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Article GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.* ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Gothic Architecture.*
The foregoing observations show the groundlessness of the several hypotheses mentioned ; but the solution of the question , whether the pointed arch style belongs to one single nation exclusively , ancl to which , is attended with greater difficulties . If the hypotheses on the origin of the pointed arch style are various , opinions are not less divided on the present question , and the invention of this style has been ascribed to the G-oths , the Lombards , the Saracens or Arabs , to the Spaniards , the Italians , the French , the lishancl the
Eng , Germans . It has been shown in the second chapter that the Goths or Lombards were not the inventors of the architecture which takes their name , nor of any other style of budding , ancl that the ancient paganism of the northern nations had no influence upon the style of church building . The Arabswho appeared as conquerors from the year of our Lord 610 and who
, , , besides the countries which they conquered in Asia and Africa , possessed themselves in the year 713 of the greatest part of Spain ancl Portugal , erected in the latter countries some very considerable buildings , which are partly yet existing , and impress us with high notions of then : knowledge of the arts , and of their magnificence . * But a careful examination of their buddings shows that there is nothing in them that has the most distant resemblance to what is called the Gothic style . In the Arabian buddings the
arches are m the shape of a horse-shoe , the columns are ad low , they stand single , and are never connected in pillars , the windows are small , the roofs flat , and the horizontal is the prevailing form in the whole composition of their buddings . In the ancient churches of the thirteenth century , the arches , on the contrary , are pointed , the pdlars high , and composed of several columns , the windows large , the roofs and gables high . The more the two styles of budding are compared , the more one is astonished that the Arabs could ever have been thought ofas the inventors of a style of budding so
, different from their own . f It is true that many Arabian capitals , whose form is square at the top ancl joius the round colunm below , bears some resemblance to many capitals in the buddings of the Middle Age ; J but columns are also met with iu Arabian buildings with Corinthian and Eoman capitals , and yet we do not regard these as an invention of the Arabs . These occurrences are easily explained , when we consider that the Arabsoriinally a nation of herdsmencould not have any architecture whatever ; ancl
, g , that it was only after they became stationary in the countries which they had conquered , and from nomades became an agricultural people , that they formed a particular style of budding for themselves . And as ad the new possessions of the Arabs had formerly belonged to the vast Eoman empire , it is very easy to conceive that they must have adopted in their style of budding much that they found in the structures of the earlier or later Christian Eoman times .
The question about the influence of Arabian architecture is thus easily solved , but the solution of the question , which of the people of Europe first introduced of improved the pointed arch style , is not so easy , for we find this style of building almost contemporary in aU parts of Europe . A comparison of the churches built in different countries will facilitate the solution , if we attend to the principles stated in the first chapter , according to which that style of building alone can lay claim to being national which in its forms corresponds with the climate ancl budding materials
of the country , ancl constitutes at the same time a consistent , intelligent whole , excluding everything heterogeneous . || The cathedral of Orvieto in Italy , which is supposed to be the work of Nicolas of Pisa , who lived about the year 1240 , has throughout , with exception of that in the front , rose windows , and exhibits in the front the style of budding of the thirteenth century- §
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Gothic Architecture.*
The foregoing observations show the groundlessness of the several hypotheses mentioned ; but the solution of the question , whether the pointed arch style belongs to one single nation exclusively , ancl to which , is attended with greater difficulties . If the hypotheses on the origin of the pointed arch style are various , opinions are not less divided on the present question , and the invention of this style has been ascribed to the G-oths , the Lombards , the Saracens or Arabs , to the Spaniards , the Italians , the French , the lishancl the
Eng , Germans . It has been shown in the second chapter that the Goths or Lombards were not the inventors of the architecture which takes their name , nor of any other style of budding , ancl that the ancient paganism of the northern nations had no influence upon the style of church building . The Arabswho appeared as conquerors from the year of our Lord 610 and who
, , , besides the countries which they conquered in Asia and Africa , possessed themselves in the year 713 of the greatest part of Spain ancl Portugal , erected in the latter countries some very considerable buildings , which are partly yet existing , and impress us with high notions of then : knowledge of the arts , and of their magnificence . * But a careful examination of their buddings shows that there is nothing in them that has the most distant resemblance to what is called the Gothic style . In the Arabian buddings the
arches are m the shape of a horse-shoe , the columns are ad low , they stand single , and are never connected in pillars , the windows are small , the roofs flat , and the horizontal is the prevailing form in the whole composition of their buddings . In the ancient churches of the thirteenth century , the arches , on the contrary , are pointed , the pdlars high , and composed of several columns , the windows large , the roofs and gables high . The more the two styles of budding are compared , the more one is astonished that the Arabs could ever have been thought ofas the inventors of a style of budding so
, different from their own . f It is true that many Arabian capitals , whose form is square at the top ancl joius the round colunm below , bears some resemblance to many capitals in the buddings of the Middle Age ; J but columns are also met with iu Arabian buildings with Corinthian and Eoman capitals , and yet we do not regard these as an invention of the Arabs . These occurrences are easily explained , when we consider that the Arabsoriinally a nation of herdsmencould not have any architecture whatever ; ancl
, g , that it was only after they became stationary in the countries which they had conquered , and from nomades became an agricultural people , that they formed a particular style of budding for themselves . And as ad the new possessions of the Arabs had formerly belonged to the vast Eoman empire , it is very easy to conceive that they must have adopted in their style of budding much that they found in the structures of the earlier or later Christian Eoman times .
The question about the influence of Arabian architecture is thus easily solved , but the solution of the question , which of the people of Europe first introduced of improved the pointed arch style , is not so easy , for we find this style of building almost contemporary in aU parts of Europe . A comparison of the churches built in different countries will facilitate the solution , if we attend to the principles stated in the first chapter , according to which that style of building alone can lay claim to being national which in its forms corresponds with the climate ancl budding materials
of the country , ancl constitutes at the same time a consistent , intelligent whole , excluding everything heterogeneous . || The cathedral of Orvieto in Italy , which is supposed to be the work of Nicolas of Pisa , who lived about the year 1240 , has throughout , with exception of that in the front , rose windows , and exhibits in the front the style of budding of the thirteenth century- §