ENGLISH GOTHIC, THIRTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY As may be imagined, the great energy displayed in an architectural direction in France at the close of the twelfth and the commencement of the thirteenth century drew the attention of other lands to the progress made. We have already noted (p. 18r) the influence which spread from France to Germany at this era. England could not escape this influence, and the less so since the chivalric Normans brought with them to England a part of that spirit which has been an inciting factor in the development of French culture, and indirectly of French architecture.
The architecture of the previous period was distinguished, as com pared with the German, by a wealth of surface-ornament. Not only are the arches richly moulded, but the mouldings themselves are also enriched. Chevron or zigzag ornaments give to the arches which they follow a somewhat fantastic peculiarity. Meandering and undulating members alternate with the predominating zigzag. Detached ornament runs around the roll-mouldings. The surfaces are decorated with scale like or checkered patterns (diapering), and larger wall-surfaces with a rich array of arcades in relief. To display still greater richness, the columns of these blind arcades are placed together so closely that they cover the wall almost like tapestry—an impression which is still further increased by the intersection of the arches, which spring from alternate columns.
The entire effect of this animated architecture allows the working of Oriental fantasy to appear more comprehensively than in the edifices of France or of Germany. Not that a direct transference of an Oriental set of forms had taken place—such a thing could scarcely be proved—but the taste for the fantastic was encouraged in a high degree by travels in foreign countries and by glimpses of Oriental edifices. The Sicilian possessions of the Normans, where Arabian culture ruled, must have been an inciting cause. A strong affinity to Arabian art finds expression in the fact that the entire wealth and imaginativeness of the English architecture are purely decorative and have not been worked out of a more highly-organized constructive system.
Early English Gallile: superiority of a system of construction which had developed in France must have become known early in England, since even in 1174 we find that when a conflagration had reduced Canterbury Cathedral to ashes a French archi tect, William of Sens, was called to superintend the reconstruction, which, according to a contemporary account, commenced with the transept; then the choir, with its side-aisles, was added; then a second transept; and then, on account of an existing crypt, the choir was drawn into a narrower width and terminated by a semicircular apse with an aisle around it. To this was added a great circular chapel, and also in the course of time various other structures. To the original plan belong two towers at the western angles of the older transept, and two semicircular apses on the eastern side of each wing of the transept. The exterior of this older portion has a completely Romanesque character; the construction of it may have con tinued into the thirteenth century. Its interior is entirely in accordance with the French system as it had developed at the close of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, and particularly recalls the cathedral at Sens. In 1179, William of Sens fell sick and left the work to an Englishman, also named William, who continued it in the master's spirit. The great longitudinal extension of the choir may be cited as a specifically English feature.
Temple Church at similar mingling of Romanesque and Gothic elements is shown in the Temple Church at London, begun by the erection of a circular church in imitation of that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and consecrated in 1185. At the beginning of the thirteenth century a choir with three aisles, of equal height, was added, and was completed in 1240.