[Illustration: CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL
FROM A DRAWING BY A. BRUNET-DEBAINES]
GOTHIC
ARCHITECTURE
BY
ÉDOUARD CORROYER
ARCHITECT TO THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND INSPECTOR
OF DIOCESAN EDIFICES
EDITED BY
WALTER ARMSTRONG
DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND
_With Two Hundred and Thirty-Six Illustrations_
NEW YORK
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1893
EDITOR'S PREFACE
The following pages, which have been translated under my supervision
by Miss Florence Simmonds, give such an account of the birth and
evolution of Gothic Architecture as may be considered sufficient for
a handbook. Mons. Corroyer writes, indeed, from a thoroughly French
standpoint. He is apt to believe that everything admirable in Gothic
architecture had a Gallic origin. Vexed questions of priority, such as
that attaching to the choir of Lincoln, he dismisses with a phrase,
while the larger question of French influence generally in these
islands of ours, he solves by the simple process of referring every
creation which takes his fancy either to a French master or a French
example, here coming, be it said, into occasional collision with his
own stock authority, the late Mons. Viollet-le-duc. The Chauvinistic
tone thus given to his pages may be regretted, but, when all is
said, it does not greatly affect their value as a picture of Gothic
development. Mons. Corroyer confines himself in the main to broad
principles. He travels along the line of evolution, pointing out how
material conditions and discoveries, and their consequent social
changes, brought about one development after another in the forms
and methods of the architect. In a treatise so conceived, the fact
that the field of observation is practically restricted to France,
the few excursions beyond her frontier being made rather with a view
to displaying the extent of her influence than with any desire for
catholicity of grasp, is of no great moment. The English reader for
whom this translation is intended, will get as clear a notion of how
Gothic, as he knows it, came into being, as he would from a more
universal survey, while he has the advantage of some echo, at least,
of the vivacity, which inspires a Frenchman when his theme is "one of
the Glories of France."
W. A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
CHAP.
1. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CUPOLA UPON SO-CALLED GOTHIC
ARCHITECTURE 11
2. THE ORIGIN OF THE INTERSECTING ARCH 16
3. THE FIRST VAULTS ON INTERSECTING ARCHES 24
4. BUILDINGS VAULTED ON INTERSECTING ARCHES 32
5. THE ORIGIN OF THE FLYING BUTTRESS 41
6. CHURCHES AND CATHEDRALS OF THE TWELFTH AND FOURTEENTH
CENTURIES 51
7. CATHEDRALS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 67
8. CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY 85
9. CHURCHES OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES IN
FRANCE AND IN THE EAST 105
10. TOWERS AND BELFRIES--CHOIRS--CHAPELS 128
11. SCULPTURE 153
12. PAINTING 179
PART II
MONASTIC ARCHITECTURE
CHAP. PAGE
1. ORIGIN 205
2. ABBEYS OF CLUNY, CITEAUX, AND CLAIRVAUX 215
3. ABBEYS AND _CHARTREUSES_ OR CARTHUSIAN MONASTERIES 227
4. FORTIFIED ABBEYS 247
PART III
MILITARY ARCHITECTURE
1. RAMPARTS OF TOWNS 269
2. CASTLES AND KEEPS 291
3. GATES AND BRIDGES 309
PART IV
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE
1. BARNS, HOSPITALS, HOUSES, AND "HÔTELS" OR TOWNHOUSES OF
THE NOBILITY 333
2. TOWN-HALLS, BELFRIES, AND PALACES 360
ILLUSTRATIONS
Canterbury Cathedral. By A. Brunet-Debaines _Frontispiece_
FIG. PAGE
1. Plan of a cupola of the Abbey Church of St. Front at
Périgueux 17
2. Pendentive of a cupola of the Abbey Church of St. Front
at Périgueux 18
3. Diagonal section of a pendentive 19
4. Plan of a cupola of Angoulême or Fontevrault 20
5. Section of a bay of the cupolas of Angoulême 20
6. Section of a bay in the Church of St. Avit-Sénieur 21
7. Plan of vault on intersecting arches 21
8. Section of an intersecting arch 22
9. Plan of a bay in the nave of St. Maurice at Angers 24
10. Transverse section of the nave of St. Maurice at Angers 25
11. Plan of a bay of the nave. Ste. Trinité, Laval 26
12. Section of two bays of the nave. Ste. Trinité, Laval 27
13, 14. Comparative sections of Churches of Angoulême and
Angers 28
15. View in perspective of nave vault. St. Maurice at Angers 29
16. Plan of a summer of the nave vault. Ste. Trinité, Laval 30
17. Plan of one of the nave piers. Ste. Trinité, Laval 30
18. Plan of the nave, St. Maurice, Angers 33
19. Plan of La Ste. Trinité, Angers 34
20. Section of a bay. Ste. Trinité, Angers 35
21. Transverse section of a bay. Ste. Trinité, Angers 37
