Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/471

ENGLISH.] ARCHITECTURE 427 pillars were elongated by almost twelve feet. In the old capitals tlie work was plain, in the new ones exquisite in sculpture. There the arches and everything else AVUS plain or sculptured with an axe and not with a chisel, but here almost throughout is appropriate sculpture. No marble columns were there, but here are innumerable ones. There, in the- circuit around the choir, the vaults were plain, but here they are arch-ribbed and have key-stones." "There was a ceiling of wood decorated with excellent painting, but here is a vault beaiitifully constructed of stene and light tufa. There was a single triforium, but here are two in the choir, and a third in the aisle of the church," &c. This great work was begun under a French architect, William of Sens, in the year 1 1 75 ; he was killed by injuries received in a fall from the scaffolding in 1179,- and was succeeded by his assistant, William the Englishman; and to these two men is due the credit of the design as we now see it. One of the most noteworthy points in its history is the obvious and simple mode of accounting for the French character and state of much of the work, which it presents ; and looking at it, no one can be surprised at the enormous development which immediately took place throughout the country. The change from heavy piers, with carving rather elaborate than beautiful, to delicate columns carry ing on exquisite capitals lofty and graceful pointed arches and vaults, was so great that it was impossible not to prefer it to the stately but comparatively rude work which it supplanted ; and so the tide of change having set in, further improvements were soon desired. Mouldings became much more delicate and subtle in their contour. Groining was then more tastefully planned and disposed, windows and doorways were made far more graceful, whilst the system of construction was largely improved upon. Instead of thick, massive walls without buttresses, the walls were re duced in thickness, and the material saved was transferred to the buttress, where it could most effectually fulfil its office of supporting the vaults and walls above. From buttresses conceived in this view the transition to flying buttresses was easy; then to stiffen these, pinnacles were added. And in the same way one lancet window led the way to groups of lancets ; and these in their turn, by combinations with pierced circular windows, to completely developed traceries. The First Pointed, Lancet, or Early English style to which the transitional work thus led up, may fairly be considered to be a purely English variety of Gothic. It is more con sistently graceful and delicate in its details, as well as in its general character, than any foreign work of the same pjriod. There was no longer any observable foreign influ ence brought to bear as there had been at Canterbury. Intelligent artists all over the country were rapid in seizing the best features of executed works, and carrying them farther with as little delay as possible. There were various centres from which distinct local varieties of style were sent out. If we compare York (transepts), Lincoln, and Salis bury Cathedrals, we shall find that, though there are certain general similarities of treatment, the distinct mark of the one presiding individual architect or artist is found in each. Compared to the architect of York Minster, the one who built Salisbury was altogether inferior. This feature of local varieties in style, the result of the influence of indi viduals, is from this period one of the most noteworthy features in English art; and generally one man influenced the work in his own diocese or district, and no further. Throughout the period before us 1189 to 1272 the de velopments were all in the same direction as during the pre vious time of transition. The tendency was always to greater lightness and elegance ; skilful combinations were much thought of; and, towards the end of the period, there was even too great a display sometimes of the cleverness [ of the artist. But with work so really beautiful as it all was, and so uniformly good in the smallest nearly as much as in the largest building, it is ungracious, if not conceited, to affect to criticise the spirit in which the artist worked. The use of delicate shafts of polished marble (obtained in great part from the Isle of Purbeck) for doorways, windows, and arcades, is one of the distinguishing features of the style at this time. Generally they are treated with great beauty, but there were structural inconveniences about them which soon began to be felt. The columns were of necessity set out of their .natural bed, and so began very soon to decay. It was necessary also to combine them together in groups, and to trust to the capitals, bands, and bases holding them together ; and such construction not only looks dangerously slight, but is so. A radical defect also in engaged marble shafts is that, though they seem to be intended to do all the work and carry all the weight, they do in point of fact, wherever it can be contrived, carry no weight at all; and it was, no doubt, when and as this was discovered, that the mediaeval builders gradually lost their Liking for them, and returned to safer, if less brilliant, construction in stone, with piers formed with mouldings instead of shafts detached from the wall. The characteristic elegance of the general architectural design was carried out in all the details. The mouldings were delicately rounded and alternated with hollows so drawn as to give here delicate and there most forcible effects of light and shade. Thus the dark line produced by marble in a pier was continued by means of a dark shadow in the arch ; and without considerable knowledge of the science of moulding, it is impossible to do justice to this part of the English Early Pointed work, which has never been sur passed, if, indeed, it has ever been equalled at any period elsewhere. The groined roofs were still simple in design, but a ridge rib was often added to the necessary transverse and diagonal ribs of the previous period. This gave a certain hardness of line to the vault ; it was the first step to the more elaborate and later systems of vaulting, and was soon followed by the introduction of other ribs on the surface of the vaulting cells. Few works are more admirable than some of the towers and spires of this period, but space will not allow of mention even of many of its best features. Probably the greatest excellence ever attained in English art was reached in this period by the architects of the great Yorkshire abbeys. No buildings in Europe surpass them in purity of general design, excellence of construction, beauty of detail, or suitability for their purposes. And it is a mis fortune of the gravest kind for future generations, that their ruined condition forbids the possibility of our descendants appreciating as we can these consummate works of the most golden period of English art. The transition from the simplest Early Pointed to a more Later- advanced style can be seen as well in Westminster Abbey as stylet, anywhere. Here traceries began to take the place of simple lancet openings, and led to that system of window tracery which was, in fact, the distinguishing feature of the suc ceeding style. When the invention of tracery was com plete, everything in Gothic architecture rapidly changed. The art of masonry and stone-cutting was rapidly developed. Moulded stones, from being made continuous round the intricate combinations of window traceries, came naturally to be used much more largely than before in place of simple bearing shafts. So columns came to be formed of clusters of mouldings; and, in the case of groined buildings, each moulding of the shaft was developed into more mouldings above the capital, or even frequently carried on to the vault without any capital at all. Traceries were first of all com menced by merely piercing geometrical patterns or circles through th? thickness of the walls. Then these patterns

were combined under one enclosing arch; and then, when