GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.--ENGLAND.
ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS.--FLOOR, WALLS, TOWERS, GABLES, COLUMNS.
_Floor, or Plan._
The excellences or defects of a building are more due to the shape and
size of its floor and, incidentally, of the walls and columns or piers
which inclose and subdivide its floor than to anything else whatever.
A map of the floor and walls (usually showing also the position of the
doors and windows), is known as a plan, but by a pardonable figure of
speech the plan of a building is often understood to mean the shape
and size and arrangement of its floor and walls themselves, instead of
simply the drawing representing them. It is in this sense that the
word plan will be used in this volume.
The plan of a Gothic Cathedral has been described, and it has been
already remarked that before the Gothic period had commenced the
dimensions of great churches had been very much increased. The
generally received disposition of the parts of a church had indeed
been already settled or nearly so. There were consequently few
radical alterations in church plans during the Gothic period. One,
however, took place in England in the abandonment of the apse.
At first the apsidal east end, common in the Norman times, was
retained. For example, it is found at Canterbury, where the choir and
transept are transitional, having been begun soon after 1174 and
completed about 1184; but the eastern end of Chichester, which belongs
to the same period (the transition), displays the square east end, and
this termination was almost invariably preferred in our country after
the twelfth century.
A great amount of regularity marks the plans of those great churches
which had vaulted roofs, as will be readily understood when it is
remembered that the vaults were divided into equal and similar
compartments, and that the points of support had to be placed with
corresponding regularity. Where, however, some controlling cause of
this nature was not at work much picturesque irregularity prevailed in
the planning of English Gothic buildings of all periods. The plans of
our Cathedrals are noted for their great length in proportion to their
width, for the considerable length given to the transepts, and for the
occurrence in many cases (_e.g._ Salisbury, thirteenth century) of a
second transept. The principal alterations which took place in plan as
time went on originated in the desire to concentrate material as much
as possible on points of support, leaving the walls between them thin
and the openings wide, and in the use of flying buttresses, the feet
of which occupy a considerable space outside the main walls of the
church. The plans of piers and columns also underwent the alterations
which will be presently described.[8]
Buildings of a circular shape on plan are very rare, but octagonal
ones are not uncommon. The finest chapter-houses attached to our
Cathedrals are octagons, with a central pier to carry the vaulting. On
the whole, play of shape on plan was less cultivated in England than
in some continental countries.
The plans of domestic buildings are usually simple, but grew more
elaborate and extensive as time went on. The cloister with
dwelling-rooms and common-rooms entered from its walk, formed the
model on which colleges, hospitals, and alms-houses were planned. The
castle, already described, was the residence of the wealthy during the
earlier part of the Gothic period, and when, in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, houses which were rather dwellings than
fortresses began to be erected, the hall, with a large bay window and
a raised floor or dais at one end and a mighty open fire-place, was
always the most conspicuous feature in the plan. Towards the close of
the Gothic period the plan of a great dwelling, such as Warwick Castle
(Fig. 8), began to show many of the features which distinguish a
mansion of the present day.
In various parts of the country remains of magnificent Gothic
dwelling-houses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries exist, and
long before the close of the perpendicular period we had such mansions
as Penshurst and Hever, such palaces as Windsor and Wells, such
castellated dwellings as Warwick and Haddon, differing in many
respects but all agreeing in the possession of a great central hall.
Buildings for public purposes also often took the form of a great
hall. Westminster Hall may be cited as the finest example of such a
structure, not only in England but in Europe.
The student who desires to obtain anything beyond the most
superficial acquaintance with architecture must endeavour to obtain
enough familiarity with ground plans, to be able to sketch, measure,
and lay down a plan to scale and to _read_ one. The plan shows to the
experienced architect the nature, arrangement, and qualities of a
building better than any other drawing, and a better memorandum of a
building is preserved if a fairly correct sketch of its plan, or of
the plan of important parts of it, is preserved than if written notes
are alone relied upon.
_Walls._
The walls of Gothic buildings are generally of stone; brick being the
exception. They were in the transitional and Early English times
extremely thick, and became thinner afterwards. All sorts of
ornamental masonry were introduced into them, so that diapers,[9]
bands, arcades, mouldings, and inlaid patterns are all to be met with
occasionally, especially in districts where building materials of
varied colours, or easy to work, are plentiful. In the perpendicular
period the walls were systematically covered with panelling closely
resembling the tracery of the windows (_e.g._, Henry VII.'s Chapel at
Westminster).
