Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/76

60 60 POINTED STYLE IN GERMANY. Part II. by comparison with the building in which they are performed. Were a regiment of Life Guards on horseback to ride down the central aisle at Cologne, they would be converted into pigmies by the 140 ft. of lieight above them. Lateral spaciousness has not the same dwarfing effect ; when all are standinsj; on the same floor, distance does not dimin- ish in a building more than in the 02Jen air, and with that effect we are familiar, but great height in a room is unusual, and in proportion as it affects the mind with awe or astonishment does it diminish the appeai" ance of those objects with which we are familiar. Perhaps, however, the most striking defect of the internal design is the want of repose or subordination of parts : 50 pillars practically identical in desifjn, and spaced nearly equally over the floor, and beyond them everywhere a wall of glass. If the four central piers had been wider spaced, or of double the section they now are, or had there been any plain w-all or any lateral chapels anywhere, it would have been better. Notwdth- standing all these defects, it is a glorious temple ; but so mathemati- cally perfect, that not one little corner is left for poetry, and it is consequently felt to be infinitely less interesting than many buildings of far less 2:)retensions. Externally the proportions are as mistaken, if not more so than those of the interior ; the mass and enormous height of the western towers — actually greater, according to the design, th;in the whole length of the building; if they are ever completed, will give to the whole cathedral a look of shortness, which nothing can redeem. With such a ground-plan a true architect would liave reduced their mass one-half, and their height by one-third at least. Besides its great size, the cathedral of Cologne has the advantage of having been designed at exactly the best age, while, as before remarked, the cathedrals of Rheims and Paris were a little too early, St. Ouen's too late. The choir of Cologne, which we have seen to be of almost identical dimensions with that of Amiens, excels its P"'rench rival internally by its glazed triforium, the exquisite tracery of the windows, the general beauty of the details, and a sliglitly better proportion between the height of the aisles and clerestory. But this advantage is lost exter- nally by the forest of exaggerated pinnacles which crowd round the upper part of the building, not only in singular discord with the plain- ness of the lower story, but hiding and confusing the perspective of the clerestory, in a manner as objectionable in a constructive point of view as it is to the eye of an artist. Decorated construction is, no doubt, the great secret of true architecture ; but like other good things, this may be overdone. One-half of the abutting means here employed might have been dispensed with, and the other half disposed so simply as to do the work without the confusion produced. When we turn to the interior to see Avhat the vault is, which this mass of abutments is provided to support, we find it with all the defects of French vaulting — ■