absorb all the architectural activity of the French during the Gothic
period, nor did it by any means put an end to monastic building. While
there are few Gothic cloisters to equal the Romanesque cloisters of
Puy-en-Vélay, Montmajour, Elne, and Moissac, many of the abbeys either
rebuilt their churches in the Gothic style after 1150, or extended and
remodelled their conventual buildings. The cloisters of Fontfroide,
Chaise-Dieu, and the Mont St. Michel rival those of Romanesque times,
while many new refectories and chapels were built in the same style with
the cathedrals. The most complete of these Gothic monastic
establishments, that of the +Mont St. Michel+ in Normandy, presented a
remarkable aggregation of buildings clustering around the steep isolated
rock on which stands the abbey church. This was built in the eleventh
century, and the choir and chapels remodelled in the sixteenth. The
great refectory and dormitory, the cloisters, lodgings, and chapels,
built in several vaulted stories against the cliffs, are admirable
examples of the vigorous pointed-arch design of the early thirteenth
century.
+Hospitals+ like that of St. Jean at Angers (late twelfth century), or
those of Chartres, Ourscamps, Tonnerre, and Beaune, illustrate how
skilfully the French could modify and adapt the details of their
architecture to the special requirements of civil architecture. Great
numbers of charitable institutions were built in the middle
ages--asylums, hospitals, refuges, and the like--but very few of those
in France are now extant. Town halls were built in the fifteenth century
in some places where a certain amount of popular independence had been
secured. The florid fifteenth-century +Palais de Justice+ at +Rouen+
(1499-1508) is an example of another branch of secular Gothic
architecture. In all these monuments the adaptation of means to ends is
admirable. Wooden ceilings and roofs replaced stone, wherever required
by great width of span or economy of construction. There was little
sculpture; the wall-spaces were not suppressed in favor of stained glass
and tracery; while the roofs were usually emphasized and adorned with
elaborate crestings and finials in lead or terra-cotta.
+DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.+ These same principles controlled the designing
of houses, farm buildings, barns, granaries, and the like. The common
closely-built French city house of the twelfth and thirteenth century is
illustrated by many extant examples at Cluny, Provins, and other towns.
A shop opening on the street by a large arch, a narrow stairway, and two
or three stories of rooms lighted by clustered, pointed-arched windows,
constituted the common type. The street front was usually gabled and the
roof steep. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century half-timbered
construction began to supersede stone for town houses, as it permitted
of encroaching upon the street by projecting the upper stories. Many of
the half-timbered houses of the fifteenth century were of elaborate
design. The heavy oaken uprights were carved with slender colonnettes;
the horizontal sills, bracketed out over the street, were richly
moulded; picturesque dormers broke the sky-line, and the masonry filling
between the beams was frequently faced with enamelled tiles.
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--HOUSE OF JACQUES CŒUR, BOURGES.
(After Viollet-le-Duc.)]
The more considerable houses or palaces of royalty, nobles, and wealthy
citizens rivalled, and in time surpassed, the monastic buildings in
richness and splendor. The earlier examples retain the military aspect,
with moat and donjon, as in the Louvre of Charles V., demolished in the
sixteenth century. The finest palaces are of late date, and the type is
well represented by the Ducal Palace at Nancy (1476), the +Hotel de
Cluny+ (1485) at Paris, the +Hotel Jacques Cœur+ at Bourges (Fig. 127),
and the east wing of Blois (1498-1515). These palaces are not only
excellently and liberally planned, with large halls, many staircases,
and handsome courts; they are also extremely picturesque with their
square and circular towers, slender turrets, elaborate dormers, and rich
carved detail.
+MONUMENTS+: (C. = cathedral; A. = abbey; trans. = transept; each
edifice is given under the date of its commencement; subsequent
alterations in parentheses.) Between 1130 and 1200: Vézelay A.,
ante-chapel, 1130; St. Germer-de-Fly C., 1130-1150 (chapel later);
St. Denis A., choir, 1140 (choir rebuilt, nave and trans., 1240);
Sens C., 1140-68 (W. front, 13th century; chapels, spire, 14th);
Senlis C., 1145-83 (trans., spire, 13th century); Noyon C.,
1149-1200 (W. front, vaults, 13th century); St. Germain-des-Prés A.,
Paris, choir, 1150 (Romanesque nave); Angers C., 1150 (choir,
trans., 1274); Langres, 1150-1200; Laon C., 1150-1200; Le Mans C.,
nave, 1150-58 (choir, 1217-54); Soissons C., 1160-70 (choir, 1212;
nave chapels, 14th century); Poitiers C., 1162-1204; Notre Dame,
Paris, choir, 1163-96 (nave, W. front finished, 1235; trans.
fronts, and chapels, 1257-75); Chartres C., W. end, 1170; rest,
mainly 1194-98 (trans. porches, W. rose, 1210-1260; N. spire,
1506); Tours C., 1170 (rebuilt, 1267; trans., portals, 1375; W.
portals, chapels, 15th century; towers finished, 1507-47);
Laval C., 1180-85 (choir, 16th century); Mantes, church Notre
Dame, 1180-1200; Bourges C., 1190-95 (E. end, 1210; W. end, 1275);
St. Nicholas at Caen, 1190 (vaults, 15th century); Reims, church
St. Rémy, choir, end of 12th century (Romanesque nave); church St.
Leu d’Esserent, choir late 12th century (nave, 13th century);
Lyons C., choir, end of 12th century (nave, 13th and 14th
centuries); Etampes, church Notre Dame, 12th and 13th
centuries.--13th century: Evreux C., 1202-75 (trans., central
tower, 1417; W. front rebuilt, 16th century); Rouen C., 1202-20
(trans. portals, 1280; W. front, 1507); Nevers, 1211, N. portal,
1280 (chapels, S. portal, 15th century); Reims C., 1212-42 (W.
front, 1380; W. towers, 1420); Bayonne C., 1213 (nave, vaults, W.
portal, 14th century); Troyes C., choir, 1214 (central tower,
nave, W. portal, and towers, 15th century); Auxerre C., 1215-34
(nave, W. end, trans., 14th century); Amiens C., 1220-88; St.
Etienne at Chalons-sur-Marne, 1230 (spire, 1520); Séez C., 1230,
rebuilt 1260 (remodelled 14th century); Notre Dame de Dijon, 1230;
Reims, Lady chapel of Archbishop’s palace, 1230; Chapel Royal at
St. Germain-en-Laye, 1240; Ste. Chapelle at Paris, 1242-47 (W.
rose, 15th century); Coutances C., 1254-74; Beauvais C., 1247-72
(rebuilt 1337-47; trans. portals, 1500-48); Notre Dame de Grace at
Clermont, 1248 (finished 1350); Dôl C., 13th century; St.
Martin-des-Champs at Paris, nave 13th century (choir Romanesque);
Bordeaux C., 1260; Narbonne C., 1272-1320; Limoges, 1273 (finished
16th century); St. Urbain, Troyes, 1264; Rodez C., 1277-1385
(altered, completed 16th century); church St. Quentin, 1280-1300;
St. Benigne at Dijon, 1280-91; Alby C., 1282 (nave, 14th; choir,
15th century; S. portal, 1473-1500); Meaux C., mainly rebuilt 1284
(W. end much altered 15th, finished 16th century); Cahors C.,
rebuilt 1285-93 (W. front, 15th century); Orléans, 1287-1328
(burned, rebuilt 1601-1829).--14th century: St. Bertrand de
Comminges, 1304-50; St. Nazaire at Carcassonne, choir and trans.
on Romanesque nave; Montpellier C., 1364; St. Ouen at Rouen,
choir, 1318-39 (trans., 1400-39; nave, 1464-91; W. front, 1515);
Royal Chapel at Vincennes, 1385 (?)-1525.--15th and 16th century:
St. Nizier at Lyons rebuilt; St. Séverin, St. Merri, St. Germain
l’Auxerrois, all at Paris; Notre Dame de l’Epine at
Chalons-sur-Marne; choir of St. Etienne at Beauvais; Saintes C.,
rebuilt, 1450; St. Maclou at Rouen (finished 16th century); church
at Brou; St. Wulfrand at Abbeville; abbey of St. Riquier--these
three all early 16th century.--HOUSES, CASTLES, AND PALACES:
Bishop’s palace at Paris, 1160 (demolished); castle of Coucy,
1220-30; Louvre at Paris (the original château), 1225-1350; Palais
de Justice at Paris, originally the royal residence, 1225-1400;
Bishop’s palace at Laon, 1245 (addition to Romanesque hall);
castle Montargis, 13th century; castle Pierrefonds, Bishop’s
palace at Narbonnne, palace of Popes at Avignon--all 14th century;
donjon of palace at Poitiers, 1395; Hôtel des Ambassadeurs at
Dijon, 1420; house of Jacques Cœur at Bourges, 1443; Palace,
Dijon, 1467; Ducal palace at Nancy, 1476; Hôtel Cluny at Paris,
1490; castle of Creil, late 15th century, finished in 16th; E.
wing palace of Blois, 1498-1515, for Louis XII.; Palace de Justice
at Rouen, 1499-1508.
CHAPTER XVII.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Corroyer, Parker, Reber. Also,
Bell’s Series of _Handbooks of English Cathedrals_. Billings, _The
Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland_. Bond,
_Gothic Architecture in England_. Brandon, _Analysis of Gothic
Architecture_. Britton, _Cathedral Antiquities of Great Britain_.
Ditchfield, _The Cathedrals of England_. Murray, _Handbooks of the
English Cathedrals_. Parker, _Introduction to Gothic
Architecture_; _Glossary of Architectural Terms_; _Companion to
Glossary_, etc. Rickman, _An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of
English Architecture_. Sharpe, _Architectural Parallels_; _The
Seven Periods of English Architecture_. Van Rensselaer, _English
Cathedrals_. Winkles and Moule, _Cathedral Churches of England and
Wales_. Willis, _Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral_;
ditto _of Winchester Cathedral_; _Treatise on Vaults_.
+GENERAL CHARACTER.+ Gothic architecture was developed in England under
a strongly established royal power, with an episcopate in no sense
hostile to the abbots or in arms against the barons. Many of the
cathedrals had monastic chapters, and not infrequently abbots were
invested with the episcopal rank.
English Gothic architecture was thus by no means predominantly an
architecture of cathedrals. If architectural activity in England was on
this account less intense and widespread in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries than in France, it was not, on the other hand, so soon
exhausted. Fewer new cathedrals were built, but the progressive
rebuilding of those already existing seems not to have ceased until the
middle or end of the fifteenth century. Architecture in England
developed more slowly, but more uniformly than in France. It contented
itself with simpler problems; and if it failed to rival Amiens in
boldness of construction and in lofty majesty, it at least never
perpetrated a folly like Beauvais. In richness of internal decoration,
especially in the mouldings and ribbed vaulting, and in the picturesque
grouping of simple masses externally, the British builders went far
toward atoning for their structural timidity.
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--PLAN OF SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.]
+EARLY GOTHIC BUILDINGS.+ The pointed arch and ribbed vault were
importations from France. Early examples appear in the Cistercian abbeys
of Furness and Kirkstall, and in the Temple Church at London (1185). But
it was in the +Choir of Canterbury+, as rebuilt by William of Sens,
after the destruction by fire in 1170 of Anselm’s Norman choir, that
these French Gothic features were first applied in a thoroughgoing
manner. In plan this choir resembled that of the cathedral of Sens; and
its coupled round piers, with capitals carved with foliage, its pointed
arches, its six-part vaulting, and its _chevet_, were distinctly French.
The Gothic details thus introduced slowly supplanted the round arch and
other Norman features. For fifty years the styles were more or less
mingled in many buildings, though +Lincoln Cathedral+, as rebuilt in
1185-1200, retained nothing of the earlier round-arched style. But the
first church to be designed and built from the foundations in the new
style was the cathedral of +Salisbury+ (1220-1258; Fig. 128).
Contemporary with Amiens, it is a homogeneous and typical example of the
Early English style. The predilection for great length observable in the
Anglo-Norman churches (as at Norwich and Durham) still prevailed, as it
continued to do throughout the Gothic period; Salisbury is 480 feet
long. The double transepts, the long choir, the square east end, the
relatively low vault (84 feet to the ridge), the narrow grouped windows,
all are thoroughly English. Only the simple four-part vaulting recalls
French models. +Westminster Abbey+ (1245-1269), on the other hand,
betrays in a marked manner the French influence in its internal
loftiness (100 feet), its polygonal _chevet_ and chapels, and its
strongly accented exterior flying-buttresses (Fig. 137).
+MIXTURE OF STYLES.+ Very few English cathedrals are as homogeneous as
the two just mentioned, nearly all having undergone repeated
remodellings in successive periods. Durham, Norwich, and Oxford are
wholly Norman but for their Gothic vaults. Ely, Rochester, Gloucester,
and Hereford have Norman naves and Gothic choirs. Peterborough has an
early Gothic façade and late Gothic retro-choir added to an otherwise
completely Norman structure. Winchester is a Norman church remodelled
with early Perpendicular details. The purely Gothic churches and
cathedrals, except parish churches--in which England is very rich--are
not nearly as numerous in England as in France.
+PERIODS.+ The development of English Gothic architecture followed the
same general sequence as the French, and like it the successive stages
were most conspicuously characterized by the forms of the tracery.
The EARLY ENGLISH or LANCET period extended roundly from 1175 or 1180 to
1280, and was marked by simplicity, dignity, and purity of design.
The DECORATED or GEOMETRIC period covered another century, 1280 to 1380,
and was characterized by its decorative richness and greater lightness
of construction.
