NORMAN ARCHITECTURE.
Introduction of Norman Architecture--Remains of
Saxon Work--Canterbury Cathedral--St. Albans and
other Edifices--Periods of Norman Architecture--Its
Characteristics--Towers--Windows--Doorways--Porches--Arches--Piers
and Pillars--Capitals--Mouldings and Ornaments.
Edward the Confessor, who was more Norman than English, and more a
churchman than a king, had been brought up at the Norman court, where his
ideas and tastes had been formed. On his accession to the English throne
he introduced the Norman fashions and manners, filled his court with
Norman ecclesiastics, and adopted the Norman style of architecture for
his ecclesiastical buildings. Shortly before his death he built the abbey
church of Westminster, which is described by William of Malmesbury[34] as
being constructed in a "new style," and he also says that it served for a
model for many subsequent buildings. This edifice, which has long since
disappeared, was doubtless in the style he had imported from abroad,
and, though built by an English monarch, was, there can be no doubt,
a genuine Norman building. Numerous churches and monasteries, founded
on this model, are said to have sprung up in towns and villages in all
directions, and thus we see that the Norman style was established even
before the Norman conquest. That great event confirmed the changes which
the Confessor had begun, and the rude English churches were swept away
and replaced by the more finished Norman edifices.
The Normans were essentially a building people, and no building seems
to have been good enough for them, if they had the means of erecting
a better. Hence we see a continued change--a constant pulling down
and rebuilding on a larger scale, and to this must be ascribed the
disappearance of the buildings which had been erected before the
Conquest. It is chiefly in remote places, which were too poor to enlarge
their churches, that we still find remains of the original Saxon work. In
many of the smaller churches, which were erected soon after the Conquest,
the Saxon ideas still linger; the towers have the same proportions, and
the same general appearance prevails, but the workmanship is better;
the baluster disappears, and is replaced by a shaft, and the capitals
assume more of the Norman form. This lingering love for the old form
was, doubtless, owing to the necessary employment of Saxon workmen, who
naturally still clung to their national style; but in large buildings,
where foreign architects and workmen would be employed, the new style
would be exhibited in its purity.
Canterbury, St. Albans, Rochester, and Ely were built in the reign of
the Conqueror, but of these Canterbury is the most interesting, as it so
fully illustrates the history of architecture in this kingdom. There was
a Saxon cathedral on the spot at the time of the Conquest, but having
been destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt on an enlarged scale by the Norman
archbishop, Lanfranc, in 1070; but, within about twenty years, this
church was pulled down by his successor, as not being large enough, and
another erected on a more magnificent scale. This was again partially
destroyed by fire, and was again rebuilt in 1175 and the following
years. The history of the fire, and the subsequent rebuilding, has been
minutely given by Gervase, a monk of Canterbury, who was an eye-witness
of the whole; and his account is peculiarly valuable, as it enables
us to compare the style of the remains of the old building with that
erected under his own eyes; and we are by this means enabled to point
out the differences between the early and the late Norman buildings. His
narrative is clear and interesting, and his description of the present
building wonderfully correct.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL IN THE WHITE TOWER, TOWER OF LONDON.]
St. Albans Abbey was built in the reign of the Conqueror, and in the
construction of the building the materials of the Roman city of Verulam
were freely used; so that a great part of it is built of Roman bricks.
The following cathedrals also were built in the Norman period, and
still retain portions of the original work:--Lincoln, Rochester, Ely,
Worcester, Gloucester, Durham, Norwich, Winchester, Peterborough, and
Oxford. Castles were erected in various parts of the kingdom, to restrain
the rebellious people, who could ill brook the tyranny of the Conqueror.
Of these the Tower of London is one of the most important, and the chapel
in the White Tower is one of the best examples (dated 1081) we possess
of early Norman, though, from its situation in a military building, it
has less of ornament than might otherwise have been expected. Of Norman
castles, the chief parts which remain are the keeps or principal towers,
and these have ordinarily one prevailing character. They are square
masses, not having much height in proportion to their breadth, and merely
relieved at the angles by slightly projecting turrets. The windows are in
general comparatively small, and the walls exceedingly thick--sometimes,
as at Carlisle, reaching to sixteen feet. Norwich, from its immense size,
is an excellent sample of this kind of tower, and Castle Hedingham is
another.
