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

precious metals. It is mainly window traceries and vaulting patterns that can give us some idea of the overwhelming interest in ornamentation, which had been typical of the English, to varying degrees, also in earlier periods. The birth of the Decorated style can be identified with Henry Ill's decision to choose Westminster Abbey, out of his devotion to Edward the Confessor, as the royal church of England. He had the church of Edward demolished, which was similar in groundplan, just with shorter transepts and had a central tower according to the Bayeux tapestry, and started to build a more beautiful one. But when the king died, only the sanctuary, the transepts, and the choir were completed. (Fox: 8) Westminster was to merge the functions of three main royal churches of France: Reims (coronation church), St Denis (burial place of the French kings) and Sainte-chapelle (the chapel of the royal court with the most important relics). The ornate quality of Westminster, especially inside, even today, when it has been deprived of most of its earlier decoration, is apparent and was due to the influence of the newly built Saint-chapelle in Paris, which had been constructed to house the relics of the Crown of Thorns and part of the True Cross, giving the impression of a metal reliquary turned inwards. (Coldstream: 12) Westminster is rather un-English when we consider its height, rose windows, polygonally apsed east end, etc. On the other hand, it shows several English characteristics (deep gallery, ridge rib, great width, etc), and just in the field of window tracery it had an important effect on the development of English architecture, as in the 1240s English cathedrals still had plain lancets, while French great churches had already been embellished with huge windows with bar tracery. 'The true significance of Westminster lies in its decoration, the ornament and the tracery.' (Coldstream: 25) However, royal Westminster was not followed by other English cathedrals, perhaps except for the windows. (Martindale: 101) (Besides other factors its costliness may also have played a part in this. No other patron could afford to spend that much money on a church.) Wells and Lincoln set the examples for the others. All English cathedrals insisted on having relatively thick walls and as a result, they did not need the huge flying butresses of the French. Even if they used them, they tried to hide them under the roof of the triforium or otherwise. The French, on the other hand, enjoyed displaying them. (Eg Notre Dame, Paris) Two new cathedral works were begun in the 1250s: the Angels' Choir at Lincoln (consecrated in 1280) and Old St Paul's. The latter was the biggest cathedral of the time, built mainly under the influence of the Notre Dame, Paris, but also showing typical English features like the rectangular ending and the usual English elevation. It exerted the strongest influence on future 58