Chapter XVII: Act 1898: the official principal of the archbishop is required to (6)

When we come to the developed Romanesque of the end of the 11th
century, we find not only several French varieties, but strong schools
in Lombardy and on the Rhine. Without distinguishing too minutely,
four broad types representing schools of the east and west, north and
south (or rather north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west) of
France, may be spoken of, and all of these were engaged in the task of
completely covering with vaults large churches of basilican plan--the
typical problem of this period. In the east of France we have a school
represented by the monastic church of Tournus, where the nave was
vaulted by a series of compartments placed transversely to the axis of
the church. This church, which has a plan of the type of St Martin's
at Tours, was begun in 1019, but the nave vaults were not reached
until after 1066. This style of vaulting persisted in Burgundy, and
from thence it spread to Fountains Abbey in England, where it is found
over the aisles. The most beautiful class of buildings in eastern
France is that of which the church at Issoire is the most perfect
example. The external walls are here ornamented with patterns
countercharged in light and dark stone. The wonderful church at Le Puy
also belongs to this group, but here strong Moorish influence is to be
traced. The inlays were probably derived from a late Gallo-Roman
source. Countercharging of stones of two colours was a favourite
method of building in Romanesque churches erected between 1100 and
1150. We find it at Vezelay, a magnificent abbey church of Burgundy,
at Le Mans cathedral, and as far north-west as Exeter and Worcester.
In the west (south-west) the most prominent school was that of
Perigord, of which the church of St Front, Perigueux, may be taken as
the example. St Front was rebuilt after a fire in 1120, but there are
many earlier specimens, two of the most important being at Angouleme
(1105-1128) and Fontevrault. This school applied a series of domes of
eastern fashion not only at the centre but over the whole extent of
the church. St Front so closely resembles St Mark's, Venice, that it
must be derived from it or from some similar eastern church. The
method largely influenced the Angevin school of vaulting, but it does
not seem to have been effective as a protection from the weather. Some
examples were covered by external roofs, as was St Front itself at a
late time. St Ours at Loches, originally a small church covered by
domes, had spire-like pyramids substituted for them when the church
was enlarged about 1168.

The third class of vaulting we may for symmetry's sake associate with
the south, though it is found widely distributed. The chapel in the
Tower of London is an example, and its true centre seems to be the
Auvergne. The vaults of this type run along with the axis of the space
to be covered. In the case of large churches the central span is
frequently supported by quadrant vaults leaning against it on either
side. One of the most noble churches in which the central span is
covered by such a barrel vault is that of St Savin near Poitiers,
where very much has been preserved of the complete series of paintings
which once adorned it and the walls beneath.

The most characteristic buildings of the south are the churches of
Moissac, St Trophime at Aries, St Gilles near Nimes and St James of
Compostella, where there is much sculpture of a Lombardic type. There
was a great revival of sculpture, going together with a study of the
antique, in Lombardy at the end of the 11th century. Wiligelmus, who
later worked at San Zeno, Verona, signed some sculptures at Modena in
1099.

Of the schools of the north, Normandy took the lead. It was
adventurous, if somewhat barbaric. It derived much from Germany and
gave much to the Gothic style. About the middle of the 11th century
the Normans began to experiment with cross-groined vaults and their
application to the church problem. This from the first contained an
important possibility of future development, in that it allowed of
windows of considerable height being placed in the lunettes of these
vaults. Soon a very great step in advance was made by the invention or
application of diagonal ribs under the intersection of the plain
groined vault. This association of strengthening ribs in a cross form
to each bay of the structure forms the _ogive_, the characteristic
form from which the alternative name to Gothic, "ogival," has been
derived. The first instance we know of the use of this system is at
Durham cathedral, where the aisles of the east end were so covered
about 1093, and where the high vault erected about 1104 was almost
certainly of the same kind. Another outcome of the genius of Norman
builders seems to have been the donjon or keep type of castle.

The word "Gothic" was applied by Italian writers of the Renaissance to buildings later than Roman, which in some cases (e.g. Theodoric's works at Ravenna) might be properly so named. What we now call Gothic the same writers called Modern. Later the word came to mean the art which filled the whole interval between the Roman period and the Renaissance, and then last of all, when the Byzantine and Romanesque forms of art were defined, Gothic became the art which intervened between the Romanesque era and the Renaissance.

As remarked above, Gothic architecture is to a large extent the crown of Romanesque. It is agreed that its chief element of construction was the ogival vaulting which was being widely used by Romanesque builders in the first half of the 12th century; and pointed arches appeared as early.

