GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN WESTERN EUROPE.
FRANCE.--CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH.
The architecture of France during the Middle Ages throws much light
upon the history of the country. The features in which it differs from
the work done in England at the same period can, many of them, be
directly traced to differences in the social, political, or religious
situation of the two nations at the time. For example, we find England
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the hands of the Normans, a
newly-conquered country under uniform administration; and accordingly
few local variations occur in the architecture of our Norman period.
The twelfth-century work, at Durham or Peterborough for instance,
differs but little from that at Gloucester or Winchester. In France
the case is different. That country was divided into a series of
semi-independent provinces, whose inhabitants differed, not only in
the leaders whom they followed, but in speech, race, and customs. As
might be expected, the buildings of each province presented an aspect
different in many respects from those of every other; and we may as
well add that these peculiarities did not die out with the end of the
round-arched period of architecture, but lingered far into the pointed
period.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--CHURCH AT FONTEVRAULT. (BEGUN 1125.)]
The south of France was occupied by people speaking what are now known
as the Romance dialects, and some writers have adopted the name as
descriptive of the peculiarities of the architecture of these
districts. The Romance provinces clung tenaciously to their early
forms of art, so that pointed architecture was not established in the
south of France till half a century, and in some places nearly a whole
century, later than in the north.
On the other hand, the Frankish part of the country was the cradle of
Gothic. The transition from round to pointed architecture first took
place in the royal domain, of which Paris was the centre, and it may
be assumed that the new style was already existing when in 1140 Abbot
Suger laid the foundations of the choir of the church of St. Denis,
about forty years before the commencement of the eastern arm of our
own Canterbury.
De Caumont, who in his "Abecedaire" did for French architecture
somewhat the same work of analysis and scientific arrangement which
Rickman performed for English, has adopted the following
classification:--
{ Primitive. } 5th to 10th
{ _Primordiale._ } century.
{ }
{ Second. } End of 10th to
Romanesque Architecture. { _Secondaire._ } commencement of
_Architecture Romane._ { } 12th century.
{ }
{ Third or Transition }
{ _Tertiaire ou de_ } 12th century.
{ _Transition._ }
{ First. }
{ _Primitive._ } 13th century.
{ }
Pointed Architecture. { Second. }
_Architecture ogivale._ { _Secondaire._ } 14th century.
{ }
{ Third. }
{ _Tertiaire._ } 15th century.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--DOORWAY AT LOCHES, FRANCE. (1180.)]
The transitional architecture of France is no exception to the rule
that the art of a period of change is full of interest. Much of it has
disappeared, but examples remain in the eastern part of the cathedral
of St. Denis already referred to, in portions of the cathedrals of
Noyon and Sens, the west front of Chartres, the church of St.
Germain des Pres at Paris, and elsewhere. We here often find the
pointed arch employed for the most important parts of the structure,
while the round arch is still retained in the window and door-heads,
and in decorative arcades, as shown in our illustrations of a section
of the church at Fontevrault (Fig. 31), and of a doorway at Loches
(Fig. 32).
The first pointed architecture of the thirteenth century in France
differs considerably from the early English of this country. The
arches are usually less acute, and the windows not so tall in
proportion to their width. The mouldings employed are few and simple
compared with the many and intricate English ones. Large round columns
are much used in place of our complicated groups of small shafts for
the piers of the nave; and the abacus of the capital remains square.
An air of breadth and dignity prevails in the buildings of this date
to which the simple details, noble proportions, and great size largely
contribute. The western front of Notre Dame, Paris (Fig. 33), dates
from the early years of this century, the interior being much of it a
little earlier. The well-known cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, Laon,
and later in the style, Amiens, and Beauvais, may be taken as grand
examples of French first pointed. To these may be added the very
graceful Sainte Chapelle of Paris, the choir and part of the nave of
the cathedral at Rouen, the church of St. Etienne at Caen, and the
cathedrals of Coutances, Lisieux, Le Mans, and Bourges. This list of
churches could be almost indefinitely extended, and many monastic
buildings, and not a few domestic and military ones, might be added.
Among the most conspicuous of these may be named the monastic fortress
at Mont St. Michel, probably the most picturesque structure in
France, the remarkable fortifications of Carcassonne, and the lordly
castle of Coucy.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--NOTRE DAME, PARIS, WEST FRONT. (1214.)]
