396 STYLE IX ARCHITECTURE. 



style from St. Soi^hia. which was ])uilt in Constantinople 6f>0 

 years before by Justinian, a Roman Emperor. 



Gothic. 



When the western Gothic nations awoke from the dark ai^es 

 they first looked to the Eastern Roman Empire for architec- 

 tural models. Charlemai^ne. in building" his church at Aix la 

 Chapelle. made, we know, a direct copy of the circular church 

 of St. Vitale, at Ravenna, which was built by the late Roman 

 Emperor Tlieodoric. 



There are early domed churches in certain districts in the 

 w'est of P^rance, where, we may conjecture, the Roman skill 

 survived the Gothic invasion, and it may be there existed g'ood 

 natural cements in the district. But elsewhere, whether on 

 account of ignorance, absence of good cement, or the wetter 

 climate — domes being difficult to roof externally — this feature 

 of the eastern or Byzantine churches disappeared from the 

 architecture of western Christendom. The vault, and not the 

 dome, became the distinctive feature of the style. 



Without the skill and the good concrete of the Romans, it 

 became difficult to build vaults to cover large spans. It is 

 probable that many attempts to vault spans of over 20 feet 

 ended in disaster. In our English Xorman churches vaulting 

 remains over the narrow side aisles, but seldom, if ever, for 

 the W'ider naves. 



Then, once again in the history of Architecture, to surmount 

 the difficulty the men and the occasion rose. On the banks of 

 the Seine, at the outburst of enthusiasm which accompanied 

 the Crusades, the small French nation — as it then was — in- 

 vented the method of diagonal ribs, which made it possible to 

 vault wide spaces in stone without the use of superior concrete. 

 The invention moreover enabled the w-eights and thrusts to be 

 concentrated on the thin piers and flying buttresses, by which 

 device larger windows became possible than wer,e ever dreamed 

 of by the Romans, but which were necessary for the admission 

 of sunlight into the buildings of the colder northern climates 

 of I'rance and England. Thus, by a natural process of evolu- 

 tion from the concrete buildings of Rome, in two or three 

 generations after the discovery of the stone groining rib, 

 churches in the style of Chartres. Notre Dame. Westminster 

 Abbev. and Salisbury sprang up to glorify every town and 

 village of north-western Europe. 



The need of the northern peoples for the admission of sun- 

 light into their buildings was thus made possible of attainment 

 by this invention of stone vaulting". It has been said that 



" the progress of architecture was at this time a struggle between darkness 

 and Ught, till the Architects of Ste. Chapelle in Paris, in the pride of concjuest 

 built of hght itself." 



In the Apse of Beauvais. Intilt shortly after Ste. Chapelle, 

 the stonework is reduced to a mininumi. 



Thus again the need (in this case for warmth) made the style. 

 Though the Gothic is the lineal descendant of the Roman, it 

 now bears little resemblance to its parent. Instead of massive 



