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.