AQUITANIA.
CONTENTS.
Churches at Périgueux, Souillac, Angoulême, Alby, Toulouse, Conques,
Tours.—Tombs.
THE moment you pass the hills forming the watershed between the rivers
flowing to the Mediterranean and those which debouch into the Bay of
Biscay, you become aware of having left the style we have just been
describing to enter upon a new architectural province. This province
possesses two distinct and separate styles, very unlike one another both
in character and detail. The first of these is a round arched
tunnel-vaulted Gothic style, more remarkable for the grandeur of its
conceptions than for the success with which those conceptions are
carried out, or for beauty of detail. The second is a pointed-arched,
dome-roofed style peculiar to the province.
[Illustration: 562. Plan of St. Front, Périgueux. (From F. de Verneilh,
‘Architecture Byzantine en France.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
The existence of this peculiar form of art in this part of France, where
it is alone found, is quite sufficient to establish the pre-existence in
this province of a race differing from that inhabiting the rest of the
country, though it is not at present easy to determine their origin.
From the prevalence of Basque terminations to the names of the principal
towns in the district, and from the fragments of that people still
existing on its southern frontier, it would appear most likely that they
were the influencing race. If so, their love of domes would be almost
sufficient to establish their claim to a Turanian origin, for though
domes are found, no doubt, farther north, it is in a modified form.
These phenomena are, however, sufficient to induce us to include for the
present in the province of Aquitaine the doubtful districts of the
Angoumois and Vendée, though it is possible that these provinces may
eventually turn out to belong more properly to Anjou.
In describing them, it may be convenient to take the domical style
first, as its history—with one or two exceptional examples in the
neighbouring provinces—begins and ends here. It will, no doubt, be found
beyond the Pyrenees so soon as it is looked for; but in a country whose
architecture has been so imperfectly investigated as has been the case
in Spain, fifty different styles might exist without our being cognizant
of the fact.
[Illustration: 563. Part of St. Front, Périgueux. (From Verneilh.)]
The principal and best preserved example of the domical style of
Aquitaine is the church of St. Front, Périgueux. As will be seen from
the woodcut No. 562, its plan is that of a Greek cross, 182 ft. each way
internally, exclusive of the apse, which is comparatively modern, and of
the ante-church and porch, shaded darker, extending 150 ft. farther
west, which are the remains of an older church, now very much mutilated,
and to which the domical church was added in the 12th century.
Both in plan and dimensions, it will be observed that this church bears
an extraordinary and striking resemblance to that of St. Mark’s, Venice,
illustrated in Book II. The latter church, however, has the angles so
filled up as to reduce it to the more usual Greek form of a square,
while its front and lateral porches are additions of a magnificence to
which the church of St. Front can lay no claim. The five cupolas are of
nearly the same size, and are similarly placed, in both churches; and
the general similarity of arrangement points certainly to an identity of
origin. Both too would seem to be of about the same age, and there is
now some reason to doubt the data on which M. Félix de Verneilh[341]
arrived at the conclusion that the church we now see was erected in the
very beginning of the 11th century. There is, however, one striking
difference—that all the constructive arches in St. Front are pointed,
while those of St. Mark’s are round. The form too of the cupolas
differs; and in St. Front the piers that support the domes, having been
found too weak, have been cased to strengthen them, which gives them an
awkward appearance, from which St. Mark’s is free. The difference that
would strike a traveller most is, that St. Mark’s retains its frescoes
and decorations, while St. Front, like almost all the churches of its
age, presents nothing now but naked bare walls, though there cannot be a
doubt that it was originally painted. This indeed was the legitimate and
appropriate mode of decoration of all the churches of this age, till it
was in a great measure superseded by the invention of painted glass.
The cupolas are at the present day covered with a wooden roof; but their
original appearance is represented with tolerable correctness in the
woodcut No. 563, which, though not so graceful as Eastern domes usually
are, are still a far more picturesque and permanent finishing for a roof
than the wooden structures of the more Northern races. Its present
internal appearance, from the causes above mentioned, is singularly bare
and gloomy, and no doubt utterly unworthy of its pristine splendour.
