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.