The eminent architect, G.E. Street, writing[3] of what we have called the standard plan of great 12th-century churches, says, "In whatever way the early _chevets_ (as the French term them) grew up there is no doubt that they contain the germ of the magnificent _chevets_ in the complete Gothic churches of the north of France." Architecture of the middle ages having been continuously developed, it is necessarily somewhat arbitrary to mark off any given period; all are agreed, however, that about the year 1150 there was a time of rapid change towards a slenderer and more energetic type of building, and the forms which followed for about four centuries we now call Gothic. The special character which the architecture of this period took was partially conditioned by the fact that the expanding power of the French kingdom, with its centre at Paris, was situated in a particular artistic environment. The body of ideas on which it for the most part worked was furnished by the Romanesque art of north France, the German borderland and Burgundy. A great contributory cause was the immense monastic activity of the time, and the need of accomplishing large results with limited means resulted in a casting aside of old ornamental commonplaces and in innovations of planning and structure. This was especially the case with the Cistercian order, which carried certain transitional Gothic forms of building into England, Germany, Italy and Spain. If, however, we make the transition to Gothic date from the first use of "ogival" vaults in north-west Europe, then Durham cathedral is, so far as we now know, the earliest example of the transitional style. The next step, the appearance of Gothic itself, may best be held to date from the systematic but not exclusive use of pointed arches in association with ogival vaults about the middle of the 12th century.

At this time was waged a war of domination amongst the styles, a war which resulted not necessarily in the victory of the most beautiful nor even of the strongest, but one in which political and geographical considerations had much to do with the decision. When the French kingdom took the lead in western civilization, it was settled that a northern form of art, one which had perforce to make a chief element of the window, should be followed out. The consequent development of the window is, after all, as the first observers thought, the great mark of the mature style. As to the position of France in the movement, Mr Street may again be quoted:--"When once the Gothic style was well established, the zeal with which the work of building was pursued in France was almost incredibly great. A series of churches exists there within short distances of each other, so superb in all their features that it is impossible to contest their superiority to any corresponding group of buildings. The old Domaine Royale is that in which French art is seen in its perfection. Notre Dame, Paris, is a monument second to nothing in the world; but for completeness in all its parts it would be better to cite the cathedral of Chartres, a short description of which must suffice as an explanation of what French art at its zenith was. The plan has a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles on each side, a choir with two aisles all round it, and chapels beyond them. There are two immense steeples at the west end, two towers to each transept and two towers at the junction of the choir with its apse. The doorways are triple at the west end, whilst to each transept is a vast triple porch in front of the three doorways. The whole of these doorways are covered with sculpture, much of it refined, spirited and interesting in the highest degree. You enter and find the interior surpassing even the exterior. The order of the columns and arches, and of all the details, is so noble and simple that no fault can be found with it. The whole is admirably executed; and, finally, every window throughout its vast interior is full of the richest glass coeval with the fabric. As compared with English churches of the same class, there are striking differences. The French architects aimed at greater height, greater size, but much less effect of length. Their roofs were so lofty that it was almost impossible for them to build steeples which should have the sort of effect that ours have. The turret on Amiens cathedral is nearly as lofty as Salisbury spire, but is only a turret; and so throughout. Few French churches afford the exquisite complete views of the exterior which English churches do; but, on the other hand, their interiors are more majestic, and man feels himself smaller and more insignificant in them than in ours. The palm must certainly be given to them above all others. There is no country richer in examples of architecture than France. The student who wishes to understand what it was possible for a country to do in the way of creating monuments of its grandeur, would find in almost every part of the country, at every turn and in great profusion, works of the rarest interest and beauty. The 19th century may be the consummation of all, but the evidences of its existence to posterity will not be one-tenth in number of those which such a reign as that of Philip Augustus has left us, whilst none of them will come up to the high standard which in his time was invariably reached."

The remarks which have been made as to the variation in style visible in various parts of the same country, apply with more force, perhaps, in what we now call France than to any other part of Europe. For the purposes of complete study it would be necessary to keep distinct from each other in the mind the following important divisions:--(1) Provence and Auvergne; (2) Aquitaine; (3) Burgundy; (4) Anjou and Poitou, (5) Brittany; (6) Normandy; (7) the Ile-de-France and Picardy; (8) Champagne; and, finally, (9) the eastern border-land (neither quite German nor quite French in its character), the meeting-point of the two very different developments of French and German art. Speaking generally, it is safe to say that Gothic architecture was never brought to its highest perfection in any portion of the south of France. Aquitaine, Auvergne and Provence were too wedded to classic traditions to excel in an art which seems to have required for its perfection no sort of looking back to such a past. Hence there is no Gothic work in the south for which it is possible to feel the same admiration and enthusiasm as must be felt by every artist in presence of the great works of the north. In Anjou this is less the case; but even there the art is extremely inferior to that which is seen in Normandy and the Ile-de-France. Brittany may be dismissed from consideration, as being, like Cornwall, so provincial and so cut off from neighbours, that its art could not fail to be very local, and without much influence outside its own borders.

There are examples of true Gothic outside its proper habitat, almost pure French works being found as far south as Laon and Burgos, as far east as Strassburg and Lausanne and as far north as Canterbury and Cologne. Westminister Abbey was profoundly influenced by direct study of French work. Normandy, Burgundy, and the land as far north as Tournay seem to have shared in the work of transition; but the Gothic area proper is the Ile-de-France with Picardy and Champagne, then Burgundy, Normandy and England.