Of the houses of this period many yet exist, though not in an entire
state; and of these some fine specimens are found in Lincoln,[35] where
they are said to have belonged to the Jews, but whose riches at that time
only led to their destruction.
Many rich and magnificent examples of monastic buildings of this date
occur in various parts of the kingdom.
Norman architecture may be divided into three periods--namely, Early,
Middle, or fully-developed, and Transition; the first extending from the
Conquest, or a few years previous, to the end of the reign of Henry I.,
1135; the second from the commencement of Stephen to nearly the end of
Henry II., 1180; after which date the Transition commences, and the style
gradually loses its characteristics until it merges in the succeeding, or
Early English style of the thirteenth century. Of the first period, the
chapel in the Tower of London has been already mentioned as an example;
the second includes most of our rich Norman buildings; and of the third,
the Temple Church is a good specimen.
The great characteristics of Norman architecture are solidity and
strength. Walls of an enormous thickness, huge masses of masonry for
piers, windows comparatively small, and a profusion of peculiar ornament,
seem to be essential to the full development of the style; and there is a
gloomy magnificence in a fine Norman building which is highly impressive;
its walls seem as firmly fixed in the earth as the iron foot of the
Conqueror was on the neck of a prostrate nation.
The distinctive features of Norman architecture may be thus summarised:--
TOWERS.--These are in general rather low for their breadth. They are more
massive than the Saxon ones which preceded them, and this is particularly
the case with the later buildings. Many of the church towers which were
built soon after the Conquest have very much of the Saxon character
remaining, and are proportionally taller than those of later date, but
the workmanship is better. A large belfry window, divided by a shaft, in
the upper storey, is a common feature; and the surface of the tower is
frequently ornamented with stages of intersecting or plain arcades, and
sometimes the whole surface is covered with ornament. The angles of the
tower are strengthened by flat buttresses having but little projection,
which sometimes reach to the top of the building, and sometimes only
to the first or second storey. The parapets of most Norman towers are
destroyed, and it is consequently difficult to say what they were
originally; but it seems probable that the towers terminated in a pointed
roof. Staircases were of common occurrence, and are frequently made very
ornamental features. St. James's Tower, Bury St. Edmunds, is an example
of an early Norman tower, exhibiting the flat, pilaster-like buttresses,
so characteristic of Norman work, and secondly, a porch flanked by two
pedimented buttresses, ornamented with corbel-tables and intersecting
arcades. The arch is plainer than it would have been at a later period,
but it shows the billet moulding which is also used on the buttresses.
The capitals are of the plain cushion form, and the pediment of the porch
exhibits the scalework surface ornament alluded to in p. 216.
WINDOWS.--These are universally round-headed, except in the Transition
period. The simplest form is a narrow round-headed opening, with a plain
dripstone; but they are frequently wider, and divided into two lights by
a shaft, and richly ornamented with the zigzag and other mouldings.
DOORWAYS.--These are the features on which the most elaborate workmanship
was bestowed by the Norman architects, and it is perhaps to be attributed
to this that so many of them have been preserved; the Norman doorway
having frequently been retained when the church was rebuilt. They are
always, except in the Transition period, semicircular, and are very
deeply moulded. They are frequently three or four times recessed, and are
richly ornamented with the peculiar decorations of the style, the most
characteristic of which is the zigzag or chevron moulding. A peculiar
head, having a bird's beak, and called a "beak-head," is frequently
used, and medallions of the signs of the zodiac are not uncommon. The
jambs of the door are ornamented with shafts which are sometimes richly
adorned, and have elaborately sculptured capitals. The doorway itself
is frequently square-headed, and the tympanum or space between this and
the arch is filled with sculpture representing the Trinity, the Saviour,
saints, or some symbolical design or monstrous animal, and sometimes
merely foliage. There are a few doorways which are trefoil-headed instead
of circular.
[Illustration: PORTION OF DOORWAY, DURHAM CATHEDRAL.]
PORCHES.--The Norman porch is in general not much more than a doorway,
the little projection it has from the wall being intended chiefly to give
greater depth to the doorway, which is very deeply recessed, and it is in
these porches that we find the richest doorways, the arches and shafts
being overlaid with the utmost profusion of ornament, which, though
sometimes rude, always produces a fine effect, and there is scarcely any
architectural feature which has been so universally admired; other styles
may be more chaste and more finished, but there is a grandeur about a
rich Norman doorway which is peculiarly its own.
