GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN.
_Materials and Construction._
The Gothic architects adhered, at any rate till the fifteenth century,
to the use of very small stones in their masonry. In many buildings of
large size it is hard to find any stone heavier than two men can lift.
Bad roads and the absence of good mechanical means of hoisting and
moving big blocks led to this.
The mortar, though good, is not equal to the Roman. As a rule in each
period mortar joints are thick. They are finest in the fifteenth
century.
The masonry of all important features of the building is always good;
it is often a perfect marvel of dexterity and skill as well as of
beauty.
The arts of workers in other materials, such as carpenters, joiners,
smiths, and plumbers were carried to great perfection during the
Gothic period.
The appropriate ornamental treatment which each material is best
fitted to receive was invariably given to it, and forms appropriate
to one material were very rarely copied in others. For example,
whenever wrought iron, a material which can be beaten and welded, or
rivetted, was employed, those ornamental forms were selected into
which hot iron can with ease be beaten, and such groups of those forms
were designed as can be obtained by welding or by rivetting them
together.
Wood, on the other hand, cannot be bent with ease, but can be readily
cut, drilled with holes, notched and carved; accordingly, where wood
had to be treated ornamentally, we only find such forms as the drill,
the chisel, the saw, or the gouge readily and naturally leave behind
them.
Again, the mode into which wood can be best framed together was
carefully considered from a constructional point of view, and mediaeval
joiners' work is always first so designed as to reduce the damage from
shrinkage to the smallest amount possible; and the pieces of which it
is composed are then appropriately ornamented, moulded, or carved.
Stone is now always, at least in this country, worked by being first
squared and then worked-down or "sunk" from the squared faces to the
mouldings required, and this procedure seems to have been common,
though not quite universal, in the Middle Ages. Consequently we
usually find the whole of the external mouldings with which the
doorways and arcades of important buildings were enriched, designed so
as to be easily formed out of stones having squared faces, or, to use
the technical phrase, to be "sunk" from the squared blocks.
The character of sculpture in wood differs from that in stone, the
material being harder, more capable of standing alone; so in stone we
find more breadth, in wood finer lines and more elaboration.
In a word, no material was employed in simulating another (or with
the rarest exceptions), and when any ornament was to be executed in
one place in one material and in another place in a different one,
such alterations were always made in the treatment as corresponded to
the different qualities of the two materials.
The arch was introduced whenever possible, and the structure of a
great Gothic building presents the strongest possible contrast to that
of a Greek building.
In the Greek temple there was no pressure that was not vertical and
met by a vertical support, wall, or column, and no support that was
not vastly in excess of the dimensions actually required to do the
work.
A great Gothic building attains stability through the balanced
counterpoise of a vast series of pressures, oblique, perpendicular, or
horizontal, so arranged as to counteract each other. The vault was
kept from spreading by the flying buttress, the thrust of the arcade
was resisted by massive walls, and so on throughout.
The equilibrium thus obtained was sometimes so ticklish that a storm
of wind, a trifling settlement, or a slight concussion sufficed to
occasion a disaster; and many of the daring feats of the masons of the
Middle Ages are lost to us, because they dared a little too much and
the entire structure collapsed. This happened more often in the middle
period of the style than in the earliest, but during the whole Gothic
period there is a constant uniform tendency in one direction: thinner
walls, wider arches, loftier vaults, slenderer buttresses, slighter
piers, confront us at every step, and we need only compare some Norman
structure (such as Durham), with a perpendicular (such as Henry VII.'s
Chapel), to see how vast a change took place in this respect.
_The Principles of Gothic Design._
All the germs of Gothic architecture exist in the Romanesque of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, and became developed as the passion
for more slender proportions, greater lightness, and loftiness of
effect, and more delicate enrichment became marked. It is quite true
that the pointed arch is universally recognised as, so to speak, the
badge of Gothic, even to the extent of having suggested the title of
Christian pointed architecture, by which it is often called. But the
pointed arch must be regarded rather as a token that the series of
changes, which, starting from the heavy if majestic Romanesque of such
a cathedral as Peterborough, culminated in the gracefulness of
Salisbury or Lincoln, was far advanced towards completion, than as
really essential to their perfection. Many of the examples of the
transition period exhibit the round arch blended with the pointed
(_e.g._ the nave of St. David's Cathedral or the Choir of Canterbury),
and when we come to consider German architecture we shall find that
the adoption of the pointed arch was postponed till long after the
development of all, or almost all, the other features of the Gothic
style; so as to place beyond question the existence, in that country
at least, of "round arched Gothic." Some of the best authorities have
indeed proposed to employ this title as a designation for much, if not
all, the round arched architecture of the west of Europe, but Scott,
Sharpe, and other authorities class mediaeval art down to the middle of
the twelfth century under the general head of Romanesque, a course
which has been adopted in this volume.
