EARLY MEDIÃ†VAL ARCHITECTURE.â€”Continued:EARLY CHURCHES, GREAT BRITAIN

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GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE:STRUCTURAL PRINCIPLES, RIBBED VAULTING >>

CHAPTER XIV.

EARLY MEDIÆVAL ARCHITECTURE.--Continued.

IN GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, AND SPAIN.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Hübsch and Reber. Bond, Gothic Architecture in

England. Also Brandon, Analysis of Gothic Architecture. Boisserée, Nieder Rhein.

Ditchfield, The Cathedrals of England. Hasak, Die romanische und die gotische

Baukunst (in Handbuch d. Arch.). Lübke, Die Mittelalterliche Kunst in Westfalen.

Möller, Denkmäler der deutschen Baukunst. Puttrich, Baukunst des Mittelalters in

Sachsen. Rickman, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture. Scott, English

Church Architecture. Van Rensselaer, English Cathedrals.

MEDIÆVAL GERMANY. Architecture developed less rapidly and symmetrically in

Germany than in France, notwithstanding the strong centralized government of the

empire. The early churches were of wood, and the substitution of stone for wood

proceeded slowly. During the Carolingian epoch (800919), however, a few

important buildings were erected, embodying Byzantine and classic traditions.

Among these the most notable was the Minster or palatine chapel of Charlemagne at

Aix-la-Chapelle, an obvious imitation of San Vitale at Ravenna. It consisted of an

octagonal domed hall surrounded by a vaulted aisle in two stories, but without the

eight niches of the Ravenna plan. It was preceded by a porch flanked by turrets. The

Byzantine type thus introduced was repeated in later churches, as in the Nuns' Choir

at Essen (947) and at Ottmarsheim (1050). In the great monastery at Fulda a

basilica with transepts and with an apsidal choir at either end was built in 803.

These choirs were raised above the level of the nave, to admit of crypts beneath

them, as in many Lombard churches; a practice which, with the reduplication of the

choir and apse just mentioned, became very common in German Romanesque

architecture.

EARLY CHURCHES. It was in Saxony that this architecture first entered upon a

truly national development. The early churches of this province and of Hildesheim

(where architecture flourished under the favor of the bishops, as elsewhere under the

royal influence) were of basilican plan and destitute of vaulting, except in the crypts.

They were built with massive piers, sometimes rectangular, sometimes clustered, the

two kinds often alternating in the same nave. Short columns were, however,

sometimes used instead of piers, either alone, as at Paulinzelle and Limburg-on-the-

Hardt (102439), or alternating with piers, as at Hecklingen, Gernrode (958

1050), and St. Godehard at Hildesheim (1133). A triple eastern apse, with apsidal

chapels projecting eastward from the transepts, were common elements in the plans,

and a second apse, choir, and crypt at the west end were not infrequent. Externally

the most striking feature was the association of two, four, or even six square or

circular towers with the mass of the church, and the elevation of square or polygonal

turrets or cupolas over the crossing. These adjuncts gave a very picturesque aspect to

edifices otherwise somewhat wanting in artistic interest.

FIG. 99.--PLAN OF MINSTER AT WORMS.

FIG. 100.--ONE BAY OF CATHEDRAL AT SPIRES.

RHENISH CHURCHES. It was in the Rhine provinces that vaulting was first applied

to the naves of German churches, nearly a half century after its general adoption in

France. Cologne possesses an interesting trio of churches in which the Byzantine

dome on squinches or on pendentives, with three apses or niches opening into the

central area, was associated with a long three aisled nave (St. Mary-in-the-Capitol,

begun in 9th century; Great St. Martin's, 115070; Apostles' Church, 116099:

the naves vaulted later). The double chapel at Schwarz-Rheindorf, near Bonn

(1151), also has the crossing covered by a dome on pendentives.

