George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers

by George Edmund Street

IV

The two great architectural attractions of Laon are the cathedral and its subordinate buildings, and the fine church of S. Martin. They are situated at the two extremities of the long narrow ridge on which the town is built, which towards the east falls precipitously on three sides almost from the very walls of the cathedral down to the broad vast plain which extends as far as the eye can reach, and from all parts of which the grand mass of the building, with its almost unrivalled cluster of steeples, is seen standing—just as our own glorious Lincoln—on the very spot of all others fitted for a diocesan throne.

I know no church which is altogether more calculated to leave a lasting impression on the mind than the cathedral. What is wanting in grace and delicacy is amply atoned for in force and majesty; and the completeness of the plan, the short period which seems to have elapsed between its commencement and completion, and the almost entire absence of later additions or alterations, combine to make it in every respect of the utmost value to the architectural student. The stern, solemn majesty of its art is just what we modern men ought to endeavour to impress ourselves with; but whilst I believe that all students would be enormously benefited, they must not come here under the impression that they are to see work which is pretty and attractive in the same sense or degree as S. Ouen at Rouen, or Cologne cathedral.

In plan this church has the remarkable peculiarity of a square east end, and consists of a nave and choir respectively of eleven and ten bays in length, transepts with an eastern apsidal chapel to each, a small cloister on the south side of the nave, and sacristies formed in the angles between the transepts and choir. The groining is sexpartite in the principal vaults, and quadripartite in the aisles; there is a large vaulted triforium, and the fourfold division in height to which I have already referred as a characteristic of many of the churches of this district. But the most noteworthy feature is that the three principal façades—on the west, north, and south—were each intended to have two towers and spires, whilst a lantern crowned the crossing. No less than four of these towers and the lantern still remain (though without their spires, shown in an engraving by du Sommerard), as well as the lower portion of the others. On the east and north the cathedral is enclosed with extensive ranges of coeval buildings belonging to the bishop’s palace, including the small private chapel, to which I must recur again.

Let us hear what M. Viollet-le-Duc says about the characteristics of this cathedral of Laon:[26]—“La cathédrale de Laon conserve quelque chose de son origine démocratique; elle n’a pas l’aspect religieux des églises de Chartres, d’Amiens ou de Reims. De loin, elle paraît un château plutôt qu’une église; sa nef est, comparativement aux nefs ogivales et même a celle de Noyon, basse; sa physionomie extérieure est quelque peu brutale et sauvage; et jusqu’à ces sculptures colossales d’animaux, bœufs, chevaux, qui semblent garder les sommets des tours de la façade, tout concourt à produire une impression d’effroi plutôt qu’un sentiment religieux, lorsqu’on gravit le plateau sur lequel elle s’élève. On ne sent pas, en voyant Notre Dame de Laon, l’empreinte d’une civilisation avancée et policée comme à Paris ou à Amiens; là, tout est rude, hardi: c’est le monument d’un peuple entreprenant, énergique et plein d’un mâle grandeur. Ce sont les mêmes hommes que l’on retrouve à Coucy-le-Château—c’est une race de géants.”

I am disposed to think that M. le-Duc scarcely values the architecture of Laon sufficiently highly, and that he is mistaken in his idea of the democratic character imparted to it by the turbulence of the citizens at the time of its erection. It appears to me that the peculiarity of its character is derived much more from some connection with German art, and I believe that the churches throughout this part of France show many evidences of such a connection. The planning of the towers of Laon is very German; I need hardly adduce examples from the Rhine district, where, as we all know, the steeples are treated as so many great turrets, nearly similar in size, height, and design, whilst the crossing is often marked by a low lantern. The grand cathedral at Tournai in this respect resembles very strongly that of Laon; and if we were coming from Germany into France, we might at Andernach, Coblentz, Trèves, and Châlons-sur-Marne (in the church of Notre Dame), see a regular sequence of buildings by which we should arrive without any very great or sensible break at Laon. The groined triforium is another well known German feature, and though the apse is a very general termination to German churches, it is yet not impossible that its absence at Laon may be an evidence of Germanic origin, as we do meet there with some examples of the same kind. In one particular feature I am able to trace a most singular coincidence with a German example, to which, however, I do not wish to attach very much weight, though it is undoubtedly curious. The steeples at Laon are very fine compositions—I should hardly speak too strongly of the steeple of the south transept, were I to say that it is the best-designed steeple in France,—marked by turrets at the angles, which are either octagonal or square in plan with shafts at their angles, and very beautiful in their effect. In the west front one of the stages has, in these open turrets, large figures of oxen and other animals looking out from between the shafts on the city roofs far away below,—a quaint conceit, which one would suppose to be a purely personal and peculiar device, and of which nevertheless there is an almost exact repetition in the very similar steeples of the grand cathedral at Bamberg.

