CHAPTER II.AQUITANIA.

CONTENTS.

Churches at Périgueux, Souillac, Angoulême, Alby, Toulouse, Conques, Tours.—Tombs.

Themoment you pass the hills forming the watershed between the rivers flowing to the Mediterranean and those which debouch into the Bay of Biscay, you become aware of having left the style we have just been describing to enter upon a new architectural province. This province possesses two distinct and separate styles, very unlike one another both in character and detail. The first of these is a round arched tunnel-vaulted Gothic style, more remarkable for the grandeur of its conceptions than for the success with which those conceptions are carried out, or for beauty of detail. The second is a pointed-arched, dome-roofed style peculiar to the province.

562. Plan of St. Front, Périgueux. (From F. de Verneilh, ‘Architecture Byzantine en France.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The existence of this peculiar form of art in this part of France, where it is alone found, is quite sufficient to establish the pre-existence in this province of a race differing from that inhabiting the rest of the country, though it is not at present easy to determine their origin. From the prevalence of Basque terminations to the names of the principal towns in the district, and from the fragmentsof that people still existing on its southern frontier, it would appear most likely that they were the influencing race. If so, their love of domes would be almost sufficient to establish their claim to a Turanian origin, for though domes are found, no doubt, farther north, it is in a modified form. These phenomena are, however, sufficient to induce us to include for the present in the province of Aquitaine the doubtful districts of the Angoumois and Vendée, though it is possible that these provinces may eventually turn out to belong more properly to Anjou.

In describing them, it may be convenient to take the domical style first, as its history—with one or two exceptional examples in the neighbouring provinces—begins and ends here. It will, no doubt, be found beyond the Pyrenees so soon as it is looked for; but in a country whose architecture has been so imperfectly investigated as has been the case in Spain, fifty different styles might exist without our being cognizant of the fact.

563. Part of St. Front, Périgueux. (From Verneilh.)

The principal and best preserved example of the domical style of Aquitaine is the church of St. Front, Périgueux. As will be seen from the woodcut No.562, its plan is that of a Greek cross, 182 ft. each way internally, exclusive of the apse, which is comparatively modern, and of the ante-church and porch, shaded darker, extending 150 ft. farther west, which are the remains of an older church, now very much mutilated, and to which the domical church was added in the 12th century.

Both in plan and dimensions, it will be observed that this church bears an extraordinary and striking resemblance to that of St. Mark’s, Venice, illustrated in Book II. The latter church, however, has the angles so filled up as to reduce it to the more usual Greek form of a square, while its front and lateral porches are additions of amagnificence to which the church of St. Front can lay no claim. The five cupolas are of nearly the same size, and are similarly placed, in both churches; and the general similarity of arrangement points certainly to an identity of origin. Both too would seem to be of about the same age, and there is now some reason to doubt the data on which M. Félix de Verneilh[26]arrived at the conclusion that the church we now see was erected in the very beginning of the 11th century. There is, however, one striking difference—that all the constructive arches in St. Front are pointed, while those of St. Mark’s are round. The form too of the cupolas differs; and in St. Front the piers that support the domes, having been found too weak, have been cased to strengthen them, which gives them an awkward appearance, from which St. Mark’s is free. The difference that would strike a traveller most is, that St. Mark’s retains its frescoes and decorations, while St. Front, like almost all the churches of its age, presents nothing now but naked bare walls, though there cannot be a doubt that it was originally painted. This indeed was the legitimate and appropriate mode of decoration of all the churches of this age, till it was in a great measure superseded by the invention of painted glass.

The cupolas are at the present day covered with a wooden roof; but their original appearance is represented with tolerable correctness in the woodcut No.563, which, though not so graceful as Eastern domes usually are, are still a far more picturesque and permanent finishing for a roof than the wooden structures of the more Northern races. Its present internal appearance, from the causes above mentioned, is singularly bare and gloomy, and no doubt utterly unworthy of its pristine splendour.

The tower stands at the intersection between the old and newchurches, and its lower part at least is so classical in its details, that it more probably belongs to the older Latin church than to the domical one. Its upper part seems to have been added, and its foundation strengthened, at the time the eastern part was built.

564. Interior of Church at Souillac. (From Taylor and Nodier.)

St. Front is perhaps the only existing specimen of a perfect Greek cross church with cupolas. That of Souillac is a good example of a modification of a form nearly similar, except that the cupola forming the eastern branch is here transferred to the western, making it thus a Latin instead of a Greek cross, which is certainly an improvement, as the principal space and magnificence is thus concentrated about the high altar, which is, or should be, the culminating point of effect. An opinion may be formed of its internal appearance, and indeed of all the churches of this style, from the view (Woodcut No.564), which in reality gives it much more the appearance of the interior of a mosquein Cairo than of a Christian church of the Middle Ages. The building is not large, being only 205 ft. in length internally, including the porch, and 110 across the transepts. Its age is not accurately known, but it is usually placed by antiquaries in the 12th century on account of its pointed arches.