The tower stands at the intersection between the old and new churches,
and its lower part at least is so classical in its details, that it more
probably belongs to the older Latin church than to the domical one. Its
upper part seems to have been added, and its foundation strengthened, at
the time the eastern part was built.
[Illustration: 564. Interior of Church at Souillac. (From Taylor and
Nodier.)]
St. Front is perhaps the only existing specimen of a perfect Greek cross
church with cupolas. That of Souillac is a good example of a
modification of a form nearly similar, except that the cupola forming
the eastern branch is here transferred to the western, making it thus a
Latin instead of a Greek cross, which is certainly an improvement, as
the principal space and magnificence is thus concentrated about the high
altar, which is, or should be, the culminating point of effect. An
opinion may be formed of its internal appearance, and indeed of all the
churches of this style, from the view (Woodcut No. 564), which in
reality gives it much more the appearance of the interior of a mosque in
Cairo than of a Christian church of the Middle Ages. The building is not
large, being only 205 ft. in length internally, including the porch, and
110 across the transepts. Its age is not accurately known, but it is
usually placed by antiquaries in the 12th century on account of its
pointed arches.
[Illustration: 565. Plan of Cathedral at Angoulême. (From Verneilh.)
Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 566. One Bay of Nave, Angoulême. (From Verneilh.) No
scale.]
The cathedral at Angoulême (Woodcut No. 565) is another and still more
extended example of this class, having three domes in the nave; the
façade belonging probably to the 11th, the rest to the 12th century. The
form of these domes, with the arrangement of the side walls, will be
understood from the woodcut No. 566. The method adopted in this church
may be considered as typical of all this class; and, except in the mode
of lighting the upper part, is by no means inferior in architectural
effect to the intersecting vaults of after ages. The transepts here are
shortened internally so as only to give room for two small lateral
chapels; but externally they are made very imposing by the addition of
two towers, one at the end of each. This was another means of solving a
difficulty that everywhere met the mediæval architects, of giving the
greatest dignity to the most holy place. The proper and obvious mode of
doing this was of course to raise a tower or dome at the intersection of
the nave and transepts, but the difficulties of construction involved in
this mode of procedure were such that they seldom were enabled to carry
it out. This can only be said, indeed, to have been fairly accomplished
in England. At Angoulême, as will be observed in the plan, there is no
passage round the altar, nor is the choir separated from the body of the
church. In Italy, and indeed in Germany, this does not seem to have been
considered of importance; but in France, as we shall presently see, it
was regarded as the most indispensable part of the arrangement of the
church, and to meet this exigency the Southern architects were
afterwards obliged to invent a method of isolating the choir, by
carrying a lofty stone railing or screen round it, wholly independent of
any of the constructive parts of the church. This, there is little
doubt, was a mistake, and in every respect a less beautiful arrangement
than that adopted in the North; still, it seems to have been the only
means of meeting the difficulty in the absence of aisles, and in some
instances the richness with which the screen was ornamented, and the
unbroken succession of bassi-relievi and sculptural ornaments, make us
forget that it is only a piece of church furniture, and not an integral
part of the design of the building.
[Illustration: 567. Plan of Church at Moissac. (From Taylor and Nodier.)
Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
One of the earliest examples of this arrangement which has been
preserved is in the church at Moissac, remarkable for its strange
mythical sculpture and rude pointed architecture, both belonging to the
11th century, and as unlike anything to be found in any other part of
France as can well be conceived.
At a later age we find in the cathedral at Alby the same system carried
to its acmé, and still adhered to in all essential parts in spite of the
influence and predominance of the pure Gothic styles, which had then so
generally superseded it. The foundation of the church was laid only in
the year 1282, and it was not so far completed as to admit of its
dedication till 1476. Its choir and fresco decorations were added by the
celebrated Louis d’Amboise, who completed the whole in 1512. As will be
seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 568), the church is one immense unbroken
vaulted hall, 55 ft. in width by 262 in length; or adding the chapels,
the internal width is 82 ft., and the total length upwards of 300 ft.
