Academic and Secular Buildings: Winchester Castle Hall, 1222–35; Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274–1300; Library Merton College, 1354–78; Norborough Hall, 1356; Windsor Castle, upper ward, 1359–73; Winchester College, 1387–93; Wardour Castle, 1392; Westminster Hall, rebuilt, 1397–99; St. Mary’s Hall, Coventry, 1401–14; Warkworth Castle, 1440; St. John’s College, All Soul’s College, Oxford, 1437; Eton College, 1441–1522; Divinity Schools, Oxford, 1445–54; Magdalen College, Oxford, 1475–80, tower, 1500; Christ Church Hall, Oxford, 1529.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, AND SPAIN.
Books Recommended: As before, Corroyer, Reber. Also, Adler, Mittelalterliche Backstein-Bauwerke des preussischen Staates. Essenwein (Hdbuch. d. Arch.), Die romanische und die gothische Baukunst; der Wohnbau. Hasak, Die romanische und die gothische Baukunst; Kirchenbau; Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues (both in Hdbuch. d. Arch.). Hase and others, Die mittelalterlichen Baudenkmäler Niedersachsens. Kallenbach, Chronologie der deutschen mittelalterlichen Baukunst. Lübke, Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages. Redtenbacher, Leitfaden zum Studium der mittelalterlichen Baukunst. Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain. Uhde, Baudenkmäler in Spanien. Ungewitter, Lehrbuch der gothischen Constructionen. Villa Amil, Hispania Artistica y Monumental.
EARLY GOTHIC WORKS. The Gothic architecture of Germany is less interesting to the general student than that of France and England, not only because its development was less systematic and more provincial, but also because it produced fewer works of high intrinsic merit. The introduction into Germany of the pointed style was tardy, and its progress slow. Romanesque architecture had created imposing types of ecclesiastical architecture, which the conservative Teutons were slow to abandon. The result was a half-century of transition and a mingling of Romanesque and Gothic forms. St. Castor, at Coblentz, built as late as 1208, is wholly Romanesque. Even when the pointed arch and vault had finally come into general use, the plan and the constructive system still remained predominantly Romanesque. The western apse and short sanctuary of the earlier plans were retained. There was no triforium, the clearstory was insignificant, and the whole aspect low and massive. The Germans avoided, at first, as did the English, the constructive audacities and difficulties of the French Gothic, but showed less of invention and grace than their English neighbors. When, however, through the influence of foreign models, especially of the great French cathedrals, and through the employment of foreign architects, the Gothic styles were at last thoroughly domesticated, a spirit of ostentation took the place of the earlier conservatism. Technical cleverness, exaggerated ingenuity of detail, and constructive tours de force characterize most of the German Gothic work of the late fourteenth and of the fifteenth century. This is exemplified in the slender mullions of Ulm, the lofty and complicated spire of Strasburg, and the curious traceries of churches and houses in Nuremberg.
PERIODS. The periods of German mediæval architecture corresponded in sequence, though not in date, with the movement elsewhere. The maturing of the true Gothic styles was preceded by more than a half-century of transition. Chronologically the periods may be broadly stated as follows:
The Transitional, 1170–1225.
The Early Pointed, 1225–1275.
The Middle or Decorated, 1275–1350.
The Florid, 1350–1530.