GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE.
GERMANY.--CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH.
The architecture of Germany, from the twelfth to the sixteenth
centuries, can be divided into an early, a middle, and a late period,
with tolerable distinctness. Of these, the early period possesses the
greatest interest, and the peculiarities of its buildings are the most
marked and most beautiful. In the middle period, German Gothic bore a
very close general resemblance to the Gothic of the same time in
France; and, as a rule, such points of difference as exist are not in
favour of the German work. Late Gothic work in Germany is very
fantastic and unattractive.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--ABBEY CHURCH OF ARNSTEIN. (12TH AND 13TH
CENTURIES.)]
Through the twelfth, and part of the thirteenth centuries, the
architects of Germany pursued a course parallel with that followed in
France and in England, but without adopting the pointed arch. They
developed the simple and rude Romanesque architecture which prevailed
throughout Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and which they
learnt originally from Byzantine artists who fled from their own
country during the reign of the iconoclasts; and they not only carried
it to a point of elaboration which was abreast of the art of our best
Norman architecture, but went on further in the same course; for
while the French and ourselves were adopting lancet windows and
pointed arches, they continued to employ the round-headed window and
the semicircular arch in buildings which in their size, richness,
loftiness, and general style, correspond with early Gothic examples in
other countries. This early German architecture has been sometimes
called fully developed Romanesque, and sometimes round-arched Gothic,
and both terms may be applied to it without impropriety, for it
partakes of the qualities implied by each. The Church of the Holy
Apostles at Cologne, and those of St. Martin and St. Maria in
Capitolo, in the same city, may be referred to as among the best works
of this class. Each of these has an eastern apse, and also an apsidal
termination to each transept. The Apostles' church has a low octagon
at the crossing, and its sky-line is further broken up by western and
eastern towers, the latter of comparatively small size and octagonal;
and under the eaves of the roof occurs an arcade of small arches.
A view of the Abbey Church of Arnstein (Fig. 41) illustrates some of
the features of these transitional churches. It will be noticed that
though there is no transept, there are no less than four towers, two
octagonal, and two square, and that the apse is a strongly developed
feature.
In the church at Andernach, of which we give an illustration (Fig.
42), the same arrangement, namely, that of four towers, two to the
west, and two to the east, may be noticed; but there is not the same
degree of difference between the towers, and the result is less happy.
This example, like the last, has no central feature, and in both the
arcade under the eaves of the roof is conspicuous only by its absence.
It does, however, occur on the western towers at Andernach.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--CHURCH AT ANDERNACH. (EARLY 13TH CENTURY.)]
The pointed arch, when adopted in Germany, was in all probability
borrowed from France, as the general aspect of German churches of
pointed architecture seems to prove. The greatest Gothic cathedral of
Germany, Cologne Cathedral, was not commenced till about the year
1275, and its choir was probably completed during the first quarter of
the fourteenth century. This cathedral, one of the largest in Europe,
is also one of the grandest efforts of mediaeval architecture, and it
closely resembles French examples of the same period, both in its
general treatment, and in the detail of its features. The plan of
Cologne Cathedral (Fig. 46) is one of the most regular and symmetrical
which has come down to us from the middle ages. The works were carried
on slowly after the choir was consecrated, but without any deviation
from the original plan, though some alteration in style and details
crept in. In our own day the works have been resumed and vigorously
pushed on towards completion; and, the original drawings having been
preserved, the two western towers, the front, and other portions have
been carried on in accordance with them. Cologne, accordingly,
presents the almost unique spectacle of a great Gothic church, erected
without deviation from its original plan, and completed in the style
in which it was begun. It is fair to add that though splendid in the
extreme, this cathedral has far less charm, and less of that peculiar
quality of mystery and vitality than many, we might say most, of the
great cathedrals of Europe.
The plan consists of a nave of eight bays, two of which form a kind of
vestibule, and five avenues, _i.e._ two aisles on each side; transepts
of four bays each, with single aisles; and a choir of four bays and an
apse, the double aisle of the nave being continued and carried down
the choir. That part of the outer aisle which sweeps round the apse
has been formed into a series of seven polygonal chapels, thus gaining
a complete _chevet_.[24] Over the crossing there is a comparatively
slender spire, and at the west end stand two massive towers terminated
by a pair of lofty and elaborate spires, of open tracery, and enriched
by crockets, finials, and much ornamentation. The cathedral is built
of stone, without much variation in colour; it is vaulted throughout,
and a forest of flying buttresses surrounds it on all sides. The
beauty of the tracery, the magnificent boldness of the scale of the
whole building, and its orderly regularity, are very imposing, and
give it a high rank among the greatest works of European architecture;
but it is almost too majestic to be lovely, and somewhat cold and
uninteresting from its uniform colour, and perhaps from its great
regularity.
Strasburg Cathedral--not so large as Cologne--has been built at
various times; the nave and west front are the work of the best Gothic
period. This building has a nave and single aisles, short transepts,
and a short apsidal choir. There is great richness in much of the
work; double tracery, _i.e._ a second layer, so to speak, of tracery,
is here employed in the windows, and extended beyond them, but the
effect is not happy. The front was designed to receive two open
tracery spires, but only one of them has been erected. It is amazingly
intricate and rich, the workmanship is very astonishing, but the
artistic effect is not half so good as that of many plain stone
spires.
