Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/109

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II
GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE
85

which together constitute the real structure of a French Gothic building, we may now pass to the development of the Gothic modes of enclosure. In early Gothic buildings massive walls filled the spaces between the piers much as they had done in Romanesque constructions. The openings remained small and were often even round arched, as at Senlis and Noyon. The nave of the Cathedral of Paris

FIG. 46.

affords a good illustration at once of the early forms of wall and opening, and of the changes that were quickly introduced as the Gothic idea began to take more distinct form in the minds of the builders. Of the two bays of the clerestory of that building shown in Fig. 46, [1] the one on the spectator's right retains its original form. It is the bay next the transept—the great pier, c, being one of the four piers of the crossing. In this bay the clerestory window is a simple

  1. This being a perspective view, looking upwards from the opposite triforium, all the forms appear a little foreshortened.