Clustered ColumnClustered ColumnButtressButtress
On either side of the west front of many Romanesque buildings, more rarely also from the point of junction of the transepts and nave, rise lofty square or octagonal towers, the earlier with flat, the later with more or less steeply pitched roofs, that gradually developed into the tapering spires so characteristic of the Gothic style. Occasionally the eastern apse is flanked by a turret or small tower, and in some cases, chiefly in Italy, a detached and lofty tower known as a Campanileor Bell Tower—though it only rarely contains bells, being sometimes merely a secular monument—rises close to the church or at a little distance from it, but connected with it by a cloister.
Rose WindowRose Window
In S. Ambrogio, Milan, begun in the 9th and completed in the 12th century, the gradual change from the early Christian to the Romanesque style as developed in Italy can be studied. It has a nave of basilican type, a narthex surmounted by a gallery, a pediment-like gable at the western end, an octagonal cupola roofing over the eastern apse, with a circle of windows flooding the choir with light, a triforium or arcaded storey above the aisles, and most characteristic of all, an open external arcaded gallery, admitting air and light beneath the roof of the apse, such as was to become so effective a decorative feature of later buildings, and in some cases to be extended along the aisles and above the chief entrance.
Example of Arched CorniceExample of Arched Cornice
S. Michele, Pavia, is a typical and very beautiful example of the Romanesque style of the twelfth century, specially noteworthy features being its cruciform plan, its two-storied aisles, and its external gallery with clustered pilasters; and the contemporary S. Zeno, Verona, though it has no triforium and is not vaulted, has noble clustered piers from which sprang arches—only one of which remains—spanning the nave, alternating with single columns.
Other fine Romanesque buildings in Italy are the Cathedral of Verona, which has a fine two-storied porch; the Cathedral of Novara, specially noteworthy for its beautiful atrium; S. Miniato, Florence, that is of basilican plan, and, though it is without transepts, has the distinctive Romanesque feature of transverse arches upheld by clustered piers spanning the nave and aisles; S. Antonio, Piacenza, with transepts at the western instead of the eastern end, fine intersecting vaults roofing in the whole building, and a tower rising from the junction of the nave and transepts; and the Cathedral of Pisa, the last a complex building with vaulted aisles, a dome above the intersection of the transepts and nave, a flat roof over the latter, and a lofty triforium gallery running round the entire church, the general effect being most pleasing and harmonious. Close to the cathedral are the 12th century circular Baptistery, that has considerably later additions, and the famous Leaning Tower, the three buildings forming one of the finest architectural groups in the world.
Certain very marked characteristics distinguish the buildings of Sicily from those of contemporary date on the mainland of Italy, the Romanesque style, as is very clearly seen in the Cathedral of Monreale, having been there considerably modified alike by Saracenic and Norman influences. The pointed arch was adopted long before it came into use elsewhere in Europe, having been, it is suggested, a modification of the horse-shoe form so characteristic of Moorish mosques.
In France, Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture followed, in the main, the same lines as in Italy, with, in many cases, one notable addition, that of the chevet, a circlet of chapels round the eastern apse, which gradually grew out of what was known as an ambulatory, that is to say, a space in which perambulation was possible, obtained by the extension of the aisles behind the choir. In early examples of the ambulatory the circle was continuous, as in the church of S. Saturnin, Auvergne, but as time went on, small semicircular chapels were introduced, with windows between them, that gradually developed into the chevet, the chapels increasing in number and in size, and in some cases extending westwards along the aisles.
The churches and cathedrals of Southern France differ in several respects from those of the North, the aisleless basilica plan with barrel, intersecting, or domed vaulting being of frequent occurrence in the former, whilst in the latter the beautiful arcaded aisles and steeply pitched roof presage the approach of the Gothic style with its pointed arches, groined roofs, flying buttresses, and tapering pinnacles.
The five-domed S. Front in Perigueux, though it has rudimentaryaisles only, is a good example of an early French Romanesque building, in which Oriental influence is very perceptible, it being in some of its features a copy of S. Marco, Venice, whilst in the later Cathedral of Angoulême of cruciform plan with apsidal chapels, that of Le Puy with a triple entrance porch, the church of S. Hilaire, Poitiers, with its irregular domes, the uncompleted S. Ours, Loche, with its pyramidal octagonal spires, S. Saturnin, Toulouse, with its central many-storied tapering tower, the 12th century churches of Vezelay and Avallon; the cathedral and church of La Trinité at Angers, both combining pointed arches with domed vaulting, the gradual development of the southern branch of French Romanesque architecture can be very clearly studied.
In many of the noble churches and cathedrals of Northern France and elsewhere the Romanesque may justly be said to have melted into the Gothic style, some of them combining as they do the most beautiful features of both. To the cost of their erection ecclesiastics and laymen alike contributed with eager zeal, and amongst the architects and craftsmen employed on them, class and professional rivalry were merged in one common enthusiasm to promote the glory of God, all desire for individual distinction being merged in an unselfish ambition to aid in producing a building worthy of His worship.
