TOWERS AND SPIRES. The emphasizing of vertical elements reached its fullest expression in the towers and spires of the churches. What had been at first merely a lofty belfry roof was rapidly developed into the spire, rising three hundred feet or more into the air. This development had already made progress in the Romanesque period, and the south spire of Chartres is a notable example of late twelfth-century steeple design. The transition from the square tower to the slender octagonal pyramid was skilfully effected by means of corner pinnacles and dormers. During and after the thirteenth century the development was almost wholly in the direction of richness and complexity of detail, not of radical constructive modification. The northern spire of Chartres (1515) and the spires of Bordeaux, Coutances, Senlis, and the Flamboyant church of St. Maclou at Rouen, illustrate this development. In Normandy central spires were common, rising over the crossing of nave and transepts. In some cases the designers of cathedrals contemplated a group of towers; this is evident at Chartres, Coutances, and Reims. This intention was, however, never realized; it demanded resources beyond even the enthusiasm of the thirteenth century. Only in rare instances were the spires of any of the towers completed, and the majority of the French towers have square terminations, with low-pitched wooden roofs, generally invisible from below. In general, French towers are marked by their strong buttresses, solid lower stories, twin windows in each side of the belfry proper—these windows being usually of great size—and a skilful management of the transition to an octagonal plan for the belfry or the spire.

CARVING AND SCULPTURE. The general superiority of French Gothic work was fully maintained in its decorative details. Especially fine is the figure sculpture, which in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries attained true nobility of expression, combined with great truthfulness and delicacy of execution. Some of its finest productions are found in the great doorway jambs of the west portals of the cathedrals, and in the ranks of throned and adoring angels which adorned their deep arches. These reach their highest beauty in the portals of Reims (1380). The tabernacles or carved niches in which such statues were set were important elements in the decoration of the exteriors of churches.



Foliage forms were used for nearly all the minor carved ornaments, though grotesque and human figures sometimes took their place. The gargoyles through which the roof-water was discharged clear of the building, were almost always composed in the form of hideous monsters; and symbolic beasts, like the oxen in the towers of Laon, or monsters like those which peer from the tower balustrades of Notre Dame, were employed with some mystical significance in various parts of the building. But the capitals corbels, crockets, and finials were mostly composed of floral or foliage forms. Those of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were for the most part simple in mass, and crisp and vigorous in design, imitating the strong shoots of early spring. The capitals were tall and slender, concave in profile, with heavy square or octagonal abaci. With the close of the thirteenth century this simple and forcible style of detail disappeared. The carving became more realistic; the leaves, larger and more mature, were treated as if applied to the capital or moulding, not as if they grew out of it. The execution and detail were finer and more delicate, in harmony with the increasing slenderness and lightness of the architecture (Fig. 126 a, b). Tracery forms now began to be profusely applied to all manner of surfaces, and open-work gables, wholly unnecessary from the structural point of view, but highly effective as decorations, adorned the portals and crowned the windows.

LATE GOTHIC MONUMENTS. So far our attention has been mainly occupied with the masterpieces erected previous to 1250. Among the cathedrals, relatively few in number, whose construction is referable to the second half of the century, that of Beauvais stands first in importance. Designed on a colossal scale, its foundations were laid in 1225, but it was never completed, and the portion built—the choir and chapels—belonged really to the second half of the century, having been completed in 1270. But the collapse in 1284 of the central tower and vaulting of this incomplete cathedral, owing to the excessive loftiness and slenderness of its supports, compelled its entire reconstruction, the number of the piers being doubled and the span of the pier arches correspondingly reduced. As thus rebuilt, the cathedral aisle was 47 feet wide from centre to centre of opposite piers, and 163 feet high to the top of the vault. Transepts were added after 1500. Limoges and Narbonne, begun in 1272 on a large scale (though not equal in size to Beauvais), were likewise never completed. Both had choirs of admirable plan, with well-designed chevet-chapels. Many other cathedrals begun during this period were completed only after long delays, as, for instance, Meaux, Rodez (1277), Toulouse (1272), and Alby (1282), finished in the sixteenth century, and Clermont (1248), completed under Napoleon III. But between 1260 or 1275 and 1350, work was actively prosecuted on many still incomplete cathedrals. The choirs of Beauvais (rebuilding), Limoges, and Narbonne were finished after 1330; and towers, transept-faades, portals, and chapels added to many others of earlier date.

The style of this period is sometimes designated as Rayonnant, from the characteristic wheel tracery of the rose-windows, and the prevalence of circular forms in the lateral arched windows, of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The great rose windows in the transepts of Notre Dame, dating from 1257, are typical examples of the style. Those of Rouen cathedral belong to the same category, though of later date. The faade of Amiens, completed by 1288, is one of the finest works of this style, of which an early example is the elaborate parish church of St. Urbain at Troyes.

THE FLAMBOYANT STYLE. The geometric treatment of the tracery and the minute and profuse decoration of this period gradually merged into the fantastic and unrestrained extravagances of the Flamboyant style, which prevailed until the advent of the Renaissance—say 1525. The continuous logical development of forms ceased, and in its place caprice and display controlled the arts of design. The finest monument of this long period is the fifteenth-century nave and central tower of the church of St. Ouen at Rouen, aparish church of the first rank, begun in 1318, but not finished until 1515. The tracery of the lateral windows is still chiefly geometric, but the western rose window (Fig. 112) and the magnificent central tower or lantern, exhibit in their tracery the florid decoration and wavy, flame-like lines of this style. Slenderness of supports and the suppression of horizontal lines are here carried to an extreme; and the church, in spite of its great elegance of detail, lacks the vital interest and charm of the earlier Gothic churches. The cathedral of Alenon and the church of St. Maclou at Rouen, have portals with unusually elaborate detail of tracery and carving; while the faade of Rouen cathedral (1509) surpasses all other examples in the lace-like minuteness of its open-work and its profusion of ornament. The churches of St. Jacques at Dieppe, and of St. Wulfrand at Abbeville, the faades of Tours and Troyes, are among the masterpieces of the style. The upper part of the faade of Reims (1380-1428) belongs to the transition from the Rayonnant to the Flamboyant. While some works of this period are conspicuous for the richness of their ornamentation, others are noticeably bare and poor in design, like St. Merri and St. Sverin in Paris.

SECULAR AND MONASTIC ARCHITECTURE. The building of cathedrals did not absorb all the architectural activity of the French during the Gothic period, nor did it by any means put an end to monastic building. While there are few Gothic cloisters to equal the Romanesque cloisters of Puy-en-Vlay, Montmajour, Elne, and Moissac, many of the abbeys either rebuilt their churches in the Gothic style after 1150, or extended and remodelled their conventual buildings. The cloisters of Fontfroide, Chaise-Dieu, and the Mont St. Michel rival those of Romanesque times, while many new refectories and chapels were built in the same style with the cathedrals. The most complete of these Gothic monastic establishments, that of the Mont St. Michel in Normandy, presented a remarkable aggregation of buildings clustering around the steep isolated rock on which stands the abbey church. This was built in the eleventh century, and the choir and chapels remodelled in the sixteenth. The great refectory and dormitory, the cloisters, lodgings, and chapels, built in several vaulted stories against the cliffs, are admirable examples of the vigorous pointed-arch design of the early thirteenth century.

