not yet definitively assured; wars were incessant, and existence was still very precarious. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the country underwent long and painful trials; but the nature of warfare had completely changed. The intestine struggles of province against province, fief against fief, and of cities or communes against the local sovereign had gradually ceased; in the presence of a common enemy — the invaders who carried ravage, spoliation and violence everywhere — social prejudices and race antagonisms had been forced into the background. Before the mighty danger with which all were threatened, before the sufferings which fell indiscriminately upon all, it was necessary that harmony should be secured.
“The last half of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth were occupied in the wars against the English, the great national wars of France. This was the period of the struggle for the independence of the territory and the French name against foreign domination.... Even if there had been
only the story of Joan of Arc, that would have furnished sufficient proof of the popular character of the event. Joan of Arc sprang from the people; it was the sentiments, the beliefs and the passions of the people that inspired and sustained her. She was always regarded with distrust, scorn and even hatred by the court and by the leaders of the army; the soldiers and the people were always on her side. It was the peasants of Lorraine who sent her to succor the bourgeois of Orleans. No circumstance indicates more clearly the popular character of this war and the feeling which the entire country brought to it.
“ It was thus that the foundations of French nationality were laid. Down to the reign of the Valois monarchs the feudal character was predominant in France; the French nation, the French spirit and French patriotism did not as yet exist. With the Valois rulers, France, properly so-called, came into being; it was in the course of their wars and amid the hazards of their fortunes that the nobility, the bourgeois and the peasants were for the first time united by a moral bond, by the bond of a common name, a common honor and a common desire to vanquish the foreigner. ” 1
[To be continued. ]
THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.
THE SECOND COMPETITION.
With his design Mr. William Halsey Wood furnished the following description: —
In presenting the accompanying studies for the projected Cathedral of St. John the Divine, to be erected in the city of New York, it may not seem amiss if I touch upon certain considerations which have prevailed with me in the conception and development, thus far,
of the commanding subject which, by the favor of the Building- Committee, I am invited to consider.
1. The inception is unique: — to provide a Cathedral for the Metropolitan City and Diocese of the United States — a city at no distant date to rank or out-rank in population, material resources, social and political consequences the great cities of the old world — which shall impressively represent the faith and spirit of Anglo-Catholic Christianity, not only in its historic and æsthetic relations with the past, but in the greatness of its hopes and possibilities for the present and future, here in this new world.
2. The site is a bold, commanding elevation, overlooking an uninterrupted area of city, park, and outlying landscape, bounded by Long Island on the east, and the Palisades on the west.
The coming cathedral must rest on this most imposing coign of vantage, possibly, on Manhattan Island. Its distinction, therefore, is intensely localized, and must have perpetual significance for the multiplied millions of the coming ages.
It cannot be ignored; it should not be over-topped, nor obscured by any concievable structure. Its identity must be secure. In illustration of this vital point, let me remind you that twenty years ago the great spire of Trinity Church was the sole dominant feature of lower New York. It was a landmark for the great outlying harbor. It was read and known of all men. Now it is almost extinguished by the vast structures which the skill of the modern builder has lifted high in the air, in all directions round about it. The stranger approaching the city must now hunt up and identify Trinity spire, which has lost its structural significance and commanding importance.
The conviction was irresistible, therefore, that the new conditions of construction in secular and civil architecture compelled a correlative development along ecclesiologic and ecclesiastical lines. The new and difficult element I recognize is one of altitude. Under the crush of population and rapidly enhancing value of land, construction is driven upward with an irresistible impulse, and with a growing force and daring.
3. Again, the site is the curved summit of a rock-ledge looking abruptly down into the lap of Harlem plain, while sloping gracefully in other directions. The compelling corollary follows that the Cathedral must be firmly and securely anchored on this rock; and that its solidity and integrity of construction should be, even as an outgrowth of its granite foundation of mother rock: and that its prevailing contour and outlines should involve the idea of pyramidical solidity and permanency.
4. While the landscape, the magnitude of the metropolis, and the very rocky nature of the site itself were big with suggestions, in the evolution of style or manner, other elements were at work.
