Early Gothic architecture

Following the model of Saint-Denis, Sens Cathedral became the first complete Gothic cathedral. It was constructed between 1135 and 1164. It used the new six-part rib vault in the nave, giving the church exceptional width and height. Because the six-part vaults distributed the weight unevenly, the vaults were supported by alternating massive square piers and more slender round columns. [7][8][9] It had a wide impact on the Gothic style not only in France, but also in England, because its master builder, William of Sens, was invited to England and introduced Early Gothic features to the reconstructed nave of Canterbury Cathedral.

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  Facade of Sens Cathedral (1135-64)
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  Elevation of Sens Cathedral, showing the three levels (arcades, Triforium, and clerestory at the top)

Senlis Cathedral was built between 1153 and 1191. Its length was limited by modest budget and by the placement of the building against the city wall. Like Sens cathedral, it was composed of a nave without a transept, flanked by a single collateral. The choir, like Saint-Denis, was surrounded by radiating chapels. The elevation had three levels, including large tribunes. Like Sens, Senlis Cathedral had alternating strong and weak piers to receive the uneven thrust from the six-part rib vaults. The church underwent considerable rebuilding in the 13th and 16th century, including a new tower and new interior decorations. Many of the early Gothic features are overladen with Flamboyant and later decoration.[10].

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  Nave of Senlis Cathedral (1153–91)
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  Sculpted capitals of the piers, Chapel of Sainte-Genevieve, Senlis Cathedral

Noyon Cathedral, begun between 1150 and 1155, was the first of a series of famous Cathedrals to appear in Picardy, the prosperous region north of Paris. The city an important connection with French history, as the coronation site of Charlamagne and of the early French King Hugh Capet. The new cathedral still had many Romanesque features, including prominent transepts with rounded ends and deep galleries, but it introduced several Gothic innovations, including the fourth level, the triforium a narrow passageway between the ground-level gallery, the tribunes, and the top level clerestory, Noyon also used massive compound piers alternating with round columns, necessary because of the uneven weight distribution from the six-part vaults.[5] The east end has five radiating chapels and three levels of windows, creating a created a dramatic flood of light into the nave. [11]

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  Facade of Noyon Cathedral (begun 1150-55)
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  The alternating piers and columns of the grand arcade, which support the vaults

Laon Cathedral (begun c. 1190), was built at the same time as Notre Dame de Paris, and was an equally large project, but had a strikingly different appearance. Laon was built upon a hilltop one hundred meters high, making it visible from a great distance. The hilltop imposed a special burden for the builders; all the stones had to be carried to the top of the hill in carts drawn by oxen. The oxen who did the work were honored by statues on the tower of the finished cathedral. [12]

Laon was also unusual because of its five towers; two on the west front, two on the transepts, and an octagonal lantern on crossing. Laon, like most early Gothic cathedrals, had four interior levels. Laon also had alternating octagonal and squar piers supporting the nave, but these rested upon massive pillars made of dreamlike sections of stone, giving it greater harmony and a greater sensation of length.[13] The new cathedral was unusual in form; The apse on the east was flat, not rounded, and The choir was exceptionally long, nearly as long as the nave.[14]. Another striking feature of Laon Cathedral were the three great rose windows, one on the west facade and two on the transepts. (Only the west and north windows still remain). Another unusual feature at Laon is lantern tower at the transept crossing, most likely inspired by the Norman Gothic abbey churches in Caen. {Sfn|Mignon (2015)|pages=16-17}}

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  Laon Cathedral (1150s-1230)
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  Nave of Laon Cathedral, looking east
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  The buttresses of the rounded chevet of Laon Cathedral

English architects had experimented with early Gothic features. At Durham Cathedral, a Romanesque church, a traverse of the nave and lower aisle was made with an early variation a rib vault, a ribbed groin vault, or meeting place of two barrel vaults, with stone ribs. The ribbed groin vaults were installed in 1093-96, and were the first of their kind in Europe. As the work continued, the builders experimented with an even bolder variation, using pointed instead of rounded arches, to spread the weight outwards. The new pointed rib vaults were installed over the south transept and nave beginning in 1130. These were probably the first pointed arch rib vaults in Europe. The new vaults were not entirely successful; the thin panels between the ribs were made of plastered rubble, and were too heavy and cracked, and in 1235 they had to be replaced. Newer and lighter versions of the rib vault, using small pieces of cut stone in the panels, rather than plastered rubble, were developed in Normandy and the Ile-de-France. Pointed Rib vaults did not fully take hold in England until the second half of the 12th century. [18]

