CHAPTER II

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

I

The term Gothic, with the suggestion of “barbarian,” was applied by men of the Renaissance to Mediæval Art. Unlike the term Romanesque, it is not a name that defines. Hence an attempt has been made to substitute the word, _ogival_, from the French ogive, which is applied to the curve of the pointed arch--a distinguishing feature of the Gothic style. But in our own language, at least, Gothic has become so embedded that it is more convenient to preserve it.

We understand by it that style which was developed out of Romanesque about 1150 and continued to flourish until the development and spread of the Renaissance style.

The change which is represented in Gothic is due to several causes: (a) development of vaulting ribs; (b) the general use of the pointed arch; (c) reapplication of the Roman principle of concentration of vaulting strains upon four points; (d) the development of a buttress system to reinforce the main parts of the strain, and (e) the development of window openings both as to their size and ornamentation.

=Periods of Gothic.=--The period of Gothic covers the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The variations which it presented in these several centuries are often characterised by the changes in the treatment of the windows. Thus, in France, they have been divided

into: _Primary_, or Thirteenth Century style; _Secondary_, or Fourteenth Century, often called _Rayonnant_ from the wheel tracery of the rose windows; _Tertiary_, or Fifteenth Century, called _Flamboyant_ from the flame-like shapes of the window spaces. On the other hand, in England, the divisions are: Thirteenth century or _Early English_; Fourteenth century or _Decorated_, because of the increased elaboration both of window tracery and rib vaultings; Fifteenth century or _Perpendicular_, owing to the predominance of vertical members in the tracery of the windows.

The chief fountain-source of the early Gothic development was the Ile de France, whence the new ideas were carried, largely by monastic activity and especially that of the Cistercian order, to England, Germany, Italy, and Spain. In each of these countries their application was coloured by local conditions and England in particular produced a series of buildings, characterised by originality of treatment and grandeur of design. Nevertheless, it is recognised that French Gothic is pre-eminent, not only for the logic and skill with which structural problems were solved but also for sublimity of design, especially in the interiors, and for the sense of proportion that distinguishes the best examples. English Gothic, however, is a noble second.

Before enumerating some of the famous examples of French Gothic, we may summarise the principles and devices more or less common to all Gothic.

Romanesque had substituted equilibrium in place of the inert stability of the Roman architecture. The thirteenth century architects added to equilibrium _elasticity_.

They achieved this by a development of the concentration of strains, which the Romans had invented or applied in the support of groin-vaulting on four piers, and the Romanesque architects had further developed by the system of rib-vaulting.

=Pointed Arch.=--The Gothic was structurally evolved out of the rib vaulting and the pointed arch. In the first place, while the Romanesque architects used the rib system solely as a convenience of building, the architects of the Ile de France, adopting it for the same purpose, became conscious of its further possibilities in the direction both of construction and of beauty. The rib, no longer a crude arch of masonry, was constructed of mouldings that made it a feature of beauty, enhanced by the increased height and the finer sweep of line that the skill and taste of the French architects achieved.

In this they were helped by the substitution of the pointed for the semi-circular arch. Not only are the curves of the pointed arch more beautiful, but they lent themselves also to a more daring method of building. By means of them the tops of the longitudinal and transverse arches could be lifted to the level of the diagonal ones, so that the filling in of the _massives_ or spaces between the ribs, was simplified. Moreover, the strain of the pointed arch was more directly downward, which brought the main pressure down upon the piers. Advantage was taken of this by clustering small columns around the piers, so that each column carried its own rib, bringing the ribs and columns into a structural harmony and creating a continuous effect of soaring growth from the floor up to the summit of the vaulting. And this effect could be enhanced by the opportunity which the rib construction allowed of lifting the vaulting higher, and so affording space for ample clerestories.

=Buttresses.=--Meanwhile the lateral strain or thrust of the pointed arch, though less than the vertical, had to be sustained, and this was done by developing the buttress. These were of two kinds: abutting, as the name implies, either on the nave wall or on the outer walls of the aisles and chevêt. In both cases they were a development of the masonry piers with which the Romanesque architects reinforced the walls. When the buttresses were attached to the outer walls of the aisles and chevêt, they were connected with the nave wall by arches which sprang across the intervening space, and in consequence are known as _flying buttresses_.

Sometimes these buttresses were practically vertical, at other times they descended in offsets or steps, increasing in width toward the ground. Further to increase their resistance they were frequently surmounted by finials or pinnacles. The buttress, in fact, was not only a structural member of great importance, but one of the characteristic elements of beauty in the design.

=Concentration of Counter-thrusts.=--By the time these two principles--the concentration of thrusts and the counter-thrusts--had been thoroughly worked out, as they were in the thirteenth century, the Gothic architects had extended to the whole edifice what the later Romanesque architects had done for the vaulting. As the latter had been constructed on a framework of ribs, so now the essential structure of the whole edifice became a frame or skeleton, self-supporting, with its strains distributed throughout, as in the muscular system of the human body, and in the “steel cage” construction of modern buildings.