Another important German church famous for an open spire is the
cathedral at Friburg. Here only one tower, standing at the middle of
the west front, was ever intended, and partly because the composition
is complete as proposed, and partly because the design of the tracery
in the spire itself is more telling, this building forms a more
effective object than Strasburg, though by no means so lofty or so
grandiose.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--CHURCH OF ST. BARBARA AT KUTTENBERG. EAST
END. (1358-1548.)]
The Cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna is a large and exceedingly rich
church. In this building the side aisles are carried to almost the
same height as the centre avenue--an arrangement not infrequent in
German churches having little save novelty to recommend it, and by
which the triforium, and, as a rule, the clerestory disappear, and the
church is lighted solely by large side windows. The three avenues are
covered by one wide roof, which makes a vast and rather clumsy display
externally. A lofty tower, surmounted by a fine and elaborate spire of
open tracery, stands on one side of the church--an unusual
position--and an unfinished companion tower is begun on the
corresponding side. Great churches and cathedrals are to be found in
many of the cities of Germany, but their salient points are, as a
rule, similar to those of the examples which have been already
described.
The incomplete Church of St. Barbara at Kuttenberg, in Bohemia, is one
of somewhat exceptional design. It has double aisles, but the side
walls for the greater part of the length of the church rest upon the
arcade dividing the two aisles, instead of that separating the centre
avenue from the side one; and a vault over the inner side aisle forms
in effect a kind of balcony or gallery in the nave. The illustration
(Fig. 43) which we give of the exterior does not of course indicate
this peculiarity, but it shows a very good example of a German
adaptation of the French _chevet_, and may be considered as a specimen
of German pointed architecture at its ripest stage. The church is
vaulted, as might be inferred from the forest of flying buttresses;
and the vaulting displays some resemblance to our English fan-vaulting
in general idea.
German churches include some specimens of unusual disposition or form,
as for example the Church of St. Gereon at Cologne, with an oval
choir, and one or two double churches, one of the most curious being
the one at Schwartz-Rheindorff, of which we give a section and view.
(Figs. 44, 45.)
In their doorways and porches the German architects are often very
happy. Our illustration (Fig. 47) of one of the portals of the church
at Thann may be taken as giving a good idea of the amount of rich
ornament often concentrated here: it displays a wealth of decorative
sculpture, which was one of the great merits of the German architects.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--DOUBLE CHURCH AT SCHWARTZ-RHEINDORFF.
SECTION. (1158.)]
The latest development of Gothic in Germany, of which the Church of
St. Catherine at Oppenheim (Fig. 48) is a specimen, was marked (just
as late French was by flamboyant tracery, and late English by
fan-vaulting) by a peculiarity in the treatment of mouldings by which
they were robbed of almost all their grace and beauty, while the
execution of them became a kind of masonic puzzle. Two or more groups
of mouldings were supposed to coexist in the same stone, and sometimes
a part of one group, sometimes a part of the other group, became
visible at the surface. The name given to this eccentric development
is interpenetration.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--DOUBLE CHURCH AT SCHWARTZ-RHEINDORFF.
(A.D. 1158.)]
Secular architecture in Germany, though not carried to such a pitch of
perfection as in Belgium, was by no means overlooked; but the examples
are not numerous. In some of the older cities, such as Prague,
Nuremberg, and Frankfort, much picturesque domestic architecture
abounds, most of it of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even
later, and all full of piquancy and beauty. In North Germany, where
there is a large tract of country in which building stone is scarce, a
style of brick architecture was developed, which was applied to all
sorts of purposes with great success. The most remarkable of these
brick buildings are the large dwelling-houses, with facades ornamented
by brick tracery and panelling, to be found in Eastern Prussia,
together with some town halls and similar buildings.
GERMANY.--ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS.
_Plan._
The points of difference between German and French Gothic are not so
numerous as to render a very minute analysis of the Gothic of Germany
requisite in order to make them clear.
The plans of German churches usually show internal piers; and columns
occur but rarely. The churches have nave and aisles, transepts and
apsidal choir; but they are peculiar from the frequent use of apses at
the ends of the transepts, and also from the occurrence, in not a few
instances, of an apse at the west end of the nave as well as at the
east end of the choir. They are almost invariably vaulted.
As the style advanced, large churches were constantly planned with
double aisles, and the western apse disappeared. Some German church
plans, notably those of Cologne Cathedral (Fig. 46) and the great
church of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg, are fine specimens of regularity
of disposition, though full of many parts.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. GROUND PLAN. (BEGUN
1248.)]
_Walls, Towers, and Gables._
The German architects delighted in towers with pointed roofs, and in a
multiplicity of them. A highly characteristic feature is a tower of
great mass, but often extremely low, covering the crossing. The
Cathedral at Mayence shows a fine example of this feature, which was
often not more than a low octagon. Western towers, square on plan, are
common, and small towers, frequently octagonal, are often employed to
flank the choir or in combination with the transepts. These in early
examples, are always surmounted by high roofs; in late ones, by stone
spires, often of rich open tracery. A very characteristic feature of
the round arched Gothic churches is an arcade of small arches
immediately below the eaves of the roof and opening into the space
above the vaults (Fig. 45). This is rarely wanting in churches built
previous to the time when the French type was followed implicitly.
