How to Study Architecture by Charles H. Caffin (reading the story of the .TXT) 📖

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.

Other great examples of the thirteenth century are the cathedrals of Laon, Chartres, Rouen, Beauvais, Auxerre, Bourges, and Le Mans—the last especially celebrated for its superb chevêt and flying buttresses—and the Collegiate Church of S. Quentin.

Sainte Chapelle.—The problem of concentration of strains was most triumphantly solved in the Sainte Chapelle (1242-1247) or Royal Chapel, in Paris, in which the Gothic system of construction may be said to have reached complete maturity. Here the vaulting is carried on buttress-piers, and the spaces between the latter are entirely filled with windows, 15 feet wide and 50 high. The structure below the vaulting is literally a framework, a lantern for the display of the stained glass; “a great translucent tabernacle merely ribbed and braced with stone.”

The influence of Sainte Chapelle affected French construction for half a century and was developed to its furthest possible point in S. Urban at Troyes, begun in 1260.

Second Period.—This cathedral represents the transition into the second period of French Gothic, which may be roughly placed at 1275 to 1375. The principles of construction could be carried no further and the style began to turn in on itself, the designers expending their invention on elaboration of ornament. This period is called in France the Rayonnant, from the raylike traceries that were introduced into the rose-windows and from the prevalence of circular forms in windows generally. The façade of Amiens is one of the best examples of the style.

Third Period.—By degrees the Rayonnant style passed into the so-called Flamboyant, which lasted until the introduction of the Renaissance style early in the sixteenth century. In it the principles of design were gradually sacrificed to the multiplication of decorative details. Constructive imagination disappeared in a maze of skilful elaboration. The transition from Rayonnant to Flamboyant is shown in the upper part of the west front of Rheims. Some of the finest memorials of this period’s maturity are to be found in Rouen: namely the nave and central tower of the Church of S. Ouen; the west portals of S. Maclou and the façade of the Cathedral, the last being a late example in which the very material of the stone seems to have dissolved into lace. Other instances are the church of S. Jacques at Dieppe, S. Wulfrand at Abbeville and the façade of the Cathedral of Tours.

Secular Gothic.—Gothic architecture was not confined to cathedrals and churches. Monasteries, hospitals, civic buildings, houses, and castles were erected in profusion, especially during the fifteenth century, though few survive to the present day. But a strikingly picturesque monument is the monastery of Mont-St.-Michel, of thirteenth century design, which clusters around the base of the Abbey Church, which was built in the eleventh century and remodelled in the sixteenth. Among the hospitals is that of Chartres. Rouen possesses a fifteenth century example of civic architecture in the Palais de Justice. The home of a great merchant prince of the same century is preserved in the House of Jacques Cœur at Bourges, while the east wing of the Château de Blois represents military architecture at the commencement of the sixteenth century.