This enabled the Gothic architects to erect loftier and larger buildings and at the same time lighter in appearance, compared with which the Romanesque seem squat and heavy. The French showed a preference for lofty interiors; the English for length of vista, the proportionate loss of height being offset on the exterior by the extra height of the towers and spires.

Another result of the framework system of structure was that the intervening wall-spaces, relieved of strain, could be fully utilised for openings, especially for windows, so important in the duller climate of the north. The clerestory became an important feature of the Gothic cathedral; so also the _triforium_, or gallery round the nave, which, pierced in the thickness of the wall, separated the clerestory and arcade arches. Further, the windows in all the outer walls took on a new importance.

=Windows.=--The windows, in fact, became another of the distinguishing characteristics of Gothic architecture and the variety in their treatment marks the several centuries of its development. At first there was the plain _lancet_ (spear-headed) window, the top of which was composed of two segments of a circle meeting at one point. The segments were inscribed about a triangle, which was either equilateral or isosceles. In the case of the equilateral triangle, whose base was equal to the sides, the distance of the point of the arch from the spring of the curves was equal to the width of the window. On the other hand, in the case of the isosceles triangle, if the base were longer than the sides, the point of the arch dropped lower, while, if the base were shorter, the arch was higher than its width--the true lancet.

Such plain openings, or _lights_, were used either singly or in pairs; and in time two were included within one lancet opening, the space above the heads of the lights being filled with a round or _quatrefoil_ light. In this case the upper part or _tracery_ had the appearance of having been cut out of one slab or plate of stone, and the pattern in consequence was called _plate-tracery_. Later, when the number of lights in a window was increased, the tracery above them was elaborated into various geometric designs, technically known as _bar-tracery_. Still later, when the architects had completely solved all the structural problems and the only advance could be made in further elaboration of details, the geometric forms were abandoned for more flowing designs, which are called in French Gothic _Flamboyant_; in English, _Decorated_.

It is to be noted that the change in the treatment of the windows was reflected in the carved ornamental details of other parts of the edifice; especially in the canopies over niches and the embellishment of gables, doors, choir-screens, wall-panelling, finials, and spires. These in the Flamboyant period (fifteenth century) reached a degree of lace-like elaborateness, that, while beautiful in itself, tends to obscure the actual structural elements; thereby marking the decadence of the Gothic style.

This phase was represented in English Gothic by a gradual stiffening of the tracery into rigid forms and barren repetitions. Because of the insistence on rectangular motives it is known as _Perpendicular_.

The windows were decorated with stained glass, the most beautiful remains of which are to be found in the Cathedral of Chartres. They show a prevalence of blue and violet tones and are composed of small pieces of glass, joined by leading. This French method was also imitated in England, as in the early windows of Canterbury; but by degrees an English style was adopted, in which the pieces of glass were much larger, and the subject consisted of large figures beneath traceried canopies, in imitation of the carved work of the sculptors.

In the decoration of =columns= the French long preserved the Corinthian type, but in place of the acanthus, used foliage forms studied directly from nature. The forms at first were freely conventionalised; but by degrees, as the skill of the carver increased, became more and more naturalistic and thereby less finely decorative. The corresponding progress in England is from conventionalised nature to frankly naturalistic imitation and thence to a somewhat dry and barren conventionalism.

=Sculpture.=--A conspicuous feature of Gothic decoration is the figure sculpture. It was used with profusion, especially in France, where the monumental treatment of the west fronts gave freest scope for the multiplication of niches, filled with statues. The deeply recessed portals, for example, were flanked with tiers of figures, which were also prolonged into the recessed planes of the arched top, while the lunette, or half-moon space between the arch and the horizontal top of the door, was filled with reliefs of the Saviour or Madonna. Meanwhile, figures beneath canopies stretched in a band across the upper part of the façade, or stood singly in niches that penetrated the surface of buttresses; until, in time, every vantage point, whether within or without the edifice, was enriched with statues. The noblest period of this efflorescence was the thirteenth century, when the French “imagers,” particularly, attained a remarkable balance between truth to nature and decorative convention. The statues seem to have grown into human shape out of the very material of the edifice and retain its character. With increasing cleverness, this magnificent conventionalisation passed into naturalistic imitation and the statues seem to be something added for elaboration’s sake.

=Contrast to Classic.=--Gothic architecture, though it developed through Romanesque and Early Christian out of Roman, presents an almost complete contrast to Classic style. It is an expression of many individualities rather than of conformity. Plans are more or less uniform; generally basilican in France, cruciform in England. But the superstructure, while embodying certain common features, exhibits the freedom of individual treatment, as each city or monastery vied with others in a mighty effort to excel.

