Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/548

 516 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. pillar of the aisle, and to divide the central roof equally into squares, or to adopt some compromise. This difficulty was not got over till the pointed arch Avas introduced; but, in the meanwhile, it is verv instructive to watch the various attempts that were made to obviate it. There can be little doubt that the Norman architects, with true Gothic feeling, always intended that their churches should eventually be vaulted, and prepared them accordingly, though in many instances they were constructed with wooden roofs, or compromises of some sort. Even at Jumieges, the alternate piers Avere made stronger, and the intention there and in other instances seems to have been to throw a stone arch across the nave so as to break the flat line of the roof, and give it at least a certain amount of iDcrmanent character. In the Abl)aye aux Homines, Caen, even this does not appear to have been attempted in the first instance. The vaulting sliafts were carried right n) and made to support wooden trusses, as shown on the right hand of the diagram (Wood- cut No. 380). 1 The intention, however, may have been to cut these away when the vault should come to bo erected. In England they frequently remain,but rarely, if ever, in Normandy. The next step Avas to construct a quadripartite vault over the nave, and a simple arch supporting its crown over the intermediate shaft. This was soon seen to be a mis- take, and in fact was only a makeshift. In consequence at Caen a compromise was adopted, which the Woodcut No. .382 will explain,— a sort of intermediate vault Avas introduced springing from the altei-- nate piei-s.2 Mechanically it Avas right, artistically it Avas painfully Avrong. It introduced and declared a number of purely constructive features without artistic arrangement or pleasing lines, and altogether 3,s(l. Fig. 1, altfi A aultiug: Fi^;. i'. bt-lore Vaulting. Section of Nave of St. Stephen, Caen. 1 From a paper by :Mr. Parker on this subject read to the institute of British Arcliitects. ■■2 This arrangement is known by the ■name of hexapartite, or fte:rnpartite, be- cause the compartment of the vault having been divided into four by the great "diagonal arches crossing one an- other in the centre (which Avas the quud- rlpartife arrangement), tAvo of the four quarters Avere again divided by the arch thrown across from one intermediate pillar to the other, thus making six divisions in all, though no longer all of equal dimensions, as in the quadripartite method. IJoth these arrangements are shown in plan on Woodcut No. 378.