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

like that of Wells go on having the horizontal division lines of the three tiers, breaking the vertical pull in this way. Especially in the light of later developments (eg the hall churches of the new preaching orders in other countries, particularly in Germany), it becomes more and more obvious that the English remained conservative in this respect: instead of attempting to achieve spatial unity they go on dividing the space and surfaces. (Vertically into arcades, triforium, clerestorey; horizontally into nave and aisles; longitudinally into bays, as well as, nave, choir and retrochoir.) In spite of the additive character of building and the insistence on divisions, some cathedrals (such as York, Lincoln, Lichfield) don't make the visitor feel uneasy about the lack of spatial unity, while in some other cathedrals, like Gloucester you feel as if you were passing from one church into a completely different one when you approach the choir or retrochoir from the nave. The patchwork or additive character must have been a national pecularity, because they followed it not only in places where surviving remains of former buildings hampered the design of the new construction, but this had been typical in Anglo-Saxon times and in some new foundations as well. (Pevsner: 121) The groundplan of Salisbury, which was built from scratch on a new site, is basically not much different from that of many other English cathedrals. Amiens and Lincoln might be good examples to show the differences in the English and French approaches to cathedral building. Many of the above mentioned differences are clearly shown by the groundplans. (Illustration from Cs. Tompos et al: 478, 554) The French preferred simple, but high vaulting. The English got more and more interested in decoration. The groundplan of Lincoln shows various solutions, even patterns that defy structural logic, like the 'crazy vault' of the choir. (Coldstream: 20) In England the structurally needed ribs were often completed by a central ridge-rib, from where additional ribs, also the so called tiercerons were started. The ridge-rib and the tiercerons were first introduced at Lincoln. The junctions were richly decorated bosses. 'The evident pleasure in surface ornament became a feature of English Gothic architecture and reached its first climax in the rebuilding of Lincoln cathedral (begun in 1192).' (Martindale: 32) Stained glass did not play as important a role in England as in France, at least the quality of Chartres and some other cathedrals was never reached in England during the Middle Ages. The best ones are said to be those of the Corona at Canterbury. Even the effect of applying stained glass was different in the two countries. French stained glass provided a mystic 54