Part 5 (1/2)
THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.
Towards the close of the XIVth century a great change came over English Gothic architecture, a change which was to a certain extent a return to cla.s.sical ideas. The curvilinear tracery gave place to a rigid vertical and horizontal form, with the result that windows and panels instead of being filled with curved bars of stone, were sub-divided by straight perpendicular bars and transoms or cross-bars.
This style of architecture is popularly known as Perpendicular, but as the horizontal lines are quite as distinct a feature as are the vertical, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of it as Rectilinear. This change in architectural form made its appearance towards the close of the XIVth century, although it was by no means generally introduced at that period, for the old methods and styles were carried on side by side with the new for many years. For example, the eastern end of the choir of York Minster (1361-99) possesses a window the traceries of which contain both curvilinear and rectilinear lines, while Shottesbrook Church in Berks.h.i.+re (1387), and Wimmington Church, Bedfords.h.i.+re (1391) are examples of village churches neither of which has any feature of the Perpendicular style.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Yeovil Parish Church (A.D. 1376).
Early Perpendicular in style, without a clerestory, and called, for its large window area, the ”Lantern of the West.”]
In its earlier stages the Perpendicular style presented an effect at once good and bold; the mouldings, though not equal to the best of the Decorated style, were well defined, the enrichments effective, and the details delicate without extravagant minuteness. Subsequently the style underwent a gradual debas.e.m.e.nt; the arches became depressed; the mouldings impoverished, the details crowded and coa.r.s.ely executed, and the whole style became wanting in the chaste and elegant effects for which the Decorated stands unapproached and unapproachable. The flowing contours and curved lines of the previous style now gave place in the windows to mullions running straight up from the bottom to the top, and crossed by transoms. As the arch became more and more depressed the mouldings became shallower and less effective. In early buildings of this period the drop arch is very prevalent, but as the period advanced a form known as the Tudor arch began to be used. It is an arch in which, as a rule, the centres of the upper portion lie immediately below those of the lower, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the whole of the upper portion uniting the arcs of the ends is struck from one centre, in which case the arch becomes a three-centred one, being, in fact, half an ellipse. Towards the close of the style the curvature of the upper portion is so slight that it can hardly be distinguished from a straight line, and as the debas.e.m.e.nt progressed it became really straight. Ogee arches are also found at this period, and foiled arches are very frequent.
When the Tudor arch was not used, we generally find the low drop arch, these three last being mostly used for small openings.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A Fine Parish Church showing Rich Perpendicular Work.
Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]
The peculiar characteristics of the windows--the perpendicular mullions and horizontal transoms--we have already alluded to.
[Side note: Perpendicular Windows.]
The window heads, instead of being filled with flowing tracery, have slender mullions running from the heads of the lights between each mullion, and these again have smaller transoms, until the whole surface of the window becomes divided into a series of panels, the heads of which being arched, are trefoiled or cinquefoiled. In the later windows the transoms at the top are often furnished with a small ornamental battlement, causing the mullions to present a concave outline.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A Perpendicular Doorway.
Merton College Chapel. _Drawn by E. M. Heath._]
The plans of churches in this style differ from all others in that they are more s.p.a.cious, the columns more slender and wider apart, the windows much larger, and the walls loftier and thinner. Panelling is used most abundantly on walls, both internally and externally, and also on vaulting, while some buildings, as Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, are almost entirely covered with it. Fan tracery vaulting, a feature peculiar to this style, is almost invariably covered with panelling.
The mouldings of this period are essentially different from those which preceded them. As a general rule they are cut on a slanting or chamfer plane, the groups of mouldings being separated by a shallow oval-shaped hollow, entirely different from those of the Decorated period.
[Side note: Perpendicular Doorways.]
The doorways of the early portion of this period had two-centred arches, but the characteristic form is the four-centred, enclosed in a square head, formed by the outer mouldings with a hood mould of the same shape, the spandrels being filled with quatrefoils, roses, s.h.i.+elds, etc.
[Side note: Perpendicular Capitals.]
Perpendicular capitals are either circular or octagonal, but the necking is usually of the former shape, and the upper members of the abacus of the latter form. The bell portion is mostly plain, but is often enriched with foliage of a very conventional character, shallow and formal, without either the freedom or the boldness of the Early English, or the exquisite grace of the Decorated periods. A distinguis.h.i.+ng feature in the ornamentation of this period is that called panel-tracery, with which the walls and vaulted ceilings are covered. The patterns are found in a variety of forms, as circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc.
[Side note: Fan Vaulting.]
The rich vaulting called fan vaulting previously alluded to, is composed of pendant curved semi-cones, covered with foliated panel-work, which bears some resemblance to a fan spread open.
[Side note: Perpendicular Ornament.]
Another very characteristic ornament is the Tudor flower. It is formed by a series of flat leaves placed upright against the stalk. It was much used in late buildings as a crest or ornamental finis.h.i.+ng to cornices, etc., to which it gave an embattled appearance. Cornices and brackets were frequently ornamented with busts of winged angels called angel-brackets, and angel-corbels. The portcullis and the Tudor rose--both badges of the house of Tudor--also figure prominently among the ornaments of the period. The crockets for the most part partake of the squareness which pervades all the foliage of this style. _See page 64._
[Side note: Perpendicular b.u.t.tresses.]
The b.u.t.tresses are very similar to those preceding them in their plainer forms, but, in richer examples the faces are covered with panel work and are finished with square pinnacles sometimes set diagonally and terminated with a crocketed spire, or finished with an animal or other ornament. Parapets with square battlements are very common at this period, but they too are frequently panelled or pierced with tracery, or with trefoils or quatrefoils inserted in square, circular or triangular compartments.