One of the first major buildings in England to use the new style was Canterbury Cathedral. A fire destroyed the mainly Romanesque choir in September 1174, and leading architects from England and France were invited to offer plans for its reconstruction. The winner of this competition was a French master builder, William of Sens, who had been involved in the construction of Sens Cathedral, the first complete Gothic cathedral in France. [19]

Many limitations were put upon William of Sens by the monks who ran the Cathedral. He was not allowed to replace entirely the original Norman church, and had to fit his his new structure on the old crypt and within the surviving outer Norman walls. Nonetheless, he achieved a strikingly original sculpture, showing elements inspired by Notre-Dame de Paris and Laon Cathedral. Following the French model, he used six-part rib vaults, pointed arches, supporting columns with carved acanthus leaf decoration, pointed arches, and a semi-circular ambulatory. However, other elements were purely English, such as the use of dark purbeck marble to create decorative contrasts with the pale stone brought from Normandy. The work was described a monk and chronicler, Gervase of Canterbury. Contrasting the old with the new choir. He wrote: "There, the arches and everything else was plain, or sculpted with an axe and not with a chisel. But here almost throughout is appropriate sculpture. There used to be no marble shafts, but here are innumerable ones. There in the circuit round the choir, the vaults were plain, but here they are arch-ribbed and have key-stones." [20]

William of Sens fell from a scaffolding in 1178 and was seriously injured, and returned to France, where he died, [21] and his work was continued by an English architect, William the Englishman, who constructed the Trinity Chapel in the apse and the Corona in the east end, which were monuments to Thomas Becket, who had been murdered in the Cathedral. The new structure had many French features, such as the doubled columns in the Trinity chapel, and piers replaced by Purbeck-marble wall shafts. But it also retained many specifically English features, such as a great variety in the level and placement of the spaces; the Trinity chapel, for example is sixteen steps above the Choir). It also retaining rather than eliminated the transepts - Canterbury had two. Early English Gothic put an emphasis on great length; Canterbury was doubled in length between 1096 and 1130. [20]

One reason for the differences between French and English Gothic was that French Benedictine abbey-churches usually put different functions into separate buildings, while in England they were usually combined in the same structure. Similar complicated multifunctional designs were found not only in Canterbury, but in the abbey-churches of Bath, Canterbury, Conventry, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester and Worcester.[22]

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  Choir of Canterbury Cathedral rebuilt by William of Sens (1174–1184)
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  The windows and vaults of Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral

Another notable form of early English Gothic architecture was that of the Cistercian monasteries. The Cistercian order had been formed in 1098 as a reaction against the opulence and ornament of the Benedictine order and its monasteries. The architecture of the Cisterians was based upon simplicity and functionality. All decoration was forbidden. The Cistercian monasteries were in remote locations, far from the cities. They were closed in 1539 during the reign of Henry VIII, and now are picturesque ruins. Examples include Kirkstall Abbey (c. 1152); Roche Abbey (c. 1172), and [[Fountains Abbey) (c. 1132) all in Yorkshire.

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  Kirkstall Abbey (c. 1152)
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  Roche Abbey (c. 1172)
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  Fountains Abbey (c. 1132)

Wells Cathedral, (built between 1185 1200 and modified until 1240) is another leading example of the early English style. It borrowed some aspects, such as its elevation, from the French style, but gave precedence to strong horizontals, such as the triforium, rather than the dominant vertical elements, such as wall shafts, of the French style. The piers were composed of as many as twenty-four shafts, adding another unusual decorative effect.[23] The north porch, built in 1210-15, and especially the west front (1220-1240) had a particularly novel decorative effect. The screen facade of the west front is filled with nearly four hundred carved and painted stone figure, and is made more impressive by two flanking towers, not attached to the body of the church. This arrangement was adapted by other English cathedrals, including Salisbury Cathedral and Exeter Cathedral.[23]

Lincoln Cathedral (rebuilt from the Norman style beginning in 1192) is another major example of early English Gothic. The master-builder, Geoffrey de Noier, was French, but he constructed a church with distinct non-French features; double transepts, an elongated nave, complexity of interior space, and a more lavish use of decorative features.[23] St. Hugh's Choir, named after the French-born monk St. Hugh of Lincoln, was a good example. The choir was covered with a rib vault in which most of the ribs had a purely decorative role. In addition to the functional ribs, it featured extra ribs called tiercerons, which did not lead to the central point of the vault, but to a point along the ridge rib on the crown of the vault. They were put together in lavish designs, which gave the resulting ceiling the nickname "The crazy vault." [23]

Another distinctive English element introduced at Lincoln was the blind arcading in the chapel. Two layers of arcades with pointed arches are attached to the walls, giving a theatrical effect of three dimensions. This element is enhanced by the use of different color stone for the thin columns; ribs of white limestone for the lower columns and black purbeck marble for the upper portions. [23]