565. Plan of Cathedral at Angoulême. (From Verneilh.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

566. One Bay of Nave, Angoulême. (From Verneilh.) No scale.

The cathedral at Angoulême (Woodcut No.565) is another and still more extended example of this class, having three domes in the nave; the façade belonging probably to the 11th, the rest to the 12th century. The form of these domes, with the arrangement of the side walls, will be understood from the woodcut No.566. The method adopted in this church may be considered as typical of all this class; and, except in the mode of lighting the upper part, is by no means inferior in architectural effect to the intersecting vaults of after ages. The transepts here are shortened internally so as only to give room for two small lateral chapels; but externally they are made very imposing by the addition of two towers, one at the end of each. This was another means of solving a difficulty that everywhere met the mediæval architects, of giving the greatest dignity to the most holy place. The proper and obvious mode of doing this was of course to raise a tower or dome at the intersection of the nave and transepts, but the difficulties of construction involved in this mode of procedure were such that they seldom were enabled to carry it out. This can only be said, indeed, to have been fairly accomplished in England. At Angoulême, as will be observed in the plan, there is no passage round the altar, nor is the choir separated from the body of the church. In Italy, and indeed in Germany, this does not seem to have been considered of importance; but in France, as we shall presently see, itwas regarded as the most indispensable part of the arrangement of the church, and to meet this exigency the Southern architects were afterwards obliged to invent a method of isolating the choir, by carrying a lofty stone railing or screen round it, wholly independent of any of the constructive parts of the church. This, there is little doubt, was a mistake, and in every respect a less beautiful arrangement than that adopted in the North; still, it seems to have been the only means of meeting the difficulty in the absence of aisles, and in some instances the richness with which the screen was ornamented, and the unbroken succession of bassi-relievi and sculptural ornaments, make us forget that it is only a piece of church furniture, and not an integral part of the design of the building.

567. Plan of Church at Moissac. (From Taylor and Nodier.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

One of the earliest examples of this arrangement which has been preserved is in the church at Moissac, remarkable for its strange mythical sculpture and rude pointed architecture, both belonging to the 11th century, and as unlike anything to be found in any other part of France as can well be conceived.

At a later age we find in the cathedral at Alby the same system carried to its acmé, and still adhered to in all essential parts in spite of the influence and predominance of the pure Gothic styles, which had then so generally superseded it. The foundation of the church was laid only in the year 1282, and it was not so far completed as to admit of its dedication till 1476. Its choir and fresco decorations were added by the celebrated Louis d’Amboise, who completed the whole in 1512. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No.568), the church is one immense unbroken vaulted hall, 55 ft. in width by 262 in length; or adding the chapels, the internal width is 82 ft., and the total length upwards of 300 ft.

568. Plan of Cathedral at Alby. (From Chapuy, ‘Cathédrales Françaises.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

As will be observed, the whole of the buttresses are internal, as isvery generally the case in the South; and where painted glass is not used, and fresco painting is the principal mode of decoration, such a system has many advantages. The outer walls are scarcely ever seen, and by this arrangement great internal extent and appearance of gigantic strength is imparted, while the whole space covered by the building is available for internal use. But where paintedglass is the principal mode of decoration, as was the case to the north of the Loire, such a system was evidently inadmissible. Then the walls were internally kept as flat as possible, so as to allow the windows to be seen in every direction, and all the mechanical expedients were placed on the outside. Admirably as the Northern architects managed all this, I cannot help thinking, if we leave the painted glass out of the question, that the Southern architects had hit on the more artistic arrangement of the two; and where, as at Alby, the lower parts of the recesses between the internal buttresses were occupied by deep windowless chapels, and the upper lights were almost wholly concealed, the result was an extraordinary appearance of repose and mysterious gloom. This character, added to its simplicity and the vastness of its vaults, render Alby one of the most impressive churches in France, and a most instructive study to the philosophical inquirer into the principles of effect, as being a Gothic church built on principles not only dissimilar from, but almost diametrically opposed to, those which we have been usually accustomed to consider as indispensable, and as inherent requisites of the style.

