France ^^'as
reproduced as faithfull}'
as could be done in brick- 4_M- -The JIarienkirche at LiilxTk. (I'l-nni Dchin.)
work. The towers are

not xexy different from the Romanesque scheme, but the size and
tracer}' of the windows show imitation of dcA'cloped Gothic models
in the simple brickwork. The construction was from 1270 to 13 10,
and the entire group of the churches of this t>-pe follow during the
course of the fourteenth century.
The plan of the Cistercian abbe^- church of Doberan, built shortl}-
after 1300, is a t_\'pical one, but this church varies from the rest in its
characteristically Cistercian aversion to the flving buttress. The sec-

tion of St.Mary's at Wismar, given in Fig. 422, shows symmetrical

proportions and the same type as St. Mary's at Lubeck, with a slight
advance.
The most colossal of the Prussian churches, which also belong to
this class, is the Marienkirche at Danzig. It was begun in 1403 and
is an extreme example of flamboyant brickwork in its interior. We
422 —The Marienkirche at Wismar. (From Dehio.)
see here, in contrast to the type just studied, the typical hall effect,
the raising of the edges of the octagonal piers between the faces, the
occasional use, in the heavier piers, of channels and infinitesimal shaft-
ings. In the effort to give elaboration to the panelling of the vaults
the ribbing in the awkward brickwork has very much the effect of
Moorish stalactites. It appears to have been the Franciscan monks
who introduced the hall t}i:ie into the north. It can be studied at
Neu-Brandenburg (JNIarienkirche), Frankfort, and especially well in
St. Mary's at Prenzlau; all built mainly during the fourteenth century
and leading up to the Danzig tj^pe and to that of the cathedral of

Stendal (1429). One can judge by Fig. 423 of the general scheme of
these interiors. This interior of St. Catharine at Brandenburg dates
from about 1470.
—
The details of the brickwork decorations, in so far as there was any,

can be studied in connection with the works of civil architecture that
will now be described.

Civil ArcJiilccturc. — In ci\'il and semi-military Gothic architecture
Germany makes up for numerical scarcity in some branches by the
extraordinary \-alue of certain great works: the Marienburg in Prussia;
the Albrechtsburg at Meissen, the City Hall at Braunschweig, the
castles of Karlstein and Va)'da-Hunyad, show great originality and
are a distinct contribution to architectural history. They all belong
to middle and late Ciothic. If Germany is far inferior to the Lower
4J3 St, C'alhariiU', Hrandcnl'urt,'. (From tlurliu.l
Countries and to Italy in the number of her town halls and

palatial
number and most artistic array

residences, she has by far the largest
of monumental city gates which, in fact, assume as important a place
in the North German city as the Memorial arches did in Roman cities.
with this characteristic group. It was, naturalU',

We will begin, then,
municipalities,
centered in the cities that were free and independent
and as these cities
such as those that formed the Hanseatic League,
of the
were largely in the region of brick architecture, the evolution
monumental gateway was largel}^ circumscribed by this material.

How it could be varied when built

in stone can be seen by a reference
to the bridge gateway at Prague
in Fig. 416, which was built by a
German architect.
The great variety of design in
these gates can be reduced to three

main types that with an entrance
:
flanked by two towers, usually

semi-circular, after the model of
the Roman city gates; that with
a single central tower, circular
or polygonal, rising from a soUd
square or quadrangular base with
the portal in the middle; that in
the form of a fagade, not fortified
like the others, but reproducing
the features of a house, arcade, etc.
Of these types the most fre-
quent and original is that with the

central and among these
tower,
the Uenglinger Thor at Stendal
4-M —The Ucglinger Thor Gate, Slendal. (Fig. 424) is generally regarded as
(From Gurlitt.)
the most artistically perfect. In
it we see all but one of the various modes in which the brick-builders
of the Mark sought to overcome the monotony of their material; use of
white plastered grounds;
of polychromatic pat- '
. i 1
terns; of moulded details.

We miss only the stamped
geometrical patterns. In
the Treptower Thor at
Neu-Brandenburg, which
is an example of the
screen gate, we see the
stamped patterns and tra-
cery used in a design that
is patterned on a church
clearstory (Fig. 425), and 4-!5— Neu-Brandenburg, Treptower Thor. (From Joseph.)
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN CxERjMANY 30/
it is easy to sec ho\\' what this t}'pe
of gate lost in massi\-e impressiveness
it could gain in dehcacy. The deco-

rated battlements of some of these
gates are illustrated in Fig. 426, from
the Steinthor at Brandenburg, which
shows design by pol}Thromy.
Of the Town Halls, four may be
taken as fairly representati^'e of dif-
ferent tîês: those at Braunschweig,

Breslau, ^Nliinster and Tangermtinde.
The city of Brunswick (Braun-
schweig) celebrated in 1393 its acces-
sion to the Hanseatic League by the
building of the most delicate and
charming of German Town Halls in
the Alarktplatz. It consists of two
wings (Fig. 427) forming an angle of
the square, and the two ends, facing "r^ I.-
on the streets, haxe the common 4:0 — Brick and terracotta battlements of
tower of the Steinthor at Branden-

stepped gable. The characteristic part
bursj. (From Ejsenwein,)
of the design is the projecting
. open
two-storied portico with its eight ba}'s, fronting along the scjuare,
m*^
-Braunscliweit;, Ralhaus. U'toni Joseph.)
crowned by dormer-gables at right angles to the steep roof that covers

the main structure. The love of the local school for geometrical
surface decoration is here transferred to a similar elaboration of
tracery in which flamboyant forms invade the geometrical system.
The resting of the window-like tracery upon so slender a round arch
428—Town Hall (Ralhaus) at Muiister. (From Essenwein.)
as only support is characteristic of the lo\'e of the German stone cut-

