In addition to the extraordinary facility of design found in the Rayonnant, other factors
must be considered. The development of elaborate patterns of tracery ornament in the
later 1220s and 1230s is matched by a decrease in the size and scale of the buildings,
which serves to make the patterns visible, just as the broad double aisles and pyramidal
elevations of buildings like Paris and Bourges are abandoned in favor of simpler, more
concentrated plans that allow the outer windows to be brought closer to the central space.
The result is greater light on the interior from larger windows filled with more complex
tracery patterns. The period reveals an almost quantum leap forward in the handling of
design complexities, as well as in the carving of complex, multifaceted pieces that make
up the tracery puzzle. There is a marked preference for hard, fine-grained limestone that
lends itself to fine carving, and we can speculate that there must also have been an
explosive development in the production of tools capable of producing the detail
demanded. Lastly, there are the economic considerations.
Beginning in the mid-1220s, western Europe entered what is termed a “Little Ice
Age,” when temperatures yearround grew noticeably colder. Lower temperatures
wreaked havoc on agriculture, particularly in northern France, where wine production,
heretofore a major industry, practically disappeared. Only the cloth-producing towns in
the north escaped economic disaster. In this economic climate, it is important to note that,
for all of the complexity of tracery and richness of pattern, a building in the “Rayonnant”
style actually requires less stone for construction than an Early Gothic building. The
difference becomes clear, for example, if we compare a cross-section and elevation of the
nave of Saint-Denis with those of Laon. Although the height of Laon is about 80 percent
that of Saint-Denis, the nave of Saint-Denis required only about one-third the stone
needed to construct a comparable area at Laon. In addition, the Rayonnant structure
seems not only lighter and more open but achieves a greater sense of spatial mystery and
illusion.
The Rayonnant period also witnessed a shrinking in scale and complexity that not only
reflects the economic realities but serves to make the design itself more visible. And
some of the designs were becoming, if less complex, hardly less elegant. The church of
Saint-Martin-aux-Bois, for example, has a much simpler and more concentrated plan
without an elaborate chevet but uses tall, thin windows surrounded by large areas of
masonry. Still, through a skillful juxtaposition of height and narrowness, the builder
achieved an elegance of statement. The innumerable Franciscan and Dominican churches
of the later 13th and succeeding centuries will use these same principles of design. Their
compact preaching halls will eschew elaborate chevet plans in favor of simple apses and
will have tall, thin windows in large wall surfaces.
Another important aspect of the Rayonnant is the development of distinctive regional
styles, both as a reflection of the creative possibilites inherent in the tracery patterns and
as a return to structural systems typical of particular areas. It was common in Normandy,
for example, to find wall passages in front of the clerestory windows, as in the Norman
Gothic chevets at Bayeux and Coutances or in the church at Norrey. But wall passages in
front of clerestory windows were even more common in Norman Romanesque churches
from Cerisy-la-Forêt and Saint-Étienne at Caen, as well as in occasional Early Gothic
buildings like La Trinité at Fécamp. As was the case in other areas,
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