THE LATE GOTHIC STYLE IN GERMANY
the tabernacle and the Annunciation were commissioned. The dis-
crepancy between interiors of undulating flow, in which the in-
dividual may lose himself as between the trees of a forest, and
exteriors of powerful solidity with unbroken walls and two rows
of windows, heralds the mood of the German Reformation, torn
between mystical introspection and a hearty new thrust into this
world. Moreover, the new rooms of German Late Gothic had a
practical advantage—the same as the aisleless halls of the Italian friars:
they were evidently much better suited for listening to long sermons
than the old interiors with parallel and separated avenues.
However, practical considerations alone did not create the new
style, nor can it be said that the spirit of the coming Reformation
alone created it. For it is just as noticeable in Spain as in Germany.
In Spanish architecture of the isth century there was a good deal of
German influence. Masters from Cologne and Nuremberg were
called to Burgos and established such German motifs as star-vaults
and net-vaults. But these masons and stone-carvers from the North
would hardly have been so successful if there had not been an in-
digenous Spanish trend towards the new Late Gothic expression.
The star-vaults seemed no more than a variation of the theme of the
Mohammedan dome with its flying ribs forming stars of many kinds.
The conciseness of the classic French cross-vaults and indeed classic
French ideals altogether had not appealed to Spaniards. As in Ger-
many, imitation of French Gothic is rare, and as in Germany there
are wide aisles, although they are lower than the nave (that is
basilican), and side chapels between the buttresses so that die ex-
teriors seem flat and less articulated than those of the isth century
—again two clear proofs of the tendency towards one unified room
(fig. 36).
This tendency is nowhere more obvious than in Catalonia, not
until 1479 united with Central and Northern Spain. The typical
Catalan plan of the I4th and I5th centuries—closely connected with
Southern French plans such as that of Albi—is a wide aisleless or aisled
hall with side chapels between the buttresses and a very wide shallow
apse. The exteriors are bare as in Germany, the interiors spacious
and plain, the right kind to hold the large congregations of the pros-
perous trading towns of the Catalan coast. Again this practical advan-
tage may have had something to do with the plan chosen. But it is
hardly enough to explain the interesting case of Gerona Cathedral,
which had been begun in the French way with a choir, ambulatory
EJL—6 63