Four remarkable buildings best represent the early phase of the Gothic
style, the abbey church of St Denis, and the cathedrals of Noyon,
Senlis and Sens. The first was begun in 1137, and the choir was
consecrated in 1143. The few parts of this work which remain are
sufficient to show how stately and yet fresh the whole work must have
been. Noyon cathedral, begun after a fire which occurred in 1131, had
its choir consecrated in 1157. The cathedral of Senlis was begun in
1155. Sens cathedral, begun about the same time, or even earlier, is
the first of the great cathedrals. Many other buildings belong to the
first years of the style; such are the abbey churches of St Remi at
Reims, Notre Dame at Chalons and St Germain-des-Pres, Paris. The choir
of this last was consecrated in 1163, and in the same year Notre Dame,
Paris, was begun. This mighty building, although very complete, was
altered as to its effect by the substitution, early in the 13th
century, of large two-light windows for the earlier lancets of the
clerestory. The sculptures of the west front are exquisite. Laon
cathedral, another of the great churches, is of about the same age as
Notre Dame. It also has beautiful sculpture in its western porches,
but its most marked characteristic is the group of six great and
romantic towers which flank the fronts to the west, the north and the
south. In the 13th century, the church was extended to the east and
the original _chevet_ was destroyed. From the evidence furnished by
fine double-staged chapels to the transepts, it is most probable that
three similar chapels were set about the ambulatory of the apse, the
upper chapels opening from the fine vaulted triforium. Such an
arrangement existed at the noble church of Valenciennes, now
destroyed, but well recorded. At the end of the 12th century Chartres
cathedral was begun, perhaps its most notable constructive feature
being the high development that the flying buttresses have here
attained. It was followed in the early years of the 13th century by
Rouen cathedral, which derived much from its prototype. St Omer, a
fine early church, in turn, followed Rouen.

The second stage of Gothic, introducing the traceried window, was
opened by the building of the cathedral of Reims, begun in 1211. This
is in every way one of the most perfect of cathedrals, as well for its
sculpture and glass as for its structure. Reims was followed by the
still greater cathedral at Amiens (fig. 40), which was begun in 1220
at the west front, so that the superb sculpture (Plate II., fig. 64)
of the porches is earlier than that of Reims. Beauvais cathedral was
begun in 1247 on a still vaster scale, and with an ambition that
o'erleaped itself. Auxerre cathedral, and the very beautiful
collegiate churches of St Quentin and Semur, also followed Reims. Two
other cathedrals of the first rank which must be mentioned are those
of Bourges and Le Mans, each of these having double aisles about the
apse, with a large clerestory to the inner one of the two, above which
rises the great clerestory. This scheme is one of the great feats of
Gothic construction. Le Mans again furnished the most highly developed
form of _chevet_ planning (fig. 41). On this point Mr Street may again
be cited. "It was in the planning of the apse, with its surrounding
aisles and chapels, that all their ingenuity and science were
displayed. A simple apse is easy enough of construction, but directly
it is surrounded by an aisle or aisles, with chapels again beyond
them, the difficulties are great. The bays of the circular aisle,
instead of being square, are very much wider on one side than the
other, and it is most difficult to fit the vaulting to the unequal
space. In order to get over this, various plans were tried. At Notre
Dame, Paris, the vaulting bays were all triangular on plan, so that
the points of support might be twice as many on the outside line of
the circle as on the inside. But this was rather an unsightly
contrivance, and was not often repeated, though at Bourges there is
something of the same sort. At Le Mans the aisle vaulting bays are
alternately triangular and square; and this is, perhaps, the best
arrangement of all, as the latter are true and square, and none of the
lines of the vault are twisted or distorted in the slightest degree.
The arrangement of the chapels round the apse was equally varied.
Usually they are too crowded in effect; and, perhaps, the most
beautiful plan is that of Rouen cathedral, where there are only three
chapels with unoccupied bays between, affording much greater relief
and variety of lighting than the commoner plan which provided a chapel
to every bay. The planning and design of the _chevet_ is the great
glory of the French medieval school. When the same thing was
attempted, as at Westminster, or by the Germans at Cologne, it was
evidently a copy, and usually an inferior copy, of French work. No
English works led up to Westminster Abbey, and no German works to the
cathedral at Cologne."

The variety in the planning of the _chevets_ must be remarked. There
might be only one chapel opening from the semicircular ambulatory, as
at Langres, Sens, Auxerre, Bayeux and Lausanne. Canterbury cathedral,
designed by William of Sens, is perhaps the most perfect example.
There were three separated chapels, as at Rouen, St Omer, Semur, &c.,
or there might be five filling the whole space, which became the
general later scheme. Chartres furnishes an intermediate plan, in
having the alternate chapels much shallower than the others. The
chapels might be circular or polygonal or alternately square and
round. Of the last the cathedral of Toledo is a wonderful example. The
plan with parallel apses also continued in use, as at the beautiful
abbey church at Dijon and St Urbain at Troyes. Apsidal transepts were
built at Noyon, Soissons and Valenciennes.