Hospitals like that of St. Jean at Angers (late twelfth century), or those of Chartres, Ourscamps, Tonnerre, and Beaune, illustrate how skilfully the French could modify and adapt the details of their architecture to the special requirements of civil architecture. Great numbers of charitable institutions were built in the middle ages—asylums, hospitals, refuges, and the like—but very few of those in France are now extant. Town halls were built in the fifteenth century in some places where a certain amount of popular independence had been secured. The florid fifteenth-century Palais de Justice at Rouen (1499-1508) is an example of another branch of secular Gothic architecture. In all these monuments the adaptation of means to ends is admirable. Wooden ceilings and roofs replaced stone, wherever required by great width of span or economy of construction. There was little sculpture; the wall-spaces were not suppressed in favor of stained glass and tracery; while the roofs were usually emphasized and adorned with elaborate crestings and finials in lead or terra-cotta.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. These same principles controlled the designing of houses, farm buildings, barns, granaries, and the like. The common closely-built French city house of the twelfth and thirteenth century is illustrated by many extant examples at Cluny, Provins, and other towns. Ashop opening on the street by a large arch, anarrow stairway, and two or three stories of rooms lighted by clustered, pointed-arched windows, constituted the common type. The street front was usually gabled and the roof steep. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century half-timbered construction began to supersede stone for town houses, as it permitted of encroaching upon the street by projecting the upper stories. Many of the half-timbered houses of the fifteenth century were of elaborate design. The heavy oaken uprights were carved with slender colonnettes; the horizontal sills, bracketed out over the street, were richly moulded; picturesque dormers broke the sky-line, and the masonry filling between the beams was frequently faced with enamelled tiles.



The more considerable houses or palaces of royalty, nobles, and wealthy citizens rivalled, and in time surpassed, the monastic buildings in richness and splendor. The earlier examples retain the military aspect, with moat and donjon, as in the Louvre of CharlesV., demolished in the sixteenth century. The finest palaces are of late date, and the type is well represented by the Ducal Palace at Nancy (1476), the Hotel de Cluny (1485) at Paris, the Hotel Jacques Coeur at Bourges (Fig. 127), and the east wing of Blois (1498-1515). These palaces are not only excellently and liberally planned, with large halls, many staircases, and handsome courts; they are also extremely picturesque with their square and circular towers, slender turrets, elaborate dormers, and rich carved detail.

MONUMENTS: (C. = cathedral; A. = abbey; trans. = transept; each edifice is given under the date of its commencement; subsequent alterations in parentheses.) Between 1130 and 1200: VzelayA., ante-chapel, 1130; St. Germer-de-FlyC., 1130-1150 (chapel later); St. DenisA., choir, 1140 (choir rebuilt, nave and trans., 1240); SensC., 1140-68 (W. front, 13th century; chapels, spire, 14th); SenlisC., 1145-83 (trans., spire, 13th century); NoyonC., 1149-1200 (W. front, vaults, 13th century); St. Germain-des-PrsA., Paris, choir, 1150 (Romanesque nave); AngersC., 1150 (choir, trans., 1274); Langres, 1150-1200; LaonC., 1150-1200; Le MansC., nave, 1150-58 (choir, 1217-54); SoissonsC., 1160-70 (choir, 1212; nave chapels, 14th century); PoitiersC., 1162-1204; Notre Dame, Paris, choir, 1163-96 (nave, W. front finished, 1235; trans. fronts, and chapels, 1257-75); ChartresC., W. end, 1170; rest, mainly 1194-98 (trans. porches, W. rose, 1210-1260; N. spire, 1506); ToursC., 1170 (rebuilt, 1267; trans., portals, 1375; W. portals, chapels, 15th century; towers finished, 1507-47); LavalC., 1180-85 (choir, 16th century); Mantes, church Notre Dame, 1180-1200; BourgesC., 1190-95 (E. end, 1210; W. end, 1275); St. Nicholas at Caen, 1190 (vaults, 15th century); Reims, church St. Rmy, choir, end of 12th century (Romanesque nave); church St. Leu d'Esserent, choir late 12th century (nave, 13th century); LyonsC., choir, end of 12th century (nave, 13th and 14th centuries); Etampes, church Notre Dame, 12th and 13th centuries.—13th century: Evreux C., 1202-75 (trans., central tower, 1417; W. front rebuilt, 16th century); RouenC., 1202-20 (trans. portals, 1280; W. front, 1507); Nevers, 1211, N. portal, 1280 (chapels, S. portal, 15th century); ReimsC., 1212-42 (W. front, 1380; W. towers, 1420); BayonneC., 1213 (nave, vaults, W. portal, 14th century); TroyesC., choir, 1214 (central tower, nave, W. portal, and towers, 15th century); AuxerreC., 1215-34 (nave, W. end, trans., 14th century); AmiensC., 1220-88; St. Etienne at Chalons-sur-Marne, 1230 (spire, 1520); SezC., 1230, rebuilt 1260 (remodelled 14th century); Notre Dame de Dijon, 1230; Reims, Lady chapel of Archbishop's palace, 1230; Chapel Royal at St. Germain-en-Laye, 1240; Ste. Chapelle at Paris, 1242-47 (W. rose, 15th century); CoutancesC., 1254-74; BeauvaisC., 1247-72 (rebuilt 1337-47; trans. portals, 1500-48); Notre Dame de Grace at Clermont, 1248 (finished 1350); DlC., 13th century; St. Martin-des-Champs at Paris, nave 13th century (choir Romanesque); BordeauxC., 1260; NarbonneC., 1272-1320; Limoges, 1273 (finished 16th century); St. Urbain, Troyes, 1264; RodezC., 1277-1385 (altered, completed 16th century); church St. Quentin, 1280-1300; St. Benigne at Dijon, 1280-91; AlbyC., 1282 (nave, 14th; choir, 15th century; S. portal, 1473-1500); MeauxC., mainly rebuilt 1284 (W. end much altered 15th, finished 16th century); CahorsC., rebuilt 1285-93 (W. front, 15th century); Orlans, 1287-1328 (burned, rebuilt 1601-1829).—14th century: St. Bertrand de Comminges, 1304-50; St. Nazaire at Carcassonne, choir and trans. on Romanesque nave; MontpellierC., 1364; St. Ouen at Rouen, choir, 1318-39 (trans., 1400-39; nave, 1464-91; W. front, 1515); Royal Chapel at Vincennes, 1385 (?)-1525.—15th and 16th century: St. Nizier at Lyons rebuilt; St. Sverin, St. Merri, St. Germain l'Auxerrois, all at Paris; Notre Dame de l'Epine at Chalons-sur-Marne; choir of St. Etienne at Beauvais; SaintesC., rebuilt, 1450; St. Maclou at Rouen (finished 16th century); church at Brou; St. Wulfrand at Abbeville; abbey of St. Riquier—these three all early 16th century.—HOUSES, CASTLES, AND PALACES: Bishop's palace at Paris, 1160 (demolished); castle of Coucy, 1220-30; Louvre at Paris (the original chteau), 1225-1350; Palais de Justice at Paris, originally the royal residence, 1225-1400; Bishop's palace at Laon, 1245 (addition to Romanesque hall); castle Montargis, 13th century; castle Pierrefonds, Bishop's palace at Narbonnne, palace of Popes at Avignon—all 14th century; donjon of palace at Poitiers, 1395; Htel des Ambassadeurs at Dijon, 1420; house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, 1443; Palace, Dijon, 1467; Ducal palace at Nancy, 1476; Htel Cluny at Paris, 1490; castle of Creil, late 15th century, finished in 16th; E. wing palace of Blois, 1498-1515, for Louis XII.; Palace de Justice at Rouen, 1499-1508.