22. Section of a single-aisled Church vaulted on intersecting
arches with buttresses 38
23. Section of a three-aisled Church vaulted on intersecting
arches with flying buttresses 39
24. Durham Cathedral. Transverse sections 43
25. Abbey Church at Noyon. Plan 44
26. Transverse section of Noyon Church 45
27. Church of Tournai, Belgium. Exterior view of north transept
towards the Scheldt 46
28. Monastery Church at Moissac. Vault of the hall known as
the _Salle des Capitaines_ above the porch 47
29. Church of Tournai, Belgium. Interior of north transept 47
30. Soissons Cathedral, south transept. Section of flying
buttress 48
31. Perspective view of south transept, Soissons Cathedral 49
32. Cathedral of Laon. Plan 52
33. Cathedral of Laon. Interior of the nave 54
34. Cathedral of Laon. Main façade 55
35. Cathedral of Laon. The east end 57
36. Cathedral of Laon. Section of the nave 58
37. Notre Dame de Paris. Plan 59
38. Notre Dame de Paris. Section of the nave 60
39. Notre Dame de Paris. Flying buttresses and south tower 61
40. Sens Cathedral. Plan of a bay 62
41. Sens Cathedral. Section of a bay of the nave 63
42. Sens Cathedral. Interior 64
43. Bourges Cathedral. Section of the nave 65
44. Rheims Cathedral. Plan 68
45. Rheims Cathedral. Section of the nave 70
46. Rheims Cathedral. Flying buttresses of the choir 71
47. Amiens Cathedral. Plan 72
48. Amiens Cathedral. Section through the nave 73
49. Beauvais Cathedral. Apse 75
50. Beauvais Cathedral. North front 76
51. Beauvais Cathedral. Transverse section 77
52. Chartres Cathedral. Rose window of north transept 78
53. Mans Cathedral. Plan 80
54. Mans Cathedral. Flying buttresses of the apse 81
55. Mans Cathedral. Section of the choir 82
56. Coutances Cathedral. North tower 83
57. Rodez Cathedral. West front 86
58. Bordeaux Cathedral. Choir and north front 87
59. Lichfield Cathedral. West front 88
60. Lincoln Cathedral. Plan 91
61. Lincoln Cathedral. West front 92
62. Lincoln Cathedral. Transept 94
63. Lincoln Cathedral. Apse and chapter-house 95
64. Brussels Cathedral (Ste. Gudule). West front 97
65. Cologne Cathedral. South front 99
66. Burgos Cathedral. West front 101
67. Cathedral or Duomo of Siena. West front 102
68. Church of St. Francis at Assisi. Apse and cloisters 103
69. Church of St. Ouen at Rouen. Central tower and apse,
south front 106
70. Albi Cathedral. Plan 108
71. Albi Cathedral. Section of the nave 111
72. Albi Cathedral. Apse 113
73. Albi Cathedral. Donjon tower and south front 114
74. Church of Esnandes. A fortified church 116
75. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Flying buttresses of the choir 118
76. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Plan of the choir 119
77. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Details of the apse 120
78. Alençon Cathedral. West front 122
79. Façade of the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Island of Cyprus 123
80. Cathedral of St. Nicholas. Island of Cyprus 124
81. Cathedral of St. Nicholas. Island of Cyprus 126
82. Church of St. Sophia. Island of Cyprus. Ruins 127
83. Steeple, Vendôme 129
84. Giotto's Tower at Florence 130
85. Bayeux Cathedral. Towers of the west front 132
86. Senlis Cathedral. South tower of west front 133
87. Salisbury Cathedral. Steeple 135
88. Church of Langrune (Calvados). Steeple 136
89. Church of the Jacobins at Toulouse. Tower 138
90. Church of St. Pierre at Caen. Tower 140
91. Church of St. Michel at Bordeaux. Tower 141
92. Cathedral of Freiburg-im-Breisgau 142
93. Antwerp Cathedral 143
94. Rheims Cathedral. Statues of west front 154
95. Rheims Cathedral. Statues of west front 155
96. Rheims Cathedral. Statues of west front 156
97. Rheims Cathedral. Principal door. Statue and ornament 157
98. Rheims Cathedral. Principal door. Statue and ornament 158
99. Notre Dame de Paris. Principal door. Running leaf pattern 159
100. Notre Dame de Paris. Principal door. Running leaf pattern 160
101. Chartres Cathedral. Statues of north porch 161
102. Chartres Cathedral. Statues of south porch 162
103. Amiens Cathedral. Central porch of west front 163
104. Amiens Cathedral. Statues in the south porch 164
105. Amiens Cathedral. Choir stalls. Carved ornament 165
106. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Ornament of cloisters 166
107. Wooden Statuette (thirteenth century). _Ateliers_ of La
Chaise Dieu, Auvergne 167
108, 108_a_. Two ivory statuettes. School of Paris 168, 169
109. Wooden Statuette (fourteenth century). School of Paris 170
110, 110_a_. Two ivory diptychs (fourteenth century). School
of the Ile-de-France 171
111, 111_a_. Ivory diptych and plaque (fourteenth century).
