aOTHIO
673
GOTHIC
irregularities in plan, the variations in spacing, the
incHnation of walls, and all the other manifold peculi-
arities of medieval building are in many cases premedi-
tated, and not the result of negligence or accident . The
aesthetic excuse he makes less obvious, however, nor
has he yet established any general law which holds as
consistently as do those governing architectural re-
finements in Greek architecture. The mystical de-
ductions as to the persistence of certain numerical
laws, the occult properties of numbers, and the angle
called the "pi pitch" from the time of the builders of
the pyramids, all of which are supposed to express
certain fundamental laws governing the universe, and
to have been transmitted from father to son for thou-
sands of years, until they appear as the controlling
principles of Gothic proportion, and the setting out of
Gothic plans, may be found in "Ideal Metronomy",
by the Rev. H. G. Wood (Boston, 1909).
When the chevet of Le Mans was finished, in 1254, the beginnings recorded in Jumieges two centuries be- fore had worked themselves out to a point beyond which further wholesome development was impossible. The Franks had perfected what the Xormans had initiated; the structural scheme inherent in Jumieges hatl progressed step by step to its conclusion; the great architectural harmonies of form and proportion and dimension, the mysterious and evocative powers of subtile and rhythmical relationship, had already achieved their highest fruition in Chart res and Reims, while an entirely new category of art, no sign of which had been accorded to the Normans, had by the Franks been brought again into being, viz.. that of absolute beauty in ornament and decoration, whether in stone or glass or pigment, whether in itself as isolated detail or in regard to its placing and disposition. Moreover, this latter manifestation of art was in terms radically different to anyt.hing that had gone before, although the principles were identical with those of all great art: " In breadth of design, co-ordination of parts and measured recurrence of structural and ornamental ele- ments, the Gothic artist obeyed, though in a different form, the same primary laws that had governed tin- ancient Greek" (Moore, op. cit., I, 22). The same was true of his sense of abstract and concrete beauty; in the contours of his mouldings, the carving of his caps and crockets, bosses and spandrels, the develop- ment of his decorative compositions of mass and line, and light and shade, he fell in no respect behind his brothers of Greece, while he excelled those of Byzan- tium. The forms were different, wholly his own and original, but the essential spirit was the same.
In the meantime Ciothic architecture had been fol- lowing a parallel course of development in England, borrowing directly from Normandy and France, as- similating what it so acquired, and giving to all a dis- tinctly national character that tended from year to year further to separate English Gothic from any other, both structurally and artistically. No sooner was the Conquest effected in 1066, than the building of Norman abbeys, cathedrals, and churches was put in hand. Actually the introduction of Norman Roman- esque occurred sixteen years earlier, viz., in 10.50, when St. Edward the Confessor began the building of Canterbury. The earliest work differs in no essential particular from that of Normandy, except as regards size, which in many cases was astonishing; not only were the abbeys often far larger than anything in Nor- mandy, they were the greatest buildings in Europe. Winchester and St. Paul's were more than double the ground area of the .\bbaye aux Hommes, while the London cathedral and Bury St. Edmunds were each a fourth larger even than the gigantic Cluny itself. From the first the English peculiarity of great length combined with comparatively narrow nave (30-35 feet in clear span) is conspicuous. As the Norman buildings were destroyed, and rebuilt under Gothic in- fluence, the original-setting out was generally adhered VI.— 43
to, and Gothic naves are seldom found of a width
greater than that of the Norman. Very early, also,
occurs the typical deep English choir, Canterbury in
1096, having one nine bays in depth. This excessive
length of the eastern arm was due quite as much to
practical considerations as to those of beauty. Re-
ligion was popular in England for some centuries after
the Conquest, and great quantities of worshippers
had to be provided for. In Spain the choir of monks or
secular clergy thrust itself tlirough the nave half way
to the west doors; in France it usually took in at least
the crossing; the cathedrals of the Ile-de-France were
secular and the very wide choirs easily accommodated
the few canons. In England, however, the numbers
of the monks and canons was so great, and so many of
the cathedrals were monastic in their foundation, that
enormously long choirs were necessary for the seating,
in their narrow width, of those permanently attached
to each church.
The great abbeys and cathedrals were seldom vaulted, being covered by timber roofs of low pitch, except as regards their easily vaulted aisles. Barrel vaults were occasionally used, groin vaults in innu- merable cases; the groin vault with ribs first occurs in Durham in 1093, an astonishing date, since the earUest ribbed vault claimed for France is in the diminutive church of Rhuis, a structure the date of which is un- known, but is placed at about 1100. The earUest known rib vault is claimed by Rivoira to be that of San Flaviano, in Umbria, but there is some doubt as to whether this is the original vault of a church known to have been built in 1032. San Nazzaro Maggiore, at Milan, has an authentic rib vault of 1075, and it ap- pears therefore that the choir vault of Durham is ear- lier than any certain example in France, however small, and that it was built within twentj' years of the first dated rib vault in Lombardy. The vaults of Durham nave are pointed and ribbed, and are not later than 1128, six years after the pointed arch ap- pears in the little French church of Morienval.
No further development towards (iothic occurred in England until the middle of the twelfth century. Great abbeys in the fully developed Norman style,
