Architecture Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early English Dog-tooth Ornament]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early English Arcading]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early English Doorway, Westminster Abbey]

One of the earliest Gothic structures in England is the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, designed by the Burgundian Williams of Sens, which recalls in general style certain contemporaneous French ecclesiastical buildings. Foreign influence is also noticeable in the somewhat later Ripon and Chichester Cathedrals, but by the beginning of the 13th century English Gothic had freed itself almost entirely from the trammels of French traditions, and started forward on the path from which it never deviated, combining a consummate mastery of structural principles and an unwearying attention to detail with a unity of expression that makes an English Gothic church or cathedral an ideal reflection of the spirit of the age which witnessed its erection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of Salisbury Cathedral]

The Cathedrals of Wells, Lincoln, and Salisbury, the choir of Ely Cathedral, and the choir, transepts, and part of the cloisters and other details of Westminster Abbey, are typical examples of the Early English phase of Gothic. The first named especially is unrivalled in the symmetry of its general proportions and the richness and appropriateness of its decorations. Its western facade rivals that of Amiens Cathedral in the restrained dignity of its general design, the delicacy of its decorative arcading, and the number and variety of its finely sculptured figures. The central tower, though its upper portion belongs to the Decorated period, harmonises well with the rest of the exterior, whilst the interior is truly a poem in stone, with the long perspective of the nave flanked by graceful arches, springing from cl.u.s.tered piers with capitals of exquisitely carved foliage, n.o.ble triforia and clerestories, and a simple arched vaulting of intersecting ribs. The transepts, that are of earlier date than the nave, serve as a kind of introduction to it, and in the choir the transition from Early English to Decorated Gothic can be well studied, the western portion dating from the 12th and the eastern from the 13th century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorated Window]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorated Pinnacle]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorated Capital]

Though the exterior of Lincoln Cathedral is of a somewhat hybrid character, the towers and doorways of the west front being Norman, the arcading and decorative sculpture Early English, and the central tower Decorated, the general effect is grand and impressive. The interior, though not quite so ornate as that of Wells, is almost as beautiful, the great rose windows being specially noteworthy features. The so-called Angel Choir, which has a very fine triforium, is a gem of Early English work, and the three 15th century chapels adjoining it are equally characteristic of Perpendicular Gothic.

The beautiful Early English choir of Ely Cathedral contrasts forcibly with the n.o.ble Norman nave, and the so-called Galilee Porch is one of the finest examples of the first phase of Gothic in the country, but the exterior of the building has been almost entirely rebuilt, the great central tower, which fell in 1322, having been replaced by the present one in the Decorated phase of Gothic. The Early English portions of Westminster Abbey closely resemble the other examples of the style just quoted, though the bays of the choir are not so well proportioned as those of Lincoln. Before the 15th century additions to Salisbury Cathedral and the sweeping away of the statues and other sculptures that adorned its west front, it must have been almost as typical as that of Lincoln or of Wells of the Early English style, and it still remains, in its rectangular plan and square eastern termination, a true representative of the ideals of native architects.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorated Ball Flower Ornament]

The transepts of York Minster, in one of which is the famous window with lancet-headed lights, known as the Five Sisters, is a good example of the transition from Early English to Decorated Gothic, and the same may be said of portions of the ruins of Hexham Abbey, the Saxon crypt of which has already been referred to, notably of the transepts with windows resembling those of York Minster, and of the many relics of the n.o.ble monastic buildings of Yorks.h.i.+re, including those at Ripon, Jervaulx, Rivaulx, and Whitby. The Cathedral of Glasgow is another beautiful building in the first phase of Gothic, the choir, beneath which is a n.o.ble crypt of earlier date, being especially fine, and with it must be named the ruins of the great abbey churches of Kelso, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh, that have distinctive Norman as well as Early English details.

The first half of the 14th century was the golden age of English architecture, during which the Decorated gradually grew out of the Early English style, the two being in many cases so completely merged in each other that no break is discernible. The foundations of a truly national style had been laid in the Cathedrals of Wells and of Lincoln, in which originality of design was combined with consummate technical skill of execution, and in the buildings that succeeded them, architect and craftsmen still worked together in complete harmony. The wealth of imagination of the latter found its best expression in emphasising the structural lines of the n.o.ble conceptions of the former; niches, with their figures, cusping, finials and crockets, ball flowers and bosses, all becoming essential details of one harmonious whole.

