Decorated Gothic today … Three examples of which sit together in the photo above,
There were three phases of Gothic window design in Plantagenet England, coming after the Romanesque Saxo-Norman style: first up was Early English Gothic (a very simple lancet arch) and last up was Perpendicular Gothic (huge, and not particularly subtle), which I'll probably post at some time.
In between came the most decorative of the three, the (duh) "Decorated" Gothic style (pictured above).
Looks like the client for Howden Church above couldn't decide which pattern to use so had one of each made up. It's not uncommon to find this as stonemasons liked to show off and Decorated Gothic gave them plenty of opportunity.
Decorated Gothic involved lots of ogees, trefoils and quatrefoils in organic, plant-like swirly patterns, like the drawing above.
The Victorians tried to revive it with Victorian Gothick but got it wrong is just about every way, as the Victorians were wont to do with everything. It would cause me physical pain to post some of their atrocities but I'll probably do it anyway.
Toodle pip!
3 comments:
I like them all, of course. And I probably wouldn't have noticed any differences if you hadn't pointed them out. It's all Gothic to me, all pretty. Not my favorite, but pretty.
And look at that lovely drawing, made with a straight-edge and a compass!
Yup, the old stuff is the best stuff. Much like people.
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