CHAPTER XVII.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Corroyer, Parker, Reber. Also, Bell's Series of Handbooks of English Cathedrals. Billings, The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. Bond, Gothic Architecture in England. Brandon, Analysis of Gothic Architecture. Britton, Cathedral Antiquities of Great Britain. Ditchfield, The Cathedrals of England. Murray, Handbooks of the English Cathedrals. Parker, Introduction to Gothic Architecture; Glossary of Architectural Terms; Companion to Glossary, etc. Rickman, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture. Sharpe, Architectural Parallels; The Seven Periods of English Architecture. Van Rensselaer, English Cathedrals. Winkles and Moule, Cathedral Churches of England and Wales. Willis, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral; ditto of Winchester Cathedral; Treatise on Vaults.

GENERAL CHARACTER. Gothic architecture was developed in England under a strongly established royal power, with an episcopate in no sense hostile to the abbots or in arms against the barons. Many of the cathedrals had monastic chapters, and not infrequently abbots were invested with the episcopal rank.

English Gothic architecture was thus by no means predominantly an architecture of cathedrals. If architectural activity in England was on this account less intense and widespread in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than in France, it was not, on the other hand, so soon exhausted. Fewer new cathedrals were built, but the progressive rebuilding of those already existing seems not to have ceased until the middle or end of the fifteenth century. Architecture in England developed more slowly, but more uniformly than in France. It contented itself with simpler problems; and if it failed to rival Amiens in boldness of construction and in lofty majesty, it at least never perpetrated a folly like Beauvais. In richness of internal decoration, especially in the mouldings and ribbed vaulting, and in the picturesque grouping of simple masses externally, the British builders went far toward atoning for their structural timidity.



EARLY GOTHIC BUILDINGS. The pointed arch and ribbed vault were importations from France. Early examples appear in the Cistercian abbeys of Furness and Kirkstall, and in the Temple Church at London (1185). But it was in the Choir of Canterbury, as rebuilt by William of Sens, after the destruction by fire in 1170 of Anselm's Norman choir, that these French Gothic features were first applied in a thoroughgoing manner. In plan this choir resembled that of the cathedral of Sens; and its coupled round piers, with capitals carved with foliage, its pointed arches, its six-part vaulting, and its chevet, were distinctly French. The Gothic details thus introduced slowly supplanted the round arch and other Norman features. For fifty years the styles were more or less mingled in many buildings, though Lincoln Cathedral, as rebuilt in 1185-1200, retained nothing of the earlier round-arched style. But the first church to be designed and built from the foundations in the new style was the cathedral of Salisbury (1220-1258; Fig. 128). Contemporary with Amiens, it is a homogeneous and typical example of the Early English style. The predilection for great length observable in the Anglo-Norman churches (as at Norwich and Durham) still prevailed, as it continued to do throughout the Gothic period; Salisbury is 480 feet long. The double transepts, the long choir, the square east end, the relatively low vault (84 feet to the ridge), the narrow grouped windows, all are thoroughly English. Only the simple four-part vaulting recalls French models. Westminster Abbey (1245-1269), on the other hand, betrays in a marked manner the French influence in its internal loftiness (100 feet), its polygonal chevet and chapels, and its strongly accented exterior flying-buttresses (Fig. 137).

MIXTURE OF STYLES. Very few English cathedrals are as homogeneous as the two just mentioned, nearly all having undergone repeated remodellings in successive periods. Durham, Norwich, and Oxford are wholly Norman but for their Gothic vaults. Ely, Rochester, Gloucester, and Hereford have Norman naves and Gothic choirs. Peterborough has an early Gothic faade and late Gothic retro-choir added to an otherwise completely Norman structure. Winchester is a Norman church remodelled with early Perpendicular details. The purely Gothic churches and cathedrals, except parish churches—in which England is very rich—are not nearly as numerous in England as in France.

PERIODS. The development of English Gothic architecture followed the same general sequence as the French, and like it the successive stages were most conspicuously characterized by the forms of the tracery.

The EARLY ENGLISH or LANCET period extended roundly from 1175 or 1180 to 1280, and was marked by simplicity, dignity, and purity of design.

The DECORATED or GEOMETRIC period covered another century, 1280 to 1380, and was characterized by its decorative richness and greater lightness of construction.

The PERPENDICULAR period extended from 1380, or thereabout, well into the sixteenth century. Its salient features were the use of fan-vaulting, four-centred arches, and tracery of predominantly vertical and horizontal lines. The tardy introduction of Renaissance forms finally put an end to the Gothic style in England, after a long period of mixed and transitional architecture.



VAULTING. The richness and variety of English vaulting contrast strikingly with the persistent uniformity of the French. Afew of the early Gothic vaults, as in the aisles of Peterborough, and later the naves of Durham, Salisbury, and Gloucester, were simple four-part, ribbed vaults substantially like the French. But the English disliked and avoided the twisted and dome-like surfaces of the French vaults, preferring horizontal ridges, and, in the filling-masonry, straight courses meeting at the ridge in zigzag lines, as in southwest France (see p.200). This may be seen in Westminster Abbey. The idea of ribbed construction was then seized upon and given a new application. By springing a large number of ribs from each point of support, the vaulting-surfaces were divided into long, narrow, triangles, the filling of which was comparatively easy (Fig. 129). The ridge was itself furnished with a straight rib, decorated with carved rosettes or bosses at each intersection with a vaulting-rib. The naves and choirs of Lincoln, Lichfield, Exeter, and the nave of Westminster illustrate this method. The logical corollary of this practice was the introduction of minor ribs called liernes, connecting the main ribs and forming complex reticulated and star-shaped patterns. Vaults of this description are among the most beautiful in England. One of the richest is in the choir of Gloucester (1337-1377). Less correct constructively is that over the choir of Wells, while the choir of Ely, the nave of Tewkesbury Abbey (Fig. 130), and all the vaulting of Winchester as rebuilt by William of Wykeham (1390), illustrate the same system. Such vaults are called lierne or star vaults.



