THE BUILDINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
By far the most important specimens of Gothic architecture are the
cathedrals and large churches which were built during the prevalence
of the style. They were more numerous, larger, and more complete as
works of art than any other structures, and accordingly they are to be
considered on every account as the best examples of pointed
architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--GROUND PLAN OF PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. (1118
to 1193.) A. Nave. B B. Transepts. C. Choir. D D. Aisles.
E. Principal Entrance.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE NAVE OF SALISBURY
CATHEDRAL. (A.D. 1217).]
The arrangement and construction of a Gothic cathedral were
customarily as follows:--(See Fig. 2.) The main axis of the building
was always east and west, the principal entrance being at the west
end, usually under a grand porch or portal, and the high altar stood
at the east end. The plan (or main floor) of the building almost
always displays the form of a cross. The stem of the cross is the part
from the west entrance to the crossing, and is called the nave. The
arms of the cross are called transepts, and point respectively north
and south. Their crossing with the nave is often called the
intersection. The remaining arm, which prolongs the stem eastwards, is
ordinarily called the choir, but sometimes the presbytery, and
sometimes the chancel. All these names really refer to the position of
the internal fittings of the church, and it is often more accurate
simply to employ the term eastern arm for this portion of a church.
The nave is flanked by two avenues running parallel to it, narrower
and lower than itself, called aisles. They are separated from it by
rows of columns or piers, connected together by arches. Thus the nave
has an arcade on each side of it, and each aisle has an arcade on one
side, and a main external wall on the other. The aisle walls are
usually pierced by windows. The arches of the arcade carry walls which
rise above the roofs of the aisles, and light the nave. These walls
are usually subdivided internally into two heights or stories; the
lower story consists of a series of small arches, to which the name of
triforium is given. This arcade usually opens into the dark space
above the ceiling or vault of the aisle, and hence it is sometimes
called the blind story. The upper story is the range of windows
already alluded to as lighting the nave, and is called the clerestory.
Thus a spectator standing in the nave, and looking towards the side
(Figs. 4 and 5), will see opposite him the main arcade, and over that
the triforium, and over that the clerestory, crowned by the nave vault
or roof; and looking through the arches of the nave arcade, he will
see the side windows of the aisle. Above the clerestory of the nave,
and the side windows of the aisles, come the vaults or roofs. In some
instances double aisles (two on each side) have been employed.
The transepts usually consist of well-marked limbs, divided like the
nave into a centre avenue and two side aisles, and these usually are
of the same width and height as the nave and its aisles. Sometimes
there are no transepts; sometimes they do not project beyond the line
of the walls, but still are marked by their rising above the lower
height of the nave aisles. Sometimes the transepts have no aisles, or
an aisle only on one side.[1] On the other hand, it is sometimes
customary, especially in English examples, to form two pairs of
transepts. This occurs in Lichfield Cathedral.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--CHOIR OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL. (BEGUN 1224.)
A. Nave Arcade. B. Triforium. C. Clerestory.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--NAVE OF WELLS CATHEDRAL. (1206 TO 1242.)
A. Nave Arcade. B. Triforium. C. Clerestory.]
The eastern arm of the cathedral is the part to which most importance
was attached, and it is usual to mark that importance by greater
richness, and by a difference in the height of its roof or vault as
compared with the nave; its floor is always raised. It also has its
central passage and its aisles; and it has double aisles much more
frequently than the nave. The eastern termination of the cathedral is
sometimes semicircular, sometimes polygonal, and when it takes this
form it is called an apse or an apsidal east end; sometimes it is
square, the apse being most in use on the Continent, and the square
east end in England. Attached to some of the side walls of the church
it is usual to have a series of chapels; these are ordinarily chambers
partly shut off from the main structure, but opening into it by arched
openings; each chapel contains an altar. The finest chapel is usually
one placed on the axis of the cathedral, and east of the east end of
the main building; this is called, where it exists, the Lady Chapel,
and was customarily dedicated to the Virgin. Henry VII.'s Chapel at
Westminster (Fig. 6) furnishes a familiar instance of the lady chapel
of a great church. Next in importance rank the side chapels which open
out of the aisles of the apse, when there is one. Westminster Abbey
furnishes good examples of these also. The eastern wall of the
transept is a favourite position for chapels. They are less frequently
added to the nave aisles.
The floor of the eastern arm of the cathedral, as has been pointed
out, is always raised, so as to be approached by steps; it is inclosed
by screen work which shuts off the choir, or inclosure for the
performance of divine service, from the nave. The fittings of this
part of the building generally include stalls for the clergy and
choristers and a bishop's throne, and are usually beautiful works of
art. Tombs, and inclosures connected with them, called chantry
chapels, are constantly met with in various positions, but most
frequently in the eastern arm.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--GROUND PLAN OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.]
