CHARACTERISTICS SUMMARIZED. In the light of the preceding explanations Gothic architecture may be defined as that system of structural design and decoration which grew up out of the effort to combine, in one harmonious and organic conception, the basilican plan with a complete and systematic construction of groined vaulting. Its development was controlled throughout by considerations of stability and structural propriety, but in the application of these considerations the artistic spirit was allowed full scope for its exercise. Refinement, good taste, and great fertility of imagination characterize the details and ornaments of Gothic structures. While the Greeks in harmonizing the requirements of utility and beauty in architecture approached the problem from the æsthetic side, the Gothic architects did the same from the structural side. Their admirably reasoned structures express as perfectly the idea of vastness, mystery, and complexity as do the Greek temples that of simplicity and monumental repose.
The excellence of Gothic architecture lay not so much in its individual details as in its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it was developed—its triumphs were achieved in the building of cathedrals and large churches. In the domain of civil and domestic architecture it produced nothing comparable with its ecclesiastical edifices, because it was the requirements of the cathedral and not of the palace, town-hall, or dwelling, that gave it its form and character.
PERIODS. The history of Gothic architecture is commonly divided into three periods, which are most readily distinguished by the character of the window-tracery. These periods were not by any means synchronous in the different countries; but the order of sequence was everywhere the same. They are here given, with a summary of the characteristics of each.
Early Pointed Period. [Early French; Early English or Lancet Period in England; Early German, etc.] Simple groined vaults; general simplicity and vigor of design and detail; conventionalized foliage of small plants; plate tracery, and narrow windows coupled under pointed arch with circular foiled openings in the window-head. (In France, 1160 to 1275.)
Middle Pointed Period. [Rayonnant in France; Decorated or Geometric in England.] Vaults more perfect; in England multiple ribs and liernes; greater slenderness and loftiness of proportions; decoration much richer, less vigorous; more naturalistic carving of mature foliage; walls nearly suppressed, windows of great size, bar tracery with slender moulded or columnar mullions and geometric combinations (circles and cusps) in window-heads, circular (rose) windows. (In France, 1275 to 1375.)
Florid Gothic Period. [Flamboyant in France; Perpendicular in England.] Vaults of varied and richly decorated design; fan-vaulting and pendants in England, vault-ribs curved into fanciful patterns in Germany and Spain; profuse and minute decoration and cleverness of technical execution substituted for dignity of design; highly realistic carving and sculpture, flowing or flamboyant tracery in France; perpendicular bars with horizontal transoms and four-centred arches in England; “branch-tracery” in Germany. (In France, 1375 to 1525.)
[CHAPTER XVI.]
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE.
Books Recommended: As before, Adamy, Corroyer, Enlart, Hasak, Moore, Reber, Viollet-le-Duc.[20] Also Chapuy, Le moyen age monumental. Chateau, Histoire et caractères de l’architecture française. Davies, Architectural Studies in France. Ferree, The Chronology of the Cathedral Churches of France. Johnson, Early French Architecture. King, The Study book of Mediæval Architecture and Art. Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc, Notre Dame de Paris. Nesfield, Specimens of Mediæval Architecture. Pettit, Architectural Studies in France.
CATHEDRAL-BUILDING IN FRANCE. In the development of the principles outlined in the foregoing chapter the church-builders of France led the way. They surpassed all their contemporaries in readiness of invention, in quickness and directness of reasoning, and in artistic refinement. These qualities were especially manifested in the extraordinary architectural activity which marked the second half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth. This was the great age of cathedral-building in France. The adhesion of the bishops to the royal cause, and their position in popular estimation as the champions of justice and human rights, led to the rapid advance of the episcopacy in power and influence. The cathedral, as the throne-church of the bishop, became a truly popular institution. New cathedrals were founded on every side, especially in the Royal Domain and the adjoining provinces of Normandy, Burgundy, and Champagne, and their construction was warmly seconded by the people, the communes, and the municipalities. “Nothing to-day,” says Viollet-le-Duc,[21] “unless it be the commercial movement which has covered Europe with railway lines, can give an idea of the zeal with which the urban populations set about building cathedrals; . . . a necessity at the end of the twelfth century because it was an energetic protest against feudalism.” The collapse of the unscientific Romanesque vaulting of some of the earlier cathedrals and the destruction by fire of others stimulated this movement by the necessity for their immediate rebuilding. The entire reconstruction of the cathedrals of Bayeux, Bayonne, Cambray, Evreux, Laon, Lisieux, Le Mans, Noyon, Poitiers, Senlis, Soissons, and Troyes was begun between 1130 and 1200.[22] The cathedrals of Bourges, Chartres, Paris, and Tours, and the abbey of St. Denis, all of the first importance, were begun during the same period, and during the next quarter-century those of Amiens, Auxerre, Rouen, Reims, Séez, and many others. After 1250 the movement slackened and finally ceased. Few important cathedrals were erected during the latter half of the thirteenth century, the chief among them being at Beauvais (actively begun 1247), Clermont, Coutances, Limoges, Narbonne, and Rodez. During this period, and through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, French architecture was concerned rather with the completion and remodelling of existing cathedrals than the founding of new ones. There were, however, many important parish churches and civil or domestic edifices erected within this period.