The central compartment or crossing of St. George’s, Windsor, is a most magnificent treatment of an oblong space. The aisles of the same chapel, with the smaller chapels adjoining, are charming examples, as are the aisles and small chapels of Henry VII.’s Chapel, and the cloisters of St. Stephen’s, Westminster. Bath Abbey and Sherborne Minster are thus vaulted, and a whole century later, appearing long after date, comes the beautiful ceiling of the staircase to the hall at Christ Church, Oxford ([Fig. 393]), a square space groined on a central pillar ([Fig. 394]).
Fig. 393. Ceiling of the Staircase to the Hall, Christ Church, Oxford.
Fig. 394.
In the construction of the vaulting of these later periods, we have a curious instance of the manner in which extremes meet. In the earliest specimens of vaulting, all the strength lies in the vaulting surface itself. As time went on, ribs were introduced, one after another, to strengthen and support it, till at length they amounted to a permanent framework of stone, centering on which the vaulting surface lay.
Now, at length, time has its revenge, and the extreme multiplication of ribs led to the loss of their uses; the whole, or nearly the whole, being cut out of the same blocks with the panels; and thus the original system was reverted to; the vaulting surface becoming again the entire structure, and the ribs and panels simply cut as ornaments out of its substance.
The most remarkable production of the fan system of vaulting is the gorgeous central roof of Henry VII.’s Chapel, a work in which ingenuity, perplexity, and beauty are united in the most wonderful manner which can be conceived.