The School of Bourgogne

Fig. 13.â€”Saint BenoÃ®t-sur-Loire, Abbey Church.

It is most unfortunate for a study of the school of Bourgogne that the mother church at Cluny (SaÃ´ne-et-Loire) should have been almost totally destroyed in the French Revolution. This great church was begun in 1089 and must have been finished in 1125, for the nave vaults fell in that year and were rebuilt before the final consecration inIIVO. What its original vaulting system was is difficult to say. Reber[93]says that it was probablyvaulted like the churches of Auvergne with inner aisles in two stories, but Rivoira[94]states that both the nave and aisles had tunnel vaults on transverse pointed arches. The exterior view,[95]and the model which fortunately remains, would correspond with either arrangement.[96]The important facts to note are that the nave had a clerestory, and that the nave vault was strengthened on the exterior by carrying up the clerestory walls to exert a downward pressure at its haunch, a most important structural advance over the exterior wall of Saint BenoÃ®t-sur-Loire.[97]

Fig. 14.â€”Paray-le-Monial, Abbey Church.

The developed system of Bourgogne may be seen to advantage in the abbey church of Paray-le-Monial (SaÃ´ne-et-Loire) (Figs. 14, 15), which dates from the early twelfth century and is thus only slightly later thanCluny itself. Its nave is wider and loftier than any yet seen in which a tunnel vault was used, though not equal in size to that at Cluny, which was thirty-two feet wide and ninety-eight feet high. All the structural arches are pointed, but those used for windows, doors and decoration are still round headed.[98]The clerestory, while it has only moderately large windows, is so high above the ground as to render the support of the vaults above it exceptionally difficult. This difficulty was overcome, first by giving the vault a pointed section and thus reducing the thrust; second, by building as light a web as possible and covering it with a wooden roof; third, by using tie-rods of wood or metal, running along near the impost of the vault in the thickness of the walls, thus to a certain extent concentrating the pressure upon the piers; and, finally, as has already been stated, by carrying the exterior walls of the church to a point considerably above the window heads(Fig. 15), thus obtaining a downward pressure which offsets the outward thrusts.

Fig. 15.â€”Paray-le-Monial, Abbey Church.

The side aisles of the school of Bourgogne are also worthy of mention. They are usually covered with groined vaults, in many cases of slightly domical form. Whether this method came directly from Lombardy where there exist early examples of its use, or whether it came in through the influence of Poitou and Auvergne which had come into close contact with Carolingian architecture, is an open question. It seems quite likely, however, that, since the Byzantine builders developed this type and transmitted it to the Carolingian builders of the Rhine valley, it should have passed from there into France and spread over the three northern-central schools as it did over Lombardy. Regardless of its origin, it became the standard type in all the important churches of the Cluniac region. Occasionally, as at Souvigny (Allier) (possibly eleventh century), the enclosing arches are of stilted round headed form, a type which is also found as far north as VÃ©zelay (Yonne) La Madeleine (after 1140)(Fig. 16). Neither of these churches, however, is near the center of the school,[99]and the pointed structural arch as used in the abbey church of Paray-le-Monial(Fig. 14)is the common form.

The system employed in Bourgogne marks the highest development attained in the use of a tunnel vault running the length of the nave. In the Ile-de-France a few instances might be cited[100]in which a system like one of those already described was used, and the same is true of certain Romanesque churches outside of France, but in none of them is any new structural method introduced. The tunnel vault was even used occasionally as late as the thirteenth century,[101]but the examples are generally small and insignificant.

Besides the methods which have just been described and which were so localized as to form veritable Romanesque schools, there remain a number of churches falling into two groups in which transverse tunnel vaults replace those running longitudinally either in the nave or aisles. The first and smaller group contains those in which such vaults were used over the nave. Of these, the most important example is Saint Philibert at Tournus

Fig. 16.â€”VÃ©zelay, La Madeleine.

