Identifier: gothicarchitectu01jackuoft (find matches)
Title: Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Jackson, Thomas Graham, Sir, 1835-1924
Subjects: Architecture, Gothic
Publisher: Cambridge, University Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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p. 91 sup.) which isnow imperfect, if indeed it was ever completed. There isanother (Fig. 66) in the fine church of Semur-en-Auxois,one of the most picturesque and romantic towns in thatpart of France. The splendid stone found in Champagne provokedthe architects of that province to daring feats of masonrywhich would otherwise have been impossible. Thechurch of S. Urbain at Troyes which was begun in1262 and finished about 1276, and looks later than it is,consists of the choir and transepts of what was to havebeen a larger building, of which the nave is unfinished.It affords an extreme instance of the hazardous lengthsto which Gothic construction can be pushed. The wholechurch is a mere lantern of gorgeous stained glass framedin slender spars of stone. The mullions are slight likebars of iron, the piers are mere shafts, and as the floor ofthe triforium is only twelve or fourteen feet from the 1 Illustrated in my Byz. and Rom. Architecture, vol. II. p. 264. CH. IX) PROVINCIAL STYLES i59
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Fig. 66. 160 FRANCE (ch. ix s. Urbain ground the whole apse, which has no aisle or chapels,seems to be of glass. Clerestory and triforium arepractically one window with two planes of tracery anda passage between them, the outer tracery being glazedin the triforium and the inner in the clerestory. Neverwas anything more scientifically designed: nothing inthe construction is superfluous, and indeed but for thesplendid quality of the stone, of which full advantage hasbeen taken, the building could not have lasted in itspresent state of perfection. The traceries are cut in singleslabs of stone slid into chases between the buttresses, andthe two planes are bonded together by gutter coursesof the same material. In point of lightness and hardi-hood this church outdoes the most extravagant work ofthe Flamboyant or Perpendicular period. The traceriesare all of severe and vigorous geometrical forms andI do not remember an ogee curve. The mouldings aredelicate and pure in detail, though somewhat

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