[Illustration: 568. Plan of Cathedral at Alby. (From Chapuy,
‘Cathédrales Françaises.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
As will be observed, the whole of the buttresses are internal, as is
very generally the case in the South; and where painted glass is not
used, and fresco painting is the principal mode of decoration, such a
system has many advantages. The outer walls are scarcely ever seen, and
by this arrangement great internal extent and appearance of gigantic
strength is imparted, while the whole space covered by the building is
available for internal use. But where painted glass is the principal
mode of decoration, as was the case to the north of the Loire, such a
system was evidently inadmissible. Then the walls were internally kept
as flat as possible, so as to allow the windows to be seen in every
direction, and all the mechanical expedients were placed on the outside.
Admirably as the Northern architects managed all this, I cannot help
thinking, if we leave the painted glass out of the question, that the
Southern architects had hit on the more artistic arrangement of the two;
and where, as at Alby, the lower parts of the recesses between the
internal buttresses were occupied by deep windowless chapels, and the
upper lights were almost wholly concealed, the result was an
extraordinary appearance of repose and mysterious gloom. This character,
added to its simplicity and the vastness of its vaults, render Alby one
of the most impressive churches in France, and a most instructive study
to the philosophical inquirer into the principles of effect, as being a
Gothic church built on principles not only dissimilar from, but almost
diametrically opposed to, those which we have been usually accustomed to
consider as indispensable, and as inherent requisites of the style.
[Illustration: 569. Plan of Church of the Cordeliers, at Toulouse. Scale
100 ft. to 1 in.]
The church of the Cordeliers at Toulouse is another remarkable example
of this class, and exhibiting its peculiarities in even a clearer light
than that at Alby. Externally its dimensions in plan are 273 ft. by 87.
Those of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, which is the building we
possess most resembling it in plan, are 310 ft. by 84. But the nave of
that chapel is only 41 ft. 6 in. clear between the piers, while in the
church of the Cordeliers it is 53 ft., and except the thickness of the
outer wall—about 4 ft.—the whole of the floor-space of the plan is
utilised in the interior. In so far as internal effect is concerned this
is no doubt judicious; but, as may be seen from the view (Woodcut No.
571), the absence of any delineation of the line of buttresses
externally produces a flatness and want of accentuation in the lower
part that is highly objectionable. As will be observed from the section,
the whole of the width of the buttresses is included in the interior on
the one side. On the other it is excluded above the roof of the aisle,
but a gallery (Woodcuts Nos. 570 and 571) joins the buttress at the top,
giving the effect of a cornice and a gallery above. The church is of
brick, and all the peculiarities of the style are here found
exaggerated; but there are few churches on the Continent which contain
so many valuable suggestions for a Protestant place of worship, and no
features that could not easily be improved by judicious handling. It was
built in a country where Protestant feeling existed before the
Reformation, and where consequently architects studied more how they
could accommodate congregations than provide show-places for priests.
[Illustration: 570. Section of Church of the Cordeliers at Toulouse. 50
ft. to 1 in. (From King’s ‘Study Book.’)]
[Illustration: 571. View of Angle of Church of the Cordeliers at
Toulouse. (From King.)]
Besides those which are built wholly according to this plan, there are a
great number of churches in this province which show the influence of
its design in more respects than one, though, having been rebuilt in a
subsequent age, many of the original features are necessarily lost. The
cathedral at Bordeaux is a remarkable example of this, its western
portion being a vast nave without aisles, 60 ft. wide internally, and
nearly 200 ft. in length. Its foundations show that, like that at
Angoulême, it was originally roofed by three great domes; but being
rebuilt in the 13th century, it is now covered by an intersecting vault
of that age, with two storeys of windows, and an immense array of flying
buttresses to support its thrust, all which might have been dispensed
with had the architects retained the original, simpler, and more
beautiful form of roof. The cathedral of Toulouse shows the same
peculiarity of a wide aisleless nave, leading to a choir of the usual
construction adopted in this country in the 13th and 14th centuries; and
many other examples might be quoted where the influence of the earlier
style peers through the Northern Gothic which succeeded and nearly
obliterated it.