ters of the fifteenth century for the toiir-dc-forcc, so evident in their
spires. The absence of a belfr>' and the long low proportions are
very unusual. The grouping of statues under canopies on brackets
against the buttress piers reminds one of the similar
arrangement in
Belgian Town Halls.
It IS curious to compare with this Brunswick gem the more normal
Town Hall at Miinster, in Westphalia, also a fine example of decorative
stone work (Fig. 428). The same lower pointed arcade in four bays
has cyhndrical shafts in place of piers; the
second story has more
normal tracery, also with statuary. But this
design, framed by a
bold hood cornice, is now crowned by the stepped
gable which at
439 — Ratlnius al Brc-^lau, (From pholo.)
Brunswick, of course, surmounts not the gallery but the short ends.
This gable is made one of the most highly decorated in Germany b}'
the pinnacled buttress piers with reverse-curve flying buttresses of

flamboyant design, and by the elaborate crowning group. It is a
work of the close of the fourteenth century, evidently not completed
until the fifteenth century, when flamboyant forms had been adopted.
The main hall occupied the second floor and was divided by a line of
wooden piers into two with a

aisles, flat ceiling. In regard to the
general lines of the design they are practically identical with those
of the normal German burgher's house, merely enlarged and enriched.
430 —Town Hall at Tangermiinde. (From photo.)
Here, too, the lack of a belfry emphasized the fact that these German
town halls were even more for business purposes, as business exchanges,
than for political and administrative life.
Quite another aspect appears in the Breslau Town HaU, of which

Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY >7i
a general \-ie\v is gi\-en in Fig.
429. It lias its Belfry, restored
at a later date, but the bulk of

the building preser^-es its devel-
oped Gothic st}-le. It is an im-
posing structure in the same class
as those in Belgium and repre-
sents a powerful independent
municipalit}'. Other halls of this
t^pe are at Liibeck, Aachen, etc.
Finall}', representati\-e of the
best style of brick architecture

is the Town Hall at Tanger-
miinde (Fig. 430), well suited to
a small commercial cit}-. The

main hall is reached from an
outside stairwa)- with which the
small belfr)' is connected. The 4,ii — Terracotta dccdnilion uf Kathaus, Braii-
ilcnburL;. (From Kssciiwein.)
scheme of the fayade is the modi-
fication of a church rather than a house facade. The terracotta
tracery and surface decoration of its gables marks the apogee of this
class of work in the North. It is exactly in the style of that in the
closed porch of St. Catharine at Brandenburg. Its frankl_\'-stated in-
dependence of the struc-

tural lines is an unusuall_\'
clear proclamation of a
purely decorati^'e pur-
pose in the design. Its
date is about 1460. Be-

fore lea\-ing the subject
of North-CJerman terra-
cotta worJc a type must

be noted which is shown
in Fig. 431 fr^m a door-
waA' of th foAvn Hall
of BranoCi .ûrg. It has
elaborate panel ornament
in sharp relief and the
43^ -Freiburg-ini-Brcisgaii, kaufhaiis.

(Froiri Ilarlel.l imitation of stone tracerv.
Very close to the Town Halls were the merchants' exchanges, such
as the Kaufhaus at Freiburg-im-Breisgau in Fig. 432, a flamboyant
hijou if the balcony were in harmony with the rest of-the design. The
tihng in patterns is commonly developed, especially in
a feature quite
South Germany, as a means of making the steep roof play its part.
An interesting feature of the corner oriel windows is the emerging

network of ribs that form the brackets. A far larger Kaufhaus is at
Mainz, but it is in poor condition. That at Cologne, called Gurzenich,
had a main hall neirly two hundred feet long with a central line of
433 — Merchants' Exchange (Gurzenich), at Cologne. (P'rom Essenwein.)
columns d^îding its width of ninety feet. It is well worth studying,

notwithstanding its simplicity (Fig. 433), both on account of its purity
of style and because it stands so close to the private architecture of
the city in the fifteenth century. It is in strong contrast to all the
Town we have been studying and, as was usual
Hall architecture in
Cologne, approximates more closely to international types.

As would be expected, there are three classes of private houses in
Germany, in so far as style is dependent on materials: the stone house,

the timbered house, and the brick house. The last class is more fully
represented in Germany than anywhere in Europe, except Northern
373
Italy. Another mode of classification is by U-pe of fagade: square-
topped, plain gabled and stej^pcd gabled. In Fig.
434 a square-topped
stone house is set beside a tjqjical timbered
Hildesheim house. The
majority of stone houses are exceedingly plain until
the close of the
Gothic age, when there is considerable elaboration,
especial!}- in effects
of balconies and oriel windows. A stone house at StejT (Fig.
435)
434 — Stone and frame houses at Hildesheim. (From photo.)
and a simple balcony scheme. A

illustrates the plain-gabled facade
far richerscheme was expressed, a little later, in the famous house at
Innsbruck, where polychromy is combined with tracery and relief
work (Fig. 436). Quite a fantastic flambo}'ant balcony design appears
in a house at Freiburg, in Fig. 437. In the matter of oriel windows
nothing is more charming than that of the parish house of St. Sebald
435 — House at Steyr. (From Essen wein.)
436 — House at Tniisljruek. (From 437 — Balcony ol liouse at Freiburg-im-

photo.) lireisgau. (From Tissenwcin.)
at Nuremberg (Fig. 43S), whieh has a s}'mmetrical use of relief sculp-
ture almost unique in a work of ci\'il architecture. It is interesting
to compare this window with others of similar design but simpler

detail at the Town Hall and at
the Carolinum, both in Prague,
and that of the castle of ^'a^'da-
Hun\-ad in Fig. 439.
In the brick houses the fa^•orite
form of facade was the stepped

gable. A building at the Cister-
cian monaster}- of Zinna (Fig.
440), while not strict!)' a house,

