view might pass for mere unmeaning ornaments, but will be found explicable upon this system of interpenetration." Fig. 1072, "is a window from a house near Roanne, at the base of whose mullions, knobs may be observed, which really represent the Gothic base of a square mullion on the same plinth with the hollow chamfered mullion, and interpenetrating with it." The Professor also states that, "it may perhaps be found that this character belongs to one period, or one district, of the Flamboyant style; " but from our own observation, we are inclined to believe it to have been universal from the middle of the fifteenth century to the period when the style of the Renaissance superseded it. The principles on which it is conducted certainly prevailed

Fig. 1072.
A notion

in Germany and in the Low Countries, as Professor Willis afterwards states. to what extent it proceeded may be perceived by fig. 1073, taken from Möller's Denkmäler der Deutschen Bau

kunst, 1821, and exhibits on the plan a series of interferences contrived with great ingenuity and a consummate acquaintance with practical geometry. The subject is the plan of a tabernacle, or canopy, such as is not unfrequent in churches on the Continent. It' shows, says Möller, how the simple and severe architecture of the 13th and 14th centuries had been debased. The square BCDE is the commencing figure.

De

E

Fig. 1073,

A comparison of English and French mouldings has been made, with illustrations, by the Rev. J. L. Petit, in his work, Architectural Studies in France, 8vo. 1854, page 141. Of course Viollet le Duc's Dictionnaire has now become a well of information on this as on many other details. Some few examples are given at the end of the ensuing chapter of this Book. Venetian details have been carefully elucidated by J. Ruskin, in Stones of Venice, Vol. III, 1853, wherein pp. 221-249 are devoted to the examination in succession of the bases, doorways and jambs, capitals, archivolts, cornices, and tracery bars, of Venetian architecture. We do not, however, perceive that any scale or dimension is given to the examples illustrated, the absence of which materially lessens the usefulness of the examples. German details may be sought in Möller's work before quoted; in King, Study Book of Mediaæval Architecture and Art, 1860; in Statz, Ungewitter, and Riechensperger, Gothic Model Book, 1859; and in Hoffstadt, Gothisches ABC buch, 1840.

SECT. IV.

PIERS AND COLUMNS.

The general plans of the piers supporting the principal arches are either simple or compound: simple, when composed of one plain member; and compound, when consisting of a core surrounded by smaller shafts, detached or engaged. Piers of the earliest period for carrying walls were square, as at the cathedral at Worms. These were relieved by engaged shafts, as in fig. 1074. In the 12th century the shaft begins to take the form on its plan of a Greek cross (fig. 1075.), with engaged columns in its angles as well as on its principal faces.

For the benefit of those making surveys of buildings, we think it useful to subjoin the following recommendation from the "Remarks" of Professor Willis:-"In making

architectural notes, the plan of a pier should always be accompanied with indications of the distribution of its parts to the vaulting ribs and arches which it carries. The mere plan of the pier by itself conveys but small information; for it often happens that the identical pier may be distributed in many different ways, and that these differences constitute the only characters that distinguish the practice of one age or

Fig. 1074.

Fig. 1075.

1075a. shows one way in which the plan alone may be made The dotted lines, drawn from the respective members of the pier, mark the direction of the ribs and arches; and upon each of these, at a small distance from the pier, are placed vertical sections of these ribs, as at ABCD."

Fig. 1075a.

Fig. 1076.

5ft

FOUNTAINS ABBEY; NAVE.

Norman piers are, in their earlier form, mostly masses of wall, with rectangular nooks containing attached shafts, as at Winchester, figs. 1267 and 1268. The circular (fig. 1076.) and octagonal columns seem to have been introduced about the time of the transition; and continued common in ordinary parish churches throughout the early English and decorated periods. Complex early English piers are so varied in arrangement that it would be impossible here to do more than notice their general characteristics, which consist principally in the number of smaller isolated shafts clinging to a central column, to which they are at intervals attached, in reality as well as in appearance, by moulded bands or fillets (Westminster Abbey, fig. 1278.), wherein a circular shaft is found, with four detached colonnettes (fig. 1058.), and with eight small detached shafts at Ely. Fig. 107. is a gracefully designed pier. One without the colonnettes, and with broader fillets, is a very common form in the early English and decorated periods, with some varieties.

