A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Part 17

+PLANS.+ English church plans underwent, during the Gothic Period, but little change from the general types established previous to the thirteenth century. The Gothic cathedrals and abbeys, like the Norman, were very long and narrow, with choirs often nearly as long as the nave, and almost invariably with square eastward terminations. There is no example of double side aisles and side chapels, and apsidal chapels are very rare. Canterbury and Westminster (Fig. 137) are the chief exceptions to this, and both show clearly the French influence. Another striking peculiarity of the English plans is the frequent occurrence of secondary transepts, adding greatly to the external picturesqueness.

These occur in rudimentary form in Canterbury, and at Durham the Chapel of the Nine Altars, added 1242-1290 to the eastern end, forms in reality a secondary transept. This feature is most perfectly developed in the cathedral of Salisbury (Fig. 128), and appears also at Lincoln, Worcester, Wells, and a few other examples. The English cathedral plans are also distinguished by the retention or incorporation of many conventual features, such as cloisters, libraries, and halls, and by the grouping of chapter-houses and Lady-chapels with the main edifice. Thus the English cathedral plans and those of the great abbey churches present a marked contrast with those of France and the Continent generally. While Amiens, the greatest of French cathedrals, is 521 feet long, and internally 140 feet high, Ely measures 565 feet in length, and less than 75 feet in height. Notre Dame is 148 feet wide; the English naves are usually under 80 feet in total width of the three aisles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 137.--EASTERN HALF OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY. PLAN.

a, _Henry VII.'s chapel._]

+PARISH CHURCHES.+ Many of these were of exceptional beauty of composition and detail. They display the greatest variety of plan, churches with two equal-gabled naves side by side being not uncommon.

A considerable proportion of them date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and are chiefly interesting for their square, single, west towers and their carved wooden ceilings (see below). The tower was usually built over the central western porch; broad and square, with corner b.u.t.tresses terminating in pinnacles, it was usually finished without spires. Crenelated battlements crowned the upper story. When spires were added the transition from the square tower to the octagonal spire was effected by _broaches_ or portions of a square pyramid intersecting the base of the spire, or by corner pinnacles and flying-b.u.t.tresses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 138.--ROOF OF NAVE, ST. MARY'S, WESTONZOYLAND.]

+WOODEN CEILINGS.+ The English treated woodwork with consummate skill.

They invented and developed a variety of forms of roof-truss in which the proper distribution of the strains was combined with a highly decorative treatment of the several parts by carving, moulding, and arcading. The ceiling surfaces between the trusses were handled decoratively, and the oaken open-timber ceilings of many of the English churches and civic or academic halls (Christ Church Hall, Oxford; Westminster Hall, London) are such n.o.ble and beautiful works as quite to justify the subst.i.tution of wooden for vaulted ceilings (Fig. 138). The _hammer-beam_ truss was in its way as highly scientific, and aesthetically as satisfactory, as any feature of French Gothic stone construction. Without the use of tie-rods to keep the rafters from spreading, it brought the strain of the roof upon internal brackets low down on the wall, and produced a beautiful effect by the repet.i.tion of its graceful curves in each truss.

+CHAPELS AND HALLS.+ Many of these rival the cathedrals in beauty and dignity of design. The royal chapels at Windsor and Westminster have already been mentioned, as well as King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and Christ Church Hall at Oxford. To these college halls should be added the chapel of Merton College at Oxford, and the beautiful chapel of St.

Stephen at Westminster, most unfortunately demolished when the present Parliament House was erected. The Lady-chapels of Gloucester and Ely, though connected with the cathedrals, are really independent designs of late date, and remarkable for the richness of their decoration, their great windows, and elaborate ribbed vaulting. Some of the halls in mediaeval castles and manor-houses are also worthy of note, especially for their timber ceilings.

+MINOR MONUMENTS.+ The student of Gothic architecture should also give attention to the choir-screens, tombs, and chantries which embellish many of the abbeys and cathedrals. The rood-screen at York is a notable example of the first; the tomb of De Gray in the same cathedral, and tombs and chantries in Canterbury, Winchester, Westminster Abbey, Ely, St. Alban's Abbey, and other churches are deservedly admired. In these the English love for ornament, for minute carving, and for the contrast of white and colored marble, found unrestrained expression. To these should be added the market-crosses of Salisbury and Winchester, and Queen Eleanor's Cross at Waltham.

+DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.+ The mediaeval castles of Great Britain belong to the domain of military engineering rather than of the history of art, though occasionally presenting to view details of considerable architectural beauty. The growth of peace and civic order is marked by the erection of manor-houses, the residences of wealthy landowners. Some of these houses are of imposing size, and show the application to domestic requirements, of the late Gothic style which prevailed in the period to which most of them belong. The windows are square or Tudor-arched, with stone mullions and transoms of the Perpendicular style, and the walls terminate in merlons or crenelated parapets, recalling the earlier military structures. The palace of the bishop or archbishop, adjoining the cathedral, and the residences of the dean, canons, and clergy, together with the libraries, schools, and gates of the cathedral enclosure, ill.u.s.trate other phases of secular Gothic work.

Few of these structures are of striking architectural merit, but they possess a picturesque charm which is very attractive.

Not many stone houses of the smaller cla.s.s remain from the Gothic period in England. But there is hardly an old town that does not retain many of the half-timbered dwellings of the fifteenth or even fourteenth century, some of them in excellent preservation. They are for the most part wider and lower than the French houses of the same cla.s.s, but are built on the same principle, and, like them, the woodwork is more or less richly carved.

+MONUMENTS+: (A. = abbey church; C. = cathedral; r. = ruined; trans. = transept; each monument is given under the date of the earliest extant Gothic work upon it, with additions of later periods in parentheses.)

EARLY ENGLISH: Kirkstall A., 1152-82, first pointed arches; Canterbury C., choir, 1175-84 (nave, 1378-1411; central tower, 1500); Lincoln C., choir, trans., 1192-1200 (vault, 1250; nave and E. end, 1260-80); Lichfield C., 1200-50 (W. front, 1275; presbytery, 1325); Worcester C., choir, 1203-18, nave partly Norman (W. end, 1375-95); Chichester C., 1204-44 (spire rebuilt 17th century); Fountains A., 1205-46; Salisbury C., 1220-58 (cloister, chapter-h., 1263-84; spire, 1331); Elgin C., 1224-44; Wells C., 1175-1206 (W. front 1225, choir later, chapter-h., 1292); Rochester C., 1225-39 (nave Norman); York C., S. trans., 1225; N. trans., 1260 (nave, chapter-h., 1291-1345; W. window, 1338; central tower, 1389-1407; E. window, 1407); Southwell Minster, 1233-94 (nave Norman); Ripon C., 1233-94 (central tower, 1459); Ely C., choir, 1229-54 (nave Norman; octagon and presbytery, 1323-62); Peterborough C., W. front, 1237 (nave Norman; retro-choir, late 14th century); Netley A., 1239 (r.); Durham C., "Nine Altars" and E. end choir, 1235-90 (nave, choir, Norman; W. window, 1341; central tower finished, 1480); Glasgow C., (with remarkable Early English crypt), 1242-77; Gloucester C., nave vaulted, 1239-42 (nave mainly Norman; choir, 1337-51; cloisters, 1375-1412; W. end, 1420-37; central tower, 1450-57); Westminster A., 1245-69; St. Mary's A., York, 1272-92 (r.).

DECORATED: Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274-1300; Hereford C., N. trans., chapter-h., cloisters, vaulting, 1275-92 (nave, choir, Norman); Exeter C., choir, trans., 1279-91; nave, 1331-50 (E. end remodelled, 1390); Lichfield C., Lady-chapel, 1310; Ely C., Lady-chapel, 1321-49; Melrose A., 1327-99 (nave, 1500; r.); St.

Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, 1349-64 (demolished); Edington church, 1352-61; Carlisle C., E. end and upper parts, 1352-95 (nave in part and S. trans. Norman; tower finished, 1419); Winchester C., W. end remodelled, 1360-66 (nave and aisles, 1394-1410; trans., partly Norman); York C., Lady-chapel, 1362-72; churches of Patrington and Hull, late 14th century.

PERPENDICULAR: Holy Cross Church, Canterbury, 1380; St. Mary's, Warwick, 1381-91; Manchester C., 1422; St. Mary's, Bury St.