<i;i\'es an idea of the richer com-
^,,, —Windows of gallery, main hall, Cas-

|)arish-liou5L= oi St. Scliald,
4^8— W'inilnw ill
I-'"'" "-"-''^)
tle ^'a^'da-Htm\-a(l. U"r""i '
Nuremberg. (Krom photo.)
440
Brick gable of house at LiJne- Building (brick) at Zinna monastery
burg. (From Essenwein.) (From Essenwein.)
joositions of this class, and even

the simpler forms at Cologne (Fig.
441) and Liineburg illustrate the
general tendency of the class to
utilize more than was done in
the stone houses the element of
decorative architectural member-
ment.
Military Architeckire. —The
best known group of military con-
structions in Germany are, of
course, the castles on the Rhine,
but while picturesque they are
architecturally unimportant, and
it will be impossible here to do
more than discuss a few typical
works of far greater importance
in various parts of Germany.
The ]\Iarienburg Castle is the
441 — Overstolz House, Cologne. (From
Essenwein.) cornerstone of the Prussian state
and culture, forwas the seat of the power of the Teutonic Knights
it
who came from Holy Land to this \\'ild pro^'ince of the northeast
the
and by force of arms established the beginnings of law and order,
founded cities and colonized the land as far as Poland and Russia.
The restoration of this castle of the Knights a few years ago was a
matter of national importance. Xo work of mixed military and civil
art has such momentous historic associations. Artistically it is more

important than any of the ecclesiastical buildings of the province. Its
44-- -Plan of Schloss :Marienljurt;. (Krom Adamy.)
extent can be judged from the ground plan in Fig. 442- It differs from
a royal or a feudal castle, and is comparable, for example,
to the
Papal Palace at Avignon in its extent and variety, but excels it

in
of Mt. Saint Michel in France

every point. Perhaps the buildings
come as close as any in a comparison of the various halls. But
its
real analogv is to the great castles of the

Knights of St. John and the
which the
Knights Templars in Syria, at Tortosa and the Krak, from
begun in
Teutonic Knights derived their scheme. Work on it was
and it consisted of three parts. A lower castle was
connected
1280,
with' the town which it dominated; this is nearl}- destroyed. It is
part a work of the late four-
the middle and upper castle that remain in
teenth century. At C on the plan (upper side) is the most sumptuous
443 — Grand Master's House at ScMoss Maricnburg. (From Essen wein.)
444 — RclY'ttory at Sdiloss Maricnburg. (From llandbuch.)

379
group of buildings, especially the Grand Master's house, of which an
ekn-ation and section are gi\-en in Fig. 443, across the west end. Its
four stories are all vaulted, the large upper hall with an interesting
fan-vaulting centering on a single slender shaft. How
daring and
splendidh' constructed was the entire \-aulting sA'stem ma>'
be judged
b>' the view of the two-aisled Refector>- of the
Knights in Fig. 444, in
the centre of the west wing (A on plan). It is regarded as the boldest
^.^f>
445 — Plan of the Albrechlsburg al iU-isscn. (From Esscnwcin.)
among the ^•aultcd halls of Germany and its fan-\-aulting is of the t}']ie
that prevailed in the later portions of the castle — probably an importa-

tion from England.
The Albrechtsburg up in the Flamboyant age the
at jNIeisscn takes
architectural mantle where it was dropjied at the ]\Iarienburg. It was
begun in 147 1 by the architect Arnold of \^>stphalia and carried out

with unity and originality. The plan (Fig. 445) shows the greatest
picturesque richness in arrangement and vaulting. On the second
or main floor not a single room is ceiled all ha^•c as —
elaborate ^'aultings
38o GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
as church aisles or chapels, and the vaulting cells show the greatest
variety. Such French buildings as even the house of Jacques Coeur
are simple in comparison. A section in Fig. 446 shows how this
446— The Albrechtsbiirg at Meissen, section. (From Essenwein.)
variety was secured. It is far more massive than the JMarienburg,

and in that much its architect shows less science. His use, howe\-er,
of internal buttr-esses i.s ingenious. The breadth and variety of the
Chap. I] GOTHIC IN GERMANY ,§1
fcnestrage and other features of the exterior
can be appreciated in the
details of Fig. 447.
The jxvirl of Hungarian castles is \'ayda Hunyad. Its situation
is picturesque (Fig. approached by a long and high bridge.
44S),
Architecturalh- it has only one important feature: the great
central
.14; — The Albrechuburg at Meissen. (.From Hartung.)
hall (Fig. 44q), with its unusual covered balcony varied at intervals
by four oriel windows. This charming design as gi\-en in Fig. 439
shows the style of about 1400. The rest of the constructions, including
the square keep on the right, are built in an irregular o^•oid around a
court. The became quite out of repair.
castle
^lore extensive is the Bohemian masterpiece, the Castle of Karl-
stein, built by King Charles IV (1348-57"), to whose short reign
Bohemia owed such a remarkable re\-i\'al in architecture. It was not

— ^3cia •• —
-"*
44S — Castle Vayda Hunyad. (From Handbuch.)
strictly a fortress, nor strictly a royal chateau, but rather a realized

castle of the Holy Grail, a shrine, full of precious and sacred things.
Its chapels were frescoed by the best artists and filled with relics and
the insignia of royalty and of the Holy Roman Empire. Unfortu-
nately it has been so ruined by hideous changes that no reproduction
of its present condition can give any idea of its original beauty.
449 — Main hall of Castle Vayda Hunyad. (From Handbuch.)

