gabled coping of Soissons, we get one of the intermediate steps of this development; but at Chartres this weight is still placed over the inner portion only of the buttress; it was presently seen, however, that it would be more effectual if set farther out upon it. Accordingly at Amiens (Fig. 44)[1] this weight is set flush with the outer face of the buttress, in the form of an upright square mass of masonry crowned by a steep pyramid, and the Gothic pinnacle stands forth in essential completeness. But the inventive faculties of the Gothic artists were fertile in variations upon this feature in which the constructive and decorative functions are so equally joined; and among the grandest results of their inventive activity are the pinnacles of Reims, which date from about 1240, and combine in one magnificent design the forms both of Soissons and Amiens. In this design the inner portion of the buttress, capped with a gable, rises far above the solid part of the outer portion, receiving the thrust of the upper abutting arch; while over the outer portion is an open-shafted canopy of elegant design, surmounted by a massive octagonal pyramid and by four lesser pyramids covering the angles of the square base on which they rest.
Thus the forms of these external supports, no less than those of the interior, were gradually developed as the mechanical exigencies involved were more and more perfectly apprehended. But, as with everything else in the Gothic system, a fine artistic spirit was always equally and simultaneously operative, which made beauty of form as imperative as constructive fitness; and hence these hard-working members are also among the most ornamental features of the Gothic edifice, so much so that their important constructive office has sometimes been largely lost sight of.[2] But in French Gothic, after 1160 at the latest, the stability of the structure is always absolutely dependent upon this member.
From the vaults and their internal and external supports,
- ↑ The upper portions of the buttresses of Amiens have been remodelled in the Flamboyant style. The pinnacle given in the illustration is taken from Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Cathedrale, Fig. 20, p. 329.
- ↑ An eminent English architect recently remarked to me that, in his opinion, the flying buttress was not really necessary to the stability of a vaulted building, citing, in support of this opinion, the nave of Salisbury Cathedral, where the external flying buttress does not occur.
