Page images
PDF
EPUB

more recent conical and hemispherical domes are placed: the intersection of the two great triangles fixes the diameter to be given to the internal void, around which the side aisle, its walls and pillars should be formed. The circle which has its diameter comprised between the apex of the two equilaterals determines the clear width between the

[blocks in formation]

outer walls. That the architects of those days delighted in the forms produced by the several intersections of the circle in combination with the equilateral triangle, we are assured by viewing the several designs they have left us in mosaic upon the walls of the Duomo, and at the cathedrals of Florence, Sienna, and elsewhere.

Roslyn Chapel, Scotland, commenced about the year 1446, has its buttresses well suited to give aid to the walls, and to enable them to resist the thrust of its nearly semicircular vault, which they receive below the springing. The extreme width from face to face of the buttresses is 48 feet 4 inches; the span of the nave is 15 feet 8 inches, being 5 inches less than the proportion of a third; the two side aisles together

are 15 feet, or within a few inches of the width of the have; consequently the walls and piers in this beautiful example are 17 feet 8 inches, or 15 inches more in extent than they would have been if the proportion of one-third had been adopted. The height from the pavement to the under side of vault is 41 feet 10 inches.

After the examples described, we cannot doubt of the great proficiency that had been made in the application of the rules of geometry to architecture; every feature, whether the simple moulding or the most elaborate tracery, was set out either upon the equilateral triangle, square, or pentagon, and these regular figures seem to have been chosen on account of the facility by which they are subdivided. From the introduction of the style each fifty years that succeeded brought with them new and improved principles, and at the very commencement of the fourteenth century, we see the clustered pillar and

[graphic][graphic]

Fig. 1298.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

its many moulded arches yielding to a style that combined greater simplicity with a more thorough knowledge of construction, which will be evident upon an examination of St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, (now destroyed,) begun in 1348, the nave of Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals, and several others. In these examples we have elegantly formed arches resting on well-proportioned piers, the mouldings of which so combine that they form a perfect figure, and show that the points of support were designed to carry all that is placed above them; the same contour of moulding that surrounds the pier performs its useful part in the upper portions of the building, constituting one entire whole. This style, simple as well as elegant, was executed by masons fully qualified to advance it to the greatest perfection, and deserves both our study and admiration.

re

Canterbury Cathedral exhibits every variety of style found in mediæval architecture; its history has been published by Mr. Britton: to that work, to which the writer contributed some measurements in 1820, he must refer for a detailed and elaborate account of the several changes made in the decoration of the edifice. It is only to the pillars of the nave we are desirous of drawing the attention, and that merely to show their simple form, and the manner of setting them out: four squares are so placed that their diagonals and sides are united in the centre, thus constituting a form capable of the greatest resistance at the four points of the entire pier, where the several thrusts and pressures are reived: the O G mouldings of the piers run round the arches, whilst the columnar mouldings towards the aisle and nave support the ribs of their respective vaults. Greater simplicity can hardly be obtained, and every line and indentation of the plan has its use and appropriation: there is no profusion, or member for the sole purpose of decoration; in this arrangement we have the commencement of good taste, and the indication of a more harmonious and perfect style.

[blocks in formation]

Fig. 1301.

ST. OUEN AT BOUZN.

In the Church at St. Ouen at Rouen, we have a very different arrangement, and by no means so solid a form.

Winchester Cathedral.-One division of the nave has been selected to show the peculiar style practised at the latter end of the fourteenth century, and also the skill exhibited in changing the form of a Saxon edifice, and giving it its present character.

fig. 1303. is that of the pillar, as well as

of the mouldings and walls of the triforium and clerestory above.

When

William of Wykeham effected the changes in the nave of this cathedral, he preserved all above the arches of the triforium, cutting away only the masonry of each division below that level which intervened between the main pillars; he then caused the whole to be cased with an ashlar, so that the original Saxon masonry and proportions of the mass remain within the casing. The dotted semicircular arch is the same as that in fig. 1266., and in the roofs above the groining the Saxon walls are traceable,another proof that when any alteration was made in a building by our mediæval masons, they did not think it necessary entirely to demolish it. We have in this example the decorative character which belongs to the architecture of the latter end of the fourteenth century, though somewhat heavy in its proportions, which arises from the mass constituting the original fabric being preserved, or having undergone so little change. The thickness of these pillars from north to south is 10 feet 8 inches, and from east to west 10 feet, whilst the width of the opening from east to west is only 14 feet.

If we examine the area of one severy of the nave, as left by Wykeham, and calculate the points of support, we shall see that the proportions are not those found in the nave at Canterbury, or in other cotemporary buildings; comprising the space between the buttresses, the entire area of the parallelogram contained between lines drawn through the middle of the piers from north to south is 2228 feet; while the points of support within that area are 557 feet, or onequarter of the whole.

On the section, shown at fig. 1304., the buttresses on the north side project 6 feet; the north wall is 5 feet 6 inches in thickness, the half piers attached project internally 2 feet 1 inch; the north aisle is in width 13 feet 1 inch, the pier 10 feet 8 inches; the clear width of the nave 32 feet 5 inches; the pier 10 feet 8 inches; the south aisle 13 feet 1 inch, the half-pier which projects from the south wall 2 feet 1 inch, and the thickness of the south wall 7 feet 2 inches; there are no buttresses, as the cloister, now removed, served their purpose. The width from east to west, measured from the centres of the piers, being 22 feet 1 inch, and the width of

The plan,

[graphic]

Fig. 1302. NAVE OF WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

buttresses outside 3 feet 2 inches.
The cathedral or duomo at Pisa
presents a very different result;
the total width of the nave is
113 feet 6 inches, and the width
of a severy 17 feet 1 inch, the
area of which is nearly 1930 feet,
the points of support being only a
twelfth of that quantity on the
plan, and one-sixth as regarded
upon the section.
Hence we see

the necessity of ascertaining the
proportions of mass and void in a
building, before we can accurately
judge of its merits as a style, each
Javing its peculiar quantity, which

marks its character.

The section or rather plan of the walls, on the level with the gallery of the triforium, shows the method adopted to proportion the openings to the mass. The thickness of the clerestory walls is included within the eight equilateral triangles, and where their sides cross, the position of the mullions is established. In fig. 1287. the circle which comprises the two that divide the window into three days shows their proportion and their size, which in this example is one-third of the opening: in a window of three days we have six triangles for space, and three for mullions : the splays at the sides of these windows, uniting them with the faces of the wall, are cut parallel with the sides of the several triangles. The main pier is set out by uniting the bases of two equilateral triangles with perpendicular lines, or forming the whole into the figure of a hexagon. By a comparison of this plan with that of fig. 1267., the additions made by William of Wykeham to the original Saxon pillar will be readily perceived.

[graphic]

The width of one of the divisions of the nave at Winchester, measured from the centres of the piers from west to east, is 22 feet I inch, and the same dimension taken in the nave at Canterbury is 20 feet only. In the former example the opening between the piers is 12 feet 1 inch, and in the latter 14 feet; there is consequently no comparison, with regard to lightness, in these two works of the same period; the pier being comprised 23 times in the entire division at Winchester, and 3 times at Canterbury, or on the pavement the plinths around the base seem to fall within one-third of the entire width. It would almost appear that in setting out the pillars of several cathedrals, the same system was practised as shown for the mullions of windows at fig. 1287.: but the plinths, and not the cluster of columns and mouldings, must be regarded as occupying the third. Bath Abbey church is 20 feet 2 inches from centre to centre of pier from east to

Fig. 1303.

PIER AND WINDOWS OF CLENESTORY, WINCHESTER.

« PreviousContinue »