Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/483

 Bk. II. Ch. I. POINTED ARCHES. 451 arrangement is adopted, the whole becomes still more simple and easy, and very little adjustment is required to fit a dome to an octagon ; and if the angles are again cut off, so as to form a polygon of 16 sides, all the exigencies of construction are satisfied. At St. Front Perigeux, at Moissac, and at Loches, we find the pointed arch, introduced evidently for this pur]>ose, and forming a class of roofs more like those of inosques in Cairo than any other buildings in Europe. It is true they now look bare and formal — their decorations having been originally painted on stucco, which has peeled off; but still the variety of form and 2>erspective they afford internally, and the character and truthfulness they give to the roof as seen from Avithout, are such advantages that we cannot but regret that these two expe- dients of stone external roofs and domes were not adopted in Gothic. Had the great architects of that style in the 13th century carried out these with their characteristic zeal and earnestness, they might have left us a style in every respect infinitely more perfect and beau- tiful than the one they invented, and which we are copying so servilely, instead of trying, with our knowledge and means of construction, to repair the errors and omissions of. our forefathers, and out of the inlieritance they have left us to work out something more beautiful and more worthy of our greater refinement and more advanced civili- ization. The practice of the Greeks in respect to their roofs Avas a curious contrast to that of the Mediaeval architect. Their architecture, as l;efore remarked, being essentially external, wdiile that of the -Middle .Ages, Avas internal, they placed the stone of their roof on the outside, and took the utmost pains to arrange the covering ornamentally ; but they supported all this on a framcAvork of wood, Avhich in every instance has perished. It is difficult to say Avhich Avas the greater mistake of the tAvo. Both were Avrong Avithout doubt. The happy medium seems to be that Avhich tlie Romance architects aimed at — a complete homogeneous roof, made of the most durable materials and ornamented, both externally and internally ; and there can be little doubt but that this is the only legitimate and really artistic mode of effecting this purpose, and the one to which attention should noAV be turned.^ This early mode of employing the pointed arch is so little under- stood generally that, before leaving this branch of the subject, it may be Avell to quote one other example Avith a perfectly authentic date. The Church of St. Nazaire at Carcassone Avas dedicated by Pope 1 The Scotch and Irish Celts seem to have had a conception of this trutli, and in both these countries we find some bold attempts at true stone roofs: the influence, however, of the Gothic races overpowered them, and the mixed roof became universal.