CHAPTER II
GOTHIC IN THE NETHERLANDS
TÊLGIUM.— French and German features are present in the Low-

Ô er Countries in very different percentages. The Rhenish influence
was so strong in the Romanesque age that the typical cathedral
Tournai could well be described in Vol. II, p. 411, among German
of
monuments. The view of the exterior there given in Figs. 361 and 362
shows a Romanesque nave, transitional transept with Rhenish semi-
circular end, and then the rebuilt Gothic choir with its greater height.
In the transept and nave there are not only Rhenish and Norman fea-
tures but an evident connection with Noyon and Soissons, suggesting an
interesting relationship. The choir is purely French, of the fourteenth
century, with the gabled windows made fashionable by the school of
Troyes after 1250, and with an internal gallery at the base of the clear-
story.
There is, naturally, not much that corresponds to the stage of
French work previous to c. 1200 of the Sens-Senlis-Noyon-Laon
types. But one feature of this style, the use of columnar supports
instead of piers, not only became acclimated but remained the favorite
form throughout the Netherlands even as late as the fourteenth cen-
tury —a unique peculiarity in Europe. Another feature in which an
archaistic tendency was at first shown is the use of two aisle ba}'s for
every nave bay —a Germanic Romanesque survival. The seven naves
of Antwerp cathedral set it apart. The lack of interest usually felt
in the Gothic work of this region may be ascribed to monotony and
baldness, both outside and within.
There is not the Cistercian element that is found in Germany
because it was not Burgundy and the west, but the north of France
that came into contact with the Netherlands, and such Cistercian
churches as Villers and Orval were not particularly typical. The
3S3
Belgian cities, where the Gothic of the thirteenth century can

best be studied, are Tournai, Brussels, Ypres, and Bruges. The
German influence was dominant at Tournai, where there are four
Gothic churches of this type only in the exquisite choir of the cathe-
:
dral is the pure and developed French style followed. At Gand the
church good example of the large class of pseudo-
of St. Nicolas is a
Gothic buildings in the Netherlands which retained the wooden roof
without vaults.
The cathedral Ste. Gudule of Brussels belongs to three centuries.
Its choir was begun in 1220 and it was not completed until the close
of the fifteenth century. The
fagade is an imposing design
of the fourteenth century, es-
sentially French, but with
some Germanicisms, especial-
ly in the gable, due to the
fact that the design was not
completely carried out until
the following centur}', though
there is no sign of the deco-
rative richness of that time.
At the church of Notre Dame
the choir and transept belong
to the same age, c. 1220.
An unspoiled example of
the same combination of early
and middle styles is the in-
terior of St. Martin at Ypres,
in Fig. 450. Begun at the
4SO- Nave of St. Martin, Ypres. (From Michel.) choir in 1 22 1 in a manner
that was followed in the tran-
sept, with its charming rose-windows, later in the century, and then
in the nave, where the slenderness
of the columns, the prismatic
groups of triforium shafts and the broad clearstory show the \a.-
riations in the original scheme introduced in the fourteenth century.
It is at Bruges that churches of the thirteenth century (N. Dame
and St. Sauveur) can be found with clustered piers of the normal
French type, in contrast to the above more commonly used columnar
interior.
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN THE NETHERLANDS 385
Still it was not long before this that the columnar supports appear
at Mecheln (or Mahnes) in Brabant, where the six bays of the three-
aisled basilical cathedral, begun in 1341, are separated by cylindrical
shafts and its French origin is certiiied by the polygonal choir with
seven radiating chapels. Its
archaicism is also shown in
the lowness of the vaulting

(27 met.); still as the nave is
only 12 m. wide, the interior

is well proportioned and hght,
with tîîcal narrow arcades
in the triforium and slender
colonnettes. It has one of the
finest of the lofty west towers
(120 met.), which characterize
Belgian churches of the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries.
A second important cathe-
dral in Brabant, built in the
fourteenth centur}-, is St.
Peter at Louvain, begun after

a lire in 1373, but long in
course of construction. It is
a three-aisled church of good

^jmple lines, but crude in de-
tail and execution. This and
the similar church of S. Wau-
dru at INIons are tj^îcal of the
moderate Flamboyant with

clustered piers and trilobated
or quatrefoiled triforium ar-
cades. The original drawing
for the tower of S. Waudru is
among the largest and most MM

elaborate that remain to us. 451 -Cathedral of Antwerp.
(From Joseph.
The cathedral of Antwerjo

(Fig. 451), includ-
has the same design as at Brussels in the facade
with an enrichment of
ing the enormous corner buttresses, but
surface decoration which indicates a
shghtly later date, and with
an increase comparative width of the towers due to the ex-

in tlie
traordinary seven-aisled plan. The disproportionate narrowness of
the central section, which had made the facade of Cologne with
its five aisles inferior and the French ca-
to that of Strassburg
thedrals, is here emphasized because Antwerp is the only European
cathedral with as many as seven aisles, making it the largest church
in the lower countries. It
was begun in 1352 as
a five-aisled basilica. The
choir is of the fourteenth,
the nave of the early fif-
teenth century. In 1422

the facade was begun and
in 1425 the two outer
aisles, of greater width
than the first four, were
added. The southern tow-
er was left as it stands in
1474, while the north tow-
er was completed in 15 18
with a height of 123
metres, as compared to the
157 metres of Strassburg.
It is easy to see why the
spire is the least success-
ful part of the tower when
we know that the original
scheme called for a much
higher and aspiring design.
452 — St. Jacques at Liege. (From Ysendyck.) When the interior was ex-
ecuted the geometric pov-
erty of detail had become the rule, and the lack of capitals accen-
tuates the dryness of this vast but uninteresting composition. The
column is abandoned for the clustered pier, as became usual on the
approach of the Flamboyant period.
As an example of the richest type of Flamboyant Gothic touched
in certain details by the hand of the Renaissance invasion, nothing
in Europe is perhaps more charming and original than the interior of
St. Jaccjues at Liege, built between 15 13 and 153S. There is nothing
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN THE NETHERLANDS 387
to compare with it in France or Germany.
Fig. 452, while excchent
m reproduction of the ba)'s, fails to include the
Its
extraordinary
vaulting with its pendent keystones and
elaborately panelled sur-
faces. Also on account of its perspective it does not
con\-ey the
extreme breadth of the arcades which made it
necessan- to 'allow
two triple ^Yindows to each bay. The treatment of the
two parallel
lines of dehcate stone lace-work on the intrados
of the arches, rising
from colonnettes, and of the parallel pair of vaulting shafts
is peculiar
to work shading into the Renaissance, and the scroll
work in the span-
453 —ilerchants' Exchange, Yprcs. (From photo.)
drels, encircling medallion heads, is frankh' Renaissance. In general, the