In Normandy was inaugurated the phase of Romanesque architecture which was to develop on such noble lines in England, the chief distinctions of which are the massiveness of the walls and pillars, the great length of the nave, the richness of the decoration alike of the shafts and capitals of the columns and of the round-headed arches they uphold. Very notable examples are the Abbaye aux Hommes, the Abbaye aux Dames, and the Church of S. Nicholas, all at Caen, the first with circular arched vaulting and western towers ending in spires, the second with a Gothic roof of intersecting pointed arches, the third with three apses, each with a steeply pitched roof, a porch with three arcades at the western end, and a low gabled tower rising from the point of intersection of the nave and transepts, the three buildings illustrating well the transition from the simple basilica to the complex Gothic structure. With them may be named the Abbey of Jumièges, of which unfortunately but a few relics remain, which had beautiful clustered piers alternating with single columns upholding semicircular lateral arches, a flat roofed nave, and vaulted aisles.
Other fine Romanesque churches of Northern France, all of which differ somewhat in general appearance from those of Normandy, are the Cathedrals of Noyon and Soissons, the church of S. Pierre at Lisieux, all of which combine pointed withsemicircular arches, and above all the Cathedral of Le Mans, which has a very characteristic Romanesque nave flanked by round-headed arches and roofed over with an equally characteristic groined Gothic vault, whilst the choir, added in the early 13th century, is encircled by a beautiful chevet, the exterior of which with its many buttresses and pinnacles presents a most impressive appearance.
One of the finest Romanesque buildings in Europe is the Cathedral of Tournai, Belgium, which has a flat-roofed nave of exceptional length, picturesque lateral storied galleries, a central tower with a lofty spire, and two supplementary towers, also with spires, flanking the northern and southern apses. Elsewhere in Belgium are several flat-roofed churches of basilican plan, some with ambulatories in the French style but no apsidal chapels. In Spain, on the other hand, the chevet is rarely absent from ecclesiastical buildings, whilst a distinctive local feature is a low central dome or tower known as the cimborio, which is in many cases scarcely more than a swelling of the roof at the point of intersection of nave and transept.
Germany is especially rich in Romanesque churches, which, like those of Belgium, are of basilican plan with flat roofs. In the Cathedral of Trier can be studied the gradual growth of the Teutonic form of the Romanesque style, for it was originally an early Christian Church of the Roman type, which was converted into one of a more distinctive style in the 11th century by additions, including a western apse, whilst the noble vaulting of the nave dates from the 12th and the choir from the 13th century. As time went on the multiplication of apses became characteristic of German churches, it being usual to add one at the western end, and more rarely also on the northern and southern sides, the beautiful tapering columns dividing them from the aisles, with the small chapels beyond them, producing very fine effects of perspective. Other peculiarities of German Romanesque buildings are their great height and the noble proportions of the interiors, with the finely balanced grouping of the cupolas, towers, and turrets of the exterior; to which must be added the absence of the great Western doorway that lends such distinction to French, Italian, and Belgian churches.
Very fine examples of the style in Germany are the churches of S. Maria in Capitolo Cologne, S. Quirin in Neuss, and the cathedrals of Nuremberg and Bamberg, but it was in those of Speier, Mainz, and Worms that it achieved its greatest triumphs. The first, it is true, has no western apse, but this is atoned for by a fine narthex, and in the other two the western extension is as conspicuous as the eastern. Dignified simplicity andsense of space are the chief characteristics of all three buildings, massive columns upholding the arcading flanking the naves, whilst the walls of the aisles are unbroken by triforia, the piers at Speier and Worms being carried right up to the clerestory windows, whilst at Mainz two arches are placed one above the other, the vaulting of the nave springing from the upper tier.
In Great Britain, even more than on the Continent, the architecture of the past reflects national character, its distinctive peculiarities having been the outcome of local conditions differing widely from those that obtained elsewhere, which largely modified the styles introduced from without. On the arrival of the Romans in the first century of the Christian era, there were, with the exception of the monoliths on Salisbury plain known as Stonehenge and other prehistoric relics, the origin of which has never yet been discovered, no buildings of greater pretension than mud huts or circular stone or wooden houses with a hole in the tapering roof through which air was admitted and smoke dispersed. The houses, palaces, and churches erected by the invaders were, as proved by the remains at Silchester, Wroxeter, and elsewhere, of the type of those of Imperial Rome, and on them many British masons were employed, who thus acquired a knowledge of the principles of construction that stood their successors in good stead. Those successors, however, showed no desire to perpetuate the style introduced by the conquerors, and when the latter withdrew in the 5th century the buildings they left behind them were allowed to fall into rapid decay.
Example of Saxon ArcadingExample of Saxon Arcading
Example of Saxon ArcadingExample of Saxon Arcading
Very quickly too did most of the converts to Christianity relapse into heathenism, and although the lamp of faith was long kept burning in Ireland and in Scotland, no trace exists of the churches in which the little remnant of the followers of the Redeemer met for worship. Of those built later under the auspices of Saints Augustine, Paulinus, and other early bishops,not one escaped destruction, but there is strong evidence to prove that they were of the basilican apsidal plan, that never took very deep root in England, but was in many cases ousted by the sanctuary with a square-shaped eastern extension.
