FAÇADES AND DOORWAYS. All the details were of the simplest character, except in the doorways. These were richly adorned with clustered jamb-shafts and elaborately carved mouldings, but there was little variety in the details of this carving. The zigzag was the most common feature, though birds’ heads with the beaks pointing toward the centre of the arch were not uncommon. In the smaller churches (Fig. 104) the doorways were better proportioned to the whole façade than in the larger ones, in which they appear as relatively insignificant features. Very few examples remain of important Norman façades in their original form, nearly all of these having been altered after the round arch was displaced by the pointed arch in the latter part of the twelfth century. Iffley church (Fig. 104) is a good example of the style.
SPAIN. During the Romanesque period a large part of Spain was under Moorish dominion. The capture of Toledo, in 1062, by the Christians, began the gradual emancipation of the country from Moslem rule, and in the northern provinces a number of important churches were erected under the influence of French Romanesque models. The use of domical pendentives (as in the Panteon of S. Isidoro, at Leon, and in the cimborio or dome over the choir at the intersection of nave and transepts in old Salamanca cathedral) was probably derived from the domical churches of Aquitania and Anjou. Elsewhere the northern Romanesque type prevailed under various modifications, with long nave and transepts, a short choir, and a complete chevet with apsidal chapels. The church of St. Iago at Compostella (1078) is the finest example of this class. These churches nearly all had groined vaulting over the side-aisles and barrel-vaults over the nave, the constructive system being substantially that of the churches of Auvergne and the Loire Valley ([p. 165]). They differed, however, in the treatment of the crossing of nave and transepts, over which was usually erected a dome or cupola or pendentives or squinches, covered externally by an imposing square lantern or tower, as in the Old Cathedral at Salamanca, already mentioned (1120–78) and the Collegiate Church at Toro. Occasional exceptions to these types are met with, as in the basilican wooden-roofed church of S. Millan at Segovia; in S. Isidoro at Leon, with chapels and a later-added square eastern end, and the circular church of the Templars at Segovia.
The architectural details of these Spanish churches did not differ radically from contemporary French work. As in France and England, the doorways were the most ornate parts of the design, the mouldings being carved with extreme richness and the jambs frequently adorned with statues, as in S. Vincente at Avila. There was no such logical and reasoned-out system of external design as in France, and there is consequently greater variety in the façades. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the architecture of this period is its apparent exemption from the influence of the Moorish monuments which abounded on every hand. This may be explained by the hatred which was felt by the Christians for the Moslems and all their works.
MONUMENTS. Germany: Previous to 11th century: Circular churches of Holy Cross at Münster, and of Fulda; palace chapel of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, 804; St. Stephen, Mayence, 990; primitive nave and crypt of St. Gereon, Cologne, 10th century; Lorsch.—11th century: Churches of Gernrode, Goslar, and Merseburg in Saxony; cathedral of Bremen; first restoration of cathedral of Treves (Trier), 1010, west front, 1047; Limburg-on-Hardt, 1024; St. Willibrod, Echternach, 1031; east end of Mayence Cathedral, 1036; Church of Apostles and nave St. Mary-in-Capitol at Cologne, 1036; cathedral of Spires (Speyer) begun 1040; Cathedral Hildesheim, 1061; St. Joseph, Bamberg, 1073; Abbey of Laach, 1093–1156; round churches of Bonn, Drügelte, Nimeguen; cathedrals of Paderborn and Minden.—12th century: Churches of Klus, Paulinzelle, Hamersleben, 1100–1110; Johannisberg, 1130; St. Godehard. Hildesheim, 1133; Worms, the Minster, 1118–83; Jerichau, 1144–60; Schwarz-Rheindorf, 1151; St. Michael, Hildesheim, 1162; Cathedral Brunswick, 1172–94; Lubeck, 1172; also churches of Gaudersheim, Würzburg, St. Matthew at Treves, Limburg-on-Lahn, Sinzig, St. Castor at Coblentz, Diesdorf, Rosheim; round churches of Ottmarsheim and Rippen (Denmark); cathedral of Basle, cathedral and cloister of Zurich (Switzerland).
England: Previous to 11th century: Scanty vestiges of Saxon church architecture, as tower of Earl’s Barton, round towers and small chapels in Ireland.—11th century: Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, 1070; chapel St. John in Tower of London, 1070; Winchester Cathedral, 1076–93 (nave and choir rebuilt later); Gloucester Cathedral nave, 1089–1100 (vaulted later); Rochester Cathedral nave, west front cloisters, and chapter-house, 1090–1130; Carlisle Cathedral nave, transepts, 1093–1130; Durham Cathedral, 1095–1133, vaulted 1233; Galilee and chapter-house, 1133–53; Norwich Cathedral, 1096, largely rebuilt 1118–93; Hereford Cathedral, nave and choir, 1099–1115.—12th century: Ely Cathedral, nave, 1107–33; St. Alban’s Abbey, 1116; Peterboro’ Cathedral, 1117–45; Waltham Abbey, early 12th century; Church of Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge, 1130–35; Worcester Cathedral chapter-house, 1140 (?); Oxford Cathedral (Christ Church), 1150–80; Bristol Cathedral chapter-house (square), 1155; Canterbury Cathedral, choir of present structure by William of Sens, 1175; Chichester Cathedral, 1180–1204; Romsey Abbey, late 12th century; St. Cross Hospital near Winchester, 1190 (?). Many more or less important parish churches in various parts of England.
Spain. For principal monuments of 9th-12th centuries, see text, latter part of this chapter.
[CHAPTER XV.]
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
Books Recommended: Adamy, Architektonik des gotischen Stils. Corroyer, L’Architecture gothique. Enlart, Manuel d’archéologie française. Hasak, Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues (in Hdbuch d. Arch.). Moore, Development and Character of Gothic Architecture. Parker, Introduction to Gothic Architecture. Scott, Mediæval Architecture. Viollet-le-Duc, Discourses on Architecture; Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française.
INTRODUCTORY. The architectural styles which were developed in Western Europe during the period extending from about 1150 to 1450 or 1500, received in an unscientific age the wholly erroneous and inept name of Gothic. This name has, however, become so fixed in common usage that it is hardly possible to substitute for it any more scientific designation. In reality the architecture to which it is applied was nothing more than the sequel and outgrowth of the Romanesque, which we have already studied. Its fundamental principles were the same; it was concerned with the same problems. These it took up where the Romanesque builders left them, and worked out their solution under new conditions, until it had developed out of the simple and massive models of the early twelfth century the splendid cathedrals of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England, France, Germany, the Low Countries and Spain.