The perfected type of French Gothic cathe dral, as exemplified at Amiens, for example, has a three-aisled nave, short transepts, a five aisled choir with ambulatory and radiating ap sidal chapels, and shows structurally a skeleton of supporting piers, arches and vaults with a series of deep buttresses capped by pinnacles and connected to the wall-buttresses of the clearstory by flying arches. The spaces be tween these members are filled by light walls and huge traceried windows. The church is some 400 feet long and from 100 to 140 feet high within to the top of the vault. The ma sonry, moldings, sculpture and carving are ad mirable in design and workmanship; the effect upon the spectator is one of extraordinary dig nity, solemnity and power, eloquent of the religious fervor which created it.
Spread of the style.— The earliest spread of the style beyond France was across the Channel to England, of which French Nor mandy was in 1174 a province, and the first work to show the French Gothic influence was the choir of Canterbury cathedral, rebuilt after the fire of 1174 by a William from Sens, and completed after his death by an English Wil liam. In this work round arches and pointed arches, round piers and clustered piers, Norman and Gothic details are found associated to gether, but the predominant character is Gothic. Lincoln Cathedral was the first to be built throughout in the Gothic style, though parts of the Norman facade of an earlier edifice were retained. Wells, begun a little earlier but slower in building, and Lichfield a little later, Salisbury, built throughout between 1225 and 1258 (except the central tower and spire) ; Beverley, York, Southwell and Glasgow cathe drals and Westminster Abbey, all begun be tween 1225 and 1250, are among the most im portant examples in which the English Gothic style reigns throughout. But in addition one must note the great number of Anglo-Norman abbeys and cathedrals which were partly re built in the more modern style like Hereford, Rochester, Gloucester and Ely cathedrals, hav ing Norman naves (the first three with Gothic vaulting) and Gothic choirs; Peterboro, with a Gothic west front, Norman nave and choir and Gothic retro-choir, and many others. In the 14th century the Norman naves of Canterbury and Winchester were rebuilt in the advanced Gothic style then prevailing. This later phase is called the Perpendicular, from the character of its window-tracery. Like the Flamboyant in France it appears chiefly in partial remodel ings of earlier buildings, in parish churches and in large chapels, of which three are espe cially notable: Saint George's chapel at Wind sor, King's College chapel at Cambridge and Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster.
The English Gothic differs from the French in its greater massiveness and in exhibiting less of the French structural logic and struc tural loftiness. On the other harid, the deco
rative element is more conspicuous, especially in the interior treatment. The English multi plied their vaulting-ribs and developed superbly decorative forms of vaulting, culminating in the fan-vaulting of the later churches. (See VAULTING). They also developed the Norman crossing-lantern into a splendid type of square central tower (Lincoln, Canterbury) sometimes with a spire (Salisbury). The deep French portals rich with sculpture are wanting; the doors are small, the west fronts picturesque rather than logically expressive. The French apse with radial chapels is found only in West minster Abbey; most of the great churches have square East ends, after the Cistercian tradition. The English wooden ceiling on hammer-beam trussses, seen in many parish churches and in Westminster Hall, was an ap plication of Gothic principles to a construction in timber. English tracery is remarkably beau tiful and varied.
The style spread in the 13th century to Ger many, but developed slowly, with less of con sistency than in England. The plans are very varied; the apse surrounded by radial chapels is found in perfection only at Cologne (1248), and while there and at Regensburg and a few other places the French 'influence was strong, in other examples the details of the Gothic style were applied in a more or less capricious manner, as at Freiburg, Ulm, Oppenheim, Hal berstadt, Marburg, etc. Strassburg and Metz are predominantly French. The Germans de veloped the traceried spire and the "hall church," with aisles of equal height, as their most characteristic contributions to the style.
In Italy, Gothic principles of structural logic were never accepted; the Gothic details were applied as an ornamental dress to buildings of the most varied construction. A few churches were built by foreigners early in the 13th century (Assisi, Vercelli) ; others later in the century by Italians (Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, the Frani and Saint John and Saint Paul at Venice; Sienna Cathedral and the facade of Ovieto) ; but the majority of the Gothic work in Italy dates from the 14th cen tury and early 15th. Santa Croce and the great cathedral at Florence were begun about 1296; the Certosa at Pavia, San Petronio at Bologna and Milan Cathedral, nearly a century later. In all these except Milan, flying but tresses are avoided; on the other hand, colored marble, inlays, mosaic and internal painting of the most splendid character were freely used. The secular Gothic style of Venice, seen in the Doge's palace and other palaces, was a re markably original and effective local develop ment.