The Four-Story Elevation in First Gothic Architecture
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THE FOUR-STORY ELEVATION IN FIRST GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE by PATRICIA ELIZABETH ANNE CAIRNIE B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1976 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE:FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Fine Arts We accept this thesis as conforming to -the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 1979 (c) Patricia Elizabeth Anne Cairnie, 1979 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements f< an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree tha the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for-extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Klffj£ Avf? The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 ABSTRACT One of the principal elements in First Gothic architecture of northern France was the appearance of the four-story elevation as a means of achieving spacial expansion in height. The parti was characterized by a uniform scheme - main arcade, tribune, triforium and clerestory collected in a single elevation - but was treated in various ways with respect to its structural, spacial and decorative aspects. In the chevets of Noyon, Saint-Germer and Laon the four-story elevation was employed in rapid suc• cession, in closely connected centers, based on common concerns; still, each stands as a singularly experimental manifestation of the First Gothic desire for lofty volumes. While the four-story elevation has been discussed in general arch• itectural histories of the period and in monographic studies of the indi• vidual monuments, it has never been examined in an independent context and as a central feature of First Gothic architecture. The role of the four- story elevation in the realization and expression of First Gothic princi• ples remains to be clarified. The objective of this paper is to investi- . gate the underlying principles in the early stages of the parti, by way of an examination of the chevets of Noyon, Saint-Germer and Laon. The sources for the general scheme of the four-story elevation in First Gothic are found in monuments of the Romanesque period. In the sec• ond stage of First Gothic the Romanesque thin-wall and thick-wall tech• niques were adopted and revised in accordance with the newly felt concern for vertical expansion. Hence, the widespread utilization of the scheme. However, the bases of the individualized treatments of the four- story elevations in the chevets of Noyon, Saint-Germer and Laon were not ruled by shared aesthetic considerations. In each structure the disposition of the stories and the organization of the bays, the penetration of the iii wall in depth and the articulation of the wall on its surface was deter• mined by long, local traditions and contemporary, extra-local influences. In the final analysis, it is possible to observe of the four-story elevation that the uniformity of the scheme was a response to First Gothic principles whereas the diversity of the treatment was the result of region• al variations. r iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . ii List of Tables v List of Illustrations vi Chapter I: The Four-Story Elevation and Its Romanesque Sources . 1 Chapter II: The Chevet of Noyon 8 Chapter III: The Chevet of Saint-Germer . 20 Chapter IV: The Chevet of Laon 30 Chapter V: Conclusion 41 Table . 45 Illustrations 46 Bibliography 70 Appendix: The Question of Cambrai ....... 74 V LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Percentage of Height of Main Elements to Height of Elevation ..... 45 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Beauvais, Saint-Lucien. Sketch by van der Berghe 46 2. Tournai, Cathedral. Transverse section of nave. After Dehio and von Bezold 47 3. Tournai, Cathedral. Longitudinal section of nave. After Dehio and yon Bezold 48 4. Tournai, Cathedral. Nave 49 5. Noyon, Cathedral. Chevet .'r. 50 6. Noyon, Cathedral. Longitudinal sectionof chevet. After Collin 51 7. Noyon, Cathedral. Chevet. Detail of tribunes and triforium 52 8. Noyon, Cathedral. Transverse section of chevet. After Collin. 53 9. Noyon, Cathedral. Chevet 54^ 10. Noyon, Cathedral. Plan as executed to 1235. After Seymour . 55 11. Saint-Denis. Plan of chevet. After Violette-le-Duc ..... 55 12. Saint-Denis. Plan of crypt. After Crosby ' 56 13. Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Plan of chevet. After Barbier .... 