| The Vault as Illusion (2) |
Whenever I suggest that vaulting patterns can be interpreted, people start to stiffen. When I go on to say that they are enjoyable meditations on the old chestnut about what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object, they instantly protest that the average church goer would completely miss the point, so I must be letting my imagination run away with me (as usual).
Well, for starters, these meditations aren't intended for the average church goer. Ordinary people have only been important since they had the vote—far too late for consideration by Gothic minds.
For seconds, the meditations harmonize with Classical thought, with civil engineering practice, and with age-old metaphors for God and the Holy Spirit.
And for thirds, the meditations are a kind of conversation between professional masons, and it is tempting to see certain events as the zestful intervention of God Himself. (Feel free to see them as coincidences, if that feels more rational to you. It makes no difference to the architecture.)
Finally, ordinary people have always been free to enjoy the glorious designs that result, whether or not they understand them—but hey, we're important now so let's go for it!
These two titles refer to the same structure, which I explained in detail in Seeking the Perfect Vault. There's a diagram on the right, showing the pattern of the arris/ribs in red and transverse arches in blue as you look upwards.
In France, which even in the Middle Ages deplored the English sense of humour, this perfect vault was increasingly common. The God it manifested was evidently serene, orderly, and stable—very Classical of Him! And the vault floated on his power, higher than anyone would think possible—as at Amiens, for example.
Actually, these high French vaults had tremendous problems with the wind that kept blowing them down! And that is the reason for the flying buttresses: to damp the resonance in the supporting walls caused by the buffeting wind (to stop the walls from vibrating to pieces). But you can't see these from the inside, so everything remains serenely miraculous there.
But the English already had a great and potentially funny idea: that the building might have trouble containing God. Accordingly, they set about making it look stronger on the inside, with extra ribs—and the first extra rib was along the ridge. It is shown in black in the diagram on the right. There's an example at Gloucester Cathedral, over the nave.
This changes the meaning of the decoration completely! Instead of appearing to support the vault, the ribs now take on the quality of guy ropes. The church has become a sort of "big top" which has to be prevented from blowing away—as we'll see—quite literally—in the next section (page 3).
Page 1: structure and terms
Page 2: an idea is born
Page 3: the patterns and the power
Page 4: problems with towers
Page 5: the masons fight back
Page 6: lilies, seashells, snowflakes and waterfalls
Page 7: Glossary and Dates
| Why Use Stained Glass? | Classical Beauty | Before Stained Glass | Seeking the Perfect Vault | The Vault as Illusion |