Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism by Erwin Panofsky (Art Ebook)

'Gothic
:;
Architecture and Scholasticism

An inquiry into the analogy of tlie arts,
philosophy, and religion in the Middle Ages.
ERWIn PANOFSKY
V
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Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism
Gothic Architecture
and Scholasticism
by Erwin Panofsky
A MERIDIAN BOOK
INieVU
AMERICAIVi LiBRAfyy
NEW YORK. LONDON AND SCARBOROUGH. ONTARIO
Copyright 1951, 1957 by Saint Vincent Archabbey

All rights reserved.
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Printing/New American Library, March, 1976

6 7 8 9 10 11 12
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Foreword
Professor Erwin Panofsky's

ture
study, Gothic Architec-
and Scholasticism, captured and holds an eminent
place in a series that
Wimmer
Lectures.
not without distinction, the
is
Established
in
memory
of
the
founder of the Benedictine Order in America, Boniface
Wimmer,
the series has brought to St. Vincent
College such fine scholars as Jacques Maritain (Man's
Approach
to
God"), William
Humanism"), Helen C. White ("Prayer
a Theistic
and Poetry"), and

in the
("Toward
F. Albright
Lowe ("The
Elias A.
Finest
Book
World").
Boniface
Wimmer would
surely have approved the
matter and the manner of this lecture. In a
letter
written nearly a hundred years ago he said:
In a country like America
religion
and
art
must work
together to give our liturgy an outward splendor, great

dignity,
teries
art,
and even grandeur.
have a solemn duty
to
improve
it
and
Therefore the monas-
to foster art, especially religious
to spread
it,
because our shop-
keepers and our farmers will never do that.
am
firmly
Foreword
vi
convinced that a monastic school which does not
advance
much
art as
ficient in its
work. In
and
as science
scientific matters
be more readily condoned,
strive to
religion will be de-
shortcomings
may
beginning, but
at least in the
neglect in the promotion of art must be censured.
Nine decades have not diminished
the force of these
words.
Professor Panofsky represents that firm,
and humane learning
that
is
mature,
the ideal and the despair
of so many. Since 1935 he has been associated with
the School of Humanistic Studies at
Advanced Study, Princeton,

before that took
him from
universities of Berlin,
burg.
New
The
Institute for
Jersey.
his native
His career
Hanover
to the
Munich, Freiburg, and Ham-
An authority on iconology, medieval, renaissance,
and baroque
nation,
art,
and Dutch and Flemish book
he has been a lecturer or professor
universities in the
Knowledge
sification as
insight
it
as
is
United
and penetrating
at various
States.
comprehensive
precise
illumi-
in its grasp
and sure
and
diver-
in detail, brilliant
analysis, stimulating, radiant,
Foreword
and
artistic
tomary
presentation these are qualities
to take for
Panofsky.
It is
ative lecture
\ii
it
is
cus-
granted in a study by Professor
a source of satisfaction to see his provoc-
made
available to a wider public through
Meridian Books. Extremely heavy demands upon Professor Panofsky's time
ducing into the

desirable.
We
have prevented him from
text revisions
do not hesitate
intro-
he would now consider

to issue the text in
original form, quite willing to let
it
stand on
its
its
own
merits.
QUENTIN
L.
SCHAUT, O.S.B.
List of Illustrations
Figure i.
Tombstone of the Architect Hugues Libergier

1263), Reims Cathedral.
(died
Figure 2.
Autun Cathedral, west
portal. Ca. 11 30.
Figure 3,
Paris,
Notre-Dame, central portal of the west fa9ade

Ca. 121^-1220.
(much restored)
Figure 4,
Henry
of France bestowing privileges upon the Priory
of St.-Martin-des-Champs, Book illumination between
1079 and 1096, London, British Museum, ms. Add.

1
162,
fol. 4.
Figure 5.
Henry
of St.-Martin-des-Champs.
Book
illumination
of
ca,
1250, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. Nouv. Acq.

lat.
1359,
fol.
I.
Figure 6.
Philip
of St.-Martin-des-Champs. Book illumination between
IX
Illustrations
1079 and 1096, London, British Museum, ms. Add.

1
162,
fol.
V.
Figure 7.
Philip
St. -Martin-des- Champs.
of
125^0, Paris,
lat.
13^9,
Book
illumination
of
ca.
Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. Nouv. Acq.
fol. 6.
Figure 8,
Maria Laach, Abbey Church from the northwest. 1093II 56.
Figure p.
Pima
(Saxony), Marienkirche, interior. Begun 1502.
Figure 10,
Cluny,
Third Abbey Church, groundplan,
io88-cd.
**The Third Church
go. (After K. J. Conant,

of Cluny,*' Medieval Studies in
Memory of A. Kingsley
Porter,
1 1
20
narthex
ca.
1 1
lo-ca.
1 1
Cambridge, 1939.)
Figure 11,
Amiens Cathedral, groundplan. Begun 1220.

Figure 12.
Sens Cathedral, groimdplan. Constructed ca. 114.0-ca.

1
168. (After E. Gall, Die gotische Baukunst in Frankreich
und Deutschland, Leipzig, 192^).

Figure 13.
Laon Cathedral, groundplan. Begun
ca.
1160.
. .
Illustrations
Figure 14.
Laon Cathedral from the northwest. Begun
1160.
ca,
Figure 15,
Reims Cathedral from the northwest. Begun
1 1
Figure 16,
Amiens Cathedral from the

Figure
northeast.
Begun 1220.
J J.
Lessay (Normandy),
Abbey Church,
interior.
End of the
Xlth century.
Figure 18,
Laon Cathedral, interior of the choir. Begun after 1205

in conformity with elevation designed ca, 1160.
Figure 19,
Chartres Cathedral, interior of the nave. Begun shortly

after
1 1
94.
Figure 20.
Reims Cathedral,
interior of the nave.
Begun
1 1
Figure 21,
Amiens Cathedral,
Begun 1220.
Figure 22,
St.-Denis, interior of the nave.
Begun 1231.
Figure 23.
Caen, St.-Ettienne, vaults of the northern transept. Ca.
mo.
(After E. Gall, op.
cit.)
Illustrations
Figure 24.
Soissons Cathedral, vaults of the southern side aisle in
course of restoration after
World War
I.
Beginning of
the Xlllth century.

Figure 25.
Soissons Cathedral, section of the northern nave wall
damaged during World War
I.
Beginning of the Xlllth
century.
Figure 26.
Chartres Cathedral, flying buttress of the nave. Design

established shortly after 1194.
Figure 27.
Reims Cathedral, Madonna

the northern transept. Ca.
in the right
1
i-i
hand portal of
Figure 28.
Durham
Cathedral, concealed flying buttresses.
the XI th century. (After R.

Illustrations
W.
End of
Billings, Architectural
and Description of the Cathedral Church of Dur-
ham, London, 1843.)

Figure 29.
Reims Cathedral, open

Design established
ca.
flying buttresses of the nave.

2
1 1
Figure 30.
St.-Denis, wêst fa9ade. Dedicated 1140. (After an en-
Xll
Illustrations
graving by A. and E. Rouargue, executed before the
restoration of 1 833-1 837.)
Figure 31,
Paris,
Notre-Dame, west
200
clerestory ca. 1220.
facade.
Begun shortly
after
Figure 32,
Laon Cathedral, west fa9ade. Designed

cuted from
cfl.
11
ca,
60; exe-
190.
Figure 33-
Amiens, west facade. Begun 1220; clerestory completed 1236; tracery of the rose ca. 1500,
Figure 34-
Reims, St.-Nicaise (destroyed), west fa9ade. Between

ca.
1230 and 1263; rose restored
ca.
1550. (After an
engraving by N. de Son, of 1625.)

Figure 35.
Reims,
St.-Nicaise
(destroyed),
rose
in
the
west
facade (partial reconstruction).

Figure 36.
Reims Cathedral, nave window. Designed
ca.
1211.
Figure 37-
Caen, Ste.-Trinite, triforium. Ca.
mo.
Figure 3S.
Sens Cathedral, triforium galleries. Towards 11 50.
xiu
Illustrations
Figure 39-
Noyon
Cathedral, nave galleries and triforium. Design
established ca.
1 1
70 and
1 1
1170; eastern bay executed between
85, rest later.
Figure 40,
Chalons-sur-Mame, Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, choir

ies
and triforium. Ca.
Figure 41
galler-
185^.
Chartres Cathedral, nave triforium. Design established

ca.
194.
Figure 42.
Reims Cathedral, nave triforium. Design established

ca. i2i I.
Figure 43.
Villard de
Honnecourt, interior elevation of Reims
Cathedral. Drawling of
ca.
1235, Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale (enlarged detail).

Figure 44.
Amiens Cathedral, nave

ca.
triforium. Design established
1220.
Figure 45.
St.-Denis, nave triforium. Design established ca. 1231.

Figure 46.
Canterbury Cathedral, choir piers.

xiv
74-1 178.
Illustrations
Figure 47.
Chartres Cathedral, capital of nave pier. Design established ca.
194.
Figure 48,
Reims Cathedral,
ca.
121
capital of nave pier.
Design established
1.
Figure 49.
Amiens Cathedral,
Design estab-
lished ca. 1220.

Figure SO.
St. -Denis,
Design established
ca,
1231.
Figure 5/.
Amiens Cathedral,
cross section of pier in relation to
wall and vault-ribs. Design established ca. 1220.

Figure 2.
St. -Denis, cross
vault-ribs.
section of pier in relation to wall and
Design established
ca.
1231.
Figure 53,
Cologne Cathedral, cross section of pier
in relation to
wall and vault-ribs. Design established ca. 1248.

Figure 54,
Canterbury Cathedral, capital of pier. 11 74-1 178

gram).
XV
(dia-
Illustrations
Figure 55.
Chartres Cathedral, capital of pier. Design established

shortly after
194 (diagram).
Figure 56.
Reims Cathedral,
121
capital of pier.
Design established
ca.
Design established
ca.
(diagram).
Figure 57-
Amiens Cathedral,
capital of pier.
1220 (diagram).
Figure 58.
Beauvais Cathedral, capital of pier. Design established

ca.
1247 (diagram).
Figure 39St. -Denis, capital
of pier. Design established
ca.
1231
(diagram).
Figure 60.
Villard de Honnecourt, ideal groundplan of a chevet
from his discussion with Pierre de Corbie.

Drawing of ca. 1235, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.
resulting
XVI
Gothic Architecture and

Scholasticism
THE
HISTORIAN CANNOT HELP DIVIDING
his material into ^^periods,'* nicely de-
fined in the Oxford Dictionary as **dis-
tinguishable portions of history.*'
To
be distinguishable, each of these portions has to

have a certain unity
and
if
verify this unity instead of
the historian wîshes to
merely presupposing
it,
he must needs try to discover intrinsic analogies
between such overtly disparate phenomena

arts,
literature,
philosophy,
social
currents, religious movements, etc.
laudable and even indispensable in
and
as the
political
This effort,
itself,
has led to
a pursuit of **parallels'' the hazards of w^hich are

1
Gothic Architecture
only too obvious.
one
No man
fairly limited field;
can master more than
every
man
has to rely on
incomplete and often secondary information v^henever he ventures
ultra crepidam,
Yew men
can
resist
the temptation of either ignoring or slightly deflecting such lines as refuse to
run
parallel,
and even
genuine parallelism does not make us really
happy
if
we
cannot imagine
how
it
came about.
Small wonder, then, that another diffident attempt
Gothic architecture and Scholasti-
at correlating
cism'
is
bound
to be looked
upon with suspicion by
both historians of art and historians of philosophy.

Yet, setting aside for the
analogies, there exists
moment
all
intrinsic
between Gothic architecture
and Scholasticism a palpable and hardly accidental

concurrence in the purely factual domain of time
and place
concurrence so inescapable that the
historians of mediaeval philosophy,
uninfluenced
by ulterior considerations, have been led to period2
And
Scholasticism
ize their material in precisely the
same way
as
do
the art historians theirs.
To
the Carolingian revival of the arts there cor-
responds, in philosophy, the
phenomenon of John
the
equally
Scot
(ca,
810-877),
magnificent,
equally unexpected, and equally charged with po-
not to be realized until a
tentialities
date.
both
About
fields
later
hundred years of fermentation
were followed,
contrariety of
much
in art,
in
by the variety and
Romanesque which ranges from the
planar simplicity of the Hirsau school and the severe
structuralism of
Normandy and England
to the rich
proto-classicism of southern France and Italy

in theology
ity
and,
and philosophy, by a similar multiplic-
of divergent currents, from uncompromising
fideism (Peter Damian,
Manegold of Lautenbach
and, ultimately, St. Bernard) and ruthless rational3
Gothic Architecture
ism (Berenger of Tours, Roscellinus) to the proto-
humanism of Hildebert of Lavardin, Marbod of

Rennes and the school of Chartres.
Lanfranc and Anselm of Bee (the former died in
1089, the latter in

settle the conflict
made
109)
a heroic attempt to
between reason and
faith
before
the principles of such a settlement had been ex-
plored and formulated. This exploration and formulation
was
initiated
by Gilbert de
la
Porree (died
11^4) and Abelard (died 1142). Thus Early Scho-
was
lasticism
bom
same environment
ture was
the
new
bom
at the
in
same moment and
which Early Gothic
in Suger*s Saint-Denis.
style of thinking
ing (opus Francigenum)
and the new
international
architec-
For both
style of build-
though brought about by
**many masters from different nations,**

said of his artisans,
in the
as
Suger
and soon developing into truly
movements
spread from an
area com-
And
Scholasticism
prised within a circle

radius of less than a
drawn around
Paris with a
hundred miles. And they con-
tinued to be centered in this area for about one
century and a
half.
Here High Scholasticism
generally assumed to
is
begin with the turn of the twelfth century, precisely

first
when
triumphs in Chartres and Soissons
'classic*'
fields
was
the High Gothic system achieved

;
and here
or climactic phase was reached in both
during the reign of
Louis (122 6- 1270).
St.
in this period that there flourished such
Scholastic
its
philosophers
It
High
Alexander of Hales,
as
Albert the Great, William of Auvergne,
St.
Bona-
venture, and St.
Thomas Aquinas and such High
Gothic architects
as
Jean
le
Loup, Jean d'Orbais,
Robert de Luzarches, Jean de Chelles, Hugues

Libergier, and Pierre de Montereau; and the distinctive features of
High
as
opposed to Early
Gothic Architecture
Scholasticism are remarkably analogous to those
which characterize High

Gothic
It
as
opposed to Early
art.
has justly been remarked that the gentle ani-
mation that distinguishes the Early Gothic figures

in the
west facade of Chartres from their Roman-
esque predecessors reflects the renewal of an interest in psychology
which had been dormant
several centuries;^ but this psychology
based upon the Biblical
omy between
the
the ground.*'
The
**
was
for
still
and Augustiniandichot-
breath of
infinitely
not, as yet, portraitlike
life''
more
High
and the **dust of

lifelike
though
Gothic statues of
Reims and Amiens, Strassburg and Naumburg and

the natural
though
not,
as
yet,
naturalistic
fauna and flora of High Gothic ornament proclaim
the victory of Aristotelianism.
though recognized
as
The human
immortal, was
now
soul,
held to
be the organizing and unifying principle of the body
And
itself
Scholasticism
rather than a substance independent thereof.
plant was thought to exist as a plant and not as
the copy of the idea of a plant.
God was
The existence of
believed to be demonstrable from His
creation rather than a priori.^

