Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/716

 WINDSOR

654

WINDSOR

It was not unusual in Spain, England, and France to finish the window-casement with a horseshoe arch, the upper part being formed by two stone shafts set obliquely, that is, like ribs of an arch. An example of this method is found at Deerhurst in England. The windows of this period are frequently very different on the inner and outer sides, the richer ornamfenta- tion being found on the inner side, as at Saint-Ger- main-des-Pres in France where there are engaged columns and ornamented archivolts.

Up to the twelfth century the windows of the Romanesque churches had small openings for light, a sloping intrados, and an incUned sill. Originally without decoration, they later received a framework, that is, they were surrounded by a border of slender shafts as by a frame. In the further development these round shafts received small bases and capitals, the intrados was divided into rectangular intervals in which small columns were set. Gothic art adopted this framework, merely changing the round arch into a pointed one, and later replacing the rectangular intervals of the intrados by flutings. As the style grew the small capitals of the round shafts were abandoned and later the shafts themselves, by which the style returned to the simple framework. The late Gothic ceased to use even the framework and employed the sloping intrados alone, without further ornament. Naturally there were innumerable excep- tions to the development sketched here only in its general features. In Romanesque art the sills had originally only a slight inclination. This gradually became greater until it became more than a right angle. Characteristic of the Romanesque style is the grouping together of two to four windows, the so- called clustered window. Above the window the flat surface of the arch remained without ornamenta- tion or was pierced by small round windows. Roman- esque art used, in addition to windows enclosed by the round arch, others surrounded by the trefoil or fan-arch, and even openings for light entirely Baroque in design with arbitrarily curved arches. In the Gothic period the windows were longer and broader, in a number of cathedrals they almost replace the walls. Although the clustered window with three openings did not entirely disappear, yet it was more customary to use two narrow windows combined by a common shaft and a common pointed arch above them. The shafts grew constantly more slender and a circular arch was introduced under the pointed arch. This led in the course of time to the appearance of tracery which was so largely used in window orna- mentation in the Gothic period tliat it became almost the most important consideration in the construction of windows. Tracery is formed by setting together separate parts of a circle called foils; their points of contact are named cusps. By means of tracery the pointed arches of the windows were constantly filled with new forms and devices, simple in the early Gothic, artificial and confused tlie more the style developed, until finally in the late Gothic or Flam- boyant style the wavy tracery was used which no longer consisted of circles and segments of circles but assumed forms comparable to flames, a style particu- larly in vogue in England and France. Towards the end" of the Gothic period greater sobriety of form came into use and tracery l^egan to decline. The elaboration undergone by the tracery was also shared by the shafts of the window.s and the intrados. Un- divided at first they gradually received richer con- tours and were separated into main and subordinate pillars. The earliest tracery of which the date is known is that still existing in the choir chapels of the cathedral at Reims (1211).

The Renaissnnce returned to the round-arched clustered windows of the Romanesque .styl(-, particu- larly in brick buildings. Still light ojienings with slender connexions between them and enclosed in rec-

tangular frames are to be found in houses built of stone, particularly in the late Renaissance. They generally received as ornament, in imitation of an- tiquity, a frame of broad profile, which at the height of the Renaissance was generally surrounded by two supports, pilasters, or columns, and the entablatm'e rested upon these. Framing of this kind has many forms, but the following are the most noticeable styles: (1) The opening for light is enclosed by a frame running parallel to it which has the profile of an architrave and generally has a horizontal cornice as a finish at the top (simple framework); (2) instead of the simple framework supports, pillars, pilasters, or columns, are arranged on the perpendicular sides, which carry above them a straight entablature, a gable-cornice, or an archivolt (truss-frame); (3) the most frequent and most artistic form is the combina- tion of the simple frame and the truss-frame, from which spring the most varied combinations, as some- times the simple frame encloses a truss-frame, or the reverse, or sometimes two truss-frames are combined with each other (combined frame); (4) abandoning frames and supports the openings for light are sur- rounded only by quarry-faced ashlar. In costly buildings the windows had an ornamental finish be- low, either a breast-moulding resting on consoles, or a panel surrounded by a frame or carried bj- supports.

The Baroque style added to the round-arched and rectangular light-openings those in the shape of a basket handle-arch and even of an oval shape, and sought to enrich them by drawing in the corners and by curving the sides in and out. This led to the ap- pearance of a great variety of lines the number and lack of repose of which is characteristic of the Ba- roque. The framing which the Renaissance had given the windows remained customary during the Baroque period, but in agreement with the entire development of the style they were augmented, were more artificial, and had less repose. The most frequently used was the flat or profiled framing, in which the coi^nice no longer ran parallel to the light- opening, but assumed an independent arbitrary form; at times the frame was interrupted by quarrj'-faced ashlar. The support-framing was seldom used, the combined framing was changed so that the frames were no longer laid one by the other, but one over the other, only a small part of the under one being visible on the two sides. The part of the frame above the window received a rich development ; it was generally either a horizontal cornice or a gable cornice; where the windows were arched it also followed the curved Une, with the result of an unhmited variety of artistic forms. Classicism first abandoned the combination of tlie two framings, it next gave up the truss-frame, so that finally nothing remained of the former variety but the simple unadorned frame with or without a top piece. As regards the Louis XVI and Empire styles the simplifying of the frame was retained and orna- mentation was limited almost exclusively to the top- piece, which was supported by consoles and adorned with garlands of fruit and other ornaments in imita- tion of the antique.

Besides works on architecture cf. especially: H.vttpt, Die dlteste Kunsl, insbesonilere die Baukunat dcr Germanen (Leipzig, 1909); Genewein, Von Ramanischen bis zum Empire (Leipzig, 1905-11).

Bed.\ Kleinschmidt.

Windsor, a town of great antiquity, on the Thames, in Berkshire, England; quaintly rendered Ventus Morbidus in some medieval documents, the name being really from the Saxon Wimlcls-or, "wind- ing shore". The manor was granted by Edward the Confessor to the Abbey of Westminster, and the town became a free borough under Edward I. The popu- lation is about 14,000. The chief inten-st of Windsor lies in the ca.stle, one of the most famous royal resi- dences in the world. There was a palace and strong- hold here in the time of the Saxon Heptarchy, and the