School of the Ile-de-France 172, 173
112. Head in silver gilt repoussé. _Ateliers_ of the
Goldsmith's Guild of Paris 174
113. Group carved in wood (fifteenth century). School of
Antwerp 175
114. Wooden statuette, painted and gilded (fifteenth century) 176
115. Wooden statuette, painted and gilded (sixteenth century) 177
116. Paintings in Cahors Cathedral. Horizontal projection of
the cupola 180
117. Paintings in Cahors Cathedral. One of the prophets in the
cupola 182
118. Paintings in Cahors Cathedral. Fragment of central frieze
of cupola 184
119, 120. Painted windows of the early twelfth century. From
St. Rémi, Rheims 187
121. Painted window of the twelfth century. Church of
Bonlieu, Creuse 188
122. Painted window of the thirteenth century. Chartres
Cathedral 189
123. Painted window of the thirteenth century. Chartres
Cathedral 190
124. Painted window of the thirteenth century. Church of St.
Germer, Troyes 191
125. Painted windows of the fourteenth century. Church of St.
Urbain, Troyes 193
126. Painted glass of the fourteenth century. Cathedral of
Châlons-sur-Marne 194
127. Painted window of the fifteenth century. Évreux Cathedral 195
128. Enamel of the eleventh century. Plaque cover of a MS. 196
129. Enamel of the thirteenth century. Plaque cover of an
Evangelium 198
130. Enamel of the twelfth century. Reliquary shrine of St.
Thomas à Becket 199
131. Enamel of the sixteenth century. Our Lady of Sorrows 200
132. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Cloister (thirteenth century) 206
133. Abbey of Cluny. Gateway 216
134. Abbey of Cluny. Plan 219
135. Abbey of Cluny. Door of the Abbey Church 221
136. Abbey of St. Étienne at Caen. Façade 228
137. St. Alban's Abbey (England) 230
138. Abbey of Montmajour. Cloisters 231
139. Abbey of Elne. Cloisters 232
140. Abbey of Fontfroide. Cloisters 233
141. Abbey of Maulbronn (Wurtemberg). Plan 235
142. Abbey of Fontevrault. Kitchen 236
143. Cathedral of Puy-en-Velay. Cloisters 237
144. Abbey of La Chaise Dieu (Auvergne). Cloisters 239
145. _Chartreuse_ of Villefranche de Rouergue. Plan 242
146. _Chartreuse_ of Villefranche de Rouergue. Bird's-eye view 243
147. _Grande Chartreuse._ The Great Cloister 244
148. _Grande Chartreuse._ General View 245
149. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. General View 248
150. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Plan at the level of the
entrance 249
151. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Plan at the level of the
lower church 250
152. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Plan at the level of the
upper church 252
153. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Section from north to south 253
154. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Section from west to east 254
155. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Crypt known as the _Galerie
de l'Aquilon_ 256
156. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. North front 257
157. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. The almonry 258
158. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. A tympanum of the cloisters 259
159. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. The cellar 260
160. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Refectory 262
161. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Hall of the knights 263
162. St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall 264
163. Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Gate-house 270
164. City of Carcassonne. South-east ramparts 273
165. City of Carcassonne. North-west ramparts 274
166. Fortress of Kalaat-el-Hosn. Section 277
166_a_. Fortress of Kalaat-el-Hosn. General view 278
167. City of Carcassonne. Plan of the thirteenth century 279
168. City of Carcassonne. Ramparts, south-west angle 280
169. Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes, north and south 281
170. Ramparts of Avignon. Curtain and towers 282
170_a_. Machicolations 283
171. Ramparts of St. Malo 284
172. Mont St. Michel. South front 287
173. Mont St. Michel. As restored on paper 288
174. Castle of Angers 292
175. Carcassonne. Citadel 293
176. Loches Castle. Keep 294
177. Falaise Castle. Keep 297
178. Lavardin Castle. Keep 298
179. Keep of Aigues-Mortes 299
180. Provins Castle. Keep 300
181. Castle, Chinon 302
182. Castle, Clisson. Keep 303
183. Castle. Villeneuve-les-Avignon 304
184. Castle of Tarascon 305
185. Vitré Castle 307
186. City of Carcassonne. Castle gate 310
187. City of Carcassonne. Gate of the Lists 312
188. City of Carcassonne. Gate known as the _Porte Narbonaise_ 313
189. Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes. Drawbridge 314
190. Ramparts of Dinan. Gate known as the _Porte de Jerzual_ 315
191. Vitré Castle. Gate-house 317
192. Ramparts of Guérande. Gate known as the _Porte St.
Michel_ 318
193. Ramparts of Mont St. Michel. Gateway known as the
_Porte du Roi_ 320
194. Entrance to the Port of La Rochelle 322
195. Bridge at Avignon 323
196. Bridge of Montauban 325
197. Bridge of Cahor 326
198. Bridge of Orthez 327
199. Fortified bridge. Mont St. Michel 328
200. Town-hall at St. Antonin (Tarn et Garonne) 334
201. Barn at Perrières (Calvados) 335
201_a_. Barn at Perrières (Calvados). Section 336
201_b_. Barn at Perrières (Calvados). Plan 336
202. Tithe-barn at Provins 337
203. Granary of the Abbey of Vauclair 338
204. Hospital of St. John, Angers 339
205. Abbey of Ourscamps (Oise) 340
206. Lazar-house at Tortoir (Aisne) 341
207. Hospital at Tonnerre. Section 343
208, 208_a_. Houses at Cluny 347, 348
209, 210. Houses at Vitteaux and at St. Antonin 349
211, 212. Houses at Provins and at Laon 350, 351
213. House at Cordes. Albigeois 352
214. House at Mont St. Michel 354
215, 216. Wooden houses at Rouen and at Andelys 355, 356
217. Hôtel Lallemand at Bourges 357
218. Jacques Cœur's house at Bourges 358
219. Town-hall of Pienza, Italy 361
220. Town-hall and belfry at Ypres 363
221. Market and belfry at Bruges 365
222. Town-hall of Bruges 366
223. Town-hall at Louvain 368
224. Belfry of Tournai (Belgium) 370
225. Belfry of Ghent (Belgium) 371
226. Belfry at Calais (France) 374
227. Belfry of Béthune (France) 376
228. Belfry of Évreux (France) 377
229. Belfry of Avignon (France) 378
230. Belfry gate known as _La Grosse Cloche_, Bordeaux 379
231. Cloth hall known as _La Loge_, Perpignan 381
232. Bishop's Palace at Laon 382
233. Archbishop's Palace at Albi. Plan 383
234. Archbishop's Palace at Albi. General view 384
235. Palace of the Popes at Avignon. Plan 385
236. Palace of the Popes at Avignon. General view 387
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
INTRODUCTION
The term _Gothic_, as applied to the architectural period dating from
the middle of the twelfth to the end of the fifteenth century, is
purely conventional.