Another stage of development was reached with the building of the
Sainte Chapelle in Paris, begun in 1244. With this work the Gothic
system reached complete maturity. Here for the first time large
traceried windows seem to have been perfected, and, moreover, the
structure was so organized into a series of wide window spaces, only
divided by strong far-projecting buttress piers, that the stained
glass ideal found full expression and the building became a lantern
for its display.

During the next half-century the influence of the Sainte Chapelle is
to be traced everywhere, and its system of construction was developed
to the furthest possible point in St Urbain at Troyes, begun in 1260.
Exploration of the Gothic theory of structure could be carried no
further. From this point the style turned in on itself, becoming more
unreasonably intricate, artificial and mannerized. One of the finest
examples of the style of the early 14th century is the eastern limb of
St Ouen, Rouen; Troyes cathedral is also an important example of later
work. As Mr Street says: "Later French architecture ran a very similar
course to that in England. The 13th century was that in which it was
seen at its best. In the 14th the same sort of change took place as
elsewhere; and art was beautiful, but it was too much an evidence of
skilfulness and adroitness. It was harder and colder also than English
work of the same age; and when it fell, it did so before the inroads
of a taste for what has been called Flamboyant architecture,--a gay
and meretricious style which trusted to ornament for all its effect,
and, in spite of many beauties, had none of the sturdy magnificence of
much of our English Perpendicular style."

M. Enlart has recently accepted the view that the germs of flamboyancy
in the later French Gothic are to be found in the flowing curvilinear
forms of early 14th-century work in England.

Up to the middle of the 16th century, magnificent works in the
national style were still being executed. St Vulfran at Abbeville, St
Maclou in Rouen, and the facade of the cathedral of Rouen, may be
mentioned; some of the last works were the immense transepts of
Beauvais cathedral and the facade of Tours.

We have necessarily spoken most of churches, but the palaces, castles
and civic buildings form another great class hardly less interesting.
The castles of Coucy and Chateau Gaillard may rival any cathedral.
Among civic buildings may be mentioned the palais de justice at Rouen
and the hotel de ville at Compiegne, both late but beautiful and
impressive types. The royal palace of Paris is now represented by the
Sainte Chapelle, but accounts of its splendid hall and general
arrangements have been preserved. At Poitiers is still extant the hall
of the palace of the counts of Poitou; at Laon the episcopal palace is
almost entire; there are considerable remains of the bishops' palaces
of Beauvais, Evreux, Rouen, Reims: and the pope's palace at Avignon
must also be mentioned in this connexion. The most perfect existing
great houses of the middle ages are those of Jacques Coeur at Bourges
and of the abbot of Cluny in Paris. A large number of fine houses on a
small scale, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, are still
preserved at Beauvais, Auxerre, Chartres, Cordes, &c. The house of the
musicians at Reims, c. 1280, is adorned by a series of seated
life-sized figures playing instruments, in sculpture of a very high
order. A good and concise account of the smaller houses in France is
given in Hudson Turner's _Some Account of Domestic Architecture_, and
in C. Enlart's _Manuel d'archeologie_, the best and most recent survey
of the whole field of medieval antiquities in France. (W. R. L.)

ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN

What strikes the architectural student most forcibly in Spain is the concurrent existence of two schools of art during the best part of the middle ages. The Moors invaded Spain in 711, and were not finally expelled from Granada until 1492. During the whole of this period they were engaged, with more or less success, in contests for superiority with the Christian natives. In those portions of the country which they held longest, and with the firmest hand, they enforced their own customs and taste in art almost to the exclusion of all other work. Where their rule was not permanent their artistic influence was still felt, and even beyond what were ever the boundaries of their dominion, there are still to be seen in Gothic buildings some traces of acquaintance with Arabic art not seen elsewhere in Europe, with the exception, perhaps, of the southern part of the Italian peninsula, and there differing much in its development. The mosque of Cordova in the 9th century, the Alcazar and Giralda at Seville in the 13th, the Court of Lions in the Alhambra in the 14th, several houses in Toledo in the 15th century, are examples of what the Moors were building during the period of the middle ages in which the best Gothic buildings were being erected. Some portions of Spain were never conquered by the Moors. These were the greater part of Aragon, Navarre, Asturias, Biscay and the northern portion of Galicia. Toledo was retaken by the Christians in 1085, Tarragona in 1089, Saragossa in 1118, Lerida in 1149, Valencia in 1238 and Seville in 1248. In the districts occupied by the Moors Gothic architecture had no natural growth, whilst even in those which were not held by them the arts of war were of necessity so much more thought of than those of peace, that the services of foreign architects were made use of to an extent unequalled in any other part of Europe.

