Chapter IX · CURVILINEAR PERIOD.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTIC.

FLOWING TRACERY IN THE WINDOWS, AND THE PREVALENCE OF THE OGEE CURVE IN ALL THE DETAILS.

Exterior Compartment.

As the Circle characterises the previous Period, so the Ogee marks the present Period. It is found not only in the principal outline of the tracery, but also in its smaller subdivisions; not only in the profiles of the mouldings, but also in the contour of the foliage and carved work.

The Windows are the most important features in the Churches of this Period. In the more important buildings they are frequently of great size and elaborate design, and in the smaller buildings, the rest of the work seems often to have been impoverished for the sake of the Windows.

The infinite variety of design that is contained in the Tracery of this Period is very remarkable, and distinguishes its Architecture, in a manner not to be mistaken, from that of other nations during the same Period.

The Base-course carries a series of mouldings in which the Ogee profile is almost invariably found. The String-courses, Hood-mouldings, and Set-offs exhibit it also.

The Buttresses are usually divided into a greater number of equal stages; their canopies, and those of their pinnacles, are invariably richly crocketed, and have usually the Ogee form instead of the straight pedimental finish.

The Cornice carries usually a row of large square pateras of foliage, in a shallow hollow, and is often surmounted with a battlement, or a parapet pierced or panelled with a flowing trefoil or a quatrefoil.

The Ball-flower which appeared at the end of the previous Period, became a favourite ornament for a short time in the commencement of this Period.

Interior Compartment.

The Piers are usually disposed in plan in the form of a diamond; and consist generally of four shafts with intervening hollows. The Bases and Capitals are not unfrequently octagonal in form; and the foliage of the latter consists of crumpled leaves, not growing out of the neck of the capital, as in the earlier Periods, but apparently attached to it, or bound round it.

The mouldings of the Pier-arches are fewer in number; they are shallower than those of the preceding Period, and often contain the double Ogee; the walls being thinner, the arches frequently carry, in this Period, as well as in the following one, only two orders of mouldings instead of three. The small square patera, consisting of four leaves, is a common ornament of the Period, and all the foliage is formed of peculiar crumpled leaves, which are easily distinguished from those of the preceding Period.

It is not uncommon in this Period to find the arch mouldings continued, without the intervention of impost or capital, down to the ground; or, inversely, the mouldings of the piers carried uninterruptedly upwards through the arch. This is the case as well in the arches of the Ground-story, as in the windows and doorways.

The Triforium rarely occurs in its full proportions, and in such cases exhibits the usual window tracery of the Period: it oftener consists of a panel enclosed within the prolonged jambs of the Clere-story window, and is sometimes reduced to a row of quatrefoils.

The Clere-story has its inner arch sometimes foliated, but oftener the window is flush with the face of the inner wall, and the gallery is omitted.

The Vaulting exhibits much more intricacy; and a variety of ribs generally intersect the surface of the different cells.

The Aisle-arcade is not often seen.

PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS OF THE CURVILINEAR PERIOD.

HowdenCollegiate ChurchChoir.

ElyCathedral ChurchLantern.

ElyCathedral ChurchChoir.

ElyCathedral ChurchCrauden's Chapel.

ElyCathedral ChurchTrinity Chapel.

HinghamSt. Andrew's ChurchNave.

HeckingtonSt. Andrew's ChurchChancel, Transepts, Nave.

HawtonAll Saints' ChurchChancel.

EwerbySt. Andrew's ChurchChancel, Nave.

SleafordSt. Giles' ChurchNave.

ChesterCathedral ChurchSouth Transept.

CoventrySt. John's HospitalChapel.

CarlisleCathedral ChurchChoir (part).

NewarkSt. Mary's ChurchSouth Aisle.

BeverleySt. Mary's ChurchNorth Aisle of Choir.

SelbyAbbey ChurchChoir (part).

WalsinghamAbbey ChurchChoir.

ChesterCathedral ChurchSouth Transept.

NantwichSt. Mary's ChurchChancel.

MelroseAbbey ChurchNave, Transept.

BoltonAbbey ChurchChoir.

BostonSt. Botolph's ChurchNave.

LichfieldCathedral ChurchChoir.

WellsCathedral ChurchChoir, Lady Chapel.

Bury St. Edmund'sAbbeyGateway.

HullHoly Trinity ChurchChancel.