THE PLACE OF NOTRE DAME IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRENCH GOTHIC.
The place of the Cathedral of Paris in the evolution of French
Gothic[4] is so important that I propose to devote a brief chapter to
it. The subject is essentially technical, but I will endeavour to make
it as easy of comprehension as possible. The reader will doubtless
ask himself what is the difference between Gothic and the style which
preceded it. The reply, unfortunately, cannot consist of a dogmatic
statement. The subject is a great one, and only a few sentences of this
handbook may be devoted to it. I shall rely for the most part on the
materials for a definition of Gothic given by M. Viollet-le-Duc in his
_Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’Architecture Française_. The question is
one of essential structural peculiarity as opposed to mere decorative
idiosyncrasy. I am aware that many English writers whose opinions are
entitled to respect hold views in conflict with those here maintained.
The style which immediately preceded Gothic is known generically as
Romanesque. In Romanesque the system may be described as one of inert
stability: in Gothic the system is one of scientifically calculated
thrusts and counter-thrusts. It was the affair of art to inform what
one may call the mechanics of the building with interest and beauty.
There have been many attempts to compromise the two systems, so that
we often find Romanesque features in obviously Gothic buildings. Much
will be said in subsequent pages of the vaulting of Notre Dame. I
would willingly have left this vexed question alone, but were I so to
do, this handbook would be little more than a descriptive catalogue
of objects of interest together with some historical reminiscences.
For the vaulting is of the essence of the whole matter: compared
with it the consideration of mouldings and of ornament is relatively
unimportant. To put the matter plainly, the very existence of a Gothic
church depends upon the proper arrangement of what we may call its
mechanism--_i.e._ its vaulting, piers, buttresses and so forth. The
mechanics being duly devised, art steps in, and renders the essential
beautiful.[5]
[Footnote 4: French Gothic is here generally intended to convey the
Gothic of the Ile-de-France. The contemporary architecture of Normandy
has a character of its own, probably not less valuable than that of the
Ile-de-France. But it is different, and its differences have been dealt
with in other handbooks of this series.]
[Footnote 5: The difficulty of attributing mediæval work in any
countries to particular designers is generally recognised. I do not
wish to imply, in the passage to which this note has reference,
that the mechanic and the artist were of necessity separate people.
Most often the plan was arranged by a master-builder who himself
superintended the scheme of decoration.]
It is not at Paris that we can trace the first attempt to break away
from the principles of Romanesque: the first step in the distinctly
Gothic development of French architecture, according to some recent
authorities, is to be found in the apse of the church of Morienval.
Morienval is a Romanesque church, but it has ribbed vaulting, of which
there is no earlier instance in France. At St. Germer-de-Fly we find
the first truly Gothic apse on a large scale ever constructed. It
belongs to the second quarter of the twelfth century. The same church
possesses a vaulted triforium which may fairly be considered the
forerunner of the far grander one at Paris. Again, the now suburban
church of St. Denis has double aisles, which clearly foreshadow the
noble arrangement which exists at Paris, Amiens, and elsewhere. Many
writers are agreed in regarding St. Denis as the starting-point of
French Gothic.
[Illustration: SECTION OF NAVE AND DOUBLE AISLE, AND A PLAN
OF ONE BAY.
SCALE 1 INCH = 29 FEET.
(_From Viollet-le-Duc._)]
Notre Dame was the first of the greater French cathedrals in which
Gothic principles of construction were logically carried out. The
choir was begun, according to M. V. Mortet in his _Etude Historique
et Archéologique sur la Cathédrale de Paris_, in the year 1163.[6]
The nave (with the exception of the extreme west end) was completed
about the year 1195. The west façade was built in the early part of
the thirteenth century. Notre Dame is thus older than the cathedral
of Amiens, with which one naturally compares it. Amiens was built
between the years 1220 and 1288, except the lower stages of the west
front, which were only completed towards the end of the fourteenth
century. The towers are a “debased” addition. In England the work being
done while the older parts of Notre Dame were in course of erection was
transitional; the new style had by no means been fully understood and
put into practice. Perhaps we do not overstate the case when we say
that the _science_ (as well as the art) of Gothic found its first real
expression on a large scale in the Cathedral of Paris.
