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Article GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.* ← Page 2 of 5 →
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Gothic Architecture.*
style of chinch building of the Middle Age ; their forms , on the contrary , are very suitably and intelligently adapted to structures of carpentry . It is the principal advantage of a consistent and improved style of architecture , that the forms of buddings and of their separate parts should be conformable to the budding materials used in their construction , and that wood is not to represent freestone , nor freestone to represent wood . The editor has , in several parts of Germany , met with wooden houses , in which individual parts—the house doors , for instance—were in the pointed arch style ;
but this imitation of stone construction wdl ever remain inappropriate . * Mr . Murphy , the editor of the celebrated work on the convent of Batalha , in Portugal , and the buddings of the Moors in Spain , derives the pointed arch style from the pyramids of Egypt , and argues in this manner : t " The pyramids of the Egyptians are tombs ; the dead are buried in churches , and on their towers are pyramidal forms ; consequently the pyramids of the towers indicate that there are graves in the churches ; and as the pyramidal form constitutes the essence of the pointed arch style , and the pyramids of the towers are imitations of the Egyptian pyramids , the pointed arch is
derived from the latter . But the burying of the dead in churches was a mere secondary subordinate object , not their principal destination . Hence it coidd not be the intention to designate churches on their outside as tombs ; ancl the most ancient churches and those of the south rarely have pointed steeples ; their towers generaUy end in roofs of very little or no elevation . Neither are the tombs of the Middle Age in the form of pyramids or obelisks ; this ornament , on the contrary , is very modern . The points of towers are nothing but a high roof , and whenever the church had such a roof , it could
not be omitted in the higher tower ; an imitation of the Egyptian pyramid , therefore , is entirely out of the question . The fifth hypothesis is that of Mr . Milner , to whom we are indebted for several valuable works on the architecture of the Middle Age . After ably refuting with much learning and sound criticism several hypotheses of other writers , he fancies he discovers the origin of the pointed arch style , and of the architecture of the Middle Age in general , in an imitation of the intersecting semicircular arches used as ornaments in the ancient English style of building 4 But this explanation likewise appears unsatisfactory .
The question is not , who invented the pointed arch ; this , like every other mathematical figure , had long been known . The only question is , how this pointed arch happened to prevail in the style of building of the thirteenth century : Ornaments , as unessential parts , are conformably in every style of building to the essential main parts of buddings ; but never are the main parts conformably , vice versd , to the ornaments . It is not to be supposed , that all the highly characteristic forms of a style of builcling
which was so generaUy diffused and so consistently contrived , should have been borrowed from an accidental and unessential decoration of the cornices . Experience also is in our favour , since we observe , in ad the buildings of the time in which the older style of building passed over to the pointed arch style , how changes were first introduced in the main forms , gables and roofs , later in the vaults and windows , ancl still later in the unessential parts and ornaments . Thus , for instance , the smaU arched decoration which so frequently appears in cornices and cinctures or bands , is stiU in the semicircidar form in the church of Gelnhausen , whilst the gables and windows are thus early pointed .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Gothic Architecture.*
style of chinch building of the Middle Age ; their forms , on the contrary , are very suitably and intelligently adapted to structures of carpentry . It is the principal advantage of a consistent and improved style of architecture , that the forms of buddings and of their separate parts should be conformable to the budding materials used in their construction , and that wood is not to represent freestone , nor freestone to represent wood . The editor has , in several parts of Germany , met with wooden houses , in which individual parts—the house doors , for instance—were in the pointed arch style ;
but this imitation of stone construction wdl ever remain inappropriate . * Mr . Murphy , the editor of the celebrated work on the convent of Batalha , in Portugal , and the buddings of the Moors in Spain , derives the pointed arch style from the pyramids of Egypt , and argues in this manner : t " The pyramids of the Egyptians are tombs ; the dead are buried in churches , and on their towers are pyramidal forms ; consequently the pyramids of the towers indicate that there are graves in the churches ; and as the pyramidal form constitutes the essence of the pointed arch style , and the pyramids of the towers are imitations of the Egyptian pyramids , the pointed arch is
derived from the latter . But the burying of the dead in churches was a mere secondary subordinate object , not their principal destination . Hence it coidd not be the intention to designate churches on their outside as tombs ; ancl the most ancient churches and those of the south rarely have pointed steeples ; their towers generaUy end in roofs of very little or no elevation . Neither are the tombs of the Middle Age in the form of pyramids or obelisks ; this ornament , on the contrary , is very modern . The points of towers are nothing but a high roof , and whenever the church had such a roof , it could
not be omitted in the higher tower ; an imitation of the Egyptian pyramid , therefore , is entirely out of the question . The fifth hypothesis is that of Mr . Milner , to whom we are indebted for several valuable works on the architecture of the Middle Age . After ably refuting with much learning and sound criticism several hypotheses of other writers , he fancies he discovers the origin of the pointed arch style , and of the architecture of the Middle Age in general , in an imitation of the intersecting semicircular arches used as ornaments in the ancient English style of building 4 But this explanation likewise appears unsatisfactory .
The question is not , who invented the pointed arch ; this , like every other mathematical figure , had long been known . The only question is , how this pointed arch happened to prevail in the style of building of the thirteenth century : Ornaments , as unessential parts , are conformably in every style of building to the essential main parts of buddings ; but never are the main parts conformably , vice versd , to the ornaments . It is not to be supposed , that all the highly characteristic forms of a style of builcling
which was so generaUy diffused and so consistently contrived , should have been borrowed from an accidental and unessential decoration of the cornices . Experience also is in our favour , since we observe , in ad the buildings of the time in which the older style of building passed over to the pointed arch style , how changes were first introduced in the main forms , gables and roofs , later in the vaults and windows , ancl still later in the unessential parts and ornaments . Thus , for instance , the smaU arched decoration which so frequently appears in cornices and cinctures or bands , is stiU in the semicircidar form in the church of Gelnhausen , whilst the gables and windows are thus early pointed .