Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 2

by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Fig. 240.

The elliptical sections thus generated being unsightly, they would soon be converted into semicircles; and as these will not fit themselves to the true cone, a group of portions of conoids is generated, meeting in an indented angle, such as we always find in these caps, excepting in the very earliest. At no period, however, were the reminiscences of the Corinthian capital wholly ignored; and we accordingly, even in the earliest examples (and perhaps as frequently in them as in later ones) find a rude imitation of its form.[21] At other times we find the block covered with carved scrollwork; and at others, again, the extreme simplicity is obtained by a mere portion of a cone or a simple moulding intervening between the shaft and the abacus, as in the Confessor’s buildings at Westminster, and in the crypt at Winchester.[22] The bases consisted usually of a moulding following the curve of the shaft, and resting upon a square plinth, beneath which was a sub-base. The mouldings of the base were very various: they seem to have been suggested by the varieties of the Roman base; but they often take other forms, as in the Confessor’s work at Westminster, where we have a mere splay and a double hollow. The orders of arches were sometimes relieved by being cut into large rolls; or the lower order in archways had a massive demi-roll attached to it. The roll was soon accompanied by a hollow, and these varieties almost exhaust the list of mouldings in the earlier examples, though we shall see that they subsequently increased into great multiplicity and beauty. Mouldings became, moreover, at an early date enriched. Thus we find the chamfers of a string or label relieved with the billet or short piece of roll left projecting from them at intervals. These chamfers are also enriched with chevrons of slight depth, such as masons sometimes impress in mortar with the point of their trowel. These simple ornaments, as we shall presently see, soon increased into endless variety.

The figure-sculpture of the period was of extreme uncouthness; often so much so as to be nearly unintelligible, though rapidly improving as the style advanced. The tympana of the doorways (which were sometimes filled in to the square, and sometimes to a low segmental arch line) were often filled with sculpture in slight relief. Heads were used as corbels (placed in a hollow moulding), and such rude art was introduced in other positions which might suggest it.

Soon it became frequent to relieve plain surfaces—whether to arch-orders, or elsewhere—with ornaments in very slight relief usually known as “surface ornaments,” which had the advantage of imparting decoration without disturbing essential forms. Of this, however, we shall see abundance as we proceed.

Having now traced out, by a system of rational induction, the essential elements of the style, we will proceed to some of the varieties of combination.

Let us take, in the first instance, a portion of the nave or choir of a church.

If this be unaisled and unvaulted, it is a very simple affair. Windows at a reasonable height, dealt with agreeably to the architectural grade of the building,—probably a base-course, a string beneath the cills, and possibly pilaster buttresses between the windows, and a corbel-table uniting the same under the eaves.

If vaulted with a wagon-vault (as, for instance, St. Cormac’s Chapel, at Cashel),[23] the walls must be higher, and, it may be, the dead space which this occasions externally may be decorated by arcading. If, however, it is groined, the difficulty disappears.

Again, an aisled but unvaulted nave is of simple construction, but if the aisle be vaulted (unless, indeed, it be a mere demi-vault, which in this country is very rare), a greater complication is brought into existence. The groining requires that the aisle wall shall be fully as high as the crown of the arches between the aisles and the nave; and, as the aisle roof demands some reasonable height, it follows that there must be a considerable space of wall above the arches. This may be dealt with in several ways. If the nave be unvaulted, it is a blank space, or may be pierced by an arcade or other openings. If the nave is groined without a clerestory, the space is partly occupied by the springers of the vaulting, and the intervals may be pierced. If there is a clerestory, the space becomes what we call (though erroneously), a triforium; or (whether there be a clerestory or not), it may be made more of and utilised by raising the aisle walls sufficiently to convert it into a second storey or gallery to the aisle ([Fig. 241]).