The PERPENDICULAR period extended from 1380, or thereabout, well into
the sixteenth century. Its salient features were the use of
fan-vaulting, four-centred arches, and tracery of predominantly vertical
and horizontal lines. The tardy introduction of Renaissance forms
finally put an end to the Gothic style in England, after a long period
of mixed and transitional architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 129.--RIBBED VAULTING,
CHOIR OF EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
+VAULTING.+ The richness and variety of English vaulting contrast
strikingly with the persistent uniformity of the French. A few of the
early Gothic vaults, as in the aisles of Peterborough, and later the
naves of Durham, Salisbury, and Gloucester, were simple four-part,
ribbed vaults substantially like the French. But the English disliked
and avoided the twisted and dome-like surfaces of the French vaults,
preferring horizontal ridges, and, in the filling-masonry, straight
courses meeting at the ridge in zigzag lines, as in southwest France
(see p. 200). This may be seen in Westminster Abbey. The idea of ribbed
construction was then seized upon and given a new application. By
springing a large number of ribs from each point of support, the
vaulting-surfaces were divided into long, narrow, triangles, the filling
of which was comparatively easy (Fig. 129). The ridge was itself
furnished with a straight rib, decorated with carved rosettes or
_bosses_ at each intersection with a vaulting-rib. The naves and choirs
of Lincoln, Lichfield, Exeter, and the nave of Westminster illustrate
this method. The logical corollary of this practice was the introduction
of minor ribs called _liernes_, connecting the main ribs and forming
complex reticulated and star-shaped patterns. Vaults of this description
are among the most beautiful in England. One of the richest is in the
choir of Gloucester (1337-1377). Less correct constructively is that
over the choir of Wells, while the choir of Ely, the nave of Tewkesbury
Abbey (Fig. 130), and all the vaulting of Winchester as rebuilt by
William of Wykeham (1390), illustrate the same system. Such vaults are
called _lierne_ or _star_ vaults.
[Illustration: FIG. 130.--NET OR LIERNE VAULTING,
TEWKESBURY ABBEY.]
+FAN-VAULTING.+ The next step in the process may be observed in the
vaults of the choir of Oxford Cathedral (Christ Church), of the
retro-choir of Peterborough, of the cloisters of Gloucester, and many
other examples. The diverging ribs being made of uniform curvature, the
_severeys_ (the inverted pyramidal vaulting-masses springing from each
support) became a species of concave conoids, meeting at the ridge in
such a way as to leave a series of flat lozenge-shaped spaces at the
summit of the vault (Fig. 136). The ribs were multiplied indefinitely,
and losing thus in individual and structural importance became a mere
decorative pattern of tracery on the severeys. To conceal the awkward
flat lozenges at the ridge, elaborate panelling was resorted to; or, in
some cases, long stone pendents were inserted at those points--a device
highly decorative but wholly unconstructive. At Cambridge, in +King’s
College Chapel+, at Windsor, in +St. George’s Chapel+, and in the
+Chapel of Henry VII.+ at Westminster, this sort of vaulting received
its most elaborate development. The _fan-vault_, as it is called,
illustrates the logical evolution of a decorative element from a
structural starting--point, leading to results far removed from the
original conception. Rich and sumptuous as are these ceilings, they are
with all their ornament less satisfactory than the ribbed vaults of the
preceding period.
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--VAULT OF CHAPTER-HOUSE, WELLS.]
+CHAPTER-HOUSES.+ One of the most beautiful forms of ribbed vaulting was
developed in the polygonal halls erected for the deliberations of the
cathedral chapters of Lincoln (1225), Westminster (1250), Salisbury
(1250), and Wells (1292), in which the vault-ribs radiated from a
central column to the sides and angles of the polygon (Fig. 131). If
these vaults were less majestic than domes of the same diameter, they
were far more decorative and picturesque, while the chapter-houses
themselves were the most original and striking products of English
Gothic art. Every feature was designed with strict regard for the
structural system determined by the admirable vaulting, and the Sainte
Chapelle was not more logical in its exemplification of Gothic
principles. To the four above-mentioned examples should be added that of
York (1280-1330), which differs from them in having no central column:
by some critics it is esteemed the finest of them all. Its ceiling is a
Gothic dome, 57 feet in diameter, but unfortunately executed in wood.
Its geometrical window-tracery and richly canopied stalls are admirable.
+OCTAGON AT ELY.+ The magnificent +Octagon+ of Ely Cathedral, at the
intersection of the nave and transepts, belongs in the same category
with these polygonal chapter-house vaults. It was built by Alan of
Walsingham in 1337, after the fall of the central tower and the
destruction of the adjacent bays of the choir. It occupies the full
width of the three aisles, and covers the ample space thus enclosed with
a simple but beautiful groined and ribbed vault of wood reaching to a
central octagonal lantern, which rises much higher and shows externally
as well as internally. Unfortunately, this vault is of wood, and would
require important modifications of detail if carried out in stone. But
it is so noble in general design and total effect, that one wonders the
type was not universally adopted for the crossing in all cathedrals,
until one observes that no cathedral of importance was built after
Walsingham’s time, nor did any other central towers opportunely fall to
the ground.
+WINDOWS AND TRACERY.+ In the Early English Period (1200-1280 or 1300)
the windows were tall and narrow (_lancet_ windows), and generally
grouped by twos and threes, though sometimes four and even five are seen
together (as the “Five Sisters” in the N. transept of York). In the nave
of Salisbury and the retro-choir of Ely the side aisles are lighted by
coupled windows and the clearstory by triple windows, the central one
higher than the others--a surviving Norman practice. Plate-tracery was,
as in France, an intermediate step leading to the development of
bar-tracery (see Fig. 110). The English followed here the same reasoning
as the French. At first the openings constituted the design, the
intervening stonework being of secondary importance. Later the forms of
the openings were subordinated to the pattern of the stone framework of
bars, arches, circles, and cusps. Bar-tracery of this description
prevailed in England through the greater part of the Decorated Period
(1280-1380), and somewhat resembled the contemporary French geometric
tracery, though more varied and less rigidly constructive in design. An
early example of this tracery occurs in the cloisters of Salisbury (Fig.
132); others in the clearstories of the choirs of Lichfield, Lincoln,
and Ely, the nave of York, and the chapter-houses mentioned above,
where, indeed, it seems to have received its earliest development. After
the middle of the fourteenth century lines of double curvature were
introduced, producing what is called _flowing_ tracery, somewhat
resembling the French flamboyant, though earlier in date (Fig. 111).
Examples of this style are found in Wells, in the side aisles and
triforium of the choir of Ely, and in the S. transept rose-window of
Lincoln.
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--CLOISTERS, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
(SHOWING UPPER PART OF CHAPTER-HOUSE).]
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--PERPENDICULAR TRACERY,
WEST WINDOW OF ST. GEORGE’S, WINDSOR.]
+THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.+ Flowing tracery was, however, a transitional
phase of design, and was soon superseded by _Perpendicular_ tracery, in
which the mullions were carried through to the top of the arch and
intersected by horizontal transoms. This formed a very rigid and
mechanically correct system of stone framing, but lacked the grace and
charm of the two preceding periods. The earliest examples are seen in
the work of Edington and of Wykeham in the reconstructed cathedral of
Winchester (1360-1394), where the tracery was thus made to harmonize
with the accentuated and multiplied vertical lines of the interior
design. It was at this late date that the English seem first to have
fully appropriated the Gothic ideas of emphasized vertical elements and
wall surfaces reduced to a minimum. The development of fan-vaulting had
led to the adoption of a new form of arch, the four-centred or _Tudor
arch_ (Fig. 133), to fit under the depressed apex of the vault. The
whole design internally and externally was thenceforward controlled by
the form of the vaulting and of the openings. The windows were made of
enormous size, especially at the east end of the choir, which was square
in nearly all English churches, and in the west windows over the
entrance. These windows had already reached, in the Decorated Period, an
enormous size, as at York; in the Perpendicular Period the two ends of
the church were as nearly as possible converted into walls of glass. The
East Window of Gloucester reaches the prodigious dimensions of 38 by 72
feet. The most complete examples of the Perpendicular tracery and of the
style in general are the three chapels already mentioned (p. 223);
those, namely, of +King’s College+ at Cambridge, of +St. George+ at
Windsor, and of +Henry VII.+ in Westminster Abbey.
+CONSTRUCTIVE DESIGN.+ The most striking peculiarity of English Gothic
design was its studious avoidance of temerity or venturesomeness in
construction. Both the height and width of the nave were kept within
very moderate bounds, and the supports were never reduced to extreme
slenderness. While much impressiveness of effect was undoubtedly lost
thereby, there was some gain in freedom of design, and there was less
obtrusion of constructive elements in the exterior composition. The
flying-buttress became a feature of minor importance where the
clearstory was kept low, as in most English churches. In many cases the
flying arches were hidden under the aisle roofs. The English cathedrals
and larger churches are long and low, depending for effect mainly upon
the projecting masses of their transepts, the imposing square central
towers which commonly crown the crossing, and the grouping of the main
structure with chapter-houses, cloisters, and Lady-chapels.
+FRONTS.+ The sides and east ends were, in most cases, more successful
than the west fronts. In these the English displayed a singular
indifference or lack of creative power. They produced nothing to rival
the majestic façades of Notre Dame, Amiens, or Reims, and their portals
are almost ridiculously small. The front of +York+ Cathedral is the most
notable in the list for its size and elaborate decoration. Those of
+Lincoln+ and +Peterborough+ are, however, more interesting in the
picturesqueness and singularity of their composition. The first-named
forms a vast arcaded screen, masking the bases of the two western
towers, and pierced by three huge Norman arches, retained from the
original façade. The west front of Peterborough is likewise a mask or
screen, mainly composed of three colossal recessed arches, whose vast
scale completely dwarfs the little porches which give admittance to the
church. Salisbury has a curiously illogical and ineffective façade.
Those of +Lichfield+ and +Wells+ are, on the other hand, imposing and
beautiful designs, the first with its twin spires and rich arcading
(Fig. 134), the second with its unusual wealth of figure-sculpture, and
massive square towers.
[Illustration: FIG. 134.--WEST FRONT, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL.]
+CENTRAL TOWERS.+ These are the most successful features of English
exterior design. Most of them form lanterns internally over the
crossing, giving to that point a considerable increase of dignity.
Externally they are usually massive and lofty square towers, and having
been for the most part completed during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries they are marked by great richness and elegance of detail.
Durham, York, Ely, Canterbury, Lincoln, and Gloucester maybe mentioned
as notable examples of such square towers; that of Canterbury is the
finest. Two or three have lofty spires over the lantern. Among these,
that of Salisbury is chief, rising 424 feet from the ground, admirably
designed in every detail. It was not completed till the middle of the
fourteenth century, but most fortunately carries out with great felicity
the spirit of the earlier style in which it was begun. Lichfield and
Chichester have somewhat similar central spires, but less happy in
proportion and detail than the beautiful Salisbury example.
[Illustration: FIG. 135.--ONE BAY OF CHOIR, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL.]
+INTERIOR DESIGN.+ In the Norman churches the pier-arches, triforium,
and clearstory were practically equal. In the Gothic churches the
pier-arches generally occupy the lower half of the height, the upper
half being divided nearly equally between the triforium and clearstory,
as in Lincoln, Lichfield (nave), Ely (choir). In some cases, however (as
at Salisbury, Westminster, Winchester, choir of Lichfield), the
clearstory is magnified at the expense of the triforium (Fig. 135).
Three peculiarities of design sharply distinguish the English treatment
of these features from the French. The first is the multiplicity of fine
mouldings in the pier-arches; the second is the decorative elaboration
of design in the triforium; the third, the variety in the treatment of
the clearstory. In general the English interiors are much more ornate
than the French. Black Purbeck marble is frequently used for the shafts
clustered around the central core of the pier, giving a striking and
somewhat singular effect of contrasted color. The rich vaulting, the
highly decorated triforium, the moulded pier-arches, and at the end of
the vista the great east window, produce an impression very different
from the more simple and lofty stateliness of the French cathedrals. The
great length and lowness of the English interiors combine with this
decorative richness to give the impression of repose and grace, rather
than of majesty and power. This tendency reached its highest expression
in the Perpendicular churches and chapels, in which every surface was
covered with minute panelling.
+CARVING.+ In the Early English Period the details were carved with a
combined delicacy and vigor deserving of the highest praise. In the
capitals and corbels, crockets and finials, the foliage was crisp and
fine, curling into convex masses and seeming to spring from the surface
which it decorated. Mouldings were frequently ornamented with foliage of
this character in the hollows, and another ornament, the _dog-tooth_ or
_pyramid_, often served the same purpose, introducing repeated points of
light into the shadows of the mouldings. These were fine and complex,
deep hollows alternating with round mouldings (_bowtels_) sometimes made
pear-shaped in section by a fillet on one side. _Cusping_--the
decoration of an arch or circle by triangular projections on its inner
edge--was introduced during this period, and became an important
decorative resource, especially in tracery design. In the Decorated
Period the foliage was less crisp; sea-weed and oak-leaves, closely and
confusedly bunched, were used in the capitals, while crockets were
larger, double-curved, with leaves swelling into convexities like
oak-galls. Geometrical and flowing tracery were developed, and the
mouldings of the tracery-bars, as of other features, lost somewhat in
vigor and sharpness. The _ball-flower_ or button replaced the
dog’s-tooth, and the hollows were less frequently adorned with foliage.
In the Perpendicular Period nearly all flat surfaces were panelled in
designs resembling the tracery of the windows. The capitals were less
important than those of the preceding periods, and the mouldings weaker
and less effective. The Tudor rose appears as an ornament in square
panels and on flat surfaces; and moulded battlements, which first
appeared in Decorated work, now become a frequent crowning motive in
place of a cornice. There is less originality and variety in the
ornament, but a great increase in its amount (Fig. 136).
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--FAN-VAULTING, HENRY VII.’S CHAPEL,
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.]
+PLANS.+ English church plans underwent, during the Gothic Period, but
little change from the general types established previous to the
thirteenth century. The Gothic cathedrals and abbeys, like the Norman,
were very long and narrow, with choirs often nearly as long as the nave,
and almost invariably with square eastward terminations. There is no
example of double side aisles and side chapels, and apsidal chapels are
very rare. Canterbury and Westminster (Fig. 137) are the chief
exceptions to this, and both show clearly the French influence. Another
striking peculiarity of the English plans is the frequent occurrence of
secondary transepts, adding greatly to the external picturesqueness.
These occur in rudimentary form in Canterbury, and at Durham the Chapel
of the Nine Altars, added 1242-1290 to the eastern end, forms in reality
a secondary transept. This feature is most perfectly developed in the
cathedral of Salisbury (Fig. 128), and appears also at Lincoln,
Worcester, Wells, and a few other examples. The English cathedral plans
are also distinguished by the retention or incorporation of many
conventual features, such as cloisters, libraries, and halls, and by the
grouping of chapter-houses and Lady-chapels with the main edifice. Thus
the English cathedral plans and those of the great abbey churches
present a marked contrast with those of France and the Continent
generally. While Amiens, the greatest of French cathedrals, is 521 feet
long, and internally 140 feet high, Ely measures 565 feet in length, and
less than 75 feet in height. Notre Dame is 148 feet wide; the English
naves are usually under 80 feet in total width of the three aisles.