There should be a great cathedral, so fashioned that its individuality and distinction should continue uninterrupted as a mountain eminence. The spire alone, as a characteristic feature, seemed too feeble and too easily merged, among challenging and competing masses of upraised structures that menace. And yet the spire is the accepted symbol of spiritual aspiration the world over. The question of style then became pressing and dominant.
It cannot ignore modern problems and growth in the designers’ and builders’ art. It cannot break with the past, any more than the culture and teaching of the Church itself. Plainly here was room for no generically new thing or thought. Something that should bind past and present in one, that should incorporate the ethnic types of civilization, the pyramid of Egypt, the circle that girdles the landscape, the square of the ancient Temple, the oblong of the Basilica, the Cross of Basilica Church and Cathedral, even the dome itself — type of over-reaching heavens — why should not each and all of these ancient, historic types meet in a spirit of devout eclecticism in the general expression and final elaboration of the coming cathedral?
Here became conceivable a mass with an indestructible identity and distinction, quickened with each and all of the great structural energies in turn, all brought together, at one, in a Gothic relationship — a style which enters iuto the spiritual and ecclesiastical heredity of all English-derived Churchmanship.
The early Gothic, then, most catholic and comprehensive of its stages, should be chosen as the medium of this eclectic impression. Its simplicity, its friendliness to the Roman arch, its inexhaustible capacity for enrichment, as well as its breadth and largeness of effect, and its special adaptation to granite as the material pointed out by the very logic of the site, together with a confidence of its adaptibility for the geometric evolution of a true Gothic dome as the crowning central theme of the pile; all these and other lesser considerations determined the style of expression.
In the general outlines of the study submitted, will be observed, then, the prevalence of the pyramidical lines, from the apex of the central tower — dome — spire to each descending angle incident of the structure. This impression is accentuated by two lesser towers flanking the two spires, the uses of which are to be mentioned. A reference to the ground-plan points out the concurrence of the Square, the Circle and the Cross, in the general outline of the plan.
The central mass is raised to a great height, is monumental in suggestion, and with such symmetrical lines and well-defined stages that, under no conjunction of conceivable conditions can it be ignored, or its distinction jeopardized. Its solid stateliness culminates in a distinctly Gothic dome which harmonizes with the lines and motives of the general plan, while securing the dignity and importance of the general mass. It will be seen that the two spires
“The last half of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth were occupied in the wars against the English, the great national wars of France. This was the period of the struggle for the independence of the territory and the French name against foreign domination.... Even if there had been
only the story of Joan of Arc, that would have furnished sufficient proof of the popular character of the event. Joan of Arc sprang from the people; it was the sentiments, the beliefs and the passions of the people that inspired and sustained her. She was always regarded with distrust, scorn and even hatred by the court and by the leaders of the army; the soldiers and the people were always on her side. It was the peasants of Lorraine who sent her to succor the bourgeois of Orleans. No circumstance indicates more clearly the popular character of this war and the feeling which the entire country brought to it.
“ It was thus that the foundations of French nationality were laid. Down to the reign of the Valois monarchs the feudal character was predominant in France; the French nation, the French spirit and French patriotism did not as yet exist. With the Valois rulers, France, properly so-called, came into being; it was in the course of their wars and amid the hazards of their fortunes that the nobility, the bourgeois and the peasants were for the first time united by a moral bond, by the bond of a common name, a common honor and a common desire to vanquish the foreigner. ” 1
[To be continued. ]
THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.
THE SECOND COMPETITION.
With his design Mr. William Halsey Wood furnished the following description: —
In presenting the accompanying studies for the projected Cathedral of St. John the Divine, to be erected in the city of New York, it may not seem amiss if I touch upon certain considerations which have prevailed with me in the conception and development, thus far,
of the commanding subject which, by the favor of the Building- Committee, I am invited to consider.
1. The inception is unique: — to provide a Cathedral for the Metropolitan City and Diocese of the United States — a city at no distant date to rank or out-rank in population, material resources, social and political consequences the great cities of the old world — which shall impressively represent the faith and spirit of Anglo-Catholic Christianity, not only in its historic and æsthetic relations with the past, but in the greatness of its hopes and possibilities for the present and future, here in this new world.