FAN-VAULTING. The next step in the process may be observed in the vaults of the choir of Oxford Cathedral (Christ Church), of the retro-choir of Peterborough, of the cloisters of Gloucester, and many other examples. The diverging ribs being made of uniform curvature, the severeys (the inverted pyramidal vaulting-masses springing from each support) became a species of concave conoids, meeting at the ridge in such a way as to leave a series of flat lozenge-shaped spaces at the summit of the vault (Fig. 136). The ribs were multiplied indefinitely, and losing thus in individual and structural importance became a mere decorative pattern of tracery on the severeys. To conceal the awkward flat lozenges at the ridge, elaborate panelling was resorted to; or, in some cases, long stone pendents were inserted at those points—adevice highly decorative but wholly unconstructive. At Cambridge, in King's College Chapel, at Windsor, in St. George's Chapel, and in the Chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster, this sort of vaulting received its most elaborate development. The fan-vault, as it is called, illustrates the logical evolution of a decorative element from a structural starting—point, leading to results far removed from the original conception. Rich and sumptuous as are these ceilings, they are with all their ornament less satisfactory than the ribbed vaults of the preceding period.



CHAPTER-HOUSES. One of the most beautiful forms of ribbed vaulting was developed in the polygonal halls erected for the deliberations of the cathedral chapters of Lincoln (1225), Westminster (1250), Salisbury (1250), and Wells (1292), in which the vault-ribs radiated from a central column to the sides and angles of the polygon (Fig. 131). If these vaults were less majestic than domes of the same diameter, they were far more decorative and picturesque, while the chapter-houses themselves were the most original and striking products of English Gothic art. 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. To the four above-mentioned examples should be added that of York (1280-1330), which differs from them in having no central column: by some critics it is esteemed the finest of them all. Its ceiling is a Gothic dome, 57 feet in diameter, but unfortunately executed in wood. Its geometrical window-tracery and richly canopied stalls are admirable.

OCTAGON AT ELY. The magnificent Octagon of Ely Cathedral, at the intersection of the nave and transepts, belongs in the same category with these polygonal chapter-house vaults. It was built by Alan of Walsingham in 1337, after the fall of the central tower and the destruction of the adjacent bays of the choir. It occupies the full width of the three aisles, and covers the ample space thus enclosed with a simple but beautiful groined and ribbed vault of wood reaching to a central octagonal lantern, which rises much higher and shows externally as well as internally. Unfortunately, this vault is of wood, and would require important modifications of detail if carried out in stone. But it is so noble in general design and total effect, that one wonders the type was not universally adopted for the crossing in all cathedrals, until one observes that no cathedral of importance was built after Walsingham's time, nor did any other central towers opportunely fall to the ground.

WINDOWS AND TRACERY. In the Early English Period (1200-1280 or 1300) the windows were tall and narrow (lancet windows), and generally grouped by twos and threes, though sometimes four and even five are seen together (as the "Five Sisters" in the N. transept of York). In the nave of Salisbury and the retro-choir of Ely the side aisles are lighted by coupled windows and the clearstory by triple windows, the central one higher than the others—asurviving Norman practice. Plate-tracery was, as in France, an intermediate step leading to the development of bar-tracery (see Fig. 110). The English followed here the same reasoning as the French. At first the openings constituted the design, the intervening stonework being of secondary importance. Later the forms of the openings were subordinated to the pattern of the stone framework of bars, arches, circles, and cusps. Bar-tracery of this description prevailed in England through the greater part of the Decorated Period (1280-1380), and somewhat resembled the contemporary French geometric tracery, though more varied and less rigidly constructive in design. An early example of this tracery occurs in the cloisters of Salisbury (Fig. 132); others in the clearstories of the choirs of Lichfield, Lincoln, and Ely, the nave of York, and the chapter-houses mentioned above, where, indeed, it seems to have received its earliest development. After the middle of the fourteenth century lines of double curvature were introduced, producing what is called flowing tracery, somewhat resembling the French flamboyant, though earlier in date (Fig. 111). Examples of this style are found in Wells, in the side aisles and triforium of the choir of Ely, and in the S. transept rose-window of Lincoln.





THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. Flowing tracery was, however, atransitional phase of design, and was soon superseded by Perpendicular tracery, in which the mullions were carried through to the top of the arch and intersected by horizontal transoms. This formed a very rigid and mechanically correct system of stone framing, but lacked the grace and charm of the two preceding periods. The earliest examples are seen in the work of Edington and of Wykeham in the reconstructed cathedral of Winchester (1360-1394), where the tracery was thus made to harmonize with the accentuated and multiplied vertical lines of the interior design. It was at this late date that the English seem first to have fully appropriated the Gothic ideas of emphasized vertical elements and wall surfaces reduced to a minimum. The development of fan-vaulting had led to the adoption of a new form of arch, the four-centred or Tudor arch (Fig. 133), to fit under the depressed apex of the vault. The whole design internally and externally was thenceforward controlled by the form of the vaulting and of the openings. The windows were made of enormous size, especially at the east end of the choir, which was square in nearly all English churches, and in the west windows over the entrance. These windows had already reached, in the Decorated Period, an enormous size, as at York; in the Perpendicular Period the two ends of the church were as nearly as possible converted into walls of glass. The East Window of Gloucester reaches the prodigious dimensions of 38 by 72 feet. The most complete examples of the Perpendicular tracery and of the style in general are the three chapels already mentioned (p.223); those, namely, of King's College at Cambridge, of St. George at Windsor, and of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey.

CONSTRUCTIVE DESIGN. The most striking peculiarity of English Gothic design was its studious avoidance of temerity or venturesomeness in construction. Both the height and width of the nave were kept within very moderate bounds, and the supports were never reduced to extreme slenderness. While much impressiveness of effect was undoubtedly lost thereby, there was some gain in freedom of design, and there was less obtrusion of constructive elements in the exterior composition. The flying-buttress became a feature of minor importance where the clearstory was kept low, as in most English churches. In many cases the flying arches were hidden under the aisle roofs. The English cathedrals and larger churches are long and low, depending for effect mainly upon the projecting masses of their transepts, the imposing square central towers which commonly crown the crossing, and the grouping of the main structure with chapter-houses, cloisters, and Lady-chapels.

FRONTS. The sides and east ends were, in most cases, more successful than the west fronts. In these the English displayed a singular indifference or lack of creative power. They produced nothing to rival the majestic faades of Notre Dame, Amiens, or Reims, and their portals are almost ridiculously small. The front of York Cathedral is the most notable in the list for its size and elaborate decoration. Those of Lincoln and Peterborough are, however, more interesting in the picturesqueness and singularity of their composition. The first-named forms a vast arcaded screen, masking the bases of the two western towers, and pierced by three huge Norman arches, retained from the original faade. The west front of Peterborough is likewise a mask or screen, mainly composed of three colossal recessed arches, whose vast scale completely dwarfs the little porches which give admittance to the church. Salisbury has a curiously illogical and ineffective faade. Those of Lichfield and Wells are, on the other hand, imposing and beautiful designs, the first with its twin spires and rich arcading (Fig. 134), the second with its unusual wealth of figure-sculpture, and massive square towers.