Edmunds, 1424-33; Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, 1439; King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 1440; vaults, 1508-15; St. Mary's Redcliffe, Bristol, 1442; Roslyn Chapel, Edinburgh, 1446-90; Gloucester C., Lady-chapel, 1457-98; St. Mary's, Stratford-on-Avon, 1465-91; Norwich C., upper part and E. end of choir, 1472-99 (the rest mainly Norman); St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 1481-1508; choir vaulted, 1507-20; Bath A., 1500-39; Chapel of Henry VII., Westminster, 1503-20.

ACADEMIC AND SECULAR BUILDINGS: Winchester Castle Hall, 1222-35; Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274-1300; Library Merton College, 1354-78; Norborough Hall, 1356; Windsor Castle, upper ward, 1359-73; Winchester College, 1387-93; Wardour Castle, 1392; Westminster Hall, rebuilt, 1397-99; St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, 1401-14; Warkworth Castle, 1440; St. John's College, All Soul's College, Oxford, 1437; Eton College, 1441-1522; Divinity Schools, Oxford, 1445-54; Magdalen College, Oxford, 1475-80, tower, 1500; Christ Church Hall, Oxford, 1529.

CHAPTER XVIII.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, AND SPAIN.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Corroyer, Reber. Also, Adler, _Mittelalterliche Backstein-Bauwerke des preussischen Staates_.

Essenwein (_Hdbuch. d. Arch._), _Die romanische und die gothische Baukunst; der Wohnbau_. Hasak, _Die romanische und die gothische Baukunst; Kirchenbau_; _Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues_ (both in _Hdbuch. d. Arch._). Hase and others, _Die mittelalterlichen Baudenkmaler Niedersachsens_. Kallenbach, _Chronologie der deutschen mittelalterlichen Baukunst_. Lubke, _Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages_. Redtenbacher, _Leitfaden zum Studium der mittelalterlichen Baukunst_. Street, _Gothic Architecture in Spain_. Uhde, _Baudenkmaler in Spanien_.

Ungewitter, _Lehrbuch der gothischen Constructionen_. Villa Amil, _Hispania Artistica y Monumental_.

+EARLY GOTHIC WORKS.+ The Gothic architecture of Germany is less interesting to the general student than that of France and England, not only because its development was less systematic and more provincial, but also because it produced fewer works of high intrinsic merit. The introduction into Germany of the pointed style was tardy, and its progress slow. Romanesque architecture had created imposing types of ecclesiastical architecture, which the conservative Teutons were slow to abandon. The result was a half-century of transition and a mingling of Romanesque and Gothic forms. St. Castor, at Coblentz, built as late as 1208, is wholly Romanesque. Even when the pointed arch and vault had finally come into general use, the plan and the constructive system still remained predominantly Romanesque. The western apse and short sanctuary of the earlier plans were retained. There was no triforium, the clearstory was insignificant, and the whole aspect low and ma.s.sive.

The Germans avoided, at first, as did the English, the constructive audacities and difficulties of the French Gothic, but showed less of invention and grace than their English neighbors. When, however, through the influence of foreign models, especially of the great French cathedrals, and through the employment of foreign architects, the Gothic styles were at last thoroughly domesticated, a spirit of ostentation took the place of the earlier conservatism. Technical cleverness, exaggerated ingenuity of detail, and constructive _tours de force_ characterize most of the German Gothic work of the late fourteenth and of the fifteenth century. This is exemplified in the slender mullions of Ulm, the lofty and complicated spire of Strasburg, and the curious traceries of churches and houses in Nuremberg.

+PERIODS.+ The periods of German mediaeval architecture corresponded in sequence, though not in date, with the movement elsewhere. The maturing of the true Gothic styles was preceded by more than a half-century of transition. Chronologically the periods may be broadly stated as follows:

THE TRANSITIONAL, 1170-1225.

THE EARLY POINTED, 1225-1275.

THE MIDDLE OR DECORATED, 1275-1350.

THE FLORID, 1350-1530.

These divisions are, however, far less clearly defined than in France and England. The development of forms was less logical and consequential, and less uniform in the different provinces, than in those western lands.

