THIRD OR LATE POINTED STYLE.
In the latter half of the fourteenth century, Gothic art, both in France and England, again showed symptoms of a change of character. In France the architects seemed to have exhausted their powers of development as regards constructional elements, and were now occupied with the elaboration of details. The earlier geometric tracery now assumed a very flowing character, which, from the flame-like shapes of the bars of the stone work, was called “Flamboyant.” In England, on the other hand, the tracery assumed a rigid form, and from the mullions of the windows being carried up in straight lines from the sill to the arch, the style received the name of “perpendicular.” ([Fig. 25.]) In many respects, connected with ornament and decoration, the styles of the two countries resembled each other, but in one respect they differed widely. In France the simple intersecting pointed vault was never departed from, but in England the development of the vaulting into new forms made great progress at this period. It has been mentioned that in their “decorated” work the English had begun, in the thirteenth century, to introduce “liernes” or intermediate ribs into the vaults. This process still continued and advanced till the vaulting surface became covered with ribs. ([Fig. 26.]) The ribs were latterly used as ornamental features, spread over the surface of the vault, which again became the supporting arched surface, as it was before the introduction of Gothic bearing ribs in the twelfth century. A favourite form of this kind of vaulting is known from its appearance as fan vaulting. In working out this kind of vaulting, it was found desirable to bring all the ribs to the same level at the apex, and in order to accomplish this it was found convenient to use arches of double curvature, or four centred arches, a depressed form which is characteristic of perpendicular work.
Fig. 25.—York Cathedral. View of the East End. (From Britton’s Cathedrals.)
From this peculiarity there followed many changes in style almost unknown abroad. The use of the depressed arch in the vault soon led to its adoption in the clerestory windows placed under the vault, and from these it spread to the other windows, and ultimately to all the arches of the building. From these features a perpendicular structure is at once recognisable. The panelling of the vaults led, in sympathy, to panelling in the wall surfaces, in the buttresses, and everywhere. A linear system of ornamentation was thus produced, which was developed to an extreme degree—the mouldings were thinned off till they became mere strings, with wide shallow hollows between, and all interruption to the stringy or liney effect thus produced was objected to. Thus the caps of shafts were almost abolished, and the thin arch mouldings carried down the piers without interruption from the arch to the base. The piers were divided up with large shallow hollows or splays, and the subordination of mouldings was lost. When caps were used they were generally small and octagonal in shape, and stood meaningless amidst a cluster of mouldings. Doorways were less deeply recessed than formerly, and the four-centred arch was usually enclosed in a square moulding, the spandrils between the square head and the arch being filled with tracery or sculpture, often of a heraldic nature.
In France the two-centred arch was adhered to, and traceried windows were frequently introduced over doorways. Some of the carving, both at home and in France, is executed with great delicacy and spirit, but much of the foliage is of a very conventional form peculiar to the period. In running ornaments the stems frequently become more important than the leaves, thus carrying out the thin linear character of the style.
The English architects always showed a fondness for wooden roofs, and at this the latest period of Gothic these open timber constructions became very common. In France, on the contrary, vaulted roofs were preferred till the revival of classic art.