Below the raised floor of the choir, and sometimes below other parts
of the building, there often exists a subterranean vaulted structure
known as the crypt.
Passing to the exterior of the cathedral, the principal doorway is in
the western front:[2] usually supplemented by entrances at the ends of
the transepts, and one or more side entrances to the nave. A porch on
the north side of the nave is a common feature. The walls are now seen
to be strengthened by stone piers, called buttresses. Frequently
arches are thrown from these buttresses to the higher walls of the
building. The whole arrangement of pier and arch is called a flying
buttress,[3] and, as will be explained later, is used to steady the
upper part of the building when a stone vault is employed (see Chap.
V.). The lofty gables in which the nave and transepts, and the eastern
arm when square terminate, form prominent features, and are often
occupied by great windows.
In a complete cathedral, the effect of the exterior is largely due to
the towers with which it was adorned. The most massive tower was
ordinarily one which stood, like the central one of Lichfield
Cathedral, at the crossing of the nave and transepts. Two towers were
usually intended at the western front of the building, and sometimes
one, or occasionally two, at the end of each transept. It is rare to
find a cathedral where the whole of these towers have been even begun,
much less completed. In many cases only one, in others three, have
been built. In some instances they have been erected, and have fallen.
In others they have never been carried up at all. During a large
portion of the Gothic period it was usual to add to each tower a
lofty pyramidal roof or spire, and these are still standing in some
instances, though many of them have disappeared. Occasionally a tower
was built quite detached from the church to which it belonged.
To cathedrals and abbey churches a group of monastic buildings was
appended. It will not be necessary to describe these in much detail.
They were grouped round an open square, surrounded by a vaulted and
arcaded passage, which is known as the cloister. This was usually
fitted into the warm and sheltered angle formed by the south side of
the nave and the south transept, though occasionally the cloister is
found on the north side of the nave. The most important building
opening out of the cloister is the chapter-house, frequently a lofty
and richly-ornamented room, often octagonal, and generally standing
south of the south transept. The usual arrangement of the monastic
buildings round and adjoining the cloister varied in details with the
requirements of the different monastic orders, and the circumstances
of each individual religious house, but, as in the case of churches,
the general principles of disposition were fixed early. They are
embodied in a manuscript plan, dating as far back as the ninth
century, and found at St. Gall in Switzerland, and never seem to have
been widely departed from. The monks' dormitory here occupies the
whole east side of the great cloister, there being no chapter-house.
It is usually met with as nearly in this position as the transept and
the chapter-house will permit. The refectory is on the south side of
the cloister, and has a connected kitchen. The west side of the
cloister in this instance was occupied by a great cellar. Frequently a
hospitum, or apartment for entertaining guests, stood here. The north
side of the cloister was formed by the church.
For the abbot a detached house was provided in the St. Gall plan to
stand on the north side of the church; and a second superior hospitum
for his guests. Eastward of the church are placed the infirmary with
its chapel, and an infirmarer's lodging. The infirmary was commonly
arranged with a nave and aisles, much like, a small parish church.
Other detached buildings gave a public school, a school for novices
with its chapel, and, more remotely placed, granaries, mills, a
bakehouse, and other offices. A garden and a cemetery formed part of
the scheme, which corresponds tolerably well with that of many
monastic buildings remaining in England, as _e.g._, those at
Fountains' Abbey, Furness Abbey, or Westminster Abbey, so far as they
can be traced.
Generally speaking the principal buildings in a monastery were long
and not very wide apartments, with windows on both sides. Frequently
they were vaulted, and they often had a row of columns down the
middle. Many are two stories high. Of the dependencies, the kitchen,
which was often a vaulted apartment with a chimney, and the barn,
which was often of great size, were the most prominent. They are often
fine buildings. At Glastonbury very good examples of a monastic barn
and kitchen can be seen.
Second only in importance to the churches and religious buildings come
the military and domestic buildings of the Gothic period (Fig. 7).
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--HOUSE OF JAQUES COEUR AT BOURGES.
(BEGUN 1413.)]
Every dwelling-house of consequence was more or less fortified, at any
rate during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. A lofty
square tower, called a keep, built to stand a siege, and with a walled
inclosure at its feet, often protected by a wide ditch (fosse or
moat), formed the castle of the twelfth century, and in some cases
(_e.g._ the White Tower of London), this keep was of considerable
size. The first step in enlargement was to increase the number and
importance of the buildings which clustered round the keep, and to
form two inclosures for them, known as an inner and an outer bailey.