The vaulting of the nave itself was developed in another series of edifices of imposing

size, the cathedrals of Mayence (1036), Spires (Speyer), and Worms, and the Abbey

of Laach, all built in the 11th century and vaulted early in the 12th. In the first

three the main vaulting is in square bays, each covering two bays of the nave, the

piers of which are alternately lighter and heavier (Figs. 99, 100). At Laach the

vaulting-bays are oblong, both in nave and aisles. There was no triforium gallery, and

stability was secured only by excessive thickness in the piers and clearstory walls,

and by bringing down the main vault as near to the side-aisle roofs as possible.

FIG. 101.--EAST END OF CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES, COLOGNE.

RHENISH EXTERIORS. These great churches, together with those of Bonn and

Limburg-on-the-Lahn and the cathedral of Treves (Trier, 1047), are interesting, not

only by their size and dignity of plan and the somewhat rude massiveness of their

construction, but even more so by the picturesqueness of their external design (Fig.

101). Especially successful is the massing of the large and small turrets with the lofty

nave-roof and with the apses at one or both ends. The systematic use of arcading to

decorate the exterior walls, and the introduction of open arcaded dwarf galleries

under the cornices of the apses, gables, and dome-turrets, gave to these Rhenish

churches an external beauty hardly equalled in other contemporary edifices. This

method of exterior design, and the system of vaulting in square bays over double

bays of the nave, were probably derived from the Lombard churches of Northern

Italy, with which the Hohenstauffen emperors had many political relations.

The Italian influence is also encountered in a number of circular churches of early

date, as at Fulda (9th-11th century), Drügelte, Bonn (baptistery, demolished), and in

façades like that at Rosheim, which is a copy in little of San Zeno at Verona.

Elsewhere in Germany architecture was in a backward state, especially in the

southern provinces. Outside of Saxony, Franconia, and the Rhine provinces, very few

works of importance were erected until the thirteenth century.

FIG. 102.--PLAN OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL.

SECULAR ARCHITECTURE. Little remains to us of the secular architecture of this

period in Germany, if we except the great feudal castles, especially those of the

Rhine, which were, after all, rather works of military engineering than of

architectural art. The palace of Charlemagne at Aix is known to have been a vast and

splendid group of buildings, partly, at least of marble; but hardly a vestige of it

remains. Of the extensive Palace of Henry III. at Goslar there remain well-defined

ruins of an imposing hall of assembly in two aisles with triple-arched windows. At

Brunswick the east wing of the Burg Dankwargerode displays, in spite of modern

alterations, the arrangement of the chapel, great hall, two fortified towers, and part

of the residence of Henry the Lion. The Wartburg palace (Ludwig III., cir. 1150) is

more generally known--a rectangular hall in three stories, with windows effectively

grouped to form arcades; while at Gelnhausen and Münzenberg are ruins of

somewhat similar buildings. A few of the Romanesque monasteries of Germany have

left partial remains, as at Maulbronn, which was almost entirely rebuilt in the Gothic

period, and isolated buildings in Cologne and elsewhere. There remain also in

Cologne a number of Romanesque private houses with coupled windows and stepped

gables.

GREAT BRITAIN. Previous to the Norman conquest (1066) there was in the British

Isles little or no architecture worthy of mention. The few extant remains of Saxon

and Celtic buildings reveal a singular poverty of ideas and want of technical skill.

These scanty remains are mostly of towers (those in Ireland nearly all round and

tapering, with conical tops, their use and date being the subjects of much

controversy) and crypts. The tower of Earl's Barton is the most important and best

preserved of those in England. With the Norman conquest, however, began an

extraordinary activity in the building of churches and abbeys. William the Conqueror

himself founded a number of these, and his Norman ecclesiastics endeavored to

surpass on British soil the contemporary churches of Normandy. The new churches

differed somewhat from their French prototypes; they were narrower and lower, but

much longer, especially as to the choir and transepts. The cathedrals of Durham

(10961133) and Norwich (same date) are important examples (Fig. 102). They also

differed from the French churches in two important particulars externally; a huge

tower rose usually over the crossing, and the western portals were small and

insignificant. Lateral entrances near the west end were given greater importance and

called Galilees. At Durham a Galilee chapel (not shown in the plan), takes the place

of a porch at the west end, like the ante-churches of St. Benoît-sur-Loire and Vézelay.