CENTRAL TOWERS. These are the most successful features of English exterior design. Most of them form lanterns internally over the crossing, giving to that point a considerable increase of dignity. Externally they are usually massive and lofty square towers, and having been for the most part completed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they are marked by great richness and elegance of detail. Durham, York, Ely, Canterbury, Lincoln, and Gloucester maybe mentioned as notable examples of such square towers; that of Canterbury is the finest. Two or three have lofty spires over the lantern. Among these, that of Salisbury is chief, rising 424 feet from the ground, admirably designed in every detail. It was not completed till the middle of the fourteenth century, but most fortunately carries out with great felicity the spirit of the earlier style in which it was begun. Lichfield and Chichester have somewhat similar central spires, but less happy in proportion and detail than the beautiful Salisbury example.



INTERIOR DESIGN. In the Norman churches the pier-arches, triforium, and clearstory were practically equal. In the Gothic churches the pier-arches generally occupy the lower half of the height, the upper half being divided nearly equally between the triforium and clearstory, as in Lincoln, Lichfield (nave), Ely (choir). In some cases, however (as at Salisbury, Westminster, Winchester, choir of Lichfield), the clearstory is magnified at the expense of the triforium (Fig. 135). Three peculiarities of design sharply distinguish the English treatment of these features from the French. The first is the multiplicity of fine mouldings in the pier-arches; the second is the decorative elaboration of design in the triforium; the third, the variety in the treatment of the clearstory. In general the English interiors are much more ornate than the French. Black Purbeck marble is frequently used for the shafts clustered around the central core of the pier, giving a striking and somewhat singular effect of contrasted color. The rich vaulting, the highly decorated triforium, the moulded pier-arches, and at the end of the vista the great east window, produce an impression very different from the more simple and lofty stateliness of the French cathedrals. The great length and lowness of the English interiors combine with this decorative richness to give the impression of repose and grace, rather than of majesty and power. This tendency reached its highest expression in the Perpendicular churches and chapels, in which every surface was covered with minute panelling.

CARVING. In the Early English Period the details were carved with a combined delicacy and vigor deserving of the highest praise. In the capitals and corbels, crockets and finials, the foliage was crisp and fine, curling into convex masses and seeming to spring from the surface which it decorated. Mouldings were frequently ornamented with foliage of this character in the hollows, and another ornament, the dog-tooth or pyramid, often served the same purpose, introducing repeated points of light into the shadows of the mouldings. These were fine and complex, deep hollows alternating with round mouldings (bowtels) sometimes made pear-shaped in section by a fillet on one side. Cusping—the decoration of an arch or circle by triangular projections on its inner edge—was introduced during this period, and became an important decorative resource, especially in tracery design. In the Decorated Period the foliage was less crisp; sea-weed and oak-leaves, closely and confusedly bunched, were used in the capitals, while crockets were larger, double-curved, with leaves swelling into convexities like oak-galls. Geometrical and flowing tracery were developed, and the mouldings of the tracery-bars, as of other features, lost somewhat in vigor and sharpness. The ball-flower or button replaced the dog's-tooth, and the hollows were less frequently adorned with foliage.

In the Perpendicular Period nearly all flat surfaces were panelled in designs resembling the tracery of the windows. The capitals were less important than those of the preceding periods, and the mouldings weaker and less effective. The Tudor rose appears as an ornament in square panels and on flat surfaces; and moulded battlements, which first appeared in Decorated work, now become a frequent crowning motive in place of a cornice. There is less originality and variety in the ornament, but a great increase in its amount (Fig. 136).



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.



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. Aconsiderable 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 buttresses 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-buttresses.



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 noble and beautiful works as quite to justify the substitution of wooden for vaulted ceilings (Fig. 138). The hammer-beam truss was in its way as highly scientific, and sthetically 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 repetition 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 medival 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 medival 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, illustrate 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 class 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 class, 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; CanterburyC., choir, 1175-84 (nave, 1378-1411; central tower, 1500); LincolnC., choir, trans., 1192-1200 (vault, 1250; nave and E. end, 1260-80); LichfieldC., 1200-50 (W. front, 1275; presbytery, 1325); WorcesterC., choir, 1203-18, nave partly Norman (W. end, 1375-95); ChichesterC., 1204-44 (spire rebuilt 17th century); FountainsA., 1205-46; SalisburyC., 1220-58 (cloister, chapter-h., 1263-84; spire, 1331); ElginC., 1224-44; WellsC., 1175-1206 (W. front 1225, choir later, chapter-h., 1292); RochesterC., 1225-39 (nave Norman); YorkC., 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); RiponC., 1233-94 (central tower, 1459); ElyC., choir, 1229-54 (nave Norman; octagon and presbytery, 1323-62); PeterboroughC., W. front, 1237 (nave Norman; retro-choir, late 14th century); NetleyA., 1239 (r.); DurhamC., "Nine Altars" and E. end choir, 1235-90 (nave, choir, Norman; W. window, 1341; central tower finished, 1480); GlasgowC., (with remarkable Early English crypt), 1242-77; GloucesterC., nave vaulted, 1239-42 (nave mainly Norman; choir, 1337-51; cloisters, 1375-1412; W. end, 1420-37; central tower, 1450-57); WestminsterA., 1245-69; St. Mary's A., York, 1272-92 (r.).

DECORATED: Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 1274-1300; HerefordC., N. trans., chapter-h., cloisters, vaulting, 1275-92 (nave, choir, Norman); ExeterC., choir, trans., 1279-91; nave, 1331-50 (E. end remodelled, 1390); LichfieldC., Lady-chapel, 1310; ElyC., Lady-chapel, 1321-49; MelroseA., 1327-99 (nave, 1500; r.); St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, 1349-64 (demolished); Edington church, 1352-61; CarlisleC., E. end and upper parts, 1352-95 (nave in part and S. trans. Norman; tower finished, 1419); WinchesterC., W. end remodelled, 1360-66 (nave and aisles, 1394-1410; trans., partly Norman); YorkC., Lady-chapel, 1362-72; churches of Patrington and Hull, late 14th century.

PERPENDICULAR: Holy Cross Church, Canterbury, 1380; St. Mary's, Warwick, 1381-91; ManchesterC., 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; GloucesterC., Lady-chapel, 1457-98; St. Mary's, Stratford-on-Avon, 1465-91; NorwichC., upper part and E. end of choir, 1472-99 (the rest mainly Norman); St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 1481-1508; choir vaulted, 1507-20; BathA., 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 Baudenkmler Niedersachsens. Kallenbach, Chronologie der deutschen mittelalterlichen Baukunst. Lbke, Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages. Redtenbacher, Leitfaden zum Studium der mittelalterlichen Baukunst. Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain. Uhde, Baudenkmler 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 massive. 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, aspirit 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 medival 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, atenacious hold of Romanesque methods is observable in many German Gothic monuments. Broad wall-surfaces with small windows and a general massiveness 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.



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 buttresses were no longer required. The whole design appeared internally more spacious, 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.