(SaÃ´ne-et-Loire),[102]a church of considerable size and of early date (dedicated 1019). Cylindrical piers and transverse arches divide the nave into rectangular bays each of which is covered by a transverse tunnel vault with a window in the clerestory wall at either end. Excellent light is thus obtained and the thrusts of the vaults admirably counteract one another. In fact, the system is so logical that it is surprising that it gave rise to so few imitators.[103]The explanation may perhaps lie in the lack of apparent continuity in the vault, a fault which this method shares with that of Le Puy. As to its origin, it may go back to such Persian monuments as Tag-Eivan, or to Syrian copies of Sassanian work with the substitution of stone for brick as Choisy suggests,[104]though it is notunreasonable to think that the builders of Tournus originated the system since it involved no unknown structural principles. The aisles of Saint Philibert furnish one of the rather rare examples of the employment of interpenetrating vaults.[105]

The second group is much larger and more widespread, and comprises all the churches employing transverse tunnel vaults over the side aisles. The examples belonging to the school of Perigord have already been discussed,[106]and mention has been made of the fact that there are possibly enough of such churches in Provence alone to constitute a fifth type in that school.[107]But the system is too widespread to be attributed to any one province. It is undoubtedly a product of Roman and very early mediaeval architecture, for it is to be seen in such buildings as the Basilica of Maxentius at Rome, and in a modified, ramping form at Aachen.[108]Its structural advantage lies in the large space which the tunnel vault affords for windows in the outer wall thus lighting both the nave and aisles. Among the many examples are the parish church of Chatillon-sur-Seine (CÃ´te-dâ€™Or)[109]of the twelfth century, the abbey churches of Hauterive (Savoie), Ronceray[110](vaulted in 1115), BÃ©nÃ©vent-lâ€™Abbaye (Creuse),[111]and the cathedral of Lescar (Basses-PyrÃ©nÃ©es),â€”in which, however, the vaults are an addition to a primitive construction.[112]In the church at Fontenay (CÃ´te-dâ€™Or)[113](before the middle of the twelfth century) concealed flying buttresses appear over the transverse arches between the aisle bays, thus aiding in securing a more even abutment for the continuous thrust of the tunnel vault of the nave. A few churches like Cavaillon,[114]and the cathedral of Orange (Vaucluse),[115]have tunnel vaults over rectangular bays flanking the nave but not connected by arches to form side aisles.

The vaulting of the ambulatory gallery of Mantes cathedral, of the aisles of Fountains Abbey in England, and possibly the original vaults of the aisles of Saint Remi at Reims[116]were also transverse tunnel vaults. These latter churches differ from the ones previously mentioned, however, in that they are not tunnel vaulted in the nave and, moreover, are constructed with a clerestory so that the side aisle vaults do not serve the purpose outlined in the account of tunnel vaulted churches in the preceding paragraph.

This brings the discussion of the standard methods of tunnel vaulting to a close, but there remain two curious churches in which cross-ribs were added beneath the surface of simple tunnel vaults. One of these is at Lusignan (Vienne),[117]and the other at Javarzay (Deux-SÃ¨vres). Both date from about 1120 to 1140 though the ribs may be a later addition to give the appearance of ribbed vaulting which was introduced at about this time.

Although usually confined to the side aisle bays, there are a few Romanesque churches in which the builders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries placed groined vaulting over the nave. The scarcity of such examples is due primarily to the difficulty of meeting the severe outward thrusts of a groined vault raised over bays of considerable span and at a point high above the ground. In the side aisles where the vaults were comparatively low, the exterior wall could be thickened by salient buttresses, and the piers strengthened by the weight of the wall above in a manner to offset the thrust, but in the nave the problem was more complicated. The builders had not yet invented the flying buttress. Hence, when they attempted groined vaults at all, they blundered along trusting that the inert mass of their walls and such timid buttresses as could beerected above the nave piers would provide sufficient offset for the thrusts even though these were now concentrated at four main points in each bay. Naturally the vaults frequently gave way and had to be reconstructed. In spite of these difficulties, the advantage of the groined vault in providing a clerestory whose windows might rise as high as the crown of the vault itself led to its occasional use.

The vaults thus employed were of two rather distinct classes, those over rectangular nave bays which were usually but little domed up, and those over square bays which were generally distinctly domed in the Byzantine manner. Of the first type perhaps the best known example is the Burgundian church of La Madeleine at VÃ©zelay (Yonne),(Fig. 17)dedicated

Fig. 17.â€”VÃ©zelay, La Madeleine.