+CONSTRUCTION.+ As already remarked, a tenacious hold of Romanesque methods is observable in many German Gothic monuments. Broad wall-surfaces with small windows and a general ma.s.siveness and lowness of proportions were long preferred to the more slender and lofty forms of true Gothic design. Square vaulting-bays were persistently adhered to, covering two aisle-bays. The six-part system was only rarely resorted to, as at Schlettstadt, and in St. George at Limburg-on-the-Lahn (Fig. 139). The ribbed vault was an imported idea, and was never systematically developed. Under the final dominance of French models in the second half of the thirteenth century, vaulting in oblong bays became more general, powerfully influenced by buildings like Freiburg, Cologne, Oppenheim, and Ratisbon cathedrals. In the fourteenth century the growing taste for elaboration and rich detail led to the introduction of multiplied decorative ribs. These, however, did not come into use, as in England, through a logical development of constructive methods, but purely as decorative features. The German multiple-ribbed vaulting is, therefore, less satisfying than the English, though often elegant. Conspicuous examples of its application are found in the cathedrals of Freiburg, Ulm, Prague, and Vienna; in St. Barbara at Kuttenberg, and many other important churches. But with all the richness and complexity of these net-like vaults the Germans developed nothing like the fan-vaulting or chapter-house ceilings of England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 139.--ONE BAY OF CATHEDRAL OF ST. GEORGE, LIMBURG.]

+SIDE AISLES.+ The most notable structural innovation of the Germans was the raising of the side aisles to the same height as the central aisle in a number of important churches. They thus created a distinctly new type, to which German writers have given the name of _hall-church_. The result of this innovation was to transform completely the internal perspective of the church, as well as its structural membering. The clearstory disappeared; the central aisle no longer dominated the interior; the pier-arches and side-walls were greatly increased in height, and flying b.u.t.tresses were no longer required. The whole design appeared internally more s.p.a.cious, but lost greatly in variety and in interest. The cathedral of +St. Stephen+ at Vienna is the most imposing instance of this treatment, which first appeared in the church of St.

Elizabeth at Marburg (1235-83; Fig. 140). St. Barbara at Kuttenberg, St.

Martin's at Landshut (1404), and the cathedral of Munich are others among many examples of this type.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 140.--SECTION OF ST. ELIZABETH, MARBURG.]

+TOWERS AND SPIRES.+ The same fondness for spires which had been displayed in the Rhenish Romanesque churches produced in the Gothic period a number of strikingly beautiful church steeples, in which openwork tracery was subst.i.tuted for the solid stone pyramids of earlier examples. The most remarkable of these spires are those of Freiburg (1300), Strasburg, and Cologne cathedrals, of the church at Esslingen, St. Martin's at Landshut, and the cathedral of Vienna. In these the transition from the simple square tower below to the octagonal belfry and spire is generally managed with skill. In the remarkable tower of the cathedral at Vienna (1433) the transition is too gradual, so that the spire seems to start from the ground and lacks the vigor and accent of a simpler square lower portion. The over-elaborate spire of +Strasburg+ (1429, by Junckher of Cologne; lower parts and facade, 1277-1365, by _Erwin von Steinbach_ and his sons) reaches a height of 468 feet; the spires of Cologne, completed in 1883 from the original fourteenth-century drawings, long lost but recovered by a happy accident, are 500 feet high. The spires of +Ratisbon+ and +Ulm+ cathedrals have also been recently completed in the original style.

+DETAILS.+ German window tracery was best where it most closely followed French patterns, but it tended always towards the faults of mechanical stiffness and of technical display in over-slenderness of shafts and mullions. The windows, especially in the "hall-churches," were apt to be too narrow for their height. In the fifteenth century ingenuity of geometrical combinations took the place of grace of line, and later the tracery was often tortured into a stone caricature of rustic-work of interlaced and twisted boughs and twigs, represented with all their bark and knots (_branch-tracery_). The execution was far superior to the design. The carving of foliage in capitals, finials, etc., calls for no special mention for its originality or its departure from French types.