CHEVET CHURCHES.
The Gothic churches of this province are neither so numerous nor so
remarkable as those of the domical class we have just been describing;
still, there are several examples, far too important to be passed over,
and which will serve besides in enabling us to introduce the new form of
church building which became prevalent in France to the exclusion of all
others, and which characterised the French style in contradistinction to
that of other countries.
[Illustration: 572. Church of St. Sernin, Toulouse. (From the ‘Archives
des Monuments Historiques.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 573. Section of the Church of St. Sernin, Toulouse. Scale
50 ft. to 1 in.]
The typical example of the style in this province is the great church of
St. Saturnin, or St. Sernin, at Toulouse, dedicated in the year 1096.
The church is 375 ft. in length and 217 in width across the transept
externally. It is five-aisled, the nave being 95 ft. in the interior,
though the central aisle is only 25 ft. wide and is further contracted
at the intersection by masses of masonry subsequently added to support
the central tower. It has five apsidal and four transeptal chapels, and
may therefore be considered as possessing a complete chevet; but the
church at Conques (Woodcut No. 574), in the same style and of almost
similar date, illustrates even more perfectly the arrangement of which
we are now speaking.
The nave of St. Sernin, as will be observed (Woodcut No. 573), has
double side-aisles, above the inner one of which runs a grand gallery.
The roof of this gallery—in section the quadrant of a circle—forms an
abutment to the roof of the nave, which is a bold tunnel-vault
ornamented by transverse ribs only. So far the constructive arrangements
are the same as in the transitional church of Fontifroide. Passing from
the nave to the choir, both at Toulouse and at Conques, we come upon a
more extended and complicated arrangement than we have hitherto met
with. It will be recollected that the early Romanesque apse was a simple
large niche, or semi-dome; so we found out in the Lombard style, and
shall find it in the German style when it comes to be described, and
generally even in the neighbouring Provençal style, and always—when
unaltered—in the domical style last described. In the present instance
it will be seen that a semicircular range of columns is substituted for
the wall of the apse, an aisle bent round them, and beyond the aisle
there are always three, five, or even seven chapels opening into it,
which give it a complexity very different from the simple apse of the
Roman basilicas and the other styles we have been describing, and at the
same time a perspective and a play of light and shade which are
unrivalled in any similar invention of the Middle Ages. The _apse_,
properly speaking, is a solid semi-cylinder, surmounted by a semi-dome,
but always solid below, though generally broken by windows above. The
_chevet_, on the contrary, is an apse, always enclosed by an open screen
of columns on the ground-floor, and opening into an aisle, which again
always opens into three or more apsidal chapels. This arrangement is so
peculiarly French, that it may properly be characterised by the above
French word, a name once commonly applied to it, though latterly it has
given way to the more classical, but certainly less suitable, term of
apse. Its origin too is worth inquiring into, and seems to be capable of
easy explanation.
[Illustration: 574. Plan of Church at Conques. (From Taylor and Nodier.)
Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
The uses which the various nations of Christendom made of the circular
form of building left them by the Romans have been more than once
adverted to in this work. The Italians used it almost always standing
alone as a tomb-house or as a baptistery; the Germans converted it into
a western apse, while sometimes, as at Bonn and elsewhere, they timidly
added a porch or nave to it; but the far more frequent practice with the
Germans, and also in England, was to build first the circular church for
its own sake, as in Italy: then the clergy for their own accommodation
added a choir, that they might pray apart from the people.
The French took a different course from all these. They built circular
churches like other nations, apparently in early times at least, which
were intended to stand alone; but in no instance do they appear to have
applied them as naves, nor to have added choirs to them. On the
contrary, the clergy always retained the circular building as the sacred
depository of the tomb or relic, the Holy of Holies, and added a
straight-lined nave for the people. Of this class was evidently the
church which Perpetuus built in the fifth century over the grave at St.
