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

III. Cathedrals of Modern Foundation, converted Churches, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Ripon, St. Albans, Southwark, Southwell, Truro, Wakefield.

Comparison with French.—The study of English cathedrals is more complicated than that of French, owing to the long period over which their construction extended. Additions were made as funds permitted and to meet the growing needs of the community, or restorations replaced earlier buildings that had collapsed, as some did, or had been destroyed by fire. Accordingly, each example is more or less an epitome of all the phases of the Gothic style; often combined with Norman (Romanesque) and also with fragments of Anglo-Saxon architecture. They are in a very full sense an expression of the nation’s growth.

English cathedrals differ from the French in being lower, longer, and narrower. The extreme length of the plan is in France seldom more than four times the width, whereas in England it sometimes reaches six times. The square east end is characteristic; the transepts project further; these are seldom double aisled and have few side chapels; the plan is inclined to cruciform, and a prominent feature is a central tower over the crossing, sometimes surmounted by a spire. The choir is proportionately longer and occasionally projects into the crossing or even a little way into the nave. At the east end of it is the presbytery or sanctuary; beyond which is a retrochoir, containing an ambulatory or procession passage, one or more chapels to saints and a Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The arcading is more closely spaced than in French Cathedrals and generally the relation of the parts is less large in character. The triforium in many cases is highly elaborated; in some it is noticeably reduced and occasionally omitted.

The doorways are often placed on the north and south sides and provided with porches. The windows, in the Early English Period, are either of simple lancet form, used singly or grouped in pairs or threes, united over the top by tracery; or the lights terminate at the top in trefoils or cinquefoils, a heading rare in France known as cusps. Plate tracery is comparatively rare in England, and the tracery of the Decorated Period is of a geometric character. Gradually the tracery becomes more flowing, including lines of double curvature, which somewhat resembles the French Flamboyant. Finally in the Perpendicular Period, the pointed arch of the window becomes flattened until it reaches the slight curve of the so-called four-centre arch. The window is divided up into many lights (nine in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge) by vertical mullions, which in the larger examples are reinforced by horizontal transoms, thus producing parallel rows of cusped lights, surmounted in the heading by small replicas of the latter in several tiers—an arrangement somewhat rigid and monotonous.

The mouldings are generally richer and more varied than in French cathedrals, and, owing to their being nearer to the eye, are wrought to a greater refinement of finish.

Ornament.—The characteristic ornament of the Early period is the “dog-tooth” used profusely in hollow mouldings. The foliage is conventionalised, crisply carved in bold curving and curling masses, known as “stiff-leaf foliage,” which in the case of capitals sometimes projects beyond the abacus. The flat surfaces of the walls are often diapered.

In the Decorated Period the characteristic ornament of hollow mouldings is the “ball-flower”; but the “four-leaf flower” is frequently used. By degrees other motives of ornament were drawn from ivy, oak, and vine leaves; and the treatment grew more and more naturalistic.

In the Tudor period the special ornament is the Tudor rose, two concentric layers of five petals, symbolising the union of the Houses of York and Lancaster. Other frequent motives are the portcullis and, in reference to the continued claim of the English kings to the throne of France, the fleur-de-lys. The traceries of the windows were repeated in the panelling of the walls and in the elaborate choir and chancel screens, which were a special feature of the period.

Stained Glass.—Stained glass played a very important part in the embellishment of cathedrals and churches. York Minster presents an opportunity of studying the progress of the art through some four centuries, as it was practised, not only in England, but throughout Europe.

The early examples show the influence of the Byzantine enamellers. The windows are filled with jewel-like patterns composed of small pieces of glass, enclosed with lead-lines, like the “cloisons” in cloisonné enamels. Gradually the figure subject becomes more pronounced; at first in comparatively small medallions set in a frame of tracery, then increasing in size until they become the leading motive. They are surmounted by canopies, enriched with ornament, as in the sculptured work of the period, and the character of the ornament reflects that of the carving.

It is interesting to note that until the sixteenth century no use was made of painted glass. The material was what is known as “pot-metal”; that is to say, glass dyed with colour while in a condition of flux. The quality of these pieces of glass was translucent, permitting the passage of light, though not transparent. However, the deep red of ruby was so dense that the practice was adopted of fusing a layer of ruby on a layer of colourless glass and then of grinding away portions of the ruby, so as to brighten the mass by the contrast of white. In time this method of “flashing,” as it was called, was extended to other colours. Further, about the beginning of the fourteenth century it was discovered that a solution of silver applied to glass would under the action of the firing impart to it a “yellow stain.” Thus it was possible to infuse a yellow into the whole or parts of the colourless glass, and to introduce yellow into the “flashed” parts of blue and ruby, while the stain applied to greyish blue produced delicate tones of green.

