CHURCHES OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES IN FRANCE AND IN
THE EAST
"The thirteenth century was so prolific in religious architecture as
to leave little scope to those which followed. But even had the growth
of great religious monuments been less rapid at this period, the wars
which convulsed France in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would
have paralysed such undertakings as the building of great cathedral
churches. The religious buildings actually completed in the fourteenth
century are rare; still rarer are those which date from the fifteenth.
In those stormy days enterprise was confined to the completion of
unfinished churches, and the modification, restoration, or enlargement
of twelfth and thirteenth century buildings. It was not until the
close of the fifteenth and opening of the sixteenth century, when
France was beginning to recover its former power, that a fresh impulse
was given to religious architecture; even then, however, the Gothic
tradition persisted, though in a corrupt and bastard form. Many of the
great cathedrals were finished, and a number of small churches, which
had been destroyed during the wars, or had fallen into decay through
long neglect, consequent on the poverty of the community, were either
rebuilt or restored. The movement was, however, presently arrested
by the Reformation, when war, fire, and pillage again destroyed or
mutilated most of the newly completed religious buildings. The havoc
wrought by this last upheaval was in its nature irrevocable, for when
order once more reigned at the close of the sixteenth century, the
Renascence had swept away the last traces of the national art; and
though superficially the system of construction which prevailed in
French churches of the thirteenth century still obtained, the genius
which had presided at their construction was extinct and its memory
despised."[18]
[18] Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire raisonné de l'Architecture
française_, etc., vol. i.
[Illustration: 69. CHURCH OF ST. OUEN AT ROUEN. CENTRAL TOWER AND
APSE, SOUTH FRONT]
The Church of St. Ouen at Rouen, except for the west front and its
towers, which are modern, is a typical example of the rare religious
buildings constructed in the north of France during the fourteenth
century. The arrangement of these churches varies, inasmuch as,
while in general they follow the methods of construction adopted by
the Northern architects of the thirteenth century, their special
characteristic is a refinement or rather an attenuation of the piers,
less by actual reduction of their section than by a diminution of
their apparent bulk. This was effected by multiplying the clustered
shafts, the slenderness of which was still further exaggerated by
the prodigality of the mouldings, and the over-hollowness of their
profiles. These profiles and mouldings rise from the base to the
summit, and in the fourteenth century mark the spring of the arches
by rings of sculpture, crowned with rudimentary abaci. These latter
details were the last traces of a tradition which was to finally
disappear in the fifteenth century. Thenceforward the lines of
the intersecting arches of the vault, as of the longitudinal and
transverse arches, run down without interruption to the base of the
piers, where we find a complex faggot of mouldings crossing and
recrossing, and showing little beyond the technical dexterity of the
carver.
The main preoccupation of the architects of this period seems to
have been the reduction of solid surfaces so as to give full play
to the soaring effect of their airy shafts and vaults. The walls
disappear, save below the windows, which now occupy the entire space
of each bay. The triangular divisions of the vault are concealed by
a serried network of supplementary ribs, for the most part useless
save as decorations. But it must in justice be remembered that to this
exaggeration of the window spaces we owe the growth of the beautiful
art of painting on glass. This art, the admirable fitness of which
for decorative purposes can hardly be over-estimated, had already
manifested itself in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the
interval from that period to the Renascence it produced its grandest
masterpieces.[19]
[19] See chap. xii. "Decorative Painting on Walls and Glass."
It must be borne in mind that the great constructive and
reconstructive movement which had manifested itself throughout Western
Europe, and notably in the north of France, by great buildings, the
distinguishing characteristics of which are vaulted roofs and flying
buttresses, had made little progress in Southern France. The few
exceptions of importance are--Bazas, Bayonne, Auch, Toulouse, and
Narbonne. The Southern architects, as we have already stated, adhered
to the ancient tradition, whether influenced by impulses of reaction,
resistance, or defiance. Their conservatism is comprehensible
enough in view of the strong Gallo-Roman tendencies which governed
architectural activity throughout the district. The builders of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries did indeed accept the Angevin
intersecting arch, an invention the admirable simplicity of which was
its own recommendation. But this concession was without prejudice to
their broad principles. In the general arrangement of their religious
buildings they still adhered to Roman usage, and to such models
as the Basilica of Constantine and the tepidarium of the Baths of
Caracalla.[20]
[20] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, Maison Quantin,
chaps. iii. and vii.
