Architecture
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BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 3lonU0n: FETTER LANE, E.G. C. F. CLAY, MANAGER t; 100, PRINCES STREET 3Slte: A. ASHER AND CO. SLeipjig: F. A. BROCKHAUS AND LTD, 330mfm attt fltatttttte: MACMILLAN CO., reserved All rights BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE by THOMAS GRAHAM JACKSON, R.A. Hon. D.C.L. Oxford, Hon. LL.D. Cambridge Hon. Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford Associd de 1*Acade'mie Royale de Belgique Nunquam vera species ab utilitate dividitur, QUINTIL. Or. Inst. vm. 3 Cambridge : at the University Press The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois IN MEMORIAM A. M. J. CONTENTS OF VOL. II CHAP. PAGE XVIII German Romanesque r XIX French Romanesque. Aquitaine and Poitou . 28 XX French Romanesque. Provence 62 XXI French Romanesque. Toulouse 82 XXII French Romanesque. Burgundy 90 XXIII French Romanesque. Auvergne 127 XXIV French Romanesque. Normandy .... 147 XXV French Romanesque. The Isle of France . 159 XXVI English Romanesque before the Norman conquest . 173 XXVII English Romanesque after the Norman conquest . 205 XXVIII English Romanesque after the Norman conquest (cont.} 235 XXIX Conclusion 257 Chronological tables of architectural examples . 269 Index 278 ERRATUM p. 83, line i. For i2th read nth. CHAPTER XVIII GERMAN ROMANESQUE THE history of Romanesque architecture in Germany begins with Charlemagne. We find no buildings in that ance country older than his time except those which the Romans had left behind them. Charlemagne however was a great builder. Eginhardt his secretary and bio- grapher says he repaired the churches throughout his dominions, but he gives no details. A book de aedificiis in the 8th century would have been very interesting, but Eginhardt was no Procopius, nor was Charlemagne a Justinian. Two buildings however, we " are modestly told, seem not unworthy of mention, the Mx-ia- ape e basilica of the most holy mother of God, constructed with wondrous workmanship at Aquisgranum, and a bridge 1 " over the Rhine at Moguntiacum This bridge at Mainz was only of wood, perhaps of boats, but the basilica at AIX-LA-CHAPELLE was a great work considering its age and situation. It was destined by Charlemagne to be also his tomb- house, and here he was in fact afterwards buried; seated on his throne, imperially robed, and with his sceptre in his hand and a copy of the gospels on his knee, as he was found when the tomb was opened in 1165. The ex- splendour of this church, says Eginhardt, was the adorned it with pression of his Christian devotion. He 1 Eginhardt, Vita Caroli Magni, cap. xvii. r j. A. II. xvm 2 GERMAN ROMANESQUE [en, and and with doors and screens Aix-la- gold and silver, lights, Cbapelle service of solid bronze. Hither he would come to the as as his morning and evening and even by night long 1 health permitted . was of an exotic in Imitation The building (Fig. 63) something ofS.Vitale 8th the kingdom of the Austrasian Franks in the century, AIX-JLA-CHAPOLE. ~ original j&faru Fig. 63. and no one who has seen it and also the church at Ravenna from which it is supposed to have been imitated, can doubt its foreign origin. Eginhardt tells us that Charlemagne imported columns and marbles for the work 2 from Ravenna and and he is to Rome , supposed have stripped and ruined the splendid palace of Theodoric at the former city which has now practically disappeared. But besides materials there can be little doubt he also 1 Eginhardt, Vita Caroli Magni^ cap. xxvi. 2 Ad cujus structuram, cum columnas et marmora aliunde habere non Roma posset, atque Ravenna devehenda curavit Eginhardt, cap. xxvi. Plate LXXXII AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CH. xvin] GERMAN ROMANESQUE 3 from his imported Italy architect and his principal Aix-ia- builders. The resemblance to Chapelle S. Vitale is very strong, and yet there is sufficient difference to show that the builders were men of originality, able to think for them- selves, not tied to a simple imitation of their model, and there could have been no such men in Austrasia then. Both churches have a dome over an octagon, a surround- The plan aisle in two ing storeys, though a women's gallery was not required by the Latin use, two staircases by which to mount to it at the west end enclosed in circular turrets ; and though at Aix there are no exedrae the arches of the upper gallery (Plate LXXXII) have colonnettes in them recalling those at Ravenna, and they have even some- like a on thing pulvino their capitals. Although the diameter of the dome is less than that at S. Vitale by than ten still more feet, a domed building even