CHAPTER VI.FRANKISH PROVINCE.

CONTENTS.

Exceptional buildings—Basse Œuvre, Beauvais—Montier-en-Der.

Thearchitecture of the Northern division of France is certainly the most interesting subject in the whole history of the Mediæval styles, inasmuch as it comprehends the origin and progress of that form of pointed architecture which in the 13th century extended from Paris as a centre to the remotest corners of Europe, pervading the whole of Germany, Britain, and even Spain and Italy. In these countries it generally obliterated their own peculiar styles, and usurped their places, so that it became the Gothic stylepar eminence, and the only one ordinarily understood under that name. It has gained this distinction, not perhaps so much from any inherent merit of its own, as because it was the only one of all the Mediæval styles which was carried beyond the simple rudiments of the art, and enjoyed the advantage of being perfected by a powerful and united people who had advanced beyond the first elements of civilised society. It is needless now to inquire whether the other styles might not have been made as perfect, or more so, had the same amount of talent and of time been bestowed upon them. All we can say is, that no other style was so carried out, and it is impossible to attempt it now; the pointed Gothic had therefore the opportunity which the others were deprived of, and became the prevalent style in Europe during the Middle Ages. Its history is, therefore, that to which attention must always be principally directed, and from which all lessons and all satisfactory reasoning on the subject must be principally derived.

The great divisions into which the early history of the style naturally divides itself have already been pointed out. The great central province I have ventured to call the Frankish. It was there that the true Gothic pointed style was invented, and thence that itissued in the middle of the 12th century, first pervading the two great subordinate divisions of Normandy on the one hand, and Burgundy on the other. In Normandy, before this time, a warlike race had raised themselves to power, and, with an inconsistency characteristic of their state of civilisation, devoted to sacred purposes the wealth they had acquired by rapine and plunder, covering their province with churches, and perfecting a rude style of architecture singularly expressive of their bold and energetic character.

In Burgundy, as we have just seen, both the style and its history differed considerably from this. From some cause which has not yet been explained, this country became early the favourite resort of hermits and of holy men, who founded here those great monastic establishments which spread their influence not only over France, but over the whole of Europe, controlling to an immense extent all the relations of European society in the Middle Ages. The culminating epoch of the architecture of Normandy and Burgundy was the 11th century. In the 12th the monarchical sway of the central province was beginning to be felt in them. In the 13th it superseded the local character of both, and gradually fused them with the whole of France into one great and singularly uniform architectural province.

607. Plan and Section of Basse Œuvre, Beauvais. (From Woillez, ‘Monuments Religieux de Beauvais.’)

Before proceeding to describe the local forms of architecture in Central France it is necessary to say a few words regarding a class of buildings which have not hitherto been mentioned, but which must not be passed over. These cannot be included in any other style, and are so nearly devoid of architectural features, properly so called, that they might have been omitted but for one consideration. They bear so remarkable aresemblance to the earliest Christian churches of Rome on the one hand, and to the true Gothic on the other, that we cannot doubt their being the channel through which the latter was derived from the former. They are, moreover, the oldest churches in Northern France, which is sufficient to confirm this view.

The character of this style will be understood from the plan and internal and external view of one of its typical examples, the Basse Œuvre at Beauvais (Woodcuts Nos.607and608). It will be seen that this building consists of a nave and side-aisles, separated from each other by a range of plain arches resting on piers without either bases or capitals; on one side the angles are cut off, so as to give a slightly ornamental character; on the other they are left square. The central aisle is twice the width, and more than twice the height, of the lateral aisles, and has a well-defined clerestory; the roof, both of the central and side aisles, is a flat ceiling of wood. The eastern end has been destroyed, but judging from other examples, it probably consisted of three apses, a large one in the centre and a smaller one at the end of each aisle.

