Architecture: Gothic and Renaissance

by T. Roger Smith

Triforium (or Thorough-fare).—The story in a large church or cathedral intermediate between the arcade separating the nave and aisles, and the clerestory.

Tudor.—The architecture of England during the reigns of the Tudor kings. The use of the term is usually, however, restricted to a period which closes with the end of Henry VIII.’s reign, 1547.

Turret.—A small tower, sometimes rising from the ground, but often carried on corbels and commencing near the upper part of the building to which it is an appendage.

Tympanum.—The filling in of the head of an arch, or occasionally of an ornamental gable.

Undercutting.—A moulding or ornament of which the greater part stands out from the mouldings or surfaces which it adjoins, as though almost or quite detached from them, is said to be undercut.

Vault.—An arched ceiling to a building, or part of a building, executed in masonry or in some substitute for masonry.

The vaults of the Norman period were simple barrel- or waggon-headed vaults, and semicircular arches only were used in their construction. With the Gothic period the use of intersecting, and as a result of pointed arches, was introduced into vaulting, and vaults went on increasing in complexity and elaboration till the Tudor period, when fan-vaulting was employed. Our illustrations show some of the steps in the development of Gothic vaults referred to in Chapter [V.] of the text. No. 1 represents a waggon-head vault with an intersecting vault occupying part of its length. No. 2 represents one of the expedients adopted for vaulting an oblong compartment before the pointed arch was introduced. The narrower arch is stilted and the line of the groin [!-- original location of Fig. g g --] is not true. No. 3 represents a similar compartment vaulted without any distortion or irregularity by the help of the pointed arch. No. 4 represents one lay of a sexpartite Gothic vault. No. 5 represents a vault with lierne ribs making a star-shaped pallom on plan, and No. 6 is a somewhat more intricate example of the same class of vault.

Fig. g g.—Vaults.