In formal organization, too, the
Summa
from the
differs
comprehensive,
less
and much
strictly organized,
High Scholastic
less
less
uniform encyclo-
pedias and Lihri Sententiarum of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries
High Gothic
very
style
word summa
jurists) did
much
from
(first
not change
compendium'*
in the
its
(singulorum
1 1
iô)
tematic,
does the
ancestry. In fact, the
book
by the
meaning from a
**brief
as a
brevis
compendiosa coUectio, as Robert of

in
as
title
used
its
same way
or
comprehensio
Melun defined
it
to a presentation both exhaustive and sys-
from Summary'' to summa

*
as
we know
until the final lustra of the twelfth century.*

earliest fully
developed specimen of
this
new
7
it,
The
kind,
Gothic Architecture
the
Summa
Theologiae
by Alexander of Hales, which,

**
according to Roger Bacon,

as
weighed about
one horse can carry," was begun
as
much
in 1231, the
very year in which Pierre de Montereau began the
new nave
The
of
fifty
St. -Denis.
or sixty years after the death of Saint
Louis in 1270 (or,
venture and
called the
St.
if
we
prefer, that of St. Bona-
Thomas
in
1274) mark what
is
end phase of High Scholasticism by the
historians of philosophy, and the
Gothic by the historians of
art
end phase of High
phases
in
which
the various developments, however important, do
not
as yet
add up to a fundamental change in
atti-
tude but rather manifest themselves in a gradual
decomposition of the existing system. Both in

tellectual
and in
which from about
artistic
1
life
including
in-
music,
170 had been dominated by the
school of Notre-Dame in Paris
we can observe
growing trend towards decentralization. The cre8
And
ative impulses
Scholasticism
tended to
shift
from what had been
the center to what had been the periphery: to
South France, to
Italy,
to the
Germanic countries,
and to England, which, in the thirteenth century

had shown a tendency toward splendid isolation.^
decrease of confidence in the supremely syn-
thetic
power of reason which had triumphed
Thomas Aquinas may be

sulted in a resurgence
level,
the
by
to be sure
** classic*'
tion.
from the
sition to
tenets
on
an entirely different
of currents suppressed during
The Summa was
again displaced
and ambitious types of presenta-
Pre-Scholastic
among other
discerned, and this re-
phase.
less systematic
in
Augustinianism
things, ttie
intellect)
(asserting,
independence of the will
was vigorously revived
in
oppo-
Thomas, and Thomas's anti-Augustinian
were solemnly condemned three
his death. Similarly, the
was abandoned
years after
'classic" cathedral type
in favor of other, less perfectly sys9
Gothic Architecture
tematized and often somewhat archaic solutions;
and in the
plastic arts
we
can observe the revival of
a pre-Gothic tendency toward the abstract and the

linear.
The doctrines of
**
classic''
High Scholasticism
either stiffened into school traditions, or
were sub-
jected to vulgarization in popular treatises such as

the Somme-le-Rof (1279) and the Tesoretto by Bru-
netto Latini, or were elaborated and subtilized to

the limits of
human
capacity (not without reason
does the greatest representative of
Duns
Scotus,
who
became
period,
died in 1308, bear the agnomen
Doctor Subtilis). Similarly,
either
this
**
classic''
High Gothic
doctrinaire, to use Dehio's phrase,
or was reduced and simplified (especially in the
mendicant orders), or was refined and complicated

into the harp work of Strassburg, the
embroidery of
Freiburg, and the flowing tracery of

Lincoln. But
10
it
was not
until the
end of
Hawton or
this
period
And
that a basic change
until
Scholasticism
announced
itself;
and
it
was not
the middle of the fourteenth century
in
histories of philosophy the conventional date for
the shift from High to Late Scholasticism
when
the teachings of William of
made
so
much headway
demned
1340,
is
Ockham had
that they had to be con-
that this change
became thoroughly and
universally effective.
By
this
time the energies of High Scholasticism
setting aside the ossified schools of Thomists and

Scotists that persisted
much
as
academic painting
had
survived and survives after Manet
either been
channelled into poetry and, ultimately, humanism
through Guido Cavalcanti, Dante, and Petrarch; or

into anti-rational mysticism through Master Eckhart and his followers.
And
insofar as philosophy
remained Scholasticism in the

term,
it
strict sense
of the
tended to become agnostic. Apart from the
^who became more and more an
Averroists
11
iso-
Gothic Architecture
lated sect as time
went on
this
happened
in that
mighty movement, rightly called **modem*' by the

later
(ca.
schoolmen, which began with Peter Aureolus
1280 1323) and came to fruition
Ockham
(ca.
129^-1 349 or
in
William of
nom-
3iô): in critical
inalism C'criticar* as opposed to the dogmatic,

pre-Scholastic
name of
nominalism
associated
with
the
Roscellinus and apparently quite dead for
nearly 200 years). In contrast even to the Aristotelian, the nominalist denies all real existence to uni-
versal and grants
it
only to particulars, so that the
nightmare of the High Scholastics
the problem of
the principium individuationis by virtue of which
Universal Cat materializes into an infinite
of particular cats
Peter Aureolus puts
The
number
dissolved into nothingness. As

it,
**
every thing
is
individual by
virtue of itself and by nothing else*' (omnis res
est se
ipsa singularis et per nihil aliud).
On
the other hand, there reappeared the eternal

12
And
Scholasticism
dilemma of empiricism
since the quality of reality
belongs exclusively to that which can be appre-
hended by
*
notitia intuitiva, that is, to the particular
by the
'things*' directly perceived
senses,
and to
the particular psychological states or acts
(joy,
known through
inner
grief, willing, etc.) directly
experience,
all
that
which
is
physical objects and the
world of
real, viz., the
world of psychological
processes, can never be rational, while
which
is
all
that
rational, viz., the concepts distilled
from
these
two worlds by
real
so that
lems
all
notitia abstractiva,
can never be
metaphysical and theological prob-
including the existence of God, the immor-
tality
of the soul, and in at least one case (Nicholas
of Autrecourt) even causation
can be
discussed
only in terms of probability.^
The conmion denominator of these new

is,
of course, subjectivism
in the case of the
currents
âesthetic subjectivism
poet and humanist, religious sub13
Gothic Architecture
jectivism in that of the mystic, and epistemological
subjectivism in that of the nominaUst.

these
In
fact,
two extremes, mysticism and nominalism,
are, in a sense, nothing but opposite aspects of the
same thing. Both mysticism and nominahsm cut the

tie
between reason and
faith.
But mysticism
more emphatically divorced from
much
Scholasticism in
the generation of Tauler, Suso, and John of Ruys-
broeck than
in that of
Master Eckhart
does
so in
order to save the integrity of religious sentiment,

while nominalism seeks to preserve the integrity of
rational thought
ham
explicitly
and empirical observation (Ock-
denounces
attempt to subject
as
**
temerarious" any
'logic, physics,
and grammar"
to the control of theology).
Both mysticism and nominalism throw the

vidual back
upon the resources of
and psychological experience;
private sensory
intuitus is a favorite
term and central concept of Master Eckhart

14
indi-
as well
And
as of
as
Ockham. But
Scholasticism
the mystic depends on his senses
purveyors of visual images and emotional stimuli,
w^hereas the nominalist relies on
them
as
of reality ; and the intuitus of the mystic
upon
a unity
beyond the
conveyors
distinction even
man and God and even between
focused
is
between
the Persons of the
Trinity, whereas the intuitus of the nominalist
is
focused upon the multiplicity of particular things
and psychological processes. Both mysticism and
nominalism end up with abolishing the borderline
between the
finite
and the
But the mystic
infinite.
tends to infinitize the ego because he believes in the

self-extinction of the
human
soul in
God, whereas
the nominalist tends to infinitize the physical world
because he sees no logical contradiction in the idea

of an infinite physical universe and no longer accepts
the
wonder
theological
objections
thereto.
Small
that the nominalistic school of the four-
teenth century anticipated the heliocentric system

15
Gothic Architecture
of Copernicus, the geometrical analysis of Des-
and the mechanics of Galileo and Newton.
cartes,
Similarly, Late Gothic art
broke up into a variety
of styles reflecting these regional and ideological

differences. But this variety, too,
is
unified
by a
subjectivism which, in the visual sphere, corre-
sponds to what can be observed in intellectual
The most
tivism
is
life.
characteristic expression of this subjec-
the emergence of a perspective interpreta-
tion of space which, originating with Giotto and
Duccio, began to be accepted everywhere from
1330-40. In redefining the material painting or
drawing surface
as
an immaterial projection plane,
perspectivehowever imperfectly handled

beginning
renders
seen but also of the

conditions
It
at the
account, not only of what
way
it is
records, to
is
seen under particular
borrow Ockham's term,
the direct intuitus from subject to object, thus paving the
way
16
for
modem
'naturalism** and lending
And
Scholasticism
visual expression to the
concept of the
infinite
for
the perspective vanishing point can be defined only

as **the projection of the point in
which
parallels
intersect.*'
We
understandably think of perspective as a de-
vice of only the twô-dimensional arts.

this
new way
of seeing
However,
or, rather, of designing
with reference to the very process of sight
was
bound
sculp-
tors
to change the other arts as well.
and architects
also
began to conceive of the
forms they shaped, not so

solids as in
The
much
in
terms of isolated
terms of a comprehensive
**
picture
space,'* although this **picture space*' constitutes

itself in
the beholder's eye instead of being pre-
sented to
him
in a prefabricated projection.
three-dimensional media, too, supply, as

material for a pictorial experience. This
all
Late Gothic sculpture
principle
is
not carried so
even
if
it
is
The
were,
true of
the pictorial
far as in Claus Sluter's

17
Gothic Architecture
stagelike portal of
Champmol,
the typical fifteenth-
century *'Schnitzaltar," or those trick figures that
look up a spire or
also true of
**
down from
and
a balcony;
it is
Perpendicular'' architecture in Eng-
land and of the
new
types of hall church and semi-
church in the Germanic countries.
hall
All this applies not only to those innovations
which may be
and par-
said to reflect the empiristic
ticularistic spirit of
nominalism
the landscape and
the interior with concomitant emphasis on genre

features,
and the autonomous and completely
vidualized portrait
which represents the
Peter Aureolus would say, as

ual
by virtue of
somewhat
as it
itself
image.
It
sitter, as
something individ-
and nothing else," where
earlier likenesses
were, a Scotian
**
indi-
merely superimpose,
haecceitas
upon
also applies to those
new
still
typified
Andachtsbilder
which are commonly associated with mysticism:
18
And
Scholasticism
the Pietd, St. John on the
Man
the Lord, the
of Sorrows, Christ in the Winepress, etc. In
their
own way,
pathy,"
*
Bosom of
as the
such
**
images for worship by em-
term may be paraphrased, are no
less
'naturalistic," often to the point of gruesomeness,
than are the portraits, landscapes, and interiors
which have been mentioned; and where the portraits,
infinity
landscapes, and interiors induce a sense of
by making the beholder aware of the unend-
ing variety and limitlessness of God's creation, the

Andachtsbilder induce a sense of infinity by permit-
ting the beholder to
submerge
his
being in the
boundlessness of the Creator Himself.
Once more
nominalism and mysticism prove to be

qui se touchent.
We
les
extremes
can easily see that these appar-
ently irreconcilable tendencies could variously in-
terpenetrate in the fourteenth century and ulti-
mately merge, for one glorious moment,
in the
19
.1-
^^^^srsm
Gothic Architecture
painting of the great Flemings,
much
as
they did in
the philosophy of their admirer, Nicholas of Cusa,
who died in the same year as Roger van der Weyden.

II
During the
ishingly
**
concentrated'* phase of this aston-
synchronous development,
in
viz.,
the
period between about 1130-40 and about 1270,
we
can observe,
tween Gothic
it
art
seems to me, a connection beis
more
^parallelism" and yet
more
and Scholasticism which
concrete than a mere
general than those individual (and very important)

**
influences"
which are
inevitably
painters, sculptors, or architects

ers. In contrast to a
tion
which
mere
by erudite
is
but in contrast to an individual
diffaision rather
20
advis-
a genuine cause-and-
fluence, this cause-and-effect relation
by
on
parallelism, the connec-
have in mind
effect relation;
exerted
in-
comes about
than by direct impact.
It
comes
And
Scholasticism
about by the spreading of what may be called, for
want of
this
a better term, a mental habit
overworked cliche
to
its
reducing
precise Scholastic
sense as a '^principle that regulates the act,'' principium importans ordinem ad actum,
habits are at
work
in all
and every
"^
Such mental
civilization. All
modem writing on history is permeated by the idea

of evolution (an idea the evolution of which needs
much more
study than
seems to enter a
it
critical
has received thus far and
phase right now)
and
all
of us, without a thorough knowledge of biochemistry
or psychoanalysis, speak with the greatest of
ease of vitamin deficiencies, allergies,

tions,
mother
fixa-
and inferiority complexes.
Often
it is difficult
or impossible to single out
one habit-forming force from many others and to

imagine the channels of transmission. However, the
period from about
**
130-40 to about
270 and the
IOC-mile zone around Paris'' constitute an ex21
Gothic Architecture
ception. In this tight
possessed what
tion.
By and
little
amounted
sphere Scholasticism
to a
monopoly
in educa-
large, intellectual training shifted
from
the monastic schools to institutions urban rather
than rural, cosmopolitan rather than regional, and,

so to speak, only half ecclesiastic
to the cathedral
schools, the universities, and the studia of the
new
nearly of them products of

the thirteenth centurywhose members played an
mendicant orders
all
increasingly important role within the universities
themselves.
And
as the Scholastic
movement, pre-
pared by Benedictine learning and initiated by Lanfranc and
Anselm of Bee, was carried on and
brought to fruition by the Dominicans and Franciscans, so did the Gothic style, prepared in Bene-
dictine monasteries and initiated by Suger of St.-
Denis, achieve
churches.
It is
its
culmination in the great city
significant that
during the Roman-
esque period the greatest names in architectural

22
And
Scholasticism
history are those of Benedictine abbeys,
in
High Gothic period those of cathedrals, and
the
in the
Late Gothic periods those of parish churches.

