Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-11-23
HE structure of Bourges is in
teresting to study, because 1t
offers several peculiarities
which distinguish it from other

ICA ColAuS " oIuuyy UCCduo0 ~
offers several peculiarities
which distinguish it from other
Gothic cathedrals, says a
French writer. Though it has no
transept, there are two aisles on each
side Of the nave, and double row of
lateral chapels. The columns of the
nave are the highest in the world.
In no fewer than one hundred and
thirty-six lancet windows and forty
five rose windows, the original thir-
teenth century glass Is still to be
seen, and some Of the finest examples
of fifteenth century glass-painting are
in the chapels. But it is the fabric
and, whether you, admire the portals
and external buttresses, or count the
forest of pillars within, that fabric
impresses itself on your imagination
as the product of definite style, as
distinctive, as personal, as a picture
or poem. No style Tin architecture
or anything else) that is worthy of
that honorable name was ever sud-
denly evolved either by an Individual
artist or even by an Individual school,.
Styles, like decorative patterns, are
not made; they grow, and are modi-
fed; and by the differences that suit
one age after another they survive,
changed, but the same, as the fruit
follows the Towering of the tree.
Without going further back than the
Immediately preceding Romanesuue,
which survives in so many details of
the early Gothic, we can realize that
the imperative need for vast stone
rooted churches, in which aisles were
a constructive necessity, was the
starting-poln for the new develop
ment. This necessitated the art OF
vaulting over an oblong space, and
since the square space with all its
sides equal could easily be vaulted
by round arches, while the oblone
could only be vaulted by the use Of
pointed arches, the pointed arch be
came the symbol Of the new style.
Many other differences appeared
all of them essentially constructive
Instead of huge walls with holes
bored in them for windows, and the
solid and inert principle Of stable gra
witty as the chief foundation of thu
buildings strength, you now get =:
structure which is supported by al
articulated framework, frankly ex
pressed anatomy of bone and muscle
in which piers, arches, buttresses arr
linked together in perfect equili
brium of~balanced thrust and counter
thrust. The old, thick walls, bein,
no longer essential. are entirely re
placed by vast windows of stainet
glass, except for few feet from tn.
ground where they are necessary TO-
mere enclosure. The window-aper
lures fill the whole space laterally be
tween the piers, which rise from tn,
pavement in slender shafts up to tn,
nave-cornice. These piers contain
several members, to support the rib
of the vaults, the arches Of the trl
forum, and the buttresses of tn
clerestory; but they need only b.
massive enough to bear the weigh
of the vaults, because the side-pres
sures are carried of by buttresses t
the aisles, and by flying-buttresse
again beyond them. All this elaborat
system was only begun and rendere
possible because the pointed arch wa
not a mere decorative device. but wa
the definitely practical solution Of
definite problem. That solution CAV
us Beauvais choir, "the Kubla Khan Q
architecture" like q great hymn II
corrupted, In which the Gothic spirit
pushed to it's logical conclusion. ha
|striven to utter the unutterable. Tha
solution also xave us the triumph c
!Bourges or the perfection Of Amien:
Like all things which partake of tn
Equality of organic growth, the fabri
of the Gothic cathedrals needs col
lstant repair, as a plant needs raj
and sunshine.
OF the master-masons who bull
these mighty structures we know Ii
tile and there is vo1J little trace. O