Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them Part 5

THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.

Towards the close of the XIVth century a great change came over English Gothic architecture, a change which was to a certain extent a return to cla.s.sical ideas. The curvilinear tracery gave place to a rigid vertical and horizontal form, with the result that windows and panels instead of being filled with curved bars of stone, were sub-divided by straight perpendicular bars and transoms or cross-bars.

This style of architecture is popularly known as Perpendicular, but as the horizontal lines are quite as distinct a feature as are the vertical, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of it as Rectilinear. This change in architectural form made its appearance towards the close of the XIVth century, although it was by no means generally introduced at that period, for the old methods and styles were carried on side by side with the new for many years. For example, the eastern end of the choir of York Minster (1361-99) possesses a window the traceries of which contain both curvilinear and rectilinear lines, while Shottesbrook Church in Berks.h.i.+re (1387), and Wimmington Church, Bedfords.h.i.+re (1391) are examples of village churches neither of which has any feature of the Perpendicular style.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yeovil Parish Church (A.D. 1376).

Early Perpendicular in style, without a clerestory, and called, for its large window area, the "Lantern of the West."]

In its earlier stages the Perpendicular style presented an effect at once good and bold; the mouldings, though not equal to the best of the Decorated style, were well defined, the enrichments effective, and the details delicate without extravagant minuteness. Subsequently the style underwent a gradual debas.e.m.e.nt; the arches became depressed; the mouldings impoverished, the details crowded and coa.r.s.ely executed, and the whole style became wanting in the chaste and elegant effects for which the Decorated stands unapproached and unapproachable. The flowing contours and curved lines of the previous style now gave place in the windows to mullions running straight up from the bottom to the top, and crossed by transoms. As the arch became more and more depressed the mouldings became shallower and less effective. In early buildings of this period the drop arch is very prevalent, but as the period advanced a form known as the Tudor arch began to be used. It is an arch in which, as a rule, the centres of the upper portion lie immediately below those of the lower, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the whole of the upper portion uniting the arcs of the ends is struck from one centre, in which case the arch becomes a three-centred one, being, in fact, half an ellipse. Towards the close of the style the curvature of the upper portion is so slight that it can hardly be distinguished from a straight line, and as the debas.e.m.e.nt progressed it became really straight. Ogee arches are also found at this period, and foiled arches are very frequent.

When the Tudor arch was not used, we generally find the low drop arch, these three last being mostly used for small openings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Fine Parish Church showing Rich Perpendicular Work.

Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]

The peculiar characteristics of the windows--the perpendicular mullions and horizontal transoms--we have already alluded to.

[Side note: Perpendicular Windows.]

The window heads, instead of being filled with flowing tracery, have slender mullions running from the heads of the lights between each mullion, and these again have smaller transoms, until the whole surface of the window becomes divided into a series of panels, the heads of which being arched, are trefoiled or cinquefoiled. In the later windows the transoms at the top are often furnished with a small ornamental battlement, causing the mullions to present a concave outline.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Perpendicular Doorway.

Merton College Chapel. _Drawn by E. M. Heath._]

The plans of churches in this style differ from all others in that they are more s.p.a.cious, the columns more slender and wider apart, the windows much larger, and the walls loftier and thinner. Panelling is used most abundantly on walls, both internally and externally, and also on vaulting, while some buildings, as Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, are almost entirely covered with it. Fan tracery vaulting, a feature peculiar to this style, is almost invariably covered with panelling.

The mouldings of this period are essentially different from those which preceded them. As a general rule they are cut on a slanting or chamfer plane, the groups of mouldings being separated by a shallow oval-shaped hollow, entirely different from those of the Decorated period.

[Side note: Perpendicular Doorways.]

The doorways of the early portion of this period had two-centred arches, but the characteristic form is the four-centred, enclosed in a square head, formed by the outer mouldings with a hood mould of the same shape, the spandrels being filled with quatrefoils, roses, s.h.i.+elds, etc.

[Side note: Perpendicular Capitals.]

Perpendicular capitals are either circular or octagonal, but the necking is usually of the former shape, and the upper members of the abacus of the latter form. The bell portion is mostly plain, but is often enriched with foliage of a very conventional character, shallow and formal, without either the freedom or the boldness of the Early English, or the exquisite grace of the Decorated periods. A distinguis.h.i.+ng feature in the ornamentation of this period is that called panel-tracery, with which the walls and vaulted ceilings are covered. The patterns are found in a variety of forms, as circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc.