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 substituted 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 faade, 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, Lbeck, Prague and Zwettl, in St. Francis at Salzburg and some other churches. Side chapels to nave or choir appear in the cathedrals of Lbeck, 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. Atypical 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).





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 Mnster and Osnabrck, 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 faade, 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).



More peculiarly German are the brick churches of North Germany, where stone was almost wholly lacking. In these, flat walls, square towers, and decoration by colored tiles and bricks are characteristic, as at Brandenburg (St. Godehard and St. Catherine, 1346-1400), at Prentzlau, Tngermnde, Knigsberg, &c. Lbeck possesses notable monuments of brick architecture in the churches of St. Mary and St. Catherine, both much alike in plan and in the flat and barren simplicity of their exteriors. St. Martin's at Landshut in the South is also a notable brick church.

LATE GOTHIC. As in France and England, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were mainly occupied with the completion of existing churches, many of which, up to that time, were still without naves. The works of this period show the exaggerated attenuation of detail already alluded to, though their richness and elegance sometimes atone for their mechanical character. The complicated ribbed vaults of this period are among its most striking features (see p.239). Spire-building was as general as was the erection of central square towers in England, during the same period. To this time also belong the overloaded traceries and minute detail of the St. Sebald and St. Lorenz churches and of several secular buildings at Nuremberg, the faade of Chemnitz Cathedral, and similar works. The nave and tower of St. Stephen at Vienna (1359-1433), the church of Sta. Maria in Gestade in the same city, and the cathedral of Kaschau in Hungary, are Austrian masterpieces of late Gothic design.

SECULAR BUILDINGS. Germany possesses a number of important examples of secular Gothic work, chiefly municipal buildings (gates and town halls) and castles. The first completely Gothic castle or palace was not built until 1280, at Marienburg (Prussia), and was completed a century later. It consists of two courts, the earlier of the two forming a closed square and containing the chapel and chapter-house of the Order of the German knights. The later and larger court is less regular, its chief feature being the Great Hall of the Order, in two aisles. All the vaulting is of the richest multiple-ribbed type. Other castles are at Marienwerder, Heilsberg (1350) in E.Prussia, Karlstein in Bohemia (1347), and the Albrechtsburg at Meissen in Saxony (1471-83).

Among town halls, most of which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries may be mentioned those of Ratisbon (Regensburg), Mnster and Hildesheim, Halberstadt, Brunswick, Lbeck, and Bremen—the last two of brick. These, and the city gates, such as the Spahlenthor at Basle (Switzerland) and others at Lbeck and Wismar, are generally very picturesque edifices. Many fine guildhalls were also built during the last two centuries of the Gothic style; and dwelling-houses of the same period, of quaint and effective design, with stepped or traceried gables, lofty roofs, openwork balconies and corner turrets, are to be found in many cities. Nuremberg is especially rich in these.

THE NETHERLANDS, as might be expected from their position, underwent the influences of both France and Germany. During the thirteenth century, largely through the intimate monastic relations between Tournay and Noyon, the French influence became paramount in what is now Belgium, while Holland remained more strongly German in style. Of the two countries Belgium developed by far the most interesting architecture. Some of its cathedrals, notably those of Tournay, Antwerp, Brussels, Malines (Mechlin), Mons and Louvain, rank high among structures of their class, both in scale and in artistic treatment. The Flemish town halls and guildhalls merit particular attention for their size and richness, exemplifying in a worthy manner the wealth, prosperity, and independence of the weavers and merchants of Antwerp, Ypres, Ghent (Gand), Louvain, and other cities in the fifteenth century.

CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES. The earliest purely Gothic edifice in Belgium was the choir of Ste. Gudule (1225) at Brussels, followed in 1242 by the choir and transepts of Tournay, designed with pointed vaults, side chapels, and a complete chevet. The transept-ends are round, as at Noyon. It was surpassed in splendor by the Cathedral of Antwerp (1352-1422), remarkable for its seven-aisled nave and narrow transepts. It covers some 70,000 square feet, but its great size is not as effective internally as it should be, owing to the poverty of the details and the lack of finely felt proportion in the various parts. The late west front (1422-1518) displays the florid taste of the wealthy Flemish burgher population of that period, but is so rich and elegant, especially its lofty and slender north spire, that its over-decoration is pardonable. The cathedral of St. Rombaut at Malines (choir, 1366; nave, 1454-64) is a more satisfactory church, though smaller and with its western towers incomplete. The cathedral of Louvain belongs to the same period (1373-1433). St. Wandru at Mons (1450-1528) and St. Jacques at Lige (1522-58) are interesting parish churches of the first rank, remarkable especially for the use of color in their internal decoration, for their late tracery and ribbed vaulting, and for the absence of Renaissance details at that late period.



TOWN HALLS: GUILDHALLS. These were really the most characteristic Flemish edifices, and are in most cases the most conspicuous monuments of their respective cities. The Cloth Hall of Ypres (1304) is the earliest and most imposing among them; similar halls were built not much later at Bruges, Louvain, Malines and Ghent. The town halls were mostly of later date, the earliest being that of Bruges (1377). The town halls of Brussels with its imposing and graceful tower, of Louvain (1448-63; Fig. 144) and of Oudenrde (early 16th century) are conspicuous monuments of this class.

In general, the Gothic architecture of Belgium presents the traits of a borrowed style, which did not undergo at the hands of its borrowers any radically novel or fundamental development. The structural design is usually lacking in vigor and organic significance, but the details are often graceful and well designed, especially on the exterior. The tendency was often towards over-elaboration, particularly in the later works.

The Gothic architecture of Holland and of the Scandinavian countries offers so little that is highly artistic or inspiring in character, that space cannot well be given in this work, even to an enumeration of its chief monuments.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. The beginnings of Gothic architecture in Spain followed close on the series of campaigns from 1217 to 1252, which began the overthrow of the Moorish dominion. With the resulting spirit of exultation and the wealth accruing from booty, came a rapid development of architecture, mainly under French influence. Gothic architecture was at this date, under St. Louis, producing in France some of its noblest works. The great cathedrals of Toledo and Burgos, begun between 1220 and 1230, were the earliest purely Gothic churches in Spain. San Vincente at Avila and the Old Cathedral at Salamanca, of somewhat earlier date, present a mixture of round- and pointed-arched forms, with the Romanesque elements predominant. Toledo Cathedral, planned in imitation of Notre Dame and Bourges, but exceeding them in width, covers 75,000 square feet, and thus ranks among the largest of European cathedrals. Internally it is well proportioned and well detailed, recalling the early French masterworks, but its exterior is less commendable.



