DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25500#0184
120
COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE.
effects, and the change to the pointed style was promoted,
by the effort to solve the problems of vaulting.
v. Social and Political.—Hugh Capet ascended the
Frankish throne towards the close of the tenth century,
Paris being made the capital of the kingdom. At this period
the greater part of the country was held by independent
lords, and the authority of the king extended little beyond
Paris and Orleans. Lawlessness and bloodshed were rife
throughout the century.
vi. Historical.—On the death of Charlemagne the
Northmen had invaded northern France, thus giving the
name to Normandy, their leader, Rollo, being the ancestor
of the Norman kings of England. The conquest of England
in 1066 marked the transference of the most vigorous of the
Normans to England. The hold, however, that they re-
tained on their possessions in France was the cause of con-
tinual invasions and wars in the two countries, until the
complete fusion of races in both was marked by the loss of
the English possessions in France.
2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
The southern style is strongest in rich decorative facades,
and graceful cloisters. The style of Provence is a new ver-
sion of old Roman features, here seeming to have acquired
a fresh significance.
In Aquitania and Anjou it is the vast interiors in one span,
supported by the massive walls of the recessed chapels, that
impress us. In them we seem to see revived the great halls
of the Roman Thermae. In the north, however, the style,
though rude, is the promising commencement of a new
epoch, the first tentative essays of a new system. These
interiors close set with pier and pillar, and heavily roofed
with ponderous arching, are to lead to the fairy structures of
the next three centuries, where matter is lost in the
emotions expressed.
COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE.
effects, and the change to the pointed style was promoted,
by the effort to solve the problems of vaulting.
v. Social and Political.—Hugh Capet ascended the
Frankish throne towards the close of the tenth century,
Paris being made the capital of the kingdom. At this period
the greater part of the country was held by independent
lords, and the authority of the king extended little beyond
Paris and Orleans. Lawlessness and bloodshed were rife
throughout the century.
vi. Historical.—On the death of Charlemagne the
Northmen had invaded northern France, thus giving the
name to Normandy, their leader, Rollo, being the ancestor
of the Norman kings of England. The conquest of England
in 1066 marked the transference of the most vigorous of the
Normans to England. The hold, however, that they re-
tained on their possessions in France was the cause of con-
tinual invasions and wars in the two countries, until the
complete fusion of races in both was marked by the loss of
the English possessions in France.
2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
The southern style is strongest in rich decorative facades,
and graceful cloisters. The style of Provence is a new ver-
sion of old Roman features, here seeming to have acquired
a fresh significance.
In Aquitania and Anjou it is the vast interiors in one span,
supported by the massive walls of the recessed chapels, that
impress us. In them we seem to see revived the great halls
of the Roman Thermae. In the north, however, the style,
though rude, is the promising commencement of a new
epoch, the first tentative essays of a new system. These
interiors close set with pier and pillar, and heavily roofed
with ponderous arching, are to lead to the fairy structures of
the next three centuries, where matter is lost in the
emotions expressed.