The wall of a building ordinarily requires some kind of base and some
kind of top. The base or plinth in English Gothic buildings was
usually well marked and bold, especially in the perpendicular period,
and it is seldom absent. The eaves of the roof in some cases overhang
the walls, resting on a simple stone band, called an eaves-course, and
constitute the crowning feature. In many instances, however, the
eaves are concealed behind a parapet[10] which is often carried on a
moulded cornice or on corbels. This, in the E. E. period, was usually
very simple. In the Dec. it was panelled with ornamental panels, and
often made very beautiful. In the Perp. it was frequently battlemented
as well as panelled.
A distinguishing feature of Gothic walls is the buttress. It existed,
but only in the form of a flat pier of very slight projection in
Norman, as in almost all Romanesque buildings, but in the Gothic
period it became developed.
The buttress, like many of the peculiarities of Gothic architecture,
originated in the use of stone vaults and the need for strong piers at
these points, upon which the thrust and weight of those vaults were
concentrated. The use of very large openings, for wide windows full of
stained glass also made it increasingly necessary in the Dec. and
Perp. periods to fortify the walls at regular points.
A buttress[10] is, in fact, a piece of wall set athwart the main wall,
usually projecting considerably at the base and diminished by
successive reductions of its mass as it approaches the top, and so
placed as to counteract the thrust of some arch or vault inside. It
had great artistic value; in the feeble and level light of our
Northern climate it casts bold shadows and catches bright lights, and
so adds greatly to the architectural effect of the exterior. In the
E. E. the buttress was simple and ordinarily projected about its own
width. In the Dec. it obtained much more projection, was constructed
with several diminutions (technically called weatherings), and was
considerably ornamented. In the Perp. it was frequently enriched by
panelling. The buttresses in the Dec. period are often set diagonally
at the corner of a building or tower. In the E. E. period this was
never done.
The flying buttress[11] is one of the most conspicuous features of the
exterior of those Gothic buildings which possessed elaborate stone
vaults. It was a contrivance for providing an abutment to
counterbalance the outward pressure of the vault covering the highest
and central parts of the building in cases where that vault rested
upon and abutted against walls which themselves were carried by
arches, and were virtually internal walls, so that no buttress could
be carried up from the ground to steady them.
A pier of masonry, sometimes standing alone, sometimes thrown out from
the aisle wall opposite the point to be propped, formed the solid part
of this buttress; it was carried to the requisite height and a flying
arch spanning the whole width of the aisles was thrown across from it
to the wall at the point whence the vault sprung. The pier itself was
in many cases loaded by an enormous pinnacle, so that its weight might
combine with the pressure transmitted along the slope of the flying
arch to give a resultant which should fall within the base of the
buttress. The back of such an arch was generally used as a water
channel.
The forest of flying buttresses round many French cathedrals produces
an almost bewildering effect, as, for instance, at the east end of
Notre Dame;--our English specimens, at Westminster Abbey for example,
are comparatively simple.
_Towers._
The gable and the tower are developments of the walls of the building.
Gothic is _par excellence_ the style of towers. Many towers were
built detached from all other buildings, but no great Gothic building
is complete without one main tower and some subordinate ones.
In the E. E. style church towers were often crowned by low spires,
becoming more lofty as the style advanced. In the Dec. style lofty
spires were almost universal. In the Perp. the tower rarely has a
visible roof.[12]
The artistic value of towers in giving unity coupled with variety to a
group of buildings can hardly be exaggerated.
The positions which towers occupy are various. They produce the
greatest effect when central, _i.e._ placed over the crossing of the
nave and transepts. Lichfield, Chichester, and Salisbury may be
referred to as examples of cathedrals with towers in this position and
surmounted by spires. Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Gloucester are
specimens of the effectiveness of the tower similarly placed, but
without a spire (Fig. 12). At Wells a fine central octagon occupies
the crossing, and is remarkable for the skill with which it is fitted
to the nave and aisles internally. Next to central towers rank a pair
of towers at the western end of the building. These exist at Lichfield
with their spires; they exist (square-topped) at Lincoln, and (though
carried up since the Gothic period) at Westminster.[13] Many churches
have a single tower in this position (Fig. 13).
The obvious purpose of a tower, beyond its serviceableness as a
feature of the building and as a landmark, is to lift up a belfry high
into the air: accordingly, almost without exception, church and
cathedral towers are designed with a large upper story, pierced by
openings of great size and height called the belfry stage; and the
whole artistic treatment of the tower is subordinate to this feature.
