Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Endre Abkarovits: Teaching the Englishness of English Gothic cathedral architecture

England. It is a unique experience to visit the loft area of Exeter cathedral, where this great length is even more obvious. While the French tried to have some unity of space from the beginning, almost all English cathedrals have a patchwork character, with the various parts of the church built in successive periods, often incorporating Norman remains and having substantial sections from the different periods of Gothic. (See Appendix) This may be due to historical circumstances, to the lack of enough money, but some authors also suppose that this is another feature of English architecture, namely that with their additive approach they rather joined one compartment to the other while the French preferred spatial concentration. (Pevsner: 119). But just the example of Exeter shows that, while the English went on building their cathedrals sometimes for centuries, they were also able to follow the original concept if they wanted to. At Exeter five successive bishops had the cathedral built in a consistent style between the 1270s and the 1370s. 'Thanks to them this church, which was not one of the richer cathedrals in the Middle Ages, was one of the most glorious.' (Edwards: 27) As to the number of aisles, England usually had two, while French cathedrals often had four. In general, England insisted on the basilica type also in later periods, avoided building hall churches, where the nave and the aisles are of equal height. (Except for Bristol.) In England the aisles are much lower than the nave, and behind their roof the triforium can be found. It is one of the usual three levels of the nave, although in some cases the number is reduced to two. The four-storey elevation, which can be seen in some French cathedrals, never became popular in England. (Martindale: 30) The most common order of the tiers is: arcades, triforium, clerestorey windows. It is the proportion of these levels to each other which is often decisive from the point of view of the aesthetic effect. Even a non-specialist may have the impression on entering a cathedral nave that something is wrong with the building, but perhaps he can't put his finger on it. I myself had had such impressions in certain cathedrals and these feelings were later justified when reading the analysis of a specialist about the proportions of the tiers. The use of a triforium instead of gallery had been general practice since Chartres in France, too, but the English tended to have small clerestory windows First, and they were very often deep ones, unlike those of most French cathedrals which had the glass on the inner plane of the wall. (Though there are exceptions in England as well, like the clerestory at York.) Another characteristic of English cathedrals regarding the tiers is the ongoing emphasis on the horizontally of these levels. While the French lead the shafts from the floor to the vaulting, even such well-proportioned naves 53