Of early Christian buildings erected from the 9th to the 11th century
remains of some twenty to thirty are known, and there are probably
others which will be found when the communications in the country
become more extended. The most interesting of these is Santa Maria de
Naranco near Oviedo, originally built in 848 as part of a palace. It
consisted of a rectangular hall, 42 ft. long and 16 ft. wide, with
entrance doorways in the centre of each side, and at each end an
arcade of three arches, carried on piers and coupled columns, which
led to an open loggia from which the hall was lighted. Fifty to sixty
years later it was converted into a church by blocking up the end of
the east loggia. The church is remarkable for its barrel vault, built
in fine masonry, and for the knowledge that is displayed in meeting
its thrust. Internally, in order to lessen the span, the upper part of
the walls is brought forward and carried on a series of arches on each
side, which are supported on piers consisting of four coupled columns,
virtually constituting an interior abutment. Externally, the thrust is
met by buttresses, features not found in France until about a century
and a half later. All the columns are spiral-fluted, and a
twisted-cord torus-moulding decorates the capitals and other features
in the church. The transverse ribs of the hall, which are of slight
projection, are carried on broad bands with disks in the spandrils of
the arches, the disks having badges in the centre, and being bordered,
as well as the bands, with twisted cords. Underneath the church is a
spacious vaulted crypt, which was built as a cellar or basement
storey, to raise and give more importance to the palace. The twisted
cord seems to have been a favourite device in all the early churches,
and is extensively employed in the decoration of San Miguel de Lino, a
small church about a quarter of a mile from Santa Maria de Naranco and
coeval with that church. Externally the church of San Miguel has all
the character of a Byzantine church; the windows in the front are
pierced with Moorish tracery, probably brought there by those
Christians who were flying to the sanctuaries of Asturias from the
incursions of the Moors. In another church, about 15 m. south of
Oviedo, Santa Christina de Leon, all the attached staffs are decorated
with spiral fluting. The choir is raised, and approached by steps on
either side through a screen of three arches, of the type known as
Transennae in the earlier Christian of Rome. Here, as in Santa Maria
de Naranco, the church is covered with a barrel vault with similar
constructive and decorative features. Externally the buttresses are in
great profusion, there being two to each bay. The screen, the pierced
marble slabs between the columns carrying it, and the decoration of
the capitals, all show Byzantine influence. Other early churches are
those of San Pablo del Campo (930) and San Pedro de las Puellas, both
in Barcelona, the fine church at the village of Priesca near
Villaviciosa (915), the monastery of Valdedios (893) and that of San
Salvador (1218), in which, notwithstanding its late date, there is a
distinct Moorish influence. This influence is also to be noticed in
the north of Spain, although it was never occupied by the Moors. Thus
in the earliest church known, at Banos de Cerrato near Palencia
(founded in 662, but restored in 711), there is a horse-shoe barrel
vault over the square apse. Again in San Miguel de Escalada (913) near
Leon, there are horse-shoe arches in the nave, and the three apses are
horse-shoe on plan. San Pedro at Zamora is a vaulted church with
horse-shoe arches in the nave, but otherwise Byzantine in style. In
the church of Corpus Christi at Segovia the nave is Moorish in style,
and the octagonal columns of the nave have capitals with fir cones, as
in the well-known Santa Maria la Blanra at Toledo, originally a
synagogue. The most remarkable church of all, so far as Moorish style
is concerned, is the church of the monastery of Santiago de Penalva,
near Villafranca del Vierzo, built between 931 and 951, and therefore
coeval with Cordova. The church is 40 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, covered
by a barrel vault with transverse horse-shoe arch in the centre
carrying the same. At each end is an apse with horse-shoe arches
carried on marble shafts with Byzantine capitals. Though of later
date, there is another interesting Romanesque example in the Templars'
church of La Vera Cruz at Segovia (1204), which is twelve-sided with
three apses, and in the centre has a chapel built in imitation of the
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

The buildings which come next in point of date are all evidently
derived from or erected by the architects of those which were at the
time being built in the south of France. These churches are uniform in
plan, with central lanterns and three eastern apses. The nave has
usually a waggon or barrel vault, supported by quadrant vaults in the
aisles, and the steeples are frequently polygonal in plan. If these
churches are compared with examples like that of the cathedral at
Carcassonne on the other side of the Pyrenees, their identity in style
will at once be seen. A still more remarkable evidence of similarity
has been pointed out between the church of St Sernin, Toulouse, and
the cathedral of Santiago. The plan, proportions and general design of
the two churches are identical. Here we see a noble ground-plan,
consisting of nave with aisles, transepts, central lantern and chevet,
consisting of an apsidal choir, with a surrounding aisle and chapels
opening into it at intervals. This example is the more remarkable,
inasmuch as the early Spanish architects very rarely built a regular
_chevel_, and almost always preferred the simpler plan of apsidal
chapels on either side of the choir. And its magnificent scale and
perfect preservation to the present day combine to make it one of the
most interesting architectural relics in the country.