A cathedral embodies such miracles of audacity and aspiration, that one scarcely looks in it for that complete harmony of proportion which distinguishes a Classic temple. The latter was the product of men who had ceased to believe in the deities they professed to honour and had made a religion, according as they were Hellenes or Romans, of abstract perfection or of systematised order.

Gothic cathedrals, on the other hand, were the material and spiritual expression of intense religious devotion and of civic pride and freedom. They were the memorials, not of old nations in the decline of their political and social ideals, but of young races, struggling toward nationalism and fired with the splendour of dawning aspirations. No level line of entablature, resting upon columns ever so stately, could embody such elevated enthusiasm. It must mount into the sky, with soaring lines and vaulting arches, spires and pinnacles, ever straining upward; giving voice to the grandeur of concerted uplift. Some of the cathedrals grew up from ground to ridge roof and towers under the guiding mind of one architect; more represent the continuous growth of the community; but in either case embody in their variety and organised complexity the Soul of the Crowd.

For one must not think of them only as temples of worship. They embraced also the functions now distributed in schools and libraries. They were the shrines of the culture of their day, in which the truths of religion, legends of saints, and the mysteries of belief were unfolded in sculpture, paintings, and stained glass.

=Asymmetries or Refinements.=--In order to ensure their monopoly the gilds of masons of the Middle Ages jealously preserved the secrets of their art. Accordingly, there are no written treatises of the period. Moreover, with the advent of the Renaissance the Gothic was held in contempt and the indifference to it continued until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in the renewed enthusiasm for Mediæval architecture, buildings were studied, measurements taken, and plans of the old churches and cathedrals were drafted. But the surveyors, having measured the distance between one pair of piers on opposite sides of the nave and between two piers on one side, plotted the plan as if these measurements were uniform throughout the whole nave. In this and in other matters they assumed that the design was symmetrical. The contrary, however, in the case of many churches and cathedrals, has been proved by the recent researches of Professor William H. Goodyear, whose work in connection with Hellenic, Byzantine, and Romanesque refinements or asymmetries has been noted already.

His researches, which have covered most of the Gothic edifices of Italy, many of the most important churches and cathedrals in France, and some in England, prove that the “mysteries” of the Mediæval gilds included asymmetrical refinements. The most important deviations from mechanical formality are as follows:

1. _Widening of the Nave_ in a vertical direction. Where this occurs, each side of the nave leans outward; three methods being employed, though not more than one appears in a given church. In one case, there is a continuous and absolutely straight outward inclination from floor to vaulting. In another, the outward inclinations recede from floor to vaulting in delicate vertical curves. In the third, the piers are perpendicular up to the arcade capitals, where the inclination begins and is continued in straight lines through the triforium and clerestories. In this last case, the angle, formed by the two lines, produces in the large scale of the building the effect of a curve.

The widening in all cases tends to offset the perspective illusion of vertical lines converging toward the vaulting; but also appears to have been preferred for other aesthetic reasons.

Instances of continuous widening in straight lines are found in the =Cathedral= and =Church of St. Ouen=, in =Rouen=. Continuous widening combined with vertical curvature occurs at =Canterbury=; while the perpendicular pier, combined with inclined vaulting-shafts, triforium and clerestories is found in =Amiens= and =Rheims=.

2. _Horizontal Curvature in Plan._ Where this occurs, one of five methods is adopted.

In the first, the piers are set on parallel curves, which consequently are convex to the nave on one side and concave to the nave on the other. In the second, both curves are concave to the nave, which thus widens slightly from both ends toward the centre. In the third, both curves are convex to the centre. In the fourth, the curves are parallel, but reverse their direction at or near the choir, in the form of an attenuated S, or “Hogarth’s line of beauty.” In all the above instances the curves start at the bases of the piers and continue in the triforium, clerestory and roof parapets; in certain cases being also repeated in the outer aisle walls.

The fifth system is connected with a special phase of the Widening. For, in this case, the piers are set on a straight line and with the triforium and clerestory are perpendicular from floor to ceiling. That is to say, at the west end and the crossing; but, in between, from both ends, the piers gradually lean outward with an increasing inclination toward the centre of the nave. Thus result curves, concave to the interior, which, however, since the bases of the piers are on straight lines, are found only in the triforium, clerestory and parapet walls. =Lichfield Cathedral= presents an example; =Rheims= another, but with a difference. For while the widening in Lichfield begins at the pavement, that of Rheims starts at the arcade capitals.

3. _So-called Perspective illusions._ These were intended to emphasise the effect of the choir and generally to increase the suggestion of size and distance. This was accomplished in three ways.

a. By making the nave arcade and the outside walls converge toward the choir.

b. By lowering the height of the arches as they approach the choir.

c. By reducing the width of the arches as they approach the choir.

The result of all these asymmetries is to create an impression of elasticity in place of rigidity; an impression, in fact, of life; of the flexible, varied movement of organic growth.