How to Study Architecture

A typical example of the earlier period of Rhenish Romanesque is the Cathedral at Worms (1110-1200). Its design shows features that are characteristically Rhenish: an apse at both the west and east end, flanked in each case by two towers; the use of transepts at the west end as well as the east (the eastern ones being here omitted), the erection of octagonal lanterns over both crossings, and entrances on the north and south sides instead of the west.

The exterior exhibits a well-defined orderliness and picturesqueness. The walls are reinforced with projecting piers and pierced with deeply recessed, round-arch windows. Noticeable also is the effective use of corbel arcades beneath the gable ends of the roofs and in various string courses, while the richer emphasis of open arcades is applied with equal discretion and effectiveness. Another noteworthy feature in the towers is the use of dormers to embellish the conical or octagonal roof, which in effect are rudimentary spires.

Other early representative cathedrals are those of Spires, Treves, and Mayence while to the later period belongs the Church of the Apostles, Cologne (1220-1250). It offers a varied application of the same features in a singularly perfect design. The transepts and choir present a cluster of three apses round a low, octagonal lantern. The nave is short, twice the width of the side aisles and has western transepts and a square western tower. Especially fine are the exterior embellishments of the apses, consisting of two stories of blind arcading, surmounted by open arcades beneath the roof, while a corresponding sense of proportional dignity characterises the grouping of the eastern towers and lantern and the solitary distinction of the western tower. Here, as in three other examples of triapsal churches in Cologne—S. Maria-in-Capitol, S. Martin, and S. Cunibert—the domical vaulting is supported by squinches or pendentives.

The earliest example of nave vaulting is found in the Cathedral of Mayence, closely followed in the Cathedrals of Spires and Worms and the abbey church at Laach.

SPANISH ROMANESQUE

In Spain great impetus was given to cathedral building by the recapture of Toledo from the Moors in 1085. In architecture, as in painting, the Spaniards seem to have sought their artistic impulses from abroad, since the most important example of their early Romanesque style—the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostello—is a modified copy of S. Sernin, at Toulouse, Aquitaine. The plan is a Latin cross with aisles not only flanking the nave but also carried round the transepts and choir apse in the manner of the French chevêt. The aisles are groin-vaulted, while a lofty barrel vault covers the nave, and an octagonal lantern crowns the crossing.

A special feature of Spanish Romanesque, also derived apparently from Aquitaine, is the beauty of the dome, which covers the crossing, as in the old Cathedral of Salamanca, the Collegiate Church at Toro and the Cathedral of Zamora. They are circular in the interior and octagonal on the outside with large turrets in the angles of the octagon. The interior dome is carried upon pointed arches, between which and the spring of the vault, in the case of Salamanca, are two tiers of arcaded windows. For the admission of light the arrangement is excellent, while the general character of these domes, covered on the outside with a low, steeple-like roof of stone, is admirably monumental.

Another characteristic Spanish feature, met with in some churches, as for example, that of San Millan, Sagovia, is an open cloister, on the outside of the aisle, from which doors open into it.

Carved ornament was rather sparingly applied, and except in minute details suggests no Moorish influence.

BOOK V

GOTHIC PERIOD

CHAPTER I

LATE MEDIÆVAL CIVILISATION

Prominent among the causes of the confused conditions in Western Europe was the multiplicity of rival authorities; which it had been Charlemagne’s dream to subordinate to a centralised authority, emulating that of the Roman Empire. But, while his attempt at temporal domination failed, the more spiritual dominion exercised by the Church proved to be a unifying agency. Through the influence which she exerted over conscience and consequently over the actions of men through the Sacraments of Confession and Penitence, she was able in considerable measure to curb the license of feudalism. Furthermore, by allying herself with the growing power of the burgher classes in cities and standing as the champion of the defencelessness of the lower classes in cities and country, she became the great adjuster of the fearful social inequalities of the period.

