ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xvin] GERMAN ROMANESQUE 25Internally the German churches are plainand severe Severity ofbeyond almost any buildings of the time in other itoSSScountries. Cushion capitalsand plain impost mouldingsesquetake the place of carved capitals, and square piers ofor clustered columns. Themasonry that of cylindricalabsence of triforium also increases the bare effect of thewalls. No doubt in old days they were painted all over,and would then have had plenty of colour, but inpresent bald and bare condition theytheirteach the usefullesson that a building may be made impressive andarchitecturalwithout ornament.In the later German work carving comes to the aidof the designer. There are some very beautiful anddelicate imposts to the door of the 1 3th century church atANDERNACH (Fig, 7 3), richly carved Byzantinesque borders Carving ofsurround the doorway at BOPPART (Fig. 74),and a friezeof scroll-work runs along the walls over the nave arcadesof S. Andrew at Cologne, mingled with other carvingwhich approaches the standard of French work. It is acurious jumble of archaic and progressive art,in whichthe architecture remains stubbornly Romanesque, butadmits decorative features of the new style which hadbeen developed across the frontier in France, and inEngland.In the earlier churches the aisles were vaulted, but a Vaultingvault over the nave, though perhaps intended, was not buttressesachieved till a later date. They are all vaulted now, andit is remarkable that they stand perfectlywell withoutflying buttresses. The vault of the nave at Laach indeedis tied in with iron from side to side, but I have noticedno sign of weakness elsewhere. France when flyingbuttresses came into fashion ran riot, and could not maketoo much of them ;and Cologne Cathedral, imitating and