The nave and choir of Exeter Cathedral are especially typical of Decorated architecture at its best. They rise from the foundations of an earlier church, of which the Norman towers above the transepts are relics, and are absolutely unsurpa.s.sed in the simple dignity of the arcading spanning the cl.u.s.tered piers, the exquisite beauty of the groined roofing, the bosses of which are decorated with delicate carvings of a great variety of subjects, and the fine tracery of the windows. Unfortunately the general effect of the exterior, in spite of the fine Norman towers and the beauty of the decorative sculpture of the west front, is inferior to that of the interior, a 15th century porch harmonising ill with the earlier work, whilst breadth is too great for the height of the building.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorated Steeple]

Other good examples of Decorated Gothic are the Church of St. Mary, Oxford, with a very fine spire; the nave and chapter-house of York Minster, which has a very beautiful window at the western end, the flowing tracing of which is specially distinctive of the style; the choir of Lichfield Cathedral, which has, however, certain Early English details; the choir of Carlisle Cathedral, with an exceptionally beautiful eastern window of nine lights with elaborate tracery; the Lady Chapel of Wells Cathedral; the crypt, all that is left of St. Stephen's, Westminster, now used as a chapel of the Houses of Parliament, the lantern tower of Ely Cathedral; the ruins of Tintern and Battle Abbeys, with those of Melrose Abbey, which has also characteristic Perpendicular features. To the same period as these ecclesiastical buildings belong the Round Tower at Windsor, the Hall of the Bishop's Palace at Wells, Conway, Caernarvon, and Chepstow Castles, all recalling Norman domestic architecture in the general ma.s.siveness of their structure, that is relieved by the comparative lightness of such details as the doors and windows.

Unfortunately the second half of the 14th century was marked by a tendency to destroy or obliterate the characteristic details of Early English and Decorated buildings, a notable example of which is Gloucester Cathedral, the beautiful eastern apse of which was pulled down, whilst the piers and walls of the rest of the building were concealed as much as possible, the barbarism being, it must be owned, atoned for to some extent by the addition of a n.o.ble eastern window in the Perpendicular style. The nave of Westminster Abbey, on the other hand, begun just after the restoration of Gloucester Cathedral was completed, harmonises well with the earlier choir, and may be quoted, with the choir of York Minster and the naves of Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals, as examples of the transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular styles. To the final phase of the latter belong Beverley Minster, the Cathedral of Chester, and the Abbey Church at Bath, the western facades of all of which are very fine, but it was in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, with those of Holyrood and Roslyn in Scotland, that the style reached its fullest development. That development was, alas, however, all too soon followed by a decadence that was ushered in by an employment of too lavish and often meaningless ornamentation which had nothing to do with structural necessities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hammer Beam Roof]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Perpendicular Roofing]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Perpendicular Window]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Perpendicular Niche]

Westminster Chapel, in addition to the characteristic fan-tracery roof already referred to, has an exceptionally beautiful chevet with five apsidal chapels, a finely vaulted nave, aisles, and cloisters, in which Decorated and Perpendicular details are harmoniously combined. King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and St. George's, Windsor, are both entirely in the Perpendicular style, whilst the Scotch examples quoted above are specially noticeable for the contrast their ma.s.sive pillars and arcades present to the airy lightness of their vaulting.

Less important Perpendicular ecclesiastical buildings are the parish churches of Blakeney and Cley in Norfolk, the former with a specially fine east window, the latter unfortunately almost in ruins, but notable on account of the beauty of the decorative carving; the parish church of Fairford, Gloucesters.h.i.+re, the stained gla.s.s windows of which are amongst the finest in England; and Christ Church College, Oxford, in which town, by the way, Gothic traditions lingered longer than anywhere else in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Corbel]

Notable secular buildings in the latest phase of English Gothic are Westminster Hall, and the earlier portions of Hampton Court Palace, whilst Longleat Palace, Wilts.h.i.+re, and Christ Church Hall, Oxford, with a fine open timber roof, are good examples of the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance styles, the general plans belonging to the former and the decorative details being Italian in feeling.

CHAPTER X

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE

The term Renaissance, signifying revival, has been given to the style which succeeded the Gothic. It was, to a great extent, a reversion to cla.s.sic ideals modified to suit modern requirements. Its leading characteristics are simplicity of plan, symmetry of proportion, and ma.s.sive grandeur of general effect, a minor peculiarity being the lavish use of plaster, not only for surface decoration, but also in some cases for the actual structure of such details as cornices, &c.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Example of Renaissance Ornament]

The Renaissance style was inaugurated in Italy, where, as already stated, the Gothic never took root, and spread thence to the other countries of Europe, a.s.suming in each country a certain distinctive character of its own in harmony with its environment. In Italian Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture the old basilican plan was revived, the dome became again, as in ancient Rome, the crowning glory of the building, and was combined with horizontal entablatures upheld by columns, with capitals of one or another of the Greek orders, and porticoes with pediments. In secular Italian Renaissance a very notable feature is the central cortile or courtyard surrounded by open arcades, above which are the princ.i.p.al apartments, of style corresponding with that of the arcades, the round-headed windows being divided from each other by slender pilasters, and the spandrels above them filled in with sculptured ornamentation. The princ.i.p.al facade of Italian palaces was especially ornate, richly decorated courses of stone dividing the stories from each other, in which the fenestration or grouping of the windows was peculiarly effective.

