Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/627

 Bk. III. Ch. I. TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 595 here given (Woodcut No. 444) of one of the windows of the transept will explain this ; throughout it the tracery consists of holes cut into slabs ; 3-et this clnirch is said to have been commenced in 1225, and only finished in 1276. In Germany such a date would be probable ; in France a similar specimen would be assigned to a period from 70 to 100 years earlier. Among the many efforts made in Belgium to get rid of the awk- wardness of the pointed form for windows, was that in the choir of Xotre Dame de la Chapelle, at Brussels (1216?), where the circular tracery is inserted in a circular-headed Avindow, producing a much more pleasing effect, both internally and externally, than the pointed form, except Avith reference to the vault, with which it is so little in accordance that the experiment seems to have been abandoned, and no attempt made afterwards to renew it. Besides those already mentioned, Belgium possesses about twenty first-class churches of pointed architecture, all deserving attentive consideration, some of them being almost unrivalled edifices of their class. Among the earliest of these is the cathedral of Lieu'e, besrun in 1189, exhibiting the style in great purity. It has no western entrance, but, like St. Croix, St. Jacques, and all tlie principal churches of this city, is entered by side porches. A little later Ave have the eastern parts of St. Gudule, Brussels (a.d. 1220), and tAvo other very beautiful churches : Notre Dame de Tongres (1240), and St. Martin, Ypres (1254). The latter is perhaps the purest and best specimen of the Gothic of the 13th century in Flanders ; and of about the same age is the beautiful church of N. D. de Dinant. These are almost the only important specimens of the contemj)orary art of the 13th century, Avhich still excites our admira- tion in all the principal cities of France. Almost all the great cathe- drals in that country belong to this age, Avhich was also so ppolific of great buildings in England. But Belgium does not seem to have shared to any great extent in the impulse then given to church archi- tecture. Her buildings are spread pretty evenly over the Avhole period from the 10th to the 16th century, as the steadily groAving Avealth of the country demanded them, and but little influenced by the great political oscillations of her neighbors. In the next century we have N. D. de Huy (1311), the beautiful parish church at Aerschot (1337), and N. D. de Hal (1341), — small but elegant places of worship. The two crowning examples, however, of this age are N. D. of AntAverp (1352-1411), and St. Rombaut, Malines. The choir of this latter church Avas dedicated in the year 1366, having l>een commenced about the same time as that at AntAverp, but the nave was not erected till a century afterAvards (1456-1464), and the toAver was not carried even to its present height till the 16th century. Antwerp cathedral is one of the most remarkable churches in