608. External and Internal View of Basse Œuvre. (From Woillez.)

The similarity of the form of this church to the Roman basilicas will be evident on referring to the representations of those buildings, more especially to that of San Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane (Woodcut No. 408), though the details have nothing in common except in the use of flat tiles between the cornices of the arches, which is singularly characteristic of Roman masonry. The points in which this example is most evidently the source of some of the important peculiarities ofthe true Gothic, are the subordination of the side-aisles to the central one, and the perfectly developed clerestory. These are not found in any of the styles of France hitherto described.

Eventually, as we shall shortly see, stone became the material used in the interior ceiling of Gothic vaults, but protected externally by a wooden roof. This stone vault was not, I believe, attempted in France before the 11th century. In the meanwhile, wooden-roofed churches, like that at Beauvais, seem to have been usual and prevalent all over the North of France, though, as may be supposed, both from the smallness of their dimensions and the perishable nature of their materials, most of them, have been either superseded by larger structures, or have been destroyed by fire or by the accidents of time.

M. Woillez describes five or six as existing still in the diocese of Beauvais, and varying in age from the 6th or 7th century, which probably is the date of the Basse Œuvre, to the beginning of the 11th century; and if other districts were carefully examined, more examples would probably be found. Normandy must perhaps be excepted, for there the rude Northmen seem first to have destroyed all the churches, and then to have rebuilt them with a magnificence they did not previously possess.

Churches of the same class, or others at least extremely similar to them, as far as we can judge from such representations as have been published, exist even beyond the Loire. There is one at Savonières in Anjou, and a still more curious one at St. Généreux in Vienne, not far from Poitiers, which shows in great perfection a style of decoration by triangular pediments and a peculiar sort of mosaic in brickwork.

609. Decoration of St. Généreux. (From Gailhabaud.)

The same style of decoration is carried out in the old church of St. Jean at Poitiers, which probably is even older than the Basse Œuvre of Beauvais. The old church, which now forms the ante-church to St. Front at Périgueux (Woodcut No.562), seems also to belong to the same class; but, if M. Félix de Verneilh’s restoration is to be trusted, it approaches nearer to a Romanesque style than any other of its class, of which it may nevertheless possibly be the most southern example.

Perhaps the most interesting example of the style is the nave of the church of Montier-en-Der, near Vassy, almost due east from Paris. It is perfectly plain, very like San Vincenzo (Woodcut No. 408), and is a perfect Romanesque example with a wooden roof; the design forwhich was probably brought direct from Rome when this church was erected in this remote village. What, however, gives it its greatest interest for our present purpose arises from the fact that the apse or choir was rebuilt in the 13th century, and we have consequently in immediate juxtaposition the Romanesque model as it was introduced to the Barbarians, and the result of their elaboration of it—the germ of the Gothic style and the full-blown flower.

610. Section of Eastern portion of Church of Montier-en-Der. (From the ‘Archives des Monuments,’ &c.)

As before pointed out (p.49), the progress was slow in the formation of a new style during the 1000 years that elapsed between the building of the Temple of Diana at Nîmes and the Church at Carcassonne; but here, within the limits of two, or at most three centuries, the progress made was so rapid as to be startling. The inhabitants of Central France appear at once to have comprehended the significance of the problem, and to have worked it out with a steadiness and energy of which it must be difficult to find another example. The nave of the church is as poor and as lean as it can well be, but every part of the choir is ornamented, while nothing is overdone; and there is not one single ornament which is not appropriate to its place, or which may not fairly be considered as a part of the ornamented construction of the building. It was an entirely new style invented on the spot, and complete in all its parts. Some of its ornaments were afterwards made more elegant, and more might have been done in this direction; but as here represented the style was complete, and it is certainly one of the most beautiful creations of the class which ever emanated fromthe activity of the human brain. It is also interesting as being one of the few where every step in the progress can be traced and every result understood.

What we have now to attempt, is to point out—as clearly as our limits will admit of—the steps by which the rude architecture of the western half of the church of Montier-en-Der was converted into the perfected style of the choir as shown in the woodcut on the previous page.

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