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--EASTERN HALF OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY. PLAN.
a, _Henry VII.’s chapel._]
+PARISH CHURCHES.+ Many of these were of exceptional beauty of
composition and detail. They display the greatest variety of plan,
churches with two equal-gabled naves side by side being not uncommon.
A considerable proportion of them date from the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and are chiefly interesting for their square, single, west
towers and their carved wooden ceilings (see below). The tower was
usually built over the central western porch; broad and square, with
corner buttresses terminating in pinnacles, it was usually finished
without spires. Crenelated battlements crowned the upper story. When
spires were added the transition from the square tower to the octagonal
spire was effected by _broaches_ or portions of a square pyramid
intersecting the base of the spire, or by corner pinnacles and
flying-buttresses.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--ROOF OF NAVE, ST. MARY’S,
WESTONZOYLAND.]
+WOODEN CEILINGS.+ The English treated woodwork with consummate skill.
They invented and developed a variety of forms of roof-truss in which
the proper distribution of the strains was combined with a highly
decorative treatment of the several parts by carving, moulding, and
arcading. The ceiling surfaces between the trusses were handled
decoratively, and the oaken open-timber ceilings of many of the English
churches and civic or academic halls (Christ Church Hall, Oxford;
Westminster Hall, London) are such noble and beautiful works as quite to
justify the substitution of wooden for vaulted ceilings (Fig. 138). The
_hammer-beam_ truss was in its way as highly scientific, and
æsthetically as satisfactory, as any feature of French Gothic stone
construction. Without the use of tie-rods to keep the rafters from
spreading, it brought the strain of the roof upon internal brackets low
down on the wall, and produced a beautiful effect by the repetition of
its graceful curves in each truss.
+CHAPELS AND HALLS.+ Many of these rival the cathedrals in beauty and
dignity of design. The royal chapels at Windsor and Westminster have
already been mentioned, as well as King’s College Chapel at Cambridge,
and Christ Church Hall at Oxford. To these college halls should be added
the chapel of Merton College at Oxford, and the beautiful chapel of St.
Stephen at Westminster, most unfortunately demolished when the present
Parliament House was erected. The Lady-chapels of Gloucester and Ely,
though connected with the cathedrals, are really independent designs of
late date, and remarkable for the richness of their decoration, their
great windows, and elaborate ribbed vaulting. Some of the halls in
mediæval castles and manor-houses are also worthy of note, especially
for their timber ceilings.
+MINOR MONUMENTS.+ The student of Gothic architecture should also give
attention to the choir-screens, tombs, and chantries which embellish
many of the abbeys and cathedrals. The rood-screen at York is a notable
example of the first; the tomb of De Gray in the same cathedral, and
tombs and chantries in Canterbury, Winchester, Westminster Abbey, Ely,
St. Alban’s Abbey, and other churches are deservedly admired. In these
the English love for ornament, for minute carving, and for the contrast
of white and colored marble, found unrestrained expression. To these
should be added the market-crosses of Salisbury and Winchester, and
Queen Eleanor’s Cross at Waltham.
+DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.+ The mediæval castles of Great Britain belong to
the domain of military engineering rather than of the history of art,
though occasionally presenting to view details of considerable
architectural beauty. The growth of peace and civic order is marked by
the erection of manor-houses, the residences of wealthy landowners. Some
of these houses are of imposing size, and show the application to
domestic requirements, of the late Gothic style which prevailed in the
period to which most of them belong. The windows are square or
Tudor-arched, with stone mullions and transoms of the Perpendicular
style, and the walls terminate in merlons or crenelated parapets,
recalling the earlier military structures. The palace of the bishop or
archbishop, adjoining the cathedral, and the residences of the dean,
canons, and clergy, together with the libraries, schools, and gates of
the cathedral enclosure, illustrate other phases of secular Gothic work.
Few of these structures are of striking architectural merit, but they
possess a picturesque charm which is very attractive.
Not many stone houses of the smaller class remain from the Gothic period
in England. But there is hardly an old town that does not retain many of
the half-timbered dwellings of the fifteenth or even fourteenth century,
some of them in excellent preservation. They are for the most part wider
and lower than the French houses of the same class, but are built on the
same principle, and, like them, the woodwork is more or less richly
carved.
+MONUMENTS+: (A. = abbey church; C. = cathedral; r. = ruined;
trans. = transept; each monument is given under the date of the
earliest extant Gothic work upon it, with additions of later
periods in parentheses.)
EARLY ENGLISH: Kirkstall A., 1152-82, first pointed arches;
Canterbury C., choir, 1175-84 (nave, 1378-1411; central tower,
1500); Lincoln C., choir, trans., 1192-1200 (vault, 1250; nave and
E. end, 1260-80); Lichfield C., 1200-50 (W. front, 1275;
presbytery, 1325); Worcester C., choir, 1203-18, nave partly
Norman (W. end, 1375-95); Chichester C., 1204-44 (spire rebuilt
17th century); Fountains A., 1205-46; Salisbury C., 1220-58
(cloister, chapter-h., 1263-84; spire, 1331); Elgin C., 1224-44;
Wells C., 1175-1206 (W. front 1225, choir later, chapter-h.,
1292); Rochester C., 1225-39 (nave Norman); York C., S. trans.,
1225; N. trans., 1260 (nave, chapter-h., 1291-1345; W. window,
1338; central tower, 1389-1407; E. window, 1407); Southwell
Minster, 1233-94 (nave Norman); Ripon C., 1233-94 (central tower,
1459); Ely C., choir, 1229-54 (nave Norman; octagon and
presbytery, 1323-62); Peterborough C., W. front, 1237 (nave
Norman; retro-choir, late 14th century); Netley A., 1239 (r.);
Durham C., “Nine Altars” and E. end choir, 1235-90 (nave, choir,
Norman; W. window, 1341; central tower finished, 1480);
Glasgow C., (with remarkable Early English crypt), 1242-77;
Gloucester C., nave vaulted, 1239-42 (nave mainly Norman; choir,
1337-51; cloisters, 1375-1412; W. end, 1420-37; central tower,
1450-57); Westminster A., 1245-69; St. Mary’s A., York, 1272-92
(r.).
DECORATED: Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274-1300; Hereford C.,
N. trans., chapter-h., cloisters, vaulting, 1275-92 (nave, choir,
Norman); Exeter C., choir, trans., 1279-91; nave, 1331-50 (E. end
remodelled, 1390); Lichfield C., Lady-chapel, 1310; Ely C.,
Lady-chapel, 1321-49; Melrose A., 1327-99 (nave, 1500; r.); St.
Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, 1349-64 (demolished); Edington
church, 1352-61; Carlisle C., E. end and upper parts, 1352-95
(nave in part and S. trans. Norman; tower finished, 1419);
Winchester C., W. end remodelled, 1360-66 (nave and aisles,
1394-1410; trans., partly Norman); York C., Lady-chapel, 1362-72;
churches of Patrington and Hull, late 14th century.
PERPENDICULAR: Holy Cross Church, Canterbury, 1380; St. Mary’s,
Warwick, 1381-91; Manchester C., 1422; St. Mary’s, Bury St.
Edmunds, 1424-33; Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, 1439; King’s College
Chapel, Cambridge, 1440; vaults, 1508-15; St. Mary’s Redcliffe,
Bristol, 1442; Roslyn Chapel, Edinburgh, 1446-90; Gloucester C.,
Lady-chapel, 1457-98; St. Mary’s, Stratford-on-Avon, 1465-91;
Norwich C., upper part and E. end of choir, 1472-99 (the rest
mainly Norman); St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, 1481-1508; choir
vaulted, 1507-20; Bath A., 1500-39; Chapel of Henry VII.,
Westminster, 1503-20.
ACADEMIC AND SECULAR BUILDINGS: Winchester Castle Hall, 1222-35;
Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274-1300; Library Merton College,
1354-78; Norborough Hall, 1356; Windsor Castle, upper ward,
1359-73; Winchester College, 1387-93; Wardour Castle, 1392;
Westminster Hall, rebuilt, 1397-99; St. Mary’s Hall, Coventry,
1401-14; Warkworth Castle, 1440; St. John’s College, All Soul’s
College, Oxford, 1437; Eton College, 1441-1522; Divinity Schools,
Oxford, 1445-54; Magdalen College, Oxford, 1475-80, tower, 1500;
Christ Church Hall, Oxford, 1529.
CHAPTER XVIII.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, AND SPAIN.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Corroyer, Reber. Also, Adler,
_Mittelalterliche Backstein-Bauwerke des preussischen Staates_.
Essenwein (_Hdbuch. d. Arch._), _Die romanische und die gothische
Baukunst; der Wohnbau_. Hasak, _Die romanische und die gothische
Baukunst; Kirchenbau_; _Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues_ (both in
_Hdbuch. d. Arch._). Hase and others, _Die mittelalterlichen
Baudenkmäler Niedersachsens_. Kallenbach, _Chronologie der
deutschen mittelalterlichen Baukunst_. Lübke, _Ecclesiastical Art
in Germany during the Middle Ages_. Redtenbacher, _Leitfaden zum
Studium der mittelalterlichen Baukunst_. Street, _Gothic
Architecture in Spain_. Uhde, _Baudenkmäler in Spanien_.
Ungewitter, _Lehrbuch der gothischen Constructionen_. Villa Amil,
_Hispania Artistica y Monumental_.
+EARLY GOTHIC WORKS.+ The Gothic architecture of Germany is less
interesting to the general student than that of France and England, not
only because its development was less systematic and more provincial,
but also because it produced fewer works of high intrinsic merit. The
introduction into Germany of the pointed style was tardy, and its
progress slow. Romanesque architecture had created imposing types of
ecclesiastical architecture, which the conservative Teutons were slow to
abandon. The result was a half-century of transition and a mingling of
Romanesque and Gothic forms. St. Castor, at Coblentz, built as late as
1208, is wholly Romanesque. Even when the pointed arch and vault had
finally come into general use, the plan and the constructive system
still remained predominantly Romanesque. The western apse and short
sanctuary of the earlier plans were retained. There was no triforium,
the clearstory was insignificant, and the whole aspect low and massive.
The Germans avoided, at first, as did the English, the constructive
audacities and difficulties of the French Gothic, but showed less of
invention and grace than their English neighbors. When, however, through
the influence of foreign models, especially of the great French
cathedrals, and through the employment of foreign architects, the Gothic
styles were at last thoroughly domesticated, a spirit of ostentation
took the place of the earlier conservatism. Technical cleverness,
exaggerated ingenuity of detail, and constructive _tours de force_
characterize most of the German Gothic work of the late fourteenth and
of the fifteenth century. This is exemplified in the slender mullions of
Ulm, the lofty and complicated spire of Strasburg, and the curious
traceries of churches and houses in Nuremberg.
+PERIODS.+ The periods of German mediæval architecture corresponded in
sequence, though not in date, with the movement elsewhere. The maturing
of the true Gothic styles was preceded by more than a half-century of
transition. Chronologically the periods may be broadly stated as
follows:
THE TRANSITIONAL, 1170-1225.
THE EARLY POINTED, 1225-1275.
THE MIDDLE OR DECORATED, 1275-1350.
THE FLORID, 1350-1530.
These divisions are, however, far less clearly defined than in France
and England. The development of forms was less logical and
consequential, and less uniform in the different provinces, than in
those western lands.
+CONSTRUCTION.+ As already remarked, a tenacious hold of Romanesque
methods is observable in many German Gothic monuments. Broad
wall-surfaces with small windows and a general massiveness and lowness
of proportions were long preferred to the more slender and lofty
forms of true Gothic design. Square vaulting-bays were persistently
adhered to, covering two aisle-bays. The six-part system was only
rarely resorted to, as at Schlettstadt, and in St. George at
Limburg-on-the-Lahn (Fig. 139). The ribbed vault was an imported idea,
and was never systematically developed. Under the final dominance of
French models in the second half of the thirteenth century, vaulting in
oblong bays became more general, powerfully influenced by buildings like
Freiburg, Cologne, Oppenheim, and Ratisbon cathedrals. In the fourteenth
century the growing taste for elaboration and rich detail led to the
introduction of multiplied decorative ribs. These, however, did not come
into use, as in England, through a logical development of constructive
methods, but purely as decorative features. The German multiple-ribbed
vaulting is, therefore, less satisfying than the English, though often
elegant. Conspicuous examples of its application are found in the
cathedrals of Freiburg, Ulm, Prague, and Vienna; in St. Barbara at
Kuttenberg, and many other important churches. But with all the richness
and complexity of these net-like vaults the Germans developed nothing
like the fan-vaulting or chapter-house ceilings of England.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--ONE BAY OF CATHEDRAL OF ST. GEORGE,
LIMBURG.]
+SIDE AISLES.+ The most notable structural innovation of the Germans was
the raising of the side aisles to the same height as the central aisle
in a number of important churches. They thus created a distinctly new
type, to which German writers have given the name of _hall-church_. The
result of this innovation was to transform completely the internal
perspective of the church, as well as its structural membering. The
clearstory disappeared; the central aisle no longer dominated the
interior; the pier-arches and side-walls were greatly increased in
height, and flying buttresses were no longer required. The whole design
appeared internally more spacious, but lost greatly in variety and in
interest. The cathedral of +St. Stephen+ at Vienna is the most imposing
instance of this treatment, which first appeared in the church of St.
Elizabeth at Marburg (1235-83; Fig. 140). St. Barbara at Kuttenberg, St.
Martin’s at Landshut (1404), and the cathedral of Munich are others
among many examples of this type.
[Illustration: FIG. 140.--SECTION OF ST. ELIZABETH, MARBURG.]
+TOWERS AND SPIRES.+ The same fondness for spires which had been
displayed in the Rhenish Romanesque churches produced in the Gothic
period a number of strikingly beautiful church steeples, in which
openwork tracery was substituted for the solid stone pyramids of earlier
examples. The most remarkable of these spires are those of Freiburg
(1300), Strasburg, and Cologne cathedrals, of the church at Esslingen,
St. Martin’s at Landshut, and the cathedral of Vienna. In these the
transition from the simple square tower below to the octagonal belfry
and spire is generally managed with skill. In the remarkable tower of
the cathedral at Vienna (1433) the transition is too gradual, so that
the spire seems to start from the ground and lacks the vigor and accent
of a simpler square lower portion. The over-elaborate spire of
+Strasburg+ (1429, by Junckher of Cologne; lower parts and façade,
1277-1365, by _Erwin von Steinbach_ and his sons) reaches a height of
468 feet; the spires of Cologne, completed in 1883 from the original
fourteenth-century drawings, long lost but recovered by a happy
accident, are 500 feet high. The spires of +Ratisbon+ and +Ulm+
cathedrals have also been recently completed in the original style.
