The true six-part vault, as used in Saint Étienne, was far from being perfect. In the first place, it possessed a number of inherent structural faults. These lie chiefly in the unequal distribution of thrusts, and the unequal size of the panels into which the vault is divided. From an aesthetic point of view, two other faults might be added: first, the decrease in the apparent length of the nave, due to the fact that it was divided into a few large bays, instead of twice as many smaller ones; and second, the fact that the crowns of the vault cells above the windows do not run out perpendicularly from the clerestory wall but at an awkward angle, thus greatly injuring the symmetry of the bays. Yet in spite of these drawbacks, which were common to all six-part vaulting, this system had a long period of popularity. There are, however, certain structural weaknesses in these early Norman vaults which were largely due to lack of experience on the part of the builders, and not to the form of the vaults themselves. Wall ribs were, for example, omitted, and the diagonals were made of segmental section, thus rendering unnecessarily severe the thrusts of the vaults. Moreover, such a church as St. Étienne was not planned from the ground for vaulting and the piers had not the proper arrangement of shafts. Last of all, the intermediate arches were of a rather ugly, stilted character, possibly so constructed with an eye to a better distribution of light, but in any event presenting an awkward appearance. All these faults were gradually overcome in the Transitional and Early Gothic churches of the Ile-de-France.
Sexpartite Vaulting in the Ile-de-France
That it should have been this province which favored the six-part system is most curious, for at a date almost contemporary with St. Étienne at Caen, ribbed vaults of rectangular plan had probably been constructed over the naves of Saint Étienne at Beauvais and the abbey church at Saint Germer-de-Fly (Oise) (cir. 1130-40). That this method was abandoned in most of the remaining Transitional churches would seem to have been due to the fact that the vaults of Saint Étienne at Beauvais fell in, and those of Saint Germer did not prove very secure.[187] Such builders as the Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, therefore, may very naturally have looked to Normandy for a method of vaulting, since the vaults of Saint Étienne at Caen had at least remained in place.
Whatever the cause of its introduction into the Ile-de-France may have been, the six-part system was used at Saint Denis (Seine) (1140-1144) and soon became the favorite method throughout the neighboring region. Unfortunately Saint Denis and two other important churches of the Transition, the cathedrals of Senlis (Oise) (cir. 1150) and Noyon (Oise) (cir. 1140), which would undoubtedly have illustrated the progress in six-part vaulting, no longer have their original vaults, and the cathedral of Sens (Yonne) (1140-1168) [(Fig. 28)] remains as perhaps the most important example of the early developed type.[188] Its vaults show the great advance made in construction since the completion of Saint Étienne at Caen. The diagonals are semicircular instead of segmental arches, and the transverse ribs are pointed and all of similar curve, giving a more symmetrical appearance and greatly reducing the thrusts. Furthermore the piers are profiled from the ground according to the load which they are to carry, and, last of all, a highly stilted wall rib is added over each clerestory window, completing the skeleton of the vault and making possible a larger expanse of glass and more satisfactory illumination for the interior. Of course, the use of the flying buttress, which had been introduced a short time before Sens was built, contributed enormously to the advancement of vault construction and in large measure explains such an improved form of vaulting as this is. In fact, a heavy clerestory wall was no longer essential to the support of the vault and it was only the fact that a large expanse of glass was not safe from the pressure of the wind, which prevented the clerestory windows from occupying the entire
Fig. 28.—Sens, Cathedral.