13.—Cowdray House, Sussex. Vaulting Rib To Porch (cir. 1540).
Nor was the foreign detail on the stone simply added to the English work after the native craftsmen had finished. It was not that the Englishman completed his work and then invited the Italian to come and do the carving after his own manner, but the two influences are curiously mixed. Take the fan-vaulting of the porch at Cowdray (Plate IV.), for instance. In general appearance it is of the same family as other fan-vaulting, of which the roof of the Chapel of the Red Mount at King's Lynn may be taken as a specimen. But, as might be expected, it is in the susceptible parts of the stonework that the foreign influence first shows itself,—not in the construction, but in the ornament. The spandrils at Cowdray are filled with carving; some of it is foliage, treated in the Late Gothic manner, but in one appears the head of a winged cherub, clearly not of English but Italian descent. The main ribs of the vaulting, too, have an Italian arabesque worked on them, and the point to be observed here is that the section of the rib is not of the usual type, but is expressly designed to receive the arabesque (Fig. [13]).
14.—Chantry of the Countess of Salisbury, Christchurch, Hampshire, from the North Aisle (cir. 1529).
Plate V.
THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH.
VIEW FROM THE CHOIR.
15.—The Salisbury Chantry, Christchurch. Detail of Carving.