Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/557

 Bk. II. Ch. VIII. CENTRAL FRANCE. 525 more than once alluded to in the preceding pages. It is a subject on which a great deal more has been said and written than was at all called for by the real importance of the question. Scarcely anything was done in pointed architecture which had not already been done in the round-arch styles. Certainly there is nothing which could not have been done, at least nearly as well, and many things much better, l)y adhering to the complete instead of to the broken arch. The coupling and compounding of piers had already been carried to great perfec- tion, and the assignment of a separate function to each shaft was already a fixed principle. Vaulting, too, was nearly perfect, only that tlie main vaults were either hexapartite or six-celled, instead of quad- ripartite, as they afterwards became ; an improvement certainly, but not one of much importance. Ribbed vaulting Avas the greatest im- provement Avhich the Medieval architects made on the Roman vaults, giving not only additional strengtli of construction, but an apparent vigor and expression to the vault, which is one of the greatest beauties of the style. This system Avas in frequent use before the employment of the ])ointed arch. The different and successive planes of decoration were also one of the Mediaeval inventions, which was carried to greater perfection in the round Gothic styles than in the pointed. Indeed, it is a fact, that except in window tracery, and perhaps in pinnacles and Hving buttresses, there is not a single important feature in the ])ointed style that was not invented and in general use before its introduction. Even of Avindows, which are the imjKjrtant feature of the new style, by far the finest are the circular or wheel windows, which have nothing pointed about them, and which always fit awkwardly into the pointed ■compartments in Avhich they are placed. In smaller windows, too, by far the most beautiful and constructively appropriate tracery is that where circles are introduced into the heads of the pointed windows. But, after hundreds of experiments and expedients had been tried, the diffi- culty of fitting these circles into spherical triangles remained, and the unpleasant form to which their disagreement inevitably gave rise, proved ultimately so intolerable that the architects were forced to abandon the beautiful constructive geometric tracery for the flowing or flam- boyant form ; and this last was so ill adapted to stone construction, that the method was abandoned altogether. These and many other difficulties would have been avoided, had the architects adhered to the form of the unbroken arch ; but on the other hand it must be confessed that the pointed forms gave a facility of arrangement which was an irresistible inducement for its adoption ; and especially to the French, who always affected height as the principal element of architectural effect, it afforded an easy means for the attainment of this object. Its gi-eatest advantage was the ease with which any required width could be combined with any required height. With this power of adapta- tion the architect was at liberty to indulge in all the wildness of the