It is also very often the case that a turret to contain a spiral
staircase which may afford the means of access to the upper part of
the tower, forms a prominent feature of its whole height, especially
in the Dec. and Perp. periods.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. (MOSTLY EARLY ENGLISH.)]
In domestic and monastic buildings, low towers were frequently
employed with excellent effect. Many castles retained the Norman keep,
or square strong tower, which had served as the nucleus round which
other buildings had afterwards clustered; but where during the Gothic
period a castle was built, or rebuilt, without such a keep, one or
more towers, often of great beauty, were always added. Examples
abound; good ones will be found in the Edwardian castles in Wales (end
of thirteenth century), as for example at Conway and Caernarvon.
_Gables._
The gable forms a distinctive Gothic feature. The gables crowned those
parts of a great church in which the skill of the architect was
directed to producing a regular composition, often called a front, or
a facade. The west fronts of Cathedrals were the most important
architectural designs of this sort, and with them we may include the
ends of the transepts and the east fronts.
The same parts of parish churches are often excellent compositions.
The gable of the nave always formed the central feature of the main
front. This was flanked by the gables, or half-gables, of the aisles
where there were no towers, or by the lower portions of the towers. As
a rule the centre and sides of the facade are separated by buttresses,
or some other mode of marking a vertical division, and the composition
is also divided by bands of mouldings or otherwise, horizontally into
storeys. Some of the horizontal divisions are often strongly marked,
especially in the lower part of the building, where in early examples
there is sometimes in addition to the plinth, or base of the wall, an
arcade or a band of sculpture running across the entire front (_e.g._
east front of Lincoln Cathedral). The central gable is always occupied
by a large window--or in early buildings a group of windows--sometimes
two storeys in height. A great side window usually occurs at the end
of each aisle. Below these great windows are introduced, at any rate
in west fronts, the doorways, which, even in the finest English
examples, are comparatively small. The gable also contains as a rule
one or more windows often circular which light the space above the
vaults.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--ST. PIERRE, CAEN, TOWER AND SPIRE. (SPIRE,
1302.)]
Part of the art in arranging such a composition is to combine and yet
contrast its horizontal and vertical elements. The horizontal lines,
or features, are those which serve to bind the whole together, and the
vertical ones are those which give that upward tendency which is the
great charm and peculiar characteristic of Gothic architecture. It is
essential for the masses of solid masonry and the openings to be
properly contrasted and proportioned to each other, and here, as in
every part of a building, such ornaments and ornamental features as
are introduced must be designed to contribute to the enrichment of the
building as a whole, so that no part shall be conspicuous either by
inharmonious treatment, undue plainness, or excessive enrichment.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--HOUSE AT CHESTER. (16TH CENTURY.)]
During the transition the gable became steeper in pitch than the
comparatively moderate slope of Norman times. In the E. E. it was
acutely pointed, in the Dec. the usual slope was that of the two sides
of an equilateral triangle: in the Perp. it became extremely flat and
ceased to be so marked a feature as it had formerly been. In domestic
buildings the gable was employed in the most effective manner, and
town dwelling-houses were almost invariably built their gable ends to
the street (Fig. 14).
* * * * *
A very effective form of wall was frequently made use of in
dwelling-houses. This consisted of a sturdy framework of stout timbers
exposed to view, with the spaces between them filled in with plaster.
Of this work, which is known as half-timbered work, many beautiful
specimens remain dating from the fifteenth and following centuries
(Figs. 14 and 15), and a few of earlier date. In those parts of
England where tiles are manufactured such framework was often covered
by tiles instead of being filled in with plastering. In half-timbered
houses, the fire-places and chimneys, and sometimes also the basement
storeys, are usually of brickwork or masonry; so are the side walls in
the case of houses in streets. It was usual in such buildings to cause
the upper storeys to overhang the lower ones.
_Columns and Piers._
The columns and piers of a building virtually form portions of its
walls, so far as aiding to support the weight of the roof is
concerned, and are appropriately considered in connection with them.
In Gothic architecture very little use is made of columns on the
outside of a building, and the porticoes and external rows of columns
proper to the classic styles are quite unknown. On the other hand the
series of piers, or columns, from which spring the arches which
separate the central avenues of nave, transepts and choir from the
aisles, are among the most prominent features in every church. These
piers varied in each century.[14]
The Norman piers had been frequently circular or polygonal, but
sometimes nearly square, and usually of enormous mass. Thus, at Durham
(Norman), oblong piers of about eleven feet in diameter occur
alternately with round ones of about seven feet. In transitional
examples columns of more slender proportions were employed either (as
in the choir of Canterbury) as single shafts or collected into groups.
