Architecture, Medieval; Church architecture; Vaults (Architecture)
The vaulting of the transept naturally differs from that in the nave
when the former is given a semicircular termination. In Romanesque
transepts of this type, the vaults are in the form either of simple half
domes, or of tunnel vaults ending in such domes, according as the
transept arms are lengthened or left merely in the form of apses. Many
churches of both these types, but usually of small size, are to be found
in southern France,[293] while others appear in Italy and still others
in the north of Europe,[294] where such a church as that of Rolduc
(Belgium) was considered by its builders as built in a Lombard manner,
“scemate longo-bardico,”[295] indicating that the semicircular transept
was thought, at least, to be of Lombard origin. The most highly
developed transepts of this tunnel-vaulted, half-domed type are probably
those in the church of Saint Mary of the Capitol at Cologne, where a
groin-vaulted ambulatory is found around each transept apse. Somewhat
similar in plan are the transepts of Tournai cathedral in Belgium
(between cir. 1110-1170) (Fig. 53), except that here the surrounding
aisle is very narrow, and, more important still, the half dome is
replaced by a clumsy chevet vault with very heavy ribs, their haunches
raised to support a series of ramping and contracting tunnel vaults.
This construction is very similar to the framework of such a dome as
that of the Baptistery at Florence. Nor is it without advantages, since
it greatly reduces the vault thrusts and therefore renders unnecessary
the use of flying-buttresses,[296] and at the same time permits the
windows to rise above the level of its impost. The next semicircular
transept of importance is that of Noyon cathedral
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--TOURNAI, CATHEDRAL.]
(cir. 1140),[297] where there is a developed chevet of what will later
be called the buttressing ribbed type.[298] More developed still is the
south transept of Soissons cathedral (1176-1207), which possesses an
ambulatory in two stories with three bays of trapezoidal four-part
ribbed vaults corresponding to each principal vaulting bay. The transept
proper is covered by a rectangular vault[299] and a broken-ribbed chevet
with very broad window cells. Other examples of semicircular transepts
could be cited, both of the Romanesque and Gothic periods,[300] but
either they do not present any vaulting forms not already discussed or
they will be described in connection with the apse proper. That the plan
had a long lease of life, if not a very extensive usage, is shown by the
fact that it appears in such seventeenth century churches as that of the
Lycée Corneille at Rouen (beg. cir. 1614),[301] and is found in
numerous Renaissance churches in which the vaulting returns to the
earlier tunnel and half-dome forms.[302]
THE VAULTS OF TRANSEPT AISLES AND CHAPELS
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