OF THE SEMI-NORMAN STYLE.
Q. What is the Semi-Norman style?
A. It is that style of transition which, without superseding the Norman
style, prevailed more or less, in conjunction with it, during the latter
part of the twelfth century, and probably even from an earlier period, and
gradually led to the complete adoption, in the succeeding century, of the
early pointed style in a pure state, and to the general disuse of the
semicircular arch.
Q. By what is this style chiefly denoted?
A. By the intersection of semicircular arches, the frequent intermixture
of the pointed arch in its incipient state with the semicircular arch, and
the pointed arch with its accompaniments of features, mouldings, and
ornamental accessories, exactly similar to those of the Norman style, both
in its earlier and later gradations, and from which it appears to have
differed only in the contour or form of the arch.
[Illustration: Early specimen of intersecting Arches, St. Botolph’s
Priory, Colchester. (12th cent.)]
Q. Whence are we to derive the origin of the pointed arch?
A. Many conjectural opinions on this much-contested question have been
entertained, yet it still remains to be satisfactorily elucidated. Some
would derive it from the East and ascribe its introduction to the
Crusaders; some maintain that it was suggested by the intersection of
semicircular arches, which intersection we frequently find in ornamental
arcades; others contend that it originated from the mode of quadripartite
vaulting adopted by the Normans, the segmental groins of which, crossing
diagonally, produce to appearance the pointed arch; whilst some imagine it
may have been derived from that mystical figure of a pointed oval form,
the _Vesica Piscis_[76-*]. But whatever its origin, it appears to have
been imperceptibly brought into partial use towards the middle of the
twelfth century.
[Illustration: Semi-Norman double Piscina, Jesus College Chapel,
Cambridge.]
Q. What are the characteristics of this style?
A. In large buildings massive cylindrical piers support pointed arches,
above which we often find round-headed clerestory windows, as at Buildwas
Abbey Church, Salop; or semicircular arches forming the triforium, as at
Malmesbury Abbey Church, Wilts. Sometimes we meet with successive tiers
of arcades, in which the pointed arch is surmounted both by intersecting
and semicircular arches, as in a portion of the west front of Croyland
Abbey Church, Lincolnshire, now in ruins. The ornamental details and
mouldings of this style generally partake of late Norman character; and
the zig-zag and semicylindrical mouldings on the faces of arches appear to
predominate, though other Norman mouldings are common; but we also
frequently meet with specimens in the Semi-Norman style in which extreme
plainness prevails, and the character is of that nature as to induce us to
ascribe such buildings to rather an early period. Single and double, and
sometimes even triple-faced arches, with the edges left square,
distinguish plain specimens of this style from the plain-pointed
double-faced arches of the succeeding century, the edges of which are
splayed or chamfered. In late instances of this, as of the cotemporaneous
Norman style, we observe in the details a gradual tendency to merge into
those of the style of the thirteenth century, when the pointed arch had
attained maturity, and the peculiar features and decorative mouldings and
sculptures of Norman character had fallen into isuse.[TN-2]
Q. What specimen of this style is there of apparently early date?
[Illustration: Semi-Norman Arch, Abbey Church, Malmesbury.]
A. The church, now in ruins, of Buildwas Abbey, Salop, founded A. D.
1135[79-*], is an early specimen of the Semi-Norman style, in which, with
the incipient pointed arch, Norman features and details are blended. The
nave is divided from the aisles by plain double-faced pointed arches, with
square edges, and hood mouldings over, which spring from massive
cylindrical piers with square bases and capitals; whilst the clerestory
windows above (for there is no triforium) are semicircular-headed. The
general features of early Norman character, the absence of decorative
mouldings, and the plain appearance this church exhibits throughout, are
such as perhaps to warrant the presumption that this church is the same
structure mentioned in the charter of confirmation granted to this abbey
by Stephen, A. D. 1138-9.
Q. What other noted specimens are there of this style?
[Illustration: Intersecting Window Arches, St. Cross Church, Winchester.]
A. The church of the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, presents an
interesting combination of semicircular, intersecting, and pointed arches,
of cotemporaneous date, enriched with the zig-zag and other Norman
decorative mouldings, and is a structure, in appearance and detail, of
much later date than the church at Buildwas Abbey, though the same early
era has been assigned to each.
St. Joseph’s Chapel, Glastonbury, now in ruins, supposed to have been
erected in the reigns of Henry the Second and Richard the First, is
perhaps the richest specimen now remaining of the Semi-Norman or
transition style, and is remarkable for the profusion of sculptured detail
and combination of round and intersecting arches. In the remains of
Malmesbury Abbey Church a Norman triforium with semicircular arches is
supported on pointed arches which are enriched with Norman mouldings, and
spring from massive cylindrical Norman piers. The interior of Rothwell
Church, Northamptonshire, has much of Semi-Norman character: the aisles
are divided from the nave by four lofty, plain, and triple-faced pointed
arches, with square edges, springing from square piers with attached
semicylindrical shafts on each side, and banded round midway between the
bases and capitals; and the latter, which are enriched with sculptured
foliage, are surmounted by square abaci; the west doorway is also of
Semi-Norman character, and pointed, and is set within a projecting mass of
masonry resembling the shallow Norman buttress. The circular part of St.
