Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/334

2'M GOTHIC AND AFTER-GOTHIC STYLES IN GERMANY. to the After- Gothic, we may say, that the Principle of a Frame- work of piers, arches, windows, vaulting ribs, and flying buttresses, is the leading idea of Gothic : — this principle may be followed out by itself, and this is in a great measure done in England, producing the Early English of Salisbury ; the notion of frame-work, however, not excluding considerable masses of wall : — but to obtain the Complete Gothic, we require, further, the Principle of Tracery, and the Principle of Lateral Cohesion, which gives a new character to the mould- ings ; and these principles, in Germany and France, are developed at the same time with the principle of frame-work, so that the Complete Gothic in those countries is the first fully formed pointed st^de. The Principle of Upward Growth in the parts adds to the style other features, as pinnacles, crockets, finials, spires; thus the Complete Gothic is formed. But the endeavour to build churches very loft}, made the frame-work too massive to be agreeable to the eye, and led at last to the plan of supporting the roof at a great height, without any decorative manifestation of the frame-work. The organic connexion of the whole being thus destroyed, the ornamentation of separate parts was pursued as an exercise of fancy and invention. The tracery became capricious and unconstructive, the structure of spires and other complex forms suggested interpenetrations, and these and the like practices mark the After-Gothic of Germany, till the Italian modes of ornamentation came into play. In what has preceded, I have attempted to characterise the After-Gothic of Germany rather by the principles which appear to operate in its formation, than by an enumeration and description of details, such as English writers have given for the Perpendicular style. Nevertheless such an enume- ration, for instance, of forms of mouldings, bases, capitals, and the like, would be very desirable, and would be a labour well worth the while of one who could spend sufficient time in examining the churches of Germany. In the course of such a labour it would probably be ascertained whether the After-Gothic of Germany can be subdi^■ided into several well-characterised styles, and how it is distinguishable from the Flamboyant of France, as well as from the Perpendicular of England. What I have here offered can pass only for a small contribution to such a work, though collected from the best attempts which, so far as I am aware, have yet been made with such views.