Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/132

Rh between the buttresses is occupied by coupled pointed arched openings of two orders. The north tower was not completed above this level; but that on the south is surmounted by a spire of early thirteenth century construction, and of almost unrivalled beauty.

Unlike the main body of the building, the Gothic façade is largely the result of a mere modification and enrichment of Romanesque forms rather than a growth from new constructive principles. The façade with its towers is, for the most part, simply a storied edifice, which may, indeed, as at Reims, by the width of its openings, the slenderness of their dividing members, and the general upward impulse of its lines, attain a high degree of Gothic expression, but it is not a structure into which any dynamic principle largely enters. This being so, the criticism which early Gothic façades, like the Cathedral of Paris, sometimes receive, as wanting in Gothic character, is not well founded. The façade of Paris (Fig. 60) is one of the most Gothic, as it is also one of the grandest of structures of this kind. It is certainly the most remarkable façade that had been erected up to its time; and for dignity, sobriety, and extreme beauty of details it has hardly been surpassed. The general scheme of design is still the same as in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes; but such is the treatment of its elements that the Gothic spirit is manifest in every part. Its large divisions are admirably proportioned and beautifully subdivided. The Romanesque characteristics have completely disappeared from the apertures, arcades, and even from the moulding profiles, while in Senlis the Romanesque profiles are largely retained. Three majestic portals on the ground-story, above them a great central rose flanked on each side by twin pointed apertures and a circle embraced by an encompassing arch, a magnificent shafted arcade, sheltering twenty-eight sculptured statues, dividing these stories, an elegant, though gigantic, open arcade over all, and the two towers, each pierced by coupled pointed openings, rising one story higher, make up a most impressive architectural composition.

The magnificence, without extravagance, of the still richer façade of Amiens (Fig. 61) is, in some respects, beyond all praise. In addition to the leading features of