ARCHES.--The semicircular is the characteristic form of the Norman arch,
but there are a few early examples in which the pointed arch was used,
supported by massive piers; they are not likely to be mistaken for those
of the next style. In the Transition the pointed arch is very frequently
used. Sometimes the arch is brought in a little at the impost, when it is
called a horse-shoe arch; and sometimes the spring of the arch is above
the impost, and is carried down by straight lines. It is then said to be
_stilted_.
PIERS AND PILLARS.--The piers in early buildings were very massive,
consisting frequently merely of heavy square masses of masonry, with
nothing but the impost moulding to relieve their plainness. Sometimes
they were recessed at the angles, and sometimes they were circular,
with capitals and bases, but still of very large diameter. As the style
advanced they were reduced in thickness, and had richly sculptured
capitals and bases, frequently ornamented with sculpture at the angles.
In the Transition period the pillars become slender and clustered, with
little to distinguish them from the next style. The Galilee at Durham
is an excellent example of late Norman; the round arch and the zigzag
mouldings are still retained, but the pillars are as slender as those of
Early English.
CAPITALS.--The capital is the member by which the styles are more easily
distinguished than by any other. In the Saxon style we have seen that
the Corinthian capital was rudely imitated; and we find in the Early
Norman this imitation continued, but with more resemblance to the
original, and this imitation was more and more complete as the style
advanced. The general form of the plain capital is that of a hemisphere
cut into four plain faces; this form is called a cushion capital. This
may be considered as the fundamental form from which other varieties
have been worked. It is sometimes doubled or multiplied, and sometimes
highly ornamented. The abacus, or upper member of the capital, will at
once distinguish the Norman from all other styles, and throughout Gothic
architecture it is the feature most to be depended on in distinguishing
one style from another. In the Norman it is square in section, with the
corner edge sloped or chamfered off. It is commonly quite plain, but
sometimes it is moulded, and sometimes highly ornamented; but in all
cases it retains its primitive and distinctive form. The capitals of the
Chapel in the Tower of London are excellent examples of Early Norman,
showing the volutes at the angles and the plain block in the centre,
in room of the caulicoli, and surrounded by a peculiar stiff kind of
foliage, the whole being an evident but rude imitation of the Corinthian
capital. The volutes and the centre block are common features of Early
Norman capitals, but the foliage is rare.
MOULDINGS AND ORNAMENTS.--These are extremely numerous; the ornamented
mouldings are almost endless in variety, but the most general is the
zigzag, which is used for decoration in all places, both simple and in
every variety of combination, sparingly in the early buildings, but
profusely in the later ones. The billet is much used in early work, as
is also a peculiar kind of shallow lozenge, and other ornaments which
required little skill in the execution.
[Illustration: CASTLE RISING, NORFOLK. (_After a Photograph by Poulton &
Sons._)]
When large and otherwise blank spaces of walls, either on fronts or
towers, have to be relieved, it is frequently done by introducing stages
of intersecting arcades--a fine example of which occurs at Castle Rising,
in Norfolk.
There is a peculiar kind of ornament which is used to relieve surfaces
of blank spaces, either over the arches or the interior, or in the heads
of window-porches, &c. This is frequently called _diaper work_, and
consists either of lines cut in the stone in the form of a trellis, or in
imitation of scale-work, arches, &c.
A portion of a doorway from Durham Cathedral is engraved (_see p._ 215)
as an example of rich Norman, and exhibits the peculiar mouldings and
ornaments of the style. The dripstone shows a rude kind of foliage, on
which are placed at intervals medallions containing animals, &c. It is
not unusual for these to be occupied with the signs of the zodiac. The
arch exhibits a rich series of zigzags; the abacus of the capitals is
of the usual Norman form, but has its upright face ornamented with what
is an imitation of a classical form, generally known as the Grecian
honeysuckle. The capitals are of cushion shape, but overlaid with foliage
and monstrous animals. The shapes exhibit two varieties of ornamentation,
much used in very rich doorways. The first two are fluted spirally in
opposite directions, and the third displays a kind of diaper work, being
a modification of the zigzag, in which the interstices are filled with
foliage.
[Illustration: RICHARD I.]