GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



317 



from that of the NonnariH. W have already Been 

 licit another school existed in Provence ; and in 

 \.|iiii:iiii- , Aiivergm, and Poitou Htill further 

 varieties i Itomancsqiie were developed. 



K>-t \\-een these province^ lav the royal domain. 

 <\\in^ to tin- weak Htate of the kingdom, archil'-'- 

 tun- h;ul hitherto made little progress in tin- Isle of 

 \lxnit the Iteginning of the l'2th century 

 tin- monarchy revived, and for the next two cen- 

 t uiie^ the royal domain was governed by wise and 

 |io\verful monarch*, who succeeded in re-establishing 

 the royal supremacy. A new impulse was thus 

 given to the literature and arts of the country, by 

 which architecture profited largely. From the state 

 >f ruin into which the kingdom had fallen, there 

 were scarcely any churches existing worthy of the 

 new state of things. Novel and great designs were 

 lonued : hitherto almost all the important churches 

 of France belonged to the abbeys; now, under the 

 royal patronage, cathedrals began to be built. 

 Tin- bishops, envious of the power of the monks, 

 lent their powerful aid, and tne whole of the laity, 

 especially in the towns which were now emancipat- 

 ing themselves and forming independent communes, 

 joined heartily in the work. With such a universal 

 impulse, no wonder that architecture took a great 

 stride and new forms were introduced. It is to 

 this period and people that we owe the earliest 

 development of the pointed Gothic style. 



We nave already seen at Vezelay how nearly the 

 Burgundian monks had approached to Gothic. To 

 complete the development it only required the 

 -i'le walls and vaulting of the nave to be raised, so 

 M to admit of windows over the roofs of the side- 

 galleries ; and the flying buttresses to be raised 

 with them, so as to receive the thrust of the vault 

 the latter being constructed with pointed groin 

 ribs, and the side and transverse arches carried to 

 the height of the groins. The lay architects of 

 the royal domain soon accomplished this step, and 

 the new style sprung up and progressed with the 

 most astonishing rapidity. 



The earliest example we have of the fully 

 developed Gothic style is the cathedral of St 

 Denis, in which are deposited the remains of the 

 kings of France. It was founded by the Abbe 

 r in 1144. The cathedral of Notre Dame of 

 I 'HI is soon followed, and almost contemporary with 

 it arose the magnificent cathedrals of Chartres, 

 Klieims, Amiens, Beauvais, Bourges, and a host of 

 other-.. 



Another cause which tended much to hasten the 

 progress of the style was the invention about the 

 time of painted glass (see GLASS, PAINTED). 

 The Romanesque architects had been in the habit of 

 decorating their churches with frescoes and other 

 paintings ; but this new mode of introducing the 

 most brilliant colours into their designs was at once 

 seized upon by the northern architects. The small 

 round-arched windows, which were still in many 

 instances retained long after the pointed arch had 

 become usual in the vaulting, no longer sufficed 

 when tilled with stained glass to light the churches. 

 They were therefore enlarged, two or even three were 

 thrown into one, divided only by mullions : this 

 compound window was again increased until the 

 compartment of the clerestory became almost wholly 

 absorbed. The architects were then forced to 

 conform the arches of their windows to the pointed 

 outline of the side-arches of the vaulting. This 

 I. --ire. for more and more space for stained glass 

 was the origin of the window-tracery which forms 

 so beautiful a feature of the style. It is the 

 last attenuated remains of the wall space of the 

 clerestory, which was at last entirely absorbed. 



Fig. 8, from Notre Dame, Paris, is a good illustra- 

 tion of the mode of progress of French Gothic. 

 The left-hand portion of the elevation shows the 



kind of fenratration adopted. The Hen-story win- 

 dows are small ; ami, in order to admit more light, 

 the windows and vault of the gallery are kept very 

 high. This was the original design ; but during 

 the construction of the cathedral the importance of 

 stained glass had become HO great that the design 

 was altered so as to give larger windows in tne 

 clerestory for its display, as shown on the right- 

 hand portion of the elevation. The gallery i at 

 the same time reduced to a mere tnforium with 

 very small windows, and the aisle windows are 

 greatly enlarged. The upper or clerestory window 

 also shows the simple early form of tracery ; that 

 in the aisle window being later and more advanced. 



Fig- 8. 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 9 shows two bays from Tournay Cathedral, 

 and is a good specimen of the mode in which the 

 whole space of the side-walls was made available 

 for window-tracery and stained glass. 



The further history of Gothic architecture in 

 France is simply the enthusiastic following out, to 

 their furthest limits, and in the most logical and 

 artistic manner, of the principles above indicated, 

 on which the early architects had unconsciously 

 been working when they originated the style. So 

 long as the Gothic architects worked on these 

 principles they advanced and improved their archi- 

 tecture. When, however, the style had become 

 fully developed and matured (about 1300 A.D.) 

 the spirit of progress died. No new features were 

 developed. The architects seemed to think that 

 in its main elements their style was complete, and 

 contented themselves with continuing the tradi- 

 tional style of their forerunners, and pushing to 

 their extremest limits the principles handed down 

 to them. They became proud of their scientific 

 knowledge, and of the accuracy with which they 

 could calculate and provide for the thrusts of the 

 different arches, and the artistic element became 

 subordinate to the engineering. The height of the 

 cathedrals was extended till, at Beauvais, it ex- 

 ceeded the power of the architects to prop up the 

 vaulting. The system of buttresses and pinnacles 

 was developed with the utmost skill, till at last tin- 

 original simplicity and repose of the designs were 

 lost, and the exteriors presented a scientific^mt con- 

 fused system of scaffolding and prom>ing-up in stone 

 (see BUTTRESS). The simple ana teautiful forms 

 of the early tracery became altered into all manner 

 of flowing curves, graceful but unmeaning, in 

 the Flamboyant period (q.v.); and, in short, the 

 art became lost in mere cleverness of design and 