The second pointed, or fourteenth century Gothic of France, bears more
resemblance to contemporary English Gothic than the work of the
centuries preceding or following. Large windows for stained glass,
with rich geometrical tracery prevailed, and much the same sort of
ornamental treatment as in England was adopted in richly decorated
buildings. Specimens of the work of this century occur everywhere in
the shape of additions to the great churches and cathedrals which had
been left unfinished from the previous century, and also of side
chapels which it became customary to add to the aisles of churches.
The great and well-known abbey of St. Ouen at Rouen is one of the few
first-class churches which can be named as begun and almost entirely
completed in this century. The tower and spire of the church of St.
Pierre at Caen (Fig. 13) are very well-known and beautiful specimens
of this period.
French fifteenth century architecture, or third pointed, is far from
being so dignified or so scientific as English perpendicular, and
differs from it considerably. Exuberant richness in decoration was the
rage, and shows itself both in sculpture, tracery, and general design.
Much of the later work of this period has received the name of
flamboyant, because of the flame-like shapes into which the tracery of
the heads of windows was thrown. In flamboyant buildings we often meet
with art which, though certainly over-florid, is brilliant, rich, and
full of true feeling for decoration.
In this century, secular and domestic buildings attained more
prominence than at any previous periods. Some of them are among the
best works which this period produced. Familiar examples will be found
in the noble Palais de Justice at Rouen, and the Hotel de
Bourgtherould in the same city; in parts of the great chateau at
Blois, the splendid chateau of Pierrefonds, and the Hotels de Ville of
Oudenarde and Caen.
FRANCE.--ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS.
_Plan._
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--PLAN OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL. (1220-1272.)]
The plans of French cathedrals and other buildings conform in general
to the description of Gothic plans given in Chapter II., but they have
of course certain distinctive peculiarities (Fig. 34). The cathedrals
are as a rule much broader in proportion to their length than English
ones. Double aisles frequently occur, and not infrequently an added
range of side chapels fringes each of the main side walls, so that the
interior of one of these vast buildings presents, in addition to the
main vista along the nave, many delightful cross views of great
extent. The transepts are also much less strongly marked than our
English examples. There are even some great cathedrals (_e.g._,
Bourges) without transepts; and where they exist it is common to find
that, as in the case of Notre Dame de Paris, they do not project
beyond the line of the side walls, so that, although fairly
well-marked in the exterior and interior of the building, they add
nothing to its floor-space. The eastern end of a French cathedral (and
indeed of French churches generally, with very few exceptions) is
terminated in an apse. When, as is frequently the case, this apse is
encircled by a ring of chapels, with flying buttresses on several
stages rising from among them, the whole arrangement is called a
_chevet_, and very striking and busy is the appearance which it
presents.
_Walls, Towers, and Gables._
The walls are rarely built of any other material than stone, and much
splendid masonry is to be found in France. Low towers are often to be
met with, and so are projecting staircase turrets of polygonal or
circular forms. The facades of cathedrals, including ends of transepts
as well as west fronts, are most striking, and often magnificently
enriched. It is an interesting study to examine a series of these
fronts, each a little more advanced than the last, as for example
Notre Dame (Fig. 33), the transept at Rouen, Amiens (Fig. 35), and
Rheims, and to note how the horizontal bands and other level
features grow less and less conspicuous, while the vertical ones are
more and more strongly marked; showing an increasing desire, not only
to make the buildings lofty, but to suppress everything which might
interfere with their looking as high as possible.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--AMIENS CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT. (1220-1272.)]
_Columns and Piers._
The column is a greater favourite than the pier in France, as has
already been said. Sometimes, where the supports of the main arcade
are really piers, they are built like circular shafts of large size;
and even when they have no capital (as was the case in third-pointed
examples), these piers still retain much of the air of solid strength
which belongs to the column, and which the French architects appear to
have valued highly. In cases where a series of mouldings has to be
carried--as for example when the main arcade of a building is richly
moulded--English architects would usually have provided a distinct
shaft for each little group (or as Willis named them order), into
which the whole can be subdivided. In France, at any rate during the
earlier periods, the whole series of mouldings would spring from the
square unbroken abacus of a single large column, to which perhaps one
shaft, or as in our illustration (Fig. 36) four shafts, would be
attached which would be carried up to the springing of the nave vault,
at which point the same treatment would be repeated, though on a
smaller scale, with the moulded ribs of that vault.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--PIERS AND SUPERSTRUCTURE, RHEIMS CATHEDRAL.
