| The Vault as Illusion (6) |
For this final development, it is a good idea to remember that the Classicizing thought practiced in the Middle Ages, generally sought beauty and perfection in empty space. In the cathedrals, the geometry, colour and light are all expressed in space, and the appearance of splits and tears are expressed in the fabric. So it was a stunning about-face in the last section to find the masons beginning to draw attention to the solid forms of the masonry. In this section they continue to do that. But, increasingly, the forms seem natural, fluid and fragile, rather than architectural, strong and geometric. They even defy gravity! Is God interfering again? Or is he, rather, joining in?
The term fan vault can only have been invented by a two-dimensional mind. I mean, take a look at the earliest surviving example, in the south cloister at Gloucester Cathedral. Those look like lilies or bugle bells to me. Solid, expanding circles that contain their geometry in themselves rather than moulding it into the space between. Ought to have called it something like a "fanfare vault"!
While you're looking, I bet you think the spaces between them are flat! If you do, you're wrong. The vault is a rounded-off tierceron structure, and you have been made to think those central areas are flat by the lierne pattern that convincingly suggests the tops of the cones and then camouflages the subtle curve between them. The vault spans a mere twelve feet—but flat, unsupported stone can only span eight or it will crack and fall. Only a small piece in the centre of those "flat bits" really is flat. I've stood under them and checked. It's just almost impossible to make your eyes believe it.
You may find it easier to see on the later version at King's College Chapel, where you can easily pick out the emphatic transverse arches, as well as the slender diagonal ribs and tiercerons. Compare that with the ones over the naves at Bath Abbey, and Sherborne Abbey, which emphasize different parts of the pattern. Now do you believe it?
This next trick is impossible: just as flat stone cannot span more than eight feet, so pendant stone cannot hang more than a few inches, or it will crack and fall. So how do the pendant vaults in the Mausoleum of Henry VII, Westminster Abbey, work?
Well, they aren't hanging as far as they seem. Running up to each is a transverse arch, which meets each stalactitic cone a few inches from its end. Its continuation is disguised by the lacy tracery of fine ribs on the other side, which defies your eyes so you think the 15 feet of vault between the pendants is flat and far above the pendants. The structure is clearer in the choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Oxford.
And here, at last, the Gothic mind closes the joyous narrative of the vault—where beauty, shifting from the contained space into the masonry, transforms it into lilies, seashells, snowflakes and waterfalls, thus fusing the immovable object with the irresistible force. Gotta love it!
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 |