181

CHAPTER IX.

SECOND DIVISION OF ENGLISH MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE, COMPRISING FLOWING CURVILINEAR DECORATED, AND PERPENDICULAR OR RECTILINEAR CONTINUOUS STYLES.

PART I.-FLOWING CURVILINEAR DECORATED. (From about 1313 to about the middle of the reign of Edward III. 1357.)

HE next point to be considered in the history of Medieval Architecture is the development of curved or flowing forms in window tracery. The style in which this feature is first developed is distinguished by its departure from the real Mediæval principle of verticality and unity by means of the subordination of parts, and the establishment of a totally different principle, which was that of verticality and unity by means of the fusion, blending together, or leading into each other of the different parts.

This feature is especially to be noticed in, and was no doubt first developed by, the introduction of ogival forms into the tracery, instead of circles and

trefoils, &c., and the Ogee arch. The lights generally three or four in number, and the mullions,

FIG. 112. LLAN TYSILIO CHURCH, ANGLESEA.

instead of terminating with the arch of the lights, are continued upwards in intermingling, wavy, or

flowing lines to the top of the window, melting as it were finally into the mouldings of the window

arch, and forming by their intersections elongated and pear-shaped apertures, which are usually foliated or cusped.

While the pure geometrical forms of the circle, triangle, trefoil, quatrefoil, and cinquefoil continued in use, this style could not possibly have been developed, but when the pointed oval form of the Vesica Piscis began to be substituted for the circle, the way was opened for the introduction of curved forms to fit in and blend themselves with it, and so the vital principle of subordination was threatened, and ultimately superseded by that of fusion. The period of transition between the two styles could not have been long, indeed it can scarcely be said that there was any, although there are some large windows in existence which contain both the pure Geometrical and the Curvilinear forms, such as the west window of York Minster, and the east window of Carlisle Cathedral.

The windows of the Latin Chapel at Oxford Cathedral may be mentioned as pure examples of the flowing tracery characteristic of this style.

The accompanying cut of a window in Oxford Cathedral will better illustrate the principle (fig. 1 14).

It consists of three cinquefoiled lights of equal height; upon the point of the arch of the centre light stands a vesica piscis or pointed oval, which

of

thus continues the two mullions up to the top the window, the points of the arches of the sidelights being continued on to the upper side of the vesica, so that they are likewise continued up to the apex of the window arch, while the spaces between the tops of the lights are foliated, and the spaces between the continuation of the points of the sidelights and the window-arch are divided diagonally from end to end, so as to form two elongated figures

which are cusped on the inside. The inside of the vesica is also divided diagonally into four compartments, each of which is foliated or cusped. It will be observed that both the mullions and the whole of the tracery are connected together in a flowing form from one figure to another right up to the top of the window, and by taking the first two lights on either side of the window, and following them up to the side of the vesica, we have the form of the Ogee arch so much used in this style.

The Ogee arch now introduced into this style is quite in accordance with the new principle. It has not that completeness of form and individual character which is to be noticed in the round, lancet, and equilateral arches, but seems to invite a continuation upwards. It is mostly used in the tracery of windows and arcades, but is also used in doorways, porches, pier-arches, niches, and canopies. The north porch of the Abbey of Westminster,

FIG. 115. OGEE ARCH.

unquestionably one of the very finest remaining specimens of Early English doorways, is somewhat disfigured by having an Ogee termination upon. the top of the arch, a feature not usually found in any specimen of Gothic architecture for many years after the period to which that porch belongs, and which is, as is already explained, totally at variance with the principle of the rest of the architecture of the building.