Her policy was one of checks and counter-checks. She could not subdue the forces that made for disorder; but could and did restrain them. Thus her support of the burghers built up a new force in the community that, through trade and commerce, made for stability and set up the constructive arts of peace as a make-weight against the destructive conditions that the internecine strife of the nobility engendered. And these last she further checked by utilising the enthusiasm for Crusades, which had been first stirred by the missionary zeal of Peter the Hermit in 1096. This first expedition, under Godfrey de Bouillon, resulted in the capture of Jerusalem from the Arabs and the establishment of a Christian Kingdom in Palestine. The six other Crusades, terminating with the second expedition of Louis IX (St. Louis) of France in 1270, failed to recover Jerusalem which had been recaptured by the Arabs. But in the course of them a Latin kingdom had been established in Constantinople under Count Baldwin of Flanders and a kingdom also had been formed in Cyprus. It is unnecessary to attempt to follow these various expeditions in detail, the more so that they represented only incidents in what had become a perpetual progression of movement toward the East. It is the effect of this that really concerns us here.

The effect may be studied in relation to the spirit that was stimulated, and to the economic and educational influence involved. The Church originally favoured the Crusades as a means both of diverting the savagery of the fighting class from internecine strife to distant warfare and of intensifying religious faith and feeling. While it was not strong enough to crush the fighting spirit, it could consecrate it to some kind of an ideal, and thereby succeeded in tempering the stupid savagery of feudalism with the finer spirit of chivalry. An idealism of knighthood was encouraged that reverenced women, protected the weak, redressed the wrongs of the oppressed, and wedded to the courtesies of life a fervour of religious faith. Amidst the ugliness of the times there sprang up the blue flower of an ideal of beauty that affected in some measure both the spiritual and the social life. How real and intense was the spirituality of the times may be gathered from its excesses, as evidenced in the cruelties of the Crusade against the Albigenses for their heresies, and in the pathetic tragedies of the Children’s Crusades. In 1212 a French shepherd boy, named Stephen, induced thousands of boys to follow him to Marseilles, promising to lead them dry-shod through the sea to Palestine, and a boy of Cologne, named Nicolas, led an army of twenty thousand children toward Italy. Such of the French children as reached Marseilles were kidnapped and sold to slavery in Egypt, while the German host perished from privations, leaving only a memory that is preserved in the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In the wake of military expeditions to the East there followed the adventurers of commerce. Trade routes were opened up, the earliest of which and for a long time the most important was by way of Venice, over the Brunner Pass and up the Rhine to Bruges. And commercial relations meant the continual passing backward and forward of persons in the pursuits of peace and, in consequence, a growing intercourse between the members of different nationalities. The old isolation of the western and northern nations was gradually removed, and the individual’s narrow horizon became broadened by travel, his restricted ideas of life enlarged and enlightened by contact with the alien and superior culture of the East. For it was in Constantinople and among the Arabs in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt that secular learning at this period flourished.

Accordingly, as a result of the Crusades, Western Europe indulged a taste for foreign travel, which stimulated a prodigious adventurousness that operated in the things of the spirit and the intellect as well as in the material conduct of life. Geography, for example, began to arouse a practical interest. It changed the attitude of men’s minds to the outside world, opening up new paths of travel by land and sea and, equally, new conceptions of the possibilities of the world and of life. The interest also in Crusades aroused the desire to record them and an impetus was given to historical writings, which, partaking largely of romance, led to a renewed interest in such old romances as those of the Knights of the Round Table of the Arthurian Legend and of Charlemagne’s Paladins.

A most significant testimony to the character of the civilisation of the thirteenth century is afforded by the voluminous writings of Vincent of Beauvais, who held the post of “reader” in the monastery of Royaumont, on the Oise near Paris, which was founded by Louis IX. His work, written in Latin and entitled the “Speculum Universale” or “Universal Mirror,” is an encyclopædia of the knowledge of the Middle Ages; a mirror, in fact, of the mind of the age of great cathedral building. It is divided into three parts: the Speculum, respectively, Naturale, Doctrinale, and Historiale; to which a Speculum Morale was added by another hand, being mainly a compilation from the works of Thomas Aquinas and other contemporary writers.