Whereas in the history of mediaeval architecture few names emerge from the obscurity in which those who planned and erected the great cathedrals, churches, and castles were content to remain, in that of Renaissance the individual architect comes to the front, all the designing having been done by him and the whole work carried on under his personal superintendence. In the new movement Florence took the lead, owing the pre-eminence she quickly won to the gifted and versatile Filippo Brunelleschi, who, like so many of his famous contemporaries, was a skilled goldsmith and sculptor before he became an architect. His first work of importance was the dome he added to the unfinished cathedral of his native city, which was soon succeeded by the Churches of S. Spirito and S. Lorenzo, both of which are typical Renaissance buildings, as is also the Puzzi Chapel, on which the architect displayed his wonderful sense of symmetry, combining domes, arches, and lintels with consummate skill.

Fine examples of Renaissance secular architecture in Florence are the Riccardi and Pitti Palaces, both designed by Brunelleschi, but considerably modified after his death, the Rucellai Palace by Alberti, a worthy successor of Brunelleschi, the Guadagni Palace, designed by Bramante, and the Pandolfini, designed by Raphael, the last very characteristic of the mature phase of Italian Renaissance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Facade of a Venetian Palace]

It was in Rome that the style reached its n.o.blest development, and the Cathedral of S. Peter's, on which all the greatest architects of the 16th and 17th centuries were successively employed, affords a unique opportunity for its study. Built on the site of the old basilica of S.

Peter, alluded to in the section on Early Christian architecture, what was to become the largest church in the world was begun by Bramante in 1506. His plan, that of a square with four projecting apses, to be covered in with a central and four supplementary domes, was followed until his death in 1514, when the work was carried on by Giuliano da San Gallo, Fra Giacondo and Raphael, who were in favour of certain modifications of the original design, that if carried out would have converted the square into a Latin cross. The withdrawal of San Gallo, and the deaths of Giacondo and Raphael in 1515, led to Baldasarre Peruzzi being appointed architect, and under his auspices the plan was changed to that of a Greek cross. Before his death in 1536 the present south transept and the vaulting, that was to encircle the central dome were finished, and the ma.s.sive pendentives that were to uphold the latter were begun. The next architect to take up the vast scheme was Antonio da San Gallo, who, could he have obtained the necessary funds, would have added a long p.r.o.naos or corridor of approach, to be entered from a domed porch at the western end. In his model the interior of the central portion of the cathedral, with the notable exception of the dome, appears much as it does now, so that with its aid a good idea can be obtained of the state of the building when, in 1546, Michael Angelo was appointed architect in chief, and set the seal of his genius upon a complex creation which was already a reflection of the highest constructive and aesthetic achievement of the golden age of Italian architecture. Reverencing the n.o.ble design of Bramante, Michael Angelo left the interior, of which the symmetry of plan and beauty of the many pilasters with their Corinthian capitals are notable characteristics, much as he found it, but though he introduced on the exterior Corinthian pilasters resembling those of the interior, he greatly modified the general aspect of the former by the removal of the projecting chapels and the aisles round the apses. It was in his design for the dome that Michael Angelo achieved his greatest architectural triumph, for without tampering at all with what had already been done by Bramante, he set upon the cylindrical drum that artist had intended to uphold a dome, which was to be a mere reproduction of that of the Pantheon, a magnificent structure of original design which dominates the capital, producing an absolutely unrivalled impression of combined strength, vastness, and symmetry, the eye being irresistibly led up from drum to dome and from dome to lantern. From within the cathedral the effect is scarcely less grand, a wonderful sense of s.p.a.ce being conveyed by the soaring vault, that seems to spring heavenwards of its own volition.

Michael Angelo died before his masterpiece was completed, but so far as the dome was concerned his design was carried out, with certain slight modifications, by Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana.

Unfortunately, however, the rest of the great architect's scheme was departed from and its effectiveness destroyed by additions which he would most certainly have condemned. At the suggestion of Pope Pius IV the facade built under Michael Angelo was pulled down and replaced by Maderno with that still _in situ_, whilst the nave was lengthened out of all proportion to the rest of the building.