Sepulchre’s Church, Northampton, has early pointed arches, plain in
design, springing from Norman cylindrical piers. In the circular part of
the Temple Church, London, dedicated A. D. 1185, the piers consist of four
clustered columns banded round midway between the bases and capitals, and
approximating the Early English style of the thirteenth century; and these
support pointed arches, over which and continued round the clerestory wall
is an arcade of intersecting semicircular arches, and above these are
round-headed windows.
[Illustration: Semi-Norman Window, Oxford Cathedral.]
Q. What particular specimen of the Semi-Norman style has been noticed by
any cotemporaneous author, and the date of it clearly defined?
A. The eastern part of Canterbury Cathedral, consisting of Trinity Chapel
and the circular adjunct called Becket’s Crown. The building of these
commenced the year following the fire which occurred A. D. 1174, and was
carried on without intermission for several successive years. Gervase, a
monk of the cathedral, and an eyewitness of this re-edification, wrote a
long and detailed description of the work in progress, and a comparison
between that and the more ancient structure which was burnt; he does not,
however, notice in any clear and precise terms the general adoption of the
pointed arch and partial disuse of the round arch in the new building,
from which we may perhaps infer they were at that period indifferently
used, or rather that the pointed arch was gradually gaining the
ascendancy[83-*].
Q. How long does the Semi or Mixed Norman style appear to have prevailed?
[Illustration: Semi-Norman Arch, St. Cross Church, Winchester.]
A. Though we can neither trace satisfactorily the exact period of its
introduction, or even that of its final extinction, (for it appears to
have merged gradually into the pure and unmixed pointed style of the
thirteenth century,) we have perhaps no remains of this kind to which we
can attribute an earlier date than that included between the years 1130
and 1140, unless we except the intersecting arches at St. Botulph’s,
Priory Church, Colchester, which may be a few years earlier; and it
appears to have prevailed, in conjunction or intermixed with the Norman
style, from thence to the close of the twelfth century, and probably to a
somewhat later period.
[Illustration: Arcade, Christ Church, Oxford.]
FOOTNOTES:
[76-*] The figure of a fish, whence the form _vesica piscis_ originated,
was one of the most ancient of the Christian symbols, emblematically
significant of the word ἴχθυς,[TN-3] which contained the initial letters
of the name and titles of our Saviour. The symbolic representation of a
fish we find sculptured on some of the sarcophagi of the early
Christians discovered in the catacombs at Rome; but the actual figure of
a fish afterwards gave place to an oval-shaped compartment, pointed at
both extremities, bearing the same mystical signification as the fish
itself, and formed by two circles intersecting each other in the centre.
This was the most common symbol used in the middle ages, and thus
delineated it abounds in Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts. Every
where we meet with it during the middle ages, in religious sculptures,
in painted glass, on encaustic tiles, and on seals; and in the latter,
that is, in those of many of the ecclesiastical courts, the form is yet
retained. Even with respect to the origin of the pointed arch, that
_vexata quæstio_ of antiquaries, with what degree of probability may it
not be attributed to this mystical form? It is indeed in this symbolical
figure that we see the outline of the pointed arch plainly developed at
least a century and half before the appearance of it in architectonic
form. And in that age full of mystical significations, the twelfth
century, when every part of a church was symbolized, it appears nothing
strange if this typical form should have had its weight towards
originating and determining the adoption of the pointed arch.--Internal
Decorations of English Churches, British Critic, April, 1839.
[79-*] The date of the _foundation_ of an abbey or church must not,
however, be confounded with that of its actual _erection_, which was
often many years later, and the only certain guide to which is the date
of the _Consecration_.
[83-*] In the minute and circumstantial account which Gervase gives of
the partial destruction of this cathedral by fire, A. D. 1174, and its
after restoration, he seems to allude, though in obscure language, to
the altered form of the vaulting in the aisles of the choir (_in
circuitu extra chorum_); and his comparison, with reference to this
building, between early and late Norman architecture is altogether so
curious and exact as to deserve being transcribed:--
“Dictum est in superioribus quod post combustionem illam vetera fere
omnia chori diruta sunt, et in quandam augustioris formæ transierunt
novitatem. Nunc autem quæ sit operis utriusque differentia dicendum est.
Pilariorum igitur tam veterum quam novorum una forma est, una et
grossitudo, sed longitudo dissimilis. Elongati sunt enim pilarii novi
longitudine pedum fere duodecim. In capitellis veteribus opus erat
planum, in novis sculptura subtilis. Ibi in chori ambitu pilarii viginti
duo, hic autem viginti octo. Ibi arcus et cætera omnia plana utpote
sculpta secure et non scisello, his in omnibus fere sculptura idonea.
Ibi columpna nulla marmorea, hic innumeræ. Ibi in circuitu extra chorum
fornices planæ, hic arcuatæ sunt et clavatæ. Ibi murus super pilarios
directus cruces a choro sequestrabat, hic vero nullo intersticio cruces
a choro divisæ in unam clavem quæ in medio fornicis magnæ consistit, quæ
quatuor pilariis principalibus innititur, convenire videntur. Ibi cœlum
ligneum egregia pictura decoratum, hic fornix ex lapide et tofo levi
decenter composita est. Ibi triforium unum, hic duo in choro, et in ala
ecclesiæ tercium.”--De Combust. et Repar. Cant. Ecclesiæ.
[Illustration: Doorway, Paulscray Church, Kent.]