The outer buildings of the Tower of London, though much modernised,
will give a good idea of what a first class castle grew to be by
successive additions of this sort. In castles erected near the end of
the thirteenth century (_e.g._ Conway Castle in North Wales), and
later, the square form of the keep was abandoned, and many more
arrangements for the comfort and convenience of the occupants were
introduced; and the buildings and additions to buildings of the
fifteenth century took more the shape of a modern dwelling-house,
partly protected against violence, but by no means strong enough to
stand a siege. Penshurst may be cited as a good example of this class
of building.
It will be understood that, unlike the religious buildings which early
received the form and disposition from which they did not depart
widely, mediaeval domestic buildings exhibit an amount of change in
which we can readily trace the effects of the gradual settlement of
this country, the abandonment of habits of petty warfare, the ultimate
cessation of civil wars, the introduction of gunpowder, the increase
in wealth and desire for comfort, and last, but not least, the
confiscation by Henry VIII. of the property of the monastic houses.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--PLAN OF WARWICK CASTLE. (14TH AND FOLLOWING
CENTURIES.)]
Warwick Castle, of which we give a plan (Fig. 8), maybe cited as a
good example of an English castellated mansion of the time of Richard
II. Below the principal story there is a vaulted basement containing
the kitchens and many of the offices. On the main floor we find the
hall, entered as usual at the lower or servants' end, from a porch.
The upper end gives access to a sitting-room, built immediately
behind it, and beyond are a drawing-room and state bed-rooms, while
across a passage are placed the private chapel and a large dining-room
(a modern addition). Bed-rooms occupy the upper floors of the
buildings at both ends of the hall.
Perhaps even more interesting as a study than Warwick Castle is Haddon
Hall, the well-preserved residence of the Duke of Rutland, in
Derbyshire. The five or six successive enlargements and additions
which this building has received between the thirteenth and
seventeenth centuries show the growth of ideas of comfort and even
luxury in this country.
As it now stands, Haddon Hall contains two internal quadrangles,
separated from one another by the great hall with its dais, its
minstrels' gallery, its vast open fire-place, and its traceried
windows, and by the kitchens, butteries, &c., belonging to it.
The most important apartments are reached from the upper end of the
hall, and consist of the magnificent ball-room, and a dining-room in
the usual position, _i.e._ adjoining the hall and opening out of it;
with, on the upper floor, a drawing-room, and a suite of state
bed-rooms, occupying the south side of both quadrangles and the east
end of one. A large range of apartments, added at a late period, and
many of them finely panelled and lined with tapestry, occupies the
north side of this building and the northwestern tower. At the
south-western corner of the building stands a chapel of considerable
size, and which once seems to have served as a kind of parochial
church; and a very considerable number of rooms of small size, opening
out of both quadrangles, would afford shelter, if not comfortable
lodging, to retainers, servants, and others. The portions built in
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries are more or less
fortified. The ball-room, which is of Elizabethan architecture, opens
on to a terraced garden, accessible from without by no more violent
means than climbing over a not very formidable wall. Probably nowhere
in England, can the growth of domestic architecture be better studied,
whether we look to the alterations which took place in accommodation
and arrangement, or to the changes which occurred in the architectural
treatment of windows, battlements, doorways and other features, than
at Haddon Hall.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--PALACES ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE. (14TH
CENTURY.)]
In towns and cities much beautiful domestic architecture is to be
found in the ordinary dwelling-houses, _e.g._ houses from Chester and
Lisieux (Figs. 14 and 15); but many specimens have of course perished,
especially as timber was freely used in their construction.
Dwelling-houses of a high order of excellence, and of large size, were
also built during this period. The Gothic palaces of Venice, of which
many stand on the Grand Canal (Fig. 9), are the best examples of
these, and the lordly Ducal Palace in that city is perhaps the finest
secular building which exists of Gothic architecture.
Municipal buildings of great size and beauty are to be found in North
Italy and Germany, but chiefly in Belgium, where the various
town-halls of Louvain, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, &c.,
vie with each other in magnificence and extent.
* * * * *
Many secular buildings also remain to us of which the architecture is
Gothic. Among these we find public halls and large buildings for
public purposes--as Westminster Hall, or the Palace of Justice at
Rouen; hospitals, as that at Milan; or colleges, as King's College,
Cambridge, with its unrivalled chapel. Many charming minor works,
such as fountains, wells (Fig. 10), crosses, tombs, monuments, and the
fittings of the interior of churches, also remain to attest the
versatility, the power of design, and the cultivated taste of the
architects of the Gothic period.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--WELL AT REGENSBURG. (15TH CENTURY.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As the north transept at Peterborough (Fig. 2).
[2] At E on the plan of Peterborough (Fig. 2).
[3] See Glossary.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.{--SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM SENS CATHEDRAL.}]