757. Plan of Church of St. Victor at Xanten. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
757. Plan of Church of St. Victor at Xanten. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
757. Plan of Church of St. Victor at Xanten. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
In the South of Germany we have already had occasion to remark on the tendency to raise the side-aisles to the same height as the central one, which eventually became the rule in the great brick churches of Munich and other parts of Bavaria, the piers or pillars becoming mere posts supporting what was practically a horizontal roof. In the north the tendency seems to have been the other way—to exaggerate the clerestory at the expense of the aisles. A notable example of this is found in the nave at Magdeburg, where the side-aisles are practically little more than one-third of the whole height of the church; and there being no triforium, the clerestory windows rest apparently on the vault of the side-aisle. This has now no doubt a disagreeable effect, but when filled with painted glass the case must have been different, and the effect of this immense screen of brilliant colours must have been most beautiful.
A better example of this arrangement is found in the cathedral at Metz, where, from its proximity to France, the whole style was better understood, and the details are consequently more perfect. Externally,it must be confessed, the immense height of the clerestory gives to the church a wire-drawn appearance, very destructive of architectural beauty; but internally, partly from the effect of perspective and partly from the brilliancy of such glass as remains, criticism is disarmed. The result, however contrary to the rules of art, is most fascinating; and at all events, though an error, it is in a far more pleasing direction than that of the southern architects.
These may perhaps be considered the great and typical examples of the pointed style as applied to church architecture in Germany; but besides these there are numerous examples scattered all over the country, many of which, as being less directly under French influence, display an originality of design, and sometimes a beauty, not to be found in the larger examples.
Among these is the Cathedral of St. George at Limburg on the Lahn. This building belongs to the early part of the 13th century, and exhibits the transitional style in its greatest purity, and with less admixture of foreign taste than is to be found in almost any subsequent examples. Though measuring only about 180 ft. by 75, it has, from its crown of towers and general design, a more imposing appearance externally than many buildings of far larger dimensions. The interior is also singularly impressive.
The church of St. Emmeran at Ratisbon, a square building of about the same age and style, is chiefly remarkable for the extensive series of galleries which surround the whole of the interior, being in fact the application of the system of double chapels (see p.241) to a parish church; not that vaulted galleries are at all rare in Germany, but that generally speaking they are insertions; though here they seem part of the original design.
At Schulpforta in Saxony there is a very elegant church of the best age, and both in design and detail very different from anything else in Germany. Its immense relative length gives it a perspective rarely found in this country, where squareness is a much more common characteristic.
At Oppenheim, in the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate, is a church the choir of which is a simple and pleasing German apse with elongated windows. The nave, four bays in length, is an elaborate specimen of German ornamentation in its utmost extravagance, and, considering its age, in singularly bad taste, at least the lower part. The clerestory is unobjectionable, but the tracery of the windows and walls of the side-aisles shows how ingeniously it was possible to misapply even the beautiful details of the early part of the 14th century. In St. Werner’s Chapel, Bacharach, on the Rhine, this is avoided, and, as far as can be judged from the fragment that remains, it must, if it ever was completed, have been one of the best specimens of German art in that part of the country. The nave of the cathedralat Meissen, though marked by many of the faults of German design, is still a beautiful example of well-understood detail.
758. View of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
758. View of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
758. View of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
759. Plan of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
759. Plan of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
759. Plan of Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
As a purely German design nothing can surpass the Maria Kirche at Mühlhausen (Woodcut No.759). The nave is nearly square, 87 ft. by 105, and is divided into five aisles by four rows of pillars supporting the vaults, all at the same level. To the west is a triple frontispiece, and to the east (Woodcut No.759) the three apses, which form so favourite an arrangement with the Germans. Externally its attenuation is painful to one accustomed to the more sober work of French architects; but this fault is here not carried to anything like theexcess found in other churches. Internally the effect is certainly pleasing, and altogether there are perhaps few better specimens of purely German design in pointed architecture. The church of St. Blasius, in the same town, is far from being so good an example of the style.
The cathedral at Erfurt is a highly ornamented building, but though possessing beautiful details in parts, yet it shows the slenderness of construction which is so frequent a fault in German Gothic buildings. The church of St. Severus in the same town resembles that at Mühlhausen, but possesses so characteristic a group of three spires[79]over what we would consider the transept—or just in front of the apse—that it is illustrated (Woodcut No.760). It certainly looks like a direct lineal descendant from the old Roman basilican apse grown into Gothic tallness. Though common in Germany, placed either here or at the west front, I do not know of any single example of such an arrangement either in France or England.
760. St. Severus Church at Erfurt. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
760. St. Severus Church at Erfurt. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
760. St. Severus Church at Erfurt. (From Puttrich, ‘Denkmäler.’)
To the same class of square churches with slightly projecting chancels belongs the Frauen Kirche at Nuremberg, one of the mostornate of its kind, and possessing also in its triangularly formed porch another peculiarity found only in Germany. The principal entrances to the cathedrals of Ratisbon and Erfurt are of this description—the latter being the richest and boldest porch of the kind.
One of the best known examples of the daring degree of attenuation to which the Germans delighted to carry their works is the choir (Woodcut No.724) added in 1353 and 1413 to the old circular church of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. As we now see it, the effect is certainly unpleasing; but if these tall windows were filled with painted glass, and the walls and vaults coloured also, the effect would be widely different. Perhaps it might then be even called beautiful; but with scarcely a single exception all those churches are now deprived of this most indispensable part of their architecture, and, instead of being the principal part of the design, the windows are now only long slits in the masonry, giving an appearance of weakness without adding to the beauty or richness of the ornament.
The same remarks apply to the Nicholai Kirche at Zerbst, and the Petri Kirche at Gorlitz, both splendid specimens of this late exaggerated class of German art. By colour they might be restored, but as seen now in the full glare of the cold daylight they want almost every requisite of true art, and neither their size nor their constructive skill suffices to redeem them from the reproach.