My belief is, that as we can trace a stream of Italian art coming to the south and south-west of France, and thence working on to the north in gradual and steady development, so we may also see the same thing here. Italian art first spread down the Rhine, and thence spread right and left, and in these border provinces of France influenced to a greater extent than is generally supposed the French architects. On their part there was a peculiar skill and art displayed which soon enabled them to develop from the germ which they received; but the Romanesque work out of which they developed their buildings was of a different order from that which was the ground-work on which the architects of Poitiers, Bourges, and Chartres had to work; the latter having in Italy a Byzantine origin, whilst that of the Rhine churches was rather Romanesque. Something therefore of the magnificent character of the best early French Gothic is owing to Germany, and it was the situation of the Île de France, the meeting point as it were of these two developments, which made it the centre from which the best Gothic architecture of the world naturally sprang. But whatever was the history of Laon cathedral, no one can doubt the excessive grandeur of the result. No doubt the magnificence of the situation, which recalls forcibly some of the most interesting of Italian cities, such as Siena and Perugia, has something to do with the colouring of memories of Laon; but in the church itself there is but one point on which it is possible to feel that there is any serious shortcoming, and this, as an Englishman, I am almost afraid to say is the absence of an eastern apse. It is only when one travels from church to church finished with apsidal choirs, that the eye sees the whole evil of the square east end as the termination of the vista in a large church. But there can be no doubt that there is less completeness and unity of effect, fewer fine effects of light and shade, and altogether less skill and architectural ingenuity in the English plan than in the other: and though I should be sorry to see the apse commonly introduced in small churches, yet I think it fortunate that attention has been a good deal drawn to this matter of late years, and that men have not been slow to recognize the advantage of importing this one foreign practice at any rate into our own country. Both externally and internally the east end of Laon is deficient in effect, and gives the impression of being low and awkward in proportion. There is an eastern triplet which comes down very near to the floor, and a large rose window over it; an arcade of open arches, flanked on either side by a pinnacle, conceals the lower part of the gable. This elevation is indeed the worst thing in the whole church, and contrasts unfavourably with that of the north transept. This is perhaps a little later in date and owes much to the irregularity of outline caused by the completion of one only of its steeples. It has the peculiarity of two double doors; and the large rose window composed of eight octofoiled circles surrounding a ninth, is of rare beauty. It is to be prized the more, too, because in the fourteenth century there was a plan for its removal, of which we have curious evidence: one of the side jambs and part of the arch of a large middle-pointed window having been inserted by cutting away the wall close to a buttress in such a way as to disturb very little of the original work, and yet to afford us a very curious evidence of the way in which alterations of this kind were made by the mediaeval masons, without the introduction of a single shore or support of any kind. Fortunately the alteration was stopped just where it ought to have been, after it had afforded evidence of the customs of the masons, but before it had destroyed a perfect first-pointed façade; and I suppose that by this time we have outlived the rage for middle-pointed work so far that it would be difficult indeed to find any one so wrong-headed as not to be grateful for the stoppage of the alteration at the point at which we see it now. Of the western façade I can say but little. It has been my fortune to see it twice, but an evil fate has so covered it with scaffolding at one time, and taken down and rebuilt so much at another, that I have only been able to guess at its general effect. The western doorways are adorned with sculpture, and this is almost the only place in the church in which figure sculpture still remains; but the whole exterior of the church is remarkable for the fine architectural character of the sculpture of foliage, which is used with special lavishness along almost all the string courses. I hardly know any finer work of its kind, but it is altogether conventional in its treatment, and arranged with very particular reference to architectural effect, the foliage in each bay being very nearly identical in its design. A peculiarity in the external effect of the church is the lighting of the triforium with separate windows, so that we have three heights of windows in the elevation belonging to the aisle, triforium, and clerestory.

Of the various steeples which adorn the church, and whose character is generally very similar, the most beautiful is, I think, that of the south transept. The lower stages are lighted with couplets of lancets, and have buttresses at their angles; above the roof line square pinnacles are set diagonally at the angles, and in the topmost stage the tower is an octagon in plan with octagonal angle pinnacles resting on the square pinnacles below, and lighted by lancet windows of very light proportions. The octagonal pinnacles are composed entirely of shafts supporting arches, and are of two stages in height; and within them are contrived some newel staircases of exquisite design. They consist of a series of delicate shafts—one on each step, supporting another above; the capitals of these shafts are all well carved and with great variety; the effect of this winding cluster of shafts, seen through and behind the shafts of the pinnacles, is a great lesson in the beauty of shafts and the value of scientific construction. Much of the beauty of the design is owing to the very light and airy character of these angle pinnacles, and it is much to be deplored that the spires shown in du Sommerard’s view no longer exist.

The small cloister on the south side of the nave is one of the features to which it would be unpardonable not to refer. It forms only one side of the enclosure, the east and west ends being occupied by the chapter room and a groined chapel projecting from the south wall of the nave, whilst the wall of the aisle forms the north side. The merit of this cloister is, therefore, not its extent, but the beauty of its design. The windows are of two lights, and above these is a quatrefoil opening enclosed within a circular moulding, round which are pierced sixteen small circles. The tracery was glazed, though the lower part of the windows appears to have been always open as it is at present. The whole design is a very good example of plate tracery. The outer wall of the cloister abuts on the street, and though only pierced with small square windows, is yet so skilfully buttressed and finished with a cornice so finely sculptured, as to be a very successful architectural feature. At the angle of this wall near the south transept doorway, a buttress is brought out from the transept, and against it is placed, standing on a corbel under a canopy, a grand angel which now holds a sundial; and though the dial is not old, I suppose, to judge by the position of the hand, that it takes the place of one coeval with the fabric. The angle of this buttress, coming forward rather awkwardly in front of the door, is cut back in a very skilful manner, and has two recessed shafts with capitals and bases, affording a capital example of angle decoration.