Flambo}'ant st^'Ie made less fundamental changes in the Netherlands
than elsewhere, leaAing the exteriors rather denuded and the interiors
monotonous. Among the peculiarities is the infrequenc}' of the flying

buttress and the poverty of good sculpture.
Civil. —The civil architecture of Belgium is unquestionably the
richest in Europe during the Gothic age, and for modern architects
and decorators it surpasses even that of England in suggestiveness,
partly because it shows greater variet}" and elasticity of design. The
—
unparalleled wealth of the Flemish cities and their commercial spirit

made this dominance quite natural: one forgets the imperfections of
their reUgious buildings in admiration for their merchant's halls.
The Halle aux Draps or Cloth Hall at Ypres, built between 1200
and 1304, is the largest and most splendid civil Gothic structure in
Europe. Its main front (given in Fig. 453) is more than 450 feet
'
• V J- i '.
454—Town Hall, Bruges. (From photo.)
(133 m.) long, with 44 bays of interesting and original design: windows
like open tympana above architraved doors. In the tracery of its
upper story it approximates the closest to church architecture, and its
splendid central tower or belfry with corner turrets and battlements

as well as the turrets and battlements on the body of the building
are reminiscent of Anglo-Norman design. The building which masks
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN THE NETHEIU.ANDS 3S9
the end (the Conciergerie) is a much kitcr Gothic sti'ucture, showing
the approach of the Renaissance, and gi\'es an instructive contrast.

The opposite end is not masked but is of the same design as tire front.
Even simpler is the Hall at Bruges (Fig. 454), in which the belfry
is about 300 feet high (107.50 m.). It is easy to see that the upper
part of the octagon of the belfry is much later. The details of the
455' -Town Hall, Brussels. (From photo.)
of the third story to

design are not happ}', especially the closeness
the hood arches of the second story and the
awkward triple di^sion
of these second story windows.
of rich surface
For the middle period, marking the beginning
between the wm-
decoration and groups of statuary under canopies
dows, the most spectacular building is the Town HaU of Brussels
(Fig. 45S), built between 1401 and i455- It has the most successful
delicate central belfry in the country, with two receding octagonal
stories crowned by a stone spire— the whole being full of spring.
There is an interesting grouping of slender balconied turrets in two

stories at the eight angles connected by flying buttresses with the
central octagon.
To represent the later stage of Flamboyant Gothic nothing is
more artistic than the Town Hall of Ghent, built between 15 18 and
456 — Hotel de Ville, Ghent. (From Ysendyck.)
1535. The illustration of the left angle, in Fig. 456, was taken before
itwas disfigured by modern statues of obtrusive whiteness that have
been set in the niches. It seems probable that the architect planned
to finish the turret with a spire, though Renaissance influence may
have induced him to forego it. It is interesting to compare with the
corresponding angle at Middelbourg (see Fig. 462).
Slightly earlier in date (1448-1463), the Town Hall of Louvain is
the apotheosis of overloaded ornament and rich monotony. It illus-
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN THE NETHERLANDS
391
trates also the change in proportions from the low-lying
horizontal
stories of Ypres. The buttresses, with their statues and
canopies
emphasize the dominant verticahty of the Flambo}'ant
age. The
turrets, with balconies that seem borrowed
from minarets, rontinue
457 — Hotel de \ille, Louwain. (From photo.)
the buttress scheme, wath great contrast of light and shade, the most
effecti\-e feature of an otherwise unquiet design (Fig. 457).
One of the most curious buildings of mixed design is the famous

Bishop's Palace at Liege, built between 150S and 1540. In Fig. 458
is part of one of the two inner courts of this elaborate and pretentious
masterpiece, which has been much maligned as well as praised. The
39-' GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
shafts of the columns emerge from a classic base which is copied from
Roman work and not from any Itahan Renaissance original with
which I am famihar. The architect must have been one of the
Flemings who had travelled in Italy or had seen designs of antique
remains. Otherwise there is Httle about the design that is not late
Gothic.
The Flemish cities are full of medieval houses, especially of the
late Gothic period. Within this class one must reckon the smaller
4SS— Court of the Bishop's Palace, Liege. (From Ysendyck.)
guild, society or association houses, which do not differ materially in

their facades though they do in their interior arrangement.
In some cases two or three houses were built as a unit, producing
an effect of breadth that modern architects have imitated. In Fig.
459 a group of three houses in the Rue de Jerusalem at Bruges shows-
how excellent a design could be produced in the simplest kind of brick
work. They date from about 1535. The keynote to this composi-
tion is, of course, the strong \'ertical rhythm of the moulded pilaster
masses.
Anotlier unusual design, also in brick, is that of a single house
at Bruges, in Fig. 460, where the framing of the window groups
is even more successful, especially in the gable. In both these cases
Chap. 11] GOTHIC IX THE NETHERLANDS
the style is Flamboyant, but the ornamentation is kept
quiet and
bold. When stone was the material the decoratix-e
tendenc)- of the
age was naturall)- gi^•en greater play.
A late Gothic corporation
house at Ghent is an example of the bastard
st^le where a pseudo-
Renaissance naturalism governs the surface
decoration, crossed with
the Flamboyant forms. The gable is
modernized and was probably original-
1}' stepped, The design combines the
extremes of glazing and of surface
decoration.
I.'
>
''^
j.
^^
^^Y*^ ^2:^ l'S5 ,^-^ J
'
T ||
>_!,=,-.•:
!»2i>y v.. -L-
4(10 — House al Ilruu'es. (From