Towards the close of the thirteenth, and throughout the fourteenth
century, a large number of churches were built in the South,
consisting of a single wide and lofty aisle, vaulted on intersecting
arches, the thrusts of which were received by buttresses of great bulk
and prominence in the interior of the building, but very slightly
indicated on the exterior. The spaces between the massive interior
buttresses, on either side of the aisle, were occupied by a series of
chapels, supporting disconnected tribunes or a continuous corridor.
The two great churches of the Cordeliers and of the Jacobins at
Toulouse were built in the brick of the country in the second half
of the thirteenth century. These have two aisles, according to the
Dominican usage of the period, but the exterior arrangement is the
same as in the one-aisled churches. The Churches of St. Bertrand
at Comminges, and those of Lodève, Perpignan, Condom, Carcassonne,
Gaillac, Montpezat, Moissac, etc., were built in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries on the single-aisled plan. That of Perpignan has
this peculiarity; its vaults, though supported on intersecting arches,
are built in accordance with Roman methods, which further prevail
both in the forms of the terra-cotta materials, and in the manner of
their application. The reins of the vault, which measures some 53 feet
across, are ornamented by terra-cotta jars embedded in an admirably
prepared lime mortar of great durability. The actual roof lies without
the support of any intervening structure of timber upon the extrados
of the vault. This consists of voussoirs of Roman brick, retained
by a layer of terra-cotta upon which the tiles, also of the antique
Roman form, are laid. This arrangement protects the vault from any
infiltration of water due to the rupture of the tiles, an absolutely
necessary precaution, if the former was to retain its stability.
[Illustration: 70. ALBI CATHEDRAL. PLAN]
[Illustration: 71. ALBI CATHEDRAL. SECTION OF THE NAVE]
The Cathedral of Ste. Cécile at Albi is a monumental type of the
single-aisled system. It is one of the largest and most important of
Southern buildings constructed on the traditional principles of the
ancient Romans. The vast single aisle, some 60 feet wide, is built
entirely of brick, with the exception of the window tracery, the choir
screen, and the south porch. Here we may study constructive principles
no less simple than sagacious, combining all the necessary conditions
of stability. The points of support and abutments of the vault on
intersecting arches are all enclosed by the outer wall; they are thus
protected from the accidents of climate, and their durability is
almost indefinitely assured.
[Illustration: 72. ALBI CATHEDRAL. APSE]
[Illustration: 73. ALBI CATHEDRAL. DONJON TOWER AND SOUTH FRONT]
The foundations of the cathedral, which was dedicated to St. Cecilia,
were laid in 1282, on the ruins of the ancient Church of Ste. Croix.
The main building was finished towards the close of the fourteenth
century, and the whole as it now stands was completed in the last
years of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, by
the addition of the baldacchino of the southern porch, or principal
entrance, of the stone rood loft, and choir screen, the stalls
of carved wood, and the fresco decorations which adorn the whole
building. This varied workmanship renders Albi one of the most
instructive of studies in connection with French decorative art,
the successive developments being marked by monumental examples of
the highest order, inspired or created by divers influences. The
architecture is of the Southern French type, as far as the main
building is concerned; in essentials, the same type prevails in the
magnificent porch known as the _baldaquin_, in the choir screen,
and in the rood loft; but in these later additions the inspiration
of Northern art at the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the
sixteenth century is also perceptible. The statuary and sculptured
ornaments of wood and stone are Flemish; the paintings indicate their
Italian origin by their crudity of colour and vulgarity of motive.
The Cathedral of Albi has a special interest as being one of the most
curious examples of Southern Gothic architecture in the fourteenth
century. It has a further peculiarity, inasmuch as it was not only a
church, as it still is, but a fortress. Such a combination is readily
accounted for by a study of the epoch following on the fierce struggle
which ended in the extermination of the Albigenses, and of the social
and political events resulting therefrom.
The interior is purely ecclesiastical, of the most beautiful type of
its time; the grandeur of its dimensions, its structural perfection,
and the magnificence of its decoration, are unsurpassed in their way.
