441 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



land [GARGOYLE], and were a part of the system now fully recognised 

 of making even the inferior accessory features ornamental. The 

 columns frequently consisted of a thick central pier surrounded by 

 slender detached shafts ; but clustered columns introduced during the 

 transition period became general. Capitals were generally bell-shaped ; 

 with a round or octagonal abacus. The foliage on capitals and else- 

 where was frequently a close imitation of local plants and flowers ; and 

 floral ornamentation became much more general. The mouldings are 

 in the earlier examples often Norman or transitional in character, in 

 the later Decorated ; but those distinctive of the style are round or 

 pointed, with very deep hollows and variously filleted. (See examples 

 in Paley's ' Gothic Mouldings.') String-courses and labels were much 

 more extensive and continuous than in the previous style. The mode 

 of wall ornament called diapering was now first employed. The 

 statuary and carving generally became much more artistic during the 

 continuance of this style; and indeed nothing can in its way well 

 exceed the richness and beauty of that of the east front of Ely, and 

 the west front of Wells, cathedrals. 



The use of groined vaults, pointed arched windows, and flying 

 buttresses permitted the construction of walls of a less massive 

 character than those of Norman date, and the carrying them up to a 

 greater height. Spires were likewise built of a much greater altitude, 

 and many of them are of an exceedingly elegant outline. Roofs were 

 generally acute in pitch ; and of open wood-work as wll as stone 

 vaulted. Parapets were generally plain. The characteristics of the 

 painted glass of the windows of this and the two succeeding styles 



e indicated elsewhere. [GLASS PAISTIXU.] 



Choir, Salisbury Cathedral. 



The most perfect English example of the First Pointed style is 

 Salisbury Cathedral, which was begun by Bishop Poore about 1219, and 

 finished about 1260 being therefore what is BO rarely seen, a cathedral 

 completed wholly in one style, and uniform in character throughout. 

 Lincoln Cathedral, though not throughout First Pointed, is a noble 

 example of the style. The nave and transept of Westminster Abbey 

 afford another important example, the more noteworthy because 

 possessing even more of the French than the English (First Pointed 

 character. Ely, Peterborough, Wells and Worcester, the ea.it end of 

 Winchester, the lady chapel Hereford, and York Minster, especially the 

 unrivalled five-sister lancet windows. Ripon and Beverley minster, and 

 the Temple church may be cited as among the important examples of 

 the. style ; but the lint might be greatly extended, especially by the 

 addition of numero\is parish churches. 



In France, characteristic examples are the cathedrals of Sens, 



iins, Notre Dame de Paris, St. Ddnis, Bayeux, Chartres 



(thy nave) ; the abbey of Fontenay ; the Stc. Chapelle at Paris ; the 



churches of Pontigny, Trdviere, Calvadoa, St. Germer, &c. Germany 



poMewea a very interesting and beautiful specimen of the same style 



and period in the church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, which is nearly 



contemporary with the cathedrals of Salisbury and Amiens, having 



nctcd between the years 1235 and 1283. It is fully de- 



by Mi'll'-r in his work on German-Gothic architecture, where 



it ia ill , eighteen plates; and an elevation of its west front 



piece to the translation of Holler's text by Mr. W. H. 



Thn cathedral of Magdeburg, another very fine example, 



shows more decidedly the influence of the French taste, an influence 

 which strongly affected the course of German-Gothic. The choir of 

 Cologne Cathedral (about 1270-1322) belongs to this style. Freyburg 

 (1283-1330) is an example of the tendency of German-Gothic towards 

 extravagance of ornamentation, with, in the open-work spire, &c., 

 excessive lightness. The nave of Strasburg cathedral, Altenburg, and 

 many other German churches, are of this period. 



The transition from the First Pointed, or Early English, to the 

 Second Pointed, or Decorated style, was made by almost imperceptible 

 steps. The dividing line is variously drawn between 1270 and 1307 : 

 as for ita termination, some one or other year somewhat anterior to 

 1379 is usually assigned : but as we have said, it is safer, and suffi- 

 ciently precise, to regard the Second Pointed as the style of the 

 14th century, remembering that towards the close of that century 

 some important buildings of unquestionably Third Pointed character 

 were erected. 



As compared with those of the First Pointed, the churches of this 

 period are distinguished by much greater richness of ornamentation, 

 but in its development English architects seem to have been restrained 

 by marked sobriety of taste as compared with those of France and 

 Germany. In England Gothic architecture must be regarded as having 

 reached ita most perfect form during this period : the succeeding 

 period was one of decline. In France and Germany there was already 

 some loss of purity, though the full flow of extravagance and debase- 

 ment did not occur till the next century. As in the previous style, the 

 windows and vaulting are the distinguishing features. There was little 

 difference in the arrangements of the buildings, except perhaps that 

 symbolism was more regarded. The vaulting is more subdivided into 

 cells than that of the previous period, by the addition of intermediate 

 ribs intersecting each other so as to produce a kind of tracery con- 

 sisting of stars and other figures whereby much variety and richness 

 are obtained. Richly carved bosses occur also at the intersections of 

 the ribs. Some of these groined roofs are very beautiful ; those of 

 choirs are generally more elaborate Chan those of naves. Of the open 

 wooden roofs of this period, not many examples remain. 



Of windows a no less instructive than beautiful transition illustration 

 is afforded by those of York Chapter-house, where we distinctly behold 

 the progress to more complex geometrical tracery. The arch of the 

 window is still of the lancet form, and highly pointed, being extra- 

 <ontri.il about two-thirds of its span; and the increased degree of 

 enrichment is produced, not by the introduction of new elements, but 

 by repeating and combining those previously in use. Thus the foliated 

 or cusped circle continued to be the chief member decorating the head 

 of the window, being merely tripled in number, an arrangement which 



From York Chapter-house. 



accords beautifully with the triangular outling of the space so occupied ; 

 at the same time that these circular divisions contrast agreeably with 

 the acute form of the arch, and soften its asperity. In like manner the 

 multiplied divisions in the lower part of the window are produced by 

 merely putting together two arched compartments with circles in their 

 heads, similar to the example already given from Westminster, with a 

 narrower one between them ; thus forming the whole lower space into 

 five narrow compartments, each of which has its own arch. In these 

 lesser arches, which are simply cusped, and so far differ from those in 

 the first example, we see the commencement of trefoil and cinquefoil 

 ones ; while in their shafts we plainly recognise mullions, which were 

 afterwards of general application, either of uniform dimensions, or, in 

 larger windows, consisting of principal and secondary ones. When the 

 arch became equilateral, or nearly so, the tracery also assumed a 

 different character, becoming of that kind which is called geometrical, 

 and consisting of more varied forms and patterns, produced by circles, 

 portions of circles, and other curves, enriched with cusps, dividing the 

 spaces into foils. Of such windows we give examples from one at 

 Exeter, and another at Kirton Church, Lincolnshire. This distinction 

 between tracery by geometrical figures (circles, triangles, &c.) as shown 

 in the first of these examples, and that formed by flowing curves as in 

 the second, is observed throughout the window tracery of the earlier 

 and later parts of the Second Pointed style : hence it has been proposed 

 to subdivide it into the Geometrical and Curvilinear, or Geometrical and 



