Show tut i OU GLS AThDA1fl Ui1 Ii if ii i i1i iiI f i 4 n 1 M I1 + l x Ptfit l a i f r r iY Y w uyN Wl j 4 iTT i A TT k + 1 Y ifl 4t r r r ii i t 2 t fortIt Tower IIE structure of Dourges Is Interesting In-teresting to study because it THE 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 a double row of lateral chapels The columns of the nave are tho highest In tho world In no fewer than ono hundred and thirtysix lancet windows and forty five rose windows the original thirteenth thir-teenth century glass Is still to bo seen and some of the finest examples of fifteenth century gliisspalntlng are In the chapels But It Is the fabric of stone that must be first considered and whether you admire the portals and external buttresses or count the forest of pillars within that fabric Impresses itself on your imagination is tho product of a definite style as distinctive as personal as a picture or a poem No style In architecture or anything else that is worthy of that honorable namo was ever suddenly 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 modified modi-fied and by tho differences that suit ono age after another they survive charged but the same as the fruit follows the flowering of the tree Without going further back than the immediately preceding Romanesque which survives In KO many details of the early Gothic we can realize that the imperative need for vast stone roofed churches In which aisles wore a constructive necessity was tho startingpoint for the new development develop-ment This necessitated the art of vaulting over an oblong space and since the square space with all its sides equal could easily bo vaulted by round arches while tho oblong could only bo vaulted by tho use of pointed arches the pointed arch became be-came the symbol of the now 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 gravity gra-vity as tho chief foundation of the buildings strength you now get n structure which is supported by an articulated framework a frankly expressed ex-pressed anatomy of bone and muscle In which piers arches buttresses are linked together In a perfect equilibrium equili-brium balanced thrust and counter thrust The old thick walls being no longer essential are entirely replaced re-placed by vast windows of stained t glass except for a few feet from tho ground where they are necessary for mere enclosure The window aper tures flll the whole space laterally between be-tween the piers which rise from the pavement In slender shafts up to the navecornice These piers contain several members to support tho ribs of tho vaults the arches of tho tri Corium and the buttresses of tho clerestory but they need only be masslvo enough to bear tho weight of tho vaults because the sidepres sures are carried off by buttresses to the aisles and by flying buttresse s again boyond them All this elaborate system was only begun and rendered possible because the pointed arch was not n mere decorative device but was tale definitely practical solution of a definite problem That solution gave us Beauvals choir the Kubla Khan of architecture like a great hymn Interrupted In-terrupted in which the Gothic spirit pushed to Its logical conclusion has striven to utter the unutterable That solution also gave us the triumph ol Bourges or the perfection of Amiens Like all things which partake of the quality of organic growth the fabric of the Gothic cathedrals needs con stant repair as a plant needs rain and sunshine Of the mastermasons who built these mighty structures we know lit tie and there Is very little trace On the righthand door of the western facade of Chartres Is a figure ol I geometry or architecture holding a squaro and compass while Archl I medes writes beneath On the north I porch of the same cathedral the architect arch-itect with his square appears again I In all these cases It Is not the arch Itect as we know him now who Is I represented but a master of the work who had charge of the whole building from Its foundations to lie furniture and was as capable of planning plan-ning out an octagonal apse as ol 1 I carving a saint upon the doorway 01 a sinner beneath tho seat of an ecclesiastic ec-clesiastic It was under the protection of the church that the first schools of Charlemagne Charle-magne arose and under the shelter of the church alone could the quiet and security necessary to artistic education edu-cation be then discovered This Is I typified by the fact that the Abbey of Cluny was the real bulwark against a barbarism which had previous to Its foundation been practically permanent perma-nent for many hundred years It had branches from Spain to Poland and was as active In politics and letters I as In art I The thirteenth century cathedral Is almost unintelligible to the most cul I tured of Its visitors of today without the assistance of a guidebook But I no amount of books and no amount I of arttraining would educate the I workmen of today Into producing aim liar cathedrals under modern condl tions For even In those Greek temples tem-ples which look so comparatively simple sim-ple there arc mysteries which the modern builder never knew Von have but to look at the Madeleine in Paris and compare It with Its gra oleos prototype The original Greek work is full of subtle curves and slight but essential differences whlrh I make it a thing of beauty The same I reasoning holds for the Gothic cathe drills They are not I good because they aro old Beauty Is not a mat ter of time for age cannot wither her nor custom stale her Infinite variety Theso buildings are old because they are Rood which Is n very different matter And any new building In spired by tho same genius and car Fled out with the same enthusiasm would be good In spite of any youth Hut both the genius and the cnthusl anal are dead The great cathedrals are a part of the worlds Inheritance that wetheir temporary guardians have to hand on undiminished to our heirs Let us see to It each In ha own measure and In his own that we bear strength our part and jUHln justry trust Y our |