Geometric and
decorated piers

have their shafts Fig. 1078.
engaged

(figs.

1078. and 1079.), so that a clustered column is formed by working out the surfaces of the mass in lines and hollows. detached, and four attached, colonnettes to the central shaft, but the reason for this excep The example (fig. 1059.), from Westminster Abbey, has four tional arrangement has been explained. It would require a volume to set forth the richness

and extent of the great piers in cathedrals and abbeys. Piers in the perpendicular period are generally of oblong or parallelogrammic plan, the longitudinal direction extending from north to south (fig. 1316.). On the east and west sides half shafts are attached, which bear the innermost order or soffit mouldings of the arch; the rest, including the great hollow, being usually continuous, without the interruption of any impost. The plan of the pier in Henry VII.'s Chapel is a fine example (fig. 1324.) of such an arrangement; and fig. 1059. shows the continued adoption of the decorated piers in the later portion of the nave of Westminster Abbey. Sometimes the ground plan is a square, set angleways (as in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral, fig. 1299., and at Bath Abbey Church, fig. 1320.), and each angle may have an engaged shaft of a

SECT. V.

CAPITALS.

The mouldings of capitals and bases are more definitely marked in the various periods than any other kind of mouldings. "It is by no means impossible, even for an experienced eye, to mistake the details of a decorated for those of a perpendicular arch; but no one moderately acquainted with the subject could hesitate in pronouncing the style of a capital or base, provided it possessed any character at all. In the Norman period, when the shaft was round, the highest and lowest members only were square, the parts immediately next them being rounded off to suit the shape of the shaft (fig. 1266.). This is seen in the ordinary form of the cushion capital. We may observe the lingering reluctance to get rid of the square plinth, in the tongue-shaped leaves or other grotesque excrescences which are often seen to issue from the circular mouldings of transition Norman bases." Fig. 1080. is a curious example of the square form in front (N), and the circular moulded form in rear, of the shaft, shown on plan, fig. 1076. As soon as a sub-arch was introduced the corners of the capitals were either cut off or cut out: the former process

the circular capitals and base.

Fig. 1082.

TINTERN ABBEY.

But capitals became octagonal before plinths: and

similarly octagonal plinths were retained long after circular capitals had become universal.

Fig. 1081. is the front face of the shaft shown in fig. 1077., as is also fig. 1082. of that of fig. 1078., &c.

"Capitals may be divided into moulded and floriated. In the latter, the foliage in the transition Norman and early English period is arranged vertically, in the decorated it

0

twines horizontally, or rather transversely, round the capital (fig. 1083.). In the perpendicular, more frequently small leaves or pateræ are set like studs at intervals round the shaft above the neck. The capital consists of three parts, the abacus, the bell, and the neck. In the early English period the abacus is almost invariably undercut. In the decorated it consists of the scroll moulding with a cylindrical roll of less size below it. The bell, in early English caps, is sometimes double, with a very handsome effect, while in decorated work it is seldom so deeply undercut. It is also much more varied by elaborate and capricious forms, as by a number of fine edge lines; and the underpart of the bell is often composed of a roll and fillet. The necking forms an important detail in judging of the dates of the work. In the early English it is usually of a bold annular outline; or a semihexagon. The neck during the decorated period is almost always the scroll moulding, but many other forms will be found to occur. Even a practised eye may occasionally be deceived in the date of capitals of the two early periods.

"The capitals in the perpendicular period present such marked features that they are seldom liable to be mistaken. The mouldings are large, angular, meagre and few. Neither abacus nor bell is clearly defined. Fig. 1083. The latter is reduced to a meagre slope, although it sometimes still remains. The upper part of the abacus is usually sloped off to a sharp edge, and the section of the moulding below resembles the letter S inverted, being a

HOWDEN CHURCH.