Among the more remarkable buildings of the 12th and the beginning in
the 13th century are San Isidore, Leon; San Vicente, Avila; several
churches in Segovia; and the old cathedral at Lerida. They are much
more uniform in character than are the churches of the same period in
the various provinces of France, and the developments in style, where
they are seen at all, seldom have much appearance of being natural
local developments. This, indeed, is the most marked feature of
Spanish architecture in all periods of its history. In such a country
it might have been expected that many interesting local developments
would have been seen; but of these there are but one or two that
deserve notice. One of them is illustrated admirably in the church of
San Millan, Segovia, where beyond the aisles of the nave are open
cloisters or aisles arcaded on the outside, and opening by doors into
the aisles of the nave. A similar external south portico exists in San
Miguel de Escalada, already referred to, Santo Domingo, Burgos, and
San Esteban at Segovia. It would be difficult to devise a more
charming arrangement for buildings in a hot country, whilst at the
same time the architectural effect is in the highest degree beautiful.
The universality of the central tower and lantern has been already
mentioned. This was often polygonal, and its use led to the erection
of some lanterns or domes of almost unique beauty and interest. The
old cathedral at Salamanca, the church at Toro and the cathedral of
Zamora, all deserve most careful study on this score. Their lanterns
are almost too lofty in proportion to be properly called domes, and
yet their treatment inside and outside suggests a very beautiful form
of raised dome. They are carried on pointed arches, and are circular
in plan internally and octagonal on the exterior, the angles of the
octagon being filled with large turrets, which add much to the beauty
of the design, and greatly also to its strength. Between the
supporting arches and the vault there are, at Salamanca, two tiers of
arcades continued all round the lantern, the lower one pierced with
four, and the upper with twelve lights, and the vault or dome is
decorated with ribs radiating from the centre. On the exterior the
effect is rather that of a low steeple covered with a stone roof with
spherical sides than of a dome, but the design is so novel and so
suggestive, that it is well worth detailed description. Nothing can be
more happy than the way in which the light is admitted, whilst it is
also to be noted that the whole work is of stone, and that there is
nothing in the design but what is essentially permanent and monumental
in construction. The only other Spanish development is the
introduction, to a very moderate extent, of features derived from the
practice of the Moorish architects. This is, however, much less seen
than might have been expected, and is usually confined to some small
feature of detail, such, e.g. as the carving of a boss, or the filling
in of small tracery in circular windows, where it would in no way
clash with the generally Christian character of the art.

The debateable period of transition which is usually so interesting is
very sterile in Spain. A good model once adopted from the French was
adhered to with but little modification, and it was not till the
13th-century style was well established in France and England that any
introduction of its features is seen here; and then, again, it is the
work of foreign architects imported for the work and occasion,
bringing with them a fully developed style to which nothing whatever
in Spain itself led up by a natural or evident development. The three
great Spanish churches of this period are the cathedrals of Toledo,
Leon and Burgos (Plate II., fig. 65). Those of Siguenza, Lerida and
Tarragona, fine as they are, illustrate the art of the 12th rather
than of the 13th century, but these three great churches are perfect
Early Pointed works, and most complete in all their parts. The
cathedral of Toledo is one of the most nobly designed churches in
Europe. In dimensions it is surpassed only by the cathedrals of Milan
and Seville, whilst in beauty of plan it leaves both those great
churches far behind. The _chevet_, in which two broad aisles are
carried round the apse with chapels alternately square and apsidal
opening out of them, is perhaps the most perfect of all the schemes we
know. It is as if the French _chevets_, all of which were more or less
tentative in their plan, had culminated in this grand work to which
they had led the way. The architectural detail of this great church is
generally on a par with the beauty and grandeur of its plan, but is
perhaps surpassed by the somewhat later church at Leon. Here we have a
church built by architects whose sole idea was the erection of a
building with as few and small points of support as possible, and with
the largest possible amount of window opening. It was the work of men
whose art had been formed in a country where as much sun and light as
possible were necessary, and is quite unsuited for such a country as
Spain. Nevertheless it is a building of rare beauty and delicacy of
design. Burgos, better known than either of the others, is inferior in
scale and interest, and its character has been much altered by added
works more or less Rococo in character, so that it is only by analysis
and investigation that the 13th-century church is still seen under and
behind the more modern excrescences.

The next period is again marked by work which seems to be that of
foreigners. The fully developed Middle Pointed or Geometrical Gothic
is indeed very uniform all over Europe. Here, however, its efforts
were neither grand in scale nor interesting. Some of the church
furniture, as, e.g. the choir screens at Toledo, and some of the
cloisters, are among the best features. The work is all correct, tame
and academical, and has none of the dignity, power and interest which
marked the earlier Spanish buildings. Towards the end of the 14th
century the work of Spanish architects becomes infinitely more
interesting. The country was free from trouble with the Moors; it was
rich and prosperous, and certainly its buildings at this period were
so numerous, so grand and so original, that they cannot be too much
praised. Moreover, they were carefully designed to suit the
requirements of the climate, and also with a sole view to the
accommodation conveniently of enormous congregations, all within sight
of the preacher or the altar. This last development seems to have been
very much the work of a great architect of Majorca, Jayme Fabre by
name. The grandest works of his school are still to be seen in
Catalonia. Their churches are so vast in their dimensions that the
largest French and English buildings seem to be small by comparison,
and being invariably covered with stone vaults, they cannot be
compared to the great wooden-roofed churches of the preaching orders
in Italy and elsewhere, in which the only approach is made to their
magnificent dimensions. The cathedral of Gerona is the most remarkable
example. Here the choir is planned like the French _chevet_ with an
aisle and chapels round it, and opens with three lofty arches into the
east wall of a nave which measures no less than 73 ft. in the clear,
and is covered with a stone vaulted ceiling. In Barcelona there are
several churches of very similar description; at Manresa another, but
with aisles to its nave; and at Palma in Majorca one of the same plan
as the last, but of even much larger dimensions. Perhaps there is no
effort of any local school of architects more worthy of study and
respect than this Catalonian work of the 14th and 15th centuries. Such
a happy combination of noble design and proportions with entirely
practical objects places its author among the very greatest architects
of any time. It is one thing to develop patiently step by step from
the work of one's fathers in art, quite another to strike out an
entirely new form by a new combination of the old elements. In
comparison with the works just mentioned the other great Spanish
churches of the 15th century are uninteresting. But still their scale
is grand and though their detail is over-elaborated and not beautiful,
it is impossible to deny the superb effect of the interior of such
churches as those of Seville, Segovia and Salamanca (new cathedral).
They are very similar in their character, their columns are formed
by the prolongation of the reedy mouldings of the arches, their window
traceries are poorly designed, and their roofs are covered with a
complex multitude of lierne ribs. Yet the scale is fine, the admission
of light, generally high up and in sparing quantity, is artistic, and
much of the furniture is either picturesque or interesting. The _tout
ensemble_ is generally very striking, even where the architectural
purist is apt to grumble at the shortcomings of most of the detail.