It is
not very probable that the builders of Gothic
structures read Gilbert de la Porree or
Thomas
Aquinas in the original. But they were exposed to

the Scholastic point of view in innumerable other
ways, quite apart from the fact that their

automatically brought
ciation with those
them
who
into a
own work
working
asso-
devised the liturgical and
iconographic programs. They had gone to school;

they listened to sermons; they could attend the
public disputationes de quolibet which, dealing as
they did with all imaginable questions of the day, had
developed into social events not unlike our operas,

concerts, or public lectures;* and they could
come
into profitable contact with the learned on
many
other occasions. The very fact that neither the

natural
sciences
nor the humanities nor even

23
<
Gothic Architecture
mathematics had evolved their special esoteric
methods and terminologies kept the whole of
human know^ledge
wîthin the range of the normal,
non-specialized intellect; and
important point
the
perhaps
entire
social
the most
system was
rapidly changing toward an urban professionalism.
Not
as yet
hiitten"
hardened into the
systems,
where the
priest
it
later guild
and ''Bau-
provided a meeting ground
and the layman, the poet and the
lawyer, the scholar and the artisan could get to-
gether on terms of near-equality. There appeared

the professional, town-dwelling publisher
hence our
narius,
strictly supervised
script
books
** stationer''),
who, more or
less
by a university, produced manu-
en masse
with the aid of hired scribes,
together with the bookseller
about
(statio-
(mentioned from
170), the book-lender, the bookbinder, and
the book-illuminator (by the end of the thirteenth
24
And
Scholasticism
century the enlumineurs already occupied a whole

street in Paris);
the professional, town-dwelling
painter, sculptor, and jeweller; the professional,
town-dwelling
cleric, yet
who,
scholar
though
devoted the substance of his
ing and teaching (hence the words
and
**
usually
life
**
to writ-
scholastic**
scholasticism'*); and, last but not least, the
professional, town-dwelling architect.
This professional architect

contradistinction
what
in
modern times
would
tect
work
to
rise
the
is
*
^
professional* *
in
monastic equivalent of
called the gentleman archi-
from the ranks and supervise the
in person. In doing so
he grew into a
man
of
the world, widely travelled, often well read, and
enjoying a social prestige unequalled before and
unsurpassed since. Freely selected propter sagacitatem ingeniiy he
clergy and
drew
a salary envied
would appear
at
the
by the lower
site,
'carrying
25
Gothic Architecture
gloves and a rod''
(virga)y
to give
orders that became a
byword
in
whenever
a writer
those curt
French literature
wished to describe a man
who
does things well and with superior assurance: ^'Par

cy
me
le taille.^^^
His portrait would figure together
with that of the founding bishop in the
''laby-
rinths" of the great cathedrals. After Hugues Libergier, the
master of the lost St.-Nicaise in Reims,
had died in 1263, he was accorded the unheard-of
honor of being immortalized in an
him not only
ilege previously
most
i).
And
shows
clad in something like academic garb
but also carrying a model of
(fig.
effigy that
*'his''
church
a priv-
accorded only to princely donors
Pierre de Montereau
logical architect
who
indeed
ever lived
is
the
desig-
nated on his tombstone in St.-Germain-des-Pres as

^*
Doctor
Lathomorum'': by 1267,
architect himself had
kind of Scholastic.
26
come
it
seems, the
to be looked
upon
as a
And
Scholasticism
III
When
asking in what
manner the mental
habit
induced by Early and High Scholasticism may have

affected the formation of Early and
architecture,
we
shall
High Gothic
do well to disregard the
notional content of the doctrine and to concentrate, to
selves,
ets in
borrow
upon
term from the schoolmen them-
modus operandi. The changing ten-
its
such matters
as the relation
body or the problem of

naturally
were
reflected
between soul and
universals vs. particulars

in
the representational
arts rather than in architecture. True, the architect
lived in close contact with the sculptors,
glass
whose work he
stud-
painters,
ied
wood
carvers, etc.,
wherever he went (witness the
Villard de Honnecourt),
supervised in his
own
whom
**
Album'* of
he engaged and
enterprises, and to
whom
he
had to transmit an iconographic program which,
we remember, he
could work out only in close

27
ffw^
Gothic Architecture
cooperation with a scholastic adviser. But in doing

this,
all
he assimilated and conveyed rather than
applied the substance of contemporary thought.
What he
w^hile
vv^ho
**
devised the form of the building
not himself manipulating
its
matter' '^ could
and did apply, directly and qua architect, was
method of procedure which
rather that peculiar
must have been the

the
thing to impress itself upon
first
mind of the layman whenever
it
came
in touch
with that of the schoolman.

This method of procedure follows,
modus operandi does, from a modus
lows from the very

Scholasticism,
is
every
essendi;^^ it fol-
raison dêtre of Early
which
as
and High
to establish the unity of
truth.
The men of the
turies
attempted a task not yet clearly envisaged by
twelfth and thirteenth cen-
their forerunners and ruefully to be
abandoned by
their successors, the mystics and the nominalists:
the task of writing a permanent peace treaty be28
And
tween
faith
and reason.
Thomas Aquinas,
**
that
is
human
'Sacred doctrine/' says
makes use of human reason, not
to prove faith but to
ever else
Scholasticism
make
clear (manijestare) what-
set forth in this doctrine.
'
'
^^
This means
reason can never hope to furnish direct
proof of such
articles of faith as the tri-personal
structure of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the temporality of Creation, etc.; but that
it
can, and
does, elucidate or clarify these articles.
human
reason can furnish direct and
com-
plete proof for whatever can be deduced
from
First,
principles other than revelation, that

ethical, physical,
for
is,
all
and metaphysical tenets including
the very praeambula Jidei, such as the existence
(though not the essence) of God, which can be
proved by an argument from

ond,
self:
it
effect to cause.
Sec-
can elucidate the content of revelation
by argument, though merely negatively,
refute
'^
all
it
it-
can
rational objections against the Articles of
29
Gothic Architecture
Faith
objections
false
or inconclusive;^'^ and positively, though not
by argument,
must of necessity be either
that
can supply similitudines w^hich
it
**manifest" the mysteries by
when
way of
analogy, as
the relation between the Three Persons of
the Trinity
Hkened to
is
work
of the
between being, knowl-
own mind, ^^
edge and love in our

to the
that
human
artist.
or divine creation
^^
Manifestatio, then, elucidation or clarification,
what
would
call
the
first
controlling principle of
Early and High Scholasticism.

this principle into
plane
^^
But in order to put
operation on the highest possible
elucidation of
applied to reason
is
faith
by reason
itself: if faith
it
had to be
had to be **mani-
fested" through a system of thought complete and

self-sufficient
within
its
own
limits yet setting itself
apart
from the realm of revelation,
sary
to ''manifest"
30
it
became neces-
the completeness,
self-suflfi-
And
Scholasticism
ciency, and limitedness of the system of thought.
And
this
could be done only by a scheme of literary
would
presentation that
elucidate the very proc-
esses of reasoning to the reader's imagination just

as reasoning
was supposed to elucidate the very
nature of faith to his intellect. Hence the
much
derided schematism or formalism of Scholastic

writing which reached
Summa^^ with
(sufficient
its
climax in the classic
its
three requirements of (i) totality
enumeration), (2) arrangement accord-
ing to a system of homologous parts and parts of

parts (sufficient articulation), and (3) distinctness
and deductive cogency

all
this
(sufficient interrelation)
enhanced by the
Thomas Aquinas 's
literary
similitudines
equivalent of
suggestive termi-
nology, parallelismus membrorum, and rhyme.
knowTi instance of the two
both
artistic as
well as
mnemonic
latter devices
is St.
well-
Bonaventure's
31
Gothic Architecture
succinct defense of religious images which he declares admissible * ^propter simplicium ruditatem, propter
affectuum tarditatem, propter memoriae Jabilitatem,^
^^
We take it for granted that major works of scholand doc-
arship, especially systems of philosophy
scheme
toral theses, are organized according to a
of division and subdivision,
condensable into a
table of contents or synopsis,
where
noted by numbers or
on the same
letters of the
logical level
parts de-
all
same
class are
so that the same relation
of subordination obtains between, say, sub-section

(a),
section (i), chapter
between,
(IV) and
atic
(I)
and book (A)
say, sub-section (b), section (^),
book
(C).
articulation
However,
this
as
does
chapter
kind of system-
was quite unknown
until
the
advent of Scholasticism.^ Classical writings (except

perhaps for those that consisted of denumerable
items such as collections of short
poems or
treatises
on mathematics) were merely divided into 'books.

*
32
And
When we
Scholasticism
wish to give what we, unsuspecting heirs
to Scholasticism, call an exact quotation,
we must
either refer to the pages of a printed edition con-
we do with
ventionally accepted as authoritative (as

Plato and Aristotle), or to a
scheme introduced by
some humanist of the Renaissance
was,
it
when we quote
i, 3.'*
a Vitruvius passage as "VII,

It
as
seems, not until the earlier part of the
Middle Ages that "books" were divided into numbered "chapters'
'
however, imply or
dination; and
it
the sequence of which did not,

reflect a system of logical subor-
was not
until the thirteenth cen-
tury that the great treatises
were organized accord-
ing to an overall plan secundum ordinem disciphnae^^

so that the reader
is
led, step
proposition to the other and
by
is
step,
from one
always kept in-
formed as to the progress of this process. The whole

is
of
divided into partes which
Thomas Aquinas 's Summa
like the
Second Part
Theologiae
could be
33
^pp
Gothic Architecture
divided into smaller partes ; the partes into membra,
quaestiones or distinctiones,
Within the
articuli,
and these into
articuli,'^'^
the discussion proceeds accord-
ing to a dialectical scheme involving further subdi-
and almost every concept
vision,
two or more meanings

tripliciter,
etc.) according to
On
others.
quaestiones,
its
the other hand, a
or
into a group.
distinctiones are
The
Thomas
stitute
(intendi
first
is
split
potest
up
into
dupliciter,
varying relation to
number of membra,
often tied together
of the three partes that con-
Aquinas 's
Summa
Theologiae,
veritable orgy both of logic and Trinitarian sym-
bolism,
is
an excellent case in point. ^^
All this does not

lastics
mean, of course, that the Scho-
thought in more orderly and logical fashion
than Plato and Aristotle; but
it
does
mean
they, in contrast to Plato and Aristotle, felt
pelled to
make
com-
the orderliness and logic of their
thought palpably explicit

34
that
that the principle of
And
manifestatio
Scholasticism
which determined the direction and
scope of their thinking also controlled
and subjected
this
its
exposition
exposition to what
may be
termed the postulate of clarification for

clarification's sake.
IV
Within Scholasticism
itself
this
principle
re-
sulted not only in the explicit unfolding of what,
though necessary, might have been allowed to
main
re-
implicit, but also, occasionally, in the intro-
duction of what was not necessary at
all,
or in the
neglect of a natural order of presentation in favor of
an
artificial
Summa
symmetry. In the very Prologue of the
Theologiae,
Thomas Aquinas complains, with
an eye on his forerunners, of **the multiplication of

useless questions, articles,
and arguments'' and of a
tendency to present the subject **not according to

the order of the discipline itself but rather accord35
9^^
Gothic Architecture
ing to the requirements of literary exposition.*'
However, the passion for

itself
quite
** clarification*'
imparted
naturally in view of the educational
monopoly of Scholasticism
mind engaged
to
virtually
every
grew
into a
in cultural pursuits;
it
**mental habit."
Whether we read
book of
classical
a treatise
on medicine,
mythology such
Fulgentius MetaforaliSy a political
as
a hand-
Ridewall's
propaganda sheet,
the eulogy of a ruler, or a biography of Ovid,*-*
we
always find the same obsession with systematic division and subdivision, methodical demonstration,
terminology, parallelismus membrorum, and rhyme.
Dante's Divina Commedia
much
of
its
is
Scholastic, not only in
content but also in
its
deliberately
Trinitarian form.^^ In the Vita Nuova the poet himself
goes out of his
way
sonnet and canzone by
**
to analyze the tenor of each
parts" and
in perfectly Scholastic fashion,
36
** parts
of parts"
whereas Petrarch,
And
half a century later,
Scholasticism
was to conceive of the
struc-
ture of his songs in terms of euphony rather than

logic.
**I
thought of changing the order of the four
stanzas so that the first quatrain
would have come second and

marks of one sonnet, **but
the fuller sound
and the
first
terzina
vice versa/' he re-
gave
it
would have been
up because then
middle and
in the
the hollo wer at the beginning and the end/'^^
What
applies to prose and poetry applies
emphatically to the
arts.
Modem
no
less
Gestalt psychol-
ogy, in contrast to the doctrine of the nineteenth
century and very

thirteenth,
**
much
in
harmony with
refuses to reserve the capacity of syn-
thesis to the higher faculties of the
and
stresses '*the formative
quote
with
a kind of
**
human mind*'
powers of the sensory
processes.'' Perception itself

I
that of the
is
now
credited
and
intelligence" that
*'
or-
ganizes the sensory material under the pattern of
simple, *good' Gestalten" in an
''effort
of the org anil
^^m
Gothic Architecture
ism to assimilate stimuli to
of which
the
is
own organization^^
its
modem way
;^^ all
of expressing precisely
what Thomas Aquinas meant when he wrote:
**the
senses delight in things duly proportioned as in

something akin to them; for, the sense, too,
reason as
is
is
a kind of
every cognitive power^^ (^*sensus delectantur
in rebus debite proportionatis sicut in sibi similibus;
nam
et sensus ratio
quaedam
est, et
omnis virtus cogno-
scitiva'').^^
Small wonder,
deemed
it
then,
necessary to
appeal to reason and to
that
make
**
mentality which
faith **clearer''
make reason
an appeal to imagination, also

imagination
felt
by an
** clearer'*
bound
to
by
make
clearer" by an appeal to the senses.
Indirectly, this preoccupation affected even philo-
sophical and theological literature in that the intellectual articulation of the subject matter implies
the acoustic articulation of speech by recurrent

phrases, and the visual articulation of the written
38
And
Scholasticism
page by rubrics, numbers, and paragraphs. Directly,

it
affected
all
the arts. As music became articulated
through an exact and systematic division of time
was the
(it
Paris school of the thirteenth century
that introduced the mensural notation
and
still
in use
still
referred to, in England at least, by the
original terms of
'breve," **semibreve,*'
im,*' etc.), so did the visual arts
become
'min-
articu-
lated through an exact and systematic division of
space, resulting in a
'clarification for clarification's
sake'* of narrative contexts in the representational

arts,
and of functional contexts
in architecture.
In the field of the representational arts this
might
be demonstrated by an analysis of almost any single

figure; but
it is still
more evident
ment of ensembles. Barring such

pened
at
in the arrange-
accidents as hap-
Magdeburg or Bamberg, the composition
of a High Gothic portal, for example, tends to be

subjected to a strict and fairly standardized scheme
39
m^
Gothic Architecture
which, in imposing order upon the formal arrange-
ment, simultaneously
tent. Suffice
it
to
not
'* clarified''
(fig.
2)
clarifies
the narrative con-
compare the
beautiful but as yet
Last
Judgement portal of Autun
with those of Paris or Amiens
in spite of an
summate
3)
where
even greater wealth of motifs
con-
clarity prevails.
The tympanum
divided into three registers
Romanesque
(a
device
sharply
unknown
in
and Pompierre), the
Deesis being separated from the
Damned and
the
and these again from the Resurrected. The
Apostles, precariously included in the

at
is
save only such well-motivated excep-
tions as St.-Ursin-de-Bourges
Elect,
(fig.
tympanum
Autun, are placed in the embrasures where they
surmount the twelve Virtues and

parts (developed
their counter-
from the customary heptad by
correct subdivision of Justice)
in
such a manner that Fortitude corresponds to
St.
Scholastically
Peter, the **rock,'' and Charity to St. Paul, the
40
And
author of
Scholasticism
Corinthians,
and the Wise and Fool-
ish Virgins, antetypes of the Elect
and the Damned,
have been added in the doorposts by way of a marginal gloss.
we
In painting,
cation in
vitro,
can observe the process of clarifi-
so to speak.
extraordinary chance,
We can compare,
series
by an
of miniatures of
about 12^0 with their direct models, produced in

the latter half of the eleventh century probably
after
1079 and certainly before 1096
The two
Philip
best
known
(fig.
(fig.
6 and 7) represent King
conferring privileges and donations,
them the church of St. -Samson, upon

St. -Martin-des- Champs.
4-7).^^
among
the Priory of
But where the Early Ro-
manesque prototype, an unframed pen drawing,

shows
jumble of
tions, the
figures, buildings,
High Gothic copy

pulls the
ized picture.
It
(adding, in a
new
is
and inscrip-
a carefully organ-
whole together by a frame
feeling for realism and
communal
41
Gothic Architecture
ceremony
dignity, a consecration
at the
Neatly segregating the different elements,
bottom).
it
divides
the area within the frame into four sharply delimited fields
which correspond to the categories of
the King, the Ecclesiastical Structures, the Episco-
and the Secular Nobility. The two buildings
pate,
St. -Martin
itself
and
St. -Samson
âre
not only
brought up to the same level but also represented

in
pure side elevation instead of being shown
mixed projection. The
in
fact that the dignitaries,
formerly unattended and uniformly frontalized, are
accompanied by some minor personages and have

acquired the faculties of
movement and intercom-
munication enhances rather than weakens their

individual significance; and the only ecclesiastic
who,
the
for
good reasons, has found
counts and princes.
42
among
Archdeacon Drogo of
Paris, is clearly set off against
and mitre.
his place
them by
his chasuble
And
It
Scholasticism
was, however, in architecture that the habit of
achieved
clarification
its
greatest
triumphs.
As
High Scholasticism was governed by the principle

of maniJestatiOy so was High Gothic architecture
dominated
what may be
âs
already
called the
' *
observed
by
Suger
^by
principle of transparency.
'
Pre-Scholasticism had insulated faith from reason
by an impervious barrier much

structure
(fig.
as a
Romanesque
8) conveys the impression of a space
determinate and impenetrable, whether
we
find
ourselves inside or outside the edifice. Mysticism
was to drowm reason
in faith,
and nominalism was
to completely disconnect one from the other; and
both these attitudes may be said to find expression

in the Late
Gothic
hall
church.
Its
bamlike
shell
encloses an often wildly pictorial and always ap-
parently boundless interior
(fig.
9) and thus creates
a space determinate and impenetrable
from without
but indeterminate and penetrable from within.

