96S 



NORMAN ARCHITECTURE. 



NORMAN ARCHITECTURE. 



966 



the architecture practised on that part of the Continent with -which 

 the Anglo-Saxon princes and priests were in most intimate communi- 

 cation : and the more important buildings at least were probably 

 executed under the direction or with the assistance of Norman archi- 

 tects. But as this style has received a specific name, and is usually 

 treated as a distinct style, it will be more convenient to defer our notice 

 of it to a separate heading. [SAXON ARCHITECTURE.] At the same 

 time, aa we said of the various styles of Pointed Gothic, it is important 

 to bear in mind that none of the styles of English architecture are 

 separated by sharply defined dividing lines. As each style of Pointed 

 Gothic grew out of a preceding style, and became gradually absorbed 

 in its successor, so did the Round-arched Anglo-Norman gradually 

 emerge from the rude Anglo-Saxon, and, after a vigorous independent 

 existence of a century's duration, quietly and by degrees make way for 

 or become developed into the Early English, or First Pointed Gothic. 



In considering Anglo-Norman architecture, it should be remembered 

 that there are few buildings remaining which ar in this style through- 

 out, though there are many which retain detached parts and features 

 belonging to and some which mainly consist of it, more or less inter- 

 mixed however with what is of later date and different in style. A 

 great deal of Norman work is to be met with in the older parts of 

 several of our cathedrals, and also in many smaller churches, such as 

 Barfreston in Kent; New Shoreharn, Sussex; Iffley, Oxfordshire; 

 Steetly, Derbyshire, &c., which, having remained comparatively un- 

 touched, exhibit, although upon a limited scale, more of the Norman 

 style and the peculiar mode of applying it than many larger edifices, 

 notwithstanding that these latter occasionally present decorative 

 features in this style which do not occur in buildings of a less pre- 

 tending character. The older parts of Canterbury, Durham, Winchester, 

 Gloucester, Peterborough, Ely, Norwich, Lincoln, and Oxford cathedrals 

 are in this style. The nave and choir of Norwich in particular (founded 

 in 1096), with the exception of pointed windows of later English 

 character inserted in the upper part of the choir, are almost entirely 

 Norman, of which they present a very fine example. Very little, 

 however, remains to show the style of exterior composition employed 

 by our Anglo-Norman architects in their larger edifices. The west 

 fronts of Rochester and Lincoln cathedrals are almost the only parts 

 that can be considered as specimens of Anglo-Norman architecture ; 

 yet each of them has many interpolations of other styles. The lower 

 part of the former is entirely Norman, and has a remarkably fine though 

 not very spacious centre doorway ; but the large window over that 

 entrance, in the Third Pointed or Perpendicular style, is so very pro- 

 minent a feature, as greatly to take away from the effect that would 

 else be produced by the other parts. The front of Lincoln presents 

 little more than a surface decorated by tiers of small columns and 

 arches of the kind known as arcades [ARCADES], which form so charac- 

 teristic a feature of Norman architecture. These arcades are frequently 



Arcades from the front of Lincoln Cathedral. 



carried in several tiers over each other to a considerable height, as in 

 the tower at St. Edmunds, Bury, and the S.W. wing of Ely cathedral. 

 Considerable variety is given to them by occasionally doubling the 

 columns and varying the capitals, and still more by causing the arches 

 to intersect, thereby bringing into strong relief the form of the pointed 

 arch ; though it is quite certain that this intersection did not, as some 

 writers have suggested, give rise to the pointed arch, since it was in 

 existence long before. [ARCH.] Wherever a superior degree of deco- 

 ration was aimed at, the Anglo-Norman builders seem to have con- 

 tented themselves with covering what would else have been blank 

 surfaces with these tiers of columns and arches. The two transept 

 towers of Exeter Cathedral, the front of Castle-Acre Priory, and of St. 

 Botolph's Priory, Colchester, present little more ; consequently, not- 

 withstanding the variety as to detail, there is a very great sameness as 

 to general composition and design. 



In the interior of buildings this style exhibits itself more decidedly, 



owing not only to the perspective effect of a succession of spacious open 



. aw in the Nave* of Norwich, Durham, Rochester, Chichester, 



Ely, and Peterborough cathedrals, but also to greater size and massive- 

 ness. Although such difference of character may at first appear some- 



Tower of Bury St. Edmunds. 



what incongruous, it being usual to find more minute and delicate 

 forms employed for the internal parts of a building, the reason for it is 

 evident ; the tiers of pillars and arches on the exterior of Noruian 

 structures are merely decorations of the surface, while the arches and 

 piers within are essential parts of the fabric. Instead of anything like 

 lightness, we here meet with extraordinary massiveness arising from 

 the immense bulk of the piers from which arches spring : which 

 character exhibits itself most strikingly when, as is the case with some 

 of those in the nave of Norwich cathedral, the piers are merely short 

 cylinders, with a kind of plain capital, and are not formed by shafts 

 attached to a central mass of masonry. In the building just mentioned 

 some piers of that description are ornamented on their surface by 

 spiral grooves or flutings ; and we may here remark that in that and 

 other examples both cylindrical and clustered piers occur, not only in 

 the same building, but in the very same part of it ; and that great 

 variety of detail and ornament is frequently observed in the mouldings 

 of arches, columns or piers and their capitals, though they are uniform 

 as to size, and compose a single range. Owing to the great diameter 

 required for the supports of larger arches below, the mere pillar-shape 

 was never employed for them, for although pillars of slender propor- 

 tions were introduced for such purpose, it was only as pier thofti, or 

 when the entire pier was made to consist apparently of a cluster of 

 slender pillars, as some of those in the nave at Durham. Slender 

 detached pillars are indeed of not infrequent occurrence, but it is only 

 to support small arches, as where a window is divided into or composed 

 of two or more such arches, or in the triforia and other gal'eries within 

 the building, where openings corresponding with the larger arches 

 below are divided after the same fashion, and therefore do not form a 

 continued arcade, but coupled or tripled arches at intervals, between 

 the main piers. Sometimes the larger arches below, instead of being 

 connected and resting upon the general capital of the pier, spring from 

 nook-shafts or slender attached pillars, within the re-entering angles of 

 the pier itself, the face of which wab either left as a plain space 

 dividing those pillars and the arches from the adjoining ones, or else 

 decorated with another shaft carried quite up to the springing of the 

 vaults, and therefore very appropriately distinguished by Whewell by 

 the term vaulting-shafts. The nave of Chichester, and the Abbaye aux 

 Homines at Caen, give a combination of both these modes. But 

 although attached pillars and shafts were almost uniformly of exceed- 

 ingly tall and slender proportions, we occasionally meet with pillars 

 short and stumpy and with bulky capitals, although the arches are 

 very narrow, and the pillars themselves in situations where more 

 delicate forms would have been sufficient. Of single columns 

 approaching to the proportions of ancient Roman columns, like those 

 which are found in the Romanesque buildings of Italy, Anglo-Norman 

 structures afford no true examples. The only instances are in Semi- 