450 — Houses at Bruges. (From Ysendyck.) Ysendyck.)
Holland. —Holland was far more backward than Belgium. In its
northern half it was, in fact, substantially a part of northern GermanA*

and received its Gothic from that direction more than from the South,
from France via Belgium, whence its southern section deriA-ed inspira-
tion. Such churches as that of Damme, although imitating French
Gothic forms in round columnar supports and triple pointed windows,
394 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XH
do not enter into the question, as they hold to wooden roofs in both
nave and aisles. In the extreme south the cathedral of Utrecht
(1254), where the choir only is preserved, and S. Servais at Msestricht,
show how French forms were adopted in this section before the close
of the thirteenth century, while the Liebfrauenkirche at Roermonde

proves that German transitional forms were also copied at the same
time. In the north it is especially in Friesland that we meet with a
type of hall-church that may be derived from the Angevin school of
Southwest France, either directly or through German intermediaries.
They consist of a single nave covered with domical groin vaulting,
and are perfectly plain brick structures, in early Gothic style, whose
protot}qDe is the cathedral of Angers. They are hardly worth illus-
trating. The best examples are at Stedum, with Angevin apse, at
Zuidbroek and Winschoten, with square apses, and at Termunden,
near Antwerp.
The use of brick became almost universal in Holland and gives
a very material connection with the neighboring North German schools
on the east. This is all the stranger because stone was not lacking
and had been freely used during the Romanesque age. This preva-
lence of brick stood in the way of the imitation of French and even of
Flemish models. At the same time, here as in parts of Scandinavia,
stone was used for certain details. The reluctance to adopt Gothic
stone vaulting evenwhen it is certain that its principles were clearly
understood and when Gothic forms were otherwise adopted, is
explained by the purely material difficulties of the insecure founda-
tions that had to be contended with throughout the greater part of
the country with its moist, shifting soil. There are many forms of
these wooden coverings. At S. Jakob, The Hague, and in many
other cases, the forms are an imitation of stone vaulting.
Aside from the really charming Church of Breda, with rich tracery
and a triforium under the fine clearstory, due to Flemish models, the
interiors are mostly without triforium, and not only extremely bare
and simple, but lacking in unity of design. This could hardly be
otherwise, given the use of brick and the reluctant use of stone vault-
ing. StiU, in cases like Saint Bavon at Haarlem, the unities are well
preserved through the imitation in wood of the stone vaulting. It
is a work of the fifteenth century. Among most
late buildings the
artistic is the Cathedral of Bois-le-Duc, dating from
1419, which fol-
lows the French cathedral plan with radiating chapels and double
Chap. II] GOTHIC IN THE NETHERLANDS
305
aisles. A little later (1450), S. Steplien at N>-m\vegen was completed
in similar style.
The fifteenth centur>-, in fact, is the golden age for Dutch

Gothic,
and among the most remarkable churches are S.
Alary Magdalen at
Goes, with three ecûal apses ter-
minating the Lawrence
aisles, St.
'
^
at Alkmaar, the Niewe Kerk at
Amsterdam, the Groote Kerk at
Dordrecht, and the Groote Kerk
at Leenwarden. The basihcal
plan was almost uni^•ersal, with
great width in proportion to its
length and with a doubling of

the aisles which usual!}- did not
extend the entire length of the
building, but was confined either
to the bod}' of the church or to 1 WM i
the choir. The ele\-ation differed

substantiall}' in the northeast
where, as we ha\-e seen, the hall
t}pe pre\-ailed, usuall}- with a
single na\-e. In the south the
Flemish-French t}-pe was the
rule.
The two most interesting town

halls in Holland, those of j\Iid-
delbourg and Gouda, are both of

the latest Gothic age (fifteenth
centur}-), and belong to veiy dif-
ferent t}-]X"s. That of Gouda (Fig.
461), is not large, but standing
401 — Hold de \ illc at Gouda. l^r'roni
quite isolated in the centre of the Ysendvck.)
marketj^lace, with its belfr}' ad-
justed to the fagade in so original a manner b}- the stepped-gable
fagade with its pinnacles, it is felicitous in its simplicit}-. The effect
is even heightened by the barocque perron with its curious low roof.
At INIiddelbourg we notice a similar infusion of Germanicisms, for
instance, in the stepped and pinnacled gable (Fig. 46:). The belfr}',
curioush' enough, is not an integral part of the structure, which is
built around a court in the centre of which the belfry rises. It is an

original way of combining two municipal structures town hall and —
belfry— that were at times distinct. In the design of the angle, with
its large turret and its balcony for pubUc proclamations and speeches,
462 —Hotel dc Villc at Middelbourg. (From Yscndyck.)
as well as in the wealth of statuary under canopies, there is the greatest

similarity to the Town Hall at Ghent. The Middelbourg building is
the carHcr, begun in 146S, and completed by the architect Kelder-
mann after 1507.
CHAPTER III
GOTHIC IN OTHER NORTHERN COUNTRIES
^CAXDIXA]'IA. —The Gothic situation in Scandina\-ia un-