569. Plan of Church of the Cordeliers, at Toulouse. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The church of the Cordeliers at Toulouse is another remarkable example of this class, and exhibiting its peculiarities in even a clearer light than that at Alby. Externally its dimensions in plan are 273 ft. by 87. Those of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, which is the building we possess most resembling it in plan, are 310 ft. by 84. But the nave of that chapel is only 41 ft. 6 in. clear between the piers, while in the church of the Cordeliers it is 53 ft., and except the thickness of the outer wall—about 4 ft.—the whole of the floor-space of the plan is utilised in the interior. In so far as internal effect is concerned this is no doubt judicious; but, as may be seen from the view (Woodcut No.571), the absence of any delineation of the line of buttresses externally produces a flatness and want of accentuation in the lower part that is highly objectionable. As will be observed from the section, the whole of the width of the buttresses is included in the interior on the one side. On the other it is excluded above the roof of the aisle, but a gallery (Woodcuts Nos.570and571) joins the buttress at the top, giving theeffect of a cornice and a gallery above. The church is of brick, and all the peculiarities of the style are here found exaggerated; but there are few churches on the Continent which contain so many valuable suggestions for a Protestant place of worship, and no features that could not easily be improved by judicious handling. It was built in a country where Protestant feeling existed before the Reformation, and where consequently architects studied more how they could accommodate congregations than provide show-places for priests.

570. Section of Church of the Cordeliers at Toulouse. 50 ft. to 1 in. (From King’s ‘Study Book.’)

571. View of Angle of Church of the Cordeliers at Toulouse. (From King.)

Besides those which are built wholly according to this plan, there are a great number of churches in this province which show the influence of its design in more respects than one, though, having been rebuilt in a subsequent age, many of the original features are necessarily lost. The cathedral at Bordeaux is a remarkable example of this, its western portion being a vast nave without aisles, 60 ft. wide internally, and nearly 200 ft. in length. Its foundations show that, like that at Angoulême, it was originally roofed by three great domes; but being rebuilt in the 13th century, it is now covered by an intersecting vault of that age, with two storeys of windows, and an immense array of flying buttresses to support its thrust, all which might have been dispensed with had the architects retained the original, simpler, and more beautiful form of roof. The cathedral of Toulouse shows the same peculiarity of a wide aisleless nave, leading to a choir of the usual construction adopted in this country in the 13th and 14th centuries; and many other examples might be quoted where the influence of the earlier style peers through the Northern Gothic which succeeded and nearly obliterated it.

Chevet Churches.

The Gothic churches of this province are neither so numerous nor so remarkable as those of the domical class we have just been describing; still, there are several examples, far too important to be passed over, and which will serve besides in enabling us to introduce the new form of church building which became prevalent in France to the exclusion of all others, and which characterised the French style in contradistinction to that of other countries.

572. Church of St. Sernin, Toulouse. (From the ‘Archives des Monuments Historiques.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

573. Section of the Church of St. Sernin, Toulouse. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

The typical example of the style in this province is the great church of St. Saturnin, or St. Sernin, at Toulouse, dedicated in the year 1096. The church is 375 ft. in length and 217 in width across the transept externally. It is five-aisled, the nave being 95 ft. in the interior, though the central aisle is only 25 ft. wide and is further contracted at the intersection by masses of masonry subsequently added to support the central tower. It has five apsidal and four transeptal chapels, and may therefore be considered as possessing a complete chevet; but the church at Conques (Woodcut No.574), in the same style and of almost similar date, illustrates even more perfectly the arrangement of which we are now speaking.

The nave of St. Sernin, as will be observed (Woodcut No.573), hasdouble side-aisles, above the inner one of which runs a grand gallery. The roof of this gallery—in section the quadrant of a circle—forms an abutment to the roof of the nave, which is a bold tunnel-vault ornamented by transverse ribs only. So far the constructive arrangements are the same as in the transitional church of Fontifroide. Passing from the nave to the choir, both at Toulouse and at Conques, we come upon a more extended and complicated arrangement than we have hitherto met with. It will be recollected that the early Romanesque apse was a simple large niche, or semi-dome; so we found out in the Lombard style, and shall find it in the German style when it comes to be described, and generally even in the neighbouring Provençal style, and always—when unaltered—in the domical style last described. In the present instance it will be seen that a semicircular range of columns is substituted for the wall of the apse, an aisle bent round them, and beyond the aisle there are always three, five, or even seven chapels opening into it, which give it a complexity very different from the simple apse of the Roman basilicas and the other styles we have been describing, and at the same time a perspective and a play of light and shade which are unrivalled in any similar invention of the Middle Ages. Theapse, properly speaking, is a solid semi-cylinder, surmounted by a semi-dome, but always solid below, though generally broken by windows above. Thechevet, on the contrary, is an apse, always enclosed by an open screen of columns on the ground-floor, and opening into an aisle, which again always opens into three or more apsidal chapels. This arrangement is so peculiarly French, that it may properly be characterised by the above French word, a name once commonly applied to it, though latterly it has given way to the more classical, but certainly less suitable, term of apse. Its origin too is worth inquiring into, and seems to be capable of easy explanation.

