DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0640
576
RHENISH ARCHITECTURE.
Book II.
this noble building proves tliat tbe German arcMtects at that time liad
actually produced a great and original style, and tlrat they must have
succeeded in perfecting it, had they not ahandoned their task hefore it
was lialf completed.
The westem apse of the cathedral at Mayence is the most modem
part of these three great catliedrals, and perhaps the only example in
Germany where a triapsal arrangement has heen attempted with polyg-
onal instead of circular forms.
In this instance, as shown in
woodcut No. 450, tlie three
apses, each formed of three
sicles of an octagon, are
comhined together so as to
form a singularly spacious
and elegant choir, both ex-
ternally and internally as
heautiful as anything of its
kind in Germany. Its style
is so nearly iclentical with
tliat of the eastern apse of the
450. Westeru Apse of Catbedral at Mayence. cathedral at- Treves (wood-
cut No. 444), tliat there can
be no douht hut that, like it, it helongs to the heginning of the
13th century, when more variety and angularity were coming into use,
suggested no douht hy the greater convenience which flat surfaces
presented for inserting larger windows over the older carved outlines.
Now that painted glass had come generally into use, large openings
liad hecome indispensahle for its display. Notwithstanding this
advantage, and the great heauty of the other fonns often aclopted, none
of them compensate for tlie loss of the circular lines of the older
huildings.
As a general rule, it may he asserted the churches of Westphalia
are singularly devoid of taste and good design. They are extremel}'
numerous, and many of them sufi&ciently large for architectural effect;
hut in the earlier or Kound Gothic period they betray a clumsiness
wliicli is very unpleasing, and in the age of the Pointed Gothic tlieir
style is wire-drawn and attenuated to a degree almost worse than the
lieaviness of tliat which preceded it. The fact, indeed, is only too
apparent, tliat the northern Germans were not an artistic people, for
neither in Westphalia nor in any of the countries hetween it and the
Baltic do we find any churches displaying that heauty of style or con-
structive appropriateness which characterises those of Cologne or tlie
cities to the southward of that town.
A good deal of the heaviness of the northern churches internally
may no douht he traced to the circumstance that the earlier examples
depended almost wholly on colour for their ornament, and tlie paint-
ing liaving disappeared, the plain stone or plaster surfaces remain,
their flatness heing made only tlie morc prominent hy the whitewash
tliat now covers them. Notwithstanding these defects, so many ufi
RHENISH ARCHITECTURE.
Book II.
this noble building proves tliat tbe German arcMtects at that time liad
actually produced a great and original style, and tlrat they must have
succeeded in perfecting it, had they not ahandoned their task hefore it
was lialf completed.
The westem apse of the cathedral at Mayence is the most modem
part of these three great catliedrals, and perhaps the only example in
Germany where a triapsal arrangement has heen attempted with polyg-
onal instead of circular forms.
In this instance, as shown in
woodcut No. 450, tlie three
apses, each formed of three
sicles of an octagon, are
comhined together so as to
form a singularly spacious
and elegant choir, both ex-
ternally and internally as
heautiful as anything of its
kind in Germany. Its style
is so nearly iclentical with
tliat of the eastern apse of the
450. Westeru Apse of Catbedral at Mayence. cathedral at- Treves (wood-
cut No. 444), tliat there can
be no douht hut that, like it, it helongs to the heginning of the
13th century, when more variety and angularity were coming into use,
suggested no douht hy the greater convenience which flat surfaces
presented for inserting larger windows over the older carved outlines.
Now that painted glass had come generally into use, large openings
liad hecome indispensahle for its display. Notwithstanding this
advantage, and the great heauty of the other fonns often aclopted, none
of them compensate for tlie loss of the circular lines of the older
huildings.
As a general rule, it may he asserted the churches of Westphalia
are singularly devoid of taste and good design. They are extremel}'
numerous, and many of them sufi&ciently large for architectural effect;
hut in the earlier or Kound Gothic period they betray a clumsiness
wliicli is very unpleasing, and in the age of the Pointed Gothic tlieir
style is wire-drawn and attenuated to a degree almost worse than the
lieaviness of tliat which preceded it. The fact, indeed, is only too
apparent, tliat the northern Germans were not an artistic people, for
neither in Westphalia nor in any of the countries hetween it and the
Baltic do we find any churches displaying that heauty of style or con-
structive appropriateness which characterises those of Cologne or tlie
cities to the southward of that town.
A good deal of the heaviness of the northern churches internally
may no douht he traced to the circumstance that the earlier examples
depended almost wholly on colour for their ornament, and tlie paint-
ing liaving disappeared, the plain stone or plaster surfaces remain,
their flatness heing made only tlie morc prominent hy the whitewash
tliat now covers them. Notwithstanding these defects, so many ufi