In the contemporary cathedral of Burgos the exterior is at least as interesting as the interior. The west front, of German design, suggests Cologne by its twin openwork spires (Fig. 145); while the crossing is embellished with a sumptuous dome and lantern or cimborio, added as late as 1567. The chapels at the east end, especially that of the Condestabile (1487), are ornate to the point of overloading, afault to which late Spanish Gothic work is peculiarly prone. Other thirteenth-century cathedrals are those of Leon (1260), Valencia (1262), and Barcelona (1298), all exhibiting strongly the French influence in the plan, vaulting, and vertical proportions. The models of Bourges and Paris with their wide naves, lateral chapels and semicircular chevets were followed in the cathedral of Barcelona, in a number of fourteenth-century churches both there and elsewhere, and in the sixteenth-century cathedral of Segovia. In Sta. Maria del Pi at Barcelona, in the collegiate church at Manresa, and in the imposing nave of the Cathedral of Gerona (1416, added to choir of 1312, the latter by a Southern French architect, Henri de Narbonne), the influence of Alby in southern France (see p.206) is discernible. These are one-aisled churches with internal buttresses separating the lateral chapels. The nave of Gerona is 73 feet wide, or double the average clear width of French or English cathedral naves. The resulting effect is not commensurate with the actual dimensions, and shows the inappropriateness of Gothic details for compositions so Roman in breadth and simplicity.

SEVILLE. The largest single edifice in Spain, and the largest church built during the Middle Ages in Europe, is the Cathedral of Seville, begun in 1401 on the site of a Moorish mosque. It covers 124,000 square feet, measuring 415 298 feet, and is a simple rectangle comprising five aisles with lateral chapels. The central aisle is 56 ft. wide and 145 high; the side aisles and chapels diminish gradually in height, and with the uniform piers in six rows produce an imposing effect, in spite of the lack of transepts or chevet. The somewhat similar New Cathedral of Salamanca (1510-1560) shows the last struggles of the Gothic style against the incoming tide of the Renaissance.

LATER MONUMENTS. These all partake of the over-decoration which characterized the fifteenth century throughout Europe. In Spain this decoration was even less constructive in character, and more purely fanciful and arbitrary, than in the northern lands; but this very rejection of all constructive pretense gives it a peculiar charm and goes far to excuse its extravagance (Fig. 146). Decorative vaulting-ribs were made to describe geometric patterns of great elegance. Some of the late Gothic vaults by the very exuberance of imagination shown in their designs, almost disarm criticism. Instead of suppressing the walls as far as possible, and emphasizing all the vertical lines, as was done in France and England, the later Gothic architects of Spain delighted in broad wall-surfaces and multiplied horizontal lines. Upon these surfaces they lavished carving without restraint and without any organic relation to the structure of the building. The arcades of cloisters and interior courts (patios) were formed with arches of fantastic curves resting on twisted columns; and internal chapels in the cathedrals were covered with minute carving of exquisite workmanship, but wholly irrational design. Probably the influence of Moorish decorative art accounts in part for these extravagances. The eastern chapels in Burgos cathedral, the votive church of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo and many portals of churches, convents and hospitals illustrate these tendencies.



PORTUGAL is an almost unknown land architecturally. It seems to have adopted the Gothic styles very late in its history. Two monuments, however, are conspicuous, the convent churches of Batalha (1390-1520) and Belem, both marked by an extreme overloading of carved ornament. The Mausoleum of King Manoel in the rear of the church at Batalha is, however, anoble creation, possibly by an English master. It is a polygonal domed edifice, some 67 feet in diameter, and well designed, though covered with a too profuse and somewhat mechanical decoration of panels, pinnacles, and carving.

MONUMENTS: GERMANY (C= cathedral; A= abbey; tr. = transepts).—13th century: Transitional churches: BambergC.; NaumburgC.; Collegiate Church, Fritzlar; St. George, Limburg-on-Lahn; St. Castor, Coblentz; HeisterbachA.;—all in early years of 13th century. St. Gereon, Cologne, choir 1212-27; Liebfrauenkirche, Treves, 1227-44; St. Elizabeth, Marburg, 1235-83; Sts. Peter and Paul, Neuweiler, 1250; CologneC., choir 1248-1322 (nave 14th century; towers finished 1883); StrasburgC., 1250-75 (E. end Romanesque; faade 1277-1365; tower 1429-39); HalberstadtC., nave 1250 (choir 1327; completed 1490); AltenburgC., choir 1255-65 (finished 1379); Wimpfen-im-Thal church 1259-78; St. Lawrence, Nuremberg, 1260 (choir 1439-77); St. Catherine, Oppenheim, 1262-1317 (choir 1439); Xanten, Collegiate Church, 1263; FreiburgC., 1270 (W. tower 1300; choir 1354); ToulC., 1272; MeissenC., choir 1274 (nave 1312-42); RatisbonC., 1275; St. Mary's, Lbeck, 1276; Dominican churches at Coblentz, Gebweiler; and in Switzerland at Basle, Berne, and Zurich.—14th century: Wiesenkirche, Sst, 1313; OsnabrckC., 1318 (choir 1420); St. Mary's, Prentzlau, 1325; AugsburgC., 1321-1431; MetzC., 1330 rebuilt (choir 1486); St. Stephen's C., Vienna, 1340 (nave 15th century; tower 1433); ZwetteC., 1343; PragueC., 1344; church at Thann, 1351 (tower finished 16th century); Liebfrauenkirche, Nuremberg, 1355-61; St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg, 1361-77 (nave Romanesque); MindenC., choir 1361; UlmC., 1377 (choir 1449; nave vaulted 1471; finished 16th century); Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg, 1386 (nave 1483); ErfurtC.; St. Elizabeth, Kaschau; SchlettstadtC.—15th century: St. Catherine's, Brandenburg, 1401; Frauenkirche, Esslingen, 1406 (finished 1522); Minster at Berne, 1421; Peter-Paulskirche, Grlitz, 1423-97; St. Mary's, Stendal, 1447; Frauenkirche, Munich, 1468-88; St. Martin's, Landshut, 1473.

SECULAR MONUMENTS. Schloss Marienburg, 1341; Moldau-bridge and tower, Prague, 1344; Karlsteinburg, 1348-57; Albrechtsburg, Meissen, 1471-83; Nassau House, Nuremberg, 1350; Council houses (Rathhaser) at Brunswick, 1393; Cologne, 1407-15; Basle; Breslau; Lbeck; Mnster; Prague; Ulm; City Gates of Basle, Cologne, Ingolstadt, Lucerne.

THE NETHERLANDS. BrusselsC. (Ste. Gudule), 1226-80; TournaiC., choir 1242 (nave finished 1380); Notre Dame, Bruges, 1239-97; Notre Dame, Tongres, 1240; UtrechtC., 1251; St. Martin, Ypres, 1254; Notre Dame, Dinant, 1255; church at Dordrecht; church at Aerschot, 1337; AntwerpC., 1352-1411 (W. front 1422-1518); St. Rombaut, Malines, 1355-66 (nave 1456-64); St. Wandru, Mons, 1450-1528; St. Lawrence, Rotterdam, 1472; other 15th century churches—St. Bavon, Haarlem; St. Catherine, Utrecht; St. Walpurgis, Sutphen; St. Bavon, Ghent (tower 1461); St. Jaques, Antwerp; St. Pierre, Louvain; St. Jacques, Bruges; churches at Arnheim, Breda, Delft; St. Jacques, Lige, 1522.—SECULAR: Cloth-hall, Ypres, 1200-1304; cloth-hall, Bruges, 1284; town hall, Bruges, 1377; town hall, Brussels, 1401-55; town hall, Louvain, 1448-63; town hall, Ghent, 1481; town hall, Oudenarde, 1527; Standehuis, Delft, 1528; cloth-halls at Louvain, Ghent, Malines.

