Architecture, Medieval; Church architecture; Vaults (Architecture)
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--REIMS, SAINT REMI.]
AMBULATORY VAULTS WHICH INCLUDE THE RADIATING CHAPELS
In all the churches thus far discussed, and, in fact, in the majority of
those constructed during the Gothic period, the radiating chapels are
separated from the rest of the ambulatory by arches directly across
their entrances. But quite frequently these chapels, particularly when
they were comparatively shallow, as in the cathedral of Chartres (Plate
III-g), or
[Illustration: FIG. 84.--AUXERRE, CATHEDRAL.]
even when comparatively deep as at Saint Denis[439] and Saint Maclou at
Pontoise (Plate III-h), were treated as part of the ambulatory and an
added rib was introduced in vaulting them exactly in the manner
described in connection with the trapezoidal bays of Rouen and
Coutances. Furthermore, as the chapels were increased in size, more than
one extra rib was added in the severy of the trapezoidal vault which
embraced them so that there were, sometimes, two such ribs, as in the
cathedral of Tournai (1240-1260) (Fig. 85).[440] Occasionally, also, as
in the cathedral of Saint Quentin (after 1230) (Plate III-i), similar
bays and vaults occur, with the addition of large radiating chapels
opening off of the more shallow curves of the ambulatory bays,
suggesting a combination of the Tournai type with that of Auxerre (Plate
III-f). In some of the larger and deeper chapels there were even four
added ribs as, for example, in the cathedral
[Illustration: FIG. 85.--TOURNAI, CATHEDRAL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 86.--BAYONNE, CATHEDRAL.]
of Bayonne (Fig. 86), where the ambulatory is further noteworthy because
the builders, in an attempt to equalize the vaulting severies, have
moved the keystones of the diagonals almost out to a point on the line
of the outer walls. As a matter of fact, it was moved out to such a
point in a number of instances (Plate III-j), as, for example, in
Soissons cathedral[441] where it becomes the keystone of an arch
directly across the entrance of the chapel as well as being the center
for all the ribs both of this chapel and the ambulatory. Each
trapezoidal bay is thus divided not into four but into three triangular
panels, the chapel itself being covered by a fully developed five-part
chevet vault for which the two ribs of the ambulatory bay act as
buttresses. A similar but more logical vault appears in the ambulatory
and two eastern chapels of Pamplona cathedral (begun 1397) (Plate
III-k). This is a church with an axial eastern pier, and its radiating
chapels are arranged so as to form perfect hexagons with the bays of the
ambulatory. The keystone is then moved out, as at Soissons, to the crown
of the chapel arch where it lies in the exact center of each hexagonal
bay and thus produces a perfectly symmetrical vault.
AMBULATORIES WITH ALTERNATE SQUARE AND TRIANGULAR BAYS
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