
156 ARCHITECTURE. 
pilasters (pl. 34, figs. 35, 86) and at the corners like half-columns (pi. 39, 
jig. 18). These reinforcements of the wall generally were carried up as 
high as the base of the cornice, and this height was retained even after they 
were considered as distinct architectural members, and received a greater 
projection (pl. 34, fig. 37). They were sometimes made round with a little 
conical roof (pl. 40, jig. 10), or connected at the top by arches (pl. 39, 
jig. 20). As church architecture advanced and the height of the vaults in 
the interior was increased, the projection of the buttresses increased in 
proportion; but as the pressure in the upper parts was gradually less, the 
buttresses were made of steps of different projections (jig. 19). When sub- 
sequently gracefulness in the appearance of the edifices received greater 
attention cornices were laid round the buttresses; and they received little 
gables (pl. 34, jig. 38) sometimes with ridge-roofs (pl. 39, jig. 22). A still 
more increased height of the nave led to another and stronger reinforcement 
of the walls. The side aisles, which were usually much lower, were girt 
with buttresses strong enough for the walls of the main nave. These 
buttresses were carried up considerably higher than the walls of the side 
aisles, and one or more one-sided or ascending arches were sprung from them 
against the wall of the main nave (jig. 21). 
The decoration of the buttress consisted of columns at the corners, and the 
main cornices led around them (fig. 23). Above the cornice was placed a 
solid quadrangular pillar with imitation lattice-work, gables, and pyramidal 
point (jigs. 24, 26). The less projecting buttresses received only a ridge- 
roof whose gable was decorated (fig. 25). Heavy buttresses, decreasing 
stepwise, had the facade of every step decorated with imitation lattice-work 
which gave them a lighter appearance (jig. 27). Their tops were then 
surmounted with solid pillars, whose front gables were supported by two 
small columns forming a niche between them in which a statue was placed. 
Sometimes, especially in England, a statue only was placed on the top of 
the buttress (jig. 28). Sometimes the buttresses had niches with gables 
from below upwards, this decoration being principally used on buttresses of 
towers (fig. 29). At the time of the renaissance all this elegant splendor 
disappeared, superseded at first by the rigid forms of the transition style, 
and then by the reversed consoles and other clumsy supports of the worst 
Italian style (jig. 30). In England polygonal buttresses are frequently 
met with surmounted by turrets with battlements, against which the ascend- 
ing arches rest (fig. 31). 
The windows that interrupt the walls of a church are either straight above, 
or arched, or entirely round. Their sides may be rectangular (pl. 40, jig. 11) 
or outwardly and inwardly oblique (fig. 12), or only inwardly oblique 
(fig. 13). The old basilicas have no windows in the apsis. At a later 
period the apsis had one or more, but always an odd number of windows. 
An even number only exceptionally occurs at a very late period. ‘The 
great windows are properly a number of smaller ones packed into one 
frame, three or more lancet-windows being placed beside each other, and 
one or more foil or rosette windows above them or between their heads in 
order to fill out the arched cell of the vaulting, which then necessarily gave 
156 
