Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/328

 230 REMARKS ON THE COMPLETE GOTHIC spire, a living and fertile princijile, they extracted out of it ill each case new and varied forms, animated by an organic connection, even to the latest times. Ulm and Frankfort were built as late as the middle of the fifteenth century, and yet have in their structure much of the true spirit of Gothic architecture ; while in other parts and elements of such buildings, we see the dechne, perversion, and disappear- ance of the principles which had prevailed in the time of the complete Gothic. V. Interpcndration.'^ — One step of such perversion may be considered as probably resulting from the principle of spire growth, of which I have been speaking. The co-existing tendencies to two different forms in the same mass, (for instance, a square and an octagonal turret, or a square buttress and another square diagonally placed,) when directly and distinctly contemplated, suggested the notion of not only co-existing tendencies, but co-existing ybrw?^, occupying nearly the same space. If we suppose a square and an octagonal pillar, having the same axis and nearly the same size, and each having various mouldings and projections at different stages of its length, the mouldings and projections of the square may, in some parts, protrude beyond the faces of the octagonal mass ; while in other parts the mouldings and projections of the octagonal mass protrude beyond the faces of the square mass ; and if the whole compound mass exhi- bits these protruding projections of each of the separate forms, the two forms are presented as interpenetrating each other. The same would be the case with two quadrangular masses placed diagonally to each other. And if the two forms which thus co-exist and interpenetrate be complex and different, so that the parts in which each shows itself outside the other, are numerous and various, it requires clear geometrical ideas to conceive and peculiar geometrical skill to construct the interpenetrating forms. Such ideas became objects of attention among the German builders in the time of the After-Gothic ; and the exhibition of intcrpenetrations was one of their favourite manifestations of skill. Tabernacle work, of various kinds, occurs, in which two extremely com- plex forms occupy the same space, and show themselves in ' Sec a valuable paper, by Mr. Willis, Mr. Raskin appears to think that In- On the Characteristic I ntcrpcmlralions of terpcnetration had its origin in tracery. — the Flamhoyant style, hi the Transactions Lamj^ of Truth, xxvii. of the Institute of British Arcliitocts.