The “Speculum Naturale” has been described as a gigantic commentary on the first chapter of Genesis. It opens with an account of the Trinity, and of the attributes and orders of angels; proceeds to discuss our own world, light, colour, the four elements, and Lucifer and his fallen angels. Then it proceeds to the phenomena of time, the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the wonders of the sky in thunder, dew, rain, and so forth. Thence it treats of dry land, seas, and rivers, agricultural operations, precious stones, plants, fruits, not omitting their use in medicine. Other chapters discuss birds, fishes; another domesticated and wild animals, serpents, bees, and insects, the seasons, and the calendar. Then man is dealt with, his anatomy, his organs, and five senses, and the phenomena of sleep, dreams, ecstasy, memory, reason, and so forth.

The “Speculum Doctrinale,” intended as a practical manual of knowledge, covers the subjects of grammar, logic, rhetoric, including a Latin vocabulary of some six thousand words; discusses the virtues and gives, under the head of “economic art,” directions for building, gardening, and agriculture, while under the head of “mechanical art,” it describes the work of weavers, smiths, armourers, merchants, hunters, sailors, and generals. Then, after prescribing rules for the preservation of health, it proceeds to mathematics, under which it includes music, geometry, astronomy, astrology, and weights and measures. And here it is noteworthy that the author displays an acquaintance with the Arabic numerals.

The “Speculum Historiale” begins with the creation of the world and continues a sacred and secular narrative down to the conversion of Constantine to Christianity. The “origines” of Britain are discussed and the story carried on to Mahomet and Charlemagne, after which comes a history of the First Crusade, a dissertation on the Tartars, and, finally, a short narrative of the earlier Crusade of St. Louis. One chapter is devoted to miracles. The history is largely composed of quotations from a variety of available sources, sacred and secular, which include Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic writers—known to the author through popular Latin versions—Eusebius, Seneca, Cicero, Ovid, Julius Cæsar, the Early Fathers of the Church, and the Mediæval writers, Sigebert de Gembloux, a Belgian Chronicler (1030-1112), and William of Malmesbury (1095-1142). The last named, an English monk of the Abbey of Malmesbury, wrote “De Gestibus Regum Anglorum,” a history of the English Kings, and a continuation, entitled “Historia Novella,” bringing the story down to 1142—works which have formed the basis of subsequent histories of England.

Mirrored in this compendium is the mind of the Middle Ages, that realised its dreams and needs in the most imaginative, daring, and grandly constructive type of building that the world had ever seen—that of Gothic Architecture. It was a mind at once practical and transcendental; grappling alike with the actualities of life and with the mysteries of the universe; hungry for knowledge, uncritical in appetite, accepting the miraculous as simply as it accepted the wonder of the world that was opening out to its eager vision with an immensity of promise. It was the mind of a giant youth, still exulting in the glow of growth; audacious in courage, of vaulting imagination, with thews and sinews that achieve prodigiously. In the pursuit of abstract knowledge the age was prone to expend itself on subtleties, to entangle itself in sophistries, to lose itself in merest speculation. But when it grappled with the problems of building, this weakness was transformed into strength. Then it displayed a faculty of reasoning, apt, direct, and original, and a readiness in the practical application of mathematical principles. Of these, however, it was not bent on giving a scientific demonstration; it was satisfied to employ them in the pursuit of beauty. And its feeling for beauty, as we shall see later, was of extraordinary subtlety, expended upon relieving the structure of formality and imparting to it the variety and elasticity of a living growth.

Nor was it only in this indirect way that the “Speculum Universale” was reflected in Gothic architecture. Its chapters were represented in sculptured illustrations upon the exteriors of the cathedrals, particularly around the portals, in order that all who came and went might see and learn. The statues and reliefs at Chartres comprise some two thousand figures, while Amiens presents another memorable example.

Thus the Gothic Cathedral was not only the House of God; it was also the House of Man—the civic centre of his religious, social, moral, and intellectual life.

CHAPTER II

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

into: Primary, or Thirteenth Century style; Secondary, or Fourteenth Century, often called Rayonnant from the wheel tracery of the rose windows; Tertiary, or Fifteenth Century, called Flamboyant from the flame-like shapes of the window spaces. On the other hand, in England, the divisions are: Thirteenth century or Early English; Fourteenth century or Decorated, because of the increased elaboration both of window tracery and rib vaultings; Fifteenth century or Perpendicular, owing to the predominance of vertical members in the tracery of the windows.