It is usual to give the term Anglo-Saxon to all relics of buildings in Great Britain, that can be proved to date from between the early 7th century and 1066, but Pre-Conquest would be more strictly accurate, Anglo-Saxon architects having contributed but little to the evolution of style, for they were wanting in initiative, rarely trying experiments with new features as was the constant custom of their Norman successors. To this, however, there was one brilliant exception in Bishop Wilfrid of York, who greatly improved the primitive church, built by King Edwin in the capital of his see, that was later destroyed by fire, and erected noble minsters at Hexham and Ripon, of which the fine crypts with massive pillars still remain beneath the considerably later buildings. In the south of England, too, there was considerable architectural activity in the 7th and 8th centuries, whilst in the 9th the return of King Egbert from his long exile at the Court of Charlemagne appears to have led to the introduction in Wessex of the Oriental branch of the Romanesque style to which the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle belongs.
Tower of Sompting Church, SussexTower of Sompting Church, Sussex
The chief characteristics of the so-called Anglo-Saxon style are the great height in comparison with the length and breadth of a building, a rectangular plan, massive square towers, unadorned angular or semicircular arches, stunted clumsy-looking columns with roughly carved or plain capitals, long narrow round-headed deeply recessed windows, massive walls without internal decoration, with on the exterior a somewhat ornate surface ornamentation, combined with a series of peculiar clamps known as quoins at the angles of the walls, greatly strengthening the structure. There were no aisles or transepts in early Anglo-Saxon buildings, but the chancel was divided from the nave by an arch sometimes with and sometimes without carving.
It is supposed that most of the early Anglo-Saxon churches were built of wood, and at Greenstead in Essex an example remains of the mode in which such buildings were constructed, though the probability is that none of the original material remains. Of the stone buildings that succeeded those in the more perishable material a few only are still in existence, includingthe Abbey Church of Deerhurst near Towkesbury, the oldest consecrated building still in use in England, the Tower of Earl's Barton Church in Northamptonshire, parts of Barfreston Church, Kent, that has a fine Norman doorway: Sompting Church, with the unusual feature of a gabled tower with a spire, and that of Worth, both in Sussex, the latter with rudimentary transepts and a semicircular apse, with which may be mentioned S. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, of somewhat uncertain but probably later date than any of these, for it has a square Eastern end and decorative arcading on the upper portion of the walls, prophetic of coming changes.
Certain portions of St. Martin's Church, Canterbury, notably a doorway in the chancel and parts of the foundations, are supposed to have belonged to a Saxon church of earlier date than the crypts of Hexham and Ripon already referred to, and which was preceded by an even more ancient building, one of the very first places of Christian worship erected in England.
The so-called Pyx House in Westminster Abbey, a low narrow solemn-looking vaulted room with a row of massive pillars in the centre, and a single archway in the south transept, are all that are left of the noble sanctuary built under the direction of the last of the Saxon kings, but these relics, with a few conventual buildings, suffice to connect with Anglo-Saxon times a church that is perhaps more intimately associated than any other with the history of England from the close of the 11th to the middle of the 16th century, it having been added to under every successive occupant of the throne.
The Anglo-Norman style, that succeeded the Saxon, prevailed in Great Britain from the conquest to the last decade of the 12th century, becoming at that time either merged in or superseded by the earliest phase of the Gothic.
Always most enthusiastic builders, the Normans found in the land of their adoption fuller scope for their energies than in their own, and before they became absorbed in the race they had conquered, they left their impress throughout the length and breadth of their new domain, monasteries, cathedrals, and parish churches, castles, and dwelling houses rising up in every direction, all stamped with a most distinctive character, the result of the welding into one of Anglo-Saxon and Norman traditions, and the modification of a foreign style by local conditions of material and environment. In many cases somewhat crude and heavy, Norman work has yet always an imposing dignity, and is, as a general rule, admirably suited to the site it occupies and the purpose for which it is intended.
Plan of Norman Church, Norman Capital. White Tower, London, Base and Capital of Norman Pillar, Norman Capital
Norman Arcading, Norman Window, Norman Arcading, Norman Window, Norman Window
The chief characteristics of Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical buildings are a cruciform plan; the great length in comparison with the breadth of the nave, which joins the choir without the intervention of a screen, such screens as arein situbeing of much later date than the churches in which they are found; columns of greater girth and height than the Saxon type, some circular, others six or eight sided, the circular type occasionally clustered in groups of six or more, with roughly carved capitalsof which the so-called cushion form is of most frequent occurrence, upholding arches of wide span, massive walls, those of the nave with rows of purely ornamental arcading, beautifully proportioned triforia and clerestories; long, narrow, round-headed windows, two or three being often grouped together; deeply recessed and finely decorated doorways; strong external buttresses; twin western towers and a loftier central one rising from the intersection of nave and transepts. With certain notable exceptions referred to below, Norman churches have flat timber roofs, but those of the crypt beneath them are generally of groined stone with plain or only slightly ornamented ribs.
