Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/573

 Ek. II. Ch. IX. FRENCH GOTHIC CATHEDRALS. 541 inconvenient extent; the effect of which is also somewhat injured by the imperfect tracery of the windows, each of which more resembles separate openings grouped together than one grand and simple window. The progress that took place between this building and that at Rheims is more remarkable on the exterior than even in the interior. The fa§ade of that church, though small as compared with some others, was perha])S the most beautiful structure produced during the Middle Ages ; and, though it is difficult to institute a rigorous comparison between things so dissimilar, there is perhaps no fayade, either of ancient or of modern times, that sur- passes it in beauty of proportion and details, or in fitness for the purpose for which it was de- signed. Nothing can exceed the majesty of its deeply-recessed triple ])ortals, the beauty of the rose- window that surmounts them, or the elegance of the gallery that completes the fayade and serves as a basement to the *■ light and graceful towers that crown the com|)Osition. Tliese were designed to carry spires, no doubt as elegant and appro])riate as themselves; but this part of the desi"n was never completed. The beautiful ranije of buttresses which adorn the flanks of the building are also perhaps the most beautiful in 394. Buttress at Chartres. -r-,, (From Batissier, " Histoire de i^ ranCC, and carry design of the facade back to the transepts. These are late and less ornate than the western front, but are still singularly beautiful, though wanting the two towers designed to complete them. On the intersection of the nave with the transepts thei-e rose at one time a sjnre of wood, probably as high as the intended spires of the western towers, and one still crowns the ridge of the chevet, rising to half the height above the roof that the central one was intended to attain. Were these all complete, we should have the beau ideal externally of a French cathedral, with one central and two western spires, and four towers at the ends of the transepts. All these ])erhai)S never were fully completed in any instance, though the rudiments ,, 395. Buttresses at Rheims. tne (FromCLapuy.)