The chief fountain-source of the early Gothic development was the Ile de France, whence the new ideas were carried, largely by monastic activity and especially that of the Cistercian order, to England, Germany, Italy, and Spain. In each of these countries their application was coloured by local conditions and England in particular produced a series of buildings, characterised by originality of treatment and grandeur of design. Nevertheless, it is recognised that French Gothic is pre-eminent, not only for the logic and skill with which structural problems were solved but also for sublimity of design, especially in the interiors, and for the sense of proportion that distinguishes the best examples. English Gothic, however, is a noble second.

Before enumerating some of the famous examples of French Gothic, we may summarise the principles and devices more or less common to all Gothic.

Romanesque had substituted equilibrium in place of the inert stability of the Roman architecture. The thirteenth century architects added to equilibrium elasticity.

They achieved this by a development of the concentration of strains, which the Romans had invented or applied in the support of groin-vaulting on four piers, and the Romanesque architects had further developed by the system of rib-vaulting.

Pointed Arch.—The Gothic was structurally evolved out of the rib vaulting and the pointed arch. In the first place, while the Romanesque architects used the rib system solely as a convenience of building, the architects of the Ile de France, adopting it for the same purpose, became conscious of its further possibilities in the direction both of construction and of beauty. The rib, no longer a crude arch of masonry, was constructed of mouldings that made it a feature of beauty, enhanced by the increased height and the finer sweep of line that the skill and taste of the French architects achieved.

In this they were helped by the substitution of the pointed for the semi-circular arch. Not only are the curves of the pointed arch more beautiful, but they lent themselves also to a more daring method of building. By means of them the tops of the longitudinal and transverse arches could be lifted to the level of the diagonal ones, so that the filling in of the massives or spaces between the ribs, was simplified. Moreover, the strain of the pointed arch was more directly downward, which brought the main pressure down upon the piers. Advantage was taken of this by clustering small columns around the piers, so that each column carried its own rib, bringing the ribs and columns into a structural harmony and creating a continuous effect of soaring growth from the floor up to the summit of the vaulting. And this effect could be enhanced by the opportunity which the rib construction allowed of lifting the vaulting higher, and so affording space for ample clerestories.

Buttresses.—Meanwhile the lateral strain or thrust of the pointed arch, though less than the vertical, had to be sustained, and this was done by developing the buttress. These were of two kinds: abutting, as the name implies, either on the nave wall or on the outer walls of the aisles and chevêt. In both cases they were a development of the masonry piers with which the Romanesque architects reinforced the walls. When the buttresses were attached to the outer walls of the aisles and chevêt, they were connected with the nave wall by arches which sprang across the intervening space, and in consequence are known as flying buttresses.

Sometimes these buttresses were practically vertical, at other times they descended in offsets or steps, increasing in width toward the ground. Further to increase their resistance they were frequently surmounted by finials or pinnacles. The buttress, in fact, was not only a structural member of great importance, but one of the characteristic elements of beauty in the design.

Concentration of Counter-thrusts.—By the time these two principles—the concentration of thrusts and the counter-thrusts—had been thoroughly worked out, as they were in the thirteenth century, the Gothic architects had extended to the whole edifice what the later Romanesque architects had done for the vaulting. As the latter had been constructed on a framework of ribs, so now the essential structure of the whole edifice became a frame or skeleton, self-supporting, with its strains distributed throughout, as in the muscular system of the human body, and in the “steel cage” construction of modern buildings.

This enabled the Gothic architects to erect loftier and larger buildings and at the same time lighter in appearance, compared with which the Romanesque seem squat and heavy. The French showed a preference for lofty interiors; the English for length of vista, the proportionate loss of height being offset on the exterior by the extra height of the towers and spires.

Another result of the framework system of structure was that the intervening wall-spaces, relieved of strain, could be fully utilised for openings, especially for windows, so important in the duller climate of the north. The clerestory became an important feature of the Gothic cathedral; so also the triforium, or gallery round the nave, which, pierced in the thickness of the wall, separated the clerestory and arcade arches. Further, the windows in all the outer walls took on a new importance.