(1211-1240.)
_i._ Springing of main ribs of the vault.
_h._ String-course below the clerestory.
_a b._ Triforium arcade.
_g._ String-course below the triform.
B. Main arcade separating the nave from the aisles.
A and N. Shafts attached to pier and supporting portions
of the superstructure.]
A peculiarity of some districts of southern France is the suppression
of the external buttress; the buttresses are in fact built within the
church walls instead of outside, and masonry enough is added to make
each into a separating wall which divides side chapels. Some large
churches, _e.g._, the cathedral at Alby, in Southern France, consist
of a wide nave buttressed in this way, and having side chapels between
the buttresses, but without side aisles.
The plans of the secular, military, and domestic buildings of France
also present many interesting peculiarities, but not such as it is
possible to review within the narrow limits of this chapter.
_Roofs and Vaults._
The peculiarly English feature of an open roof is hardly ever met with
in any shape: yet though stone vaults are almost universal, they are
rarely equal in scientific skill to the best of those in our own
country. In transitional examples, many very singular instances of the
expedients employed before the pointed vault was fully developed can
be found. In some of the central and southern districts, domes, or at
least domical vaults, were employed. (See the section of Fontevrault,
Fig. 31). The dome came in from Byzantium. It was introduced in
Perigord, where the very curious and remarkable church of St. Front
(begun early in the eleventh century) was built. This is to all
intents a Byzantine church. It is an almost exact copy in plan and
construction of St. Mark's at Venice, a church designed and built by
Eastern architects, and it is roofed by a series of domes, a
peculiarity which is as distinctive of Byzantine (_i.e._, Eastern
early Christian), as the vaulted roof is of Romanesque (or Western
early Christian) architecture. Artists from Constantinople itself
probably visited France, and from this centre a not inconsiderable
influence extended itself in various directions, and led to the use of
many Byzantine features both of design and ornament.
As features in the exterior of their buildings, the roofs have been
in every period valued by the French architects; they are almost
always steep, striking, and ornamented. All appropriate modes of
giving prominence and adding ornament to a roof have been very fully
developed in French Gothic architecture, and the roofs of semicircular
and circular apses, staircase towers, &c., may be almost looked upon
as typical.[23]
_Openings._
The treatment of openings gives occasion for one of the most strongly
marked points of contrast between French and English Gothic
architecture. With us the great windows are unquestionably the
prominent features, but with the French the doors are most elaborated.
This result is reached not so much by any lowering of the quality of
the treatment bestowed upon the windows, but by the greatly increased
importance given to doorways.
The great portals of Notre Dame at Paris (Fig. 33), Rheims, or Amiens
(Fig. 35), and the grand porches of Chartres may be named as the
finest examples, and are probably the most magnificent single features
which Gothic Art produced in any age or any country; but in its degree
the western portal of every great church is usually an object upon
which the best resources of the architect have been freely lavished.
The wall is built very thick so that enormous jambs, carrying a vast
moulded arch, can be employed. The head of the door is filled with
sculpture, which is also lavishly used in the sides and arch, and over
the whole rises an ornamental gable, frequently profusely adorned with
tracery and sculpture, its sides being richly decorated by crockets
or similar ornaments, and crowned by a sculptured terminal or finial.
The windows in the earliest periods are simpler than in our E. E., as
well as of less slender proportions. In the second and third periods
they are full of rich tracery, and are made lofty and wide to receive
the magnificent stained glass with which it was intended to fill them,
and which many churches retain. Circular windows, sometimes called
wheel-windows, often occupy the gables, and are many of them very fine
compositions.
_Mouldings and Ornaments._
The mouldings of the French first pointed are usually larger than our
own. Compared with ours they are also fewer, simpler, and designed to
produce more breadth of effect. This may partly result from their
originating in a sunshiny country where effects of shade are easily
obtained. In the second and third periods they more nearly resemble
those in use in England at the corresponding times.
The carving is very characteristic and very beautiful. In the
transition and first pointed a cluster of stalks, ending in a tuft of
foliage or flowers, is constantly employed, especially in capitals.