The gables are seldom such fine compositions as in France, or even in
Italy; but in domestic and secular buildings many striking gabled
fronts occur, the gable being often stepped in outline and full of
windows.
_Roofs and Vaults._
Vaults are universal in the great churches, and German vaulting has
some special peculiarities, but they are such as hardly come within
the scope of this hand-book. Roofs, however, are so conspicuous that
in any general account of German architecture attention must be paid
to them. They were from very early times steep in pitch and
picturesque in outline, and are evidently much relied upon as giving
play to the sky-line. Indeed, for variety of form and piquancy of
detail the German roofs are the most successful of the middle ages.
The spires, as will have been easily gathered from the descriptions of
those at Strasburg, Cologne, &c., became extremely elaborate, and were
constructed in many cases entirely of open tracery.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--WESTERN DOORWAY OF CHURCH AT THANN. (14TH
CENTURY.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--CHURCH OF ST. CATHERINE AT OPPENHEIM. (1262
TO 1439.)]
_Openings._
Openings are, on the whole, treated very much as the French treated
them. A good example is the western doorway at Thann (Fig. 47); but
the use of double tracery in the windows in late examples is
characteristic. Sometimes a partial screen of outside tracery is
employed in other features besides windows, as may be seen by the very
elegant doorway of St. Sebald's Church at Nuremberg, which we have
illustrated (Fig. 49).
_Ornaments._
The ornaments of German Gothic are often profuse, but rarely quite
happy. Sculpture, often of a high class, carving of every sort,
tracery, and panelling, are largely employed; but with a hardness and
a tendency to cover all surfaces with a profusion of weak imitations
of tracery that disfigures much of the masonry. The tracery became
towards the latter part of the time intricate and unmeaning, and the
interpenetrating mouldings already described, though of course
intended to be ornamental, are more perplexing and confusing than
pleasing: the carving exaggerates the natural markings of the foliage
represented, and being thin, and very boldly undercut, resembles
leaves beaten out in metal, rather than foliage happily and easily
imitated in stone, which is what good architectural carving should be.
The use of coloured building materials and of inlays and mosaics does
not prevail to any great extent in Germany, though stained glass is
often to be found and coloured wall decoration occasionally.
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--ST. SEBALD'S CHURCH AT NUREMBERG. THE
BRIDE'S DOORWAY. (1303-1377.)]
_Construction and Design._
The marked peculiarities of construction by which the German Gothic
buildings are most distinguished, are the prevalent high-pitched
roofs, the vaulting with aisle vaults carried to the same height as in
the centre, and the employment in certain districts of brick to the
exclusion of stone, all of which have been already referred to. In a
great part of that large portion of Europe, which is included under
the name of Germany, the materials and modes of construction adopted
during the middle ages, bear a close resemblance to those in general
use in France and England.
Some of the characteristics of German Gothic design have been already
alluded to. The German architects display an exuberant fancy, a great
love of the picturesque, and even the grotesque, and a strong
predilection for creating artificial difficulties in order to enjoy
the pleasure of surmounting them. Their work is full of unrest; they
attach small value to the artistic quality of breadth, and destroy the
value of the plain surfaces of their buildings as contrasts to the
openings, by cutting them up by mouldings and enrichments of various
sorts. The sculpture introduced is, as a rule, naturalistic rather
than conventional. The capitals of piers and columns are often fine
specimens of effective carving, while the delicate and ornamental
details of the tabernacle work with which church furniture is
enriched, are unsurpassed in elaboration, and often of rare beauty.
The churches of Nuremberg are specially distinguished for the richness
and number of their sculptured fittings. There is, moreover, in some
of the best German buildings a rugged grandeur which approaches the
sublime; and in the humbler ones a large amount of picturesque and
thoroughly successful architecture.
In the smaller objects upon which the art of the architect was often
employed the Germans were frequently happy. Public fountains, such for
example as the one illustrated in Chapter II. (Fig. 10), are to be met
within the streets of many towns, and rarely fail to please by their
simple, graceful, and often quaint design. Crosses, monuments, and
individual features in domestic buildings, such _e.g._ as bay windows,
frequently show a very skilful and picturesque treatment and happy
enrichment.
NORTHERN EUROPE.
Gothic architecture closely resembling German work may be found in
Switzerland, Norway and Sweden, and Denmark; but there are few very
conspicuous buildings, and not enough variety to form a distinct
style. In Norway and Sweden curious and picturesque buildings exist,
erected solely of timber, and both there and in Switzerland many of
the traditions of the Gothic period have been handed down to our own
day with comparatively little change, in the pleasing and often highly
enriched timber buildings which are to be met with in considerable
numbers in those countries.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] See p. 77 for an explanation of _chevet._
[Illustration: {SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM SENS CATHEDRAL.}]