How to Study Architecture

by Charles H. Caffin

Owing to the Size of the Windows, the Wall Spaces Are Virtually Piers, Supporting the Vaulting. [P. 285]

CHAPTER III
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE

The Early French Gothic dates from about 1150 to 1275. It is the period in which most of the great cathedrals were created and in most instances with money contributed by the laity. Roughly speaking it begins with Notre Dame, in Paris, and ends with the Cathedral of Amiens.

Notre Dame, Paris, and Amiens.—The plan of Amiens is regarded as the typical example of French cathedrals. Comparing it with that of Notre Dame one observes that, while both are of the basilican type, the latter is distinguished by having double side aisles enclosing the entire nave, choir, and chevêt. The only other example of this is the Cathedral of Bourges. In Notre Dame the transepts do not project beyond the aisles. Further, in the vaulting of the nave the system is still one of square bays, embracing two aisle bays, having six divisions in the vaulting. In Amiens, however, the groin rib and pointed arch have taken the place of the sexpartite plan and the bays are oblong. The elasticity of this later system simplified the vaulting of the curved aisle of the chevêt, whereas in Notre Dame the awkwardness of the rhomboidal spaces was ingeniously evaded by dividing each into nearly equal triangles, which could easily be vaulted. Note in both plans the disposition of the buttresses in the outer walls. It is interesting to know that the area of Notre Dame is about equal to that of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, while that of Amiens is smaller, but the height of its nave is 140 feet as compared with 80 at Karnak.

West Fronts.—In all French cathedrals a special feature of the exterior is the West Front, and a comparison of that of Notre Dame may well be made with the façade of Amiens, which marks the transition to the second style, the Rayonnant, and with that of Rheims, the upper part of which marks the transition to the third style, Flamboyant. The design of all three is constructively the same—a development of the Romanesque twin towers, connected by an arcade, while a rose or wheel window is placed above the central recessed door. The spires, which were intended to crown the towers, were never built. How they would have affected the appearance may be gathered from a comparison of the West Front of Cologne Cathedral—a cathedral that is “completely French in plan, uniting in one design the leading characteristics of the most notable French Churches.” (Hamlin.)

It is in the West Front of Notre Dame that the structural purport of the design is most definitely pronounced. When we study the vertical elements of the design, we note the division of the façade into three vertical masses corresponding with the interior divisions of nave and double aisles. The division is made by the buttresses which sustain the longitudinal strain of the interior arcades and the outer walls and insure the stability of the towers. And this stability is also associated with a suggestion of upward growth, due to the three setbacks in the profile of the buttresses; which setbacks, it is to be noted, correspond to the three main horizontal divisions of the façade.

The lowest is distinguished by massive simplicity; an effect of solid masonry, the thickness of which is emphasised by the deeply recessed door arches, while its simplicity is finely contrasted with the ordered distribution of the sculptured enrichments. Greater diversity characterises the second horizontal division. The openings present a varied patterning of light and shade, while the arcading lends a lightness of effect, echoing also the ordered repetition of the band of figures below, and at the same time involving variety according as the arcade is seen against the sky or is felt as a breastwork of the towers. Lastly, there is a reassertion of the vertical direction in the masses and coupled openings of the towers.

And if the contrast of these several divisions delights us, what is to be said of the balance that correlates these vertical and horizontal features, these various values of form, of plain and ornamental work, of light and shade, into a harmonious unity? It is the product of structural logic and grandeur of feeling; and compared with the reserve of its nobility the west front of Amiens, even the still finer one of Rheims, may seem less impressive. In these, it will be noted, the depth of the door recesses is increased by a pronounced offset in the lower story of the buttress, into which the sculptured jambs of the doorways merge, while the projection thus contrived is crowned with a canopy in the nature of a porch. How does the division at Amiens of the second story into two compare with the simple unity of the one in Notre Dame? Or how does the latter’s arcade compare with the corresponding band at Rheims of figures in arcaded niches, surmounted by ornate canopies?

The answer will depend on one’s individual temperament; perhaps also on one’s mood. It may seem to some that in Notre Dame the variety in unity is worked out with more consciousness of the principles to be applied, whereas in the other two façades there is a suggestion of freer and more individual treatment.

So much for the exteriors of these cathedrals. It is, however, when we compare the interior of Notre Dame with that of Amiens, that we see in what direction French Gothic was travelling. In the case of Amiens, it is as if some power had pulled the older form upward into a slenderer, more elastic fabric; less massive, possibly less stately, but also less inert, infinitely alive in its inspiring growth, with grace of movement as well as dignity. Notre Dame is still, as it were, anchored to the comparative ponderousness of the Romanesque style. The round columns with capitals of the Corinthian type still follow the model, though not the proportions, of the Roman. Their effect of dumpiness is further increased by the projecting half-round pilaster column that supports the main member of the vaulting shaft. On the other hand, the clustered piers at Amiens are slender, loftier in proportion to width; while a simple logic of structural purpose is apparent in the three-quarter attached shafts which carry the arches and aisle-vaults, and the main shaft of the nave vaulting rises uninterruptedly from the ground. The pier, in fact, operates as an abutting support to the members, which actually sustain the arch and vaulting, and their relation to the pier is asserted by the continuous abacus which binds all lightly but firmly together. A corresponding logical simplicity distinguishes the four-part nave vaulting at Amiens, where the pressure is concentrated equally on all the columns in succession without the need of intermediate ones to carry the added transverse rib.