574. Plan of Church at Conques. (From Taylor and Nodier.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The uses which the various nations of Christendom made of the circular form of building left them by the Romans have been more than once adverted to in this work. The Italians used it almost always standing alone as a tomb-house or as a baptistery; the Germans converted it into a western apse, while sometimes, as at Bonn and elsewhere, they timidly added a porch or nave to it; but the far more frequent practice with the Germans, and also in England, was to build first the circular church for its own sake, as in Italy: then the clergy for their own accommodation added a choir, that they might pray apart from the people.

The French took a different course from all these. They built circular churches like other nations, apparently in early times at least, which were intended to stand alone; but in no instance do they appear to have applied them as naves, nor to have added choirs to them. On the contrary, the clergy always retained the circular building as the sacred depository of the tomb or relic, the Holy of Holies, and added a straight-lined nave for the people. Of this class was evidently the church which Perpetuus built in the fifth century over the grave at St. Martin at Tours. There the shrine was surrounded by seventy-nine pillars arranged in a circular form: the nave was lined by forty-one—twenty on each side, with one in the centre of the west end as in Germany. When the church required rebuilding in the 11th century (1014?), the architect was evidently hampered by finding himself obliged to follow the outline of the old basilica of Perpetuus, and having to labour on the same foundation so as not to disturb either the shrine of the saint or any other place which had become sacred in this, which was the most celebrated and revered of the churches of Gaul. All this is made clear in the plan of the new church (Woodcut No.575). The arrangement of the circular part and the nave exactly accord with the description of the old church, only that the latter has been considerably enlarged according to the fashion of the day. But the juxtaposition of the two shows how nearly the chevet arrangement was completed at that time.

575. Plan of St. Martin at Tours. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

Another church, that of Charroux, on the Loire, looks as though it had been built in direct imitation of the church of Perpetuus. The round church here retains its pre-eminence over the nave, as was the case in the older examples, and thus forms an intermediate link between the old church of St. Martin, which we know only by description, and the more modern one, of which a plan is given (Woodcut No.575).

St. Bénigne, Dijon, is another transitional example which may serve to render this arrangement still more clear. It was erected in the first year of the 11th century, and was pulled down only at the Revolution; but before that catastrophe it had been carefully measured and described in Dom Plancher’s ‘History of Burgundy.’ As seen by him, the foundations only of the nave were of the original structure, for in the year 1271 one of its towers fell, and so damaged it that the whole of that part of the church was then rebuilt in the perfect pointed style of the day. Without entering too much into detail, it will suffice to state that the part shaded lightly in the woodcut (No.577) is taken literally from Dom Plancher’s plan, regarding which there can be no doubt, and the contemporary descriptions are so full that very little uncertainty can exist regarding the dimensions and general disposition of the nave.

576. Church of Charroux. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

577. Plan of St. Benigne, Dijon. (From Dom Plancher’s ‘Histoire de Burgogne.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The bodies of the confessors SS. Urban and Gregory were, it appears, originally buried in the church of St. John the Baptist, which seems to have been the name most properly applied to this circular building; they were afterwards transferred to the crypt below the high altar, in the rectangular part of the church. Above the lower storey, which retained its name as a baptistery and burial-place, was the upper church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary; abovethat was the church of the Holy Trinity; and on the top of the round towers, on one side the altar of St. Michael, on the other probably that of Gabriel.

The little church of Neuvy St. Sepulchre, near Bourges, which was erected between the years 1042 and 1046, presents precisely the same arrangements as the church of Charroux, though on a smaller scale, there being only one range of ten pillars in the centre. The ancient nave having been destroyed, was replaced by a more extended one in the 12th century, but the old arrangement can easily be traced.

In all these old churches—and they seem to have been very common in France before the 12th century—the circular part was the most important, but they have most of them been rebuilt; and where this has been the case, even when the outline of the circular form was retained, the lines of the nave were made tangents of the circle, and thus became parts of one design. All these arrangements were perfect before the church of Conques (Woodcut No.574) was erected. There the architect, not being hampered by any previous building, was allowed free scope for his design. The plan so produced was never lost sight of by the French, but was developed into a vast variety of beautiful forms, which we shall shortly have to examine.