43
Gothic Architecture
High
however,
philosophy,
Scholastic
severely
limited the sanctuary of faith from the sphere of

rational know^ledge yet insisted that the content of
this sanctuary
remain clearly discernible. And so
did High Gothic architecture delimit interior vol-
ume from
exterior space yet insist that
itself, as it wêre,
ture
ig and
(fig.
it
through the encompassing struc1
6);
so that, for example, the
cross section of the nave can be read off
facade
(fig.
project
from the
34).
Like the High Scholastic Summay the High Gothic

cathedral aimed,
first
of all, at
*'
totality'*
and there-
fore tended to approximate, by synthesis as
elimination, one perfect and final solution;
vvêll
as
we may
therefore speak of the High Gothic plan or the High
Gothic system with
much more
confidence than
would be
possible in any other period. In
agery, the
High Gothic cathedral sought to embody
the whole of Christian knowledge,
44
its
im-
theological,
And
Scholasticism
moral, natural, and historical, with everything in

its
place and that which no longer found
suppressed. In structural design,

to synthesize
all
it
its
place,
similarly sought
major motifs handed down by
separate channels and finally achieved an unparalleled balance
plan type,
endanger
ies,
between the
suppressing
this balance,
basilica
all
elements that might
such as the crypt, the galler-
and towers other than the two
The second requirement of

*
and the central
in front.
Scholastic writing,
'arrangement according to a system of homologous
parts
and parts of
parts,'* is
most graphically ex-
pressed in the uniform division and subdivision
of the whole structure. Instead of the Romanesque

variety of western and eastern vaulting forms, often
appearing in one and the same building (groin

vaults, rib vaults, barrels,
we
domes, and half-domes),
have the newly developed rib vault exclusively
so that the vaults of even the apse, the chapels and

45
Gothic Architecture
the ambulatory
no longer
of the nave and transept
differ in
kind from those
lo and ii).
(fig.
Since
Amiens, rounded surfaces were entirely eliminated,

except, of course, for the webbing of the vaults.
Instead of the contrast that normally existed be-
tween
tripartite naves
and undivided transepts (or
quinquepartite naves and tripartite transepts)
have tripartition in both cases
we
and instead of the
disparity (either in size, or in the type of covering,
or in both) between the bays of the high nave and

those of the side
travee,'^ in
aisles,
we
have the
which one rib-vaulted
'uniform
central bay con-
nects with one rib-vaulted aisle bay on either side.
The whole
is
thus
composed of smallest
might almost speak of
articuli
gous in that they are
all
which
units
are
its
46
neighbors.
homolo-
triangular in groundplan
and in that each of these triangles shares

with
one
its
sides
And
As a
result of this
Scholasticism
homology we perceive what
corresponds to the hierarchy of
'*
logical levels" in
a well-organized Scholastic treatise. Dividing the
entire structure, as was customary in the period

itself,
into three
main
parts, the nave, the transept,
and the chevet (which
in turn comprises the fore-
choir and the choir proper), and distinguishing,
within these parts, between high nave and sideaisles,
latory,
on the one hand, and between
apse,
ambu-
and hemicycle of chapels, on the other,
can observe analogous relations to obtain:
first,
we
be-
tween each central bay, the whole of the central

nave, and the entire nave, transept or fore-choir,
respectively; second,
between each
the v/hole of each side

transept
or fore-choir,
aisle,
side aisle bay,
and the entire nave,
respectively;
tween each sector of the
apse, the
third,
whole
beapse,
and the entire choir; fourth, between each section
47
msm^m^
Gothic Architecture
of the ambulatory, the whole ambulatory and the
entire choir; and
between each chapel, the
fifth,
whole hemicycle of chapels, and the entire choir.

It is
not possible here
describe
how
ity (or, to
nor
is it
necessary
to
this principle of progressive divisibil-
look at
the other way, multiplicability)
it
increasingly affected the entire edifice
smallest detail.
down
to the
At the height of the development,
supports were divided and subdivided into main

piers,
major
shafts,
minor
shafts; the tracery of
shafts,
windows,
and
still
triforia,
minor
and blind
arcades into primary, secondary, and tertiary mullions
and
moldings
profiles; ribs
(fig.
22).
It
and arches into a
series of
may be mentioned, however,
that the very principle of
homology
that controls
the whole process implies and accounts for the relative
uniformity
which
distinguishes
the
High
Gothic vocabulary from the Romanesque. All parts

that are
48
on the same
^'logical level"
and
this is
And
Scholasticism
especially noticeable in those decorative and repre-
sentational features which, in architecture, corre-
spond to Thomas Aquinas 's
came
be conceived of as members of one
enormous
to
similitudines
the
class, so that
variety in, for instance, the shape of
canopies, the decoration of socles and archevaults,
and, above
all,
the form of piers and capitals tended
to be suppressed in favor of standard types admitting only of such variations as
nature
among
individuals of
one
would occur
in
Even
in
species.
the world of fashion the thirteenth century

tinguished
is
dis-
by a reasonableness and uniformity
(even as far as the difference between masculine
and feminine costumes
is
concerned) which was
equally foreign to the preceding and to the following period.
The
edifice
theoretically illimited fractionization of the

is
limited by what corresponds to the third
requirement of Scholastic writing:
'*
distinctness
49
Gothic Architecture
and deductive cogency/' According to
classic
High
Gothic standards the individual elements, while

forming an indiscerptible whole, yet must proclaim their identity by remaining clearly separated
the
from each other
shafts
from the wall or the
core of the pier, the ribs from their neighbors,

vertical
members from
their arches;
all
and there
must be an unequivocal correlation between them.
We
must be able
to tell
which element belongs
to
which, from which results what might be called a

**postulate of
mutual
inferability'
sions, as in classical architecture,
tion.
in,
'
^not in
dimen-
but in conforma-
While Late Gothic permitted, even delighted
flowing transitions and interpenetrations, and
loved to defy the rule of correlation by, for instance,
over-membrification
of the
under-membrification of the supports

classic style
demands
that
we be
ceiling
(fig.
and
9), the
able to infer, not
only the interior from the exterior or the shape of

50
And
Scholasticism
the side aisles from that of the central nave but

also,
say,
the organization of the whole system
from the cross section of one
The last-named
instance
is
pier.
especially instructive.
In order to establish uniformity
among
all
the sup-
ports, including those in the rond-point (and also,
perhaps, in deference to a latent classicizing impulse), the builders of the
tures after Senlis,
the
compound
most important
Noyon, and Sens had abandoned
pier and had sprung the nave ar-
cades from monocylindrical piers
of course,
struc-
made
it
impossible to
(fig.
'*
8). 3 This,
express," as
it
were, the superstructure in the conformation of

the supports. In order to accomplish this and yet
preserve the
vented the
now
accepted form, there was inthe columnar pier with
pilier cantonne,
four applied colonnettes
(fig.
19-21).
However,
while this type, adopted in Chartres, Reims, and
Amiens, 3
permitted
the
'êxpression"
of the
51
Gothic Architecture
transverse ribs of the nave and side aisles as wêll
as the longitudinal arches of the
did not permit the

(fig.
_î).
The
final
'*
nave arcades,
it
expression'* of the diagonals

solution was found (in St.-
Denis) by the resumption of the

reorganized, however, in such a
compound
way
that
pier,
''ex-
it
pressed" every feature of a High Gothic super-
The inner
structure
(fig.
arches
taken up by a strong colonnette, their
is
22).
profile of the nave
outer profile by a slighter one, the transverse and

diagonal ribs of the nave by three
central one stronger than the
(the
tall shafts
two others)
to
which
correspond three analogous colonnettes for the

transverse and diagonal ribs of the side-aisles
even what remains of the nave wall
ment
*
is
the only
and
ele-
that stubbornly persisted in being ''walF'
'manifested'' in the rectangular,
core of the pier

This
is
52
still
"mural'*
itself (fig. 52).^^
indeed "rationalism."
It is
not quite the
And
Scholasticism
rationalism conceived by Choisy and Viollet-le-
Duc,33 for the
no functional,
the
piliers
neither
lieve
the
is
compound
let alone
economic, advantages over
cantonnes
of Reims
Abraham would have
it
as
Pol
**illusionism."34
modern
piers of St. -Denis have
From
us be-
the point of view^ of
archaeologist this famous quarrel be-
tween Pol Abraham and the

settled
Amiens; but
or
functionalists can
be
by the reasonable compromise proposed by
Marcel Aubert and Henri Focillon and,
as a
matter
of fact, already envisaged by Ernst Gall.^^
No
doubt Pol Abraham
is
wrong
in
denying the
practical value of even such features as ribs and

flying buttresses.
The skeleton of
constructed ribs" (arcus singulariter

heavier and
more robust
lead us to believe
(fig.
webs
independently
Koiuti),^^
much
than their graceful profiles

24), did have considerable
in freehand
made
it
possible to
(which saved
much wood
technical advantages in that

vault the
'*
it
53
^^^^
Gothic Architecture
and labor for centering) and to reduce their thickness
compHcated
for according to
tions, the simple result of which
modem
calcula-
was so well known,
empirically, to the Gothic builders that they took

it
for granted in their writings, ^7 an arch twice
as thick as
strong;
vault.
vive
is,
which means
ceteris paribus, just
that ribs
twice
as
do reinforce the
That Gothic vaults have been known to sur-
when
fire in
another
the ribs were blasted away by artillery
World War I does not prove
that they
would
have survived had they been deprived of their ribs

after seven
weeks instead of
for ancient
masonry
after seven centuries
will hold together
by sheer
cohesion so that major portions even of the walls
may be seen
hanging, as
the loss of their supports
it
were, in position after
(fig.
2^).^^
Buttresses and flying buttresses do counteract
the deformative forces which threaten the stability
of every vault. ^9
54
And
that the Gothic masters
And
Scholasticism
excepting only those headstrong Milanese ignora-
muses
who blandly contended
the buttresses
arches"
is
were
that '*no thrust
upon
exerted by vaults with pointed
aware of
fully
this
is
documented
by several texts and attested to by their very trade

expressions such as
contrefort,
'buttress'*),
arc-boutant,
or
bouterec
the
(hence our
German
(hence, interestingly enough, the Spanish

all
strebe
estribo)^
of which denote the function of a thrust or
counterthrust.-^^
tresses
The upper range of
subsequently
added
in
flying
but-
Chartres
but
planned from the outset in Reims and in most
major
edifices
after
that
may
well have been
intended to lend support to the steeper, heavier

roofs and, possibly,
against them.^'
value in that
to resist the
Even tracery has
it facilitates
wind pressure
a certain practical
the installation and aids
the preservation of glass.
On
the other hand,
it
is
equally true that the

55
Gothic Architecture
earliest
genuine ribs appear in connection with
heavy groin vaults, w^here they could not have been

*
constructed
and
'independently''
neither have saved centering nor
much
statical value
afterwards
thus
would
would have had
(fig.
23);'*^^ it is
also
true that the flying buttresses of Chartres, their

functional importance notwithstanding,
to the aesthetic sense so
much
appealed
so that the master
of the beautiful Madonna in the north transept

of Reims Cathedral repeated them, en miniature,
in the
Madonna's aedicule
(fig.
26 and 27).
The
admirable architect of St.-Ouen in Rouen, whose

design
most closely approximates the modern
standards of statical efficiency,
"^^^
rnanaged with-
out an upper range of flying buttresses.
And on no
account could there have been any practical reason

for that elaboration of the buttressing system
transforms
it
into a filigree of colonnettes, taber-
nacles, pinnacles,
56
which
and tracery
(fig.
29).
The
largest
And
of
Scholasticism
stained glass windows, the west
all
window
of
Chartres, has survived seven centuries without any

tracery ; and that the blind tracery applied to solid
no technical importance whatsoever
surfaces has
goes without saying.
However,
With
point.
whole discussion
this
reference to twelfth and thirteenth
century architecture, the alternative,

tion
all is
not to the
is
illusion,"
is
^*all is
as little valid as
func-
would
be,
with reference to twelfth and thirteenth century

philosophy, the alternative
all is
ribs of
voluti,
to
do
'*all is
intellectual gymnastics
search for truth
and oratory." The
Caen and Durham, not
as yet singulahter
began by saying something before being able

it.
The
flying buttresses of
Caen and Durham,
still
hidden beneath the roofs of the side
(fig.
28), began
aisles
by doing something before being
permitted to say
so.
Ultimately, the flying but-
tress learned to talk, the rib learned to
work, and
57
Gothic Architecture
both learned to proclaim what they were doing in

language
more
circumstantial, explicit, and ornate
than was necessary for mere efficiency; and this

applies also to the conformation of the piers and
the tracery which had been talking as well as working
all
We
the time.
are faced neither with ''rationalism" in a
purely functionalistic sense nor with ''illusion"

in the sense of
We
modem
are faced with
logic"
illustrative
sensus ratio
quaedam
Scholastic habit
Vart pour Vart aesthetics.
what may be termed
'visual
Thomas Aquinas *s nam
of
est,
A man
imbued with the
would look upon the mode of
architectural presentation, just as he looked
the
mode
et
upon
of literary presentation, from the point
of view of manifestatio.
He would
have taken
granted that the primary purpose of the
it
for
many
elements that compose a cathedral was to ensure

stability, just as
58
he took
it
for granted that the
And
Scholasticism
primary purpose of the many elements that constitute a
Summa was
to ensure vaHdity.
But he would not have been
satisfied
had not the
membrification of the edifice permitted him to re-
experience
very
the
composition just
as
Summa permitted him
processes
the
membrification of the
to re-experience the very
processes of cogitation.
To him,
buttresses,
tracery,
shafts,
ribs,
of architectural
the panoply of
pinnacles,
and
crockets was a self-analysis and self-explication of

architecture
much
as the
customary apparatus of
parts, distinctions, questions,
articles was, to
and self-explication of reason.
him, a
self-analysis
Where
the humanistic
of **harmony''
and
mind demanded
maximum
(impeccable diction in writing,
impeccable proportion, so sorely missed in Gothic

structures by Vasari,^^ in architecture), the Scholastic
It
mind demanded
maximum
of explicitness.
accepted and insisted upon a gratuitous
clarifica-
59
^m^m
Gothic Architecture
form
tion of function through
and
upon
insisted
just as
gratuitous
it
accepted
clarification
of
thought through language.
To reach
its classic
no more than
phase the Gothic style needed
hundred years
from Suger's
Denis to Pierre de Montereau's; and

expect to see
this rapid
we
St.-
should
and uniquely concentrated
development proceed with unparalleled consistency

and directness. Such, however,
Consistent the development
On
the contrary,
when
receive the impression that
steps forward
the builders
their
own
60
'
but
not the case.

it is
'final
it
solutions,"
went on almost
we
after
'jumping procession,'' taking two
and then one backward,
were
way.
not direct.
observing the evolution
from the beginning to the
the fashion of a
is,
is
as
though
deliberately placing obstacles in
And
this
can be observed not only
And
under such adverse
tions as normally
financial or geographical condi-
produce a retrogression by de-
speak, but in
fault, so to
first
monuments of
the very
rank.
The
**finar'
reached,
solution of the general plan was
we remember,
partite nave;
in a basilica having a tri-
a transept,
distinctly projecting
as it
Scholasticism
likewise tripartite and
from the nave but merging,
were, into the quinquepartite fore-choir; a
concentric chevet with ambulatory and radiating

chapels
1
6).
At
and only two towers

first
in front (fig.
glance, the natural thing
been a rectilinear development
Germer and
pate nearly
1 1
and
would have
starting
from
St.-
St.-Lucien-de-Beauvais which antici-
all
these features in the early twelfth
century. Instead,
we
find a dramatic struggle be-
tween two contrasting solutions each of which

seems to lead away from the ultimate
Suger's St.-Denis and Sens Cathedral
(fig.
result.
12) pro61
Gothic Architecture
vided a strictly longitudinal model, with only two
towers in front and the transept either stunted or
entirely omitted
adopted
a plan
of Paris and Mantes, and
still
in
Notre-Dame
retained in the High
Gothic Cathedral of Bourges.^^ As though in protest

against this, the masters of
possibly swayed
Laon
(fig.
and 14)
by the unique location of their
cathedral on the crest of a hill
reverted
Germanic idea of
group with a pro-
a multinomial
tripartite transept
jecting,
to the
and many towers
(as
exemplified by the Cathedral of Tournai), and
it
took the succeeding generations two more cathedrals to get rid of the extra
towers surmounting
the transept and the crossing. Chartres was planned
with no
itself,
less
than nine towers; Reims, like Laon
with seven
Amiens
(fig.
front towers
(fig.
ig); and
it
was not
16) that the disposition with only
two
was reinstated.
Similarly, the '^final" solution of the nave
62
until
com-
And
position
(fig.
Scholasticism
19-22) implied, in plan, a succession
of uniform, oblong, quadrupartite vaults and uni-
form, articulated piers; and, in elevation, a triadic
sequence of arcades, triforium, and clerestory.

