Lectures On The Rise And Development Of Medieval Architecture

LECTURES ON THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF Mediæval Architecture

Delivered at the Royal Academy By Sir GILBERT SCOTT, R.A., F.S.A., LL.D., Etc. IN TWO VOLUMES—VOL. I. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1879 The right of Translation is reserved. Printed by R. &amp; R. Clark , Edinburgh ....

23 minute read

Read Chapter

PREFACE.

Only half of the following Lectures were delivered by me, as the Professor of Architecture , at the Royal Academy. The first seven were delivered while Professor Cockerell held the Chair; but, owing to his infirm state of health, I being then an Associate, was, in conjunction with Mr. Smirke, called in to relieve him of this duty. The eighth and ninth Lectures were prepared six years later, after Mr. Smirke had retired, and those which follow, when I had succeeded him in the Professorship. The L

1 minute read

Read Chapter

ERRATA.

Page 81, Fig. 19, for Temple of Mars, Ultor, read Temple of Mars Ultor. “ 94, line 26, for Choir at the Trinity Chapel, read Choir and the Trinity Chapel. “ 170, Contents, line 6, for Stanford, read Stamford. “ 175, foot-note, for Beavais, read Beauvais. MEDIÆVAL ARCHITECTURE....

20 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE I. The Claims of Mediæval Architecture upon our Study.

Introduction—Art follows the course of civilisation—Three primâ facie claims Gothic Architecture has upon Study—Additional claim, that it is Christian Architecture—Objections to the title—Explanations of the term—Byzantine the earliest Christian style—Summary of the Historical claims of Mediæval Architecture—Its intrinsic claims—Abstract beauty—Advantages of an arcuated over a trabeated style—Facility in decorating construction, and in converting structural features into elements of beauty—Adapt

45 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE II. Sketch of the Rise of Mediæval Architecture.

Fig. 13. Fig. 14. On this plain and practical result M. Viollet le Duc (of whose admirable essay on vaulting, together with those of Dr. Whewell and Professor Willis, I have made free use) makes the following striking remarks:— “It had required fifty years for the architects of the end of the twelfth century to arrive, from the still Romanesque vaults of Autun and Vezelay, at this great result; and from this moment the entire construction of religious edifices was derived from the disposition of

7 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE III. The Transition.

Gradual refinement of Romanesque—French architects the earliest to systematise the pointed arch—The English before the Germans—The Italians from the Germans—Fully acknowledged in France 1140—Suger’s work at St. Denis—Carving in French churches—Corinthianesque outline of capitals—Distinctly Byzantine capitals—A route by which Byzantine foliage may have reached France—The importation indisputable—Its effects seen in Early English capitals—West front of Chartres—Fluting on basement of doorways—Cath

40 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE IV. The Thirteenth Century.

Mediæval architecture usually classified under heads of centuries—Actual points of change do not coincide with these divisions—Auspices for the development of the Early Pointed style—Great works in England and France—Artistic disturbance in Germany—Progress in Italy—Energy pervades every branch of art—Perfected Early Pointed a natural growth from Romanesque—Leading characteristics—Columns—Bases of Columns—Capitals—Plan of the abacus—Circular plan—Whence this arose—Moulded capitals—Windows—Bases

37 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE V. The Thirteenth Century—continued.

St. Saviour’s, Southwark—Choir of Temple Church, London—Chapel at Lambeth—Westminster Abbey—Its Italian mosaic work, monuments, and ancient reredos—Chapel of St. Ethelreda, Holborn—St. Alban’s Abbey—Priory Church, Dunstable—Stone Church near Gravesend—Waltham Cross—Jesus Chapel, Cambridge—Ely and Peterborough Cathedrals—Warmington Church—West Walton Abbey—Crowland Abbey—St. Mary’s and All Saints, Stamford—Ketton, Grantham, and Frampton Churches—Lincoln Cathedral—Southwell Minster—Newstead Abbey—

48 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE VI. The Rationale of Gothic Architecture.

Fig. 146. Fig. 147. You first, after setting out your widths as in the original, increase the whole height and that of each storey by one-third; you then increase the pillars and the jambs of the triforium and clerestory windows in the same proportion: this brings you to a stand, for the arches, being semicircles, are invariable. Either you must leave them unaltered and throw all the extra height into the wall above them, or you must stilt them each to the extent of one-third of their height unl

2 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE VII. The Rationale of Gothic Architecture—Continued.

The bases of a thirteenth century church indicate the plan and construction of the vaulting—The system of mouldings—Windows, their development—Rationale of stained glass—A general principle of ornamentation common to all good architecture—The roof—Secular buildings—Cloth market Yprès—Warehouses, Nuremburg—Windows in secular and ecclesiastical buildings—Trabeated architecture in its truest forms—Fireplaces—Chimney-shafts—Oriel and Dormer windows—Ceilings—Subordination of external design to intern

36 minute read

Read Chapter

A Digression concerning Windows.

In the foregoing Lectures, having only brought the history of our Architecture down to the close of the thirteenth century, I have neglected that of the later styles, and, consequently in great measure, the development and progressive changes in window-tracery. This has, however, been so amply treated of in many books and essays that it is not a matter with me of much regret. I confess I had intended to have supplied the omission in subsequent lectures, but circumstances prevented. It would have

12 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE VIII. On the Practical Study of Gothic Architecture.

Evident ignorance or neglect of those who practise Gothic architecture—Faithfulness of others—The styles should be learned from ancient buildings—Our knowledge to be continually revived and added to—Hints to students—The study of Lincoln Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, and examples in London—Libraries and museums in London—Foreign travel—Examples in Paris, and other parts of France—Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. etc. A S it is six years since I last delivered a lecture in this place, and nine year

45 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE IX. On the Study and Practice of Gothic Architecture.

