Architecture, Medieval; Church architecture; Vaults (Architecture)
logical continuation of such a vault. But the builders do not seem to
have realized immediately the aesthetic advantage in so planning their
churches that such chevet vaults should come next to a six-part vault.
At Sens (Fig. 28), however, the perfected use of this new chevet is
shown for it is placed directly beyond a six-part bay and its two
buttressing ribs are the counterparts of the two diagonals of the
sexpartite vault. Once the advantage of such an arrangement was grasped,
the churches were in many cases planned to provide for an even number of
six-part bays in the choir followed by a chevet which carries the same
system into the apse of the church. Thus in the cathedrals of Paris and
Bourges, and probably originally in that of Soissons, as well as in
other churches with six-part vaulting, this chevet became the standard
form of eastern termination and the bay preceding the apse was made
sexpartite so that the completed church would be uniform
throughout.[372] Moreover the apsidal bays of the later chevets, as for
example that at Soissons (Fig. 67) were frequently so planned that the
radiants from the piers next beyond the ribs forming the transverse arch
containing the keystone, were exact extensions of the buttressing ribs.
In other words, except for the subdivision of the eastern bay into three
window cells, the chevet corresponded to a true six-part vault inscribed
in the space formed by the last bay of the choir and the polygonal-sided
apse.
Notwithstanding the fact that the buttressing-ribbed chevet was
primarily suited to churches with six-part vaulting, it was by no means
confined to these for it is found in a large number which were from the
beginning planned for four-part vaults. Among these is the cathedral of
Rouen, in which the chevet is of distinctly six-part type with a
full-sized choir bay included beneath the vault,[373] and the cathedral
of Reims in which all the bays of the chevet are of practically the same
size, as in the early churches which gave rise to this form of apse
vault. Reims is thus an example of the perseverance of the design of a
seven-sided chevet including one bay with parallel walls and yet of the
same size as those forming the curve.[374]
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