Again
it
would seem
that this solution
might have
been reached by going ahead, straightforwardly,
from such early twelfth-century prototypes

Etienne-de-Beauvais or Lessay in
and Chartres sport sixpartite

cylindrical piers
shows
**
(fig.
(fig.
mono-
vaults over
18) or even revert to the
alternating system.'' Their elevation
galleries
which, in the most important build-
ings later than
forium
Normandy
major structures prior to Soissons
17). Instead, all
antiquated
as St.-
Noyon, are combined with
(or, as in
a tri-
Notre-Dame-de-Paris, with the
equivalent thereof) into a four-story arrangement

(fig.
i8).4^
In retrospect,
it is
easy to see that
what seems to
be an arbitrary deviation from the direct road

63
is
in
Gothic Architecture
reality
an indispensable prerequisite of the
solution.
Had
** final*'
not been for the adoption of the
it
many- towered group
in Laon,
no balance would
have been achieved between the longitudinal and

the centralizing tendencies,
much
less a unification
of a fully developed chevet with an equally fully
developed tripartite transept. Had
it
not been for
the adoption of sixpartite vaults and a four-story

elevation,
it
would not have been possible
cile the ideal of a
east
In
with the
uniform progression from west to
ideals of transparency
both cases the
to recon-
** final'*
solutions
and verticalism.
were arrived
at
by the acceptance and ultimate reconcilia-
tion OF CONTRADICTORY
come upon
And
if
helped us to understand
looks, this second
64
Here we
the second controlling principle of
Scholasticism.
understand
POSSIBILITIES. ^^
how
the
firstmanifestatio
how
classic
concordantia
classic
High Gothic
may
help us to
High Gothic came about.
And
Scholasticism
man
All that mediaeval

revelation, and
much
know about
could
divine
of what he held to be true in
other respects, was transmitted by the authorities

(auctoritates): primarily,
the Bible
which furnished arguments
and irrefutable'*
arily,
by the canonical books of

**
intrinsic
(proprie et ex necessitate); second-
by the teachings of the Fathers of the Church,
which furnished arguments
'intrinsic"
though
merely ''probable," and of the "philosophers"
which furnished arguments "not

tranea)
Now,
ties,
and merely probable for
it
this
(ex-
very reason.*^
could not escape notice that these authori-
even passages of Scripture
flicted
intrinsic"
itself,
often con-
with one another. There was no other way
out than to accept them just the same and to interpret and reinterpret
them over and over
again until
they could be reconciled. This had been done by

theologians from the earliest days. But the problem
was not posed
as a
matter of principle until Abe65
Gothic Architecture
lard
wrote
showed the
greeing on
famous
his
human
et
Non, wherein he
authorities, including Scripture, disaI
^8 important points
problem whether or not

in
Sic
reason
down
faith
from the
initial
ought to seek support
to such special questions as
the permissibility of suicide (iss) or concubinage

(124). Such a systematic collection and confrontation of conflicting authorities had long been a practice of the canonists
was, after
all,
but law, though God-given,
man-made. Abelard showed himself
very conscious of his boldness in exposing the

^'differences or even contradictions"
diversa, verum etiam invicem adversa)
sources of revelation
**
all
ously to inquire into the truth the
of Scripture
is
within the very
when he wrote
would stimulate the reader
ity
(ab invicem
the
that
more
more
this
vigor-
the author-
extolled. '''^^
After having laid down, in his splendid introduction, the basic principles of textual criticism (in-
66
And
Scholasticism
eluding the possibility of clerical error in even a
Gospel, such as the ascription of a prophesy of

Zacharias to Jeremias in Matthew, xxvii, 9), Abelard
mischievously refrained from proposing solutions.
But
it
was inevitable
that such solutions should
be
wôrked out, and this procedure became a more and
more important
part,
of the
part, perhaps the
most important
method.
Roger Bacon,
Scholastic
shrew^dly observing the diverse origins of this Scholastic

*
method, reduced
division into
many
it
to three components:
parts as
do the
dialecticians;
rhythmical consonances as do the grammarians;
and forced harmonizations

used by the
It
was
jurists.
this
(concordiae violentes) as
''^
technique of reconciling the seem-
ingly irreconcilable, perfected into a fine art through
the assimilation of Aristotelian logic, that deter-
mined the form of academic
instruction, the ritual
of the public disputationes de quoUhet already men67
Gothic Architecture
tioned, and, above
all,
the process of argumenta-
tion in the Scholastic writings themselves. Every
topic (e.g., the content of every aniculus in the
Summa
had to be formulated
Theologiae)
as a quaestio
the discussion of w^hich begins with the alignment
of one set of authorities (videtur quod

the other (sed contra
(respondeo dicendum
.)
against
proceeds to the solution
.),
.),
and
is
followed by an
individual critique of the arguments rejected (ad
primumy ad secundum, etc.)
rejected, that
is,
only
insofar as the interpretation, not the validity, of
the authorities
Needless to
a
is
concerned.
say, this principle
mental habit no
less decisive
was bound to form

and all-embracing
than that of unconditional clarification. Combative
though they were in dealing with each other, the

Scholastics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
were unanimous
in accepting the authorities and
prided themselves on their

68
skill in
understanding
And
Scholasticism
and exploiting them rather than on the originaHty

of their
era
own
thought.
when WilHam
was to cut the
who
this,
of
ties
One
new
feels the breath of a
Ockham, whose nominahsm
between reason and
faith
and
could say: **What Aristotle thought about

don't care,''^^ goes out of his way to deny
the influence of his most important forerunner,
Peter Aureolus.^^
An
attitude similar to that of High Scholasticism
must be presupposed
in the builders of the
High
Gothic cathedrals. For these architects the great

structures of the past had an auctoritas quite similar
to that
Of two
which the Fathers had
for the schoolmen.
apparently contradictory motifs, both of
them sanctioned by
authority, one could not simply
be rejected in favor of the other. They had to be
worked through
to the limit and they had to be
reconciled in the end;
much
as a saying of St.
Au-
gustine had ultimately to be reconciled with one of
69
Gothic Architecture
Ambrose. And
St.
this,
believe, accounts to
some
extent for the apparently erratic yet stubbornly

consistent evolution of Early and High Gothic archi-
tecture
videtur
I
it,
quod
too, proceeded according to the
sed contra
respondeo dicendum,
should like to illustrate
this,
three characteristic Gothic

wê
might
scheme
most
cursorily, by
^problems*'
say, quaestiones: the rose
or,
as
window^ in the
west facade, the organization of the wall beneath

the clerestory, and the conformation of the nave
piers.
So
far as
we know, west
facades
normal windows, and not by
were pierced by
roses, until Suger
perhaps impressed by the magnificent specimen in

the north transept of St.-Etienne in Beauvais
chose to adopt the motif for the west facade of
St.-
Denis, superimposing a magnificent No/i upon the

Sic
of the big
window beneath
it (fig.
30).
The
fur-
ther development of this innovation was fraught

70
And
with great
Scholasticism
difficulties. ^3 If
the diameter of the rose
remained comparatively small or was even reduced

(as in Senlis),
of wall was
If
an awkward and **un-Gothic'* space
left
on either
side as well as underneath.
the rose was enlarged to approximately the
width of the nave,

nave vaults
when
it
full
tended to conflict with the
seen from within and required on
the exterior as wide an interval as possible between

the buttresses of the facade, thus uncomfortably
diminishing the space available for side portals.
Apart from
this,
the very concept of an isolated,
circular unit conflicted with the ideals of Gothic

taste in general,
facade
and with the
Gothic
ideal of a
adequate representation of
the interior
in particular.
Small wonder that
few
exceptions
Normandy and
England
plainly
whole idea and simply enlarged the
dow
until
it filled
with
a very
rejected
the
traditional win-
the available space (while

71
Italy,
Gothic Architecture
characteristically, greeted the rose
because of
its
aufond anti-Gothic character). ^"^ The
architects of the Royal
however,
felt
with enthusiasm
bound
Domain and Champagne,
to accept a motif sanctioned
by the authority of St. -Denis, and
it is
almost amus-
ing to observe their perplexities.
The
in that
architect of
Notre-Dame
(fig. 3
was lucky
he had a quinquepartite nave. Courageously
though not quite honestly ignoring
this fact,
he
built a tripartite facade the lateral sections of which
were so wide
in
problems were
comparison to the middle that
easily solved.
all
The master of Mantes,
however, had to make the distance between the

buttresses considerably smaller than the width of
the nave (as small, in fact, as was technically possible); and even then the space for the side portals
was
far
from ample. The master of Laon, who
wanted both
a full-sized rose and generous side
portals, resorted to a trick;
72
he broke the buttresses
And
Scholasticism
so that their lower sections, framing the central

portal, are closer together than the
upper ones that
frame the rose; and then he concealed the break
by the enormous
fig-leaf
masters of Amiens,
finally,
slender nave, needed
two
the other without) to

rose and the portals
It
was not
of his porch
until
32).
The
with their inordinately
galleries (one
fill
(fig.
(fig.
with kings,
the space between the
33).
1240-^0
that the school
of
Reims, culminating in St.-Nicaise, discovered the

**finar'
solution
(fig.
34 and 3^):
the rose was
inscribed within the pointed arch of a huge
window,
thereby becoming
could be
lowered so
as
space beneath
glass.
elastic, as it
It
not to conflict with the vaults; the

it
could be
filled
with mullions and
The whole arrangement mirrored
section of the nave, and yet the

a
were.
window and
the cross
window remained
the rose a rose. For the window-and-
rose combination of St.-Nicaise
is
not, as might be
73
Gothic Architecture
thought, a simple enlargement of a bipartite bartracery
window
Cathedral
(fig.
Reims
as seen, for the first time, in
36). In such a
window
element surmounting the openings
is
the circular
not, as
is
the
rose, a centrifugal but a centripetal form: not a
wheel, with spokes radiating from a hub, but a
roundel with cusps converging from a rim. Hugues

Libergier could never have arrived at his solution
by merely magnifying a motif already extant
his
is
a genuine reconciliation of a videtur quod with a sed

contra, ^^
Concerning the problem of organizing the wall

beneath the clerestory (unless
this wall
was elimin-
ated by genuine, independently lighted galleries)

the
Romanesque
ing,
two contrasting
style
had offered, roughly speak-
solutions,
one emphasizing the
two-dimensional surface and horizontal continuity,

the other depth and vertical articulation.
On
the
one hand, the wall could be enlivened by a contin74
And
Scholasticism
uous band of small, evenly spaced wall arches

Ste.-Trinite in
cherville,
Caen
as in
37), St.-Martin-de-Bos-
(fig.
Le Mans, and the churches of the Cluny-
Autun type
on the other, by
arches (mostly
two
sequence of major
to each bay and subdivided by
colonnettes so as to constitute dead windows, so to

speak) which open onto the roof space above the
side aisles as in Mont-St. -Michel, the narthex of
Cluny, Sens
The genuine
about
types:
170
it
38), etc.
(fig.
(fig.
triforium,
39),
is
introduced in Noyon
a first synthesis of these
two
combines horizontal continuity with an
emphasis on shadowy depth. But vertical articulation

within the bay was entirely suppressed, and this
was bound to be
clerestory
two
lights.
felt all
the
windows had begun

Thus
at
as the
to be divided into
in the choir of St.-Remi at
and in Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
(fig.
more keenly
Reims
Chalons-sur-Mame
40), a shaft or shafts (two in St.-Remi, one in

75
Gothic Architecture
Chalons) were carried from the lower ledge of the

triforium right up into the clerestory,
where they
serve as frames for the windows, trisecting or bisecting the triforium
itself.
however, rejected in Laon
Such
a solution was,
(fig.
i8) as well
about the turn of the century, in Chartres
and Soissons.
where
In these first
galleries
lights of the
windows were
or, rather, again

stices
41)
High Gothic churches,
were dropped
partite plate-tracery
(fig.
as,
for
good and the two
unified into
one
window, the triforium
bi-
still
consists of perfectly equal inter-
separated by perfectly equal colonnettes;
horizontal continuity rules supreme,

so because the
string courses
all
the
more
overlap the wall
shafts.
reaction against this unmitigated horizontalism
set in at
Reims where the
vertical axis of the tri-
forium bays was emphasized by thickening the central
colonnettes so that they might correspond to

76
And
the mullions above
Scholasticism
them
it.
42). This was done
modem
so discreetly that the
overlook
(fig.
visitor
is
Hkely to
But the master's colleagues did per-
ceive the imiovation and thought
it
his sketch of the inner elevation of
Reims Cathedral
Villard de
Honnecourt
so
important: in
enormously exaggerated
the slightly stouter proportions of the central col-
onnette that no one can help noticing
What had been

explicit
44).
as
mere
hint in
it (fig.
43).^^
Reims became an
and emphatic statement in Amiens
Here the triforium bay was
had been the case
in
actually bisected,
Chalons-sur-Mame and,
an earlier stage of evolution, in Sens:

apart into
two
(fig.
it
at
was cut
separate units, with the central col-
onnette transformed into a clustered pier the main

shaft of
which connects with the
central mullion
of the window.
However,
in
doing
this,
the masters of
Amiens
almost negated the whole idea of the triforium,