The expression is clearly misleading as indicating the architecture
of the Goths or Visigoths; for these tribes were vanquished by Clovis
in the sixth century, and left no monumental trace of their invasion.
Hence, their influence upon art was _nil_. The term is radically
false both from the historical and the archæological point of view,
and originates in an error which demands the strenuous opposition
due to persistent fallacies. By a strange irony of fate the term
_Gothic_, used in the last century merely as the opprobrious synonym
of _barbaric_, has been specialised within the last sixty years in
connection with that polished epoch of the Middle Ages which sheds
most lustre upon our national art. And this, in spite of its Germanic
origin.
Romanesque architecture, or to be exact, that architecture which,
by virtue of the archæologic convention of 1825, we agree to label
Romanesque, undoubtedly borrowed its essential elements from the
Romans and Byzantines, modifying and perfecting them by the genius
of Western Europe; but the architectural period which began in the
middle of the twelfth century, and is so unjustly dubbed _Gothic_, was
of purely French birth; its cradle was the nucleus of modern France.
Aquitaine, Anjou, and Maine were the provinces in which it first took
root. The royal domain, and notably the Ile-de-France, witnessed its
most marvellous developments, and it was from the very heart of France
that its splendour radiated throughout Europe.
But the tyranny of usage leaves us no choice as to the title of this
volume. We are compelled to style it _Gothic Architecture_, though we
would gladly have registered our protest by naming it _French Mediæval
Architecture_.[1]
[1] This idea, which has recently found support in quarters which
might have been considered free from such _chauvinism_, is based
upon a narrow and peculiarly modern view of art. Art activities in
the Middle Ages were as instinctive and unconscious as speech. The
forms of architecture were invented and elaborated much in the same
way as language. For the purpose of the historian of architecture,
the northern half of France, the three southern quarters of Great
Britain, and the districts threaded by the Rhine, form a single
country, a single _foyer_ of art. They all pressed on from similar
starting-points to similar goals; and if the French went ahead in
one direction, they fell astern in another. It may be allowed that,
on the whole, the architects of the _Ile-de-France_ did better than
their rivals. Gothic architecture is pre-eminently logical, and logic
is pre-eminently the artistic gift of the Frenchman. So that its more
scientific development in the "French royal domain" was only to be
expected. That success of this kind gives a right to call the whole
development "French mediæval architecture" cannot be allowed.--ED.
The term _Gothic_ is, however, purely arbitrary, as is also that
of _pointed_, which has been introduced by writers who admit the
principle of the broken arch as the characteristic of so-called Gothic
architecture.
The broken or pointed arch, which is formed by the intersection of
two opposite curves at an angle more or less acute, was known to
architects long before its systematic application. It occurs in
buildings of the ninth century in Cairo, and was used prior to this
in Armenia, and still earlier in Persia, where indeed it superseded
all other forms of span from the times of the last of the Sassanides
onwards. It is an expedient which gives increased power of resistance
to the arch by diminishing its lateral thrusts.
