Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/578

 546 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. they completed in thirteen years, but Avhicli stood only five years from that time, having fallen down on the day of the Ascension in the year 1573. This accident so damaged the works under it as to require considerable reconstruction, which is what we now see. Tliis spire, of which the original drawings still exist, was 486 ft. in height ; and although, as might be expected from the age in which it was erected, not of the purest design, must still have been a very noble and beautiful object, hardly inferior to that of Chartres, which was built only half a century earlier. Taken altogether, the cathedral of Beauvais may be considered as an example of that " vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself." Every prin- ciple of Gothic art is hei-e carried to an extreme which destroys the object with which it was de- signed, and not only practically has caused the ruin of the build- ing and prevented its completion, but has so far destroyed its ar- tistic effect as to make it an cx- am]ile of what should be avoided rather than of what should be followed. It has all that want of repose and solidity which has often been made the reproach of Gothic architecture. Not- withstanding its size, it lias no majesty: and though it has stood so long, it has a painful appearance of instability : its whole construction looks like props ajiplied to prevent its falling, rather than, as in the- earlier buildings, suggesting ad- ditional strength and insuring durability. Even its details, as shown in the Woodcut No. 397^ representing one of the tran- septs, show an attenuation and meagreness very unusual in French architecture, and which, though graceful, have neither the power of the earlier nor the richness characteristic of contemporary buildings. The cathedral of Noyon is an earlier cxami)le, and one of the best and most elegant transition specimens in France, having been com- menced about the year 1137, and completed, as we now see it, in 1167. Here the circular arch had not entirely disappeared, which was owing 398. Plan of Cathedral at Ivoyon. (From Kaiiiee's " Moiiograpliie.") Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.