THE CHEVET.
CHAPTER II.
THE PLACE OF NOTRE DAME IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRENCH GOTHIC.
The place of the Cathedral of Paris in the evolution of French Gothic[4] is so important that I propose to devote a brief chapter to it. The subject is essentially technical, but I will endeavour to make it as easy of comprehension as possible. The reader will doubtless ask himself what is the difference between Gothic and the style which preceded it. The reply, unfortunately, cannot consist of a dogmatic statement. The subject is a great one, and only a few sentences of this handbook may be devoted to it. I shall rely for the most part on the materials for a definition of Gothic given by M. Viollet-le-Duc in his Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’Architecture Française. The question is one of essential structural peculiarity as opposed to mere decorative idiosyncrasy. I am aware that many English writers whose opinions are entitled to respect hold views in conflict with those here maintained. The style which immediately preceded Gothic is known generically as Romanesque. In Romanesque the system may be described as one of inert stability: in Gothic the system is one of scientifically calculated thrusts and counter-thrusts. It was the affair of art to inform what one may call the mechanics of the building with interest and beauty. There have been many attempts to compromise the two systems, so that we often find Romanesque features in obviously Gothic buildings. Much will be said in subsequent pages of the vaulting of Notre Dame. I would willingly have left this vexed question alone, but were I so to do, this handbook would be little more than a descriptive catalogue of objects of interest together with some historical reminiscences. For the vaulting is of the essence of the whole matter: compared with it the consideration of mouldings and of ornament is relatively unimportant. To put the matter plainly, the very existence of a Gothic church depends upon the proper arrangement of what we may call its mechanism—i.e. its vaulting, piers, buttresses and so forth. The mechanics being duly devised, art steps in, and renders the essential beautiful.[5]
[4] French Gothic is here generally intended to convey the Gothic of the Ile-de-France. The contemporary architecture of Normandy has a character of its own, probably not less valuable than that of the Ile-de-France. But it is different, and its differences have been dealt with in other handbooks of this series.
[5] The difficulty of attributing mediæval work in any countries to particular designers is generally recognised. I do not wish to imply, in the passage to which this note has reference, that the mechanic and the artist were of necessity separate people. Most often the plan was arranged by a master-builder who himself superintended the scheme of decoration.
It is not at Paris that we can trace the first attempt to break away from the principles of Romanesque: the first step in the distinctly Gothic development of French architecture, according to some recent authorities, is to be found in the apse of the church of Morienval. Morienval is a Romanesque church, but it has ribbed vaulting, of which there is no earlier instance in France. At St. Germer-de-Fly we find the first truly Gothic apse on a large scale ever constructed. It belongs to the second quarter of the twelfth century. The same church possesses a vaulted triforium which may fairly be considered the forerunner of the far grander one at Paris. Again, the now suburban church of St. Denis has double aisles, which clearly foreshadow the noble arrangement which exists at Paris, Amiens, and elsewhere. Many writers are agreed in regarding St. Denis as the starting-point of French Gothic.
SECTION OF NAVE AND DOUBLE AISLE, AND A PLAN OF ONE BAY.
SCALE 1 INCH = 29 FEET.
(From Viollet-le-Duc.)