The proportions of Gothic buildings were well studied, their forms
were always lofty, their gables sharp, and their general composition
more or less pyramidal. Remarkable numerical relations between the
dimensions of the different parts of a great Gothic cathedral can be
discovered upon careful examination in most, if not all instances, and
there can be little doubt that a system of geometrical proportions ran
through the earlier design, and that much of the harmony and beauty
which the buildings present is traceable to this fact. Independent of
this the skill with which subordinate features and important ones are
fitted to their respective positions, both by their dimensions and by
their relative elaboration or plainness, forms a complete system of
proportion, making use of the word in its broadest sense; and the
results are extremely happy.
Apparent size was imparted to almost every Gothic building by the
smallness, great number, and variety of its features, and by the small
size of the stones employed. The effect of strength is generally,
though not perhaps so uniformly, also obtained, and dignity, beauty,
and harmony are rarely wanting.
Symmetry, though not altogether overlooked, has but a slender hold
upon Gothic architects. It is far more observed in the interior than
in the exterior of the buildings; but it must be remembered that
symmetry formed the basis of many designs which, owing to the
execution having been carried on through a long series of years and by
different hands, came to be varied from the original intentions. Thus,
for example, Chartres is a cathedral with two western towers. One of
these was carried up and its spire completed in the twelfth century.
The companion spire was not added till the end of the fifteenth, when
men's ideas as to the proportions, shape, ornaments, and details of a
spire had altered entirely;--the later architect did not value
symmetry enough to think himself bound to adhere either to the design
or to the height of the earlier spire, so we have in this great
facade two similar flanking towers but spires entirely unlike. What
happened at Chartres happened elsewhere. The original design of
buildings was in the main symmetrical, but it was never considered
that symmetry was a matter so important as to require that much
sacrifice should be made to preserve it.
On the other hand the subordination of a multitude of small features
to one dominant one enters largely into the design of every good
Gothic building; with the result that if the great governing feature
or mass has been carried out in its entirety, almost any feature, no
matter how irregular or unsymmetrical, may be safely introduced, and
will only add picturesqueness and piquancy to the design. This is more
or less a leading principle of Gothic design. A building with no
irregularities, none of those charming additions which add individual
character to Gothic churches, and none of the isolated features which
the principle of subordination permits the architect to employ, has
missed one of the chief qualities of the style. It is here that
unskilled architects mostly fail when they attempt Gothic designs;
they either hold on to symmetry as though they were designing a Greek
temple, and they are unaware that the spirit of the style in which
they are trying to work not only permits, but requires some irregular
features; or if they do not fall into this error they are overtaken by
the opposite one, and omit to make their irregular features
subordinate to the general effect of the whole, an error less serious
in its effects than the other, but still destructive of anything like
the highest qualities in a building.
Repetition, like symmetry, is recognised by Gothic architecture, but
not adhered to in a rigid way. No buildings gain more from the
repetition of parts than Gothic churches and cathedrals; the series of
pillars or piers and arches inside, the series of buttresses and
windows outside, add scale to the general effect. But so long as it
was in the main a series of features which broadly resembled one
another, the Gothic architect was satisfied, and did not feel bound to
exact repetition.
We are often, for example, surprised to find in the columns of a
church an octagonal one alternating with a circular one, and almost
invariably, if a series of capitals be examined, each will be
discovered to differ from the others to some extent. In one bay of a
church there may be a two-light window, and in the next a three-light
window, and so on.
This we find in buildings erected at one time and under one architect.
Where, however, a building begun at one period was continued at
another (and this, it must be remembered, was the rule, not the
exception, with all large Gothic buildings), the architect, while
usually repeating the same features, with the same general forms,
invariably followed his own predilections as to detail. There is a
very good example of this in Westminster Abbey, in the western bays of
the nave, which were built years later than the eastern bays. They
are, to a superficial observer, identical, being of the same height
and width and shape of arch, but nearly every detail differs.
