Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/90

* GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 68 special schools of Gothic iu Burgiintly (Notre Dame at Dijon, Cathedral Auxerre) and in >fonnandy (Cathedral Coutanees, Bayeiix, and Seez), while the lie ■ do - France, Picardy, and Champagne are practically one school, if a sinj;le building were selected to typify perfect Gotliic it would be Amiens Cathedral, "for botli internal and external etl'ects. The exaggeration of delicacy and height next attempted at Beauvais Cathedral was both constructively and a>sthetically a fail- ure. Other great contemporary works were the GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. ^'^WWA MfV^'M^^'f rrtM^N - / V-g g yvray-*. - ; f ^ - .ct : ^ l!p5rte AMIENS CATHEDRAL. cathedrals of Bourges, Le Mans (choir), and Soissons. In one thing only can we remain in doubt: that is how the facade would have been treated at tliis perfect period, for the facades then conceived (e.g. Rheims and Amiens) were not executed until the fourteenth or fifteenth century, these of Paris and Laon having been planned before the time of full bloom. While the fourteenth century carried on many of these earlier plans, it began very few churches. The terrible wars, the political confusion and im- poverishment prevented it. The most classic and beautiful example is Saint Ouen at Kouen, worthy of a place beside those enumerated, but lacking somewhat in vitality, so that it belongs to the doctrinaire stage, illustrated elsewhere in Normandy (Seez and Caen, Saint Pierre). The tlnal stage, which corresjjonds practically to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries is the concern more of the decorator tlian the architect, for no constructive problems are involved, and the novelties are due to a desire for merely formal variations. All manner of new forms of arches — surba.sed, reversed — are invented; tlicre is a surcharge of ornament; unity and simplicity disappear, the use of vaulting-ribs as surface ornaments, which would have been abhorrent, is allowed, though not as much as in England and Germany. The term flumhoijuni (q.v. ) is characteristic of both the sinuousness and glar- ing qualities of this style. Saint Riquier. Saint Waclou at Rouen, Notre Dame de I'Epine near Chalons, Saint W'uIfrand at Abbeville, and the church at Brou, are the principal works of this age, some of them exemplifying the transition to Renaissance ornament. Consult: Moore, Developmeui and Character of Gothic Architecture (New York, 1899), for Early Gothic in all countries; Gonse, L'art gothique (Paris, 1890) : Viollet-le-Duc, Diction- naire raisonne de rarchitecture francaise (Paris, 1858-68) ; the great volumes of Archives of the Commission des monuments historiques (Paris, 1855-72) ; Gurlitt, Die Raukunst Frar.kreichs (Dresden, n.d. ), a folio with photographic plates; and the photographs taken for the Government by Robert and others. Sp.vin. The h3brid Byzantine-Moresco-Basili- cal architecture current in the Christian parts of Spain was beginning to be superseded by a Romanesque style of great dignity, borrowed from the South and 'est of France, when the French architects wdio were introducing it felt the first inroads of the Early Gothic style; that of Saint C.ermer, tempered by the Cistercian sim- plicity. The old Cathedral of Salamanca (close of twelfth century), with its heavy proportions but genuine Gothic vaulting, shows in certain features, especially in its magnificent dome, an original interpretation of Gothic principles. San Vincente at Avila, the Abbey Church at Veruela, and the cathedrals of Lerida, Tidela, and espe- cially Tarragona, belong to the same period and style of hea'y transition from Romanesque to Gothic. This group is as effective, well-composed, and imposing as any in Europe of this time. But we do not see the links that connect it with the developed Gothic of Burgos. Toledo, Leon, Valencia, and Barcelona cathedrals, built in the thirteenth century, because this style was not an indigenous outcome of the older buildings, but was brought straight from France. These and other buildings of less importance are so closely ro])roduotions of the best French models — espe- cially of the cathedrals of Amiens and Rheims — as to make Spanish Gothic second only to French in its purity and consistency. Even in the rich sculpture decoration French models are closely followed, though the round arch is re- tained quite late in the main portals. Perhaps Burgos presents on the whole the richest and most artistic exterior, as to towers, facade, and genei'al composition. The unity of style was sadly disturbed in the fourteenth and succeeding centuries. English. German, Southern French, Italian, and Flemish elements were introduced, all more or less deviating from true Gothic de- sign, and, worst of all, the national passion for I