Lift

mere corruption of the decorated scroll moulding; above all, the capital is octagonal, while that of the preceding styles is round. The shaft, however, is circular in the perpendicular work, while octagonal capitals most generally occur in the other styles in the case of large single columns of the same shape. The base in the

Fig. 1092

later style is generally circular in its upper members and octagonal below. The capitals are often embattled. The astragal or neck is either a plain round or a kind of debased scroll moulding with the upper edge chamfered as in the abacus. It will be found that a much greater license was taken in designing the mouldings of this style than in any other. Fig. 1092, is the section of the capital of the shaft to the arch between the nave piers in Henry VII.'s Chapel, (as at C, fig. 1325.). Fig. 1093. is the base of shaft to nave piers, as E, fig. 1324. and B, in fig. 1325. Fig. 1094. the base, and capital 8 inches high, to the vaulting shafts in the aisles; the capitals in the small chapel at the end of the building are nearly the same in section.

Fig. 1091.

HOWDEN

CHURCH.

Vaulting Shaft,
CHOIR AISLE.

Fig. 1093.

Fig. 1094.

HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL.

Seale, the same as to Fig. 1085,

SECT. VI.

BASES.

The bases of the shafts in the 11th and 12th centuries are often chamfered and frequently moulded in the Attic form, more or less modified and debased. In the latter period the Attic base is sometimes found almost pure. In early work the base consists of the plinth or lower step, of solid masonry, generally square (fig. 1080. see the curious modifications of it in the plan fig. 1076.), but in early English often octangular (fig. 1077. and 1081.); and the base mouldings, a series of annular rolls, slopes, or hollows, taking the form of the column. In decorated and perpendicular columns, the plinth is apparently omitted, and the base is divided into heights, stages, or tables, by gradually spreading courses, each separated from the next by a plain, or by a moulded, order. The lower part of the base is sometimes octagonal or polygonal. A cavetto above a quarter round is a very common form in early work. A bold annular roll, quirked on the under side, often divides the shaft from the plinth.

The early Englishı base is very similar to the Attic form, the chief peculiarity consisting in the hollow being cut downwards and extended from half to three quarters of a circle, so that it is capable of containing water (figs. 1081., 1084., and 1085.). The earlier the base is in the period, the shallower, as a general rule, is this water-holding hollow (fig. 1086.). A common form is obtained by omitting the hollow altogether, and thus bringing the rolls into contact (like fig. 1088.). In very rich early English bases there are often double hollows between filleted rolls, and below these occur other bold annular rolls, single, double, and even triple, as at the beautiful Galilee porch at Ely, where the bases are worked out of Purbeck marble and were polished. The spread of the base in the uppermost members generally equals that of the capital, or nearly so. By far the commonest decorated base is that shown in fig. 1087. and fig. 1089., the number of rolls being generally three, but often only two. A few modifications may be perceived, but they are seldom very complex. The large spreading roll is worked out of the block, with which it usually stands flush, and is separated by a quirk or angular nook. This is also observable in the previous style. A simple form of base is shown in fig. 1091.

The prevailing characteristic of the bases of perpendicular columns is a large bell-shaped spread in the upper part, often double, forming the contour of a double ogee in section, as fig. 1093.; and is one of the ordinary kind. The lower part is almost invariably octagonal, the upper being generally round, but also frequently octagonal, irrespective of the shape of the shaft (fig. 1300.). It has either one or more stages sloping off by a hollow chamfer, or by a second bell-shaped slope. The first member of the base is always an annular roll, resembling the neck of capitals; this is often in the form of the debased roll and fillet. Edge lines scarcely ever occur. Other examples of bases are given in the last section of this book. The usual distribution of the table mouldings of a late base consist of a plain slope F (fig. 1320.), reckoning upwards from the ground line C, a flat surface E and a projecting moulding D. In more elaborate structures, the number of these base tables