Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/502

 470 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Pakt H. 331. Plan of Cathedral at Aiigouleme. (From Verneilh.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. all this class ; and, except in the mode of lighting the upper part, is by no means inferior in architectural effect to the intersecting vaults of after ages. The transepts here are shortened internally so as only to give room for two small lateral chapels; but exter- nally they are made very imposing by the addition of two towers, one at the end of each. This was another means of solving a difficulty that everywhere met the Mediaeval architects, of ffivinsj the greatest dignity to the most holy place. The proper and obvious mode of doing this was of course to raise a tower or dome at the intersection of the nave and transepts, but the diffi- culties of construction involved in this mode of procedure were such that they seldom were enabled to carry it out. This can only be said, indeed, to have been fairly accomplished in Eng- land. At Angouleme, as will be ob- served in the plan, there is no passage round the altar, nor is the choir sepa- arated from the body of the church. In Italy, and, indeed, in Germany, this does not seem to have been considered of importance ; but in France, as we shall presently see, it was regarded as the -^ .---'*— -~^ " ^ »mm)'f/'///.^ most indispensable part of the arranscement of the church, and to meet this exigency the South- ern architects were afterwards obliged to invent a method of isola- ting the choir, by carry- ing a lofty stone railing or screen round it, wholly indej>endent of any of the constructive parts of the church. This, there is little doubt was a mistake, and in every respect a less beautiful arrangement than that adopted in the Nortli ; still it seems to have been the only means of meeting the difficulty in the absence of aisles, and in some instances the richness with which the screen was ornamented, and the unbroken succession of bassi-relievi and sculptural ornaments, 332. One Bay of Nave, Angouleme. No scale. (From Verneilh.)