+DETAILS.+ German window tracery was best where it most closely followed
French patterns, but it tended always towards the faults of mechanical
stiffness and of technical display in over-slenderness of shafts and
mullions. The windows, especially in the “hall-churches,” were apt to be
too narrow for their height. In the fifteenth century ingenuity of
geometrical combinations took the place of grace of line, and later the
tracery was often tortured into a stone caricature of rustic-work of
interlaced and twisted boughs and twigs, represented with all their bark
and knots (_branch-tracery_). The execution was far superior to the
design. The carving of foliage in capitals, finials, etc., calls for no
special mention for its originality or its departure from French types.
+PLANS.+ In these there was more variety than in any other part of
Europe except Italy. Some churches, like Naumburg, retained the
Romanesque system of a second western apse and short choir. The
Cistercian churches generally had square east ends, while the polygonal
eastern apse without ambulatory is seen in St. Elizabeth at Marburg, the
cathedrals of Ratisbon, Ulm and Vienna, and many other churches. The
introduction of French ideas in the thirteenth century led to the
adoption in a number of cases of the chevet with a single ambulatory and
a series of radiating apsidal chapels. +Magdeburg+ cathedral (1208-11)
was the first erected on this plan, which was later followed at
Altenburg, Cologne, Freiburg, Lübeck, Prague and Zwettl, in St. Francis
at Salzburg and some other churches. Side chapels to nave or choir
appear in the cathedrals of Lübeck, Munich, Oppenheim, Prague and
Zwettl. +Cologne+ +Cathedral+, by far the largest and most magnificent
of all, is completely French in plan, uniting in one design the leading
characteristics of the most notable French churches (Fig. 141). It has
complete double aisles in both nave and choir, three-aisled transepts,
radial chevet-chapels and twin western towers. The ambulatory is,
however, single, and there are no lateral chapels. A typical German
treatment was the eastward termination of the church by polygonal
chapels, one in the axis of each aisle, the central one projecting
beyond its neighbors. Where there were five aisles, as at Xanten, the
effect was particularly fine. The plan of the curious polygonal church
of +Our Lady+ (Liebfrauenkirche; 1227-43) built on the site of the
ancient circular baptistery at Treves, would seem to have been produced
by doubling such an arrangement on either side of the transverse axis
(Fig. 142).
[Illustration: FIG. 141.--COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. PLAN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 142.--CHURCH OF OUR LADY, TREVES.]
+HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.+ The so-called +Golden Portal+ of +Freiburg+ in
the Erzgebirge is perhaps the first distinctively Gothic work in
Germany, dating from 1190. From that time on, Gothic details appeared
with increasing frequency, especially in the Rhine provinces, as shown
in many transitional structures. +Gelnhausen+ and Aschaffenburg are
early 13th-century examples; pointed arches and vaults appear in the
Apostles’ and St. Martin’s churches at Cologne; and the great church of
+St. Peter and St. Paul+ at Neuweiler in Alsace has an almost purely
Gothic nave of the same period. The churches of +Bamberg+, +Fritzlar+,
and +Naumburg+, and in Westphalia those of +Münster+ and +Osnabrück+,
are important examples of the transition. The French influence,
especially the Burgundian, appears as early as 1212 in the cathedral of
Magdeburg, imitating the choir of Soissons, and in the structural design
of the Liebfrauenkirche at Treves as already mentioned; it reached
complete ascendancy in Alsace at +Strasburg+ (nave 1240-75), in Baden at
+Freiburg+ (nave 1270) and in Prussia at +Cologne+ (1248-1320).
Strasburg Cathedral is especially remarkable for its façade, the work of
Erwin von Steinbach and his sons (1277-1346), designed after French
models, and its north spire, built in the fifteenth century. Cologne
Cathedral, begun in 1248 by _Gerhard of Riel_ in imitation of the newly
completed choir of Amiens, was continued by Master _Arnold_ and his son
_John_, and the choir was consecrated in 1322. The nave and W. front
were built during the first half of the 14th century, though the towers
were not completed till 1883. In spite of its vast size and slow
construction, it is in style the most uniform of all great Gothic
cathedrals, as it is the most lofty (excepting the choir of Beauvais)
and the largest excepting Milan and Seville. Unfortunately its details,
though pure and correct, are singularly dry and mechanical, while its
very uniformity deprives it of the picturesque and varied charm which
results from a mixture of styles recording the labors of successive
generations. The same criticism may be raised against the late cathedral
of +Ulm+ (choir, 1377-1449; nave, 1477; Fig. 143). The Cologne influence
is observable in the widely separated cathedrals of Utrecht in the
Netherlands, Metz in the W., Minden and +Halberstadt+ (begun 1250;
mainly built after 1327) in Saxony, and in the S. in the church of +St.
Catherine+ at Oppenheim. To the E. and S., in the cathedrals of +Prague+
(Bohemia) by _Matthew of Arras_ (1344-52) and +Ratisbon+ (or Regensburg,
1275) the French influence predominates, at least in the details and
construction. The last-named is one of the most dignified and beautiful
of German Gothic churches--German in plan, French in execution. The
French influence also manifests itself in the details of many of the
peculiarly German churches with aisles of equal height (see p. 240).
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--PLAN OF ULM CATHEDRAL.]
More peculiarly German are the brick churches of North Germany, where
stone was almost wholly lacking. In these, flat walls, square towers,
and decoration by colored tiles and bricks are characteristic, as at
Brandenburg (St. Godehard and +St. Catherine+, 1346-1400), at
+Prentzlau+, Tängermünde, Königsberg, &c. Lübeck possesses notable
monuments of brick architecture in the churches of +St. Mary+ and St.
Catherine, both much alike in plan and in the flat and barren simplicity
of their exteriors. +St. Martin’s+ at +Landshut+ in the South is also a
notable brick church.
+LATE GOTHIC.+ As in France and England, the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries were mainly occupied with the completion of existing churches,
many of which, up to that time, were still without naves. The works of
this period show the exaggerated attenuation of detail already alluded
to, though their richness and elegance sometimes atone for their
mechanical character. The complicated ribbed vaults of this period are
among its most striking features (see p. 239). Spire-building was as
general as was the erection of central square towers in England, during
the same period. To this time also belong the overloaded traceries and
minute detail of the +St. Sebald+ and St. Lorenz churches and of several
secular buildings at Nuremberg, the façade of Chemnitz Cathedral, and
similar works. The nave and tower of St. Stephen at Vienna (1359-1433),
the church of Sta. Maria in Gestade in the same city, and the cathedral
of Kaschau in Hungary, are Austrian masterpieces of late Gothic design.
+SECULAR BUILDINGS.+ Germany possesses a number of important examples of
secular Gothic work, chiefly municipal buildings (gates and town halls)
and castles. The first completely Gothic castle or palace was not built
until 1280, at +Marienburg+ (Prussia), and was completed a century
later. It consists of two courts, the earlier of the two forming a
closed square and containing the chapel and chapter-house of the Order
of the German knights. The later and larger court is less regular, its
chief feature being the +Great Hall+ of the Order, in two aisles. All
the vaulting is of the richest multiple-ribbed type. Other castles are
at Marienwerder, Heilsberg (1350) in E. Prussia, Karlstein in Bohemia
(1347), and the +Albrechtsburg+ at Meissen in Saxony (1471-83).
Among town halls, most of which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries may be mentioned those of Ratisbon (Regensburg), Münster and
Hildesheim, Halberstadt, +Brunswick+, Lübeck, and Bremen--the last two
of brick. These, and the city gates, such as the +Spahlenthor+ at Basle
(Switzerland) and others at Lübeck and Wismar, are generally very
picturesque edifices. Many fine guildhalls were also built during the
last two centuries of the Gothic style; and dwelling-houses of the same
period, of quaint and effective design, with stepped or traceried
gables, lofty roofs, openwork balconies and corner turrets, are to be
found in many cities. Nuremberg is especially rich in these.
+THE NETHERLANDS+, as might be expected from their position, underwent
the influences of both France and Germany. During the thirteenth
century, largely through the intimate monastic relations between Tournay
and Noyon, the French influence became paramount in what is now Belgium,
while Holland remained more strongly German in style. Of the two
countries Belgium developed by far the most interesting architecture.
Some of its cathedrals, notably those of Tournay, Antwerp, Brussels,
Malines (Mechlin), Mons and Louvain, rank high among structures of their
class, both in scale and in artistic treatment. The Flemish town halls
and guildhalls merit particular attention for their size and richness,
exemplifying in a worthy manner the wealth, prosperity, and independence
of the weavers and merchants of Antwerp, Ypres, Ghent (Gand), Louvain,
and other cities in the fifteenth century.
+CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES.+ The earliest purely Gothic edifice in Belgium
was the choir of +Ste. Gudule+ (1225) at Brussels, followed in 1242 by
the choir and transepts of +Tournay+, designed with pointed vaults, side
chapels, and a complete _chevet_. The transept-ends are round, as at
Noyon. It was surpassed in splendor by the +Cathedral+ of +Antwerp+
(1352-1422), remarkable for its seven-aisled nave and narrow transepts.
It covers some 70,000 square feet, but its great size is not as
effective internally as it should be, owing to the poverty of the
details and the lack of finely felt proportion in the various parts. The
late west front (1422-1518) displays the florid taste of the wealthy
Flemish burgher population of that period, but is so rich and elegant,
especially its lofty and slender north spire, that its over-decoration
is pardonable. The cathedral of +St. Rombaut+ at Malines (choir, 1366;
nave, 1454-64) is a more satisfactory church, though smaller and with
its western towers incomplete. The cathedral of +Louvain+ belongs to the
same period (1373-1433). +St. Wandru+ at Mons (1450-1528) and +St.
Jacques+ at Liège (1522-58) are interesting parish churches of the first
rank, remarkable especially for the use of color in their internal
decoration, for their late tracery and ribbed vaulting, and for the
absence of Renaissance details at that late period.
[Illustration: FIG. 144.--TOWN HALL, LOUVAIN.]
+TOWN HALLS: GUILDHALLS.+ These were really the most characteristic
Flemish edifices, and are in most cases the most conspicuous monuments
of their respective cities. The +Cloth Hall+ of +Ypres+ (1304) is the
earliest and most imposing among them; similar halls were built not much
later at +Bruges+, +Louvain+, +Malines+ and +Ghent+. The town halls were
mostly of later date, the earliest being that of +Bruges+ (1377). The
town halls of +Brussels+ with its imposing and graceful tower, of
+Louvain+ (1448-63; Fig. 144) and of +Oudenärde+ (early 16th century)
are conspicuous monuments of this class.
In general, the Gothic architecture of Belgium presents the traits of a
borrowed style, which did not undergo at the hands of its borrowers any
radically novel or fundamental development. The structural design is
usually lacking in vigor and organic significance, but the details are
often graceful and well designed, especially on the exterior. The
tendency was often towards over-elaboration, particularly in the later
works.
The Gothic architecture of +Holland+ and of the +Scandinavian+ countries
offers so little that is highly artistic or inspiring in character, that
space cannot well be given in this work, even to an enumeration of its
chief monuments.
+SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.+ The beginnings of Gothic architecture in Spain
followed close on the series of campaigns from 1217 to 1252, which began
the overthrow of the Moorish dominion. With the resulting spirit of
exultation and the wealth accruing from booty, came a rapid development
of architecture, mainly under French influence. Gothic architecture was
at this date, under St. Louis, producing in France some of its noblest
works. The great cathedrals of +Toledo+ and +Burgos+, begun between 1220
and 1230, were the earliest purely Gothic churches in Spain. +San
Vincente+ at Avila and the +Old Cathedral+ at Salamanca, of somewhat
earlier date, present a mixture of round- and pointed-arched forms, with
the Romanesque elements predominant. +Toledo Cathedral+, planned in
imitation of Notre Dame and Bourges, but exceeding them in width, covers
75,000 square feet, and thus ranks among the largest of European
cathedrals. Internally it is well proportioned and well detailed,
recalling the early French masterworks, but its exterior is less
commendable.
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--FAÇADE OF BURGOS CATHEDRAL.]
In the contemporary cathedral of Burgos the exterior is at least as
interesting as the interior. The west front, of German design, suggests
Cologne by its twin openwork spires (Fig. 145); while the crossing is
embellished with a sumptuous dome and lantern or _cimborio_, added as
late as 1567. The chapels at the east end, especially that of the
Condestabile (1487), are ornate to the point of overloading, a fault to
which late Spanish Gothic work is peculiarly prone. Other
thirteenth-century cathedrals are those of +Leon+ (1260), +Valencia+
(1262), and +Barcelona+ (1298), all exhibiting strongly the French
influence in the plan, vaulting, and vertical proportions. The models of
Bourges and Paris with their wide naves, lateral chapels and
semicircular chevets were followed in the cathedral of Barcelona, in a
number of fourteenth-century churches both there and elsewhere, and in
the sixteenth-century cathedral of Segovia. In Sta. Maria del Pi at
Barcelona, in the collegiate church at Manresa, and in the imposing nave
of the +Cathedral+ of +Gerona+ (1416, added to choir of 1312, the latter
by a Southern French architect, Henri de Narbonne), the influence of
Alby in southern France (see p. 206) is discernible. These are
one-aisled churches with internal buttresses separating the lateral
chapels. The nave of Gerona is 73 feet wide, or double the average clear
width of French or English cathedral naves. The resulting effect is not
commensurate with the actual dimensions, and shows the inappropriateness
of Gothic details for compositions so Roman in breadth and simplicity.
+SEVILLE.+ The largest single edifice in Spain, and the largest church
built during the Middle Ages in Europe, is the +Cathedral of Seville+,
begun in 1401 on the site of a Moorish mosque. It covers 124,000 square
feet, measuring 415 × 298 feet, and is a simple rectangle comprising
five aisles with lateral chapels. The central aisle is 56 ft. wide and
145 high; the side aisles and chapels diminish gradually in height, and
with the uniform piers in six rows produce an imposing effect, in spite
of the lack of transepts or chevet. The somewhat similar +New Cathedral+
of Salamanca (1510-1560) shows the last struggles of the Gothic style
against the incoming tide of the Renaissance.