Windows.—The windows, in fact, became another of the distinguishing characteristics of Gothic architecture and the variety in their treatment marks the several centuries of its development. At first there was the plain lancet (spear-headed) window, the top of which was composed of two segments of a circle meeting at one point. The segments were inscribed about a triangle, which was either equilateral or isosceles. In the case of the equilateral triangle, whose base was equal to the sides, the distance of the point of the arch from the spring of the curves was equal to the width of the window. On the other hand, in the case of the isosceles triangle, if the base were longer than the sides, the point of the arch dropped lower, while, if the base were shorter, the arch was higher than its width—the true lancet.

Such plain openings, or lights, were used either singly or in pairs; and in time two were included within one lancet opening, the space above the heads of the lights being filled with a round or quatrefoil light. In this case the upper part or tracery had the appearance of having been cut out of one slab or plate of stone, and the pattern in consequence was called plate-tracery. Later, when the number of lights in a window was increased, the tracery above them was elaborated into various geometric designs, technically known as bar-tracery. Still later, when the architects had completely solved all the structural problems and the only advance could be made in further elaboration of details, the geometric forms were abandoned for more flowing designs, which are called in French Gothic Flamboyant; in English, Decorated.

It is to be noted that the change in the treatment of the windows was reflected in the carved ornamental details of other parts of the edifice; especially in the canopies over niches and the embellishment of gables, doors, choir-screens, wall-panelling, finials, and spires. These in the Flamboyant period (fifteenth century) reached a degree of lace-like elaborateness, that, while beautiful in itself, tends to obscure the actual structural elements; thereby marking the decadence of the Gothic style.

This phase was represented in English Gothic by a gradual stiffening of the tracery into rigid forms and barren repetitions. Because of the insistence on rectangular motives it is known as Perpendicular.

The windows were decorated with stained glass, the most beautiful remains of which are to be found in the Cathedral of Chartres. They show a prevalence of blue and violet tones and are composed of small pieces of glass, joined by leading. This French method was also imitated in England, as in the early windows of Canterbury; but by degrees an English style was adopted, in which the pieces of glass were much larger, and the subject consisted of large figures beneath traceried canopies, in imitation of the carved work of the sculptors.

In the decoration of columns the French long preserved the Corinthian type, but in place of the acanthus, used foliage forms studied directly from nature. The forms at first were freely conventionalised; but by degrees, as the skill of the carver increased, became more and more naturalistic and thereby less finely decorative. The corresponding progress in England is from conventionalised nature to frankly naturalistic imitation and thence to a somewhat dry and barren conventionalism.

Sculpture.—A conspicuous feature of Gothic decoration is the figure sculpture. It was used with profusion, especially in France, where the monumental treatment of the west fronts gave freest scope for the multiplication of niches, filled with statues. The deeply recessed portals, for example, were flanked with tiers of figures, which were also prolonged into the recessed planes of the arched top, while the lunette, or half-moon space between the arch and the horizontal top of the door, was filled with reliefs of the Saviour or Madonna. Meanwhile, figures beneath canopies stretched in a band across the upper part of the façade, or stood singly in niches that penetrated the surface of buttresses; until, in time, every vantage point, whether within or without the edifice, was enriched with statues. The noblest period of this efflorescence was the thirteenth century, when the French “imagers,” particularly, attained a remarkable balance between truth to nature and decorative convention. The statues seem to have grown into human shape out of the very material of the edifice and retain its character. With increasing cleverness, this magnificent conventionalisation passed into naturalistic imitation and the statues seem to be something added for elaboration’s sake.

Contrast to Classic.—Gothic architecture, though it developed through Romanesque and Early Christian out of Roman, presents an almost complete contrast to Classic style. It is an expression of many individualities rather than of conformity. Plans are more or less uniform; generally basilican in France, cruciform in England. But the superstructure, while embodying certain common features, exhibits the freedom of individual treatment, as each city or monastery vied with others in a mighty effort to excel.

A cathedral embodies such miracles of audacity and aspiration, that one scarcely looks in it for that complete harmony of proportion which distinguishes a Classic temple. The latter was the product of men who had ceased to believe in the deities they professed to honour and had made a religion, according as they were Hellenes or Romans, of abstract perfection or of systematised order.