Norman WindowNorman Window
Norman DoorwayNorman Doorway
Another very distinctive characteristic of the Norman style is the richness of the surface decoration of the interiors of cathedrals and churches, the bases, shafts, and capitals of the columns, the arches, headings of windows, mural arcades, &c. being all enriched with mouldings of an infinite variety of form, including the so-called cable resembling a rope, the billet not unlike short bits of rounded wood, the chevron or zig-zag, the fret or fillet, the lozenge, the trellis, the cone, the scollop, and wave with the so-called torus, a convex swelling, and the cavetto, a hollow moulding, the last two used almost exclusively on the bases of columns.
Norman ButtressNorman Buttress
Cable Moulding & Billet Moulding
Chevron or Zig-zag Moulding & Diamond or Lozenge Moulding
Trellis MouldingTrellis Moulding
Cone Moulding & Scollop MouldingCone MouldingScollop Moulding
Among noteworthy existing examples of the Anglo-Norman style are the nave, transepts and western doorway of Hereford Cathedral; the choir, transepts, and nave of Peterborough Cathedral; the naves of Gloucester, Exeter, Chichester, and Ely Cathedrals; certain portions of Canterbury Cathedral, including the choir chapels, part of the cloisters, the baptistery tower, S. Anselm's Tower, and a fine staircase leading up from the Close; the Chapter House of Worcester Cathedral; the greater part of Norwich Cathedral, which, though it has the French chevet at the eastern end, combines with it the distinctive English characteristics of a nave of great length andlong transepts, the former with fourteen noble bays; the naves of S. Alban's Abbey, Southwell Minster, and the Priory Church of Christchurch, Hants; portions of the nave and transepts and the central tower of Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford; the beautiful portal of Tewkesbury Abbey, the finest in England, and the doorway of Hales Church, Norfolk, on which may be seen many of the characteristic mouldings enumerated above.
Norman Church at KilpeckNorman Church at Kilpeck
Somewhat later in date and even more distinctively Anglo-Norman than the examples quoted above, is the noble Cathedral of Durham, in which the style reached its fullest culmination. It remains, with the exception of the so-called Chapel of the Nine Altars that replaces the original apse, very much what it was when first completed, and reflects the national unity that was becoming ever more and more complete whilst it was being erected. A very noteworthy feature of this most effective building, in which every detail is subordinated to the general effect, is the vaulted roof of the nave, one of the very few dating from Norman times, significant of the approaching revolt against the flat roofs that had so long been looked upon as essential. In spite of certain crudities of structure it harmonises well alike with the vaulting of the aisles and transepts of earlier, and of the choir of somewhat later date. The great clustered piers alternating with cylindrical columns, the fine arches spanning them, the beautiful triforia and clerestories, and above all the long vista of nave and choir, combine to place Durham Cathedral in the very highest rank amongst contemporary buildings either in England or on the Continent, whilst in the Galilee Chapel, to which a porch, replacing an earlier entrance, gives access, the details of the transitional Norman style can be very clearly studied, the graceful intersecting arches, upheld by slender coupled columns, recentlysupplemented by additional supports, enriched with characteristic mouldings, shadowing forth the approaching change to the early English phase of Gothic.
Plan of Peterborough CathedralPlan of Peterborough Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral, originally a very typical Norman building designed by William of Wykeham, retains its Norman framework, covered over, as it were, with a drapery of detail in the latest development of English Gothic, and with it may be named as characteristic Norman buildings with Gothic additions, Peterborough Cathedral, all Norman except the west front and eastern extremity of the choir; Malmesbury Abbey, with a flat-roofed nave and vaulted aisles, the latter with pointed arches; the Cathedral of Exeter; the Minster of Sherbourne; and portions of Westminster Abbey.
Many parish churches, too, including those of Kilpeck in Herefordshire, a very typical Norman building; Tickencote in Lincolnshire, with intersecting pointed arches; S. Peter's in the East, Oxford, with a groined vaulted roof; Barfreston Church, Kent, with a very beautiful recessed doorway; Goring and Iffley in Oxfordshire; and above all, S. Bartholomew's in London, date from Norman times, and, though they have all been more or less modified by restoration, retain the general characteristics of the period to which they belong.
Anglo-Norman secular architecture is characterised by much the same qualities as ecclesiastical, the castles and residences of the sovereigns and the nobles having been of dignified and impressive appearance, well proportioned, and thoroughly in harmony with their surroundings. During the reigns of the Conqueror and his successors many noble strongholds were erected on points of vantage. The most important feature,and in every case the first to be built, having been the lofty central keep or donjon, the home of its owner in peace, and the last refuge of a besieged garrison in time of war. In it was a fine hall, in which the host received his guests, with a raised platform known as the daïs for the use of those of high rank, and the approach to it was protected by a complex series of defences, including deep ditches or fosses, walls with towers and turrets at intervals, forming two distinct enclosures known as the outer and inner baileys, often covering a vast extent of ground, the whole encircled by a deep moat that could be filled with water when necessary. The great main entrance was flanked by towers, and in connection with the heavy doors of solid oak was a portcullis, that is to say, a grating of timber and iron bristling with spikes, that could be drawn up from within, cutting off all access to the inner precincts.
