RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Architecture
plan, adapted as it is to the preservation of the impression of length. But since the ground-plan was generally similar to the German, the result was not altogether harmonious.
After the twelfth century, the predominance of the Romanesque basilica was first endangered and then altogether broken down by the 18. Intro- introduction of the Gothic style. This duction of name again, invented by the ignorant the Gothic vanity of the Italians, is admittedly Style. unsatisfactory, but there is no accepted substitute for it. The origin of the Gothic style may be traced in the simplest way to the effort to find the best manner of forming the cross-vaulting; but its universal acceptance throughout so large a part of Europe shows that it must have provided what the age was unconsciously seeking. The north of France is its birthplace. The preliminary steps were taken at Saint-Denis under Abbot Suger (1140-44); here first the walls lost all significance as supporting elements, and were only retained to enclose the space. This is really the essential point of the Gothic style — so to construct the vaulting, and so to support the superstructure by buttresses as to render the roof independent of the walls, and also, by the use of pointed arches, of the rectangular floor-space. Free disposition of space was won, but little use was made of it. The relation of the middle to the side aisles remained the same as in the Romanesque; so did the enrichment of the choir by radiating chapels, and the greater height of the nave. But while the main features of both ground-plan and elevation were still the same, all the individual parts were new and harmonious with each other. The introduction of the pointed arch in the vaulting led to its adoption for all arches. It has been said that in this style the vertical principle reached its extreme development; but this is misleading. The Gothic cathedral is essentially a structure of length, as much as the churches that went before it. The choir which terminates it is as much as ever the principal member, to which the arches of the nave lead the eye. The fact that in the facades of the French cathedrals the vertical lines are everywhere broken by horizontal elements can not be taken as an inconsistency— these most perfect specimens of Gothic art are not likely to have violated a Gothic principle. All we can say is that the development of height which was present in the Romanesque is continued in the Gothic . This bold soaring into the air was taken as symbolic of spiritual aspiration; it was a logical consequence which fitted the age of the schoolmen. Growing wealth and luxury also found their satisfaction in the increased beauty of the design.
The enthusiastic approval of the new style showed
itself first in France. Simultaneously with Saint-
Denis the rebuilding of the cathedral
Adontio °* ^ens was begun; tnat °* Notre
in France •Dame *n Paris followed in 1163, that and of Reims in 1210, and a few years
Germany, later that of Amiens. In less than a
century the most perfect works of the
new style were completed or under way. From
* ranee it passed almost immediately across the
Channel, though in England it took on a distinct character by the infusion of Norman elements. In Germany there was a period of transition. Certain elements were gradually introduced, as in the nave of Bamberg and the choir of Magdeburg. Its complete victory dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century; by the middle of that century was begun the cathedral of Cologne, of which it must at least be said that it carries out Gothic principles with an unsurpassed logical fulness. But this very completeness was a reason why the ambitious architects of those ages were unwilling to rest in it. Numerous variations were afterward introduced, many of which really led away from Gothic principles while they retained Gothic features. By the suppression of the triforium the wall regained its place; the abandonment of side aisles in other places, the construction of a single large hall, even sometimes with a flat roof, vindicated once more the claims of breadth as against height, in a way which seems to appeal to modern feeling, if one may judge from the praise bestowed upon these buildings of really very varying artistic value.
Italy never did more than play with the Gothic style. Unlike the northern architects, who looked upon it as a solution of a problem which had long puzzled them, the Italians merely imported it as a foreign fashion, partly under the influence of the mendicant orders. It opened new possibilities to the fancy of Italian architects, but they never made it their own.
After the downfall of Gothic predominance, there is no longer any unity of development. The tendencies of the Renaissance led away
20. No from Romanesque and Gothic, rather
Present in the direction of the early basilica; Single Pre- and one of its great services to eccledominant siastical architecture is its conquest of Type. the domed or circular church, displayed most fully in St. Peter's at Rome. But the artists of this period also succeeded in using this form for parochial and smaller churches. It was one of the weakest points about Gothic that it was incapable of producing a masterpiece on a small scale. Here the Renaissance masters excelled it; in the Badia at Florence, San Giovanni delle Monache at Pistoia, and especially the Madonna di San Biagio at Montepulciano they gave evidence that greatness of line was possible with moderate dimensions. This was a distinct gain; but the further development is not pleasant to record, either on the Catholic or the Protestant side. The former, after the Counterreformation, is characterized by display, by a struggle after magnificence, and a loss of feeling for the beauty of simplicity and quiet grandeur. The development of general art in the baroco and rococo styles corresponded to this weakness, and produced the eighteenth century barbarities of vulgar ostentation. Modern styles have also had their influence on Protestant church-building, but no one form has attained a recognized mastery. (A. Hauck.)
II. English Ecclesiastical Architecture : Some able attempts have been made in recent years to limit the term " Gothic " to buildings of the highest and
Architecture