[Side note: Fan Vaulting.]

The rich vaulting called fan vaulting previously alluded to, is composed of pendant curved semi-cones, covered with foliated panel-work, which bears some resemblance to a fan spread open.

[Side note: Perpendicular Ornament.]

Another very characteristic ornament is the Tudor flower. It is formed by a series of flat leaves placed upright against the stalk. It was much used in late buildings as a crest or ornamental finis.h.i.+ng to cornices, etc., to which it gave an embattled appearance. Cornices and brackets were frequently ornamented with busts of winged angels called angel-brackets, and angel-corbels. The portcullis and the Tudor rose--both badges of the house of Tudor--also figure prominently among the ornaments of the period. The crockets for the most part partake of the squareness which pervades all the foliage of this style. _See page 64._

[Side note: Perpendicular b.u.t.tresses.]

The b.u.t.tresses are very similar to those preceding them in their plainer forms, but, in richer examples the faces are covered with panel work and are finished with square pinnacles sometimes set diagonally and terminated with a crocketed spire, or finished with an animal or other ornament. Parapets with square battlements are very common at this period, but they too are frequently panelled or pierced with tracery, or with trefoils or quatrefoils inserted in square, circular or triangular compartments.

[Side note: Perpendicular Roofs.]

The roofs of this period, both in ecclesiastical and secular buildings, are very magnificent, and have the whole of the framing exposed to view; many of them are of high pitch, the s.p.a.ces between the timbers being filled with tracery, and the beams arched, moulded and ornamented in various ways; and frequently pendants, figures of angels, and other carvings are introduced. The flatter roofs are sometimes lined with boards and divided into panels by ribs, or have the timbers open, and all enriched with mouldings and carvings, as at Cirencester church, Gloucesters.h.i.+re.

The gradual decline of the Gothic style is very evident in late Perpendicular churches, especially in those erected at the beginning of the XVIth century. The elements of Gothic architecture became much degraded and led to that mixture of features called the Debased Gothic in which every real principle of art and of beauty was lost.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Perpendicular Porch.

S. Nicholas, King's Lynn. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]

The chief characteristics, then, of the Perpendicular style are the vertical mullions, and the general flattening of arches, mouldings and carvings. Should there be no other guide, a Perpendicular church carries its style and period stamped upon its carvings. The plants represented are, almost without exception, the vine with or without grapes, and the oak with or without acorns. The leaves are generally full blown and crumpled. The earliest building showing the Perpendicular style is the beautiful little priory church of Edington, in Wilts, erected by William Edington, Bishop of Winchester. The same style, but more fully developed, is seen in the nave of Winchester Cathedral, at New College, Oxford, and at Winchester College.

It is generally admitted that the Perpendicular style was, to a certain extent, a return to cla.s.sical ideas, for Gothic architecture in its aspiring grace and feeling for motion was becoming a little unsteady in construction, and although the movement was started by Bishop Edington, it was left to William of Wykeham to save our English Gothic architecture from developing into the flamboyant[1] style so characteristic of the late Gothic buildings of France and Germany.

It is little less than astounding that William of Wykeham, at once Prime Minister, diplomatist, scholar and energetic churchman, should have found time to introduce such far-reaching reforms into the art of building, and whatever his fame may be in other directions he will always be remembered by posterity as one of the most remarkable geniuses of the Middle Ages, a man of giant mind and immense physical energy, who carried into all his work a large and dignified character, stamping it with the unmistakable personality of a master mind.

[Side note: Perpendicular Towers.]

As builders and designers of church towers the masons of the Perpendicular era have never been approached, and all our finest English towers are of this style and period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Fine Perpendicular Tower.

St. Mary, Taunton. _Photograph H. Montague Cooper._]

Considerations of s.p.a.ce will only allow a few of these towers to be mentioned, but among the finest are those at Boston, Lincolns.h.i.+re; Wrexham, Denbighs.h.i.+re; Wymondham, Heigham and S. Clement's in Norfolk; Southwold Church in Suffolk; Manchester Cathedral, S. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle, and S. Mary's Church, Taunton. Of Perpendicular date and style, also, are the great lantern towers of Worcester, Bristol, Gloucester, York and Durham Cathedrals, in addition to the fine bell-tower of Evesham Abbey.

[Side note: Perpendicular Spires.]

