CHURCHES AND CATHEDRALS OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES
The study of mediæval architecture is one of the most fascinating of
pursuits, but it is one beset with difficulties. The obscurity in
which the origin of our great monuments is buried is profound and
often impenetrable.
A fertile cause of error is the confusion which in many cases has
arisen between the dates of foundation and of consecration. Very often
a church was built and afterwards considerably modified, rather than
actually reconstructed, on the same consecrated site.
Lightning was the most frequent cause of the destruction, total or
partial, of mediæval churches. Striking the steeple, the tower, or the
roof, it fired the timber superstructure of the nave. This in itself
would not have been an irreparable disaster; but as the timbers gave
way the calcined beams charred the piers, and so prepared the downfall
of the whole building, which was then either restored or reconstructed
in the fashion of the day. Hence, whether we base our deductions upon
more or less trustworthy records or upon contemporary readings of
existing data, the result is too often a confusion among vanished
monuments, or a contradiction between the buildings as they now exist
and the historic records which relate to them.
[Illustration: 32. CATHEDRAL OF LAON. PLAN]
[Illustration: 33. CATHEDRAL OF LAON. INTERIOR OF THE NAVE]
Nothing is easier for interested theorists than to post-or ante-date
the structure of a building. They have nothing to fear from the
testimony of writers, and, with very few exceptions, it is difficult
to assign a precise date to the construction of great churches and
cathedrals or to point with certainty to their architects. The
obscurity of these great artists is perhaps to be accounted for by
the fact that they were ecclesiastics. As such the honour of their
achievements belonged not to the individual, but to the corporate
body, the _order_ of which they were members, and members moreover who
had, in most cases, taken the vow of humility.
Modern science, architectural and archæological, has failed to throw
much positive light on this subject. It contents itself for the most
part with ingenious hypotheses and learned deductions which leave
us still in doubt as to precise dates. But we shall at least find
some sort of foothold in a careful architectural survey of buildings
themselves. This should be, of course, supplemented by study of
historic records, and such a study will convince us that art in the
Middle Ages, as in all epochs, obeyed the immutable laws of filiation
and transformation. We shall follow the artist step by step, observing
his research, his hesitation, his errors, and even his corrections.
These are trustworthy documents in which to study the origin of a
building and to note its successive transformations, which latter were
far more frequent than total reconstructions. For it was not until the
beginning of the thirteenth century that great cathedral churches in
any considerable numbers were conceived and continuously executed.[9]
[9] It is possible, if not easy, to trace the architectural
development of the Middle Ages in a good many cathedrals and
churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We have, however,
confined ourselves, for the purposes of our present synthesis, to
the churches and cathedrals of the royal domain, and more especially
of the Ile-de-France, not only because they served as models for the
architects of their day, but because they illustrate in a remarkable
degree the various transitions we desire to study.
[Illustration: 34. CATHEDRAL OF LAON. MAIN FAÇADE]
The great abbey churches founded towards the close of the twelfth
century in the royal domain, but continued and finished in the early
years of the thirteenth, still preserved a more ancient tradition.
Laon, which is derived from Noyon and from the south transept of
Soissons, consists of a nave with transepts, and of two-storied side
aisles vaulted upon intersecting arches, above which, as at Soissons,
rise flying buttresses, which meet the thrust of the main vault.
This arrangement of the side aisles proves the continuity of the
Norman formulæ, just as the method of construction adopted in the main
vault demonstrates the persistent influence of the dome.[10]
[10] See chap. i., "The Influence of the Cupola on Gothic
Architecture."
The admirably constructed main vault is square on plan, each square
containing two transverse compartments, after the Angevin method as
derived from the Aquitainian dome. Here we find indications that,
if the builders of the Church of Laon had fully assimilated this
method, their minds were nevertheless not altogether at rest as to
the functions of the flying buttress. This was, of course, essential
to the piers which received the united thrust of both transverse
and diagonal arches. But it was far from logical to reinforce the
intermediate piers supporting nothing but the auxiliary transverse
arches by abutments identical with those of the main piers.
The illogicality so striking at Laon is absent from Noyon. There,
on the contrary, the architects--of the original construction--had
emphasised the functions of the main piers by buttresses of greater
projection and solidity than those accorded to the secondary piers.
