MIDDLE POINTED OR DECORATED STYLE.
Towards the close of the thirteenth century a considerable change occurred in the features of Gothic architecture throughout Europe. The development of the pointed style had progressed steadily, and all the details had become lighter and more ornate. The tracery of the windows especially marks the decorated period. This feature, as we have seen, was invented in the previous epoch, but now became fully developed, especially in France. In the design of the tracery the eye, which at first had been fixed on the form of the aperture, gradually came to dwell on the outline of the bars of the tracery, which thereafter became the leading feature. ([Fig. 23.]) The early simple circular forms of the bar tracery by degrees assumed other geometric patterns, consisting of triangles, squares, and similar figures, skilfully combined and diversified with cusping or feathering. Towards the close of the period these figures assumed a more flowing character, but without entirely losing their distinctive geometric forms.
In England the vaulting grew lighter, and became distinguished by the introduction of subordinate ribs or liernes, which divided the plain surface into a greater number of panels, and ridge ribs were almost always introduced. The points of support were also lightened, and the buttresses were made thinner and with greater projection, and ornamented with numerous niches and crocheted canopies and pinnacles. The clerestory windows under the vaults were enlarged, as it was discovered that
Fig. 23.—Beverley Minster, Yorkshire. Compartment of Nave, Exterior and Interior. (From Britton’s Antiquities.)
the solid walls between the buttresses might be dispensed with, and their place completely filled with window tracery. The clerestory was thus enlarged, and the triforium reduced to a mere passage, or entirely dispensed with. From the same cause the windows of the east and west ends, and those of the façades of the transepts, were also enlarged to the fullest extent, so that nearly the whole space became occupied with tracery and stained glass.
The doorways in England, although still much smaller than those of France, are, notwithstanding, often very fine, as, for instance, those of York Minster ([Fig. 24]). The shafts of the jambs, which in the previous period were detached and set in nooks, are now converted by degrees into a series of mouldings wrought upon the jamb stones, and arranged in one plane. The caps, at first distinct, gradually pass into a series of foliaceous scrolls running along the top of the whole jamb.
The piers are similarly treated. The clustered shafts give place to mouldings, and the caps become carved with running ornament. The plan of the piers is frequently that of a lozenge. A four-centred arch, forming an ogee or reversed curve, is now introduced in water tables over doorways. The arch mouldings are still boldly cut, and are separated by well-marked and deep hollows, but grow shallower and broader as time advances. The carving and foliage become lighter and more naturalistic, the ordinary leaves and flowers of the fields being beautifully wrought in the capitals, corbels, and bosses. The detached ball flower is a striking feature of this period. Every wall opening is cusped and feathered, and the niches and arcades are richly decorated. The use of small decorative buttresses on the jambs of the doors, windows, and niches now becomes common.
In France the progression of the style is similar, but shows a livelier and bolder development. There a stone vault is always essential, whereas in England open wooden roofs are often adopted with fine result.