in 1104. Its nave is divided into a series of rectangular bays by transverse arches of semicircular section, and over each bay is placed a groined vault very slightly domed at the crown. To insure the stability of these vaults,the builders relied on the weight of the walls, which were carried up somewhat above the window heads, and on simple salient buttresses. To these exterior supports were added interior arches half imbedded in the walls above the clerestory windows(Fig. 17), furnishing one of the earliest examples of the use of wall ribs or formerets. The web of the vault does not, however, follow their extrados, but gradually breaks away from it toward the crown, with the apparent object of thus concentrating even more pressure upon the piers by stilting the wall line of the vault surface.[118]Even these precautions were not deemed sufficient, so iron tie-rods were employed, but these rusted and broke,[119]the vaults settled badly,[120]and if it had not been for the addition of exterior flying buttresses, which had meanwhile come into general use, the vaults would most certainly have fallen. Although not a structural success, VÃ©zelay did prove of advantage in turning the builders away from the tunnel vault,â€”and this, too, in Bourgogne where it had been most highly developed,â€”to a new type which presented problems whose solution was to lead to Gothic architecture. VÃ©zelay was, however, but little imitated in the Romanesque era, perhaps because of the almost contemporary development of the ribbed vault in Lombardy, Normandy, and the Ile-de-France. A few churches, such as Anzy-le-Duc (SaÃ´ne-et-Loire)[121]did employ groined vaults over the nave but on a smaller scale and frequently with more pronounced doming.

A more important and independent group of groined vaulted churches is to be found in Normandy. In this school, the churches were usually covered with wooden roofs though the aisles were occasionally groined. But there are three churches in which the choir also has groined vaults. These are, La TrinitÃ© or the Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen (Calvados) (cir. 1066), Saint Nicolas at Caen (cir. 1080), and Saint Georges-de-Boscherville at Saint Martin-de-Boscherville (Seine-InfÃ©rieure) (late eleventh and early twelfth century). The choir of the third of these churches, though later in date than the others, is more primitive in type, for it is covered by interpenetrating vaults, in which, however, the deep lunettes above thewindows rise so nearly to the crown that the result resembles groined rather than tunnel vaulting.

In both the other examples true groined vaulting is used, but at La TrinitÃ© it is in practically square bays, and carried by walls running down to the ground,[122]making it easier of construction than that at Saint Nicolas[123]where the bays are rectangular and the choir has true side aisles. This church is similar in structural principles to La Madeleine at VÃ©zelayâ€”except that the wall ribs are omitted,â€”and these two churches may be said to represent the highest point reached by groined vaulting with practically flat crowns during the Romanesque period.

Other examples might be cited, ranging from such an unusual church as Saint Loup-de-Naud (Seine-et-Marne) in the Ile-de-France,â€”which is of uncertain date,[124]â€”to churches as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, among which are Severac-le-ChÃ¢teau (Aveyron) and Saint Pons-de-Mauchiens (HÃ©rault).[125]Occasionally, also, groined vaults were used in the crypt as at Saintes (Charente-InfÃ©rieure),[126]even when tunnel vaults were used in the upper part of the church, a peculiarity explained by the fact that underground it was easy to dispose of the thrusts which could not so readily be offset in the nave.

The question of the origin of the method has frequently arisen and a number of writers, including Choisy,[127]suggest the East as a possible cradle of the style because of the numerous churches in Palestine thus vaulted, but Rivoira[128]shows rather conclusively that it was the Cluny influence which carried the method to the East rather than the reverse, a theory strengthened by the fact that the earliest example there, which is the church of Saint Anne at Jerusalem,[129]would seem to be after rather than before the beginning of the twelfth century.[130]Moreover it is quite reasonable to attribute the development of this advanced type of vault tothe builders of Bourgogne themselves, for they were surely progressive enough to have taken such a step.

Churches with groined vaults over square nave bays are much more numerous than those with rectangular bays, just described. The most important of these belong to the school of the Rhenish Provinces, which had, perhaps, clung to Byzantine and Carolingian traditions in this respect. As a rule the large churches of this school were originally planned for vaulting only in the side aisles.[131]These were usually divided into square bays by round headed transverse arches, and then each bay covered by a more or less domed up groined vault, which, from its size and form, might be erected with comparatively little centering.[132]There was no triforium gallery, but a wall with blank arches took its place beneath the clerestory windows. In many of the churches[133]shafts were carried up on the inner face of alternate nave piers, probably to support the cross beams of the roof, or possibly to carry transverse arches, but not to carry vaulting.