57 14. Senlis, Cathedral. Reconstruction of elevation. After Moore 58 15. Saint-Germer. Longitudinal section of chevet. After Woillez 59 16. Saint-Germer. Chevet 60 17. Saint-Germer. Chevet. Detail of the tribunes. Courtesy of I. Marc Pessin 61 18. Saint-Germer. Chevet. Detail of upper stories in north straight bay. Courtesy of I. Marc Pessin 62 vii 19. Saint-Germer. Chevet. Detail of clerestory. Courtesy of I. Marc Pessin 62 20. Beauvais, Saint-Etienne. Nave 63 21. Paris, Cathedral. Nave 64 22. Laon, Cathedral. Longitudinal section. After Dehio and von Bezold 65 23. Laon, Cathedral. North transept with view into the crossing 66 24y. Laon, Cathedral. Transverse section. After Dehio and von Bezold . 67 25. Noyon, Cathedral. South transept 68 26. Reims, Saint-Remi. Chevet 69 27. Soissons, Cathedral. South transept 69 28. Cambrai, Cathedral. Plan by Boileux ..... 75 29. Cambrai, Cathedral. Sketch by van der Meulen 75 1 CHAPTER I THE FOUR-STORY ELEVATION AND ITS ROMANESQUE SOURCES In the central decades of the twelfth century, In the northern re• gion of the Ile-de-France, the four-story elevation made its appearance as one of the principal design features of First Gothic architecture. The foci of its development are to be found in the chevets of the cathed• ral at Noyon, the abbey church at Saint-Germer, and the cathedral at Laon. These structures rose at virtually simultaneous moments, in closely connected centers, and they shared common concerns; still, each stands as a highly individualized and experimental realization of the elevation of four stories. The emergence of the four-story elevation in this northern school of First Gothic did not occur without forebears of preceding years in neighboring areas. The constructional means of building in height were developed during the Romanesque period in the thin-wall and thick-wall techniques, as at Notre-Dame at Jumieges and Saint-Etienne at Caen.^ The continental scheme of the four-story elevation was prepared in the o 3 nave at Tournai^ and, perhaps, at Cambrai. While these monuments preced• ed the architecture of the years 1150-1160, the incorporation of the four- stbry elevation at Noyon, Saint-Germer, and Laon represents a radically new thesis, a new conception of vertical space that was to characterize a school of the second stage of First Gothic architecture. The cathedral of Notre-Dame at Noyon, begun ca. 1145-1150, is situated in the heartland of the Oise River basin; ninety kilometers to the south• west is the abbey church of Saint-Germer-de-Fly, begun ca. 1155-1160, and forty-five kilometers to the east in the Aisne valley is the cathedral of Notre-Dame at Laon, begun ca. 1157. From the early 1150's, ;then, 2 Picardy was a center of intense architectural activity where the desire to achieve the vertical expansion of space was a ruling consideration. The builders of this school set out to increase the height of the in• terior volumes, to devise new systems of support to raise the height of the main bearing walls as well as to devise a new elevation and range of effects to express the concern for height.^ The basis of such a thesis appears, on the one hand, somewhat removed from the concerns of the immediately preceding generation in the ile-de-France;^ from the insist• ence upon an equality of space and structure, and from a fluid commun• ication of lateral volumes which was so vigorously realized in the chevet of Saint-Denis. On the other hand, the enlargement of space was fund• amental to both schools, and the move toward the vertical expansion of space may be seen as a logical, progressive extension of the horizontal expansion of the earliest stage of First Gothic. It was, nevertheless, to the monuments of the Romanesque period that these Picard builders of the second stage of First Gothic turned to solve their constructional prob• lems of building in height. The abbey church of Saint-Lucien at Beauvais (fig. 1), begun in the closing years of the eleventh century, has been identified as one of the Romanesque buildings that served as a model in the formation of certain designs of the 1150's and 1160's.^ Its chevet was constructed in the thin- wall technique which permitted the erection of large expanses of thin mas- onry. The high walls were reinforced at regular intervals by a sequence of compound piers and buttresses, as well as by the presence of groin vaults over the tribune gallery. Moreover, the thrust of the aerial vaults, at least in the chevet if not the nave, was counteracted-by a range of quadrant arches, aligned perpendicular to the main bearing walls q and contained beneath the tribune roofs. The incorporation of these quadrant arches meant that the roofs of the tribunes had to be raised high on the exterior wall which resulted in a blind zone oh the interior between the tribunes and clerestory.''"0 The nave at Tournai, ca. 1110-1140, was yet another Romanesque struc• ture that apparently served as a prototype for the second generation of First Gothic buildings;"'"''" it was the most immediate precursor of the thick- 12 wall elevation of four stories at Noyon.