The exterior is that of a fortress. Its intention is proclaimed by the
buttresses rising from the glacis of the base to form, as it were,
flanking towers; by the arrangement of the bays, or rather curtains,
crowned by an embattled machicolated parapet, which unite these
towers, and by the grandiose military character of the architecture.
The formidable aspect of the building is much enhanced by the western
tower, in effect a donjon keep, completing the system of defence by
its connection with the fortifications of the archbishop's palace,
which in their turn are carried on to ramparts, crowning the
escarpments which, to the north, rise from the Tarn.[21]
[21] See "Civil Architecture," Part IV. chap. ii.
A few fortified churches still exist--such, for example, as Les Stes.
Maries (Bouches du Rhone), which dates from the thirteenth century.
Albi was not a solitary instance of this usage. The Churches of
Béziers, Narbonne, and many others of the thirteenth and fourteenth
century had been surrounded by defensive outworks rendered necessary
by religious strife. The buildings thus transformed into strongholds
served the further purpose of sheltering fugitive populations in times
of panic.
One of the most interesting of such examples is the Church of
Esnandes, not far from Rochelle, on the creek of Aiguillon, a building
which dates from the twelfth century. It was fortified at the
beginning of the fifteenth century to resist the incursions of the
English.
[Illustration: 74. CHURCH OF ESNANDES (CHARENTE INFÉRIEURE). A
FORTIFIED CHURCH OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY]
As we have already remarked on the authority of a learned writer,
the buildings of the fifteenth century are less numerous than those
of the fourteenth. Those concerned in such undertakings were content
to finish churches begun at an earlier period, or to attempt their
reconstruction, frequently on plans which it was impossible to carry
out, so that many buildings were left incomplete. We may instance a
very famous monument, the Abbey of Mont St. Michel. The Romanesque
choir fell into ruins in 1421, during the Hundred Years' War. In 1452
Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville undertook the reconstruction of the
church on a scale so considerable that the choir only was completed
during the first years of the sixteenth century.[22] This part of
the church shows the effect of the decadence of which there had been
indications so early as the close of the thirteenth century. Certain
of the arrangements are very ingenious, notably that of the triforium,
which rests on the reins of the lower vault, and forms, as seen from
outside, a series of small apses standing out from the main wall. But
the mason's work is negligent, especially in the flying buttresses,
which were so carefully treated by the architects of the thirteenth
century. The lines are attenuated by a multiplicity of mouldings to an
almost threadlike slenderness; the spring of the arches is undefined
by capitals, and the complicated network of the fenestration adds to
the wire-drawn effect, and further diminishes the proportions of the
building. There is little to admire but the extreme manual dexterity
of the carvers. The carving of the granite, the only stone used at
Mont St. Michel[23] save for the arcadings of the cloister, is very
remarkable, as is also the ornamental sculpture; this is executed
with extreme skill, in spite of the excess of detail with which it is
loaded.
[22] _Description de l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel et des ses Abords_,
by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, 1877.
[23] See Part II., "Monastic Architecture."
[Illustration: 75. ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL. FLYING BUTTRESSES OF THE
CHOIR (LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY). FROM A DRAWING BY THE AUTHOR]
[Illustration: 76. ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL. PLAN OF THE CHOIR ABOVE
THE LOWER CHAPEL]
[Illustration: 77. ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL. DETAILS OF THE APSE
(LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]
The decadence of Gothic architecture was manifest even at the close of
the thirteenth century in such _tours de force_ as the choir of St.
Peter at Beauvais, and the Church of St. Urbain at Troyes. During the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries buildings or parts of buildings
were constructed with remarkable skill, but the noble simplicity which
was the strength of thirteenth-century architecture was no more. By
the close of the fifteenth century a studied mannerism had taken
its place. The western doorway of Alençon Cathedral is a typical
example of this development, the defects of which were still further
accentuated in the following century.
[Illustration: 78. ALENÇON CATHEDRAL. WEST FRONT (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]
"The qualities of the architecture of the decadence must be sought
not in the construction, but in the decoration of churches; here we
may freely admire the happy detail and patient execution which mark
the work of carvers and limners during the last two centuries of the
Middle Ages."[24]
[24] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_; Paris,
1884.
