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The Gothic plan, in which practically the only solids are the piers and buttresses, clearly expresses the skeleton character of the architecture. Even in paper drawings the story of bal

ILL. 244.Soissons. Plan. (From Dehio)

anced thrusts is told as distinctly and logically as in the superstructure of the building itself (Ill. 241, 243, 244, 245, 248, 249, 250, 251). Although the plan of each cathedral shows much

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individuality and many peculiar and original features due to the esthetic preferences of the master builders who designed it, a certain general progress and development may still be traced. Laon (Ill. 248) is to-day remarkable for its square east end, a disposition common enough in parish churches, but unique among the great French cathedrals, although this monument originally terminated in a chevet. Five aisles and a chevet without radiating chapels characterize the plan of Paris (Ill. 241). The plan of Bourges (Ill. 243) is similar to that of Paris, but the transepts are omitted. At Chartres (Ill. 249) the typical plan of the Gothic cathedral was first evolved, the plan that was destined to be still further developed at Reims (Ill. 251), and carried to perfection at Amiens (Ill. 250), where the proportion of solids to voids was reduced to its minimum. The many further variations subsequently wrought are of minor importance; the Gothic plan had been perfected.

A remarkable characteristic of Gothic planning is the freedom with which the builders placed a column or a corner on axis when convenience or necessity required. Modern taste, educated on works of the Renaissance, is apt to be shocked at this violation of the laws of the Medes, Persians, and Vignola. It must be admitted, however, that the Gothic architects violated convention with such restraint and delicacy that criticism is disarmed. Even the most confirmed classicist can hardly pretend to be offended by such designs as the piers on axis at Deuil (Seine-et-Oise) or at Jouy-le-Comte, or with the corners on axis in the triangular transept of St.-Jean-du-Corail or in the apses of Chennevières and St.-Eloi-de-Gy (Cher). In fact, probably not one person in a hundred, unless their attention were specially called to it, would even ever suspect that established usage had been violated in these cases.

In nothing did the Gothic builders achieve greater success than in the composition of the façade, and this success is so much the more noteworthy because the problem which here confronted them, as has been remarked, was one of extreme difficulty. The first of the great Gothic façades in point of dignity is undoubtedly that of Paris (Ill. 223), - a design of which no words can express the exalted beauty. Grandeur

of composition, nobility of silhouette, perfection of proportion, wealth of detail, infinitely varied play of light and shade combine to raise this composition, so majestic, so serene, to the place it has ever occupied in the heart of every one endowed with the slightest feeling for the beautiful.

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Although lacking the exuberant richness of Amiens or Reims, the west front of Paris still unites all the elements that characterize the façades of the XIII century. The division into three parts by buttresses rising clear, sharp, incisive from the ground to the topmost summit of the towers, gives strongly marked vertical lines which add infinite strength and vigor to the composition;

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