The pointed arch is a form which admits of infinite variations. The
one law which governs its construction is expediency. It frankly
abandons those rules of classic proportion which are the canons, so
to speak, of the round-headed arch. Thus we shall find the pointed
approximating to the round-headed form in the twelfth century, only
to diverge from it more widely than before, till, towards the close
of the thirteenth and throughout the fourteenth century, it took on
the acute proportions necessitated by a perilous disposition to prefer
loftiness to solidity.
Fundamentally, it is of little moment whether the architecture of the
twelfth to the sixteenth century be termed Gothic or pointed, when
we recognise these terms as equally inexact. The point to be really
insisted upon is that the filiation we have already demonstrated in
our book on Romanesque Architecture continued slowly, but surely, in
the wake of civilisation, of which architecture is ever one of the
most striking manifestations.
So-called Gothic architecture was not the product of a single
generation; it was the continuous logical development of the
Romanesque movement, just as the latter in its time had been the
outcome of a gradual adaptation of old traditions to new-born
exigencies. Thus our Aquitainian forbears, by their successful
translation into stone of the eastern cupola, prepared the way for
the groined vault, the embryo of which is clearly traceable in the
pendentives of the dome at St. Front.
The great churches which, towards the middle of the twelfth century,
rose throughout the rich Western provinces that cluster about
Aquitaine, were all constructed with groined vaults. In these examples
we can discern no halting, tentative application of newly adopted
principles. The work is that of consummate architects, who brought
to their labours the assurance born of experienced skill, and in the
later part of the twelfth century, the new system had replaced all
others for the construction of vaults throughout Western Europe.
The architects of the royal domain, and notably those of the
Ile-de-France, had been the first to adopt the groined vault. Towards
the close of the twelfth century their assimilation of the new
principles, their native ingenuity, and professional hardihood alike
urged them to its further development. They became the inventors of
the flying buttress.
The substitution of the groined vault for its parent, the cupola,
was the direct consequence of the old tradition. The development
was merely a stage in the march of ideas, a consummation logically
arrived at in the track which the Romans, constructors not less
bold though more prudent than their artistic progeny, had marked
out for them. The groined vault, in short, is simply the growth
of Roman principles perfected by continuous experiment. But the
flying buttress, or rather the system of construction based on its
use, caused a radical change in the art of building of the twelfth
century. Stability, which in the ancient buildings was ensured by
solid masses at the impost of vaults and arches, was replaced by the
balance of parts. From this daring system some of the most marvellous
of architectural effects have been won; but the innovation had a
dangerous inherent weakness, inasmuch as it involved the exterior
position of those essential vital organs for whose preservation the
ancients had wisely provided, by keeping them within the building.
It is therefore not surprising that though fifty years after its
introduction the groined vault was generally adopted throughout
Western Europe, and even in the East, the success of the flying
buttress was infinitely more gradual and restricted. Thus, in the
North, the multiplication of great religious monuments built, or even
rebuilt on the new lines, was simultaneous with the construction in
the South of vast churches on the old principles. The adventurous
builders of the North had eagerly adopted the new division of churches
into several aisles, all with groined vaults, the vault of the great
central nave relying upon exterior flying buttresses for resistance to
its thrust.
In the South, on the other hand, architects were prudent, either
through instinctive resistance to, or deliberate reaction from, the
innovating influence, or by way of fidelity to an ancient tradition.
They built with a single aisle, wide and lofty; the vaults were
indeed supported by ribs, but their thrusts were received by powerful
buttresses inside the walls, the projections thus formed being further
utilised for the construction of chapels in the intervals.
This latter system, which has the incontestable merit of perfect
solidity, recalls the construction of the Basilica of Constantine,
or of the tepidarium in the Baths of Caracalla. The stability of the
edifice was ensured by the resistance of masses at the imposts, and
the whole principle of construction formed, as it were, a protest
against the miracles of equilibrium so much in favour among the
Northerners.