Gothic cathedrals, on the other hand, were the material and spiritual expression of intense religious devotion and of civic pride and freedom. They were the memorials, not of old nations in the decline of their political and social ideals, but of young races, struggling toward nationalism and fired with the splendour of dawning aspirations. No level line of entablature, resting upon columns ever so stately, could embody such elevated enthusiasm. It must mount into the sky, with soaring lines and vaulting arches, spires and pinnacles, ever straining upward; giving voice to the grandeur of concerted uplift. Some of the cathedrals grew up from ground to ridge roof and towers under the guiding mind of one architect; more represent the continuous growth of the community; but in either case embody in their variety and organised complexity the Soul of the Crowd.

For one must not think of them only as temples of worship. They embraced also the functions now distributed in schools and libraries. They were the shrines of the culture of their day, in which the truths of religion, legends of saints, and the mysteries of belief were unfolded in sculpture, paintings, and stained glass.

Asymmetries or Refinements.—In order to ensure their monopoly the gilds of masons of the Middle Ages jealously preserved the secrets of their art. Accordingly, there are no written treatises of the period. Moreover, with the advent of the Renaissance the Gothic was held in contempt and the indifference to it continued until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in the renewed enthusiasm for Mediæval architecture, buildings were studied, measurements taken, and plans of the old churches and cathedrals were drafted. But the surveyors, having measured the distance between one pair of piers on opposite sides of the nave and between two piers on one side, plotted the plan as if these measurements were uniform throughout the whole nave. In this and in other matters they assumed that the design was symmetrical. The contrary, however, in the case of many churches and cathedrals, has been proved by the recent researches of Professor William H. Goodyear, whose work in connection with Hellenic, Byzantine, and Romanesque refinements or asymmetries has been noted already.

His researches, which have covered most of the Gothic edifices of Italy, many of the most important churches and cathedrals in France, and some in England, prove that the “mysteries” of the Mediæval gilds included asymmetrical refinements. The most important deviations from mechanical formality are as follows:

1. Widening of the Nave in a vertical direction. Where this occurs, each side of the nave leans outward; three methods being employed, though not more than one appears in a given church. In one case, there is a continuous and absolutely straight outward inclination from floor to vaulting. In another, the outward inclinations recede from floor to vaulting in delicate vertical curves. In the third, the piers are perpendicular up to the arcade capitals, where the inclination begins and is continued in straight lines through the triforium and clerestories. In this last case, the angle, formed by the two lines, produces in the large scale of the building the effect of a curve.

The widening in all cases tends to offset the perspective illusion of vertical lines converging toward the vaulting; but also appears to have been preferred for other aesthetic reasons.

Instances of continuous widening in straight lines are found in the Cathedral and Church of St. Ouen, in Rouen. Continuous widening combined with vertical curvature occurs at Canterbury; while the perpendicular pier, combined with inclined vaulting-shafts, triforium and clerestories is found in Amiens and Rheims.

2. Horizontal Curvature in Plan. Where this occurs, one of five methods is adopted.

In the first, the piers are set on parallel curves, which consequently are convex to the nave on one side and concave to the nave on the other. In the second, both curves are concave to the nave, which thus widens slightly from both ends toward the centre. In the third, both curves are convex to the centre. In the fourth, the curves are parallel, but reverse their direction at or near the choir, in the form of an attenuated S, or “Hogarth’s line of beauty.” In all the above instances the curves start at the bases of the piers and continue in the triforium, clerestory and roof parapets; in certain cases being also repeated in the outer aisle walls.

The fifth system is connected with a special phase of the Widening. For, in this case, the piers are set on a straight line and with the triforium and clerestory are perpendicular from floor to ceiling. That is to say, at the west end and the crossing; but, in between, from both ends, the piers gradually lean outward with an increasing inclination toward the centre of the nave. Thus result curves, concave to the interior, which, however, since the bases of the piers are on straight lines, are found only in the triforium, clerestory and parapet walls. Lichfield Cathedral presents an example; Rheims another, but with a difference. For while the widening in Lichfield begins at the pavement, that of Rheims starts at the arcade capitals.