The spire, although less commonly used than formerly, was by no means abandoned, and beautiful examples of Perpendicular spires are those at S. Michael's, Coventry, and Rotherham Church, Yorks.h.i.+re. Although nearly all our cathedrals have some portion of their fabric in the Perpendicular style, chantries, chapels, cloisters, vaulting, screens, etc., it was in our parochial churches that Perpendicular architecture reached its highest and finest development. Just as the XIIIth century was the great age for cathedral building, so the latter end of the XIVth and earlier half of the XVth centuries was the period to which we owe some of the most beautiful of our parish churches, as S. Michael's, Coventry (fin. 1395); S. Nicholas, Lynn (fin. 1400); Manchester Cathedral (formerly a collegiate church), (1422); Fotheringay Church, Northants (fin. 1435); Southwold Church, Suffolk (1440), and S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol (about 1442). A little later came, among others, Wakefield Church, Yorks.h.i.+re (1470), S. Stephen's, Bristol (1470), S.

Mary's, Oxford, and its namesake at Cambridge (both in 1478) and Long Melford Church, Suffolk (1481).

Apart from the actual buildings the Perpendicular architects, masons and sculptors have left us some beautiful work in the form of timber roofs, screens, stalls and seats. Among the more notable roofs of this period are those at S. Peter's, S. Andrew's and S. Mary's, Norwich, the one at Morton Church in Somerset, those at Saffron Walden and Thaxted, Ess.e.x, and a particularly fine one at S. David's Cathedral in Wales. Among the remarkable domestic roofs in this style are those at Westminster Hall and Eltham Palace.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RENAISSANCE AND LATER.

So far we have been considering Gothic churches, but we now come to the time when, from a variety of causes, the Italian architects, among them Palladio and Vitruvius, began to revive cla.s.sical architecture, a movement which gradually spread over other parts of Europe.

[Side note: The Cla.s.sic Revival.]

The various causes which led to this apparently retrograde movement are still involved in considerable obscurity. The commercial prosperity of the age produced a cla.s.s who travelled abroad and cultivated the fine arts, with the result that they desired to see erected in England buildings such as they had seen in Rome, Florence, Genoa and Padua. It is generally admitted that the ramifications of Gothic architecture had reached their utmost limit, and the style was getting out of hand, as is seen by the flamboyant buildings on the continent. The revival of cla.s.sical literature in western Europe gave an impetus to the movement which was largely intended to enfold art within the shelter of an enlightened taste, and protect it from the licence of unordered enthusiasm. How far it succeeded is not a question that can be discussed at length here, but, however good their intentions may have been, the architects used little discrimination in the selection of buildings which were to serve as models for Christian churches, and although subsequently considerable improvements were made, yet, most of the defects in the pagan buildings of the ancients were retained in such as were intended to be utilized for Christian wors.h.i.+p, and even considered purely as exercises in architecture it was not until the more chaste remains of antiquity began to be studied that the spirit and harmony of the good examples were attained. A greater contrast than the methods employed by the Gothic mason and the Renaissance architect could not well be imagined. The former shaped his material with his own hands; the foster mother of his art was tradition and its cradle the craftsman's bench; whereas the latter, with no builder's training, worked out his flawless and precise plans in the exotic atmosphere of the office and the study. The practice of making working drawings for every detail of the building was the cause of the decline of ornamental sculpture, with the result that all life and growth in the building ceased. Some authorities are very severe on the Renaissance movement. Dr. Fergusson, in his "_Modern Styles of Architecture_," says: "During the Gothic era the art of building was evolved by the simple exercise of man's reason, with the result that the work of this period is the instinctive natural growth of man's mind. The buildings, on the other hand, which were designed in the imitative styles, and produced on a totally different principle, present us with an entirely different result, and one which frequently degrades architecture from its high position of a quasi-natural production to that of a mere imitative art."

[Side note: Inigo Jones and Wren.]

Be this as it may, the severe cla.s.sical style introduced into England by Inigo Jones (who studied in Italy under Palladio), and continued by Sir Christopher Wren, soon swept everything before it.

Our most remarkable church in this style is S. Paul's Cathedral, which in style has two very adverse circ.u.mstances to struggle against. In the first place, it bears so great a similarity to the great church of S. Peter, at Rome, that one cannot help comparing it with that fine example, and secondly, it is the only English cathedral which is not in the Gothic style. It must, of course, be acknowledged that S. Paul's falls far short of S. Peter's, especially in its lighting, but it does not deserve the condemnation of a great German critic, who said, "It is a building marked neither by elegance of form nor vigour of style."