DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0193
Bk. III. Ch. X.
BUTTRESSES.
173
r~
c
<
buttresses in various stages of advanceruent. The view of one of those
of the choir of St. Ouen (No. 663) exhibits the system in its greatest
degree of development. Here there are two vertical and two flying
buttresses, forming a system of great lightness, but at the same time
of immense constructive strength, and when used sparingly and with
elegance, as in this instance, constituting an object of great beauty.
The abuse of this expedient, as in the cathedral at Cologne ancl else-
where, went very far to mar the proper effect.
The cathedral at Chartres presents a singular but very beautiful
instance of an earlier form of flying buttress : there the immense span
of the central vault put the architects on their mettle to provide a
sufficient abutment, and they did it by building what was literally
an open wall across the aisle
(see Woodcut No. 628), strongly
arched, and the arches connected
by short strong pillars radiating
with the voussoirs of the arch.
Nothing could well be stronger
and more scientific than this,
but the absence of perpen-
dicularity in the pillars was
unpleasing to the eye then as
now, and the contrivance was
never repeated.
A far more pleasing form
was that adopted afterwards at
Amiens (Woodcut No. 664) and
elsewhere, where a series of
small traceried arches stand on
the lower flying buttress, and
support the upper, which is
straight-lined. Even here, however, the difficulty is not quite got
over ; the unequal height of these connecting arches, and the awkward
angle which the lower sujjports make with the curvilinear form on
which they rest, deprive them of that constructive propriety which
alone secures a perfectly satisfactory result in architecture. The
problem indeed is one which the French never thoroughly solved,
though they bestowed immense pains upon it. Brilliant as the effect
sometimes is of the immense mass of pinnacles and flying buttresses,
they are seldom so put together as to leave an entirely satisfactory
result on the mind of the spectator. Taken all in all, perhaps the
most pleasing example is that of Pv-heims (Woodcut No. 629)—those
on each side of the nave especially—where two bold simple arches
transmit the pressure from a bold exquisitely pinnacled buttress to
the sides of the clerestory, and in such a rnanner as to leave nn doubt
BUTTRESSES.
173
r~
c
<
buttresses in various stages of advanceruent. The view of one of those
of the choir of St. Ouen (No. 663) exhibits the system in its greatest
degree of development. Here there are two vertical and two flying
buttresses, forming a system of great lightness, but at the same time
of immense constructive strength, and when used sparingly and with
elegance, as in this instance, constituting an object of great beauty.
The abuse of this expedient, as in the cathedral at Cologne ancl else-
where, went very far to mar the proper effect.
The cathedral at Chartres presents a singular but very beautiful
instance of an earlier form of flying buttress : there the immense span
of the central vault put the architects on their mettle to provide a
sufficient abutment, and they did it by building what was literally
an open wall across the aisle
(see Woodcut No. 628), strongly
arched, and the arches connected
by short strong pillars radiating
with the voussoirs of the arch.
Nothing could well be stronger
and more scientific than this,
but the absence of perpen-
dicularity in the pillars was
unpleasing to the eye then as
now, and the contrivance was
never repeated.
A far more pleasing form
was that adopted afterwards at
Amiens (Woodcut No. 664) and
elsewhere, where a series of
small traceried arches stand on
the lower flying buttress, and
support the upper, which is
straight-lined. Even here, however, the difficulty is not quite got
over ; the unequal height of these connecting arches, and the awkward
angle which the lower sujjports make with the curvilinear form on
which they rest, deprive them of that constructive propriety which
alone secures a perfectly satisfactory result in architecture. The
problem indeed is one which the French never thoroughly solved,
though they bestowed immense pains upon it. Brilliant as the effect
sometimes is of the immense mass of pinnacles and flying buttresses,
they are seldom so put together as to leave an entirely satisfactory
result on the mind of the spectator. Taken all in all, perhaps the
most pleasing example is that of Pv-heims (Woodcut No. 629)—those
on each side of the nave especially—where two bold simple arches
transmit the pressure from a bold exquisitely pinnacled buttress to
the sides of the clerestory, and in such a rnanner as to leave nn doubt