Decorated Gothic

Origins

Early English Gothic

Gothic architecture was introduced to England from France in the 1170s. However, English cathedral masons took it in a very different direction to France: instead of aiming to create a prodigiously high building, lit by large windows and supported by flying buttresses, they remained content with the low proportions and thick walls that had characterised Norman architecture, instead using the Gothic as a new form of surface enrichment.^[1] This could be seen even in the earliest English Gothic buildings, like Lincoln, where columns were surrounded by shafts of Purbeck marble, solid walls were cloaked in layers of blind arcading, and vaults, while low, were elaborated from the simple quadripartite type into tierceron forms.^[2]

Geometrical Decorated

Curvilinear Decorated

The Eleanor Crosses

In 1290, Eleanor of Castile, beloved queen of Edward I, died in Nottinghamshire. To commemorate her, Edward commissioned crosses to be erected at each point where her body rested on its journey to London. Of these, those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross survive. These elaborately-sculpted monuments are densely coated in niches of exotic form, a concept termed micro-architecture. In addition, they used complex plan geometry, being based on hexagons and triangles. Another feature was the split, or Kentish, cusp, which broke the order of Geometrical tracery, leading to flowing tracery.^[9] This started by subtly disrupting the patterns of arches and circles, before abandoning them altogether in favour of rippling concoctions of mouchettes and daggers.

Wider adoption

By c.1300, the Curvilinear style was in general use across cathedral architecture, from Carlisle to Canterbury. Its gradual adoption can be seen in the nave at Exeter, where the traceries get freer towards the west of the building.^[11] The Curvilinear style was especially prominent along the east coast, where elaborate regional schools of tracery can be found around Canterbury and Norwich as well as in Lincolnshire, and around Bristol, where there was bold experimentation with polygonal plans and flying vaults, as well as a preference for ballflower ornamentation. A later development was the 'nodding' ogee, in which the arch leans forwards, entirely divorced from structural concerns, as at Ely Lady Chapel.

Replacement by Perpendicular

Around the year 1330, designers began to look again at the possibilities presented by St Stephen's Chapel, and in particular by the descending window mullions dissolving the walls of the lower chapel. These were used at the chapter house of Old St Paul's (1332, by William Ramsey, destroyed after the Great Fire of 1666) and the south transept of Gloucester (1331, now the cathedral), to make the walls disappear behind a stone scaffolding.^[12] This new form of architecture, now known as Perpendicular Gothic, was more austere and standardised than the Decorated, taking the arched panel as its basic unit just as the Rayonnant had the window mullion. Although the influence of the style was initially limited, the combined effects of royal patronage and the death of much of the workforce in the Black Death meant that it was well-established by the mid-14th century.

Ironically, at the moment the Decorated was falling out of fashion in England, the movement was taken up in France, with the potential of ogees and the defiance of structural logic being taken still further in the Flamboyant style.

Window tracery

Windows were seen by the Victorians as the defining features of the Gothic styles, and they were, inasmuch as they determined the methods of wall construction. Early bar tracery consisted of dividing the arch into sub-arches, with foiled circles above, provided that the window had an even number of lights. An early variant was Y-tracery, in which the sub-arches were steeper and the circle was omitted. When extended across a larger window, this became intersecting tracery. These were the forms of Geometrical Decorated.

In the flowing tracery of the Curvilinear style, the arches and circles were gradually replaced by forms derived from the ogee. An early type was fishnet tracery, seen at Wells, which evolved into reticulated tracery. In both these types, a single unit is repeated across the window. However, there were many more elaborate forms of flowing tracery. These often had an underlying geometry of major subdivisions, concealed by many flickering minor subdivisions. Notable flowing windows include the west window of York (the so-called heart of Yorkshire), the east window of Carlisle and the east window of Selby Abbey. Lincolnshire was a major centre of flowing tracery due to its good-quality, easily-worked limestone.^[13]

Vaults

Unlike in French Gothic, vaults were one of the principal locations for ornament. The tierceron vault had been developed at Lincoln in the Early English period, but became the general cathedral form in Geometrical buildings, most notably Exeter Cathedral. One variant of the tierceron is the palm vault, where the ribs radiate from a central column, as at the chapter house of Wells.