+LATER MONUMENTS.+ These all partake of the over-decoration which
characterized the fifteenth century throughout Europe. In Spain this
decoration was even less constructive in character, and more purely
fanciful and arbitrary, than in the northern lands; but this very
rejection of all constructive pretense gives it a peculiar charm and
goes far to excuse its extravagance (Fig. 146). Decorative vaulting-ribs
were made to describe geometric patterns of great elegance. Some of the
late Gothic vaults by the very exuberance of imagination shown in their
designs, almost disarm criticism. Instead of suppressing the walls as
far as possible, and emphasizing all the vertical lines, as was done in
France and England, the later Gothic architects of Spain delighted in
broad wall-surfaces and multiplied horizontal lines. Upon these surfaces
they lavished carving without restraint and without any organic relation
to the structure of the building. The arcades of cloisters and interior
courts (_patios_) were formed with arches of fantastic curves resting on
twisted columns; and internal chapels in the cathedrals were covered
with minute carving of exquisite workmanship, but wholly irrational
design. Probably the influence of Moorish decorative art accounts in
part for these extravagances. The eastern chapels in Burgos cathedral,
the votive church of +San Juan de los Reyes+ at Toledo and many portals
of churches, convents and hospitals illustrate these tendencies.
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--DETAIL, PORTAL S. GREGORIO, VALLADOLID.]
+PORTUGAL+ is an almost unknown land architecturally. It seems to have
adopted the Gothic styles very late in its history. Two monuments,
however, are conspicuous, the convent churches of Batalha (1390-1520)
and +Belem+, both marked by an extreme overloading of carved ornament.
The +Mausoleum of King Manoel+ in the rear of the church at Batalha is,
however, a noble creation, possibly by an English master. It is a
polygonal domed edifice, some 67 feet in diameter, and well designed,
though covered with a too profuse and somewhat mechanical decoration of
panels, pinnacles, and carving.
+MONUMENTS+: GERMANY (C = cathedral; A = abbey; tr. =
transepts).--13th century: Transitional churches: Bamberg C.;
Naumburg C.; Collegiate Church, Fritzlar; St. George,
Limburg-on-Lahn; St. Castor, Coblentz; Heisterbach A.;--all in
early years of 13th century. St. Gereon, Cologne, choir 1212-27;
Liebfrauenkirche, Treves, 1227-44; St. Elizabeth, Marburg,
1235-83; Sts. Peter and Paul, Neuweiler, 1250; Cologne C., choir
1248-1322 (nave 14th century; towers finished 1883); Strasburg C.,
1250-75 (E. end Romanesque; façade 1277-1365; tower 1429-39);
Halberstadt C., nave 1250 (choir 1327; completed 1490);
Altenburg C., choir 1255-65 (finished 1379); Wimpfen-im-Thal
church 1259-78; St. Lawrence, Nuremberg, 1260 (choir 1439-77); St.
Catherine, Oppenheim, 1262-1317 (choir 1439); Xanten, Collegiate
Church, 1263; Freiburg C., 1270 (W. tower 1300; choir 1354);
Toul C., 1272; Meissen C., choir 1274 (nave 1312-42); Ratisbon C.,
1275; St. Mary’s, Lübeck, 1276; Dominican churches at Coblentz,
Gebweiler; and in Switzerland at Basle, Berne, and Zurich.--14th
century: Wiesenkirche, Söst, 1313; Osnabrück C., 1318 (choir
1420); St. Mary’s, Prentzlau, 1325; Augsburg C., 1321-1431;
Metz C., 1330 rebuilt (choir 1486); St. Stephen’s C., Vienna, 1340
(nave 15th century; tower 1433); Zwette C., 1343; Prague C., 1344;
church at Thann, 1351 (tower finished 16th century);
Liebfrauenkirche, Nuremberg, 1355-61; St. Sebaldus Church,
Nuremberg, 1361-77 (nave Romanesque); Minden C., choir 1361;
Ulm C., 1377 (choir 1449; nave vaulted 1471; finished 16th
century); Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg, 1386 (nave 1483); Erfurt C.;
St. Elizabeth, Kaschau; Schlettstadt C.--15th century: St.
Catherine’s, Brandenburg, 1401; Frauenkirche, Esslingen, 1406
(finished 1522); Minster at Berne, 1421; Peter-Paulskirche,
Görlitz, 1423-97; St. Mary’s, Stendal, 1447; Frauenkirche, Munich,
1468-88; St. Martin’s, Landshut, 1473.
SECULAR MONUMENTS. Schloss Marienburg, 1341; Moldau-bridge and
tower, Prague, 1344; Karlsteinburg, 1348-57; Albrechtsburg,
Meissen, 1471-83; Nassau House, Nuremberg, 1350; Council houses
(Rathhaüser) at Brunswick, 1393; Cologne, 1407-15; Basle; Breslau;
Lübeck; Münster; Prague; Ulm; City Gates of Basle, Cologne,
Ingolstadt, Lucerne.
THE NETHERLANDS. Brussels C. (Ste. Gudule), 1226-80; Tournai C.,
choir 1242 (nave finished 1380); Notre Dame, Bruges, 1239-97;
Notre Dame, Tongres, 1240; Utrecht C., 1251; St. Martin, Ypres,
1254; Notre Dame, Dinant, 1255; church at Dordrecht; church at
Aerschot, 1337; Antwerp C., 1352-1411 (W. front 1422-1518); St.
Rombaut, Malines, 1355-66 (nave 1456-64); St. Wandru, Mons,
1450-1528; St. Lawrence, Rotterdam, 1472; other 15th century
churches--St. Bavon, Haarlem; St. Catherine, Utrecht; St.
Walpurgis, Sutphen; St. Bavon, Ghent (tower 1461); St. Jaques,
Antwerp; St. Pierre, Louvain; St. Jacques, Bruges; churches at
Arnheim, Breda, Delft; St. Jacques, Liège, 1522.--SECULAR:
Cloth-hall, Ypres, 1200-1304; cloth-hall, Bruges, 1284; town hall,
Bruges, 1377; town hall, Brussels, 1401-55; town hall, Louvain,
1448-63; town hall, Ghent, 1481; town hall, Oudenarde, 1527;
Standehuis, Delft, 1528; cloth-halls at Louvain, Ghent, Malines.
SPAIN.--13th century: Burgos C., 1221 (façade 1442-56; chapels
1487; cimborio 1567); Toledo C., 1227-90 (chapels 14th and 15th
centuries); Tarragona C., 1235; Leon C., 1250 (façade 14th
century); Valencia C., 1262 (N. transept 1350-1404; façade
1381-1418); Avila C., vault and N. portal 1292-1353 (finished 14th
century); St. Esteban, Burgos; church at Las Huelgas.--14th
century: Barcelona C., choir 1298-1329 (nave and transepts 1448;
façade 16th century); Gerona C., 1312-46 (nave added 1416); S. M.
del Mar, Barcelona, 1328-83; S. M. del Pino, Barcelona, same date;
Collegiate Church, Manresa, 1328; Oviedo C., 1388 (tower very
late); Pampluna C., 1397 (mainly 15th century).--15th century:
Seville C., 1403 (finished 16th century; cimborio 1517-67); La
Seo, Saragossa (finished 1505); S. Pablo, Burgos, 1415-35; El
Parral, Segovia, 1459; Astorga C., 1471; San Juan de los Reyes,
Toledo, 1476; Carthusian church, Miraflores, 1488; San Juan, and
La Merced, Burgos.--16th century: Huesca C., 1515; Salamanca New
Cathedral, 1510-60; Segovia C., 1522; S. Juan de la Puerta,
Zamorra.
SECULAR.--Porta Serraños, Valencia, 1349; Casa Consistorial,
Barcelona, 1369-78; Casa de la Disputacion, same city; Casa de las
Lonjas, Valencia, 1482.
PORTUGAL. At Batalha, church and mausoleum of King Manoel,
finished 1515; at Belem, monastery, late Gothic.
CHAPTER XIX.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED; As before, Corroyer, Reber. Also, Cummings,
_A History of Architecture in Italy_. De Fleury, _La Toscane au
moyen âge_. Gruner, _The Terra Cotta Architecture of Northern
Italy_. Mothes, _Die Baukunst des Mittelalters in Italien_.
Norton, _Historical Studies of Church Building in the Middle
Ages_. Osten, _Bauwerke der Lombardei_. Street, _Brick and Marble
Architecture of Italy_. Willis, _Remarks on the Architecture of
the Middle Ages, especially of Italy_.
+GENERAL CHARACTER.+ The various Romanesque styles which had grown up in
Italy before 1200 lacked that unity of principle out of which alone a
new and homogeneous national style could have been evolved. Each
province practised its own style and methods of building, long after the
Romanesque had given place to the Gothic in Western Europe. The Italians
were better decorators than builders, and cared little for Gothic
structural principles. Mosaic and carving, sumptuous altars and tombs,
veneerings and inlays of colored marble, broad flat surfaces to be
covered with painting and ornament--to secure these they were content to
build crudely, to tie their insufficiently buttressed vaults with
unsightly iron tie-rods, and to make their church façades mere
screen-walls, in form wholly unrelated to the buildings behind them.
When, therefore, under foreign influences pointed arches, tracery,
clustered shafts, crockets and finials came into use, it was merely as
an imported fashion. Even when foreign architects (usually Germans) were
employed, the composition, and in large measure the details, were still
Italian and provincial. The church of St. Francis at Assisi (1228-53, by
_Jacobus of Meruan_, a German, superseded later by an Italian,
Campello), and the cathedral of Milan (begun 1389, perhaps by _Henry of
Gmund_), are conspicuous illustrations of this. Rome built basilicas all
through the Middle Ages. Tuscany continued to prefer flat walls veneered
with marble to the broken surfaces and deep buttresses of France and
Germany. Venice developed a Gothic style of façade-design wholly her own
(see p. 267). Nowhere but in Italy could two such utterly diverse
structures as the Certosa at Pavia and the cathedral at Milan have been
erected at the same time.
+CLIMATE AND TRADITION.+ Two further causes militated against the
domestication of Gothic art in Italy. The first was the brilliant
atmosphere, which made the vast traceried windows of Gothic design, and
its suppression of the wall-surfaces, wholly undesirable. Cool, dim
interiors, thick walls, small windows and the exclusion of sunlight, all
necessary to Italian comfort, were incompatible with Gothic ideals and
methods. The second obstacle was the persistence of classic traditions
of form, both in construction and decoration. The spaciousness and
breadth of interior planning which characterized Roman design, and its
amplitude of scale in every feature, seem never to have lost their hold
on the Italians. The narrow lofty aisles, multiplied supports and minute
detail of the Gothic style were repugnant to the classic predilections
of the Italian builders. The Roman acanthus and Corinthian capital were
constantly imitated in their Gothic buildings, and the round arch
continued all through the Middle Ages to be used in conjunction with the
pointed arch (Figs. 149, 150).
+EARLY BUILDINGS.+ It is hard to determine how and by whom Gothic forms
were first introduced into Italy, but it was most probably through the
agency of the monastic orders. Cistercian churches like that at
Chiaravalle near Milan (1208-21), and most of those erected by the
mendicant orders of the Franciscans (founded 1210) and Dominicans
(1216), were built with ribbed vaults and pointed arches. The example
set by these orders contributed greatly to the general adoption of the
foreign style. +S. Francesco+ at +Assisi+, already mentioned, was the
first completely Gothic Franciscan church, although +S. Francesco+ at
+Bologna+, begun a few years later, was finished a little earlier. The
Dominican church of +SS. Giovanni e Paolo+ and the great Franciscan
church of +Sta. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari+, both at Venice, were built a
little later. +Sta. Maria Novella+ at Florence (1278), and +Sta. Maria
sopra Minerva+ at Rome (1280), both by the brothers _Sisto_ and
_Ristoro_, and +S. Anastasia+ at Verona (1261) are the masterpieces of
the Dominican builders. +S. Andrea+ at +Vercelli+ in North Italy, begun
in 1219 under a foreign architect, is an isolated early example of lay
Gothic work. Though somewhat English in its plan, and (unlike most
Italian churches) provided with two western spires in the English
manner, it is in all other respects thoroughly Italian in aspect. The
church at Asti, begun in 1229, suggests German models by its high side
walls and narrow windows.
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--DUOMO AT FLORENCE. PLAN.
a, _Campanile_.]
+CATHEDRALS.+ The greatest monuments of Italian Gothic design are the
cathedrals, in which, even more than was the case in France, the highly
developed civic pride of the municipalities expressed itself. Chief
among these half civic, half religious monuments are the cathedrals of
+Sienna+ (begun in 1243), +Arezzo+ (1278), +Orvieto+ (1290), +Florence+
(the +Duomo+, Sta. Maria del Fiore, begun 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio),
+Lucca+ (S. Martino, 1350), +Milan+ (1389-1418), and +S. Petronio+ at
Bologna (1390). They are all of imposing size; Milan is the largest of
all Gothic cathedrals except Seville. S. Petronio was planned to be 600
feet long, the present structure with its three broad aisles and
flanking chapels being merely the nave of the intended edifice. The
Duomo at Florence (Fig. 147) is 500 feet long and covers 82,000 square
feet, while the octagon at the crossing is 143 feet in diameter. The
effect of these colossal dimensions is, however, as in a number of these
large Italian interiors, singularly belittled by the bareness of the
walls, by the great size of the constituent parts of the composition,
and by the lack of architectural subdivisions and multiplied detail to
serve as a scale by which to gauge the scale of the _ensemble_.
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--NAVE OF DUOMO AT FLORENCE.]