2. The site is a bold, commanding elevation, overlooking an uninterrupted area of city, park, and outlying landscape, bounded by Long Island on the east, and the Palisades on the west.
The coming cathedral must rest on this most imposing coign of vantage, possibly, on Manhattan Island. Its distinction, therefore, is intensely localized, and must have perpetual significance for the multiplied millions of the coming ages.
It cannot be ignored; it should not be over-topped, nor obscured by any concievable structure. Its identity must be secure. In illustration of this vital point, let me remind you that twenty years ago the great spire of Trinity Church was the sole dominant feature of lower New York. It was a landmark for the great outlying harbor. It was read and known of all men. Now it is almost extinguished by the vast structures which the skill of the modern builder has lifted high in the air, in all directions round about it. The stranger approaching the city must now hunt up and identify Trinity spire, which has lost its structural significance and commanding importance.
The conviction was irresistible, therefore, that the new conditions of construction in secular and civil architecture compelled a correlative development along ecclesiologic and ecclesiastical lines. The new and difficult element I recognize is one of altitude. Under the crush of population and rapidly enhancing value of land, construction is driven upward with an irresistible impulse, and with a growing force and daring.
3. Again, the site is the curved summit of a rock-ledge looking abruptly down into the lap of Harlem plain, while sloping gracefully in other directions. The compelling corollary follows that the Cathedral must be firmly and securely anchored on this rock; and that its solidity and integrity of construction should be, even as an outgrowth of its granite foundation of mother rock: and that its prevailing contour and outlines should involve the idea of pyramidical solidity and permanency.
4. While the landscape, the magnitude of the metropolis, and the very rocky nature of the site itself were big with suggestions, in the evolution of style or manner, other elements were at work.
There should be a great cathedral, so fashioned that its individuality and distinction should continue uninterrupted as a mountain eminence. The spire alone, as a characteristic feature, seemed too feeble and too easily merged, among challenging and competing masses of upraised structures that menace. And yet the spire is the accepted symbol of spiritual aspiration the world over. The question of style then became pressing and dominant.
It cannot ignore modern problems and growth in the designers’ and builders’ art. It cannot break with the past, any more than the culture and teaching of the Church itself. Plainly here was room for no generically new thing or thought. Something that should bind past and present in one, that should incorporate the ethnic types of civilization, the pyramid of Egypt, the circle that girdles the landscape, the square of the ancient Temple, the oblong of the Basilica, the Cross of Basilica Church and Cathedral, even the dome itself — type of over-reaching heavens — why should not each and all of these ancient, historic types meet in a spirit of devout eclecticism in the general expression and final elaboration of the coming cathedral?
Here became conceivable a mass with an indestructible identity and distinction, quickened with each and all of the great structural energies in turn, all brought together, at one, in a Gothic relationship — a style which enters iuto the spiritual and ecclesiastical heredity of all English-derived Churchmanship.
The early Gothic, then, most catholic and comprehensive of its stages, should be chosen as the medium of this eclectic impression. Its simplicity, its friendliness to the Roman arch, its inexhaustible capacity for enrichment, as well as its breadth and largeness of effect, and its special adaptation to granite as the material pointed out by the very logic of the site, together with a confidence of its adaptibility for the geometric evolution of a true Gothic dome as the crowning central theme of the pile; all these and other lesser considerations determined the style of expression.
In the general outlines of the study submitted, will be observed, then, the prevalence of the pyramidical lines, from the apex of the central tower — dome — spire to each descending angle incident of the structure. This impression is accentuated by two lesser towers flanking the two spires, the uses of which are to be mentioned. A reference to the ground-plan points out the concurrence of the Square, the Circle and the Cross, in the general outline of the plan.
The central mass is raised to a great height, is monumental in suggestion, and with such symmetrical lines and well-defined stages that, under no conjunction of conceivable conditions can it be ignored, or its distinction jeopardized. Its solid stateliness culminates in a distinctly Gothic dome which harmonizes with the lines and motives of the general plan, while securing the dignity and importance of the general mass. It will be seen that the two spires