DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0245
CHAP. I
its Culmination in Gothic
225
It is obvious however that in proportion as the materials of
the arch are made to adhere closely together, the less
lateral support will it require, while a vault quite homo-
geneous in structure would require none. The Romans,
constructing their vaults mainly of more or less homo-
geneous concrete, got rid to a large extent of the difficulty
of the lateral thrust, but this again confronted the mediaeval
builders when they began in the eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies to roof their churches with stone vaults.
§ 138. The Arch in the hands of.Mediseval Builders.
The Gothic Style.
At this epoch there appeared in France a school of
builders gifted with the finest scientific insight into con-
structive problems, and with an equal appreciation of
beauty and significance in architectural forms, and from
their hands proceeded the early Gothic cathedral, which in
its essentials, though not in its details, is to be regarded as
a logical deduction from the constructive principles of the
arch, modified in every portion by that effort after beauty
and significance in forms which turns the construction of
utility into one of art. In this building almost all the
features are conditioned in the first place by construction,
but modified and added to on artistic grounds. The
generating centre of the whole is the stone vault, which is
pointed in section, and from this all the rest is evolved.
The vault is divided into a succession of compartments
each of which is formed by the intersection of two pointed
barrel vaults. The lines of intersection crossing the com-
partment diagonally from corner to corner are marked by
projecting ribs, the use of which was introduced in certain
earlier barrel vaults of stone in the south of France, belong-
ing to the Romanesque period. The function of these ribs
Q
its Culmination in Gothic
225
It is obvious however that in proportion as the materials of
the arch are made to adhere closely together, the less
lateral support will it require, while a vault quite homo-
geneous in structure would require none. The Romans,
constructing their vaults mainly of more or less homo-
geneous concrete, got rid to a large extent of the difficulty
of the lateral thrust, but this again confronted the mediaeval
builders when they began in the eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies to roof their churches with stone vaults.
§ 138. The Arch in the hands of.Mediseval Builders.
The Gothic Style.
At this epoch there appeared in France a school of
builders gifted with the finest scientific insight into con-
structive problems, and with an equal appreciation of
beauty and significance in architectural forms, and from
their hands proceeded the early Gothic cathedral, which in
its essentials, though not in its details, is to be regarded as
a logical deduction from the constructive principles of the
arch, modified in every portion by that effort after beauty
and significance in forms which turns the construction of
utility into one of art. In this building almost all the
features are conditioned in the first place by construction,
but modified and added to on artistic grounds. The
generating centre of the whole is the stone vault, which is
pointed in section, and from this all the rest is evolved.
The vault is divided into a succession of compartments
each of which is formed by the intersection of two pointed
barrel vaults. The lines of intersection crossing the com-
partment diagonally from corner to corner are marked by
projecting ribs, the use of which was introduced in certain
earlier barrel vaults of stone in the south of France, belong-
ing to the Romanesque period. The function of these ribs
Q