There is not much of which I need make special mention in the interior. The main columns are generally plain cylinders, with very large capitals from which the groining shafts rise; these are banded very frequently in their height with bad effect. There is the fourfold division in height to which I have already adverted, and considerable matter of study in the sculpture of the capitals, which is however in some cases rather too rude and early in its character.

There is some very fine early glass in the eastern windows of the choir. In the transept there are two arches across next the wall, supporting a floor on a level with and connecting the triforia, the spaciousness of which is quite wonderful. They are groined throughout, and the views of the church obtained from them are very good. I found some middle-pointed screens dividing the several bays of the triforium in the nave, and there was a good deal of thirteenth century glass lying on boards, and about to undergo restoration. Considerable alterations were made in the last century by the insertion of chapels between the buttresses of the choir, but these do not detract much from the general effect of the church, which exhibits a degree of general uniformity hardly to be paralleled save at our own Salisbury.

I think it admits of a fair doubt whether such a cluster of similar great steeples at regular intervals around one building, as we have here, could ever be perfectly satisfactory; but of the beauty of their design, taken separately, there cannot be two opinions. It is possible that if the central lantern had been carried up to a great height, whatever defect there is might have been rectified, but there is no sign of any such intention.

To the east and north of the cathedral are very large remains of buildings of the same date as the cathedral, and fairly perfect in their external effect. Towards the interior they all rest on open arcades, whilst on the exterior the outline is well and picturesquely broken by a series of turrets projecting from the walls of the great hall of the palace, said to have been built by Bishop Garnier in A.D. 1242.

The bishop’s chapel, a groined building with nave and aisles, and of two stages in height, still remains. It is of slightly earlier date than the cathedral, is covered with a roof of one span, and has a very small apse at the east end.

There seems to have been a communication directly from the bishop’s palace to the eastern part of the cathedral; and if the people of Laon were as turbulent as they are said to have been, the bishops were wise so to place their palace, and so to connect it with the cathedral as to enable themselves to stand a siege if need be.

After the cathedral, the church of S. Martin, at the opposite end of the town, is the principal architectural relic still left in Laon. Like the cathedral, it is remarkable for its square east end. It is cruciform in plan, and consists of nave and aisles, choir without aisles, and transepts with chapels on the east side. Two towers are placed in the angles between the transepts and nave. The general foundation of the fabric is Romanesque work, but the choir and transepts are of a rather ornate early first-pointed, much more German than French in its character, and the western façade is one of the best examples that I know of a middle-pointed front to a church of moderate pretensions. The early-pointed work at the east is remarkable for the very heavy character of its mouldings and string-courses, the use of both round and pointed arches, and the very ingenious arrangement of the chapels in the east wall of the transept, and of the buttresses above them. Three chapels are formed under two bays of vaulting, so that the vaulting shaft and buttress come over the point of the arch. The church is well groined. The steeples are poor in character and rather insignificant, but they appear never to have been completed, and in the neighbourhood of the cathedral it was dangerous to venture upon any but the most careful and noble work.

The west front is very ornate, and is marked chiefly by the fine octangular pinnacles at the angles of the clerestory and by the large sculpture of S. Martin in a quatrefoil which fills the gable. The three western doorways are composed of a succession of small reedy mouldings, and against the buttresses beyond the central doorway are figures of saints considerably mutilated.

Almost the only other interesting church is a small building attached now to an educational institution for boys. A priest told me it had belonged to the Templars, and at any rate it is an octagonal building with a small chancel on its eastern side, and a smaller circular apse. At the west end there is a small porch. The whole is in a late Romanesque style, and very small, the external measurement of each side of the octagon being only about eleven feet.

Here and there are to be seen remains of houses and gateways, but there is nothing of sufficient interest to require a special note here, and the only other building I need mention is the very curious church at Vaux-sous-Laon, a village at the foot of the hill below the citadel and cathedral. This has a western porch or narthex, nave and aisles of five bays, transepts and low central steeple, and a choir and aisles of three bays, groined, and both loftier and wider than the nave. The east end is square, and has a triplet and a large rose window above, very similar in design to the east end of the cathedral. The columns are cylindrical, with simply carved caps of bold design. The choir is all first-pointed, the nave of earlier date and much simpler character and not groined.

I must conclude this brief notice of Laon and its buildings with just mentioning two of the existing buildings in the neighbourhood which ought to be seen and examined. These are the magnificent granary of the abbey of Vauclair near Laon, and the still more interesting hospital for lepers of Tortoir: both of these are figured by M. Verdier in his Architecture Civile et Domestique, and appear to be of rare beauty and interest.