77
Gothic Architecture
dividing as they did each bay into
two **bHnd win-
dows'' and transforming the even sequence of colonnettes into an alternation of
and clustered
in kind, viz., colonnettes
though to counteract
articulation,
made
overemphasis on vertical
Each of the two

is
**
window
horizontal element
is
is
blind windows'' that
divided into three sec-
whereas each of the two
clerestory
As
piers.
independent of that of the
it
constitute a triforium bay

tions,
different
they accelerated the rhythm of the
triforium and
clerestorv.
this
members
lights that constitute
divided into two.
The
further stressed by the elab-
oration of the lower string course into a band of

floral
It
ornament.
was
left to
Pierre de Montereau to say the
respondeo dicendum
triforium of
as in Soissons
St. -Denis
(fig.
45^)
and Chartres, the

is
continuous
sequence of four equal openings, separated by

bers of the same species.
78
final
However
and
mem-
this
is
And
where Amiens comes
now
Scholasticism
in
all
of these
members
are
clustered piers instead of colonnettes, the one
somewhat stronger than the others;
in the center
them
are carried up into the quadrupar-
and
all
tite
window, the
of
central pier by
means of three
connecting with the primary mullion, the
shafts
others by means of one shaft connecting with the

secondaries. Pierre de Montereau*s triforium
only the
first
to be glazed but also the
first
is
not
to effect
a perfect reconciliation of the Sic of Chartres and
Soissons (or,
if
you
and
like, Ste.-Trinite-de-Caen
Autun) with the Non of Amiens
(or, if
Chalons-sur-Mame and Sens). Now,
you
finally,
like,
the big
wall shafts could be carried over the string courses
without fear of disrupting the horizontal continuity

of the triforium
and
this brings us to the last of
our
''problems," the conformation of the nave piers.
The
far as
earliest
know,
genuine
piliers cantonnes
occur, so
in Chartres Cathedral (begun
79
194)
Gothic Architecture
where they
are,
however, not
cyHndrical
colonnettesbut show,
homogeneous elements
cylindrical
a
composed of
as yet
and
core
in alternation,
combination of a cylindrical core with octagonal
colonnettes and a combination of cylindrical colonnettes with an octagonal core. This latter motif
would seem to
indicate that the master of Chartres
was familiar with a movement, apparently originating in the borderline district between France and
the Netherlands, which has
left its
most important
Here
traces in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral.
William of Sens, magister
operis
from
74 to
had almost playfully indulged in inventing
all
78,
kinds
of variations on a modish theme enthusiastically

received in England but hardly ever utilized in
France
the
theme of
light-colored masonry
piers in
is
which
core of
picturesquely contrasted
with completely detached and monolithic shafts

fashioned of darkest marble. ^^
80
He had produced
And
Scholasticism
what may be called a sample card of fancy pier

and one of these consisted,
types,
like the alternate
supports at Chartres,
of an octagonal core and
cylindrical shafts
46, third pier from left;
fig-
(fig.
^4).
The master of Chartres adopted

veloped
it
this idea
but de-
in an altogether different spirit.
He
retransformed the detached, monolithic shafts into
engaged colonnettes constructed of ordinary masonry

a
he substituted
cylindrical
above
all,
in every second pair of piers
core for the octagonal one; and,
he employed the
pilier cantonne,
not
as
an
interesting variant but as the basic element of the
whole system. And

to
all
the
first
master of Reims had
do was to eliminate the charming but not quite
logical difference in shape
between the colonnettes
and the core.

In this perfected form, the pilier cantonne
self a Sic et
Non solution
in that
it
is
in
it-
shows colonnettes,
81
Gothic Architecture
originally applied only to angular elements (splay-
ings or piers), in combination with a cylindrical
nucleus. But as the early type of triforium tended

to suppress vertical articulation in favor of hori-
zontal continuity, so did the early type of pilier
tend
cantonne
to
remain columnar rather than
**mural/' Like a column,
whereas,
in
facing the nave
it
compound
ended with a
pier,
the colonnettes
were carried through
ings of the vaults. This created
capital
to the spring-
problems which
gave rise to a zigzag development similar to that
which could be observed
in the treatment of the
triforium.
First, since
Gothic capitals are proportioned to
the diameter rather than to the height of their

shirfts,^*
there
came about
combination of one big
capital (that of the nucleus)
with four small ones
(those of the colonnettes) only half as high. Second,
82
And
Scholasticism
and more important, the three
or even
five
wall
shafts rising into the vaults still started afresh
above
the capitals as had been the case w^hen the piers
were monocylindrical, and
it
became imperative
to establish a visible connection betwêen at least
the central wall shaft and what
shall call for short
the **nave colonnette," viz., that colonnette of

the pier which faces the nave and not the side aisle
or the neighboring pier. The master of Chartres

sought to achieve this end by omitting the capital
of the **nave colonnette," which thus continues up
to the base of the central wall shaft
gg). Far
ters of
(fig.
47 and
from pursuing the same course, the mas-
Reims reverted
to the earlier form,^^ leaving
the **nave colonnette" in possession of
its
capital,
and concentrated instead on the other problem,

the inequality of the capitals' heights.
it
They solved
by providing each colonnette with two
capitals,
83
Gothic Architecture
one superimposed upon the other, whose combined

heights equalled the height of the pier capital
(fig.
48 and ^6).^
Amiens, on the contrary, reverted to the Chartres type,
taking,
however, one step farther
in
the same direction in that not only the capital of

the **nave colonnette'' but also the base of the
central wall shaft
was eliminated, so
that the **nave
colonnette'' continues into the central wall shaft

itself,
not only into
its
base as in Chartres
(fig.
49
and y). The older piers of Beauvais are generally

similar to those of Amiens, but revert to the pre-
Amiens
tradition in restoring the base to the central
wall shaft
tical
and
coherence
this
is
renewed interruption of ver-
further emphasized by decorative
foliage (fig. ^8).
Yet,
when
the choir of Beauvais was built, the
Gordian knot had already been cut by Pierre de

Montereau's bold revival of the compound pier
84
And
which solved
all
Scholasticism
difficulties in that the big pier
and the single *'nave colonnette'' no longer
capital
existed
(fig.
ô and ^9). The three
tall shafts
re-
quired by the main vaults could be run from the

floor bases to the springings without interruption,
cutting right through the capitals of the nave ar-
cades
(fig.
22).
However, Pierre de Montereau
endorsed the Non rather than reconciled

the
Sic,
it
with
Wisely subordinating the minor problem
of the pier to the major problem of the whole sys-
tem, he chose to
sacrifice the
columnar principle
rather than to renounce that adequate

tion'
has
'
'representa-
of the nave wall by the core of the pier which
been mentioned
respondeo dicendum
(fig.
^2).
In this case,
who combined
drical, four-shafted pilier cantonne of

tall,
the
was to be spoken by the French-
trained master of Cologne
the
the cylin-
Amiens with
continuous shafts and subsidiary colon-
nettes of Pierre de
Montereau *s compound
pier.^^
85
Gothic Architecture
But he sacrificed thereby the logical correspond-
ence between the nave wall and the supports. Seen

in a diagram,
the ground plan of the nave wall
again arbitrarily intersects that of the core of the
pier instead of coinciding with
The
gentle reader
Watson
felt
feel
about
^3).
all this as
Dr.
about the phylogenetic theories of
Sherlock Holmes:
And he may
may
it (fig.
**It
is
surely rather fanciful."
object that the development here
sketched amounts to nothing but a natural evolution after the Hegelian

esis,
and synthesis''
scheme of
scheme
'*
that
thesis, antith-
might
fit
other
processes (for instance, the development of Quat-
trocento painting in Florence or even that of individual artists) just as well as
from Early to High Gothic
However, what
it
does the progress
in the heart of France.
distinguishes the
development of
French Gothic architecture from comparable phe-
nomena
86
is,
first,
its
extraordinary consistency;
And
Scholasticism
second, the fact that the principle, videtur quod, sed

contra, respondeo dicenduniy
seems to have been appHed
with perfect consciousness.
There
is
one scrap of evidence
be sure, but not

light
as yet
knovm,
wêll
to
considered in this particular
^w^hich shoves that at least
some of the French
thirteenth-century architects did think and act in

strictly
court's
Scholastic
**
terms.
Album'' there
is
In
de Honne-
Villard
to be found the ground-
plan of an **idear' chevet which he and another

master, Pierre de Corbie, had devised, according
to the slightly later inscription, inter
60).^^ Here, then,
(fig.
we
se
disputando
have two High Gothic
architects discussing a quaestio, and a third one re-
ferring to this discussion by the specifically Scholastic
term
or the like.
disputare instead of coUoqui, deliberare,
And what
is
the result of this disputatio?
chevet which combines,
Sics
with
all
possible Nons,
as it
It
were,
all
possible
has a double
ambu87
Gothic Architecture
latory
fully
combined with
a continuous
developed chapels,
all
nearly equal in depth.
The groundplan of these chapels

circular
and
Cistercian
hemicycle of
is
alternately semi-
fashion
square.
And
while the square chapels are vaulted separately,

as
was the usual thing, the semicircular ones are
vaulted under one keystone with the adjacent sectors of the outer ambulatory as in Soissons and
its
derivatives. ^3
Here
Scholastic
dialectics
has
driven architectural thinking to a point where
almost ceased to be architectural.
88
it
Notes
Notes
1.
To
trace the development of this parallel in
would require
literature
a separate study
modem
suffice it to refer
to the beautiful pages in Charles R. Morey's Mediaeval Art,
New
2.
York, 1942, pp. 25^5-267.
Cf.
W.
Koehler, "Byzantine Art in the West," Dum-
barton Oaks Papers,
3.
Cf.
M. Dvorak,
I,
{.
Idealismus und Naturalismus in der gotischen
Skulptur und Malerei,

Zeitschrift,
1941, pp. Sg
Munich,
9 1 8 (originally in Historische
3rd ser., XXIIl), passim; E. Panofsky, Deutsche
Plastik des elften bis dreizehnten Jahrhunderts,
pp. 65
found
fif.
it
Munich, 1924,
We can easily see that the ecclesiastical authorities
hard to acquiesce in
this
new, Aristotelian point of
view. As late as 121^ the University of Paris

resolution of the Synod of Paris of
demned
Aristotle's
Metaphysics and
enc^
orsed the
which had con-
Naturalia
(and
even
abridgments thereof) together with such outright heretics

as
David of Dinant and Amaury de Bene
unity of
tacitly
God with
who
taught the
His creation. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX
admitted the Metaphysics but reiterated the prohibi91
Notes
tion of the Naturalia as long as they
and expurgated of errors." He even

purpose; but by
this
this
had not been ''censored

set
time the
up
commission for
moment
for effective
countermeasures had passed.

4.
The word compendium
had come to mean
more
(originally
'a
shortcut'
literary
figuratively,
docendi). In the resolutions of
note
the wôrd summa
3,
is
"a hoard,"
**a
saving")
(compendia montis) and,
'
"abridgment"
still
(compendium
i2io and i2i^ mentioned
still
used in
this sense:
in
"Non
legantur libri Aristotelis de metaphysica et naturali historia,
nee summa de iisdem." According to general assumption the

first
is
in
instance of a
that
Summa
Theologiae in the novv^ current sense
by Robert de Courzon of 1202 (not
full).
It
published
as yet
however, probable that the Summae by
is,
Prevostin and Stephen Langton (likewise active at Paris)
precede
it
by some ten or
fifteen years;
cf.
Histoire de la propriete ecclesiastique en France,
de la
fn
du VIW
cially pp.
Cf.
249
siecle
25^1,
a la Jin du
XW)
Lille,
Lesne,
E.
(Les Ecoles
1940, espe-
676.
Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon,
also
William
Shyreswood.
6.
For Ockham,
cf.
the recent
book by R. Guelluy,
sophie et Theologie chez Guillaume d^ Ockham, Louvain,
92
Vhilo-
i947;
Notes
for Nicholas of Autrecourt, J.
R. Weinberg, Nicolaus
oj
Autrecourt, a Study in 14th Century Thought, Princeton, 1948.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa
7.
5. r/j.), I-II,
qu. 49, art.
M. de Wulf,
8.
Theologiae (hereafter
as
History of Mediaeval Philosophj, 3rd English
ed. (E. C. Messenger, tr.), London,
"Here's where you cut
9.
quoted
3, c.
it
for
II,
1938, p. 9.
me." For
the proverbial
use of this famous phrase (Nicolas de Briart, reprinted in V.
Mortet and P. Deschamps,

de
r architecture,
Paris,
Kecueil de textes relatifs a Vhistoire
1929, p. 290),
II,
cf.
G. P.
in: Ro-
mania, XVIII, 1889, p. 288.

10. 5. Th.,
11.
I,
qu.
I, art. 6, c.
Ibidem, qu. 89, art. i, c.
12. Ibidem, qu. i, art. 8,
13.
ad
2.
Ibidem, qu. 2, art. 2, c.
14. Ibidem, qu.
i,
veritati innitatur,
strari
art.
8,
c:
impossibile
"Cum
enim
autem
sit
fides infallibili
de vero demon-
contrarium, manifestum est probationes quae contra
fidem inducuntur, non esse demonstrationes, sed solubilia
argumenta." Cf.
also the passage
quoted in
F.
Ueberweg,
93
Notes
Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, iith ed., Berlin,
II,
1928, p. 429.
i^.
well
qu. 32, art.
5. Th.,
known,
i,
ad 2; qu. 27,
between the Three Persons, by way of

between memory,
41-42, reprinted
16.
Ibidem, qu.
art.
and
As
3.
is
Augustine had already likened the relation
St.
intelligence,
a similitudo, to that
and love (De
Trinitate,
XV,
1088
ff.).
in Patrologia Latino, vol. 42, col.
27, art.
i,
ad
3,
and passim, for instance,
qu. i^, art. 3, ad 4.
17.
This general characterization does not, of course, fully
apply to a thinker such as
St.
Bonaventure, just
as a general
characterization of the High Gothic style does not fully
apply to a
monument such
both cases
which
we
as the
are faced with
monumental exceptions
earlier, essentially anti-Scholastic
anti-Gothic
traditions
style.
in
or, respectively,
and tendencies are developed within
the framework of a High Scholastic
Gothic
Cathedral of Bourges. In
or, respectively,
As Augustinian mysticism
the twelfth century) survives in
St.
(as
High-
cultivated in
Bonaventure, so does the
Early Christian concept of a transeptless or nearly transeptless basilica (as
exemplified by Sens Cathedral, the contem-
plated nave of Suger's St. -Denis, Mantes, and

de-Paris) survive in the Cathedral of Bourges
94
Notre-Dame(cf.
S.
McK.
Notes
Crosby,
"New
Excavations in the Abbey Church of Saint
Denis," Gazetu
ff.
des Beaux- Arts, 6th ser.,
and below, pp. 61
XXVI, 1944, pp.
1^
Characteristically, both St. Bona-
ff.).
venture*s philosophy and Bourges Cathedral (which
may be
called an Augustinian church) remained without a following

in
some of
cans,
their
however
most
significant aspects
even the Francis-
Thomism, could not maintain
critical of
St.
Bonaventure's persistence in an anti-Aristotelian attitude;
even those architects
who
did not subscribe to the ideals of
Reims and Amiens could not accept the Bourges master's

retention of sixpartite vaults.
18.
Cf., e.g., A.
Dempf, Die Hauptform
mittelaherhcher Welt-
anschauung; eine geisteswissenschaftliche Studie uber die Summa,
Munich and
19.
Berlin, 192^.
Bonaventure, In Lib.
Ill Sent., dist., 9, art.
Bacon's criticism of such rhetorical devices,
i,
cf.
qu.
2.
For
below, p.
67.
20.
Cf. again
below, pp. 67
flF.
21. S. Th., Prologue.
22. Alexander of Hales, apparently the

this elaborate articulation,
articuli;
Thomas
first
to introduce
divides partes into membra and
in S. Th. divides partes into quaestiones
95
and
..
Notes
Commentaries upon the Sentences generally divide
articuh.
the partes
quaestiones
23
and
distinctiones,
articuli.
God and
the order of crea-
organized as follows:
is
Essence (qu. 2-26);

a.
Whether God
1
Whether
dent
b.
exists (qu. 2);
the proposition of His existence
c.
2.
Whether
3.
Whether He does
it is
demonstrable
(art. 2);
How He exists or, rather, does not exist (qu.