of these dimensions would be a considerable undertaking at any time, and it is carried out in a very scientific manner. It will be seen from the plan (Fig. 63) that the area of the supports is by no means excessive, and the vaulting of The con- structlon the aisle is very cleverly managed, so as to escape the awkwardness which would have been caused had the outer wall been octagonal like the inner. Instead of that it has 1 6 sides, so that there is a square bay of simple cross-vaulting in the aisle opposite each side of the octagon, the vault of the intervening triangle being easily managed. This is contrived much better here than at S. Vitale, though there further trouble is caused by the protrusion of the exedrae into the aisle vault. The gallery above is vaulted differently, by barrel vaults on radiating lines turned from arches thrown across from pier to wall, forming square and triangular bays alternately as below. i 2 xvm 4 GERMAN ROMANESQUE [CH. some are Corinthian, but Aix-la- Among the capitals antique Chapelle most of them have been renewed : and of the columns which were carried off by French invaders to Paris not all have come back. The The exterior has now a monstrous fluted dome of exteiior timber and slate, somewhat grotesque : but probably it roof from walls had originally a plain pyramidal rising the dome and then carried up as a drum, concealing ; the two churches at Aix and Ravenna would have been AIX'JLA-CHAPELLE. present Fig. 64 . much alike outside as well as inside. Further evidence of Italian or Italo-Byzantine workmanship is afforded by the of mouldings the cornices, which are rather clumsy versions of classic detail. The metal The old bronze doors of the west and north work entrances still on their hang hinges, and the gallery front has its bronze cancelli. The stunted proportion of the lower order and the absence of bases give the impression that the floor level has been raised. CH. xvm] GERMAN ROMANESQUE 5 The original choir was short, like that of S. Vitale, and Aix-ia- P in 1353 it was replaced by the present long building The cholr (Fig. 64), a veritable lantern of late German Gothic. Its expanded circular end is supposed to represent on the same foundations the tomb-house of Otho III who died in 1 002 and who was supposed by some to have re-built Charlemagne's church. Fergusson believes the truth to be that he built himself a tomb-house where the choir now ends, which the i4th century architect united by the present choir to the 8th century building. There can be little doubt that we have in the Dom of Aix-la-Chapelle the constructa of basilica, opere mirabili y which Eginhardt writes. Some would have it that Eginhardt himself, who is Eginhardt " " described as operwm regalium exactor" and variarum artinm doctor peritissimus" was the architect of the building. It is more probable that like Julianus Argen- tarius at Ravenna he was the administrator of the expenses. Coeval with Charlemagne's basilica at Aquisgranum, Lorsch or possibly a little earlier, is the little chapel at LORSCH, near Worms, which is generally supposed to be part of the monastery dedicated in the presence of Charle- magne in 774 (Plate LXXXIII). It was originally a gatehouse two storeys high, with three open arches in front and three behind. The floor has been removed and the three arches of the back built up in order to convert it into a chapel. The altar stands against the central blocked arch under an additional arch on columns and wall and encloses the capitals, which is planted on the original central arch. This inner, additional arch is in a totally different is with like style from the building, and decorated zigzags xvin 6 GERMAN ROMANESQUE [CH, also of a much later Lorsch Norman work. The capitals are date not older than the nth or I2th century. ; certainly roof of but the The building has a high-pitched slate, as be seen the of original pitch was low, may by starting end. The details are of a a modillion pediment at one are imitated debased classic type. The lower capitals Fig. 65, from composite (Fig. 65), and have no necking; they are well carved, and carry a stringcourse or cornice at the first floor level decorated with a regular Byzantine pattern. The upper storey has a colonnade of little fluted pilasters with Ionic queer capitals (Fig. 66), supporting what in our Anglo-Saxon work we call straight-sided arches. Three of them are pierced with simple round-headed Plate LXXXIII LORSCH CM. xvin] GERMAN ROMANESQUE 7 lights, probably insertions. Above at the eaves is a good plain modillion cornice (Fig. 67), which once was returned on the end walls and ramped into a pediment, though only the starting already mentioned now remains.