Martin at Tours. There the shrine was surrounded by seventy-nine pillars
arranged in a circular form: the nave was lined by forty-one—twenty on
each side, with one in the centre of the west end as in Germany. When
the church required rebuilding in the 11th century (1014?), the
architect was evidently hampered by finding himself obliged to follow
the outline of the old basilica of Perpetuus, and having to labour on
the same foundation so as not to disturb either the shrine of the saint
or any other place which had become sacred in this, which was the most
celebrated and revered of the churches of Gaul. All this is made clear
in the plan of the new church (Woodcut No. 575). The arrangement of the
circular part and the nave exactly accord with the description of the
old church, only that the latter has been considerably enlarged
according to the fashion of the day. But the juxtaposition of the two
shows how nearly the chevet arrangement was completed at that time.
[Illustration: 575. Plan of St. Martin at Tours. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
Another church, that of Charroux, on the Loire, looks as though it had
been built in direct imitation of the church of Perpetuus. The round
church here retains its pre-eminence over the nave, as was the case in
the older examples, and thus forms an intermediate link between the old
church of St. Martin, which we know only by description, and the more
modern one, of which a plan is given (Woodcut No. 575).
St. Bénigne, Dijon, is another transitional example which may serve to
render this arrangement still more clear. It was erected in the first
year of the 11th century, and was pulled down only at the Revolution;
but before that catastrophe it had been carefully measured and described
in Dom Plancher’s ‘History of Burgundy.’ As seen by him, the foundations
only of the nave were of the original structure, for in the year 1271
one of its towers fell, and so damaged it that the whole of that part of
the church was then rebuilt in the perfect pointed style of the day.
Without entering too much into detail, it will suffice to state that the
part shaded lightly in the woodcut (No. 577) is taken literally from Dom
Plancher’s plan, regarding which there can be no doubt, and the
contemporary descriptions are so full that very little uncertainty can
exist regarding the dimensions and general disposition of the nave.
[Illustration: 576. Church of Charroux. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 577. Plan of St. Benigne, Dijon. (From Dom Plancher’s
‘Histoire de Burgogne.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
The bodies of the confessors SS. Urban and Gregory were, it appears,
originally buried in the church of St. John the Baptist, which seems to
have been the name most properly applied to this circular building; they
were afterwards transferred to the crypt below the high altar, in the
rectangular part of the church. Above the lower storey, which retained
its name as a baptistery and burial-place, was the upper church, which
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary; above that was the church of the Holy
Trinity; and on the top of the round towers, on one side the altar of
St. Michael, on the other probably that of Gabriel.
The little church of Neuvy St. Sepulchre, near Bourges, which was
erected between the years 1042 and 1046, presents precisely the same
arrangements as the church of Charroux, though on a smaller scale, there
being only one range of ten pillars in the centre. The ancient nave
having been destroyed, was replaced by a more extended one in the 12th
century, but the old arrangement can easily be traced.
In all these old churches—and they seem to have been very common in
France before the 12th century—the circular part was the most important,
but they have most of them been rebuilt; and where this has been the
case, even when the outline of the circular form was retained, the lines
of the nave were made tangents of the circle, and thus became parts of
one design. All these arrangements were perfect before the church of
Conques (Woodcut No. 574) was erected. There the architect, not being
hampered by any previous building, was allowed free scope for his
design. The plan so produced was never lost sight of by the French, but
was developed into a vast variety of beautiful forms, which we shall
shortly have to examine.
When once this transformation of the round church into the chevet
termination of a basilica was effected, the French adhered to it with
singular constancy. I am not aware of their ever having built a circular
church afterwards which was intended to stand alone; and there are very
few instances of basilicas of any importance without this form of apse.
Some, it is true, have been rebuilt on old foundations, with square
eastern ends, but this is rare and exceptional, the chevet being the
true and typical termination.
The church at Conques and that of Toulouse both show it fully and
beautifully developed, though externally the chapels hardly fit
pleasingly into the general design, and look more as though their
addition were an afterthought. This, however, was soon afterwards
remedied, and the transformation made complete.