The introduction of the lierne vault, with minor ribs linking the main ones, was one of the features that began the Curvilinear, derived like so many others from St Stephen's Chapel. It gave masons an opportunity to play with geometry, creating patterns of stars, diamonds and octagons.^[14]

Towers and spires

In this period, church towers were always topped with spires - where this is not the case, as at Lincoln, it is because they have been later removed. Tower buttresses took a variety of forms, but the most typical type was the angle buttress, rising to polygonal pinnacles. Hexagonal pinnacles were briefly in fashion in the 1330s, e.g. at Grantham, but the usual form was octagonal.^[15] Spires could be over either broach form, oversailing the tower, or recessed form, set behind the parapet.^[16] In contrast to the soaring towers, the buildings themselves tended to look boxier, with low-pitched lead roofs hidden behind battlements, like the eastern chapels of Exeter.^[17]

Plan forms

In general, churches followed the plan forms of the Early English period, with long naves and transepts, tall crossing towers and squared-off east ends. This is unsurprising, as few major churches were built from scratch. However, there were significant experiments with polygonal forms. Octagonal chapter houses had long been fashionable for secular cathedrals, and this was continued at York, Southwell and Wells. Wells took the polygonal fascination to new lengths, with a stretched octagonal Lady Chapel requiring odd triangular vaulted spaces to connect it to the main church.^[18] Ely brought the octagon into the church itself, removing the entire collapsed Norman crossing to open up the centre of the building with a vast stone and timber lantern.^[19] A parallel development was a minor fashion for hexagonal porches, at Ludlow, St Mary Redcliffe and Chipping Norton.

Sculpture

The Geometrical period saw the introduction of naturalistic foliage sculpture, of which the finest is at Southwell, replacing the earlier stiff-leaf. This was in turn replaced by a more standardised and stylised 'bubbly' foliage in Curvilinear Decorated, producing the hazy, all-over rippling seen in the buildings as a whole. In addition, figure sculpture became less formal, as may be seen by comparing the kings on the west front of Lincoln Cathedral with the saints on that of Wells. External figure sculpture as a whole became more widespread, with grotesques of monsters and mooning men atop churches, and carved fighting men hurling rocks atop castles. More standardised ornamentation was also used, with ballflower being popular in the south-west, and fleurons (square flowers) dominating later on. In the Curvilinear period, wave mouldings gave buildings a smooth, rippling texture at odds with the crisp linearity of earlier.

Micro-architecture

The features of Decorated, and especially Curvilinear, could be used at any scale. Hence, where a building could have tracery, vaults and pinnacles, the canopy of a pinnacle could also have tracery, niches and pinnacles. This fractal nature gave the Curvilinear much of its luxuriousness. Micro-architecture also unified the arts to a greater degree than before, so that architectural details could be seen not just on a church, but also on its screens, stalls, tombs and reliquaries. Battlements were another feature that could be used at any scale, reflecting the feudal fantasies of the nobility.

Military architecture

In castle architecture, the Decorated era was marked a new complexity and massiveness. The reign of Edward I, crusader and Arthurian enthusiast, was a high point of courtly romantic culture and feudal exuberance, and castle building was an important aspect of that.^[20] Many particularly large castles were built at this time due to Edward's conquest of the Welsh in the 1270s-80s. The ubiquitous round tower of the 13th century was occasionally superseded by the polygonal tower, as at Caernarfon, Denbigh and Knaresborough, which both echoed Roman fortifications and linked to the complex spatial experiments seen in churches at the same time.^[21] The geometry of the great tower at Knaresborough is particularly elaborate, intersecting an octagon with an equilateral triangle.^[22] The upper parts of castles became increasingly crowded, echoing the micro-architecture seen in churches and providing a fine feudal-looking silhouette, as at Caernarfon, where the Eagle Tower bristles with three turrets, themselves topped with carved eagles. The introduction of the machicolation, probably first seen in Britain at Conwy (1283-87), added another way to decorate castle wallheads, as well as improving defence.^[23] There was a tendency in the details of castle architecture to evoke strength and massiveness through the use of heavy wave-mouldings, as at Caernarfon.^[21]