Disclosure, rather than concealment, was a principle of Gothic design.
This was demonstrated long ago by Pugin, and many of his followers
pushed the doctrine to such extremes, that they held--and some of them
still hold--that no building is really Gothic in which any part,
either of its construction or arrangement, is not obviously visible
inside and out.
This is, however, carrying the principle too far. It is sufficient to
say that the interior disposition of every Gothic building was as
much as possible disclosed by the exterior. Thus, in a secular
building, where there is a large room, there usually was a large
window; when a lofty apartment occurs, its roof was generally
proportionately high; where a staircase rises, we usually can detect
it by a sloping row of little windows following the line of the stair,
or by a turret roof.
The mode in which the thrust of vaults is counterpoised is, as has
been shown, frankly displayed by the Gothic architects, and as a rule,
every portion of the structure is freely exhibited. It grows out of
this, that when an ornamental feature is desired, it is not
constructed purely for ornament, as the Romans added the columns and
cornices of the orders to the outside of their massive walls purely as
an architectural screen; but some requisite, of the building is taken
and ornamented, and in some cases elaborated. Thus the belfry grew
into the enormous bell tower; the tower roof grew into the spire; the
extra weight required on flying buttresses grew into the ornamental
pinnacle; and the window head grew into tracery.
There were, however, some exceptions. The walls were still constantly
faced with finer masonry than in the heart, and though some are
unwilling to admit the fact, were often plastered outside as well as
in; and what is more remarkable, no other sign of the vault appeared
outside the building than the buttresses required to sustain it.
The external gable conforms to the shape of the roof which covered the
vault, but the vault, perhaps the most remarkable and characteristic
feature of the whole building, does not betray its presence by any
external line or mark corresponding to its position and shape in the
interior of the building. Notwithstanding these and some other
exceptions, frank disclosure must be reckoned one of the main
principles of Gothic architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--DOORWAY FROM CHURCH AT BATALHA.
(BEGUN 1385.)]
Elaboration and simplicity were both so well known to the Gothic
architect that it is difficult to say that either of these qualities
belongs exclusively to his work. But he was rarely simple when he had
the opportunity of being elaborate, and simplicity was perhaps rather
forced upon him by the circumstances under which he worked, by rude
materials, scanty funds, and lack of skilled workmen, than freely
chosen. Many of the great works of the Gothic period are as elaborate
as they could be made (Fig. 60), and yet, when simplicity had to be
the order of the day, no architecture has lent it such a grace as
Gothic.
The last pair of qualities is similarity and contrast. What has been
said about repetition has anticipated the remarks called for by these
qualities, so far as to point out that even where the arrangement of
the building dictated the repetition of similar features, a general
resemblance, and not an exact similarity, was considered sufficient.
In the composition of masses of building, contrast and not similarity
was the ruling principle. Even in the interiors of great churches
which, as a rule, are far more regular than the exteriors, the
contrast between the comparative plainness of the nave and the
richness of the choir was an essential element of design.
External design in Gothic buildings depends almost entirely upon
contrast for its power of charming the eye, and it is this
circumstance which has left the successive generations of men who
toiled at our great Gothic cathedrals so free to follow the bent of
their own taste in their additions, rather than that of their
forerunners.
But setting aside the irregularities due to the caprice of various
builders, and the constant changes which took place in detail through
the Gothic period, it is to contrast that we must trace most of the
surprising effects attained by the architecture of the Middle Ages.
The rich tracery was made richer by contrast with plain walls, the
loftiest towers appeared higher from their contrast with the long
level lines of roofs and parapets.
It is, in truth, one of the principal marks of the decadence which
began in the fifteenth century that the principle of contrast was, to
a considerable extent, abandoned, at least in the details of the
buildings if not in their great masses. Walls were at that time
panelled in imitation of the tracery of the adjoining windows, and no
longer acted as a foil to them by their solid plainness; long rows of
pinnacles, all exactly alike, followed the line of the parapets, and a
repetition of absolutely identical features became the rule for the
first time in the history of Gothic art.
There can be no doubt that had this modification run its natural
course unchecked and undisturbed by the change in taste which abruptly
brought the Gothic period to a close, it must have resulted in the
deterioration of the art.
[Illustration: {SCULPTURED ORNAMENT FROM RHEIMS CATHEDRAL.}]
[Illustration: {RENAISSANCE ORNAMENT FROM A FRIEZE.}]
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE.