perpendicular Gothic

{{Short description|Third historical division of English Gothic architecture}}

File:King's College Chapel, Cambridge - The Great East Window.jpg, Great East Window (four-centred arch, straight mullions and transoms)]]

File:Gloucester Cathedral High Altar, Gloucestershire, UK - Diliff.jpg of Gloucester Cathedral ({{Circa|1337–1357}})|alt=]]

Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-centred arches, straight vertical and horizontal lines in the tracery, and regular arch-topped rectangular panelling.{{Citation|title=Perpendicular|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-3451|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|year=2015|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|edition=3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-05-16|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|url-access=subscription}}{{Citation|title=Perpendicular Gothic|date=2018|url=https://www.bloomsburyarchitecturelibrary.com/dictionary-article?docid=b-9781350122741&tocid=b-9781350122741-gloss-0001815|work=Sir Banister Fletcher Glossary|editor-last=Fraser|editor-first=Murray|publisher=Royal Institute of British Architects and the University of London|language=en|doi=10.5040/9781350122741.1001816|isbn=978-1-350-12274-1|quote=English idiom from about 1330 to 1640, characterised by large windows, regularity of ornate detailing, and grids of panelling that extend over walls, windows and vaults.|access-date=2020-08-26|url-access=subscription}} Perpendicular was the prevailing style of Late Gothic architecture in England from the 14th century to the 17th century. Perpendicular was unique to the country: no equivalent arose in Continental Europe or elsewhere in the British-Irish Isles. Of all the Gothic architectural styles, Perpendicular was the first to experience a second wave of popularity from the 18th century on in Gothic Revival architecture.

The pointed arches used in Perpendicular were often four-centred arches, allowing them to be rather wider and flatter than in other Gothic styles. Perpendicular tracery is characterized by mullions that rise vertically as far as the soffit of the window, with horizontal transoms frequently decorated with miniature crenellations. Blind panels covering the walls continued the strong straight lines of verticals and horizontals established by the tracery. Together with flattened arches and roofs, crenellations, hood mouldings, lierne vaulting, and fan vaulting were the typical stylistic features.

The first Perpendicular style building was designed in {{Circa|1332}} by William de Ramsey: a chapter house for Old St Paul's Cathedral, the cathedral of the bishop of London. The chancel of Gloucester Cathedral ({{Circa|1337–1357}}) and its latter 14th-century cloisters are early examples. Four-centred arches were often used, and lierne vaults seen in early buildings were developed into fan vaults, first at the latter 14th-century chapter house of Hereford Cathedral (demolished 1769) and cloisters at Gloucester, and then at Reginald Ely's King's College Chapel, Cambridge (1446–1461) and the brothers William and Robert Vertue's Henry VII Chapel ({{Circa|1503–1512}}) at Westminster Abbey.{{Citation|title=Ely, Reginald|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-1660|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|year=2015|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-05-16|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|url-access=subscription}}{{Citation|title=Vertue, Robert|date=2015|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4936|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-05-16|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|url-access=subscription}}

The architect and art historian Thomas Rickman's Attempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England, first published in 1812, divided Gothic architecture in the British Isles into three stylistic periods.{{Cite book|last=Rickman|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JO3AAAAIAAJ|title=An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England: From the Conquest to the Reformation|publisher=J. H. Parker|year=1848|edition=5th|location=London|pages=lxiii|language=en|author-link=Thomas Rickman|orig-year=1812}} The third and final style – Perpendicular – Rickman characterised as mostly belonging to buildings built from the reign of Richard II ({{Reign|1377|1399}}) to that of Henry VIII ({{Reign|1509|1547}}). From the 15th century, under the House of Tudor, the prevailing Perpendicular style is commonly known as Tudor architecture, being ultimately succeeded by Elizabethan architecture and Renaissance architecture under Elizabeth I ({{Reign|1558|1603}}).{{Citation|title=Tudor|date=2015|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4821|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|edition=3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-04-09|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|url-access=subscription}} Rickman had excluded from his scheme most new buildings after Henry VIII's reign, calling the style of "additions and rebuilding" in the later 16th and earlier 17th centuries "often much debased".

Perpendicular followed the Decorated Gothic (or Second Pointed) style and preceded the arrival of Renaissance elements in Tudor and Elizabethan architecture.Encyclopaedia Britannica on-line, "Perpendicular Gothic", retrieved August 19, 2020 As a Late Gothic style contemporary with Flamboyant in France and elsewhere in Europe, the heyday of Perpendicular is traditionally dated from 1377 until 1547, or from the beginning of the reign of Richard II to the beginning the reign of Edward VI.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|p=loc. 204}} Though the style rarely appeared on the European continent, it was dominant in England until the mid-16th century.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|p=152}}File:Wenceslas Hollar - St Paul's. Chapter House (State 1).jpg ({{Circa|1332}}) at Old St Paul's Cathedral (by Wenceslaus Hollar)]]

File:St Georges Chapel Windsor Castle.jpg]]

File:Tomb of Edward II, Gloucester Cathedral 02.jpg in Gloucester Cathedral]]

History

In 1906 William Lethaby, Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, proposed that the origin of the Perpendicular style was to be found not in 14th-century Gloucester, as was traditionally argued, but in London, where the court of the House of Plantagenet was based at Westminster Palace beside Westminster Abbey.{{Cite book|last=Lethaby|first=William Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3OU0AQAAMAAJ|title=Westminster Abbey & the King's Craftsmen: A Study of Mediæval Building|date=1906|publisher=E. P. Dutton|isbn=978-0-405-08745-5|language=en|author-link=William Lethaby}} The cathedral of London, the episcopal see of the third-most senior bishop in the Church of England, was then Old St Paul's Cathedral. According to the architectural historian John Harvey, the octagonal chapter house of St Paul's, built about 1332 by William Ramsey for the cathedral canons, was the earliest example of Perpendicular Gothic.{{Cite journal|last=Harvey|first=John H.|date=1946|title=St. Stephen's Chapel and the Origin of the Perpendicular Style|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/869300|journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs|volume=88|issue=521|pages=192–199|jstor=869300|issn=0951-0788}}{{Cite book|last=Harvey|first=John Hooper|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yxUAAAAMAAJ|title=The Perpendicular Style, 1330-1485|publisher=Batsford|year=1978|isbn=978-0-7134-1610-7|location=London|pages=105|language=en|author-link=John Harvey (historian)}} Alec Clifton-Taylor agreed that St Paul's chapter house and St Stephen's Chapel at Westminster Palace predate the early Perpendicular work at Gloucester.{{Cite book|last=Clifton-Taylor|first=Alec|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2631377|title=The Cathedrals of England|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1967|isbn=0-500-20062-9|series=World of Art|location=London|pages=196|oclc=2631377}} In the early 21st century the outline of the foundations of the chapter house was made visible in the redeveloped south churchyard of the present 17th-century cathedral.{{Cite news|last=Peterkin|first=Tom|date=2008-06-04|title=St Paul's Cathedral opens new South Churchyard|language=en-GB|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2074873/St-Pauls-Cathedral-opens-new-South-Churchyard.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2074873/St-Pauls-Cathedral-opens-new-South-Churchyard.html |archive-date=2022-01-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2020-08-28|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}

The chapter house at St Paul's was built under the direction of William de Ramsey, who had worked on earlier phases of the still-unfinished St Stephens's Chapel. Ramsey extended the stone mullions of the windows downwards on the walls. At the top of each window he made a four-centred arch which became a distinctive feature of Perpendicular.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|p=152}} Along with rest of Old St Paul's, the chapter house was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Elements of early Perpendicular are also known from St Stephen's Chapel at Westminster Palace, a palatine chapel built by King Edward I following the model of Sainte-Chapelle at the Palais de la Cité in medieval Paris. It was built in phases over a long period, from 1292 until 1348, though today only the crypt exists. The architect of the early building was Michael of Canterbury, followed in 1323 by his son Thomas. One of the original decorative features was a kind of blind tracery; blank vertical panels with cusped, or angular tops in the interior; and, on the exterior, thin stone mullions or ribs extending downward below the windows creating perpendicular spaces. These became the most characteristic feature of the style.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|p=152}}

The earliest Perpendicular in a major church is the choir of Gloucester Cathedral (1337–1350) constructed when the south transept and choir of the then Benedictine abbey church (Gloucester was not a bishopric until after the Dissolution of the Monasteries) were rebuilt in 1331–1350. It was likely the work of one of the royal architects, either William de Ramsey, who had worked on the London cathedral chapter house, or Thomas of Canterbury, who was architect to the king when the transept of Gloucester Cathedral was begun. The architect preserved the original 11th-century walls, covering them with Flamboyant mullions and panels. The east window of Gloucester choir has a Tudor arch, filling the wall with glass. The window tracery matches the tracery on the walls.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|p=153}}

During the reign of Edward III the style began to dominate at the Court, especially at the redevelopment of Windsor Castle, where John Sponlee designed the buildings to house Edward's neo-Arthurian fancies. Of these the Dean's Cloister and Aerary Porch survive and exhibit early Perpendicular blind tracery and lierne vaults.{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=John |title=The Perpendicular Style |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |isbn=0-7134-1610-6 |location=London |pages=84}}

The style attained maturity under Henry Yevele and William Wynford in the later 14th century. Yevele designed works for the King and Court, such as Westminster Hall, Portchester Castle and the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, while Wynford predominantly worked for Bishop Wykeham of Winchester on the nave of the cathedral itself as well as his educational foundations of New College, Oxford and Winchester College.{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=John |title=The Perpendicular Style |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |isbn=0-7134-1610-6 |location=London |pages=97–136}} By c.1400 the style was widespread across the country, from Melrose in Scotland to Wells in Somerset.

Under the pious Henry VI the official style of the Court became relatively austere, as seen at the chapels of King's College, Cambridge and Eton College.{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=John |title=The Perpendicular Style |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |isbn=0-7134-1610-6 |location=London |pages=185–186}} However, the original intentions at both buildings are now obscured as the building work continued long after the King was overthrown, with design changes resulting in increasing ornamentation. The same process occurred at the Divinity School, Oxford.

In the later 15th century, the pendulum swung back towards elaboration, especially under the Tudors. John Harvey considered this change to be significant enough to merit Tudor Gothic being considered as a separate style,{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=John |title=The Perpendicular Style |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |isbn=0-7134-1610-6 |location=London |pages=13}} with greater continental influence, but this position is not widely held. At this period many of the most dazzling vaults were constructed, such as those by John Wastell at Peterborough Abbey (now a cathedral) and King's College chapel. These were both straightforward fan vaults, but pendant vaulting also reached its apogee with those over St Frideswide's Priory (now Oxford Cathedral) and the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, a major example of the late Perpendicular style. Another important example is St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, begun in 1475. The vault of the chapel was contracted to the master-mason John Aylmer in 1506.{{Citation|title=Aylmer, John|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-342|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|year=2015|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|edition=3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-05-16|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|url-access=subscription}}

File:Gloucester Cathedral 11.jpg lady chapel]]

Characteristics

Towers were exceptionally tall, and frequently had battlements. Spires were less frequent than in earlier periods. Buttresses were often placed at the corners of the tower, the best position for providing maximum support. Notable Perpendicular towers include those of York Minster and Gloucester Cathedral, and the churches of Boston (Lincolnshire){{Clarify|reason=|date=August 2020}}, Wrexham and Taunton.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=335}}
Stained glass windows were so large that the walls between were reduced to little more than piers. Horizontal mullions, called "transoms", often had to be added to the windows to give them greater stability.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=327}}
Tracery was a major feature of decoration. In the larger churches, the entire surface from ground to summit, including the battlements, was covered with panels of tracery composed of thin stone mullions. It also appeared frequently in the interior, and often carried the designs in the window tracery down to the floor.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=335}} Tracery designs were less varied, with three main types: angular reticulation, common in the west of England, panel tracery, seen in the east, and the Court style, characterised by sub-arches filled with inverted daggers in the side lights.{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=John |title=The Perpendicular Style |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |isbn=0-7134-1610-6 |location=London |pages=63, 71, 153}}
Roofs were frequently made of lead, and usually had a gentle slope, to make them easier for walking{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}. The roof timbers on the interior were often exposed to view from below, and had ornamental supports.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=335}} In this period the hammerbeam roof was used over select high-status buildings.
Vaults of stone were frequently elaborate and highly decorative. The most common types on major buildings were fan vaults and lierne vaults, both of which could be further elaborated with pendants. The increased weight of the vaults caused by the ornament was countered by larger buttresses on the exterior.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=335}}
Columns were generally octagonal in section, with octagonal bases and capitals. In greater churches shafting was commonplace, and could be carried up above the capitals to unify the elevation vertically. The capitals were usually decorated with moulded or carved oak leaves, or with corbels of shields or armorial symbols, or with the Tudor rose.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=352}} In more advanced buildings, capitals became less prominent.
Fourth-centred arches or Tudor arches were commonly used in windows and tracery and for vaults and doorways, though the two-centred arch dominated until late in the period.
The interiors had richly carved woodwork, particularly in the choir stalls, which often featured carved grotesque figures on the bench ends called "poppy heads", from {{Langx|fr|poupée|lit=doll}}.{{Sfn|Smith|1922|loc=352}} Pulpits and benches became more common in churches with the increased emphasis on preaching. Chantry chapels appeared in major churches, either as screened-off sections or structural editions, paid for by wealthy individuals or guilds.

Examples

Palace of Westminster, St Stephen's Chapel (largely destroyed), Westminster Hall
Old St Paul's, London, Chapter House (destroyed)
Gloucester Cathedral, recasing of transepts, choir and presbytery, cloister, tower, Lady Chapel, west front
Hereford Cathedral, Chapter House (destroyed)
Windsor Castle, Dean's Cloister, St George's Chapel
Westminster Abbey, cloister (heavily restored), nave, Henry VI's Chantry, Henry VII's Chapel
Winchester Cathedral, west front, recasing of nave, choir
Canterbury Cathedral, nave, cloister, remodelling of Chapter House, south-west tower, Bell Harry Tower, Christ Church Gate
New College, Oxford
Winchester College
King's College, Cambridge, Chapel
Eton College
Maidstone College
Norwich Cathedral, cloister, choir clerestory, vaults, spire
York Minster, retrochoir, choir, towers
Durham Cathedral, central tower
Tattershall, Castle tower and collegiate church
Coventry Cathedral (formerly St Michael's Church, now in ruins)
Magdalen College, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford, vault of cathedral, Tom Quad (never fully completed)
St Mary's Church, Warwick, choir and Beaufort Chapel
Peterborough Cathedral, New Building (retrochoir)
Great Malvern Priory, everything except the nave arcades
Melrose Abbey, presbytery
Lavenham Church
Long Melford Church
Bath Abbey
Manchester Cathedral
South Wingfield Manor
Hampton Court Palace (with some early Renaissance influence)

Gallery

File:WinchesterCathedral-west-wyrdlight.jpg|Winchester Cathedral west front

File:St. Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle (2).jpg|St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle (1475–)

File:Sherborne abbey.jpg|Sherborne Abbey

File:MK17792 Eton College Chapel.jpg|Eton College Chapel

File:Henry VII Chapel Westminster Abbey (5133296937).jpg|Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey (1503–), with Perpendicular tracery and blind panels.

File:Chapel_and_Cloisters,_New_College.jpg|New College Chapel, Oxford

File:Collegiate Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Katherine & All Saints, Edington (14642630549).jpg|Edington Priory west front: Decorated and Perpendicular

File:Warwick, St Mary's church, Beauchamp chapel (36583800662).jpg|Beauchamp Chapel, Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick

File:Manchester Cathedral Choir.jpg|Manchester Cathedral chancel

File:1 christ church hall 2012.jpg|Hall of Christ Church, Oxford

File:HullMinster43.jpg|Hull Minster nave

File:St. Giles church, Wrexham.jpg|St Giles' Church, Wrexham

File:Merton College Chapel from just north of the Meadow.jpg|Merton College Chapel tower

File:Gloucester Cathedral Choir.jpg|Gloucester Cathedral, choir and chancel

File:Bath Abbey Eastern Stained Glass, Somerset, UK - Diliff.jpg|Bath Abbey chancel

File:York Minster, York (13451378175).jpg|York Minster chancel, looking west

File:Canterbury Cathedral Nave 1, Kent, UK - Diliff.jpg|Canterbury Cathedral nave

File:Winchester Cathedral Nave 2, Hampshire, UK - Diliff.jpg|Winchester Cathedral nave

File:Canaletto - The Interior of Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey.JPG|The Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey (1503–) painted by Canaletto

File:Magdalen College Tower.jpg|Magdalen Tower

File:York Minster (8406).jpg|York Minster crossing tower

File:St Mary Magdalene Taunton.jpg|St Mary Magdalene, Taunton

File:Evesham Abbey Bell Tower.jpg|Evesham Abbey bell tower

File:BridlingtonPriory.JPG|Bridlington Priory west front

File:Gloucester Cathedral Front.jpg|Gloucester Cathedral east end (1331–1350), with a four-centred arch window

File:Canterbury Cathedral 10.JPG|Canterbury Cathedral crossing tower and transepts

File:Crossing Tower, Wells Cathedral.jpg|Wells Cathedral crossing tower

File:Beverley Minster (49792708446).jpg|Beverley Minster west front

File:Norwich Cathedral (geograph 3639003).jpg|Norwich Cathedral spire and west window

File:Chichester Cathedral (16074455605).jpg|Chichester Cathedral spire

References

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