+INTERIOR TREATMENT.+ It was doubtless intended to cover these large
unbroken wall-surfaces and the vast expanse of the vaults over naves of
extraordinary breadth, with paintings and color decoration. This would
have remedied their present nakedness and lack of interest, but it was
only in a very few instances carried out. The double church of
S. Francesco at Assisi, decorated by Cimabue, Giotto, and other early
Tuscan painters, the Arena Chapel at Padua, painted by Giotto, the
+Spanish Chapel+ of S. M. Novella, Florence, and the east end of
S. Croce, Florence, are illustrations of the splendor of effect possible
by this method of decoration. The bareness of effect in other, unpainted
interiors was emphasized by the plainness of the vaults destitute of
minor ribs. The transverse ribs were usually broad arches with flat
soffits, and the vaulting was often sprung from so low a point as to
leave no room for a triforium. Mere bull’s-eyes often served for
clearstory windows, as in S. Anastasia at Verona, S. Petronio at
Bologna, and the Florentine Duomo. The cathedral of +S. Martino+ at
Lucca (Fig. 149) is one of the most complete and elegant of Italian
Gothic interiors, having a genuine triforium with traceried arches. Even
here, however, there are round arches without mouldings, flat pilasters,
broad transverse ribs recalling Roman arches, and insignificant
bull’s-eyes in the clearstory.
[Illustration: FIG. 149.--ONE BAY, NAVE OF CATHEDRAL OF
SAN MARTINO, LUCCA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 150.--INTERIOR OF SIENNA CATHEDRAL.]
The failure to produce adequate results of scale in the interiors of the
larger Italian churches, has been already alluded to. It is strikingly
exemplified in the Duomo at Florence, the nave of which is 72 feet wide,
with four pier-arches each over 55 feet in span. The immense vault, in
square bays, starts from the level of the tops of these arches. The
interior (Fig. 148) is singularly naked and cold, giving no conception
of its vast dimensions. The colossal dome is an early work of the
Renaissance (see p. 276). It is not known how _Fr. Talenti_, who in 1357
enlarged and vaulted the nave and planned the east end, proposed to
cover the great octagon. The east end is the most effective part of the
design both internally and externally, owing to the relatively moderate
scale of the 15 chapels which surround the apsidal arms of the cross. In
S. Petronio at Bologna, begun 1390 by _Master Antonio_, the scale is
better handled. The nave, 300 feet long, is divided into six bays, each
embracing two side chapels. It is 46 feet wide and 132 feet high,
proportions which approximate those of the French cathedrals, and
produce an impression of size somewhat unusual in Italian churches.
+Orvieto+ has internally little that suggests Gothic architecture; like
many Franciscan and Dominican churches it is really a timber-roofed
basilica with a few pointed windows. The mixed Gothic and Romanesque
interior of +Sienna Cathedral+ (Fig. 150), with its round arches and
six-sided dome, unsymmetrically placed over the crossing, is one of the
most impressive creations of Italian mediæval art. Alternate courses of
black and white marble add richness but not repose to the effect of this
interior: the same is true of Orvieto, and of some other churches. The
basement baptistery of +S. Giovanni+, under the east end of Sienna
Cathedral, is much more purely Gothic in detail.
In these, and indeed in most Italian interiors, the main interest
centres less in the excellence of the composition than in the
accessories of pavements, pulpits, choir-stalls, and sepulchral
monuments. In these the decorative fancy and skill of the Italians found
unrestrained exercise, and produced works of surpassing interest and
merit.
+EXTERNAL DESIGN.+ The greatest possible disparity generally exists
between the sides and west fronts of the Italian churches. With few
exceptions the flanks present nothing like the variety of sky-line and
of light and shade customary in northern and western lands. The side
walls are high and flat, plain, or striped with black and white masonry
(Sienna, Orvieto), or veneered with marble (Duomo at Florence) or
decorated with surface-ornament of thin pilasters and arcades (Lucca).
The clearstory is low; the roof low--pitched and hardly visible from
below. Color, rather than structural richness, is generally sought for:
Milan Cathedral is almost the only exception, and goes to the other
extreme, with its seemingly countless buttresses, pinnacles and statues.
The façades, on the other hand, were treated as independent decorative
compositions, and were in many cases remarkably beautiful works, though
having little or no organic relation to the main structure. The most
celebrated are those of +Sienna+ (cathedral begun 1243; façade 1284 by
_Giovanni Pisano_; Fig. 151) and +Orvieto+ (begun 1290 by _Lorenzo
Maitani_; façade 1310). Both of these are sumptuous polychromatic
compositions in marble, designed on somewhat similar lines, with three
high gables fronting the three aisles, with deeply recessed portals,
pinnacled turrets flanking nave and aisles, and a central circular
window. That of Orvieto is furthermore embellished with mosaic pictures,
and is the more brilliant in color of the two. The mediæval façades of
the Florentine Gothic churches were never completed; but the elegance of
the panelling and of the tracery with twisted shafts in the flanks of
the cathedral, and the florid beauty of its side doorways (late 14th
century) would doubtless if realized with equal success on the façades,
have produced strikingly beautiful results. The modern façade of the
Duomo, by the late _De Fabris_ (1887) is a correct if not highly
imaginative version of the style so applied. The front of Milan
cathedral (soon to be replaced by a new façade), shows a mixture of
Gothic and Renaissance forms. +Ferrara Cathedral+, although internally
transformed in the last century, retains its fine 13th-century
three-gabled and arcaded screen front; one of the most Gothic in spirit
of all Italian façades. The +Cathedral+ of +Genoa+ presents Gothic
windows and deeply recessed portals in a façade built in black and white
bands, like Sienna cathedral and many churches in Pistoia and Pisa.
[Illustration: FIG. 151.--FAÇADE OF SIENNA CATHEDRAL.]
Externally the most important feature was frequently a cupola or dome
over the crossing. That of Sienna has already been mentioned; that of
Milan is a sumptuous many-pinnacled structure terminating in a spire 300
feet high. The +Certosa+ at Pavia (Fig. 152) and the earlier Carthusian
church of Chiaravalle have internal cupolas or domes covered externally
by many-storied structures ending in a tower dominating the whole
edifice. These two churches, like many others in Lombardy, the Æmilia
and Venetia, are built of brick, moulded terra-cotta being effectively
used for the cornices, string-courses, jambs and ornaments of the
exterior. The Certosa at Pavia is contemporary with the cathedral of
Milan, to which it offers a surprising contrast, both in style and
material. It is wholly built of brick and terra-cotta, and, save for its
ribbed vaulting, possesses hardly a single Gothic feature or detail. Its
arches, mouldings, and cloisters suggest both the Romanesque and the
Renaissance styles by their semi-classic character.
[Illustration: FIG. 152.--EXTERIOR OF THE CERTOSA, PAVIA.]
+PLANS.+ The wide diversity of local styles in Italian architecture
appears in the plans as strikingly as in the details In general one
notes a love of spaciousness which expresses itself in a sometimes
disproportionate breadth, and in the wide spacing of the piers. The
polygonal chevet with its radial chapels is but rarely seen;
+S. Lorenzo+ at Naples, Sta. Maria dei Servi and S. Francesco at Bologna
are among the most important examples. More frequently the chapels form
a range along the east side of the transepts, especially in the
Franciscan churches, which otherwise retain many basilican features.
A comparison of the plans of S. Andrea at Vercelli, the Duomo at
Florence, the cathedrals of Sienna and Milan, S. Petronio at Bologna and
the Certosa at Pavia (Fig. 153), sufficiently illustrates the variety of
Italian Gothic plan-types.
[Illustration: FIG. 153.--PLAN OF CERTOSA AT PAVIA.]
+ORNAMENT.+ Applied decoration plays a large part in all Italian Gothic
designs. Inlaid and mosaic patterns and panelled veneering in colored
marble are essential features of the exterior decoration of most Italian
churches. Florence offers a fine example of this treatment in the Duomo,
and in its accompanying +Campanile+ or bell-tower, designed by _Giotto_
(1335), and completed by _Gaddi_ and _Talenti_. This beautiful tower is
an epitome of Italian Gothic art. Its inlays, mosaics, and veneering are
treated with consummate elegance, and combined with incrusted reliefs of
great beauty. The tracery of this monument and of the side windows of
the adjoining cathedral is lighter and more graceful than is common in
Italy. Its beauty consists, however, less in movement of line than in
richness and elegance of carved and inlaid ornament. In the +Or San
Michele+--a combined chapel and granary in Florence dating from
1330--the tracery is far less light and open. In general, except in
churches like the Cathedral of Milan, built under German influences, the
tracery in secular monuments is more successful than in ecclesiastical
structures. Venice developed the designing of tracery to greater
perfection in her palaces than any other Italian city (see below).
+MINOR WORKS.+ Italian Gothic art found freer expression in
semi-decorative works, like tombs, altars and votive chapels, than in
more monumental structures. The fourteenth century was particularly rich
in canopy tombs, mostly in churches, though some were erected in the
open air, like the celebrated +Tombs of the Scaligers+ in Verona
(1329-1380). Many of those in churches in and near Rome, and others in
south Italy, are especially rich in inlay of _opus Alexandrinum_ upon
their twisted columns and panelled sarcophagi. The family of the
_Cosmati_ acquired great fame for work of this kind during the
thirteenth century.
The little marble chapel of +Sta. Maria della Spina+, on the Arno, at
Pisa, is an instance of the successful decorative use of Gothic forms in
minor buildings.
+TOWERS.+ The Italians always preferred the square tower to the spire,
and in most cases treated it as an independent campanile. Following
Early Christian and Romanesque traditions, these square towers were
usually built with plain sides unbroken by buttresses, and terminated in
a flat roof or a low and inconspicuous cone or pyramid. The Campanile at
Florence already mentioned is by far the most beautiful of these designs
(Fig. 154). The campaniles of Sienna, Lucca, and Pistoia are built in
alternate white and black courses, like the adjoining cathedrals. Verona
and Mantua have towers with octagonal lanterns. In general, these Gothic
towers differ from the earlier Romanesque models only in the forms of
their openings. Though dignified in their simplicity and size, and
usually well proportioned, they lack the beauty and interest of the
French, English, and German steeples and towers.
[Illustration: FIG. 154.--UPPER PART OF CAMPANILE, FLORENCE.]
+SECULAR MONUMENTS.+ In their public halls, open _loggias_, and domestic
architecture the Italians were able to develop the application of Gothic
forms with greater freedom than in their church-building, because
unfettered by traditional methods of design. The early and vigorous
growth of municipal and popular institutions led, as in the Netherlands,
to the building of two classes of public halls--the town hall proper or
_Podestà_, and the council hall, variously called _Palazzo Communale_,
_Pubblico_, or _del Consiglio_. The town halls, as the seat of
authority, usually have a severe and fortress-like character; the
+Palazzo Vecchio+ at Florence is the most important example (1298, by
Arnolfo di Cambio; Fig. 155). It is especially remarkable for its tower,
which, rising 308 feet in the air, overhangs the street nearly 6 feet,
its front wall resting on the face of the powerfully corbelled cornice
of the palace. The court and most of the interior were remodelled in the
sixteenth century. At Sienna is a somewhat similar structure in brick,
the +Palazzo Pubblico+. At Pistoia the Podestà and the Communal Palace
stand opposite each other; in both of these the courtyards still retain
their original aspect. At Perugia, Bologna, and Viterbo are others of
some importance; while in Lombardy, Bergamo, Como, Cremona, Piacenza and
other towns possess smaller halls with open arcades below, of a more
elegant and pleasing aspect. More successful still are the open loggias
or tribunes erected for the gatherings of public bodies. The +Loggia dei
Lanzi+ at Florence (1376, by _Benci di Cione_ and _Simone di Talenti_)
is the largest and most famous of these open vaulted halls, of which
several exist in Florence and Sienna. Gothic only in their minor
details, they are Romanesque or semi-classic in their broad round arches
and strong horizontal lines and cornices (Fig. 156).
[Illustration: FIG. 155.--UPPER PART OF PALAZZO VECCHIO,
FLORENCE.]
+PALACES AND HOUSES: VENICE.+ The northern cities, especially Pisa,
Florence, Sienna, Bologna, and Venice, are rich in mediæval public and
private palaces and dwellings in brick or marble, in which pointed
windows and open arcades are used with excellent effect. In Bologna and
Sienna brick is used, in conjunction with details executed in moulded
terra-cotta, in a highly artistic and effective way. Viterbo, nearer
Rome, also possesses many interesting houses with street arcades and
open stairways or stoops leading to the main entrance.
[Illustration: FIG. 156.--LOGGIA DEI LANZI, FLORENCE.]
The security and prosperity of Venice in the Middle Ages, and the ever
present influence of the sun-loving East, made the massive and
fortress-like architecture of the inland cities unnecessary. Abundant
openings, large windows full of tracery of great lightness and elegance,
projecting balconies and the freest use of marble veneering and
inlay--a survival of Byzantine traditions of the 12th century (see
p. 133)--give to the Venetian houses and palaces an air of gayety and
elegance found nowhere else. While there are few Gothic churches of
importance in Venice, the number of mediæval houses and palaces is very
large. Chief among these is the +Doge’s Palace+ (Fig. 157), adjoining
the church of St. Mark. The two-storied arcades of the west and south
fronts date from 1354, and originally stood out from the main edifice,
which was widened in the next century, when the present somewhat heavy
walls, laid up in red, white and black marble in a species of
quarry-pattern, were built over the arcades. These arcades are beautiful
designs, combining massive strength and grace in a manner quite foreign
to Western Gothic ideas. Lighter and more ornate is the +Ca d’Oro+, on
the Grand Canal; while the Foscari, Contarini-Fasan, Cavalli, and Pisani
palaces, among many others, are admirable examples of the style. In most
of these a traceried loggia occupies the central part, flanked by walls
incrusted with marble and pierced by Gothic windows with carved
mouldings, borders, and balconies. The Venetian Gothic owes its success
largely to the absence of structural difficulties to interfere with the
purely decorative development of Gothic details.
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--WEST FRONT VIEW OF DOGE’S PALACE,
VENICE.]