The new system of vaults supported by flying buttresses made
very slight way in the South. It appears but rarely, and in the
few instances where it is used has entirely the air of a foreign
importation. Even in the cradle of its origin, it took root slowly
and with difficulty, for its first applications were not without
disaster. Lacking that mathematical knowledge which is the mainstay
of the modern architect, the experimental skill shown by the
thirteenth-century builder in constructing his vaults, and then
in neutralising their thrusts by flying buttresses reduced to
the legitimate function of permanent struts, was little short of
miraculous. For it must be borne in mind that the thrust of these
vaults, and the strength of the flying buttresses, varied of necessity
according to their span, and the resisting powers of their materials.
It was only by dint of long gropings in the dark that the necessarily
empirical formulæ of the innovators were gradually transformed into
recognised rules, and this knotty problem of construction received
no positive solution till the last years of the thirteenth, or more
emphatically, the first years of the fourteenth century. While even
then the solution could claim no universal acceptance, for what was
comparatively easy in countries where stone abounds became difficult,
if not impossible, in districts where such a material as brick was the
sole resource of builders.
Nevertheless, the growth of Gothic architecture was rapid, so rapid
that even in the fourteenth century it began to show symptoms of that
swift decadence which is the Nemesis of facile success. The abuse of
equilibrium, the excessive diminution of points of support--defects
often aggravated by insecurity of foundation and exaggerated loftiness
of structure--the poor quality of materials, and the faulty setting
thereof due to empirical methods, the over-rapidity of execution
caused by mistaken emulation, the dearth of funds consequent on
social and political convulsions complicated by the miseries of
war,--all these things joined hands for the extinction of a once
resplendent art. But the initial cause of its ruin must be sought in
its abandonment of antique traditions. These traditions had persisted
uninterruptedly throughout the so-called Romanesque period, only to
pave the way for a seductive art in novel form, which, casting aside
the trammels of the past in obedience to the dictates of the moment,
fell on decay as rapidly as it had risen to eminence. Dawning in the
France of Louis the Fat, it reached its apogee under St. Louis, and
was in full decadence before the close of the fifteenth century.
The narrow limits assigned to us forbid not only detailed discussion
of our great monuments, but even a summary of the most famous. We must
be content to work out that theory of evolution already put forward by
us in _L'Architecture Romane_. We propose merely to offer a synthesis
of that architectural development which succeeded the so-called
Romanesque epoch, from its birth in the twelfth to its extinction in
the fifteenth century.
And as the groined vault is, broadly speaking, the essential
characteristic of so-called Gothic architecture, and the flying
buttress one of its most interesting manifestations, we shall make
a special study of their origin, their modifications, and their
principal applications in connection with religious, monastic,
military, and civil architecture. We shall dwell more particularly
upon religious architecture as presenting the grandest and most
obvious evidences of artistic progress, not in its admirable buildings
alone, but in those masterpieces of painting and sculpture to which it
gave birth in France.
PART I
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
CHAPTER I
THE INFLUENCE OF THE CUPOLA UPON SO-CALLED GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
_The cupola, in its symbolic aspect, was the germ, whence sprang
an architectural system the revolutionary action of which upon
art can scarcely be over-estimated._[2]
[2] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Quantin, Paris, 1888.
So-called Gothic architecture was no spontaneous and miraculous
manifestation. Like all human activities, its end is easy to
determine; but it is difficult to fix even an approximate date for
its beginning. The traces of its origin are lost in that period of
architectural activity which preceded it, and prepared its way by a
train of unbroken evolution.
The cupola of St. Front, which we may reasonably call the mother
cupola of France, was not an imitation of that of St. Mark at
Venice, for both were based upon the church built by Justinian at
Constantinople, in honour of the Holy Apostles. But the form thus
imported into Aquitaine received such modification and development, as
to make it virtually an original achievement. One of the knottiest of
architectural problems was solved in the process, and that admirable
constructive principle was established which consists in concentrating
the thrust of a vault upon four points of support strengthened by
pendentives.
The construction of such a cupola as that of St. Front in dressed
stone was an event of great moment in a district which still preserved
the Gallo-Roman tradition in its integrity, and was commonly reputed
the fatherland of our architecture. Its immediate consequences were
shown before the close of the eleventh century by the erection of
large abbey churches on the model of St. Front in various neighbouring
provinces.