+PLANS.+ In these there was more variety than in any other part of Europe except Italy. Some churches, like Naumburg, retained the Romanesque system of a second western apse and short choir. The Cistercian churches generally had square east ends, while the polygonal eastern apse without ambulatory is seen in St. Elizabeth at Marburg, the cathedrals of Ratisbon, Ulm and Vienna, and many other churches. The introduction of French ideas in the thirteenth century led to the adoption in a number of cases of the chevet with a single ambulatory and a series of radiating apsidal chapels. +Magdeburg+ cathedral (1208-11) was the first erected on this plan, which was later followed at Altenburg, Cologne, Freiburg, Lubeck, Prague and Zwettl, in St. Francis at Salzburg and some other churches. Side chapels to nave or choir appear in the cathedrals of Lubeck, Munich, Oppenheim, Prague and Zwettl. +Cologne+ +Cathedral+, by far the largest and most magnificent of all, is completely French in plan, uniting in one design the leading characteristics of the most notable French churches (Fig. 141). It has complete double aisles in both nave and choir, three-aisled transepts, radial chevet-chapels and twin western towers. The ambulatory is, however, single, and there are no lateral chapels. A typical German treatment was the eastward termination of the church by polygonal chapels, one in the axis of each aisle, the central one projecting beyond its neighbors. Where there were five aisles, as at Xanten, the effect was particularly fine. The plan of the curious polygonal church of +Our Lady+ (Liebfrauenkirche; 1227-43) built on the site of the ancient circular baptistery at Treves, would seem to have been produced by doubling such an arrangement on either side of the transverse axis (Fig. 142).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 141.--COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. PLAN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 142.--CHURCH OF OUR LADY, TREVES.]

+HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.+ The so-called +Golden Portal+ of +Freiburg+ in the Erzgebirge is perhaps the first distinctively Gothic work in Germany, dating from 1190. From that time on, Gothic details appeared with increasing frequency, especially in the Rhine provinces, as shown in many transitional structures. +Gelnhausen+ and Aschaffenburg are early 13th-century examples; pointed arches and vaults appear in the Apostles' and St. Martin's churches at Cologne; and the great church of +St. Peter and St. Paul+ at Neuweiler in Alsace has an almost purely Gothic nave of the same period. The churches of +Bamberg+, +Fritzlar+, and +Naumburg+, and in Westphalia those of +Munster+ and +Osnabruck+, are important examples of the transition. The French influence, especially the Burgundian, appears as early as 1212 in the cathedral of Magdeburg, imitating the choir of Soissons, and in the structural design of the Liebfrauenkirche at Treves as already mentioned; it reached complete ascendancy in Alsace at +Strasburg+ (nave 1240-75), in Baden at +Freiburg+ (nave 1270) and in Prussia at +Cologne+ (1248-1320).

Strasburg Cathedral is especially remarkable for its facade, the work of Erwin von Steinbach and his sons (1277-1346), designed after French models, and its north spire, built in the fifteenth century. Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248 by _Gerhard of Riel_ in imitation of the newly completed choir of Amiens, was continued by Master _Arnold_ and his son _John_, and the choir was consecrated in 1322. The nave and W. front were built during the first half of the 14th century, though the towers were not completed till 1883. In spite of its vast size and slow construction, it is in style the most uniform of all great Gothic cathedrals, as it is the most lofty (excepting the choir of Beauvais) and the largest excepting Milan and Seville. Unfortunately its details, though pure and correct, are singularly dry and mechanical, while its very uniformity deprives it of the picturesque and varied charm which results from a mixture of styles recording the labors of successive generations. The same criticism may be raised against the late cathedral of +Ulm+ (choir, 1377-1449; nave, 1477; Fig. 143). The Cologne influence is observable in the widely separated cathedrals of Utrecht in the Netherlands, Metz in the W., Minden and +Halberstadt+ (begun 1250; mainly built after 1327) in Saxony, and in the S. in the church of +St.

Catherine+ at Oppenheim. To the E. and S., in the cathedrals of +Prague+ (Bohemia) by _Matthew of Arras_ (1344-52) and +Ratisbon+ (or Regensburg, 1275) the French influence predominates, at least in the details and construction. The last-named is one of the most dignified and beautiful of German Gothic churches--German in plan, French in execution. The French influence also manifests itself in the details of many of the peculiarly German churches with aisles of equal height (see p. 240).