Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/236

Rh portant functional expression,   giving the lower torus an apparent grasp of the plinth, and thus adding to the appearance of stability as well as to the variety and grace of the member.

The base, like the capital, is made more spreading in proportion as the shaft is smaller; and the bases of the slender shafts of triforiums and other small arcades are often among the most exquisite objects which the genius of the Gothic artists produced. Of such bases none are finer than those of the triforium of the nave of the Cathedral of Paris, of which Fig. 122 is a profile, and Fig. 123 a perspective view. It will be noticed that the angle spur on the nearest corner (unhappily broken) differs from those on the other corners, and affords one of the many instances of the variety which characterises the spirit of Gothic design.

Early in the thirteenth century the plinth was diminished in magnitude, so that the lower torus overhung its sides, and

FIG. 123. the corners were sometimes cut away, as in Fig. 124, a small base from the choir of Soissons; and sometimes the plinth was wrought into the form of an octagon, as in the engaged