O usually complicated, and at the same time lacking in
is
vital
interest.Owing to the absence of a strong national stj-le in
stone during the Romanesque era, there was no local nucleus with
which the imported forms could be amalgamated. The prevailing
nati^'e wooden architecture had no influence on Gothic forms. Geo-
graphically disconnected from Europe except by way of the archi-
tecturally backward sections of North Germany, which acted through
the medium of Denmark, the three Norway, Sweden
countries of
and Denmark would naturally recei^-e by means
their Ciothic largeh'
of their commercial connections, especial!}' by sea. So we And the
sources of Scandinavian Gothic to haA'e been first England and then
Germany. France was a minor factor. Even the customar)' Cis-
tercian in\-asion, in so far as it brought Gothic, seems to ha\'e come
not from France but England: for example, at Hovedo, founded from
Kirkstall, and Luisce, founded from Fountains, both of them in
Norway. It was not until 12S7 that France took its part in a brilliant
and exceptional way by sending architects from Paris Etienne de —
—
Bonneval and his assistants to build the cathedral of Upsala. Under
these circumstances it is hardh' surprising that Scandina^-ian Gothic
proves to be a hybrid product without much creative energy.
Norway lay most open to the English influence from over-seas,
and was the first to adopt Gothic forms. Yet she not only preser^'ed
better than the rest of Scandina^â the primiti^'e wooden architecture
through the Gothic age but extended it to Sweden and e\x'n Denmark.
In connection with this use of wood it should be noted that the
relative scarcity of good local building stone was one of the main
causes for the Scandinavian architectural situation. Only a hard
j97
granite was common. Limestone was hardly to be found outside of

certain limited sections of Denmark and Sweden. This led to the
introduction from Germany and the Netherlands of the technique of
brick building, which had not been in use during pre-Gothic times.
Still, there was not that frank and complete surrender to brick and
463 — Interior of cathedral, Throndjem, looking east. (Krom Adamy.)
terracotta that was current in those countries, but more usually there
was a survival of stonework for details.
Throndjem (Drontheim), the seat of the archbishop of Norway,
has a cathedral which combines Romanesque (transept) transition
(chapter-house), early English (choir) and developed Gothic (choir,
nave). Until its partial destruction in the sixteenth century it was
perhaps the only Scandinavian building that could be classed with the
larger cathedrals of the rest of Europe. The view of the upper part
of the choir in Fig. 463 shows clearly English character in the lancet
arcadeSj round abaci, broad enclosing arch and decorated oculus of
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN OTHER NORTHERN COUNTRIES 399
the gallery, and in the decoration and especially the capitals of the
triforium with their double row of hea^'ily projecting foliage. Its
date is 124S. The plan
is eight-sided and therefore
rather German than English.
The lower part of the choir
is more de^•eloped, but still
English in its arrangement

and character. A view of it
in Fig.464 shows a richer or-
namentation, but it must be
noted also that the aisles are
sacrificed to the nave and

are less than half its width,
a \-er}' unusual proportion.
Originally there was built, at
the close of the thirteenth

century, a large three-aisled
body against the renoN-ated

transept, but this collapsed
in the sixteenth centur}- and
4D4 — Choir in cathedral, Throndjcm. (From
its was
reconstruction only
Michel.)
recently begun. To the same
period and also to the same early English influence belongs the choir
of the cathedral of Stavanger (after 1272), with one enormous win-

dow in its scjuare end.
Quite another scheme
is illustrated in the ca-
thedral of Linkocping,
which was the second
ecclesiastical centre of
Norwa^^ after Thrond-

jem. The ^'iew given
in Fig. 465 shows the

bod^ of the church, be-
gun c. 12S0 and com-

pleted c. 1350, to have
followed the German
(.Fwm Michel.) hall plan. In the pic-
_^05— Calhcdral of Liiikoeping.
4O0 GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE [Bk. XII
ture the two slender columns in the foreground belong to the earliest
period and join on to the transept, which is under English influence
(c. 1250), as is quite clear from the style of the portal of the south
arm.
In Denmark the cathedral of Roeskilde is the most interesting
work for an understanding of the first stages of transitional work.
Its apse and transept are more successful than the heavy nave. In
fact, the apse is not unlike what the original apse of Notre Dame, in
Paris, must have been, with deambulatory but no chapels. Above
the deambulatory is a charming gallery with arcades separated only
by granite columns.
It is the custom to include among Gothic works the very special
group of churches and other structures of this age built on the island
of Gotland, but as they did not get beyond the use of groin vaulting
they evidently are outside the pale, until we reach the works of the
close of the fourteenth century at Wisby, built by the Dominicans
and Franciscans, which show that they imported architectural ideas
from Italy, as in St. Nicholas, and especially St. Catharine with its
octagonal piers, wide arcades and high side-aisles, though some critics
see here and elsewhere German iniiuence.
There are but few examples of late Gothic in Scandinavia. At
Wadstena, in Sweden, is the best instance of a curious Scandinavian
adaptation of a Germanic type in its Flamboyant form. It is a hall
church of rectangular plan, built of limestone, with three aisles equal
not only in height but in width, and with a choir at each end, one for
the priests and one for the nuns, both of them square ending. The
plain octagonal piers support broad low vaults with Heme and tier-
ceron ribbing. was built from 1388 to 1430 for the new order of
It
nuns and set a model for other churches as the order
of St. Birgitta
spread through Scandinavia. These churches were of uniform sim-
plicity, not to say meagreness, in contrast to usual late Gothic work,
except in North Germany and the Baltic. In fact, outside Sweden,
churches of this type were usually built of brick, as at Maribo in
Denmark and Reval in the Baltic.
Switzerland. —There is no reason for treating Switzerland as an
architectural unit. She was as international in the Gothic period as
she is now.
Germanic influences prevailed in the section adjacent to
Germany; French, especially Burgundian, influences in the region
near the western border, and in fact in most of the larger centres.
Chap. Ill] GOTHIC IN OTHER NORTHERN COUNTRIES 401
Her splendid quarries development of the best Gothic

faA'ored the
forms. The churches Lausanne and Geneva may be taken as
of
tApical examples of the dependence on Burgund}-. The interior of
the cathedral of Lausanne, seen at the transept in Fig. 450, has the
strength and solidity of this
school at its jjrime in the
thirteenth centur\'. The lan-
tern has a columnar gallerv
like the nave, and to the sex-
partite -\-aulting responds the
alternation of columns and
piers as supports. The ca-
thedral at Chur, quite heaAy
and with Romanesque details,
though largely of the thir-
teenth century, has signs of
Lombard influence. In the
cathedral of Basel there is
a mixture of German and