Domestic architecture

The most notable development in domestic architecture was the crystallisation of the standard tripartite plan of manor houses in the late 13th century. This consisted of a central hall, with an entrance screened off at one end and a dais for the lord's high table at the other. At each end of the hall was a cross wing. That at the 'high' end housed the lord's chamber on the first floor, while that at the 'low' end housed the kitchen, buttery and pantry. The principal locations for architectural decoration were the main entrance, and the windows and roof of hall and chamber. Many houses had some form of fortification, though whether this was for defence of display is a matter of debate, with more recent historiography tending towards the latter. Door and window details generally followed church architecture, though naturally the traceries were simpler. However, this did not preclude high-quality stonework, as may be seen at the near-intact Penshurst Place, built in the 1340s, where the windows are in the fashionable Kentish style.^[24] Roofs were an increasingly prominent feature, as halls became aisleless, requiring feats of carpentry to span them. Occasionally stone arches were used, as at Mayfield Palace, but a more common solution was the arch-braced roof, of which Penshurst Place has a good example. Towards the end of the period, the hammer-beam roof was developed, first at Pilgrims' Hall, Winchester.

Bristol Cathedral

The east end was rebuilt to a very unusual hallenkirche form, where the aisles are as high as the nave. The vaulting is also experimental, with that over the aisles being carried on flying bridges, while in one chapel the ribs and webbing are separated.^[25]

Bristol, St Mary Redcliffe

Regarded as one of the finest parish churches in the country, and completely rebuilt in the later Middle Ages. The building is cruciform and vaulted throughout, with a high north-west spire (much-restored) and a hexagonal north porch featuring Persian-inspired portals.^[26]

Carlisle Cathedral

The east end was rebuilt after a fire in 1291, retaining the Early English aisles. The nave is not vaulted, but has harmonious proportions. The large east window has fine curvilinear tracery, with some original glass.^[27]

Caernarfon Castle

Begun by Edward I in 1283 and never completed, it was to have been the capital of his new Welsh colony. Its polygonal towers and carved eagles are redolent with imperial references, but it also has the heavy mouldings and complex planning of Decorated architecture in for normal circumstances, especially in the gatehouse, designed by Walter of Hereford.^[21]

Ely Cathedral

A large new Lady Chapel, almost detached from the north transept, was begun in 1321. Unfortunately, the crossing tower collapsed the next year, forcing resources to be diverted to repair. The heart of the Norman building was entirely removed, with a large stone octagon 69 feet across opening up the centre. This supports timber tierceron vaults, which in turn conceal hammer-beams carrying a timber octagon rotated 12.5 degrees, a remarkable conceit. The choir also had to be rebuilt, in a form which matches the proportions of the (already rich) 13th century presbytery, but coats them in further ornament and sinuous tracery. After this, work on the Lady Chapel was resumed, and finally completed in 1373. Its (now defaced) niches with nodding ogees are some of the most elaborate in the country, while its windows already look towards the Perpendicular. The low-pitched lierne vault is the widest to survive, spanning 46 feet.^[28]

Exeter Cathedral

Except for the transeptal towers, the church was entirely rebuilt from the 1270s onwards. The work at the east end, originally two-storeyed, was remodelled to incorporate the modish triforium seen in the nave. The lack of a crossing means the tierceron vault can run through the whole building, the longest surviving church vault. The traceries become more flowing towards the west end, which has a screen of sculpted kings. The pulpitum, choir stalls and bishop's throne are original.^[11]

