Early doorways usually have a square head recessed under semi-circular arch mouldings, decorated with the Chevron, Key, or Beak-head. The semi-circular Tympanum over the door was plain or enriched with rude sculpture in low relief. Later doors show a great profusion of ornament in the archivolt and arch mouldings, which are often carried down the jamb mouldings. The recessed columns are also enriched with the Chevron, or diagonal lines of pearling (fig. 1), and have sculptured capitals showing a classical tendency in the arrangement of acanthus foliage and the volute. Fine examples of this period may be seen in the west front of Lincoln Cathedral (fig. 1), the Galilee porch at Durham, and the west door of Iffley Church, Oxfordshire.
The Norman capitals are usually cushion-shaped, with a square abacus, enriched with the Chevron, star pattern, or the anthemion (fig. 9). The capital itself was decorated with the anthemion, or with rude volutes or segments of circles.
The architecture of this period in France, differing from contemporary work in England, shows a strong Roman influence, hence its name—Romanesque. St. Trophine at Arles is a fine example of this style, beautiful in its proportions and vigorous in detail. The west front of Angouleme Cathedral, with its profusion of semi-circular arcading, displays more affinity to contemporary work in England. In the two French capitals (figs. 9 and 10) a characteristic treatment of animals and birds may be seen, showing a strong vitality in the ornamental art of that period.
EARLY GOTHIC DETAILS. [Plate 16.]
EARLY GOTHIC
DETAILS.
The Norman style was succeeded by the pointed, or Gothic style, remarkable for its variety, its beauty of proportion, and the singular grace and vigour of its ornament. Showing no traditions, beyond Sicilian and Arabian influence, it grew rapidly, and reached a high degree of perfection in France and England. The massive and barbaric character of the Norman style gave place to the light clustered shafts and well-proportioned mouldings of the early English Gothic, with its capitals characterised by a circular abacus, and the typical three-lobed foliage growing upwards from the necking of the shafts, thence spreading out in beautiful curves and spirals under the abacus. This tendency to the spiral line is peculiar to the early Gothic, and differentiates it from the Decorated and Perpendicular Period. The diagrams of the three crockets here given show the distinctive character of English Gothic ornament.