+MONUMENTS.+ 13th Century: Cistercian abbeys Fossanova and
Casamari, _cir._ 1208; S. Andrea, Vercelli, 1209; S. Francesco,
Assisi, 1228-53; Church at Asti, 1229; Sienna C., 1243-59 (cupola
1259-64; façade 1284); S. M. Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, 1250-80
(finished 1388); Sta. Chiara, Assisi, 1250; Sta. Trinità,
Florence, 1250; S. Antonio, Padua, begun 1256; SS. Giovanni e
Paolo, Venice, 1260 (?)-1400; Sta. Anastasia, Verona, 1261;
Naples C., 1272-1314 (façade 1299; portal 1407; much altered
later); S. Lorenzo, Naples, 1275; Campo Santo, Pisa, 1278-83;
Arezzo C., 1278; S. M. Novella, Florence, 1278; S. Eustorgio,
Milan, 1278; S. M. sopra Minerva, Rome, 1280; Orvieto C., 1290
(façade 1310; roof 1330); Sta. Croce, Florence, 1294 (façade
1863); S. M. del Fiore, or C., Florence, 1294-1310 (enlarged 1357;
E. end 1366; dome 1420-64; façade 1887); S. Francesco,
Bologna.--14th century: Genoa C., early 14th century;
S. Francesco, Sienna, 1310; San Domenico, Sienna, about same date;
S. Giovanni in Fonte, Sienna, 1317; S. M. della Spina, Pisa, 1323;
Campanile, Florence, 1335; Or San Michele, Florence, 1337;
Milan C., 1386 (cupola 16th century; façade 16th-19th century; new
façade building 1895); S. Petronio, Bologna, 1390; Certosa, Pavia,
1396 (choir, transepts, cupola, cloisters, 15th and 16th
centuries); Como C., 1396 (choir and transepts 1513); Lucca C.
(S. Martino), Romanesque building remodelled late in 14th century;
Verona C.; S. Fermo, Maggiore; S. Francesco, Pisa; S. Lorenzo,
Vicenza.--15th century: Perugia C.; S. M. delle Grazie, Milan,
1470 (cupola and exterior E. part later).
SECULAR BUILDINGS: Pal. Pubblico, Cremona, 1245; Pal. Podestà
(Bargello), Florence, 1255 (enlarged 1333-45); Pal. Pubblico,
Sienna, 1289-1305 (many later alterations); Pal. Giureconsulti,
Cremona, 1292; Broletto, Monza, 1293; Loggia dei Mercanti,
Bologna, 1294; Pal. Vecchio, Florence, 1298; Broletto, Como; Pal.
Ducale (Doge’s Palace), Venice, 1310-40 (great windows 1404;
extended 1423-38; courtyard 15th and 16th centuries); Loggia dei
Lanzi, Florence, 1335; Loggia del Bigallo, 1337; Broletto,
Bergamo, 14th century; Loggia dei Nobili, Sienna, 1407; Pal.
Pubblico, Udine, 1457; Loggia dei Mercanti, Ancona; Pal. del
Governo, Bologna; Pal. Pepoli, Bologna; Palaces Conte Bardi,
Davanzati, Capponi, all at Florence; at Sienna, Pal. Tolomei,
1205; Pal. Saracini, Pal. Buonsignori; at Venice, Pal.
Contarini-Fasan, Cavalli, Foscari, Pisani, and many others; others
in Padua and Vicenza.
CHAPTER XX.
EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Anderson, _Architecture of the Renaissance in
Italy_. Burckhardt, _The Civilization of the Renaissance_;
_Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien_; _Der Cicerone_. Cellesi,
_Sei Fabbriche di Firenze_. Cicognara, _Le Fabbriche più cospicue
di Venezia_. Durm, _Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Italien_ (in
_Hdbuch. d. Arch._). Fergusson, _History of Modern Architecture_.
Geymüller, _La Renaissance en Toscane_. Montigny et Famin,
_Architecture Toscane_. Moore, _Character of Renaissance
Architecture_. Müntz, _La Renaissance en Italie et en France à
l’époque de Charles VIII._ Palustre, _L’Architecture de la
Renaissance_. Pater, _Studies in the Renaissance_. Symonds, _The
Renaissance of the Fine Arts in Italy_. Tosi and Becchio, _Altars,
Tabernacles, and Tombs_.
+THE CLASSIC REVIVAL.+ The abandonment of Gothic architecture in Italy
and the substitution in its place of forms derived from classic models
were occasioned by no sudden or merely local revolution. The Renaissance
was the result of a profound and universal intellectual movement, whose
roots may be traced far back into the Middle Ages, and which manifested
itself first in Italy simply because there the conditions were most
propitious. It spread through Europe just as rapidly as similar
conditions appearing in other countries prepared the way for it.
The essence of this far-reaching movement was the protest of the
individual reason against the trammels of external and arbitrary
authority--a protest which found its earliest organized expression in
the Humanists. In its assertion of the intellectual and moral rights
of the individual, the Renaissance laid the foundations of modern
civilization. The same spirit, in rejecting the authority and teachings
of the Church in matters of purely secular knowledge, led to the
questionings of the precursors of modern science and the discoveries of
the early navigators. But in nothing did the reaction against mediæval
scholasticism and asceticism display itself more strikingly than in the
joyful enthusiasm which marked the pursuit of classic studies. The
long-neglected treasures of classic literature were reopened, almost
rediscovered, in the fourteenth century by the immortal trio--Dante,
Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The joy of living, the hitherto forbidden
delight in beauty and pleasure for their own sakes, the exultant
awakening to the sense of personal freedom, which came with the bursting
of mediæval fetters, found in classic art and literature their most
sympathetic expression. It was in Italy, where feudalism had never fully
established itself, and where the municipalities and guilds had
developed, as nowhere else, the sense of civic and personal freedom,
that these symptoms first manifested themselves. In Italy, and above all
in the Tuscan cities, they appeared throughout the fourteenth century in
the growing enthusiasm for all that recalled the antique culture, and in
the rapid advance of luxury and refinement in both public and private
life.
+THE RENAISSANCE OF THE ARTS.+ Classic Roman architecture had never lost
its influence on the Italian taste. Gothic art, already declining in the
West, had never been in Italy more than a borrowed garb, clothing
architectural conceptions classic rather than Gothic in spirit. The
antique monuments which abounded on every hand were ever present models
for the artist, and to the Florentines of the early fifteenth century
the civilization which had created them represented the highest ideal of
human culture. They longed to revive in their own time the glories of
ancient Rome, and appropriated with uncritical and undiscriminating
enthusiasm the good and the bad, the early and the late forms of Roman
art, Naïvely unconscious of the disparity between their own
architectural conceptions and those they fancied they imitated, they
were, unknown to themselves, creating a new style, in which the details
of Roman art were fitted in novel combinations to new requirements. In
proportion as the Church lost its hold on the culture of the age, this
new architecture entered increasingly into the service of private luxury
and public display. It created, it is true, striking types of church
design, and made of the dome one of the most imposing of external
features; but its most characteristic products were palaces, villas,
council halls, and monuments to the great and the powerful. The personal
element in design asserted itself as never before in the growth of
schools and the development of styles. Thenceforward the history of
Italian architecture becomes the history of the achievements of
individual artists.
+EARLY BEGINNINGS.+ Already in the 13th century the pulpits of Niccolo
Pisano at Sienna and Pisa had revealed that master’s direct recourse to
antique monuments for inspiration and suggestion. In the frescoes of
Giotto and his followers, and in the architectural details of many
nominally Gothic buildings, classic forms had appeared with increasing
frequency during the fourteenth century. This was especially true in
Florence, which was then the artistic capital of Italy. Never, perhaps,
since the days of Pericles, had there been another community so
permeated with the love of beauty in art, and so endowed with the
capacity to realize it. Nowhere else in Europe at that time was there
such strenuous life, such intense feeling, or such free course for
individual genius as in Florence. Her artists, with unexampled
versatility, addressed themselves with equal success to goldsmiths’
work, sculpture, architecture and engineering--often to painting and
poetry as well; and they were quick to catch in their art the spirit of
the classic revival. The new movement achieved its first architectural
triumph in the dome of the cathedral of Florence (1420-64); and it was
Florentine--or at least Tuscan--artists who planted in other centres the
seeds of the new art that were to spring up in the local and provincial
schools of Sienna, Milan, Pavia, Bologna, and Venice, of Brescia, Lucca,
Perugia, and Rimini, and many other North Italian cities. The movement
asserted itself late in Rome and Naples, as an importation from Northern
Italy, but it bore abundant fruit in these cities in its later stages.
+PERIODS.+ The classic styles which grew up out of the Renaissance may
be divided for convenience into four periods.
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE or FORMATIVE PERIOD, 1420-90; characterized by
the grace and freedom of the decorative detail, suggested by Roman
prototypes and applied to compositions of great variety and originality.
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE or FORMALLY CLASSIC PERIOD, 1490-1550. During this
period classic details were copied with increasing fidelity, the orders
especially appearing in almost all compositions; decoration meanwhile
losing somewhat in grace and freedom.
THE EARLY BAROQUE (or BAROCO), 1550-1600; a period of classic formality
characterized by the use of colossal orders, engaged columns and rather
scanty decoration.
THE DECLINE or LATER BAROQUE, marked by poverty of invention in the
composition and a predominance of vulgar sham and display in the
decoration. Broken pediments, huge scrolls, florid stucco-work and a
general disregard of architectural propriety were universal.
During the eighteenth century there was a reaction from these
extravagances, which showed itself in a return to the servile copying of
classic models, sometimes not without a certain dignity of composition
and restraint in the decoration.
By many writers the name Renaissance is confined to the first period.
This is correct from the etymological point of view; but it is
impossible to dissociate the first period historically from those which
followed it, down to the final exhaustion of the artistic movement to
which it gave birth, in the heavy extravagances of the Rococo.
Another division is made by the Italians, who give the name of the
_Quattrocento_ to the period which closed with the end of the fifteenth
century, _Cinquecento_ to the sixteenth century, and _Seicento_ to the
seventeenth century or Rococo. It has, however, become common to confine
the use of the term Cinquecento to the first half of the sixteenth
century.
+CONSTRUCTION AND DETAIL.+ The architects of the Renaissance occupied
themselves more with form than with construction, and rarely set
themselves constructive problems of great difficulty. Although the new
architecture began with the colossal dome of the cathedral of Florence,
and culminated in the stupendous church of St. Peter at Rome, it was
pre-eminently an architecture of palaces and villas, of façades and of
decorative display. Constructive difficulties were reduced to their
lowest terms, and the constructive framework was concealed, not
emphasized, by the decorative apparel of the design. Among the
masterpieces of the early Renaissance are many buildings of small
dimensions, such as gates, chapels, tombs and fountains. In these the
individual fancy had full sway, and produced surprising results by the
beauty of enriched mouldings, of carved friezes with infant genii,
wreaths of fruit, griffins, masks and scrolls; by pilasters covered with
arabesques as delicate in modelling as if wrought in silver; by inlays
of marble, panels of glazed terra-cotta, marvellously carved doors, fine
stucco-work in relief, capitals and cornices of wonderful richness and
variety. The Roman orders appeared only in free imitations, with
panelled and carved pilasters for the most part instead of columns, and
capitals of fanciful design, recalling remotely the Corinthian by their
volutes and leaves (Fig. 158). Instead of the low-pitched classic
pediments, there appears frequently an arched cornice enclosing a
sculptured lunette. Doors and windows were enclosed in richly carved
frames, sometimes arched and sometimes square. Façades were flat and
unbroken, depending mainly for effect upon the distribution and
adornment of the openings, and the design of doorways, courtyards and
cornices. Internally vaults and flat ceilings of wood and plaster were
about equally common, the barrel vault and dome occurring far more
frequently than the groined vault. Many of the ceilings of this period
are of remarkable richness and beauty.
[Illustration: FIG. 158.--EARLY RENAISSANCE CAPITAL, PAL. ZORZI,
VENICE.]
+THE EARLY RENAISSANCE IN FLORENCE: THE DUOMO.+ In the year 1417 a
public competition was held for completing the cathedral of Florence by
a dome over the immense octagon, 143 feet in diameter. _Filippo
Brunelleschi_, sculptor and architect (1377-1446), who with Donatello
had journeyed to Rome to study there the masterworks of ancient art,
after demonstrating the inadequacy of all the solutions proposed by the
competitors, was finally permitted to undertake the gigantic task
according to his own plans. These provided for an octagonal dome in two
shells, connected by eight major and sixteen minor ribs, and crowned by
a lantern at the top (Fig. 159). This wholly original conception, by
which for the first time (outside of Moslem art) the dome was made an
external feature fitly terminating in the light forms and upward
movement of a lantern, was carried out between the years 1420 and 1464.
Though in no wise an imitation of Roman forms, it was classic in its
spirit, in its vastness and its simplicity of line, and was made
possible solely by Brunelleschi’s studies of Roman design and
construction (Fig. 160).
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--SECTION OF DOME OF DUOMO, FLORENCE.]
+OTHER CHURCHES.+ From Brunelleschi’s designs were also erected the
+Pazzi Chapel+ in Sta. Croce, a charming design of a Greek cross covered
with a dome at the intersection, and preceded by a vestibule with a
richly decorated vault; and the two great churches of +S. Lorenzo+
(1425) and +S. Spirito+ (1433-1476, Fig. 161). Both reproduced in a
measure the plan of the Pisa Cathedral, having a three-aisled nave and
transepts, with a low dome over the crossing. The side aisles were
covered with domical vaults and the central aisles with flat wooden or
plaster ceilings. All the details of columns, arches and mouldings were
imitated from Roman models, and yet the result was something entirely
new. Consciously or unconsciously, Brunelleschi was reviving Byzantine
rather than Roman conceptions in the planning and structural design of
these domical churches, but the garb in which he clothed them was Roman,
at least in detail. The +Old Sacristy+ of S. Lorenzo was another domical
design of great beauty.
From this time on the new style was in general use for church designs.
_L. B. Alberti_ (1404-73), who had in Rome mastered classic details more
thoroughly than Brunelleschi, remodelled the church of +S. Francesco+ at
+Rimini+ with Roman pilasters and arches, and with engaged orders in the
façade, which, however, was never completed. His great work was the
church of +S. Andrea+ at +Mantua+, a Latin cross in plan, with a dome at
the intersection (the present high dome dating however, only from the
18th century) and a façade to which the conception of a Roman triumphal
arch was skilfully adapted. His façade of incrusted marbles for the
church of S. M. Novella at Florence was a less successful work, though
its flaring consoles over the side aisles established an unfortunate
precedent frequently imitated in later churches.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--EXTERIOR OF DOME OF DUOMO, FLORENCE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--INTERIOR OF S. SPIRITO, FLORENCE.]
A great activity in church-building marked the period between 1475 and
1490. The plans of the churches erected about this time throughout north
Italy display an interesting variety of arrangements, in nearly all of
which the dome is combined with the three-aisled cruciform plan, either
as a central feature at the crossing or as a domical vault over each
bay. Bologna and Ferrara possess a number of churches of this kind.
