GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE By the end of the 12th century the old Roman Empire had broken up into a number of distinct nations. The Church domin ated each, however, for ecclesiastics possessed most of the knowl edge and controlled much of the wealth of the period. Commerce had increased and the cities and towns rivalled each other in their architecture as they grew. About the year II50 the architecture of western Europe changed rapidly toward a slenderer and more energetic type of building now called Gothic. For four centuries the art of building in this style, especially in France, was pursued with such zeal that incontestably superb churches exist within short distances of each other.
We continually refer to ecclesiastical architecture because it was absolutely dominant. The church in each community was the measure of its culture. For the people of the time the cathedrals represented everything to which they might aspire. While the influence of Gothic verticality was felt, non-religious architecture remained essentially horizontal. Today, in travelling through the mediaeval towns of Europe in which the modern spirit is not yet apparent, one finds the cathedral on the hilltop, rising above the little dwellings clustered at its foot and magnifying its importance, to be the only important piece of architecture.
The immense monastic activity of the time, and the need of accomplishing large results with limited means caused innova tions in planning and structure contrary to Roman or even Rom anesque methods. Through many experiments, the designers of the cathedrals learned that stone would carry much greater weight superimposed than had previously been imagined. The massive columns of the Romanesque evolved into tenuous and moulded Gothic piers. Every line was designed to carry the eye upward; the pointed arch, crowning the vault at the highest point of a transept, arrests the eye without, like the semicircular arch, swinging it back again. To add to this effect of lightness and deli cacy, and to get the area of stone necessary to sustain the weight and take up the vault's outward thrust, the supporting piers were turned at right angles to the main axis of the nave, and great openings were left to be filled by stone tracery and leaded glass.
The pointed arch often referred to as the characteristic of the Gothic style is in fact only one feature ; the most impressive characteristic is that of verticality and lightness. In the Roman work, and to a degree in the Romanesque, the points of change in the structural features—such as the archivolt, where an arch rested on a pier and the line changed from the straight to the curve ; or the keystone of the arch, which locked it in position and made possible the removal of the temporary centring used during construction—were points of ornamentation and elaboration. This was not so in Gothic. The stones were merely a necessary factor. Regular courses, in the Roman many times rusticated so as to accentuate the structural idea, were changed in the Gothic to irregular and random sizes as if to conceal their presence. To turn the eye from the horizontal to the vertical, ribs and mouldings were cut through. Overhanging cornices, which would have pro duced long horizontal lines, were largely eliminated. The great buttresses were converted into the lighter, well known flying but tresses; at its abutment each was strengthened by a vertical weight which, instead of being a massive block, was composed of a series of small stones piled in diminishing ratio one above the other and carved and embellished in the vertical spirit so as al ways to carry the eye upward to a point which seemed gradually to thin out to nothing. The horizontal bands used were interrupted by finials. Corbels were purposely so separated as to break any continued horizontality.
Complete in all parts, the Cathedral of Chartres is a splendid example of what this art was at its zenith. The plan has a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles on each side, a choir with two aisles all round it, and chapels beyond them. There are two immense steeples at the west end, two towers to each transept and two towers at the junction of the choir with its apse. The door ways are triple at the west end, whilst to each transept is a vast triple porch in front of the three doorways. The whole of these doorways are covered with sculpture, much of it refined, spirited and interesting to the highest degree. The interior even surpasses the exterior. The order of the columns and arches, and of all the details, is so noble and simple that no fault can be found. The whole is admirably executed ; and, finally, every window is full of the richest glass coeval with the fabric.
The separation that exists to-day between architect, builder and labourer, with the architect as a professional man concerned with the preparation of drawings and specifications, the builder as an executive directing or assembling different sub-contractors in the execution of work, and each sub-contractor employing and di recting men in his particular field, was not so marked in the days of the cathedral builders. All building was a more leisurely pro ceeding then; not that the workers had shorter hours, but time, the paramount factor in present-day life, was less important. It is very evident that the workers took pride and personal interest in their performance. They regarded it as ensuring their happiness in the next world. They recognized themselves as small but essen tial cogs in the wheel of progress. In studying the great cathedrals one realizes and feels the personal factor. Guilds of skilled crafts men in stone, iron, bronze, gold, silver and glass developed, and their art was perpetuated through systems of apprenticeship. Each generation was guided by older and more experienced workers, gained knowledge from personal experience and evolved new methods after knowing and thoroughly understanding earlier ones. The cathedral builders were workmen who, feeling themselves to be part and parcel of the structure they were erecting, left evi dence of their identities. To build in Gothic now with the full spirit of the original, requires either an exact copy of what has been done, in which case, of course, the copy is inevitably cold and uninspiring, or else re-creation of the guilds of workers actu ated and guided by the same spiritual forces, and limited by the same physical and mechanical handicaps that existed when the cathedrals were built.
Exhaustive studies made by such men as Prof. W. H. Goodyear seem to prove that the cathedral builders employed studied refine ments similar in principle to those practised by the Greeks. The lack of scientific instruments might easily have caused inac curacies. But variations from rigid lines, right angles and repeti tions in the inter-axe or spacing of the piers and other elements of the composition recur so frequently in the same manner as to indicate that they were designed. In the Christian church, which assembled people within its walls, the effect on the worshippers of subdued light, incense, candles and processionals became the start ing point of religious influence. Anything that could impress a worshipper with fear of the cruel retribution in store for him if he failed to live according to the ethics of the Church, and with hope of reward for proper conduct, became potent in architectural de sign. Through their fear, religion held sway over a sensitive and superstitious people. Grotesque gargoyles and demons were carved in stone and, together with saints and angels depicted in glass, mosaics and paintings, created the special atmosphere desired. The dim interior of the old Romanesque churches was due to small and widely spaced openings. The grace and delicacy of Gothic cathe drals resulted in structures whose many and large openings would have flooded the interiors with light had stained glass not been used. But with great rose windows and pointed arch openings filled with deeply coloured glass on which the glory of the saints and the suffering of sinners was told and retold, a religious atmos phere was produced that inspires and uplifts even unbelievers in this materialistic age. (See also GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.)