GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE As it was in France that the basis of Gothic was first developed, so it is there that the greatest number of transitional buildings are found. Of these the earliest is the great abbey church of St.
Denis, I140-44, in which Abbot Suger attempted to create the most beautiful church of his time in France. All the greatest painters, sculptors, metal workers and builders were called in, and the result had a profound influence, not only upon archi tecture, but also on the industrial arts (see Male, L'art religieux du XIlle Siecle). The remaining parts of this church, the choir aisles and chapels, and the west end, show a use of both round and pointed arches, ribbed vaults and a completely developed east end plan, or chevet (q.v.). The whole system is Gothic in struc tural idea and in the delicacy and refinement of its effect.
Shortly afterwards the three great cathedrals of Sens, Senlis and Noyon (all three begun c. and the cathedrals of Notre Dame at Paris (begun 1163), and Laon (I 16o–I 2o5 ), all show transitional work in a highly developed form. In all, the nave vaulting was originally in six parts, as the arch rib lengths result ing from this vault type, combining two nave bays into one com position, did not require excessively pointed arches in order to bring the ridges approximately level. It was a tentative form, but one which admitted of greater height, greater delicacy and a more powerful effect than earlier Romanesque methods. The internal composition of these' churches is also tentative. The tendency was at first towards developing the old Romanesque triforium into a full vaulted gallery, and the roof over this created a space between the top of the gallery arches and the bottom of the clerestorey windows. This at once suggested a second triforium which appears as a fully developed arcade in Laon and as a series of round openings with primitive tracery in the earlier design of Paris. Nevertheless, even with the greater height of these early Gothic naves, the four-fold division thus resulting—pier arcade, gallery arcade, triforium and clerestorey was too complicated and except in rare instances disappeared by the end of the century. In Paris, for instance, after a fire in 1200, the upper part of the bay was reconstructed by flattening the roof over the gallery and replacing the early clerestorey window and the triforium round opening below, by a single large window divided by simple bar tracery.
The advances over Romanesque usage shown by these early cathedrals are enormous. In the first place, the whole building was clearly articulated, with each pier, arch, buttress and vault rib designed for its particular purpose. In the second place, flying buttresses allowed enormously increased heights, the nave vault of Notre Dame, for instance, rising roughly Ho o f t. above the floor. A growing knowledge of the strength of stone masonry, and an increased skill in stone cutting allowed more and more slender supports, so that the sense of height and of aspiration, was vastly increased.
In exterior design, the changes were even more profound. The increase in buttress depths accented vertical lines, and the half arched flying buttresses, with their sloping tops, served to carry the eye inevitably upwards to the top of the building. Around the apse, the flying buttresses, in naturally radiating lines, com bined with the projecting chapels to form a type of composition new and magnificent. In the west fronts, of which that at Laon is an excellent example, new effects were obtained by the emphasis of the buttresses of the two towers that were almost universal, the use of a great rose window at the end of the nave and the development of three monumental portals. The whole front was tied together by bands of arcading and heavy cornices; the power and richness of this balance of vertical and horizontal lines is well shown in the front of Notre Dame at Paris.
In decorative detail, the development was towards finer and more delicate mouldings, the use of naturalistic and crocket forms in place of Romanesque foliage and a new skill in figure sculpture. The west portals of Chartres cathedral (c. I145) show the rich ness and facility of the best sculpture of the time. This is Romanesque in its conventionality and occasional awkwardness, but the powerful individualization of the figures, the blending of sculpture with architectural lines and the general composition were all prophetic of the Gothic portals to come.
Nevertheless, the general tendency of this period was towards the greater emphasis that a simpler plan produces, and the cathe drals of Rheims (c. 1210-50) and Amiens (c. 1220-70), which represent the apogee of the style, have in the naves but three aisles, and gain their effect from great height, refinement and the repeti tion of exquisitely proportioned bays. In both, the size of supports is reduced to a minimum and freely developed geometrical bar tracery is used for windows throughout. In Amiens, particularly, the construction seems almost foolhardy; perfection in technique has allowed that display of knowledge and skill for their own sake which sometimes detracts from pure beauty. The summit of this development came in the choir of Beauvais cathedral (begun 1247). Here the architect strove to place a vault higher than any other, on slimmer piers. Rheims and Amiens had both had ceil ing heights of approximately 140 ft., with naves about 46 ft. wide; in Beauvais, the vault rose to 1S4 feet. The result was dis astrous—the vault fell; it was rebuilt in 1274 only to fall again ten years later. In 132o, the number of bays was doubled by building intermediate piers between those of the earlier scheme, and the vault on this doubled support has remained stable. The stupendous impression of height given by these narrow bays was gained at a sacrifice and the whole seems cramped and thin.
The qualities of the developed Rayonnant are even better shown in the little St. Chapelle, Paris, built by St. Louis (1247 50). In the upper chapel the wall has almost disappeared. Instead there is a series of slim, heavily buttressed piers supporting a soar ing vault. The entire area of the spaces, between the under side of the vault and the piers, down to a point only slightly above the chapel floor, is glazed. The effect of these high traceried windows with rich blue, red and purple glass is incredibly warm and light.
Such windows as these necessitate the greatest perfection in the design and execution of window tracery. It is, in fact, window tracery, and especially the radiating tracery of the great rose windows, which gives the period its French name of Rayonnant. All the tracery is geometrical in pattern, consisting generally of pointed arches, cusps, cusped circles and curved sided triangles. The tracery bars are slender and delicate, usually with a roll moulding on the edges. In mullions these were frequently treated like colonnettes. The rose windows of Notre Dame and the clerestorey and choir windows at Amiens and Rheims are notable examples of this type of tracery. To display such a magnificent decorative element, the French architects of the later 13th and early i4th centuries, did everything to increase window areas. By making aisle roofs flat, it was possible to glaze the triforium, as in the choir of Amiens. And in the church of St. Urbain at Troyes (begun 1262), the triforium disappears.
In exterior design, Rayonnant churches merely elaborate the earlier ideas. Portals are deeper, with gables above them as in Amiens and Rheims. Buttresses are decorated with tracery and crowned with pinnacles. Foliage decoration in arches and bands increases in extent and plain walls tend to disappear behind arcades, tracery and sculpture. More and more, structural details are purely decorative, as in the magnificent pierced and traceried gable of the Gate of the Libraries in the cathedral of Rouen (end of the 13th century). Crockets appear on every gable, pinnacle and spire edge, and frequently in the hollows of mouldings. Gar goyles and grotesque animals are common. In figure sculpture realism and technical skill are growing. Despite this lavishness, however, late Rayonnant work of the early i4th century shows a tendency towards mechanical perfection, thinness and coldness.