GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE. 



GOTHIC AECHTTECTUBE 



Beauchamp chapel, Warwick. The open wooden roof* of this period 

 are al*i characteristic, and sometime* extremely fine : that of 

 Wo-niiiiwUT Hall is one of the m.wt ntriking. Brandon's <>] n 

 Timber Hoofa of the Middle Age*,' 4to, 1849, supplies ample jar- 

 ticuUn and illustrations of them. Usually the roofs of this period are 

 of much lower pitch than thie of tin- preceding styles. The external 

 roofs of Henry t ; ml King's College chapels, for example. 



Henry VII. 's Chapel, WnuuiiMt-r. 



are BO low in pitch as not to be visible from the ground, being con- 

 cealed by the elaborate pierced parapets which crown the walls. 

 Theee pierced parapets form a noticeable feature of the buildings of 

 this period, and often afford very graceful terminations to the struc- 

 ture ; but embattled parapets are also common. 



A characteristic feature of this style is the panelling, or panel-work 

 tracery, formed like that] of the windows by mullious and transoms, 

 with which both the internal and external walls are sometimes almost 

 entirely covered. Henry VIl.'s chapel, Westminster, affords a good 

 example of perpendicular panelling. Stone porches are now nume- 

 rous ; they are often of large size, much enriched with panelling, and 

 canopied niches for statuary, and have handsome groined roofs ; the 

 south-west, porch of Canterbury cathedral The south porches of 

 Gloucester cathedral)'; St^Nicholas chapel, Lynn ; Northleach church, 

 (Jloucestershire; Addlethorpe church, Lincolnshire ; Burford church, 

 Oxfordshire ; and Oundle, Northamptonshire, are rich and elegant 

 examples. The church towers during this period are important and 

 characteristic. They are frequently very lofty and much enriched with 

 1 -aiieUing. Perhaps the finest is that of Gloucester cathedral, erected 

 about 14 15 ; it rises to a height of upwards of 200 feet in two stories, 

 has its surface covered with panelling, and is crowned with four 

 pinnacles at the angles, of extremely light and elegant design. Two 

 celebrated towers of this date were those of Doucaster church, now 

 replaced by a recently erected one of a different character, and of St. 

 Mary's, Tamtam, now in course of restoration. Several other west 

 country towers, as St. Stephen's, Bristol ; ( 'ii . -n- .--tcr, Glastonbury, Ac. 

 arc fine examples of the style. One of the best towers of late date is that 

 of Magdalen College, Oxford. The towers are not usually surmounted 

 with spires, but there are many spires of this date, and some are of a 

 very elaborate and ornamental character; that of St. Nicholas, New- 

 castle, is a well-known instance. The buttresses, both of the ordinary 

 kind and flying buttresses, are often of remarkable projection and 

 highly enriched : some illustrations of them' are given under BUTTRESS, 



In the later examples of the Third Pointed, there is a great excess 



of ornament, and a constantly increasing deterioration of taste. But 



so long an the Gothic spirit was retained, in fact till that debased style 



commonly known as the Tudor wa thoroughly established, the 



English Third Pointed buildings were vastly superior to the con- 



laneuus Gothic edifice* of tl,.-<.-..ntiiieiit. As Mr. Wilhs observes 



.ulniiniUu ' liciuarkH on the Architecture of the Middle Ages,' 



'i-licular is our own, ami heartily may we congratulate 



ourselves upon it, when we compare it with its sister styles of France 



and Germany." 



During its later stages the Third Pointed architecture was greatly 

 more extended, both in its uses and modifications, than the two 

 previous styles, having been applied to domestic as weh 1 as cedes! 



astical architecture; whereas we are acquainted with the preceding 

 styles only as it was employed in religious buildings ; for castellated 

 ones of the same periods have so little in common with the former, and 

 so very few features wherein the general style at all exhibits itself, that 

 they must be considered as funning a distinct class by themselves. In 

 the ornamented domestic architecture of the 15th and early part of the 

 Itith centuries, we plainly ]>crceive the same style as that of ecclesi- 

 astical buildings, applied to another class, where, although the parts are 

 on a smaller scale and somewhat diffen-mly com|weed, the si 

 detail and ornament is essentially the same. Whiln some features, 

 such as doors and porches, are very little altered from those of churches, 

 others unknown to the latter class of buildings, such as bay-wit 

 and oriels, chimneys, &c., become highly char 



in this. But this domestic architecture only became fully developed 

 as the ecclesiastical was decaying, and ' n of s 



Tudor Architecture. In the reign of Henry Vlll. a i l;u<-i.- bias began 

 to gain ground in England, ;i 



the continent; and before it tin (."'hi.- .-['it-it poled, an- 1 eventually 

 disappeared. At first a few, then gradually more and more, of ini 

 classic details were mingled with the native forms, until at List resulted 

 that style which in its essence corresponded to \\h it on (i;-- continent 

 was known as the I 



made to build in the 1'ointed style as late as the 1 7tli century , lint tlu-y 

 only served to show how entirely the feeling for what was char.n '. 

 of it had departed. 