The use of this in England is rare; and, on the other hand, foliage
like E. E. conventional foliage is rare in France. In the second
pointed, natural foliage is admirably rendered (Fig. 37). In the third
a somewhat conventional kind of foliage, very luxuriant in its
apparent growth, is constantly met with.
This carving is at every stage accompanied by figure-sculpture of the
finest character. Heads of animals, statues, groups of figures, and
has reliefs are freely employed, but always with the greatest
judgment, so that their introduction adds richness to the very point
in the whole composition where it is most needed. In every part of
France, and in every period of Gothic architecture, good specimens of
sculpture abound. Easily accessible illustrations will be found in the
west entrance and south transept front of Rouen Cathedral, the porches
and portals at Chartres, the choir inclosure of Notre Dame at Paris,
and the richly sculptured inclosure of the choir of Amiens Cathedral.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--CAPITAL FROM ST. NICHOLAS, BLOIS, FRANCE.
(13TH CENTURY.)]
Stained glass has been more than once referred to. It is to be found
in its greatest perfection in France, as for example in La Sainte
Chapelle at Paris, and the cathedrals of Le Mans, Bourges, Chartres,
and Rheims. All that has been said in the introductory chapter on
this, the crowning ornament of Gothic architecture, and on its
influence upon window design, and through that, upon the whole
structure of the best churches, is to the full as applicable to French
examples. Coloured decoration was also frequently employed in the
interior of churches and other buildings, and is constantly to be met
with in French buildings, both secular and religious. In most cases,
however, it is less easy to appreciate this than the stained glass,
for, as it is now to be seen, the colours are either faded and
darkened by time and smoke, or else restored, not always with the
exactness that could be desired.
_Construction and Design._
The construction of the great buildings of the middle ages in France
is an interesting subject of study, but necessarily a thoroughly
technical one. Great sagacity in designing the masonry, carpentry,
joinery, and metal-work; and trained skill in the carrying out the
designs, have left their traces everywhere; and while the construction
of the earlier castles and of the simple churches shows a solidity but
little inferior to that of the Romans themselves, the most elaborate
works, such for example as the choir at Beauvais (Fig. 38), can hardly
be surpassed as specimens of skill and daring, careful forethought,
and bold execution.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--BEAUVAIS CATHEDRAL, INTERIOR. (1225-1537.)]
Design, in France, pursued the general principles of Gothic
architecture to their logical conclusions with the most uncompromising
consistency. Perhaps the most distinctive peculiarity in French
cathedrals is a love of abstract beauty, and a strong preference for
breadth, regularity, dignity, and symmetry wherever they come into
competition with picturesqueness and irregular grouping. There is, it
is true, plenty of the picturesque element in French mediaeval art; but
if we take the finest buildings, and those in which the greatest
effort would be made to secure the qualities which were considered the
greatest and most desirable, we shall find very strong evidences of a
conviction that beauty was to be attained by regularity and order,
rather than by unsymmetrical and irregular treatment.
BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS.
Belgium is a country rich in remains of Gothic architecture. Its art
was influenced so largely by its neighbourhood to France, that it will
not be necessary to attempt anything like a chronological arrangement
of its buildings. Fine churches exist in its principal cities, but
they cannot be said to form a series differing widely from the
churches of France, with which they were contemporary, and where they
differ the advantage is generally on the side of the French originals.
The principal cathedral of the Low Countries, that at Antwerp, is a
building remarkable for its great width (having seven aisles), and for
the wonderful picturesqueness of its interior. The exterior, which is
unfinished, is also very effective, with its one lofty spire. The
other cathedrals of note include those of Tournay, Brussels, Mechlin,
Louvain, Liege, and Ghent. Belgium also possesses a great number of
large parochial churches.
When we turn to secular buildings we find the Belgian architecture of
the middle ages taking a leading position. The free cities of Belgium
acquired municipal privileges at an early date, and accumulated great
wealth. Accordingly we find town halls, trade halls, belfries,
warehouses, and excellent private dwelling-houses in abundance. The
cloth hall at Ypres has been repeatedly illustrated and referred to as
an example of a grand and effective building for trade purposes; it
is of thirteenth-century architecture and of great size, its centre
marked by a massive lofty tower; and its angles carrying slight
turrets; but in other respects it depends for its effectiveness solely
on its repetition of similar features. Examples of the same kind of
architecture exist at Louvain and Ghent.