Some few Norman castles, all considerably modified to suit modern requirements, are still in use as residences or public buildings, including those of Windsor, Warwick (both specially typical), Norwich, Dover, Richmond in Yorkshire, and the Tower of London; the keep of the last named (known as the White Tower) and the chapel dedicated to S. John being amongst the best examples of the Anglo-Norman style in existence; whilst at Rochester, Colchester, Croft, Headingham, and Kenilworth are extensive remains of other strongholds, that before they fell into decay, must have equalled in grandeur those of Windsor and Warwick. A very remarkable example of a private residence dating from Norman times is Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, the seat of the Duke of Rutland, which retains the original great hall with a daïs and minstrels' gallery, and a number of fine suites of rooms to which various wings were added during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, affording an excellent opportunity for the study of the development of English domestic architecture.
The first decades of the 12th century were marked throughout Europe, as far as architecture was concerned, by the final breaking loose from the Roman traditions that had so long been accepted as binding, and the revolt against which had been inaugurated more than a hundred years before. The struggle between the old and new methods of building veryclearly reflected that of the people for greater freedom of thought and action in the countries in which it took place. The keynote of both was an aspiration after nobler things, and, in architecture, a yearning for religious expression, typified by the pointing upwards of the spires and pinnacles of churches and cathedrals, coincided with the craving of builders for increased lightness and grace of structure. The lofty vaults and complicated systems of buttresses of the Gothic style bore striking witness to the ambitious daring of their designers, a daring more than justified by its results.
The term Gothic, that now calls up a vision of ethereal beauty, was, strange to say, first given to the style that grew out of the Romanesque by the artists of the Renaissance as an expression of their contempt for what they looked upon as outworn methods of building, similar to those of the Gothic barbarians in warfare. It very soon, however, lost all association with this most inappropriate comparison, becoming synonymous with all that is most beautiful in the architecture of the period to which it is applied.
Gothic VaultingGothic Vaulting
The most important characteristics of Gothic buildings are the introduction, wherever possible, of vertical or very sharply pointed details, such as highly pitched roofs and gables, spires and pinnacles, pointed arches and pointed vaulting, flying buttresses, that grew ever slenderer and more decorative, leading downwards from the roof, and counteracting the tremendous thrust of the suspended vault of stone, all of true structural value. To these must be added the minor peculiarities of slenderer columns than those of Romanesque buildings, several being often clustered together, mouldings cut into the stone ofthe capitals of the columns, arcading &c., instead of projecting beyond the surface, the grouping of several windows under the arch, and the increase in the beauty of their tracery. The so-called lancet or long narrow window with stilted head, pointed like an arch, is specially distinctive of Early Gothic, and was later supplemented by the more elaborate rose window, the stained glass in them, and in the more complex groups, adding greatly to the æsthetic effect of the whole building, the many coloured light from them relieving the monotony of the stone work.
Gothic VaultingGothic Vaulting
GargoyleGargoyle
The general appearance of the interior of a Gothic cathedral, with its long perspective of nave, aisles, and choir, its finely proportioned triforia and clerestories, and, above all, its graceful arches leading up to their points of union in the soaring roof, may justly be called a poem in stone, whilst its exterior is equally remarkable for the close correlation of all its parts, producing an impression of consistent unity of design. An added charm is given alike to the interior and exterior by the combined richness and quaintness of the decorative sculpture, in which is clearly illustrated the delight in symbolism of the mediæval craftsmen, who, working in close accord with architect and builder, supplemented effigies of heroes and heroines of the faith, royal patrons, &c., with emblematic animals, fruit, flowers, and foliage, welding the most incongruous forms into an elaborate and beautiful scheme of ornamentation.
It was in Northern France that the Gothic style was first developed, and there, as elsewhere, it passed through three phases. The first, characterised by comparative severity of style and simplicity of decoration, prevailing in the 12th and 13th centuries; the second, to which the name of Rayonnant is sometimes given, on account of the ray-like window tracery, in the 14th; and the third, known as the Flamboyant, because of the flame-like tracery and general brightness of the ornamentation, in the 15th century.
A hint of the coming change was, as has already been shown, given in many a Romanesque building, notably, to quote but two cases in point, in the Cathedral of Evreux, and the Church of S. Etienne, Beauvais, but it was in the Cathedral of S. Denis, near Paris, founded in 1140, that the full significanceof that change was revealed. It retains, it is true, round-headed arches above some of its windows and a few projecting decorative mouldings, but in other respects it is essentially Gothic, its double aisles foreshadowing those of the later Notre Dame of Paris, which may justly be said to be an epitome of the development of the pointed style in France. Specially dear to the French nation on account of its intimate association with many thrilling episodes of its history, it remains, in spite of all the vicissitudes through which it has passed, so far as its general structure is concerned, very much what it was when first completed in the late 13th century. The noble western façade, with its profuse and ornate ornamentation, and the fine square towers flanking it, each pierced with effective openings and adorned with grotesque gargoyles, contrast with the slender central spire—which, by the way, is modern—tiers of graceful flying buttresses, and the numerous groups of pinnacles, whilst the long line of the great roof ridge brings into relief the comparative intricacy of the design of the rest of the building, especially of the extremities of the transepts with their fairy-like arcading, beautiful sculptures, and grand rose windows.
