Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/126

Rh among such combinations hardly any are more admirable than those which were constructed towards the close of the twelfth century, of which St. Leu d'Esserent (Fig. 56) affords a typical example.

The plans of nearly all large French churches include transepts. Bourges, among cathedrals of the first magnitude, is exceptional in having none. In some large buildings, as in Paris, the transept is of slight projection. In others, as at Noyon and Laon, it is more extended. In some cases it is without aisles, as at Paris and Noyon. In others it has aisles, as at Chartres, Amiens, and Reims. More rarely, as at Sens, there is an eastern, but no western aisle. And in some transepts, as in those of Laon and Sens, there are chapels opening out of the eastern aisle. The transept usually terminates in a square end; but at Noyon. both ends are apsidal, while at Soissons one end is round and the other is square. The round transept end is formed by a continuation of the side walls and buttresses, with their horizontal divisions. But in the usual square termination an appropriate façade is given, which is often of a very imposing character. This facade corresponds, in its main divisions, with the interior, being in three stories, exclusive of the gable. Where there are aisles the vertical divisions are marked by buttresses which divide the facade into three bays. The flying buttresses appear over the roofs of the aisles, and the whole structure is largely expressive of the form of the interior. On the ground-story of the central compartment there is a great portal, while the aisle ends usually have windows instead of doors. At the triforium level is a range of arched openings, while in the division above is usually a vast wheel window surmounted by a gable. The façade of the south transept of Amiens answers to this description completely. But every great church exhibits more or less conspicuous variations from every other in this, as in its other main parts. In some cases the transept portals are so vast and so richly adorned as to almost equal, as at Paris, and sometimes even to surpass, as at Chartres, those of the main façade. The transepts of Chartres are provided with vast and unique porches which, with their respective portals, are among the grandest architectural productions of the Middle Ages.