doorways of England, Normandy, Lombardy, or Provence. The survival of classic tradition in Berry, as throughout the south of France, led to a certain awkwardness in the proportions of capitals and columns.

The façades of Berry were usually characterized by a Greek cross, placed in the gable, and by the peculiar portals which were often flanked by two blind arches, the whole being built out into a sort of edicule submerging the buttresses. Towers were for the most part without character or interest, and form a sorry contrast to those of Normandy or of the Ile de France. About the middle of the XII century they came to be placed at the west end, instead of over the crossing. Rib vaults were unknown until the middle of the XII century, when they were introduced from the Ile de France at Angy-sur-l'Aubois. Square east ends were never built before the XIII century.

Before the year 1100, the school of the royal domain remained far weaker than even its modest neighbor of Berry. The direct heir of Carolingian tradition, it seems to have preserved unaltered during the first half of the XI century the Carolingian forms in all their crudity. Four monuments have come down to us that may be ascribed to this epoch;1 they are all characterized by the use of rectangular piers and archivolts of a single order, and are constructed of rubble or herring-bone masonry with a minimum of ornament. Vaults were used only in the half-dome of the apse. In a word, the whole structure shows but the slightest advance over such a monument as the Basse Oeuvre. It is interesting that one of these monuments of the first half of the XI century - the chapel at Filain has a square east end. About the middle of the XI century, certain innovations were introduced. The archivolts were built in two orders (Ill. 155, 156) instead of in one, and to support this second order a colonnette was engaged at either end of the pier (Ill. 155, 156). This arrangement which became very typical of the Ile de France persisted into the XII 1 Filain (Aisne), St.-Remi-l'Abbaye (Oise), Sarron (Oise), and Rue-St.-Pierre (Oise). * The prevailing opinion that the size of the windows is a sure test of the age of a Romanesque structure is erroneous. The size of the windows seems to have been purely arbitrary.

century. The barrel vault1 also appeared in the second half of the XI century, being employed over the choir and crossing, and even over the transepts, although at this period the nave was never vaulted. About the same time the groin vault came into use (Ill. 155). Employed timidly at first, and only in the side aisles (as at Rhuis, c. 1050), by the end of the century it had been used at Trouquoy to vault even the great choir. In the side aisles it was regularly constructed with transverse ribs (Ill. 155). The plan in general preserved throughout the XI century its Carolingian characteristics transeptal absidioles, and a choir lengthened at most one bay.

About the year 1075 shafts engaged on the faces of the piers appeared in the Ile de France (Ill. 156). These shafts were probably borrowed from Normandy, although the French builders of this time were undoubtedly acquainted with the architectural achievements of Lombardy. We have seen that the Norman builders borrowed the engaged shaft together with the alternate system from Lombardy, but rejected the transverse arch. At the Abbaye-aux-Dames they had applied the engaged shaft to a uniform system. Now the fact that in the Ile de France the engaged shaft was always employed in connection with a uniform system (the alternate system never occurs in the royal domain at the period *) seems to prove that this feature was derived from Normandy rather than from Lombardy direct. Although engaged shafts were never as universally adopted in the Ile de France as in Normandy - the old flat type of pier persisted in perhaps the majority of buildings (Ill. 157) - yet the use of shafts was frequent, and examples may be found at Morienval (Ill. 156), St.-Thibaud-de-Bazoches, Berny, Rivière, etc. Most singular of all, in certain monuments (Berny, Rivière, and St.-Léger-aux-Bois) analogous shafts are engaged on the aisle side of the piers. This curious construc

1 e. g. at Rhuis, Montlevon, etc.

2 How extended was Lombard influence is proved by the fact that at a later period the Ile de France borrowed these transverse arches besides many other motives from Lombardy. Such transverse arches are found at Béthisy-St.-Martin, Trucy, Vailly, and Cerny-en-Laonnais. Examples are also found at Lavardin (Loire-et-Cher) dating from the XI century.

3 The earliest example of the alternate system in the Ile de France occurs at Melun

с. 1100.

1

ILL. 157.

Section of Nave, Rhuis. (Redrawn from Lefèvre-Pontalis)

tion is also Norman, and occurs at Notre Dame-sur-l'Eau of Domfront.1

But little ornament was employed, generally speaking, in the French Romanesque monuments of the XI century (Ill. 157). Most interesting, however, is the use of griffes (Ill. 155) which must have been derived from Lombardy. Chevrons and dogtooths do not occur in the XI century. The capitals have usually a great volute under each angle of the abacus (Ill. 155); the bases have an attic profile. The roped moulding is common. Arched corbel-tables usually have a triangular form peculiar to this region - a good example of this ornament may be found at St. Baudry, Aisne. Arcades are used especially towards the end of the century. The single ornamental innovation introduced in this period was the plated ribbon moulding whose character is clear from the reproduction (Ill. 197). This motive, peculiar to the Ile de France, assumed great prominence in the XII century.

ROMANESQUE MONUMENTS OF THE ILE DE FRANCE

MONUMENTS OF THE FIRST CLASS

MORIENVAL, Oise. Abbaye Notre Dame. (Ill. 155, 156, 164, 186.) This monument offers the best extant example of two crucial periods in the history of architecture - the Romanesque of the XI century and the first phase of the transition. The Romanesque church, as restored by M. Lefèvre-Pontalis, consisted of a nave three bays long; of two side aisles returned across the western front so as to form an interior narthex, over the central bay of which rose a western tower; of transepts with eastern absidioles; and of a choir, a single bay long, ending in a semicircular apse and flanked by two towers, whose lower stories formed a lateral chamber opening off the transepts. The piers separating the aisles were square with four engaged shafts, one on each face: the shafts facing the nave were continued as a system to the roof, although the main body of the church was not vaulted, but covered with timber; those at the ends of the piers supported the second order of the archivolts; those towards the side aisles, the transverse ribs of the groin vaults with which these aisles were covered. The transepts had a timber roof, as did the crossing; the choir was covered with a round barrel vault, and the apse with a half-dome.

1 M. Lefèvre-Pontalis finds no indications that the Romanesque monuments of the Ile de France were affected by foreign influence. - Architecture religieuse dans l'ancien diocèse de Soissons, passim.