CHAPTER III.HOLLAND.
CONTENTS.
CONTENTS.
CONTENTS.
Churches—Civil and Domestic Buildings.
Themoment we pass the boundary line which separates Belgium from Holland, we feel that we have stepped at once into a new architectural province. At last we have got among a people of pure Aryan or Teutonic race, without one trace of Turanian or Celtic blood in their veins, and who consequently carry out their architectural designs with a matter-of-fact simplicity that is edifying, if not charming. It is not that the kingdom of Holland is deficient in the possession of Mediæval churches—far from it—she possesses as many Gothic cathedrals as we do, and their average dimensions are equal to those which adorn this island; they belong also to the same age: but the result is wonderfully different.
The Dutch did not work out any part of the style for themselves; they attempted no novelties, and did not even give themselves the trouble to understand perfectly the style they were employing. They were then, as now, a religious people, and wanted churches, and built them according to the only pattern then available. No one can say that their churches were not perfectly adapted to the form of worship then prevalent, and in dimensions and dignity perfectly suited to the wants of the communities who erected them. Notwithstanding all this, they are only vast warehouses of devotion, and are utter failures as works of art.
If any one wishes to perfectly realise the difference between mere ornamental construction and ornamental construction which is also ornamented, he cannot do better than study carefully the design of these Dutch churches. Their dimensions are frequently grand, their proportions generally pleasing, and the subordination of the parts to each other often most judicious. On the other hand, the pillars of the pier arches are almost always round—the vaulting shafts poor, and never carried to a sufficient resting-place—the windows want mullions and tracery—the vaults are domed and stilted—the ribs lean—andeverything in fact is pared down as closely to mere utility as is possible in such a style. In France or in England, in the same age, every stone would have spoken out and had a meaning; and every detail would not only have been in its right place, but would have expressed the reason of its being there, and the purpose to which it was applied.
To the want of artistic feeling, or real knowledge of the style, which is shown in the designs of the Dutch churches, must be added the inferiority of the material in which they were carried out. Some are wholly of brick, and few are entirely of stone, though most of them have an admixture of the nobler material—and where brick is employed, without great care and artistic feeling, the result is generally poor and unsatisfactory.
Judged by their dimensions alone, the churches of Holland ought to be almost as interesting as those of Belgium, for they are generally large, with lofty and well-proportioned aisles, and transepts which project boldly. They have frequently tall and not ungraceful western towers, and sometimes large windows filled with good tracery, though mostly of a late age. Notwithstanding all these requisites of a perfect Gothic church, there is not one of them that must not be considered a failure, from the causes just mentioned.
These remarks apply especially to the great churches at Haarlem, Leyden, and Rotterdam, two at Amsterdam, and the two at Delft, the older of which contains some details worthy of attention. That at Gouda is remarkable for the beauty of its painted glass, though the architecture of the church is very unworthy of so brilliant an ornament.
The church at Dort is older than most of these, and has a venerable look about it that hides many of the faults of its architecture, but it will not bear examination.
The churches of Utrecht and Bois le Duc are to some extent exceptions to the general poverty of design which characterises the churches of Holland. This is owing probably to the situation of these two churches on the verge of the province, and their proximity to Belgium and Germany. That at Utrecht consists at the present day of merely two fragments—a choir and a tower, the nave that joined them having been destroyed by a storm and never replaced. What remains is good late German, though it is much disfigured by modern additions. The church at Bois le Duc is still a large and richly ornamented church, with a good deal of stone-work about it; but being too large for the decaying town in which it stands, it has suffered much from neglect, and is now in a very ruinous condition.
The church at Kampen, on the Zuyder Zee, is better than most others, and many of the smaller churches on the borders of the province are worthy of more attention than they have received. Thereare few abbeys or monastic buildings of any importance to be found, such establishments never having been suited to the industrious character of the Dutch people.
Bad as are the churches of Holland, the town-halls and civic buildings are even worse. With the single exception of the town-hall at Middelburg, erected in 1468 by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and a fine example of its kind, there are none, in the whole of the Netherlands, which can be classed as works of fine art. Even age has been unable to render them tolerably picturesque; nor are there in the province any belfries with their picturesque forms, nor any palaces worthy of note, which belong to the Middle Ages. The older dwelling-houses are sometimes picturesque and pleasing, but less so than those of Belgium. Most of them are unpretending specimens of honest building, the result of which is often satisfactory; and combined, as they generally are in Dutch towns, with water and trees, and with the air of neatness and comfort which pervades the whole, we sometimes scarcely feel inclined to quarrel with the absence of higher elements of art when so pleasing a result has been produced without them.
Notwithstanding all this, it might be well worth while to give one or two examples of the plans and illustrations of some of the churches in Holland in a work like the present, not so much for their own sake, as for comparison with other buildings; but the materials do not exist. The Dutch have shown the same indifference to the conservation of their Mediæval monuments which their forefathers exhibited in their erection, and not one has been edited in modern times in such a manner as to admit of being quoted.[51]The history of this variety remains for the present to be written, but fortunately it is one of the least important of its class.