Occasionally the basilican arrangement was followed, with columnar
arcades separating the aisles. More often, however, the pier-arches were
of the Roman type, with engaged columns or pilasters between them. The
interiors, presumably intended to receive painted decorations, were in
most cases somewhat bare of ornament, pleasing rather by happy
proportions and effective vaulting or rich flat ceilings, panelled,
painted and gilded, than by elaborate architectural detail. A similar
scantiness of ornament is to be remarked in the exteriors, excepting the
façades, which were sometimes highly ornate; the doorways, with columns,
pediments, sculpture and carving, receiving especial attention. High
external domes did not come into general use until the next period. In
Milan, Pavia, and some other Lombard cities, the internal cupola over
the crossing was, however, covered externally by a lofty structure in
diminishing stages, like that of the Certosa at Pavia (Fig. 152), or
that erected by Bramante for the church of S. M. delle Grazie at Milan.
At Prato, in the church of the +Madonna delle Carceri+ (1495-1516), by
_Giuliano da S. Gallo_, the type of the Pazzi chapel reappears in a
larger scale; the plan is cruciform, with equal or nearly equal arms
covered by barrel vaults, at whose intersection rises a dome of moderate
height on pendentives. This charming edifice, with its unfinished
exterior of white marble, its simple and dignified lines, and internal
embellishments in della-Robbia ware, is one of the masterpieces of the
period.
In the designing of chapels and oratories the architects of the early
Renaissance attained conspicuous success, these edifices presenting
fewer structural limitations and being more purely decorative in
character than the larger churches. Such façades as that of
+S. Bernardino+ at Perugia and of the +Frati di S. Spirito+ at Bologna
are among the most delightful products of the decorative fancy of the
15th century.
[Illustration: FIG. 162.--COURTYARD OF RICCARDI PALACE, FLORENCE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 163.--FAÇADE OF STROZZI PALACE, FLORENCE.]
+FLORENTINE PALACES.+ While the architects of this period failed to
develop any new and thoroughly satisfactory ecclesiastical type, they
attained conspicuous success in palace-architecture. The +Riccardi+
palace in Florence (1430) marks the first step of the Renaissance in
this direction. It was built for the great Cosimo di Medici by
_Michelozzi_ (1397-1473), a contemporary of Brunelleschi and Alberti,
and a man of great talent. Its imposing rectangular façade, with widely
spaced mullioned windows in two stories over a massive basement, is
crowned with a classic cornice of unusual and perhaps excessive size. In
spite of the bold and fortress-like character of the rusticated masonry
of these façades, and the mediæval look they seem to present to modern
eyes, they marked a revolution in style and established a type
frequently imitated in later years. The courtyard, in contrast with this
stern exterior, appears light and cheerful (Fig. 162). Its wall is
carried on round arches borne by columns with Corinthianesque capitals,
and the arcade is enriched with sculptured medallions. +The Pitti
Palace+, by Brunelleschi (1435), embodies the same ideas on a more
colossal scale, but lacks the grace of an adequate cornice. A lighter
and more ornate style appeared in 1460 in the +P. Rucellai+, by Alberti,
in which for the first time classical pilasters in superposed stages
were applied to a street façade. To avoid the dilemma of either
insufficiently crowning the edifice or making the cornice too heavy for
the upper range of pilasters, Alberti made use of brackets, occupying
the width of the upper frieze, and converting the whole upper
entablature into a cornice. But this compromise was not quite
successful, and it remained for later architects in Venice, Verona, and
Rome to work out more satisfactory methods of applying the orders to
many-storied palace façades. In the great +P. Strozzi+ (Fig. 163),
erected in 1490 by _Benedetto da Majano_ and _Cronaca_, the architects
reverted to the earlier type of the P. Riccardi, treating it with
greater refinement and producing one of the noblest palaces of Italy.
+COURTYARDS; ARCADES.+ These palaces were all built around interior
courts, whose walls rested on columnar arcades, as in the P. Riccardi
(Fig. 162). The origin of these arcades may be found in the arcaded
cloisters of mediæval monastic churches, which often suggest classic
models, as in those of St. Paul-beyond-the-Walls and St. John Lateran at
Rome. Brunelleschi not only introduced columnar arcades into a number of
cloisters and palace courts, but also used them effectively as exterior
features in the +Loggia S. Paolo+ and the Foundling Hospital (+Ospedale
degli Innocenti+) at Florence. The chief drawback in these light arcades
was their inability to withstand the thrust of the vaulting over the
space behind them, and the consequent recourse to iron tie-rods where
vaulting was used. The Italians, however, seemed to care little about
this disfigurement.
+MINOR WORKS.+ The details of the new style were developed quite as
rapidly in purely decorative works as in monumental buildings. Altars,
mural monuments, tabernacles, pulpits and _ciboria_ afforded scope for
the genius of the most distinguished artists. Among those who were
specially celebrated in works of this kind should be named _Lucca della
Robbia_ (1400-82) and his successors, _Mino da Fiesole_ (1431-84) and
_Benedetto da Majano_ (1442-97). Possessed of a wonderful fertility of
invention, they and their pupils multiplied their works in extraordinary
number and variety, not only throughout north Italy, but also in Rome
and Naples. Among the most famous examples of this branch of design may
be mentioned a pulpit in Sta. Croce by B. da Majano; a terra-cotta
fountain in the sacristy of S. M. Novella, by the della Robbias; the
Marsupini tomb in Sta. Croce, by _Desiderio da Settignano_ (all in
Florence); the della Rovere tomb in S. M. del Popolo, Rome, by Mino da
Fiesole, and in the Cathedral at Lucca the Noceto tomb and the
Tempietto, by _Matteo Civitali_. It was in works of this character that
the Renaissance oftenest made its first appearance in a new centre, as
was the case in Sienna, Pisa, Lucca, Naples, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 164.--TOMB OF PIETRO DI NOCETO, LUCCA.]
+NORTH ITALY.+ Between 1450 and 1490 the Renaissance presented in
Sienna, in a number of important palaces, a sharp contrast to the
prevalent Gothic style of that city. The +P. Piccolomini+--a somewhat
crude imitation of the P. Riccardi in Florence--dates from 1463; the
+P. del Governo+ was built 1469, and the +Spannocchi Palace+ in 1470. In
1463 _Ant. Federighi_ built there the +Loggia del Papa+. About the same
time _Bernardo di Lorenzo_ was building for Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius
Piccolomini) an entirely new city, +Pienza+, with a cathedral,
archbishop’s palace, town hall and Papal residence (the
+P. Piccolomini+), which are interesting if not strikingly original
works. Pisa possesses few early Renaissance structures, owing to the
utter prostration of her fortunes in the 15th century, and the dominance
of Pisan Gothic traditions. In Lucca, besides a wealth of minor
monuments (largely the work of Matteo Civitali, 1435-1501) in various
churches, a number of palaces date from this period, the most important
being the +P. Pretorio+ and P. Bernardini. To Milan the Renaissance was
carried by the Florentine masters _Michelozzi_ and _Filarete_, to whom
are respectively due the +Portinari Chapel+ in S. Eustorgio (1462) and
the earlier part of the great +Ospedale Maggiore+ (1457). In the latter,
an edifice of brick with terra-cotta enrichments, the windows were
Gothic in outline--an unusual mixture of styles, even in Italy. The
munificence of the Sforzas, the hereditary tyrants of the province,
embellished the semi-Gothic +Certosa+ of Pavia with a new marble façade,
begun 1476 or 1491, which in its fanciful and exuberant decoration, and
the small scale of its parts, belongs properly to the early Renaissance.
Exquisitely beautiful in detail, it resembles rather a magnified
altar-piece than a work of architecture, properly speaking. Bologna and
Ferrara developed somewhat late in the century a strong local school of
architecture, remarkable especially for the beauty of its courtyards,
its graceful street arcades, and its artistic treatment of brick and
terra-cotta (+P. Bevilacqua+, +P. Fava+, at Bologna; +P. Scrofa+,
+P. Roverella+, at Ferrara). About the same time palaces with interior
arcades and details in the new style were erected in Verona, Vicenza,
Mantua, and other cities.
+VENICE.+ In this city of merchant princes and a wealthy _bourgeoisie_,
the architecture of the Renaissance took on a new aspect of splendor and
display. It was late in appearing, the Gothic style with its tinge of
Byzantine decorative traditions having here developed into a style well
suited to the needs of a rich and relatively tranquil community. These
traditions the architects of the new style appropriated in a measure, as
in the marble incrustations of the exquisite little church of +S. M. dei
Miracoli+ (1480-89), and the façade of the +Scuola di S. Marco+
(1485-1533), both by _Pietro Lombardo_. Nowhere else, unless on the
contemporary façade of the Certosa at Pavia, were marble inlays and
delicate carving, combined with a framework of thin pilasters, finely
profiled entablatures and arched pediments, so lavishly bestowed upon
the street fronts of churches and palaces. The family of the _Lombardi_
(Martino, his sons Moro and Pietro, and grandsons Antonio and Tullio),
with _Ant. Bregno_ and _Bart. Buon_, were the leaders in the
architectural Renaissance of this period, and to them Venice owes her
choicest masterpieces in the new style. Its first appearance is noted in
the later portions of the church of +S. Zaccaria+ (1456-1515), partly
Gothic internally, with a façade whose semicircular pediment and small
decorative arcades show a somewhat timid but interesting application of
classic details. In this church, and still more so in S. Giobbe
(1451-93) and the Miracoli above mentioned, the decorative element
predominates throughout. It is hard to imagine details more graceful in
design, more effective in the swing of their movement, or more delicate
in execution than the mouldings, reliefs, wreaths, scrolls, and capitals
one encounters in these buildings. Yet in structural interest, in scale
and breadth of planning, these early Renaissance Venetian buildings hold
a relatively inferior rank.
+PALACES.+ The great +Court+ of the +Doge’s Palace+, begun 1483 by _Ant.
Rizzio_, belongs only in part to the first period. It shows, however,
the lack of constructive principle and of largeness of composition just
mentioned, but its decorative effect and picturesque variety elicit
almost universal admiration. Like the neighboring façade of St. Mark’s,
it violates nearly every principle of correct composition, and yet in a
measure atones for this capital defect by its charm of detail. Far more
satisfactory from the purely architectural point of view is the façade
of the +P. Vendramini+ (Vendramin-Calergi), by Pietro Lombardo (1481).
The simple, stately lines of its composition, the dignity of its broad
arched and mullioned windows, separated by engaged columns--the earliest
example in Venice of this feature, and one of the earliest in Italy--its
well-proportioned basement and upper stories, crowned by an adequate but
somewhat heavy entablature, make this one of the finest palaces in Italy
(Fig. 165) It established a type of large-windowed, vigorously modelled
façades which later architects developed, but hardly surpassed. In the
smaller contemporary, P. Dario, another type appears, better suited for
small buildings, depending for effect mainly upon well-ordered openings
and incrusted panelling of colored marble.
[Illustration: FIG. 165.--VENDRAMINI PALACE, VENICE.]
+ROME.+ Internal disorders and the long exile of the popes had by the
end of the fourteenth century reduced Rome to utter insignificance. Not
until the second half of the fifteenth century did returning prosperity
and wealth afford the Renaissance its opportunity in the Eternal City.
Pope Nicholas V. had, indeed, begun the rebuilding of St. Peter’s from
designs by B. Rossellini, in 1450, but the project lapsed shortly after
with the death of the pope. The earliest Renaissance building in Rome
was the +P. di Venezia+, begun in 1455, together with the adjoining
porch of S. Marco. In this palace and the adjoining unfinished
Palazzetto we find the influence of the old Roman monuments clearly
manifested in the court arcades, built like those of the Colosseum, with
superposed stages of massive piers and engaged columns carrying
entablatures. The proportions are awkward, the details coarse; but the
spirit of Roman classicism is here seen in the germ. The exterior of
this palace is, however, still Gothic in spirit. The architects are
unknown; _Giuliano da Majano_ (1452-90), _Giacomo di Pietrasanta_, and
_Meo del Caprino_ (1430-1501) are known to have worked upon it, but it
is not certain in what capacity.
The new style, reaching, and in time overcoming, the conservatism of the
Church, overthrew the old basilican traditions. In +S. Agostino+
(1479-83), by _Pietrasanta_, and +S. M. del Popolo+, by Pintelli (?),
piers with pilasters or half-columns and massive arches separate the
aisles, and the crossing is crowned with a dome. To the same period
belong the Sistine chapel and parts of the Vatican palace, but the
interest of these lies rather in their later decorations than in their
somewhat scanty architectural merit.
The architectural renewal of Rome, thus begun, reached its culmination
in the following period.
+OTHER MONUMENTS.+ The complete enumeration of even the most important
Early Renaissance monuments of Italy is impossible within our limits.
Two or three only can here be singled out as suggesting types. Among
town halls of this period the first place belongs to the +P. del
Consiglio+ at Verona, by _Fra Giocondo_ (1435-1515). In this beautiful
edifice the façade consists of a light and graceful arcade supporting a
wall pierced with four windows, and covered with elaborate frescoed
arabesques (recently restored). Its unfortunate division by pilasters
into four bays, with a pier in the centre, is a blemish avoided in the
contemporary +P. del Consiglio+ at Padua. The +Ducal Palace+ at Urbino,
by _Luciano da Laurano_ (1468), is noteworthy for its fine arcaded
court, and was highly famed in its day. At Brescia +S. M. dei Miracoli+
is a remarkable example of a cruciform domical church dating from the
close of this period, and is especially celebrated for the exuberant
decoration of its porch and its elaborate detail. Few campaniles were
built in this period; the best of them are at Venice. Naples possesses
several interesting Early Renaissance monuments, chief among which are
the +Porta Capuana+ (1484), by _Giul. da Majano_, the triumphal +Arch of
Alphonso+ of Arragon, by _Pietro di Martino_, and the +P. Gravina+, by
_Gab. d’Agnolo_. Naples is also very rich in minor works of the early
Renaissance, in which it ranks with Florence, Venice, and Rome.
CHAPTER XXI.
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY--_Continued_.
THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE AND DECLINE.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Burckhardt, Cicognara, Fergusson,
Palustre. Also, Gauthier, _Les plus beaux edifices de Gênes_.
Geymüller, _Les projets primitifs pour la basilique de St. Pierre
de Rome_. Gurlitt, _Geschichte des Barockstiles in Italien_.
Letarouilly, _Édifices de Rome Moderne_; _Le Vatican_. Palladio,
_The Works of A. Palladio_.