How He is not (qu. 3-1 )
2. How He is known to us (qu. 12);
3. How He is named (qu. 13);
1
His operation (qu. 14-26);

1.
His knowledge (qu. 14-18);
2.
His will (qu. 19-24);
3.
His
power
(qu. 2^-26);
Origin or procession (qu. 27);
b. Relations of origin (qu. 28);

c.
III.
The Persons
as
such (qu. 29-43);
Procession of creatures (qu. 44-end);

a.
Production of creatures (qu. 44-46);
96
evi-
exist (art. 3);
Distinction of Persons (qu. 27-43);

a.
is
i);
(art.
II.
being subdivided into
these
This First Part, dealing with
tion,
I.
into
3-13);
Notes
b. Distinction of creatures (qu.
c.
24.
Government of
characteristic masterpiece of a Scholastic eulogy
a CoUatio in
is
honor of Charles IV by Pope Clement VI (R.
Salomon, M.G.H.,
is
47-102);
creatures (qu. 103-end).
parallelized with
Leges, IV, 8, pp.
143
ff.),
where Charles
Solomon under the headings: Comparatur,
CoUocatur, Approbatur, Sublimatur, each heading being sub-
divided as follows
A. Comparatur. Solomon
I.
II.
III.
in aliquibus pro/ecit
magnitudine;
a.
in latriae
b.
in prudentiae certitudine;
c.
in iustitiae rectitudine;
d.
in clementiae dulcedine.
In aliquibus excessit:
a.
in sapientiae limpitudine;
b.
in abundantiae plenitudine
c.
in facundiae amplitudine;
d.
in quietae vitae pulchritudine.
in aliquibus Je/ecit
a.
in luxuriae turpi tudine
b. in perseverantiae longitudine
c.
in idolatriae multitudine
d. in rei bellicae fortitudine, etc., etc.
Ridewall's mythographical treatise was edited by H. Liebe-
97
Notes
Warburg,
schiitz, Fulgentius Metaforalis (Studien der Bibliothek
IV, Leipzig and Berlin, 1926);
For the scholastic systemati-
zation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (naturalis, spiritualis, magica,

moralis,
and de
re
animata in rem inanimatam, de
rem inanimatam, de
in
rem animatam),
of Ovid,
'
The
show
cf. F.
ff.,
re
animata
Ghisalberti, "Mediaeval Biographies

Institutes,
IX,
especially p. 42.
early manuscripts,
and commentaries
editions,
perfect awareness of the fact that the
really begins
inanimata in
re
inanimata in rem animatam, de
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
'
1946, pp. 10
ig.
re
with Canto
first
Cantica
would comprise 33
(so that it
Canti like the others). In the Trivulziana manuscript of
337
(L. Rocca, ed., Milan, 192 1) as well as in such incunabula

as
Wendelin of Speyer's Venice
ing rubrics:
"Comincia
edition,
we
canto primo de
il
find the followla
prima parte
V opera' and "Canto secondo
nelaquale fae proemio a tutta
dela prima parte nela quale fae proemio ala prima canticha
solamente, cioe ala
prima parte
Cf. Jacopo della Lana's

belli's edition
di
questo libro solamente."
Commentary
(reprinted in L. Scara-
of the Divina Commedia of 1866, pp. 107 and
118): "In questi due primieri Capitoli
mostra sua disposizione.

suo proema pregando
poetria,
li
98
orator! in
Qui
la scienzia
sicome e usanza
trattati, e
li
...
{sciL, in
che lo
delli poeti in
li
fa
proemio e
Canto 2) segue
aiuti a trattare tale
principii delli suoi
principii delle sue arenghe.'*
Notes
26. T. E.
Mommsen
(Intr.), Petrarch, Sonnets
and Songs,
New
York, 1946, p. xxvii.

27.
R. Arnheim, ''Gestalt and Art,'' Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism, 1943,

PP- 7i
ff-
i^êm,
"Perceptual Abstrac-
tion and Art," Psjchological Review, LIV, 1947, pp. 66
ff.,
especially p. 79.
28. S. Th.
I,
qu.
5",
art. 4,
1662
i.
Nouv. Acq. 13^9 and London,
29. Paris, Bibl. Nat.,
Mus., Add.
ad
M. Prou, "Desseins du XF
(cf.
Brit.
siecle et
peintures du XIII^ siecle," Revue de
1890, pp. 122

Painting,
New
ff.
also
V Art Chretien, XXIII,

M. Schild-Bunim, Space in Mediaeval
York, 1940,
30. Exceptions:
Fecamp
p. 115^).
(after
compound
1168), having
piers throughout; the eastern bay of St. -Leu d'Esserent (ca.

1
90) having an alternating system;
(after 1200), having
compound
St.-Yved-de-Braine
piers in the chevet; Long-
pont, having monocylindrical piers.

31.
The experiments
in the seventh
piers in the Cathedral of
and ninth pair of nave
Laon had no appreciable
effect
upon
the subsequent development; and the piers of Soissons, cylinders with only one colonnette facing the nave, are in
opinion a reduction of the full-fledged Chartres

tonnk
with colonnettes on
all
my
pilier can-
four sides. Perfunctorily imi-
99
Notes
tated in Notre-Dame-de-Paris (second pair of piers from
the west), this type
is
chiefly
important for
its
influence
upon
provincial structures erected after the middle of the thir-
teenth century
rond-point
and
(cf.
in the rond-point only
32.
Some
of Reims and Beau-
For the development of the
vais Cathedrals.
see pp. 79
note 6i), and upon the supports in the
pilier cantonnS
ff.
architectural historians are inclined to identify
the climactic phase of the Gothic style with Reims and
Amiens
(nave),
and to consider the
radical elimination of
the wall in the nave of St. -Denis, the Sainte-Chapelle, St.-
Nicaise-de-Reims, or St.-Urbain-de-Troyes
as the
beginning
of a disintegration or decadence (^^Gothique rajonnant** as
opposed to ''Gothique
of definition
(cf.
Amiens," Art
would seem
classique*').
P. Frankl, **A
in America,
XXXV,
maximum
of course, a matter
1947, pp. 294
But
its
it
own
where the wall
is
possibilities while, at the
of ''inferability"
is
reached.
suspect that the above-mentioned view has

verbal foundation in that the expressions
Gothic"
ff.).
measured by
fulfills itself
reduced to the limit of technical

a
is,
French Gothic Cathedral:
that the Gothic style,
standards of perfection, only
same time,
This
even
some purely
"classic
High
or ^^Gothique classique'^ automatically suggest the
plastic standards of
100
Greek and Roman, but not Gothic,
Notes
"classicality.'*
In fact the masters of
Amiens themselves
eagerly adopted the glazed triforium of St. -Denis as soon

as
they had
become
familiar with
33. Viollet-le-Duc's interpretation

in L.
(transept and chevet).
it
is
carried to an extreme
Lemaire, "La logique du style Gothique," Revue neo-
scolastique,
Abraham,
34. P.
Paris,
XVII, 1910, pp. 234

VioUet-le-Duc
ff.
et
le
rationalisme medieval,
1935- (cf. the discussion in Bulletin de
tional des Instituts d^ archeologie et d'histoire de
r office
Van,
interna-
II,
193^).
3^. E. Gall, Niederrheinische und normannische Architektur im

Zeitalter der Fruhgotik, Berlin,
191^; idem, Die
kunst in Frankreich und Beutschland ,
literature concerning the Pol
I,
gotische Bau-
Leipzig, 1925. Further
Abraham controversy
is
cited
in G. Kubler, *'A Late Gothic Computation of Rib Vault
Thrusts," Gazette
13^
ff.
des Beaux-Arts,
to be added: Pol
tance des materiaux,"

pp. 788
ff.
6th ser., XXVI, 1944, pp.
Abraham, "Archeologie
La Construction Moderne, L,
(kindly brought to
my
et resis-
934-3 S
M.
attention by Prof.
Schapiro).
36. Abbot Suger on the Abbej Church of Saint-Denis and
Its
Art Treasures (E. Panofsky, ed.), Princeton, 1946, p. 108,
8; for the emendation of
veluti
into voluti, see E. Panofsky,
'^Postlogium Sugerianum,'' Art Bulletin,
XXIX, 1947,
101
p.
119-
Notes
37. See G. Kubler, loc.
Cf. E. Brunet,
38.
cit.
"La
restauration de
la
Cathedrale dc
Soissons," Bulletin Monumental, LXXXVII, 1928, pp. 6^
H. Masson, "Le rationalisme dans I'architecture du
Cf.
39.
ff.
Moyen-Age,"
Bulletin
Monumental, XCIV, 1935-, pp. 29
ff.
40. See, for instance, the treatise convincingly interpreted
by Kubler,
and
loc. cit.,
justified
or the French expert Mignot's violent
objections to the outrageous theory of his
Milanese confreres according to which "archi spiguti non

dant impulzam contrafortibus"
'*
(cf.
now^
J.
Ackerman,
S.
'Ars Sine Scientia Nihil Est* ;GothicTheorypf Architecture
at the Cathedral of
84
An
Bulletin,
As evidenced by the Milan
ff.).
man,
Milan,"
loc.
cit.,
pp.
108
XXXI, 1949, pp.
texts (reprinted in
Acker-
the terms contrejort and arc-
ff.),
boutant C'archi butanti") wêre familiar even in Latin and

Italian
by the end of the fourteenth century, and both wêre
used in a figurative sense
as early as in the fifteenth
teenth centuries (pictionnaire historique de
r Academie
public par
Francaise,
III,
Paris, 1888, pp.
E. Littre, Dictionnaire de la langue francaise,

p.
185-;
La Curne de
la
r ancienne languefrancaise,
The term
Paris,
bouterec (F.
Palaye,
Paris
I,
^7^
Paris,
six-
ff .
1863,
Dictionnaire historique de
and Niort, 1877,
p. 227).
Godefroy, Lexique de Vancien Francais,
90 1, p. 62) must have been in use before
102
and
la langue franacise
388
when
Notes
**buttress" occurs in English, and estribo
constantly
is
ployed in the treatise interpreted by Kubler,

41
has even
of the vaults
is
been accounted for by mere
explain
it
as a
proposed by K.
'timidity "
J.
42. See E. Gall, opp.
Guadet,
To
p. 188).
wâs
08 8-1 21 1," Gazette
cit.,
des Beaux- Arts,
f.
especially Die gotische Baukunst,
ff.
43. See
J.
Gaudet, op.
44. G. Vasari, Le
varono
(J.
presence
Conant, "Observations on the Vaulting
Problems of the Period
II
Ill,
superfluous
its
countermeasure against wind pressure
6th ser., XXVI, 1944, pp. 127
pp. 31
is
concerned,
Elements de theorie d' architecture, Paris, n.d..
tetti,
loc. cit.
Since this upper range of flying buttresses
as far as the stability
em-
cit.,
Vite del
pp. 200
ff.,
fig.
1076.
piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e archi-
Part,
Proemio: "Perche nelle colonne non osser-
(scil.,
the Gothic masters) quella misura e propor-
zione che richiedeva Tarte,
ma
a la mescolata
con una loro
regola senza regola faccendole grosse grosse o sottili sottili,
come tomava lor meglio." In thus observing that the scale

of the members in a Gothic edifice is not determined by
anthropomorphic considerations, and that their proportions
can change wîthin one and the same building, Vasari
acumen sharpened by
hostility
has hit
upon
his
a fundamental
103
Notes
principle distinguishing Gothic from Classical as well as
from Renaissance and Baroque architecture.
mann, **Die Wahl des
Platzes
fiir
Neu-
Cf. C.
Michelangelos David
in
Florenz im Jahr 1^04; zur Geschichte des Massstabprob-
lems," Kepertohumfur
I
Kunstwissenschaft,
XXXVIII, 191
dem
Also E. Panofsky, **Das erste Blatt aus
flF.
Giorgio Vasaris
6, pp.
'Libro*
eine Studie iiber die Beurteilung der Gotik
in der italienischen Renaissance," Stadeljahrbuch, VI, 1929,
pp. 4
especially pp. 42
ff.,
45. See
S.
McK. Crosby,
ff.
loc. cit.
for Bourges, cf. above,
note 17.
46. Until fairly recently, the
arrangement
Two
vvâs
first
believed to occur in Tournai
very slightly earlier though
stances
instance of a four-story
much more
again demonstrating the close
tvvêen Flanders
and England
in
between 1090 and iioo);
cf.
J.
Bony, "Tewkesbury et
Pershore, deux elevations a quatre etages de
side aisles in
dral) represents a sacrifice of the

case,
104
la fin
ff.,
^03
du XI^
ff.
Cologne Cathe-
dral (otherwise closely following the plan of
this
discov-
087) and Pershore (founded
siecle," Bulletin Monumental , 1937, pp. 281
The addition of secondary
iioo).
interrelation be-
have, however, been
ered in Tewkesbury (founded
47.
{ca.
primitive in-
Amiens Cathe-
major consideration
(in
balance between centralistic and longitudinal
Notes
tendencies) to the minor one (in this case, conformity of
nave and choir) not unlike that which can be observed in the
treatment of the supports

48. 5. Th.
qu.
I,
I, art.
(cf.,
8,
ad
pp. 8^
ff.).
2.
49. Patrologia Latina, vol. 178, cols. 1339

go.
Roger Bacon, Opus minus
quoted
as
schichte der wissenschaftlichen Studien
burg,
1904, p.
î^:
divisiones per
membra
tria
textu principaliter
in
principaliter;
scilicet,
concor-
varia, sicut artistae faciunt,
sicut legistae utuntur,
dantiae violentes,
H. Felder, Ge-
in
im Franziskanerorden, Frei-
"Quae hunt
legendo et praedicando, sunt
ff.
et consonantiae
rhythmicae, sicut grammatici." For the anticipation of the

Sic et
Non method by the canonists
of Constance), see
tischen Methode,
M. Grabmann,
Freiburg,
909,
I,
pp. 234
1. William of
Ockham, Quodhbeta,
Ueberweg,
cit.,
Aristoteles,
op.
p.
5^81:
non euro,
quia
Remold
(Ivo of Chartes,
Die Geschichte der scholas-
I,
ff.
and
II,
passim,
qu. 10, as quoted in
"Quidquid de hoc
ubique
senserit
videtur
dubitative
loqui/*
52. William of
Ockham,
In I sent., dist. 27, qu.
3,
quoted
^74 f "Pauca vidi de dictis illius doctoris. Si

enim omnes vices, quibus respexi dicta sua, simul congre-
ibidem, pp.
garentur,
non complerent spatium unius
diei naturalis
105
Notes
quam materiam
antequam
^3.
See
Fr'uh-
^4.
tractavi, et fere
omnes
vidi
opinionem hie recitatam.**
H.
Kunze,
alias in
Das Fassadenproblem
und Hochgotik, Strassburg,
Germany, generally averse
(except for Strassburg and
its
primo
der franzosischen
to roses in the west facade
sphere of influence, in contrast
to Cologne, etc.), accepted the
rose-and-window combina-
tion for the longitudinal walls of hall churches
rated into facades as in Minden,

in
libro,
Oppenheim,
St.
when
elabo-
Catherine's
Brandenburg.
gg.
Libergier's
transepts of
solution
was obviously inspired by the
Reims Cathedral (before 1241), where the big
roses are already inscribed within pointed arches
the whole does not, as yet, constitute a
but here
"window." The
spandrels above and below the roses are not, as yet, glazed,
and no vertical connection exists between the roses and the
windows beneath them.

