Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/32

Rh arches, and buttresses, is freed from every unnecessary encumbrance of wall, and is rendered as light in all its parts as is compatible with strength in a system whose stability depends not upon any inert massiveness, except in the outermost abutments, but upon a logical adjustment of active parts whose opposing forces produce a perfect equilibrium. It is thus a system of balanced thrusts, as opposed to the former system of inert stability. Gothic architecture is indeed much more than such a constructive system, but it is this primarily and always. And so fundamental and far-reaching is this mode of construction as the distinctive principle of Gothic, that it may be taken as a rule that wherever we find it developed there we have a Gothic building, even though the decorative system connected with it may retain many of the Romanesque characteristics. And, on the other hand, wherever this principle of thrust and counterthrust is wanting there we have not Gothic, however freely the pointed arch may be used, and however widely the ornamental details may differ from Romanesque types.

The evolution of the Gothic system was gradual, and the final results were unforeseen when the first steps were taken. This is evident from the characteristics exhibited by the transitional monuments which remain. The first steps were taken early. Indeed, the beginnings of Gothic antedate considerably the period which is usually assumed as that of transition. The earliest functional grouping of supports in the churches of Northern Italy was, it would seem, the real beginning; though it was a beginning that was destined to remain unfruitful in its own locality. But there is reason to suppose that the Lombard buildings of the early eleventh