Lombard traits in the na\-e
and ambulator}'. Berne ca-
thedral, with its enormous
and hea^"y tower over the 460 — Cathedral of Lausanne. (.From Michel.)
porch, is frankh' German, of
the Esslingen-Ulm t}pe, though less symmetrical. This most impor-
tant of Swiss churches was built between 1421 and 1575. Its in-
terior is also Germanic; with treUised vaulting on slender clustered

piers without capitals. The cathedral at Fribourg also belongs to the
German school.
The Le\"AXT. — It is onh' as a matter of curiosity that we will men-
tion a group of Gothic monuments in the Le\'ant. They were due to
the conquests of the Crusaders and are not to be found chiefly in Pales-
by the time Gothic forms began to tra^•el
tine itself, because Palestine
was being gradually reconquered b>' the ^Mohammedans. C>'prus,
conquered by the Crusaders in 1191, became the centre of a Christian
kingdom. Its metropolitan church, the cathedral of Nicosia, is largel}-
a work of the thirteenth century modelled at first on Notre Dame,

with columns for itssupports in choir and nave, and without triforium.
At Famagusta we find a duphcate of the Sainte Chapelle in the chapel
of St. George. The fourteenth century saw even greater prosperity.
Its masterpiece, the cathedral of Famagusta, founded in 1308, has a
simple basiUcal plan similar to that of Saint Urbain at Troyes, and a

fagade resembling S. Nicaise of Reims, with one enormous pointed
window instead of a rose-window. Further resemblances in the facade
to the cathedral of Reims increase the probability, suggested by M.
Enlart, that the architect of this cathedral was a Frenchman from
Champagne. It is certain that pure French Gothic dominated in the
island at this time. Numerous examples prove it. In Famagusta
itself and S. Paul, and the Greek cathedral are
the church of S. Peter
local imitations. But English influence is evident in the interesting
buildings of the Abbey of Lapais.
—
Russia. The domination of Byzantine art in Russia prevented
the advent of Gothic not, perhaps, on account of its artistic, but
because of its religious power. The Orthodox Greek church could
not accept the style of the Latin church. Only on the Baltic did the
neighborhood of Scandinavia and Germany produce a few exceptions.
In any case, Finland was at that time not a part of Russia, but of
Scandinavia. Then, there are the Polish provinces, at that time part
of independent Poland and ecclesiastically part of the Latin church.
Here, also, Gothic obtained a foothold. But, in neither case is there
any development of especial interest, merely secondary works derived
from the schools of North Germany, at Riga, Wenden, Reval, and
Dorpat in the Baltic provinces. Abo in Finland, Wilna and
Krakau in Poland, have transitional and Gothic buildings of plain
North German style, principally of biick. The cathedral of Riga,
before its reconstruction in the fifteenth century, seems to have been
in a plain transitional style of the thirteenth century. The church
of the Order of Teutonic Knights at Wenden, though commenced as
late as 1283, is still transitional. The ruined cathedral of Dorpat was
the most important church in the province.
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
ftHJ*'i.iN*-H'(*'i>'*'^vftr^

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RUSSELL STURGIS, A.M., Ph.D.

VOLUME III—GOTHIC IN ITALY

GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

ing the architectural forms before the coming of Gothic,

referred to is in the other volume.

I. RE^•IE^v OF Rojl\xesque akd Origixs of Gothic ix

Apparent lack of unity in Romanesque; domical

the Lombard, the Rhenish and the Anglo-Norman

11. The DE^'ELOP]\^EXT of Gothic ix Fr.\xce . . .22

Noyon exhibits some advances; some experiments at Sens;

St. Germain-des-Pres has one of the earliest apses;

III. Early Gothic Figured Sculpture and Stained Glass

Excellence of Gothic figured sculpture; its subject

and development; the west front of Chartres; the

personalities become known to us ; tlie architects of Reims

lY. Local Schools and Later Gothic in Fbance . . 86

Local French schools; the churches of Normandy; the

t^-pe; the hall-church with two or three naves of equal

height; cathedral of Poitiers shows a new t>'pe of interior;

centur}'; St. Ouen, at Rouen, the highest achievement of

Rouen; its original model; Normandy has the best

examples of the flamboyant; the choir of Saint Pierre and

V. Civil, Military and Monastic Gothic in France . 132

Town halls comparatively unimportant in France; the

the " Krak" the HaU at Tortosa; the Chateau of Coucy;

the fortress-palace; Pierrefonds; the Ducal Palace at

VL Development of Arciiitectltial Detail and Decora-

BOOK XL—GOTHIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

influence; Fitero monastery; traces of the military

at Cuenca; the late transitional cathedral of Tudela in

II. Gothic in Portvgal 231

Spanish and Portuguese Gothic compared; the church

fluence; the Manoelino masterpiece at Belem.

III. Gothic in Italy 247

Italy's resistance to Gothic art; bmldings at Fossa-

the cathedral churches; more

where the purely Italian school tries to express itself in

Grazie at Milan, in the Lombard style; Romanesque

Petronio at Bologna the best tj'pe of native Italian

BOOK XII.— GOTHIC IN NORTHERN EUROPE

interesting church at Wimpfen; the Cistercians; their

berg; work of Peter Parler in Bohemia; Royal Castle

II. Gothic in the Netherlands 383

Belgium, French and German features in the Low

backward than Belgium; almost invariable use of brick;

ing town halls at Gouda and Middlebourg.

III. Gothic ix Other Northern Countries .... 397

Scandinavian Gothic complicated and uninteresting;

ing cathedrals inNorway; Roeskilde cathedral in Den-

Structure of severies in vault 1.5