Every day business and practical work to go on hand in hand with the study of ancient buildings—How best to be accomplished—The study from books —Artistic and archæological portions cannot be wholly disconnected—Heraldry—A knowledge of the history of art absolutely necessary for the study of Mediæval architecture—Greek art the parent of Gothic sculpture—Ruined cities of Central Syria—Mahometan styles—Our own form of church the direct inheritance from the earliest Christian temples—Training as ar

33 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURES ON THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF Mediæval Architecture

Delivered at the Royal Academy By Sir GILBERT SCOTT, R.A., F.S.A., LL.D., Etc. IN TWO VOLUMES—VOL. II. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1879 The right of Translation is reserved. Printed by R. &amp; R. Clark , Edinburgh ....

22 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE X. The Transition.

Review of the developments in the early Architecture of our own land—Recent research in Central Syria—Examples in Northern Europe previous to the eleventh century—Early remains in Scotland and Ireland—Anglo-Saxon Architecture—Churches founded by St. Augustine—Canterbury and York—Churches at Hexham and Ripon—Ramsey Abbey—Winchester Cathedral—Destruction of Churches by Sweyn—Restoration and building by Canute—Roman models—Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon work—Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire Churc

2 hour read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XI. The Transition.

Architecture of the Normans—St. Stephen’s at Caen—Canterbury Cathedral modelled on that of St. Stephen’s—Description of the Norman church built by the Confessor at Westminster before the Conquest —Instances of Anglo-Saxon architecture being used after the Conquest —Characteristics of the Norman style—Varieties of combination—Doors, windows, archways, arcades, and vaulting—Minor details—Mechanical ideal of a great Norman church—Vast scale and number of works undertaken by the early Norman builder

38 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XII. The Transition.

Chapel of St. John, Tower of London—St. Alban’s Abbey—St. Stephen’s at Caen—Cathedrals of Winchester, Ely, London, Rochester, and Norwich—Abbey Church at Bury St. Edmund’s—Gloucester Cathedral—Tewkesbury Abbey—Cathedrals of Worcester and Durham—Waltham Abbey—Christchurch, Hants. H AVING now given a general outline of the intrinsic principles of Norman architecture, I will proceed to offer a few brief descriptions of some of its earlier creations, or rather of a selection of such of them as have

41 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XIII. The Transition.

The close of the eleventh century—The “new manner of building”—Conditions necessary to an arcuated , as distinguished from a trabeated , style—First principles of Grecian and Roman architecture—Rationale of the arcuated style—Its developments—Cloisters of St. Paul without the Walls and St. John Lateran, Rome—Doorways—Windows—Vaulting over spaces enclosed by walls or ranges of piers—Simplest elements defined—Barrel-vaults—Hemispherical vaults or domes —Groined vaults. W HEN I delivered my last le

31 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XIV. The Transition.

Vaulting of spaces of other forms than the mere square—Apsidal aisles, St. John’s Chapel Tower, and St. Bartholomew’s Church, Smithfield—Chapter-house and crypt, Worcester—Round-arched vaulting in its most normal form, as resulting from the barrel vault and its intersections—Short digression on another simple form of vault, the dome —“Domed up” vaults—“Welsh” groining—The square or polygonal dome—The Round-arched style of the twelfth century almost perfect—First introduction of the Pointed arch

6 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XV. The Transition.

Certain practical points concerning vaulting—Ribs of early and late vaulting—Filling in of intermediate surfaces or cells—Methods adopted in France and England—Sexpartite vaulting—Crypt of Glasgow Cathedral—Choir at Lincoln—Chapter-house, Lichfield—Caudebec, Normandy—Octagonal kitchen of the Monastery, Durham—Lady Chapel, Salisbury—Segmental vaulting—Temple Church—Lady Chapel, St. Saviour’s, Southwark—Westminster Abbey—Intermediate ribs—Presbytery at Ely—Chapter-houses of Chester and Wells—Exete

41 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XVI. The Transition.

Non-existence of the Dome in our old English architecture—Highly developed forms in France, Germany, and Italy, contemporary with our great Mediæval edifices—Suggestions for its introduction into our revived and redeveloped Neo-mediæval style—So-called Tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenæ—The Pantheon—Temple of Minerva Medica—Torre dei Schiavi—Temples of Vesta at Rome and Tivoli—Temple of Jupiter in Diocletian’s Palace, Spalatro—Tomb of St. Constantia—Baptistery at Nocera—Baptistery at Ravenna—Important

28 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XVII. The Transition.

St. Irene, Constantinople—Church of San Vitale, the type, three centuries later, of Charlemagne’s Church at Aix-la-Chapelle—Two influences at work leading to the introduction and adoption of the dome into Italy—From thence into the south-west of France—Baptisteries at Florence and Parma—Cathedral at Sienna—St. Mark’s, Venice—Santa Fosca near Venice—Domes having pointed arches for their support—St. Front and La Cité, Perigueux—Angoulême—Fontevrault—Auvergne—Ainay near Lyons—Pendentives in many Fr

36 minute read

Read Chapter

LECTURE XVIII. The Transition.

Sculpture and Painting arise directly from artistic aspirations, Architecture from practical necessities beautified—Architecture, as distinguished from mere building, is the decoration of construction —The History of Architecture has never been viewed as an object of study previous to our own day—Phases of the study—Dangers to be avoided—History of Architecture is the history of civilisation—Western distinct from Eastern civilisation, and to be studied separately—Source of our branch—Its develop

31 minute read

Read Chapter