[Footnote 6: I give the dates assumed by M. V. Mortet and later writers
as well as those affixed by M. Viollet-le-Duc. It will be noticed that
the differences between them are not material.]
A glance at the ground-plan of Notre Dame shows us how widely it
differs from that of our own great churches. First of all we notice
that not merely the nave, but the choir, possesses double aisles--a
feature which is lacking in English churches[7] on so vast a scale
as Canterbury, York, Ely or Peterborough. The magnificence which the
system of double aisles lends to a great church need hardly be insisted
upon. For a French church the nave of Paris is long, consisting of ten
bays. The smaller Norman nave of Norwich possesses, however, no less
than fourteen bays. At Paris one is struck by the slight projection
of the transepts. In nearly all the greater churches of England the
transepts are of large proportions, and frequently (as at Canterbury
and Lincoln) we find two pairs of transepts. The transepts at Notre
Dame are without aisles, and are so shallow that the church is only
just cruciform. Speaking of these transepts Professor Roger Smith
observes: “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.”
[Footnote 7: Chichester, which is an early church, has double aisles;
it is, however, comparatively small, and can in no sense be compared
with so immense a building as Notre Dame.]
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
NORTH AISLES OF THE NAVE.]
The east end of Notre Dame takes the form of a magnificent semicircular
apse,--a form assuredly the most appropriate to a Gothic church. The
square eastern termination, so common in England, is rare amongst the
larger churches of the best period of French Gothic. “A more beautiful
eastern termination than the Gothic apse,” says Mr. Charles Herbert
Moore,[8] “could hardly be conceived. No part of the edifice does more
honour to the Gothic builders. The low Romanesque apse, covered with
the primitive semi-dome, and enclosed with its simple wall, presented
no constructive difficulties, and produced no imposing effect. But
the soaring French _chevet_, with its many-celled vault, its arcaded
stories, its circling aisles and its radial chapels, taxed the utmost
inventive power, and entranced the eye of the beholder.” It seems to
me that throughout his study of Gothic Mr. Moore is a little less than
fair to the Romanesque builders. The Gothic apse, which he so justly
admires, is, after all, evolved from the Romanesque apse, which he
holds in such light esteem. While we may admit the superiority of the
Gothic apse, it is going too far to assert that the Romanesque apse
“produces no imposing effect.” The apse of Norwich or Peterborough,
or of St. Bartholomew’s (London) is assuredly imposing in a very high
degree.
[Footnote 8: _Development and Character of Gothic Architecture._ Second
edition. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899.]
In a subsequent chapter the structural and decorative details will be
fully discussed. It may, however, be noted in passing that, although
the Cathedral of Paris is in all essentials a Gothic building, the
influence of the Romanesque style is so marked in some of its details
that it is frequently described as a transitional structure. As we
have seen, the greater part of Notre Dame belongs to the twelfth
century; and De Caumont, who in his _Abécédaire_ attempted for French
architecture a work of scientific division similar to that which
Rickman essayed for English architecture, describes French work of the
twelfth century as _Architecture Romane-Tertiaire ou de Transition_.
The _Abécédaire_, however, is now considered ingenious rather than
authoritative.
With a few words about the west front this brief chapter must be
concluded. The great façade of Notre Dame was begun in 1202. It
bears a general structural resemblance to that of the cathedral of
Senlis, which dates from the second half of the twelfth century,
especially in the matter of its triple portals and the towers at the
termination of the aisles. At Senlis we have unmistakable evidence
of the Gothic spirit, but in its main plan this front is similar to
the Romanesque Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen. The builders of the west
front of Notre Dame thus owe something to the designers of Senlis and
the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, but they have achieved a variety and symmetry
of which their forerunners probably did not dream. In construction,
as well as in the organic significance of its wealth of sculptured
decoration, the façade of Notre Dame is genuinely Gothic as opposed to
Romanesque.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Ed. Hautecœur, Paris._
THE WEST FRONT.]