Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/574

 542 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. of the arrangement are found in almost all the principal French cathedrals. In some, as for instance at Rouen, it was carried out in number, though at such different periods and of such varied design as to destroy that unity of effect essential to perfect beauty. The external effect of Amiens may be taken rather as an example of the defects of the general design of French cathedrals than as an illustration of their beauties. The western fagade presents the same general features as those of Paris and Rheims, but the towers are so small in proportion to the immense building behind as to look mean and insignificant, while all the parts are so badly put together as to destroy in a great measure the effect they were designed to produce. The northern tower is 223 ft. high, the southern 205 ; both therefore are higher than those at York, but instead of being appropriate and beautiful adjuncts to the building they are attached to, they only serve in this instance to exaggerate the gigantic incubus of a roof, 208 ft. in height, which overpowers the building it is meant to adorn. The same is the case with the central spire, Avhich, though higher than that at Salisbury, being 422 ft. high from the pavement, is reduced from the same cause to comparative insignificance, and is utterly unequal to the purpose of relieving the heaviness of outline for which this cathedral is remarkable. The filling up of the spaces between the buttresses of the nave with chapels prevents the tran- septs from having their full value, and gives an unpleasing fulness and flatness to the entire design. All French cathedrals are more or less open to these objections, and are deficient in consequence of that exquisite variety of outline and play of light and shade for which the English examples are so remarkable; but it still remains a question how "far the internal loftiness and the glory of their painted glass compensate for these external defects. The truth, perhajjs, may be found in a mean between the two extremes, which has not unfortunately been attained in any one example ; and this arises mainly from the fact that, besides the effect of mass or beauty of outline, there were many minor considerations of use or beauty that governed the design. We must consequently look closely at the details, and restore, in imagina- tion at least, the building in all its completeness, before we can discover how far the general effect was necessarily sacrificed for ])articular purposes. What painted glass was to the interior of a French cathedral, sculpture was to the exterior. Almost all the arrangements of the facade were modified mainly to admit of its display to the greatest possible extent. The three great cavernous porches of the lower