5'6.
Villard
de
Honnecourt,
Kritische
Gesamtausgabe
Hahnloser, ed.), Vienna, 1935^, pp. 165

^7. Cf.
now
J.
fF.,
(H.
R.
pi. 62.
Bony, "French Influences on the Origins of
English Gothic Architecture," Journal of the Warburg and

Courtauld
Institutes, XII,
106
1949, pp.
fF.,
especially pp. 8
ff.
Notes
gS. See, e.g., A. Kingsley Porter, Medieval Architecture,
Haven, 191
2,
New
p. 272. Occasionally, as in St.-Martin-de-
II,
BoschervilleorSt.-Etienne-de-Caen (galleries),
this principle
had already been applied in Romanesque structures; but
became "standard,"
it
"expressed" by
different thicknesses are
minor
serve uniformity
differences in thickness in order to pre-
among
several adjacent capitals.
59. In Soissons, St.-Leu-d'Esserent, etc.,
more emphatic reversion

a
capitals of three
There was, however, always an inclination
different sizes.
to overlook
it
seems, only after Sens, where three
we
find
an even
to the original Canterbury type:
"nave colonnette" with an individual
capital half as high
as that of the pier.
60. This applies also to the capitals of the major and
minor
colonnettes of the west portals which thus form a significant

contrast to the corresponding ones in Amiens.
of a
vais
A similar adaptation of a continuous shaft to

pilier cantonne
(1284
ff.),
later piers of
the concept
can be observed in the later piers of Beau-
1260) and in the
in the piers of Seez (ca.
Huy
(131
ff.)-
In the
two
latter instances,
however, the colonnettes facing the arcades and the side

aisles are
omitted
as
though the idea of
continuous shaft
had been superimposed, not upon the normal
pilier cantonne
107
Notes
(with four colonnettes) but upon the Soissons pier (which
has only one)
cf.
note
62. Villard de Honnecourt, op.

inscription,
cit.,
pp. 69
Hunecort et Petrus de Corbeia inter

added by
63.
fF.,
pi.
29; the
"Istud bresbiterium inuenerunt Ulardus
a disciple of Villard
The only
superficially
known
se disputando,"
as
de
was
"Master 2."
similar alternation of chapels
vaulted separately and chapels vaulted,
Soissons fashion,
under one keystone with the adjacent sector of the outer

ambulatory can be observed in Chartres, where
ment
is
this arrange-
motivated by the necessity of re-using the founda-
tions of the eleventh-century choir with
its
three deep and
widely separated chapels. But in Chartres the Soissons-like

chapels are really nothing but shallow protuberances of the
outer ambulatory, so that
all
the seven keystones could be
placed on the same perimeter. In Villard de Honnecourt 's
and Pierre de Corbie's ideal plan they are
fully
developed
units, their keystones placed, not in the center but on the
periphery of the adjacent sector of the outer ambulatory.
108
Illustrations
Figure 1.
Tombstone of the Architect Hugues Libergier
(died 1263),
Reims Cathedral.
Ill
ij:^,.-
..rteicr/.^fl
Figure 2.
112
Autun Cathedral, west
portal. Ca.
1130.
Figure 3. Paris,
Notre-Dame,
central
porul of the west facade (much
restored). Ca. iiis-1220.
113
Figure 4.
Henry
of France bestowing privileges upon the Priory of
St.-Martin-des-Champs. Book illumination between 1079 and 1096,
London,
114
British
Museum, ms. Add. 1162,
fol. 4.
\^^flnt^ry/t/ A'^f^
(T pniiplrttnrintfi
tnamni
MfUif* ntntnia-
CanpUuit nnimno fcnr mVo notiutu tnr,o.

Vtar* 1 mttntnr' snn* illf quifCqiiut iiUirf
fUm nift pn^rrcc ni<!lTvf tuAointtt innrtrr^tifhnitr
fmnt* noitiamc6c6ccdincfi-;nt*-
'3111^1^ tonum efitoii ftsartcilctxynmnxm' t a- ipfip aHnofiti ^tlfit^lr tpfit-
Figure 5.
Henry
of France bestowing privileges upon the Priory of
St.-Martin-des-Champs. Book illumination of
theque Nationale, ms. Nouv. Acq.
ca.
lat.
i2jo, Paris, Biblio-
13^9,
fol.
i.
115
-r^-^
-..**<
Figure 6. Philip
of France bestowing privileges* upon the Priory of
St.-Martin-des-Champs. Book illumination between 1079 ^^^ 1096,
London,
116
British
Museum, ms. Add. 1162,
fol. 5 v.
Jhr mttrltnnP|ii ^^nniiîlttCMr aUlDiwr in Amtfnoti J oOtr
11
Figure 7. Philip
rrrmc {nonlf o^lialttitr p{Hn iRttttn*

(IVirnno MCf irfrtrlîr mCmiw in cdrm*
folac(cm6tnnniradt6tr cOctii*
OtftDtimdu itdffiiltr dd fancnO**
'm--
upon the Prioi^ of

of France bestowing privileges
Paris, B.blioca.
1250,
of
illumination
Book
St.-Martin-des-Champs.
theque Nationale, ms. Nouv. Acq.
lat.
1359.
fo- 6.
117
118
Figure 9.
Pima
(Saxony), Marienkirche, interior. Begun ijo2,
119
Of St.
tototrsi^vauitXXXotnt
'
iifiuioUJ
'<
^cno^'io
outtr buttresses
and/arr vault
built or repaired
hetwten 14S7
and tî
6.
cfH2
to
ins?
posstbbf tncioud 1130

ptrhaf* ttautttd iHf t/3S
5.
ptrhctpavauUndlaltr
JvUshaeL j^g-gS?
c.no^-f*:
higfi oaxtit c.fjts-^; fettinS',
rcpaux'd between, itigand njo
sirengtivened ihm and c /7<rc
S.XUoeru,
andctuS
$.S.tower begun, late Xtl cent,
hoifi totoert largeU/ buittcfX20-28; one "augnenUd^" bcUveen 1^X2. Mtd fj43,
one tower (lattH?) remade, porch built >jr id d^ccraUd betuixn J4SLf. and t^S7
GtnerairwowUxcn cr/so-ctySr, nete altar*: newsta/ls jj'Si. Demolition lyifS-cJSi^
Figure 10. Cluny, Third
narthex
ol'
ca.
iiio-ca.
Cluny," Medieval
Abbey Church, groundplan, 1088-ca. 11 20;

(After K. J. Conant, "The Third Church
1^0.
Studies in
Memory of A.
1939)
120
Kir}gslejf Porter,
Cambridge,
**'**
t.
4-iî
I.
t
*
i^
^l-t?
Figure 11.
Amiens Cathedral, groundplan. Begun 1220.

121
n
^
41
>f
w.
>*"*'
i^
Figure 12. Sens Cathedral, groundplan.
Constructed
E.
Gall,
ca.
1140-ca. 1168. (After
Die gotische Baukunst
Frankreich
in
und Deutscbland,
Leipzig, 1925.)
figure ij.
Laon Cathedral, groundplan.
Begun
122
ca.
160.
Swr->fc|
123
124
no
125
Figure ij. Lessay
(Normandy), Abbey Church,

Xlth century.
126
interior.
End of the
Figure l8.
Laon Cathedral, interior of the choir. Begun

in conformity with elevation designed ca.
after
120^
160.
127
Figure 19.
Chartres Cathedral, interior of the nave. Begun shortly

after
128
194.
Figure 20.
Reims Cathedral,
Begun 121
1.
129
Figure 21.
BO
Amiens Cathedral,
Begun 1220.
Figure 22. St. -Denis, interior of the nave.
Begun 1231.
131
Figure 23.
Caen, St.-Etiienne, vaults of the northern transept. Ca.

1
132
110. (After E. Gall, op.
cit.)
133
Figure
2^.
Soissons Cathedral,
damaged during World War
134
section of the northern nave wall

I.
Beginning of the XI 1 1th century.
135
Figure 28.
Durham
Cathedral, concealed flying buttresses. End of
the Xlth century. (After R.
W.
BilHngs, Architectural Illustrations and
Description of the Cathedral of
136
Durham, London, 1843.)
Figure
29.
buttresses
Reims Cathedral, open Hying
of the nave. Design estoblished ca.
1 1
137
Figure JO.
St. -Denis,
west facade. Dedicated 1140. (After an en-
graving by A. and E. Rouargue, executed before the restoration of
1833-1837.)
138
Figure 31. Paris,
Notre-Dame, west
fa<;ade.
Begun shortly
after 1200;
clerestory ca. 1220.
139
Figure 32.
Laon Cathedral, west facade. Designed
from
140
ca.
190.
ca.
1160; executed
^^
f/aur. 33.
'
Amiens west
fa,;ade.
completed
Begun .220; clerestory
1236; tracery of the rose
ca.
joo.
141
Fiffurc 341
JO and
Reims, St.-Nicaise (destroyed), west

1263; rose restoretl
ca.
1550.
N. de Son, of 1625.)
142
fa<;-ade.
(After an
Between
ca.
engraving
by
Figure
35-
Reims,
St.-Nicaise
rose in the west fa9ade
(destroyed)
(partial
reconstruction )
Figure 36.
Reims Cathedral, nave window.

Designed
ca.
121
1.
143
ûre
J7. Caen, St.-Trinite, triforium. Ca.
Figure 38. Sens Cathedral, tritorium

galleries.
144
ii,,
Towards
ISO.
Figure
39.
Noyon
established ca.
11
Cathedral, nave galleries and triforium.
Design
70; eastern bay executed between 1170 and ii8^,

rest later.
145
Figure 40.
Chalons-sur-Mame, Notre -Dame-en- Vaux, choir

and triforium. Ca. 1185.
146
galleries
established ca.
Figure 41. Chartres Cathedral, nave triforium. Design
1
194.
147
Figure 42.
Reims Cathedral, nave triforium. Design

121
148
1.
established ca.
Figure 43. Villard de

thedral.
Drawing of
Honnecourt, interior elevation of Reims Caca.
123J,
Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale
(en-
larged detail).
149
Figure 44.
Amiens Cathedral, nave
triforium. Design estabHshed ca.
1220.
150
Figure 45.
St. -Denis,
nave triforium. Design established
ca.
1231
151
152
Eim
n
Figure 47. Chartres Cathedral, capital
of nave pier. Design established

ca.
Figure 49.
Amiens Cathedral,
Reims Cathedral,
ca
capital
capital of
nave pier. Design established
194.
of nave pier. Design established

ca.
Figure 48.
Figure SO-
St. -Denis,
capital
pier. Design established ca.
of nave
i
2 3
1220.
153
Figure
St-
section
Amiens Cathedral,
of pier in relation
cross
to
wall
and vault-ribs. Design established

ca.
I220.
Figure 52.
St.
-Denis, cross section of
pier in relation to wall and vault-ribs.
Design established
Figure
53.
Cologne
pier in relation
to
Cathedral,
wall
and
established cd.
154
cross
section
vault-ribs.
1248.
of
Design
ca.
1231.
Figure
S4-
Canterbury
capital of pier,
ii
Cathedral,
74-1 178 (diagram).
Figure
ital
SB-
of
Chartres
pier.
shortly after
Figure
S^-
of pier.
Reims Cathedral,
Design established
ca.
capital
iiii
Figure 7-
Cathedral,
Design
11
cap-
established
94 (diagram).
Amiens Cathedral,
capital
of pier. Design established ca.
1220
(diagram).
Figure 5*. Beauvais Cathedral, capital
of pier.
Design established
ca.
247
Figure 9- St. -Denis,
capital of pier.
Design established
1231 (diagram).
ca.
(diagram).
155
Figure
6o.
resulting
Villard
from
de Honnecourt,
his discussion
ideal
groundplan of a chevet
with Pierre de Corbie. Drawing of
1235, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.
156
ca.
ERWIN PANOFSKY
Erwin Panofsky was born in Germany in 1892. Educated
Munich, and Freiburg universities, he became a
at Berlin,
lecturer in the history of art at
Hamburg
University in
He was
a professor there from 1926 until 1933. From

1931 to 1933 he was also a visiting professor at New York
University. In 1934 he was a visiting lecturer at Princeton
1921.
where he has been since 1935 a professor at the

Advanced Study. He was Charles Eliot Norton
Professor of Poetry at Harvard University during 1947-48.
Among his other works in English are Studies in Iconology
(1939), The Codex Huyghens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art
Theory (1940), Albrecht Durer (first edition, 1943),
Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St. Denis and Its Art
University,
Institute for
Treasures (1946), Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origin

as a Critic of the Visual
and Character (1953), and Galileo

Arts (1954).
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Gothic
Architecture and Scholasticism

An
inquiry into the analogy of the arts,

philosophy, and religion in the Middle Ages.
ERWIN PANOFSKY
is sometimes thought that art, philosophy, Hterature develop in
hot-house environments, communicating little with each other, influencing but slightly each other's developments and discoveries.
Though this viev^ has often been challenged, the modern tradition,
It
dependent in large measure upon attitudes that emerged in the romantic age, often imagines that genius and inspiration somehow
overleap their cultural ancestry and surroundings. Erwin Panofsky,
in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, indicates with grace and
humanistic breadth the profound correlation between the development of Gothic architecture and the growth of scholastic philosophy. He suceeds, as perhaps few others have, in showing how architectural style and structure provided visible and tangible equivalents to the scholastic definitions of the order and form of thought.
Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism is therefore not only an important contribution to the history of
art,
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'Gothic

Architecture and Scholasticism

Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism

NEW YORK. LONDON AND SCARBOROUGH. ONTARIO

Copyright 1951, 1957 by Saint Vincent Archabbey

Library of Congress Catalog Card

MERIDIAN TRADEMARK REG.

AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

REGISTERED TRADEMARK MARCA REGISTRADA

The New American

1633 Broadway, New York, New York 10019,

Printing/New American Library, March, 1976

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Professor Erwin Panofsky's

study, Gothic Architec-

and Scholasticism, captured and holds an eminent

place in a series that

not without distinction, the

founder of the Benedictine Order in America, Boniface

the series has brought to St. Vincent

College such fine scholars as Jacques Maritain (Man's

Humanism"), Helen C. White ("Prayer

and Poetry"), and

surely have approved the

matter and the manner of this lecture. In a

written nearly a hundred years ago he said:

In a country like America

together to give our liturgy an outward splendor, great

and even grandeur.

have a solemn duty

Therefore the monas-

to foster art, especially religious

because our shop-

keepers and our farmers will never do that.

convinced that a monastic school which does not

be more readily condoned,

religion will be de-

neglect in the promotion of art must be censured.

Nine decades have not diminished

the force of these

and humane learning

the ideal and the despair

of so many. Since 1935 he has been associated with

the School of Humanistic Studies at

Advanced Study, Princeton,

Munich, Freiburg, and Ham-

An authority on iconology, medieval, renaissance,

and Dutch and Flemish book

he has been a lecturer or professor

analysis, stimulating, radiant,

presentation these are qualities

granted in a study by Professor

a source of satisfaction to see his provoc-

available to a wider public through

Meridian Books. Extremely heavy demands upon Professor Panofsky's time

ducing into the

have prevented him from

he would now consider

original form, quite willing to let

Tombstone of the Architect Hugues Libergier

Autun Cathedral, west

portal. Ca. 11 30.

Notre-Dame, central portal of the west fa9ade