[Illustration: 35. CATHEDRAL OF LAON. THE EAST END]
[Illustration: 36. CATHEDRAL OF LAON. SECTION OF THE NAVE]
Notre Dame de Paris was begun towards the close of the twelfth
century, and finished, save for the chapels, in the first half of
the thirteenth. As at Laon, the Norman tradition is observed in the
arrangement of the upper galleries of the side aisles, while the
influence of the dome is again to be traced in the sex-partite
groining. The same illogical system of abutments obtains as at Laon.
This vast building, consisting of a nave and double side aisles of
equal height sweeping round the semi-circular choir, seems to be one
of the first five-aisled cathedrals; its grandiose arrangement, the
boldness of its combinations, and the perfection of its detail mark
the considerable progress made by the architects of the Ile-de-France.
[Illustration: 37. NOTRE DAME DE PARIS. PLAN]
The method of construction here adopted has a peculiar significance.
The upper internal galleries, vaulted on diagonal arches, and raised
considerably above the level of the second side aisle, the boldness of
the flying buttress, which at one span embraces the two side aisles
and forms the abutments of the main vault--alike prove that the
architects of Notre Dame de Paris had adopted the newly discovered
systems even to excess, and were applying them with unparalleled skill
and ingenuity.
[Illustration: 38. NOTRE DAME DE PARIS. SECTION OF THE NAVE]
The Norman tradition which had obtained in the Ile-de-France
passed away in the first years of the thirteenth century. At
Châlons-sur-Marne the nave is flanked by two-storied side aisles. But
the upper gallery, vaulted and greatly reduced in size, shows that the
conventional arrangement was fast dying out.
The influence of the dome was longer lived, as is shown in the
construction of vaults at this period. We may still trace it at
Langres in the domed form of the vaults, which, in spite of their
rectangular plan, seem to be a reduced copy of the Angevin naves.
[Illustration: 39. NOTRE DAME DE PARIS. FLYING BUTTRESSES AND SOUTH
TOWER]
The naves of Sens and of Bourges are also vaulted in square
compartments. The thrust of the vaults is carried by the diagonal
arches to each alternate pier, the intermediate one receiving only the
auxiliary transverse arch already fully described. Yet here again the
exterior flying buttresses are all of equal solidity in spite of the
varying strain. This arrangement, prudent if illogical, shows once
more with what distrust architects had adopted that system of exterior
abutment, the characteristic of which is a detached arch exposed to
all the vicissitudes of weather, and yet responsible for the stability
of the whole edifice.
The Cathedral of Sens marks a new phase of development by its
suppression of the upper gallery over the side aisles. These are now
vaulted and covered by a lean-to roof; a flying buttress of single
span receives the thrust of the main vault. The building is perfectly
solid; its construction shows research, though it is as illogical as
that of Laon or of Paris; for the exterior flying buttresses are all
of equal strength, and so fail to proclaim their true functions, the
interior thrusts varying considerably.
[Illustration: 40. SENS CATHEDRAL. PLAN OF A BAY. VAULT IN SQUARE
COMPARTMENTS OF TWO BAYS]
[Illustration: 41. SENS CATHEDRAL. SECTION OF A BAY OF THE NAVE]
[Illustration: 42. SENS CATHEDRAL. INTERIOR VIEW OF LATERAL BAYS]
The arrangement at Bourges, which appears to have been mainly built,
if not actually finished, in the first half of the thirteenth
century, differs from that of Sens. The structure is one of five
aisles, and in plan recalls Notre Dame de Paris, but the details are
very dissimilar. The inner side aisles no longer support a gallery,
nor are they of equal height with the outer aisles; they are raised
so as to afford space for lighting (see Fig. 43). The main vault is
sex-partite planned on squares; but the same illogicality exists
here which we have already pointed out, and in connection with which
we will risk appearing somewhat insistent, in the hope of directing
special attention to it. It is more glaring here than elsewhere, the
flying buttresses themselves being of exaggerated dimensions and of
double span, embracing the two side aisles.
[Illustration: 43. BOURGES CATHEDRAL. SECTION OF THE NAVE]
Both at Bourges and Sens the space between the summit of the
archivolts and the bases of the upper windows, known as the frieze,
or, in modern parlance, the triforium, becomes a purely decorative
feature. It consists of a narrow arcaded corridor, occupying in the
interior of the building that portion of the wall space which in the
exterior has been appropriated by the lean-to roof of the side aisles.
At Sens there is merely a single gallery; at Bourges it becomes
double, through the stepped arrangement of the side aisles (see Fig.
43), a variation in which we may trace an ingenious blending of the
systems of Anjou and Poitiers with those of the Ile-de-France.