3. So-called Perspective illusions. These were intended to emphasise the effect of the choir and generally to increase the suggestion of size and distance. This was accomplished in three ways.

a. By making the nave arcade and the outside walls converge toward the choir.

b. By lowering the height of the arches as they approach the choir.

c. By reducing the width of the arches as they approach the choir.

The result of all these asymmetries is to create an impression of elasticity in place of rigidity; an impression, in fact, of life; of the flexible, varied movement of organic growth.

CHAPTER III

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE

Notre Dame, Paris, and Amiens.—The plan of Amiens is regarded as the typical example of French cathedrals. Comparing it with that of Notre Dame one observes that, while both are of the basilican type, the latter is distinguished by having double side aisles enclosing the entire nave, choir, and chevêt. The only other example of this is the Cathedral of Bourges. In Notre Dame the transepts do not project beyond the aisles. Further, in the vaulting of the nave the system is still one of square bays, embracing two aisle bays, having six divisions in the vaulting. In Amiens, however, the groin rib and pointed arch have taken the place of the sexpartite plan and the bays are oblong. The elasticity of this later system simplified the vaulting of the curved aisle of the chevêt, whereas in Notre Dame the awkwardness of the rhomboidal spaces was ingeniously evaded by dividing each into nearly equal triangles, which could easily be vaulted. Note in both plans the disposition of the buttresses in the outer walls. It is interesting to know that the area of Notre Dame is about equal to that of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, while that of Amiens is smaller, but the height of its nave is 140 feet as compared with 80 at Karnak.

West Fronts.—In all French cathedrals a special feature of the exterior is the West Front, and a comparison of that of Notre Dame may well be made with the façade of Amiens, which marks the transition to the second style, the Rayonnant, and with that of Rheims, the upper part of which marks the transition to the third style, Flamboyant. The design of all three is constructively the same—a development of the Romanesque twin towers, connected by an arcade, while a rose or wheel window is placed above the central recessed door. The spires, which were intended to crown the towers, were never built. How they would have affected the appearance may be gathered from a comparison of the West Front of Cologne Cathedral—a cathedral that is “completely French in plan, uniting in one design the leading characteristics of the most notable French Churches.” (Hamlin.)

It is in the West Front of Notre Dame that the structural purport of the design is most definitely pronounced. When we study the vertical elements of the design, we note the division of the façade into three vertical masses corresponding with the interior divisions of nave and double aisles. The division is made by the buttresses which sustain the longitudinal strain of the interior arcades and the outer walls and insure the stability of the towers. And this stability is also associated with a suggestion of upward growth, due to the three setbacks in the profile of the buttresses; which setbacks, it is to be noted, correspond to the three main horizontal divisions of the façade.

The lowest is distinguished by massive simplicity; an effect of solid masonry, the thickness of which is emphasised by the deeply recessed door arches, while its simplicity is finely contrasted with the ordered distribution of the sculptured enrichments. Greater diversity characterises the second horizontal division. The openings present a varied patterning of light and shade, while the arcading lends a lightness of effect, echoing also the ordered repetition of the band of figures below, and at the same time involving variety according as the arcade is seen against the sky or is felt as a breastwork of the towers. Lastly, there is a reassertion of the vertical direction in the masses and coupled openings of the towers.

And if the contrast of these several divisions delights us, what is to be said of the balance that correlates these vertical and horizontal features, these various values of form, of plain and ornamental work, of light and shade, into a harmonious unity? It is the product of structural logic and grandeur of feeling; and compared with the reserve of its nobility the west front of Amiens, even the still finer one of Rheims, may seem less impressive. In these, it will be noted, the depth of the door recesses is increased by a pronounced offset in the lower story of the buttress, into which the sculptured jambs of the doorways merge, while the projection thus contrived is crowned with a canopy in the nature of a porch. How does the division at Amiens of the second story into two compare with the simple unity of the one in Notre Dame? Or how does the latter’s arcade compare with the corresponding band at Rheims of figures in arcaded niches, surmounted by ornate canopies?

