Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 1Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
History
Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 1
Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
Architecture, Gothic; Architecture, Medieval
In all classes of building, whether ecclesiastical, military, monastic,
civic, domestic, commercial, or rustic, though the architecture was in
reality one and the same, the treatment was absolutely and imperatively
commanded by the purpose, and the expression followed by instinct. As I
have said on other occasions, a Mediæval barn is as good and as true in
its architecture as a cathedral; both are essentially in the same style,
yet one is as obviously a barn and as absolutely subservient to the
requirements of a barn, as the other is a church. One has no windows,
but slits of some 4 inches wide, and yet looks as Gothic as the other,
which has more window than wall.
[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Warehouses at Nuremburg.]
Take, again, two commercial buildings--as the great Cloth Market at
Yprès and the huge warehouses at Nuremburg--one for exhibiting
manufactures, the other for stowing away goods. The first is,
internally, a continuous room or gallery some 30 or 40 feet wide, and
(measuring along its several ranges) about 600 or 700 feet long; its
entire sides occupied by continuous and uniform ranges of large windows,
and the exterior unbroken to express the unity of the interior, and its
[Illustration: Fig. 152.--Cloth Market at Yprès.]
lower storey subdivided into rooms of a small size for more varied uses;
and with all this unbroken uniformity, it would be hard to find a more
wonderfully striking building. The other, being for stowage, demanded
multitudinous storeys and numerous supports. The storeys within are not,
perhaps, more than 8 or 10 feet high, and the floors are carried on
oaken pillars. The windows, being more for ventilation than light, are
small and square, and closed by shutters instead of glass. The crane
houses are made noble structures of timber, but no ornament is admitted,
excepting to the doorways and perhaps the gables. The whole speaks its
purpose so unmistakably that I do not suppose any one ever yet asked
what it was; and though a mere unmasked and almost unadorned warehouse,
it stands forth and asserts--and not in vain--its claims upon public
admiration amongst the admired monuments of that truly interesting city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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