939 



NORMAN ARCHITECTURE. 



NORMAN ARCHITECTURE. 



970 



purpose might have been found in some of the intersecting patterns of 

 ornament which occur among the exterior enrichments of Norman 



YXBEEBBBB3BSI 



Window, Caston Church, 

 Northamptonshire. 



buildings. As a very peculiar and interesting specimen of Anglo- 

 Norman architecture, and for the purpose of showing how, by increas- 

 ing the number of openings and pillars, windows might have been 

 extended in this style, we here exhibit a sketch of an external staircase 

 leading to the registry at Canterbury. 





In this example there is somewhat to remind us of the open galleries 

 of the Italian Lombardic, especially of those upon sloping lines beneath 

 pediments, with this difference, that here the arches form a horizontal 

 line: We have here also an instance of what was by no means un- 

 common in small arches in this style when they are not pierced 

 through, which is, that the inner margin of the arches is formed by a 

 chevron moulding which scallops them. 



Pitr-Archa, that is, open arches resting upon piers, as those within 

 churches, do not materially differ in design from those which orna- 

 ment doorways, except that they are not so profusely decorated, and 

 the archivolt mouldings do not occupy by any means so much space in 

 proportion to the width of the opening. The arches themselves being 

 uniformly circular (though in some few cases either somewhat more 

 than a semicircle or prolonged perpendicularly to the impost), exhibit 

 so far no variety ; still as regards the entire aperture, of which the arch 

 itself forms the head, there is very great variety of character, accord- 

 ing to the proportion which the heights of the supporting piers bear to 

 the Diameter of the arch, or- opening between them. "About twice the 

 breadth appears to hare been the average height of arches (namely, 

 openings) between piers ; when much above that standard they may be 

 called lofty (as the arches of the nave at Durham) ; and when much 



beneath it, they may be considered of low proportions. Besides the 

 difference of character thus occasioned, much is also produced both by 

 the form and proportions of the piers themselves. A circular or octa- 

 f-,""l pier, for instance, appears much more massive than one 

 composed of clustered shafts, &c., though the general diameter of 

 the latter may be the same, or even somewhat more. Though we 

 cannot pursue this point any further, we would recommend those 

 who feel at all interested in the subject to make such comparisons 

 for themselves; and they will doubtless find that they will be led 

 on to make many others, and to enter into original investigations. 



Vaulting is an important and characteristic feature in Norman 

 architecture. In early buildings plain semi-cylindrical, or as it is 

 termed barrel or waggon vaulting occurs, as in the White Chapel of the 

 Tower of London. More common is the quadripartite or Roman vault- 

 ing, as in the Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. Groined vaulting is 

 usual in later examples. The crypt at Westminster Abbey, and the 

 cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester, and Gloucester, afford character- 

 istic specimens of Norman vaulting. Vaulted ceilings occur in 

 Norwich, Durham, Peterborough, and the choir of Canterbuiy 

 cathedrals. Over the vaulting of the aisles was in the large churches 

 a Triforium. [TiuFomuM.] 



Buttresses, to which buildings in Pointed Gothic are indebted for 

 so much of their character and effect, can hardly be said to exist in 

 Norman architecture. The enormous thickness of the walls and then- 

 solidity, owing to the smallness and infrequency of apertures in them, 

 rendered such additional support unnecessary, even when the vaulting 

 of the roof was large and bold. Hence nothing more than either 

 liuttrett, or pilaster strips (as they are conveniently termed by Mr. 

 Whewell), were introduced, and these more for the sake of producing 

 some variety and degree of expression than for actual strength, their 

 projection beyond the general plane of the wall being very inconsider- 

 able, and no more in fact than that of the corbelled parapet, or corbd- 

 tu/ile ; consequently buttress-strips do not so properly constitute pro- 

 jecting surfaces, as the intermediate spaces of wall form recessed 

 compartments, or large pannels. The parapet bself was seldom more 

 than a plain corbel-table, without battlement ; but sometimes, instead 

 of forming a horizontal line, the lower edge of the corbel was what 

 might be described as embattled-rccerted, that is, indented like a range 

 of battlements hanging downward, or else made wavy, or scalloped with 

 carves. 



fWW) 



But the more common mode was to make the lower edge of the 

 corbel table straight, with a series of corbel mouldings beneath it fre- 

 quently intersected by small blocks at intervals (after the manner of 

 inudillions), which were either left plain or sculptured with grotesque 

 heads and figures. Occasionally again the corbelling assumed the form 

 of a series of small interlacing arches. 



Pillars and Culumns, with which the massive circular arch-piers, or 

 piers with nook-shafts, are not to be confounded, exhibit great diversity 

 of character, both as to proportions and decoration, from the rudest 

 and plainest forms to either the lightest or the most enriched. Neither 

 are the two terms precisely synonymous, it being as well to observe 

 the distinction made between them by Whewell, and to restrict the 

 latter term to such pillars as approach to the general proportions and 

 character of classic columns. Pillars, on the contrary, have very great 

 variety of proportions, either much below or greatly above such standard, 

 being generally adapted to the load they have to sustain, without any 

 regard to classic or any other metrical proportional. The shafts are 

 for the most part plain, though instances occur of their being carved 

 (as was oftener than not the case with the columns of Lombardic 

 porches) ; and in the undercroft at Canterbury Cathedral there are 

 pillars whose shafts are fluted spirally. .Raised mouldings, intersecting 

 each other spirally so as to form a diamond-pattern on the surface, are 

 by no means uufrequent ; and some of the circular arch-piers in 



Durham cathedral are so ornamented : zigzng or chevron lines were 

 also employed for decorating the surfaces of piers and columns, and 



were disposed either anuularly, in horizontal rings, or spirally, 

 these and some other varieties specimens are here si, > B, 



Of 



