THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the cruciform structure, from which sprang the establishment of fixed proportions for the whole church; the square formed by the intersection of the two arms of the cross was taken as the unit, to be repeated once on each of three sides, and twice or three times on the other. The second new feature is the connection of the tower or towers with the church, so that under various arrangements, with one, two, or more towers, the aim was always to present them as an integral part of the building. The third point is that the attention was no longer concentrated on the interior; by the development of facades and doorways, by the breaking up and diversifying of the wall-surface, the exterior of the church took on a new character of imposing beauty. Fourthly, the individual elements of the whole were freely worked over and transformed. The old models were not cast aside — the acanthus capital was imitated for a long time — but new forms, appropriate both to the material and to the special end in view, were boldly created. Outside, however, of these general characteristics, there was the greatest freedom in design. In one place an apse was added on the eastern side of each transept, forming a termination to the side aisles. In another, the side aisles were carried out beyond the transept, and then terminated each by an apse. In a third, these aisles were curved around the main apse, and relieved by smaller apsidal formations projecting from the curve. Here the semicircular apse was employed; there the polygonal shape was preferred, or the old rectangular preserved. The same freedom is found in the supports; sometimes columns still uphold the roof of the nave, sometimes pillars, or an alternation of both. The presence or absence of galleries afforded scope for infinite variety. This is what gives the Romanesque basilica not the least of its charms. No style excludes mere slavish copying of models more than this; none offered greater opportunities to the artistic imagination.
And yet the flat-roofed basilica was only a preparation for a still higher form — the vaulted church. It was probably less artistic dissatis- 15. The faction with the flat roof that brought Vaulted about the change than a desire to se- Church. cure protection against fire by substituting stone vaulting for a wooden roof. Medieval histories are full of accounts of devastating conflagrations in the principal churches. The change was made gradually; after architects had tried their hands at vaulting the side aisles, they came in 1097 to carry a vault over the broad nave of the cathedral of Spires. Cross-vaulting was here employed, thus distributing the weight of the vault among four supporting pillars. The example was soon followed in Mainz and Worms, in the abbey church of Laach, and elsewhere; and the advantages of this style were speedily recognized. Besides the new possibility of reaching a strictly symmetrical disposition of the ground-plan, other changes came in. The great Romanesque churches were usually monastic or collegiate, and thus served not only for the worship of the laity in general but also for the daily offices of canons or monks. Consequently, in opposition to the natural arrangement
of the building, the choir was cut off from the nave by a high stone screen in many of these churches, and served for the offices, a special altar for the worship of the laity being often erected at the east end of the nave. The rood-screen sometimes bore a lofty platform for reading the Scriptures to the congregation assembled in the nave, the lectorium. The connection of the monastic or collegiate buildings with the church led to the laying out of cloisters, around a rectangular court, one side of which was frequently formed by the church.
If the Romanesque basilica in its final form is
compared with the ancient, a notable difference
will be observed. The idea of length
16. Differ- prevailed in the earlier conception; ences be- the eye was led on entering at once to tween the the altar and the presbyterium behind
Ancient it. The later style did not abandon
and Ro- the idea of length, but modified it manesque greatly; the disposition of all spaces
Basilica, is conditioned by the principle of grouping. The place for the congregation is not a single unbroken space like the central division of the old basilica, but a group of small rectangular spaces; the eye does not go directly, but by a succession of steps, to the altar. So the small apses were grouped about the main apse, the side aisles about the nave, the place for the congregation with the place for the clergy. The same idea of grouping prevails equally in the exterior. It is upon this quality that the picturesque character of the Romanesque basilica and its real superiority over the ancient rests, for art requires rhythm rather than mere uniformity.
If we turn to France, the story is different in a
number of particulars. Instead of the gradual,
almost logical development of Ger-
17. French many, we see there a bewildering rich- Ecclesias- ness of forms and motives. The tend-
tical Devel- ency there also was from the flat roof opment. to the vaulted; not only the date of the change, however, varies in diffferent parts of France — this was so also in Germany ■ — but the final result also differs in different places. In the south, to render vaulting possible, they abandoned the path followed since the third century, and went back to the single hall, covering it with barrel-vaulting (cathedral of Orange), and went from that to a cruciform plan (Montmajour); or they retained the threefold division, but gave up the raising of the central section, making three barrel-vaulted sections of nearly equal height (St. Martin d'Ainay at Lyons, nave of St. Nazaire, Carcassonne). Besides barrel-vaulting the cupola was frequently employed, without, however, adopting the ground-plan of the centralized structures; in some places a long nave was covered with a succession of equal cupolas (Cahors, Angouleme). The north, however, held firmly to the basilica. As in Germany, the way to vaulting was prepared by the strengthening of the supports; columns gave way to round or square pillars. Cross-vaulting was frequently used, but not as exclusively as in Germany; the half-barrel was especially used in Burgundy (Cluny, Paray-le-Monial, Autun). Barrelvaulting really answered more nearly to the original