FIG. 72.--DOOR OF SAN MICHELE, PAVIA.

_Photo, Alinari._

FIG. 73.--UNIVERSITY, SALAMANCA.

_Photo, Lacoste._

FIG. 74.--TOWN HALL, SEVILLE.

_Photo, Lacoste._]

FIG. 75.--BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL.

_Photo, F. Frith & Co._

FIG. 76.--WOLLATON HALL.

_Photo, F. Frith & Co._

FIG. 77.--HAMPTON COURT.

_Photo, Stuart._]

The remarks which have been made so far have been confined to the
fabrics of the churches of Spain. It would be easy to add largely to
them by reference to the furniture which still so often adorns them,
unaltered even if uncared for; to the monuments of the mighty dead; to
the sculpture which frequently adorns the doorways and screens; and to
the cloisters, chapter-houses and other dependent buildings, which add
so much charm in every way to them. Besides this, there are very
numerous castles, often planned on the grandest scale, and some, if
not very many, interesting remains of domestic houses and palaces; and
most of these, being to some extent flavoured by the neighbourhood of
Moorish architects, have more character of their own than has been
accorded to the churches. Finally, there are considerable tracts of
country in which brick was the only material used; and it is curious
that this is almost always more or less Moorish in the character of
its detail. The Moors were great brickmakers. Their elaborate
reticulated enrichments were easily executed in it, and the example
set by them was, of course, more likely to be followed by Spaniards
than that of the nearest French brick building district in the region
of Toulouse. The brick towers are often very picturesque; several are
to be seen at Toledo, others at Saragossa, and, perhaps the most
graceful of all, in the old city of Tarazona in Aragon, where the
proportions are extremely lofty, the face of the walls everywhere
adorned with sunk panels, arcading, or ornamental brickwork, and at
the base there is a bold battered slope which gives a great air of
strength and stability to the whole. On the whole, it must be
concluded that the medieval architecture of Spain from the 12th
century is of less interest than that of most other countries, because
its development was hardly ever a national one. The architects were
imported at one time from France, at another from the Low Countries,
and they brought with them all their own local fashions, and carried
them into execution in the strictest manner; and it was not till the
end of the 14th century, and even then only in Catalonia, that any
buildings which could be called really Spanish in their character were
erected. (R. P. S.)

ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND

_Pre-Conquest._--The history of English architecture before the Norman Conquest is still only imperfectly known. Its parentage is triple: Roman, Celtic and Teutonic. To the first belongs the general building tradition of the Romanized West, and the influence of the mission of Augustine at the end of the 6th century, and of such men as Wilfrid in the 7th. The Celtic element is due to the Scottish (Irish) church, which never gained much hold on the south of England, while the Teutonic influence shows itself in the later developments, which are allied to the early buildings of kindred peoples in Germany. Fragments of existing early churches have been attributed to the time of the Roman occupation, but all are doubtful, with the exception of the remains of what is believed to have been a Christian church excavated at Silchester in 1892. This was a basilica of ordinary form, comprising an apse with western orientation, nave and aisles, transepts of slight projection, and narthex. Augustine's cathedral church of Canterbury, which he had learned was originally constructed by the labours of Roman believers (Bede), was also a basilica with western apse; its eastern apse and _confessio_ beneath were probably a later addition. Remains of early churches are found on several sites where churches are recorded to have been built during the missionary period. Of these, Reculver (c. 670) and Brixworth (c. 680) have aisled naves and eastern apses. At Brixworth a square bay intervenes between the apse and the nave. St Pancras, Canterbury, of the time of Augustine, Rochester (604), and Lyminge (founded 633), show unaisled naves of relatively wide proportion, with eastern apses of stilted curve. In some of these churches there was a triple arcade in front of the sanctuary, in place of the usual "triumphal arch." The technique shows Roman influence, and Roman materials are largely used. The existing crypts of Hexham and Ripon were built by Wilfrid, c. 675. The description of Wilfrid's church at Hexham gives the impression of an elaborate structure (_columnis variis et porticibus multis suffultam_). Wilfrid also built at Hexham a church of central plan, with projections (_porticus_) on the four sides, a type of which no example has survived in England. Escomb (Durham) and parts of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, which are attributed to the same period, have plans of an entirely different type--a relatively long and narrow nave, with small square-ended chancel--a plan, usually attributed to Celtic influence, which is most extensively represented in churches recognized as Saxon.