By the early twelfth century, after numerous fires had played havoc with the churches, the Rhenish builders seem to have at last made an effort to replace the wooden roofs with vaults. In doing this, they sought a form of vault which would exert as little as possible of outward thrust and thus be stable at the considerable height at which it must be placed. The Lombard builders had by this time developed the domed up cross-ribbed vault, but, as has been admirably shown by Porter,[134]the ribs which they employed had for their sole purpose the saving of wooden centering, since the masonry of the vault proper was heavy enough to stand without their aid. It was natural then for the Rhenish builders, who copied their neighbors in Lombardy in many particulars,[135]to look to them for a method of vault construction, which they found in domed up vaults like those of Rivolta-dâ€™Adda (1088-1099) or Santâ€™Ambrogio at Milan(cir. 1098). These the Rhenish builders chose as models, but being plentifully supplied with wood for centering, it would seem as if they purposely did not adopt the diagonal ribs, but built groined vaults of simple domed up type, placing them over square nave bays each corresponding to two aisle bays in the true Lombard manner. This system may be seen to advantage in the cathedral of Speyer[136](probably vaulted cir. 1137-1140). With extremely heavy walls like those of the Rhenish churches, and with good masonry for their construction, such vaults proved comparatively safe even over naves of such a span as that of Speyer which is almost fifty feet in width.

This account of the Rhenish school completes the discussion of groined vaulting as applied to the naves and choirs of Romanesque churches. The heavy walls and the general excellence of masonry construction which they required, together with the necessity for large interior piers, did not render them popular or widely used.

That the use of groined vaults was far more extensive in the aisles than in the naves of Romanesque churches has already been shown by the examples cited from the schools of Poitou, Auvergne, Bourgogne, and elsewhere. To these should be added a number of churches, chiefly of the schools of Lombardy and Normandy, which have groined aisles in combination with rib vaulted or wooden roofed naves. In Lombardy, where the naves are ribbed, this combination has been admirably explained by Porter[137]in connection with the use of wood for centering. Thus he shows that groined vaults, provided that they were sufficiently domed up, could be built over the small bays of the aisles and triforia with almost no wooden framework, but that when such vaults were attempted in the nave the bays were so large as to require a considerable amount of centering beneath the vault, and therefore the builders substituted permanent diagonal arches of very heavy character.

The Norman groined aisles are, however, of a different sort, for they either have level crowns or are but slightly domed up in type.[138]The abbey church of JumiÃ¨ges (Seine-InfÃ©rieure) (1040-1067) is among the earliest examples of this construction and is the only Norman church with groined vaults in both the aisles and triforium.[139]La TrinitÃ© at Caen[140]and the abbey church of Lessay (Manche)[141]are also Norman churches with groined aisles, in both cases with level crowns. In La TrinitÃ©, as in the early churches of Poitou, the bays are not even separated by transverse arches.[142]In Saint Ã‰tienne at Caen, and in the choir of the cathedral of Gloucester, the aisles are vaulted in both stories like those of Auvergne, the lower groined, the triforia with half tunnel vaults, but it seems very probable that these latter were added only when vaulting took the place of the wooden roof in the central portions of the church.[143]

Curious instances of the persistence of groined vaulting are to be seen in the triforia of such transitional churches as Saint Germer-de-Fly (Oise)[144]and VÃ©zelay, where the remaining portions of the church have ribbed vaults. For this persistence an explanation is later attempted.[145]

An unusual form of aisle vault appears at Creully (Calvados)[146](twelfth century), where the aisles are covered with a half tunnel vault intersected toward the outer wall by lunettes, which thus convert it into a semi-groined vault. Its obvious advantage lies in the combination of inward pressure, which it exerts in support of the nave vaults, with the added window space which it affords without increasing the height of the exterior walls.

The introduction of ribs beneath the diagonal intersections of groined vaulting gradually brought about a revolution in Mediaeval building, and transformed the massiveness of Romanesque construction into the lightand graceful architecture of the Gothic era. Much has been written in an effort to discover the origin of the new system. It is not, however, the intention here to add to the number of theories advanced, except in an incidental manner, but rather to classify the various forms of ribbed vaulting as applied to naves, choirs, and aisles of the churches following immediately after those of the Romanesque period which have just been described. As a geographical basis is no longer practical for such a classification, because of the widespread distribution of the new method of construction, a structural basis will be substituted, and the vaults will be divided into two major groups according as they were used over square or rectangular nave bays, and then subdivided according to their minor characteristics.