In spite of this lamentable mistake, the general effect of the interior is remarkably fine, and is greatly enhanced by the rich colouring of the lavish decoration of every portion, the ma.s.sive piers and vast arches spanning them, and the vaulted coffered ceilings, all harmonising with and supplementing each other. Moreover, the unhappy result of the subst.i.tution of Maderno's for Michael Angelo's facade was to some extent neutralised in 1666 by the erection under Bernini of the lofty colonnade encircling the piazza of S. Peter in the simple and dignified Doric style, that forms an appropriate approach to the cathedral.

In the Renaissance palaces of Rome cla.s.sic details were more closely copied than in Florence, pilasters and arcades forming, in almost every case, the chief decorations of the exteriors. Notable examples are the so-called Venetian Palaces, the Cancellaria designed by Bramante, the Sacchetti by Antonio San Gallo, and, above all, the Farnese, the grandest in the capital, begun by San Gallo and completed by Michael Angelo, with portions of the Vatican, including the Hall of the Belvedere, designed by Bramante.

In Venice, where the Renaissance style was necessarily modified by the peculiar conditions of the lagoon city, good examples of it are the Churches S. Maria dei Miracoli, S. Zaccaria, and S. Maria della Salute, with the palaces of Vendramini, Calergo, Trevisano, and Cornaro, all, however, excelled by the beautiful Palazzo Grimani designed by San Michele and the Library of S. Mark of Sansovino.

At Vicenza the famous architect Palladio erected many n.o.ble Renaissance churches, including the Redentore, enclosed the ancient Basilica in grand cla.s.sic arcades, and designed a great number of fine palaces. In Milan the finest Renaissance structures are the sacristy of S. Maria Presso S. Sabino, the apse of S. Maria della Grazie and the arcaded court of the great Hospital, all designed by Bramante. Near Pavia is the fine Certosa, the facade of which is the work of Ambrogio Borgognoni; Genoa is rich in effective groups of Renaissance palaces after the designs of Alessio, and owns a late Renaissance church ascribed to Puget, and at Verona is the typical Palazzo del Conseglio, built by Fra Giocondo.

It was not until the beginning of the 16th century that the Renaissance style gained a footing in France, and even for some time after that French architects, whilst adopting its main features, clung to certain characteristic Gothic details. This is very notably the case in some of the royal chateaux on the Loire, justly considered the finest secular Renaissance buildings in the country, especially in that of Chambord, which, with a typical Renaissance facade, has a highly pitched roof with soaring pinnacles and pointed-headed dormer windows.

Other fine Early Renaissance French buildings are the wing added by Frances I to the old castle of Blois, famous for its beautiful external spiral staircase, the chateaux of Chenonceaux, Chateaudun, and Azay-le-Rideau, the Hotel de Ville at Beaugency, the Church of S.

Eustache, the Hotel des Invalides, the western portion of the Louvre, and the Luxembourg, all in Paris. To the latest phase of what eventually became almost a national style, belong the Pantheon, the Palais Royal, the College and Church of the Sorbonne, all in Paris; the relics of the n.o.ble Chateau built for Richelieu on the site of the great minister's native village by Lemercier, the Chateau of Ballery in Normandy, the additions to the castle of Blois, the Chateau des Maisons near, and the Church of Val de Grace in Paris, all by Francois Mansard, whose name is a.s.sociated with a picturesque form of roof invented by him.

In the chateau of Versailles, designed by Jules Mansard, a distant connection of the greater Francois, the first note of the decadence of the Renaissance style was sounded, for well-built and richly decorated though it is, the huge structure is lacking in the dignified grandeur, so distinctive of the buildings enumerated above.

Although it was in Italy and France that European Renaissance architecture achieved its greatest triumphs, some few fine examples of it remain in other countries, including in Spain the great Monastery and Palace of the Escurial near Madrid, the central church of which is especially fine, the Cathedrals of Burgos, Malaga, and Granada, the town halls of Saragossa and Seville, and portions of the Alcazar of Toledo, the convent of Mafra in Portugal, the Town Hall of Antwerp, the Council Halls of Leipzig and Rothenburg, the Cloth Hall of Brunswick, the Castle of Schallenburg, and the Hall of the Belvedere at Prague.

It is unnecessary to refer in detail to the many buildings in Europe in what is known as the Rococo style, of which grotesque and meaningless ornamentation is the chief characteristic, but it must be added that in the early 19th century something like a new cla.s.sic revival took place on the Continent. The Church of La Madeleine and the Opera House in Paris, the Arco della Pace at Milan, the Royal Theatre at Berlin, the Glyptothex and Pinacothex of Munich, the Walhalla at Ratisbon, the Museum of Dresden, and the Church of S. Isaac at St. Petersburg being notable instances of the skilful way in which Greek details of structure were combined by the best architects with modern requirements.