Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/64

Rh defects these vaults mark an early step of much importance; and the sexpartite form was a novelty which stimulated the artists of the neighbourhood of Paris to devise improvements, by means of which the true sexpartite Gothic vault was produced.

FIG. 14. The motives which, in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, led to the adoption of the sexpartite vault are not clear, but the forms of the piers which differ alternately in having respectively a single engaged shaft, and a broad pilaster in addition to such a shaft, probably suggested it. This arrangement of the piers, which the builders of the vault found existing in the originally unvaulted edifice, was beyond doubt derived from the Lombard churches, though it differs in one important particular from the Lombard example. The Church of San Michele of Pavia, for instance, exhibits an alternate arrangement of piers, but one which, if designed for vaulting, was clearly intended for quadripartite vaults over square compartments, each embracing two bays of the aisles; and hence the intermediate piers, having no function in connection with the high vaults, do not rise above the triforium. The arrangement will be understood by reference to the plan and elevation (Figs. 14 and 15) of one bay of this church. The existing quadripartite