Another process was developed; namely, the use of enamel paint. A pigment composed of powdered coloured glass, mixed with some such binder as glue, was applied with a brush, after which the glass was subjected to a comparatively low degree of heat, sufficient to flux the pigment and fuse it into the body of the material. At first the only colour employed was brown, which being opaque in the firing was used for the line of the drawing. It was even used for shading, the paint being spread in gradations of thickness and, when dry, scraped off in parts or reduced to a stipple of tiny dots, by the action of a stiff brush. This process was also applied upon the yellow stain and comparatively colourless glass (grisaille) to produce diapers of pattern and other ornament.

Finally, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, enamel paints of other colours were employed, and painting upon glass marks the last stage in the European technique of window glass. While the colours, unlike the opaque brown, were translucent, they lacked the brilliance and purity as well as the richness and depth of pot metal. But by this time, as in other kinds of decoration, the designers were absorbed with details. A favourite task enforced upon them was the insertion of heraldic insignia in the windows, and brushwork was the only method that could reproduce the complicated devices of “quartering” the coats of arms. Window decoration, in fact, had ceased to be an art of glass work and become confused with the art of painting. The end of glass decoration was completed when the window was filled with rectangular panes of white glass, on which the painter depicted figures of saints or symbolical nymphs, as Sir Joshua Reynolds, for example, did in the windows of the ante-chapel of New College, Oxford. This masterpiece of the trivial is popular, but represents a debased taste, founded upon a complete ignorance of the glass-technique, for Sir Joshua called in to his assistance a china painter!

Vaulting.—The treatment of the roofing displays more variety in English Gothic than in French. Wooden ceilings, which we will return to presently, often replaced the vaulting and the latter also became distinguished by elements that were only sparingly, if at all, employed in France. The French, as we have noted, constructed the diagonal as well as the longitudinal and transverse ribs with pointed profiles, so that their vaults were domical. The English, on the contrary, frequently used the half-circle for the diagonal ribs. Thus the vaults have level tops or ridges, the latter being marked by ridge ribs.

Tiercerons.—In England, during the thirteenth century, as in France, the plain four-part ribbed vault was used, as in the naves of Salisbury and Gloucester, and the aisles of Peterborough. Toward the end of the century, however, came in the use of subordinate ribs, called tiercerons. These were introduced between the transverse and diagonal ribs, as may be seen in the nave vaulting of Westminster Abbey. Their purpose was to decrease the pressure on the main ribs, and for their own further security a ridge rib was employed for them to abut on at the top.

Liernes.—During the Decorated Period of the fourteenth century a new set of ribs were introduced, which were known as Liernes—holding or binding ribs. The name was applied to any rib, other than the ridge rib, that did not spring from an abacus. They were ornamental rather than constructional and were freely employed to form a network of geometric pattern over the vaulting. Meanwhile, although they increase the apparent complexity of the vaulting, the actual constructive plan of the latter is not affected and may be simply four part. Such multiplication of ribs reduced the size of the intervening spaces or panels, whence this kind of vaulting is sometimes called rib and panel. It is also named stellar vaulting from the star-shaped patterns produced by the ribs. Examples are to be found in the choirs of Gloucester, Wells, Ely, the nave of Tewkesbury Abbey, and the vaulting of Winchester Cathedral, as rebuilt by William of Wykeham (1390).

Fan Vaulting.—The development of the Perpendicular Period or Fifteenth Century is that of Fan Vaulting, examples of which occur in Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster; Divinity Schools, Oxford; King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; the retro-choir, Peterborough; Gloucester Cathedral, and St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. In this type of vaulting the ribs are all of equal curvature, and separated from one another by equal angles, terminating at the top in a circular ridge, which leaves a series of flat lozenge-shaped spaces.

Pendant Vaulting.—A further development, often used in connection with “Fan Vaulting,” as in Oxford Cathedral and Henry VII’s Chapel, is the device known as Pendant vaulting. It was at first adopted to sustain the flat spaces of the vaulting and consisted of a stone support suspended from an arch concealed above the vaulting. It was, in effect, a prolonged keystone, and its lowest part formed a base from which to build up. For by this time the old method of constructing ribs and laying panels upon them had been abandoned, and the vaulting was constructed of parts, interlocking like a Chinese puzzle.

A beautiful feature of English vaulting occurs in the polygonal Chapter Houses, in which the ribs radiate from a central column to the sides and angles of the polygon. “If these vaults are less majestic than domes of the same diameter, they are far more decorative and picturesque, while the Chapter Houses themselves were the most striking and original products of English Gothic. Every feature was designed with strict regard for the structural system determined by the admirable vaulting and the Sainte Chapelle was not more logical in its exemplification of Gothic principles.” (Hamlin.) Among the finest examples are those of Westminster, Wells, York, Lincoln, and Salisbury.

Open Wood Roofs.—The Saxon use of timber construction survived as a tradition and was developed by the Gothic builders, in the interior