Lombardy affords the first examples of ribbed vaults over nave bays of square plan. According to Rivoira[147]the earliest are in the church of Santa Maria e San Sigismondo at Rivolta dâ€™Adda[148](before 1099), though this was closely followed by the more important church of Sant Ambrogio at Milan (between 1088-1128)(Fig. 18), which furnishes an admirable example of the Lombard type. Its nave is divided into four great square bays, each corresponding to two bays in the side aisles. (Plate I-a.) Of these the eastern bay is treated as a crossing and covered by a dome above a lantern on squinches, but the remaining three have four-part domed up vaults with heavy ribs of square section, used not only transversely and along the walls but also diagonally, thus forming a complete system or skeleton of arches beneath the vault surface in the manner of true Gothic architecture. But there are many reasons to believe with Porter[149]that the builders of Lombardy employed these ribs purely as a permanent centering of masonry,â€”which was less expensive than a temporary centering of wood in a country where the latter material was very scarce,â€”and that they failed to appreciate the fact that such ribs made possible a great reduction in the weight of the panels, or web. of the vault, and in other ways could be made to aid in reducing and concentrating its pressures. The masonry of the vault is still excessively

PLATE I

Fig. 18.â€”Milan, Santâ€™ Ambrogio.

thick,â€”between sixteen and twenty inches,â€”and would stand equally well were the ribs removed. Moreover its thrust is so great that the builders dared not raise its imposts sufficiently high to admit of a clerestory beneath the formerets, and instead of rendering possible a lighter construction as Gothic vaults were destined to do, these vaults of Saintâ€™ Ambrogio required for their support a wall forty inches thick and ramping walls above the transverse arches of the triforium together with interior tie-rods and wooden chains in the masonry[150]to offset their severe outward thrust. All these facts show that the Lombard vaults are still fundamentally Romanesque in type. Even in San Michele at Pavia (early twelfth century), where the system was a little more developed, in that a small clerestory was introduced, the principles were still the same as in Milan. As a matter of fact, the Lombard builders never made any further advance in the handling of ribbed vaults, and even went backward rather than forward. For the builders found that groined vaults of domed up type could be built so lightly as to require but little centering, and a returnto this simple form was made in such churches as San Lanfranco at Pavia.[151]Later on, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, French methods of ribbed vaulting were introduced, but throughout the whole period of Lombard supremacy the tendency was to avoid vaulting entirely, and when adopted, it was of the heavy character just described.

The Lombard churches are important in the present connection, however, because of the method in which they are divided into vaulting bays. They furnish the earliest examples of the system of alternate light and heavy supports,â€”employed according to Cattaneo[152]as early as 985 in the three original bays of SS. Felice e Fortunato at Vicenza. This system of piers with alternate transverse arches produces one square[153]bay in the nave to two square bays in the side aisles, and it occurs not only in vaulted churches but also in others in which a wooden roof rests upon these transverse supports.[154]Its advantage in the vaulted churches is particularly important, however, and of a two-fold character. In the first place, it renders the four enclosing arches uniform, and it makes them as nearly as possible of equal span with the diagonals.[155]And in the second, it saves a considerable amount of centering by rendering possible the construction of a vault covering a space corresponding to two rectangular bays on four instead of seven ribs.[156]

Outside of Lombardy, the four-part cross-ribbed vault over square nave bays was but seldom employed in churches with side aisles also divided into square compartments. It appears, however, in the cathedral of Le Mans, (Sarthe) (middle of the twelfth century), where it would seem to be due to the influence of the neighboring single aisled churches of Anjou,â€”whichare later discussed,â€”and it was frequently used in reconstructing the vaults of the Rhenish school. In the Gothic period also, the system occasionally appears in a modified form, and naturally enough these revivals occur where Norman and Rhenish Romanesque had caused the principles of Lombard architecture to be strongly entrenched. Thus the church of Saint Legerius at Gebweiler[157](cir. 1182-1200) furnishes a Rhenish, and the choir of Boxgrove Priory church (cir. 1235), an English application of this method. In the latter, the vaults are no longer highly domed up, and are therefore far removed from their Lombard prototypes, only the general division of the church reflecting this influence.

