Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/613

 bk. u. ch.x. construction. 581 "Woodcut No. 434, they a^^'ouUI appear to have retained a reminiscence of the Roman Corinthian order, but to have used it with a freedom entirely their own. COXSTRUCTION. It has been shown that the exigencies of a Gothic cathedral were a stone roof, a glass wall, and as great an amount of space on the floor, as little encumbered with pillars and points of support, as could be obtained. The two first of these points have been sufficiently insisted upon in the preceding pages ; the last, however, demands a few more remarks, as the success achieved by the masons in the Middle Ages in this respect was one of their chief merits, though it was Imt a mechanical merit after all, and one in which they hardly surpassed their masters, the Romans. The basilica of Maxentius, for instance, covers a space of 68,000 square feet, or about the average size of a French cathedral, and the points of support, or, in other words, the piers and wall, occupy only 6900 square feet, or between a ninth and a tenth part of the whole area. If we turn to the great cathedral of St, Peter's at Rome, we find the points of support occu- pying more than one-fourth of the whole area, though built on the model, and almost a copy, of the Roman basilica. At St. Mary's at Florence they occupy one-fifth ; and in St. Paul's, London, and the Pantheon at Paris, the walls and pillars occupy, in the first rather more, in the other rather less, than one-sixth. If from these we turn to some of the Mediaeval examples, we find for instance at The whole area. Solid. Ratio. Bourges. . .61,591. . .11.908. . . 0*181, or between l-5th and l-6th. Chartres. . 68,261 . . . 8.888 . . . 0-130, '' l-8th. Paris .... 64,108. . . 7,852 . . . 0-122, " l-8th and l-9th. St. Ouen . . 47,107 . . . 4,637 . . . 0*090, " 1-lOth and 1-llth. The figures, however, at Bourges, include a heavy and extended porch not belonging to the original design, which if omitted would reduce the fractional proportion considerably ; and if the imbuilt towers of St. Ouen were excluded, the proportion of the points of support to the area would be less than one-twelfth. Our best English examples show a pi-oportion of rather less than one-tenth, and though they have not the great height and wide- spreading vaults of the French cathedrals, their spires and pinnacles externally perhaps more than counterbalance this. Taken altogether it may generally be stated that one-tenth is about the proportion in the best Gothic churches of the best age. When we find it exceed this, it is obvious that the lightness of the walls and pillars has been carried to excess, and even in St. Ouen, if there is an error, it is on this side. There can be no question that to produce a satisfactory effect a church requires solidity, and apparent as well as real strength ;