Flying ButtressFlying Buttress
The most distinctive details of the interior of Notre Dame are the massive piers and symmetrical arches of varying widthof the nave, the simple but most effective vaulting of it, the double aisles and the choir; the shortness of the transepts, atoned for by the unusual length of the semicircular apse, with its circlet of chapels; the combination in the clerestory of pointed-headed and rose windows, and, above all, the exquisitely proportioned and spacious triforium, which surmounts the whole of the double aisles and forms a circular gallery with arcaded openings, harmonising alike with those of the nave below and the clerestory above, and a stone vault of pointed intersecting arches springing from slender clustered columns.
Gothic ArcadeGothic Arcade
Gothic SteepleGothic Steeple
Contemporaneous with Notre Dame is Laon Cathedral, the original and characteristic chevet of which was replaced in the early 13th century by a square termination, in imitation it is supposed of some English church, but which otherwise resembles the Cathedral of Paris, especially in its fine western façade and open vaulted triforium. In the Cathedral of Chartres, founded in the 12th century, but practically rebuilt in the 13th after its almost complete destruction by fire, the further progress of the style may be studied, its arches being more stilted and its nave and choir wider than those of its predecessors, whilst its closed-in triforium is significant of the ever increasing height of the roofs, necessitating the strengthening of the walls, a change that was, however, quickly succeeded and, to a great extent, neutralised by the piercing and filling in with glass of the wall behind the arcading. Other characteristics of Chartres Cathedral are the noble sculptures of the west front, that are not only among the finest but the least injured in France, those of the south and north porches that are scarcely inferior, the dignified towers surmounted by beautiful and graceful spires of different but harmonious designs, and the double tier of flying buttresses of the nave. Thelast named are moreover of unusual construction, each consisting of two parts, the upper strengthened by an arcade with round-headed arches, springing from massive stunted piers, that seem to connect the advanced Gothic of the rest of the building, with the late Romanesque style.
The Cathedral of Rheims is another typical Gothic building with a western façade, the deeply recessed central portal of which is especially fine, resembling those of Notre Dame, Laon, and Chartres; a remarkably effective central tower that rises nearly sixty feet above the high-pitched roof; a well-developed chevet, a walled-in triforium similar to that of Chartres, a noble series of clerestory and several grand rose windows filled with very beautiful stained glass.
Gothic Clustered ColumnGothic Clustered Column
In the Cathedral of Amiens French Gothic architecture touched its highest point of excellence, before the over exaggeration of its distinctive peculiarities sounded the note of decadence. Begun in 1220, when all the structural problems of the pointed style had been finally solved, it was completed in 1272, and although it has more than once been seriously injured by fire, it has been so successfully restored that it still remains one of the noblest churches of Europe, the one thing detracting from the solemn beauty of its general external appearance being the later Flamboyant spire, that is quite out of character with the rest of the building. Its great height and breadth; the symmetry of its proportions; the dignified simplicity of its vaulting, which in nave, aisles and transepts, chevet chapels and ambulatory is of similar design, the centre from which the ribs radiate being in every case so situated that these ribs are all of equal length; the grand sculptures and fine arcading of the great west front, the towers of which, though they differ in detail, harmonise well with each other; the exquisite statues and bas-reliefs of the transept portals; the combined strength and grace of the many flying buttresses; the admirable system of lighting, windows occupying the whole of the space between the main arcades of the nave and the roof; the beautiful and varied effects of perspective from many different points of view in the interior; with the minor detail of the marvellous carvings in the choir, justify the claim that Amiens Cathedral is the crowning glory of Gothic architecture and an ample vindication of its principles.
In the contemporaneous Beauvais Cathedral, that was intended to rival that of Amiens in its height and in the ethereal lightness of its stilted arches, a convincing proof was given of the danger of carrying those principles too far, for the vaulting of the choir collapsed before the completion of the building, which, though it was restored and added to later, still remains unfinished. With it may be mentioned the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, the window tracery in which is very fine; the Cathedral of Coutances, which has a very fine central lantern tower—that is to say, one with windows that throw a light upon the centre of the interior of a building—and a beautiful tapering spire; and the Cathedral of Lisieux, with a very characteristic chevet and vaulting resembling that of the Cathedral of Amiens.
The Cathedral of Le Mans, already referred to in connection with its noble Romanesque nave, has a most beautiful late 13th century Gothic choir, with one of the finest chevets in France. The aisles, that at the western end of the building are single, develop at the transepts into a double circlet, with chapels radiating from them, whilst the choir has exceptionally fine 13th and 14th century stained glass windows. The general effect of the interior, in which the solemn dignity of the nave contrasts with the almost ethereal beauty of the choir and its surroundings, is most impressive, whilst the exterior with its graceful flying buttresses and pinnacles is equally fine.