The answer will depend on one’s individual temperament; perhaps also on one’s mood. It may seem to some that in Notre Dame the variety in unity is worked out with more consciousness of the principles to be applied, whereas in the other two façades there is a suggestion of freer and more individual treatment.

So much for the exteriors of these cathedrals. It is, however, when we compare the interior of Notre Dame with that of Amiens, that we see in what direction French Gothic was travelling. In the case of Amiens, it is as if some power had pulled the older form upward into a slenderer, more elastic fabric; less massive, possibly less stately, but also less inert, infinitely alive in its inspiring growth, with grace of movement as well as dignity. Notre Dame is still, as it were, anchored to the comparative ponderousness of the Romanesque style. The round columns with capitals of the Corinthian type still follow the model, though not the proportions, of the Roman. Their effect of dumpiness is further increased by the projecting half-round pilaster column that supports the main member of the vaulting shaft. On the other hand, the clustered piers at Amiens are slender, loftier in proportion to width; while a simple logic of structural purpose is apparent in the three-quarter attached shafts which carry the arches and aisle-vaults, and the main shaft of the nave vaulting rises uninterruptedly from the ground. The pier, in fact, operates as an abutting support to the members, which actually sustain the arch and vaulting, and their relation to the pier is asserted by the continuous abacus which binds all lightly but firmly together. A corresponding logical simplicity distinguishes the four-part nave vaulting at Amiens, where the pressure is concentrated equally on all the columns in succession without the need of intermediate ones to carry the added transverse rib.

Other great examples of the thirteenth century are the cathedrals of Laon, Chartres, Rouen, Beauvais, Auxerre, Bourges, and Le Mans—the last especially celebrated for its superb chevêt and flying buttresses—and the Collegiate Church of S. Quentin.

Sainte Chapelle.—The problem of concentration of strains was most triumphantly solved in the Sainte Chapelle (1242-1247) or Royal Chapel, in Paris, in which the Gothic system of construction may be said to have reached complete maturity. Here the vaulting is carried on buttress-piers, and the spaces between the latter are entirely filled with windows, 15 feet wide and 50 high. The structure below the vaulting is literally a framework, a lantern for the display of the stained glass; “a great translucent tabernacle merely ribbed and braced with stone.”

The influence of Sainte Chapelle affected French construction for half a century and was developed to its furthest possible point in S. Urban at Troyes, begun in 1260.

Second Period.—This cathedral represents the transition into the second period of French Gothic, which may be roughly placed at 1275 to 1375. The principles of construction could be carried no further and the style began to turn in on itself, the designers expending their invention on elaboration of ornament. This period is called in France the Rayonnant, from the raylike traceries that were introduced into the rose-windows and from the prevalence of circular forms in windows generally. The façade of Amiens is one of the best examples of the style.

Third Period.—By degrees the Rayonnant style passed into the so-called Flamboyant, which lasted until the introduction of the Renaissance style early in the sixteenth century. In it the principles of design were gradually sacrificed to the multiplication of decorative details. Constructive imagination disappeared in a maze of skilful elaboration. The transition from Rayonnant to Flamboyant is shown in the upper part of the west front of Rheims. Some of the finest memorials of this period’s maturity are to be found in Rouen: namely the nave and central tower of the Church of S. Ouen; the west portals of S. Maclou and the façade of the Cathedral, the last being a late example in which the very material of the stone seems to have dissolved into lace. Other instances are the church of S. Jacques at Dieppe, S. Wulfrand at Abbeville and the façade of the Cathedral of Tours.

Secular Gothic.—Gothic architecture was not confined to cathedrals and churches. Monasteries, hospitals, civic buildings, houses, and castles were erected in profusion, especially during the fifteenth century, though few survive to the present day. But a strikingly picturesque monument is the monastery of Mont-St.-Michel, of thirteenth century design, which clusters around the base of the Abbey Church, which was built in the eleventh century and remodelled in the sixteenth. Among the hospitals is that of Chartres. Rouen possesses a fifteenth century example of civic architecture in the Palais de Justice. The home of a great merchant prince of the same century is preserved in the House of Jacques Cœur at Bourges, while the east wing of the Château de Blois represents military architecture at the commencement of the sixteenth century.