THE NORMAN STYLE. The Anglo-Norman builders employed the same general

features as the Romanesque builders of Normandy, but with more of picturesqueness

and less of refinement and technical elegance. Heavy walls, recessed arches, round

mouldings, cubic cushion-caps, clustered piers, and in doorways a jamb-shaft for

each stepping of the arch were common to both styles. But in England the Corinthian

form of capital is rare, its place being taken by simpler forms.

NORMAN INTERIORS. The interior design of the larger churches of this period

shows a close general analogy to contemporaneous French Norman churches, as

appears by comparing the nave of Waltham or Peterboro' with that of Cérisy-la-Forêt,

in Normandy. Although the massiveness of the Anglo-Norman piers and walls plainly

suggests the intention of vaulting the nave, this intention seems never to have been

carried out except in small churches and crypts. All the existing abbeys and

cathedrals of this period had wooden ceilings or were, like Durham, Norwich, and

Gloucester, vaulted at a later date. Completed as they were with wooden nave-roofs,

the clearstory was, without danger, made quite lofty and furnished with windows of

considerable size. These were placed near the outside of the thick wall, and a passage

was left between them and a triple arch on the inner face of the wall--a device

imitated from the abbeys at Caen. The vaulted side-aisles were low, with

disproportionately wide pier-arches, above which was a high triforium gallery under

the side-roofs. Thus a nearly equal height was assigned to each of the three stories of

the bay, disregarding that subordination of minor to major parts which gives interest

to an architectural composition. The piers were quite often round, as at Gloucester,

Hereford, and Bristol. Sometimes round piers alternated with clustered piers, as at

Durham and Waltham; and in some cases clustered piers alone were employed, as at

Peterboro' and in the transepts of Winchester (Fig. 103).

FIG. 103.--ONE BAY OF TRANSEPT, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

FIG. 104.--FRONT OF IFFLEY CHURCH.

FAÇADES AND DOORWAYS. All the details were of the simplest character, except

in the doorways. These were richly adorned with clustered jamb-shafts and

elaborately carved mouldings, but there was little variety in the details of this

carving. The zigzag was the most common feature, though birds' heads with the

beaks pointing toward the centre of the arch were not uncommon. In the smaller

churches (Fig. 104) the doorways were better proportioned to the whole façade than

in the larger ones, in which they appear as relatively insignificant features. Very few

examples remain of important Norman façades in their original form, nearly all of

these having been altered after the round arch was displaced by the pointed arch in

the latter part of the twelfth century. Iffley church (Fig. 104) is a good example of

the style.

SPAIN. During the Romanesque period a large part of Spain was under Moorish

dominion. The capture of Toledo, in 1062, by the Christians, began the gradual

emancipation of the country from Moslem rule, and in the northern provinces a

number of important churches were erected under the influence of French

Romanesque models. The use of domical pendentives (as in the Panteon of

S. Isidoro, at Leon, and in the cimborio or dome over the choir at the intersection of

nave and transepts in old Salamanca cathedral) was probably derived from the

domical churches of Aquitania and Anjou. Elsewhere the northern Romanesque type

prevailed under various modifications, with long nave and transepts, a short choir,

and a complete chevet with apsidal chapels. The church of St. Iago at Compostella

(1078) is the finest example of this class. These churches nearly all had groined

vaulting over the side-aisles and barrel-vaults over the nave, the constructive system

being substantially that of the churches of Auvergne and the Loire Valley. They

differed, however, in the treatment of the crossing of nave and transepts, over which

was usually erected a dome or cupola or pendentives or squinches, covered externally

by an imposing square lantern or tower, as in the Old Cathedral at Salamanca,

already mentioned (112078) and the Collegiate Church at Toro. Occasional

exceptions to these types are met with, as in the basilican wooden-roofed church of

S. Millan at Segovia; in S. Isidoro at Leon, with chapels and a later-added square

eastern end, and the circular church of the Templars at Segovia.