Gothic architecture put forth its expansive force at the close of the
twelfth and during the thirteenth century, not only throughout Western
Europe, but even in Eastern countries, where monuments still survive
of the highest interest to us as the work of monkish architects who
came from France in the wake of the first Crusaders. The modifications
and enlargements of famous buildings in the Holy Land towards the
close of the twelfth century show evident traces of their influence,
which is further manifested in certain structures of Rhodes and
Cyprus from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, in which Western
and more especially French types have served as models.
[Illustration: 79. FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. SOPHIA AT NICOSIA
(ISLAND OF CYPRUS)]
"It will hardly be disputed that the prolonged sojourn of the
Crusaders in the Levant, the teachings of their architects, and
the contemplation of their works, were considerable factors in the
development of Arab art. There was a reaction of the West upon the
East; sometimes indeed such a direct influence is perceptible as to
astound and perplex the observer. To understand the part played by the
Crusaders in the East, and to appreciate its Western and independent
character, we must cast a rapid glance at the monuments constructed by
them in Cyprus and Rhodes after their expulsion from Syria. We shall
find the movement which originated in the twelfth century progressing
throughout the following centuries on the same lines; in other words,
drawing a continuous inspiration from France.[25]
[25] Melchior de Vogüé, _Les Églises de la Terre Sainte_.
"The island of Cyprus was conquered in 1191 by Richard Cœur de
Lion; in the following year it was ceded to Guy de Lusignan, in whose
family it remained until the close of the fifteenth century. Catherine
Cornaro, the widow of the last of the Lusignans, gave it in 1489 to
the Venetians, who retained possession of it till its conquest by
the Turks in 1571. Throughout the thirteenth century Cyprus was a
refuge for successive remnants of the Christian colonies of Syria.
French predominance was at its height in the fourteenth century.
The religious monuments of this period are very numerous and of
great variety of structure. Art had emerged from the cloister, and
had ceased to be the monopoly of monastic bodies. In Cyprus we no
longer find that scholastic uniformity which characterises the Latin
churches of the Holy Land. The new blood of secularism had entered
into Romanesque architecture and led to a fresh development of the
art in Cyprus as in France Architects applied the thirteenth-century
methods, fully recognising their consequences. They sacrificed to
local exigencies by the substitution of flat roofs for timber ones,
but this modification in nowise affected the general arrangement of
their buildings.
[Illustration: 80. CATHEDRAL OF ST. NICHOLAS AT FAMAGUSTA (ISLAND OF
CYPRUS). FAÇADE]
[Illustration: 81. CATHEDRAL OF ST. NICHOLAS AT FAMAGUSTA (ISLAND OF
CYPRUS)]
"The most considerable monument of the thirteenth century is the
Cathedral of Nicosia, built between 1209 and 1228, and dedicated to
St. Sophia (see Fig. 79). This large three-aisled church has all the
characteristics of French cathedrals of the period."[26]
[26] Melchior de Vogüé, _Les Églises de la Terre Sainte_.
The Churches of St. Catherine and of the Armenians, the mosques
of Emerghié and of Arab Achmet also date from the close of the
thirteenth century. Among the more numerous buildings of the
fourteenth century the most noteworthy are the Cathedral of St.
Nicholas at Famagusta (Figs. 80 and 81), with its three portals
and two towers; the Church of St. Sophia at Famagusta (Fig. 82),
the Premonstrant Monastery of Lapaïs, remarkable for the beauty
and nobility of its abbatial buildings, which comprise a large
three-aisled chapel, and several religious buildings at Paphos and
at Limasol. At Rhodes there are a number of churches built in the
fifteenth century after French models, which had no less a vogue
for dwelling-houses than for religious and military architecture;
in a word, architecture--civil, religious, or military--was French
in all its manifestations. "The guns of the order still point from
the embrasures of the towers, Soliman's stone cannon balls strew
the neighbouring ground; sculptured on the house fronts are the
blazons, and in many cases the French names, of their bygone owners.
Involuntarily the mind travels back by the space of three centuries,
reincorporating these forgotten worthies, and repeopling their
dwelling-places. One half expects to see the emblazoned doors thrown
open, to give egress to knightly owners, mustering for the last time
under the banner of St. John."[27]
[27] Melchior de Vogüé, _Les Églises de la Terre Sainte_.
[Illustration: 82. RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA AT FAMAGUSTA
(ISLAND OF CYPRUS)]