The process may be carried a step farther, and eight colonnettes be set round the original bearing-shaft ([Fig. 304]). In St. Mary’s Abbey,[35] at York (towards the end of the twelfth century), we have an instance of sixteen colonnettes thus placed round a bearing-shaft ([Fig. 305]), but only eight of them carry separate orders; and a little later, in the cathedral at Genoa (the work, apparently, of a northern French architect), we have no less than twenty-four colonnettes similarly ranged round an octagon ([Fig. 306]); though here, again, only eight are represented in the plan of the abacus or of the base when it rests upon the floor, the others being introduced probably for the relief produced by the varied colours of the marbles of which they are composed.
Fig. 305.—St. Mary’s Abbey, York.
A little later the colonnettes themselves become grouped in threes and fours, and their edges often filleted, or “keeled,” that is, decorated by an arris or edge projecting from their round surface. Thus, at Lichfield ([Fig. 307]) in the older portions, groups of three shafts united into one, and carrying a common abacus, were set on each side of an octagonal bearing-shaft. At Wells ([Fig. 308]) similar triple shafts were set alternately against the faces and in the internal angles of a cross-formed nucleus, with alternately square and octagonal abaci.
| Fig. 307.—Lichfield. | Fig. 308.—Wells. |
My purpose, however, is not to enumerate all possible varieties of clustered pier, but to explain its principle, and at the same time to show how unlimited an artistic element was deducible from an intent thus founded on the natural conditions of arched construction. To go much farther would carry us on prematurely into the succeeding styles, and would be also anticipating another cause, which carried on the principle to a still further development. I allude to groined vaulting, of which I shall have to treat in detail when I reach it.
Before, however, I quit the subject of arches and piers, I must say a few words on the application of their principles to doorways and windows.