The evolution of the characteristic features of pre-Conquest
architecture was slow, and was doubtless greatly hindered by the
invasions of the Northmen from the end of the 8th century onward, but
germs of the fully developed style are to be found in the earliest
buildings. The western tower, usually of tall and slender proportion,
was developed from the western porch found at St Pancras, Canterbury,
and Monkwearmouth; sometimes, as in the latter church, actually raised
over the older porch. The lateral chapels of St Pancras, which existed
also in the Saxon cathedral of Canterbury, were developed into a
transept, culminating in the cruciform plan with central tower. The
characteristic "long-and-short" work, which consists of tall upright
stones alternating with stones bedded flat bonding into the rubble
work of the wall, has its prototype in the western arch of the porch
of Monkwearmouth, and in the jambs of the chancel arch at Escomb.
Sometimes the flat stones are cut back on the face, so that the
plaster which covered the rubble extended up to the line of the
upright stones, thus giving the quoin the appearance of a narrow
pilaster. The repetition of these pilasters on the face of the walling
constitutes rib-work, and these ribs are frequently connected by
semicircular or so-called "triangular" arches, forming a land of rude
arcading (Earls Barton, Barton-on-Humber.) Windows in the earliest
Saxon work are generally wide in proportion, and splayed on the inside
only; in the later work they commonly have splays both on the inside
and outside. Doorways have square jambs, without splay or rebate;
sometimes the jambs of doorways and windows are inclined, as in early
buildings in Ireland. Imposts to doorways, tower arches or chancel
arches are often square projecting blocks, sometimes chamfered on the
lower edge. The mid-wall shaft is a characteristic feature in the
belfry openings of Saxon towers; it supports an impost or
through-stone, of the full thickness of the wall, which receives the
semicircular arches over the openings. The method is analogous to that
commonly found in northern Italy and the Rhineland. Sometimes the
mid-wall shaft is a baluster, turned in a lathe. In some of the later
belfry openings, a capital intervenes between the mid-wall shaft and
the impost. The dating of buildings of this style is at present a
matter of considerable difficulty, but certain points, such as the
development of the cruciform plan, are useful for comparison. A fully
developed cross church was built at Romsey in 969, having also a
single axial western tower, and this seems to have been the normal
type of a large church in the later years of the style. Cruciform
plans, not yet fully developed, are found at Deerhurst, Breamore and
St Mary in the castle at Dover, and fully developed at Norton (Durham)
and Stow (Lincolnshire). The most advanced detail which occurs in
pre-Conquest buildings is the recessing of arches in orders. But for
the Conquest, English architecture might have developed somewhat on
the lines of contemporary work in Germany. It must be remembered,
however, that, although the Norman Conquest marks the beginning of a
new epoch in English architecture, the Norman manner had already been
introduced into England under Edward the Confessor, as is proved by
the considerable remains of that king's work at Westminster Abbey.

The succeeding periods of English architecture have been divided into so-called "styles" or "periods," though it should be recognized that all such hard and fast divisions are purely artificial, and that, apart from the objection that they exaggerate the importance of mere details, they tend to obscure the fact that the history of Gothic architecture is a history of continuous development. The following classifications, those of Thomas Rickman and Edmund Sharpe, are in most general use for the present by such students as are not content with a nomenclature based on simple chronology:--

Rickman. Sharpe.
1066-1189 Norman. 1066-1145 Norman.
1145-1190 Transitional.
1189-1307 Early English. 1190-1245 Lancet.
1245-1315 Geometrical.
1307-1377 Decorated. 1315-1360 Curvilinear.
1377-1546 Perpendicular. 1360-1550 Rectilinear.

_Norman Conquest to c. 1150._--At the time of the Conquest of England, the Norman school was already one of the most advanced Romanesque schools of western Europe. Its marked individuality and logical character are clearly expressed in the abbey churches of Jumieges and St Etienne and Sainte-Trinite at Caen, and it quickly supplanted the less advanced Romanesque manner of the conquered English. As soon as the conqueror had made himself master in his new kingdom, cathedral and abbey churches were rebuilt on a scale hitherto unknown either in Normandy or England. As the effect of the Norman Conquest was to incorporate the church in England more closely with western Christendom, so its effect on architecture was to bring it into line with the best continental achievement of its time. The immense energy of the Norman bishops and abbots gave such a stimulus to architecture that by the close of the 11th century, England, rather than Normandy, had become the real _foyer_ of the Norman school.