Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/552

 520 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part IL defect in construction, or from their not harmonizing with the wooden roofs of the rest of the church. They were, in fact, the originals of the spires which afterwards became so much in vogue, and as such their history would be interesting if properly inc^uired into. The cathedral of Bayeux, as now standing, is considerably more modern than either of these ; no part now remains of the church of Odo, the brother of the Conqueror, except the lower portion of the western towers, and a crypt which is still older. The ])ier arches of the nave belong to the first half of the 12th century, the rest of the church to the rebuilding, which was commenced 1157, after the town had been burnt, and the cathedral considerably damaged by the sol- diers of Henry I. At this time the apse was removed to make way for a chevet, which is one of the most beautiful specimens of early pointed Gothic to be found in France, and far surpasses its rival in the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen. In the church at Caen the alteration was probably made to receive the tomb of the Conqueror, when that veneration began to be shown to his remains which was denied to himself when dying. Here^ however, the same motive does not seem to have existed, and it is more probable that the extension was caused by the im- mense increase of the priesthood in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries, requiring a larger choir for their accommodation. We know, from the disposition of the choir, that 385. Lower Compartment, Nave, the navc Originally had a great gallery over Bayeux. (From Pugin.) ^^^^ gide-aisles, and consequently a low clere- story. But before it was rebuilt, in the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, the mania for painted glass had seized on the French architects, and all architectural propriety was sacrificed to this mode of decoration. In the present instance we cannot help contrasting the solid grandeur of the basement with the lean and attenuated forms of the superstructure, although this attenuation was in other examples carried to a still greater extent afterwards. The diapering of the spandrilsof the lower arches (Woodcut No. 385) is another feature worthy of remark, as illustrating the history of the style. Before painted glass was introduced, the walls of all churches in Northern Europe were covered with fresco or distemper ]:)aintings, as was then, and is to the present day, the case in Euroi)e. But when colored windows came into use, the comparative dulness of the former mode of decoration was immediately felt, and the use of color confined to the more brilliant transj^arent material. It was necessary to find a substitute for the wall painting, and the most obvious expedient was that of carving on the stone the same patterns which it had been