Hereford Cathedral

The north transept is directly derived from Westminster, being a relatively orthodox Rayonnant, though with unusual near-triangular arches.^[29] The central tower is a bulky piece of West-Country Decorated, with complicated paired buttresses dripping with ballflower and formerly carrying a spire.^[30]

Lichfield Cathedral

The Gothic rebuilding of the church was completed in the Decorated period, and the nave is a smaller Geometrical offshoot of Westminster. The west front is very flat in the English manner, still retaining spires on the towers.^[6] Once the nave was complete, rebuilding began again at the east end, with an unusual polygonal-apsed Lady Chapel.^[31]

Lincoln Cathedral

The Angel Choir at the east end was built in 1256-80, one of the earliest examples of Geometrical Decorated. Its spandrel sculptures of angels derive from Westminster. The east window is the first eight-lighter ever built, while the clerestory introduces spatial complexity by having a second layer of open tracery behind the main windows. Later Decorated works are the cloister (1296, Geometrical with timber vaults) two arches into the choir aisles, with carving on the cusp of stiff-leaf and naturalism, the crossing tower (1307-11, formerly with the tallest spire in the world), the pulpitum, entirely covered in carving, and the Bishop's Eye south rose window (1330s), to an unusual pattern like two leaves.^[7]

Penshurst Place

Built after 1341 for Sir John Pulteney, this is one of the best preserved 14th century houses. Its window tracery is similar to that of contemporary Kentish churches, and its chestnut roof is hugely impressive.^[24]

Saint Stephen's Chapel, Westminster

This building, though small and now all but destroyed, was one of the most architecturally important in England. It brought together ogees, split cusps and micro-architecture in a gorgeous chapel, of which only the heavily-restored lower chapel survived the fire of 1834.

Salisbury Cathedral

The octagonal chapter house and cloister are Westminster-derived Rayonnant work, with four-light windows.^[32] The famed tower and spire are an addition of the 1330s, now the tallest in the country, and richly decorated with ballflower without detracting from its verticality.^[30]

Southwell Minster

This dependency of York gained a chapter house, shrunk from that at York, in the 1290s. Its stone vault has no central pier. The entrance and canons' stalls are decorated with some of the country's finest naturalistic foliage, praised by Pevsner in The Leaves of Southwell. By the time the vault was erected, the foliage was already starting to become stylised again.^[33] The pulpitum is closely related to that at Lincoln.^[34]

Tewkesbury Abbey

The east end of this Norman church was rebuilt to house the Despencers' mausoleum, unusually retaining the chevet plan, but overlaying it with complex polygonal geometry. The survival of the original stained glass and tombs give a good impression of the crowded richness that characterised churches before the Reformation. The lierne vaults added to the whole building are some of the most elaborate to survive anywhere.^[14]

Wells Cathedral

The chapter house is raised above a crypt, with a famous branching staircase rising to it. Inside is a palm vault. After the chapter house was completed, attention moved to the east end of the church, with a new octagonal lady chapel and rectangular presbytery connected by a complex retrochoir. The east window tracery is almost Perpendicular in spirit. The central tower followed, but soon became unstable, with scissor arches being inserted by William Joy.^[35]

Westminster Abbey

The rebuilding of Westminster after 1245, though plagued by delays, was crucial to the formation of the Decorated. While English masons ignored the great height and chevet, the bar tracery, surface ornamentation and naturalistic foliage were immediately popular, and formed much of the basis of Geometrical Decorated.

York Minster

Rebuilding of the Norman church continued with the nave, begun in 1291 but not completed until the 1360s. The building has the thin walls and brittleness of the Rayonnant, and the west front has more depth and grander portals than are usual in England. However, the great west window is a late blossoming of Curvilinear, the lierne vault is timber, and the tower tops are Perpendicular. The octagonal chapter house was the subject of a separate campaign, completed in 1342. It has no central pier, so the vault is again of timber. The windows are geometrical, still with much of their original stained glass, and this, combined with the syncopated rippling of the stalls, gives the building the dream-like shimmering characteristic of the Decorated.^[36]