The Cathedral of Bourges is another typical 13th century Gothic building which, though it is without the usual transepts, has a beautiful apse, the ambulatories of which have unusually wide spaces between the columns, double aisles flanking the nave as well as the choir and chevet, producing a unique impression of vastness, whilst the exterior is equally effective with its five grand western portals, a long main roof unbroken by towers or spires, and a series of steeply pitched supplementary roofs above the chapels of the eastern end.
Dating from the same period as the cathedrals just noticed is the fortified Abbey of Mont St. Michel, that has been again and again rebuilt, and in which the gradual evolution of the Gothic style in France can be well studied, especially in the lovely chapel justly called the Merveille or the Marvel, that, with its cloisters, is still much what it was when finished in 1228, whilst the Chatelet or Gate-house, with its massive round towers and the various abbatial buildings, such as the Salle des Hôtes or Guest-Hall, are equally characteristic of French domestic architecture of the same period. On the other hand the Abbey Church, that crowns the mount, has been so much-restored and modified that little of the original structureremains, except the crypt which, with its massive piers and arches and many supplementary chapels, is practically the same as that from which uprose the famous abbey, the building of which was a labour of love to so many successive abbots.
The Church of S. Pierre, Caen, which has a fine tower with a beautiful pierced spire, is a good example of the second period of the Gothic style in France, and at Rouen the Rayonnant and Flamboyant phases are exceptionally well illustrated. The Abbey Church of S. Ouen was built entirely in the 14th century, and, with its characteristic high-pitched roofs over each bay of the aisles, its lofty towers—those at the west end with tapering spires—its delicately sculptured portals, double tiers of flying buttresses, triple division of arcades, triforium, and clerestory in the nave, the number and beauty of its stained glass windows, its graceful clustered piers, that rise without a break from the ground to the springing of the vault, and its beautiful chevet, with its circlet of eleven chapels, is an epitome of all the most characteristic features of Gothic architecture.
The Church of St. Maclou in the same town is a fine gem of Flamboyant work, with its stilted arches, tapering spires and pinnacles, and lavish internal and external decoration, whilst in the Cathedral of Rouen can be recognised details of each of the three stages of French Gothic, combined with those of the later Renaissance. The western façade, lateral portals, towers, spires, and fine rose windows are typically Flamboyant, and the general view of the interior, with its long vista of nave and choir, its slightly pointed arcading, two tiers of which divide the nave from the aisles, and, above all, its simple but most effective vaulting, is essentially that of an early example of the pointed style, that of the Lady Chapel being especially effective.
Good secular examples of the Gothic style in France are the Palais de Justice and Hôtel de Bourgtheroulde, both at Rouen, the Chateau of Coucy near Laon, the Hôtel de Cluny, Paris, the Chateau de Pierrefonds in Normandy, and, most characteristic of all, the House of Jacques Cœur at Bourges. It was, however, in Belgium that Gothic municipal and domestic architecture reached its noblest development, the great halls of the towns being remarkable for their dignified and massive appearance, and, except in the latest examples built after the decadence had set in, for the severe restraint of their ornamentation. Of rectangular plan, and several stories in height, with steeply pitched roofs, the gable ends adorned with many pinnacles, and the long sloping sides broken by dormer windows, contrasting with the rows of pointed-headed lights in the walls beneath, and lofty central tower of ornate design, thesenoble buildings, of which those at Ypres, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, and Tournai are the best, are the chief pride of the cities to which they belong. They rival in the affections of the people even the cathedrals of contemporary date, although those of Antwerp, specially noteworthy for its seven aisles, Louvain, the nave and transepts of which, as already stated, are Romanesque, whilst the choir is a fine specimen of Early Gothic, Brussels, Ghent, Louvain, and Liège are all noble structures, resembling those of France in general plan, though most of them are shorter and of greater width.
In Spain, as in France, Gothic architecture passed through three phases: the first, that prevailed in the second half of the 12th and the first of the 13th century, to a great extent the outcome of the Romanesque; the second that succeeded it and lasted until the beginning of the 15th century, distinguished by great dignity of structure and appropriateness of ornamentation; the last, that prevailed until nearly the middle of the 16th century, corresponding to a great extent with French Flamboyant, though it lasted longer and was considerably modified by Moorish influence.
To the first period of Gothic architecture in Spain belong the Cathedrals of Santiago de Compostella, of cruciform plan with a vaulted roof, semicircular headed arcades and windows, and an ornate western façade recalling that of Chartres; Zamora, Taragona, and the older of the two at Salamanca, the three last retaining the characteristic cimborio, or low dome, already referred to in connection with Romanesque work in Spain, rising from the intersection of nave and transepts, but of more complex structure than in earlier examples, the ribs of the vaulting being upheld by pendentives and the whole surmounted by a secondary dome of considerable height pierced with windows, and at Salamanca flanked by four circular towers. Unfortunately, in later Spanish ecclesiastical architecture this beautiful feature was abandoned, and the Cathedrals of Toledo, Leon, and Burgos are of the French type, with chevets, double aisles, clustered pillars upholding pointed arches, vaulted roofs, ornate decorative arcading, fine open triforia, and lofty clerestories. The exterior of that of Burgos is especially ornate, with three pinnacled towers, tapering open-traceried spires rising from those at the western end. In the 14th century the cruciform plan, which had so long prevailed, was replaced in Spain by one without either aisles or transepts; the buttresses that had previously been introduced outside the building to resist the thrust of the vaulting, were brought within the walls so as to make the nave one vast vaulted hall, flanked by lateral chapels as in the fine Cathedral of Geronaand the Church of S. Maria del Pino at Barcelona. Later, however, this comparatively simple mode of structure was superseded by vast complicated buildings such as the Cathedral of Salamanca and that of Segovia, both dating from the 16th century, the vaulting of which is especially complicated, with very ornate ribs, whilst the towers closely resemble those of contemporaneous Moorish mosques.