Where grouping took place it was intended that each shaft of the group
should be seen to support some definite feature of the superincumbent
structure, as where a separate group of mouldings springs from each
shaft in a doorway, and this principle was very steadily adhered to
during the greater part of the Gothic period.[14]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--HOUSES AT LISIEUX, FRANCE. (16TH CENTURY.)]
Through the E. E. period groups of shafts are generally employed; they
are often formed of detached shafts clustering round a central one,
and held together at intervals by bands or belts of masonry, and
generally the entire group is nearly circular on plan. In the
succeeding century (Dec. period) the piers also take the form of
groups of shafts, but they are generally carved out of one block of
stone, and the ordinary arrangement of the pier is on a lozenge-shaped
plan. In the Perp., the piers retain the same general character, but
are slenderer, and the shafts have often shrunk to nothing more than
reedy mouldings.
The column is often employed in Transitional and E. E. churches as a
substitute for piers carrying arches. In every period small columns
are freely used as ornamental features. They are constantly met with,
for example, in the jambs of doorways and of windows.
Every column is divided naturally into three parts, its base, or foot;
its shaft, which forms the main body; and its capital, or head. Each
of these went through a series of modifications. Part of the base
usually consisted of a flat stone larger than the diameter of the
column, sometimes called a plinth, and upon this stood the moulded
base which gradually diminished to the size of the shaft. This plain
stone was in E. E. often square, and in that case the corner spaces
which were not covered by the mouldings of the base were often
occupied by an elegantly carved leaf. In Dec. and Perp. buildings the
lower part of the base was often polygonal, and frequently moulded so
as to make it into a pedestal.[15]
The proportions of shafts varied extraordinarily; they were, as a
rule, extremely slender when their purpose was purely decorative, and
comparatively sturdy when they really served to carry a weight.
The capital of the column has been perhaps the most conspicuous
feature in the architecture of every age and every country, and it is
one of the features which a student may make use of as an indication
of date and style of buildings, very much as the botanist employs the
flower as an index to the genus and species of plants. The capital
almost invariably starts from a ring, called the neck of the column.
This serves to mark the end of the shaft and the commencement of the
capital. Above this follows what is commonly called the bell,--the
main portion of the capital, which is that part upon which the skill
of the carver and the taste of the designer can be most freely
expended, and on the top of the bell is placed the abacus, a flat
block of stone upon the upper surface of which is built the
superstructure or is laid the beam or block which the column has to
support. The shape and ornaments given to the abacus are often of
considerable importance as indications of the position in
architectural history which the building in which it occurs should
occupy.
The Norman capital differed to some extent from the Romanesque
capitals of other parts of Europe. It was commonly of a heavy,
strong-looking shape, and is often appropriately called the cushion
capital. In its simpler forms the cushion capital is nothing but a
cubical block of stone with its lower corners rounded off to make it
fit the circular shaft on which it is placed, and with a slab by way
of abacus placed upon it. In later Norman and transitional work the
faces of this block and the edges of the abacus are often richly
moulded. By degrees, however, as the transition to E. E. approached, a
new sort of capital[16] was introduced, having the outline of the bell
hollow instead of convex. The square faces of the Norman capital of
course disappeared, and the square abacus soon (at least in this
country) became circular, involving no small loss of vigour in the
appearance of the work. The bell of this capital was often decorated
with rich mouldings, and had finely-designed and characteristic
foliage, which almost always seemed to grow up the capital, and
represented a conventional kind of leaf easily recognised when once
seen.
In the Dec. period the capitals have, as a rule, fewer and less
elaborate mouldings; the foliage is often very beautifully carved in
imitation of natural leaves, and wreathed round the capital instead of
growing up it. In the Perp. this feature is in every way less ornate,
the mouldings are plainer, and the foliage, often absent, is, when it
occurs, conventional and stiff. Polygonal capitals are common in this
period.
[Illustration: _Later Norman Capital._]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] For illustrations consult the Glossary under _Pier_.
[9] For illustration consult the Glossary.
[10] For illustrations consult the Glossary.
[11] For illustration consult the Glossary under _Flying buttress_.
[12] For remarks on Spires, see Chap. V.
[13] York, Lichfield, and Lincoln, are the cathedrals distinguished by
the possession of three towers.
[14] For illustrations consult the Glossary under _Pier_.
[15] For illustrations consult the Glossary under _Base_.
[16] For illustrations consult the Glossary.
[Illustration: {SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY.}]