Besides the buildings already referred to, the following may Iw 

 named as illustrative of the art of tli Win- -hcst- 



and New College, Oxford, the work of William of \\ 'ykchani ; th 

 ofliipon catlr -ter cathedral, and part - 



Worcester, Wells, and Oxford cathedrals ; the I livinity Schools, and 

 several -if the colleges, of Oxford and Cambridge ; St. (le'.ige's , 

 r; Eton College chap- 1 : ,md Kedchffe (Bristol), Bci 

 Kotherham, Taunton, C'irenc- -tcr, Stratford-upon-Avon, and a vast 

 number of other parish chun-i 



The style Ogival Tertlaiie of France is characterised even moi 

 the English Third Pointed by excess of llorid ornamentation, which 

 went on increasing tiU the abandonment of the style for the Renaissance, 

 in the Itith century. It differs in not being characterised by the same 

 tendency to rectilineal lines ; though towards the close of the 1 .'-th 

 century, panelling, similar in character to the English, was often, 

 though less profusely, employed. The characteristic window : 

 is of the lambent flame-like kind from which the style has received it- 

 popular title the Flamboyant. The roof vaulting is ramified ; i- 

 examples the depressed arch is frequent in doorways. Towci 

 open spires, often of a degree of lightness quite astonishing in 

 work, are seen in churches of a superior class, as at Amiens. The 

 outline and surface ore cut up by a crowd of carved foliage, and all 

 kinds of petty ornamentation ; but the carving, looked at alone, is often 

 admirably executed. Altogether the buildings show a marked loss of 

 grandeur and purity ; but many of them ore triumphs of const i 

 ingenuity. Their builders sought to excite the astonishment of the 

 spectators, and they succeeded. Very fine examples of this stylo are 

 the churches of St Nisier at Lyon, Pont I'Evequc, CaudeUv, Louvois, 

 the cathedral of St. Brieux, &c. 



The German architects of the 15th century ran into mill greater 

 extravagances than the French; but for notices of the later develop- 

 ments of German Gothic, as well as for that of the Netherlands 

 and Italy (a subject that has lately excited a good deal of attention), 

 we must refer to the works cited below. Here we shall merely odd, by 

 way of conclusion, a brief summary of a few of the more prominent 

 distinctions between Grecian and Gothic architecture, as regards the 

 application of their respective elements. (Iririan : Columns and their 

 entablature ore the chief sources of decoration, and limit the height of 

 the building, as a second order cannot with propriety be placed above 

 another, liulhic: Columns subordinate members; never used - 

 to support arches, and in the Utter styles are mere ornamental shafts 

 attached to piers, lincian : Colonnades seldom employed except 

 nally. liiilltic : Ranges of open arches applied only internally ; there 



< 'thing analogous to a Grecian portico, since porches hare i 

 an open arch in front, and when projecting from the building are closed 

 at the sides. Externally, open arcades are introduced only as upper 

 gall-Ties, and those are of very rare occurrence ; or, as a cloister, not 

 projecting from but within the lower part of the building. (// 

 Lofty proportions unattainable even in the largest edifices, because the 

 greater the number of columns the lower will the building appear in 

 comparison with its length or breadth. diilhie: No restraint OH to 

 loftiness, that not being regulated by width even of the whole front or 

 any of its parts. Grecian : The pitch of a pedimeut must lie g- -vei ned 

 by its span, since its height must in no case greatly exceed the depth 

 of the entablature ; consequently, the greater the in. lumiia 



placed beneath it, the lower it must be, and the lower the. proportions 

 of the whuk- front. athic : Gables may be of any pitch, just as best 

 accords ,with construction or the composition oi tie design 

 Little variety of form and proportions in doors or windows, or in 

 regard to their external mouldings; the window itself a mere aperture, 

 without any architectural filling up. Uoth doorways and win- 



dows very conspicuous features, admitting tin- n- t* well 



in their forms and proportions as in the modes of decorating them. 



