| Fig. 94.—Rollestone, Notts. | Fig. 95.—Chartres. |
Fig. 96.—Southwell Minster.
The capitals which prevailed during this century form the most magnificent series which any style of architecture can boast. Whether the foliage is natural, conventional, or both united, the artistic power evinced is truly delightful; and when it is recollected that no two capitals are ever found exactly alike, the fertility of invention they display is perfectly wonderful.
It would be hopeless in such a lecture as this to attempt to go through, even in the most cursory manner, the endless varieties of capitals—from the stupendous masses of noble foliage which crown the apsidal columns at Rheims, whose single shafts are nearly six feet in diameter, to those of the delicate colonettes which decorate the mullions of windows. This one feature alone would form an ample subject for an entire lecture, or almost for a series of lectures. I will confine my present remarks to the great characteristic differences which distinguish French from English capitals during the thirteenth century.
This great distinction lies in the plan of the abacus; for while in France the square form of the preceding style continued, the English architects very soon substituted the circular plan.
It is a curious question how and when this arose. In both countries the round abacus was, in some instances, used from an early period; but this was chiefly on great cylindrical columns, with low capitals, such as those in the nave of Gloucester Cathedral, though even in France the round form occasionally occurs to subordinate shafts, as at St. Omer; but, as a general rule, both countries used the square or the angular form till late in the transition, when the English commenced the free adoption of the round, first alongside of the other, and afterwards to its almost entire exclusion.