More important by far, are the churches without side aisles but with naves in square bays with four part cross-ribbed vaults. This method is to be seen in the cathedral of FrÃ©jus (Var),[158]which is considered by Porter[159]to exhibit the earliest extant ribbed nave vaults in France. These are distinctly of Lombard type, and would seem to show a strong Lombard influence entering France from the south. It may possibly be that this same influence followed the route taken earlier by the dome on pendentives, and thus gave rise to the domed up ribbed vault so common in the churches of Anjou.[160]Of these latter, the cathedral of Saint Maurice at Angers (Maine-et-Loire)(Fig. 19), presents perhaps the best existing example. Its nave vaults which date from as early as 1150[161]are among the largest and finest in France, having a span of some fifty-six feet. As in Lombardy, the crown is highly domed up while to facilitate the construction of the web of the vault with the least possible centering, pointed diagonals and enclosing arches are employed. By this means the entire vault was constructed on the ribs with no centering at all for the lower courses, and a simplecerce, a device consisting of two curved boards sliding alongeach other, for those near the crown. At the same time the outward thrusts were greatly reduced by the pointed section of the vault.

Fig. 19.â€”Angers, Cathedral.

Since the Anjou churches possessed naves of wide span, it is not surprising to find that their builders soon added ridge ribs beneath the vault. That these were not mere cover-joints to conceal an irregular intersection of the masonry, as Choisy suggests,[162]would seem to be proved by the fact that the courses meet in a straight line at the ridge in by far the greater number of Anjou churches in which they are employed,â€”for example in La Couture at Le Mans(Fig. 20), Airaines,[163]and numerous churches with small torus ribs, as well as by the fact that such ridge ribs are sometimes omitted even when the masonry is laid up in courses of equal width and therefore interpenetrating at the ridge, as in AvesniÃ¨res(Mayenne)[164]near Laval. If not, however, primarily a cover-joint, these ribs did at least possess both a structural and decorative quality. In the first place they helped to keep the keystone of the diagonals rigidly fixed during the building process, and furthermore, they gave an absolutely straight line to the vault crown which was always difficult to adjust, particularly in a vault of large size. One of the best and earliest examples of the employment of such ribs appears in the nave of Notre Dame-de-la-Couture at Le Mans(Fig. 20)which dates from about 1200, and a later example is afforded by the church of Saint-Avit-SÃ©nieur (Dordogne),[165]where the vaults are of the thirteenth century and replace an original series of domes on pendentives of true Perigord type.

Fig. 20.â€”LeMans, Notre Dame-de-la-Couture.

In all of the Anjou vaults thus far discussed, the ribs are of comparatively heavy section and placed entirely beneath the vault surface, butthere was to be a decided change in the thirteenth century. It has already been noted that domed up vaults could be erected almost without centering and exerted little if any pressure upon the ribs beneath them. Realizing this, the builders of Anjou soon began to reduce the size of the ribs until they became little more than torus mouldings running along the groin and ridge of the vault. As an actual fact, however, these torus mouldings were carved upon a sunken rib flush with the surface of the panel, which, if it no longer furnished a support for the vault, at least formed a sort of permanent centering dividing the surface to be vaulted into distinct severies and marking the line of their intersection in an absolutely correct curve. Such vaults are closely allied to those of groined type, the ribs playing practically the same part as those of brick in Roman concrete vaulting. Since, however, in the Anjou system the ribs always were merely a permanent centering which could easily be removed without destroying the vault, a sunken centering was quite as efficient in serving the purpose of vault division while the torus afforded a certain amount of surface decoration.

Of this typical Anjou construction, there are numerous examples. At Poitiers, in the church of Sainte Radegonde the ribs are of reduced size but not quite flush with the vault surface and the same is true at Saint-Hilaireâ€”Saint-Florent near Saumur (Marne-et-Loire),[166]while the choir and transept of Angers cathedral(Fig. 19), and the later bays of the cathedral of Poitiers furnish examples of the standard type. After a short period of experiment, the builders of Anjou became very skillful in the construction of these ribs and vaults and frequently employed them over bays of unusual plan and elevation as, for example, in the chapel north of the choir aisle in Saint Serge at Angers(Fig. 21).

An instance of the influence of Anjou construction upon the neighboring territory, as well as of the relationship between this Gothic style and the Romanesque school of Perigord, may perhaps be seen in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca in Spain.[167]Here the three western bays of the nave are covered with ordinary domes but with diagonal ribs beneath them, while the two remaining bays have regular domed up Anjou vaults. The date of this cathedral, cir. 1120-1178, may, perhaps, explain this peculiar combination as being due to an Anjou-Gothic influence displacing one ofPerigord-Romanesque, in much the same manner as such an influence displaced the Perigord-Romanesque architecture of western France.

Back to Index Next