DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0766
702
FRENCH ARCHITECTURE.
Book III.
mass and mnsic as well as from the floor of the church. These ad-
vantages were counterhalanced hy the greater dignity and architectural
heauty of the second arrangement (woodcut No. 525), where the whole
height was divided into that of the side aisles and of a clerestory,
separated from one another hy a triforium gallery, which represented
in fact the depth of the wooden roof requisite to cover the side aisles.
When once this simple and heautiful arrangement was adopted, it con-
tinued with very little variation throughout the middle ages.1 The
proportions generally used were to make the aisles half the height of
the nave. In other words, the string-course helow the triforium di-
vided the height into two equal parts; the space above that was
divided into three, of which two were allotted to the clerestory, and
one to the triforium. It is true there is perhaps no single instance in
which the proportions here given are exactly preserved, hut they suffi-
ciently represent the general division of the parts, from which the
architects only deviated slightly, sometimes on one side, sometimes on
the other, according to their taste or caprice. The only really im-
portant change afterwards introduced was that of glazing the triforium
gallery also, by adopting a flat roof, or one nearly so, over the side
aisies, as at the church of St. Ouen at Eouen (woodcut Xo. 568), where
the roof is so flat that the edge of it is hardly seen hy a spectator
standing on tlie floor of the church. The whole walls of the church,
with the slight exception of the spandrils of the great pier-arches, have
thus become walls of glass, the mass of the vault being supported only
by the deep and bold constructive lines of which the framework of
the glass surface consists.
In England we have not, as far as I am aware, any instance of a
glazed triforium, but it is nevertheless probably one of the most beau-
tiful features in the later styles of the French architeets, and where it
retains its coloured glass, which is indispensable, produces one of the
most fairy-like effects ever attained hi any architectural work.
Vaults.
It has already appeared how essential a part of a Gothic church the
vault was, and how completely it was the governing power that gave
form to the art. We have also seen the various steps by which the
architects arrived at the intersecting vault, which becarne the typical
form in the best age. In France espec.ially the stone vault was retained
throughout as a really essential feature, for in that country the art of
constructing ornamental wooden roofs never prevailed.
In the best age the arrangement of the Frencli vaults was ex-
tremely simple. The aisles were generally built in square compart-
ments, the vaults of whicli were first circumscribed each by I equal
1 The earlier form is found retained at century ; but in the first years of the 13th
Noyon, at Paris, as shown in woodcut No. it gave place to the second, and was never
536, and in most of the churches of the 12th at'terwards revived.
FRENCH ARCHITECTURE.
Book III.
mass and mnsic as well as from the floor of the church. These ad-
vantages were counterhalanced hy the greater dignity and architectural
heauty of the second arrangement (woodcut No. 525), where the whole
height was divided into that of the side aisles and of a clerestory,
separated from one another hy a triforium gallery, which represented
in fact the depth of the wooden roof requisite to cover the side aisles.
When once this simple and heautiful arrangement was adopted, it con-
tinued with very little variation throughout the middle ages.1 The
proportions generally used were to make the aisles half the height of
the nave. In other words, the string-course helow the triforium di-
vided the height into two equal parts; the space above that was
divided into three, of which two were allotted to the clerestory, and
one to the triforium. It is true there is perhaps no single instance in
which the proportions here given are exactly preserved, hut they suffi-
ciently represent the general division of the parts, from which the
architects only deviated slightly, sometimes on one side, sometimes on
the other, according to their taste or caprice. The only really im-
portant change afterwards introduced was that of glazing the triforium
gallery also, by adopting a flat roof, or one nearly so, over the side
aisies, as at the church of St. Ouen at Eouen (woodcut Xo. 568), where
the roof is so flat that the edge of it is hardly seen hy a spectator
standing on tlie floor of the church. The whole walls of the church,
with the slight exception of the spandrils of the great pier-arches, have
thus become walls of glass, the mass of the vault being supported only
by the deep and bold constructive lines of which the framework of
the glass surface consists.
In England we have not, as far as I am aware, any instance of a
glazed triforium, but it is nevertheless probably one of the most beau-
tiful features in the later styles of the French architeets, and where it
retains its coloured glass, which is indispensable, produces one of the
most fairy-like effects ever attained hi any architectural work.
Vaults.
It has already appeared how essential a part of a Gothic church the
vault was, and how completely it was the governing power that gave
form to the art. We have also seen the various steps by which the
architects arrived at the intersecting vault, which becarne the typical
form in the best age. In France espec.ially the stone vault was retained
throughout as a really essential feature, for in that country the art of
constructing ornamental wooden roofs never prevailed.
In the best age the arrangement of the Frencli vaults was ex-
tremely simple. The aisles were generally built in square compart-
ments, the vaults of whicli were first circumscribed each by I equal
1 The earlier form is found retained at century ; but in the first years of the 13th
Noyon, at Paris, as shown in woodcut No. it gave place to the second, and was never
536, and in most of the churches of the 12th at'terwards revived.