The Town Halls of Brussels, Louvain, Bruges, Mechlin, Ghent,
Oudenarde, and Ypres, are all buildings claiming attention. They were
most of them in progress during the fifteenth century, and are fine,
but florid examples of late Gothic. Some one or two at least of the
town halls were begun and partly carried out in the fourteenth
century; on the other hand, the Hotel de Ville at Oudenarde, was begun
as late as the beginning of the sixteenth; so were the Exchange at
Antwerp (destroyed by fire and rebuilt not long since) and some other
well-known structures: their architecture, though certainly Gothic, is
debased in style.
The general aspect of these famous buildings was noble and bold in
mass, and rich in ornament. Our illustration (Fig. 39) shows the Town
Hall of Middleburgh in Holland; one which is less famous and of
smaller dimensions than those enumerated above, but equally
characteristic.
The main building usually consisted of a long unbroken block
surmounted by a high-pitched roof, and usually occupied one side of a
public place. The side of the building presents several storeys,
filled by rows of fine windows, though in some cases the lowest storey
is occupied by an open arcade. The steep roof, usually crowded with
dormer windows, carries up the eye to a lofty ridge, and from the
centre of it rises the lofty tower which forms so conspicuous a
feature in most of these buildings. In the Town Hall at Bruges the
tower is comparatively simple, though of a mass and height that are
truly imposing; but in Brussels, Ypres, and other examples, it is a
richly ornamented composition on which every resource of the mason and
the carver has been lavished. Our illustration (Fig. 40) shows the
well-known tower at Ghent.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--THE TOWN HALL OF MIDDLEBURGH. (1518.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--TOWER AT GHENT. (BEGUN 1183.)]
The gable ends of the great roof are often adorned by pinnacles and
other ornaments; but they rarely come prominently into view, as it is
invariably the long side of the building which is considered to be the
principal front.
SCOTLAND, WALES, AND IRELAND.
In Scotland good but simple examples of early work (transition from
Romanesque to E. E.) occur, as for example, at Jedburgh and Kelso,
Dryburgh and Leuchars abbey churches. A very interesting and in many
respects unique cathedral of the thirteenth century, with later
additions, exists at Glasgow. It is a building of much beauty, with
good tracery, and the crypt offers a perfect study of various and
often graceful modes of forming groined vaults. The Cathedral of Elgin
(thirteenth century), an admirable Edwardian building, now in ruins,
and the Abbey at Melrose, also ruined, of fourteenth century
architecture (begun 1322), are both excellent specimens of the art of
the periods to which they belong, and bear a close resemblance to what
was being done in England at the same time. The famous tower of St.
Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, and the Chapel at Roslyn, of the
fifteenth century, on the other hand, are of thoroughly un-English
character, resembling in this respect much of the Scotch architecture
of the succeeding centuries; Roslyn is ascribed by Mr. Fergusson to a
Spanish or Portuguese architect, with great probability.
Other abbey churches and remains of architectural work exist at
Dumblane, Arbroath, Dunkeld, and in many other localities; and
Holyrood Palace, still retains part of its elegant early
fourteenth-century chapel.
Of secular and domestic work Linlithgow is a fair specimen, but of
late date. Most of the castles and castellated mansions of Scotland
belong indeed to a later time than the Gothic period, though there is
a strong infusion of Gothic feeling in the very picturesque style in
which they are designed.
* * * * *
Wales is distinguished for the splendid series of castles to which
allusion has been made in a previous chapter. They were erected at the
best time of English Gothic architecture (Edward I.) under English
direction, and are finely designed and solidly built. Wales can also
boast the interesting Cathedrals of Chester, Llandaff, St. David's,
and some smaller churches, but in every case there is little to
distinguish them from contemporary English work.
* * * * *
Ireland is more remarkable for antiquities of a date anterior to the
beginning of the Gothic period than for works belonging to it. A
certain amount of graceful and simple domestic work, however, exists
there; and in addition to the cathedrals of Kildare, Cashel, and
Dublin, numerous monastic buildings, not as a rule large or ambitious,
but often graceful and picturesque, are scattered about.
[Illustration: _Miserere Seat in Wells Cathedral._]
FOOTNOTES:
[23] For an example of these see the house of Jaques Coeur (Fig. 7).
[Illustration: {SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY.}]