The solidity with which these churches were built, and the general
narrowness of their proportions as compared with the domical churches of
the same time and district, enabled the architects occasionally to
attempt some splendid erection on the intersection of the nave and
transepts, which is the spot where height should always be aimed at. The
dome at Cruas, in the Provençal district, has already been described
(Woodcut No. 558). The church at Conques has one as important, though
dissimilar; but the finest is that of St. Sernin at Toulouse (Woodcut
No. 578), which rivals the design of our spires at Salisbury, Norwich,
and elsewhere, but its height being only 230 ft. from the ground, it
cannot be compared with them in that respect. The 3 lower storeys only
are of the age of the church; the 2 upper were added long afterwards,
but were adapted with remarkably good taste. Though differing in design
and detail, their general form and outline is such as to accord most
happily with the older structure on which they are placed; there is
nevertheless a sameness of design in placing so many similar storeys one
over the other, merely diminishing in size, which is not altogether
pleasing. The general effect, however, is good, and for a central object
it is, if not the finest, certainly one of the very best which France
possesses.
[Illustration: 578. St. Sernin, Toulouse. (From Taylor and Nodier.)]
As in all French styles, the western façades of the Southern churches
are the parts on which the architects lavished their ornaments with the
most unsparing hand. Generally they are flat, and most of them now
terminate squarely, with a flat line of cornice of slight projection.
Beneath this there is generally a range of arches filled with sculpture
or intended to be so—the central one, and that only, being used as a
window. Beneath this is the great portal, on which more ornament is
bestowed than on any other feature of the building. Some of these
gateways in this province, as in Provence, are wondrous examples of
patient labour, as well as models of beauty. They possess more than the
richness of our own contemporary Norman portals, with a degree of
refinement and delicacy which our forefathers did not attain till a much
later age. Some of these church-portals in Aquitaine are comparatively
simple, but even they make up for the want of sculpture by the propriety
of their design and the elegance of their composition.
[Illustration: 579. Church at Aillas.]
[Illustration: 580. Church at Loupiac. (From Leo Drouyn, ‘Architecture
au Moyen-Âge.’)]
The church at Aillas presents a fair specimen, on a small scale, of the
class of design which is peculiar to the façades of Aquitania, though it
is doubtful if the original termination of the gable has not been lost
and replaced by the one shown in the drawing. The façade of Angoulême is
designed on the same plan, though it is much richer. Those of Civray,
Parthenay, and of many others, show the same characteristics. They
appear to have been designed, not to express the form and construction
of the interior, but, like an Egyptian propylon, as a vehicle for a most
extensive series of sculptures exhibiting the whole Bible history.
Sometimes, however, the design is more strictly architectural, as in the
façade of the church at Loupiac, where sculpture is made wholly
subordinate, and the architectural members are so grouped as to form a
pleasing and effective design, not unlike some instances found farther
north and in our own country.
[Illustration: 581. St. Eloi, Espalion. (From Taylor and Nodier.)]
The varieties of these, however, are so endless that it would be in vain
to attempt either to particularise or to describe them. Many of these
arrangements are unusual, though almost always pleasing, as in the
church at Espalion (Woodcut No. 581), where the belfry is erected as a
single wall over the chancel-arch, and groups well with the apsidal
termination, though, as in almost every instance in this country, the
western façade is wanting in sufficient feature and character to balance
it.
Generally speaking, the cloisters and other ecclesiastical adjuncts are
so similar to those of Provence, as given in the last chapter, that a
separate description of them is not needed here. They are all of the
columnar style, supporting small arches on elegant capitals of the most
varied and elaborate designs, evincing that delicate feeling so
prevalent in the south, which prevented any approach to that barbarism
so common farther north whenever the architects attempted anything
beyond the common range of decoration.
The same feeling pervades the tombs, monuments, and domestic
architecture of this part of France, making them all far more worthy of
study in every minute detail than has yet been attempted. The woodcut
(No. 582) represents one small example of a tomb built into a wall
behind the church of St. Pierre at Toulouse. It is one of those graceful
little bits of architecture which meet one at every turn in the pleasant
South, where the people have an innate feeling for art which displays
itself in the smallest as well as in the most important works.
[Illustration: 582. Tomb at St. Pierre, Toulouse. (From Taylor and
Nodier.)]