The architectural details of these Spanish churches did not differ radically from

contemporary French work. As in France and England, the doorways were the most

ornate parts of the design, the mouldings being carved with extreme richness and the

jambs frequently adorned with statues, as in S. Vincente at Avila. There was no such

logical and reasoned-out system of external design as in France, and there is

consequently greater variety in the façades. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about

the architecture of this period is its apparent exemption from the influence of the

Moorish monuments which abounded on every hand. This may be explained by the

hatred which was felt by the Christians for the Moslems and all their works.

MONUMENTS. GERMANY: Previous to 11th century: Circular churches of Holy Cross at

Münster, and of Fulda; palace chapel of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, 804; St.

Stephen, Mayence, 990; primitive nave and crypt of St. Gereon, Cologne, 10th century;

Lorsch.--11th century: Churches of Gernrode, Goslar, and Merseburg in Saxony;

cathedral of Bremen; first restoration of cathedral of Treves (Trier), 1010, west front,

1047; Limburg-on-Hardt, 1024; St. Willibrod, Echternach, 1031; east end of Mayence

Cathedral, 1036; Church of Apostles and nave St. Mary-in-Capitol at Cologne, 1036;

cathedral of Spires (Speyer) begun 1040; Cathedral Hildesheim, 1061; St. Joseph,

Bamberg, 1073; Abbey of Laach, 10931156; round churches of Bonn, Drügelte,

Nimeguen; cathedrals of Paderborn and Minden.--12th century: Churches of Klus,

Paulinzelle, Hamersleben, 11001110; Johannisberg, 1130; St. Godehard. Hildesheim,

1133; Worms, the Minster, 111883; Jerichau, 114460; Schwarz-Rheindorf, 1151; St.

Michael, Hildesheim, 1162; Cathedral Brunswick, 117294; Lubeck, 1172; also

churches of Gaudersheim, Würzburg, St. Matthew at Treves, Limburg-on-Lahn, Sinzig, St.

Castor at Coblentz, Diesdorf, Rosheim; round churches of Ottmarsheim and Rippen

(Denmark); cathedral of Basle, cathedral and cloister of Zurich (Switzerland).

ENGLAND: Previous to 11th century: Scanty vestiges of Saxon church architecture, as

tower of Earl's Barton, round towers and small chapels in Ireland.--11th century: Crypt

of Canterbury Cathedral, 1070; chapel St. John in Tower of London, 1070; Winchester

Cathedral, 107693 (nave and choir rebuilt later); Gloucester Cathedral nave, 1089

1100 (vaulted later); Rochester Cathedral nave, west front cloisters, and chapter-house,

10901130; Carlisle Cathedral nave, transepts, 10931130; Durham Cathedral, 1095

1133, vaulted 1233; Galilee and chapter-house, 113353; Norwich Cathedral, 1096,

largely rebuilt 111893; Hereford Cathedral, nave and choir, 10991115.--12th

century: Ely Cathedral, nave, 110733; St. Alban's Abbey, 1116; Peterboro' Cathedral,

111745; Waltham Abbey, early 12th century; Church of Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge,

113035; Worcester Cathedral chapter-house, 1140 (?); Oxford Cathedral (Christ

Church), 115080; Bristol Cathedral chapter-house (square), 1155; Canterbury

Cathedral, choir of present structure by William of Sens, 1175; Chichester Cathedral,

11801204; Romsey Abbey, late 12th century; St. Cross Hospital near Winchester,

1190 (?). Many more or less important parish churches in various parts of England.

SPAIN. For principal monuments of 9th-12th centuries, see text, latter part of this

chapter.

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