When once this transformation of the round church into the chevet termination of a basilica was effected, the French adhered to it with singular constancy. I am not aware of their ever having built a circular church afterwards which was intended to stand alone; and there are very few instances of basilicas of any importance without this form of apse. Some, it is true, have been rebuilt on old foundations, with square eastern ends, but this is rare and exceptional, the chevet being the true and typical termination.

The church at Conques and that of Toulouse both show it fully and beautifully developed, though externally the chapels hardly fit pleasingly into the general design, and look more as though their addition were an afterthought. This, however, was soon afterwards remedied, and the transformation made complete.

The solidity with which these churches were built, and the general narrowness of their proportions as compared with the domical churches of the same time and district, enabled the architects occasionally to attempt some splendid erection on the intersection of the nave and transepts, which is the spot where height should always be aimed at. The dome at Cruas, in the Provençal district, has already been described (Woodcut No.558). The church at Conques has one as important, though dissimilar; but the finest is that of St. Sernin at Toulouse (Woodcut No.578), which rivals the design of our spires at Salisbury, Norwich, and elsewhere, but its height being only 230 ft. from the ground, it cannot be compared with them in that respect. The 3 lower storeys only are of the age of the church; the 2 upperwere added long afterwards, but were adapted with remarkably good taste. Though differing in design and detail, their general form and outline is such as to accord most happily with the older structure on which they are placed; there is nevertheless a sameness of design in placing so many similar storeys one over the other, merely diminishing in size, which is not altogether pleasing. The general effect, however, is good, and for a central object it is, if not the finest, certainly one of the very best which France possesses.

578. St. Sernin, Toulouse. (From Taylor and Nodier.)

As in all French styles, the western façades of the Southern churches are the parts on which the architects lavished their ornamentswith the most unsparing hand. Generally they are flat, and most of them now terminate squarely, with a flat line of cornice of slight projection. Beneath this there is generally a range of arches filled with sculpture or intended to be so—the central one, and that only, being used as a window. Beneath this is the great portal, on which more ornament is bestowed than on any other feature of the building. Some of these gateways in this province, as in Provence, are wondrous examples of patient labour, as well as models of beauty. They possess more than the richness of our own contemporary Norman portals, with a degree of refinement and delicacy which our forefathers did not attain till a much later age. Some of these church-portals in Aquitaine are comparatively simple, but even they make up for the want of sculpture by the propriety of their design and the elegance of their composition.

579. Church at Aillas.

580. Church at Loupiac. (From Leo Drouyn, ‘Architecture au Moyen-Âge.’)

The church at Aillas presents a fair specimen, on asmall scale, of the class of design which is peculiar to the façades of Aquitania, though it is doubtful if the original termination of the gable has not been lost and replaced by the one shown in the drawing. The façade of Angoulême is designed on the same plan, though it is much richer. Those of Civray, Parthenay, and of many others, show the same characteristics. They appear to have been designed, not to express the form and construction of the interior, but, like an Egyptian propylon, as a vehicle for a most extensive series of sculptures exhibiting the whole Bible history. Sometimes, however, the design is more strictly architectural, as in the façade of the church at Loupiac, where sculpture is made wholly subordinate, and the architectural members are so grouped as to form a pleasing and effective design, not unlike some instances found farther north and in our own country.

581. St. Eloi, Espalion. (From Taylor and Nodier.)

The varieties of these, however, are so endless that it would be in vain to attempt either to particularise or to describe them. Many of these arrangements are unusual, though almost always pleasing, as in the church at Espalion (Woodcut No.581), where the belfry is erected as a single wall over the chancel-arch, and groups well with the apsidal termination, though, as in almost every instance in this country, the western façade is wanting in sufficient feature and character to balance it.

Generally speaking, the cloisters and other ecclesiastical adjuncts are so similar to those of Provence, as given in the last chapter, that a separate description of them is not needed here. They are all of the columnar style, supporting small arches on elegant capitals of the most varied and elaborate designs, evincing that delicate feeling so prevalentin the south, which prevented any approach to that barbarism so common farther north whenever the architects attempted anything beyond the common range of decoration.

The same feeling pervades the tombs, monuments, and domestic architecture of this part of France, making them all far more worthy of study in every minute detail than has yet been attempted. The woodcut (No.582) represents one small example of a tomb built into a wall behind the church of St. Pierre at Toulouse. It is one of those graceful little bits of architecture which meet one at every turn in the pleasant South, where the people have an innate feeling for art which displays itself in the smallest as well as in the most important works.

582. Tomb at St. Pierre, Toulouse. (From Taylor and Nodier.)

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