But while accepting the new principle, the architects of the period
directed their energies to its perfectibility. Their efforts, and
even their successes, in this direction are manifest so early as the
first years of the twelfth century. The churches of Angoulême and
of Fontevrault may be cited in proof. "We here recognise the main
preoccupation of the Romanesque builders--namely, how best to reduce
the immense masses of churches built with the primitive cupola by a
more deliberate and judicious distribution of thrust and resistance.
We further see how the adoption of these principles led to the
emphasising of critical points by buttresses, which now began to
project from the exterior walls."[3]
[3] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Quantin, Paris, 1888.
The new system spread rapidly, notably in Anjou and Maine, its growth
being marked by an ever-increasing refinement and perfection. The
architects of the rich abbeys of these provinces, the importance of
which was aggrandised by their strong attachments to the all-powerful
religious organisation of the period, gave a further development
to the Aquitainian method. They transformed the pendentives of the
cupolas into independent arches which performed exactly the same
functions, thus logically working out an architectonic principle of
amazing simplicity, the success of which was so rapid that, by the
middle of the twelfth century, it was systematically applied to the
construction of great churches at Angers, Laval, and Poitiers.
The works of the Angevin architects were of course known to their
Northern brethren, who, in common with all the builders of the day,
had long been seeking the final solution of the great problem of
the vault. The architects of the Ile-de-France at once appropriated
the Angevin system with that special professional ingenuity which
characterised them, and applied it to the construction of innumerable
churches, large and small, all of them built on the basilican
plan--that is to say, with three, or even five aisles.
Thus the Aquitainian cupola of dressed stone exercised an absolutely
direct influence upon Gothic architecture, since it gave birth to the
_intersecting arch_, which is the main feature of so-called Gothic.
This influence was first manifested in the general arrangement of
single-aisled churches vaulted upon intersecting ribs, the earliest
departure from the original cupola. It was then more grandiosely
demonstrated in vast abbey or cathedral churches, built in accordance
with the basilican tradition, and all vaulted on the new principle.
Angers and Laval are primitive examples of churches whose square
compartments carry groined vaults, which thenceforth took the place of
cupolas with pendentives.
The abbey church of Noyon shows the application of this principle,
novel in the twelfth century, to the several-aisled churches of the
Northern architects. The _original_ vaults of Noyon[4] were planned in
square. The intersecting arches united the principal piers diagonally,
the strain being relieved by a subordinate or auxiliary arch which
rested upon secondary piers, indicated on the exterior by buttresses
less salient than those of the main piers, and on the interior by a
column receiving the lateral archivolts which united the chief piers.
[4] The original disposition of the vaults built about 1160 is
indicated by the spring of the arches above the capitals, and by the
base plan of the principal piers. The present vaults on rectangular
plan were built after the fire of 1238, in accordance with prevailing
fashions.
This system of construction, the principle of which was logically
developed at Noyon, for instance, no longer exists, save in its
traditional state in the great churches of Laon, and in the cathedrals
of Paris, Sens, and Bourges, to name but the principal, without regard
to the innumerable churches built on these principles throughout
Western Europe. In these great buildings the vaults were all square on
plan down to the adoption in the first half of the thirteenth century
of equal bays, vaulted on a rectangular plan, and marked inside and
out by equal piers and projections, as at Amiens, Rheims, and many
other churches of the period.
Hence we see how incontestable was the influence of the cupola
upon so-called Gothic architecture. This truth is demonstrated by
monuments yet in existence, lapidary documents above suspicion. It
cannot be insisted upon too strongly, not merely for the satisfaction
of archæeologic accuracy, but more especially as yet another proof
that the filiation between the art of the ancients and that of the
so-called Romanesque architects is no less evident than that which
links together the Romanesque and the so-called Gothic. Of this latter
filiation we have a direct proof in the Aquitainian cupola, the parent
of those of Angoumois, which in their turn gave birth to the Angevin
intersecting arch, and so prepared the way for the flying buttress,
which again was to mark a new departure.