Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/72

Rh principle; and they are admirable in workmanship and remain in perfect condition. They are so closely similar to the aisle vaults of St. Denis that no further description is necessary.

It may here be remarked that we have reached the time of greatest perfection in masonry. After 1130 the walls, piers, and vaults of the twelfth century are unrivalled for fineness of facing and jointing. They are, in this respect, in striking contrast to those of the more hasty constructions of the thirteenth century. And nowhere do we find skill in the manipulation of carefully selected material more admirably exhibited than in this building.

A noticeable characteristic of the choir of Senlis is that it exhibits a nearer approach to Gothic principles and expression within than without. The interior is indeed frankly Gothic, though still massive, while what remains of the exterior is, in its broad walls and round-arched openings, almost strictly Romanesque. In this and in other early monuments of France, we see the style in process of formation according to the vital law of all organic development—the functions to be exercised calling into being and giving appropriate form to the requisite organs. We do not find the change from Romanesque to Gothic beginning in a mere arbitrary transformation of external forms and details—external forms and details are, in France, the last things to change. The growth of the Gothic principle begins at the very heart of the fabric and gradually works outward till every part is reached. Operating first imperfectly in the diminutive vaults of Morienval, perfecting the vault forms in St. Denis, and now from the high vaults of Senlis creating for itself an  appropriate, though not a final system of internal supports, it moves on, as we shall see, in this creative fashion, till the full development is accomplished.

What was the precise mode of buttressing the high vaults we have now no means of knowing. It is possible that flying buttresses may have sprung over the aisle roofs; but there is hardly an instance of an external flying buttress of this early epoch, and it appears more probable that the triforium vaults formed the only abutments to the piers, which are almost heavy enough to bear the thrusts independently. As may be seen in Fig. 19, the