SPAIN.—13th century: Burgos C., 1221 (faade 1442-56; chapels 1487; cimborio 1567); ToledoC., 1227-90 (chapels 14th and 15th centuries); TarragonaC., 1235; LeonC., 1250 (faade 14th century); ValenciaC., 1262 (N. transept 1350-1404; faade 1381-1418); AvilaC., vault and N. portal 1292-1353 (finished 14th century); St. Esteban, Burgos; church at Las Huelgas.—14th century: BarcelonaC., choir 1298-1329 (nave and transepts 1448; faade 16th century); GeronaC., 1312-46 (nave added 1416); S.M. del Mar, Barcelona, 1328-83; S.M. del Pino, Barcelona, same date; Collegiate Church, Manresa, 1328; OviedoC., 1388 (tower very late); PamplunaC., 1397 (mainly 15th century).—15th century: SevilleC., 1403 (finished 16th century; cimborio 1517-67); La Seo, Saragossa (finished 1505); S.Pablo, Burgos, 1415-35; El Parral, Segovia, 1459; AstorgaC., 1471; San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, 1476; Carthusian church, Miraflores, 1488; San Juan, and La Merced, Burgos.—16th century: HuescaC., 1515; Salamanca New Cathedral, 1510-60; SegoviaC., 1522; S.Juan de la Puerta, Zamorra.

SECULAR.—Porta Serraos, Valencia, 1349; Casa Consistorial, Barcelona, 1369-78; Casa de la Disputacion, same city; Casa de las Lonjas, Valencia, 1482.

PORTUGAL. At Batalha, church and mausoleum of King Manoel, finished 1515; at Belem, monastery, late Gothic.



CHAPTER XIX.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED; As before, Corroyer, Reber. Also, Cummings, AHistory of Architecture in Italy. De Fleury, La Toscane au moyen ge. Gruner, The Terra Cotta Architecture of Northern Italy. Mothes, Die Baukunst des Mittelalters in Italien. Norton, Historical Studies of Church Building in the Middle Ages. Osten, Bauwerke der Lombardei. Street, Brick and Marble Architecture of Italy. Willis, Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially of Italy.

GENERAL CHARACTER. The various Romanesque styles which had grown up in Italy before 1200 lacked that unity of principle out of which alone a new and homogeneous national style could have been evolved. Each province practised its own style and methods of building, long after the Romanesque had given place to the Gothic in Western Europe. The Italians were better decorators than builders, and cared little for Gothic structural principles. Mosaic and carving, sumptuous altars and tombs, veneerings and inlays of colored marble, broad flat surfaces to be covered with painting and ornament—to secure these they were content to build crudely, to tie their insufficiently buttressed vaults with unsightly iron tie-rods, and to make their church faades mere screen-walls, in form wholly unrelated to the buildings behind them.

When, therefore, under foreign influences pointed arches, tracery, clustered shafts, crockets and finials came into use, it was merely as an imported fashion. Even when foreign architects (usually Germans) were employed, the composition, and in large measure the details, were still Italian and provincial. The church of St. Francis at Assisi (1228-53, by Jacobus of Meruan, aGerman, superseded later by an Italian, Campello), and the cathedral of Milan (begun 1389, perhaps by Henry of Gmund), are conspicuous illustrations of this. Rome built basilicas all through the Middle Ages. Tuscany continued to prefer flat walls veneered with marble to the broken surfaces and deep buttresses of France and Germany. Venice developed a Gothic style of faade-design wholly her own (see p.267). Nowhere but in Italy could two such utterly diverse structures as the Certosa at Pavia and the cathedral at Milan have been erected at the same time.

CLIMATE AND TRADITION. Two further causes militated against the domestication of Gothic art in Italy. The first was the brilliant atmosphere, which made the vast traceried windows of Gothic design, and its suppression of the wall-surfaces, wholly undesirable. Cool, dim interiors, thick walls, small windows and the exclusion of sunlight, all necessary to Italian comfort, were incompatible with Gothic ideals and methods. The second obstacle was the persistence of classic traditions of form, both in construction and decoration. The spaciousness and breadth of interior planning which characterized Roman design, and its amplitude of scale in every feature, seem never to have lost their hold on the Italians. The narrow lofty aisles, multiplied supports and minute detail of the Gothic style were repugnant to the classic predilections of the Italian builders. The Roman acanthus and Corinthian capital were constantly imitated in their Gothic buildings, and the round arch continued all through the Middle Ages to be used in conjunction with the pointed arch (Figs. 149, 150).

EARLY BUILDINGS. It is hard to determine how and by whom Gothic forms were first introduced into Italy, but it was most probably through the agency of the monastic orders. Cistercian churches like that at Chiaravalle near Milan (1208-21), and most of those erected by the mendicant orders of the Franciscans (founded 1210) and Dominicans (1216), were built with ribbed vaults and pointed arches. The example set by these orders contributed greatly to the general adoption of the foreign style. S.Francesco at Assisi, already mentioned, was the first completely Gothic Franciscan church, although S.Francesco at Bologna, begun a few years later, was finished a little earlier. The Dominican church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo and the great Franciscan church of Sta. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, both at Venice, were built a little later. Sta. Maria Novella at Florence (1278), and Sta. Maria sopra Minerva at Rome (1280), both by the brothers Sisto and Ristoro, and S.Anastasia at Verona (1261) are the masterpieces of the Dominican builders. S.Andrea at Vercelli in North Italy, begun in 1219 under a foreign architect, is an isolated early example of lay Gothic work. Though somewhat English in its plan, and (unlike most Italian churches) provided with two western spires in the English manner, it is in all other respects thoroughly Italian in aspect. The church at Asti, begun in 1229, suggests German models by its high side walls and narrow windows.



CATHEDRALS. The greatest monuments of Italian Gothic design are the cathedrals, in which, even more than was the case in France, the highly developed civic pride of the municipalities expressed itself. Chief among these half civic, half religious monuments are the cathedrals of Sienna (begun in 1243), Arezzo (1278), Orvieto (1290), Florence (the Duomo, Sta. Maria del Fiore, begun 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio), Lucca (S.Martino, 1350), Milan (1389-1418), and S.Petronio at Bologna (1390). They are all of imposing size; Milan is the largest of all Gothic cathedrals except Seville. S.Petronio was planned to be 600 feet long, the present structure with its three broad aisles and flanking chapels being merely the nave of the intended edifice. The Duomo at Florence (Fig. 147) is 500 feet long and covers 82,000 square feet, while the octagon at the crossing is 143 feet in diameter. The effect of these colossal dimensions is, however, as in a number of these large Italian interiors, singularly belittled by the bareness of the walls, by the great size of the constituent parts of the composition, and by the lack of architectural subdivisions and multiplied detail to serve as a scale by which to gauge the scale of the ensemble.