The Gothic style, that was alike alien to the Italian temperament and unsuited to the Italian climate, never really took root in Italy, the soil of which was thoroughly impregnated with classic traditions. The horizontal cornice, so characteristic of Greek and Early Roman architecture is of frequent occurrence, the round arch was long retained in combination with pointed highly-pitched roofs, and spires are rare, whilst the beautiful groined vaulting, the flying buttresses, and the exquisite window-tracery, that lend so great a charm to the cathedrals and churches of France and England, are very seldom met with. There was no gradual evolution in Italy from Early to Late Gothic, and for this reason it is usual to treat Italian buildings in the pointed style in three geographical instead of chronological groups, namely, the northern, central, and southern. To the first belongs the Cathedral of Milan, the largest Gothic building in Italy, the exterior of which is somewhat spoiled by its over-decorated western façade, though the effect of the long rows of lateral pinnacles, the numerous flying buttresses, the low conical dome and lofty spire is very fine. The interior, with its vast nave, double aisles, and complex apse, its lofty piers, with capitals consisting of life-sized figures in niches, and its noble clerestory, presents an appearance of grandeur unequalled by any other Gothic church in Italy. The Certosa or Carthusian Monastery, the façade of which is a century older than the rest of the building; the Churches of S. Maria del Carmine and S. Michele, both at Pavia, the latter with a very typical campanile; the Cathedral of Genoa; the Churches of S. Anastasia and S. Zenone at Verona, are all good examples of Italian-Gothic, whilst amongst secular buildings in the same style in Northern Italy, the Ducal and other palaces at Venice, such as the so-called Ca' d'Ora are remarkable for the beauty of their proportions, the effectiveness of their window-grouping, and the general appropriateness and grace of their decorative details, especially of their balconies.
In Central Italy the Cathedrals of Florence and Siena are specially typical, the former, with its dome of considerably later date than the rest of the building, contrasting with the Campanile or Bell Tower named after Giotto, the latter being noteworthy for the combination of a dome with pointedarcading and horizontal cornices, and the association on the west front of rounded with stilted arches, the last a peculiarity also of the cathedral at Orvieto, the façade of which is one of the most beautiful in Italy.
The Gothic work of Southern Italy is far more florid than that of the rest of the peninsula, and this is equally true of that of Sicily. In the churches of both, as in the earlier Romanesque buildings already noticed, Saracenic, Greek, and Roman influences are alike noticeable, especially in those of Naples and the Cathedrals of Palermo, Monreale, and Messina, the three last named combining the pointed arch distinctive of Gothic, with the elaborate surface decoration so characteristic of the Norman style.
German architects did not adopt the pointed arch until considerably later than those of the south and west of Europe, but to atone for this they delighted in highly pitched roofs with stilted gables, and lofty towers, with pointed roofs and tapering spires. The exteriors of their buildings differ very greatly from the interiors, in which the round-headed windows and semicircular arches of the Romanesque style are retained, enriched, however, with beautiful and ornate carving. The term round-arched Gothic is therefore often applied to the earliest phase of the style in Germany, of which good examples are the Churches of the Holy Apostles, of S. Martin and S. Maria in Capitolo, all in Cologne, the Abbey Churches of Arnstein and Andernach and the Liebfrauenkirche at Trèves, the last built on the foundations of a much earlier chapel.
The second phase of Gothic architecture in Germany, in which the pointed arch was substituted for the semicircular, did not begin until the second half of the 13th century. To it belong the greater part of the Cathedral of Strasburg, which combines, with much beautiful Romanesque work, a typical Gothic façade with a fine open tracery spire, a companion to which was designed but never erected. The Cathedral of Freiburg, with a graceful and ornate spire, the Church of S. Stephen at Vienna, with aisles almost as lofty as the nave, portions of the Church of S. Sebald, Nuremberg, the decorative sculpture of which is remarkably fine, and, above all, the Cathedral of Cologne, the noblest example of German Gothic, with an exceptionally symmetrical plan, which in spite of the fact that the building extended over more than a century, and that the west point was only completed in the 19th century, was not departed from, so that it remains a unique specimen of mediæval design. It has a noble nave, double aisles, one of which is continued round the eastern apse and is divided into seven chapels, forming a picturesque chevet. Massivetowers with a tapering central spire and many pinnacles flank the western entrance, elaborately decorated buttresses break the long lines of the walls, and from the intersecting nave and transepts rises a slender but most effective spire.