DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0358
338
ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.
Pabt II.
races escheated to the Conqueror, and in the division of the spoil the
clergy seem in some cases to have been even more fortunate than the
laity. But however this may have been, it will be easily understood
that a French hierarchy vowed to celibacy would be able to find no
better way of employing théir easily acquired wealth than in the
display of architectural magnificence. During the century which
succeeded the Conquest, the Saxon cathedrals, with scarcely an ex-
ception, were swepb away to make roorn for nobler buildings designed
by foreign architects, and all the larger abbey churches were like-
wise rebuilt. All this was done with such grandeur of conception,
and so just an appreciation of the true principles of architectural
effect, that even now the Norman nave, in spite of its rudeness, is
frequently a more impressive specimen of art than the more polished
productions of the succeeding centuries.
The impulse once so nobly given, the good work proceeded steadily
but rapidly. During the three centuries which succeeded the Conquest,
all the artistic intellect of the nation seems to have been concentrated
on this one art. Poetry hardly existed, and Painting and Sculpture
were only employed as the handmaids of architecture. But year by
year new and improved forms of construction were invented and
universally adopted. New mouldings, and new applications of carvings
and foliage, were introduced ; and painting on opaque substances and
even on glass was carried to an astonishing degree of perfection. All
this was done without borrowing and without extraneous aid, but
by steadily progressing to a well-understood object with a definite
aim. It is true that occasionally, as at Westminster Abbey, we detect
the influence of French arrangements ; but even there the design is
carried on in so essentially English a manner, with details so purely
English, as to make us feel even more strongly how essentially native
the style had become.
The Ethnic combination, which led to the maiwellous perfection of
Gothic art during the Edwardian period, was as fortunate as can well
be conceived. It was a Celtic hierarchy and aristocracy steadied by a
Saxon people ; with the substratum of an earlier Celtic race, held in
absolute subjection by the Saxons, but rising again, at least partially,
to the surface, under the Norman domination. It was something like
what hapjiened in Athens when a Dorian race was superimposed on one
of Pelasgic origin ; and, although the conditions were here reversed,
and the field far more limited, the result was still most successful.
Within the limits of a century, the French had jumped from the ten-
tative example of St. Denis (1144) to the perfection of the Sainte
Chapelle (1244). Our St. Stephen’s Chapel was not finished till a
century afterwards ; but while the French hardly ever went beyond
their great 13th century efiort, in the 16th century we were building
the Boyal Chapcls at Windsor, Westminster, and Cambridge.
ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.
Pabt II.
races escheated to the Conqueror, and in the division of the spoil the
clergy seem in some cases to have been even more fortunate than the
laity. But however this may have been, it will be easily understood
that a French hierarchy vowed to celibacy would be able to find no
better way of employing théir easily acquired wealth than in the
display of architectural magnificence. During the century which
succeeded the Conquest, the Saxon cathedrals, with scarcely an ex-
ception, were swepb away to make roorn for nobler buildings designed
by foreign architects, and all the larger abbey churches were like-
wise rebuilt. All this was done with such grandeur of conception,
and so just an appreciation of the true principles of architectural
effect, that even now the Norman nave, in spite of its rudeness, is
frequently a more impressive specimen of art than the more polished
productions of the succeeding centuries.
The impulse once so nobly given, the good work proceeded steadily
but rapidly. During the three centuries which succeeded the Conquest,
all the artistic intellect of the nation seems to have been concentrated
on this one art. Poetry hardly existed, and Painting and Sculpture
were only employed as the handmaids of architecture. But year by
year new and improved forms of construction were invented and
universally adopted. New mouldings, and new applications of carvings
and foliage, were introduced ; and painting on opaque substances and
even on glass was carried to an astonishing degree of perfection. All
this was done without borrowing and without extraneous aid, but
by steadily progressing to a well-understood object with a definite
aim. It is true that occasionally, as at Westminster Abbey, we detect
the influence of French arrangements ; but even there the design is
carried on in so essentially English a manner, with details so purely
English, as to make us feel even more strongly how essentially native
the style had become.
The Ethnic combination, which led to the maiwellous perfection of
Gothic art during the Edwardian period, was as fortunate as can well
be conceived. It was a Celtic hierarchy and aristocracy steadied by a
Saxon people ; with the substratum of an earlier Celtic race, held in
absolute subjection by the Saxons, but rising again, at least partially,
to the surface, under the Norman domination. It was something like
what hapjiened in Athens when a Dorian race was superimposed on one
of Pelasgic origin ; and, although the conditions were here reversed,
and the field far more limited, the result was still most successful.
Within the limits of a century, the French had jumped from the ten-
tative example of St. Denis (1144) to the perfection of the Sainte
Chapelle (1244). Our St. Stephen’s Chapel was not finished till a
century afterwards ; but while the French hardly ever went beyond
their great 13th century efiort, in the 16th century we were building
the Boyal Chapcls at Windsor, Westminster, and Cambridge.